"potato" news and stories

This potato fritter looks, in our humble opinion, exactly as a potato fritter should.

It's crispy around the edges with little shreds of potato and sweet potato trailing seductively from a perfectly golden brown, tender center. It sort of reminds us of the sun, or, less abstractly, of what we'd like to be eating right now. The fact that this fritter's creator, Molly Watson of The Dinner Files, originally intended for this to be a potato latke makes us love it even more.

We know the pain and sorrow of potato latkes -- indeed, our mother's first and only attempt to make the starchy little devils resulted in an unscheduled visit from the fire department -- so we can sympathize with the myriad frustrations Ms. Watson describes on her blog. And we can also relate to the unexpected joys of happy kitchen accidents that yield gorgeous fritters like this one, particularly if they're accompanied by a few spoonfuls of applesauce or tangy Greek yogurt. So please, go fritter some time away -- yes, we went there -- with Molly.

[Via The Dinner Files]

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Potatoes are, simply, awesome. Whether whole, sliced, chopped, or mashed, boiled, baked, or fried, they elicit groans of pleasure and serious love. Love for taters has even broken out of the realm of food and inspired iconic toys. But there's also potato-themed clothing.

The other day my friend, aptly named Ms. Potato, alerted me to an engrish.com picture of a child wearing a sweatshirt that says: "I feel happiness when I eat a potato." The sentiment was so cute and bang-on that it lead me to visions of cute tees with the saying, and a search of potato-themed tees.

If you love potatoes, there are some great ways to show that love. Zazzle has a lot of potato-themed shirts, like baked tater happiness, romance-themed valentaters, and my favorite -- the trucker hat you see above, Latke Lover. Cafepress has a ton of goodies as well, from f-ing loving potatoes, to emergency potatoes, to just simple love, and they come on a variety of surfaces that include pins and even thongs.

Do you wear your potato love on your sleeve, chest, or elsewhere?

You know what I love most about America? The way that we have a holiday for everything. And even when we run out of holidays, we just make up more holidays and continue using them as excuses to glut. And when it's a food holiday, we are officially permissed to double-gorge! So here's a heads-up for my favorite August food holidays -- y'know, so you can get your shopping done early and beat the mad holiday rush.

• August 1 - Raspberry Cream Pie Day: This shortcut Chilled Raspberry Cream Pie recipe from Rachael Ray can be whipped up in a jif. It'll be just like one of those No-Bake commercials when your friends and family are fawning over you for spending the day slaving over the stove while you're secretly sniggering to yourself, "Heh heh, it was no bake, you fools!"
• August 2 - Ice Cream Sandwich Day: Sure, you could wade through the freezer case, or you could man up and make your own. Consider these decadent peanut-butter-'n'-honey-flavored "Bee-Nut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches" from Domestic Goddess.

Have you ever gotten some potatoes and noticed a green tinge to them? Here's why.

Spoilers!

It hasn't even been a week since the season finale of Top Chef, and I'm already into a new show. It's a rebound -- something new and exciting to occupy me for now, and who knows what it could turn into? A brief fling? A multi-season love affair? I feel so giddy.

So just to clarify: Last night was my first evening spent with The Next Food Network Star. I'm going to be writing recaps for the rest of the season, but my experience with the show is limited to one episode, plus all of the online content. That means that all you veteran watchers should feel free to help me out whenever possible with details from past seasons, etc. And if you haven't seen the show, start watching Sundays at 10 p.m. EST and we can learn together!