Favorite Fall Foods + Bleu Cheese = Bestest Fall Foods

I love pumpkin pie and a good pumpkin cheese cake. I like pumpkin muffins and pumpkin cookies. I really really love a pumpkin black bean soup my friend Mel introduced me to. She found it on Rachel Ray's "30 Minute Meal" recipes on the Food Network site. 

Here it is. Until I made it I had never tried a savory pumpkin recipe. It has become a comfort food staple in my house. I encourage you to give it a go. I really like that it's fast and easy. Love that Rachel chick.

I tried something new with the recipe today. I'm so glad I did because it really cranks up the flavor.

I added a big teaspoonful of bleu cheese crumbles to the top of my soup and zapped it for a few seconds in the microwave. Oh...wow.

Let's back up.

Last year I was determined to like sweet potatoes. I decided I wouldn't turn down a single sample of sweet potatoes and I would try it prepared in as many ways as I could.

I hated all of them. 

Why do people add marshmallows to a vegetable? Bleck!

And maple syrup or brown sugar? 

It was just too sweet. 

And nasty.

So I started tossing some toppings on my sweet potatoes and I found that a little bit of butter, bleu cheese crumbles and salt and pepper work really well together. I also like the Morning Star faux bacon crumbled on top.

It seems I like my sweeter vegetables balanced out with more savory toppings.

I may start adding bleu cheese crumbles to everything.

I'll save the marshmallows for my hot cocoa. 

Sweet Potato Bar (Build-Your-Own Sweet Potato) for Thanksgiving

I've recently started trying different ways to eat sweet potatoes. These have always been on my most hated foods list. After trying them a few different ways I finally discovered that it isn't the sweet potato that I dislike but the too-sweet additions. I just don't care for sweet vegetables and adding marshmallows and syrup just takes it to a new level of nasty. I prefer to add savory flavors to my sweet potatoes and I've found bleu cheese crumbles, butter, salt and pepper to be the winner so far.

Thanksgiving is coming up and I wanted to serve sweet potatoes now that I actually like them. Since my dinner guest probably prefer the traditional gooey casserole to my Bleu Cheese Sweet Potatoes I thought I'd create a Build-Your-Own Sweet Potato Bar. I'm going to bake my sweet potatoes in the crock pot (anything to free more oven and stove space). I'll serve them on a platter and use a condiment server to put a collection of toppings.

These are the toppings I think I'll use:

1. Marshmallows, maybe toss them under a broiler to brown up
2. Maple syrup
3. Bleu Cheese
4. Bacon Crumbles
5. Brown Sugar

The more I think about this plan the bigger fan I become. Leftovers will be easier to manage since I'm only dealing with the baked potatoes. I don't want to waste food and I really don't want to add something like a sweet potato casserole to the menu if I won't touch it or the left overs.