I can’t help but chuckle as the lyrics to “Dazed and Confused” bellow from the radio – how apt is this song for how I am feeling right now?!! Having just waved goodbye to my crazy BFF, I am definitely all in a daze (and suffering from severe food and booze hangovers) after a riotous 4^th of July weekend together.

With this being her first trip to Seattle I wanted to show her all the local hot spots. We toured the Space Needle, wandered around the food stalls at Pike Place Market, ate amazing Steak at Daniel’s Broiler while watching the fireworks over Lake Union and cheered as the local team beat the Baltimore Orioles at Federica’s first game of baseball – Go Mariners!

Of course, no visit to a foreign country is complete without trying out the local cuisine, so I took extra diligence in pushing my petite friend into ALL of my fave restaurants and diners, as well as making essential snack stops at See’s Candy, Top Pot Doughnuts and Cupcake Royale – and it’d be rude not to indulge in traditional stadium Hot Dogs and Garlic Fries, wouldn’t it?!!

But now our tour duties are well and truly over and Freddie is homeward bound, I have become aware of a very strange happening and I am totally puzzled as to how and when this “mystery” may have taken place. For it seems that someone, or something, has sneaked into our closet, completely unnoticed, and replaced all of our clothes with duplicates that are at least two sizes smaller – I really am dazed and confused!!!

So in a bid to get us back into our clothes without the assistance of talcum powder and sheer brute force, I decided to bake some healthy, yet tasty Sweet Potato Cumin Fries. As I got to work on the fries, my eager-to-help hubby declared “I’ll make some dips to go with them” – “uh oh”, I thought, “this is going to be interesting”!

So wearing nothing but enthusiasm and tight clothing, he excitedly got to work on a seemingly random assortment of bottles like a crazy scientist, succeeding to get blobs of sticky mess all over the countertops, kitchen floor and cupboard doors.

However, it seems my hubby has been hiding a big secret from me for quite some time, for he is actually a fantastic “cook” and the resulting Harissa Ketchup and Mustard Dips were exceedingly tasty and made the perfect condiments for the cumin-coated fries!

To get started on the fries, you’ll first need to pre-heat the oven to 450ºF. Then place the chopped sweet potato into a large bowl and toss with the olive oil. In a separate bowl, combine the cumin, garlic salt, paprika and salt and toss with the fries until they are completely coated – nom, nom, nom!

Lay a non-stick baking mat over a baking sheet and arrange the wedges in a single layer on the sheet. Pop them into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until all golden and crisp and lovely looking, turning once halfway through cooking.

While the wedges are baking in the oven, you can recreate my husband’s wonderful Harissa Dips by adding the ingredients to a small bowl and stirring together enthusiastically – splashing, splattering and dropping over the kitchen surfaces is entirely optional!

Now serve the hot fries with the harissa dips, sit back, indulge, and pat yourself on the back for taking one small step back into those skinny jeans!

Followers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, or Spain can buy my favourite kitchen tools and gadgets from the Arugula & Rocket Store on Amazon. You may also visit the Tovolo & USA Pan websites.