Hi all! I know my food writing hasn't been happening much. So much of my time has been taken up teaching Zumba and getting certified to teach Body Combat...and baking cookies...and blah blah blah...that I haven't spent nearly as much time in the kitchen as I would have liked. Thank goodness for George. Well, thank goodness for him for many reasons; among those is the fact that he's a great cook and has picked up my kitchen slack without complaint, keeping me fed and watered and healthy.Today's recipe is a take on skordalia, a classic Greek appetizer/dip/sauce made of garlic and potatoes. I can't remember the first place I'd ever even heard of skordalia, though I suspect it was somewhere in Toronto's Greektown. (Side note: if you go to Toronto, GO TO GREEKTOWN. Because yum! And fun. And why not? I digress.) What is this thing, I thought to myself, as I looked at the fragrant dish before me. This rich, super-garlicky, potato-tastic thing, that gives me so much joy to eat? Why have I not heard of it before? And why am I not eating more of it?It's that sort of moment that forces me to take a situation into my own hands. Now, I readily admit that this is in no way a traditional, dippable, sauce-able skordalia recipe, and I don't want to infuriate the Greek community by trying to claim otherwise. Rather, I took the ingredients and now enjoy sort-of skordalia as beautiful, smooth, super-garlicky mashed potatoes, ones that are totally vegan.Vegan? Mashed potatoes? That are rich and creamy and mooshy and delicious? Yes, way! You'll need:

• 2-ish pounds of your favorite mashing potato (I favor Yukon golds, but it's your call)
• 5 or 6 or 8 cloves of garlic. As much as you can stand, really. Peeled and smashed.
• A good, flavorful extra-virgin olive oil. Amount is dependent on the texture you want
• 1/2 tsp (ish) dried rosemary, or thyme, or your favorite herb
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Chopped parsley, or chives, for garnish
• Note: traditionally, skordalia involves mixing in lemon juice too. I don't care for it, but if you want to try it, go for it!

Wash and peel your potatoes, and chop them into 1-inch (or so) cubes. Smash and peel garlic. Put them all in a big pot and cover with water.Make sure the pot you use is big enough to accommodate everything. Food needs adequate space to cook in. The starch from the potatoes will foam in the pot; if you don't allow enough room for that then you'll spend much of your time cleaning up foam overspill on your stove. Let the potatoes and garlic come to a boil and cook for 15 or 20 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender. Before draining, reserve about a cup's worth of the starchy, potato-y boiling water. Then drain, and put the potatoes and garlic back in the pot you boiled them in, and have at them with a masher.As you begin mashing the potatoes and garlic (yes, all together), start incorporating the other ingredients. Add some salt and pepper and rosemary right away, so the hot potatoes can soak up all that good flavor. Then add in the starchy water and olive oil incrementally. Mash, and test for texture and taste. And mash, and add some more pepper and rosemary if necessary, and test again, until you're happy with the flavor and have all the lumps out. You'll be amazed by how successfully the water and oil come together to form a deceptively creamy potato mash.  When you're ready, give the potatoes a whip.Whip the potatoes until they're pillowy. They were so soft and pliable I didn't even need the electric blender, which remained in its box, unopened and forlorn.Then spoon the potatoes out into a lovely serving bowl and top with a little additional olive oil and your garnish of choice. This dish is ridiculously versatile and goes with anything you'd normally eat with traditional mashed potatoes, whether it's at a backyard summer party or at the holiday table.Plus, they taste even better the next day.Now, I know as well as anybody that it's hard to compete with a buttery, creamy batch of mashed potatoes, and when I was in the throes of my picky-kid eating stage, traditional mashed potatoes were one of the few things I would eat without complaint. I still adore them. But this version, with loads of garlic flavor and zero dairy, is an incredibly satisfying alternative.Give 'em a shot! Let me know what you think. Happy cooking!