The Lonely Potato

Should Hubby ever read this post, he’s going think I am half-baked.

One area where the VP fails in her daily duties is that I bring home an extra potato. The Lonely Potato.

My kids are Not Potato Fans.  Well, Little Guy will eat potatoes without grumbling—pretty much in any shape or form (unless his big bros are putting up a bigger stink than usual).   The other two have always had a dislike for The Spud (unless found in a sliced, fried and salted form…either of the French or bagged variety).  Their dislike of potatoes goes back to infancy. When I started them out on jarred baby food, there was one flavor (Mixed veg?!?) that had pureed carrots, peas and potatoes. It’s the ONLY jarred food flavor with potatoes.  Neither twin would eat it.  When I tried it, the texture did have that starchy potato-y-ness to it. As they became older and sampled “big people food,” both boys would grimace at mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, roasted potatoes, and yes, even cheesy au gratin potatoes.  With the last one–the Au Gratin Potato–I thought I had a chance to convert them…..HOW COULD YOU SAY NO TO CHEESE?!?!?  But they did.

As a result, I don’t cook/serve potatoes very often. Maybe once a week…..nah, that’s too often.  Maybe once every other week. Sometimes once a month, I suppose. But I have always followed the “I will put a little on your plate and you MUST eat it” rule. Watching M-Man struggle to put a smidge of potato into his mouth, chew (f needed) and swallow……is painful and amusing all at the same time. You would think I’m torturing my child.  (I suppose he thinks I am).

So, my quandary (when I am in the mood for a potato side dish) at the grocery store is….how many potatoes to buy?  I take into account the size, shape and type of potato, as well as the dish I am preparing.  Does this dish rate higher on the kid-scale  than other dishes? Will today be THE DAY where they will say “Mom, you are such a great cook. I don’t know why I never ate/liked potatoes cooked this way” ?  (wishful thinking)  Will I be willing to eat up the leftovers?  Invariably, I buy ONE POTATO TOO MANY. 

And it sits there…..staring with its eyes…..waiting for me to do something with it.  But as mentioned above, I just don’t cook potatoes that often.  By the time I do make another potato dish, it will most likely be a different dish, using a different potato. So the Lonely Potato just sits and rots. How sad.

Perhaps, I am half-baked.