Holiday Sunshine Yams Food

CHEF JOHN'S CANDIED YAMS

Steps:

• Stir salt into 2 quarts cold water in a large pot. Transfer sweet potato pieces to pot and place over high heat; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until potatoes are not quite tender but still cooked, 5 to 7 minutes. Use the tip of a knife to test for doneness. Drain.
• Place brown sugar, butter, lemon juice, maple syrup, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne, and pinch of salt in a skillet. Place over medium-high heat, stirring until glaze ingredients melt and start bubbling. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until mixture begins to thicken up, 4 to 6 minutes.
• Transfer drained sweet potatoes to skillet. Raise heat to high and cook and stir until potatoes are coated with glaze and very tender, and glaze has thickened, 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer to serving dish; garnish with chopped nuts.

THANKSGIVING YAMS

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, mix the sweet potatoes, butter and lemon juice. Break the gingersnap cookies into the mixture. Stirring occasionally, cook until thick, about 15 minutes.
• Cover the mixture with desired quantity of marshmallows. Remove from heat and cover 5 minutes, or until marshmallows have melted. Serve warm.

HOLIDAY YAMS

Steps:

• Add yams to a pot of boiling water, cover and after allowing water to return to a boil, cook for 30-35 minutes.
• Rinse in cold water.
• Remove the skins from the yams.
• Cut into 1/4 inch slices.
• Quarter the apples and cut into 1/4 inch slices.
• Spray a large rectangular or oblong pan with cooking spray of your choice.
• Layer the yams and the apples.
• Pour the orange juice over both layers.
• Dot with butter or margarine if desired.
• Top with the raisins.
• Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.
• You can adjust these amounts to your own personal preference.
• Bake at 350º for 30-35 minutes.

HOLIDAY SUNSHINE YAMS

Steps:

• Melt butter.
• Add whole cranberry sauce to it and cook down.
• Let it cook 5 minutes.
• Add 1 tsp of cinnamon or to taste.
• Add 1/3 to ½ cup brown sugar.
• Drain 1/3 cup of peach syrup into another dish.
• Add 1 tbsp cornstarch to peach syrup and stir together.
• Add peaches to cranberry mixture.
• Let it simmer for 5 minutes.
• Drain and add yams to pan.
• Let it simmer for 5 minutes.
• Add peach syrup/cornstarch mixture into pan.
• Let it simmer until it thickens.

GREAT-GRANDMA'S CANDIED YAMS

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add yams and boil for 10 minutes. Drain and rinse twice with cold water. Soak in cold water for 15 minutes.
• While yams are soaking, preheat the oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C).
• Mix white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a small bowl.
• Peel and cut yams into chunks and place in a large baking dish. Dot with butter and sprinkle with sugar mixture so all yams are coated. Carefully pour enough orange juice into the bottom of baking dish to measure 1/2 inch.
• Bake in the preheated oven, basting often, until yams are tender and the liquid is thick and sticky, 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Sprinkle with mini marshmallows. Turn on the oven's broiler. Broil until marshmallows are melted and toasty, about 5 minutes.

HOLIDAY YAM BAKE

Steps:

• Peel the yams, cut them up in large pieces for boiling.
• Boil the yams in a large pot for 30 minutes or until tender.
• Drain and mash with mixer.
• Add in eggs, butter, milk, sugar, vanilla. Beat until creamy.
• Pour into 9x13 baking dish.
• Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees f.
• While the top is baking, crush 12 Lorna Doone cookies. You want bits and pieces, not dust.
• Melt 1/2 cup butter.
• Combine crushed cookies, brown sugar, pecans and melted butter. I suggest not using a mixer. The idea is to get the ingredients mixed, but not processed into mud. Just get the stuff mixed up.
• Remove the casserole from oven at the end of the first baking time.
• Distribute the topping carefully over the top of the casserole. There will likely not be sufficient topping to cover it all. No problem. Get out some mini marshmallows and cover the top to suit your liking. I ended using two cups worth.
• Return the casserole to the oven for a maximum of 5 minutes. I recommend keeping a wary eye on it to remove it should the marshmallows start burning. Some folks like marshmallows toasted dark, so of course, you will want to let this go according to your preferences.
• When done, we covered the casserole with foil and drove across town to have Thanksgiving dinner with family. The casserole remained very hot the entire time, and was just perfect to serve up thereafter.