I really hate to peel potatoes

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, with all the trimmings and everyone was able to be here. It was delightful!! Games and little ones, football, pumpkin pie and lots of noise. It all goes with the territory, I guess. Unfortunately I did not get pictures of the meal or the guests or the fun afterwards, but I did get this picture of the potato peeling duty. Who would have thought that potatoes would be more interesting than the people and other Thanksgiving delights. Well, really they are not more interesting, but I did realize why I really am not fond of peeling potatoes.

What easier task in the kitchen than peeling a potato. Not difficult at all, right? Similar in difficulty to washing a dish, oiling a pan, chopping an onion, making a sandwich and many many other things. All of these other things are things which I do routinely and don't even think about, but peeling potatoes is a job which I just really do not care for. I never even thought about it before this weekend. It was like one of those things that I am sort of aware of, but just have never articulated or taken the time to give much thought to why that is.

However as I was peeling potatoes this year, it became clear to me that this dislike comes of the nightly ritual of peeling potatoes in my childhood, many years ago. We never had rice or noodles or other starchy products. It was always potatoes and guess who got to peel them. Yep, me!!! We had potatoes every night and I peeled them every night. So although they are not difficult to do, there is a certain trigger that goes off each time we decide to have potatoes that comes from many years ago. I might mention that my dad, who raised me, was very particular about how I peeled the potatoes. So it really became a job that I did not look forward to. However one positive thing remains -----I just love mashed potatoes!!