It is almost four years since we first discovered Somebody’s Mother’s dessert sauces—Chocolate Sauce, White Chocolate Sauce and Caramel Sauce—and named them a Top Pick Of The Week (here’s the original review). The chocolate sauces remain our favorite dessert sauces.

Now, the company has doubled the size of the line with three new dessert sauces, building on the original flavors:

 
Read the full review.

HOW MANY TYPES OF DESSERT SAUCED HAVE YOU TRIED?

Check out our Dessert Sauces & Toppings Glossary.

For a festive Easter dish, look for purple potatoes. You can serve them baked, boiled with parsley, as fries, mashed or in other favorite dishes. You can make purple gnocchi and potato chips.

Hash browns can become hash purples.

We turn them into a red, white and blue July 4th potato salad, mixed with white potatoes and red grape tomatoes.

The starch level is medium, so purple Peruvians are an all-purpose potato.

They have a creamy texture like russet potatoes and are rich in flavor. Some varieties have a charming nuttiness.

Once a rarity, purple potatoes can now be found markets nationwide.

In addition to the Purple Peruvian there’s a purple-fleshed Okinawan sweet potato, a staple in Hawaii. Look for it in Asian markets.

Your favorite potato dishes can now be charmingly purple. Photo courtesy Wandering Chopsticks. Here’s the recipe.

Millennia ago, potatoes grew wild in the foothills of the Andes Mountains of Peru. Along with many other varieties of potatoes, they were cultivated around 3,000 B.C.E. by the Incas. Today, purple potatoes are grown around the world. Here’s more about purple potatoes and a recipe for a colorful purple potato and beet salad.

For Easter, how about a purple sweet potato pie? Keep it hidden and surprise your guests with the bright purple filling, evocative of jelly beans.

Here’s a purple sweet potato pie recipe from Stokes Foods, a North Carolina grower of purple potatoes, which includes a photo of the bright purple pie.

PURPLE SWEET POTATO PIE RECIPE

Ingredients

Optional Topping

 
Preparation

1. COVER potatoes with water in a medium saucepan. Boil for 45 minutes until fork goes all the way through. Let cool; peel and place in a large mixing bowl.

2. PREHEAT oven to 425°F. Melt butter.

3. ADD all other ingredients to mixing bowl with potato. Use an immersion blender to liquefy ingredients.

4. POUR sweet potato mixture into pie shell.

5. BAKE at 425°F for 5 minutes, then at 350°F for 10 minutes until firm.

6. MAKE the topping while the pie is baking, Melt butter in a sauce pan. Mix in flour, brown sugar and pecans. Stir until thoroughly blended and set aside

6. ADD topping to pie. Bake 350°F for 15 minutes until done.

VARIATION

You can use this recipe to make 12 mini pies using mini graham cracker pie shells. After adding the pecan topping, only bake for 10 additional minutes instead of 15 minutes.

Find more purple potato recipes at StokesFoods.com.
 
 
  

Why make a decision when you can have both, our favorite thinking goes.

Edward Marc Chocolatier is obviously of the same mind, with this jelly bean chocolate bar. It’s $3.50 for a 2.5-ounce bar at EdwardMarc.com.

If you want to create your own jelly bean bar, head to Chocomize.com. For $4.75, you can make a 3.5-ounce jelly bean bar in dark, milk or white chocolate.

You can add scores of other ingredients, too, including dried fruits, herbs, nuts, seeds, spices and specialty Easter decorations.

Peter Cottontail would approve.