Small Batch Sweet Potato Casserole (Small Batch Thanksgiving)

Topped with crunchy pecans and mini marshmallows, this lightened up small batch sweet potato casserole makes a tasty side dish for a small Thanksgiving gathering.

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Our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers over the years have some things in common. One is growing amazing sweet potatoes. It seems every year the size, shape, and sheer number of sweet potatoes in the farm share box increases. No complaints here--just compliments! We went from a family who would occasionally eat sweet potatoes at Outback Steakhouse and Boston Market's Sweet Potato Casserole to a family who enjoys Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Chili and Roasted Sweet Potato Nachos at home.

Since Thanksgiving is all about the side dishes for me, when I planned our Small Batch Thanksgiving I knew I'd be including a version of sweet potato casserole (alongside a full size batch of MA's Make Ahead Mashed Potato Casserole because 5 pounds of mashed potatoes for 3 people sounds about right). I like the Boston Market sweet potato casserole, so I searched Copykat Recipes for a similar one. I changed up the recipe--reducing the butter and sugar, replacing the oatmeal cookie crust with just marshmallows and nuts, shrinking it to fit in a 3 cup baking dish--and made it my own. This was a keeper last year, and will return to the Thanksgiving table this year. Our sweet potatoes in the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve (which accommodates potatoes, onions, and garlic as well as winter squash) are ready to be of service.

How to Make White Pizza with Arugula and Sausage

A fast and easy white pizza with fresh creamy burrata cheese, peppery arugula, and Italian sausage.

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This colorful pizza is a tasty way to involve cool weather greens in a family style pizza. When your Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share box is heavy on the greens, which happens at the beginning and end of the typical temperate season, it can be overwhelming. I wrote about my Greens Paralysis here, in a recipe for Slow Cooker Spicy Mustard Greens Soup. Rest assured, new seasonal eaters, even though I've been eating from the farm share for 11 years now, I still get stuck. There are myriad ways to eat greens. Having an idea of how to use each type of green (raw or cooked) helps a lot and is part of the reason I started this website.



Arugula is such a versatile green. This Fall we've been enjoying it as the basis for hearty main dish salads, tossed with a red wine vinaigrette and topped with boiled eggs, beans, peas, goat cheese, dried fruits and nuts. I've tossed arugula into pasta dishes for color, nutrition, and to get it out of the crisper while it's still fresh. I've processed and frozen arugula as arugula pesto when I didn't think we'd have time to eat it fresh. A leafy green that's yummy both raw and cooked is useful indeed.

Regular readers know that I am often working up to a year ahead. Since I'm a seasonal eater, by the time I get the photos out of the camera and the scribbled recipe notes onto a screen we're onto a new season. In fact, the Thanksgiving recipes I'm sharing now were created (and photographed and enjoyed--hot!) last year. I enjoy sharing ways to use the farm share here, but my family likes to eat food while it's hot, and I like to kick back and enjoy our Friday Night Pizza & Movie nights with them. So what I'm fixing for dinner tonight may appear on Instagram, but won't be on the website for a while.

Roast Pork Loin with Yogurt, Mustard, and Fresh Dill

This recipe starts with a boneless pork loin, slathered in a yogurt/mustard/fresh dill coating, then roasted to juicy tenderness. Served alongside dilled carrots, French breakfast radishes, and mashed potatoes it's a wonderful Sunday dinner.

This post is sponsored by the Ohio Pork Council. They paid me for my time, I bought my ingredients and created this recipe.

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The unifying theme today is the massive pile of fresh dill I have from my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. In my garden, I'll let my dill go to seed for all the pickles I put up and my plants petered out months ago. The dill from Mile Creek Farm is still going strong, though, and I've got a lot to work with. In the past I've shared How to Make Dill Butter, but I had more dill than that. [Two more big bunches like the one shown in the photo below.] I used some to make the Roasted Carrots with Fresh Dill shown alongside the pork. I used more tossed in with my mashed potatoes, though not full on MA's Make Ahead Mashed Potato Casserole like I'll be making later this month for Thanksgiving. I'll vacuum seal/freeze some of this fresh dill, and dehydrate the rest in the oven. I'll be making my own spice blend for my Spiced Cottage Cheese Potato Chip Dip which has my family unduly excited.

It's been a while since we've had a big Sunday Supper sort of meal. While my family eats together most nights of the week, the resumption of activities once the school year starts means that we are more fractured around the dining room table certain evenings. My son and I eat early, before leaving for hockey practice on hockey nights. My spouse and I often eat together while our daughter is at her weekly sewing class. Warm weather and busy weekends mean that we haven't sat down to a more traditional meat & potatoes kind of meal in forever!

When the Ohio Pork Council asked me to come up with a recipe for pork loin, chops, or tenderloin I headed to my local farmer's market to ask Jean Mattis of KJB farms what she recommended. She sold me a piece of boneless pork loin, perfect for roasting, then snagged another market goer to give me tips on how to cook it. Talk above service! Then I headed to volunteer at the thrift shop and got Emily's tips for using yogurt, mustard, and fresh herbs to make a flavorful crust for roasted pork. Finally, my fellow prep cooks at work helped me brain storm some vegetable side dishes using more of the abundant fresh dill. It really took a village on this recipe!