Digging for Buried Treasure

The year our daughter was nine, her dad and I decided to harvest the potatoes from our garden on an afternoon when she wasn't home. When she returned home later that day and found out what we'd done without her, she was a smidge-bit upset with us. I didn't know at the time it was an activity she enjoyed so much, but I do know I've always counted it as a fun thing to do. I mean you just never know what the next forkful will turn up. A bunch of little golf ball taters or that one honkin' big one that you just have to weigh so you can brag about it.

Roy and I finished digging our potatoes yesterday. And, well, folks, the Great Potato Planting Trials for 2008 are over. If you remember way back this summer, I blogged about planting some rows under mulch and some under dirt using the old-fashioned hilling method. The statistics are in.

From one sixteen foot long row planted under dirt, we got 32 lbs. of white potatoes. From one sixteen foot long row planted under dirt, we got 28 lbs. of red potatoes. From two (yes, I said two) sixteen foot long rows planted under mulch, we got 27 lbs. of red potatoes. Ugh. Just about exactly twice as big a yield from those planted under dirt vs. those planted under mulch. And, sad to say but true, the 27 lbs. of reds planted under the mulch are much smaller in size.

One growing season may not a true test trial make, but it doesn't look good for the lady who likes planting under mulch. Oh, well. Sigh. I can learn to like hilling up potatoes. Waaaaah.

What's Up, Doc?

We harvested seventy-six pounds of carrots today from our garden. I think I'll have enough carrots to last until next year's harvest. I think I may have over-done it on the carrots. Again.

Potato Pancakes

It was a dark and stormy night. We could hear the heavy raindrops pummeling the roof. Dusk came early. It was 4:30, . . . and I was starving. (My stomach obviously thought it was a lot later.) A good dinner for night like that? Potato Pancakes made with some of the potatoes we managed to get dug from the garden before rain drove us in yesterday.

I think it must have been the flavor of the newly harvested potatoes, because we both agreed (as we fought over the last pancake) that we couldn't remember Potato Pancakes ever tasting as good as the ones I made last night for dinner. Here's the recipe in case you'd like to try it sometime.

Potato Pancakes

1/4 cup milk

5 tablespoons flour

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups grated raw potatoes

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 medium finely chopped onion

good sprinkle pepper

1-2 cloves minced garlic

1 teaspoon dried parsley

In medium bowl, mix all ingredients well. Heat oil in large skillet. Using a slotted spoon in order to drain off some/most of the liquid, place a spoonful of mixture in hot skillet and flatten. Brown one side, then flip and brown the other. The edges should be crisp. Remove to dish and keep warm while frying rest of mixture.

Here are all the ingredients mixed together.

I use enough oil in the skillet so the pancakes don't stick, but not enough to consider it deep frying by any means. This recipe feeds the two of us, but I always serve it with only a crab meat salad. The Potato Pancakes would go a lot farther if you served a meat entree with them obviously. I make my pancakes about 4-5" in diameter but I don't think size really matters. And, also, the exact amount of grated raw potatoes doesn't seem to be critical.

We both like them drizzled with maple syrup, but other people seem to think this is a little weird. Each to his own . . . and enjoy!

P.S. Have you noticed the new picture on my blog header? This beautiful shot was taken by my talented daughter. Thanks for the loan, Sweetie.

Hissy-Fit Weather

Seems like waiting for the soil to dry out to dig our potatoes is a lost cause now, so we took advantage of no rain for a short period today to go out into the garden to harvest them. Temp is still in the low 50s. Almost as soon as we set up operations, the wind started blowing and, yep, sure 'nuf, the rains started again. Oh, well, we got half a row done.

I'm Moving

No, not really. I'm just generally grumpy today and the weather is an easy target. No sun again this day but temperatures that are too warm for my taste this time of year. Here it is several hours past sunset and the thermometer still reads 52.9°. I fully realize there are non-winter lovers out there who think I may be short a few marbles, but Roy and I both love the snow and cold weather and are getting pretty cranky about the winter season not starting until January each year, or so it seems.

I can remember growing up in Illinois and having snow for Thanksgiving many years. And here we are today in northern Minnesota, for Pete's sake, where the ticks are proliferating like crazed bunny rabbits because we no longer have a cold enough climate to kill 'em off! Cold weather and snow go a long way toward creating a cozy, slower paced time of year to say nothing about making Thanksgiving and Christmas more seasonally festive.

My grousing today probably stems from having one of those days of two steps forward, three steps backward. Plus, I don't feel super-good. Our daughter is really down and out with the bad flu/cold bug that is going around, and I was with her when she was contagious. Fortunately, I don't get sick. (Idon'tgetsickIdon'tgetsickIdon'tgetsick.) So I'm sure my physical-ness today has more to do with my mental-ness than anything else. I did lie down and nap for two hours this afternoon though which is an unusual rarity (as a silly friend is fond of saying) for me.

I'm bugged that I don't have my fall shower curtain done yet. (I know, I know, if THAT'S my worst problem . . . ) I have found some time to work on it lately, however, I'm 1/3 of a yard short on fabric for finishing it. I started piecing scraps together, but I'm even short doing it that way. The quilt store where I purchased the fabric is over an hour's drive away. I kept thinking I would get a chance to go there, but today I gave up the idea and e-mailed the owner asking if she would send the needed fabric to me in the mail.

I've always wanted some fingerless gloves so started knitting a pair with this beautiful yarn. It's Koigu Premium Merino and it's BEAUTIFUL stuff. (Knitters out there, give it a try if you haven't already.) I'm up to the increase for the thumb and I cannot make the pattern work. I'm a fairly good knitter so I should be able to figure it out. (Never do I think the pattern could be wrong; I'm always sure I'm not reading it right, or have forgotten how to count correctly.) But I've diddled with this for so long that I've decided it has to be a misprint in the directions. Fortunately, I have a good friend who is a knitter extraordinaire and absolutely delights in solving knitting problems so she and I just have to find a time to sit down together and get me back on track.

Well, in a couple of months when I'm putting on my fingerless gloves to go out and shovel the paths to the livestock pens for the second time of a day, remind me how much I love winter and snow and how much I complained about having temperatures in the 50s in November. I may even have my fall shower curtain hanging in the bathroom by then.

A Free Day

We were scheduled to go to our daughter and son's-in-law today for a day of helping them get wood put by. But we got a call early this morning saying our daughter has had a relapse of the nasty flu/cold bug she battled (and thought she was over) a week ago. So here I am, handed a free day to do with what I choose.

I don't have to make a decision about doing anything outside, work or recreation, because it's raining. Even though W and T's home is an hour's drive from here, and it wasn't raining there when we spoke, it means our wood working day might have been a bust regardless of the health of the participants since the wet weather may be traveling in their direction.

Okay, inside choices for me then. Do I:

1) Snuggle on the couch with one of the good books I just got from the library?

2) Cozy up in a comfy chair in front of the open wood stove, listen to an audio tape, and make progress on one or two of the handmade Christmas gifts I've got started?

3) Put some good music on the stereo and work in the kitchen restocking the freezer with yummy food? (Who eats all the food around here anyway?)

4) Mix up and bake my mom's luscious fruitcake recipe so I can soak it with brandy and get it "ageing" for the upcoming holiday season?

5) Attack the drawers in my desk and clean, organize, sort and straighten them out?

6) Spend the day in my quilt room?

7) Give myself a headache trying to decide what to do?

Okay, what would I enjoy doing most? All of the above. (Well, except for #7.) See, that's my problem. I always want to do too much. I want to have time to do everything. And that's an impossibility. Anybody knows that. Right? Right. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Is there a book, "How to Do the Impossible for Dummies?”

I'm leaving now. I'm going to put a quilt and a book on the couch in case I get tired and need to stretch out there later and read. I'm placing the pattern and started knitted hat for a Christmas present next to the recliner rocker. I'll start some wild rice slow cooking for Wild Rice Soup for the freezer. I'll get out Mom's fruitcake recipe and drink some brandy. To hell with my messy desk. I'm going to my quilt room.

And I think my headache's going away.