Mashed Potatoes

Okay, there are about as many variations of mashed potatoes as there are stars in the sky. Seriously. You can have them plain and pour gravy all over them. You can add sour cream and garlic powder and serve plain. You can add onion salt, parsley, and rosemary and serve plain. The possibilities are endless.

Because I can't make gravy w/o meat drippings, tonight I did an onion salt, garlic powder, parsley combination that turned out pretty good. I'll give you my gravy recipe later. :)

Disclaimer: Sometimes it drives me nuts when people say, "Oh, you just add some butter and spices, and you're done." GIVE ME QUANTITIES! But this is going to be one of those recipes, so bear with me. I tried to quantify as much as possible, but sometimes, you just gotta wing it.

Mashed Potatoes
Several potatoes
Butter
Milk
(opt) Onion Salt
(opt) Garlic Powder
(opt) Parsley
(opt) Rosemary
(opt) Sour Cream

So, you take your potatoes and peel them. Or leave the skins on. Either works. Skins-on leaves pretty flecks on the potatoes when you whip them up and gives you nutrients (they are like apples in that a lot of their nutrients are in the skin). If your potatoes are a little old, like mine, I didn't trust them enough not to peel them and look for rotten spots to cut out. Good choice for me, by the way. Had to throw one whole potato away.

Anyway, back to the recipe. Dice your potatoes into ~1" chunks. Put in a pot and cover with water. Heat to boiling then cover with a lid. This cooks them faster, but leaves it prone to boiling over, so watch it and remove the lid every once in a while.

After potatoes are soft, drain the water and add ~1 T of butter. Follow this with ~1/4 c of milk and beat w/ an electric mixer. Handheld mixers work great. Add dashes of seasonings/spoonfuls (~1/4 c) of sour cream/etc. You'll probably have to add more milk too, just do it a little at a time until the potatoes are at the desired consistency (light and fluffy, without seeming slimy/gooey--too much liquid).

This is totally a "taster" recipe. You'll just have to add stuff and see how it goes. It's kind of fun--each time is slightly different. :)