Southern Sweet Potato Pie

When my mother passed, God bless her, the task of clearing up her earthly affairs fell to me. As I was sorting through her things, I came across four or five recipe boxes tucked away in a cupboard above the stove. I remember spending an hour or so flipping through them, because Mom loved to entertain, and a lot of the recipes she kept came with wonderful memories. Those recipe boxes were time machines.

For me, the most valuable treasure was a 3x5 index card, written in her own hand. At the top right was the notation, "Daddy's SP Pie."

As I mentioned earlier, I always thought of Pal's Sweet Potato Pie as desert...no way anyone could convince me otherwise. This pie had nothing to do with vegetables, and warm memories of my childhood always accompanied even fleeting thoughts about it.

To say that my children grew up detesting sweet potatoes might seem strange, until you realize that I assaulted my wife and family for years with tales of the wonder of Pal's Sweet Potato Pie. I requested sweet potato pie at every opportunity, particularly during the holidays. Alas, I didn't have the recipe, and never bothered to ask Mom for it... I was a guy, and guys don't ask their moms for recipes, right?

I suspect my kids, all adults with families of their own, still detour around sweet potato displays in the supermarkets, thanks to me.

Funny thing...when I found Mom's recipe card, and looked at the amount of brown sugar the recipe called for, I realized immediately why we loved it so much as kids...what's not to love about a "heaping cup" of the stuff?

You know what? Even though I'm over 70 years old, and know how unhealthy a veritable mountain of brown sugar can be, the mere thought of that pie still gives me the "warm and fuzzies."

Make it and you'll understand why.

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