Sweet Potato Burritos with Avocado Salsa Verde

9/6/20: I seriously still love this recipe! Still, I'm going to update it to reflect some of my tweeks. Since this is an involved recipe, I like to quadruple the spices and have my own "spice blend" in the pantry so I can just measure once and add 3.5 tsp of the blend to the sweet potatoes. Just a thought. Okay, on to the recipe...

California, how I miss thee. The wonderful weather, the self-driving Google cars, the parks every two blocks, and even the hipster eating trends. Okay, less so on the last one; I never even tried cold-pressed juice, and my first kale salad was in Utah, surprisingly.

Nonetheless, there seemed to be a self-awareness about healthy eating in our little town that a girl could appreciate. This meal makes me think of two things: California and Shay. Shay is the angel woman who brought me dinner not once, but thrice during those oh-so-difficult first months of new motherdom when SourPatch was so hungry and took such short naps. I have to say, this meal knocked me off my socks. It is amazingly delicious. It tastes fresh and flavorful, and it is packed with, well, vegetables. And the avocado sauce? It is sooooo good. So good.

I make this meal all the time, as, apparently, does Elin. I have to admit that it's tricky sometimes to avoid scorching the sweet potatoes. I've decided the key is to be generous with the oil and to check/stir the potatoes often. Also, if you've discovered the wonder of using silicon baking mats, I find they really help the potatoes achieve a nice, even roast without burning. Don't sweat it, though, if you accidentally let the edges get black. It's also a forgiving recipe. For example, Elin always leaves out the roasted red peppers, while I tend to omit the toppings. Sometimes I forget to buy cilantro and leave it out of the salsa, or my avocados are unusually large or small. Yet it always tastes delicious. Elin also uses corn tortillas and omits the cheese to create a gluten-free, dairy-free version which she prefers. So many options!

Also, I just spent a thorough 3 minutes browsing the internet to see if this recipe makes enchiladas or burritos. It seems to be a hybrid. I'm going with burritos? It's a big decision... kind of stressing me out.

Sweet Potato Burritos with Avocado Salsa Verde

Adapted from Cookie+Kate

INGREDIENTS

Burritos

4 medium sweet potatoes

¼-⅓ cup olive oil

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

¼-½ teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

8-10 whole wheat tortillas (I use 8 inch)

1 12-oz jar roasted red peppers, drained and cut into long strips

2 15-oz cans black beans, rinsed and drained

2+ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Avocado Salsa Verde

3-4 ripe avocados

2 cups mild salsa verde, jarred

4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

2 limes, juiced (approximately 4 tablespoons lime juice)

½ cup packed cilantro leaves
Optional: 1 to 2 teaspoons fresh jalapeño, deseeded and roughly chopped

Optional toppings:

shredded romaine

diced red onion

sour cream

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Rinse, peel, and chop the sweet potatoes  into large, bite-sized chunks, about 1.25x1.25x0.5 inches. In a separate bowl, mix the olive oil with the cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Toss the sweet potatoes in the olive oil, making sure they are lightly coated in oil on all sides. Spread the sweet potatoes in a single layer onto two large baking sheets lined with foil or parchment paper. Bake for 40-45 minutes, stirring the sweet potato chunks every 15 minutes, until they are cooked through and caramelized around the edges. 

2. While the sweet potatoes bake, make the avocado sauce. In a food processor or blender, combine the avocado flesh, salsa verde, garlic, jalapeño (if adding), lime juice, and cilantro. Blend until smooth and well-combined.

3. To assemble the burritos: In the middle of each tortilla, put down a couple strips of roasted red pepper, then add 1/3 cup roasted sweet potato chunks. Add 1/4 cup black beans down the center and top with 1/3 cup of Monterey jack cheese on top. Gently roll the burrito. Assemble remaining burritos. Bake the burritos at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the tortillas are lightly crisp and golden.

4. Carefully transfer each burrito to a plate. Smother it in avocado sauce and add desired toppings.

Upcycling--Gift Pillows

I think I have mentioned before that I volunteer at a community resale shop. I love it because the proceeds help pay for worthy causes in our area. And I work with a group of wonderful women.

One of the side benefits, however, is that--along with huge quantities of things that I would never buy--I occasionally find a treasure. Recently one of those treasures was a small pile of beautifully appliqued pieces of fabric. It was clear that they once had been part of something else and that someone had, like me, felt that they should be rescued.They reminded me of the needlework I saw and admired on a trip to Panama a few years ago. My guess is that they originated there or somewhere close by. Although I am trying to decrease not increase my own pile of projects. I couldn't resist them. Here are a couple of examples:

So the question was, what should I do with them? Well, my sister's birthday is coming up, and she has three chickens. (Each hen is fondly named after one of our great-aunts.) What would be more fun than to make her a pillow depicting her chickens? The piece was just a little too small to fit a standard 12 x 16 retangular pillow form, so I sewed a narrow strip of black around each side of the block to make it the correct size and then cut a backing of black the same size as the completed front. (The smaller pillows I simply stuffed with polyester fiberfill.)

I like the way the black edging frames the piece. It is truly fabric art:

One of the amazing things I saw in Panama was the purple crabs on Isle Iguana. When I found the crab square, I knew it had to go to a friend who shared that adventure with me:

I love the simplicity of the cat, and it made me think of my sister-in-law who has an incredible way with animals, including her beloved cat. So this pillow is for her:

It is true that these blocks are unique and things like this don't come into the shop often. However, we do get quite a few needlework projects. Some of them have been completed and framed but are ready for a new frame or a new way to be displayed--like a simple pillow. Others I have seen come neatly folded in a bag, the stitching completed but not displayed. That was the case with this Irish Blessing counted cross stitch. Once again, I turned it into a pillow, and it became a birthday gift for another amazing sister-in-law who was born on St. Patrick's Day:

So next time you are browsing at a thrift store, flea market or garage sale, look for a hand-made work of art like these and give a gift that has been loved twice.

Build a Double X Bench

Not long before Christmas, I had an itch to pull out my saw and build something. Crazy timing, I know. But I had a project in mind that I hoped would make a nice gift for Elin and her family, and I knew that I would have an opportunity to deliver it when her baby was born.

Her home has a long, sheltered entryway that seemed to be crying out for a bench. So I went to my favorite diy wood project site, and found this one:



I have built items from this site before and have been impressed by the fact that the instructions are clear and easy to follow. This was no exception.

So a quick trip to the hardware store later (thank you, honey), I set to work. Here are all the pieces cut and ready to assemble:

I won't reproduce the instructions here, but you can find them at the following link if you are interested in building one yourself: http://www.ana-white.com/2016/09/free_plans/double-x-bench-her-toolbelt

Because I knew that it would sit in a protected outdoor area, I felt like I could use chalk paint. I did apply two coats of wax for added protection, however. And, knowing that it would weather on it's own, I chose not to distress it:

Can't wait to sit here with you soon, Elin!

DIY Dobby Hat

Halloween is quite over and the New Year is upon us, but I feel like it's important to document my great crocheting moment! See, I don't know how to crochet. As a young teenager, I learned how to do a basic chain stitch of some kind at a church activity once . . . and that's about all. Still for some reason, I had it in my head that we were going to be Harry Potter themed for Halloween as a family, and I wanted to make SourPatch a Dobby hat.

Actually, I know exactly what the reason was: my mom. Anyone who has briefly perused the blog can tell she's a talented sewer, and she always made our Halloween costumes. So that's part of my Halloween paradigm, I guess.

Yet since I was very pregnant and not a talented sewer, I thought that making the hat fulfilled my mom requirement for the year. First, I decided to learn how to crochet. There's some amazing online classes that are completely free!

They also take time. So I then decided not to learn how to crochet and to dive in anyhow. Thus begins my tutorial of "How to Make a Child Dobby Hat for Those Who Don't Know How to Crochet."

First step? This marvelous youtube video. Thank you, "Crochet Hooks You"! May it stay up forever. I suppose any beanie tutorial would do, but this wonderful woman goes step by step by step (in a fabulous accent, I might add), so I could learn how to crochet while making the hat. Since I knew Patches has a big head, I did the tutorial for 4 to 8 year olds despite the fact that he isn't 3 yet. It fits great.

So, after buying the yarn and hook recommended in her video, I crocheted the beanie following her instructions, rewinding whenever I got confused. I can't now remember if she uses the U.S. names for stitches or the U.K. names (why oh why do we have two different naming systems? Sad day.)

Once I completed the beanie, I used this wonderful free pattern from Knot Your Nana's Crochet on how to make the ears. Like I said, I learned enough from the video tutorial to follow the written instructions, googling "magic rings" and "sc2tog" whenever I didn't know what to do.

Then, after looking for a few minutes on how to sew the ears on... I just winged it.

I think the final result was pretty adorable.

DIY Child's Tulle Skirt

There are both advantages and disadvantages to being the odd one out of the three sisters. Both Elin and Delys are tall and slender as ballerinas, while I am curvy and three or four inches shorter. It's nice that I end up with several dresses by default when they end up being too short for my model-height siblings. However, I'm still 5'7", but my relative dwarfism tricks my family sometimes into thinking I am child-size. Such was the case when my mom bought me this tiny dress.

It was wildly on sale or maybe second-hand, if I recall, and she knows I like ivory and lace, but it wouldn't have fit me when I was twelve, and much less now. Still, before I sent it to the thrift store, it struck me that it would make a darling skirt for my niece. She's four-years-old and loves princesses and dress-up, as all four-year-old girls should. Further, she started a dance class, and I thought she'd look angelic prancing around in this soft, tu-tuesque material.

So I scoured the internet and found this tutorial from Make It & Love It. My skirt is much easier to make than starting from scratch. It already has an inner lining and an outer skirt of soft tulle. I looked at sizing charts and decided to cut the skirt long (my niece takes after her mother: tall.) I cut 14 inches off the bottom of both layers of the dress.

Then, per the tutorial, I sewed a gathering stitch around the top of both layers. Unlike the tutorial, I sewed two gathering stitches on each layer of the skirt. I found the material unwieldy, and it was helpful to do it the "correct" way for a more even gather. (For more on gathering stitches, look at her explanation here.)

I wanted a thick waistband at the top, and I set out to find one in an interesting color. Side note from an inexperienced sewer: why are the only 2-inch elastic options black and white? I really thought gold would be so pretty and Christmasy, but after searching high and low, I went with black. Still very cute, of course, but I was slightly disappointed. With the measurement I had from Elin (22 inches, measured around the bellybutton), I cut my 2 inch elastic into 2, 22.5 inch pieces. I stitched each piece together into a circle a quarter inch away from each edge. I inserted one elastic circle into the other ("wrong" sides facing each other and seams lined up and pressed flat). I then carefully zig-zagged around one side of my elastic circle. This is the top of the skirt.

This creates an elastic pocket of sorts into which I could insert the skirt! With a little wrangling, I used my gathering stiches to gather the inner and outer skirts to a 22 inch circumference, evening out the gathering as I went. I then carefully inserted my layered skirt into the bottom of the elastic. This part is tricky; the gathered skirt is thick. I used about 1000 pins to secure the skirt evenly into the band before attempting to zigzag around the bottom of the waistband. Insert mom's comment:

"So you used a ballpoint needle, right?"

"A what?"

"A ballpoint needle? That would be more appropriate for sewing elastic and stretchy fabric."

Mom, of course I don't know what a ballpoint needle is. In fact, I'm pretty sure the needle in my machine is the same one you put in when you brought it to me. I realized it probably was getting dull; I had no idea I needed a special needle. Not until I started sewing this last part, that is; I'm afraid the stitches are a little loopy on the inside of the waistband. No one can see this, of course, but it's aggravating. Follow mum's advice and get a ballpoint needle (whatever that is.)

Still, I feel like a million bucks about the skirt (as I always do after a successful sewing venture.

I was a little worried about giving this as a Christmas present, though. Elin suggested that I try get something non-toy for her little girl, and I appreciate the sentiment. My own Patches has so many toys, and I know he will get more from loving family members this December.

Still, out of worry that my niece would be disappointed to get clothes, I decided to accessorize. I added a princess tiara and wand from dollar tree and decided to make a purse out of the top of the dress. I couldn't find a simple tutorial I liked online, so I decided to make it up! I basically turned the bodice inside out, drew a purse shape on one side, pinned it, sewed along my purse outline (twice), and then cut it out. The top of the purse used to be the neckline of the dress, and the shoulder straps became a purse strap. Add a tulle bow, and voila!

I hope she likes it!