Sweet! Potatoes! and Broccoli with Cheese Sauce

After the debacle of the Boggle (hey that's kinda catchy!), we pulled out the Scrabble game, complete with the *OFFICIAL* paperback Scrabble dictionary and the letter tiles that are kept in an old school cloth Crown Royal bag. Because NOTHING says Scrabble more clearly than an old cloth Crown Royal bag!

While the other guests sat in the living room, watching the game, and Mister Man toiled over the turkey, we hovered over our letters as though staring at them would help them to magically transform into 7 letter, triple-scoring BINGOS.

Mister Man toils, while Tamara coaxes her letters into a decent word.

AND if you peer VERY closely at this next photo, your scrutinizing eyes will see that someone DID land a 7 letter word! [HINT: It runs vertically towards the top of the board.] ['NOTHER HINT: The word is BOILERS] And who was the purveyor of this 75 point word? Well it wasn't moi. Nor was it Tamara.

It was one of the folks attached to the SWEET POTATO PIE dish. It was in fact, the mind-BOGGLING meister of words herself, Diyan. Thank heavens for that Sweet Potato Pie, or we MIGHT have had to ask her to take her basket of extraordinary skills, and leave us mere mortals alone to wallow in our misery!

Diyan’s Sweet Potato and Marshmallow Casserole

(adapted from lots of different recipes, with no milk or cream or sugar added) (except in the marshmallows) (being modeled here for you by Susan G.)

4 large sweet potatoes – baked, peeled, and mashed

to the potatoes, add:

1/2 cup chicken broth

2-3 tbsp melted butter

pinch salt

pinch cinnamon

pinch nutmeg

½ teaspoon grated orange rind

a few tablespoons of fresh squeezed OJ

Whip this mixture til it’s fluffy.

Butter a casserole dish.

Put fluffy mixture in casserole dish.

Sprinkle walnuts or pecans on top.

Put in 350-degree oven for about 25 minutes.

Add mini marshmallows – basically you want to cover the top of the casserole dish with a layer of marshmallows.

Stick back in the over for another 20-30 minutes, until marshmallows are nice and brown.

Eat as a side dish with turkey.

Yum.

Orange is such a perfect fall colour, and we had lots of it on the table, including this glorious cheese sauce made by Ms. Lara herself.

Lara's Cheese Sauce

2 tbsp butter- melt in a saucepan

2 tbsp flour- add in gradually, stirring constantly

1 cup milk- add in gradually, stirring constantly

1 cup grated cheese- same

salt and pepper to taste.

In her own words "that is all! dead simple, even i could do it. :)"

The other orange thing on the table was Mister Man's Mac and Cheese. And I'll be publishing the recipe after Mister Man and I have an official MAC-OFF on Sunday in which we go head to head in a battle of the comfort food!!

Stay tuned for more thanksgiving recipes and the macaroni and cheese smack down that's gonna take place between Mister Man and me on Sunday. (even though it MIGHT be hard to watch a grown man cry!!)