A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. – Cicero

I received a few recipes about mashed or baked potatoes but surprisingly nothing on sweet potatoes.  The mashed potato recipes were all very similar but I was looking for something a little different. I went through my books and found this great recipe from Williams-Sonoma’s Thanksgiving cookbook (isbn #0-7835-0324-5). First of all this is a great little book and this sweet potato recipe is delectable.

This past weekend I was not feeling well so I made this dish. Thank my wife for going out and getting the ingredients and helping me out. She is my sous chef and always supports my crazy ideas when it comes to experimenting with recipes. My family and I throughly enjoyed this dish. I know you will too! By the way as I write this post the song, “Shut up Shuttin’ up” by Alex Lifeson is blaring on my Mac. How ironic it came on when I was writing about my wife. Listen to the song you’ll laugh! Click the link  Shut Up Shuttin’ Up

By the way Alex is supposed to be quite the cook.

Did you know?

Mashed potatoes at the first Thanksgiving was technically possible but highly unlikely. The Pilgrims (and most Europeans of that time) regarded these tubers as barely suitable for animals. It wasn’t until the great famines of the 18th century when potatoes were eaten on a regular basis. What’s better than a baked potato, sour cream, chives and bacon on a cold blustery day. Go figure!

Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar and Spice

serves 8-10

Ingredients

6 lbs. yams (the red skinned sweet pototes)

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream or half & half

6 Tbsp. room temperature salted butter

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. allspice

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

salt

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Place the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet. Pierce the sweet potatoes in several places with a fork. Bake until very tender (when it is easily pierced with a fork), about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and cool slightly. Maintain the oven temperature.

Butter a 2 – 3 qt. baking dish. Halve the sweet potatoes and scrape the flesh from the skins with a spoon into the bowl. Add 3/4 cup of the brown sugar, cream,butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and vanilla. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, spoon or masher beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt. Spoon into th baking dish, smooth the top. Sprinkle the pecans and remaining 1/4 cup of sugar evenly over the top.

Bake until heated through, about 30 minutes. Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Try this out and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.

Tony