A funny thing happened while I was working on last issue. I made sweet potatoes. And I liked them. I cannot remember a time when I liked sweet potatoes. It was always on the table at holiday meals. I am sure you are familiar with what I am talking about. The brown sugar dripping, marshmallow covered dish that is served at many holiday meals. Candied Sweet Potato Casserole has never appealed to me. Was this dish too sweet for my taste? Hard to believe with the sweet tooth I have, but it is true. Sweet potatoes are naturally sweet and then we cover them in super sugary syrup and top the whole thing off with marshmallows, which are mostly sugar. Talk about candy being served with dinner. Just pass me the regular mashed potatoes I can cover lots of gravy, thank you.

So needless to say I was surprised when I liked the taste of the sweet potato side dish which was part of the menu from last issue. These were boiled, baked, buttered and salted, not smothered in sugar. I was amazed by the smooth soft texture and the salty sweet flavor. I wondered what else I could do to work this nutrition powerhouse into my meals on a regular basis. I must admit in my research I found only a few really unusual recipes. What I did find was the versatility of sweet potatoes. They can be cooked and served in pretty much any way regular white potatoes can be. Baked, fried, mashed, in soups and stews were all mentioned as possibilities. I am not too sure if scalloped would work but it might be worth a try. Sweet potatoes can also be used in ways white potatoes can't, like soufflé, pie and of course the standard candied sweet potato casserole.

In my shopping for sweet potatoes I found three varieties: the standard kind with no label to identify it as anything more that the basic. Then there was one labeled 'Garnet' which had a dark red skin and another almost white skinned variety with a sticker calling it 'Yellow Yams'. I brought home all three to discover the differences. I decided if they were to be compared I would need to cook and serve them in the same way. I was intrigued by the thought of a baked sweet potato so the oven was set to 400 degrees and in they went. I was glad I had placed them on a baking sheet. They dripped a lot of juice as they baked. I had to take them out of the oven a couple of times to see if they were done and found if a knife could penetrate through the center with ease it was done. The smaller one was done before the other two and so was removed a little sooner. Once baked, I tasted each with butter and salt.

The Garnet was not any better than the regular, just a little darker flesh. To me it was definitely not worth the higher price. The yellow was sweeter and much moister, almost wet, and again not worth the extra cost. It tasted like a cross between a squash and a sweet potato. I will stick to the plain ordinary sweet potatoes.

As far as the name either yams or sweet potatoes will do. True yams are rarely seen in this country. They are much larger, up to 12 or more pounds and are a starchy root, not used in the same way as a sweet potato. They are not even in the same family of plants. But 'yams' is a common term from the south for the same root vegetable as sweet potatoes. I hope you try some of these ideas for yourself. You might be as surprised as I have been.