Paleo f(x) is our favorite event of the year. It’s a time when the community gets together to support the implementation of paleo as a lifestyle and not just as a diet. Sean has been to all 4 years of Paleo f(x), and me 3 of them. Each year it has grown, and it’s been exciting to see what each year brings. Hard to believe this was only the 4th year of it! We love getting to see old friends, make new ones and connect with others over something that makes up a big part of our lives.
We did a cooking demo on Friday of our Crab Cake Deviled Eggs, and getting through our work on the first day let us relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend. There was so much to see & do and I know we barely scratched the surface! What I really loved seeing was the amount of new vendors on the Expo floor. We’re moving beyond just paleo snacks and treats (though I love both of those things big time) and moving more into lifestyle goods – including more cosmetic/personal care product lines and natural cleaning products. I bought some Fat Face Skincare stuff to try out along with Otto’s Cassava Flour to test our as well. I really am kicking myself though for not buying any Must B Nutty Siete Foods almond flour tortillas. I may or may not have been dreaming about them…note to future self: buy those tortillas.
Sean trying to decide which flavor of Epic bars to get. So many choices!
We rented a house with a big group of our friends, which is the only way to go. If we can pool together to rent a house, which usually turns out to to be cheaper than a hotel AND you have a kitchen, it’s so worth it! It was more than just gabbing and Sean being the only boy for most of the time (he’s a good sport) – it was a way to talk about ideas and get those creative juices flowing with some pretty great people.
With Sean living/working (a ton) in Vancouver, and me in Alabama, our creative juju has been off. So getting to be around people who are inspired is fantastic. From talking about our next meal WHILE eating brunch or a midnight toffee-making sessh, I just love these people. It was like a summer camp and I didn’t want it to be over. Vanessa from Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind made her Chocolate Covered Toffee for us and it was SO GOOD. I can’t wait to see her book. Though we’ve met before, and been Instagram friends, we got to know Cassy from Fed + Fit and she is just the sweetest and funniest ever. She even offered to have Sean come down and hunt whitetail deer in the Fall, you can bet he’ll take her up on that!
Add to that some of our favorite people, Juli from PaleOMG – who also has a new cookbook coming out soon! -, StacyNoBlog and Katrina & Anthony (along with their cute as a button baby. I wanted to eat her up!) and we had a super fun time.
We just love these people. There were moments of laughing until we cried and then laughed some more. Did I mention we ate a lot?
Austin is a great city for a Paleo conference. It’s a great food town, with barbeque as the base for its food culture pyramid. We had a lot of eating to do on this trip, and surrounded by friends new & old made it all better. We ate like it was our job! Salty Sow for a delicious dinner & drinks night (duck fat fries are the JAM), Torchy’s Tacos (corn tortillas, a rare non-paleo splurge, but when in Austin!), Dolce Neve & Lick for grassfed gelato and ice cream, respectively. And of course one of our favorite Austin spots, 24 Diner…twice – including a complete Hash party the second time. Yes, 8 of us all ordering versions of their hash.
Speaking of hash, flash back to 2014 at last year’s Paleo f(x). Sean & I cooked up a breakfast hash for the house and it went over very well. So when our house mates asked us to make it again, we had to! Surprisingly we hadn’t posted it on the website – especially when it’s something just whipped up on the fly. Sweet potatoes + apples + sausage just go together. We usually cook this partly in the oven and partly in a skillet, and both work well. Our rental house this year didn’t have any baking sheets so we couldn’t do the oven method *whomp whomp*. Not to worry, it still came out tasty! Feel free to up the veggies, add in your own herbs to put your own spin on it. We paired it with over-easy fried eggs (well, some where more done…I had to figure out how to use the diner-style flat cook top!) and gluten-free biscuits I brought with me from Mason Dixon Bakery in Huntsville. So this time we figured we should actually write down and post this recipe!
- 2 large white sweet potatoes (you can use yams if you like), cubed
- 2 fuji apples, cubed
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 lbs italian sausage, casing removed or loose
- 4 tbsp ghee
- salt & pepper to taste
- fresh parsley, chopped
- Preheat oven to 400° F
- While oven is preheating, melt half of the ghee and toss with sweet potatoes making sure to coat evenly.
- Place chopped sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, brown sausage in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Once browned, drain fat and remove sausage from skillet and set aside.
- Return skillet to heat and melt remaining ghee. Add onion and saute until tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add apples and continue sauteing until tender. Another 5 minutes.
- Remove sweet potatoes from oven and in a large mixing bowl, combine with sausage and the onion and apple mixture.
- Once evenly incorporated, spread mixture back out on baking sheet and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until sweet potatoes are browned.
- Remove from oven and mix in chopped parsley until evenly incorporated.
- Serve with a sunny side egg on top.
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[…] followed by “that’s quite an undertaking!”. Sean & I watched Russ’s cooking demo at Paleo f(x) this year and his demo was more than just about food – it was a history lesson! Russ has a […]