Saturday, November 27, 2010

Thanksgiving's Good Eats - everything's better with garlic

Thanksgiving is about family and food, and more food, and more food.  This year we gathered with my dad's family at my uncle's house.  There were roughly 50 of us.  Everyone is given a food assignment so no one person has to make all the food.  I was assigned 15 lbs of potatoes.  I was disinclined to bring just a bunch of plain, forgettable mashed potatoes.  And when I posted my assignment on Facebook I got all kinds of helpful suggestions, several of which (from my Hawaiian family members) included, "ditch the potatoes and bring rice."

However, I decided to stick with tradition, but add my own little twist.  I roasted garlic and added it to PW's recipe for Creamy Mashed Potatoes (note:  I only used about half the cream cheese she recommended because it was getting a little too thin for my tastes.)  I added about 7 cloves of roasted garlic to 5 lbs of potatoes.  It turned our *FABULOUS*.  It was finger licking good...literally.  The crockpot with my garlic mashed potatoes was wiped clean.  Here's a shot of the garlic, just before I wrapped it up and roasted it. Sorry I didn't get one of the mashed potatoes, they went fast.  I would highly recommend this little trick.