10/6+7+5

I’ve found that cooking potatoes is a lot like cooking pasta: it just doesn’t look like enough in the pot, so you keep adding more and in the end you have more than you need.

This happened on Thanksgiving Day. In preparation of Thanksgiving dinner for 14 sailors, my daughter and her roommate, my husband and I went shopping with our list at the Navy commissary. This was an experience in itself.

Unfortunately, every Navy family near the commissary had the same idea the day before us. It was slim pickings on the sweet potatoes, parsnips and white potatoes.

Slim pickings really don’t describe the sweet potato situation. I don’t know what it is about West Coast sweet potatoes, but they were as large as pumpkins. I had planned on making whole roasted sweet potatoes, cutting a little slit on the top and placing a large marshmallow inside to melt in the final few minutes of roasting time. Nice presentation, but it doesn’t work with a 7-pound sweet potato.

I had us all rummaging through the bin of monster sweet potatoes to find the smallest available. We came away with 6 medium-size sweet potatoes.

That evening, after making the pumpkin pies and stuffing, I fretted over the sweet potato situation and convinced my daughter we should go to another store to look for more sweet potatoes.

We did and we returned with 7 more potatoes of normal size.

The next morning as we prepared the roasted vegetables and soup, my husband announced he was going to the store for flowers and other last minute items. Of course, I asked him to bring back more sweet potatoes.



The final count was 18 sweet potatoes. The final count around the dinner table was 10.

Take the above scenario and repeat it for white potatoes for garlic roasted mashed potatoes. There were enough potatoes to feed, well, the Navy.

I’ve always felt, especially when preparing Thanksgiving dinner that it’s better to have too much than not enough. Now, that’s something to be thankful for.

Mashed Potatoes with Lemon-Thyme Butter
10 tablespoons butter at room temperature
4 teaspoons minced fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons dried
1 tablespoons minced lemon zest
4 pounds russet or Yukon gold potatoes, cubed
1 1/2 cups half-and-half

Mix the butter, thyme, and lemon zest in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil. Cover partially and cook until potatoes are very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain. Return potatoes to the same pot and mash. Heat half-and-half in a small saucepan over medium heat until hot; stir into potatoes. Set aside 2 tablespoons of the lemon-thyme butter. Mix remaining seasoned butter into potatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer mashed potatoes to a large bowl. Top with the remaining 2 tablespoons lemon-thyme butter and serve hot. Serves 10.