Thought of the Day
Many hands make light work.
November 20th 2025
Sweet Potato Casserole
This recipe is a Thanksgiving favorite! It’s sweet, simple, and a delicious addition to your table.
Ingredients
- 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 cups Mini marshmallows
Instructions
1. Prep the sweet potatoes
Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into evenly sized chunks. Also, preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. Boil the sweet potatoes
Place the cubed potatoes in a large pot. Cover with water until the potatoes are covered by about 1 inch of water. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to season them while cooking and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium-high and simmer 15–18 minutes, or until fork-tender.
3. Mash and combine ingredients
Return the potatoes to the warm pot and add the butter first so it melts in. Then, add brown sugar, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and a pinch of salt and mash until creamy.
4. Assemble the casserole
Spread the mashed sweet potato mixture evenly into a lightly greased 8×8 or 9×9 baking dish. Spread the marshmallows evenly on top.
5. Bake
Bake for 18–22 minutes, or until everything is warmed through. (Optional) switch to broil for 1–2 minutes at the end to toast the tops of the marshmallows.
6. Serve warm
Let the casserole set for about 5 minutes, then serve and enjoy!
November 19th 2025
Thought of the Day
Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
Classic Pumpkin Pie
Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and this pumpkin pie recipe is the perfect addition to your table. It’s smooth, spiced, and everything nice!
Ingredients
- For the filling:
- 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin purée
- 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- (Or you can replace all spices with 1–1.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice)
- For the crust:
- 1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust (store-bought or homemade)
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. Make the filling
In a mixing bowl, whisk together pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Mix until very smooth.
3. Assemble the pie
Place the pie crust in a 9-inch pie dish and pour in the pumpkin filling. Lightly tap the dish on the counter to release air bubbles.
4. Bake
Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes. Without opening the oven, reduce heat to 350°F and continue baking for 40–50 minutes. The pie is done when the edges are set and the center has a slight jiggle.
5. Cool and serve
Let the pie cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours. Then, slice and serve with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or a dusting of cinnamon and enjoy this delicious holiday favorite!
November 18th 2025
Thought of the Day
Mondays are the start of the work week, which offer new beginnings 52 times a year!
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
This recipe is such an easy comfort food, and could be a great side to start perfecting before the holidays!
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 3–4 garlic cloves
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup warm milk or cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Optional: a splash of sour cream for tang, chives for topping
Instructions
1. Prep the potatoes
Peel the potatoes and cut them into evenly sized chunks, about 1-2 inches each.
2. Boil the potatoes
Place the potato chunks and whole garlic cloves into a large pot. Pour in about 8 cups of water, or enough to cover the potatoes by about 1 inch. Add 1 tablespoon of salt to season the potatoes as they cook. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium-high. Cook for 15–20 minutes, or until the potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork
3. Drain and mash
Pour the potatoes and garlic into a colander and shake off the excess water. Let them sit for 1–2 minutes to allow steam to escape. Then, return the potatoes and garlic to the warm pot, add the butter, and b egin mashing with a potato masher.
4. Add cream and season
Warm the milk or cream in the microwave for 20–30 seconds so it blends smoothly. Then, pour in about half to start, continuing to mash until it reaches your preferred consistency. Add more milk as needed and add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve hot
Add optional toppings, then serve hot and enjoy this ultimate cold weather comfort food!
November 17th 2025
Thought of the Day
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Bryce Young passes for franchise-record 448 yards to lift Panthers to 30-27 win over Falcons in OT
By CHARLES ODUM AP Sports Writer
ATLANTA (AP) — Bryce Young passed for a career-high and franchise-record 448 yards and Ryan Fitzgerald kicked a 28-yard field goal in overtime to lift the Carolina Panthers to a 30-27 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
Young’s 54-yard pass to Tommy Tremble set up the winning kick for Carolina (6-5), which completed its sweep of NFC South rival Atlanta.
The Falcons (3-7) suffered their fifth straight loss, including back-to-back overtime defeats.
Young completed 31 of 45 passes with three touchdowns. He threw a go-ahead 12-yard touchdown pass to Tetairoa McMillan with 1:08 remaining to give Carolina a 27-24 lead. But Zane Gonzalez kicked a 45-yard field goal for Atlanta with 16 seconds remaining to force overtime.
Bijan Robinson ran for 104 yards and two touchdowns, but the Falcons couldn’t overcome the loss of Michael Penix Jr. to a knee injury in the third quarter. Backup Kirk Cousins couldn’t move the offense in overtime.
McMillan had eight catches for 130 yards and two touchdowns.
Young’s go-ahead scoring pass was set up by Rico Dowdle’s 28-yard run to the 10. A replay review ruled Dowdle stepped out of bounds on what was initially ruled a 38-yard touchdown run by the officials.
Atlanta’s secondary was short-handed with cornerbacks Dee Alford and Mike Hughes inactive. Young and the Panthers targeted fill-in cornerback Natrone Brooks often, including on Young’s 36-yard scoring pass to Xavier Legette in the third quarter, cutting Atlanta’s lead to 21-16.
Brooks then fumbled the kickoff return, giving the Panthers the ball at the Atlanta 32. Young was stopped by Kaden Elliss on a fourth-down run from the Atlanta 8. Fitzgerald’s 34-yarder late in the third quarter pulled the Panthers to within two.
Penix left in the third quarter with a left knee injury with Atlanta leading 21-16. Penix missed the Falcons’ 34-10 loss to Miami on Oct. 26 with a bone bruise on his left knee.
Penix completed 13 of 16 passes for 175 yards after struggling with accuracy in last week’s 31-25 overtime loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Berlin.
The Panthers had an injury scare late in the first quarter when Young remained down after being sacked by Billy Bowman Jr. for a loss of 8 yards. Young eventually walked off the field and was escorted to the locker room and was announced by the team as questionable to return with an ankle injury.
Backup Andy Dalton replaced Young for only one snap, a holding penalty, early in the second quarter before Young was back on the field, his right ankle taped.
Young was 7 of 8 for 67 yards, including a 7-yard scoring pass to McMillan, on Carolina’s opening drive. The strong start gave him half of his full-game total of 124 yards passing in last week’s 17-7 loss to New Orleans.
Injuries
Panthers: LB Trevin Wallace was held out with a shoulder injury he suffered last week. Claudin Cherelus moved up as the starter.
Falcons: WR Drake London was ruled out with a knee injury at the start of overtime after he had seven catches for 119 yards. … The defense was short-handed as Alford (concussion), Hughes (neck), DE Leonard Floyd (hamstring) and DL Zach Harrison (knee) were inactive. Another notable inactive was LG Matthew Bergeron (ankle), while RG Chris Lindstrom (foot) started after returning to practice Friday.
Up next
Panthers: Visit San Francisco in a Monday night game on Nov. 24.
Falcons: Visit New Orleans next Sunday.
This NC plant eats bugs for breakfast — and looks beautiful doing it
By MIKE RALEY WPTF Weekend Gardener
Most of us have seen or have some knowledge of the most iconic plant in the world: It’s the “Venus Flytrap”, which is native to a small area of southeastern North Carolina. One of its cousins, also a native to the “Tar Heel State”, is the venerable “Pitcher Plant”. It is also carnivorous and has an equally insatiable appetite for insects. This is another plant I don’t have in my landscape. I do need one after seeing the crop of the Purple Pitcher Plant at the North Carolina Botanical Gardens in Chapel Hill.
“Sarracenia purpura” is a striking, fascinating, sneaky plant that just loves creatures like bugs, spiders, and small frogs! Find it growing in marshes and bogs along the eastern seaboard, all the way up into zone 3. It has upright pitcher-shaped leaves that are open to collect rainwater. Insects are attracted to droplets of nectar on the rim of the leaves and the leaf color. Interested insects and amphibians crawl into the tube where some hairs grow to prevent them from getting back out. There is of course water at the bottom that contains special enzymes. The victims eventually fall in the water, drown, and are digestive. What a meal! The folks at the extension service point out the larvae of the Pitcher Plant fly which feeds on the remains of dead insects.
To provide the correct environment for the Pitcher Plant you need a bog garden that you may happen to have on your tract of land or you have to create one which can be tedious and time-consuming. Probably not! Fortunately, they can be grown in specially prepared containers.
Now how do you design a bog garden you ask? Find a location in a really low location on your property, possibly near a downspout or even a ditch. You need at least 6 hours of sun too. That’s essentially full sun. Create a perimeter and dig down 12 to 18 inches. Still want to tackle this? Then place a pond liner in the hole and make sure it extends up the sides of the hole. The liner will need to be anchored with rocks, etc. Cover the bottom with some sand. Add a soil mix of 5 parts peat moss and 1 part sand. You can also add some sphagnum moss. It likes very acidic soil. Anne Clapp would recommend playground sand. Water the soil mix thoroughly. Now add a variety of bog-loving plants to the mix. For the Pitcher Plant, don’t get any of the soil in its crown, keep the soil consistently wet, as it sports shallow, fibrous roots. Don’t fertilize the Pitcher Plant and don’t feed it insects. If the plant is happy, it will use natural abilities to sustain itself. I have read that they can live 50 years!
There are many varieties of Pitcher Plants available for sale in catalogs and you may find them in a carnivorous plant nursery. However, they are now rare in the wild because of poaching and changes to their habitat, so don’t harvest one if you happen upon it. I have read that over 97 percent of the Pitcher Plant’s habitat has been destroyed by development.
The “Sarracenia purpura” does have a couple of disease issues and few insect problems believe it or not. It can’t eat everything! Try if you must to grow one. But if you are not that ambitious, at least appreciate this unique carnivorous native wonder plant while it is still around.
Americana troubadour Todd Snider, alt-country singer-songwriter, dies at 59
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Todd Snider, a singer whose thoughtfully freewheeling tunes and cosmic-stoner songwriting made him a beloved figure in American roots music, has died. He was 59.
His record label said Saturday in a statement posted to his social media accounts that Snider died Friday.
“Where do we find the words for the one who always had the right words, who knew how to distill everything down to its essence with words and song while delivering the most devastating, hilarious, and impactful turn of phrases?” the statement read. “Always creating rhyme and meter that immediately felt like an old friend or a favorite blanket. Someone who could almost always find the humor in this crazy ride on Planet Earth.”
Snider’s family and friends had said in a Friday statement that he had been diagnosed with pneumonia at a hospital in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and that his situation had since grown more complicated and he was transferred elsewhere. The diagnosis came on the heels of the cancellation of a tour after Snider had been the victim of a violent assault in the Salt Lake City area, according to a Nov. 3 statement from his management team.
But Salt Lake City police later arrested Snider himself when he at first refused to leave a hospital and later returned and threatened staffers, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The scrapped tour was in support of his most recent album, “High, Lonesome and Then Some,” which released in October. Snider combined elements of folk, rock and country in a three-decade career. In reviews of his recent albums, The Associated Press called him a “singer-songwriter with the persona of a fried folkie” and a “stoner troubadour and cosmic comic.”
He modeled himself on — and at times met and was mentored by — artists like Kris Kristofferson, Guy Clark and John Prine. His songs were recorded by artists including Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver and Tom Jones. And he co-wrote a song with Loretta Lynn that appeared on her 2016 album, “Full Circle.”
“He relayed so much tenderness and sensitivity through his songs, and showed many of us how to look at the world through a different lens,” the Saturday statement from his label read. “He got up every morning and started writing, always working towards finding his place among the songwriting giants that sat on his record shelves, those same giants who let him into their lives and took him under their wings, who he studied relentlessly.”
Snider would do his best-known and most acclaimed work for Prine’s independent label Oh Boy in the early 2000s. It included the albums “New Connection,” “Near Truths and Hotel Rooms” and “East Nashville Skyline,” a 2004 collection that’s considered by many to be his best.
Those albums yielded his best known songs, “I Can’t Complain,” “Beer Run” and “Alright Guy.”
Snider was born and raised in Oregon before settling and making his musical chops in San Marcos, Texas. He eventually made his way to Nashville, and was dubbed by some the unofficial “mayor of East Nashville,” assuming the title from a friend memorialized thusly in his “Train Song.” In 2021, Snider said a tornado that ripped through the neighborhood home to a vibrant arts scene severely damaged his house.
Snider had an early fan in Jimmy Buffett, who signed the young artist to his record label, Margaritaville, which released his first two albums, 1994’s “Songs for the Daily Planet” and 1996’s “Step Right Up.”