Thanksgiving Rehash

This was my second year to host Thanksgiving.  Last year, my mom handed off the baton to me, but last year I had a secret weapon--my son.  He's a really good cook and he helped a lot--especially with the gravy.  He couldn't come home this year (bummer), so I was on my own.  Thankfully, I found a little book tucked away that I had totally forgotten about.  It's from Cook's Illustrated on sauces and gravies.  I followed the instructions and my gravy came out pretty tasty.

Also this year, I used a cooking bag for the turkey and I'm sold on it.  The turkey was moist and so flavorful.  And it produced enough juice so that I didn't need to use any canned broth for the gravy.

But the best thing on the menu was the sweet potatoes.  It was a new recipe and everyone raved about it.  It was so simple and I was able to make it the day before, store it in the refrigerator and just pop it in the oven.  The orange juice is what made it.  Although my husband and brother would say it was the praline topping.

Praline Sweet Potato Casserole

1 (16 ounce) can sweet potatoes or yams, drained
2 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons orange juice
6 tablespoons packed brown sugar
5 tablespoons chopped nuts
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Lightly grease a 1-quart glass baking dish; set aside.  Mash the sweet potatoes.  Add the melted butter and orange juice; blend thoroughly.  Spoon into the casserole.  Combine the brown sugar, nuts, and cinnamon; mix well.  Sprinkle over the sweet potato mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Makes 4-6 servings.  [They must be really small servings, because I more than doubled the recipe (we had 8 people) and it was gone.  Either that or we're a bunch of gluttons.]

If you make this ahead, you may need to bake it longer since it will start out cold; bake approximately 45 minutes.