PW Sweet Potato Casserole

This sweet potato casserole has the perfect balance. A not too sweet sweet potato base and a great nutty brown sugar streusel topping. I love me some streusel. Remember when I used to be streusel crazy? I seem to have moved away from it. Ehh, maybe 2011 well reunite us!


I actually went the homemade route this time and bought actual sweet potatoes instead of canned ones I the had to mash. I felt very authentic. It was really easy, too. I love cooking with sweet potatoes. In fact, I had planned on doing a week of sweet potatoes like I did with pumpkin, but never got around to it. But hey, who says I still can't?!


Bottom line, I got this recipe from the Pioneer Woman, so you know it's good. I tried it and so did my family, and we all loved it. Go for it!


Sweet Potato Casserole
from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

4 whole Medium Sweet Potatoes
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Milk
2 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Pecans
½ cups Flour
¾ sticks Butter

Preparation Instructions

Wash 4 medium sweet potatoes and bake them in a 375-degree oven until fork tender, about 30-35 minutes. When they are finished cooking slice them open and scrape out the flesh into a large bowl.

Add 1 cup of (regular granulated) sugar, 1 cup of milk, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of salt. With a potato masher, mash them up just enough—you don’t want to be perfectly smooth.

Now, in a separate bowl, add 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup pecans, chopped (that means measure a cup of pecans, then chop them), ½ cup flour, and ¾ stick of butter. With a pastry cutter or fork, mash together until thoroughly combined.

Spread the sweet potato mixture into a regular baking dish and sprinkle the crumb mixture all over the top.

Bake in a 400-degree oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

SnackFace Cheetahs!

Today is the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. My school always sends a group to go but I decided not to go this year=/ Last year had some pretty bad moments.. But those of us who came to school were treated with a half day! I didn't do anything all day. Today was the last day of the quarter so the teachers had to get their grades in and not worry about starting new lessons. Overall, it was a fun day!

Since I wouldn't be eating lunch at school, I could make something special to eat! Thank goodness I had sweet potatoes in the house. The adorable blog SnackFace has an amazing recipe that almost everyone knows about. Her famous Chu-Chu-Chu-Cheetahs! I have been longing to try these and follow the trend of sweet potatoes. And I'm so glad I did!


Cheetahs:
1 Sweet Potato
(sprinkle cinnamon on the coins for a sweet treat version)

Put foil on a baking sheet and lay slices of your sweet potato on it. You can use non-stick spray, but I didn't. Bake for 15 minutes on both sides or until black spots form. (Like cheetah spots!)

Enjoy with PLENTY of ketchup!


These were so good and much better for you than french fries. They can be super versatile too, so I can't wait to have these again and again!

As a follow up dessert I decided to make protein powder cookie batter! I have protein powder that left over from volleyball season and I haven't used it in forever. I'm really glad I found this recipe because know it'll be fun to eat. Instead of grosssss.


Protein Powder Cookie Dough:
1 scoop protein powder
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tablespoon water
*I then added a generous sprinkle of cinnamon, my fav, and a small splash of milk. This greatly helped create a wonderful consistency. (And of course I added whipped cream...!)


This was so delicious! It is such a great idea for dessert. And it's healthy for you!

Later tonight I'll pretty much be having a repeat of last week. Basketball game, dinner with my best best friends, and then a sleepover! I can't wait! I was supposed to go to dinner with another group of friends before the game... but 2 dinners? As wonderful as that sounds I may have to pass=/

Go Chargers!

MSC: Sweet Potato Cupcakes

Sweet potatoes. In cupcakes. With marshmallows. And pecans. These were a huge surprise taste wise. I expected to eat and some what like them, but never to love them.

I don't know if they were supposed to, but my cupcakes fell considerably. I was not upset by this or anything, (in the past my cupcakes tend to be on the mile high side), but I just wasn't sure if that happened to anyone else. I didn't toast my marsh mallows, either. Instead, when I wanted to eat one, I would top it with marsh mallows and put it in the microwave for 20 seconds. Then, I would top that with toasted pecans, 'cause I wasn't up for candy-ing. My co-workers were very skeptical to try these. They aren't the most appealing to the masses type cupcake out there according to looks, which is unfortunate because they are very good. Oh, well. Hah, some people told me they liked my pumpkin cupcakes after they took a bite. Oh, silly King's employees.

I halved the "makes 24" recipe and still got 21 cupcakes out of it. I may not have filled them as much as needed but usually my cupcakes grow considerably. Could this be linked to the falling?

Whipping this together was fairly easy, except for getting my butter to cream with the dark brown sugar and regular sugar. But I got it eventually.

These cupcakes definitely have a different taste than that of the others I've made. In the past there have been spongy, but not at all dry cupcakes. Yet these, were extremely moist. Isn't it incorrect to say creamy? Probably. So maybe not creamy, but.. Oh! Like pecan pie but with sweet potatoes! So maybe sweet potato pie actually... That's what it's like. So not very cake-like but enough to give structure yet definitely soft.

And as I was filling the cups, and tasting the batter, I thought it didn't taste so good and it'd be okay if this one wasn't a favorite. But boy was I wrong. Martha just never fails to please me! I loved these sooo much. Trust me, your mouth/stomach will thank you.

The pecans and marshmallows made me really nervous. I do not at all like marshmallows what so ever. But I went for it. The pecans, too, are necessary. Because the cupcake is really moist and soft, you need some sort of crunch to balance it off, and what better pair is there than sweet potatoes and pecans? Together, the marshmallows and pecans unite to form a super team and take your cute little cuppy cakes to super stardom status. I may be exaggerating just a bit, but these are perfectly joyful bites of Fall for your mouth.



Thanks a ton to Karen for hosting this month's bake.

Simply Sweet Potatoes!

For a family reunion this weekend, we were asked to bring something. And, of course I waited until the night before to decide. It had to be a side dish of some sort, but I didn't want salad. That's always what people bring. Potato salad, pasta salad, regular salad, and I didn't want that.

Out of the blue I remembered when my grandma had one time made sweet potato casserole. With that memory came flooding back was the unbelievable taste in my mouth. It was around Easter this past year and it was the first time I had ever tried it. She didn't junk it up with those processed marshmallows or anything, just your regular candied pecan topping. It was so delicious and I definitely knew that's what I wanted to make. It isn't necessarily what you'd think to bring to a summer-ish family gathering, fall or winter's more the right time, but I had to have it!!

I found a super easy, super simple recipe, and decided to go with it. Having never made it before, I just went with what looked easy, but good. I planned to double the recipe because there were a lot of people attending, and because I knew I would want left overs for myself! The recipe has you mash your potatoes, then combine with all other ingredients. Then mix your topping up, and add it on top your filling. EASY!

One thing did seem a little off though... The amount of butter. I knew I was doubling the recipe, but it still seemed like a lot to have. It was made the morning of, so I didn't want to waste my time worrying. After I popped it in the oven, I waited. (In the mean time, my mom and I ate some of the pecan topping that we left off for us to munch on. It was sooo good!) When I pulled it out to check though... woah! It was all soupy and not what I had remembered sweet potato casserole looking like. So I put it in longer. Still soupy. This time though, you could see all the excess butter floating through out. Yuck. Normally I'm a huge fan of butter. I admit to having used half a stick (or more) one time for on my pancakes. But this just looked gross. So my mom and I thought of comical ways to extract the excess.

Try #1: A turkey baster. This probably would have worked the best except that we didn't have the rubber thingy that was supposed to go on the end.

Try #2: This syringe like thing used for when my sister could only be fed liquids after her surgery. Well this one didn't work out that well, but it was pretty funny trying to use it.

Try #3: Tiny coffee stirrer straws. I guess by this point my mom thought sucking it out with straws was the way to go. This was actually effective, except that you then either had to swallow the butter, or spit it out akwardly.

Try #4: A spoon. By tilting the dish to one side the butter would gravitate to the corner. Then using a spoon, you could just scoop it out. Sometimes the simplest things work best. As was the case here.

In the end, there was still a ton of butter in it, but we'd managed to get a good deal out. Once at the party, we put it in the oven some more, to heat it up and hopefully help with the butter situation.

It was funny because no one tried it by the time I got my food. I think people were unsure of what it was since no one else had taken from it. I guess people don't think of sweet potatoes yet in the year. But after I took my spoonful, they were able to see what it looked like inside, and then it go going.

So, the verdict: Loved it! Of course with less butter would have been ideal, but for not having it in such a long time this definitely was a treat! It got really great reviews from people at the party too. And of course leftovers the next day heated up in the microwave were great!

Sweet Potato Casserole
from about.com

*For the party, I doubled the recipe. However, what is typed below is not doubled. Also, as I mentioned before, I did not like the amount of butter suggested. You could definitely afford to cut some out. I am confident it will taste fine with less.

Filling:
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter

Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup butter
1 cup chopped pecans

Combine your filling ingredients, and pour it into a buttered large casserole dish. Mix your topping together and sprinkle over top. (I used my hands for the sprinkling part). Bake at 350 for 35- 40 minutes, until hot and browned. I pretty much cooked it the 40 mins. then just let it keep cooking for various time lentghs. I would walk away without a timer and just let it go. And honestly it rpobably still would have been okay to cook it even longer. Don't be worried about time is all I'm saying.