Having cooked all 115 recipes from the first Thug Kitchen cookbook within a year I’ve decided to cook all the other recipes too. Just less hectically.

In case you didn’t know the reason I named the blog ‘Nature’s Butter, Bitch’  you can see it here. It’s my all time favourite photo quote by Thug Kitchen from back when I first saw their blog online. My husband and I would literally just walk around saying ‘it’s Nature’s butter, bitch!’ to each other with the kind of enthusiastic emphasis on the word ‘bitch’ that only Jessie from ‘Breaking Bad’ can truly understand.

Today, we’re cooking Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Crispy Fennel from book 3: Fast as Fuck and trust me, you’re gonna wanna join us for dinner.

When it’s cold outside and you wanna warm up fast, food and a fireplace are the way for that shit to happen. I don’t have a fireplace and I ain’t no arsonist, but I did have access to Thug Kitchen cookbooks, so I got my heat on. If you want things heating up in your kitchen faster than a junkie’s spoon then these are the dishes for you. Guaranteed.

The fennel was super easy to throw together.

After slicing, and zesting, and covering in bread crumbs, it was good to go in the oven. By the way, can I just add at this point that trying to multitask by playing hide and seek with your kid at the same time as cooking is no good. Unless you like kids jumping out of cupboards and startling you shitlessly into using breadcrumbs as a new kind of confetti.

Once it came out the oven it was crispy and perfect, sorta looked a little like onion rings, if you scrunched up your eyes and stood on one leg twisting your head to the side, you know what I’m saying? But completely different flavour and texture. But just look at those golden edges. Yes, baby, yes.

Now the sweet potato was equally quick and easy to make.

My favourite thing about these sweet potatoes, which are as seasonal as Santa’s best sugar cookies, is the twist of heat at the end from the spices. Just a faint after burn, you know? It’s fucking delightful.

I threw these bad boys on a plate with the fennel, some roasted bell peppers, my very own garlic and pea mash (patent, trademark and copyright pending), and a few other side dishes and we were off to an excellent start. Who says you can’t make a main out of a bunch of side dishes?

I couldn’t stop eating. I think these two dishes are probably as addictive as smack and crack, especially when plated up together…But maybe that’s just me. I used to dip french fries in my caramel sundae, and shovel pickled garlic into my mouth straight from the jar along with a mouthful of sour cream and onion potato chips. (Not at the same time as the caramel sundae though obviously. That would be crossing a line).

So if you’re into mix and match, plate these delights up together, otherwise just have them as separate food experiences on seperate occasions. Just do you, because you know your taste buds best.

Although, I’d have to say Thug Kitchen’s knowledge of how to please your buds come a close second. Those geniuses read people’s mind’s like a psychic reads tea leaves on a full moon: Accurately AF.