Autumn Sweet Potato Bake

I got this recipe  from a magazine called Hobby Farm Home. It sounded like a great dish for fall: how can you lose with sweet potatoes, cranberries, walnuts, and apples?

However... this turned out to be one of those recipes that would have benefited from a trip through a test kitchen. For starters, it said to cut the cooked sweet potatoes into inch-thick pieces, then alternate them with layers of apples and cranberries in a two-inch-deep baking dish. My sister Cheri was the math major, but even I can figure out that you can't get four layers into a two-inch-deep dish if two of the layers are one inch thick.

Also, you'll notice that the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts. Great: I love walnuts. But the original recipe never told me what to do with the walnuts. Toast them and sprinkle them on top? Combine them with the cranberries? Boil them with the potatoes? Hold them between my knees while drinking to forget? I've got these chopped walnuts here, fellas, if you wanna try my casserole... .

I re-sliced my potatoes thinner.  I drilled the chopped walnuts into the assembled dish when I realized they were stranded on the cutting board. It turned out fine: colorful and tasty. There was some unabsorbed liquid,  maybe because the fresh cranberries I used were really juicy. I think it could have a little more brown sugar, and the flavors will probably be better integrated tomorrow-- making this one of many dishes that are better as leftovers, when the pressure is off and the chef has moved on.

We ate this with a hunk of three-cheese semolina bread and a mixed green salad topped by our last cherry tomatoes of the season.  Oh-- and a bottle of surprisingly tasty $10 Vampire cabernet from Napa that had a quote from Byron's  "The Giaour" on the back label:

There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet which perforce
Must feed thy livid living corpse.

Bwa-ha-ha! Bon appetit!

INGREDIENTS

 3 medium sweet potatoes
1 1/2 c. fresh or frozen cranberries
1 c. peeled, chopped Granny Smith apple
3/4 c. chopped walnuts
2/3 c. brown sugar (OR a little more, maybe 3/4 c.)
1/3 c. apple cider
1 t. salt
1 T. butter

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large saucepan, cover sweet potatoes with water; brint to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 30 minutes or until tender. Drain and cool. Peel potatoes; cut into 1-inch pieces (NOPE; 1/2" is better.)

Combine cranberries, apples, sugar and salt (and WALNUTS!); place half in a  greased 11 1/2 x 8  x 2" baking dish. Top with half the sweet potatoes. Repeat layers. Pour cider over all and dot with butter. Cover and bake for 25 minutes or until cranberries are tender.