Pinky's Sweet Potato Pie
 by Peggy Dye (Submitted by Miriam Bedrick)

Peggy gave me a recipe for a cookbook being created at my son's grade school in 1995.  We asked people to submit recipes and a story about them. Peggy was a fantastic cook and raconteur, so I thought it would be nice to have this recipe and memory she contributed...
 
Mornings my mother Alice often baked a breakfast cake to go with our coffee and grapefruit.  I woke up to the smell.  Alice put lemon and orange peel in the batter. Sometimes she left the bowl to let me swipe a lick.  'Sweet potato, you like raw cake!'  she teased.  She died when I was 18 and I missed getting her recipe, but my Aunt Pinky told me how to make a sweet potato pie.  My Aunt Pinky is brown but when she blushes she turns pink and that's how she won her nickname, 'Pinky.'  She cooks swell, and a dish that looks like her uses yams -- brown outside and pink inside.  I love Aunt Pinky's Sweet Potato Pie.
 
Peel 5 to 6 yams or enough to fill a pie pan.  Boil the yams until they are soft, around 45 to 60 minutes.  Drain them and make mashed potatoes of them, using 1/2 to 1 stick of butter (I split the butter with olive oil), plus sugar to taste.  I use hardly any sugar but apple cider instead, plus cinnamon, coriander, vanilla, lemon and nutmeg.  To taste.  At least 1/2 teaspoon of each.

Whip 2 eggs. Pour the eggs into the mashed sweet yams.  Stir well.  Pour the mix into a raw pie crust (I buy them at the supermarket, making a pie cruist is another recipe I don't know.)  Bake at 350 degrees until the pie rises brown, smells up the house and does not stick to your fingers when you touch it.