Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes with KitchenAid

First of all, I have to say that full credit for these awesome potatoes goes to the Pioneer Woman at Pioneer Woman Cooks! She posts a wonderful photo-illustrated tutorial on mashed potatoes. Why am I reposting it then? Because the wonderful photos take soooooo looonnnngggg to load and because I incorporated my KitchenAid Stand Mixer into the routine to save my feeble joints.

Mashed Potatoes

Peel and quarter:

• 5 lbs of potatoes ( I mix baby reds and Yukon Golds)

Boil them until they are fork tender (about 20-30 minutes).

Microwave to soften:

• 4 to 8 oz of cream cheese
• 1/2 C of butter

Attach the Food Grinder Attachment to your wonderful KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Think lovely thoughts towards the person who gave it to you. In fact, call them up and thank them yet again. Then use the small-hole disc to grind the potatoes. Collect them in the KitchenAid bowl.

(If you don't have a Food Grinder Attachment order one now and in the meantime, mash them by hand, heeding Pioneer Woman's advice about mashing them over heat to let the steam out.)

When about half the potatoes are all ground up, put the butter and cream cheese in, along with:

• 1/2 +/- half-n-half
• salt to taste
  

Continue grinding potatoes into the bowl.

When everything is in there, take the grinder off, and put the mixing blade (the one of the far left of the picture above) onto your KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Mix everything up and then put it all into a nice casserole dish.

I used the pink bowl visible in this shot (my husband made the bowl for me), but it works just as well in a big baking dish. I prefer dishes with a smaller footprint as my fridges get a bit overfull.



Before tucking it into the fridge, however, cut a cube of butter into small patties and dot the top with butter. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

I made these on Monday for Thursday Thanksgiving and they were marvelous. Just remember to take them out of the fridges hours before you want to reheat them. It took about 40 minutes in a 350 oven to bring them from room temperature to table ready.

YUMMMY.

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