Creamy Mashed Potatoes

courtesy of The Pioneer Woman

Prep Time: 1 Hour Cook Time: 30 Minutes Difficulty: Easy Servings: 10

Ingredients
•5 pounds Russet Or Yukon Gold Potatoes
•¾ cups Butter
•1 package (8 Oz.) Cream Cheese, Softened*
•½ cups (to 3/4 Cups) Half-and-Half
•½ teaspoons (to 1 Teaspoon) Lawry's Seasoned Salt
•½ teaspoons (to 1 Teaspoon) Black Pepper
Preparation Instructions
Peel and cut the potatoes into pieces that are generally the same size. Bring a large pot of water to a simmer and add the potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 to 35 minutes. When they’re cooked through, the fork should easily slide into the potatoes with no resistance, and the potatoes should almost, but not totally, fall apart.

Drain the potatoes in a large colander. When the potatoes have finished draining, place them back into the dry pot and put the pot on the stove. Mash the potatoes over low heat, allowing all the steam to escape, before adding in all the other ingredients.

Turn off the stove and add 1 ½ sticks of butter, an 8-ounce package of cream cheese and about ½ cup of half-and-half. Mash, mash, mash! Next, add about ½ teaspoon of Lawry’s Seasoning Salt and ½ a teaspoon of black pepper.

Stir well and place in a medium-sized baking dish. Throw a few pats of butter over the top of the potatoes and place them in a 350-degree oven and heat until butter is melted and potatoes are warmed through.

Note: When making this dish a day or two in advance, take it out of the fridge about 2 to 3 hours before serving time. Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 20 to 30 minutes or until warmed through.

Home Fries

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
3 medium russet potatoes, cubed
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
Rinse potato cubes with cold water, and drain well. Melt butter or margarine in a large skillet over medium heat. Place potatoes in the skillet, and stir to coat with butter. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with a lid, and cook for 10 minutes. Remove the lid, and cook for another 10 minutes, turning frequently until brown and crisp on all sides..

Hashbrown Casserole

2lbs frozen hashbrowns, thaw
8oz shredded cheddar cheese
1c. chopped onions
1 can cream of ____ soup (chicken, mushroom, whatever)
1lb sour cream
1 stick of butter

Preheat oven to 350. Combine ingredients in greased 9x13 pan and bake for an hour.H

Soul Food Potatoes

5-6 large potatoes (depending on the skillet), cut into cubes
3 tbsp garlic
1/2 c. green onions, diced
1/4 c. of bacon grease or 1/2 lb bacon (for those of us that don't have bacon grease sitting around the house!)

In a deep skillet cook bacon. Remove bacon but leave the grease. Add potatoes, smach down into the skillet. Add garlic to the top of the potatoes, cover and simmer (medium heat). As garlic melts over the potatoes, turn and mash potatoes down. Continue this process until potatoes start to carmelize. Turn down to low heat, add onion and continue turning/smashing porcess until the pototes are nice and soft.

To kick it up a notch serve with any of the following toppings:
Cheese, salsa or sour cream - You can crumble the bacon and throw it in there too if you want.

Good Old Fashioned Mashed Potatoes

Serves 12

12 good sized Russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
unsalted butter
milk
salt and pepper to taste

Fill a large pot with water and as you prepare the potatoes, throw
them in after quartering them. After you are finished, drain the water
if it looks dirty or murky and fill it up with fresh water. You need
to adequately cover the potatoes, but there should be at least a
couple of inches of cooking room.

Place the pot of potatoes on a burner, turn up to high and get the
potatoes boiling. You can put on a lid on it (it will boil faster) but
stay in the room so it doesn't boil over. When it starts to boil,
bring the heat down to a simmer and cook until fork tender (about 20
minutes or so, depending on how big your potato quarters are).

Now carefully drain that heavy pot. See if you can draft a big burly
guy to do it for you. If not, please be careful!

To your steaming pot of potatoes, add butter. How much, well I don't
want to be quoted on how much I use on Thanksgiving (hey, it's a
special occasion!), let your conscience be your guide.

Next, salt and pepper to taste and add about 1/2 cup of milk. That's a
starting place. Now pull out your potato masher and put some elbow
grease in it or get the big burly guy to do it. DON'T use the electric
mixer on these gems! Potatoes have gluten in them and when you over
handle them (as in whip the daylights out of them with an electric
mixer), the gluten develops making your lovely mashed potatoes look
more like wallpaper paste that needs thinning. Don't go there! Use an
old-fashioned potato masher or potato ricer (same kind of deal, only
there are little holes in the bottom instead of the usual zigzag
pattern of the normal potato masher).

FlyLady does her potatoes earlier in the day(about an hour before the
meal) and puts them in a crockpot on low with a little butter on top
to keep them from drying out (and the lid on too, of course). I think
that is ingenious. However, one word of caution is that with so many
variables with crockpots, you need to make sure yours will work for
this task and the "low" setting isn't too high. My old one works for
this job, my new one is too hot. See what I mean? Test run a small
batch first if you are able.

Eggplant Parmesan

1 egg, beaten
1 eggplant, thinly sliced
Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
Speghetti sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
1/8 tsp dried basil

Preheat oven to 350. Dip eggplant slices into egg and then into bread crumbs. Coat evenly on each side. Place in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes on each side.

In 9x13 dish, spread speghetti sauce to cover bottom. Place layer of eggplant slices in sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Sprinkle basil on top. (can repeat layers, ending with cheese)

Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.