For our second cooking lesson, I decided to stick with my "cooking main components" theory and explored the versatility of the potato. Just like eggs, there are countless ways to cook a potato. Due to my Irish heritage, I love potatoes. I find that they complement most meals, so I picked a few of the more popular ways of making potatoes to teach Hunter.
I will start off by saying that Hunter was not really up for cooking today since he was tired out from an extracurricular activity earlier in the day, so it was hard to motivate him to start. After bugging him a few times, he finally agreed to cook. Thankfully, once we started, he was okay, as I knew he would be.
We embarked on making Mashed Potatoes, Hash Browns, and Baked Potatoes. I wanted to try some red potatoes and French Fries, but we didn't have enough time to cook them. We will try them tomorrow for Part 2 of Potatoes - Mashing and Frying and Baking Oh My!
Since we were making so many dishes at one time, we decided to limit the amount of potatoes we were cooking. For the Mashed Potatoes we only used two potatoes, for the Hash Browns we used one potato, and for the Baked Potato we only made one.
I will tell you that boiling the water for the Mashed Potatoes was the easiest part of this lesson. It was all uphill from there. While Hunter understand the concept of peeling potatoes, doing it was a challenge. Apparently, I have a "stupid" potato peeler since you have to hold it straight down and glide it in the desired direction. He kept trying to turn the peeler so that he could slice through the potato. It took about 5 minutes to peel the first potato, during which there was a lot of complaining. At one point I offered to take over, but to his credit he refused. I told him that he would never make it in the military since they had to peel lots of potatoes. He argued that he would never have peel one because he would never get into trouble. Since he is unable to followed simple instructions without arguing, I believe that he would be a potato peeling expert upon leaving the military.
The second potato, thankfully, was easier since he finally got the basic technique down. By the time he was done with the two potatoes, the water was boiling.
Here is where a critical error was made. Apparently, since I'm the product of the TV Dinner Age and am not a skilled cooked, I do not own any sharp knives worthy of cutting potatoes. Yes, I have cut potatoes in the past, and yes, I've had trouble cutting them, but I just dealt with it. Since I have crappy dull knives, Hunter had a lot of trouble cutting up the potatoes for the Mashed Potatoes. I ended up hack-sawing my way through the potatoes, as I have done before and put "sharp knives" on my grocery list for next week.
Sadly, putting the chopped up potatoes into the water was the next challenge. Hunter nearly flooded my stove with water when he plopped the potatoes into the water one by one. He was afraid of getting burning, so he dropped them from outer space into the water. His Drill Sergeant would not have approved, I'm sure.
With the Mashed Potatoes boiling, we started the Hash Browns. Since he had peeling potatoes under his belt, he whizzed through the peeling process, until he realized that we were going to use the grater to shred the potatoes. He was hesitant since he had been cut on the cheese grater at school before, but he managed to get through it unscathed.
We followed our Betty Crocker Cook Book and rinsed the potatoes, despite Hunter's protests that it would all fall into the sink. I managed to keep 99.9% of the potatoes on the plate and showed him the best way to drain it. Drying the potatoes sparked another debate. He argued that it would be impossible to dry the potatoes. I proved to him that Bounty Paper Towels can pull water out of nearly anything, including shredded potatoes.
The shredded potatoes went into the pan without further complaint. He told me that he could manage mushing them down into the pan, so I moved on to draining the boiled potatoes.
Once the boiled potatoes were back into the pot, we came across critical error number two. I looked in the utensil drawer for my potato masher and panicked when I realized that I didn't have one. I wracked my brain trying to figure out if it was in a different drawer or if it had been moved somewhere. Hunter even went diving through the cooking supplies that my mother had sent. The outcome was, I NO LONGER OWN A POTATO MASHER! I know that I used to make real food back when I was first married, like a thousand years ago, but I don't honestly think that I have used a masher in the last 5 years at least. It must have been tossed out due to rust or it's cumbersomeness in the utensil drawer. So, with no masher, I taught Hunter how to make Smashed Potatoes by using a fork to crush up the potatoes. (Deep down I knew that some kid from Master Chef Jr was crying somewhere because I didn't own a potato ricer, let alone a potato masher.)
Having regained some of my composure, we flipped the Hash Browns and started doing measurement conversions in our heads, or rather, Hunter did the conversions while I shrugged. (He's better at math than I am, thankfully.) We needed to cut down the milk and butter for the Smashed Potatoes since we were using only 1/3 of the potatoes called for in the recipe. I have no idea how to measure 1/6 of milk, so Hunter figured out something that looked reasonable. We finished off the Smashed Potatoes by the time the Hash Browns were done.
With two of the three dishes done, we let the boring Baked Potato cook and served the Smashed Potatoes and Hash Browns to my husband and my daughter. Here is where critical error three was made. Since we had to cut down the recipes, the salt and pepper had been "winged". "Winged" is a technical terms that mean, "ah screw it, if they don't like it, they can add their own seasoning". Well, that's what everyone had to do. Despite tasting the Smashed Potatoes and adding more salt, our taste testers were not happy. The salt shaker was passed around until smiles came to their faces.
My husband raved about the Hash Browns and said that he really liked them. He said the Smashed Potatoes were okay, but I think he would have preferred them creamier and more seasoned. My daughter, on the other hand, has apparently never tasted homemade Smashed Potatoes, which made me feel a little guilty. She raved about them and gave me a thumbs up, which is her highest praise, aside from shoving it into her mouth. Personally, I liked both of them equally. The Smashed Potatoes could have been a little creamier, but they reminded me of the home cooked meals that my mother sometimes made. My daughter and I agreed that they were better than the boxed potatoes that I usually made. (FYI, the boxed potato mix is made by Betty Crocker. I was a little conflicted that the recipe was better than actual product made by the Betty Crocker Company. I thought for one brief second that they should go back to their original recipe book and think things through.)
Hunter's reaction was the best. Now, before you judge me, which I'm sure you already have since I don't own a stinkin' potato masher, understand that I work until 5:30 or 6:00 during the week and don't get home until 6:15 or 6:45, then twice a week have to drive Hunter around to his activities and typically don't get to actually sit down at home until 8:15 or even later if I have to do a second drop off to yet another activity. So, yes, I eat take-out food, including the dreaded McDonald's. (My mother's idea of a quick meal was Wendy's, when I was kid.) So when Hunter ate his Hash Browns, his eyes lit up and he said that they were the best Hash Browns that he had ever eaten. He said, "Oh my God, they are better than McDonald's". This is very high praise coming from him.
Once everyone finished their taste-testing portions, the Baked Potatoes were ready. We decided to jazz them up and make them into Potato Skins. It has been a long time since I baked a potato instead of using the microwave. I don't really like microwaving them, but when I was short on time, I did my best.
We scooped out the potato and argued over how much to take out. Technically, Hunter would have won the argument since everyone thought there was too much potato in them. We put our prefab bacon and preshredded cheese on since my patience wouldn't have lasted through cooking the dreaded bacon, and put the potatoes back into the oven. We did have a minor technical error when one of the potatoes rocked and most of the cheese felt out onto the baking tray. Next time we will line them up better. Aside from the fact that there was too much potato on our Potato Skins, they were good even though they didn't rank in the top for anyone.
Once we were done eating, I asked Hunter which one he enjoyed making the most. He admitted that they were all easy to do, though the shredding did take more time, but he liked everything that he made. I was proud of him for pushing through his aches and pains and complaining to make very respectable side dishes. He did learn the value of seasoning, so next time we will make the needed corrections. I was also happy that he didn't stray from the stove, except during our panic to find the stupid potato masher, which I still swear is in this house somewhere!
I did point out to Hunter the differences between the premade mashed potatoes vs ours and the microwaved potatoes vs the oven baked potatoes, so he does get it that fresh is better. He agreed that the microwaved potatoes weren't as good. That lesson alone could save him from a bad date once the girl realized that he had no idea how to actually cook.
Below are photos of our Smashed Potatoes and Hash Browns. He can experiment with them once he is older and has learned to appreciate different flavors.
Next time, we will try to make French Fries while trying not to burn the house down and exploring how a Red Potato tastes different than a Russet Potato.
I will start off by saying that Hunter was not really up for cooking today since he was tired out from an extracurricular activity earlier in the day, so it was hard to motivate him to start. After bugging him a few times, he finally agreed to cook. Thankfully, once we started, he was okay, as I knew he would be.
We embarked on making Mashed Potatoes, Hash Browns, and Baked Potatoes. I wanted to try some red potatoes and French Fries, but we didn't have enough time to cook them. We will try them tomorrow for Part 2 of Potatoes - Mashing and Frying and Baking Oh My!
Since we were making so many dishes at one time, we decided to limit the amount of potatoes we were cooking. For the Mashed Potatoes we only used two potatoes, for the Hash Browns we used one potato, and for the Baked Potato we only made one.
I will tell you that boiling the water for the Mashed Potatoes was the easiest part of this lesson. It was all uphill from there. While Hunter understand the concept of peeling potatoes, doing it was a challenge. Apparently, I have a "stupid" potato peeler since you have to hold it straight down and glide it in the desired direction. He kept trying to turn the peeler so that he could slice through the potato. It took about 5 minutes to peel the first potato, during which there was a lot of complaining. At one point I offered to take over, but to his credit he refused. I told him that he would never make it in the military since they had to peel lots of potatoes. He argued that he would never have peel one because he would never get into trouble. Since he is unable to followed simple instructions without arguing, I believe that he would be a potato peeling expert upon leaving the military.
The second potato, thankfully, was easier since he finally got the basic technique down. By the time he was done with the two potatoes, the water was boiling.
Here is where a critical error was made. Apparently, since I'm the product of the TV Dinner Age and am not a skilled cooked, I do not own any sharp knives worthy of cutting potatoes. Yes, I have cut potatoes in the past, and yes, I've had trouble cutting them, but I just dealt with it. Since I have crappy dull knives, Hunter had a lot of trouble cutting up the potatoes for the Mashed Potatoes. I ended up hack-sawing my way through the potatoes, as I have done before and put "sharp knives" on my grocery list for next week.
Sadly, putting the chopped up potatoes into the water was the next challenge. Hunter nearly flooded my stove with water when he plopped the potatoes into the water one by one. He was afraid of getting burning, so he dropped them from outer space into the water. His Drill Sergeant would not have approved, I'm sure.
With the Mashed Potatoes boiling, we started the Hash Browns. Since he had peeling potatoes under his belt, he whizzed through the peeling process, until he realized that we were going to use the grater to shred the potatoes. He was hesitant since he had been cut on the cheese grater at school before, but he managed to get through it unscathed.
We followed our Betty Crocker Cook Book and rinsed the potatoes, despite Hunter's protests that it would all fall into the sink. I managed to keep 99.9% of the potatoes on the plate and showed him the best way to drain it. Drying the potatoes sparked another debate. He argued that it would be impossible to dry the potatoes. I proved to him that Bounty Paper Towels can pull water out of nearly anything, including shredded potatoes.
The shredded potatoes went into the pan without further complaint. He told me that he could manage mushing them down into the pan, so I moved on to draining the boiled potatoes.
Once the boiled potatoes were back into the pot, we came across critical error number two. I looked in the utensil drawer for my potato masher and panicked when I realized that I didn't have one. I wracked my brain trying to figure out if it was in a different drawer or if it had been moved somewhere. Hunter even went diving through the cooking supplies that my mother had sent. The outcome was, I NO LONGER OWN A POTATO MASHER! I know that I used to make real food back when I was first married, like a thousand years ago, but I don't honestly think that I have used a masher in the last 5 years at least. It must have been tossed out due to rust or it's cumbersomeness in the utensil drawer. So, with no masher, I taught Hunter how to make Smashed Potatoes by using a fork to crush up the potatoes. (Deep down I knew that some kid from Master Chef Jr was crying somewhere because I didn't own a potato ricer, let alone a potato masher.)
Having regained some of my composure, we flipped the Hash Browns and started doing measurement conversions in our heads, or rather, Hunter did the conversions while I shrugged. (He's better at math than I am, thankfully.) We needed to cut down the milk and butter for the Smashed Potatoes since we were using only 1/3 of the potatoes called for in the recipe. I have no idea how to measure 1/6 of milk, so Hunter figured out something that looked reasonable. We finished off the Smashed Potatoes by the time the Hash Browns were done.
With two of the three dishes done, we let the boring Baked Potato cook and served the Smashed Potatoes and Hash Browns to my husband and my daughter. Here is where critical error three was made. Since we had to cut down the recipes, the salt and pepper had been "winged". "Winged" is a technical terms that mean, "ah screw it, if they don't like it, they can add their own seasoning". Well, that's what everyone had to do. Despite tasting the Smashed Potatoes and adding more salt, our taste testers were not happy. The salt shaker was passed around until smiles came to their faces.
My husband raved about the Hash Browns and said that he really liked them. He said the Smashed Potatoes were okay, but I think he would have preferred them creamier and more seasoned. My daughter, on the other hand, has apparently never tasted homemade Smashed Potatoes, which made me feel a little guilty. She raved about them and gave me a thumbs up, which is her highest praise, aside from shoving it into her mouth. Personally, I liked both of them equally. The Smashed Potatoes could have been a little creamier, but they reminded me of the home cooked meals that my mother sometimes made. My daughter and I agreed that they were better than the boxed potatoes that I usually made. (FYI, the boxed potato mix is made by Betty Crocker. I was a little conflicted that the recipe was better than actual product made by the Betty Crocker Company. I thought for one brief second that they should go back to their original recipe book and think things through.)
Hunter's reaction was the best. Now, before you judge me, which I'm sure you already have since I don't own a stinkin' potato masher, understand that I work until 5:30 or 6:00 during the week and don't get home until 6:15 or 6:45, then twice a week have to drive Hunter around to his activities and typically don't get to actually sit down at home until 8:15 or even later if I have to do a second drop off to yet another activity. So, yes, I eat take-out food, including the dreaded McDonald's. (My mother's idea of a quick meal was Wendy's, when I was kid.) So when Hunter ate his Hash Browns, his eyes lit up and he said that they were the best Hash Browns that he had ever eaten. He said, "Oh my God, they are better than McDonald's". This is very high praise coming from him.
Once everyone finished their taste-testing portions, the Baked Potatoes were ready. We decided to jazz them up and make them into Potato Skins. It has been a long time since I baked a potato instead of using the microwave. I don't really like microwaving them, but when I was short on time, I did my best.
We scooped out the potato and argued over how much to take out. Technically, Hunter would have won the argument since everyone thought there was too much potato in them. We put our prefab bacon and preshredded cheese on since my patience wouldn't have lasted through cooking the dreaded bacon, and put the potatoes back into the oven. We did have a minor technical error when one of the potatoes rocked and most of the cheese felt out onto the baking tray. Next time we will line them up better. Aside from the fact that there was too much potato on our Potato Skins, they were good even though they didn't rank in the top for anyone.
Once we were done eating, I asked Hunter which one he enjoyed making the most. He admitted that they were all easy to do, though the shredding did take more time, but he liked everything that he made. I was proud of him for pushing through his aches and pains and complaining to make very respectable side dishes. He did learn the value of seasoning, so next time we will make the needed corrections. I was also happy that he didn't stray from the stove, except during our panic to find the stupid potato masher, which I still swear is in this house somewhere!
I did point out to Hunter the differences between the premade mashed potatoes vs ours and the microwaved potatoes vs the oven baked potatoes, so he does get it that fresh is better. He agreed that the microwaved potatoes weren't as good. That lesson alone could save him from a bad date once the girl realized that he had no idea how to actually cook.
Below are photos of our Smashed Potatoes and Hash Browns. He can experiment with them once he is older and has learned to appreciate different flavors.
Next time, we will try to make French Fries while trying not to burn the house down and exploring how a Red Potato tastes different than a Russet Potato.
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