Carrot Fritters

If you ever find yourself wondering if you should make carrot fritters, the answer is yes! I've been keeping the fridge stocked with fresh carrots and cauliflower lately, so they've ended up becoming a regular part of dinner. I had a rack of ribs slow cooking in the oven and I wanted to do something a little different with the carrots. A quick Google search led me to a recipe site, and the recipe for carrot fritters jumped off of the page at me. I used that recipe as a base, and came up with this modified version. This served myself and my husband, with plenty of leftovers to take to lunch of freeze.

Ingredients:

4 large carrots
1 stalk celery
2 pieces fresh garlic clove
1 jalapeño pepper
1 egg
 a splash of coconut milk
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup flour
salt & pepper
coconut oil to fry in

1/2 cup flour
Corn meal (for breading, if desired)

Directions:

Wash and peel carrots. Cut into pieces and put into food processor. Pulse until very fine. If I weren't going to use the food processor, I would have just grated the carrots. Put carrots into large bowl.

Wash celery, cut and put in food processor. Wash jalapeno. Cut in half, remove and discard seeds. Add pepper and garlic to food processor with celery, pulse until very fine. Add to bowl with carrots and stir together.

Add egg, breadcrumbs, flour, salt & pepper to vegetable mixture. Stir until combined.

In a large skillet, heat a couple tablespoons of your frying oil. I love coconut oil, so I fried my fritters in that. Heat the pan to low-medium.

Put the 1/2 cup flour on a plate with a little corn meal, mix together. Depending on how wet your vegetable mix is, you will either form a patty or just grab a "ball" of the mixture and drop it on the flour. Gently flip so both sides get a little flour on them. I did not put a thick coating of flour. My mixture was really too wet to make patties, so I would plop a ball into the flour, flip, coat, pick up the ball and drop it as gently as I could into the hot pan, then flatten it in the pan to about a half inch thick. Let cook until golden on that side, then grab a spatula and flip, cooking until golden on both sides. When you remove them from the pan, put them on a plate with a napkin to let drain. Enjoy!

Watermelon Jelly

My husband loves watermelon, and he loves watermelon flavored stuff. So when we started making jelly this summer and I started searching for more unique recipes to try, when I found that people were making watermelon jelly, we knew we had to try it!

Watermelon Jelly!

I'm not going to share a recipe for this because from what I have read, watermelon jelly is one of those things that is not recommended to can, because watermelon is low acid and there is no "approved" ratio of sugar or lemon to add to it to make safe. If you do make watermelon jelly, possibly consider making it a freezer jelly just to be on the safe side. With that being said.. watermelon jelly is amazing!! My husband and I (yes,  he really helps!) have made two batches of it now. We slightly reduced the sugar and upped the lemon juice in the second batch, to let that delicious watermelon flavor shine through a little better, and we were both very pleased with the results. As soon as you open the jar, the delicious smell of watermelon hits your nose. It really is like summer in a jar!

Jalapeño Cheddar Corn Fritters

Corn is one of my favorite vegetables, and I am particularly fond of the creamed variety. I like to serve it with cheddar and cayenne pepper mixed in, and will often mix a can into a pot of soup I'm cooking (potato and creamed corn soup, yes!). I needed a side for dinner this week, and what I really wanted was some zucchini cakes, but I didn't have any zucchini. Maybe sweet potato fritters? No, that wouldn't go well with what I was serving. Then it hit me. An appetizer that I've had a couple of times in restaurants and absolutely loved.. corn fritters!

Ingredients
1 can creamed corn
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 of a jalapeno, seeds removed and diced
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Oil for frying

Directions

• Mix together dry ingredients, then add everything else, stirring til all ingredients are moist. This will make a batter too thin to form by hand, but it should be solid enough to hold together when you put it in the oil.

• Heat 2 inches of oil in frying pan on medium-low. I used a measuring cup to drop the batter into the hot oil. I found that 2 1/2 to 3 inch cakes fried the easiest. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan. Cook until golden brown on each side, about 10 minutes per batch. 
• Drain well on paper towels. I didn't serve any kind of dipping sauce with these, I thought they were delicious enough as is, but they would be good with some ranch dressing.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Sweet potatoes are delicious and so good for you! Baking them is a fast, easy, delicious way to prepare them!

Ingredients

• Sweet potatoes. One large sweet potato is really enough for two people, with no leftovers. If you want a large serving person person and leftovers, go for two medium-large sweet potatoes. Two large sweet potatoes fits very tightly on a baking sheet.

• 1-2 tbsp olive oil

• Salt & pepper

• Optional: spices (cayenne, paprika, garlic, whatever you like)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Peel sweet potatoes and cut them into similarly fry sized pieces so they will bake evenly. 
2. Coat with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, and any other spices you like. Be careful not to over-season, you can always add more later if you need to.
3. Evenly arrange on a non-stick baking sheet. If you overcrowd the fries, they wont get as crisp.
4. Bake for 13 minutes on one side, then flip.
5. Bake for 10 to 15 more minutes until crispy. 
6. Enjoy!