An Egg on Top

I LOVE the new wool socks my daughter gave me for Christmas...life changing actually. This is spoken from a person who does not "own" winter and would love to wear "Havaianas" year round. My toes have some feeling now as I sit in our frigid basement at the computer tapping out my first blog post of the new year. Gone are the trips to the farmer's market and my bounty of local colorful vegetables. Now I am searching out ways to make our food as colorful and warming as possible to get us through the winter. My apologies to those of you who love the season, and have all of the right gear to make it cheerfully through these cold days, but for me I'm counting the days until spring.

This recipe comes from one of my new cookbooks which I love and recommend. "In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite" by Melissa Clark. The warming spices of cumin and cinnamon accent the smoky chipotle peppers and contrasting touch of honey making this a wonderful dish which everyone in the family loved. Another plus is that it couldn't have been easier to make. Serve it along side some brown rice and you have a home run. Another plus is that the sweet potatoes have Alpha carotene which is a hardworking, free-radical-fighting antioxidant that's found in almost all colorful veggies,

Spiced Chipotle Honey Chicken Breasts with Sweet Potatoes
Melissa Clark "In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite"

4 Sweet Potatoes
3 Tbsp. olive oil
4 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp. honey
2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt, plus additional to taste
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (2 pounds), rinsed and patted dry
Chopped cilantro or basil, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 400 degress F. In a medium bowl, toss the sweet potatoes in 2 Tablespoons of the olive oil and scatteron the bottom of a roasting pan. Roast for 15 min.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, chipotles, garlic, honey, vinegar, salt, cumin, and cinnamon to make a paste. Rub the paste all over the chicken. Carefully place the chicken on top of the sweet potatoes and continue to roast until the chicken is just cooked through, about 25 minutes longer. Serve garnished with cilantro or basil.



During our Christmas break we ate out a few times. We have a few favorite "hole in the wall" places. The Anchor in NE Minneapolis is great for authentic fish and chips, and great grass fed burgers. The owners are friendly, remembered us even after only a couple times. The wait can be long, but it's worth it. a glass of "Nordeast" beer can help shorten the wait. We also had a great burger at the "Blue Door Pub" in St. Paul, known for their blue cheese stuffed burger called the "Blucy" and beer battered green beans. Both places serve a burger topped with a fried egg...a little added nutrition if you ask me, especially since they use good free range organic eggs. At our house we use organic eggs from Larry Schultz Farms. The farm is in my home town of Owatonna, MN and Larry graduated with my brother!

I always say everything is better with an egg on top!! This isn't an original idea, but check out the picture below...we ordered pizza one cold night during Christmas break, so the next morning for breakfast we put an egg on top of our re-heated left over pizza (with a side of sauteed kale) It made a divine breakfast. Who says pizza isn't nutritious?