my mom and sister and i have always been responsible for making thanksgiving and christmas dinner. we make the same thing for both occasions. turkey and stuffing (yum!) and waldorf salad and sweet potatoes and green bean casserole and, of course, mashed potatoes. we've tried to make homemade mashed potatoes for years, but they never actually turned out right. they were always a bit too dry and bland and kind of chunky. eventually, we switched to a mixture of half real mashed potatoes and half instant mashed potatoes.
it seems to have worked out better because instant mashed potatoes rock! the ones i like best are the idahoan ones that come in the red pouch. (very fashionable too, i might add) they are, by far, superior. they come in all kinds of flavors -- garlic and herb, four cheese, buttery homestyle -- and all you have to do is add 2 cups of boiling water and let them sit for 1 minute. how fucking cool is that! the only problem is that, somehow, i feel that we're cheating the holidays a bit with this whole "easy way out" instant mashed potatoes thing. you know? like christmas and thanksgiving have to be at least a little bit about stress and being overwhelmed and working a bit too hard when it's supposed to be a vacation and the instant mashed potatoes part of it just doesn't fit. oh, and i guess it's much easier to be proud of something you made from scratch... whatever!
anyway, i was watching a new cooking show on pbs. it has johnny carino on it. (i didn't think that there was an actual guy named johnny carino, but it's true!) he's a chef and he was explaining how the reason that mashed potatoes get all clumpy and dry is because we add COLD milk and COLD butter to HOT potatoes and it doesn't combine. if you heat the milk and butter first and THEN add the potatoes, then all is good. i couldn't believe what i was hearing! it was right there the whole time and i didn't even know it! i feel like i found the golden ticket. (well, actually, that would be way cooler, but this is still pretty neat.) now, i can't wait to go home (or wherever it is we're going to be) and volunteer to make homemade mashed potatoes. i just can't wait! they'll be the best damn mashed potatoes we ever had...and i can take the instant mashed potato pouches back home with me to eat with the next round of star wars books. (there are TONS of them. i'll be set!)
