There are people who like potatoes, and then there are people who have a potato recipe for everything. They have potato recipes for mashed potatoes, they know exactly how crispy their roasted potatoes should be, and they probably have a potato salad recipe that has appeared at every summer gathering for as long as anyone can remember. There are special recipes for sweet potatoes and purple potatoes, the list of potato recipe possibilities are endless. 

For people like us who love every kind of potato, potatoes aren't just a side dish. They are practically their own food group.

That makes National Potato Day, celebrated on August 19, a pretty good excuse to think about potatoes in a slightly different way. Instead of finding another potato recipe to make for dinner, what if you gathered all of your favorites together and made an entire cookbook devoted to them?

You may have never thought of a food specific cookbook before. In fact, a potato recipe cookbook might sound oddly specific at first but that is actually what makes it so unique. A custom cookbook doesn't have to contain every recipe you've ever made. It can be a collection built around one particular kind of food, one person, one season of life, or one family's favorite meals. And if potatoes happen to be something you love, there are more than enough recipes to fill the pages.

The humble potato has a surprisingly long history. Potatoes were first cultivated thousands of years ago in the Andes of South America, where Indigenous farmers developed varieties capable of growing in challenging conditions. From there, potatoes eventually made their way to Europe in the 16th century and gradually became one of the world's most important staple foods.

Their journey wasn't exactly an overnight success. When potatoes first arrived in Europe, people were suspicious of the unfamiliar vegetable growing underground. In some places, they were even regarded as unsuitable for human consumption. Eventually, however, people discovered what cooks around the world now know very well: there are almost endless things you can do with a potato.

You can roast them until the edges are crisp and golden, mash them with butter and cream, turn them into soup, fry them, bake them, stuff them, grate them into hash browns, layer them into a casserole or toss them into a salad. Potatoes have a way of fitting into almost any meal, which is probably one reason they have earned such a devoted following.

And if you start thinking about all the potato recipes you already know, you may realize that you have the makings of a cookbook sitting in your kitchen right now.

Think about the recipes that would make it into your own potato cookbook. Maybe there is a roasted potato recipe you've perfected over the years, with just the right amount of garlic and rosemary. Maybe your family has a potato salad recipe that appears every summer. There might be a crispy smashed potato recipe that is reserved for holidays, a mashed potato recipe that is made for Sunday dinner, or a potato soup that everyone asks for when it gets cold out.

Then there are the recipes that have a little more history behind them. Maybe your grandmother taught you how to make a particular potato dish. Maybe you found a recipe years ago and have changed it so many times that it has become completely your own. Maybe there is a potato recipe that you associate with a particular person or place, even if you can't quite remember where it originally came from.Those are the recipes that make your custom potato cookbook interesting.

And you don't have to stop with the recipe itself. One of the best things about creating a personal cookbook is that you can include all of the details that would never appear in a cookbook from a bookstore. You can write down who taught you the recipe, when you usually make it, what you serve alongside it, or the little trick that makes it turn out perfectly every time.

You might write, “Grandpa always adds an extra handful of cheese,” or “This is the potato salad we brought to every Fourth of July picnic.” A note like that takes only a few seconds to add, but years from now it may be the part of the cookbook someone loves most.

A custom potato cookbok becomes even better when you stop thinking about making a potato cookbook for yourself and start thinking about making one a gift for someone else.

Most of us know someone who has a potato obsession. Maybe it's the friend who orders potatoes no matter what restaurant you're in. Maybe it's your mom, who has several different ways to make mashed potatoes. Maybe it's the person in your family who has strong opinions about the correct way to make a potato salad. 

Imagine gathering their favorite potato recipes and turning them into a cookbook made specifically for them.

You could collect recipes from family members and friends, include recipes they've made themselves, loved at a party, or find recipes that remind everyone of them. You could ask siblings for their favorite potato dishes, pull an old recipe card out of a family recipe box, or finally write down the recipe you've watched someone make a hundred times but never actually recorded. Then you could add the stories that go with them.

That is what would turn a simple collection of potato recipes into a meaningful gift. The cookbook wouldn't just say, “Here are some recipes.” It would say, “We know what you love. We remember the meals you've made for us. We know the recipes that belong to you.”

And that is the kind of gift someone will open over and over.

One of the things that makes a personalized cookbook special is that the recipes don't have to stand alone. They can carry pieces of the people and memories surrounding them.

Consider a recipe for mashed potatoes. On paper, it might be nothing more than potatoes, butter, milk, salt and pepper. But imagine finding that recipe in a cookbook with a handwritten note beside it explaining that it was the only way Grandpa would eat potatoes. Suddenly, the recipe has a story. That is the kind of detail that makes a custom cookbook feel personal.

You can include cooking tips, substitutions, variations, serving suggestions, recipe notes and memories. You can explain where a recipe came from or why your family makes it every year. You can even include photographs or images of old handwritten recipes when you have them.

The recipes are what bring people into the kitchen. The stories are what make them want to keep the cookbook.

Of course, every potato cookbook needs recipes, and a simple roasted potato recipe is a good place to start. It is the kind of recipe that can easily become your own as you experiment with different herbs, seasonings and toppings.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds baby potatoes, halved

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• ½ teaspoon black pepper

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary or thyme

• Fresh herbs, optional

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place the halved potatoes in a large bowl and toss them with the olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and herbs. Arrange the potatoes cut-side down on a baking sheet, leaving a little space between them. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes, until the potatoes are golden and crisp on the outside and tender inside. Finish with fresh herbs and another small sprinkle of salt.

And then make it yours. Add Parmesan. Try smoked paprika. Use fresh rosemary instead of dried. Add garlic. Change the seasonings completely. If you've made the recipe enough times to know exactly how your family likes it, those preferences belong in the cookbook too.

The potato cookbook idea is just the start. We often picture a cookbook as a giant collection of someone's best recipes, but there is no rule saying it has to be that way. A cookbook can be wonderfully specific.

Someone might create a cookbook devoted entirely to cookies. Someone else might collect every recipe their grandmother used to make. Another person might create a book of family breakfasts, holiday baking recipes, summer grilling favorites or the meals their children grew up eating. The theme is what gives the collection its personality.

In fact, the idea of a potato-focused cookbook isn't as unusual as it might sound. As potatoes became more popular in Europe, cooks began developing recipes specifically around them, and potato-focused cookbooks eventually appeared as the vegetable became a staple in European kitchens.

So if potatoes are someone's thing, why not lean into it? Make the potato cookbook.

National Potato Day doesn't have to be just another food holiday that comes and goes. It can be the day you finally start uploading and saving those favorite potato recipes.

Ask your family members for their favorites. Look through your recipe box. Find the recipe you've made so many times that you've never bothered to write it down. Take a photograph of an old handwritten recipe card before it disappears into the bottom of a drawer. Write down the story behind the dish while you still remember it.

Then bring everything together.

Maybe you end up with ten recipes. Maybe you end up with fifty. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that they belong together.

And if you're creating the cookbook as a gift, make it personal. Give it a name that means something. Add a dedication. Include the stories. Write down the little tricks and substitutions that have been passed around your family for years.

A cookbook filled with someone's favorite potato recipes is a surprisingly thoughtful gift because it isn't something you picked up at a store. You made it for them.

At Roots in Recipes, a cookbook doesn't have to follow someone else's definition of what a cookbook should be. It can be a reflection of the recipes you love and the people you want to share them with.

Maybe that means creating a cookbook filled with your entire family's favorite recipes. Or maybe it means creating something much more specific: a collection of Grandma's desserts, your family's Christmas recipes, your favorite cookie recipes or an entire cookbook devoted to potatoes.

The possibilities are really only limited by your imagination.

So this National Potato Day, if you know someone who believes there is no such thing as too many potatoes, start making them something they don't already have: a cookbook filled with their favorite potato recipes, their stories and the little details that make those recipes theirs.

Because sometimes the most meaningful cookbook isn't the one that contains everything. It's the one that contains something you love enough to collect.