Thanks David. The hardest part about taking the pics is keeping steady. My camera doesn't have a no shake setting. Smiles. Well, that and holding camera with one hand while flipping the gnocchi. Christy does like them. She gets tired of 'red', so last night she had some with some new sage from the garden and browned butter. Browning some bread crumbs in with the butter and sage is classic and good too. I keep forgetting to say that you certainly don't have to use leftover mashed potatoes. I make them using many kinds of leftover potatoes and even make potatoes just for gnocchi..lol. Baked, boiled, parsley, and of course you can just nuke a couple of potatoes or steam or boil or bake a few and you make them just the same way. Smash up the potatoes good and add the eggs and cheese if you're using cheese. The only difference will be in the amount of flour needed since you don't have to make up for the milk and butter from mashed potatoes. Just add a little salt if using plain potatoes. The main thing is just to get that same nice soft but somewhat stiff dough. Like any dough that changes with moisture in ingredients and the air and weather and such. Just remember it's usually easier to smash potatoes when their hot or at least warm so if you're using potatoes from a few days ago give them a little heat in the microwave, then mash or if you know you want to make them when making extra potatoes just mash them before you put them away for the night. Really easy to do with parsley potatoes. Probably way more than you ever wanted to know about such a simple dish but I know a lot of people love them and they're so really simple to make.

Thank you everyone! Grainlady, you solved a problem I was having with by suggesting your recipe. It's printed out and attached to my notes and already on my shopping list. We live in Arizona and like a lot of other places, the temps here have been so high that we've been compared to Death Valley temps. Ugh! We were up to 128-129 for a couple days. Double ugh! But hey, it's cooled down to 121 for the past couple of days. :) The pumpkin parfaits couldn't be more perfect and will be one less thing to heat the house up and something the younger kids can put together. We downsized drastically when we bought this home and moved about seven months ago. My kitchen doesn't have half the counter and prep space that I had before...or any other space that we had before. Liz, our friends and family will be helping but I'm kinda OCD about my Thanksgiving dinners. But in planning I'm realizing that it's time to get over it. Strangely, not so much with other meals and since everyone is volunteering kitchen clean-up, meal suggestions, shopping and cooking it's really going to make it easy. So far we have about 35 people arriving in a two week period, with a 4-day window when everyone will be here together. We're expecting that number to rise somewhat in the next couple of weeks. We're lucky that we live very close to a lake and boats, PWC's and a couple motorhomes will be in the mix and arriving as well as our boat and pool, even tho it's a smallish pool. A surprise that we got yesterday was that our neighbor offered us the use of his house! We live in a town where a very significant percent of the homes are owned by out-of-towners as vacation homes and snow bird homes so they sit unoccupied most of the time. Our one neighbor, who we've only met/seen three times had come out to check on his house from out of state and we asked him if it would be ok if our visitors could park in front of his home (on the street) if he wasn't going to be here. Half an hour later his wife came over with the keys to their house and asked if we wanted to use it. We was absolutely stunned! Even today I can't believe it but I did call around and found a cleaning company for after all the company leaves. My husband and I also decided to pay for one month's of their water and other utilities bills so that they aren't incurring a cost as well as take them out for a nice dinner when they're back in town. I made PW's recipe yesterday and my husband didn't complain too much but he wasn't overly excited about it either. I froze a good portion of it as I want to see how it is after defrosting and warming. But, like Annie, I like mashed potatoes the traditonal way and have always made it that way with butter, a little cream and S&P. So that will most likely be the route I take, especially if someone else does all the peeling.That is probably the one thing I hate to do in any meal that calls for potatoes. Here's the basics of how I plan on doing all the hot foods: 2 turkeys - one stuffed, the other not - the 'empty' one done outside in the roaster the day before and the stuffed one done in the roaster outside the day of. Ham - spiral, wrapped in foil and warmed on the grill Two sides (yet to be determined, but sure one will be spiced yams) will be done in crock pots...you guessed it, outside. Deviled eggs started the day before. I'm also toying with the idea of making LindaC's cranberry Jezebel but haven't decided for sure. I've had the recipe for years but have never made it. Potatoes will be done inside and like suggested above, will put them on a back burner. Just so happens that I have a warmer spot on my stove that I've never used so thanx for the suggestion/reminder. I also have two warming plates so I'm sure those will be in use as well. Any other sides will be lighter and cold dishes and easy to make ahead. Our niece's BF makes breads and he's already volunteered to do all the bread and roll making, as well as breakfast rolls. Think that will be done at the neighbor's house. Alot of the eating will be done sitting on the floor or any other place that can be found. Nothing formal about this get-together or turkey dinner. One thing I never do is make appies.........I want everyone very hungry, so a light fruit breakfast the morning of the turkey dinner. Which is why they probably all think my meals are so spectacular because they're all half starving by the time dinner was completely ready. I'm sorry this got so long and that I've been rambling on. I am so very excited about next month and all the company that will be here. We have some wonderful long time friends and family and it's going to be oh-so worth all the time and effort. Thank you all again! Jenna

I'm old fashioned... OK and old. Mashed potatoes should be potatoes - mashed. I don't need the FAS (Fat American Syndrome) version of recipes where everything needs to have cheese and sugar on it to taste good. If you have good gravy (and it's unAmerican to not) then you don't even need the extra fat in the potatoes, since there's plenty of fat (and probably salt & pepper too) in the gravy. For potatoes by themselves, they can add a dab of butter and seasoning. Plain is often great by itself. Course good fries don't need ketchup either. The ones that have to FAS the taters could just as well use instants and save time. They're eating it for the cheese, sugar and other stuff, since apparently they don't like the taste of potatoes. I don't need FAS veggies, beverages, breads and the like either. Good food can stand on its own IMO. Pass the sugar bowl when old 300# Beulah needs her feet swelled up like soccer balls. But that's my opinion. A ricer is fine and a good tool for making lefse but mashed potatoes still need to be mashed with the zig-zag masher otherwise they resemble a big tater tot. I don't bother with it for mashed potatoes. Again, I want mashed potatoes, not riced potatoes, not beaten potatoes. If you're going to use a mixer to beat the taters to death and make them extra gummy, then serve boiled potatoes to me and I'll mash them with a fork! And for the people who think the mashed (riced, beat or instant) potatoes need to drip off the fork so they can say they're "creamy" UGH! Potatoes aren't supposed to drip. You make a well and fill it with gravy. We're not talking about potato soup. End of rant. The thing about starting potatoes in cold water as I understand is that the hot water sets almost a skin on the outside of the potato so the texture will be off. Can't prove it but I always found it easier to start cold and work up. I tried using hot tap water to start (to save energy) until I heard the thing to start cold. There might be something to it.

I prefer russets for our mashed potatoes. Before I cook the potatoes, I heat some half & half in a small heavy saucepan with a clove of smashed garlic, a sprig of rosemary, a few whole black peppercorns and sometimes a small bay leaf. I keep this warm and let the aromatics infuse the half & half. Then I peel and quarter the potatoes - boil in salted water until tender. Drain and return to pan on low heat until moisture evaporates. Mash in lots of butter. Strain the half and half, add a bit at a time and mash until desired consistency is reached. We like some texture to ours and prefer them somewhat stiff.