Hey, Sugar!

I love my clients for many reasons, but it's always a good day when they give me a family recipe that they love using for special occasions! They sit in my chair and talk it up so much that I just have to ask for it! I always preface my request by trying to be understanding in case it's a "secret", but usually, they're more than willing to share the well-loved (and eaten) recipe!

So that being the case, I am sharing a recipe given to me by my client and her husband who were given it by his mother, who honestly, just found it somewhere and is so surprised that I'm using it for every holiday dinner. Seriously though, it's that good! I've even handed it over to a few clients myself!

I never used to love sweet potatoes or even sweet potato fries. Growing up, my mom would always use canned yams for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, spooning butter and brown sugar over them in a skillet, but they still seemed weird to me. Sweet potato casserole sounded a little more appealing, until I saw walnuts throughout and burnt marshmallow clouds strewn on top.

So back to that one day that my sweet client kept gushing over her mother-in-law's sweet potato casserole. She insisted she disliked the use of walnuts and marshmallows as well and that her husband would email me the recipe because she couldn't remember it! Be warned, it is amazingly delicious! Goodbye walnuts and marshmallows! Hello brown sugar streusel goodness! Who knew?

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This can easily be made the night before and refrigerated until time to heat it. The heating process will take a little longer if it is cold from the fridge, so plan accordingly. Where the recipe calls for 4 sweet potatoes, make them either big ones or use 5-6 smaller ones.
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INGREDIENTS:

3 cups mashed sweet potatoes (about 4 medium sweet potatoes)
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter
2 beaten eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 c. milk

Topping
1/3 c. melted butter
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. flour

  LET'S DO THIS:

1. Bake sweet potatoes at 400 degrees for 1--1.5 hours.

 --Wash and then prick each sweet potato with a fork. Wrap each potato individually with foil. And because sweet potatoes can leak their natural sugars (which can sometimes escape their foil confinements), I like to place them all on a baking sheet to keep the bottom of my oven clean!

2. Scoop out the pulp and place in a mixing bowl. 

  --While the pulp is still hot, beat in the other ingredients. (I can't refrain from eating a few spoonfuls at this point!)

 3. Place in 13x9 baking dish. 

4. Mix the ingredients for the topping and sprinkle on top of the sweet potatoes. (The topping will be soft yet firm enough to actually sprinkle using your hands)

5. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. If the casserole has been previously refrigerated, bake until the top is bubbly and turning golden brown.

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I told you! It even sounds so good before even having made it! Everyone raves about it! You do not have to keep it in the holiday or special occasion recipe file, but because it is so rich and horribly bad for you, that's where it stays in this family! ;) I'm not about to call myself an expert and create for you a healthy version of this recipe, but if you're into eating clean and would like to add it to your holiday menus or would like to enjoy it more often throughout the year without guilt, feel free to doctor up this recipe and let me know how it turns out! From what I do know, I don't believe it would be incredibly hard to do so!

Either way, enjoy each and every spoonful!

Long Live Christmas!

Question.

Is it bad if I just recently finished decorating my house for Christmas?

 Honestly, I even feel a little silly writing this post because it seems as if everyone was finished with Christmas on December 26th, eagerly gained back all of their square footage from taking down holiday decor that very day, and they are now waiting to ring in the New Year and kick some butt in 2015. I am ALL for that, but at the moment, I'm happily sitting by our fireplace while the embers slowly burn out after a cozy day on which my family and I finally celebrated Christmas.

I never mind traveling for the holidays, but I also love hosting and getting my house ready for guests! This Christmas was a bit different for us. We usually celebrate with my husband's family before Christmas and tend to travel or be with mine on Christmas day and several days after that. However, due to other family situations, we weren't able to be with my side of the family until the 29th. I was bummed it wouldn't be closer to Christmas, but I was still incredibly grateful that they were coming! I'm one of those sentimental types (as if you couldn't already tell from my previous posts) and I love holiday traditions! It was hard to think of celebrating so seemingly "far away" from Christmas Day itself.

During the Christmas holiday, I tend to take off a couple of weeks from work because I never know if we'll be traveling, hosting, or who knows what. With how all of our family gatherings were arranging themselves, I began to grow excited at actually having a big chunk of time to fully decorate my house, bake yummy treats, plan dates to catch up with friends, make, wrap, and mail presents, and simply relax and get my house ready for our family! I always think I can do it all (before Christmas Eve) and still have time to fully enjoy every moment--and truth be told, every year is an epic fail.

Not that I didn't watch Elf and Prancer or spend sweet time with my husband and our loved ones, but no matter how late I stayed up, there was always one more errand to run, one more (or several things) to make, or one more thing I had to regretfully remove from the ultimate "before Christmas" to-do list because I simply didn't have the time to make it happen. I am a perfectionist with an awful sense of timing when it comes to decorating and planning for Christmas. Just awful.

Christmas truly snuck up on me this year! I love Fall so I never decorate before Thanksgiving, but I try to start soon after and I love giving each item its place and having my home feel so incredibly cozy for more than a month! I know people like to decorate early and props to those who are way more organized than myself, but I feel like there are SO many people packing up before December is out the door! For a girl who once long ago left her tree up until March (I agree, that was a bit much--but it was not me who was sad they had no Christmas tree in their living room when we had that freak blizzard in 2013!), I just can't do away with Christmas until at least sometime in January! Now that we have a "grown up" tree, we have scattered our smaller trees throughout the house, giving each guest their own unique Christmas tree. I just want everyone to feel loved and cozy. It's too fun to think of and create each and every detail as I decorate every corner of the house, but I do realize Christmas itself is not about all of that.

 Now that our week with my family is in full swing and my vacation is winding down, I feel exhausted! Who's with me? I absolutely love Christmas and I adore my family and our crazy fits of laughter, but in some ways, it hasn't felt entirely like Christmas. Perhaps it's due in part to the fact that our traditions were delayed a bit and everyone else in the world has seemingly moved on, and probably due to the fact that I'm not an elf and my busy little hands couldn't keep up with the crazy expectations I put on myself for the holiday. Silly little human.

 I guess it's ridiculous to think or be surprised that it doesn't feel like Christmas. Honestly, I think some part of Christmas will never "feel like" Christmas. For most people, the anticipation is greater than the actual holiday. I want to be grateful for the present day in which I receive the opportunity to live and serve, all while remembering that there is a far more majestic reason for celebrating each season and every day. He is the reason we can anticipate an even greater day to come. The weary (exhausted) world can rejoice because of Him.

"I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year. And thus I drift along into the holidays-let them overtake me unexpectedly-waking up some fine morning and suddenly saying to myself: 'Why this is Christmas Day!'" 

--Ray Baker 

 

Merry Christmas, friends.

 And hey, good news:

 We ARE celebrating New Years Eve on time!

 Be sure to check back soon for an insanely good recipe (full of brown sugar goodness) to take with you into the new year! Even my clean eating readers can probably doctor it up to their liking!