101 THINGS TO DO WITH A POTATO

Say what you will, but since we each reportedly eat 130 pounds of potatoes a year, some extra variations on the spud could come in handy. (Besides, it turns out that this 101 Things genre is one of those specialty-publishing phenomena that fly under the radar and into piles and piles of revenue. Stephanie "Mrs. 101" Ashcraft followed up her 150,000-copy seller 101 Things to Do With a Slow Cooker with 101, um, More Things to Do With a Slow Cooker.) To the "versatile vegetable" at hand, though, this is the final word on what to do with your potatoes, at least until the followup. Soups and stews; salads; main dishes; side dishes; baked; mashed; fried; desserts?yes, desserts: this was the category, of course, that ended up serving as the official Kirkus Reports potato taste test. Potato Chip Cookies seemed provocative at first but turned out to be merely cookies with potato chips?an easy out. (But still: yum.) Ivan's Favorite Carrot Cake was then put to the test, with all indications pointing to nasty. A box of cake mix and a cup of mashed potatoes later and we'd found yet another reason to chance a carb attack. Simple, practical, surprisingly useful little spiral-bound kitchen helper.