Happy Thanksgiving Week, again!
Recipes in this Post
Welcome back (assuming you read the part 1 post. If you didn’t, here’s a handy dandy link to that post).
Last time we talked about the two main staples of our Thanksgiving meal in the Hectic Household, turkey and stuffing. The next item that comes up when I ask the kids what they want for Thanksgiving (providing them with the delusion that they really have some kind of input into the menu), mashed potatoes are mentioned. That’s a good thing, because they’re going to be on the menu. I’m worried that if they weren’t the delicate balance of the universe might be disturbed and we’d end up with a natural catastrophe that would destroy life on Earth. You may say that’s a bit over-dramatic, but I’m afraid you’re wrong.
Growing up, we always had mashed potatoes. Most likely they were Russet potatoes, but I can’t vouch for that for sure. I do know that they were peeled and looked like Russet potatoes to my youthful eyes. When my grandmother was involved, I peeled lots of potatoes for her. If my Mom was making the meal I was exempted from that job. In fact, I only had to deal with the potatoes when it came time to actually mash them. For whatever reason that job fell to me sometime around my 12th birthday. For years afterwards mashed potatoes were my thing.
Since graduating college, moving out, and starting a family (what seems like a zillion years ago), I’ve taken a more active role in the entire mashed potato process. I’ve drifted away from Russet potatoes and currently prefer Yukon gold or Red potatoes for mashing. I’ll use Russets when I’m on a tighter budget. The main difference is that it takes longer to clean Russets.
Two years ago I discovered that you could clean your potatoes in the dishwasher. All you do is put the potatoes into a secure place of the dishwasher (I used the top rack only) and then run it on the shortest cycle you have that just rinses (no heat, we’re not trying to cook them). DO NOT PUT IN SOAP. I may or may not have tried using soap. I may or may not have had potatoes boiling in a bubble bath. I’ll never tell.
Anyway, you run the short cycle (WITHOUT SOAP…got it?) and the potatoes are scrubbed clean. It’s a cool trick.
I’m also a non-purist when it comes to peeling potatoes. It’s our Hectic-Kitchen, so I’ll do whatever I can to save time. One way to save time and actually have more nutritionally valuable potatoes…don’t peel them. I do cut them into quarters, or maybe smaller if the potatoes are big. Then I break the second rule of traditional Thanksgiving cooking. I make my mashed potatoes in a slow cooker (you know, a crock pot).
Crock-Pot is a trademark of Rival Industries. The terms Crockpot and Crock Pot are now used generically to refer to any slow cooker, just like Kleenex is often used to refer to any facial tissue.
The two best parts of making mashed potatoes in a slow cooker: No boiling water that you have to mess with (especially the steam on the glasses that drives me crazy) and you can start the darned things when you aren’t so busy. Then you get the added benefit of being able to mash them in the slow cooker itself and keep them warm until it’s time to serve the rest of the meal. If you don’t have a lot of kitchen help, it’s nice to time-shift the mashed potatoes to whenever it’s convenient for you to work on them.
I am a purist when it comes to the actual mashing of the potatoes. I’ve used a hand mixer. I’ve used a bowl mixer. I used a cordless drill (we cleaned it, seriously we did) the one year when the hand mixer shorted out. But my preferred manner of mashing is by hand, with a metal masher. This is my all-time favorite masher
So that’s pretty much it for the mashed potatoes, except for the recipe. Here you go…Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes.
Next up… Yams, er, Sweet Potatoes
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