One of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes is not one I grew up with. It is one that I found after I was married. One I happened upon at a church potluck, brought there by a lovely woman from South Carolina who herself had married a Minnesota man and made her way up to the cold north, a steaming dish full of sweet potato casserole, blended together and topped with the most delightful pecan crunch.

You see, in my family's Thanksgiving, sweet potatoes are not mashed. They are glazed in a sticky syrup, and then they are topped with marshmallows and baked until the marshmallows are all brown and puffy on top. Sometimes there are no marshmallows, but the glaze remains.

As a child, the marshmallows would call my name, reminding me of the campfires that had been had just a few short months earlier. They'd sing lightly, encouraging me to take a giant scoop, and so I did. And though I enjoyed sweet potatoes, I didn't necessarily enjoy that many sweet potatoes.

Of course, then I met the sweet potato casserole, and suddenly I couldn't get enough. Something about sweet potatoes baked into a fluffy, inviting dish that happens to be topped with a generous amount of chopped pecans had me sold. Maybe it was because I felt like I was cheating on dessert and I hadn't yet touched my turkey. Whatever it was, that sweet potato casserole was instantly incorporated into my Thanksgiving dinner and carted around everywhere from my in-laws to my aunt's house, quickly becoming a Thanksgiving favorite in our family.

How do you eat your sweet potatoes? Are you a marshmallow family, or do yours come topped with pecans? Maybe you stuff your sweet potatoes and serve them like a baked potato.