Happy Thanksgiving and Sweet Potato Apple Bake Guest Post!

My sister's famous sweet potato apple bake!

Bittman is taking the day off today as even HE has to cook his Thanksgiving turkey! He will be back at his regularly scheduled time for another round of Tackling Bittman next week!

First, let me wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving! I am a real mush when it comes to gratitude and counting my blessings and so, as I sit here, after prepping everything for tomorrow morning (which is today for you!), I am a little misty thinking about how wonderful it has been to share foodie love with you all this past year! I could gush on and on, but I wont because I am sure you want to get to the good stuff, which is this lovely guest post from my sister Veronica and then your own great holiday meal!

Of all the people in the world, besides my parents, Veronica has known me the longest! We are very different, but in a good way and we compliment each other. She is an extremely talented artist and needle crafter and I think she is trying to read every single book ever printed before she retires! She is also an amazingly creative cook and has a great sense of humor, and I count her as a treasure in my life, so I wanted to share her with you. She graciously wrote up the recipe for one of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes, but until this moment, I had NO clue how she felt about it!

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First of all, I?m warning you, don?t make this dish. I did once. ONCE.

That?s all it took. I have had to make this for every family Thanksgiving and Christmas since my first ?ooooh that looks good? mistake. You have been warned. I don?t want to hear about it years from now that you were suddenly saddled with a ?signature dish? that you never asked for or wanted or looked for. That holiday menu discussions ended up, somehow always, ALWAYS, following a predictable pattern?.

?You ARE going to bring your sweet potatoes, yes??

?Well, I thought I would bring a green salad and also a home baked cranberry torte.?

?Oh how lovely, but you ARE bringing the sweet potatoes with apples as well then. Yes??

You have been warned. Don?t say I didn?t warn you.

Oh, also. I don?t have a recipe for this. I have never made it the same way twice and my friend?s dog ate the cook book that I originally got this dish out of. Hey, Jack Russells whose dads are off in Afghanistan get to live with me for as long as they need a home and get away with anything short of murder. OK, shredding most of my cook book collection came pretty close to ?stepping over the line?, but I digress. What was my point??.. Ah yes. I hope you aren?t looking for a recipe. An exact rendition of how many grams of cinnamon or how many cranks on the nutmeg twister are required. Not going to find it here. Sorry. That being said, this ?recipe? is pretty darn flexible and very forgiving. Some years I spent weeks (I kid you not?ok 4 days) making it and some years I have spent less than 3 hours making it. Came out great as a gilded lily and as dandelion. Now that?s flexibility, folks! Don?t worry about the shredded recipe as I only ever used it as a jumping off point anyway.

*Sweet Potatoes about 6.?remember better extra than not enough * (Psst?.see note

3-4 LARGE apples. I like to use Empire or Rome apples. If you can?t find them go for the Granny Smiths

½ stick melted butter

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon ~~A quick aside here if I may?uh yeah, I have NEVER used that tiny an amount of cinnamon EVER Soooooo, let?s go with ?.

1 to 2 TBS of pumpkin pie spices OR apple pie spices. See, you can play up the sweet potato side of this OR the apple side.

½ cup orange juice

**Rum (I believe the original recipe called for ¼ cup?fools!!)** (oooh look another note below)

And that?s pretty much what the cook book had to say on the ingredients subject.

((((((NOW FOR MY ADD INS))))))

Crystallized Ginger about ½ cup diced

Dried Apricots about 1 cup diced

Dried Cranberries about 1 cup

Pecans about 1 cup chopped

*** About 2 to 3 days before you are going to bake your dish, dice your ginger and apricots toss em in a Tupperware type container with your dried cranberries, some pumpkin pie or apple pie type spices (seriously , if you don?t feel like fussing with mixing your own just go with the premixed) say about 1 tbs. If I don?t have a premix in my cabinate, I like cinnamon (lots), nutmeg (just enough to taste), allspice(about 1/2 tsp) ground cloves (sparingly)

Next add in some brown sugar (enough to just coat everything) and then enough rum to cover the fruit. Put in the fridge to marinate for a couple of days. ***(yup it?s another one of those note thingies)

The night before you are going to put all of this together, par boil your sweet potatoes. You want them soft enough to peel and slice easily, but not cooked through. (about 10 to 20 min of boiling) When done drain em and put them in the fridge. Chilled potatoes are waaaayyyyy easier to peel and slice, plus no chance of burning any fingers (Been there. Done that. Learn from my mistakes)

Set your oven to 350F to preheat. Butter a 9 X 13 pan

Peel sweet potatoes . Slice them lengthwise into about ¼ inch thick slices.

Peel core and slice your apples. Rounds look nice but aren?t truly necessary. Again we are shooting for about ¼ inch thickness

Melt your butter and add in about 1 tbs of spices and your brown sugar. Mix well.

Add in your orange juice and rum and stir gently.

You are basically going to be building a fruit lasagna: A layer of apples, a layer of sweet potatoes, a layer of dried fruit and nuts. Pour half of your liquid mixture over this. And, again, apples, sweet potatoes, fruit and nuts, liquid. Give the top an added little sprinkle of brown sugar. You know, for extra love.

Bake for about 30 minutes; until apples are tender and your liquid is absorbed. If your top is browning too much you can throw a sheet of tinfoil LOOSILY over the top as a shield.

Enjoy!

Remember, you must save your ?brownie points? for desert. They?re great sprinkled liberally over your favorite pie.

Notes Section:

* Throw the extras into a microwaveable bowl and nuke em until they are tender right the way through. Mash/whip them with brown sugar, butter and pumpkin pie spice. But you didn?t hear that from me

** For some reason I have gotten more ?ooooo yummies? on the years I used Captain Morgan?s Spiced Rum than when I used the Bacardi Dark. My advice is to keep the good stuff for drinking (Me. mine, go away and get your own!!) and go with the cheaper crowd pleaser for the baking.

*** or you can completely eliminate these steps. It DOES add a certain something to the dish. I?m not sure if you can taste ?smug? or roll ?bragging rights? across your tongue, but if you have the extra time on your hands and a relative you want to ?one up?, then go ahead and marinate the dried fruits to your heart?s content. Oh and it also gives you a stronger spicy/rummy flavour to the finished dish.

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Thanks so much Veronica! I love you! I told you she was funny! Seriously though, being spontaneous and cooking by the seat of your pants like this is so much fun, and the dish does come out miraculously great every single time and I can’t wait to eat it later when she brings it over to join in our family meal!

Tomorrow, Thoughts on Friday at a Moderate Life will also take a pass and I will be sharing my FAVORITE thing about Thanksgiving instead, so come on by for some leftovers.  Seriously!

?This article is a part of Vegetarian Foodie Fridays.