Maple-Glazed Sweet Potatoes

This is a great dish to make the day before. You can get it all ready, stick it in the fridge overnight, and bake it right before serving.

• Some orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, cut into cubes approximately 1 inch square (peel them if you want; I don’t)
• Some amount of maple syrup (grade B preferred—it’s got more flavor)
• Olive oil in equal quantity to the maple syrup
• A handful or 2 of fresh cranberries
• Zest of anywhere from a quarter to a whole orange
• Salt to taste

1. Boil some salted water in a large pot. Add the sweet potatoes and boil until they are starting to get tender (anywhere from 5 minutes to half an hour, depending on how many you have and how big your pot is).
2. While the sweets are cooking, mix together the maple syrup, olive oil, and orange zest in a small bowl. Add salt to taste (and yes, this means you will taste it; keep in mind that this will be spread out over all your sweets, so it’s should be a little on the salty side tasted plain).
3. Drain the sweet potatoes and put them in whatever size baking dish comfortably holds them all (I like to use glass, so it looks nice going straight to the table).
4. Add the cranberries, pour the maple-oil mixture over it all, and mix well. Every last chunk of sweet potato should be well coated (and as notes above regarding quantity, there should be some oil/syrup in the bottom of the pan—if there’s not, just mix up some more).
5. Bake at 325º, covered with foil, for half an hour (or until the sweets are cooked all the way through), stirring to baste with the syrup every ten minutes or so.

I like to use the juice from the orange in my cranberry sauce, but you could also just eat it as a snack. If you want less tartness you can replace the cranberries with some dried fruit if you like. Apricots would probably be nice, though I have never tried it. If you want more tartness, you could use lemon zest instead of orange.