I remember one thing that was served with some frequency when I was a kid. Baked potatoes. I loved them. What's not to love about a vehicle for butter and salt? But I think baked potatoes have fallen out of fashion in my adulthood, a big carb-filled no-no. I know I completely forgot about them. One night Peter and I were mulling over ideas to have a couple of meat-free dinners each week and we were both like "wha... about a baked potato?"
Yes! Of course!
This family loves to have choices to wrap, top, and mix into their dinner.Through trial and error we've managed to come up with several meals that fit into this genre... make your own pizza night, salad night, pasta with sauces and "wid-its" night, etc. And now we have baked potato night. Its a meal that is met with no complaining and whining (imagine) and its so easy.
I love baked potato night just for those two reasons alone.
Here's how we do ours:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Scrub the outside of the potatoes (figure one per person, 1/2 for a little person), then rub their outsides with olive oil, then season the skin with pepper and sea salt. Place them directly on the oven rack for 1 hour.
Grab and glass of wine and the New York Times crossword puzzle while you wait.
I'm just sayin... I mean, you've got an hour.
Save yourself enough time at the end of the cooking time to get your add-ins ready. For us, that would be:
Bacon, chopped
Light sour cream
2 kinds of cheese
fresh chives
and those little crunchy onions you can find in the salad/crouton section of the produce area- Emma and I are kind of nuts for them.
And literally, whatever else we have in the fridge that sounds good... sundried tomatoes, pesto, whatever.
They are incredibly good, especially the skin.
But the secret to the no complaining from my kids is quite possibly all about the lazy susan in the middle of the table.
Maybe its the connection between kids and things that spin? Not sure, but my kids both say "cool!" as soon as they see it in the middle of the table. Ours is a simple wooden from IKEA and I see these secondhand all the time (those poor people didn't want any fun, I guess).
I relish in my random mealtime success. It doesn't happen often. Peter and Emma came home from a 3 day school camping trip on Friday night. Emma plopped down in her chair, declaring "I LOVE BAKED POTATO NIGHT!"
Now maybe that's because she lived on s'mores for 3 days, but I'm calling it a success.
