Dear Customers,
I was watching a news program (against my will because I momentarily misplaced the remote) a couple of weeks ago where the news crew were visiting one of the nation’s largest shipping ports. The mammoth shipping tankers were literally lined up in the harbor waiting to unload. Some of them had been waiting more than a month! The next scene was of the shelves in a large store where there was room for a family of 8 to bunk down for an unlimited time. Yes, there are shortages and there will continue to be shortages, just not in the grocery industry but everywhere including those gifts you wanted to buy for Christmas. The frustrating part is that many of those empty shelves could be full if the shipping containers on those stranded tankers could be unloaded!
Due to the scarcity of certain Thanksgiving related items, we will be running essentially the same ad in many departments for the next two weeks. This should help eliminate the possibility that while something may be out of stock or in short supply this week, it may be back in stock next week still giving you the opportunity to avail yourself of sale pricing. Virtually every week, we receive notices from several manufacturers that inevitably begin, “To Our Valued Customer, we regret to inform you of the system wide supply shortage of “fill in the blank here”. As it is in most instances, the supply shortage is due, not to the unavailability of raw materials, but rather to the shortage of people needed to process those raw materials and get them to the stores.
So, with all the complaining or doom and gloom in the previous two paragraphs, I thought I’d share with you a recipe that my family has been using the last ten years or so. The first time I ever ate sweet potatoes was in high school, the year I got stuck with the third and last lunch period. Breakfast at my house was served about 7am so when third lunch period rolled around about 5½ hours later, I’d eat things I never dreamed I’d eat before! It was the day we got our annual turkey dinner in the cafeteria, and I ate every bite on my plate, including the sweet potatoes. I think third lunch period was when I learned to try just about anything that was served to me – a trait I still employ today!
SWEET POTATO PECAN BAKE
| 3 cups sweet potatoes | ½ cup sugar | ½ cup margarine |
| 2 eggs | 1 teaspoon vanilla | 1 cup light brown sugar |
| 1 cup pecans, chopped | ¼ cup margarine | ½ cup flour |
- Cube, boil and mash the sweet potatoes. Add the sugar, ½ cup margarine, eggs, and vanilla, mixing well (I use an electric beater). Pour into an oven save baking dish.
- TOPPING: mix together the brown sugar, chopped pecans, ¼ cup margarine and flour – making a crumbly topping. Spoon topping over sweet potatoes.
- Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes.