Yams – skins + butter + brown sugar + marshmallows = the extent of my cooking this holiday. I still don’t know the difference between yams and sweet potatoes (if there is one), but tonight I discovered how easy this classic Thanksgiving dish is to make.

Boil the yams with skin on, wait for them to cool enough to be handled, peel the skins off, and place in a bowl or the pot you used for boiling. Add 1.5 cubes of butter (sliced melts faster), sprinkle about half a cup of brown sugar, mash it all together, and spread evenly into a casserole dish. Then sprinkle one layer of tiny marshmallows over the top and bake until golden brown. Easy!

It was the first Thanksgiving I’ve done “myself” (air-quotes because of the helpers I had). And probably because of all the help – and a little advance planning – the meal turned out pretty well.

The recipes you’ll find below reflect what I learned – not the actual mistakes I made. : ) All the dishes below serve 6. Hopefully you’ll enjoy these for Thanksgiving and beyond!

Dinner:

Turkey
Mashed potatoes
Caramelized Carrots & Brussels Sprouts
Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole
Cranberry Ginger Chutney
Celery-Nut Stuffing
Turkey gravy

Right. Not everything is picture-perfectly local… but darned-near close.

Turkey

Foster Farms, baby.

Mashed Potatoes

8 med/small potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/2″ thick
6 T. of butter
1 C. sour cream
3/4 C. milk
2 t. onion flakes
salt and pepper

This is my Mom’s standby. Which was also her mom’s standby. 100 years of mashed potatoes right here:

Put potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Boil for 10-12 minutes until a knife goes through the thickest ones easily. Drain of all water. Add butter, salt, pepper, and onion flakes.  Squish with a potato ricer/masher. When they’re creamy, add sour cream and squish some more. Then add milk. (Saving liquids ’til last keeps the lumps out.) Put in a casserole dish with extra pats of butter and cover in a 200* oven until ready to serve.

Caramelized Carrots & Brussels Sprouts

1 pound Brussels sprouts, rinsed, cut in halves
1 lb baby carrots
1/4 cup tablespoons olive oil (or a little more if you like)
1 med onion, cut into strips
salt and pepper to taste

This recipe originally called for white sugar and pan-sauteeing. Baking these instead allows Mother Nature to make her own caramelized goodness.

Preheat oven to 350*. Place Brussels sprouts and carrots in a steamer basket over boiling water. Cover saucepan and steam 8-10 minutes or until Brussels sprouts are tender yet crisp. Transfer them to a large baking dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until browned. Serve immediately or put in a casserole dish and cover in a 200* oven until ready to serve.

Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole

4 skinny sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced in 1/2″ rounds
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large cooking apples – peeled, cored and cut into 1/2″ half-moons
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup chopped pecans (keep-it-local substitute: hazelnuts)

Holy COW, this was good. The original version called for 3/4 cup of brown sugar, which I cut back significantly. The tart apples and sweet potatoes – yum!

Preheat oven to 350*. Place sweet potatoes in a large microwave-safe container and cook 8-10 minutes, or until tender but firm.

While they’re cooking, lightly grease a baking dish. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, brown sugar, butter and pecans. Layer sweet potatoes, brown sugar mixture and apples in the prepared baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Cranberry Ginger Chutney

1/4 C. dried apricots, finely chopped
1/4 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. raisins
1 C. orange juice
3 C. fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
1 tart apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1/2 orange, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 t. grated lemon zest
1 t. orange zest
1/4 C. fresh lemon juice
1/8 C. chopped crystallized ginger

I know. Citrus doesn’t grow in Oregon. Not commercially, anyway. I do have a friend in Portland who successfully grows lemons in her home. If you care to omit these, even the apple alone adds amazing freshness to an otherwise heavily-boiled and -baked dinner. : ) Did you already know that cranberries aren’t just for Cape Cod?

In a saucepan, combine apricots, brown sugar, raisins and orange juice; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and stir while simmering for 5 minutes. Stir in cranberries, lemon juice and lemon zest; simmer for 10 minutes more. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Stir in apple and ginger into the mixture. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Celery-Nut Stuffing

6-8 slices of bread
1/4 C. margarine
1/2 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 C. walnuts, coarsely chopped (keep-it-local substitute: hazelnuts)
1 sm. can of mushrooms
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 C. chicken broth

What makes this stuffing good is coarsely chopping all the ingredients to give it texture. Really, the less bread you use, the better it is. You may find you need more liquid than this recipe calls for (I did), so don’t hesitate to add it.

Dry the bread slices in a 200* oven for 20 minutes. Cut bread into 1/4″ cubes.

In a Dutch oven, melt butter/margarine over medium heat. Cook onion and celery until soft. Add mushrooms. Season with poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stir in bread cubes and nuts until evenly coated. Moisten with chicken broth; mix well. Bake in a greased casserole dish at 350* for 30 to 40 minutes.

I had Thanksgiving dinner early this year because I have a paper to write during the holiday. This is what I had on Thanksgiving night.

Marinade for Beef (I used short ribs, but I imagine you could use any type of cut suitable for marinades)

These measurements are not exact, adjust to your liking

• 1/2 Granny Smith Apple, cut into small chunks
• 1 tbs Water
• 4 tbs Red Wine Vinegar
• 2 tbs Brown Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp or more Black pepper
• 1 tsp or more Red pepper flake
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• any herb, I used 1 tsp poultry seasoning

In a blender, blend the apple, water and vinegar to a pulp. Mix the rest of the ingredients in with a spoon. It should be the consistency of applesauce if not thinner. At this point, before adding to the meat, you can taste and adjust the flavor to your liking and pour onto the meat. I cut my ribs, 4 of them, off the bone for thin pieces so I only marinated my meat for about 45 min. Broil about 3 – 4 min on each side on piece of foil with oil or cooking spray.

Mashed Red Yams

• 1/2 lb Red Yams, I cooked mine whole (don’t forget to poke holes or it’ll burst) in the oven for about 45 min – 1 hr @ 400 degrees
• Butter, to taste, about 1 tbs
• Meat Drippings from the short ribs, about 1 tbs

Mash the ingredients together and serve. People normally add brown sugar and milk/cream, but I found the drippings to be adequate because it was sweet and moist enough. If  you ‘re worried about the fat in your meat, omit the drippings and use milk or whatever.

This is my first time making this and it turned out pretty good. Again food should be enjoyable, if you found my recipe isn’t completely to your taste, adjust the ingredients, I don’t really know what I’m doing so I will be experimenting as well.

Happy Eating.

May your stuffing be tasty

May your turkey be plump

May your potatoes and gravy have never a lump

May your yams be delicious

And your pies take the prize

May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

So, I recently “became” vegetarian again….for the 3rd time in my life. I don’t miss meat at all. I do eat fish still, so I guess I am pescatarian. Whatev. My family is pretty redneck. They huffed when I said that picking the steak out of the sukiyaki wouldn’t really do it for me.

So, unless I want to starve on Turkey Day, I need to bring something veggie and (preferably) healthy. Keely and I found some amazingly beautiful brussels sprouts on the stalk, something you only see this time of year. She is determined to have brussels sprouts!

Question is...what do you do with the stalk?

I found an easy recipe, but it has to be done right before you eat them…. I like simple. What I want to know, is… can you do anything with the stalk afterward?

I hate to waste anything. We also bought yams, as they are one of my faves. I just cut them into circles and grill them, maybe brush them with some olive oil, sprinkle some kosher salt on them…yummy!

Yams don't need no stinking sugar! They are sweet enough on their own

So, if I can’t eat anything else, I can have yams and brussels sprouts! :0)

1)  You get hammered at dinner and talk about how the American Indians were screwed out of Manhattan island during the War of 1812..

2) Make your daughter cry because you tell her that OBAMA chopped the head of Tom Turkey on the front lawn of the White House because he thought it was Bill O’Reilly…

3) Talk incessantly about how you played high school football and that during the 1974 Thanksgiving Day game vs your rival Teaneck that you threw a touchdown pass to your best buddy, who stole your 8 track player from your 1967 Chevy Nova…

4)  Make statements like  “  You think the recession is bad now on Thanksgiving, wait until Christmas hits kids…Trust me it will be brutal “…”  Just being honest people”….

5) Keep bringing up deceased members of the family at dinner  and what FOODS they DIDN’T like when they were ” with us”…  ex.  POP POP ( Grandpa) hated sweet potatoes, or “remember how Aunt Sylvia used to hate gravy”….

    Oh well you get it  …Let’s hear  some of your Worst things scenarios !

Who would’ve thought those Thanksgiving sweet potatoes can help you stay fit and healthy?

Sweet potatoes are packed with essential vitamins and minerals.  It is an excellent source of vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene, a very good source of vitamin C and manganese and a good source of vitamin B6, copper, potassium and iron.

Sweet potatoes have antioxidant properties that may prevent conditions such as atherosclerosis, diabetic heart disease, and colon cancer.   They contain anti-inflammatory properties that have been shown to reduce the severity of conditions such as asthma, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

And best of all, a half cup serving of sweet potatoes is only 80 calories.  It cannot get any sweeter than that.

Eat sweet potatoes along with a heart healthy fat.  The beta-carotene in sweet potatoes can only get converted to vitamin A in the presence of bio-salts, which are released when consuming fat.  Finally, it is important to note that the carotene content of sweet potatoes actually increases as they are stored throughout the winter.

Maple and Walnuts Sweet Potatoes

4 small (3- to 4-oz) Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1-inch pieces
1⁄2 cup Fat-Free Half-and-Half
2 Tbs Pure Maple Syrup
1⁄4 tsp Vanilla Extract
1⁄4 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Cloves
Salt and Pepper to taste

Topping
3 Tbs chopped pecans or walnuts
1⁄4 tsp ground Red Pepper
2 tsp melted Reduced-fat Margarine

Place potato cubes in a Dutch oven or similar pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10-12 minutes, until tender. Drain. In a mixing bowl, combine the half-and-half, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and pepper. Add the sweet potatoes and mix with a beater set on medium speed. For slightly chunkier casserole, just mash with a potato masher. Spoon the potato mixture into a casserole dish. Combine all the topping ingredients. Sprinkle over the potato mixture. Cover with foil and freeze for up to 2 weeks. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight. Preheat the oven to 375° Bake. Cover and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake for about 20 to 25 minutes until the pecans or walnuts have browned and potatoes are hot.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1⁄2 cup)

Allowances: 1 allowance of grains and starch

Calories 86 (31% from fat); Fat 3g (sat 0g); Protein 1g; Carb 14g; Fiber 1g; Chol 1mg; Sodium 33mg

In spirit of next week being Thanksgiving (and if you’re like me, trying to figure out what to cook without feeling like a stuffed bird yourself after the whole feast) I’m posting my version of a fantastic classic of sweet potatoes.

Many people grew up with the marshmallow topped potatoes that are swimming in a pool of sugar….(mind, you, I’ve had those and yes, they are good, but don’t even want to think of what they do to my insides.)  So as we say, everything in moderation, I took it upon myself to come up with a more healthy version of glazed sweet potatoes….with everything else on your plate, you probably won’t even realize you’re missing the marshmallows!

Glazed Sweet Potatoes

As I have mentioned before, in our family, my sister-in-law Francine makes the Thanksgiving Day feast every year.  She always serves a version of a sweet potato bake.  Many years ago, she shared the recipe with me and it had quite a long list of ingredients.  I changed it and came up with this recipe.  It has very few ingredients, a much more intense sweet potato taste and it’s much less fat.  My boys love this and it is so easy!

13-14 large orange fleshed sweet potatoes or yams (garnet yams are great)

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted margarine

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Topping

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted margarine

½ teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups of whole pecan halves

Place washed and dried sweet potatoes in a throw away aluminum baking pan.  Bake sweet potatoes in a preheated 400º degree oven for two hours until the sugars are bubbling out and they are very soft.  Remove them from the oven and let cool a little bit.  Peel and mash them.  Add in the brown sugar, cinnamon, and room temperature margarine and stir until well blended.

Place the sweet potatoes in two 8 inch by 8 inch baking dishes.  You could use one 9 by 13 dish as well.  Spread and flatten the tops.

For the topping, combine the margarine and brown sugar with the cinnamon with your hands or a wooden spoon.  When it is well blended, mix in the pecan halves.  Divide the topping over the two baking dishes.  Spread the topping over the potatoes evenly distributing the pecans.  Bake, covered with aluminum foil for 1/2 hour in a 350º degree oven, then uncover and continue baking until the top is bubbling and dark gold about another 10 minutes.  Serve with Thanksgiving dinner.  The whole recipe serves about 12-15  people.

I know I use a lot of the same ingredients over and over, but hopefully it’s not too boring. I just really love to find new ways to use my favorite things. And, as one person, it’s hard to go through a lot of different ingredients very quickly. And I am one of those people who actually likes repetition.

Besides, it’s good to be able to do that if you want to shop at farmer’s markets as much as possible. So, please forgive the ingredient repetition, and enjoy a nice healthy breakfast treat (with more vegetables for breakfast! yes!).

Thanksgiving Muffins

(makes 10 muffins)

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup canola oil

2 Tbsp flaxmeal + 3 Tbsp water

2 medium garnet yams (about 1.5 pounds), baked, skins removed, and mashed

2 Tbsp blackstrap molasses

1/4 cup agave syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp soymilk

Much easier than pie: (1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a muffin tin. (2) Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl. (3) Mix together wet ingredients in a separate bowl. (4) Add wet ingredients to dry mixture and stir until just combined. (5) Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

More soup…my love. Not only is it soup, but it soup with yams and peanut butter. So how could you go wrong? Plus it’s nice and spicy, which is perfect for a cold day. (and the color matches the leaves outside.)

PS: All my other “sweet potato” recipes are really with yams. However, I have now decided to be more pretentiously accurate.

Spicy Yam and Peanut Soup

Serves 4

2 tsp canola oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 1/2 Tbsp grated fresh ginger

1 red bell pepper, chopped

2 garnet yams (~1 lb) peeled and cubed

3 cups vegetable broth or water

1/4 tsp cayenne

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

4 tsp white miso

(1) Saute onions in oil until transluscent. (2) Add ginger, bell pepper, and yams and saute a minute more. (3) Add broth and cayenne. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until yams are soft. (4) Transfer to a food processor or blender, and add peanut butter and miso. Process until smooth. (5) Return to pot and heat to serving temperature. Season with salt if desired. (I also added some spinach at the very end, which was quite tasty, too.)

Hello from Washington, DC! Break is finally here, and I’m sitting in the living room of my friends’ (2 of my California roommates) apartment in the Capitol city. I will be MIA for the next week, but will return after vaca with no doubt mouth-watering stories of DC, New York City, and Thanksgiving.

Before I leave you, let me pass on the recipe for Bourbon Sweet Potatoes. Since I am writing from my phone, I will not have any pictures to present; so this entry may not be visually exciting, but this recipe resulted in many compliments and fighting over leftovers. I’d say it’s a keeper.

Bourbon Sweet Potatoes (compliments to Martha Stewart)

3 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3 Tbsp bourbon
Salt and pepper
3 Tbsp butter

Place the sweet potato wedges in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Mix in the brown sugar and bourbon, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for 1 – 1.5 hours, stirring every half hour. Stir in butter after removing from oven.

Happy thanksgiving everyone!

I love Thanksgiving best of all the holidays. I have had so many, many wonderful Thanksgiving days, days to remember for a lifetime.

I’d never given much thought to the fact that this is strictly an American Tradition? But it is. Centuries ago a prediction was voiced about a new nation. It went something like this:  ”England is great with child; she shall bring forth a new nation who will celebrate the Thursdays.”  That’s not an exact quote, but those words give me goosebumps anyway. That’s us. That’s uniquely us. That’s what our courageous forefathers and foremothers built for us and left in our care.

We just need to remember, every day, all we have to be thankful for and not waste so much energy fueling the negativity around us. The greatest thing about this special American holiday is that it includes everybody; it does not exclude anybody in America. It’s non-sectarian, non-political. Maybe that’s exactly why it will go on forever.

I don’t have to cook for this wonderful holiday anymore except for my one contribution to every holiday dinner. You will never have had better yams than mine:

SWEET & SOUR YAMS                                                                                            Mavis

6 to 8 medium yams, baked in skins ‘til done. Abt 30” at 400ْ

1 large orange

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 cup brown sugar

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp grated orange rind

¼ cup (1/2 cube) butter

1 & ¾ cup orange juice

¼  cup Cointreau – or other citrus liqueur

1 whole lime, juiced

Pecan halves or orange slices for garnish

In a skillet, mix all dry ingredients well.  Turn on medium heat under skillet and stir. Add orange zest and butter, heat until melted, then add orange juice. Bring to an easy boil and cook until thickened. Stir in Cointreau and lime juice. Peel and slice yams, abt. 1” thick, into a casserole. Pour over the sauce and add pecans. Bake @350 uncovered for 20-25”. Keeps well frozen.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sweet N' Spicy Sweet Potato Casserole

We celebrated an early Thanksgiving with my husband’s side of the family. We also got to tailgate together at the Ohio State-Iowa football game! We divided food prep for our Thanksgiving among all of us and I was assigned my banana bread and the sweet potato casserole. This sweet n’ spicy sweet potato casserole was a hit and everyone wanted the recipe (they already have the banana bread recipe in the family cookbook) so I thought I’d post it here in time for Thanksgiving.

For our large family gathering I doubled this recipe and for the small children I scooped part of the casserole into a separate dish before I added the cayennne pepper and left off the nuts. Sorry the picture looks a little out of focused in the corner but that’s the steam rising from the casserole!! This recipe is adapted from myrecipe.com.

Ingredients
3 pounds sweet potatoes
1/3 C. packed brown sugar
2 T. butter
2 T. orange juice concentrate
1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. salt
2 large eggs
1/4 C. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pierce potatoes with a fork; arrange in a circle on paper towels in microwave oven. Microwave on high 16 minutes or until tender, rearranging potatoes after 8 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

Cut each potato in half lengthwise; scoop out pulp into a large bowl. Discard skins. Add sugar and next six ingredients and beat until smooth.

Spoon mixture into a 1 1/2 quart baking dish; sprinkle with pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
Yield 8 – 1/2 Cup servings

aka 

Yams

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            While they’re not going to win any beauty contests, yams are runner-up as the healthiest item in the produce section.  Does it surprise you that a potato is one of the most nutritious veggies?  Behind leafy greens, yams with the skins provide more of the daily recommended vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants per serving than other vegetable choices. Many people falsely believe that potatoes should be avoided.  It is the preparation methods that decrease the nutritional quality of a potato.  French fries, chips, topping them with marshmallows, sour cream, mayonnaise and bacon is what turns this nutritious veggie into a health hazard.  If you are worried about carbs, you should watch your portion sizes and cut refined carbs – not vegetables (read “Carbohydrates” in the Categories section for more guidance).  Potatoes are good for you!

            Unfortunately potatoes often have high levels of pesticides both on the outer skin and inside.  When randomly tested, potatoes are consistently found to contain more chemicals than most other produce.  If you want to make a small change that will have an impact on your health, I advise only buying organic potatoes. 

            You must try the Citrus-Chili Yam Wedges recipe posted under Recipes-Vegetable Side Dishes. They are a tasty dream for potato fans, carb lovers and health fanatics alike.