Just made a delicious Sweet Potato and Peanut stew complete with loads of sweet potatoes, ginger, coconut milk, and brown rice. A hearty meal for the start of Fall.

Curry! Or oven fries. Or mashed with lots of butter.

It's a little unclear from the original question, but if Lisa (and family) have mostly been exposed to sweet potatoes in dessert form, I might suggest even something as simple as a simple roasted or baked preparation (like chunks of sweet potato tossed in olive oil and salt) would be a good thing to try just to see if savory applications sit better with them. I hate most sweetened sweet potato applications, but in savory form I love them.

I like to dice them up small and mix with black beans and Mexican (chipotle) or Caribbean flavors (jerk and coconut). Makes great rice and beans or bean burritos.

They are also really good baked in their jackets and served with blue cheese and crumbled bacon.

I agree with Emily, soggy, sugary, sweet potatoes are ghastly but I love sweet potatoes in savory dishes, especially when the texture is drier or crisper. My favorite is roasted or sauteed with salt, pepper, and garlic. Actually my true favorite is sweet potato fries but I try to avoid eating those too often. I also like them cooked with regular potatoes, I think the two flavors compliment each other quite well.
My mom's third grade class gets raw sweet potato sticks as a snack and she says the kids love them.

My mother makes a delicious casserole that uses browned spicy italian sausage, sliced apples, and sweet potatoes, all layered together. It's fabulous.

This is one of my favorite sweet potato recipes: http://www.marthastewart.com/313561/sauteed-sweet-potatoes-and-spinach

My first choice is baked in the oven or the microwave and cut into chunks. Also roasted on high heat after cutting in chunks is also very very good. I think my favorite is part of a hash with carrot and potato, cut into small dice, served with a poached or fried egg on top and hot sauce.

Send them to me!

But really, what Emily S said... have you ever had sweet potatoes WITHOUT marshmallows and all that crap? Personally I love them just roasted with butter and green onions, like a baked potato

Sweet potatoes with marshmallows?! Must be a 70's thing or something. I've made a really good casserole with sweet potatoes, onions, a sprinkle of curry and chili powder, and a bit of cheese.

Roasted like chips with chinese five spice and salt is good or in a potato pancake with zucchini and carrots (add sauteed onion and mushrooms, an egg, and veggie chorizo and you've got my special veggie burger/taco filling recipe).

I just bought 10 pounds of sweet potatoes on purpose. They're usually available here only in the fall, so each year I'll probably wind up buying at least 20 pounds.

I scrub them clean, oil the skins, and bake them in a 400° oven until very soft and almost caramelized on the bottom. Peel, and then mash or put through a food mill.

I put 2-cup amounts into individual sandwich bags with as much air squeezed out as possible, which are then popped into sturdy freezer bags. They'll keep in the freezer beautifully, and when we're having pork I'll pull out enough to serve the number of people at dinner, thaw, and then add butter and whatever herbs or spices will work with the rest of the menu.

Oh, Veggieface! You obviously haven't been in the Great American South around Thanksgiving! One of the classic sides is produced with Bruce brand canned yams, juice and all, dumped into a casserole dish and topped with mini marshmallows. Bake until heated through and the marshmallows are all gooey. [shudder] I don't know when it started, but it's been around forever...

There's no edit available? Weird...

I hope that it was intuitively obvious that those sweet potatoes were heated up, either in the nuke or on the stove...

Dice the sweet potatoes. Drizzle olive oil, sprinkle oregano and himalayan sea salt to coat the sweet potatoes and bake at 350F for 25 minutes or till they are soft. Serve with sriracha sauce or mint chutney!

Slice them thin on a mandolin, spray with non-stick (or toss in a small amount of olive oil), season with whatever you want (salt, pepper, spices, brown sugar, etc.) and microwave on paper towels for about five minutes until the edges start to brown. Let them cool and they will be crispy, yummy chips.

I also just made a sweet potato and black bean enchilada with cheddar and spicy jalapeno enchilada sauce. I glazed the sweet potatoes in a little honey and hot pepper sauce first, so the sweet/spicy interplay was really great! Plus, enough cheese makes everything delicious. I can provide a more detailed recipe if desired.

Bake them, roast some carrots, simmer with chicken or vegetable stock and some aromatics and herbs (I recommend thyme), and puree for a creamy soup.

Mash with pork or beef and black beans and use as an empanada filling with a spicy dipping sauce.

I love sweet potatoes. I could go on and on.

I never liked sweet potatoes until I had some whipped sweet potatoes at my friend's wedding. I don't have a recipe, but I'm sure it's easy enough to find. After that I decided to give them more of a try and I've found a way that I LOVE them- I cut them into slices about 1/2 inch thick (doesn't matter, just not too thick), skin on or off is ok, and place them in a casserole dish. Put a few pats of butter on top and about a handful or a little more of brown sugar sprinkled on top. Cook at 350F for about 1.5 hour (or until very tender). Flavor with salt. They are sooo yummy and now I love them after not eating them for 25 years. My family likes them done like a baked potato.

@veggieface, you've never heard of marshmallows on sweet potatoes? That's been a staple at our family's Thanksgiving my whole life.

I saw maangchi making a sweet potato rice dish on her video.... it looked really easy and delicious... check out http://www.maangchi.com....

Our favorite way to eat sweet potatoes is to pierce them a few times, rub them with a bit of coconut oil and salt, and wrap them in aluminum foil to roast until they are soft. More delicious than a baked potato!
Our second favorite way is sweet potato black bean taco filling, which we use in soft tacos and quesadillas or put on tostadas. The recipe is from Simply in Season, it is the first recipe at the link below.
http://www.threeriverscommunityfarm.com/html/sweet_potatoes.html

Cut into chips/wedges, tossed with soy sauce and ground coriander seeds and baked in the oven until crisp. Delicious.

I also love it prepared with with orange-butter sauce: https://30minmeals.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/ginger-orange-fish-with-carrot-kinpara-sweet-potatoes-with-orange-butter-2/

Curried sweet potato soup! I just pinned this one yesterday: http://www.allthebestblog.co.uk/2012/10/soup-on-sunday-curried-sweet-potato-lentil-and-coconut.html

I'm not into sweet preparations of sweet potatoes, but I love savory sweet potatoes. I frequently make oven fries. Scrub the sweet potato and chop into rough batons -- I leave the skin on, so I'm obviously not going for a precise preparation here. Preheat the oven to 400, cover cookie sheets with foil. Toss fries with canola oil, and spread them into a single layer. Top with salt, pepper, garlic powder, a little cinnamon, a little cayenne, and anything else that sounds good. Bake until they're cooked through, ideally flipping halfway. As long as you don't burn them, it's pretty hard to mess up!

Sweet potato & swiss chard gratin (by Smitten Kitchen) is awesome. Cheese, onion, nutmeg - not sweet at all, and really rich and delicious.

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/11/swiss-chard-and-sweet-potato-gratin/

I've made this twice now with local Okinawan sweet potatoes- it's fantastic: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2010/01/13/warm-sweet-potato-salad-chorizo/