Recipe:
Thanksgiving can be a massive cornucopia of angst — or that used to be the case for me and my son when we would stuff three dinners, three families and three towns all into one day. In order to appease the matriarchs, we spent more time on the road than we did with the ones we love.
My family decided to celebrate Thanksgiving every weekend in November, each family claiming a day best fit for them — and thus, creating an opportunity for me to have a day of cooking pies, casseroles and sweet hams as well.
The result was not only harmonious but added more recipes to my cookbook, my favorite being Nana’s sweet-potato casserole.
The original recipe calls for two to three sweet potatoes to be boiled until soft, but four large cans of drained yams will work just as well, making it faster and easier for university students who may stay at the dorms for the holiday. It will feed six people.
Ingredients:
• 4 large cans of yams
• ¼ cup of butter
• ¼ cup of milk
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon of cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons of molasses
• ½ cup of sugar
If you enjoy more spices, you can add cardamom and all-spice (shake until your ancestors whisper to stop).
For toppings:
• ½ cup of brown sugar
• ½ cup of all-purpose flour
• ½ cup of butter, cold
• ½ cups of pecans, crushed
(optional)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Then begin with cooking the yams in a pot, slowly adding the listed ingredients to the potato mixture. When it is all mixed evenly, spray a 9 x 9 in casserole dish and put the mixture in.
Make crumbles about the size of peas and sprinkle over potato mixture. Or, triple the ingredients and completely cover the mixture (that’s what I do). Cover the top with the topping mixture. Bake for 35-45 minutes. When it is done, add marshmallows and broil until lightly browned.
Then comes the most important part — find some friends to eat it with.