Mashed Potatoes (and Gravy)

Regular Mashed Potatoes or Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Traditionally you use Idaho Russet potatoes, but you can use red or yellow varieties too. A couple varieties of gravy below too.

*Peel and dice however many potatoes you need- usually about one per 1-2 people. Put diced potatoes in a large pot and cover with water about 1 inch above potatoes. Boil until soft. Drain water.

Mash with butter, milk, and salt. All of this is to taste. (We usually do 8 large potatoes, 1 stick of butter, about a cup of milk, and a lot of salt, but we don't measure). 

We mash potatoes in the KitchenAid mixer, or Bosch mixer (like what we make cookie dough in), but it is fine to use a potato masher too.  When making a weeknight meal quickly, I just mash by hand quickly. I even leave the skins on if I used red or yellow potatoes because they don't bother me. I like lumps (smashed potatoes) more than baby-food perfectly smooth potatoes, so I don't care if it is perfectly mashed. 

*To make garlic mashed potatoes, finely mince 1-2 cloves of fresh raw garlic and put it in the bowl where you will mash the potatoes. As you mash, with the butter, milk, and salt, the minced garlic will flavor everything so deliciously! 

*you can mash potatoes with just some of the cooking water and leave out the fat and dairy and even salt if you are needing a healthy alternative

*4 cups of gravy. (Seasonings are usually bouillon (if not using broth) onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, turmeric, salt, & pepper, herbs if you like). You can add diced onions, mushrooms, meat, etc., to your gravy to make it flavored how you like. We just leave it plain though with the pan drippings/scrapings. 
Gravy is best when you can use pan drippings/scrapings after cooking meat. If you've cooked some meat in a frying pan (like steak or chicken) for example, after the meat is removed, it is easiest to make the gravy in the same pan. Add in a stick of butter (swirl and scrape around to get the bits off the bottom of the pan), and add seasonings. Then add in 1/2 cup of flour (stir around until browned a bit and mixed with butter completely), and then slowly whisk in 4 cups of broth/water/milk, whisking continually to get rid of lumps. Cook until thickened and serve. (milk, cream, or sour cream will make it a richer more white gravy which usually goes better with poultry, and more brown/red gravy goes best with beef or pork).

*How to get drippings: If you've roasted a turkey or other meat in the oven, obtain drippings by pouring the drippings from the roasting pan into a 4 cup measure to use as broth for your gravy. Refrigerate for half hour so the fat will rise to the top and you can scoop off most of it, or your gravy will be too greasy.