Modern Vespa

Me and the better half are invited by friends.. One American- fur thanksgiving dinner
I'm told she's making sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows
I'm slightly scared. Anyone tried those? Are they ok with turkey?

mmm turkey in essex in November?
thats just wrong

I have no personal experience of the sweet potato/marshmallow dish, but I have heard of it, would very much like to try it, and look forward to your report!

Is it like the concept of a pasty with meat in one end and fruit in the other?

delish......add a dash of brown sugar...YUM!

I have been eating that dish every Thanksgiving for the past 50 years. It seems a bit weird, but turns out to be quite tasty. At a minimum, it won't kill you.

it's in the same league as pineapple on a pizza or chocolate sauce on chicken. the wrongness is all in your mind - once it's in your mouth it's far less intimidating.

i take issue with that claim that it won't kill you, however. a burning marshmallow produces smoke and flame identical to that of a burning tyre. is it just me or is that a bit worrisome?

It's not the same without an 'American Football' game.

I saw posted someplace: "It is not played with the foot but with the hands; it is not a ball but an egg. It ought to be called 'American Handegg'..."


Kittysaz, Ask your hosts if they deep-fry the turkey.

enjoy your meal with your friends. The sweet potatoes with marshmallows is very much a main dish along side the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravey, rolls, pumpkin cupcake, green beans, cranberry sauce, All kindas of different salads.

I did not grow up eating sweet potatoes and marshmallows. Mainly I managed to avoid them for years. Recently I tried them. Never again. I like sweet potatoes/yams just fine, but why ruin it with marshmallows?
I do however like them as a cupcake.

Really, you have to try them and see for your self. They seem to be a love or hate thing.

As long as they don't over do the sugar it can be delicious. I prefer mine baked with butter but mashed or peeled and cut in chunks then topped with marshmallows for a quick run under the oven is pretty tasty as well.

Genie, if the marshmallows burn they are improperly cooked. They should be browned in the oven not burnt.

My host is an excellent cook but has a very sweet tooth
I will try anything (hate goats cheese and blue cheese though)
I'm looking forward to it
I'm making dessert
Honeycomb semifreddo with warm fudge sauce and honeycomb dust, salted peanut shortbread

I've never been very fond of the sweet potato / marshmallow dish. It's semi-traditional, served at many (but not all) Thanksgiving meals. It is slightly outside of the "core requirements" of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce.

Too sweet for my tastes, I think.

How sweet potatoes and marshmallows got hitched:

http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/thanksgiving-sweet-potato-casserole

Whist sweet potatoes are on the menu at the KBBQ for today, marshmallow is not.

Today's menu includes:

1. Assorted cheeses - Champagne
2. Turducken served with mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry orange "sauce", and roasted vegetables paired with:
a. Beautiful Earth Syrah- McPrice Myers - Santa Barbara 2009
b. Foxen- Pinot Noir - Santa Barbara 2010
3. Dessert- To be announced- a friend is bringing it-

Ciao all-

If you like sweet potatoes and sweet things you'll like them. I'm not a fond lover of either so i pass. Had a Thanksgiving dinner at my villa in Saudi once and i was the only Merkin. Looked like a UN dinner 8) Great time was had by all. Have fun

Just think if the native people gave the pilgrims a donkey.....

We would all be having a piece of a** now.

Genie - pineapple on pizza is plain wrong. As for choc sauce with chicken...yeurch!! (venison, yes. Chocolate in a chilli, yes. Chicken - ???!!!)

As a Brit, almost the oddest thing about T'giving is that mashed potato is treated as a delicacy. I know that mash is lovely, but over here it's considered a really ordinary way to have yer spuds, rather than something for special occasions.

Anyway, hope you all stuff yourselves silly and have a great time

Eat it and your eyes will roll up in your head and you will have a mouthgasim they are that good. I am a rotund man, I should know. I just completed my warm up meal at 10:15am now am ready for first lunch at noon.

All these dinners sound delish
Have a great time everybody!
Marshmallows or not!!!

Raputtak no to deep frying the bird
Just roasted

Gonna try to make turducken one day.. Mmmmm

Or even a cockerel......

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a reenactment of the first Thanksgiving with everyone in costume.

Thanksgiving Dinner in the U.S. and Canada (which celebrates it in October) is not about delicacies. It is about family, and simple food simply prepared - despite all the controversy and anguish over preparation

That said, it sounds like you may be unfamiliar with Joel Robuchon's recipe for mashed potatoes. Check it out. It's one of the dishes that made him famous.

Here's a friend of mine's Thanksgiving dinner.

maybe some folks did or will be today

"I'm a Brit, and this is my first Thanksgiving. What do I do"?

http://projects.nytimes.com/qa/events/thanksgiving-help-line/question/8141?smid=tw-nytdining

The sweet taters are better without the marshmallows, in my opinion, but a few of them add a little color. Here's a pic of the turkey I smoked on the grill this afternoon, we're fixin' to chow down on turkey, kale, mashed taters, cranberries, and punkin cupcake. No sweet taters.

Lucky you! I usually try to save the sweet potatoes and marshmallows for when I am finished with the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and all the salty stuff. Then I dig into the sweet potatoes before the p.i.e.! I hope everyone had a good turkey day either here or abroad.

I was born & grew up in South Carolina. I knew two of my great-grandmothers and both grandmothers. All (including my mother) always made sweet potatoes with small, cooked marshmallows on top as part of the Thanksgiving meal. My wife's family did the same and she also makes it every year. We lived in San Diego for thirty years (and a couple of other places) and I never saw this served anywhere else that we lived. Maybe it's a southern thing to a large degree. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Well I saw sweet potatoes with marshmallows served in California. My mother in law also servers them and she's from upstate New York. About as much of a Yankee as you will find. Lovely woman despite that.

I was born in Nashville, grew up in Georgia, lived in central NY (Syracuse), and now live in CA. I have never - NEVER - seen more rednecks congregated in one place than at the New York State Fair, so it doesn't surprise me that your Yankee mother-in-law makes sweet potatoes with marshmallows!

Saveur magazine has the history of the sweet potato casserole fairly well researched. The dish dates to a recipe that appeared in 1917 on the package of one of the first mass-produced marshmallows, which were (up to that point) a rare and sought-after candy.

Apparently, Southerners initially rejected the addition of marshmallows to their beloved sweet potatoes, but Northerners loved the dish. That's obviously not strictly true today, but might have something to do with where one's family roots resided during the early part of the 20th century.

Or maybe it's just random. For me, the dish was absent in my childhood Thanksgiving dinners, and I definitely don't make it now.

Loved 'em today. 'will love them again as left overs again tomorrow...

We introduced them to Brit and Slovak transfer students today, they both loved them.

once or twice a year is not so bad --- when I make it for my fam I do one dish with marshmallows and the other one without

here's a pic of with the sweet stuff

The one in trirol1's pic looks just like ours yesterday. Perfect leftover beside a juicy steak. We only use the special topping on holidays.