I had every intention of simply painting some potatoes after the recent decadent offerings, but I ended up baking it and adding butter. It’s still rather simple, as the usual offering here in the States is a “loaded baked potato” which comes stuffed with everything you can imagine. Bacon and cheese are a common addition, but also sometimes sour cream and chives or even broccoli can be added to party. Since it takes about 50 to 60 minutes to bake a potato properly, I don’t have them very often. I lack both the patience to wait and the foresight to start one in time for dinner. But thankfully, I love potatoes in just about every preparation and there seems to be no end to the ways you can prepare them. As a kid, though, if given my vote, I would always choose either French fries or mashed potatoes.
My favorite French fries were the thick cut ones when I was growing up. These were also referred to as Steak fries, but my father was typically the only one who actually got the steak to accompany them. I liked them because they were not as crunchy and it seemed more like there was an actual potato involved. We would also sometimes have beef stew with potatoes and vegetables. This was served in a Crock-Pot® that had been slow cooking all day and we would line up to fill our bowls. My dad would always go first and fish out all of the chunks of meat, so by the time I was able to get some, it was mostly vegetarian. Still, the meat-flavored potatoes were deliciously satisfying. Actually, pretty much everything slow cooked for a day came out in the same mushy consistency, even the meat, and all tasted the same anyway.
Mashed potatoes were one of the crowd favorites at family gatherings when I was young. We would all meet up at my grandparent’s farm and there would be a couple slow cookers filled with them. At least, that was the hope. One year, there was only one and it was devastating. These were the days before social media and emails, so potluck dinners were a bit of a gamble. People were putting just a spoonful or two on their plates to ensure there was enough for everyone. It was just a big tease in the end and failed to satisfy anyone properly. But, as luck would have it, the same miscommunication created extra desserts that year, so there was a blissfully happy ending after all. Later in the week, my mom served baked potatoes and getting my own felt like a little trophy. After the recent potato famine, there was just something extra special about that little baked potato with butter.
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All the yummy looking food this month could kill me!!! LOL
haha! I know, right? There’s a lot of delicious things filling my feed. I want to eat them all!! LOL 😊
😊😉
Your paintings always make my mouth water. I rarely bake potatoes now for various reasons but I got through my student years eating many a baked potato with either baked beans and cheese or tuna and corn. When I was a wee girl, I sometimes used to take a small baked potato, wrapped in foil, to have as my play piece (snack) during winter. So good.
I’m hungry again. Charlie you have succeeded in motivating me to eat, or crave something. Lol. Love this drawing. Hey, I would like to know what your favorite meal or dessert is. I started a post on my blog and I’d like you to tell me on that post. I think it would be interesting to have a collection of everyone’s choices, for me and others to see. Thanks Charlie.
Thanks so much, Trav! Glad you like this one! 😃 I’ll try to pop by with a comment… once I decide what my favorite actually is! hehe
Gosh I love a simple baked potato!
Nothing beats it! Sooooo good! 😃
I feel like I could reach my hand out and scoop that potato onto my plate – yummy! And this is the only way I really like them though a bit of sour cream doesn’t hurt.
Thanks, Sharon! 😃💕hehe… Yes to sour cream! I though about adding that too, but didn’t want to upstage the butter. So yummy though!
Yum! 💜 I love double stuffed baked potatoes! We don’t have them very often but they are a treat! 😊 You are making me hungry, Charlie! 🍟
Thanks, Jill! 😃💕Double stuffed is awesome as well. Yeah… I can’t have these very much anymore, but such a treat when I do!!
The King of Vegetables! Someone I work with told me that she cooks baked potatoes in the microwave in a few minutes. How do you get the skins crispy? I asked. Are they supposed to be crispy? she replied. How sad is that!
Hehe… thanks, Michael! 😃 Yeah, I got a lot of microwave suggestions on Facebook, so I had to look it up. Apparently you coat the outside with a ton of salt first. Never tried it… I’ll be sticking with the oven.
The simplest, and the best.
Potato in every type of cooking is delightful. The best vegetable invention I think!
Steaming hot potatoes with butter, what could be better on a cold autumn day, oh and the smell of the thing is like nothing else, simple and delicious….I hate the wait in the oven too, so I start it off in the microwave for 10 minutes, then crisp up in the oven, as close as you can get to pure oven baked, in fast time 😀….so pleased it is early morning, otherwise I would be popping a potatoe in the oven right now, maybe later I will recreate your painting?
Thanks, Rebecca! 😃💕 Yeah… giving them a bit of a head start is something I’ve tried, but nothing tastes as good as a baked potato from the oven, so it’s better to just plan ahead! And I gave you lots of time…see… did you have one?! hehe
Ah well you see, I ended up spending too much time at the yard this evening, the forecast is horrid so the ponies have come inside to the warm dry stable, snugly! Time to think but not to do, and it would have been perfect to have come home too, a nice warm jacket, mmm. Now sat listening to the rain, so it was worth my decision, and loss of a hot spud!
I don’t know if i’ve even seen anybody tackle a baked potato as subject matter – well done Charlie, it’s really good to see it celebrated in paint, they’re such wonderful things!
Thanks, Phil! 😃 I think I figured out why nobody paints baked potatoes… this was really tough! Lol… glad you liked the outcome though!
Love baked potatoes and you did such a great job on making me hungry for them. 😄
Thanks so much, Teri! 😃💕
This is impressive! I love your photos! I just posted my London, Paris and Italy trip! I just followed you too! Let’s keep connected! https://thelostmango.wordpress.com XOXO
Thanks!😃 Only, mine aren’t photos, they’re watercolor illustrations.
I am in love with your art! XOXO