Happy Thanksgiving!  Matt and I ate our Thanksgiving meals separately at our parents’ houses but we still got to do some cooking together before the big meal.  For the second year in a row we were responsible for making my mom’s traditional side dish of candied yams and, for the second year in a row, they were a hit!  We joke that this is a “healthy” vegetable side full of brown sugar, butter, and marshmallows but, like so many of the delicious foods that we eat during the holidays, the extra calories are totally worth it!  The brown sugar caramelizes between the layers of soft, moist sweet potato and the melted marshmallows form a crunchy, sugaring topping.  Yum!  Matt’s sister made a similar dish at his family’s dinner and he tells me that she added toasted slivered almonds to her marshmallow topping with delicious results… maybe we’ll have to try that next year!

Candied Yams (aka Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar and Marshmallows)

You will need…
7-9 Sweet Potatoes (Yams), washed
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) Butter
Approx. 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
Approx. 1 1/2 cups Miniature Marshmallows

Directions:
Place the potatoes in a large pot of water and bring to a boil.  Boil for 25-30 minutes until potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork.  Carefully remove the potatoes from the water and place in a colander.  (You can drain the entire pot into the colander but I used tongs to transfer the potatoes individually since the pot was so big.)  Allow the potatoes to cool before moving onto the next step.  If you are doing this step a day ahead of time like we did, transfer the cooling potatoes into large ziplock bags and store in the refrigerator overnight.

Peel the cooked potatoes by cutting off 1/2 inch on each end and scoring each potato lengthwise.  The skin should peel off easily with your hands.  Slice each potato into 3/8 inch thick disks.  Grease the bottom and sides of a 9×13 casserole pan with butter and layer the potatoes in the pan.  Place a small amount of butter between and on top of every few potato slices and sprinkle the brown sugar over the potatoes as you go.

Sprinkle the marshmallows on top of the layered potatoes and bake for 24 minutes in a preheated 390° oven.  Enjoy as part of a delicious holiday meal!