Food is popular for any holiday, but there’s no food holiday quite like Thanksgiving. Nationwide cooks are pulling out family recipes, or looking for ways to supplement the classics with something new. So I’m kicking off these two weeks of cooking with some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes and stories.
To start things off easy, it’s time for some sweet potatoes and marshmallows. The funny thing is, I don’t really have a recipe for this. I do it primarily by taste.
I use fresh sweet potatoes, nothing canned. Consider one or two potatoes per person as a good guide. I have found it’s sometimes easier to start boiling them until it’s easy to pull the skins off, or just peel them like any potato. One they’re soft enough, mash.
As you’re mashing them, add generous pats of butter, sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg to taste, plus a light dash of salt to bring out some of that flavor.
Spread in a 9×13 pan, bake at 350 until warm. Take the pan out of the oven and cover with miniature marshmallows. Bake until a light brown crust appears on the marshmallows.
Note 1: Note that I didn’t include any sugar in my recipe. I think the marshmallows add enough.
Note 2. WATCH THE MARSHMALLOWS CAREFULLY. We had one Thanksgiving with what we now refer to as kamikaze marshmallows that grew out of the dish and landed on the bottom of the oven to catch on fire. The best way to avoid this is to use the small marshmallows, and leave a little space between them so they have room to expand.
This is one of the dishes I first learned to make and contribute for Thanksgiving meals and one of my favorite treats.
