LordEden

Try heating up your milk and butter before you add them to your hot potatoes, it ends up blending better and giving it a smoother flavor instead of a harsh dairy taste to it. Don't boil it, just heat it up enough for the butter to melt into the milk. Add a little at a time or if you are using a machine to mix them, slowly add it as it mixes. Heavy cream mixed in can give it a heavier dairy taste to it, I like it like that. Screw Skim Milk, that shit is for the hippies. I'm 100% full cow milk.

Again, squeeeb and Charlatan are right with everything they posted. Ricer is important in my book because of it's many uses. Seriously, I'm thinking of writing a script for Tilted Food that says "Whatever those two guys said."

I'm against putting cheese on your mash potatoes, I think the milk/cream you add to it should make the side stand up on it's own, but to each his own. Adding cheese like that is a catch-all for adding favor to a dish (unless it is required for the dish). If you do add it, do it at the end. After you have made the mash, have a separate bowl to add the cheese and mix it.

You should ALWAYS salt and pepper your food before you serve it. Salt goes in EVERYTHING (baring a medical conditions or anything your doctor told you about your diet, Blah Blah Blah) and that includes baking/sauces/any boiled item. I seriously got hit with a pair of tongs by a chef because I wasn't salting my water I was using to reheat pasta and blanch veggies. Potatoes soak up alot of salt while they are cooking. Cooking for one person inparticular (SO, roommate, couch surfer) everyday? Cook something like this, let them salt/pepper it to their taste, then you taste it. Now you know how they like their food, spice to that point at all times.

I LOVE rosemary, it goes well with any red meat and sometimes chicken. Garlic and rosemary mash pots is one of my favorite side items. Oregano/basil/thyme are great to add to pots. Also make alot of mash at a time, leftover mash potatoes have so many uses. Twice baked potatoes are great and my personal favorite, Shepard's Pie! Hell, just take the leftover mash, mold it into any shape you want and throw it in the deep fryer. Tastes great and makes simple plates look like your a 3-star chef. Fry them in stick looking form or in ball form. If you want to get really fancy, form them into pear shapes, deep fry them, then put a clove at the top of it. Looks like a pear and with the right veggies, it makes your plate look freaking great.

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Vice-President of the CinnamonGirl Fan Club - The Meat of the Zombiesquirrel and CinnamonGirl Sandwich