Good Hope Heart Gazette

Scrumptious Sweet Potato Souffle --or Casserole --and: Did you know sweet potatoes are NOT yams?  Recipe from Exemplary Southern Cook (and Distinguished English Professor--Mentor and teacher of teachers...former missionary, former bookstore owner...and so much more...

Me:I know you are busy, but Lilburn Patch posted list of sides favorite for Thanksgiving, Christmas dinners—and the list is by State.  Georgia favorite is sweet potato casserole. May I have a recipe to post on my new website goodhopeheart.com (specifically, my blog: goodhopeheart.blogspot.com …
Barbara Wilson (an outstanding cook, mother, gifted English teacher —excels in every area of her life and has been my friend, my mentor, and my role model)—note that she responded to me within five minutes (on Thanksgiving Day, while preparing dinner for her children and grandchildren).  She pays close attention to the comfort of all her guests. She responded to me with a recipe that she had changed because one of her four children—now grown—did not like marshmallows on top.  Lol 

Some folks out there (especially some country western men I’ve heard talking on the radio) will want the marshmallows.  There are a few other variations favored by some. Some folks like raisins; some like cream cheese blended in. 

Many of us like the crunchy top with pecans (as in her recipe sent today and roll down to it).  If you are having turkey another meal—maybe in sandwiches for a group or just for a relaxing evening after full day with the family—sweet potato souffle (even I can follow this recipe below) will make the whole experience new again.  No dessert or other side dishes necessary.  
A football player on TV just said HIS favorite side is collard greens and another says macaroni and cheese, and another football player says his favorite is 'banana puddin'--says it in the quick way I've heard many times--Man interviewing him cannot understand at first and then chimes in with the familiar 'banana puddin'!"  I am listening and will include some authentic recipes in future for all of these. 
If you are done with cooking until Christmas, then put the sweet potatoes and pecans on your next month’s grocery list--and don't forget that collards and turnip greens are still fresh from the later gardens well into fall.  Be thinking about why all these foods are so satisfying and colorful because the years since I was a child enjoying vegetables and fruits picked same day have taught us all a lot about how healthy they are--and sweet potatoes are good if you just bake them for about an hour--until can squeeze and still firm but making a dent when you press--then just add a little butter and cinnamon or dab of vanilla extract--can even stuff with raisins or cranberries.  Try crunchy toppings on your individual sweet potato or nothing at all--still sweet. FOR COMPANY:  MAKE THIS SWEET POTATO SOUFFLE AND BE COMPLIMENTED BIG TIME:  

Presenting:  Barbara Wilson’s ‘amended by family from a marshmallow to a crunchy topped version’ Sweet Potato Souffle”

Barbara replied in a text message, and I transcribe here:

“Barbara:  “Here you are: I found this on the web when I realized one of my children did not like the marshmallow topping; this is crunchy and delicious!”

By Jane Cagle

Time: 20 minutes prep then 40 minutes cook at 350 degrees

6 sweet potatoes

1 cup white sugar

½ cup milk

½ cup melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs beaten

½ teaspoon of salt

Ingredients for topping:

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup chopped pecans

Directions: Boil sweet potatoes until soft; drain and beat until smooth.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Add sugar, milk, butter, vanilla, eggs, and salt: Pour mixture into casserole dish.

Prepare topping in a small bowl and sprinkle over mix in casserole dish.

Put into your preheated oven and cook about 40 minutes at 350 degrees. (Check on it a couple of times to make sure somebody else in kitchen did not turn up the stove for something else or put it on broil or something else that could affect the sweet potatoes—Protect the casserole—keep it 350 degrees! :justyleigh

Barbara says simply and reasonably: “Put in oven preheated to 350 degrees for 40 minutes.”

—She would be checking on everything without thinking about it. 

Justy Leigh is not as together so she adds stuff like—when you are boiling those sweet potatoes, don’t walk away!  Watch stuff and think about what each thing is doing—Turn off the stove eyes under the vegetables or liquid will burn away. If you are not like others in my family (or like Barbara), all this is not second nature.  Lots of distractions are going on.  Be especially careful if Thanksgiving is only time you cook.  
I use my phone to alert me to check on things—the alarm can be a reassuring sound.  Adjust the ringtone to a chime or ocean sound😊

A memory note treat that others will love is one that my father would fix (‘fix’ is an all purpose word, especially in the South and will talk about this other places -On Thanksgiving, you may fix dinner, fix a plate for someone, fix up yourself so not so harried—and more—but mainly, you will hear to 'FIX your plate’! That means to go ahead and 'help yourself' to all you want.  Some of the food is likely to stay on top of the stove.
We put food on the table in bowls and casserole dishes--'family style' means that you pass food around the table.  I never heard 'plate' used as a verb until recent years watching chef shows (now children use the term. I tutored a five year old who plans to be a chef and attend to lovely 'plating' food--lol)

My Daddy would put a little butter rubbed or dropped by spoonfuls (so not to use hands--germ conscious) on a biscuit pan;  and then he poured on some pecans (maybe from a cupful or two somebody else had measured out for another recipe). He would spread the pecans out on the pan and then put the pan in a 350 oven for a few minutes.  He would check often so they did not scorch or burn.  The pecans smell extra good toasting. 
They have a toasted flavor that is delicious without any other seasoning, but he sometimes sprinkled a little salt on while the pecans still hot. There is some oil in the nuts. When warm, the oil from the pecans holds onto the salt when the pecans are warm so a little bitty bit of salt is plenty. 
(Now, remember all of this when I put in the toasted pecan cake recipe from Grandmother Lessie later.)
I even shelled a few pecans while I watched relatives shell a lot when I was a child.  A grove of pecan trees stood next to my grandparents’ house in Good Hope.—I now generally stop and buy them at Stone Mountain Pecans—which is actually between Monroe and Stone Mountain and much closer to Monroe (1781 U.S. 78, Monroe, GA 30655).  They have a wide array of different nuts, dried fruits, coffees, candies--but emphasis on pecans. Their store is like any grownup 'child' dream--big bins of incredible goodies. Divinity, pecan logs, macaroons--a mix of dried fruit and nuts called a 'student mix' that I like a lot and another favorite I'd like right now is Pecan flavored coffee.

You can find them online at www.stonemountainpecan.com  (Note: This is not an advertisement because nobody paid me to say all this.  Stone Mountain Pecan store is a place I like to stop when driving on 78. I usually get some extra when I go this time of year--great gifts.  Delicious—plus they are part of another incredible recipe—this one for a toasted pecan cake that my second grandmother made.  She was married to my grandfather for more than 30 years, and they lived in Good Hope where he had farms with my first grandmother—my mother’s mother—for the years before.  (My 'first' grandmother was an incredibly good cook, as well.  My strongest memory is how neither of them seemed daunted by large crowds showing up for meals on Sunday or special occasions.

I will feature recipes from the farmers in our families—especially the ones with Georgia produce.

No matter what variations your family members like, you can bet that if Barbara Wilson has tested and vetted the recipe, this is a delicious—and simple—favorite side.  I previously posted another recipe for sweet potato soufflé from a book about Georgia farming.  Later today, I will be posting a recipe from my grandmother featuring another Georgia crop: pecans. *Note: This is still to come. 'Later today' on the day I originally wrote this post turned into a series of events leading to a road trip to Panama City Beach, FL--a place I like so much, we can establish our shorthand glossary for this site now with 'PCB' for Panama City Beach, Florida--Gulf front.

Part of that recipe is that delicious, quick pleaser that my father used to make: Again: Put oven on 350 and some butter on a sheet pan and a couple of cups of pecans.  Watch them carefully as they toast.  Do not let them scorch or burn!!!  Maybe a touch of salt. Much of the taste is that aroma of the toasting pecans ----Ummmm-- 

Note:  Sweet potato soufflé is the real term for the dish most of the time when in the South. It is made in a casserole dish and often brought as in ‘bring a casserole’ –popular way to warm things up again.  The texture of the more popular versions I find are the lighter, creamier versions better known as ‘souffle’ in Georgia parlay (although most of us saying it would have to answer ‘no’ to: ‘Parlais-vous, Francais?”

Marvin’s Garden trivia:  Are yams the same as sweet potatoes?  Answer: No. 

Yams are different and are not the big Georgia crop that two varieties of sweet potatoes are. Yams are generally grown in countries closer to the Equator. (This is according to the 1998 book about Georgia farming produced by the Department of Agriculture—referenced several places in these blogs.) P.S. That does not stop Georgians from calling the sweet potatoes ‘yams’ –I think it is just more fun to say.  

Grandmother Lessie's Toasted Pecan cake was featured many years ago in the Atlanta Journal.  It's unbelievably delicious cake. :) justyleigh Also, next time:  Back to trees (see previous posts about finding Christmas tree farms near you)--and will talk some more about fruit, as well.  I've found a fabulous heirloom fruit tree site--and the site is beautifully done. 
There are many trees that would make lovely gifts. There are also products like cider--and mixed in are so many ways to show us how to be in nature and outside with the trees, the fruit--what is impressive to me on this site is how many different varieties of fruits there are in the world and so many elements of good health, good life, beauty, and inspiration--from the journal pages on the site about the seasons.  www.trueleafmarket.com has some interesting seeds and suggestions. 

To spend some time luxuriating in a website experience about heirloom seeds, trees, apples, cider, journal writing about planting and harvesting--and to consider a little tree to adopt and grow at home -- see this beautiful website: https://www.treesofantiquity.com/
Y'all come back tomorrow.  Good night.  Sweet dreams.