Thanksgiving Side: Lee's Sweet Potato Casserole

I don't remember where she got the recipe, but both my sister and I make my sister-in-law, Lee's "Sweet Potato Casserole" every year for Thanksgiving. Many years ago, my sister-in-law lived with us here in Washington. At that same time, my youngest sister Maria, then still a student at UW, would spend a lot of time at our house when she wasn't at school. Anyway, one year I hosted Thanksgiving and we had Cornish Game Hens instead of turkey (huge mistake). Lee & Maria helped make all the side dishes. I can hardly remember the whole menu. Lee found a recipe from somewhere, I thought it was David Letterman's Mother's cookbook and John thought it was from Naomi Judd's book - both wrong, for Sweet Potato Casserole. YUM.
I don't remember ever really reading the recipe Lee used, but I re-created it every year from memory. My sister later moved to London, and then Amsterdam and when she and her expat friends got together for Thanksgiving, she would always make Lee's Sweet Potato Casserole.

This year I used a recipe from the Southern Living Holiday cookbook, which was similar to Lee's recipe. I have added cinnamon and candied pecans, other years, maply syrup. I know my sister has her own version too. However, Lee emailed the recipe to me, so here's the original recipe adapted from Randy Travis' wife.

Sweet Potato Casserole
4 cups sweet potato, cooked and mashed*

1/2 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

Topping**:

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup butter

1/2 to 1 cup finely chopped pecans

1. Combine sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk and melted butter.
2. Beat with an electric mixer till smooth.
3. Spoon into a greased 2-quart baking dish.
4. For topping: combine brown sugar, flour, butter and pecans.
5. Sprinkle over top of casserole.
6. Bake in a 350°F. oven for 30 minutes

*I had peeled and steamed the sweet potato and the final dish was a little loose. I would usually roast the potatoes, but since I was doing so much other baking, I decided to steam the potatoes instead.

**I would double the recipe for tht Topping, more is better in this case.