After Dinner Mints

You never saw a bigger to-do in my family than when company came to visit. The beach towels would get taken off the living room furniture, the toilet tank fur would be washed, my dad would rake the orange-and-gold shag carpet and my mom would pace back and forth between the front door and the living room window, reminding me to not. Touch. ANYTHING!

After Eight mints were usually reserved for company visits. (Well, in my family, you were lucky if the mints made it until after four.) We even had a silver-plated container to hold the box. My mom was the portrait of sophistication as she passed the mints around, bathed in Elizabeth Taylor’s Purple Passion perfume, asking if she could boil anyone another cup of Nescafé.

These mints reminded me of those company visits and After Eights. I realize that mints made with mashed potatoes might not sound too appetizing. But they’re pretty good. So long as you mash the potatoes really good. (No one likes a chunky mint.) And since potatoes are vegetables, it's safe to assume there’s a vitamin or two in each fluorescent one.

½ cup mashed potatoes
1 teaspoon peppermint flavouring
Food colouring to suit
2 ½ cups sifted icing sugar (see note)

Combine potatoes and half the sugar, add flavouring and colouring. Mix in remaining sugar until still. Knead until smooth. Roll into long rolls, then cut into bite-sized pieces. This mixture may be divided and different colours added – with one left plain (e.g. red, green, yellow, white). Good!

Note: I used more icing sugar to get the right consistency for kneading. It ended up being closer to 3½ cups.

Source: Cook Book of the Mount Royal United Church