Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Sweet Potato in the Toaster?


I'm not much of a fad follower.  I tend to like Old School stuff because it's tried-and-true, because I prefer things that are easy and necessarily fool-proof (being aware that I can be a bit of a fool).  How Old School do I get?  Well, I made a pot of coffee this morning in this:



It tastes amazing.  Don't judge until you've tried.....so, going with that theme, I decided to try something I've been seeing lately on the internet:  sweet potato toast.

You can blame this experiment on my central air conditioner actually.  It has been on the fritz (along with my sump pump and my washing machine--a truly frustrating trio of disasters; oh, and please pardon the worse-than-usual pictures, my favorite camera is also not functioning), so I have been avoiding the oven because it would heat the house.  The stove is right in the middle of the house--thanks to the configuration of the hallways and the 1960's era lack of insulation, this place can feel like a furnace fast.  There were a couple of nicely tempting sweet potatoes just waiting to become oven fries but I didn't want to cook them in the oven.  Sweet potatoes are miserable in the microwave, and boiling them to mash would be nearly as problematic as the oven. 

So, while the coffee was cheerfully perking, I thought Why not?  Time to try something different.

My toaster is not new.  My mother got it at the dollar store more than a decade ago but it's serviceable and I've never had problems toasting bread products.



As I sliced the sweet potato into nice thin 1/4 inch slices, I wondered what other folks do with the end pieces; I bet those get wasted and that's a shame.  Ah well, no matter.



I popped two slices into the toaster, set it on the longest setting, and started cleaning the kitchen while I waited.  I had to re-start the toaster over and over and over--five times (possibly six; I lost count because I was getting annoyed with hanging about waiting and I had run out of dishes to wash and counters to wipe down; it's a small kitchen).

Finally, I could smell the scent of cooked sweet potato and I could see that the sides of the slices had puffed out.  Done?  Well, I guessed so.  I plopped them on a plate, smoothed over a bit of butter.  Voila.



Success?  To use a very old-fashioned expression, not on your nelly.  (Don't ask me what that means; I have no idea and for all I know it's something quite rude.)  Anyway, the slices were NOT remotely tasty or good. 

Rather than being cooked through, the slices were a little crunchy in the center and dried around the edges so that I only ate about half.  I would have used less butter if I had made them into oven fries.  It took too much time (although perhaps a superior toaster would have improved matters).

Will I try this again?  Unlikely. 

I'm still hungry. 
But at least the coffee was really nice. 
I'm gonna go forage the kitchen for something edible.

By the way, I bundled up the rest of the sweet potato slices (including those end pieces) and stored them in the fridge because I will make oven fries later, even if it does make an oven out of the house.

Life is good.
Toasted sweet potato slices are not.




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