Black Bean-Sweet Potato Cakes

Tackled a new recipe last night from my brand spankin' new cookbook 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans, and Grains. It was a gift from wifey for Christmas.

Black Bean-Sweet Potato Cakes
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and grated
1.5 cups cooked black beans
1/4 cup chopped scallions
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
salt and pepper
1-2 Tbsp canola oil (I used coconut oil instead, it makes everything taste magical.)

The plan was basically to combine everything and then "drop the batter on the griddle by the spoonful to make pancakes about 3 inches in diameter."

This is what the "batter" looked like:

As you can see, spoonfuls were not in the equation. (Please excuse my mess!)

I forged ahead and tried to form patty-like shapes anyway.



The product tasted pretty good, but just wasn't holding together. I called in for backup, who suggested adding another egg and baking it in the oven instead. Well......the end result wasn't good. I think it was the chunks of egg interspersed with potato.



Mystified, I turned back to the recipe. I followed the instructions. The recipe on the next page was for Black Bean-Potato Cakes. These called for cooked potatoes. So perhaps I shall try this recipe again, slightly altered. For now, it's time to clean the kitchen.

A New Year Begins

Had a wonderful break in Oregon, so very happy to see my loved ones. I caught a nasty cold on the plane ride back and am still recovering. Saint Louis was beautifully full of snow, and Camille much smaller than I remembered her!

First week started out pretty slow, in part because of the cold. Classes this term appear to be a bit calmer, likely because I'm only taking four and not five; Pediatric Nutrition, Managerial Aspects of Public Health Practice, Epidemiology, and Environmental and Occupational Health. EOH is a Saturday class, darn it! I won't be leaving STL til spring break. :/

Work with HELP is going to be different this term. We have high school students working on production, and a host of other helpers for various tasks. We'll be spending more time in the schools with kids and staff trying to increase the consumption of all the delicious food we make! There was talk last term of doing some gardening projects with neighborhood families, which would be fantastic! I'm taking over the HELP media, so check these spots for HELP related news:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Healthy-Eating-with-Local-Produce-HELP/190295706675?ref=ts
http://twitter.com/HELPgrant
http://www.healthyeatingwithlocalproduce.blogspot.com

Since this sickness has me housebound, I made Garlic Lime Chicken soup with jalapenos to try and clear the ol' sinuses. It turned out good, but needed roux to thicken it. Does anyone ever use cornstarch for thickener? It's such a pain to pull out another pan to make roux when my kitchen is already trashed and dinner still isn't ready!

August Updated

So much to report! This blog thing is a bit tricky - trying to start incorporating it into my daily life.

Classes have started, and its been a bit of an adjustment to the whole full time thing - a far cry from the many lazy days of summer. :) Mostly in public health classes this semester. To my delight, it turns out public health students are a bunch of idealists! The veil of cynicism from the internship continues to lift. It's lovely to be in graduate school, where most students are active participants in their learning and have many cool projects happening outside of school.

The food processing continues, with a few mishaps here and there. Mostly equipment mishaps, but a few recipe problems as well. I learned an important lesson about white pepper - much much spicier than black pepper. I didn't ruin any food, per se, just had to create another 25 lb batch of mashed potatoes without flavoring to make it palatable. :) The kids are eating most of the foods, applesauce being an exception because there was too much color provided by cinnamon. Live and learn.

Farm to School legislation is very close to a final product. We present it to Rep. Munzlinger September 15th and get feedback. It's actually turned into Farm to Cafeteria legislation, with schools being one component. This will allow healthy local foods to find access into other government institutions and businesses (prisons, Head Start, etc.) while providing more demand for local producers.

Couple of cool professional conferences coming up - http://communityfoodconference.org/13/conference-schedule/ and http://www.eatright.org/ada/files/ADA_Program_Preview.pdf. Super excited about the Community Food Security Coalition conference in Des Moines! October is shaping up to be a busy month. I should be taking my board exam in late October as well, at which point I'll actually be a Registered Dietitian. It's funny to think on how far we come.

Some apartment drama is still happening. Trying to decide whether to move out or not. The winter weather will only exacerbate existing problems. Moving.....grrrr. This will be the 9th move in 3 years. On the upside, I've gotten rid of a ton of stuff and the things I most recently brought back from Oregon are still boxed.

Been doing so much biking lately! Rode in the Moonlight Ramble last weekend and had a blast. It was 20 miles. I was beat down at the end and it took a few days days to recover. Looking forward to riding enough to lessen future pain.

Camille and I send our love. Miss you bunches!

First Day, Monday Aug 3

First day of the HELP grant work was not so glamourous. The department is having a reception/ribbon cutting ceremony for the Salus center food processing plant tomorrow. This translated into a bunch of manual labor that needed to be done so the place is presentable for collaborators and politicians. Spent an hour moving chairs and tables, and then 2 hours sweeping, mopping and cleaning the kitchen. It was nasty. The building is fairly old and there were dead cockroaches lying around the building because they put poison down last week. Urg. Not something I had planned on getting up close and personal with. :/

You ever have those moments when you have to be the adult cause there's nobody else around to do it? I had one earlier this summer when Camille got a tick, and of course I had to remove it. She's my animal! Today was emptying a rancid garbage can full of standing water and god knows what else. It smelled exactly like sewage. What doesn't kill us, right?

All in all, it's good to be working. I was happy to be back and see familiar faces, especially of Margie, my mentor from last year. She was truly my rock in hard times. It's still going to be a challenge wrapping my head around not being an intern, and readjusting my attitude as such.

Work continues on the Farm to School legislation. It's frustrating not to have any help, or people to bounce ideas off of, but again this is part of becoming a professional. Being able to do any number of tasks and be fairly confident you are doing it correctly. This is a working point for me – never sure if anything is good enough and continually seeking reassurance.

Camille is adjusting fairly well. We've been spending a lot of time at the park and playing. She misses Toro almost as much as I miss Creampuff. Not letting myself think about Portland too much yet. I need to settle in and become a bit more emotionally stable before tackling that. The trip was long and hard and lonely. I was surprised to find myself happy to be back in my neighborhood. The trees and houses are so beautiful and so unlike Oregon. It was a relief after the way I was feeling driving back. My apartment is kind of okay.....the bedroom wall that was molding out when I left continues to fall apart. Camille and I are sleeping in the living room until that problem is fixed. It's nice to be back in my cute yellow and white apartment. Still living somewhat out of suitcases. The incessant cleaning helps keep my mind busy though.

It is my goal to chronicle this time period. Not only for myself, but for the many loved ones far away. It's difficult to keep in good contact with everyone, though I certainly try. Please leave comments if you have any – it would be nice to hear your voices!

xoxo