Good news, we think the comment feature is fixed. Whew!
As it turns out. Well…It could have been…”operator error.”
I’m not surprised. I have a curse, a hex, a jinx when it comes to computer programs.
On with this potato post!
Won’t you try the comment feature at the bottom and tell us what your favorite dish is that you make with plain old white potatoes?
is a certified farmgirl at heart. She’s happily married to her beach bum Yankee husband of 20 years. She went from career gal to being a creative homeschooling mom for two of her biggest blessings and hasn’t looked back since. Debbie left her lifelong home in the high desert of Northern Nevada 10 years ago and washed up on the shore of America’s hometown, Plymouth, MA, where she and her family are now firmly planted. They spend part of each summer in a tiny, off–grid beach cottage named “The Sea Horse.”
“I found a piece of my farmgirl heart when I discovered MaryJanesFarm. Suddenly, everything I loved just made more sense! I enjoy unwinding at the beach, writing, gardening, and turning yard-sale furniture into ‘Painted Ladies’ I’m passionate about living a creative life and encouraging others to ‘make each day their masterpiece.’”
is a “MaryJane Farmgirl” who lives in a large metropolitan area. She is a lawyer who has worked in both criminal defense and prosecution. She has been a judge, a business woman and a stay-at-home mom. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters of Theological Studies.
“Mustering up the courage to do the things you dream about,” she says, “is the essence of being a MaryJane Farmgirl.” Learning to live more organically and closer to nature is Rebekah’s current pursuit. She finds strength and encouragement through MaryJane’s writings, life, and products. And MaryJane’s Farmgirl Connection provides her a wealth of knowledge from true-blue farmgirls.
an old-fashioned farmgirl with a pioneer spirit, lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a “lifelong learner” in the “Live-Free-or-Die” state, she fiercely values self-reliance, independence, freedom, and fresh mountain air. Married to her childhood sweetheart of 40+ years (a few of them “uphill climbs”), she’s had plenty of time to reinvent herself. From museum curator, restaurant owner, homeschool mom/conference speaker, to post-and-beam house builder and entrepreneur, she’s also a multi-media artist, with an obsession for off-grid living and alternative housing. Cathi owns and operates a 32-room mountain lodge. Her specialty has evolved to include “hermit hospitality” at her rustic cabin in the mountains, where she offers weekend workshops of special interest to women.
“Mountains speak to my soul, and farming is an important part of my heritage. I want to pass on my love of these things to others through my writing. Living in the mountains has its own particular challenges, but I delight in turning them into opportunities from which we can all learn and grow.”
Dori Troutman is the daughter of second generation cattle ranchers in New Mexico. She grew up working and playing on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1928. That ranch, with the old adobe home, is still in the family today. Dori and her husband always yearned for a ranch of their own. That dream came true when they retired to the beautiful green rolling hills of Tennessee. Truly a cattleman’s paradise!
Dori loves all things farmgirl and actually has known no other life but that. She loves to cook, craft, garden, and help with any and all things on their cattle farm.
describes herself as a goat charmer, chicken whisperer, bee maven, and farmers’ market baker renovating an 1864 farmhouse on an Ohio farm. With a degree in Design, Mary says small-town auctions and country road barn sales "always make my heart skip a beat thinking about what I could create or design out of what I’ve seen.”
Rooted in the countryside, she likes simple things and old ways … gardening, preserving the harvest, cooking, baking, and all things home. While you might find her selling baked goods from the farm’s milkhouse, teaching herself to play the fiddle, or sprucing up a vintage camper named Maizy, you will always find her in an apron!
Mary says, “I’m happiest with the simple country pleasures … an old farmhouse, too many animals, a crackling fire, books to read, and the sound of laughter … these make life just perfect.”
is a budding rural farmgirl living in Palmer, the agricultural seat of Alaska. Alex is a graduate student at Alaska Pacific University pursuing an M.S. in Outdoor and Environmental Education. She lives and works on the university’s 700 acre environmental education center, Spring Creek Farm. When Alex has time outside of school, she loves to rock climb, repurpose found objects, cross-country ski on the hay fields, travel, practice yoga, and cook with new-fangled ingredients.
Alex grew up near the Twin Cities and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin—both places where perfectly painted barns and rolling green farmland are just a short drive away. After college, she taught at a rural middle school in South Korea where she biked past verdant rice paddies and old women selling home-grown produce from sidewalk stoops. She was introduced to MaryJanesFarm after returning, and found in it what she’d been searching for—a group of incredible women living their lives in ways that benefit their families, their communities, and the greater environment. What an amazing group of farmgirls to be a part of!
Suburban Farmgirl Nicole Christensen calls herself a “vintage enthusiast”. Born and raised in Texas, she has lived most of her life in the picturesque New England suburbs of Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York State. An Advanced Master Gardener, she has gardened since childhood, in several states and across numerous planting zones. In addition, she teaches knitting classes, loves to preserve, and raises backyard chickens.
Married over thirty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields, been a world-traveler, an entrepreneur and a homemaker, but considers being mom to her now-adult daughter her greatest accomplishment. Loving all things creative, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “Bloom where you are planted”.
I love a good baked potato with cheese, salt, pepper, sour cream and lots of butter. I also love scattered, smothered, covered and diced!
Love your posts and especially this one about the potato!
There’s no such thing as a favorite potato dish. They are all equally fabulous. The potato is the greatest gift the world has ever given to mankind When I was a kid I would always offer to do the dishes when we had potatoes so I could eat all the leftovers. Wait, I still do.
I would say my favorite is either mashed potatoes or scalloped potatoes. I miss Waffle House so much! We don’t have them in California.
My VERY FAVORITE way to fix potatoes is to slice them thinly and then slice a big onion and fry them together in a mixture of olive oil and butter. Used to use bacon grease, but rarely have bacon any more. Don’t do this as much as I used to do, but still just love them.
Then, of course, there are scalloped potatoes and baked potatoes, and potato soup (which I make once a month in the winter time.
I just love potatoes.
I use to eat a lot of white potatoes but because of the carbs in them I eat very little of them. I also had some potatoes that were growing……and thought I need to use them. So I decided we hadn’t had potato salad for a long time and I make a good macaroni salad dressing so thought it would work on the potato salad. It was so good and yummy. My hubby said he liked it because it wasn’t dry. I even ate some of it and cheated!
But some of my favorite ways is baked, home fries and now potato salad.
Potatoes are my friends. Do you ever get hungry and don’t know what you want? When that feeling comes to me, I bake or microwave a potato and spoon out some of it and mix with “whatever I have handy that tempts my tastebuds”, add some salt and ground calico pepper and a big pinch of Nutritional Yeast (because I should NOT have dairy). Then I repack the potato and reheat it and get busy with a spoon and a smile!
I really enjoyed your comments on my beloved potatoes!….
Have you ever thought about canning them so they would be ready for hashbrowns or hash or whatever you want to cook quick.
I love potatoes but my favorite way to eat them Is baked. Not microwaved but baked. Yum. It makes me hungry just thinking about it.
Hi, Rebekah – I also blame a lot of things on social media ! My favourite potatoes are oven fries..done in the oven with with lots of olive oil and salt & pepper..Yum.. I feel so healthy after eating them !!
Ah, Rebekah, so many wonderful things to create with potatoes! You hit on so many, but not one of my favorites – potato soup! Nothing is better (to me) on a cold rainy day then a big bowl of potato soup. Dress it up with shredded cheese, green onion and bacon. YUM!!
People have asked me how I’D do my baked potato. I scrub the tater well and put it in the microwave for 5-6 minutes (depending on size) longer for bigger taters. I preheat my oven to 400 degrees. When the taters come out of the microwave I put each one in foil and drizzle with olive oil and s&p. I wrap them tight and in the oven they go. They are creamy inside with a crispy skin. Then LOTS of butter. I always eat the skin because it is nice and crispy.My friend just puts her naked potato in her oven just on the rack. All I know is most people love potatoes. Thanks Rebekah for delving into the potato.
I’m a country girl from Texas and potatoes have always been a favorite part of our meals. We could eat them every meal is some form or other. I have two favorite forms, although it’s difficult to decide!! Haha!! I love crunchy hash browns fried in a cast iron skillet, crunchy on both sides and soft in the middle. Then for a very quick dinner, I enjoy a kind of potato hash, I call it. One or two large potatoes, scrubbed with the skins on, sliced thin in round pieces, cut from one end and keep slicing until finished; then one or two carrots, peeled and cut in round thin slices, one large onion, cut in thin circles. Have melted grease in medium size cast iron skillet, I use bacon grease or corn oil, two to three tablespoons. When grease is ready to sizzle, not fry hot, pour in all veggies, add salt and pepper to taste, stir a little to coat all veggies, put a cover on and steam and gently brown until tender and some pieces are crunchy. Delicious!!! For a variation, chop German sausage is small circles and add half way through cooking. Delicious!! This “one pan supper” is a hefty amount and will feed a group of people. Add s salad on the side (and ketchup for those who like it) and dinner is done in about 20 minutes.
Thank You for giving us the chance to share our favorite potatoes!! I also love them in every other possible way!! Lol!!
Ohhhhhh, I DO love your writings in Mary Janes Farm Magazine!! I never miss them!! ♥️
I love potatoes any way they are prepared, but my favorite way would be home fries like my mother used to make. I enjoy your blog.
My husband discovered Jacket Potatoes on a business trip to England and I love them. Basically a stuffed baked potato with butter, baked beans and shredded cheese. I was very skeptical about the beans but I love them.
Potatoes for posters! Carving shapes into the end of half a tater and giving to the little kids to dip and print with! They think I’m magical and fun! It’s not me it’s the taters! Lol!
So glad the comment thing is fixed. Thought maybe you didn’t want any on your post LOL. Anyway, I love baked potatoes loaded with real butter, sour cream, green onions/chives, shredded cheese and then sometimes cheese sauce all by itself. Fattening for sure, but oh, so comforting. The potato is ‘the comfort food’ for when you need to be comforted. I love to make potato salad in the summer for our cookouts. I also love to eat the potato wedges my sister-in-law, Laura makes. Oh so yummy. French Fries and Hamburgers another favorite. Mashed potatoes once in a while, roast potatoes with pork, carrots, onions, and celery is a favorite crock pot meal. So many things you can do with potatoes, I make home made hash browns, fried potatoes and onions, potato soup with bacon is a favorite winter meal. And when I get a bag of potatoes and don’t use them before the eyes appear and the sprouts start, I will use them to plant in the ground by cutting pieces with eyes and plopping them down in the hole I make in a mound of soil. So versatile is the potato and easy to grow, and home grown potatoes really do taste best. Small ones are great for dicing and frying without removing the skin. Well, here’s to the Potato. Thanks for posting this one, so entertaining.
Mashed Potatoes! Nothing fancy, just plenty of butter, 1 tsp. salt, pepper, Red Robin’s Season Salt, and milk. Yum!! Also love them cut into chunks, placed in a hot cast iron skillet with olive oil and butter, season with some salt, pepper, and garlic herb seasoning, and placed on the grill. Delicious.
I love potatoes and enjoyed years of fresh ones when we lived in southern Idaho. We could follow the machine diggers and fill lots of bags of them. Some were so big, one would make mashed potatoes for the 7 of us. I love them baked with all the fixings, potato soup, hash browns, and cut in chunks with olive oil drizzled on top and sprinkled with garlic salt, onion powder and dried herbs and baked in the oven. And of course, mashed with sour cream, cream, and lots of butter. Potatoes are food from the Gods!
A lovely baked potato stuffed with cottage cheese and salsa.
Potatoes au gratin
5 lb. bag of potatoes pealed and sliced thinly. Diced onion. Sauce mix starting with a rue, adding milk, three cheeses (yellow american, cheddar, and velvetta). Simmer constantly stirring for what seems like an eternity until sauce almost bubbles over. Layer potatoes, onion and cheese sauce several times. Bake @ 375 until tender.
DELICIOUS!
Hi, ART – Even though I haven’t made this casserole for years, my working mother made it a lot for us as a quick, easy, one-dish meal. Layer slices of white potatoes in 13 X 9 dish with sliced onion and some kind of sausage – kielbasa, pork breakfast sausage or Italian. Then pour canned tomatoes over all and bake until done. While it was cooking we kids were expected to finish our homework and busy ourselves until Dad came home. Fond memories of winter suppers which were hardy and satisfying.
Always enjoy your blogs, sweet one. Keep up the good work. Take care of yourself.
Love, Ruthie
I love potatoes loaded or not. A little truffle oil and salt and pepper is great too but my all time favorite is Colcannon basically mashed potatoes with LOTS of butter and cream and greens mixed in. It is Irish and amazing. I love kale and some green onions mixed in but you can use cabbage. Bacon can be added too. It is a warm comfort food and I like to think the kale makes it healthy…mmmm.
We are retired potato farmers from Idaho so love potatoes! When riding the potato digger I would have to pull off potatoes that were too big! I kept them by my feet to take to the house at the end of the day. There would be potatoes that were so big just one would feed our family of 6! We especially like to grate them to fry in hot oil and butter until crispy. Our grandkids love them this way. I miss the farm, especially the smell of the dirt, but feel blessed to still live in the country where we can grow a large garden and fruit trees.
Just wanted to comment on Kathy’s text. I have never lived on a farm, but must have in a previous life. I love to garden. Right now, we live in a city and are renting, so, gardening is impossible. However, I’ve bought many pots of different sizes and am now planting a container garden. I have had a garden of some sort no matter where we have lived. If I can’t get my hands in the “dirt” occasionally, I don’t know what I would do. I can empathize with Kathy about missing the smell of the dirt. It’s comforting to know that I can have my garden no matter how big or small and no matter if it’s in the ground or containers. HAPPY GARDENING!
Oh potatoes, how my family loves you! We can fry you, bake you, cook you, roast you, sear you, smother you, mash you, and make soup out of you, and you are always the star of the meal! As a Texas country gal, potatoes were a staple in our home. We feasted on potatoes and Mom’s homemade gravy more times than I can count. My parents grow potatoes for the family to share, there truly is nothing better than a homegrown potato! To harvest a potato crop behind an antique FarmAll tractor pulling a harrow with Daddy walking and guiding the harrow is like a walk back in time.. I love harvesting the family potato crops! Daddy always let me drive the tractor, he walks behind the harrow and the beautiful red potatoes appear like magic once the soil is turned. It’s about that time here in South Texas to harvest the potato crop, and oh the smell of the dirt and the thrill of the harvest of those ruby gems!
Potatoes truly are a food from the Gods! I love potatoes cooked in any way fashion or form; however my favorite is French fries from red potatoes roasted in the oven w/ olive oil and sea salt❤️
I love your blog. When I read what you write I feel calm and relaxed 🙂 (Truth be told, I don’t get upset very often so that isn’t a difficult place to be… but I love it.)
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and pictures… and thank you for always sharing the positive rather than negative side of life.
Potatoes… when I have a craving for food, it is always potatoes. I recently tried the purple potatoes and they are yummy! Boil till tender, add a little pink salt (which is course) and olive oil or butter and a touch of pepper… Yummy!