What We Love Wednesdays!! The Great Tater!

Boil ‘em, bake ‘em, put ‘em in soup, fry ‘em, mash ‘em, make pancakes from ‘em too – have ‘em as a hash browns or if you’re British, enjoy the waffley versatile waffle! For breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, the humble potato is there, providing a dish that fills you up like no other food could dream to. It warms you on a cold day, satisfies your hunger, with more uses than anything else we can think of that’s edible – it really is a wonder to behold.

Who knows where it came from, or which country grows the most - all I know is we love the potato in every form and any time of day.

Welcome to this week’s edition of WWLW – this week, we love POTATOES!

Strange but true - Laura and I both have cultural links to the spud. Laura was brought up in Boise, Idaho - most Americans know Idaho as ‘the great potato state’ and I, well - I am half Scottish – quarter Irish - and every Brit knows that the Scots & Irish love a good potato!

It is generally assumed that the Irish & Scots’ love of potatoes came from the Irish famine (1845-1852) when one third of the population was entirely dependant on potatoes for food! Can you imagine all that mash! Yum! Since then it has formed a part of almost all our meals. In my family ‘a meal is not a meal without a potato’! So I was destined to love them.

The Idaho potato [AKA the Russet Burbank] is produced and used all over the world. Home of the late J.R. Simplot, who created and marketed the first commercially viable frozen french fries in the world in the ‘50s. In 1967 Simplot agreed with McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc agreed by hand shake that the Simplot Company would provide frozen French fries to the restaurant chain. And the rest was history!

But back to why we love them – for me, if I was only allowed to eat only one food for the rest of my life it would be the potato - there are plenty of meal possibilities and it is SO versatile. Check out this ad for Birdseye Potato Waffles – it explains it better than I could:

Or you may have seen this advert lately – even Desperate Housewives (and I’m sure real housewives) LOVE potatoes! Click HERE!

  

Personally, we love to make whatever potato dish we are eating fresh – mash potato being our personal favourite! I have even competed with others to defend my title as ‘Best Mash Maker’ (after my mum of course)! Laura will add the recipe in soon.

However, if fresh potatoes can’t be found, we personally rely on Birdseye Potato Waffles (no other brand  is the same) - they go with EVERYTHING - watch THIS or McCain chips (any of them – wedges are perfect on their own or as a side, home made chips – always a great addition, oven chips make a great chip butty and the smiles (ok not technically chips) but they make us smile!). - See chip perfection in the making HERE!

Basically if you ever invite us to dinner make sure it contains potatoes! We love them taters!

Only kidding :)