Conference turris::cooks

    Here is a simple recipe for mashed potatoes that I took from a
    magazine.
    
    Mash potatoes as you normally would, but add some chopped chives and 
    some sour cream(to taste).
    
    

    ...and a little parmesan cheese doesn't hurt either!

    ...and garlic.  Sprinkle with Paprika just before baking.
    

    1 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup grated cheddar, 1 tbsp butter or
    margarine.  My kids love it.
    
    Chris

    cook a few carrots with the potatoes and mash them into
    the potatoes.  Adds a sweet flavor, and a bit of bright
    color, not to mention other vitamins, etc.
    
    Val

    
            Go all the way! Add mashed carrots, beets, onions, saltines
         (to soak up the extra moisture) and a can of corn beef. Then
         place it into a lightly greased frying pan and brown. Goes great
         with a little Ketchup on it and a cold glass of milk on the side!
    
                                                 Randy

    try this too!  Killer good:
    
    	4-5 pounds mashed spuds
    	1 package cream cheese
    	� cup (+/-) sour cream
    	Salt/pepper/whatever is is that you add for spices
    mix well, bake in oven for a while with butter on top of potatoes
    and remove when starting to get golden on top.  divine.  :) 

    Try this.
    4-5 large pots. mashed
    1 ld ground meat done up like sloppy joes
    1 med. turnip
    1-1 1/2 cupa shredded chedar cheese
    
    In a 9x12 glass baking disk spread about 1/2 to 3/4 inches of spuds.
    Put on a layer of the sloppy joe mix and so on. For the final layer
    spread out the chees and bake (350) until chees has melted. My kid (11)
    goes wild for this.
    

The latest Food & Wine suggested adding a puree of basil and parmesan cheese.  

Be careful -- a little basil goes a long way in this dish.  I tried it over
the weekend and added too much.

-- Nisha

My roomate adds:

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
1 8 oz pkg onion dip (sour cream based)

It is fantastic!

Karen

    My favorite for "Zipping" up Mashed Potatoes is to add Horseradish,
    Mustard, and Buttermilk together or seperately.
    Experiment and tailor it to your own taste.
    

    Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes
    
    6 c. peeled quartered potatoes
    1/2 c Mayo
    1 8 oz. cream cheese
    1/2 t onion powder
    1/4 t white pepper
    1/2 t salt (optional)
    paprika
    
    in 3 quart sauce pan, combine potatoes and enough water to cover
    potatoes.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to med and cook 20 min. or
    until tender.  Drain.  Mash potatoes, gradually stirring in salad
    dressing, cream cheese, onion powder, s & p until light and fluffy. 
    Spoon into 1 1/2 quart casserole.  Sprinkly with paprika.  Bake at 350
    for 45 min. or until thoroughly heated OR cover and refrig overnight. 
    When ready to serve, bake uncovered at 350 for l hour.  6 Servings.  
    

    I usually boil a couple of cloves of garlic and a bayleaf in a pot of
    potatoes.  Drain, remove the bayleaf (leave the garlic in!), add some
    warm milk and butter, and mash.

Two Suggestions:

A pinch of Dill Weed in the boiling water.


Likewise a pinch of Rosemary in same.

Mash with potatoes when mashing, or just leave there for boiled potatoes, 
adding a little butter/margerine/yoghurt/etc.

JMP

    An addition to .1, put potatoes et al into a casserole, top with
    shredded cheddar and back at 350 for 15 min.

    Try this as an alternative to plain or cheesy mashed potatoes:
    
    Dutch Vegetable Whip (straight out of my pressure cooker cookbook):
    
    4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
    4 carrots, peeled and diced
    1 large onion coarsely chopped
    1 apple peeled, cored and sliced thick
    
    Pressure cook for 15 minutes w/rack.  Whip with lots of butter.
    
    

 We made some really delicious potatoes the other night.

 2 lbs potatoes
 1/3 cup heavy cream
 1 stick butter
 3.5-4 oz mild goat cheese (like montrachet)
 6-10 cloves of garlic

 Peel the potatoes and cut into chunks. Boil with garlic until softened.
Meanwhile, heat butter, cream and goat cheese  in a saucepan until creamy.
Keep warm. When potatoes are done, put through a ricer (I suppose you could whip
them). Fold in sauce. Put in a ovenproof container. (They can be prepared to
this stage up to two days in advance.)

 If they have been stored, heat covered in a 400� oven for 20 minutes.
Broil for 3-5 minutes. (Obviously if they are still hot you omit the
heating period and go directly to the broiling step.)

    Add to your mashed potatoes 1 packet dry Hidden Vally ranch dressing.
    You can mash your potatoes with cream and sour sour cream, I used just
    2% milk.
    

>Note 842.17 by WAHOO::LEVESQUE "Diamonds and Rust" >>>
>
> We made some really delicious potatoes the other night.
> 2 lbs potatoes
> 1/3 cup heavy cream
> 1 stick butter
> 3.5-4 oz mild goat cheese (like montrachet)
> 6-10 cloves of garlic

	Tried this  recipe  last night for a family dinner party - and it was a
	disaster! :-(

	In the  "Mistakes  I made while cooking it" department is that the dish
	came out too mushy and gloppy (don't know whether I cooked the potatoes
	too  long  or mashed them too much) and the mixture somehow rose in the
	baking  dish  while in the oven (??) and overspilled the covered baking
	dish leaving a mess to clean up in the oven.

	In the  "not sure this was a good recipe for this gathering" department
	is  the  fact  that all the women present (sister, mother, grandmother)
	greatly  disliked the mild goat cheese in the potatoes.  Diplomatically
	they  said  "the  cheese is an acquired taste and does not go well with
	potatoes,"  and  when  pushed  said  (can  always  count on my European
	grandmother)  in broken English "it smells like stinky feet!" Not quite
	the  reaction  I  was looking for.  Curiously, all the men at the table
	could  not  smell  anything  in the potatoes at all (including myself),
	which  greatly  perplexed  the women who swore they could barely sit at
	the  table  with  it  because it was so strong - "how can you not smell
	it?" I used a very mild goat cheese, and could taste it - just barely -
	in the mixture, it was extremely subtle.  For the women however, it was
	apparently  extremely  strong  and  unpleasant.  The other men couldn't
	even taste the cheese in the mixture. 

	Oh well  - that's the gamble I made in using a new recipe for the first
	time  at  a  dinner party, so it goes.  This is just fyi that you might
	want  to  experiment  with this first for yourself before serving it to
	guests.

	Does anyone have any other recipes for garlic mashed potatoes? If there
	are none (none in my cookbooks at home either), I think I'll experiment
	with garlic, herbs, and sour cream....

	-Erik

	re: .19

	Curious.  I had said potatoes, and they were delish.

	One never knows.
	Di

    When I was a child, my family always kept a full wheel of Romano cheese 
    in a separate refrigerator in the basement so we would always have
    freshly grated cheese whenever we needed it.  Open that refrigerator
    door, and EVERYBODY would say it smelled like "stinky feet" for days
    afterwards.  My grandfather (from Italy), however, thought it was the
    most glorious smell in the world : )
    I, too, made these potatoes, and they were a big hit with both men and
    women.  
    sarah

>	Tried this  recipe  last night for a family dinner party - and it was a
>	disaster! :-(

 Bummer! I've made them thrice and they've yet to disappoint.

>	In the  "Mistakes  I made while cooking it" department is that the dish
>	came out too mushy and gloppy (don't know whether I cooked the potatoes
>	too  long  or mashed them too much) and the mixture somehow rose in the
>	baking  dish  while in the oven (??) and overspilled the covered baking
>	dish leaving a mess to clean up in the oven.

 I don't understand this, if you followed proportions. Mine have never been
sloppy; if anything they are typically on the stiff side. I wonder if you
may have overcooked the potatoes, and/or waterlogged them somehow.

 re: the tasting department

 Were all of the women related by birth? If so, they may all be "supertasters"
who are extremely sensitive to taste. Supertasters have an increased density
of taste buds. This leads to situations wwhere they find a particular taste
to be overwhelmingly strong when others can barely taste it. Supertasting is
a genetically passed trait, and it is more common in women than in men,
according to the article I just read (last week or the week before.)

 So how did you like the taste? 

>    I, too, made these potatoes, and they were a big hit with both men and
>    women.  

 Whew! :-)

	re: Mark

	Hope I  didn't  sound  like  I  was  taking  it  out  on you...  it was
	definitely operator error.  But soooo frustrating, the entire night was
	actually - it was the WORST dinner party I've ever done. A shambles.

	We had the dinner planned.  I'd go to work, the other half would do the
	food  shopping since it was a day off, and then start the soup (curried
	butternut)  and  the  simple rosemary/lemon/ect Cornish Game Hens.  I'd
	come home with two hours before the family arrives and finish the rest.
	We  didn't  count  on  both of us getting food poisoning from the night
	before.   I  was still able to go to work, the other half stayed in bed
	and unknown to me was too sick all day to even get up or call me.  When
	I  got  home  I had two hours to go grocery shopping and get the dinner
	ready.  I should have called out for food.  It was a surprise party for
	my  sister.   The crowning feature of the evening was an enormous torte
	made  by  an Austrian Konditormeister, so any basic take out would have
	worked  too.   I  knew  accomplishing  the  dinner  was  impossible but
	stupidly  tried  anyway.  Duh! Now I know better.  The grocery shopping
	in the christmas rush took two hours alone.  I arrived home to meet the
	family  already  there,  and me with frozen game hens in my hands :-) I
	was nauseous and woozy from the food poisoning still and running around
	with  my  head  cut  off,  so  no wonder why things didn't come out too
	great.   I  received  hoards of 'good-natured' abuse from my family all
	through  the holidays about just how bad it was though.  Good grief! It
	was bad but not _that_ bad.

	ANYWAY, the potatoes...


> I don't understand this, if you followed proportions. Mine have never been
>sloppy; if anything they are typically on the stiff side. I wonder if you
>may have overcooked the potatoes, and/or waterlogged them somehow.

	The proportions  were  right.   In  fact,  I  only used 2/3 of the goat
	cheese  the  recipe  called  for.   My  mistake was that to save time I
	mashed  the cooked potatoes in the kitchen mixer - they might have been
	mashed for too long. Definitely my fault and not the recipe's.

> Were all of the women related by birth? If so, they may all be "supertasters"

	Yes, but   I   don't  think  they  are  supertasters.   My  mother  and
	grandmother are Bavarian, and they apparently don't think much of goats
	there.   My  grandmother  said as much upon finding out that the smelly
	ingredient  in  her  potatoes  was  indeed GOAT's milk cheese (her eyes
	bulging)  after  she first thought my mother was joking.  I was talking
	with  an  Austrian  friend  of mine and our family, a five star chef if
	ever there was one, lamenting about how awful the evening was (as he'll
	undoubtedly  hear  repeatedly  over  New  Year's as my mother revels in
	telling  the  story to anyone who'll listen, and even those who won't),
	and  he  said that the Austrians and Bavarians find goats to be "smelly
	animals"  and  especially  dislike  eating anything from them.  I found
	this relieving as I hadn't told him about my grandmother's "smells like
	stinky  feet"  outburst  yet.   At  least  it wasn't entirely my rushed
	cooking then.  :-)

	Again not  the  fault  of the recipe, it was the wrong audience.  Now I
	know  -  no  goats  near  our  dinner table.  I think the fact that the
	cheese  came  from  a  local farm made it even worse for my grandmother
	"those crazy americans - eating _cheese_ from GOATS!" :-)

	Oh well.   It'll take a while before my reputation heals over from that
	catastrophe,  not  to  mention  my  self-esteem in dinner entertaining.
	Ouch!  We're  having  one  more  final dinner at my place this Saturday
	before  my  grandmother  flies back home on Sunday.  You better believe
	I'm   doing   something   proven   and   unrisky   like   spaetzle  and
	jagerschnitzel.  A chance to redeem myself...  :-)

> So how did you like the taste? 

	I found  it  to  be OK.  The goat cheese added a _very_ mild and subtle
	background flavour (to me).  It wasn't smelly by any means, in fact, if
	anything  it  improved  the  taste  of the potatoes.  It was OK but not
	great.   Seemed like the baking step was unnecessary too.  From the way
	mine  came  out,  the dish would have tasted the same directly from the
	masher  I  thought.   I might try it again someday, just for myself, to
	see if it comes out better under better circumstances...

	-Erik

    re: the trying to do the impossible:
    - I sympathize - I try to do this all the time; being pregnant with a
    bad chest cold at christmas does not make for lots of energy, and yet
    I still try to do 110%. I think my husband is cross with me 8-).
    
    re: Goat cheese:
    Stangely enough, Dad, who is from Hamburg doesn't mind the stuff, but
    Mom, from Bavaria, isn't fond of it at all. Because of its rare
    appearance in our household when I was growing up, I never got to
    think of it as "good food". I will not buy it, cook with it or eat
    it. (I had a dish in a restaurent with it once, and it wasn't too bad
    though).
    
    Hope you will be able to withstand the teasing - IMHO Germans are
    merciless!
    
    Monica

    Mashing potatoes in a mixer makes a mess, and doesn't even save much
    time over doing it with a masher.  They always come out gluey; I guess
    they get over-mashed real fast that way.
    
    /Charlotte

	Yes, my sister was surprised so that part of the evening worked anyway.
	And  of course the torte was incredible, so one course worked OK.  They
	didn't go home hungry at least...

	-2, isn't  that  a  typical  stubborn  deutscher  -  trying  to  do the
	impossible anyway.  :-) 

>    Hope you will be able to withstand the teasing - IMHO Germans are
>    merciless!

	Oh boy, you aren't kidding.  At least with my family.  In one week, all
	my  friends heard about the "goat potatoes", it was all over my (small)
	home  town  with  family acquaintances and business customers, and even
	made  it  to  many  of the relatives over-seas, all in a teasing way of
	course.   But  they  find  something amusing, and they _stick_ with it,
	it's  all  you  (and  ALL your friends) hear about for days.  Honestly,
	people  I  haven't  seen since high school have heard about the evening
	and  how  bad it was.  The teasing continued over New Years.  Something
	in this type of German brutal sense of humour often eludes me...

    	Luckily, luckily, LUCKILY...

	I was able to coerce everyone to return to my place the night before my
	grandmother  was  flying  out for a farewell dinner, and it went...  **
	FABULOUSLY!  **  Perhaps  my best dinner party ever (there was a lot at
	stake).   I  had  time, made various stages in advance, was relaxed and
	actually  _enjoyed_  the preparation this time around.  I even had time
	to  entertain inbetween the courses.  Having two non-sick people in the
	kitchen  helped enormously too.  And they _raved_ about the food.  They
	loved  it.  The next morning on the phone, at the airport, and overseas
	on the phone - that's all I heard, how fantastic the dinner was.  (From
	one extreme to the other).

	I am redeemed!   

	Grossmuter could  return  home  now  and dispel to my relatives all the
	stories  about  how bad my cooking is and the awful kinds of food I not
	only  eat  but  even  serve to guests at dinner.  If this dinner hadn't
	come  off, I'd be living with "stinky potatoes" stories for the rest of
	my  life.   You  get  one  shot  it seems.  And then they don't let go.
	Fortunately  for  both  the  good  and  the  bad events.  Puts a lot of
	pressure  on though.  It'd have been another whole year before I'd have
	been  able  to redeem myself with her again on her next visit - putting
	up with the teasing the whole time.  I told her next time she's getting
	real classic american food like Burger King.

	Anyway, I feel whole again.  :-) I can entertain with confidence again.
	This  last  dinner  was  perhaps _the_ most satisfying feeling I had of
	them  all  this  holiday  season.   It always feels great when a dinner
	party  comes  off well, especially when it's a big hit, especially when
	the  stakes  are  high  as  with this one.  I can feel good all the way
	until next year.  :-)

	Thanks for  all  the  input.   Suppose  the moral of the story is don't
	serve  goat  products  to  Bavarians,  or try to save time in a rush by
	mashing potatoes in a kitchen mixer...

	-Erik

    I'm glad you got redeemed! 
    I just got a long distance birthday call from Mom and Dad - and sure
    enough, I got teased for a culinary blunder that occurred about 10 
    months ago (having to do with a birthday cake I was making for my
    daughter's first birthday). It made me think of you 8-) 8-) 8-).
    
    Monica