Mom has confirmed that she ordered thanksgiving dinner from Whole Foods, although not turkey or sweet potatoes this year so we'll be making those. We tried braised turkey legs last year and they didn't take very long and came out great so we are doing that instead of the pre roasted turkey breast that has been our usual. She said WF's sweet potatoes were too sweet, which I don't recall but doesn't surprise me. Our traditional sweet potato casserole recipe is out of one of those huge compendiums of recipes like The Joy of Cooking that starts with "for every cup of sweet potato add..." specific measurements of orange juice and brown sugar and what have you. The way we have always made it is to roast a bunch of sweet potatoes, peel them and mash them, eyeball the results and calculate additions accordingly. Well, one year after I had moved out I tried following the recipe by actually measuring my sweet potatoes (since I was only making enough for me that was much more manageable) and ended up with a much higher concentration of all the additions than how we usually make it, so we must consistently underestimate the initial sweet potato recipe and hence add a lot less sugar. So it makes sense than anyone else's version is going to seem too sweet.
I am chatty today! I don't know where that is coming from.