Inventing a New Thanksgiving Side Dish, Take 1

Close, but no cigar.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and the food that my family makes that day is something I look forward to all year. Seriously, all year (I will be sure to blog about that meal later on).  With the exception of a few people in the bunch, we're generally not much into sweets, so candied yams have never been all that popular, but they do make an appearance (something that green been casserole will NEVER do).

Today I was thinking about how I could take something like candied yams, and make it more to my liking, so I started to brainstorm.  I knew that if I was going to make anything sweet, I would want to have a savory component in the dish to counter that flavor note.  So, what I came up with was oven roasted sweet potatoes, goat cheese, and honeyed pecans with sage and crispy shallots.  They came out very pretty, and the hubby liked them, but I wasn't totally jazzed with the overall result.  Kind of reminded me of someone who's very attractive, but as you get to know them you find out they don't have much substance and aren't actually very enjoyable.

Whenever you make up a new recipe, you take the risk that it won't come out super well.  Don't be deterred!  Having a dish come out to an "ehh...." review isn't a bad thing.  There's nothing like room for improvement.  So, to all you aspiring home cooks, just keep chugging away!  You learn each time you cook - so take note of what you do: what you liked, what you didn't like, and improve it the next time around.

With that said, no recipe just yet. I'll work on this and hopefully have one to share, soon!