Cold weather's return brings with it the memory of sweet potatoes roasting, a perfume that was a constant in my childhood home owing to my mother's love of those roasted tubers. Whenever we had them in the house, she'd always have one or two in the oven sitting cold and soft in their skins, waiting to be reheated as a side for whatever she was having.
Mom would consume them unadulterated, and with anything one could imagine, a treat carried over from her childhood reminiscence that she didn't force on her children. The rest of us viewed sweet potatoes as a holiday food – roasted, yes, but also bathed in brandy, lemon, sugar, and spices.
