Add some pizzazz to your Mystery Potato add on a burlap sack!
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You thought enough of someone to mail a potato with a unique and personal message on a Mystery Potato. You can imagine the smile on their face as they tried to guess who sent the anonymous surprise. Finally they called you and thanked you for the gift. Here is a way to keep the party going. How about planting the potato and having home grown spuds to share and enjoy? But first, take a selfie or two of the Mystery Potato and you as the potato is in its prime and pristine condition with the potato message prominently displayed ( this makes a good Facebook picture too).
Whether you plant a crop in the backyard garden or in a planter box, the Mystery Potato can become a small crop of delicious and homegrown nutritious potatoes. Here is a plan to “go potato”.
Let’s say that you have a small garden space in the back yard. Potatoes have some requirements to be successful and here’s how to begin.
The Mystery Potato is a very personal and thoughtful kind of gift. It’s sent anonymously to add to the fun. The giver and the “getter” both have a great time imagining what the other is thinking and feeling. It can be as a gift for a holiday, a birthday, special occasion or “just because”. It has no calendar or time requirement, it can be sent for any reason, any time to anyone from anywhere. It’s a 24/7/365 kind of gift. One of the many uses of the Mystery Potato can be to grow homegrown potatoes such as we just discussed. This too can be year round if they are grown indoors. We’ll cover that in another article. Until then, think Mystery Potato and have fun.
#MysteryPotato
]]>Right after the end of WW2, an inventor named George Lerner came up with an idea to use plastics and a potato as a toy. Plastics were refined during the war and now toys were mass produced using these remarkable and resilient chemical creations. The first concept was to produce comical plastic facial features and hands, hats etc. to be used as premiums in cereal boxes. In the early 1950’s all kinds of small toys were included as incentives to get families to buy popular cereals. But Mr. Lerner had bigger ideas and sold the concept to Hassenfeld Brothers toy manufacturers. The new medium of television was gaining ground and Mr. Potato Head was the first toy advertised on TV. Hasbro is one of the largest toymakers in the world and the Hassenfeld Brothers began their business in the industrial city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
The original Mr. Potato Head used as real potato to do its magic. Potatoes come in all shapes and sizes (like people). Children learned that people are different and creating potato characters opened up imaginations and hearts to diversity and creativeness alike. Mr. Potato Head’s success led to his marriage to Mr. Potato Head (on Amazon.com) and the happy potato couple made many friends. As their fame spread around the world it was evident that not everyone had access to real potatoes and when they did the parts which were attached by pins, caused spoilage. So a generic plastic potato was substituted for the real thing and everyone got to play. Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head became popular cultural icons and other non-toy products employed the cheerful potato-pair as decorative items. In 1992 the President’s Council on Physical Fitness recruited the pair to represent the program to raise public awareness of children’s health and nutrition by granting a special award to the non-couch Potato pair. The happy couple also joined with the League of Women Voters in 1996 to promote “Get Out the Vote”.
Mr. Potato Head helped Hasbro on the road to its world leadership in toys. In gratitude the company has become a major philanthropist. Starting with a seed donation from Hasbro, Hasbro Children’s Hospital has made a difference in the lives of many families. Mr. Potato Head has a heart and the hospital has made a genuine impression on its families, staff and a community alike. When a successful business thanks its customers in a way like this, it shows how much something as basic as a potato can have long reaching effects. It all started with an idea that became an American icon: Mr. Potato Head.
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We’re familiar with the mall stores with gag gifts, some of which seem offensive and would be when given to someone whom we don’t really know or in a public setting such as an office party. Here the bond is a critical element in the process and care must be taken to make sure a positive reaction at the receiving end is assured. Gag gifts are a way to renew or develop a friendship or relationship, a way to go further and develop a common interest and show you are interested in what the other person likes and knows. Gag gifts require thought and consideration. Sharing an interest and a laugh develop and strengthen friendships.
The actual gift is the gift of laughter with item that seems extreme but is actually useful. One such creative item is the “wine condoms” (link to Amazon.com). The developer is a single mom and comedienne with a creative sense that reaches out to make other share a laugh. There is a very practical purpose to these gifts, to keep wine in the bottle at its just opened best, where a cork doesn’t prevent air from entering. A cork just doesn’t re-seal where a plastic closer, like a condom, does. Their motto” safe sipping” says even more.
Gag gifts from friends are a way to keep a common interest and shared joy as a bond that grows. Knowing what you have in common and sharing it with a gift that keeps that bond alive seems to flourish with a gag gift. Knowing how to share that common ground and bond with something that speaks without words requires making choices and knowing your friend is critical to success. Some gifts may be inappropriate and careful selection is important. A sense of intimacy is here and cannot be violated. Gag gifts between friends are usually kept personal, unlike those given at professional associations and recognition events. The connection is more personal and the gift is less likely to be shown to visitors. This in itself opens up doors and closes others. In each case the person, the connection and the purpose of the gift are the reasons for selection. Caring about the recipient means the gift will reflect the occasion and where it will be received and opened. Gag gifts are just right for this.
]]>Potatoes have more nutrients than we can imagine. Marathon runners carbo-load before a grueling 26.2 race and too much pasta is just too much. Mixing in some potatoes, mashed, baked or whatever helps keep the fire stoked for the big race. A Mystery Potato is sent with a message and good wishes and can be eaten before a marathon for extra energy and motivation Couch potatoes do not run marathons. They watch them on TV. They store energy and don’t use it. A Mystery Potato is an “action potato”. It can’t wait to get up in the morning and take on the world with a cheerful, affirmative message to someone can use a pick me up. It starts the brain moving with “how can I make the world a better place today with a message sent anonymously on a potato? A Mystery Potato looks for opportunities to serve others through being supportive and making them smile.
A Mystery Potato can change lives. It can even make a couch potato into a Mystery Potato. Actually, inside every couch potato is a Mystery Potato waiting to get out and do great things. A Mystery Potato can send a greeting to someone far away. It can make a relationship stronger, it can mend fences and it can remind someone of how much you value their friendship. It gets you beyond yourself into the world of others. Couch potatoes can be moved off the couch and into a new world of relationships.
They live in a real world of sights, smells and relationships. They use sight to let someone see a message written on them. They smell real, like potatoes. They help develop and enrich relationships. A surprise is something unexpected, in a package that says “open me”. The message is personal, it can only be from someone who really knows me and cares enough to send the very best (potato). A couch potato is limited to the world of the couch. Maybe a smartphone, a tablet or the TV can let them see the real outside world, but maybe not. A Mystery Potato is an invitation into the real world of relationships that can be opened by the message on the potato.
You can be a Mystery Potato and be an action potato or a couch potato. You can be in the thick of it or wait and watch it all pass by from your couch. After all life is what you make of it. Mystery Potatoes reach out and touch someone; they are proactive potatoes not passive ones. Even if you are stuck on the couch, all it takes is that first step to become a potato of action, a Mystery Potato. It’s up to you.
]]>First of all, family members, whether close or far away top the list. Smiles are a treasure and a potato with a message will be valued. Today’s society sees families spread around the country and world. Jobs, careers, college and opportunities require travel and living away from family and a potato with a sincere message of love will keep the ties stronger and closer despite distance and time zones.
Next come our armed forces members here and deployed. Americans have served their country in many ways and currently our brave Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Air Force personnel are deployed worldwide. Military on station or deploying overseas will appreciate any reminders of how much you care. A potato will a message lets them know you are thinking about them. A potato won’t break, will be easy to pack and carry and can be shared with fellow Armed Forces members.
How about our friends and lovers? A personal message that they alone will understand will strengthen the bonds of friendship and love. The small things mean so much. A potato with a message for them alone, sent spontaneously and anonymously will share a memory and a laugh.
Find a reputable, ethical, dependable and first class vendor for your potato message. Contact them by email, phone, carrier pigeon, or any equally dependable method. Tell them you want to be a part of this great event and send someone special a potato with a message. Their expert potato-professionals will do the rest.
Potatoes are hardy. They can take it and dish it out (mashed, fried, and boiled). They are tough on the outside and tender and delicious on the inside. They are able to grow in conditions where no other vegetables dare go or grow. They are much like the qualities we admire in others and want them to see in us. The best compliment can give someone is “you’re a real potato!” Mailing a potato with a personal message to someone you value shows you really care about them.
Traditionally National Mail a Potato Day is December 18th every year but you can make it potato day every day. You can celebrate this great event anytime, anywhere and send anyone a potato, anonymously, with a message only you can imagine. The ball (oops, potato) is your court. Time to celebrate National Mail a Potato Day today!
]]>The potato has the multiple benefits of nutrition, simplicity, ease of storage and transport and ability to satisfy hunger. One of its most common uses was for food for sailors. In America it became a standard at the tables of farmers and ranchers because it was cheap, plentiful and good for you. On the frontier potatoes were important to the soldiers in the forts and army posts. Peeling potatoes was an essential if not monotonous duty.
Up until World War one soldiers usually cooked their meals in a “mess”. Groups of soldiers received the ingredients for their meals, hard bread or biscuit, bacon and coffee and cooked over a fire. In the Civil War a soldier on the march revived three days ration: nine hardtack, a slab of meat (salt pork, which he cooked as soon as he could), coffee and sugar. The haversack stored these things. Fresh food was only available when a camp was made, a garrison camp, and then kitchens were set up .In camp potatoes formed a basis for many meals. In the North, white potatoes were preferred at the Homefront, in the South; sweet potatoes were the first choice.
By World War One, the image we often see of the privates peeling potatoes became a common image. KP was used as a discipline practice for recruits and soldiers alike who didn’t shape up or got caught doing something the sergeant didn’t like. Sailors did KP: duty in the ship’s galley too. By World War Two, the number of soldiers who had to be trained, uniformed and fed had increased to never imagined numbers. Feeding became a major problem to solve. Jack Simplot of Idaho came up with a specialized process for drying potatoes (and onions) for large scale shipment, storage and distribution in the field He also developed a potato that could be made into precut French fries with predictable yield. Today’s fast food fries owe it all to Idaho’s Simplot potato.
Sending a soldier a potato will make him or her smile. It will show you care and it will connect him or her with their heritage. They may be dining to meals that their soldier father and grandfather only could dream of, but the potato will like them together. Today the MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) has placed gourmet dining in the fields for many soldiers in many places. In addition to potatoes, anything from chili, macaroni and cheese, and other home front dishes are available. Sending a potato with a personal message will make a solider smile, it will connect him or her with a proud heritage of patriotism and show how much we appreciate their sacrifice and service.
]]>Although they tend to get a bad rap for being too starchy, potatoes do have a lot of credentials that make them an important part of a healthy diet. Did you know that a medium sized baking potato boasts 45% of your daily value of Vitamin C, 10% of your daily value of Vitamin B6, trace amounts of many other vitamins, and plenty of potassium. Potatoes also contain antioxidants and are fat free.
How potatoes are cooked will vary from culture to culture and family to family, but there are certain staple recipes that have stood the test of time.
These are traditional potatoes at their best. Choose either white or yellow fleshed potatoes, depending on your preference. Scrub them, peel them, then cut them into chunks and place them in water over high heat until the water boils. Watch carefully because potatoes boil over easily and all that starch will create a huge mess. Once the water boils, turn the heat down and simmer until the potatoes can easily be pierced with a fork. When they are soft, drain them and mash them. A proper potato mashing tool will make this easiest, but other kitchen tools can also be used. For very smooth potatoes, use an electric mixer after mashing.
To make your potatoes creamier, add a small amount of milk before you mash them. This is also the time to add flavouring like garlic or rosemary to make your mashed potatoes extra special.
French fries are a part of most fairs and festivals. They are made by slicing potatoes into thin strips, usually with a special French fry cutter. They are then dunked in cold water, then drained and fried in hot oil. Depending on the restaurant or chip truck, the potatoes may be peeled before slicing, or the skin may be left on.
You can make French fries at home by slicing potatoes into thin strips, placing them in cold water, then frying them in a deep fryer. Make sure the potatoes are well drained before you put them in the oil, because water and oil doesn’t mix, and can make the frying dangerous.
You can also bake French fries in the oven. Place them on a baking sheet, sprinkle with vegetable oil and a little bit of salt, or other preferred seasoning. Bake at about 400-degrees for ten minutes, then take them out of the oven, stir them with a metal utensil, then cook for an additional ten minutes. Your individual oven may take more or less time, so watch carefully.
These days you can also make French fries using an air fryer. One that I purchased and fully enjoyed is the Air Fryer. There are many other manufacturers and models to choose from as well, depending on your needs and the amount of food you want to cook at one time.
Baked French fries won’t be identical in consistency to fried ones, but you’ll save a lot of fat by not immersing them in oil.
This is also the method used for baking hash browns or oven fries in the oven. Hash browns are French fries cut into smaller pieces, oven fries are usually made by slicing small potatoes and are round like the shape of the potato they came from.
You can also cook hash browns on the stovetop in a frying pan. Add a small amount of butter or oil to the pan, then cook over medium heat, stirring regularly until they are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. If you’re not concerned about the fat, consider cooking your breakfast bacon first, then cook your hash browns in the bacon grease.
Make creamy scalloped potatoes by washing and peeling potatoes. Then slice them thinly. Place a layer of potatoes in the bottom of a baking dish. Sprinkle this layer with flour, salt, pepper and a few dots of butter. Add another layer of potatoes. Continue until you have several layers in your pan. Pour hot milk over everything, and bake until the potatoes are soft. This usually takes about an hour.
The quickest, easiest way to cook potatoes is to bake them. This also preserves the largest amount of nutrients. Simply scrub a selection of similar sized potatoes, poke them in several places with a fork, then place them on a baking sheet and cook them at about 350 degrees for about an hour.
If you want to make them even more special, you can slice open the baked potatoes, scoop out the flesh, season it with exciting ingredients like cheese, spices, bacon, or just about anything else that strikes your fancy, refill the shells, then put them back into the oven for a few more minutes. These are referred to as ‘twice baked’ potatoes.
Potato soups are usually milk based, and often chowder like. There are many different recipes and methods for making potato soups. Some involve cooking all the necessary ingredients, then running them through a blender or food processor to puree them into a soup. Others start with a chicken stock base, and end up being more of a vegetable soup because potatoes aren’t the main ingredient, though there may be a lot of potatoes in the soup.
Regardless of how you choose to cook and eat them, potatoes will meet your nutritional needs, and not cost you a fortune in the grocery store. Potatoes are also easy to grow in your own backyard, so consider them as a home grown vegetable next time you are planning your garden.
]]>Well, you probably got here because you were checking out the internet for a coupon for MysteryPotato... So, yeah... I do coupons read on for the details.
Want to get a price-break on your purchase of a potato or birthday box or ex-revenge box of potatoes? I want to hook you up! Here's what you do:
I cannot wait to hear from you.
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For starters, how about longevity? Some love affairs last a little longer than a box of candy. At the end the box is empty and sometimes the heart. A Mystery Potato, sent anonymously, will intrigue the lucky recipient. They will stay up late trying to guess who sent the edible gift for Valentine’s Day. They will be amazed by the ingenious idea and how much thinking went into selecting it. Millions of heart shaped boxes of mass produced chocolates and acres of roses are what fill most Valentine’s Day schedules. That potato is one of a kind, its shape is unique (like snowflake) and the message is about your relationship, maybe a secret that nobody else shares. The fun of guessing, hinting around and finally finding out who sent the potato will result in a quiet get together to make the relationship even stronger. And, we provide excellent instructions for planting and growing a Mystery Potato so it really can keep on giving.
Cards are mass produced by the greeting card industry; most of us spend hours trying to find the right words, the right card to say what we feel. Why not have what we really mean to say written on a potato and have it sent anonymously? Sometimes a unique approach is needed to patch up a damaged relationship or renew an older one. A store-bought card and factory-made candy just don’t do it the right way. Each relationship we have is different, one of a kind and what is more one of a kind than something grown in nature and inscribed with our own thoughts about the person to whom we send it? An edible gift for Valentine’s Day is the solution
An important part of the Valentine’s Day mystique is the inventive fun involved in selecting a gift that fits the recipient in ways that only you know. The Mystery Potato, a message that says “love” and affection and does it creatively will get that special someone’s attention. It will open up unknown doors and start some new conversations you never had before. Edible gifts for Valentine’s Day should be more than a sugar fix; a Mystery Potato is a sure hit.
]]>NASA scientists are working with the International Potato Center in Peru to see how potatoes could be grown in a dome setting in the Martian environment. Working from Peru, where the soil closely resembles that of Mars, conditions will be duplicated under controlled conditions to see how growing potatoes on Mars will happen in the 95% carbon dioxide Martian atmosphere. Crop yields are expected to be four times as high due to the potatoes being able to thrive in a CO2 rich environment. Currently, early potatoes take 90-110 days to grow. This means a dependable and easily replenish able supply for Mars explorers or colonists.
The potato was first cultivated, not by coincidence in Peru some 2,500 years ago. The high altitudes of Peru accommodated the tuber and eventually it was transported back to Europe by the first European explorers. The nutritional level of the potato is an attractive element in providing for the first Mars expeditions and the likelihood of high crop yields is another benefit. Living space will be at a premium in the first settlements and high crop yields of nutritious and familiar and desirable foods like the potato will make the stresses involved in living many millions of miles from their native planet easier. On earth a group of high school students have won NASA’s partnership in an experiment to see if potatoes will sprout in zero-g environments like the Space Station. Growing potatoes on Mars and in space is exciting research.
The first Mars explorers will be living in a hostile environment, far from green trees and fields. Scientists are anticipating the stresses from isolation, environmental dangers and a sense of facing the unfamiliar. Having a familiar and comforting food, a replenish able food source and a connection with the home planet left behind will go a long way to the Mars Mission’s success. That food source is the potato. A humble plant, full of vitamins and minerals, rugged enough to grow under hostile conditions and still provide abundant crop yields, growing potatoes on Mars holds a promise for the future of space exploration beyond the bounds of earth.
]]>The One Direction Potato is also an inside joke (1D is famous/notorious) for these. Becoming a Directioner can help you to understand. One of the inside jokes usually refer to carrots. Carrots are nutritious and red, how many rock bands talk about carrots and use them as a connector with their audience. Bands are really a relationship. The members create together, work together, tour together. Just like a type of family they have arguments, fights and sometimes split to go their separate ways. Zayn left because of creative differences and he will be missed. But the inside joke that fans share about carrots now changes to another vegetable, a potato and not just any potato but a One Direction Potato.
The new band member is a Russet Potato, the type most grown in Idaho. Idaho is so proud of its potatoes that the State’s standard issue license plate features a Russet and “Famous Potatoes”. The Idaho potato (the ID seems to resemble the band’s short name 1D, by the way), has a tougher skin than many and is packed with nutrition and strength. It usually fills the dinner plate. Show business requires a tough skin for criticism, bad breaks and all the baggage success brings. Jimmy Kimmel said in his opening that his staff said 1D was the nicest guys they had met in a long time. Most rock bands are egotistical, often spoiled and arrogant, humility is not on their list. When the One Direction Potato was introduced it was called “humble”, and now has its own Instagram and Twitter accounts. It looks like the humble One Direction Potato is on its way to stardom, but we’re sure it won’t get too full of itself.
The One Direction Potato seems seem to be a way to deliver a message, or bunch of messages. This Russet rock star is helping a band that lost an original member deal with the changes coming and to do it with good humor. Resiliency is a quality of potatoes too; they can grow in adversity, grow just about anywhere and yield bountiful crops. They are nutritious, delicious and still remain humble. 1D seems to have a lot going for it as they take a creative break. Maybe that’s why they chose a One Direction Potato.
Image Credit: Toxicfox
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