Sweet Potato Souffle

About three days after I had my daughter and we were home from the hospital, we got a call from our area Honeybaked Ham store. Apparently one of my coworkers had graciously ordered food for us, and someone from the Honeybaked Ham store was on the way to deliver it.

In those first few days of parenthood, free, prepared, delivered food was HEAVEN, and we enjoyed the leftovers for days.

One of  the side dishes was a container of sweet potato souffle. Now, I've NEVER been one for sweet potatoes. They seemed like the misguided younger sibling of pumpkin to me, and I think we all know by now that pumpkin reigns supreme when it comes to vegetable desserts for me.

But this dessert has opened a little piece of my heart to the sweet potato. Tim and I LOVED this. I'm sure it wasn't all that nutritious for us, being full of butter, sugar and general yummy-ness. When we had a pre-Thanksgiving potluck at work, I decided I wanted to try to replicate it as a sort of combination side dish/dessert offering. I searched allrecipes.com for the Honeybaked Ham recipe, and I found this one, which certainly looked similar to what we had enjoyed.

My verdict? This was good. But not quite like the Honeybaked Ham Store. I am hoping to either tweak this recipe or find another one like it. I think the primary difference to me was the consistency, and perhaps that was a result of the preparation. I felt like this souffle was thinner, runny and just a bit too mushy. But it was good, don't get me wrong.

I used canned sweet potatoes and omitted the coconut because a) most people who commented on the recipe said the dish was plenty sweet and b) my husband, who I was sure would get leftovers, isn't really a coconut fan. I usually omit nuts from recipes I use for potlucks because I never know who might not like nuts or be allergic to them, but I definitely used the pecans in this recipe.

And the leftovers that I intended for my husband? There were none.

Ingredients

3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
2/3 cup margarine, melted
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup margarine

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

2. In a mixing bowl, combine mashed sweet potatoes, eggs, salt, sugar, vanilla, milk and margarine. Blend until smooth and pour into 9x13 inch baking dish.

3. Prepare the topping by mixing together the brown sugar, flour, pecans, coconut and melted margarine. Sprinkle mixture over potatoes. Bake for 30 minutes.

Source: Allrecipes.com

Thanksgiving in the desert (Part 2: Candied Pecans)

I wanted to try my hand at making candy so I would have another snack to put out between meals while my in-laws were in town for Thanksgiving. I was perusing the website for Raising Arizona Kids Magazine, and I came across a homemade gifts section, where I found a recipe for Candied Pecans.

This recipe only makes 1/2 cup of pecans at a time. That is a little annoying when you're trying to make a big batch because the pan gets all caked in the candied stuff and you have to clean it in between each batch. I tried making more than 1/2 cup at a time, but the pan got too crowded and the pecans didn't coat evenly.

In the end, they were really tasty, but the process was a bit tedious. I would make them again, but I'd probably only make a small batch.

Ingredients

2 Tblspns butter
1/2 cup pecan halves
2 Tblspn packed light brown sugar

Directions

Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pecans and cook, stirring, until golden brown and toasted (about 3 minutes). Add sugar and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Transfer to a piece of waxed paper to cool completely.

Source: Raising Arizona Kids Magazine