My 2 cents...
When I was about 21, or perhaps 22, or 23, I went to a friends house in NYC for a rooftop BBQ. She was a southern gal who prided herslef on her mashed potatoes, insisting that they were the world's very best. I was, of course, skeptical. VERY skeptical, in fact. I'd had some damn fine mashed potatoes, and I doubted sincerely that some Little Italy railroad apartment was going to be etched for eternity in my mind's eye as the place that sported the world's best mashed.
So I joined her in the kitchen and watched her at work. Very impressive stuff. With each spoonfull she gave me for taste-testing, I was more and more prepared to be wrong. It just kept getting better and better. She whipped up the ingredients (which she begged me to never share, hence my silence here on the actual specifics of the recipe) in a massive wooden bowl she said she'd inherited from her grandfather, who'd used it in his ownrestaurant way back in the roaring 20's. Ah, those were the good ol' days.
"Good?", she inquired.
Yeah, It was good. REALLY, really good. And I didn't mind telling her so.
At that point, I thought she was done and that this cornucopia of culinary delights was about to be doled out accordingly, two scoops for the fat, one for the skinny, but instead, I nearly fainted as she reached into the refrigerator and pulled out two, TWO, mind you, full quart-sized containers of Breakstone Sour Cream.
I HATE SOUR CREAM. HATE HATE HATE. Sour cream, cigarettes, and beer. I don't mind that they exist but just keep them far away from me.
"What the ◊◊◊◊ are you doing???!!!", I screamed.
But, she grinned and ignored me and dumped two quarts of sour cream into the proceedings. RUINED, I thought. Utterly ruined - not just the mashed potatoes that seemed ready to eat only moments before, but ruined also was the entire day, and perhaps the week ahead.
Then, I took a taste.
Heaven on a spoon, I tell you. Heaven on a spoon. My tongue was throwing a party for my mouth. It was the best mashed potatoes I'd ever had in my entire short life. My southern gal pal's claim was verified on my pallette, and I will never forget it.
Thanks for your continued interest.