Thanksgiving Memory: 2014

“Divine inspiration? So….I went to Winn Dixie looking for canned sweet potato to use in a casserole. (I know, lazy.) Could only find the yams in syrup. Frowning to myself, I headed to the produce section to buy fresh sweet potatoes, dreading having to peel and boil them to prep for the casserole. I dragged my feet last night and finally went on to bed with the task undone. This morning I’m looking at the bag of sweet potatoes and saying to myself, “I’ll just take them with me and do them tonight at Charlotte Ann’s.” So we get here (finally…..see previous post) and have supper and sit and visit. I’m getting sleepy and I still need to do something with the sweet potatoes. It dawns on me….bake them, then cut them up and mash them. MUCH MUCH easier than peeling raw sweet potatoes and trying to cut them in cubes to boil! Why have I never done this before? The sweet potato is mashed and in the fridge, ready to mix with other yummy stuff en casserole…..pecans and brown sugar on top! Looking forward to tomorrow’s feast…..(and realizing that there’s no way we could eat this way regularly! Guess that’s why feasts have always been such festive and celebrated events!”

 

This story reminds me of someone’s story about having seen her mother cut the end off of a ham all her life and doing that herself as an adult.  When asked why she said that’s how her family always did it.  Later she asked her mother why and the answer was that she had only a medium size baking pan and had to cook the large holiday hamin two separate pans.