I've always been in love with sweet potatoes.

It's a love affair that has matured over the years. As a sweet-struck child, I was infatuated with the dishes that most resembled dessert: the holiday whipped sweet potatoes paved with browned and melting marshmallows, the syrupy candied yams. After my adult palate kicked in, I came to realize what I wanted was the flavor of the sweet potato itself, with as little as possible to get in the way.

What that means to me these days is a simple baked sweet potato, with butter and a dusting of salt. Even pepper may be superfluous.

It's hard to think of a downside to this edible root whose insides make up for its drab exterior, especially when you factor in its nutritional profile. Sweet potatoes come into season when vegetables with more glamour but less staying power are exiting; like many winter keepers, they're sweetened by cold weather.

To be sure, a baked sweet potato is not quick-cooking, but the hour or so it takes is offset by its ease of preparation. If you stick your spuds in the oven as soon as you get home from work, you can multitask as they roast to soft succulence.

The oven's dry heat concentrates the essence of the vegetable and adds a hint of natural sweetness through caramelization, producing a sweet potato that tastes like a platonic ideal of itself. If you are of the persuasion that prizes the slightly crisped skin for its earthy contrast with the soft sweet-potato flesh, a nicely roasted whole sweet potato is a comfort indeed.

And comfort was what was called for last month when I had a houseful of family waiting to find out whether their homes had survived Hurricane Rita.

Looking for something easy but tasty to feed my guests after work — being a food editor kind of ups the ante — I grabbed some organic garnet yams on my way through the produce section. They were smaller than the typical sweet potato, so I figured they'd cook more quickly.

For the main dish, I sauteed boneless chicken breasts with onions, coated them with a bottled Asian stir-fry sauce I'd dug out of the fridge and lightened up with fresh lime juice, and finished the chicken in the oven with the roasting yams. The chicken went over well, and so did the fresh spinach sauteed with garlic and spiked with sherry vinegar.

But everybody — including my mother and sister, no mean cooks themselves — voted that the buttery, just-the-right-size garnet yams the hit of the evening. The only drawback: not a scrap of sweet potato was left for me to make my famous Boxing Day sweet-potato hash with ham and poached eggs.

Maybe I'll save that one till the next hurricane.

I yam what I yam, unless I'm a sweet potato ... or am I?Potato nomenclature is confusing. We call some sweet potatoes yams, but botanically, sweet potatoes are not related to true yams, or even to white potatoes.Sweet potatoes, members of the morning glory family, are of New World origin. They were introduced to Europe by Columbus, long before the white potato was brought from the Americas to Europe, where it was mistakenly given the same name.True yams — of tropical origin, common in Africa, and related to lilies — are much starchier, drier and blander than sweet potatoes, and much less sweet.Southern sweet-potato producers in the 1930s began calling their orange-fleshed crops "yams" to distinguish them from the sweet potatoes grown in the North, whose flesh was paler and drier.Today's varieties of sweet potato include the familiar Hanna, with light-brown skin and golden interior, as well as the drier, firmer-fleshed, beige-skinned yellow or white sweet potatoes grown in the North."Yam" sweet-potato varieties include the Beauregard, with deep-orange flesh; the Jewel, with orange skin and deep-orange flesh; and the Garnet (often grown by organic farmers), with reddish skin and orange flesh that is remarkably moist and flavorful.Japanese sweet potatoes, or boniatos, are drier, starchier and less sweet.How healthful are they?Sweet potatoes are among the best vegetables you can eat, in terms of disease-fighting phytochemicals, according to Anne VanBeber, associate professor and chairwoman of the department of nutritional science at Texas Christian University.Calling the sweet potato an "antioxidant powerhouse," VanBeber notes that it contains more than 260 percent of the daily value for vitamin A in the form of beta carotene, as well as 30 percent of the daily value for vitamin C.It's also high in fiber (especially if you eat the skin) and a good source of manganese, copper, iron, potassium and vitamin B6. And, VanBeber notes, new research suggests sweet potatoes may have "antidiabetic properties."They can, however, interfere with calcium absorption.

Sweet potatoes can be boiled, steamed or microwaved; they puree smoothly, having less starch than white potatoes. They're best cooked in the oven, though.If you want to cut down on baking time, you can cut them, unpeeled, into chunks, rounds or fingers; toss them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper (and herbs, if you like); and roast them at 425 or 450 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.But the most satisfying sweet potato is a baked sweet potato: Wash and dry the potatoes; rub them with a little butter or oil (or leave them dry for crisper skin); and pierce them in a few places. Place them on a cookie sheet or baking pan lined with foil to catch the sugary juices; bake at 425 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on size, until the flesh is quite tender.

By all means, use real butter on your baked sweet potato. To my mind, sweet potatoes are so good for you that it's OK to be a little naughty with the butter. If you must gussy up your yams, flavored butters are a good way to do it. Here's how to make them:Let the butter soften at room temperature for a half-hour or so, then cream it in a shallow bowl with a fork or spatula. Add the flavorings and mix thoroughly. If the butter is now too soft to shape, chill it for 10 minutes or so in the freezer. Place the butter on a sheet of plastic wrap and roll it into a log. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap together, wrap in aluminum foil, seal in a freezer bag, label and freeze. When ready to serve, allow to soften slightly and slice with a knife.The butter can also be scooped into a ramekin or decorative dish, or molded into shapes in a butter or candy mold, and refrigerated.Three flavored butters that work well with sweet potatoes:Scarborough Fair butter: ½ stick (4 tablespoons) butter, 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley, 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme, ½ teaspoon chopped fresh sage and ½ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary. Feel free to use a tablespoon of a single herb instead of the mixed herbs, but if you're using sage or rosemary, reduce the amount to 1½ teaspoons, as these herbs have a stronger presence.Ginger-lime butter: ½ stick butter, finely grated zest of 1 small lime (about 2 heaping teaspoons), 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh or frozen gingerroot.Maple-bourbon-pecan butter: ½ stick butter, 1 tablespoon very finely chopped pecans, 1 teaspoon good bourbon, 1 teaspoon maple syrup. Good on pancakes, too.