Thanksgiving was Great

I hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving day. Here’s what Dennis, Phil our next door neighbor and I had for Thanksgiving dinner. A spiral cut ham (that I think I might have baked too long, but everybody said it was good), Brussels sprouts, two different kinds of yams and stuffing.

I baked the yams the night before at 400° F. Good thing I poked them half way through because they didn’t end up taking an hour to bake. So, by the time I got ready to use them the next day they were really soft. But, still all was well. I sliced them into rounds and layered them with butter, brown sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar into a pie pan. At the end of my preparations somebody in spirit said I should sprinkle it all with pepper. I thought I was hearing wrong and said, “What?” They repeated the suggestion. I said, “You’re kidding!” Nope. They meant what they said and having said it a third time I shrugged my shoulders and said, “Okay, I’m game.” Though, I was going to withhold judgment until after I’d tasted them. Yeah, they were great!

Our second side dish of yams was contributed by friends who had read in my blog earlier that I was going to try some yams for the first time this year. It was also the first time I’d ever gotten to actually meet Krista and Abhay, though we’ve been “talking” via e-mail for many months now. On their way to their Thanksgiving Day dinner they stopped by and brought us our second dish of yams. It was great to meet them for the first time.

Here’s Krista’s recipe. Absolutely fantastic!

Krista’s Yams

Medium slices of yams, 3 or so yams, 1/2 - 3/4 c. of coconut milk and salt.... put this together in either an oven casserole dish or you could cook it on the stovetop too. Add on top a mixture of spices briefly cooked in oil: Heat 1T or so of oil ( a kind that won't smoke if heated to med. high), when it's hot, add all or any of the following - 3 or 4 cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, coriander seeds, whole black pepper and 3 cloves... then after they've sizzled for a moment add some powdered spices: 1/4 each - cumin, coriander, cayenne and turmeric. They'll cook instantly so right away take it off the flame and pour onto the yams and stir it a bit. I baked it at 350° for 45 min to an hour, mixing once or twice to baste them. If you don't have all of those spices around, you can either mix and match (it will taste good with any combination really) or you can also substitute a premixed spice mix if you want, the kind we use is "pathak's mild curry paste". It is actually really, really good and about 1/2-1 T is amazing with those yams! You can get it at any Indian store for sure, and they also carry it at some grocery stores too, in the ethnic aisle.

So, thanks to Krista and Abhay for a great dish of yams. We really did enjoy ourselves and it was so nice to meet you for the “first” time!