Seasoned Sweet Potato Chips

I have always wanted a mandoline so I could easily slice things really thin to make my own potato chips or for things like scalloped potatoes. I never wanted to part with the money, however, to buy one. I’ve been looking at them for a long time, though, and reading reviews of various brands. Well . . . I finally broke down and bought one with a Williams-Sonoma gift certificate I received. These chips were the result of the inaugural use of my new mandoline and I didn’t even slice off a finger! They turned out great and are very healthy since only a tablespoon of olive oil is used. I did four baking sheets worth (four medium sized potatoes) and four of us ate every single one!!! I will definitely make these again since they were so easy and delicious!

Ingredients
4 large sweet potatoes, peeled
1 T. olive oil
seasonings of your choice

1. Slice the sweet potatoes to 1/8 inch thickness. I have a mandolin slicer that I use but this can be done with a sharp knife by hand.
2. Place the sweet potato slices in a large zip-loc bag and drizzle with the oil. Shake around in the bag to coat the slices.
3. Line four cookie sheets with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Place the sliced potatoes in a single layer on the cookie sheets and sprinkle with seasonings. Salt and pepper work well. I have a bar-b-q seasoning blend and a maple/spice seasoning blend that I use that are great. Cinnamon and sugar also works well.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes; turn the slices over and bake for another 10 minutes or until crisp. Enjoy!

Sweet N' Spicy Sweet Potato Casserole

We celebrated an early Thanksgiving with my husband’s side of the family. We also got to tailgate together at the Ohio State-Iowa football game! We divided food prep for our Thanksgiving among all of us and I was assigned my banana bread and the sweet potato casserole. This sweet n’ spicy sweet potato casserole was a hit and everyone wanted the recipe (they already have the banana bread recipe in the family cookbook) so I thought I’d post it here in time for Thanksgiving.

For our large family gathering I doubled this recipe and for the small children I scooped part of the casserole into a separate dish before I added the cayennne pepper and left off the nuts. Sorry the picture looks a little out of focused in the corner but that’s the steam rising from the casserole!! This recipe is adapted from myrecipe.com.

Ingredients
3 pounds sweet potatoes
1/3 C. packed brown sugar
2 T. butter
2 T. orange juice concentrate
1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. salt
2 large eggs
1/4 C. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pierce potatoes with a fork; arrange in a circle on paper towels in microwave oven. Microwave on high 16 minutes or until tender, rearranging potatoes after 8 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

Cut each potato in half lengthwise; scoop out pulp into a large bowl. Discard skins. Add sugar and next six ingredients and beat until smooth.

Spoon mixture into a 1 1/2 quart baking dish; sprinkle with pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
Yield 8 – 1/2 Cup servings