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;

Are Cooks Born or Trained?

Cheddar Potato Soup

How did you get started in the kitchen?  Curiosity?  Necessity?  A cooking class?

For me, it was necessity.  A newly minted college graduate sharing a one-bedroom apartment in New York, I had a low-paying job and a large appetite.  To keep from going hungry, I had to start cooking.  But I didn’t know how to make anything.

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:

Is It Possible to Make Dinner for $1?

That used to be my goal when I got my first job and was just feeding myself.  Obviously that was quite a while ago, and it was a goal I could usually meet.  My dinner was not a lavish three-course meal, but it did include a main dish and at least one side dish. 

Most of my kitchen experiments were bland because I grew up with bland: meatloaf, hamburgers, boiled chicken and brisket   However, I did try to make Egg Foo Yung, the oddest dish I’d ever eaten before I left home.  It was exotic and strange yet somehow familiar.  My date had ordered it at a restaurant and gave me a bite.  I recognized an egg taste, but only later did I discover what it actually was--a Chinese omelet filled with bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, sliced cabbage, scallions and water chestnuts.  Maybe there was some kind of meat in it.  I don’t remember.

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.