Sweet Potato Pie Caserole

I gave this to my friend/coworker from Illinois to make for Thanksgiving when last year. Her mom was laughing because it calls for Ritz crackers. I gave her another recipe for poppy seed chicken which also has Ritz. So her mom asked if all Texas/southern food had to have Ritz in it. Ha! Anyway, they loved it and now I am required to provide them with one southern dish for the holidays. I figured I would post this one here. It is awesome! But look at the ingredients... what isn't to like?

5 large sweet potatoes
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
4 eggs
1 can evaporated milk

Topping:
1 stick melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 package Ritz crackers, crushed (buy a box, and take out one of the cylinders- that's a "package")
1 cup chopped pecans
(put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well)

Peel potatoes and boil until done. Drain and put in a mixing bowl. While still hot, add butter. Mix well with an electric mixer. Add sugar. Mix again. Add spices. Mix again. Add eggs. Mix again. Add evaporated milk. Mix again. Yes- you must mix well between adding each ingredient- don't just dump them all in at once!

Pour into a baking dish (I use 9 x 13 but you will have to gage it by the size of your potatoes). Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Top with the topping mix and bake an additional 10 minutes.

This is a nice twist to just plain sweet potatoes and I think appeals to more people. My friend's 4 younger brothers don't eat sweet potatoes prepared normally but they ate this! You can also make it ahead of time and refrigerate it. Just don't put the topping on right away. Keep it in a separate bowl until the final 10 minutes of cooking.

Hope you give this one a try and let me know if you and your family liked it!

Jamie