Canadian Thanksgiving

Yes, please! (One of) the awesome things about having Canadian friends is getting to celebrate an early Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving food is so delicious, and a lot of it only gets eaten once a year. I mean, what's up with that? Turkey, potatoes, stuffing, veggies, and pie... I understand saving up the quantity, but there's no reason not to eat some of these at other times.

Anyway, we were fortunate enough to be invited to celebrate Thanksgiving on October 11 (well, technically it was October 10) with some great friends. They pulled out all the stops and had a great spread. Most everyone contributed something. I decided to bring a little of the South to the feast.

Last year during Thanksgiving I made Sweet Potato Casserole Candied Yams Who the Heck Knows Anyway?! for the hubs and his family. I honestly had no idea what I was doing, but they raved over it and I'm pretty sure someone even said it was the best they'd ever had. I think the trick was using fresh sweet potatoes instead of canned yams. Anyway, I offered it up again this year and have to say I was even more pleased. Last year I tried them and thought it was iffy. This year the potatoes (from a local farm) were amazing and full of flavor and the slightly toasted marshmallows on top added a great crunch.

I'm quite sure these will be making an appearance at American Thanksgiving too!

Allison's Southern Sweet Potatoes (there, I renamed it)

can feed up to 15 people if served as a side

5 lbs. of sweet potatoes (the fresher - and more local - the better!)
2 - 4 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 c. small marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Boil the sweet potatoes with the skins still on them. Enjoy the amazing, sweet smells that fill the kitchen. When the potatoes are tender (when poked with a fork), remove them from the water. Cut them in the half (or in quarters) and slide the skin off. Cut the remaining chunks into bite size pieces.

Place one half of the potatoes in a shallow rectangular baking dish (I used 9 x 13). Top with 1 - 2 tbsp. of butter (cut into small cubes) and up to 1/4 c. of the brown sugar. Layer the remaining potatoes on top. Cover these with the remaining small cubes of butter and the remaining brown sugar. Evenly place the marshmallows on top of this layer.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, until the marshmallows are slightly toasted and you can see the melted sugar and butter boiling in the bottom of the dish (if you can't see this, it's ok).

Seriously, try this! Even if you're not sure if you like sweet potatoes... a lot of people felt the same and still enjoyed this (or at least lied to me)!