Thanksgiving Tradition

I recently had a request from a friend of mine to share my favorite Thanksgiving tradition recipie. So I decided to do so, publicly, in the true Pioneer Woman fashion. Through pictures. Now, I love my camera but as of yet have not been able to afford to purchase a macro lens so I'm not able to get quite as artsy fartsy as she does but I'm learning the ropes. Andrea, I hope this helps!

Now, this recipie is one of those that has some "personal preferences" so I would say- feel free to take some liberties and taste along the way (you'll be glad you did- yum!) to make sure it's the way you like it.

First our "cast of characters" as Ree says;

This is for the sauce-

*5 tablespoons of butter

*5 tablespoons of flour

*1 cup brown Sugar

*1 cup water

*1/2 cup corn syrup

*1 teaspoon salt (yes- I have salt for life. Can you tell I shop at Sam's?)

Also, obviously, the sweet potatoes. I just didn't include them in the pic. SORRY!

So, you've got your butter

Melt it in a saucepan and add the 5 tablespoons of flour. (funny story- when I first inherited this recipie from my mom I somehow ended up with teaspoons instead of tablespoons- didn't work too very well.)

Just as it sarts getting bubbly you add the rest of the sauce ingredients.

We've got the brown sugar, salt, corn syrup and water. Now stir and let it simmer a while.

Stir it pretty regularly- it will start to thicken the longer it simmers. This is a dangerous stage of the process for a couple of reasons. You want to make sure that all of the sugar dissolves- sometimes this requires tasting. This is dangerous for two reasons.

1) it is very tasty and very addictive. One might not make it to the rest of the steps if one has little will power... like me!

2) it is very HOT! Yes, I've learned this the hard way. When something is that tasty it is often very difficult to restrain oneself from tasting a bit prematurely. :)

NEXT... the sweet potatoes. First Peel, then chop.
How many? It depends on how many you need. We had a fairly small group this year- just two families so we used only about 1 1/2 large potatoes. Just enough to fill my casserole dish.


Next Boil the Potatoes. OH! Don't forget.... you are still simmering the sauce. Make sure to check on it regularly. I only say that because I have a tendancy to NOT check on things.

Poke the potatoes and when they are evenly soft all the way through but still hold thier shape, drain the water.

Place the sliced potatoes in the base of a dish. The size just depends on how many people you're feeding. I probably could have fit more in or cut the slices thicker. Oh well, I always have to pick on my cooking.

By now the sauce should be thickened up. Though you might want to taste it one more time just to make sure. ::wink wink::

Pour the sauce over top of the cooked potatoes. I only ended up needing about half the sauce I made. It just depends on how much you decided to make.

Fill till it just covers the potatoes. Then bake at 325 for 20-30 minutes. Now it gets really good...

Top with marshmallows and return to oven. Set oven to broil and let the marshmallows get all nice and toasty brown on top. Then...Eat up!!



Wait a sec! I didn't even get my finished product photo before it started to disappear. Ah well... I guess that's a compliment to the cook right?

Now if I could just figure out... does this count as a veggie? a side dish? or a dessert?