How-To Friday: One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four

We got a ton of sweet potatoes in our farm share the past few weeks, so I decided to make pie. Even after throwing one out (he was a squishy bugger) I still had about seven pounds of sweet potatoes. After checking with my go-to chef, Alton Brown, I found that I had enough for four pies. Since it was just going to be me, Hubs, #2 and #3 for Thanksgiving I wanted to share our largesse. I almost felt like Oprah. You get a pie! And you get a pie! And you too! One went to my uncle, along with #1. Another went with AB to his mom's, and the third went to my neighbor who has never had sweet potato pie before. Shocking, I know.

As of this writing, I have yet to hear anything abut how the pie was received.

Recipe
1 lb 3 oz sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 1/4 cups plain yogurt
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cumin
5 egg yolks
1 9-inch pie shell
Disclaimer: Alton's recipe doesn't have cumin, but it does have salt, pecans, and maple syrup.

Wash, peel, cut, and weigh your sweet potatoes.

 Steam your taters. Please don't boil them, as that will take out a ton of flavor. I got my steamer basket at Shop Rite super-cheap. It folds up small like that robot from "Batteries Not Included," fits in every pot I own, and it's dishwasher-safe. I used a skillet cuz the more room you can give your veggies, the quicker they will cook. Alton says to steam for 20 minutes, mine were soft at 10.

If you bought frozen pie shells, take them out now while the potatoes are steaming. Unless you just finished making a crust from scratch, you still need to give the dough time to get to room temp before baking. Also, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine steamed potatoes, yogurt, sugar, spices, and egg whites. Beat until potatoes are mashed and everything is blended. You're looking for the consistency of mashed potatoes or guacamole. You don't want sweet potato soup.

Before

After

Pour pie filling into pie shell, wiggle a bit to level out the top, and shove into your oven for 50 minutes or until the pie reaches 165 to 180 degrees. It still needs some jiggle when you take it out, as it will continue to cook after you take it out.



I only took pics of the first batch. #1 was leaving on Wednesday, I had no idea what time on Thursday AB was leaving, and we only had 9 eggs until Wednesday night. So you will just have to imagine all four pies side-by-side.

Why I revamped my blog

Like all my previous attempts at blogging, this one quickly went downhill. I started this in 2010, with an aim to get my thoughts out of my head where they were driving me crazy. It was mostly about knitting, my new hobby, and I think that's a major reason why I let it slide. It gets hard to write about knitting all the time. I don't know how Pam Mackenzie does it. I needed to find something that worked for me, and the blog sat inactive until I could find a solution.

A huge thanks to Autumn Oak. She's in my local knit group and she recently redid her own blog. If you have time, please check it out. I like how she just simplified everything into basic categories. As I was reading through her newer posts, I kept thinking of the six questions we were taught in school: who, what, where, when, why, and how. So I have decided to write my blog along those lines. Each day will address a different question. Gone are the umpteen labels to try to get everything categorized, and here is inspiration for every post.

I also discovered I have to write several posts at once, or when inspiration strikes me, as opposed to trying to write once a day every single day. And Blogger has this cool feature where I can schedule my posts to publish on a certain day, so I don't have to remember to come back and log in to get that day's post up. In fact this is my second post I've written tonight, and I'm not telling which one I wrote earlier. ;-)

As I am just starting on this new format, I can't promise 6 posts every week right away. It may not even be 6 post a week ever. But I hope to have at least one or two a week. And please feel free to let me know if I'm writing too may posts on one question.

Thanks for coming. Thank you more for coming back.