Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this Thursday. I’m very lucky that my sister-in-law has volunteered to handle the dinner for many years now with contributions from the hungry moochers. She handles the turkey with many side dishes, another sister-in-law is the pie maker extraordinaire, and I bring the sweet potato casserole which must go over well since I’ve been asked to repeat this one for years now. I think the reason is that we can call it a vegetable and put it on the table with the main course but with the brown sugar topping, it gives us a chance to start on dessert early. This can be made up a day ahead of time & just reheated with the turkey and it serves plenty of hungry people.
SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE
3 Cups mashed sweet potatoes (4-5 med)
½ Cup milk
¾ Cup granulated sugar
½ Stick melted butter
2 Eggs
½ teas salt
1 TBL vanilla extract
Boil sweet potatoes until tender. Quantity is hard to tell with sweet potatoes since they can vary so much in size. Don’t worry if you have too many because you can always add a little extra milk if it seems too dry. Use a mixer to beat the sweet potatoes smooth. This calls for a 1/2 cup of milk but add it slowly so you can strive for a smooth texture similar to mashed potatoes, definitely not runny. Ease up on the milk or if you over-do that, just put 1 egg in rather than 2.
Combine the rest of the ingredient with mixer until smooth. Remove any obvious strings (usually stuck to beaters) & hard lumps. Pour into 13×9” (approx) glass oven proof dish.
TOPPING:
1 Cup light brown sugar ½ Cup flour
½ Stick softened butter 1 Cup chopped pecans
Mix by hand or w/pastry blender. Sprinkle over potato mixture. Bake at 350F approximately 30 minutes. Serves 10. Can be prepared the night before and reheated, covered for about 30-45 minutes.
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