Culinary Adventures: Do the Mashed Potato!

Or do the watusi, whatever strikes your fancy.

On Tuesday, I decided to cook dinner using my new kitchen supplies that had finally shown up (and I had finally bothered to wash! Yay me!). I happened to have some potatoes (that I had initially planned to bake), and a potato-masher-utensil thing (I don't know if it has an actual name, but here is a nifty picture of the tool). Here's the catch though: I had never made mashed potatoes in my life, and therefor wasn't sure if there was a special trick to it or anything (inside secret: there is no special trick).

Slice the potatoes and let them simmer in the pot.

Anyway, I Googled around for some recipes and they all followed the same format (like I said: no special trick), so I decided to just go for it. So first I peeled my potatoes. Peeled some carrots too while I was at it, figuring some carrots would be nice. Then I chopped my potatoes into chunks, averaging between half an inch to an inch and a half in width. And I plopped those suckers into a pot of cold water, which I placed on the stove and allowed to simmer.

Meanwhile, I started boiling water in another pot so I could make spaghetti and try out this recipe for Laughing Cow alfredo sauce. It should be well-known by now that I am flat-out obsessed with Laughing Cow cheese, and I like making pasta and experimenting with my own home-made sauces, so it was a no-brainer.

As everything was now sitting on the stove taking its sweet time, I began chopping up my carrots. I documented this part of the process for no reason, but now it's documented, so I obviously must include a mention of it.

*Time elapse*

I let the potatoes continue to cook for quite a while, just to ensure they were nice and soft and ready for mashing. Meanwhile, I cooked the spaghetti as normal, and drained it out. Then I began making the sauce. By this point, it was getting late in the evening and I was getting hungry and impatient, so I actually didn't consult the recipe at all. I did what I do best: winged it (wung it?).

In my still-hot pot, I poured some milk in (eyeballing, of course, an amount that felt appropriate for one person. I also don't have measuring cups, so eyeballing felt like a good course of action. It was maybe 1/3 cup of milk). I stuck a slice of butter in (maybe 1/4 tablespoon?), shredded some English cheddar over the pot, and added two wedges of light Laughing Cow swiss cheese. Sprinkled on some black pepper and stirred. I think it was a little too much milk, as it was runny and never did quite thicken, but at least it wasn't too much sauce in general for my single portion of pasta. Anyway, the flavor was smooth and creamy. I was contemplating adding lemon juice, but didn't as I also wound up making a salad with vinegar for dressing. I would certainly recommend adding whatever spices you enjoy to compliment it (or at least adding garlic like the original recipe calls for) but once again, I am limited on supplies. Let's all pretend I don't live above a grocery store right now.

How to properly use a potato masher.

Now, back to the veggies. I decided the potatoes had been simmering away long enough, so I drained those suckers and put them on my cutting board. Meanwhile, I decided to cook the carrots a little bit in the potato pot with some butter and olive oil. I did this mainly because raw carrots are difficult for my stomach to process. I pulled out my hand-dandy-nifty potato-mashing tool and did precisely what I thought I should do -- and low and behold, it worked! The potatoes mashed easily. Success!





So after giving the carrots about 10 minutes to cook a teensy bit (they certainly weren't soft or mushy), I replaced the carrots with the potatoes in the pot, where I added some milk, some laughing cow cheese, some butter, and a little bit of shredded cheese. I managed to forget salt and pepper, which is a rooky mistake. Ah well. The good news is, my potatoes came out nicely mashed and creamy, as any decent mash should. Turns out, they're so easy to make even I can do it. That's reassurance you can count on.

My final dinner consisting of spaghetti with Alfredo, mash, carrots, and salad.