Day After Tomorrow We Feast!

Did you wake up, with the sudden realization that Thanksgiving is day after tomorrow?  And you're supposed to bring the sweet potatoes...but you don't make sweet potatoes?!  WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?  You know the grocery's shelves are empty by now, right???  No cans of the orange darlings, no bags of marshmallows to be found. It's too late to order them all made up from the deli counter.  What will they still have in abundance?  Simple, old-fashioned, made from scratch ingredients.  Besides, you probably already have most of these in your pantry and fridge.  Yes, Virginia, you can make these from scratch and watch people swoon!

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes
3 medium sweet potatoes, baked, flesh scooped out (about 3 cups) You bake these babies just like a regular potato, prick it, rub the outside with butter, BUT put them on a foil lined baking sheet because they are messier bakers)
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I use a rounded measure for the cinnamon and nutmeg.)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup heavy cream, half & half, or whole milk  I've made it all ways, it's all good!

Topping
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup flour
3 Tablespoons butter, melted 

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Mix all the sweet potato ingredients together EXCEPT the cream.  Beat with an electric mixer until smooth.  Add the cream and mix well.  Pour into a greased casserole dish, about the size of an 8" x 8" one.

Mix the topping ingredients together with a fork and sprinkle over the top of the sweet potatoes.

Bake 25 - 30 minutes.

Watch the sweet potato haters convert!



Okay, I have written more about being thankful, and deleted them all, than you might imagine.  Why can't I get it down?  What's the block Sherri?  What's the happs?  It's that time of year.  You have friends who have been posting since the beginning of November, what they are thankful for each day.  I don't know, but I suspect, that it's because, at 44, I have had my share of unexpected tragedy, despair and devastation.  I know I'm not alone in this.  But because I'm truly an optimist, I have always found the blessing, however tiny, and clung, sometimes desperately, to it. 

So when I contemplate my deeply thankful spirit, I tend toward the dramatic, I get a little maudlin, I usually shed a few tears.  But without those experiences...would I be as determined as I am to find the joy in it all?  Would I have the strength I have?  Would I have been able to simply be glad my daughter and I weren't the first guy in line at the ER a couple weeks ago?   Nope.  And there you have it.  My grandma was right, those things that haven't killed me, have indeed made me stronger.  Contributed greatly to the woman I've become.  So those ugly parts of your life?  They happen. But if you can find the ray of hope, even if it's that you will see you can get through it, hold on to that.  Because neither the good or the bad last forever!  Revel in the good, know the bad will pass.  It's how you let those things define you, that make you who you are.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!
~S