I remember growing up there was a long lived campaign by Stove Top stuffing mix to replace the potatoes in your meal with stuffing. Mostly it was kids asking if they could stay at a friend’s house for dinner because they were having stove top instead of potatoes.
To me this seemed very strange… because how often does one eat potatoes? I mean… when I was growing up we really only had potatoes at Thanskgiving and Christmas. I am very willing to admit that my family was far, far from normal in many things including what we ate.
So my question is… growing up and also these days, how often do you eat potatoes at dinner?
Good Midwestern family that we were, I’d guess we had potatoes in some form at least several times a week when I was growing up. I’d hazard a guess that the stereotypical American dinner (especially a few decades ago) was a meat, a vegetable, and one or two starches (maybe potatoes as well as bread or rolls).
If your family only had potatoes twice a year, I’d suspect your consumption was way below average.
I think you’re in the minority. We have some kind of potato side dish at least once or twice a week. Baked, mashed, french fried, au gratin, hash browns, tater tots… tonight we’re having stew which has potatoes in it.
Well I admitted that I knew my experience wasn’t normal in the OP. What I have no way of knowing without asking is how common they ARE/WERE. Which is why I started the thread.
California kid here; I’m sure we had potatoes with dinner more often than not in the '60s. Usually boiled and mashed up with a fork, and topped with margarine.
Another vote. Back in the days of the Stove Top Stuffing rebellion I’d say potatoes in one form or another were at least on the menu twice a week. I just thank Og that those fracking nasty instant Potatoes Au Rotten didn’t take the lead.
My whole family, from generations back, are from coastal southern Georgia. We ate rice and grits at most meals, and potatoes were far less common (born 1969, for reference.) My stepdad is from West Virginia, and even though he has lived in SE Georgia for 40 years now, he doesn’t think it’s a proper meal unless potatoes are on the table. Back in the day, though, when everyone was a “locavore,” you’d have served and eaten what was cheap and available. Potatoes are hard to store in areas like this, with lots of hot humid weather and no root cellars. Back when my food mostly came straight from the farm, potatoes were very seasonal: late spring and autumn.
(And Stove Top? Ick. That’s what people eat when they’re improvident enough not to save their stale bread to make homemade dressing /stuffing!)
Currently, I have potatoes maybe once a week on average. Growing up, it was probably five days a week on average. But I grew up/live in a very “meat & potatoes” neighborhood.
Potatoes were so common, sometimes we even ate store boughten cans of the boiled, heated, Irish new potatoes with butter, chives, and salt with dinner. It was Usually a meat, potatoes, veg, bread, butter and fruit dinner- Always cottage cheese and applesauce on the table. as well. They were really not too bad, quite an interesting “essence” of potato, actually. And canning potatoes is really nothing new.
Main Course; Roast, meatloaf
Potatoes (or Rice)
Veggie: Peas, carrots, corn
Cole Slaw (mom would cole slaw every week)
Apple Sauce (Mom made her own apple sauce, and we had it most nights)
Growing up in the '60’s & '70’s in a family with many kids & not much money, potatoes were on the dinner menu more often than not, either as a side dish or in the various stews my mother attempted. Stuffing was an exotic food only eaten at Thanksgiving when my grandmother made it.
Stuffing was not so much exotic in our case, as much as a special “Holiday Food” and well, reserved for stuffing large birds. I and many of my family members cannot abide stove top stuffing, as it is a pale, and frankly, artificially overpowering substitute for the real thing. It’s donkey dung.
