Mashed Potatoes

I made some delicious mashed potatoes and thought I'd share my recipe.

First, you boil some potatoes. Pictured, I have organic small yellow potatoes. Creamer potatoes are very good for this. They're buttery and delicious. I have found that smaller potatoes tend to be tastier.

I used my double masher from Crate and Barrel outlet to mash up 4 lbs of potatoes, as well as 3 cloves of garlic, cilantro and parsley to taste. Add salt.

If you want your potatoes smooth and tasty, add milk or heavy cream, and butter. It will be very dry without these ingrediants, milk and butter make the potatoes softer and smoother.

The next day, I reheated potatoes in a pan (yum! can be reheated with eggs for breakfast) with leftover brussel sprouts my mom made for Passover.

Noah's aunt Karen gave us some very nice hyacinths when we visited Albany. They have blossomed beautifully, and the whole apt smells like flowers now. :)

My basil plant ($1.50 at Christmas Tree Shop) is sprouting in the background.

EDIT: Those sprouts stayed that tiny for months. My basil plant from the Christmas Tree Shops has not grown. It is a bad basil plant. Do not trust their plants.

Chicken Soup for the Soul

Guess what I made recently?! Chicken soup!! I decided to document it because it turned out really good.

Step 1: Get out your ingrediants and tools.

Ingrediants:

- 1/3rd onion

- Cilantro and Parsley

- a few sticks of celery

- 2 good carrots

Tools:

8 quart stockpot

knife for chopping

cutting board

Step 1: Chop everything. If you like large chunks of celery and carrots, make large chunks. Small chunks will be easier to eat and fit into the spoon better. Chop parsley and cilantro finely, and mince onion finely as well.

 Pick a good whole chicken. This one is from whole foods.

Put your large chicken in a stockpot of boiling filtered water (Millburn residents have bad water if it is unfiltered). You do not need to wash your chicken before cooking it. In fact, numerous sources advise NOT washing your chicken before cooking it because washing or rinsing your chicken could spread bacteria around the sink. I don't sprinkle salt into my water because I let everyone salt their own bowls (people have different preferences for how much salt they like). You are welcome to salt and pepper to your taste.

After boiling for a while (an hour or more), pull your cooked chicken out and tear off all of the meat. After you pull the chicken out, put in all of the veggies and herbs you chopped. You don't want to put these in too early so they won't get too mushy. When you hand pick the meat off the bones, you may want to sit down. It will take a while. Put all of the meat into the stockpot and you are done :)

A note about chicken skin- it is apparently unhealthy. If you want a healthier soup/stock, remove the skin before putting the chicken in. If you want a tastier and not as healthy stock, leave the skin on when you boil the chicken.

Enjoy!