I wasn’t going to cook for Thanksgiving…

…and the best way to avoid that is to volunteer at a community dinner where everyone cooks and everyone enjoys.  This is in the spirit of Thanksgiving anyway, — no?  Remember it was a community gathering on the first Thanksgiving.

Four days before the event I asked what they needed.  "Nobody has volunteered to bring sweet potatoes", was the reply.

Ok, I have to admit, I am not a fan of sweet potatoes.  To me they are a bit boring.  I am sure I have not been properly sweet potato trained.  I seem to associate them with melted, browned marshmallows, — and I am trying to avoid corn syrup.

Of course, the internet is full of recipes these days, and it was no challenge to find lots — until we had a power outage, and… still I was able to gather some great insights to the sweet potato from my trusty dusty set of cooking books.

Finding the recipe tip I needed…

However the best advice was from my local librarian, who must also be somewhat of a gourmet cook.  She said that they add canned peppers to their sweet potatoes.  Savory sweet potatoes instead of the sweetened sweet potatoes sounded like a hit.  My only problem was, — the closest can of peppers for sale was 22 miles distant.  Too bad it was already late on Wednesday afternoon.

I guess those cook books get dusty because I would really rather innovate than follow directions.  Does this sound like a recipe for success to you?  Me neither ;) but I was pleasantly surprised!

Spicy Sweet Potatoes Recipe

• 2 or 3 medium sweet potatoes (not yams in this case) cook, peeled and mashed
• 2 or 3 jalapeno peppers, sliced, including seeds
• 1/2 yellow onion sliced
• 2 or 3 sections of garlic pressed
• olive oil to cover bottom of fry pan
• pint of sour cream or to taste
• salt, if needed, to taste

Sautee fresh peppers, sliced (seeds included) with yellow onion and pressed garlic in olive oil.  So far so good.  Add mixture to cooked, mashed sweet potatoes along with a good amount of sour cream.  Mix well and serve warm!

Observe…

I noted that anyone at the dinner who liked a bit of spice to their palate loved these sweet potatoes.  Now I plan to make them for all our holiday dinners!