Sweet Potato Casserole II

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-casserole-ii-3/Detail.aspx

When I saw the Sweet Potato Casserole on allrecipes.com, I knew I had to make it. It not only looked delicious but easy to make also. I am not a very good cook so I look for easy to make recipes. I know my mom can do wonders with sweet potatoes with or without a recipe but I need a recipe to follow. I like sweet potatoes as yams, in a pie, or baked but I’ve never had it in a casserole. My first impression of this recipe was that the topping would be a challenge and the filling would be easy to prepare. I thought it would be a challenge to allow the right amount of time for the topping to be just right but I felt like everything would be easy. Overall I felt like the recipe would be a success.

The steps that I took to prepare this dish are as follow:

First, I washed and dried about a pound of fresh sweet potatoes. Second the potatoes are cleaned, cut into chunks and boiled until tender. The third step was to set the oven to 350 degrees.  Next, I mashed the potatoes and added all ingredients according to the recipe without making any changes.The potato mixture was then poured and evenly spread into the 9x13 baking dish. And then, I prepared the sugar mixture with the suggested ingredients but added a half cup more of pecans for my enjoyment. The casserole was then put into a preheated oven for approximately 25 minutes.

This was the first time that I’ve ever prepared this dish and wasn’t sure what it would look like. The finished product didn’t look like the internet picture but it was close. The topping didn’t caramelize like I wanted it to and there were a few loose pecans.  I didn’t expect it to look anything like the internet picture because I am not a very good cook. Even though the casserole doesn’t look like the internet picture, I expect it to taste just fine.  The topping is a little darker and there were pieces falling off but that didn’t affect the taste of the overall dish. 

After trying a serving of the Sweet Potato Casserole, I think it is a success. It wasn’t the prettiest dish but the taste was good. It wasn’t too sweet or bitter, it was just right; however, I think the topping could have turned out better if I would have allowed a longer cooking time. I’m a nut for pecans and these were delicious by themselves. I let my friend, Timothy, try it and he thought it was good as well. He loves sweet potatoes and thought that they were cooked perfectly. He said they were smooth and not lumpy.