Fresh mashed potatoes from scratch? A must for Thanksgiving. But that means lots of potato work: washing, peeling, dicing. We found a trick to help with one part of the process. Potatoes in particular can get slimy and squirmy once you start peeling them with a vegetable peeler, so try this: Peel one end of the potato, just a small part, then plant a fork into that end, holding it as you run your peeler down the rest of the potato. Your grip on the potato will be more firm, resulting in less of a slippery mess.