Camotes al Horno

Last week was very trying. I have been trying to keep up with my exercise program at the fitness center, but my right shoulder blade has indicated that it needs some rest. I have been trying to allow the dentists and endodontists fix my cavities. Monday was an hour-long dental appointment; Wednesday was one root canal that took almost two hours; and Friday the second root canal kept me in the endodontist’s chair for two and a half hours.

I know I’m being a whiner, but I have a very low tolerance for pain. So I have been taking extra amounts of ibuprofen that I already take for my arthritis.

Since the above-mentioned root canals involved both sides of my mouth, I have been instructed to be very careful with food because the crowns are temporary and could fall out if I chew on something hard. I will avoid hard candy, steaks, etc. I was also instructed to avoid sticky food, such as gummy bears or caramel. I never liked the gummy things anyway, but the caramel I like with a fresh apple or with chocolate.

I went to Albertson’s and bought four medium yams. I figured that cooked yams satisfy my sweet tooth, and yams are good for one’s health—antioxidants and all that. I found several recipes on the web, but decided to follow some of the instructions from one recipe and combine them with those of another recipe.



One recipe calls for the yams to be boiled for about ten minutes, but I boiled them for fifteen. One recipe instructs to cut a horizontal slit in each yam and put one pat of butter. I decided to cut them in rounds about ¾ inches wide, remove the skin, and to be generous with the butter. Then these rounds are baked in a slow oven until yams are tender. After the yams are out of the oven, I can either pour honey, molasses, syrup, brown sugar, or anything else. Yum yams!




It was while I was cutting the rounds that I heard Mama Tina’s voice, in her joking tone: Padre, cara de camote morado—(short pause for best effect)—comer in ayunas, no sera pecado? The joke is that she is in the confessional and she seems to be telling the priest he has a face as ugly as a dark purple yam. But, after the pause, the descriptive phrase becomes the subject of an innocent question about what is a sin. Funny for me is that I remember such an inoffensive, clean one-liner of a joke repeated many times by Mama Tina. She would really have liked the camotes I prepared tonight. She had an even sweeter tooth than I. And many of her jokes were not so innocent.