Wednesday, January 30, 2008

mashed, not chopped potatoes

justin and i have been loving being back in our own little home and our over the top comfy bed. i will say for as much as the writer's strike has annoyed the hell out of me there's a trick to it. if you leave your tivo for a whole month, when you get back there is plenty of new stuff to watch when it should come on, so it feels new to you.

one of our (it was mine, and justin inherited it in the marriage) shows that we have been trying to ration out is friday night lights. he loves it so much that we watch the opening sequence the entire way through every time it's on. "isn't this amazing? doesn't it make you want to move to texas immediately?" yes. even to fictitious dillon that might be in west texas, but looks an awful lot like austin.

so, last night when we found out there were two NEW upcoming episodes we planned our dinner and settled in to watch.

for dinner we decided on homemade grilled paninis with homemade mashed potatoes and lemon pepper broccoli. the broccoli was for me, and the potatoes... well a little for me, but mostly for my husband, because that's just about the only vegetable he will eat.

of course i don't follow a recipe for mashed potatoes, because how hard could it be. chop your potatoes, then boil, then drain, add milk and butter, cheese and garlic and mash them - salt and pepper to taste. i've been busying myself in the kitchen since we've been home to take advantage of my own kitchen with meals prepared by me, but my brain must have been laying on the couch last night.

we sat down to eat and my first bite i thought, hmmm... that chunk feels a little to hard to be a potato chunk. probably because it was a WHOLE clove of garlic! not sure why my brain thought that my hand mixer had a chopping feature on it therefore i could forgo the chopping up of the garlic.
thank gawd for small miracles and the fact that they garlic queen only added 3 cloves