Train Up A Child?

Recently I was given two recipes that are so basic and wonderful that they can be used often (one I was given and one I swiped off of a website).

The first recipe was for amazing sweet ice tea that Susie gave me and the other was a mashed potato recipe I swiped from Ree over at The Pioneer Woman Cooks (don't laugh, before this recipe I too thought that mashed potatoes were just... well, mashed potatoes with some milk and butter thrown in... boy I was all wrong).

Since I love these two recipes so much, I figured I would want to have them daily at a minimum, so I decided that my children must become proficient in their preparation. I am probably breaking at least a dozen child labor laws, but it is sooo worth it...

Here is Xena diligently mashing potatoes under my strict authority.

Oh... and that salad in the background?

Yep, she made it too...

The recipes you ask? Well, the ice tea recipe is a well guarded secret that Susie found on the internet (the secret is to add about 1/8 tsp of baking soda to the hot water before adding the tea bags to steep, which will take away that bitter tea taste you can get ... shh, don't tell), and the other?

Oh, the other. The amazing mashed potato recipe. When I read it, I was turned off due to one key ingredient but Ree assured her readers that if tough cowboys loved these potatoes despite that one aforementioned ingredient, we would as well. I will let you check out the recipe for yourself. If you make them, expect me directly.