What, two posts in a day?  I know!  But Cari is hosting a Thanksgiving recipe linkup over here!  The big day is only a day away but maybe you've got these few ingredients on hand to whip up this amazingly awesome sweet potato side?  Or maybe you don't begin shaking and sweating at the mere thought of heading to the grocery store on the day before Thanksgiving to pick up ingredients like some people I know?  If either of those apply, consider these lovely baconified sweet potatoes for your feast.

My stepmother introduced me to the idea of combining bacon with sweet potatoes years ago at Thanksgiving.  And they were delicious.  As everything is when you add bacon.  And it was the first time the husband willingly ate sweet potatoes.  High five for that.  It takes a normal side and how do the pro chefs say it?  Kicks it up a notch?  Yes, that's it.  Several notches kicked here.  I think she used a bonafide recipe but like with all things cooking, I tend to just wing it.

Ingredients:

SWEET POTATOES 

(I used two bags and I'm a little worried that it's still not enough.  They were pretty wimpy sized.)

BACON 

(Totally to taste and proportioned to the amount of your potatoes.  I used half a pack for my wimpy potatoes.)

ONE YELLOW ONION

BUTTER

(I used 2 tbsp. but again more potatoes, more butter.  You know how to do this.)

SEA SALT

(To taste.  I like a lot.)

Roast your potatoes in the oven.  

(375 for I don't know, 30 minutes?  Basically, til they're nice and soft.)

While that's going and once the potatoes are cool, squeeze all that potato out of those skins into a mixing bowl.  I suppose you could peel them before roasting but the peels come off very easily after roasting.

Once the bacon and onion are nice and cooked, pour them into the mixing bowl with the potatoes.  Go ahead and add a few tablespoons of that bacon grease.  And you save that bacon grease, don't you?  Oh, please do.  We have an ongoing jar of bacon grease in our cupboard to use for flavoring and sautéing, especially for making scrambled eggs.  We're all snooty and buy the expensive uncured bacon so for us bacon is a rare treat and I like to make it go as far as possible.  The grease makes things taste like bacon even when there's no bacon.  And it makes your little boys very happy to eat their eggs and makes them squeal with a slightly disturbing enthusiasm.

Melt the butter if your potatoes are cool.  Otherwise, the heat from the potatoes will melt it for you. Now, add the several tablespoons of butter and whip it real good.  And wonder why your camera is rebelling and choosing to now make everything look blue.

Salt to taste and put in an oven safe dish.  About 20 or 30 minutes before your feast, simply throw those suckers into a 350 degree oven to heat them through.

And there you have it:  Unphotogenic but completely mouthwateringly savory baconified sweet potatoes.

Enjoy!