My husband asked what we were going to do about dinner, and I said no problem. The chicken's on the grill and I can manually light the stove for the potatoes and the green beans. Of course, I forgot about mixing the potatoes. I usually use my Kitchen-Aid mixer and don't have a potato masher, so I had to improvise.
I don't have a potato masher I rummaged through my kitchen tools and found a few things to experiment with. I found a dough blender which I also use to break up fruit for jelly. I vetoed my wire whisk since it would not be sturdy enough to whisk the potatoes. However, my Calphalon Teflon whisk was stronger. I used a dough blender to mash the potatoes and a Calphalon Teflon whip to fluff them up.
To make my smashed potatoes, I used Klondike Rose potatoes and left the skin on, but cut them into 1/2" pieces to boil in salted water. I cooked the potatoes a little more than I usually do so that they would mash easily. I added butter, low-fat ranch dressing, and milk as I mashed them. By using the ranch dressing, I am able to use less butter. We typically add garlic and rosemary, but since we were working in the dark/no power we took a few shortcuts. First I used the dough blender to mash the potatoes and start incorporating the liquids. Then I used the whisk to fluff and fully incorporate all of the liquids. Fortunately, I was making smashed potatoes so I wasn't aiming for a whipped consistency.
I had resigned myself to an inconsistent texture, but was really happy with how they came out.
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