Matthew and I often spend some of our best dates at home in the kitchen making a lavish brunch or dinner. It’s the running joke that we both believe we are alphas in the kitchen, meaning we both take on the head chef role.  We mitigate this dilemma by taking point on different dishes, and that way we can both satisfy our need for kitchen dominance.

I’ve noticed that food can be both a source of and also a solution to common relationship woes.  Food can bring up personal preferences, body image, and economics, which can sometimes be a source of contention in a relationship.  From personal experience, I know that hanger (hunger caused anger) is the source of most of my irritation.  My friend Elena has learned to carry around extra food and keep me fed every 3-4 hours to avoid the hanger beast that seems to emerge when I haven’t eaten for extended periods of time, and Matthew always carries plenty of snacks on hikes for me.

I believe that cooking and creating something together is a great way to strengthen bonds be it a friendship or a relationship.  Working together to create something teaches you a lot about a person.  Matthew and I often take turns cooking for each other, but it’s those days when we work together that we create the most scrumptious beautiful meals.

 

Last week we made a glorious dinner of turkey burgers and sweet potato fries.  I am posting Matthew’s sweet potato fries first, because they top any sweet potato fries I have attempted.  I’ve found it difficult in the past to create the perfect crunchy baked sweet potato fries (mine usually look like limp noodles), but with a little bit of oil and a little bit of corn starch, Matt achieved the seemingly impossible: a crispy, even if slightly scorched fry, which we served with a spicy tomatillo guacamole.  Your key to baked sweet potato fries below.

 

Matt’s Crispy Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:

• 3 sweet potatos or yams
• 4 tbs. olive oil
• 1 tbs. corn starch
• Pinch garlic powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• pinch crushed black pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 420 F

Wash and scrub your sweet potatoes removing any hard brown spots.  I prefer to keep the skin on my sweet potatoes, but you are welcome to peal them if you wish.

Cut sweet potatoes into thin strips about 1/4 of an inch thick.  Thinner fries cook quicker and end up crispier.

In a large mixing bowl, mix sweet potato strips with olive oil.

Add corn starch, garlic powder, salt, crushed black pepper, cumin, and chili powder.  Mix together with hands so that spices and corn starch are spread evenly.

Place on a large foil covered cookie sheet, making sure fries are spread out and not overlapping.

Bake until crispy and golden (approximately 30 minutes).

Enjoy with condiment of your choice.