Warm up with spicy sweet potatoes

Do you read People magazine online as I do (guilty pleasure #ohwhoknows)? Yesterday, Jennifer Lopez “revealed” her “conflicts about her body.” She’s gorgeous, 40 and stinkin’ rich and she has conflicts? She can’t decide whether or not she has to look “her best” every time she leaves the house.

Fortunately, the “best” bar is a whole lot lower in this house. Clean underwear, bedhead smoothed, earrings, teeth brushed.

How sad and how silly, when you think about the number of times we can help others by just showing up, to be a prisoner to your image in your house. Even if your house is the size of a Third World Country.

An actor friend is in South Korea right now with a tour of “Jersey Boys,” which is a hoot all by itself. He lived near Ground Zero during 9/11, and his online journal was the best thing I read about that. One day he was in a fire-brigade moving trash from the site. He heard a rich tenor voice organizing everyone, looked up and it was actor Kathleen Turner in all her natural splendor, doing something without sequins.

Here’s to showing up, being present in our lives and not worrying about how we photograph but feeling healthy and well-rested. This recipe should help with the healthy part.

Actually, as written,this recipe is beyond spicy. I will make it again but cut the heat by 75%. It was edible but just barely and with massive amounts of Greek yogurt to cut the heat.

I’m not sure in what magazine I found this “Eat Smart” recipe but it makes a lovely accompaniment to most anything — we especially enjoyed it with a breakfast Maple-Bacon Grits Puff (which was in Taste of Home as this was probably).

I can’t do much on this frozen day except take a walk, work on the basement boxes, clean off my desk and cook. Other people must be in the same icecutter. If you have sweet potatoes and real maple syrup in the larder, give this a try. It’s healthy and very different from the usual plain, baked sweet.

Maple-Chipotle Sweet Potatoes

3 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoon canola oil

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1/2 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (recipe calls for 2 whole!)

1 teaspoon salt

3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch bites

Heat oven to 450°. Puree maple syrup, oil, vinegar, chipotle and salt in blender until smooth. Toss with potatoes and spread on two baking sheets. Roast, stirring once, until tender and scorched in spots, 30 to 35 minutes. Makes 8 servings at 200 calories and 3.5 g fat per serving (also 5 g fiber) each.