Sausage & Sweet Potato Squares with Garlic-Lemon Mayo

Southern Living magazine has so many wonderful recipes and they put together so many great cookbooks. I'm kicking myself for letting my magazine subscription run out because I'm probably missing more really neat recipes like this one.

This relatively simple appetizer has such a great visual presentation and pops with flavor. If I was a food stylist it might have looked more like the photo in the magazine (Sept. 2008). As you can see in the photo below, mine didn't turn out as shiny and I forgot to include the absolutely amazing garlic-lemon mayo in the photo. Cutting sweet potatoes into 1" chunks isn't easy. Using a restaurant dicer would've been much easier. You definitely want to get the sweet potatoes diced to the same size so that they cook evenly. You also want to cut them to a size that complements the size of the sausage you serve with them.


This appetizer was so good. Being a vegetarian I just dipped roasted sweet potato into the garlic-lemon mayo. It was so wonderful! Definitely worth making again and again.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 32 (1-inch) cubes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 pound spicy smoked sausage, cut into 32 (1/2-inch) pieces
• 32 wooden picks
• Lemon-Garlic Mayonnaise
• Garnish: fresh thyme sprigs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450°. Place sweet potato cubes on a lightly greased 15- x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Drizzle potatoes with 2 Tbsp. oil, and sprinkle with pepper and salt. Toss to coat.
2. Bake at 450° for 15 to 20 minutes, turning cubes twice.
3. Cook sausage in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until browned. Drain on paper towels.
4. Place 1 sausage slice on top of 1 sweet potato cube; secure with a wooden pick. Repeat with remaining sausage slices and potato cubes. Serve with Lemon-Garlic Mayonnaise. Garnish, if desired.
   

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-squares-with-lemon-garlic-mayonnaise-10000001831906/

Magazine Note:

Serve Sweet Potato Squares warm or at room temperature. Make garlic-lemon mayo in advance.

Sweet Potato Chips

In an attempt to get my son to eat his vegetables, I decided to make sweet potato chips. Sweet potatoes used to be one of his favorite foods, until he learned all about birthday cake and crackers and other such items that contain no nutritional value.

I've made these before and love the tender and crunchy texture. The sea salt and lime make a wonderful combination on this tasty vegetable. It's nice that these are easy to make too.

My son didn't end up eating these...or anything else for dinner. It's a shame that one has to go to bed hungry when there were plenty of chips to be eaten with dinner.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/baked-sweet-potato-chips