Sweet, Sweet Potato Casserole

My Mother-In-Law, Mimi Goode, got this recipe from Dorothy Johnson of theNewcastle, Wyoming Episcopal Church

It is a Sweet Potato casserole that is almost like a pumpkin pie with a pecan pie on top.

preheat oven to 350*


POTATO
Take one large can of Canned Sweet Potato, drained (29 ounces) or use fresh cooked (2 and 1/3 cups)
mash them well
3/4 cup sugar
3/8 cup melted butter (yeah, thats the way it was written but do 6 tablespoons on the butter stick.)
2 beaten eggs
3/4 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup milk

Combine all and pour into a greased casserole dish.

Make Topping and spread on the whole thing

TOPPING
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2/8 cup butter
3/8 cup flour
3/4 cup chopped pecans.  I always use more

bake until edges are browning and the center is set


Trust me, everyone loves this except one wonderful brother in law who only likes baked nuts in pecan pie and NO EXCEPTIONS

Family Traditions

The first Thanksgiving I can remember, when I am one of the toddlers, running underfoot in the kitchen and climbing up on the furniture and playing with cousins by the dozens and sneaking olives to stick on each fingertip and going crazy on the crowd and the steamy aromas filling the house.

Then we get old enough to help. A little, setting the table and pouring the drinks, minding the younger children. The games slow down as we learn board games and card games instead of jumping on the couch and hide and seek.

Then we go away from home and spend the first Thanksgiving making lame jokes about, "do you have any turkey pizza?" while eating in Pizza Hut and then everyone else asks the same question as they wander in through the door in lonely ones or twos, and wishing we could transport ourselves home to the festivities we hear over the phone as it gets handed around. So then we make sure to get there, somehow for the holidays that follow. 

There are always new people added in, and that is good, new spouses, new babies, new friends. But then some of the old faces disappear, divorces or deaths. And the helping becomes hosting and suddenly the whole party depends on you and your house and it is your college kids coming home to a different house, but still HOME

And the recipes have been handed down. Everything else is typed neatly, but the stained ones in Grandma's handwriting don't get switched out or updated. The pie plate that was the big sister's pride of her handmade stoneware set, now depends on you to fill it since she died on that hike in the Grand Canyon

And you realize, you are one of the grey haired, elders, keeping the tradition flowing, and that it was going on for centuries before you were born, and when you too, step out of this world, the family will still be Thankful you were in it once.