The Food Matters Project: Chipotle-Glazed Sweet Potatoes

photo by scott haydon

The kick-off recipe for the Food Matters Project, Chipotle-glazed squash skewers, was hosted by 20 Something Cupcakes and can be found here. Yes, the original recipe is a squash recipe, and yes, I made it with sweet potatoes instead. I like squash but I had sweet potatoes on hand so went with them.

I followed the glaze portion of the recipe without any adaptations. Instead of skewers, I cut my sweet potatoes into fries. I "marinated" the fries in glaze and threw them in the oven. I also made a dipping sauce for the fries. I have a favorite chipotle dip that uses many of the same flavors as the Food Matters recipe.

The Food Matters Project: Seasoned Popcorn

photos by scott haydon

Guys, I am really excited! I am participating in the food matters project (you can click the link to learn more)! I like the idea of branching out and trying new recipes and coming together with a community of people who love good food as much as I do. I DO have to admit, however, that one of the first recipes I'm attempting for the project, Seasoned Popcorn, isn't much of a stretch for me.

I adore popcorn more than most people adore anything.

Lemon Poppyseed Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies

photos by scott haydon

I am currently obsessed with lemons and poppy seeds. Last week it was a Poppy Seed Lemon Cake. This week I really wanted to bake a lemon poppy seed cut-out sugar cookie. But my internet was down and my choices (read: cookie cookbooks available in apartment) were limited. I ended up looking through my handy Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook and coming up with something I thought I could modify relatively simply. I was right.

Weather Got You Down? Make Pretzels.

all photos on this post by the great scott haydon

Salted Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookies

This recipe was adapted from this really good recipe.

I didn't have any pastry flour. But I learned (via the wonder that is google) that you can substitute a cake flour/all purpose flour custom blend for the pastry flour. In a 2.1 ratio. So I did that. Instead of chopped milk chocolate, I used roughly 1 1/2 cups of milk chocolate & dark chocolate chips. I also used chunky peanut butter instead of creamy.

I am not a fan of huge cookies. I like to make them small so that I can eat more and still feel like I'm not eating too much. That said, I preheated my oven to 350 but I used a large spoon instead of a 1/4 cup measurement and I baked my cookies for 12 minutes instead of 15 to 18.

These cookies are amazing. They have extra salt in them and it leads to a delicious lingering salty peanuty chocolaty flavor. They are very tender and crumbly in a messy but fantastic kind of way.