Mashed Potatoes, Mushroom Gravy & Corn-on-the-Cob

Day 229

My turn to cook tonight, so I decided on potatoes. I let Laura decide the rest. For some reason, deciding what to have is hard, and it's always nice to be told what to make. "Make me some corn!" "Okay!"

Mashed Potatoes, Mushroom Gravy

& Corn-on-the-Cob

Mashed Potatoes

I wanted to make enough to take for lunch tomorrow too, so I boiled about 6 small - medium potatoes until soft, then mashed and whipped them. Not much else to say about the taters.

Mashed potatoes

Mushroom Gravy

I looked up a few gravy recipes. I mean, we have a lot of things here to flavor food, between sauces, herbs, spices, condiments, etc. What we didn't have on hand is the main thing we would have used for the broth: vegetable broth. That's the only reason I googled some recipes. After reading several, I decided not to use any and borrow an idea here and a good thought there. Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients
1/2 onion
1/2 lb fresh mushrooms
4 tbsp butter - the real stuff
1/4 cup flour
1 tbsp thyme (dried)
Salt & pepper to taste
1 1/2 - 2 cups water
2 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp red wine (ish)

Directions
I simmered the onions in the butter quite awhile because Laura only likes soft, never crunchy, onions in her gravy. Once they were soft, I turned the heat up a bit and threw in the mushrooms, which I had washed and sliced. Once those were cooked, I added the flour, thyme, salt and pepper and stirred for a minute while it heat up and combined together. Then I added the water, soy sauce and red wine and brought it back to a simmer. Turned out good!

Onions & mushrooms simmering in butter

Mushroom gravy

Corn-on-the-Cob

Laura's choice was corn. It was between that and asparagus and corn won for two reasons:
1. It was cheaper.
2. We were also supposed to have fiddleheads, so I opted for a 2nd starch instead of a 2nd green. I'm like that.
3. It was cheaper.

Raw corn-on-the-cob

Corn a-boiling

Let's Hear it for the Condiments!

Pickled beets and Mama's ladies. Even though I was having gravy on my potatoes, I still wanted to have pickles. There was also butter, salt and pepper, of course.

Lady Ashburnham pickles & Pickled beets

Potatoes with gravy & corn

Reviews/Comments

I know this was a starchy meal, but I'm all about potatoes and corn. And pickles! And gravy is just...gravy! So, I call this one a solid 10.

Laura will only say "It was good." But I know she loved it. A lot. She rates it a 7, but she didn't mean it.

Do You Like Fresh Herbs?

The first one to post their favorite kind of fresh, organic herb as a comment on this blog status on Facebook shall have a bunch of it reserved for you once it has grown! I can't guarantee everything will grow, but here is some of what's been planted, and if your first pick doesn't come, then we'll go with your next choice:

• Basil (Mexican & Genovese varieties)
• Rosemary
• Thyme (French & English varieties)
• Oregano (Hot n spicy & Greek varieties)
• Tarragon
• Bay leaf
• Mint
• Sage
• Cilantro 
• Parsley (curled & flat varieties)
• Marjoram
• Fennel

Sorry, you have to be living in Canada to play! The border doesn't allow fresh produce to be shipped. Boooo!