Potatoes Are Not All the Same

I grew up eating Idaho potatoes (aka russet potatoes) and loving them, whether they be mashed, baked or fried.  Only later when I began to do my own shopping did I notice other potatoes on sale that were red, white and yellow.  I especially liked the yellow potatoes, known as Yukon Gold.  They make excellent baked potatoes as well as French fries and mashed.

My New Favorite Spice: Paprika

I used to put garlic powder on just about everything I made, apart from desserts.  Then I discovered paprika.  It’s always been in the spice aisle, and I even bought some a while ago.  I vaguely remember making Hungarian Goulash and adding paprika. I liked the color—a deep orangey-red—and it spice didn’t disappear after I sprinkled it on.  It made whatever I was cooking look and taste better—be it beef stew, vegetables or roast chicken.

Purple Peruvian Potatoes: What Are They and How Do I Cook with Them?

Purple Peruvian Potatoes, a popular potato in South America, are available year-round in many American specialty grocery stores.  Considered a variety of fingerling potato, they are small and sometimes oval or knobby.  They don’t look like much, and their dark purplish-black skin seems out of place when sitting next to red or golden-skin potatoes.

Mom’s Version of Fish and Chips

Even before I moved to London, I knew about a popular English dish called fish and chips.  But I had never seen it, let alone tasted it.  In England we tended to hang out with other Americans, and they were constantly preoccupied with locating as many American foods and restaurant chains as possible. 

We were more adventurous.

Too Many Baked Potatoes?

During this virus pandemic, I forgot about a 10-pound bag of red potatoes I bought and stored under the sink.  By the time I remembered them, mold had struck, and there was a puddle of ick at the bottom of the storage basket.

You Can Put Anything in Tortillas

I grew up on sandwiches, mostly tuna but sometimes deviled ham.  My mother must have gotten sick of making them, but every school day morning there was a nicely prepared sandwich on white bread in a brown bag in the fridge.  Occasionally a dried-up carrot or other undesirable item would be there too—my father’s joke contribution.

Mom Cooking Tip 170

Put an upside-down colander over the frying pan when making French Fries to help keep the spatter down.

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“Smashing” Is Not a Usual Recipe Direction

Seldom does a recipe instruct me to smash something.  But then my friend Dorothy invited us for dinner with the promise of serving Smashed Potatoes.

I was intrigued.  Was she planning to use a baseball bat?  How edible would a smashed potato be?  Is this a dish you make only when you’re angry?

How to Use Up Leftover Potatoes

Baked Stuffed Potatoes

It’s so easy to cook more potatoes than you need—whether you meant to do it in order to have leftovers or you made a mistake.  How you cooked them in the first place will determine what you can do with them next.  Here’s a guide to using up leftover potatoes in recipes on this blog;

Cheese Fries Finally Come to My Table

Where have I been for the last 20 years?  I had never eaten a Cheese Fry.  In fact, I hate to admit it but I’d never heard of Cheese Fries.

Orange May Be the Best Color at the Table

I’m not just saying that because Halloween is coming up.  I do like pumpkins just fine—as long as I’m looking at them and not eating them. 

I’d rather fill my plate with carrots, orange bell peppers, cantaloupe slices, oranges, tangerines, apricots, mangoes or my latest discovery--honeyed sweet potatoes. 

Surprising Ingredient in These Mashed Potatoes

Lobster and Mashed Potatoes are two items I never expected to see served in the same bowl.  But there I was, standing in a buffet line, and in front of me was a big dish of mashed potatoes and a sign: Lobster Mashed Potatoes.  I couldn’t see any lobster in the potatoes, but it was 10 pm and the lighting was poor. 

Finding a Vegetarian Main Dish Everyone Likes

Some mealtimes I welcome the opportunity to make a vegetarian dish the whole family will eat and not cry out, “Where’s the meat?”  Other times I seem to develop brain freeze and can’t think beyond Greek Salad.

That was my state of mind yesterday, and then I remembered lentils.  “We all like lentils,” I said to myself while hunting for the lentil and potato dish recipe my friend Gloria once served us.  Eventually it turned up as a marker in one of my cookbooks—in the two-page lentil section.  Luckily I had all the ingredients.

Mom Money-Saving Tip 98

Here’s how to recycle leftover mashed potatoes:

* Add them to soup as a thickener

* Use them as an ingredient in Clover Leaf Potato Rolls  - click for recipe!

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Sour Cream: What Is It and How Do I Use It?

I grew up with tubs of sour cream in the fridge.  My mother sometimes served individual bowls of it for lunch.  She’d cut up a cucumber, some radishes and a few tomatoes, mix it all together and Voila!  I guess it was a forerunner to today’s vegetable yogurts.

Out of habit, I too keep a tub of sour cream in the fridge.  But I don’t eat it with cut-up vegetables.  I use it to make Baked Stuffed Potatoes, Chocolate Icing and Chocolate Cheesecake.  I put dollops of it in Salmon Chowder, Hungarian Goulash, Ground Turkey Stroganoff and Shrimp Florentine.   

Goat Cheese – How to Use It

 Occasionally my bargain-hunting outruns my common sense, and I buy way too much of an ingredient because it’s on sale.  About a week ago an irresistible double package of goat cheese landed in my shopping cart.

Once I got it home I began to wonder what I was going to do with 20 ounces of this soft white cheese.  I took one package to a dinner party.  The other sat forlornly in the cheese drawer for a week until I remembered a quiche recipe an English friend sent me.  Conveniently it called for goat cheese.

The directions said

Whenever Possible Make Baked Stuffed Potatoes

Like eating Chicken Soup when you’re feeling under the weather, Baked Stuffed Potatoes are a cure-all.  A little butter, some cheese, a large dollop of sour cream, garlic and spices—what more can a potato ask for to become the center of attention?

I recently realized that making these potatoes needn’t be a huge drain on my energy just before dinner.  Why not prepare them early in the day and keep refrigerated until the final baking? 

Here’s the plan:

Question for Mom

Do oven temperatures really matter? –Jesse R.

It depends on what you’re cooking, but usually the answer is yes—especially if you’re baking.  When making a cake, pie, cookies or bread, it’s smart to give your full attention to the recipe and do exactly what it says, including oven time and temperature.  This is an especially good idea if you’re trying out a new recipe.

Mom Cooking Tip 126

Light Sour Cream (left), Mayonnaise (right)

When making chicken salad or potato salad, substitute light sour cream for most of the mayonnaise.  It’s more for taste than saving calories, although one tablespoon light sour cream has about half the calories of regular mayonnaise.

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Secrets of the Radish

Radishes never seemed mysterious.  When I was growing up, they sometimes appeared as a side dish along with some slices of cucumber.  It was like an instant salad, both spicy and colorful.  Once in a while my mother put sliced raw radishes and small chunks of cucumber into a bowl of sour cream.  That would be our lunch when she’d run out of everything else.

When I began cooking, I ignored radishes unless a recipe called for them, which was almost never.