my favorite - with roasted garlic (wrap whole head of garlic in foil and stick it in the oven while you roasting meat, baking pizza or bread or something...you can freeze whatever is not used for next batch of comfort food) and practically any cheese leftovers in the fridge. I use masher. But I'll try the mayonnaise next time definitely.

mmm, mashed potatoes are my favorite thing EVER. i always said if i had to pick a last meal - for the off chance i'm on death row - then it would be steak and mashed potatoes! :)

ok, but i did stop eating them because the way i was makin' em were just plain unhealthy.

not only did i use cream instead of milk, i used sour cream! and tons of butter! holy frick are they yum. i'd use red potatoes and leave the skin on. i once threw in a shitload of gorgonzola and it was like heaven on earth. or maybe my heart stopped and i died a bit.

damn you, diet! damn you!

p.s. i know this is gross to many, but ketchup on mashed potatoes is so awesome. i've also ixnayed ketchup from my life, so there that goes.

I've started making mashed potatoes with my ricer - smooth and creamy PLUS no peeling required! I also use more milk than butter to get them soft.

I like using red potatoes or Yukon gold for smashed potatoes. Boil until tender, smash gently, then crispy them up in a pan with butter. Mmmm...

If you like your mashed potatoes lumpy (as some do), then this is not the method for you, but we use our food processor. Thought it might go disastrously the first time, but it was awesome! Smoothest, creamiest mashed potatoes ever. I'm probably going to get struck by lightening by the kitchen gods for doing something so sacrilegious.

I use a masher, or sometimes a hand mixer if I am feeling lazy, which gives them a super smooth and a slightly lighter texture. I leave the skins on and put in any kind of dairy based fat that's in my fridge - they are really good with some milk and cream cheese or fresh chevre. I know, my arteries are going to completely clog up any minute now.

@kls987: it's been in our experience that over-mashed potatoes, esp those done in a food processor, come out too gummy and glue-like. How do you get them smooth and creamy?

My husband claims that I make pretty awesome mashed potatoes; I've been refining my technique over the years, and here are my current tricks:

- no one else seems to do this, but I actually learned this from my mother-in-law: peel and cut an onion in half, and boil along with the potatoes, discarding when done. It adds a subtle rich earthiness to the potatoes.

- the right potatoes are key -- here in Europe they have better varieties that come in bags labelled for their purpose (i.e., baking, mashing, scalloping) -- Yukon Gold is probably the closest.

- make the milk and cream (and butter -- unsalted) mixture very hot, almost boiling, when you add it to the potatoes.

-I used to swear by my ricer, but have switched to a hand mixer -- the ricer made the mash very fluffy, and the mixer makes it smooth and light, but a bit heavier than the ricer.

-I`ve been making Simon Hopkinson's parsley mashed potatoes (chop parsley very fine, along with 1 mashed clove of garlic in the hot milk mixture), and that is pretty awesome too.

Rainbow mashed potatoes!

Red potatoes diced and boiled with skins, drain and mash briefly by hand adding "creamy potato leek soup" from Imagine foods. It's easy, low fat, and flavorful.

Then mix in diced red pepper, shredded carrots, corn, and peas. Yum!

No one could tell they didn't have any dairy. Weird.

I mash by hand, adding plain yogurt and a moderate amount of butter. Oh, salt and pepper, too.

I use a ricer if I have time and am not making other things that require my attention, otherwise KitchenAid mixer with paddle. I also add either buttermilk or sour cream! Yum!

Making some right now with some meat loaf already in the oven, looking forward to this dinner!

I fork mash 'em with room-temperature cream cheese and fresh parsley.

My future mother in law makes them in the slow cooker with cream cheese and they were really good!

If you like your potatoes with a little more bite, try this:

Finely chop or food process a few dried mushrooms of your choice and add to the cooking water. While the potatoes are boiling, roast off a head of garlic, and even a few oven potatoes for added texture.

After draining the potatoes, add as much garlic as you like and evaporated milk to the consistency of choice. I add a spoon of sour cream as well for texture. Use a smasher, lower fat evaporated milk (for the creamy consistency without all the added calories), a little butter, fresh herbs(basil, rosemary, tyme, whatever you have on hand). Leave as many or as few of the mushrooms in the water as to suit your meal. Enjoy.

I have an easy smashed potatoes recipe using no dairy, I use a bit of the water to moisten the potatoes that have been smashed with a fork, and I carefully saute some garlic in olive oil which I then mix into the potatoes for fat and flavor. I use the small red potatoes, skin on, for this. Yukon is good too.

@Kathryn Hill: This has been my experience too. Potatoes are mostly water, despite what it might seem, so anything too sharp can disintegrate them pretty easily, leading to glue-like textures. I would shy away from using food processors in favor of blunter instruments.

I don't boil mine at all - I bake them & then scoop out the insides into a food mill (using the disc with the biggest holes). That way the only added moisture comes from the butter and cream, instead of the cooking water. YUM.

I make mashed potatoes the way that my parents made mashed potatoes -- peel them, boil them, add a little milk and butter, salt and pepper, mash them with a hand masher. Plain and simple. When I want to get a little fancy I add a bit of whole grain dijon mustard and some chopped parsley.

I use Yukon Golds (peeled) and toss in half of a large yellow onion and several cloves of garlic (chopped). I boil in salted water until fork tender, and when I drain the potatoes I reserve the water for my gravy (the potato starch is perfect thickening and a great flavoring). I then mash with anywhere from 1/2 to a whole stick of butter.

boiled, skin on, mashed with olive oil instead of butter

my mom has this great recipe . . .the potatoes are fairly standard, boiled then hand mixer mashed with cream cheese and milk, but then she layers them in a large pyrex bowl and with cheeses and carmalized onions. two layers for each. then bakes till the cheese is a bit crispy on top.

@Kathryn Hill - I have not had this problem. I usually use red-skinned potatoes and leave the skins on. I then throw in butter and garlic and salt and pepper and some 1% milk. Probably more milk than some people would - they are definitely on the creamy side, not the thick side. I have added all sorts of other stuff (cheese, sour cream, more cheese, more sour cream....), but not since using the food processor method. I bought some yellow-gold potatoes this week, so I'll try it with them and see if that makes any difference. I wonder if it's the potatoes? I haven't made mashed potatoes with regular old Idaho white potatoes in years. I'll update next week.

Boiled, skin on, put through a ricer, then whipped in the Kitchen Aid with melted cream cheese. NOM.

The easiest way takes a microwave oven and a ricer: Microwave the potatoes (wash as many baking potatoes as you need, count them [giving you a number, N], microwave them for [2-4 x N] minutes; let them sit for a minute, flip them on all three (x,y,z] axes and nuke them for another [2-4 x N] minutes). Then cut the potatoes in half and force them--cut sides next to the holes--through a ricer. Add milk, salt, nutmeg, whatever.

The peel will be left in the ricer and you'll have to pull it out between potatoes (use a fork), but it's less hassle than peeling them. Also, the potatoes won't have absorbed all the water they would have if you'd boiled them--which means they'll absorb more cream, or roasted garlic or whatever. And it's a lot less messy.

Boiled, hand mashed, roasted garlic and the "light" boursin cheese. When I have home made herb butter on hand I will add it as well. Can't wait for the next family holiday to make this delightful starch again!

I hate draining boiled potatoes, so I steam the spuds in my rice cooker's steamer basket instead. The texture has always turned out perfectly.

I can't have dairy, and have found that the key to super-creamy non-dairy mashed potatoes is to use a small amount of coconut milk along with the nondairy milk of one's choice (I do not recommend rice milk - too thin). Use full-fat coconut milk, and freeze the rest to use in creamy soups or curry.

Lots and lots of butter my family would die if they knew how much I used.

I've had a problem mashing potatoes the last few times and I've realized that since I've moved across country I'm only buying russet really here and before I got yukon gold. I blame the potatoes for turning into glue on me because everything else I did was how I always did it, either that or I need to start warming the butter and milk which I think exacerbate the issue.

I throw a garlic clove in while the potatoes boil. Drain the water, then fork mash it all up with lots of butter and milk. Easily the best mashed potatoes ever!