Delicious Potatoes

Good morning!

Nothing new here. Potatoes ARE delicious.

I was just looking through an old Fanny Farmer cookbook, and reminiscing as I went through the potato recipes.  They made me think of menus in old hotel dining rooms, replete with names that weren't familiar in Mama's house.  She mostly made boiled or baked, and occasionally made French fries (which I never have much liked.)  But old hotel names, usually typed in faded blue in some kind of antique reproduction-process, are all there in FF to be re-savored today.

Potatoes O'Brian: fried potato cubes, butter which has had an onion slice fried in it and removed, and canned pimentoes diced and stirred in. Sprinkled with parsley. Delicious.

Franconia Potatoes: potatoes parboiled and then drained and placed in with a roast to brown and cook completely. (Not my favorite.)

Hongroise Potatoes: potatoes parboiled, then removed and slowly cooked in butter but not browned, then white sauce with an egg is added, and parsley sprinkled. Yummo.

Chambery Potatoes: thin thin rounds of potato layered in a baking dish with butter and salt and pepper on each layer, baked till done. My mother's version of scalloped potatoes and one of my favorite potato dishes.

Delmonico Potatoes, which had an exotic name to me, and a delicious taste. In hotels they were probably made with leftover potatoes, but who knew? (Everybody). They are like the Chambery but with white sauce poured over, covered over with mild cheese and crumbs, and baked. A whole supper in themselves, nowadays.

Potatoes a l' Antlers: Probably from the wonderful old Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs, a fabulous place which has now been enveloped in a big complex which removed its charm. These potatoes were cooked potatoes cubed up with butter and cream and baked. Another thrifty use for hotel leftovers which, really, I couldn't complain about.

One of the best potato recipes I have (though I can't lay my hands on it at the moment) came from some cookbook in the seventies, and was a great layered scalloped Chambery kind of dish that included onions and sliced tomatoes and potatoes in an orderly luxury, seasoned and baked and altogether yummy.  I love those vegetables cooked together.

Now go out and eat something and wish you had some of these old-fashioned potatoes. YAZZYBEL