All That Butter!

I could not resist sharing the text message conversation that happened yesterday with my daughter while she was cooking to take dinner to another family. And cooking a double amount so her own supper would be done, too. 

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Baby Girl does not start her 4-year-old preschool until after Labor Day (the big sisters have been in school for nearly a month), so she is still at home during the day to "help" her mommy in the kitchen. Remember now...she isn't quite 4-1/2 yet. Maybe she's our future nutritionist.

Baby Girl might be right. This probably shouldn't be your everyday version of mashed potatoes. But I cannot wait to try them next time I visit down there. <hint, hint, Mommy>

And she did. I got this email first thing this morning...

CREAMY MASHED POTATOES

6-8 servings as a side

• 4 lbs (12 medium russet) potatoes, peeled 
• 1 1/4 cups hot milk
• 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature, not melted
• 1 1/2 tsp salt or to taste (Recipe says she uses sea salt)
• 1 Tbsp fresh parsley or chives finely chopped for garnish (optional)

1. Peel potatoes (cut potatoes in half if very large). If you want the smoothest potatoes possible, remove the little knots from the potatoes with a small spoon or the tip of a potatoes peeler. Place potatoes in a large pot (5 Qt+) and cover potatoes with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook partially covered until easily pierced with a knife (boil 20-25 min depending on the size of your potatoes; mine took about 30 min).
2. Drain well and transfer to the bowl of your stand mixer. Grab the whisk attachment and mash potatoes lightly by hand to break them up. Fit mixer with whisk attachment and start on low speed 30-seconds then increase to medium and slowly drizzle in the HOT milk.
3. With mixer on, add softened butter 1 Tbsp at a time, waiting a few seconds between each addition. Potatoes will be whipped and fluffy. Finally add 1 1/2 tsp salt, or add to taste.

Recipe Notes:  To keep mashed potatoes warm until serving: cover potatoes and place into a warm oven or transfer to a slow cooker on the low setting to keep potatoes warm until ready to serve.

Mommy’s Notes:

• I used a 5-lb bag with 12 potatoes, but one potato was lost during the water-draining process.
• I used whole milk and table salt.
• I used salted butter, but next time will use unsalted like recipe calls for, or back off adding salt at the end of recipe. (I thought they were salty, but the rest of my family didn’t seem to notice or mind.)
• I skipped the stand mixer. Once potatoes were cooked & drained, I left them in the same pot they cooked in, and mashed them up a bit with a large wire whisk. Then did rest of the mixing using hand-mixer with egg beater attachment.
• I lightly sprinkled top with a little dried parsley at end so they didn’t look so naked.
• Will definitely make again. Little Sister closed her eyes and happily moaned as she ate them while singing-to-herself “delicious!” and I think Big Sister ate 4 helpings last night alone. (And you’ve already heard Baby Girl’s commentary on them…perhaps I’ll back off the butter next time too ;) )

You'll find the recipes for Bourbon Marinated Pork Tenderloin, Company Carrots and Pumpkin Bread in the recipe index here on the blog. 

Mommy said she took the pork tenderloin "oven ready"—which meant she took them the tenderloin in the marinade in a ziplock bag, in a foil pan, ready for the meat to be taken out of the marinade and put  back into the pan for baking. It's only 30-40 minutes in the oven. That way, Mommy could take the meal earlier in the day, but the family could have an easy hot meal when they wanted to eat.