If you know me in real life, or if you have read this blog for very long, you know that I am not a good cook. I can follow recipes, if they don’t ask for ingredients that I cannot pronounce. I am always looking for recipes that use few ingredients and do not require my standing on my feet for long periods of time. I love my crock pot. I love my oven and  my microwave. I also love drive-thru restaurants, but that’s a post for another time.

I usually use my crock pot each Sunday for our noon meal. I sometimes use it during the week, too. One thing I love to do with my crock pot is bake potatoes in it. It’s a tip my sister gave me a long time ago. You wash your potatoes, wrap them in foil, then prick them through the foil with a fork, cook on high for about 4 hours. This was working very well until I noticed that I was jabbing bits of foil into the potato, and after it baked, it was very hard to remove said bits of foil. Yesterday, as I prepared our potatoes, I mentioned my dilemma to my husband. He said, “Prick them before you wrap them.” I said, “Oh. Okay.” I had been concerned they wouldn’t cook up right if they foil wasn’t pricked, but, I discovered that I was wrong! They baked beautifully! I was going to serve them to the family when my husband said, “Why don’t you just mash them, with the skins on?” I said, “Oh. Okay.” (Boy, what would I do without him to help me cook? And make money for me to spend? Yikes.) I pulled out my handy-dandy hand mixer and whirred away. I threw in a stick of butter so I could do something that he didn’t suggest, and so I could pretend I was Paula Deen.

Sit down and relish these potatoes which required so little effort. Have your kids clean up the mess, then take a nap. 🙂