Mix & Mash

The holidays are definitely filled with opportunities to act like a glutton. And, often times, holiday gluttony is served up with a side of mashed potatoes. Tasty, right?

Well, over Thanksgiving, I realized that I treat mashed potatoes quite a bit differently than everything else on my dinner plate. For most foods, I like focusing on one at a time--enjoying and savoring until I've either finished that serving of food completely or gotten tired of it. Then, I move on to the next food and repeat the process. (Just to clarify, I'm not totally OCD about it; I know folks who refuse to have one food touching another. That's not me. Besides, anyone who's ever been to a Baptist potluck knows that it's impossible to adequately load your plate without having foods touch each other.)

Anyway, I tackle mashed potatoes completely differently. I prefer to mix them with something. I guess this goes back to pre-kindergarten, when my mother told me that putting black-eyed peas in my mashed potatoes was like hiding Easter eggs (even though the "grass" was white and the "eggs" were gray-brown--I guess I was an easily convinced fella). To this day, if I'm at a meal that serves both mashed potatoes and black-eyed peas, I will mix them together. :)

But, sometimes, you don't get both...and that's a sad day. However, all is not lost. In middle school, I learned that mashed potatoes also go pretty well slathered on cornbread. Especially if its an extra-crunchy edge piece of cornbread. Really good.

So far, the compulsion doesn't sound that odd. But, now it gets interesting. I also like mixing my potatoes with......white rice. Weird, huh? Of course, unless you're eating at a buffet, you hardly ever have meals where both rice and mashed potatoes are served, but when that does happen (and there aren't black-eyed peas), I go for the rice-potato combo. Really starchy, for sure, but it is a texturally interesting mixture. And, I admit that every once in a while I go for rice-potatoes on cornbread. The trifecta!

So, what's the moral of the story....other than the fact that I'm weird? ;) Um, I think that's the only moral. :P BUT, I'd love to hear if any of you have unique habits when you're eating. :)