So for Easter dinner on Sunday I am bringing a dessert (cupcakes or gingerbread bunnies, maybe both) and sweet potatoes.  This will be my first time to buy and prepare sweet potatoes.  I realize the preparation isn't very difficult. 

What I did not understand, exactly, was the difference between the sweet potato and the yam.  I am going to the store tonight so I wanted to make sure that I purchased the correct variety.  I thought that perhaps they were one in the same, although I also doubted that to be the truth.  It turns out they're quite different yet many people refer to them interchangeably.  They also are both orange on the inside.  And here's probably why people get them so confused: Most stores and even canned yam retailers label sweet potatoes as "Yams" when really they just a version of the sweet potato.  So you may think that you're getting canned yams when really you're getting canned sweet potatoes.  Same goes for bulk produce...

So interesting.  Even if I had accidentally purchased yams tonight I probably would have ended up with sweet potatoes.