Ask Dr. Potato

Q: Do you have any Christmas cookie recipes that use potatoes?

Q: What has happened to the waxy white potatoes that we used to boil for potato salad, or use in soups and in stews? I don’t like to work with gold potatoes, as their color is not nearly as appetizing. I now buy red, new potatoes but they don’t have the same flavor and they are hard to peel. Please let me know if the waxy white potatoes are available anywhere.

Q: I recently saw a post from Danielle Kartes of Rustic Joyful Food about her Christmas Idaho Potato Round-up. Do you happen to have that?

Q: Can I use the Easy Baker potatoes for potato salad if I unwrap them and clean them?

Q: Often I would like to serve baked potatoes with meat I have cooked in the oven. If I am cooking the meat at a lower oven temp - 325F, for example, how can I cook the potatoes?

Q: How long should potatoes be immersed in water before frying?

Q: What do I do with my leftover Thanksgiving mashed potatoes?

Q: Does the plastic wrap covering the microwaveable potatoes absorb into the product. Have any tests been done for residual plasticizers found in the cooked potato?

Q: I recently read a post from Danielle Kartes of Rustic Joyful Food about visiting an Idaho potato harvest. Do you have it by chance?

Q: I grew up in Utah/Idaho/Wyoming and potatoes were always full of flavor and delicious. But since I moved to California in 2000, I have been dismayed that normal Russet potatoes are bland and flavorless. Google always tells me Burbank are better than norkota but my experience here in CA is that Norkota are better (but still bland) and Burbank are totally flavorless. So I only buy Yukon Gold or Purple potatoes from South America. But I miss a good old Idaho baked potato like I grew up with. The Burbank russets here in CA may say IDAHO on the bag but they have no flavor. So I'm mystified - the potatoes here taste like they were grown in sand with chemical fertilizer rather than being grown in rich soil. I'd love any suggestions for how I can find good baking potatoes here in Northern California. Thanks!