Hope! Change! Sweet Potato Fries!

I know the election season is over but, while I have your diverted attention from whatever it is you do for a living, I'd like to take this moment to campaign for something in which I truly believe: sweet potato fries.

In a more subdued way, my column today essentially said that we should take a stand by rejecting the unhealthy pairing of candied yams/sweet potatoes and traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We should make our voices heard and request, nay demand, that sweet potato fries be added to the Turkey Day spread. Who will march with me?!

(Can you tell I'm a little bored, politically?)

Anyway, I'm just saying that sweet potato fries are tasty, crunchy, and way less fattening than the normal mass of coagulating marshmallow nonsense.

Here's a quick and easy recipe from the South Beach Diet Quick & Easy Cookbook, supplied to me by my secretly epicurean editor Tim Kelly. He advocates baking them to cut down on the fat even more.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries
2 medium sweet potatoes, cleaned and sliced lengthwise into 8 pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Toss all the ingredients in a bowl till the fries are coated. Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Spread the fries in a single layer and bake until lightly browned on the bottom, about 15 minutes. Turn and bake until the bottoms are browned and potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes more.

So this Thanksgiving, be a real maverick and vote for change on your table. And tell Joe the Plumber to sit with the kids, because that's what happens when you're a whiner.