Happy Thanksgiving!!! If you're Canadian!

Tonight is Canadian Thanksgiving, or Columbus day.  Being Canadian (I grew up there) and living in the US is tough sometimes.  Unforutnately Jon doesn't get Columbus Day off.  It's not exactly the biggest holiday.  Ha ha!  Does it even get celebrated?  So we rarely go up to visit my family on Canadian thanksgiving.  I really miss that family celebration.  Maybe next year I'll ask him to request it off.
 

Don't worry, the chicken isn't burnt, but the seasoning did get a tad dark.

Thank goodness for technology.  I did get to video chat a bit with my family all gathered at Mom's house this evening.  The funniest part was that after I wished the aunts, uncles, and cousins Happy Thanksgiving my mom took me on a tour of the food with the webcam on her droid tablet.  Ha ha ha!!  Of course, the star of the evening. 

They had the usual line up at most American thanksgivings - Turkey, stuffing, yams, pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes.  They also had a few exotic extras (not traditional Canadian fare, just for fun) like pineapple rice, some sort of fish, meatballs topped with yams, and baklava. 

Since I didn't have time to go hunting for a turkey this weekend or this morning (and since a turkey won't fit in my freezer) we had chicken thighs seasoned like a turkey would be, with a slightly gross stuffing experiment  (hence no blog recipe), and yams.  It was a far, sad, cry from a thanksgiving dinner, but the yams satisfied my Thanksgiving craving until the US version comes around. 

The recipe for the yams may come from a magazine.  I'm not honestly sure.  My mom has been making them for Thanksgiving and Christmas for a long time, but I don't think it's one of those family heirloom type of recipes.  It will become one though.  They're sooooo good. 

Actually the recipe calls for sweet potatoes, but we use those red/orange yams most often.  I didn't have pecans on hand tonight so I used walnuts.  Don't do it.  The walnuts had too much bitterness.  Always use Pecans!!
All you Americans will have to try this come November. 

Here's the recipe.  I only made half a recipe tonight since I wasn't feeding the extended family.  My mom usually doubles it for family gatherings and there's rarely any left over.


Sweet Potato (But really Yam) Supreme
(from Mom)

Ingredients
4 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes (yams) *just boil them until they're mashable.2 tbsp. cream or milk
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. paprika

topping:
1/2 c brown sugar, packed
1/3 c butter

1 c whole pecans

Method

1. Thoroughly mix potatoes, cream, salt and paprika and spread it into a greased casserole dish.

2.  Heat the brown sugar and butter over low heat, stirring constantly, until the butter is barely melted.   It's important not to overcook this, or the topping will harden when the casserole is heated and become more like a brulee top.

3.  Spread butter/sugar topping over the yams and cover with pecans.

4.  You can refrigerate this until it's ready to heat or pop it into a 350 degree oven until bubbling, then serve promptly.

(Note from mom:  "I always remove the butter and brown sugar from the heat when there is a piece of hard butter left.  This way I am sure to not over cook it.  The butter melts anyways when mixed with the sugar after taking it off of the heat.")

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Today I am thankful for a wonderful family, all the blessings you have given us, the children that run around us, the food that we eat, the roof over our heads, the webcams and computers that connect us, and the faith that we have in You.  Amen.