Sweet Potato Tacos

Today, because of the fact that life is so, so sweet, I give you these sweet potato tacos. They’re not literally sweet, obviously, but most sweet things in life aren’t, are they? Take yesterday, for example: one of the sweetest days of my life, recently. Sweet because I had the day off. Sweet because the sky was a bright blue with a couple of beautiful white clouds. Sweet because I spent the whole afternoon running around an amusement park with my best friend, laughing, getting dizzy, eating poutine. Sweet because I was outside all day long, appreciating how gorgeous the day was. Sweet because I got to go up on one of those tall, spinny, swing rides? The ones that sweep you out and around in a circle? I always seem to feel so alive on those. Life is made sweeter because of days where you remember just how sweet life can be.

These sweet potato tacos make my life sweeter. They are, strangely, a conglomeration of most of my favourite ingredients. They baffled my mother when I replicated them at my family home. They don’t seem in the least bit strange to me, however it’s possible that’s because I have them at least once a week. Shall I share? It’s not too complicated.

Set your oven to 425.

Roughly chop your sweet potatoes down to cubes. Try to keep them relatively consistent, but it’s not a big deal. You can rinse them first, but I almost never peel them. I like the cooked texture of the skin.

Put them in a bowl, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and spices of your choice. I usually add some granulated garlic. Then put in about 1 tsp of cornstarch per half sweet potato and mix until there is no sign of the white cornstarch anywhere. Add more oil if necessary.

Space out the pieces evenly on a cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.

I adore eating sweet potato fries with ‘garlic aioli’ as my family calls it. Basically, put about 1.5 tbsp of mayonnaise in a little bowl and press 1 clove of garlic into it, and mix. You can add lemon juice, if you like. I usually have a little bit of this in my fridge, and I find that adding just a tiny bit to these tacos gives them a nice flavour. Feel free to leave it out!

Chop your favourite toppings. Mine are fresh red onion, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, fresh lime (for squeezing), and guacamole. I’ve started occasionally buying this “Wholly Guacamole” product instead of the fickle avocado, because it keeps longer. It’s also very tasty, unlike other pre-made guac I’ve tried.

Ready? ASSEMBLE. I usually heat the tortillas in the microwave for about 30 seconds so they get soft.

And there you have it! One of my current favourite meals. It’s simple, and delicious, and wide open to interpretation. I’ve made these with black beans, salsa, grated cheese, etc, but this is my favourite combination. Try it for yourself!

xo. Have the sweetest day.

Photo Walk: Logos

All of these photos (save the first one) were taken at Montreal’s Beer Fest yesterday evening. The first is of a bottle of wine that I bought purely because I was in love with its label (it tastes pretty great too, luckily!).

It was my first time at Beer Fest, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. They have such an enormous selection, and the mood of the festival is so fun and boisterous. My friend Laura and I both love a good label, and we were thrilled by the adorable/catchy labels and brands that were showing yesterday. Above are some of my favourites. Unfortunately, the festival is held in an incredibly ugly conference centre, so the lighting is awful. Pair that with the fact that I was drinking, and it explains why a few of these photos are on the blurry side. Blame it on the beer!

The Book Learning Podcast!

I am beyond thrilled to introduce: The Book Learning Podcast with Steph (that’s me!) and Gabrielle (my good friend from the interwebs!).

I’m so incredibly excited to finally share this project with you. It’s been simmering for months now, while we worked out the details – and there were a lot of details. My to-do list for the podcast, if I wrote it all out now, would overwhelm me beyond words. But luckily we just took it one step at a time, and are still sort of muddling through. The most important thing, though, is that it’s launched! Boom. Bam! Out into the world goes my incessant giggling and Gabrielle’s awesome work ethic, and our baby of a podcast.

Watch the video above or here + listen to/download the podcast here!

I’m anticipating some questions. Let me head them off here!

What is the podcast about? 

Gabrielle and I are both amateur writers, with 16 novels collectively under our belts (it’s a skewed distribution..one of us has 15 of those, and it ain’t me). We realized that we wanted to get to know each other better, share our writing/reading tips with each other and the world, and discuss our favourite (slightly nerdy) topics to our heart’s content. If you’re like-minded, tune in!

Can you give me some specs about the podcast?

The first episode is 40 minutes, and it was a length that felt natural. You can probably expect future episodes to be about the same length. We plan to podcast roughly once at week. We record our podcasts through the Google+ service, Hangouts on Air. That means that they’re live while we record! In future, we may even alert you to when we record, so you can stream it live if you so choose. After recording in a video format, we pull the audio directly from the video and convert it to mp3. Then it becomes a magical podcast! So you can watch or listen to the format of your choice: the video and audio versions have identical content.

Why should I listen to your podcast?

Well, because it’s awesome! And this is the first episode, so it can only improve with time. We have a lot of fun ideas for upcoming podcasts, including but not limited to:

  • How we feel about books being adapted into movies
  • Self-publishing
  • Writing schedules
  • Our favourite books
  • Where we get inspiration
  • How to successfully complete National Novel Writing Month
  • Being professionally critiqued
  • Handling rejection
  • And so many more! (Listen to the podcast for a few more)

What you can expect from the podcast is a light, fun conversation between two young writers who love to write and read, but don’t take themselves too seriously. Become friends with us!

What is the first episode about? I don’t have time to listen right now, but I want to get excited for when I can listen to it later!

The first episode introduces the podcast and the podcasters (that’s us!). We talk about how we “met”, and how we hope the podcast will make us better friends. We also tell the stories of writing our first novels! Then we discuss what we’re currently reading. That’s the short version, for the long version you’ll just have to listen to the podcast!

Share + Rate + Comment + Suggest!

As we try to get this podcast off the ground and up into the air, we need all the help we can get. We would be so appreciative for your feedback: any and all of it! Leave comments here, under the youtube video, at my email, on iTunes, wherever! Rate us on iTunes! Share the podcast with your friends using that beautiful thing called social media! Suggest topics for upcoming podcasts, or make suggestions about books we should read, or ask us questions. I can’t tell you how excited we would be to hear from you. I’m serious. I’m talking to you.

And last but not least: thank you to everyone who has already been supportive of this project, before they’d even heard it. You know who you are, and I love y’all so much. Thank you for the excitement and support. Keep it up!

xo, Steph.


Project 365: Week 22

Quite a few food photos this week, to my great delight! I love photographing food, and I especially love when I have enough time and energy to make some delicious food for myself. Wonderful, on all counts. This week has been crazy full of exciting creativity, and I am thrilled to share it with you. First big announcement is right around the corner!

I hope that your Thursday is going swimmingly.

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