Adventure Pasta

I haven't got many pictures of this because I didn't plan to write it up -- I was just throwing things in the pan to make a big batch of food for the week. The primary motivation for my ingredient choices was using the last bits of things that were almost gone. That said, it turned out very well. Keep in mind that I was just throwing this together as I went; all quantities are extremely approximate.

Ingredients:

2	half-empty packages spaghetti noodles
1/3 pound	bacon, diced
1/2 pound	sausage (I used chorizo), chunked
1	large red onion, chopped
2 cloves	garlic, minced
1	green bell pepper, chopped
10	kalamata olives, sliced
5	sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 jar	tomato sauce
1 handful	pine nuts, chopped
1 handful	pumpkin seeds, chopped
1 handful	slivered almonds
1 tsp	crushed red pepper
1 tsp	basil
1 tsp	oregano
3 tsp	parmesan cheese, grated

Procedure:
The first thing to do is get some grease. Throw your meat into the pan and stir it around until it's basically done and has given off enough oil to fry the rest of your ingredients. If necessary, supplement your meat oil with olive oil. Once the sausage is mostly done, add all of the ingredients except for the pasta, sauce, and cheese.

Start the pasta in a separate pan. Keep in mind that you'll want to stop cooking it when it's still a little firm; it will finish up in the other pan.

Stir everything around while your pasta cooks, seasoning to taste with whatever's handy. When your pasta is nearly done, add the pasta sauce to your stir fry to warm up. Drain the pasta and add it. Decrease the heat to avoid drying out your sauce while you stir everything together. This makes a lot of food, so it's likely your pan is full to the brim and stirring is difficult. Be patient. As you stir, add the cheese.



This made me lunches for an entire week, as well as a few dinners.

The one ingredient I felt I should have added was wine. We have cooking wine sitting right above the stove. I just didn't think to add it. It ended up a little dry and this would have remedied it. Overall, though, a very tasty and exciting dish.

Sweet Potato Tacos

This recipe is a lot like my potato stew in spirit, though they really don't taste the same at all. I made this out of curiosity and it turned out very well. It's dominated by sweet potatoes but it's got a little bit of spice to it as well. It's probably very good for you. Next time there will be more spice, as well as more spices.

Ingredients:

5 cups	sweet potatoes, diced (about 3 potatoes)
1 lb	ground chorizo or other sausage
2	red onions, chopped
1	green bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves	garlic, minced
2	jalapeño peppers, seeded and minced
2 tsp	brown sugar
1/4 tsp	cinnamon
1/4 tsp	ginger
	salt and pepper

Procedure
The two parts of this recipe are listed one after the other but can be easily done concurrently, even by only one person. Also, though I won't say it past here, salt and pepper should be added to taste all through the recipe. Just eat a little spoonful to help judge if you need more.



First, boil some water. Add about half of your potatoes. If you're like me, the chunks got larger as you got sick of cutting; if that's the case, boil the larger chunks. Once they are very soft, drain them and mash them. Add brown sugar and cinnamon. This is also where I would add any other spices you're thinking about trying. I threw in some ginger and some chili powder (but not enough of either to taste, I think). I suspect other good ones would be nutmeg and allspice. Basically anything that would be good in a spice cake or pumpkin pie can go in here. Kate also recommended cumin and coriander, which she recently used in squash tacos. I will use those next time. Set this mash aside until you're ready to mix it in to the rest of the recipe.



Start a fire and get your sausage going. Once it starts to give off grease, add your potatoes. Once they start to soften add the peppers, garlic, and onions. Scramble this around until the frying potatoes have basically finished then add the mash. (Once you add the mash you don't want to cook it for very long; it will start to dry out.)



I've just been eating this with tortillas. No cheese or salsa or anything. It's very sweet so I'm not sure what would compliment it. This is probably 6 to 8 servings; it's very filling.