Angelaid, "a hungry mind is a terrible thing to waste" I really like you....it's about this time of the day I start thinking of food, too! LOL! My Favorite cookbook is a Community Cookbook that was compiled for a benefit with proceeds going to a non-profit organization. It is a compilation of tastes and flavors I grew up with. A mixture of Tex-Mex and German/Polish/Bohemian flavor. So, I go through that recipe book about 3 times a month looking for goodies. (I don't usually "bake", as I don't have a sweet tooth.) I tend to favor Casseroles. But, Main Man is Meat N Taters. My Best Friend is French/Italian. She conjures up some pretty tasty stuff and has turned me into a seeker of Mediterranean Flavor. I found out I looooove Garlic. Gayle

This is one of those "no recipe" dishes. It's something you can't really mess up. I always cook the meat first and get rid of the grease. I often will use sausage instead of hamburger or a mixture. I prefer my vegetable on the side but sometimes mix it in. Not a green bean fan so the "traditional" method is modified here. I too am not a mushroom fan so I use other cream soups, whatever I have. Cream of potato is great, celery, chicken, like I said, whatever I have. Sometimes I'll put in a can/jar of gravy instead of the cream soup if I'm tired of cream soups. Sometimes I'll use canned potatoes, fresh ones or whatever frozen potatoes I have. Large diced potatoes work great. After all, it's meat, potatoes, and a veg. How do you mess it up? It's GOT to be good! I'm moderate with seasonings these days, but I like some Louisiana Hot Sauce in it, garlic salt, onion, and if I'm short on hamburger or something I'll cut up some smokey hot dogs, use some frozen meatballs or something to put in for added meat. Depending on the flavor I desire, I might add some Worstechire sauce, Teriyaki, steak sauce or something too. I cook mine covered to get the potatoes cooked through, then turn up the oven a bit, pull the foil off and brown it up so the top is crisp. Ir reheats well either in the microwave, stove or oven although sometimes I do need to add a little water to steam it a bit to get a good reheat and then it's like when it was first made. In Minnesota, it's a "hotdish". And Tater Tot Hotdish is popular and simple. This is something that everyone should be able to make. It's really not difficult and truly is no-fail. Want more meat? Fine. Want more potatoes? No problem. Want more veggies? Go for it. No onion? Lots of onion? Half the pan with onion and veggies and the other half without? Simple. Few dishes are so simple and fool proof.

No glaze, I wanted the butter to give along with the cake when I delivered them. Slices spread with plain butter and a cup of coffee are to die for!! LOL I thought something a little fancy would dress it up a bit and make a nice gift. Of course the butter would be wrapped in wax paper and kept in fridge until gift giving day. It tastes on the lines of a spice cake...maybe a walnut butter of some sort...

Dariana -- the following recipe that a GW poster named jadite posted years ago would work well in your situation, since it reheats well. Fiery Sweet Potatoes Time: About 2 hours 5 pounds sweet potatoes 1 cup coconut milk 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste 1/2 cup dark brown sugar 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 teaspoon salt. 1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Bake potatoes on a baking sheet until very soft, about 1 hour. When cool enough to handle, peel and mash. 2. In a small saucepan, heat coconut milk with curry paste over low heat. Mix coconut milk mixture, half the sugar, half the butter, and salt into potatoes. Keep warm until ready to serve, or cover and refrigerate up to two days. 3. At least 30 minutes before serving, heat oven to 425 degrees. Put potatoes in a baking dish, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover potatoes, dot with remaining butter and sugar and broil until brown and crusty on top, checking often to prevent scorching. Yield: 10 to 12 servings. Notes: I've made this, the full 5lbs, following the recipe up through step 2. I've frozen it in portions at this stage. If I'm serving it to guests, I'll finish it with the butter and brown sugar because it makes a prettier presentation. If it's just for DH and me, I skip this. It's good enough as is. <-- note from jadite. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first year I made it for Thanksgiving I got started later than I ought to have, and didn't have time to roast the sweet potatoes, so instead I cubed them and boiled them for about 10-15 minutes. I also had a fair number of various colored carrots so I sliced them crosswise, caramelized them in olive oil, while the sweet potatoes cooked and then added the curry paste to the carrots and later the coconut milk. Then when then sweet potatoes were cooked, put them in a baking pan, pour on the carrot-coconut-curry sauce, and mix the sauce in and lightly mash the potatoes. Then top with butter and brown sugar as the above recipe states and bake for about twenty minutes.