Soaking it all in

Let’s talk about the diversity of a potato. I mean there are red potatoes, Yukon gold (fancy term for yellow), russets, white and even purple varieties. Literally there are thousands of varieties. And just think of all the possible yummy foods you make with potatoes. French fries, mashed, scalloped, twice baked, hash brown, potato salad and even soup recipes come to mind when contemplating how to plate up tubers. And let’s not forget how vital potatoes are in making vodka and other alcoholic beverages. Cheers to that! But did you know spuds are used in a variety of other ways? According to the International Potato Center (yep a real organization with a website), potato starch is used by the pharmaceutical, textile, wood and paper industries as an adhesive, binder, texture agent and filler. Some of these companies make wood products containing potato by-products. That gives new meaning to the term home-fries doesn’t it? Those potato peels we often discard are biodegradabl...

Some of the best foods come in wraps. We typically call them burritos, but don’t limit your thoughts to merely Mexican food. Although that is my favorite one-handed grab-and-go meal; tangy and spicy beef, chicken or bean (or a combo with all three) beautifully wrapped in a flour tortilla, a perfectly bundled package of yumminess. But the wonderful thing about a burrito is that you can turn just about anything into one. It’s all about the wrap. Whether it’s a flour, wheat, spinach or corn tortilla, once you place food in the middle and fold, you’ve got a burrito. There are hundreds of possibilities. I love making scrambled eggs with spinach, hash brown potatoes and crispy bacon for breakfast. You lightly heat the tortilla on a flat skillet, fill with all the breakfast goodies, fold and eat. Lightly heat a tortilla on one side. Once warm turn to heat the other side while sprinkling the top with a little cinnamon and sugar. Remove the tortilla from the heat. Add sliced pieces of pr...