Thankfulness

I have never in made gluey mashed potatoes. I wasn't even sure it was truly possible, suspecting instead that gluey mashed potatoes were some boogie-monster used to scare keep inexperienced cooks on the "true path" to mashed potato nirvana. Usually I just peel the potatoes, chop them into little pieces, and toss the pieces into water and boil the snot out of them. I mash them in my kitchen-aid and pour the milk in cold just like you're not supposed to. And they come out fine every time.

Yeah, so this year I read something that said to boil potatoes for mashing in their skins to reduce the amount of moisture they absorb and make it less likely that they'll turn out gluey. Then we mashed them by hand to be extra sure they'd have a good, fluffy texture.

Uh-huh.

Wall-paper paste. Three of my six dishes turned out not quite as I expected (cranberry sauce overcooked to the point of being candy; pecan pie undercooked and runny--but still tasty!) but none of the rest were bad enough I was embarrassed to serve the dish.

We did serve the mashed potatoes, which were tasty (what wouldn't be with three heads of roasted garlic?), and hidden in amongst the rest of the very delicious meal, nobody said anything. Catherine (who hosted us) asked us all to tell something we were each grateful for. Right now I want to say I am grateful for friends who are willing to eat my food, even when it's more than a little sub-par.

I am also grateful for a creative husband who can turn gluey mashed potatoes into this:


Mmm, tasty! Mashed potatoes, flattened into a disk, dipped in egg and coated with a mixture of bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and black pepper, and pan-fried. Very tasty dinner.

Oh, and I'm grateful for home teachers who show up on the last day of the month bearing pecan pie with the proper texture.