Okay, so I am trying not to freak the fuck out right now. (semi-unsuccessfully)

I took on a challenge to cook all the recipes from the new Bad Manners/Thug Kitchen 12 recipes down and soooooo many to go. (112 to go to be exact.)

This is why I am crapping myself. I have lulled myself into a false sense of security.
This is not the only challenge I am doing right now. I am also doing a read 100 books in a year challenge (that’s two books a week-ish). I thought I was doing really doing well on that one because I’d read 18 books already. I even started a list because I couldn’t remember them all in my head, and I was feeling pleased with myself (so arrogant, so mother-fuckin foolish).

Until one day when I was talking to my 9 year old about it, and he smugly remarked, “you know you’re actually two months behind right?”
I had a moment of panic and went, “What?? How can I be 8 books behind when I’ve read so many?”
He just laughed and said, “Hey mom, check the numbers again….it’s actually 16 books you’re behind. Not 8.”

Not only am I way behind, but my 9 year old just schooled my ass.
Things are not good.

So how is this related to this cooking challenge?

Well, I thought I was doing well on the reading challenge, and burying my head in the sand about the cooking one. Now I’ve discovered that if I’m doing bad on the reading, I must be doing abysmally on the cooking challenge.
So now I have entered panic mode.

It also doesn’t help that lots of the ingredients needed for the recipes are super hard to find here. I bet if you live in America it’s easier to find that stuff, just like it’s easy-peasy to find pickled herring, loaves of rye bread, and bags of salty liquorice over here. They are literally falling off the shelves, screaming your name as they bungee jump into your shopping-basket “BUY MEEEEEEE!” They scream as they plummet to their rye-related deaths.

But Japanese sweet potatoes? Not so easy to find.

So I went with a regular sweet potato as that’s all I could get my hands on…and I got a few regular ones too for shits and giggles. I’m not potato-ist. All potatoes are my friends.

Roasted Japanese Sweet Potatoes with Cilantro-Herb Sauce.

page 88, Brave New Meal cookbook.

Now what I fucking LOVE LOVE LOVE about this recipe (and you will too) is that it’s easy and looks after itself. (if only I could say the same for my family. Ha.)

You just shove the potatoes in the oven to roast away on their own time while you take a few minutes to create the cilantro herb sauce. I mean could it BE any easier?! (think Chandler from Friends)

I left out the jalapeno for the sake of my son, thinking I could just throw them on my own food. Which I did, and it was so good. Really made the dish.

The smell of the herb sauce was so good. Zesty and fresh – the memory is actually making my mouth water right now. That’s the honest to God(dess)/Buddha/Universe/Odin/Thor (or whatever other deity you’re into) truth.

I opened the oven, danced in the steam that came out (what? That’s not weird, it’s COLD here. It’s Scandinavia, for fucks sake) and threw the hot potatoes on a plate after checking they were done
“How do you know if they’re done?” I hear you ask in a quiet, unsure whimper… There’s no resistance when poked with a sharp knife, according to Bad Manners.

I plated up and sliced the bad boys open to drizzle copious amounts of the sauce all over them. MMMMMMMM. Yum.

If you come from the land of busy people – and who doesn’t nowadays? – then this is the dish for you.

It’s the kind of thing you throw into the oven and you still have time to do other stuff. Like fold your laundry, write that paper, read to your kids, or train for that marathon. Better yet, get your kids to fold the laundry for you, plagiarise the paper, get the kids to read to each other, and just ditch the marathon. Done!
And so is dinner.

The sweet potato and the sauce, though they may not seem like a match made in heaven, actually are. Unlikely friends. New besties. The tanginess of the herbs with the sweetness of the potato worked so well together. I will be making this again.

Maybe not soon though – I have 112 other recipes to cook first….and shit loads of books to read.
Fuck.

I have a bad feeling that the two things will coincide and I won’t have time to read ’cause I’m cooking, or I won’t have time to cook ’cause I’m reading… Hmm. This may not have been my brightest idea.
I’d better pick up the pace! (and maybe cut back on sleep)