Mashpotinis

My friend Mari introduced me to this concept of a "make your own mashed potato" bar. Each guest gets a martini glass and fills it with mashed potatoes (or sweet potatoes) and their favorite toppings. We served them at our holiday party and it was nice because some people were coming straight from work and could fill their glasses several times with different combinations as a nice dinner, and others who already ate or had later dinner plans could make a mashpotini as an appetizer. Choose your favorite ingredients - make it gourmet if you like and even vegetarian; the amounts are just suggestions to have on hand. Have the mashed potatoes ready to go the day before your party if you like to make things easier. Peeling the potatoes takes the most time so if you have lots of guests you may want to recruit help for this the day before. Everyone loved making these and had lots of fun. It was easy for us (just check now and then if anything needs to be refilled) but got lots of compliments!

• Ready In: 2 hrs
• Serves: 20

Ingredients

• 12  cups mashed potatoes (prepared with milk and butter as you would normally like to make them) or 12  cups mashed sweet potatoes (prepared with milk and butter as you would normally like to make them)

• Suggested toppings for white potatoes

• 1  cup whipped butter
• 2  cups sour cream
• 1  cup chives, chopped
• 2  cups cheddar cheese, shredded
• 2  cups mozzarella cheese, shredded (optional)
• 1⁄2 cup blue cheese (optional)
• 1  cup  gravy (optional)
• 2  cups  cooked chicken (optional)
• 2  cups ground beef (optional)
• 1  cup  diced ham (optional)
• 2  cups  chili (optional)
• 1  cup bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)
• 1  cup  caramelized onion (optional)
• 1  cup mushroom, sauteed and chopped (optional)
• 1  cup artichoke heart, chopped (optional)
• 1  cup salsa (optional)
• 1  cup bell pepper, chopped (optional)
• 1  cup broccoli (optional)
• 1⁄4 cup pesto sauce (optional)
• 1⁄4 cup  sliced  jalapeno (optional)
• 1⁄8 cup  caviar (optional)

• Suggested toppings for sweet potatoes

• 1  cup  honey butter
• 1⁄4 cup  cinnamon sugar
• 1  cup brown sugar
• 1  cup  praline pecans, chopped (optional)
• 1  cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
• 1⁄2 cup candied ginger (optional)

Directions

1. If you refrigerated the mashed potatoes, put them back in the soup pot and the stove and reheat, just getting out enough to fill your crock pot as you can refill it later in the party.
2. Put potatoes in crock pot on warm - we used one for white potatoes and one for sweet potatoes.
3. Arrange toppings in bowls and put on mashpotini bar with empty martini glasses and crockpot(s). Let guests serve themselves!