Happy almost Thanksgiving! Raise your hand if you’re hosting this year. Now raise your hand if you’re starting to freak out.

Don’t worry. It’s easy-peasy to host Thanksgiving dinner for the masses if you plan ahead and cook and prepare most of your sides in advance. What’s the very best way to do this?

With your slow cooker, of course!

I’m expecting about eighteen to squeeze around our dining room table, and I’m excited to share a brand-new (to me) receipe with my family. I find the side dishes on Thanksgiving to be much more interesting to play around with than the main course. My family only eats turkey one way---and that’s with my mom’s “famous and secret” family recipe (which she got from her friend, Mark). I can’t mess around with this tradition, but I can sneak a new side into the mix: bacon-topped sweet potatoes.

Bacon Topped Sweet Potatoes

• 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in 2-inch chunks
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup milk (soy or rice is fine)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 5 pieces of Smithfield Bacon, crumbled

Instructions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Peel the potatoes and plop them into the bottom of your cooker. Add everything else except for the bacon. There isn’t a need to stir, and it’s okay if your butter is in a clump. Cover and cook on high for 2-3 hours, or on low for about 4. When the potatoes are fork tender, mash them using a potato masher or a wire whisk (I always use a whisk or an immersible blender because I don’t have a masher. hmm. Christmas is coming, I should add that to the list! Stir well.

While your potatoes are cooking, brown your bacon. I opted to microwave the bacon since I only needed a few pieces, and didn’t want to fuss with washing a skillet. The best way I’ve found to microwave bacon is to sandwich it between two dinner plates lined with paper towels. Microwave on high for about 4 minutes, or until the bacon has reached desired crisypness (I like it practically burnt. Adam does not. The girls are split.) Be super careful getting the plates out of the microwave—wear oven mitts.

Spoon your potatoes into a serving dish and top with crumbled bacon. Yum!

The Verdict

My entire family enjoyed these potatoes---the sweetness mixed with the salty bacon was a great change of pace from the sometimes overly-sweet candied sweet potatoes. My girls would still opt for the marshmallow variety, but Adam and his dad preferred this flavor. It’s heartier, and more savory instead of desertish.

If you are planning to make this for your Thanksgiving table, you can make the potatoes the day before and then reheat in the microwave or on the stove, or make them early in the morning and use the warm setting on your slow cooker to keep them toasty until your guests arrive.