WHEW!!
I didn't think I'd make it.....but I did!!! Potato day was a complete success! :-)
It started off EARLY, if you read my post below, but I kept the coffee flowing and made it a great cooking day!
Before I made breakfast for the kids, I started off by putting the two squash in the oven to roast, and I then realized I needed to clear the dishwasher! There's nothing worse on a "cooking day" than having a sink full of dirty dishes and a dishwasher full of clean ones!
After I made breakfast for the kids, cleaned up the kitchen, and got them dressed, I prepped and peeled an ENTIRE 10 pound bag of potatoes. Man......did I mention I REALLY don't like peeling potatoes?!? I got through the entire bag, though, and Ava hung around as my "sous" chef!! She LOVES......I mean LOVES to help me in the kitchen!!
After I got one of the bag of potatoes peeled, I started in on THIS soup. It is such an EASY recipe and it's so delicious! I urge you to try it!! So, as the soup was simmering away, I had Ava help me spoon out all of the roasted squash and get that going for THIS Marbled Mashed potatoes. This recipe was a little more labor-intensive than I thought it would be, but it was a really neat concept and it seemed to work out great. Ava had fun "swirling" the squash and potatoes together at the end. Both the soup and the Marbled Potatoes seemed to come out great!!
[caption id="attachment_1510" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Soup done!"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_1511" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Marbled Mashed Potatoes"]
[/caption]After I cleaned up a bit---10:30ish---I realized that I needed to get lunch for the kids (Ava catches the bus to Preschool at around 11:20), and I also needed to get Anna down for a nap.
That's when I found this:
Ava and Luke were having a "sleepover"----under the Dining Room Table!!! It was so cute!! They are obsessed with sleepovers, lately, and I thought it was so cute that they came up with this on their own!! They really are starting to play together so well and it's such a joy to see them using their imaginations!!
So.....we made it through lunch and got Ava on the bus by the skin of our teeth---and I got Anna down for a nap in the midst of it all!! We made it!
Usually, after Ava gets on the bus, it's "Lukie and Mommy" time, and I didn't want to change that, so he and I played outside and had a fun time together before his nap. But, once I got him down for a nap--the heat was on! It was time to peel the majority of the other bag of potatoes and get to THESE mashed potatoes. And, right as I was peeling the last potato, sweet little Anna woke up from her nap, so she was my trusty sidekick for the next hour, or so!
I then got going on the Freezer Mashed Potatoes and decided to double the batch, so that I could also use them for the muffin tin potatoes, too. It worked out perfectly!! And they are soooooooo yummy!Here's the two tins of them:
And here they are in the muffin tin. I actually just used an icecream scooper and it worked out quite well!
I let them freeze for a few hours, hoping my idea of individual portions would work, and it did!! Cute little portions of mashed potatoes for the kiddos came right out of the tins. I transferred them into ziploc bags and back into the freezer!
Woohoo! All the potatoes were done, and I had some left over to bake for dinner tonight with our pot roast!!
It was quite the hectic day.....but, it was so great!! It actually was a lot of fun and it's great to see all of this in my freezer!!
Which, by the way....the pan on the left is THESE French Bread Rolls----I can't believe I had time for them!! (They were still rising when I took this picture, but they are now baked and in the freezer!!)If you're wondering how I package these up---I use plastic wrap, first, and make sure it's nice and covered. I, then, go over it with aluminum foil and put a label on it. I write down what the item is, how to bake it, and the date---then I put a few more layers of plastic wrap on it, just to be sure!!
Thanks for joining me on my 20-pounds-of-potatoes journey!!
Question: What's your method of reheating frozen (thawed) mash potatoes?
ReplyDeleteAmy--To tell you the truth, I haven't done frozen mashed potatoes too often, but the time I did, I learned a few things:
ReplyDelete1. THAW the potatoes first in the fridge. I didn't do that, and it took almost 2.5 hours to reheat in the oven, and it was watery to boot.
2. On that note, too, I made a HUGE pan of them. Not good. I would suggest doing littler pans, thawing in the refrigerator, and re-heating in the oven.
3. Also, cover them really well, and don't keep them in the freezer for longer than 2-3 months.
I'm still new at freezer potatoes, so we'll see how these new recipes turn out. I'm excited for the muffin tin ones, though. I'm assuming I can just pop those in the microwave for the kids and they'll be good!!
Just to clarify...you reheat in the oven or micro?
ReplyDeleteOh, sorry! I wasn't very clear, was I?! I'm going to reheat the pans of potatoes in the oven at 325 or 350 until heated through.
ReplyDeleteBut, I'm going to try the thawed muffin-tin potatoes in the microwave. We'll see how that works!
Hey Sarah - I had a question about roasting/freezing Squash...I know when you did yours, you blended it and then froze it (for baby food I think). What if I were to cut it into big pieces, roast it, then freeze those pieces (or roast, then cut and freeze)? Would that work? I have a bunch of acorn and butternut that I really should use soon. I don't have a garage to keep them in, so they've been outside (in a box covered with towels) but with it freezing at night I'm worried they will go bad! I think for most of the recipes I'd use them in, they should be in chunks/wedges instead of puree. :) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYes!! I have never done it this way, but I am pretty positive that it will work just as well! But, I think you have to make sure that it is PEELED before you put it in the freezer. I think it will work much better that way. Here's a great website I found that might help you out: http://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t--830/all-about-winter-squash.asp
ReplyDelete