Seasoned Yukon Gold Wedges

Summer heat came in hard this week — ninety-three on Wednesday, the kind of heat that settles into a house and sits there like a guest who won't leave. The central air runs all day and the electric bill will be what it will be and I'm not Earl, who kept the windows open in July because he didn't trust machines to do what a breeze could do, even when the breeze was ninety degrees and humid enough to wring out.

Made a batch of chow-chow because the garden is starting to produce more than we can eat and because chow-chow is what Appalachian women have been making for a hundred years when the garden outpaces the family. Green tomatoes, cabbage, onion, bell pepper, all chopped fine and packed in salt overnight to draw out the water. Then a brine — vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, turmeric — brought to a boil and poured over the vegetables. Betty made chow-chow every September, dozens of jars, enough to last through winter and into the next summer. I'm making it in June because I'm impatient and because the green tomatoes are here and waiting. Put up six pint jars. Lined them on the counter and looked at them and felt like I'd accomplished something that mattered, which I had — six jars of preserved food, six small acts of defiance against the grocery store and the processed world and the idea that food has to come from somewhere other than your own hands.

Clay celebrated one year sober on Tuesday. He didn't tell me — Travis told me, who heard it from Clay's Thursday group leader, who shouldn't have shared it but did because good news travels whether you want it to or not. I didn't call Clay about it. I made his favorite meal — fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cream gravy — and invited him for dinner Saturday and served it without comment and he ate three pieces of chicken and said this is good, Dad. I said thank you. That was the celebration. A plate of chicken and a year of survival and neither of us naming it because naming it might break the spell, and some spells need to keep working.

The fried chicken and cream gravy were the centerpiece of that Saturday dinner, but the potatoes were the quiet part — the thing that made the plate feel complete without drawing any attention to itself. Yukon Golds have that quality. They don’t ask much of you, and they don’t ask you to explain yourself. I’ve made these wedges a dozen times when I needed something steady on the side of a meal that was carrying more weight than it showed, and they’ve never let me down.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1-inch wedges
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Fresh parsley, chopped, for serving (optional)

Instructions

Preheat. Heat your oven to 425°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or foil and set aside.
Cut the potatoes. Slice each Yukon Gold into 6—8 wedges depending on size, keeping them as uniform as you can so they cook evenly. No need to peel — the skin holds everything together.
Season. In a large bowl, toss the wedges with olive oil until evenly coated. Add the garlic powder, smoked paprika, onion powder, thyme, salt, and pepper and toss again until every wedge is well seasoned.
Arrange and roast. Spread the wedges cut-side down in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet, making sure they aren’t crowded. Roast for 20 minutes, then flip each wedge and roast another 12—15 minutes until golden and crisped at the edges.
Serve. Transfer to a platter. Scatter parsley over the top if you like. Serve hot alongside whatever needs holding up — fried chicken, a piece of pork, or just on their own with something to dip them in.

Nutrition (per serving)

Seasoned Yukon Gold Wedges — The Potatoes That Didn’t Need an Explanation