Family Tradition: Green Potatoes

So as some of you may be aware Erik and I bough a house. We moved in to it on Monday and hosted Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. (Yes, yes we know Thanksgiving is on Thursday, but since most people only get Thursday and Friday off and many had to travel from far away it made sense to celebrate on Friday.  Also we needed that extra day.)  We had many of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans,  pies my mother made, and green potatoes. Wait, green potatoes?  People have heard about green eggs and ham, but when I mention green potatoes it usually doesn't ring a bell.  For the uninitiated, green potatoes are a Dutch tradition from Erik's mother's family.  And as the new bride I really wanted my Mother-in-law to be impressed with my ability to feed her son, so green potatoes were definitely on the menu (even though it meant we would have two potato dishes on the table).

Green Potatoes

Prep/Cook time: Approximately 1 hour

Ingredients:

(US measurements ish)

potatoes

butter

milk

1 pkg frozen spinach

nutmeg (whole is better, but ground is fine)

Special Equipment:
Potato masher

Instructions:
1. Wash the potatoes and cut out the eyes in preparation for boiling.  I like to leave the skins on, (easier and more nutritious) but when I'm cooking for my mother I peel them.  Cut the potatoes into small chunks and boil until they are soft. (The smaller the chunks the shorter the boiling time.)  To check for doneness, stick a fork into one or two pieces; the fork should go in easily.  For optimal mashing ease, I want the potato to break up when I put the fork in it.  
  
2. While you are boiling your potatoes, thaw the spinach.  I usually do this in the microwave on low power, but if you are a planner you can do this the night before by sticking it in the fridge.  When the spinach has thawed squeeze out the extra water and set it aside.  

3.  When the potatoes are done drain the water out and mash the potatoes.  Throw in as much butter and milk as you like.  For 10 people, we used about 2.5 lbs of potatoes, a stick of butter and a couple of splashes of milk.  There is no one correct way to do it, the goal is to have creamy, tasty potatoes.  The more butter and milk the creamier and tastier.

4. Once the butter has melted, add the spinach.  Grate (or shake) some nutmeg on top and mix it all together.  I have found that green potatoes are an acquired taste and it is mostly the nutmeg that makes it so.  I would recommend going lightly on the nutmeg the first time you make this to make sure you're going to want to eat the whole batch. Fun fact: for a while back in the day the Dutch controlled practically the entire nutmeg market. This meant that nutmeg was pretty cheap in the Netherlands and found its way into all sorts of unlikely places, including green potatoes.

5.  Eat and enjoy.  You may want to microwave the potatoes before serving because they tend to loose a lot of heat during the preparation  though.

So there you have it, a family tradition that is now my tradition. Speaking of traditions, I have discovered that green potatoes for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving is almost as traditional as pumpkin pie and turkey on Thanksgiving.  Simply fry an egg and serve it on top of some reheated green potatoes.  Starch, protein and veggies all in one package.  Your dairy too if you added a lot of butter and milk.

I didn't think to take pictures of the potato making process (sorry!) so I'm leaving you with a picture of my new kitchen.

You would not believe how long it took to get the walls an even shade of red. Three coats of paint! Three!  And I was really slopping it on thick with the second and third coats.  I'm super excited to do something interesting with the cabinets.  I'm thinking of stencils.  Thoughts?    

In other food related news, I would recommend a digital meat thermometer.  I was really nervous about cooking the turkey; what if it was dry, what if it wasn't done enough and I gave my parents, mother-in-law and other assorted relatives salmonella poisoning etc?  But Erik loves his gadgets and got us a digital thermometer.  We stuck it in the breast, set it too the desired temperature and waited for the beep.  Unfortunately, the beep came 8 hours later, about 3 hours after we had expected it, but I had planned ahead and had cheese, crackers and pastries to appease the hungry guests with.  And our turkey was perfectly done when we finally did eat.  

Oh why not, I'm going to include a picture of my family enjoying dinner too. 

From the left: Sultan, the foreign exchange student my parents had staying with them, Amelia, Erik's sister, me, my aunt Janice, my Dad, Craig  and Erik's aunt Corrie.