A Confession

I've been encouraging you at Stop the Ride and here to make more things from scratch, especially when it comes to cooking. Made from scratch foods often are just as easy to make, taste so much better, cost less and are healthier. Why not cook from scratch?

Here is where the confession comes. In my cupboard you will find one of the most notrious of not from scratch items. It is a box of something that will send chills down many cooks spines, and make those accustomed to home cooked goodness cringe. It is the dreaded box of instant potatoes.

Please don't throw your rotten tomatoes (or potatoes) at me, or call me out as a fraud.

I could say that I often don't use instant potatoes to make mashed potatoesl. They are a great filler that I often use in salmon patties and meatloaves. I could say that, and it would be true, but really only part of the story.

I could offer that when I do use instant potatoes to make mashed potatoes, they actually taste good. Add enough sour cream, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, bacon, or butter to those dehydrated flakes, and they are truly delicious. Not exactly healthy, but delicious. Yes, yes, that is a little more truth to the story, but still not the whole truth.

The down and dirty, nitty gritty truth behind the box of instant potatoes in my cupboard is simply that I hate to peel potatoes. There I said it, I despise peeling potatoes. Irrational perhaps, but the truth.

Don't worry. My family does not always have to suffer through instant potatoes. I do make mashed potatoes from potatoes occasionally, but I don't peel them.

To make real from scratch mashed potatoes I buy potatoes with thin skins, like Yukon Gold or most red potatoes. Then I boil them until soft, drain, and mash with melted butter and warm milk; skins and all. Easy and delicious with no peeling!

So forgive me please for keeping that box of white flaky stuff in my cupboard. I don't make everything from scratch all the time. Mashed potatoes are my weakness. I'm Stephanie and I hate to peel potatoes.