Tasty Tuesday

This week, Tasty Tuesday may be a day late and a dollar short, but I wanted to share a side dish I made this year for Thanksgiving. I went to my cousin's house for Turkey Day this year (that's a whole other post) and when I asked if I could bring anything I was told that anything was fine, but if I wanted yams to bring them myself since they weren't being made by the cook. I don't particularly like yams or sweet potatoes, but I figured if they were mentioned I might want to bring them. I looked on AllRecipes.com and found several typical yam dishes, but I just don't like them. But I found this recipe that sounded so much better than the typical candied yams business. Disclaimer: If you like candied yams, that's fine, I am not insulting you here, I just don't personally like them. Please don't leave me a comment that I am stereotyping yam eaters, or that I'm not knowledgeable enough about yams to like them. This is just MY opinion. You don't have to agree with it and I don't have to agree with you. This doesn't make me a bad person.

Anyhow, this dish was a hit with the Thanksgiving diners. I changed up the recipe a bit. Below is how I made it, but I have linked the original.

Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole
Ingredients:
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered (Note that sweet potatoes and yams are different. Sweet potatoes are actually a white potato.)
2 tblsp melted butter
2 tblsp brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 large cooking apples - peeled, cored, cut into 1 inch pieces (I used Granny Smith)
1/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Instructions:
1. Place sweet potatoes in a large saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook 25 minutes, or until tender but firm. Drain, cool and cut into 1/4 inch slices.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 8x10 inch baking dish.
3. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar (2 tblsp), cinnamon and nutmeg.
4. Layer sweet potatoes, melted butter (2 tblsp), brown sugar mixture and apples in the prepared baking dish.
5. In a medium bowl, mix flour, remaining brown sugar, remaining butter and pecans. Spread over the top of the apples.
6. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Here is the dish, put together at home before being baked.

It's a sweeter dish than I prefer, but it was tasty. The caramelized sauce on top is delicious. A few people didn't know it was sweet potatoes and were surprised when I told them after eating it. My cousin who doesn't usually try the yams/sweet potatoes tried it and liked it as well. Maybe you can try it for your upcoming winter holiday or save it for next year's Turkey Day!