That's where we are headed this week. In this one brief reprieve from winter, we went out into the garden and dug the potatoes that we planted this spring. It was a small crop by our regular standards, but due to the tomato blight that destroyed our crop last year, we didn't plant that many potatos. The ones that we did dig up were small but perfect.
Potatos are a huge part of the American diet. Originating in the Andes and part of the nightshade family, these underground tubers have many different varieties. (And yes, I did say nightshade family. My grandfather always told us to never eat green potatos or the leaves, that we would be terribly sick.) We never ate the green ones. So I'm passing on his wisdom,,,don't ever eat the green potatos or leaves! The potato is the 4th largest crop in the world. China is the world's largest potato producing country.
Anytime you go to a restaurant or now that holiday time is upon us, one sort of potatos or other will be offered at meal time. They can be prepared in numerous ways with ingredients from the fanciful to the simple. Mashed potatos is one of the earliest adult foods that an infant can digest. My infant son, when we went to a restaurant one day, ate what I always called, his body weight in mashed potatos! He simply could not get enough. When you are a child, french fries become the potato of choice. You can dip them, dunk them, salt them, or sprinkle vinegar on them. As you age, you start enjoying baked potato skins with sour cream, cheese, and bacon with your friends as an appetizer. Then comes small meals which includes roasted rosemary potato wedges or creamy potato chowder as you get older. Finally in old age, mashed or baked potatos become a favorite again.
One of my favorite potato stories involves my grandmother. She became blind in her 60's with macular degeneration. Even though she was limited in her sight, she and my grandfather were fiercely independent. My grandfather had been hospitalized for a new knee replacement. Everyone was so worried about both of them. What could we do? Stay with grandpa or go up and stay with grandma? Well, grandma, independent soul that she was, told us to take care of grandpa..that she was fine. She was so proud of herself, because for dinner she could get a potato, wash it, prick it with a fork and microwave it! It would cook in minutes! She would pop it out of the microwave and eat it with butter and salt and pepper and it was delicious. So different from when she was a child when it had to bake in the ashes of the fire for over an hour!
I think the fact that she could make it all by herself added to the taste. There is something about cooking for yourself and being independent that makes food taste that much better. So mash up some spuds, bake up some chunks, or turn long strings of potato into golden, crispy fries. Whether you are eating for one or serving up a mound full of creamy, mashed potatos for the holidays, your taste buds will thank you.
Monday
Shepherd's Pie
Cottage cheese
Mandarin oranges
Tuesday
Steak
Crispy Potato Cakes (Recipe following)
carrots
Wednesday
Mac & Cheese
Green Beans
Thursday
Chicken casserole
Applesauce
Sugar Snap Peas
Friday
Impossible Potato Pie (Recipe Following)
Impossible Potato Pie
Preheat oven 350
Spray pie dish with nonstick cooking spray
4 large potatos peeled, cooked, and mashed
1/2 med apple
8 slices bacon crumbled
1/2 cup FF evaporated milk
1 tsp nutmeg
Stir together
Bake 35-40 min
Crispy Potato Cake
4-5 large red skinned potatos
Bay leaf
4-5 cups of water
Cook until fork tender, drain
Heat saute pan with 2 tbsp olive oil
Mix 1 cup sour cream with mashed potatos
Add:
2 Tbsp prepared horseradish sauce
chives
salt and pepper
Add potatos to hot pan. Spread it out and bake in oven 350 for 20 min
