I promised to bring bread and salad to dinner tonight – but when I went to the store for bread, I neglected to pick up the salad, and so made sweet potato fries instead.

That’s a logical progression, right?  It’s obviously easier to peel, slice, season, bake, flip, and salt a giant sweet potato than it is to swing by Plum on the way to dinner, right?  Riiiiight.

I started from this recipe for the sweet potato fries, but in reviewing the steps, I realize I did something completely different, which must mean that I combined 2-3 other recipes into mine, which I have to say is probably the best:

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

1-2 pounds sweet potatoes (I used one GIANT one)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
a generous pinch of kosher salt
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400, and line a baking sheet or two with tinfoil.  Peel, wash, and dry your sweet potatoes. Slice the sweet potatoes into roughly even pieces. In a bowl – or, better, a big ziploc bag, combine your spices. Working in batches, toss your fry slices in the spice mix, then line up on a cooling rack placed over a baking sheet. I can’t remember why this is exactly important, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the fries not soaking in oil and/or encouraging air circulation.  Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil over the top, then bake for 30 minutes. Flip the fries, drizzle with a bit more oil, then bake for another 20 minutes or until browned and crispy on the edges. Good stuff.

I should note that I’ve tacked on the tinfoil recommendation because my baking sheet is now a sticky mess of burned-on olive oil, and no one wants to deal with that when there are delicious fries to be devoured straight from the oven.

Oh yeah, and the other fries?  Kinda weird.

I was inspired to make fries with the impulse celeriac I bought at the market the other weekend.  They were definitely fries – good texture and all of that – but they were pretty weird otherwise.  The seasoning wasn’t quite what I was going for, and none of us really knew what to expect from the celeriac itself anyway.  Everyone tried one or two, and then I tossed the rest with no regrets.  50% ain’t bad!