Your Best Root Vegetable Side

Every ingredient has its place -- you'll see. (Potato, fennel, cream, rosemary, bay leaf, fennel seed, orange zest, pecorino romano.)

So pale and pretty -- Amanda disciplines the fennel.

And peeled potato.

Now they snuggle in the trusty Le Creuset Dutch oven.

And get doused with cream.

We love how the cracked pepper just skims the surface.

Good things to come -- you can feel it.

Grated pecorino, orange zest, and chopped rosemary and thyme -- hello, holidays.

And now, for the ladies figure skating championship ... (grease your ovenproof dish.)

Once you strain out the potatoes and fennel, save the cream! We don't know what we're going to do with it yet, but we're pretty sure it's destined for delicious.

A touch of olive oil cuts the cream and helps with browning the tips.

And now for a toss with the dry ingredients.

Fold and rotate, fold and rotate.

That's right, get on in there. Potatoes and fennel, dressed and ready to bake.

"Hey, is it warm in here?"

Crispy and braised -- a beautiful end to a long day.

They start like this: sweet potato, butter, chipotle, maple syrup, sour cream, milk.

Time to cut off the nub.

Full disclosure: we did indeed use the microwave-the-potato technique to soften up these babies -- and look how easily they peel!

The flesh -- it has no idea what it's in for.

Now let's create the cream base. Into the processor with the milk ...

Guillotined chipotle. It happens to the best of them.

Splish, splash, we were takin' a bath ...

And onto the stove for a warm up.

Amanda uses the old fork-mashing method (who needs a ricer, anyway?).

Taking a quick dip in the tub.

And finally, in goes the sweet maple syrup ... can you believe that stuff comes from trees?

Amanda brings it all together with a few cranks of freshly cracked pepper.

Answering the question of how the devil it all gets so creamy ...

We have to admit to a snafu in test kitchen land. We didn't pay attention to the weight of the potatoes before charging ahead, and we ended up with soup. But we saved ourselves (and you could too!) by microwaving a couple more sweet potatoes, mashing and folding them in.

See? Good as new.

Your honor, I give you sweet potatoes, sweet and spicy.