TASTE: Sweet Potato Soufflé

The Food Coma Shall Commence.

Where I come from, Thanksgiving is a big deal. My family and my husband’s family are from the same town, so going home is a double whammy of love, fun, and FOOD. However, this year, we decided to stay in Cambridge in order to save money and honestly, catch up on sleep.  We could use about a year’s worth of sleep. So we’re penciling that in for this week’s main activity.

Although we are not flying south, I can’t exclude myself from the glorious bought of cooking and baking associated with this holiday. I am a Southern woman, and what does that mean? I have a few recipes up my sleeve. And since I have several celebrations and dinners this week, and I am cooking up a few of my very favorites!

Sweet Potato Souffle

If you’re from the South, this is simply a staple at the Thanksgiving dinner table. This is a recipe that both my mom and my mother-in-law make, and for the past several years I’ve adopted it as one of my staple Thanksgiving contributions. Last year, I made this dish and brought it to a potluck-style dinner for my husband’s 90 classmates. Since many of the students are international (and were celebrating their first Thanksgiving ever!) they didn’t quite connect with the idea that this casserole should be on the dinner menu. They looked at it curiously, exchanged confused glances and promptly moved my pseudo-confection dish to the dessert table. Clearly these Yankees have been missing out on the CENTERPIECE of Thanksgiving supper (am I biased? Surely not. These are facts.)  I had to tell the party organizers more than once, “No, it’s not a dessert, it’s really a dinner item. Yeah, it really doesn’t belong at the dessert table. Seriously.” This year? Same dinner, and I’ve got tons of people asking for the recipe. I just told them all to move to Georgia. We cook country and we do it right. (In all honestly, cooking these family recipes away from home has made me realize what grandmotherly instincts I have, like pushing my cooking on others and getting waaaaayyy too much satisfaction out of them actually liking it.)

Here it is! My favorite November dish:

Sweet Potato Souffle

Ingredients:

- 3 cups mashed yams (1 40-oz. can)

- 2 eggs

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1 cup sugar

- 1/2 tsp. vanilla

- 1 cup brown sugar

- 1/3 cup flour

- 1 cup pecans

- 1/3 cup melted butter

Directions:

Combine the drained yams, eggs, milk, 1/3 cup melted butter, 1 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Mix together (preferably with a beater) until fully combined and then put in a 10" casserole dish. Then combine the brown sugar, flour, pecans and 1/3 cup melted butter and mix together and spread this mixture on top of the casserole. Bake at 350 for 30-40 mins. Take a bite, and for a fleeting moment, experience Heaven.

I also whipped up this pumpkin pie and a pretzel jello salad (my husband’s personal favorite.) Hope you enjoy!