Food Friday: Art by Jean Sanders
Go open your back door this morning and feel the cool air. It’s not quite sweater weather, although I did wear long sleeves walking Luke the wonder dog earlier. The breeze holds the promise of fall. As the sun rose today, wisps of fog wafted through the neighbor’s trees, and the mockingbirds were scolding louder than the blue jays. The wrens complained. The squirrelly boys lept fearlessly from the roof to the pliant arborvitae branches below. Our transition to fall has arrived.
Having cooler temperatures makes more things possible. It doesn’t seem onerous to have the oven chugging away baking potatoes at 450°F when it is cooler outside. It’s not like during the summer, when the oven seems to heat up the whole house. Although it would be more practical to have a compact, shoebox-sized toaster oven for potato baking – we just don’t have any space left for a toaster oven. Instead, our countertop is littered with a curated collection of olive oils, salt boxes, a pepper grinder, a bowl of fruit, Luke’s pills (he’s developed arthritis!), paper towels, dishwashing liquid, a vital Kleenex box (allergies abound in October) and the all-important coffee grinder and electric kettle. There is just no space for a toaster oven. Welcome to our cozy kitchen; warm and toasty from October to March.
Our dinner last night would never work for a typical family – meaning one with adults and school-age children. We had twice-baked potatoes and a salad; adding a protein seemed Herculean and unimaginable. We were glued to the iPad, watching the news about Hurricane Milton and the latest presidential campaign mic drop. Who had time to broil chops, or to roast a chicken? It was all we could do was to eat nice hot, steaming potatoes garnished with sour cream, grated cheddar cheese, bacon, left-over chili, dusted with Penzeys herbs, and green onions. Mr. Sanders added some healthy greeny 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 chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Grown ups, yes, maintaining our priorities, thank you.
Poke around the fridge to be sure you have enough in the way of decorative and tasty garnishes for your potatoes. I had to excavate the freezer, digging through layers of frozen corn and ice cream sandwiches before I finally unearthed the chili from a couple of weeks ago.
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 art director who scoffed at such niceities. 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!
Baked potatoes with cheddar and bacon
Nothing is as good as this, the perfect baked potato: with a knob of Irish butter, crunchy Maldon salt, and a pinch of freshly ground black pepper for a good, quick, hot and homey dinner on a cool night. Everything else you can add as a topping is just deelish window dressing.
“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 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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