The feasting season officially arrived. I finished leftover Thanksgiving fare on Saturday evening. My sister provided the banquet, and I returned home with a plate of delicious food: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping – excellent examples of comfort food, typical American fare, but not the healthiest choices. Broccoli represented greens on the Thanksgiving table, and I enjoyed a small serving, so no guilt about missing green veggies. I savored a well-rounded meal, topped off with a homemade pumpkin pudding pie.
Well-rounded in many ways. I am rounder from the experience. I can thank the humble potato for being a large contributor to my roundness.
Everyone has their favorite foods. The potato, a versatile vegetable, is one of mine.
Thanksgiving is the only time sweet potatoes with marshmallows are consumed by me, a tradition dating from childhood. No guilt eating the too-sweet dish, but it’s only once a year.
Potato pancakes, or latkes, are devoured during this holiday season. Made from scratch, fried in oil, I don’t want to know their dietary no-nos. I simply savor the greasy, tasty, tiny, thin pancakes, and don’t count how many end up in my tummy.
I ate a plateful of tater tots at a breakfast buffet at a motel this past week. I remember tater tots as a kid, and they have become popular restaurant sides. It was my only breakfast food – the eggs and other foods seemed, well, less than appetizing. I didn’t count the number of taters munched, just enjoyed the old-fashioned but newly popular potato dish.
Potatoes are a common food worldwide.
That wasn’t always the case. Potatoes were originally domesticated in South America. Andean mountain peoples were nourished by tuber and root crops, the potato the most significant. The first Spaniards in the region—led by Francisco Pizarro, in 1532—observed Indians eating odd, round objects and tried the potato. News of the novel food spread quickly. Within three decades, Spanish farmers as far away as the Canary Islands were exporting potatoes to France and the Netherlands.
I rarely resist the temptation to order fries with a restaurant meal. Steak fries, long and thick, are my preferred choice.
I love a baked potato smothered in butter and sour cream.
I prepare garlic smashed potatoes, making enough for leftovers with another meal. Or two.
I owned a Mr. Potato Head decades ago, and my sons also enjoyed the toy. No calories playing with the toy!
As December begins, I look forward to meals prepared by others – fare consumed at restaurants, and repasts relished at the homes of family and friends. Many of those meals will contain some form of potato. I should resist, but my willpower is weak. My palate prevails.
I await the gray cold month of January, when I will reluctantly step on the scale and lament my passion for potatoes.
Meanwhile, let the feasting season continue as I settle into couch potato mode.
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