Sweet potatoes with agave nectar.
Excuse me. It's fantastic. I've just discovered it and it's fantastic. Now before all you Southern folk flee for the exits, just bear with me. Shhhhh. Trust me. It's worth it to hang in here for a minute.
It all started when I realized last night that I'd run out of brown sugar. Which, for the record, hasn't occurred since roughly 1991. I'd already baked the sweet potatoes. What was I going to do? White sugar? How. Could. I. I couldn't. It would have been sacrilege.
I stood there in my kitchen, dejected, staring at my 'tater. Wondering what to do. Then, I spied the oldest kid, Adam, drizzling agave nectar over his as he stood next to me with his 'tater. Being much younger and not having the benefit of 41 years of yams with brown sugar, he didn't realize the atrocity he was committing. (You can't be relegated to purgatory in innocence, right?) I stared at his plate, mute with disbelief. That couldn't possibly taste good...could it?
Suddenly I flashed to a recent conversation with my friend Corrine who said that she detested brown sugar on a sweet potato, because it masked the flavor of the sweet potato, which was already plenty sweet. "Oh, bless your little pointed head," I thought to myself. She obviously just didn't appreciate the wonders of brown sugared 'taters, that's all there was to it.
There are wonders, and then there are revelations.
What we're talking about here are revelations.
Following Adam's culinary cue (which I'm becoming convinced is generally a wise thing to do; the kid's got instincts) I drizzled a little agave nectar for myself. Then I worked in some butter, a bit of cinnamon and a dash of cloves and nutmeg. I mixed it all together and sat down on the couch with it. And it's a darn good thing I did because the couch kept the swooning from being a painful crash to the floor.
Who knew the salty of the butter with the mildly sweet of the sweet potato and nectar could result in such an amazing burst of flavors? Can I tell you how sad I am that I don't have anymore 'taters to indulge in today? Can I tell you how sad I am that Tanner's only 13 so I can't send him to town to buy more?
That sweet potato was my dinner, in total, last night. Well, that one and the half of the other small one that I split with Adam, who was similarly enraptured by our little orange friends.
I'm telling you, go get yourself some yams or sweet potatoes or whatever you want to call 'em (yes, I know they're different. It's just occurred to me that it was actually yams we ate and I don't want to go back and change everything, so I'm not gonna, since I'm certain the bliss will work either way), and try this today.
You can bop on over to the computer and thank me while your son or hubby or dog walker runs to the store to pick up some more 'taters for you. Because you're going to need them.
Love from the farm,
Teri
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