Grilled Potato Packets — The Table That Receives Everyone

Sophie's daughter Ingrid is one year old this season. The Kenwood kitchen has a high chair again. The high chair is a thirty-five-year-old artifact pulled from the basement and scrubbed clean and assembled at the same kitchen table where Anna and Peter and Elsa once sat in it. Ingrid sits in it now. Ingrid eats the same applesauce and the same banana bread and the same baby version of meatballs. The kitchen receives the new generation without comment, the way the kitchen has always received everyone. Anna had a small surgery. She is fine. I drove to Minneapolis for two weeks to help. I cooked. I cleaned. I cared. Anna said: "Mom, I had forgotten you were a nurse." I said: "I haven't." The thirty-five years at St. Mary's are not the kind of thing that fades. The skills come back at the first request. The hands remember how to take a pulse. The eyes remember how to read a face for pain. The role is permanent. Elsa and Tom came for the weekend. Tom helped me move the heavy planters in the garden — the big terracotta ones I bought at a yard sale in 1995 that I cannot lift anymore. He did not ask. He just did it. He is the quiet kind of man Paul was. I see why Elsa loves him. The quiet men are not the loudest in the room, but they are usually the most useful. Paul taught me this by example. Tom is teaching it by repetition. I cooked Grilled vegetables this week. Asparagus, leeks, spring onions, brushed with olive oil, grilled over coals. Served with lemon and salt. Thursday: soup. Always soup. Gerald said, "You are the most reliable woman in Duluth." I said, "I am the most reliable woman in this kitchen." He said, "Same thing." I do not think that is the same thing. I think that is a kindness Gerald gives me because Gerald is kind. I take the kindness. I do not argue. I lit a candle in the kitchen for no particular reason. Maybe for Mamma. Maybe for Pappa. Maybe for Lars. Maybe for Paul. Maybe for all of them. The candle is a tall white tapered one, set in a brass holder Mamma had on her dining room table for forty years. I let it burn down. The dripping wax made a small white pool on the brass. I cleaned it off. I lit another one the next night. It is enough. Paul is not here. Mamma is not here. Pappa is not here. Erik is not here. They are all here in the kitchen, in the smell, in the taste, in the wooden spoon and the bread pans and the marble slab. The dead are not where the body went. The dead are in the kitchen. I have learned, slowly, that there is a kind of competence that comes only with age. Not wisdom, exactly — wisdom is a word too grand for what I mean. Competence. The competence of having watched many things go wrong and many things go right and having developed an internal database of which is which. The competence is, perhaps, the only thing that improves with age in a body that is otherwise declining. I will take the trade. It is enough.

The asparagus and leeks were for the weeknight meals — quick, over coals, done. But when Elsa and Tom stayed through Sunday and I wanted something more substantial to put on the table, something that could sit beside the grilled things and hold its own, I made these potato packets. You wrap them in foil, you set them on the grate, you leave them alone for a while. That kind of cooking suits me right now. The fire does the work. I just have to remember to come back.

Grilled Potato Packets

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs small red or yellow potatoes, thinly sliced (about 1/4 inch)
• 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil or melted butter
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped (for finishing)
• Heavy-duty aluminum foil

Instructions

1. Prepare the grill. Heat a charcoal or gas grill to medium-high heat (about 400°F). Tear four sheets of heavy-duty foil, each roughly 14 by 18 inches.
2. Season the potatoes. In a large bowl, combine the sliced potatoes, onion, and garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, then add salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and thyme. Toss well until every slice is coated.
3. Build the packets. Divide the potato mixture evenly among the four foil sheets, mounding it in the center of each. Fold the long sides of the foil up and over the potatoes, then crimp the short ends tightly to seal. Leave a little air space inside each packet so the potatoes steam as they cook.
4. Grill the packets. Place packets directly on the grill grate. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes, turning once halfway through, until the potatoes are tender when you press the outside of the packet. Carefully open one packet to test — a fork should slide through a potato slice without resistance.
5. Finish and serve. Open the packets carefully, venting steam away from your hands. Scatter fresh parsley over the top and taste for salt. Serve directly in the foil or slide onto a platter.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 210 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 28g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 480mg