Tom’s Kitchen: Roasted Sweet Potatoes, a Baked Egg, and Parsley-Onion Salad

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When I’m constructing a quick meal, I typically try to balance a protein, a complex starch, and some richly colored vegetables and/or herbs. (I buy into the nutritional school of thought that says the more colorful the food, the more nutrition it packs).

For this low-fuss, high-flavor, minimalist lunch, I did just that. Hit it with your favorite spicy condiment—like my own choice, salsa macha—and you’ve got something fun to eat that won’t take up lots of time or dirty lots of dishes.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes, a Baked Egg, and Parsley-Onion Salad
(Serves one; can easily be doubled—if you do, use the largest skillet you have.)

1 large sweet potato
Olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
A bit of butter
1-2 eggs (I can never eat more than 1 fried or baked egg at a time)
1 good handful of parsley
2 slices of a big red onion (the rest reserved for another use)
A little fresh lemon juice or vinegar

Preheat oven to 475°.

Slice the sweet potato crosswise at a slight angle into quarter-inch rounds, then stack the rounds into two piles and slice them into sticks (see photo, above left). Drop them into a bowl, give them a few good drizzles of olive oil and a good lashing of salt and pepper, and toss them to coat. Now lay them out in a single layer in a cast-iron or other heavy skillet, and bake in oven. After about 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 300° and flip the potato sticks over with a spatula. Return them to the oven for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the parsley and onion and add them to the same bowl that you tossed the potatoes in. Give them a drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon or a bit of vinegar, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss to combine, taste, and adjust seasoning as you like. Set aside.

The photo came out fuzzy, and I ate the evidence before I could retake it. But the flavors were sharp and clear. The photo came out fuzzy, and I ate the evidence before I could retake it. But the flavors were sharp and clear. After the potatoes have had their second 10 minutes in the oven, remove the skillet and make a clearing in the middle with a spatula. Add a little pat of butter and let it melt, using a spatula to coat the clearing. Crack your egg or eggs to the sizzling butter in the clearing, season the egg(s) with salt and pepper, and return the skillet to the oven. Cook until the whites are set and the yolk(s) are as you prefer (I like them a bit runny).

Slide the sweet potatoes onto a plate with a spatula, slide the egg on top of the potatoes, and top it all with the salad. Enjoy.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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