Tuesday, March 23, 2010

A Heart Attack Guarantee

No, I am not talking about that monstrosity of a Health Care Debacle. Don’t get me started or I won’t ever finish and I might just have the above mentioned attack.

No, I am think that today we need to talk about comfort food. Food that makes you warm and fuzzy and makes your tummy go, “Oh YES!”.

What sorts of dishes in your house qualify as “comfort food”? PB&J? Fried Chicken? Broccoli? Well, in this household the list is long and varied. But one of the favorites, that is requested for most birthdays, is Party Potatoes. Or as we like to call it “A Heart Attack in a Bowl”.

IMG_5231These are all the ingredients. What dish wouldn’t be good with the addition of sour cream, cream cheese AND butter. We can see that I have been shopping at Wally Mart. I used red skinned potatoes in this dish because…that is what I had available. And I didn’t skin them. You can use whatever kind of potato your little heart desires.

IMG_5235 Ah butter, I sing a song to you. Of all your creamy goodness. The joy you bring.

IMG_5228 First thing you do is cut up the potatoes and put them on to boil. I forgot to take a picture of the cutting and dicing. I think you guys have that all figured out…at least I hope you do.

IMG_5229 Don’t have a heart attack at all the salt. Remember that you really need to salt the water the potatoes are cooking in or you will never be able to get the salt right in the rest of the dish. I know….I have forgotten the salt before…..it was bad.

IMG_5238 When the taters are done cooking, drain them and throw them in the bowl of your mixer. Or just throw them back in the pot and use a hand mixer. I would say that you need some sort of mixer to do this dish. To mash all the stuff together by hand is really difficult.

Eat a piece of potato or two here, just because you can.

IMG_5239A Add salt.

IMG_5244 Add pepper.

IMG_5245 Add garlic powder. If you use garlic salt then omit the other salt.

IMG_5246 Add the milk. I just usually add a “glug” but I will give a measurement with the recipe just so that Lauren doesn’t hyperventilate. I want her to make this because the girls are so going to love it.

IMG_5248 Add the butter. Yes the whole thing. All 1/2 cup of it. Go on. It isn’t going to kill you….at least not right now. And what a way to go.

IMG_5250 Add the cream cheese. Yes the whole thing. Look at all that creamy goodness. You can use a lower fat cream cheese but you CANNOT use the no fat cream cheese. It doesn’t taste the same.

Don’t try it. I will know and I will not be happy. Remember, an unhappy Debbie is a bad thing.

Add the sour cream now too. I forgot to take a picture of this step. The brain went haywire for a minute.

Now turn on your mixer and incorporate everything together. Just remember not to work the potatoes too much. If there is a lump or two that is OK. If you beat the life out of them they get gummy.

IMG_5247 Just remember that if you are, hmmmm, over exuberant about turning on the mixer the potatoes tend to fling themselves out of the bowl. Of course, these cannot be returned to the bowl. Guess I will just have to eat them.

Darn.

IMG_5253 When you use red skinned potatoes it does tend to clog up the beater a bit.

IMG_5254 There all clean. Washed it in the sink? Are you nuts! I licked that sucker clean is what I did. I didn’t want to be wasteful.

IMG_5257 Then put all of it into a prepared baking dish. REMEMBER to grease the dish before hand. It is a real mess later if you don’t. '

I should know….

And then spread the potatoes out all nice, and maybe taste them a bit just to make sure that they are OK. You wouldn’t want to serve an inferior product would you?

IMG_5258 Sprinkle with paprika and you are good to go. At this point you can actually refrigerate the dish for a day or two. If you are thinking ahead enough to have done the prep that far in advance. It can then be baked at your convenience on the day that you are serving it.

This is the link for the recipe.

LINK-> Party Potatoes <-LINK

Now go forth and make them. You won’t be sorry.

9 comments:

  1. Is that drool on my keyboard? Oh well, I'll just pretend it was my toddler... This recipe looks delicious!! Thanks for sharing.

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  2. Yum! I got a little worried because there were chocolate chips in the butter picture... I didn't really like the sound of that!

    I think I would sprinkle some cheese on top and throw it in the oven for a few minutes. Sounds delish!!

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  3. @Chelsea - HAHAHA, I wondered if anyone would catch that. Should have figured you would. The same day that I made the Party Potatoes I also made the Miami Beach Cake. Both have butter in them.

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  4. Yum! Chelsea read my mind--I would sprinkle cheese on top too before I baked it. Mmmm...and bacon bits. Just in case the butter and salt weren't enough to kill me off.

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  5. Welllllll, if I really want to make the dish special I have been known to add a handful of grated cheddar cheese. That just ups the heart attack factor. But it is sooooo good.

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  6. Sounds like a good company dish. Company dish requires calories, Right? Right!!???

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  7. Delicious. I'll be over around dinner time.

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  8. Perfect Sunday dinner time-to-cheat-on-our-diet dish! Salt. Butter. Fat. Carbs. Yum!

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  9. My only sorrow reading this (at 8:20pm) is that there are no potatoes in the house for me to make this right away. I love the quote from Julie & Julia:
    "Is there anything better than butter? Think it over, any time you taste something that's delicious beyond imagining and you say 'what's in this?' the answer is always going to be butter. The day there is a meteorite rushing toward Earth and we have thirty days to live, I am going to spend it eating butter. Here is my final word on the subject, you can never have too much butter."
    When I was a child, cooking in my mother's kitchen, her nickname for me was "Whole Cube Maia". I live up to that nickname to this day.

    I am making these!!! Thank you!

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