Ohmygosh, this would be such a cool spin on the traditional thanksgiving dinner…mind is spinning.
(I have a similar family stuffing recipe. Not for stuffing family…I mean…erm)
I was thinking at first of your idea for shepherd’s pie. We have a Indian version we like. But I do wonder if the ground lamb and the veggies might add too much moisture.
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The best mashing potatoes shouldn’t really be boiled (the floury, starchy kinds) but parboiled and steamed.
FWIW I never peel them. I don’t use a ricer obviously with the skins in there so I’m not going for French style mashed potatoes which at their most heroic use equal weights of butter and potatoes.
Boil up some milk with pepper in it and mash the spuds in that pan while adding butter. With the skins on (do try it, the flavour is far superior) you need to chop the cooked spuds up aggressively before using your masher. When mashed stir in scallions and/or cooked cabbage.
And more pepper. Make the final addition black and the earlier one white pepper.
ETA
Please forgive my sounding so strident. There’s not much we here can pretend to be reasonably authoritative on in food but spuds with dairy is probably a reasonable call.
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I enjoy turkey and stuffing much more if you leave out the turkey.
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Roast the veggies.
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Or, cooked chopped kale/chard instead of the cabbage.
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I’m not a kale fan. It’s poverty food for me. It’s hilarious it’s such a prestige veg now, it was the cheapest thing in the greengrocer when I was a kid and often substituted (badly) for spinach as that was expensive.
I just can’t shake the association!
Top tip: like kale chips? Love seaweed chips. Seaweed is awesome and it is, as far as I know, ALL edible!
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Not all seaweeds are edible. They don’t put the others in chips, but please don’t go foraging at the seashore until you know what you’ve found. 
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What about Swiss chard? Halfway between spinach and kale.
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I don’t think there are any that aren’t edible here anyway? What ones aren’t? There are only a few I eat as some are way too tough etc. and require stewing.
Ireland btw. I realise the ecosystem is very different to even superficially similar places in North America (I was only thinking about it today as we walked in the local park where the grass is no longer maintained and, without digging out or any of that shit, now looks like this
)
In most of the public spaces here they mow the areas close to paths and seed native plants and don’t mow the other parts.
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Hmm. I was thinking of Caulerpa because very few animals can eat it, but double-checking humans are an exception, it just tastes peppery. The other one I know that’s inedible is Desmarestia which produces sulfuric acid as a defense – but it turns out you won’t find it at the shore.
So I guess maybe it’s only of academic interest that there are inedible seaweeds and you can forage away. Sorry, I’m kind of stupid today. 
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Your spuds sound delicious! And just to be sure it’s clear, I was merely suggesting that microwaving might give @RickMycroft drier mashed potatoes to use as an ingredient in that recipe, so that the end result for him might be crisper 
Okay, now that I’ve made that clear, everyone go ahead and be as stridently authoritative as you like about mashed potatoes!
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I should mention that Irish people, like Japanese, have a tendency to have genetic adaptation to digesting seaweed. Or at least according to a paper in a footnote in I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong. This wouldn’t influence whether something was poisonous but rather it giving you upset digestion.
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I love it! I know my kale thing is just me. I need to get over it. I guess it’s like some people’s aversion to cabbage from the smell of cooking in blocks of flats. I certainly managed to change my Dad’s association by cooking it properly.
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If you’ve had that fennel for more than a couple of years, it’s worth getting fresh stuff.
It grows wild here (and in my garden) so we get fresh stuff (seeds, stems, fronds for fish) each year, and the difference in flavor is noticeable.
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I’d guess the US may have beaches that are polluted enough that it’s not advisable to eat the seaweed? Due to the red tide (dinoflagellates) in Florida, even the air near beaches often isn’t that breathable.
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was going to say, don’t eat the sargassum! also i am here to reinforce your red tide warning: with the excessively hot ocean waters, the red tide along both coasts of the mainland make the red tide exponentially worse. for some lucky geographic, oceanographic reason, the currents here in the Keys keep us free of the red tide blooms that are very nasty - and, as you rightly point out, can even make the air for over a mile inland dangerous to breathe for those with compromised respiratory conditions.
at @anon77190095 and @RickMycroft , have either of you ever tried fennel pollen?
i was gifted a tiny tin of fennel pollen to use on fish and i was blown away! the smallest pinch, spread over a cedar planked salmon filet on the grill was just exceptional! all the flavor and aroma, subtle yet very present. it was lovely! i need to find more of that, because i can think of many dishes using local seafood it would be perfect for.
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I will eventually sigh and pitch the jar. As I recall, it dates from the last time mom made her stuffing, which was a few years ago. It was a last minute thing, and the only fennel in the store was a ridiculously large bag of it.
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No, but I will now go harvest some!
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I wonder if you could. You’d need a very windy climate and several months…
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Or just let them really dry out by adding them back into the empty pot after you have drained it and letting them steam for a couple of minutes. Off the heat, obvs.
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