Baked this way, the vegetables emerge brown and moist, and a serving contains far fewer calories than a baked potato topped with a little butter or sour cream.

IT'S a dinner from the past: 16 ounces of sirloin steak, baked potato topped with sour cream and a lettuce-and-tomato salad with blue-cheese dressing.

"Someone ordered red potatoes topped with peanut butter, horseradish and sour cream," he said.

But consider the homey collard greens, tangy red cabbage slaw, fluffy mashed potatoes topped with scallions, light hush puppies, greaseless sweet-potato fries and wonderful sweet-potato pie.

I found it hard to keep a straight face when a huge blue glass plate containing a heap of mashed blue potatoes topped with slabs of bright orange salmon was set before me.

He had also brought mashed potatoes topped with duck cracklings and, as a healthier variation, potatoes topped with crisped salmon skin.

Or the Heap, skillet-cooked potatoes topped with cheese, two eggs and a choice of breakfast meat ($5.50).

They are served with baked potatoes topped with butter, sour cream, chives and bacon bits - without apology.

Like many a youth of tender sensibilities, I was put off at an early age by a Thanksgiving casserole of sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows.

Remember when serious artists put a popular spin on everything from the Hollywood glamour of Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe to a baked potato topped with sour cream?