Steve's Mashed Potatoes

• 4 large baking potatoes
• 8 Tbl salted butter
• ¾ cup heavy cream
• ¾ cup whole or 2% milk
• salt

Peel potatoes and cut in half the flat way. Fill pot with enough water so that potatoes will be covered by one inch of water when they are added to the pot. (Do not put the potatoes in the water yet.) Add enough salt to give the water a very salty taste similar to sea water (usually about ¼ cup of salt). Bring the salted water to a rolling boil.

Add the potato halves to the water and cover the pot leaving the cover slightly open. When the water comes to a full boil again, turn down the heat so that the pot does not boil over, and continue boiling until a fork can easily penetrate the potatoes. Pour contents of pot into a colander and allow the water to drain from the potatoes. It is important not to let the potatoes sit in the water too long or they will become watery.

Put the butter, cream, and milk into a pyrex glass container and microwave until the butter is melted.

Put the potatoes back into the pot with half of the melted butter, cream, milk mixture. Mash vigorously until very smooth, adding more of the butter, cream, milk as needed for the proper consistency. (It may not be necessary to use all of the butter, cream, milk mixture.)

NOTE: If cooking a large quantity of potatoes it may be necessary to make several separate batches. If too many potatoes are added to the water at one time it will take too long to bring the water back to boiling and the potatoes will become watery.