I Am a Failure at Cooking

So in case you're wondering, the Yam came out about half edible. I ate more than that half, because I'm behind in my calorie count for the day (sheesh.) I'm not sure what I did wrong. I "buttered" the sweet potato (with smart balance light spread), poked it with a fork a few times, wrapped it in aluminum foil, and put it in the oven on a baking tray. I left it in for 45 minutes, then checked on it. Hard. Left it in for another 15 minutes, still hard. After 15 more minutes I took it out and gave up.

I cut the Yam in half, as it seemed the other half of this gigantic yam might be better suited for this recipe I found online for making mashed sweet potatoes out of baked sweet potato leftovers. Just add a little bit of butter and a bit of milk, some cinnamon and after some heavy-duty mashing, viola, mashed sweet potatoes.

Here's what I got:



Maybe I used too much milk?

Now the mush of milky yam clump soup is in my freezer. I'm freezing it because I don't want to throw it out, and the freezing will prolong its ability to be reheated almost indefinitely, or at least until it starts growing weird freezer mold.

Why is cooking so damn hard?