Well, these were good!

A quick brainstorm! Things you could do with leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving:

1) Eat them cold with a spoon.

2) Put them in a bowl and melt cheddar cheese over them in the microwave.

3) Make a mountain out of them.

4) Start a mashed potato fight.

Or you could do the smart thing and make these awesome mashed potato gnocchi!

Mashed Potato Gnocchi

Yield: Serves 2 as a meal.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups mashed potatoes
1 large egg yolk
1 cup all-purpose flour, maybe a bit more
Pinch of salt

Sage Butter Sauce:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon fresh sage, minced
2 tablespoons cooking water from gnocchi
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (opt.)

Helpful Equipment:
Dough Scraper

Directions:

1) Mix together mashed potatoes and yolk with a fork until it's well combined.

2) Add in flour and mix well until the flour is incorporated. You should be left with a fairly dry dough. It shouldn't be sticky at all. If it is, add more flour a few tablespoons at a time.

3) Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut it into 4 even pieces.

4) Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough out into a long strand about 1/2 inch wide in diameter. Try to get it as even as possible, but it's okay if it's not perfect.

5) Use a dough scraper to chop the strand of dough into 1 inch dumplings.

6) Once your dumplings are chopped, use the back of a fork to gently press into the gnocchi and make some grooves.

7) Once all the gnocchi are made, cook them in simmering salted water. They are done when they float, about 3-4 minutes.

8) For butter sauce, melt butter in a large skillet. Once melted, add cook water, herbs, and spices, and stir well. Toss drained gnocchi with the sauce and serve immediately!

You might think that gnocchi are a lot of work, but the fact that the potatoes are already cooked and everything really cuts down on the prep time. Start-to-finish, you can have these guys on the table in about 30 minutes.

The Dough

The tricky part about devising this recipe is that everybody probably has a different mashed potato recipe. This can be a blessing and a curse.

The blessing is that whatever flavors you put in your mashed potatoes (butter, cheese, garlic, etc) will also be in your gnocchi which is great.

The bad news is that the consistency of your dough might change a bit depending on how creamy your mashed potatoes are. So this recipe is a starting point.

Measure out exactly two cups of mashed potatoes and add an egg yolk to them. Easy enough so far!

Just the yolk.

Once that is all mixed together, add a pinch of salt to the dough and stir in about a cup of flour.

The tricky part is that you might need more flour if your mashed potatoes are really creamy. But start with a cup and see where that gets you.

If, after you stir in the flour, your dough is still sticky, then you need more flour.

At some point you’ll end up with a fairly dry dough that you can scoop out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead this a few times just to make everything is combined well.

A starchy dough.

Cutting the Gnocchi

Once you have your dough ready, chop it into four even pieces just to make it easier to work with.

Then use your hands to roll one of the pieces into a long strand of dough. Try to make it about 1/2 inch in diameter and try to make it an even strand. It probably won’t be perfect unless you work in an Italian restaurant and make gnocchi every single day of your life.

Once you get the strand rolled, then just chop up the strand into individual dumplings! I like to use a dough cutter to do this. It makes quick work of the job.

This really isn't hard, people.

Once your gnocchi are chopped up, use a fork to put the signature grooves in each dumpling. These just help the gnocchi hold on to the sauce.

Plus they are pretty.

Groovy!

Once you do one strand, you’ll get fast at this. You should be able to pop out a plate of gnocchi in no time.

I’m well aware that my gnocchi aren’t 100% perfect or even the same size.

I have to ask though… who cares?!

Pretty things.

Cooking the Gnocchi

When you’re ready to cook the gnocchi just get a large pot of salted water simmering. A good ratio is 1 Tablespoon kosher salt for each gallon of water.

It’s really important that your water is just simmering and not boiling. A rough boil could just rip your soft little gnocchi into bits.

After simmering for a few minutes, the gnocchi should start to rise to the top which means they are done!

These will cook really fast. Must faster than pasta.

Float when they're done!

The Sauce

These guys are good with almost any sauce you can think of. If you’re looking for something lighter, you could definitely serve them with a light tomato sauce. The simple tomato sauce I made for my homemade trial would be a good one.

I made a quick butter sage sauce though because it just seemed like the right thing to do. I just melted a few tablespoons of butter in a large skillet and then stirred in a few tablespoons of cooking water from the gnocchi. The salt and starch from the water will help the sauce really come together. Then I added in some fresh sage and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

Once my gnocchi were done, I just tossed everything together!

Delicious!

Can't go wrong with butter and sage.

The Full Story

Ok. I can’t lie to you guys. The truth is that the gnocchi that you see above was actually my second attempt to make some sort of dumpling out of leftover mashed potatoes.

At first I thought it would be easier to make a spaetzle, which is similar to gnocchi but smaller.

I failed miserably at this project and made possibly the most unappetizing thing of food ever.

I knew I was onto something though because even though these didn’t look great, they actually tasted pretty solid.

So I just worked on the dough consistency a bit and figured that gnocchi might be easier than spaetzle.

If you have some leftover mashed potatoes after tomorrow, try out some gnocchi!

Or make a mountain. Your call.

If you didn’t check out the last homemade trials, these are the criteria that I use to compare the homemade version with the store-bought version.

The Criteria. I picked four main criteria on which to evaluate my pre-packaged item versus the homemade version:

Time: How long does it take to prepare? Do I save any time by buying it pre-packaged?
Cost: When you break down ingredients, is it actually cheaper per serving?
Nutrition: How do the two versions shape up from a nutritional standpoint?
Taste: The only subjective criteria, but at least for me it has to be one because this is food after all people.

The Instant Stuff. There were about 10 different brands of instant mashed potatoes to choose from, but they all looked basically identical to me. I went with the most basic flavor.

If you’ve never made instant potatoes before, you basically just add boiling water to the flakes and BAM. Potatoes. Sort of.

Powdered Potatoes. Yum.

To compete with the instant version, I made a really simple homemade mashed potato recipe using real russet potatoes plus some butter, milk, and garlic. Again, I tried to keep it as simple as possible just to hopefully make it a fair competition!

2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 Tablespoons butter
2/3 Cup milk
1 1/2 Teaspoon Kosher salt

Let’s get into the trials!

TIME

I started a stopwatch right as I started each version. This might be a shock to you but instant potatoes DESTROYED real potatoes in the time department.

The time it took me to boil a few cups of water, stir it into some flakes, and fluff them up was about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, peeling and chopping potatoes (I did this while I was waiting for water to boil), letting them cook, mashing them, and mixing in all the other stuff took a whopping 35 minutes.

Potatoes take some time to cook. There’s no shortcut really here so I have to give the time category to the instant variety.

COST

Cost is a pretty easy thing to calculate in this case as long as you remember your receipt! The key here to figure out servings based on weight. I just weighed my instant and homemade potatoes when they were done, then looked up how many servings were in the instant mix (4) and figured out how many grams were in a serving of mashed potatoes.

Here’s my breakdown!

So, I guess instant is still cheaper, but the one note on this is that I used pretty expensive ingredients. I used organic potatoes, milk, and butter.

I experimented a bit and found that if you could find potatoes for about .50 cents/pound, then you could keep the organic butter and milk and about match the instant costs. That’s not too bad if you ask me.

So I’ll give Cost to the instant variety, but with an asterisk that it’s doable to beat the cost per serving if you were to shop around a bit.

NUTRITION

I had absolutely no idea how this one would shape up. Let’s take a look!

WELL. Crap. That didn’t work out as well as I hoped. It turns out that instant potatoes are basically air. They have very little real food in them as far as I can tell. As you can see, the instant variety has way less calories, fat, carbs, etc per serving.

I guess I have a few comments on this. For starters, most of my fat comes from butter and I guess you could cut that down if you wanted. I used 4 Tablespoons for my 6 servings and you could probably cut that down to two. It still wouldn’t get us close to the fat in the instant stuff, but it’d be closer.

Second, and more amazing to me, the instant potatoes, somehow, have less carbs than just a potato per serving. How this is possible is beyond me, but they’ve literally just removed carbs from the potatoes. That’s pretty impossible in a homemade version obviously.

The good news is that my version actually has less sodium along with more fiber and more protein. Plus, I don’t actually think that 226 calories for a nice serving of real mashed potatoes is all that bad.

If you’re curious what’s going on in the instant variety, here’s a shot of the ingredient list. I guess all of these things add up to basically nothing.

nutrition

I’m honestly torn on how to call this one. Part of me wants to call it a TIE because the homemade version has some good stuff in it and none of the preservatives, but it does have WAY more fat and calories.

I’m going to call it a TIE but I’d love to hear what you all think on this one.

TASTE

This one is easy. Buttery, creamy, garlicky mashed potatoes or wet cardboard?

Actually, I should give the instant version a bit more credit. They weren’t horrible. They actually tasted exactly like any and every buffet line mashed potato that I’ve ever had. The same smell and consistency.

The key thing about the instant variety is that you have to eat them as soon as possible. If they cool down or sit for too long, they congeal into this strange mass of gunk that could be used to caulk your tub.

So, I can say, without doubt, that taste goes to the homemade variety!

Tasty!

THE VERDICT

If you just look at the results (TIME=Instant, COST=Instant*, NUTRITION=Tie (debatable), TASTE=Homemade), then I guess I have to give it to instant.

Of course, the problem is that if you could judge taste on a scale, the instant would have been about a 3 for me while the homemade was like an 8 or 9. So, the question is, are you willing to give a few minutes, a few cents, and a few calories for real food that tastes better?

It’s honestly a hard question. I thought this was going to be a shoe-in for the homemade variety, but when you break it down, it’s just not that clear-cut.

So, what do you think? INSTANT or HOMEMADE?

Also, feel free to comment with ideas for future Homemade Trials!

If you want the recipe that I used for my homemade version, click the PRINT THE RECIPE link.

Something different.

The thing about mashed potatoes that is super-challenging to me is that they are the most delicious food on earth as-is. It’s hard to even imagine an improvement on really creamy, garlicky mashed potatoes.

But I had an idea and I ran with it and it ended up being really good. My idea kicked up the normal mashed potatoes a bit by baking them under a layer of thinly sliced potatoes, potatoes like you would use for an au gratin. The results is a crispy layer of potatoes on top and the same delicious garlicky ones inside!

Oh. And I couldn’t resist adding a layer of bacon and cheese because why not right?

Double Potato Casserole

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

7 large Russet potatoes, peeled and cubed (one sliced thinly)
4 Tablespoons butter
5-6 cloves garlic
1 Cup milk
1/4 Cup cream
1 1/2 Cups shredded cheese. I like Pepper Jack
6 strips thick bacon, cooked crispy and crumbled
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Optional herbs: Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, etc.

Helpful Equipment:
- Mandoline

Directions:

1) Peel potatoes and cut into 1 inch cubes. Boil potatoes in salted water for 10-12 minutes until very tender and then drain them.

2) Add garlic, butter, milk, and salt and pepper to potatoes and mash or beat with a hand mixer until you have the desired creaminess that you like. Feel free to add more milk if it looks too dry.

3) While your potatoes cook, lay a few strips of thick bacon on a rack over a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes until the bacon is super-crispy. Let it cool and crumble it.

4) Butter your casserole dish and add mashed potatoes. Top with a drizzle of cream and shredded cheese. Then add crumbled bacon.

5) Use your mandoline or a very steady hand, to slice a peeled potato very thin.

6) Add thin potato slices to top of casserole dish and drizzle with olive oil.

7) Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes and then set under the broiler for a few minutes until potatoes are nice and browned.

8) Let cool for a few minutes and serve immediately!

Starting the Mashed Potatoes

I made my standard mashed potato recipe for the base of this dish which is basically one clove of garlic per potato and a pretty good dose of butter and milk.

I had a small dilemma though which I’m sure you’ll also encounter at some point which is that I had no idea how many potatoes to make for the dish I was putting the potatoes in.

It turns out that if you peel the potatoes and just pile them in the dish, it’s roughly the right number. After expanding and all the add-ins, six potatoes filled my dish very nicely.

A rough guess.

To make the mashed potatoes, just cut the potatoes into even 1 inch cubes and boil them in salted water for about 10-15 minutes until they are very tender. Then drain off the water, add in the milk, butter, a pinch of salt and pepper and chopped garlic and mash them up!

If you want them super-creamy you can beat them with a hand mixer. I just mashed mine with a masher though.

Lotsa garlic!

You’ll probably want to adjust the amount of milk you use. Don’t worry about adding too much. It’s almost impossible unless you just let the kids pour it in until the bowl is full.

Also, since it’s Thanksgiving, play around with other fresh herbs if you have extra. This would be excellent with some fresh thyme mixed in with the potatoes.

Putting together the casserole

While your potatoes are cooking, you’ll want to make some really crispy bacon. This is an optional step but it gives the final dish a good salty flavor and great texture.

In my opinion, the only way to make perfectly crispy bacon is to bake it in the oven on a rack. After about 10-12 minutes at 400 degrees you’ll have some of the crispiest and best bacon you’ve ever had. Guaranteed.

The only way to make really crispy bacon.

Next, take your casserole dish and rub it down with a bit of butter. Make sure you get all the corners and everything. As a rule, I always butter my dishes when making casseroles like this so they don’t stick around the edges.

Then pile in your mashed potatoes, drizzle a little cream over the potatoes, and top with a good layer of cheese. No need to go crazy on it though. The cream will just make everything really moist when it bakes.

No need to go too crazy on the cheese.

Then add some crumbled bacon.

So good.

The Potato Topping

OK. So this is the step that I wasn’t sure about. My idea was that a layer of potatoes on top would crisp up nicely but also keep a lot of the moisture from the potatoes from escaping.

But you need pretty thin potatoes. Enter the handy mandoline. If you don’t have one, the one I linked to is the model I’ve been using for almost a year now and it’s really easy to use and also extremely dangerous. Be sure to use the guard if you use one.

Because you don’t need a bunch of potatoes for this (one potato sliced thin is enough), you can also just slice with a knife if you have a steady, even hand.

The mandoline makes quick work of this job though.

A mandolin or a steady hand.

Then just arrange them decoratively on the dish and drizzle the whole thing with a bit of olive oil.

Try to make it pretty...

I baked this at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes and then turned on the broiler for just a few minutes near the end to really crispy up the potatoes on top.

Let it cool for a few minutes and then dig in!

This would rock with some gravy.

This would be a fantastic side dish and the presentation is really nice I think.

I see no reason in the world why you couldn’t serve this next to some stuffing and drowned everything in gravy!

A slice of awesome.

Just like most mashed potatoes, this dish keeps perfectly. I’ve been snacking on this version for almost a week now. If you microwave it, just add a bit of milk to it and it’ll end up being nice and creamy.

What do you think? Acceptable Thanksgiving side or too out there?

What’s not to like about tots? They are crispy and salty and delicious! But is it really possible to make them at home if you don’t have a ridiculous potato processing plant at your disposal?

The answer is a very big YES.

I made these.

I’m actually shocked at how well these turned out, but I have to give some props to a new restaurant in town that gave me the push I needed to give these a try. Birch & Barley, a new beer shop in town with really fantastic food, has these on the menu and they are filled with mashed potatoes. I had one (literally I just got one and then they were all gone) and I decided I had to give it a shot.

Homemade Tater Tots

Yield: Serves 4-6 as appetizer.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

4 Russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 egg
1/2 Cup milk
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Cup all-purpose flour
Salt
Pepper
2 Large bags, plain kettle cooked chips or a few cups of Panko crumbs. Or a mix of both.

Helpful Equipment:
Deep-fry thermometer

Directions:

1) Peel and slice potatoes.

2) Boil potatoes for 10-15 minutes in salted water until the potato pieces are fork tender. Then drain them and transfer them to a bowl.

3) Using a fork, mush up potatoes and let them cool for a few minutes until they are room temperature or slightly warmer.

4) Add milk, butter, and egg. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper.

5) Drop a few teaspoons of mashed potatoes in bowl of crust. Roll them around until they are coated all the way around.

6) Pick up each tot and shape it easily in your hand. Just make a light fist around the tot while pinching it on the ends with your other hand. That will make it shape into the cylinder you are probably familiar with.

7) Transfer it to a baking sheet and repeat!

8) Heat oil to 350 degrees.

9) Cook them in batches for about 5-7 minutes per batch.

10) Scoop out of the oil, transfer them to a paper towel and salt them immediately

11) Serve with sauce – ranch, chili sauce, ketchup, etc.

Making the tots

It should be no surprise that these guys start with potatoes.

The secret behind the tot!

The first step for these guys is to make mashed potatoes. Now I’m not sure how they make real tater tots. I know it’s closer to a hash brown product, but mashed potatoes are a lot easier to shape and also happen to be delicious.

To start, just peel and slice your potatoes.

All chopped up.

Boil them for 10-15 minutes in salted water until the potato pieces are fork tender. Then drain them and transfer them to a bowl.

Look at that steam!

Using a fork, mush up your potatoes and let them cool for a few minutes until they are room temperature or slightly warmer. Then add your milk, butter, and egg. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper. If you aren’t afraid of a little raw egg, I recommend trying a bit to taste for seasonings.

Filling mixed.

A test run

Before I made a bunch of these, I wanted to do a test run just to make sure they worked okay. I’ll admit that my first test run, I tried making a few without the flour or eggs in the mashed potato filling. DISASTER! They just completely disintegrated in the oil. So then I added the flour and egg and gave it a second try.

To make the crunchy exterior of the tot and also give it some shape, I decided to try out two different toppings: crunched up kettle chips and Panko breadcrumbs. Both worked pretty well actually.

Here is my successful test run result!

The test runs.

After I saw these come out of the oil and tasted them, I was very excited about making (and eating) a bunch of them.

Making the tots

The key to making these easily is to not worry about shaping the tot until after it’s coated. I tried to make mine pretty uniform by using a heaping teaspoon for each tot. Just drop a few teaspoons of mashed potatoes in your bowl of crust. Roll them around until they are coated all the way around.

Don't worry about shape!

Then you can easily pick up each tot and shape it easily in your hand. Just make a light fist around the tot while pinching it on the ends with your other hand. That will make it shape into the cylinder you are probably familiar with. Then you can transfer it to a baking sheet and keep cranking them out!

After a few minutes – or honestly about 20 – you should have a small army of these guys.

Assembly line!

Cooking the tots

You can cook these guys right away! The key to frying them is to make sure that your oil is hot enough. It needs to be at about 350 degrees. If your oil isn’t hot enough then the outside of the tot won’t cook fast enough and the inside will get too hot and it’ll kind of ooze out. Still edible, but just not as attractive!

Cook them in batches and they should only need about 5-7 minutes per batch.

Frying up.

Once you scoop them out of the oil, transfer them to a paper towel and salt them immediately. I also put seasoned salt on them for a little extra flavor. Feel free to go crazy with the spices!

I served mine with ranch and hot chili sauce. It looks like ketchup, but I hate ketchup so this is what you get!

Not ketchup!

Just for good measure, one more shot of these guys.

Just for good measure.

I liked both versions of the tots. The Panko-crusted ones (in the back) looked closer to real tater tots and held their shape nicely. I thought the chip-crusted ones tasted better though. But just by a tiny amount. Both were very good.

If you have any leftovers, you can reheat these in a 350 degree oven until they crisp up again. They aren’t quite as good on day two, but still pretty darn tasty.

So there ya go. Homemade tater tots. Pass it along!

But I did exactly that a few weekends ago when I made a nice meal for Betsy and I for a Saturday night date. And yes, you can have a date and never leave your house. Turn off the TV. Turn on some music. Open an bottle of wine and throw aluminum foil balls at your cat. What more could you want for a date night?

For dinner, I made up a real meat and potatoes dish with a very lovely beet salad. For the meat, I cooked a pink peppercorn flank steak that was really good.

I'm such a carnivore sometimes.

But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. I wanted something light to start the meal off and one of Betsy’s favorite salads is a roasted beet salad. The flavors pair really nicely with the meat and potatoes (and red wine) and it’s very pretty.

Meat and Potatoes

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Roasted Beet Salad
Serves 4
4 medium beets, roasted, peeled, and sliced
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
1/2 Cup pistachios, roughly chopped
Greens (I used spinach)

Dressing:
1/4 Cup red wine vinegar
1/3 Cup olive oil
Pinch of salt and pepper

Roasted Garlic Potatoes
Serves 4-6 (leftovers are not a bad thing)

2-3 pounds new potatoes, washed and halved
1 head garlic, roasted
1/4 Cup butter
1/2 Cup milk
Salt and pepper

Pink Peppercorn Flank Steak
Serves 2 (plus some leftovers)

1 pound flank steak
2 Tablespoons oil (for cooking steak)
2 Tablespoons pink peppercorns
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 Cup red wine
1 shallot, minced
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) For beet salad, cut tops off of beets and set them on a baking sheet. Roast at 350 degrees for about an hour until a knife easily pierces them.

2) Let beets cool slightly and then peel and slice.

3) Mix together dressing ingredients and right before serving, toss greens with dressing. Then plate up each salad.

4) For potatoes, roast a head of garlic. Cut off the top and drizzle in some olive oil and a pinch of salt. Wrap the whole thing in foil and roast at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

5) Cube potatoes and boil in salted water for 10-15 minutes until they are fork tender. Drain and mash with other ingredients.

6) For steak, let it come to room temperature before cooking. Rub each side well with salt and pepper.

7) Sear steak for a about 3 minutes per side.

8) Let the steak rest for five minutes and then slice across the grain.

9) For steak sauce, gently crush pink peppercorns. Add wine to the pan that your steak cooked in and scrape up any little bits. Turn heat to low. Add shallot and peppercorns. Add butter to make it silky smooth.

10) Serve steak and potatoes with sauce.

The Beet Salad

To roast the beets, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Just brush off any dirt. No need to wash them since we are going to peel them later. Cut off the tops and set them cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake them for about an hour or until a knife will easily pierce one.

Roasting beets. Turns out it takes awhile.

Let them cool for a few minutes and then peel and slice them. I sliced mine into pretty thick slices. These will stain your hands, but they are so worth it.

The mark of the beet!

In the meantime, mix together your dressing ingredients and toss your greens with the vinaigrette. Then you can plate up each individual salad so it looks like this.

How pretty is that?!

1st course. Done.

You can prep all of the salad ingredients ahead of time and then just toss the greens with the dressing and plate it a few minutes before dinner. You don’t want to let it sit too long though or it will get all soggy.

The Mashed Potatoes

I love mashed potatoes more than anything. Ok. Maybe not more than anything. But more than anything that I can fathom as I write this post. I made this version a bit more rustic by leaving the skins on and also mixing it with a whole head of roasted garlic.

While roasting your beets, you should go ahead and roast your head of garlic. If you haven’t done this before, it’s maybe the easiest and most delicious thing in the world. Just slice off the very top of the bulb, drizzle on some olive oil, add a pinch of salt, and wrap the whole thing in foil. It’ll take about 30 minutes to roast.

Should look something like this.

You can do this while you roast the beets.

When you’re ready to make the potatoes, give them a scrub and then cut them in halves or quarters if they are larger.

No need to peel these guys.

Boil these in salted water for about 10-15 minutes until they are fork very tender. Then drain them and mash them with all the other ingredients.

The best way to get the roasted garlic out of the bulb is to use your fingers. Once it’s cooled, pull off a clove and squeeze it between your fingers. The garlic pulp should pop right out.

Mash up everything with a masher or a fork. I wanted mine to be pretty lumpy.

Yum.

Pink Peppercorn Steak

This steak was so good. Flank steak usually comes in pretty large sections. Since it was just two of us, I cut one steak in half and froze the other half for later.

Flank steak is relatively thin so it’s important to cook it right. The important things are:

1) Let it come to room temperature before cooking it. I gave mine a rub with some salt and pepper on each side and let it sit for about 30 minutes (covered) at room temperature while I prepped other stuff.

2) Cook it on high heat for just a few minutes a side.

3) Let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing it (while you make the sauce).

4) Slice it across the grain of the meat so it’s easy to eat.

So while your meat is coming to temperature or your mashed potatoes are cooking, you can get your sauce ingredients ready. It’s pretty straight forward.

A simple sauce.

Pink peppercorns are one of my new favorite ingredients. They are fairly mild but give a great color and flavor to a dish. They go perfect with this steak. To prep them for the sauce, I placed them between two sheets of foil and gave them a quick whack with a mallet.

I have a crush on these.

To cook the steak, heat some oil in a large cast iron pan over high heat. When the oil is very hot and glistening, add your steak (which should have been seasoned already). Once it’s in the pan, don’t touch it! Let it sit undisturbed for about 3-4 minutes. This will depend largely on the thickness of your steak so keep an eye on it.

Check out my more lengthy write-up on steak cooking for more info. I wouldn’t recommend doing the oven method for flank steak though like I do in that post – it’s not a thick enough cut.

Anyway, about 3 minutes on the other side and then pull it out and let it rest before slicing it. I’ve added some helpful slicing guides below to illustrate the idea of cutting across the grain of the steak.

Resting is important

While your steak is resting, add your wine to the same pan that you cooked your steak in and scrape up all the little bits. Turn your heat to low and add your pink peppercorns and shallot. Let the sauce reduce for just a minute or two and then add your butter to make it silky and delicious.

This should go without saying, but serve the sauced steak with the mashed potatoes and a big glass of red wine.

This made me the happiest guy ever.

If you want someone to fall in love with you, and they like meat and potatoes, this is one way to do it.

I had some potatoes left over from the deep fry party and mashed potatoes just happen to be one of my favorite foods so I thought I would try my hand at coming up with a mashed potato dip. My idea was to mash up the potatoes with all kinds of goodies and then bake them with cheese and scallions and bacon on top.

This dip is ready for some football.

Great potatoes = good dip.

My main concern with this dip was texture. I didn’t want it to have the texture of mashed potatoes which I knew was going to be hard considering that it was basically mashed potatoes. I tried to make it more “dip-like” by mixing in a good amount of cream and cream cheese.

Obviously, if you don’t like mashed potatoes, I wouldn’t recommend this guy. But who doesn’t like mashed potatoes?!

Baked Mashed Potato Dip

Yield: 9x9 pan

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

5 Russet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
8 ounces cream cheese
1.5 Cups heavy cream
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch scallions, minced and separated (greens and whites)
1/2 Pound bacon, diced
6 ounces cheddar cheese
1/2 Teaspoon cayenne (optional)
Salt and Pepper
Butter (just for buttering the baking dish)

Directions:

1) Boil a large pot of water with about 1 Tablespoon of salt per gallon of water in it.

2) Peel and chop potatoes in chunks.

3) Once water is boiling, throw potatoes in and boil for about 12 minutes or until a knife very easily slices a larger piece.

4) Drain the potatoes and add them to a bowl.

5) While potatoes are cooking chop the scallions (remember to keep your scallions separated into white and green), cook the bacon, and grate the cheese.

6) Once potatoes are cooked, add onions, garlic, cream cheese, cream, and cayenne to the mashed potatoes and mix them up.

7) Taste for salt and pepper and adjust accordingly.

8) Add potatoes to a 9X9 baking dish that has been lightly buttered. Top with a good amount of shredded cheese, green scallions, and bacon.

9) Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 or until the cheese is gooey and bubbly.

10) Serve this with a variety of chips, toasted baguettes, or even just a few spoons.

Cooking the potatoes

Get a large pot of water boiling with about 1 Tablespoon of salt per gallon of water in it. Peel and chop your potatoes until you have this:

Easy chopping.

Once your water is boiling, throw them in and forget about them for about 12 minutes or until a knife very easily slices a larger piece.

Then drain the potatoes and add them to a bowl.

Hot potato!

While your potatoes are cooking you can do some other things like chop the scallions, cook the bacon, and grate the cheese. Remember to keep your scallions separated into white and green.

I decided to mix the white parts in with the potatoes and use the greens as a topping. Worked great!

Keep them separated.

Once your potatoes are cooked, add your onions, garlic, cream cheese, cream, and cayenne to the mashed potatoes and mix them up. I used a hand held mixer to get the potatoes really smooth. You could do it by hand though with a fork if you want (don’t mind) a chunkier final product. Don’t forget to taste for salt and pepper and adjust accordingly.

Some of you may note that there is no butter in the actual mashed potatoes which I would normally consider blasphemy. With all of the cream and cream cheese, I thought butter might be overkill. Feel free to add a bit though if you just can’t handle it.

Pretty creamy.

Finishing the Dish

Add your potatoes to a 9X9 baking dish that has been lightly buttered. Top with a good amount of shredded cheese!

Dip with cheese.

And of course those green scallions and bacon. I only baconized half my dish because Jeff wanted some also (vegetarian). The 1/2 pound in the recipe will be more than enough though to baconize the entire dish.

On the bacon, I sauteed mine in a skillet for a few minuted after I minced it up. Remember that it will crisp up even more in the oven so don’t over-cook it originally or it will just burn.

Ready for a bake.

The dip needs to bake for about 30 minutes at 350 or until the cheese is gooey and bubbly.

You could serve this with a variety of chips, toasted baguettes, or heck even just a few spoons.

Pretty good!

A few notes on this dip:

1) It was really good and the texture was pretty close to what I wanted. If anyone has any ideas on how to add a bit more creaminess (dippiness) to it, leave a comment!
2) I think it’s a pretty flexible dip. You could add anything that you would add to a baked potato and it would be delicious. That includes broccoli, fresh herbs, and various other kinds of cheese. I’m sure I’m missing some possible add-ins.
3) I think I may start a movement to always add cream cheese to mashed potatoes. Don’t tell anybody I said this, but it might be better than butter.
4) I ate this on night one as a dip and on night two as just mashed potatoes. Awesome both ways.

If anybody tries this or can think of improvements, leave a comment!

Mashed potato pizza is one of those things that you might think is weird or gross when you hear it, but I promise it is really good.

It turns out that mashed potatoes and pizza are made to be together.

This was one of the best pizzas I've ever had.

There is no tomato on this pizza. In its place is a thick layer of garlicky, buttery mashed potatoes. I actually had mashed potato pizza for the first time in New Haven at a place called “Bar,” but I’ve sort of made the recipe my own and I think I might be able to give them a run for their money.

Mashed Potato Pizza

The dough (This makes two pizzas. From Alton Brown’s recipe.)
- 4 Cups bread flour
- 4 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Kosher salt (I probably used 1 3/4. The original is a bit salty.)
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 Teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 Cups lukewarm water
- Flour for dusting the pizza peel or baking sheet.
- Olive oil for rising the dough.

Pizza
- 4 large potatoes (enough mashed potatoes for 2 pizzas)
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/2 stick butter
- 1/2 cup milk or cream
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 8 ounces of bacon per pizza
- 10 ounces mozzarella per pizza
- Broccoli
- Anything else that fits your fancy!

Helpful Equipment:
- Pizza stone and peel

Let’s make the dough first. Pizza dough is something that really needs to rest for a good amount of time to mature in flavor and get nice and elastic. I typically like to make mine the day before I intend to cook. To start, combine the yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil, and water in a bowl.

Yeast soup.

Add your flour and bring all of the dough into a ball. When it looks like the below you can start kneading it. If you have a fancy mixer you can beat it with the paddle attachment for 10 minutes and save yourself a workout.

Before a 10 minute knead.

If, like me, you rely on pure brute strength to make awesome pizza, then you’ll need to knead this dough for at least ten minutes but probably closer to 15. Eventually it will become very smooth. Then it is time to rise. Pour a bit of olive oil in your bowl and lightly coat your ball of dough. This will make sure it doesn’t dry out.

Let it rise at room temperature for two hours.

This is active dough.

After the rise, you can punch it down and cut it into two balls. If you must, you can use them right away, but they will be much better if you let them chill in the fridge for at least a day. They can keep for a few days though if you coat them in a bit of olive oil. If you do put them in the fridge, let them rise at room temperature for an hour before using them.

Now we need to make the toppings for this guy. I’m assuming you know how to make bacon (crispy is better for this recipe). You also probably know how to make mashed potatoes, but if not, just cut up the potatoes into cubes and boil them in lightly salted water for about 10 minutes until they fall apart when poked with a fork.

Then mash them up with the garlic, cream or milk, and butter. I actually like mine a bit on the chunky side. It gives the pizza a good texture.

Good ingredients.

Next, preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone in it.

Forming a pizza takes a bit of practice. If it is your first time, go slow and be patient. The dough is very forgiving if you made it correctly. It will be very elastic.

Take a ball and roll it out into a circle. With light pressure start working it from the inside out. Once you feel comfortable feel free to pick it up and stretch it over your knuckles a bit. It shouldn’t rip if you keep it moving by lightly rotating it around your hand.

If you are feeling brave, you can give it a toss!

Had a little photography help on this one.

Once you have a rough circle that is the size you want and the thickness that you want, slap it on a pizza peel that has been dusted with corn meal or flour. If you don’t have a peel, you can use a baking sheet. The sheet just makes it a bit harder to slide it into the oven. I used one for years though before I got a peel.

Feel free to make a decorative crust or just leave it flat. Whatever makes you happy.

No need to do a crust, but they are pretty easy.

Sprinkle a bit of olive oil over your dough. Since we aren’t using a sauce, we need to add a bit of moisture on the bottom.

A sprinkle of oil.

Then lump on your mashed potatoes. No need to spread them out evenly or anything. They will flatten out while baking. Also, don’t be stingy. This is the base of the pie.

No need to go light on the potatoes.

Next, add your bacon. Sweet, sweet bacon.

I mean come on.

Then add your grated mozzarella. Feel free to sprinkle on some dried basil, pepper, and salt at this point also.

Ready for an oven.

Carefully slide the pizza into the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Try not to drool on the oven door.

Longest 15 minutes of my life.

Take out your pizza and the crust should be crispy and great. The cheese should be lightly browned. Wait a few minutes, slice, and eat a piece right away.

A little slice of Heaven.

A made a second pizza with broccoli and some cheddar on top. I think it was even better than the first.

Healthy?

I cannot express how good this recipe is. If you like pizza, you will love this. If you don’t like pizza, then you will probably still like this. If you don’t, then I’m not sure we can be friends.

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