My tip about potatoes is...don't let your husband pick out the bag of potatoes,because then you get home and reach in the bag to make supper and grab a rotten one because he didn't think to check the bag.

Here's one I like for baked potatoes

Turn your oven on to preheat. Cut the potato in half lengthwise. Put a pat or two of butter (or a little oil) in a cast iron skillet on the range over medium high heat. Place potatoes cut side down, and cook for about 10 minutes or so (until oven is heated and cut edge is golden). Put pan in oven. Having the potatoes, and getting them started on the range, cuts the baking time down to about half what it usually takes to bake potatoes the regular way. And we usually only eat a half a potato when they're prepared like this for some reason.

I like that one Azzalea!

I don't have a tried and true way of keeping potatos fresh.
Mine sit out at room temperature, and my Yukon Golds have sprouted. I haven't seen a sprout in a long time....usually they just wrinkle.

I wish I had one sprout this spring, I would have tried planting it on the balcony in a pail. I heard this can be done, and I would have had home-grown potatoes.

My wonderful husband came home this spring (Feb. here in Texas) with 10 lbs. of seed potatoes. Fortunately we have a large garden. Does anyone else have any idea how many potatoes you get from 10 lbs. of seed potatoes? A LOT.
My tip is, give them to neighbors. After you run out of neighbors, give to acquaintances. See if the stranger walking down the street wants some. Donate them to the food pantry. Leave them on doorsteps in the dead of night.
Store the rest in a mesh bag in the pantry and pray for mice!

Buy a couple at a time. Cost more, but you are not throwing them away....

I so know what CR is saying. Been there done that. :))

Don't store potatoes next to dry onions......
I just buy a couple at a time, too.

Store in a closet, a dark one at that. They last a long time.
Why would you not store them next to dry onions Carol? I am curious.

Trin

I love homemade cream of potato soup.

DD baked a nice chicken dinner for us last night with onions and potatoes. Rub Lawrey's Seasoned Salt and poultry seasoning under the breast skin of the roasting chicken & on top of the legs and thighs too. Cut a large onion in half, and each half into about 4 to 6 wedges. Slice clean, unpeeled potatoes about 1/4 inch thick. You can also add peeled Hubbard squash, carrots, parsnips or turnips. Place the chicken in a large roasting pan and surround it with the vegetables. Salt and pepper the veggies. Drizzle olive oil over the chicken and vegetables. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, do not cover chicken or pan, place in oven for 1 hour. Let rest out of the oven for 10 minutes so the juices return to the meat flesh before carving. This is so yummy. The potatoes soak up the juices and are so tasty.

Store potatoes in the dark. Storing them in the light can cause toxins to develop under the skin. That's why the skin turns green.

The sulfur fumes from the onions cause the potatoes to rot a lot sooner.
I always store them in the dark and have the onions in the hanging basket.

A potato, if not rotten, is a live thing. If it is exposed to light, it begins to develop chlorophyll and this is the 'green' that you see. Eat too much chlorophill and green potoato skin, and you'll get an upset stomach, or stomach ache.

If you want to grow a few potato plants, it is very easy to do. One large potato can spawn several plants. Reproduction is by cuttings, so new plants will breed true to its parent.

Locate the 'eyes' on a potato. These are the sites of new plants. Cut the potato in pieces leaving as large amount of potato as possible around and under the eyes. Plant these pieces in soil with the eye part facing up. The eye should not be very deep and will sprout ok if it is showing. Gardeners of my time covered the eye with a thin layer of fine dirt to discourage birds from picking at the planting. Plant in full sun and keep the soil moist, but not saturated. The eye should sprout in a few days and not long after that you will have a new plant. The young plant consumes much of the atarch in the piece of the potato while developing its own roots. That is why the potato piece should not be too small.

You can have fun with a sweet potato. It will sprout and make a considerable amount of vines before it runs out of food. Place a whole sweet potato in a small ceramic pot and hang where it will receive light. Submerge half to 2/3 of the potato with water. Keep watered as the plant grows. It will grow a mass of vines that spill over the pot and hang down. Its growth will contine until it runs the parent potato out of food.

I have known of folks that kept such a vine alive the entire growing season. I don't know their technique, but I think that after the plant became established, they added soil and fed the plant.

For wonderful baked potatoes:
Wash and dry the potato, poke a few times with the tines of a fork, rub with olive oil and liberally salt. Bake at 375* for about 45 minutes or until cooked thru.

Hassleback potatoes are tasty too:
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.
Peel small red or golden potatoes (golf ball or a bit larger size). Lay the potato in a spoon and make 1/4" horizontal slices almost but not all the way thru the potato. Place in baking pan and drizzle with melted butter/olive oil mixture, toss to coat. Salt and pepper well. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until potatoes are golden and crisp.

Greek Potatoes
1 medium onion peeled, large dice
2 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 waxy potatoes peeled and quartered
1 small can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 teaspoon garlic powder or 2 fresh garlic cloves peeled, rough chopped
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
3-4 slices of good feta cheese (served as side to potatoes)

In medium large pot saute onions in oil until just translucent. Add all the rest of the ingredients except the feta cheese. Cover and cook for about 30-40 minutes or until the potatoes are just tender. Try not to stir the potatoes too much as they could fall apart. Serve in a small bowl with juices and a slice of feta.

Great tips and recipes...thanks. I had to laugh at giving away all the potatoes..we had a relative once that had a very similar experience with zucchini. It was hilarious the way they would even leave it on strangers cars etc.
I never knew about the onion. I had always known about the green on the potato, especially for bad for pregnant women I have heard.
Thanks again all.