We survived Winter Storm Fern! Hooray! Another storm is lurking out there now, soon to darken our doors, and ice the roads, but I am not going to worry about it. Mr. Sanders can keep up with the stats, and inform me accordingly. The end of January is approaching. It is still lamentably cold, and we need simple, hot food to get us through the dark winter months.
February, though it is the shortest month, and is packed with many festive events (Black History Month, Groundhog Day, Mardi Gras, the Super Bowl™, Valentine’s Day, Presidents Day, Chinese New Year, and finally, the Olympics), tends to drag its leaden, icy feet slowly from one long, cold day to the next. We need reasons to trudge along.
Luckily for us, we can tap in many sources for delicious, traditional potato dishes which ward away the gloom of the gelid polar evenings. A short tool around Instagram and TikTok yield delicious findings. Classic Jacket Potato with Baked Beans and Cheese
In the UK they turn potatoes into atmospherically named dishes: bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie, cottage pie, Cornish pasties, bubble and squeak, not to mention the exquisite chipped potato. The best British chips come from chippies – shops devoted to the fine art of deep frying chipped potatoes. I cannot understate the sheer glory of a perfectly crisp, furnace-hot chip, dusted with salt, put steaming in its paper nest, but I must not rhapsodize in the middle of a think piece about baked potatoes. Hot chips (and fries) are perfection. Add vinegar if you must. To each his own. Fries
Baked potatoes are the workhorse potato dish that crosses all the international borders. Use Idaho, Yukon Gold, Russet potatoes, Red Ruby or even sweet potatoes for your meal. Some people fill double-baked potatoes with sauerkraut: Baked Potato
The Potato Hut in Dubai will serve you baked potatoes stuffed with fajita, steak, tuna and mayo, BBQ, or veggie delight. They are also looking for fanchisees if you’d like a dream job. “No fry, No Oil, Ask for Baked.” Potato Hut
I don’t want to make any more runs to the grocery store on skittery, icy roads than I have to. Prudently, we have a pile of potatoes and a fridge full of topping ingredients, in case of snow, or ennui. Some evenings we can barely think about dinner prep. We want to have a glass of something warm and watch The Pitt. Here are some things to keep on hand, to minimize your travel time: bacon, chives, sour cream, crème fraiche, smoked salmon, ranch dressing, garlic, butter, fried onions, pulled pork, cole slaw, Burrata, prosciutto, crab salad, Cheddar cheese, and sprouts. Dare I suggest caviar? None for me, thanks, but you might be fancy.
Also veggies: tomatoes, peppers, onions, avocados, beans, and salsa! Leftovers! What a concept. Use up the leftover chili, taco meat, beef stew and chicken pot pie! Use it up! Make it do! (Thanks, BA for the fancy ideas: 12 Creative Ways to Top a Baked Potato)
A plain baked potato, topped with good butter and freshly ground black pepper can be a divine way to warm up, so don’t stress if you don’t have all the trendy ingredients. Keep it simple. Or you can just root around in the fridge for some ideas, while also checking your sell-by-dates. Mr. Sanders added some healthy green broccolini and a handful of chopped tomatoes, because he is such a show off. He also made a side salad of cool Romaine and arugula, which was our nod to healthy eating. Plus we had a bowlful of baby carrots in lieu of fatty crunchy cocktail snacks as an appetizer. We ate our veggies, honest. Because there were fresh, home-baked biscotti for dessert. Grown ups, yes, but maintaining our gold-standard priorities, thank you.
Some folks like to rub potato skins with butter or olive oil before roasting. It is important to prick your potatoes to let the steam escape while they are cooking. I use a long cooking fork, and really spear the potatoes. Then I cheat a little, by popping the potatoes into the microwave for about 3 minutes on high for each potato. I also cook them singly, because I find the microwave math daunting. Then I pop them right in the preheated oven, on the oven rack, at 450°F for half an hour. Maybe I don’t need that toaster oven after all. I use Russet potatoes, because that’s what we had growing up, and I am sure Martha says so, too.
J. Kenji López-Alt, who does extensive and exhaustive recipe testing, recommends baking potatoes, preferably Russets, at 375°F for about an hour (the more moderate oven temperature produces a creamy, fluffy interior). Early on I had an boss who scoffed at such niceties. She believed in cooking things FAST. 450°F was her preferred temperature for a lot of foods. Never argue with your art director. And last night she was right, again. Thanks, Pat!
This is genius from Instagram: Crispy Baked Potato Halves
The Ultimate Guide to Perfect Loaded Baked Potatoes
Keep dinner warm and nutritious, because that’s what baked potatoes are all about – a full belly, and keeping winter at bay. Stay warm out there!
“Wherever you come near the human race there’s layers and layers of nonsense. Look at that moon. Potato weather for sure.”
—Thornton Wilder
Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink.
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