Now that Fall has officially begun, it’s time to put on the warm socks, colorful sweaters and curl up by the fire. Heat up a cup of apple cider and put a stick of cinnamon in it while you are waiting for the Crashed Sweet Potatoes to finish cooking. Can you tell that I love fall.
Here in the Sierras, we like to head out to Tahoe and get some pictures of the fall leaves, and maybe some bears.
I took these pictures last year and I’m hoping to get some more this weekend. I don’t take Obie T. Dogg with me when I think I might see some bears, but I do take him when we are just going out to snap some pics of local color.
He loves to be in Lake Tahoe because we take lots of walks. The area is so beautiful and it is very dog friendly.
I did learn something this weekend when Yes!Chef! and I took Obie to the Octoberfest.
Obie does not like crowds and lots of noise. He was a good dog, but he did not want to be there. (Obie is a shelter dog, and although I’ve had him over two years, there are still some things that I am learning about him.) Yes!Chef! and I each had a great beer that came with a large souvenir Stein to take home. It was fun, but it was crowded and the tasty looking bratwurst was too expensive to try. (We are economizing these days.)
So, when we get home from prowling around the area looking for great walking places with beautiful color, or returning from a fun outing, our thoughts turn to comfort food.
Fall is definitely the time to make comfort food.
And what could be more comfort-able than Sweet Potatoes and/or Yams? I had heard of Crashed Potatoes before, but I had only seen recipes using regular or red potatoes. They looked tasty, but not interesting enough for me to try. Then,
I happened to be poking around on Pinterest…
(if you don’t have a Pinterest account, don’t get one! You will never be heard from again, once you have an account.) One of my brides that I was following pinned a very tasty-looking recipe for Spicy Crashed Sweet Potatoes. What? This sounds delicious. A Must Try and I pinned it. The original recipe is from a blog called “dlynz – The blog by Donalyn Ketchum.” By the way, she has all kinds of wonderful autumn recipes on her blog.
Yes!Chef! has been busy with a new job, so I decided to make some for both of us. We got some Yams (because I like the orange color) and made them up. Of course, I did not follow the recipe exactly and I didn’t like how they turned out. And, worse, I made them too late at night to get some good photographs, so I needed to have a do-over.
The next day I bought some Sweet Potatoes instead of Yams. I peeled them, sliced them into good size chunks, laid them out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and poured a little oil over them.
I put them in a 375 degree oven to roast and then set about to make the spice mixture.
When the potatoes were soft, I took them out of the oven and smashed them down with a potato masher. One good mash will do…just enough to create some texture for the spice mixture to snuggle into. The biggest problem I had with smashing them was that they stuck to the masher. So I carefully mashed them down and then pulled them off the masher, again carefully.
After that, I sprinkled the mixture on top of the mashed potatoes. I put them back in the oven and cooked them until the mixture was brown and crispy.
And, I have to say that these were some mighty tasty morsels.
Now, don’t fret about the dark caramelization that occurs on the bottom of these lovelies. They are not burned. (But watch and make sure they don’t burn.) Some of the caramelization on the bottom is from the melted brown sugar mixed with the olive oil. Pure yumminess.
You can find the original recipe here.
Here are some of the changes that I made to this recipe. I used a Sweet Potato instead of Yams and I cooked them on parchment paper with some oil drizzled on top. But I think it might even be better if you tossed them with olive oil and salt and pepper before placing them on the baking sheet. I did not put the spice mix on both sides of the potatoes, as the original recipe does. When they were done, I sprinkled them with chopped green onion tops because it not only adds to the flavor, but it also looks pretty.
I hope you enjoy them. I even liked them cold the next day.
- Crashed Sweet Potatoes
Okay, here’s my Pinterest Account in case you are interested: Karen’s Pinterest. I would love to have you comment or follow, but don’t get me started with it because I find it hard to stop.
We Call Him Yes!Chef! 
This sounds delicious. I was lucky enough to visit Tahoe about ten years ago and loved it. Your pics are fantastic. Happy Fall!
It is a beautiful place. Thank you for stopping by and happy fall to you too.
Those look delicious!!
Oh, they are. We had them cold the next day and they were just as delicious.
No doubt that I have to try this recipe. Thanks 🙂
I hope you like it. Thank you for stopping by.
Wow, if this Fall is half as nice as your last Fall, you’ll be fine! Love the top dog in the road photo. The recipe looks delicious too.
I think Obie in the road is one of my fav pics for this year. I hope I can get some pics of bears this Saturday. It’s supposed to snow on Friday, so it may be a little coolish (understatement). Thank you for stopping by.
These look insanely good. I just used my last sweet potatoes in a chowder, so I’ll have to go get more and give this a try!
They are very good! Thanks for stopping by.
Your photos make me so excited for the fall! I can’t believe you found such gorgeous photos ops in Lake Tahoe–what places in the area did you guys visit?
Thank you. We went to Angora Ridge and the area near Taylor Creek, mostly. We also like to go out to Hope Valley. It’s quite beautiful this time of year.
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Wow! Thank you so much. I will be right over.
Wonderful.
Awesome post! And I want to make those now. 🙂
Hope you did. They take a little time, but they are worth it.
[…] from two recipes: “Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes” from the Dyln blog and “Crashed Spicy Sweet Potatoes” from the We Call Him Yes! Chef! blog. Both have great photos of entire cooking cycle of this […]
I will have to try these, I do the same with baby red potatoes – never thought of doing so with sweet potatoes – you guys are so creative!!
I am now wanting to try the red potato crash
Delicious recipe! Can’t wait to try it. I was in Tahoe for the first time this past June and loved it! What a beautiful and relaxing place. Stunning photos of the changing leaves. Cheers!
Thank you for your kind comments. It is a delicious recipe which I will probably be cooking for a group of my lady friends this weekend. Tahoe is my favorite place. I never tire of it and I love to take pictures of it. I’m glad you got to visit.
Love this recipe. I saw it on another blog that had a link to yours. I’ll be trying this soon.
It’s a goodie, all right. Let me know how you liked it.
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Just wanted to let you know that I love your blog, recipes and photos. It’s always so fun to visit your pages. Thanks!
Thank you so much and I appreciate your stopping by. I hope you find some recipe to make.
I can’t believe these are sweet potatoes and easy to make 🙂 would definitely try my hands on these goodies. They would make perfect desserts – classic and sophisticated looking.
I served them to a group of women the other day and they loved them.
I can’t believe these are sweet potatoes. Simply classic but sophisticated looking. Hoping to try and make them by myself. 🙂 thanks for posting such a wonderful and mouthwatering dish.