Fancy yams

I'm used to the jaw-dropping grocery prices at the Admiral Metropolitan Market, but when I stopped by there last week for milk, something in the prepared food deli turned even my jaded Seattle head. It was a big mound of "roasted yams with pecans and cranberries" for $7.98 a pound! Sure it looked tasty, but a few heavy scoops of that would make a very expensive side dish. More than most people spend on an entire turkey.

Yams are on special now, everywhere, for about 99 cents a pound. For some reason this only happens around the holidays, and the rest of the year they cost 2 or 3 times more. I don't know anything about yam farming and harvests, but they're also freshest right now. We like them oven-baked with a touch of butter and salt and pepper. Yams are nutritious and I never understood that marshmallow thing, although there's the appeal of family food traditions. Anyway, I knew I could make the Metropolitans' fancy yam concoction without a recipe.

I rubbed the yams with olive oil and roasted them uncovered in a ceramic dish. Some of the sweet juice caramelized on the bottom. When they cooled, I pulled the peels off, added a little salt and mashed them up with a fork right in the pan. Then I mixed in a handful of Craisins and some toasted pecan pieces. I put it in the fridge until the next day. To heat it up, I dotted the top with butter and baked it for a half hour or so. This is an easy make-ahead dish for Thanksgiving.

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

(ha ha)

~Author Unknown