The luck o’ the Irish to you! On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone is Irish so the leprechauns that are out and about today are probably even here. If you catch sight of one of these fairy folk with his red hair and emerald green attire, don’t glance away or he will disappear. As long as you hold him in your gaze, he cannot escape. Perhaps you can coax him into taking you to where he keeps his crock of gold. It could come in handy.

Unfortunately, catching the leprechauns might be a bit of a challenge so we might have to look elsewhere for our pot of gold. Even better, look for ways to stretch the budget using little greenbacks instead of little green-clothed men.

One way many people are tightening their food budgets is using another something “Irish” — the Irish potato. It is inexpensive, tasty and adaptable to a wide range of cooking methods.

They are the perfect dish for St. Patrick’s Day. After all, what could be more Irish than potatoes? Well, actually, lots of things.

“Irish” potatoes did not come from Ireland. They originated in the Peruvian Andes of South America. In the 1500s, Spanish conquistadors found various Peruvian tribes cultivating the crop for food. The Spaniards took potatoes home to Europe where they were cultivated widely as a novelty but not as a food.

Sir John Hawkins is credited with introducing the first potatoes to England in 1563 but there, too, the tuber was little appreciated for the next 200 years. They might have stayed in England as a novelty, except that jealousy reared its ugly green head.

In the mid-1500s, Sir Walter Raleigh lost his position as the favorite of the Queen to the Earl of Essex. Raleigh could not deal with the competition, so he stomped off in a huff and moved to an estate the queen had given him in Ireland. He planted the first potatoes ever grown in Ireland in his garden.

Raleigh’s crop didn’t exactly catch on, but the Royal Society encouraged the Irish to grow the crop as a provision against famine during the 1600s.

A favorite was born. The Irish adopted the potato as the staple of their diet, almost to the exclusion of other foods. Many of the poorer people subsisted almost entirely on potatoes and when potato blight struck in 1845 and 1846, thousands of the Irish died of starvation and thousands of others immigrated to the United States to avoid that fate.

If you choose to serve potatoes for dinner tonight — and other nights as well — you are making a financially and nutritionally sound decision.

Potatoes are good for you and a great value for your hard-earned dollar. If the demand increases during these economic times, it is history repeating itself. Historically, when budgets get tight, potato consumption surges. When people go back to eating at home to save money on groceries, they also go back to eating potatoes.

Potatoes are a staple food showing up in a vast array of favorite foods from the mashed-baked-boiled-fried choices on the dinner table to the potato chips, French fries, hash browns and other forms we choose for snacks and lunches.

This vegetable has also taken a bad rap as a fattening food. Just as people get a good or bad reputation from the friends they keep, the potato got a bad reputation by association. It has been touted as fattening because it is often attached to calorie-laden additions like butter, gravy, cheese, cheese sauce, sour cream and all the other delightful toppings we love to pile on them. We also love to fry them in deep fat to make potato chips and French fries. Add to those associations the surge in low-carb diets, and overall potato consumption in the U.S. has dropped.

Despite the associations, potatoes themselves are valuable to the human diet. At about 120 calories, a medium sized potato is a good source of complex carbohydrates, vitamin C, B vitamins, phosphorous, and potassium. The vitamins are most abundant right under the skin. You can improve on the associations by choosing light or low-fat versions of the toppings.

The potato industry has been fighting an uphill battle to regain ground while the average American has cut back on this staple food. In an effort to woo back the consumer, producers are creating more convenient ways to purchase and use potatoes. For example, in addition to potato flakes and potato pearls, you can now purchase dried potato shreds, which are quick and easy to reconstitute and fry up as hash browns. I have friends who refer to mashed potatoes from potato flakes or pearls as “fake potatoes,” but the dried shreds taste much more like their fresh or frozen counterparts.

You may soon find potatoes in steamable packs — special plastic containers with small round potatoes inside. The packs are microwaveable and ready to eat in seven to eight minutes. You may also soon find baking potatoes already cleaned, wrapped and ready to pop into the microwave.

I haven’t priced these steamable and pre-wrapped conveniences, but I’m sure that if you are willing to put the little effort required into cleaning and wrapping your own fresh potatoes (in plastic wrap for microwave baking), you can make a much bigger dent on your food budget.

In any case, potatoes continue to be a great value in a tight economy.

Pot o’ Gold Irish Potatoes

(Makes 2 servings)

Ingredients:

2 fully baked potatoes

1/4 cup cottage cheese or low-fat cream cheese

1/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon margarine

Salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon parsley

1/4 cup grated cheese (or more as desired)

1/2 teaspoon chives

1/8 teaspoon pepper paprika (optional)

Crisp fried bacon, broken into small pieces (optional)

Bake potatoes until fully cooked. Cut potatoes open. Scoop out pulp, leaving a 1/4-inch shell. Place potato pulp in mixing bowl. Combine cottage cheese or cream cheese and milk in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Add milk/cheese mixture, margarine, pepper and salt to potato pulp and beat in electric mixer until smooth and fluffy. Mix in parsley.

Spoon mixture back into potato shells. Top with grated orange cheese. Place on microwave-safe baking dish. Microwave cook on high for 1-2 minutes, until heated through. Top with chives and sprinkle with paprika and or bacon pieces if desired.

Golden Scalloped Potatoes

1 can cheddar cheese soup (or use cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup)

1/2 cup milk

Dash pepper

4 cups thinly sliced potatoes

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

Dash paprika

Blend soup, milk, and pepper. In buttered 1-1/2-quart casserole, arrange alternate layers of potatoes, onion and sauce. Dot top with butter. Sprinkle with paprika. Cover. Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour. Uncover. Bake 15 minutes more. Makes about 4 cups.