Back from the other world known as school

Whew! Here I am sitting in one of my favorite wifi spots and the weather here in STL is pushing 70F. I can hear "Jingle Bells" all I want, but with weather like this, I'm not in the mood to Christmas shop.

I just finished my psych homework. It was really hard, especially when I have to remember details from late September to add to the paper. Thankfully, I took copious notes after the needed incident happened.

Now, I'm just jamming to my iTunes on the laptop and scouring the internet for goodies.

• This is a great Thanksgiving article my hubby's USAF lt. colonel pal forwarded to us.
• This one I found about Michael Seeley, a Mi'kmaq from Fredericton, NB at washingtonpost.com: A Canadian Indian's Age-Old Call to US duty
• Fan buys the house from "Christmas Story" (from cnn.com) Just don't shoot your eye out! ;->

I really felt like a galley slave for the past few days, so I spent some time looking for the latest and greatest new recipes for our Thanksgiving blowout. I ended up making the same stuff as usual, but I did give in and try a new sweet potato recipe that turned out really well.

It's also somewhat healthy, since I didn't use loads of cream. There is some fat, though (monounsaturated for the most part) in the topping. Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did!

Pecan-crusted sweet potatoes
(adapted from this Southern recipe at about.com Southern Food section)

3 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup melted butter (or margarine of your choice)
1 cup chopped pecans

Peel and chop the sweet potatoes. Rinse and cover with water in a large Dutch oven or other appropriate pot. Boil until sweet potatoes are tender. Drain water from pot and mash sweet potatoes in pot until smooth.

(I transferred the mashed sweet potatoes and put in a casserole until I was ready to reheat the next day. )

Next, prepare topping as noted above. Sprinkle on top of sweet potatoes in casserole and bake until potatoes are hot and topping is brown and crispy.

Great with roasted turkey or ham.

It's not low cal, but it is reasonably healthy! Enjoy it, because it won't last long and sure tastes really fattening!

A short stop

Gotta love some of these offbeat news stories, so I just had to share:

Love your corduroy? Read this.

Doc pays child support for unwanted baby. This one is from Germany, but I'm not surprised this hasn't happened in the US yet.

Celebrity perfumes. I'll just take my boring ol' French plain ones, thank you very much.

Want more offbeat news, in case you missed something?

See USA Today or cnn.com