Our friends grew some purple sweet potatoes this year, and we were blessed to receive some of their harvest.☺️ [click here to read more about Ipomoea batatas]
After we brainstormed a bit for possible choices, Mike’s mom chose a “purple* sweet potato pie for her birthday “cake!”🎂
*Some funny behind-the-scenes-trivia: we actually thought these were called “BLUE sweet potatoes,” so the whole time we were working with them, we kept remarking about how PURPLE they looked!😂 Glad to learn they are, in-fact, PURPLE!😏*
I have two sweet potato pie recipes in my collection. Decided to do the simpler one here, so we could get a better appreciation of the purple color. First I washed, and then boiled 1.2# pounds of taters for about 40 minutes.
After that, I ran cold water over them and started by peeling skin off with a knife but ended with just using my hands and rubbing the skin off. Came off SO easy!👍🏼
Had about 50 grams more than the one pound of sweet potatoes the recipe called for, but decided to just use it all.
Added 4 oz. of our butter and was struck by the color contrast of deep yellow & vibrant purple!😍
Mixed above well, and then added the rest of the ingredients:
1c (145g) sucanat, 1/2c (4 oz.) milk, 2 eggs, 1/2t ground nutmeg, 1/2t ground cinnamon, & 1t vanilla extract. Mixed on medium speed until mixture was smooth, and poured it into the single pie crust I made before I started.
For it, I added 140g of unbleached flour to 4g of sea salt + 78g of butter and used my pastry blender to pulse it up. Added 2.5T cold water and blended it a bit more until it formed a ball. Rolled it out and formed my crust.
Baked it for about 1 hour and 5 minutes at 350°.
And here you can really see the purple vs. blue color next to this blue lid…😉
Tasted great and was fun to celebrate Mom’s birthday with this pie!❤️
Thank You, Lord, for the gifts of family, friends, harvests, sharing, and celebrations. You weave everything together in amazing ways…Amen❤️
This cute kittie just showed up and wanted some attention. Made Andy smile as it reminded him of one of the cats he had growing up…😻
This outdoor orchestra shell holds many memories… Andy’s dad was a conductor/teacher and very passionate about music. It is in really good condition, and looks like it is still used today.🎶
Next stop was to 
Of course you take a picture of random ducks swimming under the mill, lol…🦆
I was trying to take a picture of the water below, but the sun/shadows were making it a challenge. Then I realized how cool the shadow was of Mike & I. So we just had fun with shadow pictures, lol! Love this man!😍
Pictures like this are necessary when you are terrified of mice (all rodents😬🙄), so that your sons can make fun of you upon return…😏
No idea why there’s a covered wagon inside the mill, lol. Appeased Mike by climbing up for a pic!😂
Next stop was at the 
Here’s a cute, hand-painted mixer they had on display for the holidays.🎄
A fun mixer we knew our patriotic son would love… 🇺🇸❤️
And our last stop of that area was for lunch at 
The outside of the building was a bit unique.😮
Wondering what all the speckles are???? CHEWED UP PIECES OF GUM!!!😷🤢
The scenery for most of the drive was pretty repetitive: lots of flat land, grain farms, and windmill farms….
Spent the night in Hannibal, MO. Plan for the next morning was to visit the Lock and Dam No. 22 (on the Mississippi River) in Saverton a few miles south of our hotel. Read there was an observation area to see bald eagles, so we brought our binoculars to check things out. WELL, we found the area, but not any public viewing area. (And we didn’t want to spend any more time searching.) There was restricted/gated area for employees, and this funny sign. Took that as our “sign” we would just move on!😂
Stopped at an antique mall in St. Joseph, MO to stretch our legs and grab lunch. Mike found some treasures from his favorite actor that were a bit out of our price range, lol, so we took pics instead, lol…😎
And finally – we made it to Lincoln, NE! What a joy to see our family and capture some moments on “film”. ❤️
Had fun showing them some of our pics from home…📷
With the twins having such light hair, they match well with Mike & Ben, lol!❤️❤️❤️❤️
Sawyer especially loved looking at Uncle Mike’s pics from the farm and of his cousins back in Ohio.☺️
Mike’s sister flew in from Mississippi to join in on the fun, too…❤️
Feeding moving targets is quite the challenge, but Grandma was up for it!👏🏼 (Probably didn’t help that Aunt Dawn was distracting with picture taking, lol…😉)
Stayed in a 3 bedroom basement of an airb&b home while we were in Lincoln. Overall, a good experience (and definitely cost effective), but not without some drama/laughs. Had to get aggressive with an unwanted-banana-eating kitchen “visitor”…🙄🐭💣
And learned our bed was held up by a lone stilt…😴😯🤣
But it did get upgraded to 4 stilts the next day.😏👍🏼
Did some shopping and ate lunch at Noodles with my sisters…😍
Ben took Mike, Dad, & Sawyer for a drive in the country. They stopped at the Haymaker District so Sawyer could show Uncle Mike a BIG train…🚂
Celebrated Christmas on Saturday, so lots of laughs, games, eating, and snuggles!🎄🎁❤️
After worship and a 
And ended the day with celebrating the twins’ first birthday. First was a big family meal at 
The Grandpas: 
Ended the day with presents, cake, and BATHS…🎁🎂🛁 
The trip back home…🚙 We were on the road early since Aunt Jenny had to leave before 5 to get to the airport. Always love catching the sunrise!🌅
Got to cross the Mississippi River in daylight this time…👍🏼
Stopped for lunch in Springfield, IL. Looked for something non-mainstream-chain and found 
Passed by a Nestle plant, and snapped a pic…because it’s not everyday you see a giant Bugs Bunny on the side of the highway, lol…😂
Spent the night in Decatur, IN. That left us with just a 4 hour drive to get home on Tuesday. Thought about driving straight through, but decided we’d rather not arrive home completely exhausted. These bodies enjoyed the break, and felt refreshed for the final leg…💪🏼
Mike and I LOVE finding small-town coffee shops. Both to support local small businesses and because we love coffee…☕️❤️
My favorite part were the loyalty mugs! My mug would be here if this was in my neighborhood – just sayin’…😉
Kinda fun to see the line of lake effect snow ahead of you while you watch the radar on your phone…❄️
And our final stop before home was at Bob Evans outside of Mansfield.🍳🥓
Thank You, Lord, for giving us this opportunity to travel with Mom & Dad to see our family in Nebraska. We are grateful for the clear path You set out before us, and for how You equipped our sons to take care of the farm around their work schedules at home. Though our family members are spread all around the country, You unite us through modern technology; but boy is it a blessing when face-to-face moments arise! Continue to grow each one of us closer to You with every step we take. In Your Name, I pray. Amen🙏🏼
Roberts' Farm Blog 