Honey Brown Ale Sweet Potatoes

Well, America's most honest holiday is upon us .... Thanksgiving.  A time for feasting and spending time with your loved ones.  And if it was up to you, you would skip the cooking part and just spring for a feast cooked by someone else at the Gaylord Texan, right?  But you don't get a vote, do you?  Mom wants everyone to get together at her house.  Joy.  Now Mom is making the turkey and the stuffing, but she wants everyone to bring a side dish.  You could gloop out a can shaped mass of cranberry sauce on a plastic saucer OR you could actually bring something that will impress even your jaded, uninspired family.  This is easy.

                                                     Honey Ale Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients:
- 8 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks.
- 2 bottles of a Honey Brown Ale
(There are a few breweries in Texas that make Honey Brown Ale ... Abilene Brewing Company,
makes a decent honey brown and is the closest to Dallas.  Newcastle makes a honey brown ale but if you cannot find a honey brown ale at Spec's, Total Wine or Lonestar you can find the Dundee Honey Brown Lager in many locations.)
- 5 tablespoons of butter (the real kind, damnit, no margarine for snobs).
- 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 1/2 cup of pecan pieces
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Boil the sweet potatoes in 1 1/2 bottles of the beer and enough water to submerge them until they are tender (about 25 minutes).  
Drain the potatoes and add the remainder of the beer and the other ingredients but hold the pecans for later.  Whip with an electric mixer until creamy.  
Butter a large casserole dish and place the potatoes in and scatter the pecan pieces evenly over the top.  Bake for 20 minutes until the top is browned.  
DONE!  Now let's eat!