Thursday, April 17, 2008

IKEA - Where fun and fantasy meet


One of the major drags to living in the midwest is the lack of cool stores. Of the three stores I've grown to love via reading about them on other food blogs - Penzeys, Trader Joes, and IKEA - only one is within a days drive (the first).

Therefore, whenever we visit family near Chicago we always find an excuse to visit IKEA (and Trader Joes).

"IKEA?" You say, "but isn't that a furniture store?"

Right you are! But they also have some of the tastiest Swedish treats around. Annual trips to IKEA allow me to stock up on Lingonberry jam and those crispy flower-shaped Swedish cookies.

On the most recent visit I discovered packets of powder-mix to recreate their delicious meatball sauce. While I'm not much of a mix kind of girl, I was curious to see how close the taste was.

The verdict? Spot on! Unfortunately my attempts at meatball formation was not such a good recreation (i.e. the balls fell apart and turned into meat slop).

So, instead of a meatball/slop recipe here's my simple version of mashed potatoes. Easy for a weeknight dinner, and always delicious! And since the UN has declared 2008 the year of the potato, I think it's time to get out there and enjoy some spuds!

Garlic & Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

4 largish potatoes (I used red) washed and chopped
2 heads of garlic roughly chopped
2 sprigs of rosemary (just the leaves)
Salt & Pepper
1 TBS butter
about 1/2 cup potato water

Boil the potatoes until tender, and the drain and reserve some of the liquid (1/2 cup). Mix the remaining ingredients and smash the potatoes up against the side of the bowl while mixing, leave partly chunky. Add enough of the potato water to increase smoothness to desired level. Salt and pepper to taste.

Over Christmas my mother in law made mashed potatoes in the Kitchen Aid, they were super smooth. I'm too lazy to get out another machine, but if you feel up to it, Kitchen Aid potatoes are tops!

1 comment:

Blanchardlawn said...

That Kitchen Aid needs to earn it's keep! I'm going to put it to work doing more than making cookies.