Sunday, December 27, 2020

It's the potatoes!


HALLIE EPHRON: Winter brings out the potato lover in me.


Favorite kind: Russets. They’re perfect for mashing and make the best baked potatoes, too. And after that, let me count the ways!

ALL of these recipes start with 4 medium sized, skin-on russet potatoes, scrubbed and black spots and blemishes removed.

Crispy oven baked spears

- Cut potatoes lengthwise into spears
- Soak 10 minutes in hot tap water; rinse and pat dry
- Toss with olive oil and season with plenty of salt (I like Lawry’s Seasoning Salt which has plenty of paprika in it) and pepper
- Place on a cookie sheet in an oven preheated to 400-degree oven
- Turn after 25 minutes and cook for 25 minutes more until brown and crusty
I serve with ketchup

Potatoes “Anna”

- Slice the potatoes thin (I use a mandolin – easy to use but also easy to cut yourself so be careful)
- Immerse slices for 1-2 minutes in boiling water; drain; pat dry
- Grease the bottom of a baking dish or pan that can go in the oven – a cast-iron skillet is ideal
- Overlap the potatoes (like shingles) in layers going around; paint each layer with melted butter and season with salt and pepper
- Bake in a 450-degree oven for about an hour – you want it to be crusty brown on top, not burned or pallid

Potato pancakes (lacy and crisp, not just for Hanukah)
- Grate the potatoes
- Dump the grated potatoes into a clean linen dish towel; over the sink, wring out as much liquid as you can
- Mix the wrung-out potatoes with 2 eggs and a handful of flour
- Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan until a bit of potato sizzles when it hits the oil
- Ladle tablespoon-size pancakes into the hot oil; flatten and cook until golden brown and crisp on both sides
- Drain on paper towel and put them on a cookie rack in a warm oven until ready to serve
- Serve with salt and your choice of apple sauce or sour cream.

Mushroom potatoes
These are scalloped potatoes doused in (undiluted) Campbells mushroom soup. Could not be more delicious.
- Warm the contents of an undiluted can of mushroom soup so it’s spreadable
- Slice potatoes 1/4” thin
- Grease the bottom of a baking dish or pan that can go in the oven – a cast-iron skillet is ideal
- Put a layer of potatoes on the bottom; paint them with some mushroom soup
- REPEAT until you run out of potatoes and…
- Dump the remaining soup over the top and spread it around
- Dot the top with butter
- Bake in a 375-degree oven covered for an hour, then uncovered for another 20 minutes until it gets a crusty (my favorite part)

What’s your favorite kind of potatoes and favorite way to cook them? Someone just told me about caramelized pan roasted potatoes... anyone know how to make that? Or the secret to getting baked potatoes to come out with a crisp skin and fluffy interior?

79 comments:

  1. Yum! These all sound delicious . . . thanks for the recipes!

    We like roasted Parmesan potatoes . . . melt about six tablespoons of butter, pour into a 9X13 baking pan . . . sprinkle about four tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese over the butter . . . cut eight red potatoes in half lengthwise . . . place in dish, cut side down . . . bake uncovered at 400 degrees for about forty minutes, until tender.

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    1. Any recipe that starts with 6T of butter and Parmesan cheese has got to be good!

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    2. Sometimes I use less butter . . . it has to cover the bottom of the dish . . . but I never use less cheese . . . .
      A sprinkle of parsley just before serving is just the right touch . . . .

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  2. My mom made twice-baked to go with ham dinner - just baked, cut in half, insides scooped and mashed with butter and milk as usual, then scooped back into skins and topped with plenty of cheese of choice and broiled... so good. But I'll pretty much take potatoes any way I can get them (it's the Irish in me 😂).

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    1. Love twice baked- aka “baked stuffed” - we used to bring a batch to Xmas dinner with friends with whom we’ve spent the last 20 xmases ... until this year

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  3. Hallie, I agree with you that russets are the best for baked potatoes.

    But sadly I have switched to eating SWEET potatoes for health reasons. I have developed a food intolerance to all nightshade veggies (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and yes, potatoes). I can eat a small amount of white potatoes but I still have allergic side effects so I generally avoid them now.

    So I make mashed sweet potatoes, and a variation of your crispy, oven-baked sweet potato spears with EVOO, S&P and maybe some herbs.

    Crispy roasted potatoes: Several recipes suggest you parboil the potatoes first, then roast them in the oven with flavoured oil/herbs:
    https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/12/the-best-roast-potatoes-ever-recipe.html



    But I am tempted to try your latke recipe. I also can't eat much fried food, again due to gut issues, but eating a less greasy/oily latke may be worth it.

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    1. HANK/HALLIE: Hannah mentioning RACLETTE during the Holiday edition of FCF on X'mas Eve reminded me that I have a raclette grill that I have not used in years (it was a gift).

      Tempting to pull it out for winter: MELTED CHEESE AND POTATOES? YUM!
      https://eatlittlebird.com/how-to-make-raclette/

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    2. Grace, thank you for this link! An English friend who lives in France talks about having raclette for dinner all the time, and I didn't realize how it worked.

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    3. Karen, I have been spoiled living in Ottawa that the Swiss Embassy served raclette to visitors during our winter festival. Sadly, this fun event will probably be cancelled in 2021 too.

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    4. Love sweet potatoes - “yams” vs “sweet potatoes”? I know I like one better but can never remember which

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    5. Sweet potatoes here are orange in colour. Yams in our grocers are pale or sometimes purple.
      https://ncsweetpotatoes.com/sweet-potatoes-101/difference-between-yam-and-sweet-potato/

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    6. Yes potatoes are the perfect for cheese! Cheddar gruyere Parmesan feta...

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    7. Yes I am so eager to try racclette—it always sounds so glamorous. So glad to see you at FCF, Grace! Xxx

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    8. I made Potatoes Dauphinoise for 24 once, speaking of Gruyere. They were a big hit.

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    9. I had raclette for the first time in Switzerland in the 70s. So good!

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    10. I've had raclette in Frances and here at a friend's home who had lived in Switzerland. Yummy!

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  4. All of those sound yummy. I am partial to red-skinned potatoes. If you ever get the chance to eat freshly dug potatoes, snap it up - the smaller, the better. Scrub, and roll in butter until they're done. They don't take long to cook.

    I also make a version of the Anna recipe. If you saute onions and green peppers and layer those in with the potatoes, then add some beaten egg, you have a Spanish tortilla. An easy vegetarian meal.

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    1. Freshly dug sounds great - reminding me how good potatoes are in Peru - it’s like the national vegetable

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  5. They all sound yummy except for the mushroom recipe. I like to dice potatoes after boiling, mix with butter and seasonings and toss a few cubes of cheese and serve. The melted cheese adds a nice touch.

    I also like to make French fries in the air fryer.

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  6. Hallie, I must try your oven baked spears and potatoes Anna. Sometimes all you are missing is one step, like the pre-soak. I add salt and pepper to my potato pancake batter before frying, otherwise it is much the same as yours.

    Grace, my d-i-l has nightshade issue and other awful food allergies. It's good to know that you can eat sweet potatoes. I have a recipe for sweet potato pancakes and will look for it later this morning.

    Keep the recipes coming, Reds.

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    Replies
    1. Judy, sorry your D-I-L also has a nightshade sensitivity. But yes, I was glad to learn that sweet potato are NOT nightshade vegetable so I can eat them with no problem. And they are healthier than white potatoes.

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    2. You can make grated pancakes from zucchini too

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  7. Potatoes are the perfect food, packed with nutrition, even though they get a bad because of carbs. They're complex carbs, which makes them pretty healthy, with lots of fiber, unless you load them up with cheese and butter and sour cream, etc. I used to have a microwave-baked potato for dinner every night when I was single (and super slim, by the way).

    My first solid food was mashed potatoes and gravy, thanks to my mom, the pro at that dish. She was the middle child of nine and her job was to make ten pounds of potatoes for dinner every night. We missed her gravy-making skills this year.

    I'm with Edith, I'm partial to redskinned potatoes, too, and also freshly dug ones. I've also grown Yukon Gold, which are pretty darn good. When the kids were in grade school we used to buy interesting new veggies and fruits at the store and try them out. One of our favorites was blue potatoes, which didn't actually cook very blue. Disappointing, since the girls were having green eggs and ham-type fantasies.

    Did you know there are over 4,000 varieties of potato? We get only a handful here in the US, but in Peru--where some 3,000 of those varieties hail from--the markets are loaded with a dizzying choice of spuds. Our guide told us there is at least one variety that women feed their husbands to lower their testosterone levels. I think that could be the secret to world peace, if we could figure out a way to serve those to all the agitators who can't leave each other alone.

    How about my favorite comfort soup, potato leek? There is almost nothing better on a cold night, especially if you're feeling a bit under the weather.

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    1. Or in summer cold creamy potato soup: vichyssoise yum

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    2. Yukon Gold are fabulous, as are Russian Banana potatoes. Do you order seed potatoes from Ronigers, Karen?

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    3. I usually get mine from the local hardware store near the farm. They only carry Yukon Gold, reds, and whites.

      Hallie, I've never gotten into cold soups like vichyssoise. Fruit soups and gazpacho, but not the creamy ones, for some reason.

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    4. I love Yukon Golds, they are my potato of choice.

      Karen, my mom used to make a cold vichyssoise with cauliflower rather than potatoes. It was delicious.

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  8. I used the Joy of Cooking baked potato method: scrub and butter, bake at 425 degrees 40-60 minutes. Halfway through, puncture skin once with a fork.

    Oven roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes: scrub and chop into chunks, put in greased dish, sprinkle with oregano, chives, and parsley. Drizzle with olive oil.
    Bake at 400 for 40-50 minutes.

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  9. “ Halfway through, puncture skin once with a fork.” - that may be the trick w baked... and the high oven temperature

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    1. High oven temp, for sure, but I always prick the spuds before I put them in to bake. Once I forgot. They exploded in the oven. Not a pretty sight or a fun clean-up job!

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  10. Potatoes, what's not to like. I made scalloped potatoes for dinner on Christmas Day, required to go with ham. And I used russets. Usually we have Yukon Gold but I'm not sure why. And always red for potato salad. Roast potatoes are another favorite. For all that, we don't even have potatoes every week, not for any reason except I don't think of it.

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  11. Hallie, my youngest sister and I were just talking last night about our mother's potato soup, and I think I'll be making some today!

    We make a version of the potato spears--have not tried soaking in hot water. Throw them in a bag, add your choice of olive oil, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and shredded mozzarella and shake to coat. Place in pan, sprinkle with Parmesan if desired, and bake. We change out the seasonings and cheese, too.

    As for a baked potato--how can you go wrong? Don't ask me, but for years mine sucked. Now I preheat oven to 425 degrees F, wash and pat dry potato. Rub with olive oil, salt and pepper (I use Kosher salt and coarse ground pepper), then place in hot oven and bake for an hour or so, depending on the size of your spuds. These come out with a crispy jacket and fluffy inside. I'd give credit for the recipe, but I found it online and don't recall the source.

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  12. YUM - bring on the potatoes! Russets for everything except reds are my favorite for potato salad and for springtime boiled potatoes. I don't peel the potatoes first and the red skins are much softer. For wintertime potatoes I have discovered Hasselback potatoes. I use russets for these and I make them two ways - one is similar to potatoes au gratin but the slices are baked standing upright in the casserole so the tops brown. The second is Hassselback baked potatoes. These are sliced like an accordion but not all the way through then baked. The key to success is that each slice of the potato has to be brushed with butter for the baked version and the cheese sauce must flow over each slice in the standing version.

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    1. My goddaughter made Hasselback a few years ago, and she brushed with butter several times during the baking. A lot of work, but SO good!

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    2. Love hasselback potatoes- I follow a my times recipe - it’s a lot of work but the results are celebration-worthy

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  13. Growing up, all of our potatoes came from my grandfather's huge potato field. I always loved potatoes so much he said he had to plant an extra row just for me! (This is kind of an interesting aside about when my grandfather was a boy. It was late fall and they were harvesting the potatoes. They heard bells ringing down in the valley and knew that meant the Great War was over.)

    My mother made what she called camp potatoes. On a square of aluminum foil she would slice a potato, add a couple slices of onion, salt and pepper and pour melted butter over all before sealing up each package. These were best done on the grill but could also be done in the oven on a cookie sheet. Every once in a while during the baking she would sort of shake the package or at least turn it over to make sure the butter got into every nook and cranny. Believe me, there was nothing better.

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    1. And I’ll bet they get a smoky flavor even though the foil

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    2. Judi, where did you grow up?

      My brother-in-law grew up near Salmon, Idaho, and he said one year the local potato farm opened the edges of the field to the locals, and his dad found a potato as big as the roast chicken his grandmother was making. She roasted them side by side.

      I'm not sure I strictly believe this tale, FYI.

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    3. Karen, I grew up in Schoharie County, upstate NY.

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    4. We made something similar when camping. Into the foil went fish fillet (probably cod back then), onion, sliced potato. Don't remember if we seasoned it or not. Sealed and placed in the fire coals until done.

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    5. And how big was the fish he caught?? 😉

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  14. Yum yum YUM! I make sweet potatoes Anna—just the same way.
    And Kait—I bet those are so delicious, and so pretty!

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  15. CNN.com just had a great article on potato dishes around the world:

    https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/world-best-potato-dishes/index.html

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  16. Easiest ever: Hot oven, like 450. Cleaned but not peeled baby potatoes (like red or Yukon) Some olive oil in a bowl, a couple T. Add coarse salt, fresh pepper to taste and whatever other flavoring you like - garlic powder, paprika ( like smoked), your choice. Toss potatoes in flavored oil. Stirring occasionally, bake in oven until tender and skin is crispy. (Maybe 15 min?) That's it. Sprinkle with sea salt after if you feel like it. (My favorite is really scalloped potatoes or au gratin or Anna...but this one is fast, easy, delish)

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  17. I'm making potato soup for dinner tonight. 6 peeled potatoes, cut in small chunks, 6 celery stalks chopped, 2 carrots chopped. Cover with water and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain, reserving liquid. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter and sauté a small chopped onion until translucent. Gradually add 6 tablespoons of flour, 1 tsp salt & 1/2 tsp pepper, stirring constantly. Add 1 1/2 cup milk, stirring until thickened. Add the vegetables and ladle the cooking water into the mix, stirring constantly until the desired consistency. Note: I use a potato masher and smash the veggies while stirring to make everything creamier.

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  18. Sweet Potato Pancakes
    2 sweet potatoes, 4 whole eggs, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon (or more) Kosher salt, 1 cup chopped onion or scallions (sometimes I leave this out for crispier pancakes). Mix all ingredients together and let sit in fridge for an hour. Heat large frying pan to medium high, add vegetable oil about 3/4 inch deep. Spoon in 1 tablespoon batter per pancake, don't overcrowd. Fry each side until golden then drain on paper towels. Bake for 10-15 minutes on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven. Serve with sour cream (and I love smoked salmon on these.)

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  19. Oh, Hallie, don't forget Potato Kugel. OMG. Sometimes I just crave it. It's one of my favorite Passover foods for sure made with potato starch instead of flour, and I usually make one for other holidays, as well. Much less oil than potato pancakes.

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    1. Sadly I do not have a decent recipe for potato kugel - it’s not something I grew up with

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  20. We love potatoes in my house: baked or steamed or pan fried. yum! Regardless of the style, butter or olive oil and salt 'n pepper play a major role.

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  21. My favorite kind of potatoes are either mashed or french fries. LOL! Actually, good french fries are getting harder to find these days. Most places wouldn't know how to serve a decent order of fries if you threatened their lives. About the only place that has decent fries anymore is the Red Robin chain. And since they consistently screw up every other part of my order when I go there, I don't visit the place much at all.

    My favorite way to cook them? If someone else does it.

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  22. I am surprised none of the Canadians have mentioned POUTINE?!
    C'mon, fried potatoes with fresh curds and gravy?

    Ottawa normally has 2 Poutine Festivals each year.
    Besides the traditional poutine, they come up with CRAZY variations:

    Smoked meat poutine, thai poutine, Mexican poutine etc.

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    1. I love poutine! I first started going to Quebec in 1980, and every village had their own poutine stand. My sister and her Quebecois farmer boyfriend made their own from potatoes they grew. But they were (are) vegetarians, so they made miso gravy to go on top.

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    2. Yay, glad to see someone else loves poutine!

      Montreal (Quebec) has a famous restaurant that is open 247 and serves over 30 different types of poutine. CRAZY!
      https://labanquise.com/en/poutine-menu.php

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    3. I'm not so keen on Poutine . I love crispy fries and cheese but not so much gravy and the gravy tend to softens the fries.

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    4. I’m a big Dan, Grace. I always have to have Poutine when I’m in Canada

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    5. Rhys, glad to hear you eat poutine whenever you visit Canada! It has only become more widely available in the last decade, I think. Growing up in Toronto, I never heard of poutine and only saw it in restaurants in Quebec, but now you can find poutine almost anywhere in Canada.

      Danielle, I understand. But I grew up eating french fries drenched in gravy during my teenage years at high school, so I guess I am fine with the soggy texture of poutine.

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  23. Truth be told, my family is less fond of potatoes than most. So I mostly enjoy a good potato when I'm in a restaurant (in the before times) or ordering out. But I wanted to post today because the topic reminded me of a meme that made me laugh hard a few months ago: "Potatoes are responsible for french fries, potato chips and vodka. It's like the rest of the vegetables aren't even trying!"

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  24. One way to get crispy outside/fluffy inside roasted potatoes is to precook the potato cubes in the instant pot, then toss the cubes with olive oil and salt and roast until golden and crispy on the outside. I think Ann Mah has a recipe.

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  25. Wonderful post!

    This brings back memories of when I visited Switzerland. We hiked the Alps. After the hike, some of us went to the expensive restaurant on the mountains. Then some of us went to the less expensive restaurant on the mountains. As I recall, there were two restaurants on the alps. The bottom where we got on the tram back to Gimmelwald had two small take away restaurants, meaning that we order at the counter and sit on a bench. There was only One item for each. One take away had long hot dogs. The other take away had rosti, which is similar to American hash browns, but the rosti was much better! You get a big serving of the Rosti for 4 francs? or was it 3? This year when I had country home fries for Sunday brunch a few weeks ago, it tasted exactly like the rosti that I had in Switzerland.

    Also love potato pancakes! Yum!

    Diana

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    1. Yes, I had wonderful rosti when I was in Davos, Switzerland (for work).

      In Toronto, there was a chain restaurant from Switzerland called MOVENPICK that served rosti but I think it closed this year?

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  26. I live in where Luther Burbank ended up. The plant wizard (a title I hear he wasn't to happy with) did a great deal of work on many cultivars and the russet potato bears his name. It is said he came to the west coast from Massachusetts on the proceeds on that cultivar. This potato is supposed to be be slightly more resistance to the late blight was what devastating the crops in Europe, especially Ireland. (I used to work for the Rec and Parks department here, city owns Mr. Burbank's cottage and gardens).

    Looks like most scalloped potato dishes have been covered and I love the old potato leek soup recipe my mom used to make that is very much like Annette's. I've seen that cheese plate melting gizmo on cooking shows recently. One of the more decadent versions was to melt the cheese onto a thick sandwich roll with shaved ham. One messy, gooey sandwich. I have two versions of baked potatoes. Version 1 - fast meal - poke russet about 8 times with a fork and put in microwave, on high, for 6 to 8 minutes, turning over half way through the cooking time. Remove to a shallow bowl, cut open add a little salt and pepper, a healthy dose of cottage cheese, top with salsa and maybe a little grated cheese either on top of the salsa or in the potato before you add the cottage cheese. Version 2 - in the oven. Hot oven, probably 400 or more degrees. Scrub potatoes with cold water, pat dry. Rub the potatoes with Crisco shortening and roast on the oven rake, directly on the rake. Usually takes about an hour depending the size of the potato and how many you are roasting. Of course, the potatoes are usually being roasted at the same time as the meatloaf, so sometimes it takes longer for the potatoes than the protein. The only time I've ever poked oven roasted potatoes was when I was roasting a large number of them, probably a dozen or more.

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  27. Wow! A recipe with cream of mushroom soup that doesn't sound like a disgusting throw back to the 60s! This sounds tasty. (I'd use a different brand of soup, but same idea, for better ingredients)

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    1. It IS a disgusting throwback!!! That’s it’s virtue!!

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  28. Hallie, every one of your recipes sounds delicious, and I'll be trying them at some point. With all the amazing recipes for potatoes, including yours, out there, I think we love just mashed potatoes best. I use golden potatoes (I've really become fond of those), peel them, cut them up, boil them 20 or so minutes, drain, mash up with a fork, add good amount of butter, salt & pepper, half-and-half, mix with mixer, and it's mashed potatoes.

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  29. I love potatoes. They are comfort food from my youth. I prefer them mashed and roasted in a skillet.
    Since a couple of years, I use yellow flesh potatoes. They are delicious in any way and every dish.
    Do you have them in USA ? Nobody mentioned them.

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  30. All of these potato recipes sound delicious. I have none to add!

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  32. The absolute best potatoes I ever ate were at every "rosticerria" in Italy. Literally, every single one of these tiny storefront restaurants (and some were take out only)had the best potatoes I ever ate. That was because they all made them the same way -- spread on a sheet pan under whatever they were roasting on the spit (crispy whole chickens, succulent pork roasts, whatever) so that the hot fat dripped down and turned them into crisp golden nuggets from heaven.

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