Ingies n' Things

This year I had to cook Thanksgiving dinner. It has been awhile. And you all know how much I love to cook. (Heavy, dripping sarcasm.)

Last time I did this volume of cooking I had a sous chef (my mother) running around at my beck and call taking care of a million little details. Things like explaining to me that the reason the whipped cream wasn’t working was because I was trying to make it out of half-and-half. 

Yup . . . little things like that.

Anyway, for the most part this year I was unsupervised in the kitchen and I learned a couple of things.

Lesson One:  Before steaming one’s upper body over a giant pot of boiling potatoes it is wise to remove one’s fleece jacket. 

I’m pretty sure no drops of sweat fell in the potatoes. 

Pretty sure. 

Lesson Two:  Every kitchen should have a full on heavy-duty kitchen hot pad mitt thingy.  

See this picture?

See my hands? (Notice specifically the hand holding the potato masher and plunging in and out of the depths of that giant pot . . . the hand suffering from steam burns because I don’t own one of those oven mitts.)

Do you know what it is I am wearing on my hands?

My husband’s wool socks. 

Yup.  

It was his idea. 

He loves mashed potatoes and wasn’t about to let a minor detail like his wife burning herself keep him from getting those potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner. 

Truth be told I was yelling at him to get me the oven mitt from the camping gear. He informed me that there is no oven mitt in the camping gear and came to my rescue with SmartWool®. 

Gotta love a man who thinks on his feet. Or about his feet. Which may be why he brought me socks. 

To all of those who ate the potatoes, I promise the socks were clean. 

The mashed potatoes turned out just fine . . . so I’m told by those people who aren’t allergic to dairy products and actually got to eat them. How can a recipe containing cream cheese and butter possibly be bad? I know because I used to imbibe . . . heavily . . . sigh . . . give me a minute . . . I’m need to pause to reminisce about dairy product consumption . . . mmmmmmm . . .

OK . . . I’m back.

If you want the mashed potato recipe you can get it from its creator here. When you read it you can do your own calculations but as a highly qualified Parks and Recreation Administration major I’m estimating that there are approximately 3,472 calories per teaspoon. However, since it is always good to look on the bright side I’ll just mention the upside of a milk allergy in this situation . . . I don’t have to work off those mashed potato calories.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Enjoying leftover turkey and naked yams before shopping for an oven mitt,
D