Sure, everyone knows about turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. But somewhere hidden behind the gravy boat and that mountain of rolls, if you're very lucky this Thanksgiving you just might find a truly unique dish: candied sweet potatoes! My grandma used to make them the old-fashioned way - piled high with delicious, gooey marshmallows! Mmmm, marshmallows . . . I was a picky eater as a kid, but even I couldn't turn my nose at a vegetable that tasted like dessert.
What is a sweet potato, anyway? Turns out it's not a potato at all. It isn't closely related to white or yellow potatoes, the kind you mash up for Thanksgiving or deep fry and salt for, well, for just about any other day. Sweet potatoes also aren't closely related to yams, another tuber grown mostly in Southeast Asia. (What many people call candied yams are almost always in reality candied sweet potatoes.)
