Crusts and Crumbs: When dreams come true

Sunday, December 13, 2009

When dreams come true

Normally I don’t act on any dreams I have. Mostly because they involve craziness that I definitely don’t need to add to my life. Like pieces of the ceiling falling down on me while I am inexplicably immobile below. Or dreams of babies getting swirlies. (I know…I really have no idea. )
But the other day I woke up thinking about apples and sweet potatoes and how good they would be together. Fried. With butter and brown sugar and definitely cinnamon. So I got up planning on making those that day, and it didn’t even hit me as slightly odd until halfway through the day when I realized…I must have dreamed that. I certainly am not coherent enough in the mornings to consciously plan a brand new recipe. I barely do that successfully when I’m wide awake with a Dr Pepper in me. But at this point I was completely sold on the idea, so I made them anyway. Who says inspiration can’t strike during REM? I mean, think about it, maybe our most brilliant moments actually occur while we are deeply asleep, and we’re just never aware of them? It could happen. Anyway. I tried it, and I was so pleasantly delighted with what I ended up with! I loved the tart-sweetness of the apples and the starchy-sweetness of the sweet potatoes. The different textures blended wonderfully too. Soft and tender apple with the (again) starchy firmness of the potato. And of course, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon taste good with anything. Who knew dreams came true!!

Sweet Fried Apples and Taters

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
2 pink lady apples, cored and cubed (not peeled)
1 stick of butter
½ cup of brown sugar
Cinnamon

Melt 4 tbs of butter over medium heat in a skillet. Add cubed sweet potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes start to become tender, about ten minutes. Add the cubed apples and cook until both potatoes and apples are nice and tender, but not mushy, about another ten minutes. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon and stir to combine. In a separate small pan (or just in a bowl in the microwave) melt together the other four tbs of butter and brown sugar. Once melted together, stir into skillet. Allow it to melt and simmer for a few more minutes, until the sauce reaches a nice consistency. Serve warm and delicious.
Note: This would be great on the grill! Just combine all ingredients in a foil packet and grill until tender. You could probably cut back on the butter just a tad, since it’s all getting cooked together at once.

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Change.

Understand, I don’t intend to stop posting recipes completely. I still love cooking, and sharing that love with others. But I’ve also always enjoyed writing, and have recently rediscovered that dusty love. I feel like digging it out of the attic, and giving it a bit of a polish. I’ve been inspired by other bloggers, by their
daily grit and grind that they share with the world. By their faith and tenacity as they plod through life. I feel like taking advantage of the flexibility of a blog, and writing what I feel like, when I feel like it. The crusts and the crumbs of my life. A recipe today, a remodel post tomorrow, a reflection on parenting next week. I face a wide open space, waiting to be
filled with whatever I desire. And I like that challenge.

Me.

Much of my writing will never even see the light. It will never make it past the parchment of my mind, where it is scribbled in invisible ink for me alone. But some of it does. That bit is what is written here. Humbly posted for the world to see, if it cares, or to ignore if it doesn’t.
I’m not a spotlight kind of girl. I’m shy, and quiet, and a bit reserved. Oh, I like a good razzing between friends, and a spirited board game with the best of them. I love hosting friends and family and cherishing moments together.
But at my soul, in my heart of hearts, I’m a quiet evening with my man, fire blazing, hands wrapped around a warm cup of tea kind of girl. That’s when I’m most blissful.
So, I don’t write for a spotlight, imagined or otherwise. I don’t write for others. I write for me. If not a single person (besides my soul mate-we’re bonded as one, so he counts as me) reads this blog, I’d be just as satisfied in writing it as if a thousand had read it.Which is good, because a thousand people definitely
won’t be reading this. No, I write because there is an itch in my soul. An urge, somewhere deep inside of my being, to craft my thoughts into words and inscribe them, preserve them, and make meaning from them. It brings me peace to take the whirling dervish in my mind and put him to rest.