Some are of the opinion that mashed potatoes do not a blog post make. Too simple. And I get it. We do think of mashed potatoes as being simple. To make them restaurant-quality, you have to infuse your cream, caramelize your garlic, and get one of those weird potato grinder sifter contraptions. You can still do all that and those potatoes are STELLAR. But there is this one little trick – this simple, potato-based nuance that changed my weeknight potatoes for life, without purchasing a new kitchen contraption.

See, all my life I’d loaded up my mashed potatoes with heavy cream, parmesan cheese, butter, and anything else that would make them, well, creamy. My mother will quietly remind me of the time that as a 12-year-old I dumped an entire bottle of Bullseye barbeque sauce into a bowl of mashed potatoes I was serving it to my parents in an attempt to make them moist. Turns out I was missing the key to moist mashed potatoes. That key is gifted to you here.

On another note, did you know that a potato with a dash of milk has everything a person needs to survive??? All essential vitamins and even a little protein. No wonder people got by in the great potato famines. Scenes from Dr. Zhivago are rich in my mind when I think of the elegant simplicity of a boiled potato with perhaps a splash of milk and some salt.