Sweet Potato Sausage Skewers with Lemon Garlic Mayonnaise

Here's a great skewered appetizer that's tasty and easy!

First: The Lemon-Garlic Mayonnaise...
Ingredients:
1 C mayonnaise
2 T chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp lemon zest
2 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
Stir all ingredients together.
*Can store in an airtight container for up to 7 days.

 

Skewers' Ingredients:
2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into 32, 1" cubes
2 T olive oil
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 lb smoked sausage* cut into 32, 1/2" pieces
32 wooden picks

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450.  Place sweet potato cubes on lightly greased pan.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Toss to coat.
2. Bake at 450 for 15-20 minutes, turning cubes twice.
3. Cook sausage over medium/high heat 3-4 minutes to brown.  Drain on paper towels.
4. Place 1 sasauge slice on 1 sweet potato cube on a wooden pick  Serve with Lemon Garlic Mayo.

* For the sausage, I used one I found at Costco.  It was an herbed mozzarella herb chicken sausage.  Amazing!

Mini (Turkey) Meatloaf-s with Garlic Smashed Potatoes

I LOVE my mom's meatloaf.  Everyone else's?  Not so much.  However, I had 3 lbs of turkey mince in the freezer, and while my mom would never use turkey in a meatloaf (pork and beef mixture only, thank you) I had to find a way to adapt her recipe to be suitable for turkey.  Oh, and then find a way to bake it in individual cups and frost it with some mashed potatoes.  Ha!  The things I will do for my place of employment...
For the mashed potatoes, I just did my standard recipe of potatoes, pepper, salt, garlic, garlic salt, butter and cream to taste.

And they're lumpy because I LOVE LUMPY MASHED POTATOES. (I love how this blog turns into a confessional from time to time.)

Meatloaf Ingredients: (adapted by combining my mom's recipe with Cooking Light's version)
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 C onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, pressed
1 1/2 lbs ground turkey
1/2 C ketchup
1 C saltine crackers, finely crushed
2 T mustard
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp (each) ground black pepper, safe, celery salt, and garlic salt
2 eggs, beaten
Cooking Spray

Topping Ingredients:
1/2 C ketchup
4 T brown sugar
4 T cider vinegar
Topping Directions: whisk all together.

Meatloaf Directions:
1. Heat olive oil, and saute onion and garlic.  Cool.
2. In a large bowl, mix everything, including cooled onion and garlic.
3. Spray 12 C muffin pan.  Divide meat loafs evenly. (I used silicon cups instead)

4. Drizzle with topping.
5. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.
6. Top with warm mashed potatoes and serve.  (Use a frosting tip to make them prettier than mine)

Sorry, I didn't have a frosting tip with me, and the zip lock baggie had this weird bottom that didn't have a corner...

Still here?

Funny story.  I had a friend who stopped by after the party and I sent her home with leftovers.

The next day, when I say her, she thanked me for the "Chicken Parmesan" dish, and told me that she and her fiance absolutely adored it.

I stayed silent.

Sigh.