Why have I wasted my life eating French fries at restaurants? Why have I limited my home cooking to nuking frozen food?

I should have known better. I read “Potatoes Not Prozac!  by Kathleen DesMaisons PhD.  I read the book 15 years ago!

I told my sister, Rosemary, about the book. She read “Potatoes Not Prozac.”  I ignored it, and she took its message to heart.

A few days ago, Rosemary told me how she boils Yukon Gold potatoes. She said it was OK to put butter on them! That was the magic word. “Butter.” Or maybe, “Boil.”  

“Boil a potato, that doesn’t sound too difficult. I can do that!”

Tonight, motivated by the desire for a more frugal lifestyle, I boiled a potato. I knew to use water, but I wasn’t sure how long to boil the potato. I washed it first, left the skin on, and cut it in quarters like Rosemary said. I used the “stick a fork in it” method to decide when it was done.

I smashed the quartered potato a little and added a liberal amount of butter. I topped it off with a sprinkle of that brand-name “seasoned salt” (no MSG). The potato was great! Why didn’t I think of this before?

I don’t know if Kathleen DesMaisons Ph.D. would approve of the butter and the seasoned salt. She’s the one who wrote “Potatoes Not Prozac!” Ms. DesMaisons also has a nifty Web site, “Radiant Recovery,” where her disciples gather to meditate on the virtues of a life without sugar.

Wait a minute! No sugar? I don’t think I’m ready for that. Stick a fork in me, I’m done.

— John Hayden