Essay - Mashed Potatoes Mashed Potato Memories People Often Talk About 'Comfort...

Mashed potatoes

Mashed Potato Memories

People often talk about "comfort food," meaning food that makes them feel good any time they eat it. It is always a food that brings back memories for them. Some*****s people choose a dessert, or some other dish that may be complicated to make. However, my favorite food is my mother's mashed pota*****es. They are tied to many fond ***** of mine.

My mother makes the *****st mashed pota*****es I have ever eaten. She doesn't make fancy mashed potatoes but follows a simple recipe she has always used that includes potatoes, milk, butter, salt and a little pepper. They seem to be intertwined in***** all of our family history. My p*****nts have pictures of me eating ma*****d potatoes, one of my first solid foods, when I was a child. The picture shows me with mashed potatoes in ***** hair, all over my face, and all over both hands. It is a ***** every***** ***** the f*****mily has enjoyed because my mother serves mashed potatoes at every important family dinner.

Somehow my mother manages to make mashed potatoes that are always completely free of lumps. For large *****s, many of us pitch in. On Thanksgiving Day we spread newspapers out in the living room and peel a whole bag of ***** as we watch ***** Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The potato skins have a slightly sour smell, ********** the peeled potatoes are slippery and sometimes shoot ***** of the h*****s ***** small *****ren ***** they triy to use a spoon to dig out any brown spots. ***** is a lot of work, ***** ***** mother ins*****ts on using ***** red potatoes. Once they ***** peeled and put in a big pot they look like a large pile of rocks. Children old enough to use potato peelers have contests to see who can peel *****f the longest strip of unbroken potato sk*****, ***** whoever wind gets the wishbone from ***** turkey.

Wonderful smells always accomp***** my ***** mashed potatoes. ***** a birthday celebration it might be a beef ro*****st. For Sunday dinner it is often a roasting chicken. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, it is always a *****. Each one has *****s own particular smell that fills the ho***** and ***** ***** mouth water. Mother always prepares wonderful gravy from scratch to put on the *****.

Some ***** think mashed pota*****es are bland and ordinary, but I have never felt ***** way. I got on line to ***** if I could find my mother's recipe, ***** was surprised to find all kinds of variations on mashed potatoes including low-fat ***** potatoes, many varieties of garlic mashed potatoes, and even ***** for "chipotle" ***** potatoes, made with heavy cream, an onion, a bell pepper and chipotle peppers (author not given, 2003). The site says that chipotle peppers ***** smoked jalapeno *****. For all ***** know these may be the most delicious mashed potatoes in ***** world, but I can't imagine children sitting around on the living room floor cutting