I’m baaaacckkkk! It’s only been a few years!

Just a quick explanation of why I left and why I’m suddenly back. I stopped doing this blog as I felt pressured, from myself, to have something to publish every week and my life wasn’t in a place where I could do that and I felt guilty. To be honest, my life still isn’t in a place where I can do a weekly post but I’m actually okay with that now. I have loved writing this blog, creating recipes and sharing ones that I love and, so, I missed it over the last 3 plus years. The reason I do this blog is because I love cooking and I want to share what I love with the small corner of the internet which wants to see what I cook and because I met a lovely community that I missed connecting with (“hi, again” to Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook, Elaine @ Foodbod Sourdough, Gretchen @ Feeding My Three Sons and Angie @ Fiesta Friday). You can read more about this and me here.

So, here I am, for better or worse. Well, life has changed a lot since my last post in April 2017. I am now renting an apartment on the other side of the city which I share with a lovely Italian girl and a lovely Polish girl. I have two more nephews who are just as adorable as the rest of their siblings. I’ve travelled a lot for weddings – I’ve been to Italy, France, Germany, Poland and the USA – in fact, I even have a new brother-in-law. I’ve travelled to Tanzania to visit my sister and her family who were living there for a little over half a year, back in 2019, and I went on safari. So, I hope you enjoy this recipe, this post and reconnecting after a very long time.

Onwards and upwards!

I love sweet potato but it’s not one of the most popular vegetables in my family. A few years ago my mother and sister did a sweet potato diet and after less then two days they were sick of it! However, they do still love the brown sugar, buttery, marshmallow sweet potato that we traditionally have over Thanksgiving. Thank goodness!

This dish was the result of a happy accident a couple of years ago. I had sweet potato and as I was mashing it, I decided to throw in some cheese and as the Cashel Blue was needing to be finished, that was the one I went with. My aunt makes these wonderful potatoes with raw garlic and so, thinking of that, I threw some in as well. A few more tweaks and this was born! It goes really well with any meat and I, personally, love it with baked salmon or pan-fried duck breast.

I really hope, though , you will maybe try this at your Thanksgiving celebration. And on that note, Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Savoury Sweet Potato Mash

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 tsp salted butter
• small matchbox size, maximum, of blue cheese (I use Cashel Blue)
• small matchbox size, maximum, of feta
• 1 garlic clove (you will use it raw)
• 1 small bunch parsley
• 1 small bunch coriander
• sea salt and black pepper, freshly ground

Method

1. Chop your sweet potato into small pieces, I usually do about bitesize, but it doesn’t really matter as you will just be mashing it.
2. Rinse and then place in a pot of water that just covers the sweet potato. Bring to the boil and continue to boil until tender. The length of time will depend on how big you cut your potato – I find it takes about 15-20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, mince your garlic, parsley and coriander and set aside. Keep the garlic separate from the herbs, though.
4. Dice your cheeses and set aside.
5. Once the sweet potato has boiled, drain and mash with the butter, salt and pepper.
6. Then, using a fork stir in the raw garlic, feta and blue cheese.
7. Finally, add the herbs.
8. Serve and enjoy!