Unusual Thanksgiving Sides Show

Sweet Potato Pie, mmmm, y'all.

Traditional Thanksgiving foods might just be traditional for your family, but not to your next door neighbor. Oh, of course, mashed potatoes are necessary (and the Number One favorite of middle schoolers no matter background or ethnicity) but some of the other details are unique.

Sweet Potato Pie, for example. Until we lived in the South, I'd never even seen it. We just had regular sweet potatoes or yams. We were missing out.

Here is the rather informal way to make Sweet Potato Pie.

I need only one can.

Mash it good.

The sweet potatoes (or yams) are mashed and layered in a 9 inch round ceramic baking dish. I layer 3/4 c brown sugar with 1/2 c crushed walnuts. Then, pineapple tidbits cover the top.

These weren't at the First Thanksgiving.

Ready for the oven.

The oven is preheated to 350 degrees, and I cook it for 30 minutes.  Removing the dish, I add marshmallow on top, and cook it in the oven at the same heat for about seven minutes.

Not at the First Thanksgiving, either.

Is it a side-dish or dessert? I don't know, but we eat it warm on the main plate with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries just as though it were just regular, unglamorous yams. But it is a treat.



Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I was prepared to be such a radical and bake an apple pie rather than a pumpkin pie. Well, I was requested by my sister to bring a Pineapple Upside Down Cake. That's even more radical. So my kitchen was kind of pineapply today. I don't really know who in our clan likes this (we have new family members) but I'm game to try new things, especially when it sounds a little like Alice in Wonderland.

Here is the recipe. I think I need better skills with the removal, but, as they say, we're just going to eat it anyway.

Ingredients
1/4 c butter
2/3 c packed brown sugar 9 slices pineapple in juice (from 14 oz can)
9 maraschino cherries without stems
1 1/3 c white flour

Bottom layer.

Pineapples will see you on the flip side.

1 c granulated sugar
1/3 c shortening (I used butter)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 c milk
1 egg

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees in 9 inch square pan; melt butter in pan in the oven. Sprinkle brown sugar over melted butter. Arrange pineapple slices over brown sugar. Place cherry in center of each pineapple slice.

2. In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 39 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.

3. Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately place heatproof serving plate upside down over pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake a few minutes so brown sugar mixture can drizzle over cake, remove pan. Serve warm. Store cake loosely covered.

Maybe not as perfect looking as the cookbook pic, but just as tasty!

Garden Tip

Take a minute to enjoy the season--here in my part of SoCal, its rather windy and the autumn leaves from our maple tree are rustling, falling and injecting color into the landscape. The local birds are enjoying the feeders which attract songbirds. Cue Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Autumn.

Vivaldi Autumn The Four Seasons High Quality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7hGiZ579cs