Mashed Potatoes (Fun things with food)

natalie_ca

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Tonight I'm having meatloaf with mashed (whipped) potatoes. For some reason it triggered a long forgotten memory for me.

Back when I was a kid and my mom would make mashed potatoes, I wouldn't eat them until she sculpted a house out of the ones on my plate, LMAO.

Just for old times sake I actually sculpted my mashed potatoes into a house shape


I also like to mix my veggies in with mashed potatoes...even if I'm out at someone's home or in a restaurant. I get some funny looks, but that's how I like to have my mashed potatoes with veggies.

What fun things do you do with food before you eat it?
 

carolpetunia

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Great question! Now remember, you asked...

Ever since that great scene in "Close Encounters," I sculpt Devil's Tower, Wyoming, out of my mashed potatoes. We all do, in my family!


The only thing I mix into my mashed potatoes is a little bit of the juice from the Harvard beets that always accompany them -- say what you will about beets, but if you make Harvard beets right, they're fabulous! And they make pretty fuchsia stripes in the potatoes!

Macaroni and cheese: Each tine of the fork must be encased by one of the macaronis, so they are always eaten four macaronis at a time. (I used to eat them cold with ketchup the next day, but then I grew up.
)

French fries: I cannot abide the peel, so I always have to pinch the ends off as I go.


Reese's Peanut Butter Cups: For me, there's a little too much chocolate relative to the peanut butter, so I nibble off the chocolate edge all around, then peel the chocolate layer off the top and have that by itself before indulging in the perfect chocolate-to-peanut-butter ratio that remains.


Oreos: I deftly remove one cookie with my tongue and enjoy that, then go for the filling, and finally savor the other cookie's deep dark goodness all by itself.

Cheetos (baked): I open them and let them get stale for a couple of days before I eat them! Love that styrofoamy texture!

Corn on the cob: After cooking, I slice it off, but not too close -- then after I eat the cut corn, I also nibble at what's left on the cob. Best of both worlds!
 

swampwitch

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I've never even thought about anything like that! Those are all new thoughts in my head! I'm "rediscovering" my childhood and am going to try some of those (from both of you).
Last year, I chewed gum, carved a pumpkin, and ran in a sprinkler!

Sounds like you had a nice mom.
 

carolpetunia

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No more posts yet? What's wrong with TCS -- don't you guys play with your food?


Natalie, I've got an idea: let's get a huge grant from some big intant-mashed-potato manufacturer to get them publicity by traveling around holding mashed-potato sculpture contests!

We'd have to make strict rules about implements: standard dinner-size forks and spoons only, with an exception for the occasional pickle fork used for fine detailing. We'll have to develop a portable device for moisture testing, to make sure every batch of mashed potatoes meets the official contest standard for viscosity. And we'll have to award prizes in different categories, like preschool, elementary, teen, adult, and original or roasted garlic.

We might consider having a special category in which other food items can be incorporated into the design -- a row of okra slices as architectural definition, for example, or some parsley used to simulate trees in a landscape of potato snow.

The foods will have to be purpose-appropriate, though. No self-respecting mom would have, for example, ice cream cones on the table at dinner. So a potato portrait of Madonna is out.

Whatcha think? We can travel the continent in a great big giant Potatomobile, spreading reconstituted potato goop far and wide!

And SW, you can ride in a sidecar with the butter...
 

bonnie1965

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I wish I had played with my food! Sounds like fun. All I remember about mashed potatoes is that they taste good with butter and gravy


Mom's potatoes had lumps though, that make a difference in molding?
 

isadora44

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Uhm...well...actually....my fondest food memory also comes from mashed potatoes


When I was a kid, I would always sculpt my mashed potatoes into a "swimming pool". Then I'd fill the "swimming pool" with gravy. Then I'd find a heck of a lot of enjoyment in breaking the side of said "swimming pool" and watching all the gravy spill out.

Yes, completely stupid, but I still think about it everytime I eat mashed potatoes.


Oh, and whenever I'd eat olives off the relish tray at Grandma's house, I'd always take 5 so that I could put one on each finger before I ate them.
 

roimata

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HAHA I cant really think of anything......except for when I eat Bugles I put them on each finger and eat them that way, HAHA like fingernails.
 
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natalie_ca

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Originally Posted by Bonnie1965

Mom's potatoes had lumps though, that make a difference in molding?
Yep, they have to be smooth. My mom drained the potatoes, added butter, salt, pepper and some milk and then went to town with the electric mixer until they were creamy smooth but not watery.

She used a knife to sculpt my potato houses. Just 4 sides and a standard slanted roof and a door that she scooped out with the knife end. I remember there were times she was so hurried that she would try to get out of making my potato house, but in the end she always stopped and took the time to make one even if some of them only took about 20 seconds to do, LOL

Oh yeah, I also liked ketchup on my potatoes so she would spread some on the roof to give the roof a red colour, hehe
 

ali012281

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Originally Posted by Roimata

HAHA I cant really think of anything......except for when I eat Bugles I put them on each finger and eat them that way, HAHA like fingernails.
Oh I used to do that with black olives!
 
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