Am I the only one who really likes grocery store commercials? I think they must hire Hallmark admen to help out, especially during the holidays!

Publix takes the cake for most touching commericals – ever. It makes me feel like a huge nerd to admit that I miss Publix commercials. (Along with certain Publix products. And Publix subs.) Winn-Dixie does a decent job at tugging at the heartstrings too, again, during the holiday season. I don’t have Winn-Dixie up here either. Now, I shop at Kroger. I haven’t caught myself crying at a Kroger ad but I do enjoy their commercials nonetheless. They’ve really been pushing their generic brands lately, in particular their organic one (Simply Truth). Their most current commercial shows the wide variety of products they have covered in the Kroger brands. And at the end of the commercial they announce a promotional price on potatoes. A 5lb bag of Kroger Idaho Potatoes for 99 cents! Again, nerd-alert, I got really excited.

I feel like I need to stop a moment and tell you that I was not asked to promote any grocery stores or products! Sometimes I just get on a roll…

I put potatoes on my grocery list and found ways to use them up! I got brave and decided to try my hand at baking bread. (Without the help of my mom.) I was introduced to potato bread from my good friend Kate; it’s her bread of choice. It’s sweeter than white bread and a little heartier. And good news, it’s not too difficult to make! Case in point, I made four loaves in three days! One loaf was given to the neighbors as a thank you for clearing the snow off our drive way, one was devoured immediately, one put in the freezer with the destination of becoming French Toast, and the last is sitting on my counter almost gone.

As with all yeast work, the most difficult part is making sure the yeast proofs. The key to that is not killing it by putting it in too hot or too cold liquid. The perfect temperature is between 105-115 degrees F; there’ll be instructions on your yeast containter, too. Don’t go off of “feel”, unless you’re a bread baking pro, use a thermometer to check your liquid temperature.

This recipe calls for mashed potatoes, you can use leftover mashed potatoes if you have them. Any flavorings you put in it will add uniqueness to your bread. I cooked and mashed potatoes for the purpose of bread making so I didn’t add anything to them. I mashed them up and used some of the cooking liquid to get a smooth mixture, no added salt or pepper. The amount of flour you need for the bread will depend on how moist your potatoes are.

If your oven has a warming setting, feel free to turn that on for a little bit before baking so your bread will rise more quickly. See the original recipe on how to do that. My little, old oven doesn’t have a warming setting so I let my dough rise in the microwave where it wouldn’t get a draft and could be slightly protected from the cold. It took well past two hours for my dough to double in size but I’m glad I didn’t rush the process – this bread is worth the wait.

This recipe makes two loaves of bread.

Potato Bread

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C warm milk, at 110 degrees F
• 1 pkg active dry yeast
• 1 C mashed potatoes
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 C butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 – 3 1/2 C bread flour

Steps:

1. Sprinkle yeast into warm milk. Let sit 10 minutes, until it gets foamy.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the mashed potatoes, butter, and eggs. Mix in the sugar and salt. Add in the yeast mixture.
3. Fit your stand mixer with the dough hook and add the flour, 1 C at a time. After three cups have been added, add remaining flour 1 tbsp at a time, if needed. (The first batch I used 3 C + 2 tbsp, the second batch I only needed 3 C.) Kneed the dough until it comes together around the dough hook and is no longer sticky.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and form into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover and set in a warm location for 1-3 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.
5. Punch the dough and turn it onto a lighly floured surface. Divide dough evently in half. Roll each half to the width of your loaf pan. Roll dough along the short end and place in a lightly greased loaf pan. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Cover and set in a warm location for 1-3 hours, or until the dough has risen 1″ above the edge of the pan.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
7. Bake break for 25-35 minutes, or until it reaches in internal temperature of 190 degrees F.

*This recipe is adapted from Emily at http://www.goldilockskitchen.com/2014/02/the-best-potato-bread.html*

I’m entering a new stage in the world of mommy food blogger. Here’s a little behind the scenes fact: We don’t have a dining table set up in this house. We did, but it was taken down to make way for our Christmas tree and it was never resurrected. I like having the open space for my son to play. And honestly, we eat on the couch anyway. Unfortunately, not having a table makes taking photos of food difficult, especially when there’s only one space in my home that gets natural light. Almost every photo this year has been taken on the floor. Now that my little guy is a skilled and fast crawler I have to work quickly to take advantage of the daylight – I can’t always wait for naptime.