Mom’s Recipe Box, Potatoes, and Her Cast Iron Skillet

I have inherited my mom’s recipe box. As I go through it, I find it startling just how similar our idea of what makes a good recipe. That is, a recipe worth clipping out of a magazine or newspaper and worth keeping for years. My recipe box spills over with these clippings; so does hers.

They are recipes that recall my childhood, maybe your childhood as well. They range from old New York Times Magazine recipes by Molly O’Neill, to the ones from utility companies, like Pacific Gas & Electric, which were included in the newsletter that accompanies the monthly bill. We will begin with the following potato recipes. I always wondered who developed the newsletter recipes. Did they have a home economist on staff whose sole purpose it was to come up with recipes that used a lot of fuel to prepare? Was there a set of guidelines that established that no recipe would be acceptable unless it took at least an hour to bake at 350 degrees? Perhaps that is how “Potato Wedges” was born. I remember my mom preparing them several times a week. This is a typical mom recipe. She always had potatoes (bought by the ten pound bag) and a few yellow onions in the house. So easy, so delicious, so inexpensive. I remember her serving them with meat loaf. I prepared them in the same oven that last night’s chicken was roasting in. I plan to prepare them again next week to serve along side a pan-fried steak. I find them most comforting these days.

Potato and Onion Wedges

Ingredients:

1 red onion, peeled and cut into quarters
4 large Russet potatoes, washed, dried, and cut into quarters lengthwise
Canola oil
Seasoned Salt (Schillings Brand)*
Garlic powder*
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, toss together onion, potatoes and enough canola oil to coat well. Sprinkle with plenty of seasoned salt, garlic powder and black pepper. Sprinkle with plenty of seasoned salt, garlic powder and black pepper. Toss and pour onto a large baking sheet. Bake for one hour. Check at 30 minutes to flip over wedges. The potatoes are done when they are slightly puffy and golden. The onions will be a deep caramel color. Yield: 2–3 big servings

*Food Snobs Note: Ingredients like seasoned salt and garlic powder have been around for a long time for a reason. They are tasty and they are convenient. Just think of them as ‘rubs’.