Thanksgiving Failures

Mollie writes:


No blog would be worth its salt if it didn't include a dash of remorse.  As recently as last year, I made up a recipe that was officially declared "A DUD" by all present.

I'm referring to a recipe I picked up off the internet for mashed potatoes prepared in a crock pot.  I was looking for ways to make my day easier, and prepping potatoes and then keeping them warm for an hour or two while I finished the remainder of the feast preparations seemed like a good idea, right?

Wrong.

I won't go into details about this horrible exercise in sloth and culinary stupidity, other than I started slow-cooking the potatoes first thing in the morning.  Two hours before the magic, I mashed the potatoes, added my additives (cream cheese, sour cream and chives).  I returned the finished product to the crock pot, gave it a last taste (heavenly), reset the crock pot to warm, put on the lid and immediately went on to other stuff.

Wellllllllllllllllllll - don't take your eyes off your crock pot!  While I was doing everything else, the potatoes continued to cook, building up steam, etc.  Since the lid was on,  the potatoes continued to steam and emulsify.  By the time I returned to the mashed potatoes, they had turned into potato soup.

It looked pathetic, but my gracious guests ate it anyway.  We all had a good laugh over potato soup and gravy, and, since the rest of the meal was palatable, we declared the day a success.

There was a happy ending, and, as usual, it involved leftovers.  The following day, I paced a cup of potato 'soup' in the microwave oven.  After 30 seconds of warming, uncovered, I discovered the potatoes I'd lusted over the day before.  Seems that if I'd just reheated the taters in the microwave, we would have had mashed potatoes after all!

Oh heck.  Another day, another lesson learned.  Some days just involve more work.  Thanksgiving is one of them.  In retrospect, I should have tested the recipe before Ground Zero - but, there you have it, I didn't.

We all survived, and ate really good mashed potatoes the following day.  So my advice today is - stick with what's tried and true.  You can fly without a net another day - Thanksgiving should be a day of gratitude, not remorse.