We REALLY have the meat and potatoes on our post today - Mexican Potato Skin Bites, made with chorizo, potatoes, and cheese! We also have a special guest with us today, Potato Bug Pete. Potato bugs are large, flightless insects, also known as Jerusalem crickets. They are active at night like crickets, but don't play pretty music like Christie. When the potato bug rubs its back legs against these spines on its abdomen, it produces a sound similar to rubbing sandpaper. They have a large human-like head and their feet are used for burrowing beneath moist soil to feed on decaying root plants and tubers. Their strong jaws allow them to produce a painful bite, although they are not poisonous. When frightened, the potato bug will move onto its back legs and jump.
They're also not from Jerusalem, but are native to the Western United States and parts of Mexico. In Spanish, the potato bug is called niña de la tierra (child of the earth). Native Americans have several names for the potato bug: woh-tzi-neh (old bald-headed man), the Navajo's c’ic’in lici’ I coh (big red-skull), and the Hopi's qalatötö (shiny bug).
Chorizo is ground pork, flavored with chiles, vinegar, and seasonings. Chorizo con hueves is a popular breakfast dish which is made by mixing fried chorizo with scrambled eggs and cheese. Chorizo can also be combined with refried beans as a side dish or used in tortas as a spread. A popular filling for breakfast tacos is chorizo con papas, or diced potatoes with fried chorizo.
Vincent Van Gogh painted The Potato Eaters in 1885. It is considered by many to be Van Gogh's first great work of art, although it was not successful in his time. At the time of its creation, Van Gogh had only recently started painting and had not yet mastered the techniques that would later make him famous.
MEXICAN POTATO SKIN BITES
20 small new (red) potatoes
1 tbsp. oil
Salt & pepper
6 ounces Mexican chorizo
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I like Sargento 4 Cheese Mexican blend)
2 green onions, thinly sliced
Sour cream
Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Arrange whole potatoes on a baking sheet, drizzle with oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Roast until potatoes are fork tender, about 30 minutes, depending on size.
Set potatoes aside until cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, cook chorizo (remove casing) in nonstick pan until browned (about 5-7 minutes). Set aside.
Slice potatoes in half, and using a melon baller or small spoon (metal teaspoon works well), scoop out most of the interior (leaving about 1/4 inch of potato flesh). Divide chorizo among the skins and top with cheese. Bake until skins are warmed through and cheese is melted, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and garnish with green onions. Serve with sour cream. (My picture does not do it justice - time for a better camera!
ENJOY!
Time to "peel" out of here and watch Speedy Gonzalez and Sylvester in Chili Weather!
It's finally FRYday! None of the other bloggers could say that!! I've been rustling together all the facts about potato sack racing. It's basically a race where you place your two feet in a sack (or pillowcase) and hop from the starting line to the finish line. Whoever reaches the finish line first is the winner!
Potato sack races were an actual Olympic event in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis. In the late 19th century, potato sack races were a common athletic event on college campuses. College track teams trained intensely for races. College-level potato sack racers in the late 1800s wore the sack tied securely up to their necks. While most races hopped their way to the finish line, some athletes performed hurdles during their sack races. Potato sack races were a common form of entertainment for English soldiers in the late 1700s. Soldiers formed up races to pass the time while in camp during the Revolutionary War. No couch potatoes back then!
Here's some fun facts about potatoes:
At a White House dinner in 1802, President Thomas Jefferson was the first person to serve french fries in the U.S. (darn if we don’t see his name a lot on this blog!)
Potato chips are American’s favorite snack food - 1.2 billion pounds are devoured each year.Potato chips were invented in Saratoga Springs in 1853 by Chef George Crum.
During the Alaskan Klondike gold rush, (1897-1898) potatoes were practically worth their weight in gold!Potatoes were so valued for their vitamin C content, miners traded gold for potatoes.In fact, there is even a potato called Yukon Gold.These potatoes are slightly flat and oval in shape with light gold, thin skin and light yellow flesh.
In 1995, potato plants were taken into space with the space shuttle Columbia.This marked the first time any food was ever grown in space!
The average person in the U.S. eats 130 pounds of potatoes each year.
Frozen potatoes, including french fries, are the number one prepared style of potatoes in the U.S.Americans eat more than 16 pounds of French fries every year.That’s over 2 million tons!
Approximately one-third of all potatoes grown in the U.S. are grown in Idaho.62% of all Idaho potatoes that are harvested are used to make frozen or instant potatoes.
New York consumes more potatoes than any other state, followed by Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas.(Texas loves taters!)
Pennsylvania potatoes are recognized worldwide as the best potato-chip potato. In Waterford, Pennsylvania, glaciers from the last Ice Age left behind a layer of porous gravel, topped by rich, loamy soil.
The world’s largest potato weighed in at 18 pounds, 4 ounces, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.That’s enough for 73 portions of medium fries at McDonald’s!
Potato sacks or flour sacks were used to make clothing during the Depression (1930s). When farmers brought home feed sacks, women used the sacks as material to sew clothing, dish towels, curtains, and quilts! They ranged from plain white material to flowered, checked, and plaids.
I was feeling so nostalgic, but it's time for me to hit the sack! There's still a little time to watch a Potato Head Kids video, Small Potatoes, and a video by the Small Potatoes (their theme song is first).
I was thinking about couch potatoes today and where the expression comes from. It was during a telephone conversation on July 15, 1976, that the phrase was first uttered. Tom Iacino of Pasadena, California, was a member of a Southern California group that humorously opposed the fads of exercise and healthy diet and favored sitting in front of the TV and eating junk food! They called themselves boob tubers because the TV was called the boob tube. He substituted the word potato as a synonym for tuber. Thinking of where the potato sits to watch the tube, he came up with couch potato. Did you get that the guy's name was Tom?!!!
Hearing the new phrase, Robert Armstrong, the co-founder and member of the boob tubers, drew a cartoon of a potato on a couch, formed a club called the Couch Potatoes, registered the trademark, and began selling Couch Potato merchandise, everything from T-shirt to dolls. He published a newsletter called The Tuber's Voice: The Couch Potato Newsletter. He also wrote a book, Dr. Spudd's Etiquette for the Couch Potato.
The Potatoes were an all-male club, but the wives of the members demanded a similar club for women called the Couch Tomatoes (motto: "Equal Rights to the Couch.") Armstrong sold Couch Potato and Couch Tomato memberships. I'm still not kidding, guys!
Couch Potatoes® - The society for the prolonged viewing of television. The Couch Potatoes® organization feels
that "in a country where there are more homes with televisions than with indoor plumbing," it was time for television watchers to "come out of the closet and lie down and be counted." The organization (now defunct) included both "Couch Potatoes®" and "Tater Tots" (the younger members). The children were encouraged to watch as much TV as possible stressing historical programming like DAVY CROCKETT, YANCY DERRINGER and THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF WYATT EARP. Watching shows such as SESAME STREET or THE ELECTRIC COMPANY was a violation of one of their ten commandments: "Thou shalt not watch anything educational or British."
There was a game showed called Couch Potatoes in 1989, where players competed to win $5,000 for answering TV trivia questions. In the late 1980's, in Massachusetts, another group came into existence called the Potato Anti-Defamation League. It was formed in response to the negative association with prolonged TV viewing.
UK farmers want couch potato removed from the dictionary because they believe theexpression is damaging the vegetable's image. A campaign for changing the term couch potato to couch slouch was led by the British Potato Council, representing 4,000 growers and processors. The council argued that potatoes were "inherently healthy." Still not kidding here....
Charlotte and I played around with the Hot Potato today. I think she was "buttering" me up for my post today!
Charlotte is a couch tater and proud of it! Actually, she gets a good walk in the morning and plays with Caesar during the day, but she takes her relaxing at night to a whole other level.
You don't have to butter me up to play Fred Figglehorn's Tater Haters:
Hey, small fries, we finally get to the “meat and potatoes” of the blog today!Or should I say quail? Yeah, he's pretty cute, but I was talking about Dan Quayle.
Dan Quayle was the Vice-President of the United States, serving with George H. W. Bush (1989-1993).Quayle was widely ridiculed in the media and by the general public for making either confusing or self-contradictory statements (hmmm, sound familiar?)
A good example would be after Bush announced the Space Exploration Initiative, which included a manned landing on Mars. When Quayle was asked his thoughts on sending humans to Mars, he answered, "Mars is essentially in the same orbit as Earth....Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."
His most famous blunder is on June 15, 1992, when he was a guest at a staged spelling bee at Munoz Rivera School in Trenton, New Jersey (when he was campaigning against Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee Senator Al Gore). He was given flash cards with simple words that he was to ask students to spell on the blackboard.One of the flash cards had the word "potatoe" on it. When William Figueroa, a 12-year-old student in the sixth grade, was asked to spell the word, he spelled it correctly. VP Quayle quietly said to him, "You’re close, but you left a little something off - the "e" on the end." The student knew it was not correct, but added it anyway to be polite. Everyone applauded, and the misspelling wasn’t mentioned until the end of the press conference afterward, when one reporter asked Quayle, "How do you spell potato?" It wasn't until that moment that Quayle realized anything was wrong. Of course, the media went crazy, claiming that, "Dan Quayle can't spell potato!"
The student was invited to be on the David Letterman show, where he told the host, "I know he’s not an idiot, but he needs to study more. Do you have to go to college to be Vice-President?" The potato incident was then used by the Democrats backing Clinton and Gore to ridicule the VP again. Figueroa was even flown in to deliver the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democratic National Convention that summer.
Remember, that's Quayle (with an "e" on the end)!
How about one more serving of potato humor?
Q: Why did the potato cross the road?
A: He saw a fork up ahead!
Q: How do you describe an angry potato?
A: Boiling mad!
Q: Why didn't the mother potato want her daughter to marry the famous newscaster?
A: Because he was a commontater!
Q: Why wouldn't the reporter leave the mashed potatoes alone?
A: He desperately wanted a scoop!
Q: What do you say to an angry 300-pound baked potato?
A: Anything, just butter him up!
Q: What does a British potato say when it thinks something is wonderful?
A: It's smashing!
Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance) - I can do the "mashed potato."
It's been as hot as a baked potato again this week. I found some more squirrels that were really trying hard to beat this heat, but we were all getting "fried" anyway. I found another camp thief in one of the trees with a plastic baggie!
I also found some cool potato art. There are no dud spuds here! These are by artist Ginou Choueiri, who creates incredible potato-people using potatoes. The artist uses potatoes, as they have much in common with the human face - their skin, their colors, and like us, they come in a number of shapes and sizes.
Here are some creations by unknown artists:
Does this give you any ideas, or is your brain fried now?
How about something blue and cute? Let's watch the Smurfs trailer for their new movie!
DEAR TABBY: My grandchildren don't believe me when I describe the original Mr. Potato Head toy that I played with as a child in the 1950s. You supplied the actual potato (or any fruit or vegetable) and made a face with the plastic pieces shaped like noses, ears, eyes, and mouths attached to a push-pin. Help me out, Tabby, so they won't look at me like I'm half-baked! MRS. KATE TATE, LOONEYVILLE, TEXAS
DEAR MRS TATE: Just before 1950, a well-known inventor, George Lerner, designed and produced a set of plastic face pieces which could be pushed into fruits and vegetables. However, being in the World War II era, toy companies didn't think that customers would accept the idea of wasting a piece of food as a child's toy. Determined, George finally sold the toy to a cereal company, who planned to use the pieces as a giveaway in cereal boxes.
In 1951, Mr. Lerner approached Henry & Merrill Hassenfeld, who owned a company that sold toy-filled pencil boxes, to fill their boxes with his toy face pieces. They loved his idea and bought the toy from the cereal company. It was a purchase that would become their first huge toy hit, and help boost their company, later called HASBRO, into the ranks of toy legends!
The Hassenfelds introduced their new Mr. Potato Head Funny Face Kit to the world on April 30, 1952, and began one of America’s greatest toy stories. The original price for this Mr. Potato Head was under one dollar! In 1953, Mrs. Potato Head was introduced, and as you can guess, this sprouted even more characters and accessories in the sets.
This continued for almost 12 years, but beginning in 1964, brown plastic potato heads with predrilled holes were included in all Mr. Potato Head sets. One of the reasons for the change were the sharp points on the face pieces. Government regulations forced Hasbro to round off the points, and they just didn’t puncture food very well after that. This also meant new "Tooty Frooty Friends" for Mr. Potato Head which included Oscar Orange, Pete the Pepper, Cooky the Cucumber, and Katie Carrot.
In the later 1960s, kids wanted more action toys, so in 1966, Mr. Potato Head became Jumpin' Mr. Potato Head. With a slightly larger body and a wind-upwindup mechanism, he could fish, use a jackhammer, fly a kite, or just plain jump for joy. Mrs. Potato Head could use a duster, a floor cleaner, and ring the dinner bell!
The 1970s were not kind to Mr. Potato Head and bizarre changes were made. His head size doubled and the face pieces were made even larger due to stricter government regulations. What worse is, he lost his hands and body! He only had two stubby feet and the holes in his head became horizontal and vertical slots. This only allowed the pieces to be inserted in one direction, so you could no longer make funny faces with crooked mouths or twisted ears!
The 1980s saw a rebirth to Mr. Potato Head. Hisshape and color were changed to basically the shape he is today. He was given bendable, non-removable arms, and a trap door backside for storing extra parts. In addition, the round holes returned AND on February 11, 1985, Baby Potato Head was born! The toy was popular again through the remainder of the '80s, and the Saturday morning cartoon My Little Pony & Friends featured a regular segment with the all new Potato Head Kids in 1986.
Mr. Potato Head's appearance stayed basically the same through the late '80s into the '90s. In 1992, Hasbro introduced the Soft Stuff Potato Head, but in 1995, Pixar Pictures and Disney released a groundbreaking movie called Toy Story, and with the success of the movie, the lovable Mr. Potato Head was on shirts, ties, posters, games, puzzles, postcards, and hundreds of other products. In the fall of 1998, the Fox Kids Network began airing the live action TV show, The Mr. Potato Head Show. This show featured a puppet version of a muscular Mr. Potato Head and a gang of his kitchen friends. In 1999, he joined Mrs. Potato Head in the sequel Toy Story 2, and in 2010, in Toy Story 3!
Mr. Potato Head turned 50 in 2002! Mr. Head traveled in his "Spudmobile" to 250 birthday parties at Wal-Mart stores all over the country. This 50 Years of Smiles tour included a $25,000 giveaway and charitable donations to OPERATION SMILE. WHAT A SPUD!
The Rhode Island Legislature gave their "peel of approval" in 2002 to a state auto license plate featuring Mr. Potato Head, all to raise money for charity, and a patriotic edition Mr. Potato Head was released to help raise money for the children effected by the Sept. 11 attacks.
No more couch tater: In 2005, Mr. Potato Head got Healthy and became the national spokesman for the United States Potato Board and made his debut as a giant balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.
Currently, his popularity shows no signs of slowing down. The most successful licensed products so far are the Sports Spuds. They are smaller team-specific versions of Mr. Potato Head from over 100 collegiate and pro teams!
And I've unearthed The Potato Song - oh, yeah, this one will get in your head!
You know You've Got a Friend in Me, don't you? BDD likes you, too.
