Just before Thanksgiving I asked colleague Michael Long, editor of the Alive section for the Sunday News, whether he had a knockout sweet potato recipe. Michael is a great cook, and a baker extraordinaire! (He made apple crumb pies for the Sunday News staff at the holidays.) He also cooks the Thanksgiving feast for his own family.

Only about a third of the Thanksgiving celebrants in my family will even put sweet potatoes past their teeth, but I'm typically the one who makes the dish every year for those of us who know how great sweet potatoes/yams can be. But I was in a rut, making the same concoction every year.

I'm glad I decided to broaden my culinary horizons. This recipe is delicious. So good that people in my family who would never touch sweet potatoes/yams went back for seconds. Michael promised that it is such a good recipe, I wouldn't know whether to put the dish on the dinner table or the dessert table. He was right! This recipe is a keeper.

SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE

3 cups sweet potatoes (I used yams)
1 cup sugar
Dash of salt
2 eggs
1/3 stick butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

For the topping:
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/4-1/3 cup chopped pecans, or amount to taste
1/3 stick butter


This recipe calls for canned sweet potatoes, which might sound like sacrilege, but when there's no room left on the stovetop, you'll be grateful. (Michael's words, not mine.) Look for the vacuum-packed sweet potatoes. They usually come in short, squat cans of about 13 ounces. (Two cans is what you need.) Weis carries them. (From Barb: I cooked yams for this, about a half-dozen good-sized potatoes.)

If you do go with canned sweet potatoes with syrup, press out all of the syrup.

To the sweet potatoes, add the sugar, salt, eggs, butter, milk and vanilla and mash it all up together. Place in a square or round glass baking dish.

For the topping, mix the brown sugar, flour, pecans (optional, but I think it enhances the dish) and butter, and spread over the sweet-potato mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes, or until it's good and bubbly.


You won't believe how good this is!!!!!!!