Thanksgiving was really quiet at our house this year. We typically have a group of neighbors over who do not have family nearby and we all enjoy a loud, raucous, delicious Thanksgiving together. This year, however, everyone was heading out of town which left us to a house with, well… just us.
I was a little bummed about it at first, afraid that my kids would not think the day was special. I planned on still cooking up a big Thanksgiving feast with the typical goodies to eat, but it would be strange not having other people here. How would my kids differentiate this day from any other?
As I was cooking up our feast, I looked over in my produce basket and noticed a few sweet potatoes. We don’t typically have sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving, but you know what? This year is anything but typical. I grabbed up the sweet potatoes and thought about what to do with them. Should I make Amy’s Scalloped Sweet Potatoes? How about Shari’s Crab Stuffed Sweet Potatoes? Maybe Lori’s Glazed Sweet Potatoes would be the recipe to adorn our Thanksgiving table? Those all sounded delicious, but what I was really craving was Sweet Potato Fries. Totally not something you would normally find on the table at Thanksgiving, right?
Right then and there is when I figured out that there was some joy and benefit in having a quiet, just us Thanksgiving. It didn’t matter that Sweet Potato Fries aren’t a typical Thanksgiving feast food. This was our Thanksgiving, and there was no one else here to tell me that there are other things that my sweet potatoes should be used for on Thanksgiving that would be more appropriate.
I baked up the sweet potato fries and Nick, Leah and I ate them up as an appetizer to our Thanksgiving meal. The other kids didn’t even get the chance to snack on them because we kept this little secret to ourselves.
We ended up having a very happy Thanksgiving, special indeed because it was what we made of it. We hope your day was just as special!
Recipe: Baked Sweet Potato Fries (from Paula Deen and The Food Network)
I didn’t end up making a large batch of House Seasoning. I just sprinkled what I thought would be a good amount of each ingredient onto the potatoes.
House Seasoning
- 1 cup salt
- 1/4 cup black pepper
- 1/4 cup garlic powder
- Olive Oil, for tossing (I used Avocado Oil that we received at BlogHer Food)
- 5 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch long slices, then 1/4-wide inch strips, using a crinkle cut knife
- Oil
- 1 tablespoon House Seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
For the House Seasoning: Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Line a sheet tray with parchment. In a large bowl toss sweet potatoes with just enough oil to coat. Sprinkle with House Seasoning and paprika. Spread sweet potatoes in single layer on prepared baking sheet, being sure not to overcrowd. Bake until sweet potatoes are tender and golden brown, turning occasionally, about 20 minutes. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Sweet potato fries are my favorite!! I could eat them all day long:)
These look amazing! They sound like the perfect Thanksgiving starter.
Oh yum! These look good. I’ve been wanting to make some of these for a long time. I’m not a big sweet potato fan but sweet potato fries are always yummy when we go out to dinner. One local restaurant serves them with, get this, honey butter…geez, talk about yum.
I love sweet potato fries and these sound delicious. It’s nice to mix things up. We had a low-key day too and there certainly was a lot less mess to worry about, but it’s also not as fun for me when I’m not cooking for a group. I really want to try Amy’s recipe too!
Sweet potato fries are the best! I can eat them all day!
Yum! Sounds delicious. My favorite Thanksgiving tradition is that we have our Thanksgiving meal in the early afternoon and then for dinner we have pies. We have at least 5 different types of pie (this year we had 11 total pies for 12 people!)
You know what, that sounds like the perfect way to serve sweet potatoes to me. Nothing beats a crunchy sweet potato sprinkled with some salt and pepper. I am all for creating some new traditions and breaking the rules a bit. It sounds like you all had a lovely time. Xoxo
I love it! I sometimes wish it were just the three of us for a Thanksgiving meal, just for this very reason.
I think baked sweet potato fries sound like a great new tradition!
We adore sweet potato fries!
Love your site (especially the header). The avocado oil….could you actually taste a difference? Intriguing. Would love to try that. Think I would rather have these sweet potatoes than the ones with all the sugar.
It must have been a nice change to spend thanksgiving just as a family. Every few years we end up doing that too and it’s pretty nice. 🙂
ooh, we all love sweet potato fries! we put cinnamon & garlic on the kids and add cayenne to ours! yummy.
Oh my goodness – I want those RIGHT NOW!!! 🙂 They look delicious! I love yams at Christmas and Thanksgiving. My hubby always makes WAY too much cause the kids don’t mlike them mashed. I am going to make THIS for them!!! 🙂
THANKS
You’ve just made your own new tradition! Sometimes a quiet Thanksgiving is nice, too… we’ve had a few of those and they are some of my favorites!
It TOTALLY is what you make of it and I can only imagine these fries made everything all ok! YUM!
My favorite fry in the whole wide world! These look perfect.
Thanksgiving was pretty low-key for us too…just four of us! It was nice to have something more low key. I love sweet potatoes every day of the week, and especially on Thanksgiving! These look delicious!
Wow! Great recipe. I love sweet potato fries and your seasoning is perfect.
My husband and I love sweet potato fries! We are working on the kids liking them (one of these days) I myself would have loved these on Thanksgiving – sunds like in the end your day was just as special as always, I for one sometimes am “greedy” and want my kids and husband all to myself on a holiday or birthday.
I love this house seasoning and with sweet potatoes. Perfect!
Love sweet potato oven fries any day of the year. Love that you spiced them up even more so. Yum!
Those look so so good! How did you get them so thin? I can never cut mine like that.
When my husband and I moved far away from our families, we had to made new Thanksgiving traditions…it was just the two of us and it was calm and quiet. A small feast, lounging on the couch watching football, a hike the next day and a parade that night. Now we are back home and dearly miss our little tradition.
I love sweet potato fries… I “upgrade” to them at restaurants whenever I can, and I am always making them at home. Love your version, and can’t wait to try your seasoning!
Your sweet potato fries look perfect! I love sweet potatoes and will take them anyway, but I especially like them this way.
Your sweet potato fries look perfect! I love sweet potatoes and will take them anyway, but I especially like them this way.
Hello cousin! You talked about making the day your own. We had a quiet day here, too. Dinner consisted of a pot of chili and some homemade cinnamon rolls. Sometimes a good, quiet day is what everyone needs! (But next time maybe we should consult each other’s calendars!) 🙂
Hope your holidays are off to a great start.
Sweet potato fries … if you’re ever in Denver, there’s this movie theater on Colfax that serves full meals in the cafe, which you can eat before the show or take into the movie on these clever trays. And they serve a sweet potato fry with a ginger sesame glaze that is more addictive than anything known to man. They should have to keep them behind the counter with the cold medicine!
Cheers!
I think that sweet potato fries are the perfect appetizer to a Thanksgiving dinner!
Perfect and yummy! 🙂
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