Pick Your Battles || Rolls, Casseroles, Sweet Potato Pie & Andy’s Black Friday Deal || December 2025

Today the kitchen was warm, busy, and full of good smells. Meagan spent most of the morning baking and preparing some of our favorite holiday dishes. Soft homemade rolls, a creamy sweet potato casserole, a sweet potato pie made with our homegrown potatoes, and an easy no-bake dirt cake the kids love. While all that was going on in the kitchen, Andy was outside setting up the $99 freezer he picked up on a Black Friday deal. It’s the perfect little setup to store his seeds for next year and help us keep things organized going into the new season. Just a simple, real day here on the homestead. Cooking, preparing, and making the most of what we’ve got. Pull up a chair and spend the day with us. Thank y’all for being here with our family. We’re grateful for every single one of you. Sweet Potato Casserole 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes 2 eggs 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup milk 4 tbsp melted salted butter vanilla Cinnamon Combine above ingredients, pour in 9x13 pan. Make the topping. For the topping combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup flour and 3 tbsp melted butter. Add in chopped pecans, combine and sprinkle on top of your casserole. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook for 30 minutes until topping is melted and center is bubbly. Rolls 1 cup warm milk 2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast ¼ cup sugar 1 egg 4 tbsp melted butter 1 tsp salt 3 ½–4 cups all-purpose flour 1. In a bowl, combine: warm milk yeast sugar Let sit 5–10 minutes until foamy. 2. Add: egg melted butter salt Stir well. Add 3 ½ cups flour and mix until a soft dough forms. Add more flour only if needed 3. Knead 5–7 minutes by hand (or 4–5 minutes in mixer) until smooth and stretchy. 4. Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise 1 hour or until doubled. 5. Turn dough onto a floured surface. Gently roll out. Cut into squares 6. Place rolls on a greased cookie sheet. Cover and rise 45 minutes. 7. Bake at 350°F for 15–18 minutes, until lightly golden 8. Brush with melted butter the second they come out of the oven. Sweet Potato Pie 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes 1 stick salted butter, melted 1 cup granulated sugar ½ cup brown sugar ½ cup evaporated milk (or half-and-half) 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 1 tbsp vanilla extract 1 tsp ground cinnamon ½ tsp ground nutmeg ½ tsp ground ginger Crust 1 unbaked deep-dish pie crust (homemade or store-bought) Prepare the Sweet Potatoes For the BEST flavor: Bake them, don’t boil them Wash, dry, poke holes. Bake at 400°F for 1 hour or until very tender. Peel and mash until smooth. In a large bowl, combine: Mashed sweet potatoes Melted butter Sugar + brown sugar Evaporated milk Eggs Vanilla All spices Mix until smooth. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Pour filling into the unbaked pie crust. Bake 50–60 minutes, until middle is just set and has a slight jiggle. Let it cool at least 2 hours Serve room temp or chilled with whipped cream. Dirt Cake Dirt Cake 1 pack family size Oreos 1 big box of instant vanilla pudding Milk for pudding 1 block cream cheese (softened) 1 regular size container of whipped cream Make vanilla pudding in a large mixing bowl (following the directions on the box). Let sit for 5-10 min. Crush half of the oreos as fine or as big as you'd like, cover bottom of 9x13 dish. Add softened cream cheese to vanilla pudding once pudding has set. Combine completely. Fold in entire container of whipped cream. Pour mixture over Oreo crust in bottom of dish, smooth it out. Crush other half of the Oreos and spread over the top of mixture. Store in the fridge. This dessert is best after it has set in the fridge for at least 4 hours, but can sit overnight as well.