Mashed Potato Secrets?

[chubbyalaskagriz]

In this month's MSLiving there's an ad showing decadent looking mashed potatoes made extra flavorful and creamy using a couple various varieties of flavored cream cheese spread- one was garlic/chive.

In the same issue there's a reference to rapper Snoop Dog being on Martha's show and sharing his mother's recipe which adds cream cheese...

My Dad uses French Onion Chip Dip in his mashed 'taters.

I've heard many sing the praises or buttermilk in them- though I've never tried that.

I like to use red-skinned potatoes left unpeeled- but not all are fans of that.

What are your mashed potato secrets?

[Mama Mangia]

try some rotel added with sour cream and cheddar

try bacon, velveeta, onion and mayo

try garlic and cheddar

garlic, olive oil, olives, Parmesan

cream cheese, sour cream, green onion, milk

add horseradish

add caramelized onions

add chives - with or without sour cream

add dry ranch dressing mix

[jglass]

Roasted garlic, sour cream and buttermilk are three things I have added to my mashed potatoes. All very yummy. I bet the french onion chip dip is yummy. I have to try that one.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

My secret for making Instant Mashed potatoes is chicken bouillion, sour cream and chives. They taste incredible! Then my hubby uses Hidden Valley seasoning packet.

[The Ironic Chef]

My secret for mashed potatoes....Whipped potatoes I guess you could call mine. Since I was a kid I have always just used butter, evaporated milk and salt and pepper to taste. I drain the peeled, diced and boiled potatoes, return them to the hot pan, add the butter and evaporated milk and then whip them with an electric beater. It's the only thing I use the beater for and its the same one for all these years. I add enough evaporated milk to get them to the consistancy that I want. At times I may add sour cream, chives or even some hot pureed horseradish. Taste is important so when I salt and pepper I have to sample.

Depending on the meal, Like for holidays, I will go with white pepper just to keep the pure white potatoes.

[chubbyalaskagriz]

[COLOR="Navy"]....Whipped potatoes I guess you could call mine... then whip them with an electric beater. It's the only thing I use the beater for and its the same one for all these years. COLOR]

My grandma also always whipped her mashers using a hand-held electric mixer. Funny, like many small electric appliances, her mixer gave off a peculiar "odor" if she used it for a long spell and it got hot. Now and then I smell that particular odor somewhere today and it immediately makes me think of mashed potatoes! ALSO- whenever I smell the hot sulphur of a lit "farmer match" (those long wooden stick matches) I also think of grandma and grandpa's old farm-house, cause between lighting the cook-stove, the furnace and gramps somking his pipe- those matches were constantly bein' struck!

[The Ironic Chef]

As a kid, I grew up in a house with Sulpher water. Aways the smell of rotten eggs. Terrible Koolade.

Around adult age, reading Popular Mechanics I learned the basic science that gas rises..... Who woulda thought, lol.
The next time I went back to the family homestead we put some of that sulpher water into containers and left the tops off for a few days. The sulpher gas sure did rise. There was still the slight hint of sulpher but not as bad as what we had to put up with as kids.
The worst possible thing to eat was sulpher jello.
I do think the sulpher added something to the terrible tasting boxed pasta we had to consume back in the day.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

There was a place where we used to go as a kid that had hot springs that were sulfur water and who knows how many other minerals. Folks used to go there to soak. I did not ever get in it, not too inviting to me! Boy was it "stanky"! We also had alot of iron in our water, not too awful bad, just stained the toilet, sinks, and washing machine tub...clorox kept our clothes white

[scubalaydee]

In this month's MSLiving there's an ad showing decadent looking mashed potatoes made extra flavorful and creamy using a couple various varieties of flavored cream cheese spread- one was garlic/chive.

In the same issue there's a reference to rapper Snoop Dog being on Martha's show and sharing his mother's recipe which adds cream cheese...

My Dad uses French Onion Chip Dip in his mashed 'taters.

I've heard many sing the praises or buttermilk in them- though I've never tried that.

I like to use red-skinned potatoes left unpeeled- but not all are fans of that.

What are your mashed potato secrets?

I like mashed potatoes with butter, garlic and scallions topped with bacon bits

[diner46]

Hi,
I've just joined this forum so here goes...
Another tip ....to get really fluffy potatoes drain and shake the pan of potatoes outside to ensure all the water has evapourated...the resulting mash will have a lovely texture.
Mind you our Scottish weather perhaps lends itself to this more!!!