Well, it's November...

...and when November gets here, I start thinking about Thanksgiving.
     Maybe it has something to do with the weather changing, but I doubt it.  For some reason, November really makes me think about food, not weather.  And food makes me think about Thanksgiving.
     This year my small family in this part of the U.S. has decided not to have a traditional Thanksgiving, meaning no turkey, dressing, etc.  Instead, they want to grill steaks outside on the big, shiny silver grill.  Of course I had to agree.  I mean, you can't buck the entire bunch.  You just have to "go with the flow."  Even if I am "the mother."
     Then I thought, I'm going to ask everyone to bring just one dish to the meal, anything they want to bring...maybe fresh veggies to grill from my daughter-in-law, maybe oatmeal cookies from my son, maybe mashed potatoes from my other son.  You get the idea.  If they'll all do that, then I can bring what I want to bring.  And I know exactly what I want to bring. SWEET POTATOES.  So, I started my hunt for something really special.
     Now, when I go hunting for something, I hunt for it in the library.  And I headed for the 641.5 section here in the Moultrie-Colquitt County Library.  That's the cookbook section.
     I found the Quick and Easy Cookbook, the American Heirloom Pork Cook Book, and the Steaks, Ribs and Chops Cookbook.  That wasn't exactly what I had in mind.
     I looked through the Better Homes and Gardens cook books (we have several of those), as well as the Slow Cooker Recipes (there are several of those also).  I even looked in the Blue Ribbon Recipes, Paula Deen Celebrates!, and Food for Friends cook books.
     And I made a note of the cook books titled Christmas in the Heartland, The Creative Christmas Kitchen, and Christmas with Southern Living.  After all, you know that when Thanksgiving comes and goes, Christmas is right around the corner.
     I thought I was at the end of my hunt until I saw The Plantation Cookbook.  Now, if you can't find a yummy sweet potato recipe in a plantation cookbook, in the South where plantations are as plentiful as sweet potatoes, then you just might as well give up.
     But sure enough, there it was!!!  Sweet Potatoes in Oranges!!!  Sweet potatoes, butter, brown sugar, eggs, light cream, allspice, cinnamon, salt, chopped pecans, sherry (just a little bit), and orange cups (made from real oranges, large oranges cut in half, pulp scooped out, edges fluted...just makes my mouth water thinking about them).
     So!  I have my recipe.  I'm going to have my sweet potatoes.  Now all I have to do is convince everyone to bring just one dish they'd like to have to our un-traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
     Thank you, library, for all these wonderful cookbooks and for my special 2010 (traditional) sweet potato plantation recipe.  I can hardly wait!