Last Day of November + Congrats to the Giveaway Winner + a recipe
Congratulations, Vera B!
You won the Five Enchanted Roses giveaway! An email is on its way to you!
And November comes to a gentle close. How are you doing? Did you participate in NaNoWriMo? Did you write beautiful words? Did you write messy words that will become something beautiful after some polish is applied? Are your fingers still functional after all that typing? I'd love to hear about it! Some of you have been updating about your process on your blogs, and I've enjoyed reading about your NaNo adventures.I am proud of you, Dear Writer. Whether or not you won, or just typed a couple of hundred words this month... or maybe, like me, you were editing. Or maybe this month was spent with family. Or maybe it was just a month when writing didn't happen for various reasons... but it will again. I'm proud of you. Story-telling is a time-honored and noble pursuit... one worthy of your efforts.U.S. Reader, did you have a good Thanksgiving? Ours was wonderful, nice and quiet. I'll tell you all about it later.I know the blog has been kind of quiet this second half of the year, and I apologize. Trying to keep up with four children (one of whom is an int0-everything toddler and one of whom is practically brand-new), homeschooling, AWANA, editing, writing short stories, and outlining new novels... while also attempting to hang out with my husband and friends every now and then has gotten a little overwhelming. And while I would love to share my thoughts on all sorts of things, and write up a ton of Christmas posts, and swap cookie recipes... I'm probably going to continue to be a bit quiet over here on the blogging front at least until after the New Year. I'll still post a few times in December (because I miss blogging too much when I don't do it at all), but probably not more than once a week. I hope none of you are too broken-hearted about that. But, I promise, a huge part of this blogging silence is due to trying to get Minstrel's Call finished so that you have something new to read VERY SOON! I am so close to that finish line, I can almost taste it... and it tastes like Ruth's Chris Sweet Potato casserole. (Which, if you haven't had... is... WOW... absolutely AMAZING! It's one of my favorite things to make for special occasions like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Tuesday...)I'll be back next week with a special combined Adventures and Episodes/Nightstand Books post. Watched some amazing movies this month, and read some great books.Until then, here is the official recipe for those Sweet Potatoes... so good, you don't even need dessert.
Sweet Potato Mixture
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes1 cup sugar1/2 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon vanilla2 eggs, well beaten1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
Crust
1 cup brown sugar1/3 cup flour1 cup chopped nuts (pecans preferred)1/3 stick butter, melted
Combine brown sugar, flour, nuts and butter in mixing bowl. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a medium-size casserole dish with nonstick spray.
Combine sweet potatoes, sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs and butter in a large mixing bowl in the order listed. Beat thoroughly with a hand masher to increase the fluffiness of the sweet potato mixture.
Pour mixture into the baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes. (At this point, dish can be covered and refrigerated.)
Sprinkle the surface of the sweet potato mixture evenly with the crust mixture and return to oven for 10 minutes. Allow to set at least 30 minutes before serving.
The brown sugar and pecan crust should be slightly browned and crunchy.
I wish I had a picture... but they were too good, and I have lots of rambunctious munchkins, so I never did get a picture of our Thanksgiving feast. What's one of your favorite "special occasion" foods?