Thanksgiving sweet potatoes/yams

[no name 1]

Thanks for the opportunity to say "gag me with a spoon!" To me, Thanksgiving has such gross food (cranberries, yams, my grandma's marshmallow-celery-fruit salad) it might as well be a Jewish holiday... yechh.

and damnit, I added it AFTER i replied no so I couldn't use it.

Beef bone remnants (gelatin) + a vegetable = sweet nastiness.

[JODO 2]

Whipped sweet potato casserole

Yummo

[Mags 112]

We had sweet potato and corn chowder and it was really lovely. My hubby is such a great cook.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

We had sweet potato and corn chowder and it was really lovely. My hubby is such a great cook.

That sounds delicious.

[Mags 112]

We had sweet potato and corn chowder and it was really lovely. My hubby is such a great cook.

That sounds delicious.

It really was. Hubby does it for Christmas and Thanksgiving every year and it really is fantastic.

[Fandango 1,439]

I like the sweet potato thing, but I'm not sure if it's only because it's tradition.

Meanwhile, I found a recipe for 'carrot souffle' for a side dish, so I made it - I cut the sugar in half cos it seemed just YUCK! and it turned out tasting like pumpkin pie...no word of a lie.

Hardly a side dish for turkey!

[Queen Jenn 0]

In actuality Sweet Potatoes and Yams are not the same thing. What you call Yams here in the USA are, in actual fact, JUST Sweet Potatoes.

Yam or sweet potato, what in the world is it? Many people use these terms interchangeably both in conversation and in cooking, but they are really two different vegetables.

Sweet Potatoes

Popular in the American South, these yellow or orange tubers are elongated with ends that taper to a point and are of two dominant types. The paler-skinned sweet potato has a thin, light yellow skin with pale yellow flesh which is not sweet and has a dry, crumbly texture similar to a white baking potato. The darker-skinned variety (which is most often called "yam" in error) has a thicker, dark orange to reddish skin with a vivid orange, sweet flesh and a moist texture.

Current popular sweet potato varieties include Goldrush, Georgia Red, Centennial, Puerto Rico, New Jersey, and Velvet.

Yams

The true yam is the tuber of a tropical vine (Dioscorea batatas) and is not even distantly related to the sweet potato. Slowly becoming more common in US markets, the yam is a popular vegetable in Latin American and Caribbean markets, with over 150 varieties available worldwide.

Generally sweeter than than the sweet potato, this tuber can grow over seven feet in length. The word yam comes from African words njam, nyami, or djambi, meaning "to eat," and was first recorded in America in 1676.

The yam tuber has a brown or black skin which resembles the bark of a tree and off-white, purple or red flesh, depending on the variety. They are at home growing in tropical climates, primarily in South America, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Yams contain more natural sugar than sweet potatoes and have a higher moisture content. They are also marketed by their Spanish names, boniato and ñame.

Original Article

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the time my mom is like "I want to eat a yam for Sunday dinner." And I remind her that she's eating a variety of sweet potato. To me, a real Yam comes from WEST AFRICA. I had them for the first time a few weeks ago and I love them (but I need to learn how to cook them).

Sweet potatoes, on the other hand - YUCK!!!!!!!!

[Fandango 1,439]

For some odd reason, I just read 'yam' as 'yak'

I'm all 'people eat Yaks?'

hahahahahahhah

[Queen Jenn 0]

For some odd reason, I just read 'yam' as 'yak'

I'm all 'people eat Yaks?'

hahahahahahhah

ROFL. Mmmmmmmmmm Candied YAK with your turkey.

[Kajikit 65]

I like them roasted or baked myself... a bit of cinnamon's lovely, but sugar isn't really needed unless they're REALLY old and the sugar has all turned to starch. But last christmas I made a traditional-style sweet potato casserole for DH and I topped it with pecans, flaked coconut, and marshmallows - it was nice but it tasted like dessert to me!

[Marilyn. 340]

my sis-in-law makes sweet potaotes by boiling them and then throwing them in a big pan and sprinkling brown sugar over top, and then puts marshmallows and pineapple chunks over top and then pours some of the pineapple juice over top and then bakes it for awhile...

I didn't try it but hubby said it tasted good...

Edited November 26, 2007 by MarilynP

[Dr. Obvious 49]

I pass on sweet potatoes. No thanks.

[ladybird216 2]

I love sweet potatoes baked, boiled, BBQ'd or whatever, but hate what my MIL does to them at Thanksgiving by adding all that sweet stuff...marshmallows, sugar etc., YUK!! I always have a vacant spot on my plate where my 'taters should be on Thanksgiving Day

[*julez* 124]

NOT mashed with marshmallows! That is just so nasty. I do like them candied and baked.

[Mags 112]

Just a plain baked sweet potato for me with a little butter but none of that sugar stuff. It's already sweet enough as it is!