025: baked sweet potatoes

look!  real, non-birthday festivity food!  this is my mom's baked sweet potato recipe with my own personal spin.  it's easy to make, and pretty much delicious.  prep time is about 10-15 mins, and bake time was probably around half an hour to 45 minutes.  the sweet potatoes are the dish on the left, and the cranberry recipe is coming up as soon as i revise it a little bit.

equipment:
vegetable peeler (optional)
knife
glass baking pan (i used a 9x13 for 4 potatoes)
small mixing bowl

ingredients:
as many sweet potatoes (yams) as people
butter (melted)
cinnamon
cayenne pepper
ginger
nutmeg

steps:
preheat oven to 350 degrees.  wash and peel each sweet potato.  then cut them into 1/4 inch thick slices so that they resemble chips or disks (see picture above).

mix together the topping, which consists of cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and ginger.  i also added a few grates of fresh nutmeg.  for 4 potatoes, i used about 2 T. of cinnamon, about 3/4 t of cayenne pepper, and 1/4 t. ginger as well as the nutmeg.

place the sliced potatoes in rows (almost like fallen dominoes) in a glass baking pan.  the drizzle the melted butter over the top of the potatoes (this ensures that the topping will stick).  sprinkle on the topping, and bake until the potatoes are soft.  honestly, i think it's impossible to overcook a sweet potato, and i wasn't paying attention to how long i left them in the oven, but it was probably somewhere between half an hour and 45 minutes.  let them cool a bit before serving, but do serve them warm. 

time: 10 minuets prep, 30-45 minutes bake
difficulty: 1 (1 being easiest, 5 being hardest)
rating: ♦♦♦♦1/2◊ (4.5 out of 5 stars)
suggestions for variation:  play around with the exact mix and proportion of your spices to best suit your tastes.  i, for example, love cinnamon, but am not a big ginger gal, so my proportioning might be a little off for your tastes.

enjoy!
-kl