Thanksgiving Gift

Today I am going to my friend Nanney's farm for Thanksgiving feast with her and her two grown up sons, Ben and Amos. My contribution to the feast is pie. I have made pumpkin pie and whipped cream, and  sweet potato pie, which always has a meringue on top. Nanney is cooking an organic farm raised turkey in the wood stove, stoked with firewood harvested from her farm. All the feast is local, from the cranberries, cream, vegetables, eggs. About the only things imported from out of state is the sugar, the vanilla bean, and the California Petite Syrah I am bringing along.

(Update Friday: This feast was the most delicious Thanksgiving meal I have ever eaten. The turkey was perfect, and the vegetables gathered from the winter garden minutes before cooking were ideal. As pretty as the sweet potato pie is, my pumpkin pie was heaven. Wish you were there. We had plenty!)

Sweet potato pie is a Southern tradition, and I'll be making throughout the winter. I take pleasure in making sure all the tender/tough Southern transplants living up here in Maine have a piece sometime before spring. Here is the recipe: I take 3 pretty good size sweet potatoes (or yams) and bake them in the oven. Let them cool and peel them. Mash them in the bowl of an electric mixer. Separate 4 eggs. Add the yolks to the sweet potatoes and reserve the whites for later. On medium speed, beat in a cup of sugar, a tablespoon of real vanilla extract, a tiny pinch of salt, and a little light cream, half n half, or milk. (I will use any where from none at all to 3/4 cup, depending on the sweet potatoes and my mood.) It will usually be thick and it's ok if it is a little lumpy with sweet potato. Pour into home made unbaked pie crust in a pyrex pie dish and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 45 to 50 minutes, or till done and the crust is brown.

Put the eggs whites, a pinch of cream of tartar in a clean mixing bowl. Beat the whites at high speed, slowly adding 6 tablespoons of sugar. When the mixture is frothy and turning white, slow down the speed a little so you can watch it carefully. When the surface is fine, glossy, and stiff peaks form when you lift the beater, pour onto the top of the hot pie filling, spread to the edge of the pie crust and bake in a 350 to 400 degree oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or till very pretty, like mine. Watch it!

I give thanks to all my friends who have nurtured me this month, and who have always been here for me. I love  you all, old friends and new!!! Acknowledgments to Mama for the doily, Billy for the Christmas cactus and Richard for meringue inspiration.

Comments

[GeL]

Hi Carla,
Sounds delish! I'm one of the few in my family who loves sweet potatoes. Some years I've made a casserole even if only 2 of us will eat be eating it. (I learned to make an easy but yummy one in college from a roomie.)

I see I've been tagged.Thx for thinking of me. I'm selective about which tags or memes I do, because one can become inundated with them in the blog world, but I do enjoy this one, especially reading others' posts.I'll reply later this weekend or early next week.

[Angela]

Oh,Carla, sweet potato pie, one of my favorites. Can't wait to test your recipe. Beautiful picture of the pie, the blooming christmas cactus and old lacy doyle (ok I've spelled that 5 different ways and don't know what's right). Doile, doylie, do . . .oh who cares? It's gorgeous.

[Carla Sanders]

Angela, I'll bet you know how to make sweet potato pie. I'd be interested in how you do it too.

[Absolute Vanilla (and Atyllah)]

Sweet potato pie - now that I've got to try - it will be a good way to use up the sweet potatoes that grow so wildly in my otherwise failing veggie patch. Yum!

[Aley]

Yum yum..I can attest this tastes wonderful!!!

[Aley]

Yum yum..I can attest this tastes wonderful!!!