Part of my job at Athens Land Trust is to facilitate educational cooking demonstrations with kids. I love doing this! Sometimes there's a crowd of kids and sometimes there's just one but they are always eager to get involved with the demo!

Here's what you will need for this quick and easy recipe:

4 farm fresh sweet potatoes

6 cups water

1 tbsp. nutmeg

1 tbsp. cinnamon

4 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. black or cayenne pepper

2 tsp. sea salt

2 tbsp. butter

Your favorite all natural cinnamon granola (I used Kind Cinnamon Oat Clusters with Flax Seeds)

or

all natural marshmallows (I used Elyon Mini Marshmallows)

What to do:

Step 1. Peel the skin off the sweet potatoes using a peeler or a knife then cut the peeled sweet potatoes into cubes.

Did you know that sweet potatoes come in different colors? They can be the orange color we are all used to seeing of they can be white or purple. We have orange, white and purple sweet potatoes at West Broad Market Garden. For this recipe, I peeled and cubed sweet potatoes in each color.

P.S. You can also eat sweet potato greens! I did a sweet potato greens smoothie with kids when it was still warm outside. Be on the look out for the recipe!

Step 2. Bring 6 cups of water to a rolling boil in a large pot. Once water is boiling, add sweet potatoes and cook for 15-20 minutes or until soft.

Step 3: Once the sweet potatoes are soft (you can test them by picking one up with tongs and squeezing it) drain the water from the pot.

Step 4: Mash the sweet potatoes using a wisk until smooth. Once smooth, use a spoon to stir in the butter, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

Drogheria & Alimentari All Natural Nutmeg Mill,that I purchased from the Daily Groceries Co-op.I used a nutmeg mill for this demo. I was impressed by the amazing aroma of the freshly ground nutmeg and the full fresh flavor of it. I would reccommend using freshly groung nutmeg for this recipe!

Using the different color sweet potatoes created a rich multi-dimensional orange color perfect for a festive Thanksgiving spread!

Step 5: Top the mashed sweet potatoes with the cinnamon granola, marshmallows or both!

Many of the youth chose both toppings!

I was not going to use marshmallows for this recipe but I was surprised to find the Elyon brand mini marshmallows at the local co-op. These marshmallows are fat-free and gluten- free. They are also kosher! They are made with egg whites, fish gelatin and tapioca gelatin.

Make sure to stop by the West Broad Farmer's Market on Saturdays from 10AM to 2PM! The Cooking with Kids demo starts at 11AM followed by our traditional cooking demonstrations at 11:45. These demos are a great way to learn how to prepare farm-fresh produce and a chance to taste new recipes!

There is also a Tuesday market from 3PM til dusk. There are no demos at the market but you can still get your farm-fresh produce! In honor of the Thanksgiving Holiday, we will have an expanded Tuesday Market in place of the Saturday market. The market will feature a collard greens cook-off and tasting (featuring collard greens made by yours truly) and a fried turkey demo and tasting. Hope to see you there!