Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I'm running really late this morning getting this posted. I have been inundated with telephone calls from family in New Orleans. It's snowing there and they are very excited. My niece measured five inches of snow on the ground and my mother said it's coming down and looks very pretty. I think that weather is moving this way and we might get some of the white stuff tomorrow.

It's funny in Knoxville, and I don't know why, but when snowy weather is on it's way, people mob the grocery stores for white milk and white bread and I don't understand why. I have asked and asked and all everyone does is shrug their shoulders. Do people sit in a circle and eat white bread and drink white milk or what? I'm clueless since I'm not a snow bunny by birth. If anyone knows, drop me a line.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes -

Before you start boiling potatoes we need to get the garlic roasted. For this recipe, I roasted three heads of garlic. If you haven't roasted garlic before and want to learn how, click here

My family, especially my oldest daughter and me, love garlic and mashed potatoes, so I boiled 3 lbs. of peeled russet potatoes in salted water.

Drain the cooked potatoes and dump them back into the pot. Squeeze the 3 heads of roasted garlic into the pot with the potatoes.

Add 1 cup of low fat sour cream, I'm trying to keep this somewhat healthy, 2 tablespoons butter, 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (optional, I just like this in my taters), salt and black pepper to taste. Get out the hand mixer and put it on low to break up the potatoes. You'll need about 4 ounces of evaporated milk now. While the hand mixer is running, stream in a little evaporated milk at a time and raise the mixer speed up one notch. Keep streaming in the milk until you achieve the consistency of the mashed potatoes you like.






This goes great with meatloaf and roasted asparagus!

I've had several requests for red gravy and brown gravy. I wasn't thinking completely yesterday wherein I constantly mentioned red gravy. In New Orleans, spaghetti sauce is called red gravy. So if you make a meatloaf and you prefer non-brown gravy that's not ketchup use your favorite home made or jar spaghetti sauce. No offense because I am a ketchup lover from way back put putting plain ol' ketchup on a meatloaf kind of makes my tummy cringe. I've added ketchup to a sauce for meatloaf and it was good, but it wasn't brown and got a thumbs down from Mr. Katherine.

Here's how I make a brown gravy:

Make a medium brown roux - pour 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil into a pot and heat over medium high heat. Once the oil is heated add 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and stir constantly with a wooden spoon. Do figure 8's, but keep it moving. BE VERY careful not to splash or you will burn yourself. The mixture will gradually turn brown, you want to to be about a caramel color for this gravy. This will take about 10 minutes, but wow, the roux will get a nutty smell to it, it's heavenly.

Now add 1/2 onion chopped, 1/2 green bell pepper chopped to the roux, wow now your kitchen is really smelling good and people will come from every room in your home as will your neighbors, to see what you're cooking, seriously, they will.

Saute the onions and bell pepper until they begin to wilt. Add 1 teaspoon of minced garlic and saute for another minute. Lower heat to medium and add 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1 dried bay leaf, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Add 1-1/2 cup of beef broth 1/2 cup at a time and combine with a whisk. The mixture will be thick. Whisk in 1 cup of water 1/2 cup at a time until you get the desired thickness. Add more beef broth for more gravy volume. Lower heat to low and let simmer covered until you are ready to make a volcano with your taters!