Just Plain Mount: Mashed Goodness

Today is tater day!

I made these little beauties along with the beef tenderloin as a surprise dinner for Eric, and man were they good! I used Pioneer Woman's recipe and was not disappointed.

The original recipe calls for 5lbs of potatoes, but I ended up halving it since there were only 2 of us eating. The original recipe can be found here.

Let us begin!

The equipment. You will notice that I have included a hefty, 3lb weight. This is because I do not own a scale (personal reasons) and I needed to guesstimate how many potatoes would equal 2.5lbs. Somehow...my crazy logic seems to have worked.

I also included a potato masher. I think you could just use a fork, but it would take a lot longer. This is really a great little gadget.

(AND 10% off at KROGER!)

Also very important....the instructions.

And the ingredients.

Again, I halved the recipe...so I used the following:

Approx 2.5 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes (3 med/large taters)

3/4 stick of butter

3 oz. cream cheese

1/4 cup half and half

1/4 tsp Lawry's season salt

salt and pepper to taste

** not a heart-friendly recipe**

Begin by peeling your potatoes. I like to put my peelings in a bag instead of down the disposal. Some day I might think of composting - can you compost potato peels?

Ah lovely!

Next you slice your taters up into uniform size pieces. This allows them to cook evenly.

You want to have some water boiling.

And dump those taters right into the boiling pot!

So nice!

I let my pot boil for approx 25 minutes.

You should keep a close eye on this step....boiling potato water does not smell good when it runs over.

You want to check a potato with a fork to make sure it is soft all the way through.

Then you drain all the water off the potatoes.

And put them back in the pot on the warm burner. This is where you will be using your potato masher!! Now, PW says that you should mash the potatoes over a warm burner so that the steam from the potatoes can escape. I am not sure of the science behind this step...but I did it and my end product was delicious - so you should do it too.

Peer pressure.

Next you add your butter,

Cream cheese,

Half and Half,

Season Salt,

Salt and Pepper.

Then you mash to your heart's content!

And put into a baking dish. This is my cutest little Le Creuset dish that I got for Christmas from Liz! THANKS LIZ!!

So cute! At this point, you can cover the potatoes and refrigerate for up to 2 days! I put them in the fridge overnight so that my beef tenderloin wouldn't get lonely.