Sweet Potatoes ala Davidson sort of (less than a dollar, a little more than half an hour)

Danielle Davidson was one of the finest students I've ever had the privilege to teach.

No, she's not dead. She just graduated and got a job. What were you thinking?

Anyway, she wrote me a while ago with a recipe, which like a terrible self-replicating virus (not the kind I was envisioning, but oh well), I read, punctured the membrane of, wrote my genetic code into, and began merrily to change. I'm sorry, Danielle. Never trust me to pass on anything directly. I just can't. It's not in my nature.

Now, when I think of Gone with the Wind (1939), I tend to remember a couple of key scenes. The dead and dying at the station. The red dressing gown. But mostly: "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!" [Music rises.] I tend, however, to forget that the food she's found is radishes. RADISHES.

Not what in my mind even starving people relish. Radishes. So when I remember the scene, I unconsciously replace the radishes with a better tasting, creamy delish food, a yummy, non-radishy substance.

Sweet potatoes. Ummmm.

I don't remember sweet potatoes much in my childhood; in fact, though I knew what they were, mostly I remember the baked variety that my ex-mother-in-law took to my husband's grandmother in the nursing home/hospital: a single, caramelized baked potato, cold and in its skin. A kind of gift.

So for me, sweet potatoes are a newish thing. I originally treated them like white potatoes: mashed, butter and salt, etc. They were okay like this, nothing special. Then I tried treating them like squash, baked, butter and cinnamon. They were like dessert like this: very sweet.

This was not satisfying. Then I started making fudge, not with sweet potatoes, but with chocolate of course: to which I started adding chili powder. Then I got Danielle's recipe. Then I started thinking.

And THEN I bought this crazy stuff: chipotle powder (Jesus God, its own website!). Dekalb Farmer's Market is a wonder, the tenth or whatever wonder of the world. Who knew you could powder chipotles?

So: this is the simplification and perversion of Danielle's sweet potatoes.

You need about two pounds of sweet potatoes, salt, oil, chipotle powder. And an oven. That's it.

Preheat oven to 350.

Peel and dice the sweet potatoes into about 1 1/2" pieces.

Lightly oil a heavy, oven-proof dish.

Dump in the diced sweet potatoes and stir to coat them with the oil.

Sprinkle with about a tsp of salt.

Then, depending on how spicy you like things, sprinkle a pinch (not very spicy) or two (spicy) or three (you better have some milk [for Lucy] near) over the sweet potato.

Bake until they're soft, about half an hour.

Stir them half way through to distribute the spices.

Eat. It's yummy stuff. And good for you!

There you go.

Soup with Strange Ingredients like Peanut Butter (maybe $3 for a potful; about 45 minutes)

I forgot to ask Santa for an immersion blender (immersion blender discussion, no less). It was an incredible oversight on my part. I have hopes, though, that with my birthday coming up, he'll make a little flight to Georgia next month and correct things.

But seriously folks. Why do any of us have to write letters? Isn't it sort of pathetic, and -- I don't know -- a little condescending? I mean, shouldn't we expect the jolly old ELF (not quite what Santa has in mind), a supernatural being who can fly and deliver presents all over the world in a single freaking night, to be a little, well, psychic?

Why couldn't he have looked into my mind, or more importantly my cupboard, and noted that I didn't have one and might find one useful?

I don't know. Might be I was on his naughty list. It's possible. Actually, it's likely, even.

In the meantime, I'm making do, and though an immersion blender would be handy for this recipe, if you don't have one, a regular blender or a food processor does fine if you're careful with hot soup.

Specifically, hot sweet potato peanut soup, loosely -- okay, INCREDIBLY loosely -- based on some soup I had years ago at a friend's house. His was loosely African, I think. But as he was a Jesuit priest cum English professor from Wisconsin -- well, it's probably mostly Midwestern.

What you'll need:

A stock pot or large sauce pot

a blender or food processor

oil

small onion, diced tiny (grated is better)

garlic

fresh ginger

cayenne

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

1/4 tsp cinnamon

pinch of ground cloves

1/4 c crushed tomatoes

1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2" pieces (in this version I photographed I baked them first [because I thought I was making something else], but you don't have to)

2 1/2 cup water

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 TBSP chunky peanut butter (no sugar added is best)

chopped peanuts

cilantro and chopped peanuts for garnish

This is a pretty mild dish. Add more cayenne or chili powder to give it more heat if you like that.

In the stock pot, heat about a TBSP of oil until shimmering. Saute about two cloves of garlic and the onion in this, just for a minute or two.

Add spices and cook one minute longer.

Add tomatoes and sweet potato. Stir and cook for two more minutes.

Add water and turn up heat until liquid simmers. Cook for 20 minutes or until the sweet potatoes fall apart when prodded with a fork.

CAREFULLY blend or process smooth. Return to pot if necessary. Stir in cream and peanut butter over low heat. When you serve it, sprinkle on a little cilantro and some chopped peanuts.

There you go.