I am thankful for everyone who reads my blog and all who care enough about it to pass it on to others. As I sit in the Philadelphia Admiral's Club waiting for my delayed flight to take off in this driving rain, I write this as a sincere thank you.
I have two things to share with you - a recipe (the title gives it away, but there is a story) and a Thanksgiving poem.
My mother's last Christmas was in 2007, and I spent more than a week with her that year in frosty Minnesota. I love mashed potatoes - they are my favorite comfort food. My mother, while extraordinary in so many ways, wasn't a stand-out cook. My love to cook came from some other remote family gene. All my adult years, I experimented with mashed potatoes, trying to find the perfect balance of fluffy and creamy. This final holiday I had with mom, I prepared these and she named them, "Perfect Mashed Potatoes."
There are several winning secrets to this recipe, but I think the one thing that ensures that people will rave is using the ricer.
PERFECT MASHED POTATOES
By Deborah McMurray
4 lbs. potatoes - Yukon Gold or Russets
3 tsp. sea salt (divided use)
1 1/3 cup whole milk (I use skim milk for everything, but not for these)
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 tsp. ground white pepper (really, use white pepper)
Special equipment: the potato ricer or food mill
Peel the potatoes and cut into 1-inch cubes. Transfer to a Dutch oven or other large cast iron pan, add enough cold water to cover, add 2 teaspoons salt, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer partially covered,10 to 20 minutes, until potatoes are very fork tender.
Drain potatoes in a colander, then return to pan and cook over medium heat 1 to 2 minutes, shaking the pan until it and the potatoes are dry. Transfer potatoes to a bowl and keep hot, covered.
At the same time the potatoes are cooking, heat the milk, butter, white pepper and remaining 1 teaspoon salt in saucepan over medium heat until the butter is melted. Set aside until after the potatoes are riced (in the next step).
Force the potatoes through ricer or food mill into a large, clean pan. Using a heatproof rubber spatula or wooden spoon, gently stir in half the milk mixture, stir, then add as much of the rest of the milk mixture as you desire for the perfect consistency. Stir just until combined. Serves 8
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My dear friend and literally world-famous legal marketing consultant, Leigh Dance, sent me this poem from the Writers Almanac.
TURKEYS
By Mary Mackey
One November
a week before Thanksgiving
the Ohio river froze
and my great uncles
put on their coats
and drove the turkeys
across the ice
to Rosiclare
where they sold them
for enough to buy
my grandmother
a Christmas doll
with blue china eyes
I like to think
of the sound of
two hundred turkey feet
running across to Illinois
on their way
to the platter
the scrape of their nails
and my great uncles
in their homespun leggings
calling out gee and haw and git
to them as if they
were mules
I like to think of the Ohio
at that moment
the clear cold sky
the green river sleeping
under the ice
before the land got stripped
and the farm got sold
and the water turned the color
of whiskey
and all the uncles
lay down
and never got up again
I like to think of the world
before some genius invented
turkeys with pop-up plastic
thermometers
in their breasts
idiot birds
with no wildness left in them
turkeys that couldn't run the river
to save their souls
"Turkeys" by Mary Mackey, from Breaking the Fever. © Marsh Hawk Press, 2006. Reprinted with permission by the Writers Almanac.
Happy Thanksgiving!