Note 3: Cooking With Potatoes

When one forgets to take out some meat from the freezer for dinner... well, that can be a little frustrating. What are you going to do?! Luckily, with a little thinking, you can save your stomache for dinnertime. When meat is no longer an option, I turn to Good Ol' Reliable (save that blight in the 19th century that killed lots of people) - The Potato.
The potato is not a vegetable. It is a tuber. Edible (and nutritious) root. It originated in South America and there are many, many different varieties. My personal favourite is what is known as the red potato. In my opinion, it makes the best mashed potatoes, a big factor being that you don't have to peel it, thus keeping most of the potato's nutritional value (eat them potato skins, kids!). When I make mashed potatoes, I make enough to serve six to eight people (depending on the size of their stomaches). This is the easiest amount, because you may have leftovers that are really good with eggs and toast the next morning!
The Basic Mashed Potato:
1 8-quart saucepan
Enough potatoes to fill saucepan
3 cloves fresh garlic
1/2 stick butter
1/4 c cream

Rinse and cut potatoes into roughly 1 inch pieces (better on the smaller side than on the larger side, but make sure they're all around the same size so they cook evenly) and fill that bloody saucepan! Chop up the garlic in slices and throw in to the potatoes. Fill sauce pan with water, cover with lid and put on high heat on stovetop. The potatoes will eventually start to boil over. When this begins to happen, remove lid and turn to medium heat. Let cook. Periodically fork the potatoes around. After about twenty minutes, check for complete cookness! The potato should come apart easily and there should be no crunchy texture or resistance when you try the potato. If this is the case (which is should be), drain the water out of the potatoes! Put in stick of butter and cream. Let sit until the butter is melted. Then whip out trusty beater and whip the potatoes until they're smooth. They are now ready to eat.

I will post more recipes with mashed potatoes, as that was my original intention. However, excessively long blog posts are frustrating to read. Thus, I will save that for another day. Bon Appetit!