Yams, A Very Misunderstood Vegetable

I love yams. They are delicious, nutritious, and dang tasty. I've learned though that most people are on one of two teams. You either like yams, or you don't. There is no in between. I remember telling someone once that they'd really like yams if they put a ton of butter and cinnamon sugar on them. Their response was that they'd tried it and it still tasted like shi...with a "T" on the end. (This is my 6 year old's favorite way of describing things. I'm afraid I thought it was so funny when I heard him say it, that I couldn't even get mad. Anyways I have no idea where he heard that word anyways!)

When all of my kids were little they loved to eat yams. I'd bake tons of them and then just mash them up with the good stuff (butter and sugar) and feed all of my juicy, fat, happy babies tons of yummy yams. Sometimes their skin would even get a lovely orange hue from eating so many. Well one evening I was changing a yam diaper (you get the picture. It didn't look a whole lot different coming out as it did going in.) when I noticed the corner of a dollar bill in the diaper. My children were something of vacuum cleaners at my house at a certain age. There was always something un-edible in their diapers. Crayon pieces, torn paper....... I'm not the best mother I guess. This night is was a torn dollar bill piece. I got the giggles since it seemed a whole lot like the Walgreen's commercials that had been playing over the holidays. Everywhere Walgreen's customers turned dollar bills where popping up, and they were popping up in diapers for me. It was quite humorous until I noticed there were two zero's on that bill. It wasn't a $1 bill it was a $100 dollar bill. Where the heck had my baby come up with that. Needless to say we searched through the entire diaper. I am not below digging through yam shi...with a "T" on the end for $100. You would have done it too! We found about 75% of that $100 bill. We washed the orange corner thoroughly and took the taped pieces to the bank. We exchanged the soiled 75% of a bill for a nice fresh clean one and the bank didn't even ask why the bill was a little orange. The end of the story comes to my oldest child. He had taken the $100 bill from J's planner and then felt guilty for taking it. Instead of just putting it back he tore it into pieces and threw them in every corner of the house. Luckily our human vacuum cleaner had picked up a key part of the bill. All was well. We had a great opportunity to teach a lesson on honesty, and Jed is still alive to tell the story. Barely.

I'm here to tell you though that I have actually convinced a few people of the yummy-ness of yams with this next recipe. It comes from a real Kentucky cook I believe. My sister Hollie introduced our family to "Sweet Potato Pie" as it is called in the south a few Thanksgivings ago. I believe she got it from one of their dental school friends in Kentucky. Anyways who cares where it came from, let's just be thankful we have it now. I actually cook it year round, it is that good. And best of all, everyone in the fam loves it. I don't have one picky yam eater thank heavens.

Sweet Potato Pie

3-4 c. mashed yams or sweet potatoes

1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. melted butter

1 t. vanilla

1/4 c. milk

2 eggs

I usually bake about 3-4 yams for about 1 hour in a 350'F oven until they are soft and starting to ooze a brown syruppy stuff. Let the yams cool a bit and peel. I the just add the whole yam to the bowl. Whip the yams together with all the ingredients and pour into a casserole dish. I use a deeeeeep dish pie pan. It's the perfect size. Top with the topping:

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. flour

1/4 c. melted butter

1/2 c. chopped pecans

Sprinkle on top. Bake at 350' F for 25-30 mins. or until the center of the casserole has puffed slightly. I usually bake it a little longer than the recipe states. Serve.