Ready for me to make your year? These freeze beautifully. Make them days/ weeks/ MONTHS in advance of Thanksgiving, Christmas or any other fall dinner party and simply defrost, reheat and serve. Topping suggestions below, but the world’s your oyster!

Orange Sweet Potatoes

Yield: 10 Orange Cups

Author: Bebe Clement

A new "make ahead" take on a holiday side staple. Finish with some of the suggested unexpected toppings for a real thrill.

Time

Prep: 1 hour
Cook: 30 minutes
Total: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

5 medium sweet potatoes (try to get all the same size)
5 navel oranges
¾ cup orange juice (from above oranges)
2 TB butter, melted
¾ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
Pinch of salt
Choice of topping – suggestions listed below

Recipe

Make your mashed sweet potato. Line a cookie sheet with foil and put it on the bottom shelf of your oven. This will catch the drips. Poke each sweet potato six or eight times with a fork and place them straight onto the oven grate on the middle shelf (above the foil lined sheet). With the potatoes in the oven, preheat the oven to 425. When the oven beeps to say it is heated, start the timer for 45 mins (this is for smaller potatoes, go up to an hour or so for bigger ones). After 45 mins goes by turn off the oven but leave the potatoes in until completely cooled. This allows the meat of the potato to pull away from the skin.
While your potatoes are cooking prepare the orange cups. Cut the oranges in half and juice them until you get ¾ cup or more of juice. Set that aside.
Scoop out the fruit and scrape away as much of the pith as you can. Do this carefully, but don’t cut corners. Don’t rush and poke holes in the skin, and equally don’t skimp and leave pith because it can be very bitter. Nice clean cups, okay?
When potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel and mash. Stir in melted butter, orange juice, spices and salt.
Spoon the potato mixture into the orange cups, allowing the potato to lap over the edges of the orange slightly, so that if the cups shrink slightly in the freezer you won’t be able to see. Now is when you add a topping if you want. See below for some suggestions, or try the classic throwback marshmallow, or go naked!
When ready to serve heat oven to 375 and bake for 20-30 minutes or until warmed through. If reheating from frozen, thaw first, then bake as above.

Toppers:

Just suggestions – play around with these!

Ginger and Toasted Pecans

1 cup pecans, lightly toasted and roughly chopped

½ cup candied ginger, pretty finely chopped

Mix toppings together and spread evenly across the potatoes

Chorizo and Toasted Almonds

9oz pkg chorizo – I use pork

¾ cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted

Cook chorizo through on the stovetop, using a fork and breaking meat apart into small crumbles. Cool and drain away the grease on a paper towel. Evenly distribute chorizo across sweet potatoes. Sprinkle with almonds.

Sugared Cranberries and Blue Cheese

1/3 cup sugared cranberries – recipe on The Short Order

½ cup blue cheese

Evenly spread cranberries across potatoes and sprinkle with blue cheese.

Heat as noted above