Side Dishes From Heaven

I have been having a lot of personally crappy days , but I'm trying not to be a bitch about it and maybe even stop being so fucking serious at work before I fucking kill someone . Anywho , for those of you who don't know me well , I love to cook and it's my choking-the-fucking-life-out-of-Tardog prevention therapy .

Here's my menu for the evening . So easy a roofer can do it , okay maybe not Tim . Yes , this will provide many uses for the SlapChop or Magic Bullet your mother gave you and you can make this stuff while tending to your protein choice .

Baked Sweet Potato Squash to impress , um , someone

Find Sweet Potato Squash (or Acorn , or whatever) and wash it well . You don't have to peel the tips off of your fingers .

Cut off both ends (toss these)and cut the rest in half lengthwise without adding any extra protein to the board.

Remove seeds and cut into chunks . You can get artistic here and don't forget to get your oven happy at 210C (400ish Fahrenheit)

lightly crease a pan of somesort with oil, butter , or your sister's hair gel and set squash stuff in there . This may vary in size due to how hungry you are .

Try to peel a one inch cube of ginger and cloves of garlic . Put in spice grinder or beat with a fairly clean shingle hatchet and add to pan along with 1 tbsp brown sugar and some salt and pepper. Add 1/2inch of water for the steam action .

Toss the squash in the works and try not to get too much on the floor . Cover the pan with foil and pray for 20-30 minutes . After it is somewhat tender , reseason , oil and bake until yummy . You can also add brown sugar and/or nutmeg here or oilive oil and oregano , both are awesome!

Get On The Spuds while You wait

Peel a bunch of russet potatoes and then chop into decent sized cubes .

Boil in a large pot with a few inches of water as well as some salt and pepper . Yes , you have to season the water , it's just better that way Boil slightly unovered until near tender . while you are doing this , you can chop finely 1/3to1/2 an onion and saute until pretty as well as puree 2 cloves of garlic and set aside .

Boil spuds until quite tender but not soupy . This may take a few efforts to perfect before you try to impress that hottie or your mama .

Remove most of the water (you can save it as a cream soup base) and turn off the heat but keep pot on hot element (reduce to very low if you have a gas range or are using a camping stove) .
Add the oinions and garlic as well as 1/2tsp dried oregano , 2-4tables butter or margarine and 2-4 tables milk or sour cream . (I'm doing the vegan thing . you don't have to)

Mash until they are perfect .

So many people buy expensive and tastless side dishes filled with bad carbs (spuds are not ) and fat and they don't have to . Lipton's Sidekicks are crap and we all know it and these things take about the same amount of time out of your life , which is amazing since you need this good stuff in your life .

I'm serving this with maple-beer veggie sausage but both go well with corned brisket or anything . They are also good comfort (read stoner snack) food all by their lonesome .

Okay , I'm starving now.