Mixing It Up for Thanksgiving

Several years ago, my dad gave me the set of pyrex mixing bowls that he and my mom received as a wedding present in 1961. They were Mom's everyday tools throughout my childhood,  but these days, I reserve them for holidays and special occasions. 

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I'm making sweet potato casserole for the family dinner and missing my mom terribly. I'm thinking about how many meals took shape in those bowls. Biscuits on Saturday mornings. Cornbread for weeknight suppers. The dressing every Thanksgiving. Birthday cakes, cookies, brownies for treats. I close my eyes and I see Mom standing at the kitchen counter, with me watching. Learning.

I learned to cook from watching my mother. What I didn’t realize – and she probably didn’t either – is that she was also teaching me about love. So often, we express our love in what we do for others. When I cook for family and friends, it’s a big, messy, delicious “I love you” to the people in my life. And I think my mom would like that.

This is her recipe, but I've added a few tweaks of my own over the years, and I think she'd like that too.

Sweet Potato Casserole for the Indecisive

Is your family like ours and some folks like marshmallows on their sweet potato casserole, and some like pecans? I got tired of listening to the arguments, so I make a striped topping that alternates between the two!

I also upped the spices from my mom's version and added the cardamom. And I think baking the sweet potatoes (vs boiling them) makes the end result more creamy and flavorful.

4 cups mashed sweet potatoes (4-6 medium-sized sweet potatoes)

1/2 cup milk

2/3 stick melted butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cardamom

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

mini marshmallows

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/3 stick melted butter

Wrap sweet potatoes in foil and bake at 375 until soft. Unwrap, cut in half and squeeze the mashed sweet potatoes out of the skin into a large mixing bowl.

Add 1/3 cup of the melted butter, milk, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, and eggs and mix well. Pour into a 9x9 baking dish.

In a small bowl, mix the pecans, brown sugar, flour, and the remaining 1/3 cup of melted butter.

Top the casserole with alternating stripes (about 2 inches wide) of mini marshmallows and the nut topping mixture. If you're using a square pan, I think making the stripes diagonal looks really pretty. 

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes until the marshmallows are browned on top.