Sylvia's Scenario

We always include sweet potatoes with our Thanksgiving dinner and this year was no exception.  However, we did have a discussion about why we include sweet potatoes when they are the least favorite of all our Thanksgiving dishes.  I'm not sure why except we always had them growing up.  Back then, our basic sweet potato dish was the one with mini marshmallows sprinkled on top.   I'm trying to avoid sugar now and eat more healthful so I decided to try this new recipe from  Hannah Freese, RD  that she included in her Thanksgiving recipes and I'm glad I did because everyone loved it!  All of my other Thanksgiving dishes were our old traditional ones.  It was Nick's first Thanksgiving back in the U.S. after living in Japan for seven years and so I couldn't change things up too much this year. I had to make all the favorites.  Nick savored every bite, too.  He was still eating long after we all had left the table.        ...

I made several "new" recipes for Christmas dinner this year and after taking a poll, this was people's favorite item of the whole dinner! I know they don't look like much but these potatoes were amazing. They were like Twice Baked Potatoes only no skin. I wanted a potato dish that was flavorful enough that you could eat them plain with no gravy or anything on them and BINGO, these were it. And I wanted some that I could make ahead of time.  That was the theme of my Christmas dinner - Make Ahead.  On Christmas, you don't want to be spending all your time in the kitchen when you're hosting a Christmas party.  I want to be able to join in the fun!  We had ten people here for Christmas which is a small number for my family so thus, I felt like experimenting a bit.  We had our usual Mustard Crusted Beef Tenderloin   along with horseradish and mustard sauces, another new recipe for peas that was a hit, a green salad with pears and apple and pomegranate dress...

I got a lot of comments on these potatoes that I served on Christmas so I thought I better post the recipe. I made them once before for our Bratney Christmas party but never posted the recipe for some reason. Bruce and I went back to Boise last month for the Boise Bratney Companies Christmas party and one of the wives mentioned these potatoes that I served years ago. So, you can see, they really make an impression on people.  I hosted that Christmas party 4 years in a row and people still talk about it. I really looked forward to doing that each year, it was really special. There is nothing like relaxing and enjoying other's company in the comforts of one's home and I loved hosting. Now, I'm hosting my family instead so I still get to do it but I could tell when we went back for this year's party, that they missed it. After I got home and started planning our Christmas dinner menu, I decided to make these potatoes again. Just for fun, I planned the menu so the...