Tuesday, January 08, 2008

A Sincere Question









OK, let’s be serious here for about three minutes.
I AM THE WORLD’S WORST COOK!
Don’t even try to compete with me on this!
I CAN’T COOK STUFF!
And I’m OK with this.
As the 12-step folks at AA are fond of saying, “The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem!”©

But I just got home from the supermarket.
And I had bought some baking potatoes.
And for the first time ever I sort of noticed the ones yonder that are pre-wrapped in tin-foil and cost way more than the normal spuds. Or, as we say here just ‘cross the bridge from Quebec, “pommes de terre!”
POTATOES!
How can a human being not know how to wrap a potato in tin foil?

No, really.
Again, let me remind you that if cooking were a speed, I would be going backwards faster than the Space Shuttle on re-entry into the atmosphere.
With tiles missing!
But even I know how to wrap a potato in tin-foil. And put it in the oven.
It’s pretty easy.
You can see in the above picture, how to do it, sort of like.
I’m sure that a lot of Jane Goodall’s best friends have even mastered the process!
Are there people out there, breathing the same air I breathe, that will actually pay extra for these pre-wrapped potatoes?

***********

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here in rural outback America, we do not even suffer such frippery in our grocery aisles.

We know that if you are wrapping potatoes in foil, you are doing it wrong anyhow. You must lovingly bathe the potato with extra virgin olive oil, patting it gently while speaking in soothing tones to it - then sprinkle it liberally with coarse pepper and garlic-seasoned salt.
Bake -unwrapped - in a hot oven.

Do you want me to cook up your potato for you, cipriano? Would you like me to show you how it's done?

Beth said...

Shiny, glittery stuff attracts certain people.
Happy to note you have evolved (in terms of cooking skills) so that you could wrap a potato in foil.

(I think you insulted Jane's friends.)

Stefanie said...

Well, you can probably guess that if there are pre-wrapped potatoes there, someone is buying them. I wonder thought if maybe they are cooked already to so you only have to heat them up?

Merisi said...

Phyllis Richmond, the great Washington Post food critic, once wrote that wrapping potatoes in foil is done in restaurants because they to keep baked potatoes warm, and not because they taste better. I don't even oil them, just trow them in a 450°F oven. They come out nice and with crips skin each and every time.
Phyllis also wrote a neat mystery, set in the Washington food scene, "The Butter did it".

Anonymous said...

I remember wrapping the potato in tinfoil but forgetting to turn on the oven! Ha!

Cipriano said...

Thank you all for the potato-lore and basic potato-interest.
I find that if I do not wrap them in tin-foil potatoes in the oven can get real dry, like over-dry and stuff. But, I still cannot imagine having to BUY them like this!
Ah well, it takes all kinds..... to keep the supermarket registers roaring.
If certain pre-wrapped potato fanatics had a look at the items in my grocery bill, I'm sure they could find lots to fault me on.
Like for instance, my religiously severe emphasis on processed foods in general!
I have this image of all of my internal organs, neatly separated [just like the trays in the frozen TV dinners], and they are all crying out to me to visit the fresh produce section a little more often!

Merisi said...

How many hours do you leave your potatoes in the oven????