Mashed Potatoes

One of my assignments this Thanksgiving was to make some mashed potatoes. I usually boil some potatoes, add a bunch of heavy cream, melted butter, sour cream, salt and pepper, mash them with the skin on with a whisk...and they are usually awesome.

This year I decided to change it up a bit and make a more refined mashed potato with tons of butter.

It worked out great. I boiled 5 lb of small Yukon gold potatoes with the skin still on, drained them and let them dry a bit (to try and keep the potatoes dry). I then passed them through a food mill and removed most of the skin. I added about two cups of whole milk and then the fun began. I added three pounds of just colder than room temp butter. I added it a bit at a time and stirred it with a wooden spoon until it all incorporated. They were just seasoned with some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Wow, these potatoes were great. The texture was super smooth and the flavor was rich and buttery, but without any waxiness or greasiness (which happens when you add pre melted butter). They took a bit longer to make than the recipe in the book, but it was worth the effort for a great change of pace.

Apple Pie

We had a bunch of apples leftover from when my wife went apple picking earlier this season. By mistake, I commited to make an apple pie for a dinner party we were going to.

The crust was made with all butter and came out great. I cooked about half of the apples with a bit of butter over medium heat for about half an hour to get rid of some moisture in the apples so they didnt shrink so much when cooked and leave the pie hollow. I made some caramel and poured it over the apples before putting the top crust.

Overall, I was very happy with the results, but it was a bit runny because of the apples we had at home.

Dinner at Olives

As part of my birthday present, my wife took me out to dinner at Todd English's restaurant Olives in Charlestown. It was a great meal.

The best part about it was the service. Truly fantastic from the valet to our goodbye.

The food was very good as well. We started with the black truffle and foie gras flan. Interesting way to do foie gras...but didnt get much truffle flavor. It was served on a wild mushroom ragu. Sorry the picture is so blurry, I tried taking it without the flash but got less shy with later courses (that may have been the Oban)

My entree was the hot smoked duck breast and leg confit. It was cooked perfectly and nice and tender. The confit, one of my favorite foods, was very good too. It also had a big crispy scallion pancake folded to separate the duck preparations.

My wife had the monster sized grilled bone in pork chop with fingerling potato and pork belly hash.

For dessert we had a sampling of three sorbets (the mango was my favorite) and some biscotti.

After dinner Jane took me to see STAR WARS in Concert. What a cool show! Thats where the stormtrooper photo fits in.

Bees

Did you know a bee will fly up to five miles to search for nectar? Very cool. I am hoping to have a hive or two in the relatively near future. mmmm...homemade honey!