Happy New Year to all of you. Thank you so much for reading my weekly letter. I am grateful for the many people who have read and especially those who have taken a minute to comment or encourage me. The weather outside has been frightful at times and I appreciate the warm fire, candles, and all the many things leftover from our holiday celebrations that warm my heart. I have spent some good times with my grandchildren and their partners. I had a fun masked and sanitized shopping trip to LL Bean complete with a car picnic with the youngest one who will be returning to Ireland for school in the coming week. The girls are planning a wine and painting party for tomorrow. Just goes to show there are ways to make your own happiness, even if the world around you is falling apart. May your 2022 be filled with warmth, light, kindness to each other, and peace in the world. Which they say begins with you.
In Cooking This Week
Recipe of the Week
Sweet Potato Fritters
In our family, fritter-type foods are very popular. Whether apple or blueberry pancakes, crab or fish cakes, scallion or onion pancakes or fritters made with grated vegetables. All of them are welcomed. In fact, zucchini fritters are one way of using up the extra zucchini that get away from you. Grated, mixed with a little flour and egg and seasoning, they become delicious. Yesterday I tried a sweet potato fritter and used some gluten-free thickeners just to see how it would work and we were more than pleased with the results. If I had thought of it ahead of time, I’d have made a sour cream dip that goes so well with squash fritters.
Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Fritters
Grate or spiralizer enough peeled sweet potatoes to make five cups. I started out spiralizing but the pieces were too big so ended up putting the mixture into the processor and pulsing a few times. I used four small sweet potatoes. Add ½ cup cassava flour (could substitute all-purpose flour), ½ cup almond flour, ½ cup sliced scallions, and ¼ cup minced onion, or shallots if you have any. I only had onion so that’s what I used. Season with ¼ to ½ teaspoon ground cumin, ¼- ½ teaspoon cayenne powder. Then add 2-3 large eggs.
Mix well until the potatoes are coated with the flour and the mixture sort of holds together. It will look kind of messy. I was skeptical for a while, that’s why I added the third egg. Heat several tablespoons coconut oil in a frying pan until hot, then add a few patties. I used a large cookie scoop to shape into patties, plopping them into the pan from the scoop and flattening with my hand.
Let them brown for a few mins on medium heat, then flip carefully. Once they start frying, they hold themselves together pretty well. Only fry as many as you will eat because they are better fresh from the pan. Sprinkle with some nice sea salt and eat immediately.
The recipe should make about 8 patties to serve 4. Since there are only 2 of us, guess what I’m doing with the leftovers? Eating with a nice fried egg for breakfast tomorrow.
In Writing This Week- not much got done
What the Heck is There Worth Saying About January Anyway?
This seventyish woman tried to think of ten things but only came up with eight
I have always enjoyed celebrating each new month and season. I like to mark the start of something, maybe it’s just a small excuse to celebrate. Recently, I have been paying extra attention to the changing of the seasons because of a new writing project I’m involved with. So, writing about each month as it arrives has been a thing. But darned if I felt inspired to write about January.
Jean Feldeisen 