Sunday Soul Food

Can I talk to you for just a minute about Roast Potatoes?

This is Happy-Making food here at our house. It is the most hands-off sort of thing to put in an oven, and it guarantees pleased children and cleared plates. It's as easy as scrubbing potatoes, chunking them*, dumping them into a baking pan, drizzling with olive oil, dusting with Kosher salt**, stirring it up, and baking at 425. I like to stir now and then, because I want all the edges to crunch. It cooks for nearly an hour when I have nearly an hour, or more like 40 minutes when I have 40 minutes. It goes with anything*** and warms us up from mouth to soul.

So we will come home from Church today to Kate DiCamillo's gorgeous The Magician's Elephant **** and a "roaring" gas fire while we roast our potatoes. I love Sundays. Hope yours is peaceful, too.

*That's a scientific measurement. It results in pieces that are about the size of an olden-days ice cube - remember ice cube trays? Like that. If your potatoes (and your chunks) are the right size, every piece gets crunchy skin on. Mmm.

**I'm not a salt "snob" exactly, even though I have at least 4 kinds of salt in my house at any time. The Kosher salt is crunchy and it doesn't disappear during baking. But also? These potatoes become Sunday Potatoes if you replace the salt with that dry Onion Soup Mix, which you can pay $1.25 for under the name Lipton, or $0.30 as a store brand. You're welcome.

***Okay, not pasta. But YUM with a loaded green salad (like with carrots and cukes and cheese and kidney beans and artichoke hearts and tomatoes and pretty red-and-orange-and-yellow peppers and olives and croutons and three kinds of lettuces and green onions and capers).

****This is my favorite of her two that came out this year. I do love our Mercy Watson, but that one (Something Wonky This Way Comes) was bittersweet, since it's the last in the series. But Magician's Elephant? Striking. Spare. Magical. Family-centric. Hopeful. Lyrical. Lovely.