Baked Potato Mashed Potatoes

Late and dark
No rain, no sirens, no wind, no neighbors
A day of nothing, or a sad day, or a tired day

A book or a movie; one waits while they boil
Relaxing and lounging, you’ll leave them ignored
Them, cooled and peeled; you prepare to toil
At the end of the night, a comfort, reward

Ingredients

• 1 bag Yukon gold potatoes
• Irish butter
• Sour cream
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Shredded Mexican cheese
• Salt

Items needed

• 1 large pot
• 2 medium/large mixing bowls
• A wooden spoon
• A soft plastic spatula
• A normal spoon
• A metal mesh strainer

Getting the potatoes ready

1. Add the potatoes to a pot of heavily salted water (like, give it a good few shakes of one of those big round Morton salt boxes) and set the heat on high so it boils. Leave them here for a while until the potatoes are very soft, somewhere around 30-45 minutes.

2. Before removing the potatoes, fill one of your mixing bowls about halfway with water and ice cubes. Strain the water from the pot with the potatoes and place the potatoes in this bowl. Place the mesh strainer above/in the other mixing bowl.

3. With the potatoes in the ice water, gently remove the skins from them with your hands and place the peeled potatoes in the mesh strainer. The ice water should make their heat tolerable. Adjust for preference.

4. Once all the potatoes are in the mesh strainer, push them through with the hard wooden spoon, then use the soft spatula to push the rest through when it’s almost done. This will take a while and be strenuous; have patience. This method is important to get that perfectly soft consistency.

Making them taste good

1. To the mashed potatoes, begin by adding a fair amount of salt and about half of a small ramekin of fully melted Irish butter. It does have to be Irish butter. Mix well.

2. Add one or two large spoonfuls of sour cream, and mix in.

3. Add more of the butter, salt, and sour cream to taste. It should feel like it has cholesterol issues. This is a sign of success.

4. Add the shredded cheeses to taste. Cheddar cheese will add a sharp, tangy flavor, and the Mexican blend cheese will change the consistency of the mixture and add creaminess. Both, both is good.

Conclusion

This can be served simply by itself as a great late-night hedonistic snack. You can add bacon to the mixture if desired, and I imagine green onions would be nice on it as well as a finishing touch to a served portion.

These mashed potatoes also freeze incredibly well. Add them to reused deli containers or other safely-microwaveable-from-frozen tupperware.