Tonight’s post is the first of what is intended to become a series (we’ll see how that actually works out). Since I currently have a crappy, small kitchen and don’t usually have enough time to actually enjoy cooking (I love to do it when I can relax and have fun with it), recipes will be offered on an occasional, rather than a regular, basis.
The inaugural recipe in this series may be familiar to my Canadian readers; it comes from Jean Pare’s wonderful cookbook series, Company’s Coming. Pare is a Canadian who has published several dozen cookbooks over the past twenty years or so. What I love about Pare’s recipes is that they are easy to execute, but taste like really fancy dishes. The centerpiece of today’s Christmas dinner was turkey, of course. The main side dish (aside from stuffing, to which I added about one cup of cranberries for a delicious twist – try it sometime), in lieu of ordinary mashed potatoes, was Potatoes Extraordinaire.
Here is the recipe:
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Ingredients
5 lbs potatoes
8 oz cream cheese
1 c sour cream
1/4 c butter or margarine
1 Tbsp onion salt
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Butter and paprika for garnish
Instructions
Peel and cook potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain. Mash well. Add cream cheese in pieces. Add next 5 ingredients. Beat until smooth and fluffy. Scrape into 2 quart casserole. Place dabs of butter here and there over top of potatoes. Sprinkle with paprika. Cover and heat in 350º F oven until heated through. Makes about 12 servings.
NB: Since the turkey was roasting at 325º, I just put the potatoes in alongside the bird for the about 1 hour – it worked out just fine.
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Unless you’re feeding an army, you’ll likely have some potatoes left over. That’s not a problem, because these potatoes reheat beautifully in the microwave. But, if you really don’t like leftovers, you can halve this recipe without any dire consequences. If you’ve never tried this recipe before, try it soon. You won’t be disappointed.
– the chaplain
recipes
December 25, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I am very happy to find this website, I could learn a few things that I do not understand. Can I post recipes of seafood porridge?
bojest
December 26, 2009 at 1:36 am
Why bother to spend loads of time and effort trying to learn new dishes when you could take advantage of this detailed, illustration rich and simple cookbook to create meals that will wow your friends and family over? Don’t reinvent the wheel, make proper use of it!
(((Billy)))
December 26, 2009 at 9:09 am
Chappie: Sounds delicious. The quantity, however. Is this a ‘church picnic’ recipe? Or do you have a really big family? (or a very hungry family?)
the chaplain
December 26, 2009 at 9:57 am
recipes:
Feel free to browse around here and even copy this recipe at your site. But, please post your recipes at your site, not mine.
bojest
You do realize that exhorting us to buy your cookbooks instead of learning to cook new dishes is ironic, right? If you ever spam my site with your ads again, your comments will be deleted.
(((Billy))):
The recipe halves pretty well, but I usually just use it as posted when I have company.
PhillyChief
December 26, 2009 at 11:48 am
Coming from an Italian family, those quantities are just fine. You always cook for an army, regardless of how many people you have for dinner. I hate going to people’s houses who cook just enough. You know, the bowl gets passed around and there’s barely one portion left at the end, and nobody wants to be the one to take it, regardless of how hungry you might be, for fear of looking like an asshole when, imo, the asshole was the cook who didn’t make enough. They’re REALLY assholes if you bring wine and they don’t open it. Wtf?
Spanish Inquisitor
December 26, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Chappie
You have to come up with a euphemism for “recipes”, since the troll bots found your post pretty quickly. Though, if I had to deal with trolls, I’d rather have the recipe ones than the fundy ones.
Unless, of course, they already have six bottles opened, and stick yours in reserve.
Or you bring your usual bottle of MD 20/20, Boones Farm or Manischewitz.
Titfortat
December 26, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Shit and here I thought you had a special recipe for Poutine.
ildi
December 27, 2009 at 12:03 am
Oooh, fancy mashed potatoes! It is hard to make enough mashed potatoes so that you have enough leftovers to make shepherd’s pie the next day. Mashed potatoes are sort of like deviled eggs. People seem to be able to eat quite a lot of potatoes/eggs in mashed/deviled form …
Re. the wine thing; I thought the rule was that if you went to a dinner party you didn’t have the expectation of the wine being opened because the host had already picked out wines to serve with dinner. If you went to a cocktail party, then it is added to the booze collection and opened as needed.
atimetorend
December 27, 2009 at 8:37 am
The recipe sounds great, thanks for passing it along.
“Unless… you bring your usual bottle of MD 20/20, Boones Farm or Manischewitz.”
Too funny! But then you would have to drink it alone later, which could be trouble…
ildi
December 27, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill… ah, the memories…
Well, I googled Boone’s Farm, and the mighty wiki has informed me that BF is actually a malt beverage.
I continued my researches (though I would never, ever question the accuracy of the great wiki, for fear of being raptured…) and could not find confirmation of this (did y’all know there is a Boone’s Farm Fan Club? wtf?) however, uncyclopedia had this riveting question in the FAQs:
I can state unequivocally that if you are 18 and celebrating you sibling’s 16th birthday, this is the only way to imbibe Strawberry Hill. In lieu of candles you can aimlessly drive the back roads of northern Alabama.
Cephus
December 27, 2009 at 3:01 pm
I’m sure my kitchen is smaller than yours, we have a 1926 house that, while the rest of the house has been added onto over the years making it huge, the kitchen has nowhere to go. Figure 40 feet long and 10 feet wide, with no room for many of the amenities. It’s functional, but trying to do any serious cooking in it is an exercise in futility. We’ve thought about remodeling it, but like I said, it’s entirely boxed in, nowhere to enlarge the footprint.
(((Billy)))
December 27, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Boone’s Farm: If I remember correctly, that was, basically, alcoholic KoolAid, right? Tickle Pink was my sister’s favorite.
As for cooking the right amount, it comes down to not wasting the food. At my house, we are really bad at using leftovers (unless it is a nice ragu Bolognesa) so, if I cook too much, it generally gets tossed (after (of course) it becomes a habitat for a previously unknown life form).
Mark
December 27, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Cranberries and potatoes…my favorites!!
ChimaeraLaurie
December 31, 2009 at 12:36 am
Mmm. This post is being bookmarked right now!