Few of us want to make a complicated lasagna for solo dining -- by day six, you'll never want to see lasagna again! In this series, AOL Food staffer Sarah LeTrent taste-tests simple recipes suitable for a "table for one."

When we think of peanuts, we think Virginia, ballgames and a top hat-wearing, cane-holding, monocled mascot. However, peanuts are also a staple in West African cooking and used prominently in many dishes. One such typical meal is a hearty stew made with tomatoes, sweet potatoes and peanuts.

This vegetarian version of the soup relies on the saltiness and creaminess of peanut butter -- the pantry staple and venerated American spread that is an often unsung hero in meals that don't include jelly or two slices of bread.

Presenting a new (and more acceptable) way to eat peanut butter by the spoonful.

Find the Peanut Stew recipe after the jump.

As fall gets underway, do you know the difference between a sweet potato and a yam? The subject of much confusion, the orange-colored tuber that is often referred to as a "yam" is in fact, a sweet potato.

If you can believe it, there's sweet potato in this tasty treat.

Slashfood had the delicious task this Wednesday of helping judge the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission's blogger recipe contest. One of the finalists was this delectable cheesecake sweetie by East Village Kitchen.

The contest asked bloggers to come up with recipes that used sweet potatoes in new ways to encourage home cooks to get them on the table after the Thanksgiving dinner season.

Get the cheesecake recipe, see the winner and learn the difference between a sweet potato and a Southern yam after the jump.

Say what you will, nothing works better with a sweet potato than savory spices. Forget that sweet stuff. Taste it with garlic in a soup, make a twice-baked potato with some garlic, hot peppers, smokey paprika, and other spices, or use it as a vessel for stew.

It takes a little time to prep, but it's so delicious and worth it. Simply take a raw, large sweet potato, and hollow out the center to make a bowl. The beauty of a sweet potato is that as much as you roast it, the flesh just gets more and more malleable while the skin stays firm. So, while you want to make a bowl, don't make it too hollow, leave some flesh for eating.

Once prepared, spray with some oil, season, and bake while you prepare the stew to go inside (I made a quick beef stew with leftover ingredients). Basically, cook the heck out of it, and even pop it under the broiler for a little while. When it's out, scoop out a little more flesh if you weren't able to get enough while raw, and then fill with your stew and eat. And this is where some leftover flesh comes in handy -- as you scoop out the stew, scrape the walls to get some great creamy flesh. The skin will stay in tact, and your stew will be all the tastier -- even if you put sweet potato in your stew.

When a friend of mine recently asked me to help throw her a baby shower, I had many questionable suggestions-- like making it race-car rather than baby themed (accepted) to making a baby-shaped red-velvet cake with gooey red filling, except the diaper part, which would have brown icing filling (rejected).

But one of the things she was most excited about was my suggestion that I make a meatcake. That is, a cake made of meat, an idea I had found (like so many nutty ideas) on the interwebs. I took the concept, but created my own recipes--two, since a non-red-meat eater needed turkey. It may sound peculiar but the result was delicious and even rather spectacular. If you want to try it yourself....

I have been contributing to Thanksgiving dinners since I was a child, doing everything from polishing the silver to serving the cocktails to making all the side dishes to inventing new deserts. However, this year will be the first that I'll be hosting and, admittedly, the thought fills me with dread.

I've thrown many a party and cooked many a feast in my time but the idea of making a whole turkey in a temperamental oven is, simply, frightening. Thus far, I've dealt with my problem in my usual way--avoiding it by becoming absorbed in everything that surrounds it. In this case, the side dishes. By dint of my location (Las Vegas) and the thrift shop acquisition of a pertinent Sunset cookbook, we are having a southwestern Thanksgiving this year.

On the menu: sweet potatoes with tequila and lime, garlic green beans with Manchego, corn pudding (I'll be adding some chiles and perhaps sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top), mashed potatoes, cranberry salsa, cornbread chorizo stuffing, roasted poblano gravy and, of course, that blasted turkey. The thought of it stops me cold so I can't even plan desert, although I am thinking about pumpkin cheesecake or sweet potato cupcakes with dulce de leche pecan frosting. Although I could just say the heck with the whole thing and go over to Freed's Bakery and order a Thanksgiving dinner cake.

It seems simple, but making tasty gravy is deceptively difficult. Some tips.

Gourmet side dish recipes: Brussels sprouts with apples, savory slaw, potato mousseline, roasted fingerling potatoes with figs, sourdough dressing with truffles and chestnuts.

Yet another French chef renounces his Michelin stars and quits the kitchen.

Helping preserve heritage turkeys.

Poultry workers punch and kick turkeys to death.

Eric Asimov talks music and wine.

Mashed potato re-use: Spanish croquetas, or potato patties with spinach and salmon. Recipes.

The Minimalist says skip the marshmallows and try some ginger and orange zest, or browned butter and sage on your sweet potatoes instead. The recipes sound good, but I remain in the marshmallow camp.

This is a pretty traditional sweet potato recipe that I got from my friend Linda Arnold shortly before the first Thanksgiving that I cooked. It uses relatively small amounts of sugar and can be adjusted to fit almost any size gathering.

Take unpeeled sweet potatoes, of any quantity, and drop them into boiling water. Cover and cook for about 25 minutes, or until they can be easily and smoothly pierced with a fork. Let the sweet potatoes cool until you can comfortably handle them, then peel and mash. Preheat oven to 375°.

For every two cups of mashed sweet potato (about five medium potatoes), add:

5 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons brown sugar
Lemon juice to taste

Beat with a fork, whisk, or hand mixer until very light. Place in a deep oven-safe dish, arrange large marshmallows on top (if desired), and heat through in oven. Be careful, as the marshmallows can easily burn. Serve immediately.

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of tidbits from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week.

• They answer the age-old question, what is the difference between a yam and a sweet potato?
• Earlier this week, we weighed in on Starbucks' new breakfast item, the Piadini. The YumSugar team has done an exhaustive taste test of all of their breakfast offerings.
• Dunkin' Donuts is offering up a recession breakfast special.
• Looking for a tasty and wholesome dinner? How about broccoli soup with cheddar toasts?
  
• Slow cookers are perfect for lazy weekends. Try this chicken and sweet potato stew.
• The USDA is now requiring country of origin labeling.

I know, I know, this a classic brunch item, nothing too creative there. But it's sooo good, it's worth a second look. There are lots of things you can do to jazz it up, too. For instance, use blue potatoes or even use sweet potatoes. Either would be a great choice. Also, try this recipe from Food Network. It looks like it'll turn out nicely, with some great flavors. Play around with fresh herbs, as they are great for adding color and big new flavors.

I know there are eggs in the picture, but you should regard those as optional, especially if you're going to have quiche!

Yesterday my mom and I made a big apple crisp and roasted off five huge sweet potatoes (which are destined for this dish). She is letting me have my way with the sweet potatoes, but the apple crisp was more of a tricky compromise. I've made a lot of crisps in my day and have developed a technique that I really like. However, that method relies on a food processor, which is a piece of equipment that my mother doesn't have. So we went back and forth, melding my mental recipe with the one she often follows from an old, favorite cookbook.

Later today I'll be chopping vegetables with my dad, making stuffing and getting the bird into the oven. I look forward to doing this kitchen dance with him every year, and happily, we've gotten to the point where we can anticipate each other in the kitchen without words. It's a joyful thing.

I hope that all you Slashfood readers out there are having equally nice days as I am, full of cooking, eating, drinking and laughing.

It's the holiday season, and that means lots of mashed potatoes are going to made across the land. I love them. Give me a giant bowl of mashed potatoes with butter and salt and pepper and I'd be happy. I don't eat as much potatoes as I used to, along with white rice, pasta, and white bread. But the holidays are a different story.

AOL Food has a list of 11 different ways to make mashed potatoes. You can make them with sour cream, coconut milk, with cheese and corn (cowboy style), even mashed potato tacos! I also like them with garlic, though watch how much garlic you add. I've had mashed potatoes with way too much garlic and the result isn't tasty.

For the last few years I've been sort of smug about my latke ability. For some reason, I've always been able to turn out perfect, round, golden, crispy latkes on the first try. But after yesterday's debacle, I realize that it wasn't me, it was my recipe. You see, I decided to change my perfect recipe to include half sweet potatoes, thinking they'd incorporate just like the normal, starchy potatoes. Only they didn't. They were too hard and didn't have nearly enough starch, so my pancakes never stayed together. I instead ended up with a pan full of sweet potato/regular potato hash browns, which were delicious, but were not what I was going for.

So, if you were thinking about incorporating sweet potatoes into your latkes this weekend, make sure to follow a recipe (like this one from Epicurious, which uses are more egg and flour than I did). And, if you want the recipe that made me feel all smug about my latke abilities, that one is after the jump.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been posting links to good Thanksgiving sides. Some of them have come from the recesses of my brain and some of have been pinched from other sites. I thought it might be helpful to round all those posts up in one place so that you can see some options in one place and narrow down your finalist dishes.

It all started with the Autumnal Casserole I made that combined potatoes, squash and cheese into one creamy, savory dish. Next came the Vanilla Flecked Sweet Potato Puree that Heidi at 101 Cookbooks posted a couple of years ago. Kim O'Donnel's Parsnip-Potato Mash was next, followed by Alanna's recipe for Cauliflower Cream (the recipe she posted today for a Spinach Casserole also looks like a winner). Finally, there was my cousin Jeremy's recipe (if you can call my loose instructions a recipe) for Gingery Squash.

If after all those posts, you still don't think you have enough side dish options, I'd also like to point you in the direction of the oven roasted brussels sprouts I made last month. They are also excellent (and add a nice, green counterpoint to your plate) on the Thanksgiving table.

Anyone who has eaten either Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner with me knows that I hate sweet potatoes and love yams. I always thought this was weird because I assumed they were sort of the same thing. Now I know that's not really the case. And I've found one frozen turkey dinner from Boston Market (in stores, not sure about the restaurants) that includes a sweet potato casserole with a pecan topping that I've fallen in love with.

These folks are trying to make November Sweet Potato Awareness Month. The site not only gives a detailed explanation of what yams are and what sweet potatoes are, they also give some great recipes, including Sweet Potato Cornbread Stuffing and Sweet Potato Apple Casserole.