Primal Palate

Some foods are cozy and comfortable whether you grew up with them or not. Avgolemono soup, cashews, and winter squash make my short list of "new" comfort foods. A few things immediately come to mind when I think of what comfort food used to mean to me: microwaved zucchini with garlic salt, creamy chicken over rice, dad's fried rice, and marshmallows. Not much overlap, is there? Zucchini is still one of my favorite vegetables, but I can't remember the last time I microwaved it, or had creamy chicken over rice. Some days you just want your food to make you feel cozy from the inside out. This bread does exactly that. It sends cinnamon aromas through the kitchen, swirled with scents of nutty toasted pecan and sweet bread. You start to feel cozy even before it's out of the oven. Still warm, butter and honey melt over slices of this bread with ease. That's the real secret: melty butter and sticky honey. It doesn't matter if this is the first time you've had a bread made of sweet potatoes. There's something about this home-style bread that wraps you up in a blanket and takes you home. This rustic skillet bread will be on your list of "new comforts" soon. Very soon. How could a single slice that marries cinnamon-roll smells and pecan-pie flavors not make your list? Paleo bread made from sweet potatoes and almond flour! Topping with cinnamon pecans. My one regret: cooked in a 10-inch cast iron skillet, this bread comes out thin, like a flat bread. This is great for optimizing the pecan-topping to bread ratio, but I found myself wishing the bread was a tad thicker. I foresee some kitchen experiments in my future.