Feta & Mint Sweet Potatoes.

I dream of someday having a gorgeous tiered herb garden.  Something aesthetically pleasing, yet simple & convenient, full of thriving green seasonings ready for the picking:  rosemary, basil, mint, cilantro, lavender, chives…

(This is not my house.)

…but given that I nearly killed my poor tomato plant this year by allowing it to get “root-bound”, I don’t have high hopes.  I’ve made attempts at herb gardens before.  One was a “pizza spice” set from Wal-Mart which was more successful at growing weeds that accidentally blew into it than any actual spice.  In 2010 I attempted cilantro from seeds…I started with 20 potential little pods… of which 12 sprouted, then 6 died due to heat, and the rest drowned at the young age of 4 inches tall.  Quite sad, really.

Last year I did successfully manage to keep a dwarf rosemary bush alive indoors all year, but once the cooler weather rolled around, our central heating system dehydrated the poor dear.  But I can successfully keep hydroponic green onions alive. Goooooooo me!

So…anyway.  I continue to buy herbs when I need them.  When I bought mint for the SoCojito a while back, that meant the rest of my recipes that week needed to focus on mint as well. 

We went to a BBQ over Independence Day weekend where a friend made a watermelon+mint+feta salad that was pretty freakin’ awesome.  So I came home with the feta+mint pairing on the brain.

The next time we got some decent weather, it was time to bust out the grill.  Well—for the Hubs anyway.  I stuck with the microwave.  This is one of those side dishes that looks really fancy, but it’s just crazy-simple.  It also tastes AMAZING because you’re essentially blowing up your tastebuds with flavor:  tangy feta, acidic lime juice, syrupy brown sugar, and fresh mint & onions… and because the toppings won’t be evenly distributed, every bite is just a little different.

 

INGREDIENTS: (per potato)

1 sweet potato, scrubbed

1 lime wedge

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tbsp crumbled feta

2-3 mint leaves, julienned

1 sprig green onion, chopped

black pepper (to taste)

 

DIRECTIONS:

If you have time, you can grill your sweet potatoes, or oven-roast them.  But we were grilling corn & smoked sausages—neither of which take very long.  So I opted to prepare the sweet potatoes in the microwave.  Poke a few holes in each spud with a fork, then wrap in a paper towel & place in the microwave.  Heat on High for 3 minutes, then flip & go 3 minutes more.  (depending on how many potatoes you’re cooking, you may have to heat longer.  I usually go 3 minutes per potato, but be sure to flip them).

Split open the tops and then squeeze the sides of the potato to open up the top more.  Then squeeze the lime juice across the open face and season with black pepper.  Place the brown sugar next (so it can blend with the lime juice & melt into the potato) and then add the remaining toppings.

 

NutriFacts: (per potato)

Calories 155.4

  Total Fat 3.2 g

  Saturated Fat 2.2 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 0.7 g

  Cholesterol 12.6 mg

  Sodium 200.6 mg

  Potassium 569.5 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 28.7 g

  Dietary Fiber 3.8 g

  Sugars 13.7 g

  Protein 4.4 g

Meltaway Cream Cheese Mints

How did I forget to post this recipe when I was doing my Ultimate Wedding Week countdown?  It would’ve fit in so perfectly.  Alas, I am imperfect.
Nary a worry!  Here I am to rectify the situation and introduce you all to the amazingly awesomeness that is: The Cream Cheese Mint.
These lil’ beauties are a tradition at my family weddings.  So of course, I HAD to have them at my own wedding last year. In my wedding colors, natch.  And I had just gotten a Kitchenaid from my parents as a pre-wedding gift…so it ONLY made sense to bust it out & spend three evenings cranking out hundreds of tiny mints.
Of course, we then somehow managed to completely FORGET to put them out at the reception.  300+ mints.  That my bridesmaid Babsy & I slaved over.  Completely forgotten.  Lost in the freezer behind the ice cream for the root beer floats.  It pains me, even to this day.
So, after the reception, my new hubby & I had all the extra “stuff” that wasn’t eaten at the wedding.  Ice cream, sandwiches, cupcakes, meatballs, fruit, and a quarter-ton of mints.  We started putting them on EVERYTHING.  Including the leftover ice cream.

Tastes like love.

If you’re not cranking out hundreds of the lil’ buggers, they are actually ridonkulously easy to make. Only a few ingredients, a good mixer, and some mint molds are needed.  Technically, you don’t even need the mint molds—you can also just pat them flat, smash with a fork (a la PB cookie-style), or use small cookie cutters.  You can get plastic candy molds like these from on Amazon or at your nearest craft store for just a few bucks. 

I also had some silicone molds that I borrowed from my aunts.  There are TONS of designs available; my aunts had some for Christmas, baby showers, graduations, etc.

I stuck with making green leaves, blue roses, and threw in some white fleur-de-lis for good measure.

Ingredients: (this will make about 5-7 dozen mints)
1 package (3 ounces) fat free cream cheese or Neufchatel, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
food coloring (enough to get your preferred shade)
4 1/4 to 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Granulated sugar

Directions:
NOTE: if you want to make a couple different colors, just make half of a batch at a time.  Or you can make a plain white batch and then add your food coloring at the end, though it’s sometimes hard to get the color incorporated as well at the end…however, it can produce a really cool marbling effect, so that’s also a fun option!
Place your cream cheese & extract in a mixer and blend until smooth and the extract is well incorporated.  (Note: A stand mixer, such as a Kitchenaid, will make this recipe SUPER easy, since you can leave the beater running while you incorporate ingredients.) 
Add your food coloring.  Depending on what color you’re going for, this could be a lot, or not very much.  For the green you see above, I only had to use a few drops per batch.  However, I wanted a really rich blue for the roses, so it took considerably more food coloring to get it beyond a “baby shower blue” color.
Now, start adding your powdered sugar—about 1/2 cup at a time, in order to avoid the “there’s sugar everywhere and my kitchen looks like a meth lab” effect.  Your “dough” is ready once it’s firm and no longer sticky.  If it’s still sticky after 4.5 cups…add some more sugar.  You should be able to pull off a piece & roll it into a ball without it sticking to your hands, though it may still be slightly tacky.
Set up a “sugarcoating” prep station.  about 1/2 cup of granulated sugar in a small bowl will work.
Hygiene Note: You’re going to be handling this stuff with your paws, so now’s a good time to wash your hands.  With SOAP. 
Scoop out a small piece of the “dough”—the amount you need will depend on the size of your.  You’ll sort it out as you go; it might take a couple tries to guesstimate it right.  Roll it into a ball, and then drop that ball into your “sugarcoating” bowl.  Roll it around until it’s fully coated, and then press it into your mold.  The sugar on the outside keeps the mint from sticking to the mold, so be sure it’s fully coated.

Now, repeat like 59-83 times.

And the GREAT news?  These freeze perfectly.  You can make them up to a month in advance.  Then, on the day of your event, just take them out of the freezer that morning.

As you know, I was a wedding-crazed bride while I was making these…so I don’t have a ton of pics, since I wasn’t in “blogger mode”.  So instead, I’ve perused the interwebs for some fun examples of mints you can make using this basic recipe.
Fall is coming up, so some of these would be super cute:

This would be some of that marbling I mentioned above. 

Or, if you don’t have mint/candy molds, you can also just lightly smash the sugared dough ball with a fork to make these simple lovelies:

Another option if you don’t have mint/candy molds would be rolling the dough out, lightly dusting with sugar, and then using small cookie cutters, like this example:

Love those colors!!!

And THESE are simply gorgeous, if you’re really adventurous.  The creator used buttons to create their own silicone molds.  These would just be PERFECT for a vintage style wedding.

MINTY DINO’S!!!!  Love.

Are there any interesting traditions your family has at weddings?  I would love to hear about them!