Someday you will grow up and be somewhere on the other side of the country or the other side of the world serving your mission. I'm hoping you will have lots of people there willing and able to feed you, but just in case I will do my best to make sure you won't starve to death.
I'm not sure if your love of mashed potatoes will follow you into adulthood, but for the last 4 years of your little life, let me tell you, you LOVE mashed potatoes. I know you think they're a magical culinary feat and that Mommy has some mad cooking skillz to create such perfection in a spoon, but today I will tell you my secrets so you can make them yourself when you need them.
#1 Grab a bunch of potatoes. As long as you have a fridge it doesn't really matter how many. You will eat them within a day or two. I think for all of us I usually use 8-10 and we usually have leftovers for you.
#2 Don't worry about peeling them. It takes too long and there's a bunch of good stuff in the skin anyway. Just, PLEASE, scrub them good and get organic ones, k?
#3 Cut 'em up in whatever size chunks you feel like so you don't have giant skins floating around in your potatoes. (If you cut 'em smaller they'll cook quicker.)
#4 Boil those babies. I don't know how long. They're ready when you can poke 'em with a fork and they feel soft.
#5 Strain all the water out ... please be careful!
#6 Grab that potato masher (that I'll be sure to send you with) and throw in a stick of butter. Start mashing up those taters and help that butter get mixed around and melty. Once the butter is all melted, pour in milk a little at a time until it's the consistency you want. Oh, and keep sprinkling salt in there until it's tasty.
Are you missing some ingredients? You can use sour cream, and even plain yogurt in a pinch. No potatoes? You also like mashed turnips if you have those. When you feel like getting fancy you can add some shredded cheese, sauteed onions, garlic powder, pepper, or whatever spices you want.
There, see? No magic, no skill, no secret ingredients. I'm sure there's ways to make them better, but this has worked out to be the easiest, fastest routine for me. So please don't starve to death, ok?
Today was Sam's Thanksgiving Feast at preschool. He was very excited to have mashed potatoes, but I wasn't so sure they were actually going to have mashed potatoes at preschool. When I picked him up I asked if they had mashed potatoes and he said,
ReplyDelete"Yeah, but they kinda didn't really taste very good. I wish you were invited to the feast and you could bring the mashed potatoes because I don't think they knew the right ingredients." :D