Sweet Potato Hash

It's St. Patrick's Day and that means two things.

First, that the smell of lite beer is running strong across college campuses around the country.

Second, that many people have a big piece of leftover corned beef from that traditional dinner. While there's nothing wrong with a classic corned beef sandwich smothered in mustard and melted swiss cheese, the palate craves something new and different.

Since one of the most common ways to prepare corned beef is in the form of a hash. I channeled this classic breakfast accompaniment when I made my leftover meal. I replaced the standard white potato with a sweet potato and topped the whole hash with a spicy/sweet whole grain honey mustard, which brought together the hash and classic corned beef sandwich into one delicious meal.

The following recipe made dinner for one, so adapt as necessary!

Ingredients
1 small onion, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 sweet potato, diced
1/2 tsp. red chile flakes
1 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
leftover corned beef, diced. (I used a few slices, but use as much or as little as you'd like!)
salt & pepper to taste

1 tablespoon whole grain dijon mustard
1 - 2 teaspoons honey

1. Saute onion, celery and garlic until soft.
2. Add sweet potatoes to the pan and cook for a few minutes. Add chile flakes and brown sugar and allow the sugar to caramelize on the potatoes.
3. When the potatoes are almost cooked through, add the corned beef and heat through.
4. Mix together the mustard and honey to create a very grainy honey-mustard.
5. Just before eating, pour the honey mustard on top of the hash.

I swear, you'll love it.

So eat up and drink down. Sláinte to you on this St. Patrick's day!

Balsamic Tomato Sauce

I started this blog so that I could share thoughts on food as well as how I feel about certain political issues. So without further ado, here is the recipe for my favorite tomato sauce:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 large white onion, diced
1 large red onion, diced
6 portabello mushroom caps, finely chopped
4 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 pound ground beef or turkey
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 cup red wine
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
2-3 tablespoons tomato paste
2-3 tablspoons fresh parsley, chopped
salt & pepper to taste


1. In a large saucepan, melt butter with olive oil. Add onions, garlic and mushrooms and cook until tender.
2. Add meat and spices. Cook meat through.
3. Deglaze the pan with wine. Add vinegar and bring to a simmer.
4. Add canned tomatos and heat through. Stir in tomato paste and allow sauce to thicken.
5. Just before serving, stir in chopped parsley. Serve over pasta with parmesean cheese!

This sauce has a unique color due to the vinegar and wine but with that brings a fantastic flavor. If you have leftovers, reheat in a pan with a splash more of both vinegar and wine.

Hope you enjoy this sauce as much as I do!

More food and fun soon,

Liam

I'm pretty bad at this...

Apparently, blogging is much harder when you're not living in a foreign country and experiencing something new everyday. Until I post later this week, I'll leave a few unedited thoughts here:

1. I subconsciously miss New Zealand more than I ever would have imagined.

2. I am going back there. When? I don't know. But I am.

3. I miss Natalie Paterson heaps.

More soon!

Thanksgiving

Man, I love this holiday. Family and food, what could be better?

Five things I am particularly thankful for this time around:

• To have a group of people who I sometimes can't stand living with but can't imagine living without. <3 HKKLZ
• The relationships I've grown through Sinfonia and MelUDees. These have been life changing in come instances. I love all y'all.
• My sister. Because she's just...awesome.
• The opportunities I've been afforded since high school to travel and explore. Italy, Aotearoa, Australia, Fiji & Ireland were all incredible and such different experiences which all built and strengthened relationships with some of you.
• Being able to embrace life with no hesitations and no regrets. If you haven't tried this yet, you probably should.

Thanks to each of you reading and everyone in my life. I've been shaped by you.

- Liam

I just prefer coffee...

The Tea Party fascinates me. And I have some important questions for you:

1. What is it about President Obama that prompted your "battle against the establishment"? Bush didn't mess up enough? Clinton? Why Obama?

2. If you're against the establishment, why are you promoting candidates to run under the Republican name? Are the Republicans not part of the establishment? If the majority of people are in favor of your politics, why not run under the Tea Party as a separate party?

3. How is your movement different from any other "caught in the moment" movement? If people chose Obama because they were just caught up in the hysteria, how is your party different?

Just wondering.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

I'm really horrible at this whole blogging thing.

But now that my preperation for Teach for America is virtually over, I will hopefully have some more time to spend here.

I've discovered something interesting about the month of October. It happens in both politics and in baseball. Now I know what you're thinking: what could baseball and politics possibly have in common? Well here it is: people who didn't care in the past 11 months all of a sudden start caring. I don't think half the people sporting Phillies jerseys or Yankees caps really cared about these teams even a month ago. And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's a huge silent following to both of these teams that really only awakens when something good is happening. The problem is (and here's where the big link to politics is) is that people talk as if the completely understand what's going on. If you haven't been following the teams for the season, don't start sprouting knowledge now. And stop quoting ESPN without giving them some sort of credit.

And as for you new politics buffs, please stop giving your opinion. Do not comment on the health care bill or Obama's tax plan or simply any other political issue if you don't have the facts. Yes I'm sure you got your information from a legitimate source. Fox News or CNN, however are far too biased to have given you the real information. And those ridiculous emails people are sending you about Obama hiring illegal immigrants to work at the White House or the government sending foreign aid to sweatshops in North Korea? They're probably fake. I'd bet they're fake. So stop sending them to everyone you know and quoting them in your facebook statuses. Get your facts straight, and then let's debate some politics.

It's my bandwagon, so stop jumping on it.

- Liam

Busy busy busy.....

What is it college students that lets us run on so little sleep?

I feel like everyone I know has a full course load, participates in at least 5 activities outside of class, holds leadership roles in these activities and still manages to have a social life. How is it that we are excited by high stress, no sleep and the feeling that we're never going to get anything done? And we don't stop ourselves. We just keep adding more and more to our schedules because, hey, that's not that much extra work. But when we do that ten times, we're now bogged down in our own choices.

Another conundrum: when a friend asks me to take ballroom dance classes with her, which will add 1-2 hours a week to my already crazy schedule, I'm all for it. But when we're asked to form 2 hour study groups for our classes, this seems like a hassle. Is it because the dancing is social? Or because I don't want to conform to the rigidity of an academic setting? Psych majors, please analyze and get back to me.

And with that, I've got to leave. If you don't understand my busy schedule, read this blog entry again.

- Liam