I didn’t know I had so many hours of sleep in me! Most puzzling is how can I feel so tired when I’ve slept a day and a half?
Wayne left this morning at 0’dark thirty for golf, closed me inside the bedroom — that means he closed the dog and two cats out. When I roused all three were in the hallway just outside the door waiting IMpatiently. They told me in no uncertain terms their stomachs thought their throats had been cut!
I don’t ache like yesterday and I finally feel warm enough, I’m on the mend. Too ornery to be sick! I’m off to catch up on posts here from yesterday, surf the news, see what’s happenin’.
Well wakey, wakey Fnord…good to see you back on deck….I hope you are feeling better… Don’t get too close to your computer …I don’t want to catch it 🙂 .
OK, Prairie P&P’s here is one for you…how would you feel about eating breast milk cheese on a cracker? Urgh, that was what was served during an art exhibition in London. Any thoughts on that one 🙂 . And Jammers, I would like to hear what Chuck would do…other than chuck! http://frigginloon.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/breast-milk-cheese-served-at-art-exhibition/
“Dave came home Friday evening and is finally getting some good rest. He’s walking around OK, but is very tired and weak. I’m taking him off the narcotics today and attempting to control his pain with Ibuprophen…he just doesn’t handle the prescription pain meds very well. He’s been having delusional thoughts, hallucinating, and I found him at 4AM sitting in the living room, drinking Dr Pepper (He NEVER drinks Dr Pepper).
So far, so good. He’s doing amazingly well for everything he’s been through, but I’m totally exhausted. It will get better. Thanks for all your support..I don’t know how we would have made it through all this without our family and friends. Love you all, Mary”
So David, do you want fried potatoes cut in chunks or slices? Or do you want the grated kind?
If you want chunks, I recommend the red ones. They will hold their shape better, but brown slower. You can use the russet bakers with good results too, but I like them better for slices and frying. And when I say slices, I mean cut the potatoes in quarters or eights and slice thinly from there. Both of those potatoes I would do raw, not nuked or leftover baked.
The grated kind? Very tricky, which is why I usually go for small, thin slices. The ONLY way I have been able to do the grated ones is if you bake them first. You can nuke them, but real baked work better. Grate and fry in butter or bacon grease. You can do them raw, but my experience is that they usually get gray and sticky before they get fluffy and crispy brown. Especially the reds. I’d only use russets for raw and grated.
So…. let’s review? If you want grated, plan ahead for baked, then cool, grate, and brown in butter later.
But if you want really good fried potatoes, use russets, quarter or eighth them, and slice thinly. Use a generous amount of bacon grease or veggie oil. (Butter wont take the heat and will burn before being done and brown.) But my favorite is bacon grease.
When the ‘taters have cooked a few minutes, add some finely chopped or grated onion, salt and pepper (or Tony’s if you are me) and a pat or so of butter. Yeah, I know. It’s double the grease, but trust me, it’s TRIPLE the flavor and they will brown nicely with the butter added towards the end.
And besides, if you wanted health food, you wouldnt be eating hash browns anyway, now would you?
If you do grated baked potatoes, you can go butter or bacon grease all the way, but I’d still add a little grated onion too. If using pre-cooked taters, you can add the onion in the beginning instead of waiting.
And they are ALL good with some chopped bacon and grated cheese added at the end.
Ok. FINE. Now I’m hungry too!
Oh yeah, and I like mine topped with a soft fried egg too…. And buttered white trash, white bread toast to mop the plate.
I do the Russets, thin sliced, in bacon grease, adding chopped onions, fresh dill, and a good sized pat of butter when the taters start browning. The dill gives it that wow factor.
Also, when baking taters, cut em in half, score em, dot with butter, salt and pepper, lay a bay leaf between em, wrap in tin foil and on the barbie till done.
PS–Potatoes have glutin, and it’s the glutin that makes them sticky instead of fluffy. That’s why I usually recommend russets if you are going to cut them up finely or grate them. The reds have the most glutin which is what makes them “waxy”.
And the reason the grated, frozen, and store bought hash browns work better is because they are slightly cooked and dehydrated during processing. It’s the same reason store bought frozen french fries work better than homemade. They are blanched in hot oil, then dehydrated and frozen so you can give them the second frying at home.
One thing I’ve learned with home fried taters is double fry em. Drain after the first fry, then return to fryer to finish. Crunchy outside, soft innards. Kind of like the store bought, but home done.
BTW, PP, what are your thoughts on the best way to use the Yukon Gold potatoes? These seem to be somewhere between the reds and the russets relative to the starch content. I’ve mashed them before. The color is interesting, and the ‘taters seemed to hold up well to this treatment, although I believe I prefer reds for this usage as well (it may just be habit).
I actually like the Yukons steamed or cooked gently with butter. I dont really like them mashed because they are, as you noted, a little on the waxy side. They do ok as baked potatoes, but I still like the big russets for that AND for mashed potatoes.
But if you mash the reds, you can leave the skin on, and the same way for thin-skinned Yukons. I never leave the russet skins on for mashing.
I planted a hundred pounds of Yukons, as that is what sells the best at the farmers markets. But I also planted fifty each of reds and russets. I’ve never had good luck growing the russets, but given the rain I’ve had in the last ten days, maybe this will be the year!
Heheheh. And lard is the preferred fat for ALL cooking. It’s just hard to find sometimes, which is why I do rendered bacon fat.
And my home grown chickens are always so fat, I even save the melted smaltz from them. Now THAT makes great fried potatoes too, as well as veggie seasoning.
This author sees the top five most vulnerable Senate seats, the ones he sees switching parties in 2010 — and they are all currently held by Republicans!
“Top 5 Vulnerable Senate Seats
It’s a bit early to be predicting winners and losers for the 2010 elections — remember how right on we were in casting Hillary Clinton as the Democratic “frontrunner” well in advance? But with lots of polls already out and fundraising figures being monitored daily, we thought it would be a good time to post our inaugural list of the top five Senate seats that are most vulnerable to switching parties in 2010.”
who is a faithful NPR listener speaks of, “the slew of impossibly named NPR hosts we listen to every day: Renee Montagne, Steve Inskeep, Corey Flintoff, Korva Coleman, Kai Ryssdal, Dina Temple-Raston.
In fact, we’ve often wondered what it would be like to be one of them. A Nina Totenberg or a Renita Jablonski. A David Kestenbaum or a Lakshmi Singh. Even (on our most ambitious days) a Cherry Glaser or a Sylvia Poggioli.
So finally, after years of Fresh Air sign-off ambitions, we came up with a system for creating our own NPR Names. Here’s how it works: You take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name. Your last name becomes the smallest foreign town you’ve ever visited. So I’m Liarna Kassel. And Eric is Jeric Bath.”
So what would your NPR name be?
I am Ljinda Cahersiveen, but you may still call me fnord. 😉
Unless California, Colorado, Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine are considered “foreign”, I’m out; plus, as some of you know, I use my middle name as my “main” name; don’t know how that would work in my case.
Nope, fnord; never visited Niagara Falls. Closest I’ve been to Canada, to my recollection, was Burlington, VT (a very pretty small city, across Lake Champlain from Plattsburgh, NY). Hmm, Bar Harbor, ME might be a bit closer; one may take a ferry from Bar Harbor to some small city in Nova Scotia, but I cannot recall the distance between the two.
It’s wonderful to be in the company of such good cooks. I admit to not being one. I hate to cook. Just ask my kids. Especially since leaving the farm, where it sometimes seemed like the only reason I was there. Oh, I can cook, I just haven’t found the joys in it that others have.
The really bad thing is that I’m a member of a blog where it’s been decided that once a month, there will be a recipe posted from a member at random. Uh, yeah. My mother didn’t do a lot of cooking. In fact, my dad fixed a lot of our meals. With only three of us (sometimes two, when my mom was gone on business), it wasn’t difficult. He’d brown a pound of hamburger then throw in a can of spaghetti–Franco American, as I recall–add some salt, and heat. Include a jar of applesauce on the side, and we were go to go.
My mom did make a great salad dressing, but when I asked her about it in later years, she didn’t remember it.
As the kids grew and were involved in activities, and the then-hubby was gone more than home, we got in the habit of shopping frozen food at Sam’s. There were fewer groans and I-don’t-like-thats, because each could choose her own “meal”.
Yes, I’m lazy, but I’m also not much of an eater, whch is probably why cooking doesn’t rate high on my list of favorite things to do. Still, I do admire the rest of you.
Heh, Wicked. The ONLY reason I learned to cook is because I LOVE to eat and I’m a big eater. But anyone who’s met me in person knows that…
You sound like my Mom. She was a fabulous cook. Nothing fancy, but everything she made was really good, and she was a great baker. However, she was always watching her weight, and mine, and so she didnt bake except for special occasions. She didnt teach me to cook either, because, as she said, I always made too big of a mess. True enough.
So I taught myself to cook, first by trial and error, then by reading recipe books like novels, then by watching cooking shows on TV.
Now? I cant stop cooking or eating, when I should probably do both. I wish all you guys were close so I had someone to cook for, since Summer doesnt get any people food. No one wants a hundred pounds of Weim with food issues 🙂
All cooking is is applied chemistry (with a bit of physics added). That’s why it is so fascinating to me to look at recipes, etc., and try to figure out the effect of a proposed change on the final outcome.
Baking is ever so much more precise than cooking. I’ve learned the hard way to be a slave to the recipe when baking things (I do OK with cakes and pies; bread is both my biggest success as well as a memorable failure; cookies usually turn out well) when I’m trying something from “scratch”. I guess that’s why there are box mixes, premade pie crusts, refrigerated cookie dough, etc., available for me to screw up…..
Yeah 617, that’s why I dont bake. It requires too much precision.
Funny, but I dont approach cooking like chemistry or physics, but rather like music, or the composition of music.
A nuance of chicken stock here to smooth the melody, then a crescendo of chili powder leading to a key switch of serrano peppers, then some tomato puree to add the richness of trombones to the sharper trumpet tones. Top it all with the percussion of a crunchy topping. And I love the bass notes of beef and bacon and wood smoked barbeque that reminds me of the baritone section.
Sooner or later the goal is for it to taste like a whole piece of music, no matter if it’s an aria or a rock opera.
heheheh. Damn, now I dont know whether to turn on the smokey blues music or go stir the mariachi chili…
Seriously, I’m not a bad cook, although I did nearly poison the then-hubby when trying to learn to make gravy. He was very good about and ate the paste I made without complaining.
I think one of the newer reasons I don’t enjoy cooking is two-fold. For twenty years I did the Sunday chicken dinners, twice a month, roast once a month, and freedom the fourth Sunday, thanks to the KANG. My kids still ask for my friend chicken, but in the almost 10 years we’ve been gone from the farm, I’ve maybe done it once. I don’t like my own fried chicken. They like it.
The other reason is that too many times I spent making dinner, only for “someone” not to be there to eat it. I was tempted many times to leave a tray in the middle of the driveway, so that at 3 a.m., “someone” would have dinner waiting.
I made goulash(sp?) last night. I’ve cooked more in that last two weeks than I have in a year, I think, what with a third person in the house now. Which is not to say that we didn’t hit fast food several times.
I eat when I’m hungry, which isn’t all that often, because I’m always too wrapped up in something else and don’t want to stop. My youngest is always hungry. 4’10” and tiny. (She’s the runt of the litter, I always say.) Her next oldest sister eats more than her boyfriend. She’s also beginning to show it. LOL
Your comment about your next older daughter reminded me of a girl friend of mine in high school; 5’1″, maybe 98 lbs soaking wet, who could eat way more than I, or most of my male friends (all of whom were football players) regularly, and just smile (as we combined our funds to pay for her dinner). Saw her at the 40 yr. reunion; still 5’1″, but maybe up to 100 lbs. At the dinner, still ate like a harvest hand. Damn her!
prairiepond, I like your approach to cooking; it does make a lot of sense to me. However, at the bottom of it all is basic mathematics (I’ll let you wonder just how the Hell I got to that :-)).
I can see it now; prairiepond Symphony in G (as in good food); the antipasto movement, light and inviting; followed by the robust, harmonious entree; and brought to a fulfilling conclusion by the marvelously resolving dessert. How does that sound?
Embellishing a bit on the Symphony in G: the antipasto movement, light and inviting, featuring the reeds and violins; the robust, harmonious entree, with a lot of brass, bassoon, cellos and double bass; and the fulfilling conclusion by the marvelously resolving dessert, featuring the entire orchestra.
OMG, 617, I like it. Symphony in G. And yeah, the whole meal has to be in harmony, not just one dish.
Wicked, I know others who say the same thing. They slaved all day and then no one showed for dinner.
I neglected to say that my Mom, while a great cook, HATED cooking. It was just a grind to her.
My Dad, bless his heart, always ate whatever was put in front of him. I never, ever heard him complain about food. Or anything else either, except for lack of rain and the price of wheat 🙂
Or too much rain (especially at planting and harvest times), and the price of wheat were also subjects of complaints around the place “back in the day”.
My geek son-in-law holds that math is the foundation for everything; this is why, he claims, he was so attracted to the elder, as she was a math major. I don’t know how credible that is, but hey, it sounds good.
If math is the foundation for everything I’m doomed. Doomed. May I squeak by with a great respect for, or is the ability to perform an absolute necessity?
Actually, he says that math is the highest level science, without which no other science would exist, and thus is the foundation for “everything”. Want to get the citation correct and all that.
He is “scary smart”; from a bragging father’s perspective, so is the elder. They’re quite a pair.
Speaking of “scary smart”, he comes by it honestly. His father (also a particle physicist) is so stinking bright that when I am having a very in depth conversation with him, which is quite coherent and detailed, I realize that the other half (or more) of his brain is busy with other tasks. His mother (who is one of those persons you feel as if you have known for 20 years five minutes after you meet her) has advanced degrees in public health, etc. and can overwhelm you with her abilities to analyze and resolve problems, all the while reminding her elder son (the son-in-law) to be sure to pack a change of clothes for the trip tomorrow. Yep, I really like them; too bad they don’t live closer (and, according to the elder, have extended the TDY to Geneva another year), so we could see them more often. Good people.
And, don’t get me started on the younger son, who intellectually is another order of magnitude brighter than his brother. Same age as our younger, and at the wedding five plus years ago, the two of them hatched a few pranks at the expense of their older siblings. Judy and I just stood and watched in amazement.
Baby is due “late June”; the time window is, last I knew, between the 21st and the 28th. I recognize that there will be quite a lot of potential there, I can’t imagine just how much, though (keeping fingers crossed).
Speaking of baby, I need to be a snoopy prospective grandfather and find out if there has been an agreement on the first name for the (expected) little girl. I keep reminding them there needs to be a male name in reserve, just in case the sonogram was “wrong”. Otherwise, the kid will graduate from high school under the name “Baby Boy Strait”.
Hmmph; daughter of snoopy prospective grandfather cannot take his call right now, as she is busy in an important, big meeting, but she can call him back later. Darn it, she paid too much attention to the receptionists…..
So 617, the people I work with are expecting a baby in May, and they are also told it will be a girl. They refuse, however, to tell us the name picked.
Therefore, we are calling the baby-to-be “Smoochie” because that is what we will all be doing to her once she is born.
She’ll probably have that name stick if we dont cut it out NOW!
Oh, and the rain gauge says 2 inches and thirty hunnerts as we say out here. That’s a certified downpour for us. And it looks like the skies will open up again any time.
Good for the onions and potatoes, bad for me getting to town on Monday…
Did I tell you all that we’re adding to the family, too? #2 daughter is due in September (I think). The doctor says the fast heartbeat points to a girl, but we’re waiting for the sonogram in a month or so. We’re arguing on the name. Daughter wanted Arianna (ah sound), but we gave it a thumbs down. Too many ways to mispronounce and screw up. The rest of us are rooting for what the youngest boy’s would have been if he’d been a girl. Delaney Lynn. No telling what boy’s name she’ll pick. She said yesterday she fears twins. I told her to leave one at the hospital. That was always my plan.
6, I’m not nearly as excited as you. That first is oh so special. After four and being daycare provider for them, the glee begins to wear off.
Actually, wicked, George was the name for the elder when she was in utero, which is still the parental nickname for her to this day (I try to be good and not use it around unrelated third parties).
I am excited, but apparently not excited enough in the view of my younger daughter, my mother, and several other folks. One good thing about their living “away”, I’ll not be doing a lot of daycare or any other care duties; St. Paul to Wichita is a bit far to drive to “drop the kid off” for daycare.
Re: the twins remark. When the younger was on the way, early in the process, I got a call from the wife; the question was “Is there a history of twins in your family?”. This was asked by the OB at an early, pre-sonogram appointment. I said “yes, there is” (my father was a twin; and there are other twins down (up) the family tree on that side). Well, the sonogram put all at ease. There was only one (all 9lbs, 5 1/2 oz. of her at birth) after all.
I have come to the conclusion that you are all nuts, not in the WEBlog way, but in a good manner, one that I am proud to share with you all.
Cooking: Goddamn I love it. I got the bug when I received custody of my children and they relied on me for subsistence. Since then, I have become an award-winning grill master (my own category) and enjoy cooking for anyone that has the stomach for my brand of fire.
(Hash brown notes: if you are going to do it from scratch, remember to DRY the ‘taters after slicing and dicing – too much moisture keeps you from getting the desired level of crispness. Drying and draining is sometimes necessary halfway through the process. The trick is to maintain SOME moisture while getting them crisp. End of sermon!)
Susan Boyle: What a story and what a voice. If this woman doesn’t have a recording contract by Monday morning, then there is no justice in the world.
I thank God everyday that I have a president that I am proud of, and that I believe has MY best interests at heart.
Thank you, God!
Did I mention that sheetrocking sucks?
I have been away each day this week for about eight hours, and each day when I arrive home, my Rufus greets me with unrestrained joy. I know that it is a small thing, but for me, having my dog greet me at the door is one of the greatest thrills of my life. I know, when I turn the key and push open the door, the first thing I will see is his wet, black nose, waiting for his Daddy.
Did I mention that sheetrocking sucks?
Anyway, I have a TON of work to do around the house, but I will be back later to torment the PP&P crowd……………………….
Oh, yeah, thank God that Dave is home and doing better – love to you Mary and may God bless you and your man.
So Linda had invited me to stop by, I may be quiet for a little while at first. Though, I’m not entirely certain exactly how well I’d fit in considering I tend more to the ‘conservative’ side of things on a few issues.
I don’t believe that I’ve ever once name called or anything to that end when it came to disagreeing. Anyway, long story short, hello all.
I haven’t figured out who you are — soooo, you can’t be that quiet, or I’ll need to think and think. 🙂
Welcome! (scratching head, wondering… when and where did I share this site with this person…) You’ll need to post something so I’ll have a hint! But I think I’m going to enjoy this.
Differences of opinion are very welcome! It’s how we all learn. If we don’t hear the other side of the story how can we make an informed opinion?
After seeing the movie, Alice’s Restaurant earlier this week for the first time ever, I did some research. A few interesting tidbits probably everyone already knows:
The church is now The Guthrie Center. It’s a popular folk-music venue, hosts an annual ‘Thanksgiving dinner that can’t be beat’ for people in need, and has an annual “Garbage Trail Walk,” retracing the steps of Arlo (as told in the song) which raises money for Huntington’s Disease research.
Alice and Ray Brock divorced not long after the movie was made. Today Alice owns an art studio in Massachusetts. She has many talents, but — she paints rocks! Waaaay better than any rocks I’ve painted, but she and I do have that in common. In fact, our techniques are completely different, but I can see why she gets to sell hers — she does some very attractive female shapes.
According to wiki: Guthrie revised and updated “Alice’s Restaurant” years later to protest Reagan-era policies, but this second version has not been released on a commercial recording. He sang a third version during the Bush Administration years that was recorded and released by the Kerrville Folk Festival.
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
Is this thingy on? (clears throat and steps closer)
MARY HAD A LITTLE WATCH
SHE SWALLOWED IT ONE DAY
AND NOW SHE’S DRINKING CASTOR OIL
TO PASS THE TIME AWAY
Charles, now you can see why I don’t do poetry.
HA!
Good morning!
I didn’t know I had so many hours of sleep in me! Most puzzling is how can I feel so tired when I’ve slept a day and a half?
Wayne left this morning at 0’dark thirty for golf, closed me inside the bedroom — that means he closed the dog and two cats out. When I roused all three were in the hallway just outside the door waiting IMpatiently. They told me in no uncertain terms their stomachs thought their throats had been cut!
I don’t ache like yesterday and I finally feel warm enough, I’m on the mend. Too ornery to be sick! I’m off to catch up on posts here from yesterday, surf the news, see what’s happenin’.
Well wakey, wakey Fnord…good to see you back on deck….I hope you are feeling better… Don’t get too close to your computer …I don’t want to catch it 🙂 .
OK, Prairie P&P’s here is one for you…how would you feel about eating breast milk cheese on a cracker? Urgh, that was what was served during an art exhibition in London. Any thoughts on that one 🙂 . And Jammers, I would like to hear what Chuck would do…other than chuck!
http://frigginloon.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/breast-milk-cheese-served-at-art-exhibition/
Loon, who do ya think churned the breast milk into cheese . . . while still in the breast no less.
Good
morningevening, Loon!Breast milk cheese … it’s not often I’m at a loss for words…
ahhahahhahhahahhahahhah LOL 🙂
Update from Mary:
“Dave came home Friday evening and is finally getting some good rest. He’s walking around OK, but is very tired and weak. I’m taking him off the narcotics today and attempting to control his pain with Ibuprophen…he just doesn’t handle the prescription pain meds very well. He’s been having delusional thoughts, hallucinating, and I found him at 4AM sitting in the living room, drinking Dr Pepper (He NEVER drinks Dr Pepper).
So far, so good. He’s doing amazingly well for everything he’s been through, but I’m totally exhausted. It will get better. Thanks for all your support..I don’t know how we would have made it through all this without our family and friends. Love you all, Mary”
Nice enough to do some gardening, but too wet to trim the verge…
After more coffee…
And after some surfing and blogging…
And after composing some neglected e-mail..
And after googling the best way to make home-made hashed brown potatoes… using a raw potato or a nuked one?
And should I use big brown Idaho’s or nice little red potatoes. grrrr
We need PrariePond! She would have the best advice for anything from the kitchen!
I like the big brown ones for baking and the little red ones for just about everything else. But, I’m no expert!
Oh Fnord, you are too kind….
So David, do you want fried potatoes cut in chunks or slices? Or do you want the grated kind?
If you want chunks, I recommend the red ones. They will hold their shape better, but brown slower. You can use the russet bakers with good results too, but I like them better for slices and frying. And when I say slices, I mean cut the potatoes in quarters or eights and slice thinly from there. Both of those potatoes I would do raw, not nuked or leftover baked.
The grated kind? Very tricky, which is why I usually go for small, thin slices. The ONLY way I have been able to do the grated ones is if you bake them first. You can nuke them, but real baked work better. Grate and fry in butter or bacon grease. You can do them raw, but my experience is that they usually get gray and sticky before they get fluffy and crispy brown. Especially the reds. I’d only use russets for raw and grated.
So…. let’s review? If you want grated, plan ahead for baked, then cool, grate, and brown in butter later.
But if you want really good fried potatoes, use russets, quarter or eighth them, and slice thinly. Use a generous amount of bacon grease or veggie oil. (Butter wont take the heat and will burn before being done and brown.) But my favorite is bacon grease.
When the ‘taters have cooked a few minutes, add some finely chopped or grated onion, salt and pepper (or Tony’s if you are me) and a pat or so of butter. Yeah, I know. It’s double the grease, but trust me, it’s TRIPLE the flavor and they will brown nicely with the butter added towards the end.
And besides, if you wanted health food, you wouldnt be eating hash browns anyway, now would you?
If you do grated baked potatoes, you can go butter or bacon grease all the way, but I’d still add a little grated onion too. If using pre-cooked taters, you can add the onion in the beginning instead of waiting.
And they are ALL good with some chopped bacon and grated cheese added at the end.
Ok. FINE. Now I’m hungry too!
Oh yeah, and I like mine topped with a soft fried egg too…. And buttered white trash, white bread toast to mop the plate.
Ummmm. Heart attack on a plate!
I do the Russets, thin sliced, in bacon grease, adding chopped onions, fresh dill, and a good sized pat of butter when the taters start browning. The dill gives it that wow factor.
Also, when baking taters, cut em in half, score em, dot with butter, salt and pepper, lay a bay leaf between em, wrap in tin foil and on the barbie till done.
Stomachs growling . . . see ya.
PS–Potatoes have glutin, and it’s the glutin that makes them sticky instead of fluffy. That’s why I usually recommend russets if you are going to cut them up finely or grate them. The reds have the most glutin which is what makes them “waxy”.
And the reason the grated, frozen, and store bought hash browns work better is because they are slightly cooked and dehydrated during processing. It’s the same reason store bought frozen french fries work better than homemade. They are blanched in hot oil, then dehydrated and frozen so you can give them the second frying at home.
Thus endeth the potato gospels…
One thing I’ve learned with home fried taters is double fry em. Drain after the first fry, then return to fryer to finish. Crunchy outside, soft innards. Kind of like the store bought, but home done.
Fnord, glad you are feeling better. Dogs and cats make good bed warmers, but other than that, they dont make great nurses.
I’m glad Dave is home too. I am sure Mary will have him stronger and up and going again soon.
Chicken soup does it every time!
PP, my favorite way to do fried potatoes is to use a combination of lard and bacon grease as the medium for frying. Just saying….
BTW, PP, what are your thoughts on the best way to use the Yukon Gold potatoes? These seem to be somewhere between the reds and the russets relative to the starch content. I’ve mashed them before. The color is interesting, and the ‘taters seemed to hold up well to this treatment, although I believe I prefer reds for this usage as well (it may just be habit).
Hi 617, good to be here with ya at the same time!
I actually like the Yukons steamed or cooked gently with butter. I dont really like them mashed because they are, as you noted, a little on the waxy side. They do ok as baked potatoes, but I still like the big russets for that AND for mashed potatoes.
But if you mash the reds, you can leave the skin on, and the same way for thin-skinned Yukons. I never leave the russet skins on for mashing.
I planted a hundred pounds of Yukons, as that is what sells the best at the farmers markets. But I also planted fifty each of reds and russets. I’ve never had good luck growing the russets, but given the rain I’ve had in the last ten days, maybe this will be the year!
Heheheh. And lard is the preferred fat for ALL cooking. It’s just hard to find sometimes, which is why I do rendered bacon fat.
And my home grown chickens are always so fat, I even save the melted smaltz from them. Now THAT makes great fried potatoes too, as well as veggie seasoning.
I was gonna make deer meat chili today, but you all have just about sent me running for the potato bin instead.
Maybe baked chicken with roasted potatoes and carrots? Lots of onion and garlic as well?
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
OMG; I wasn’t all that hungry (late breakfast) until prairiepond’s latest post. Damn, I just gained ten pounds in contemplation….
*weg*
Ok, now I’ve made myself hungry, so it’s off to the kitchen I go….
This author sees the top five most vulnerable Senate seats, the ones he sees switching parties in 2010 — and they are all currently held by Republicans!
“Top 5 Vulnerable Senate Seats
It’s a bit early to be predicting winners and losers for the 2010 elections — remember how right on we were in casting Hillary Clinton as the Democratic “frontrunner” well in advance? But with lots of polls already out and fundraising figures being monitored daily, we thought it would be a good time to post our inaugural list of the top five Senate seats that are most vulnerable to switching parties in 2010.”
http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2009/04/top_5_vulnerable_senate_seats.html
This blogger
http://liana.tumblr.com/post/95793665/your-npr-name
who is a faithful NPR listener speaks of, “the slew of impossibly named NPR hosts we listen to every day: Renee Montagne, Steve Inskeep, Corey Flintoff, Korva Coleman, Kai Ryssdal, Dina Temple-Raston.
In fact, we’ve often wondered what it would be like to be one of them. A Nina Totenberg or a Renita Jablonski. A David Kestenbaum or a Lakshmi Singh. Even (on our most ambitious days) a Cherry Glaser or a Sylvia Poggioli.
So finally, after years of Fresh Air sign-off ambitions, we came up with a system for creating our own NPR Names. Here’s how it works: You take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name. Your last name becomes the smallest foreign town you’ve ever visited. So I’m Liarna Kassel. And Eric is Jeric Bath.”
So what would your NPR name be?
I am Ljinda Cahersiveen, but you may still call me fnord. 😉
Unless California, Colorado, Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine are considered “foreign”, I’m out; plus, as some of you know, I use my middle name as my “main” name; don’t know how that would work in my case.
Oops; left out Oregon, Idaho, and Texas from the above list; of course, if Texas secedes, I may be back in…..
Didn’t you say you’d visited Niagara Falls? Doesn’t that put you into Canada, or so close you could walk?
Nope, fnord; never visited Niagara Falls. Closest I’ve been to Canada, to my recollection, was Burlington, VT (a very pretty small city, across Lake Champlain from Plattsburgh, NY). Hmm, Bar Harbor, ME might be a bit closer; one may take a ferry from Bar Harbor to some small city in Nova Scotia, but I cannot recall the distance between the two.
One word names are quite in vogue, Valbert.
Thanks, fnord. 😦
I now know why I buy frozen hash browns.
LOLOLOLOL
It’s wonderful to be in the company of such good cooks. I admit to not being one. I hate to cook. Just ask my kids. Especially since leaving the farm, where it sometimes seemed like the only reason I was there. Oh, I can cook, I just haven’t found the joys in it that others have.
The really bad thing is that I’m a member of a blog where it’s been decided that once a month, there will be a recipe posted from a member at random. Uh, yeah. My mother didn’t do a lot of cooking. In fact, my dad fixed a lot of our meals. With only three of us (sometimes two, when my mom was gone on business), it wasn’t difficult. He’d brown a pound of hamburger then throw in a can of spaghetti–Franco American, as I recall–add some salt, and heat. Include a jar of applesauce on the side, and we were go to go.
My mom did make a great salad dressing, but when I asked her about it in later years, she didn’t remember it.
As the kids grew and were involved in activities, and the then-hubby was gone more than home, we got in the habit of shopping frozen food at Sam’s. There were fewer groans and I-don’t-like-thats, because each could choose her own “meal”.
Yes, I’m lazy, but I’m also not much of an eater, whch is probably why cooking doesn’t rate high on my list of favorite things to do. Still, I do admire the rest of you.
Heh, Wicked. The ONLY reason I learned to cook is because I LOVE to eat and I’m a big eater. But anyone who’s met me in person knows that…
You sound like my Mom. She was a fabulous cook. Nothing fancy, but everything she made was really good, and she was a great baker. However, she was always watching her weight, and mine, and so she didnt bake except for special occasions. She didnt teach me to cook either, because, as she said, I always made too big of a mess. True enough.
So I taught myself to cook, first by trial and error, then by reading recipe books like novels, then by watching cooking shows on TV.
Now? I cant stop cooking or eating, when I should probably do both. I wish all you guys were close so I had someone to cook for, since Summer doesnt get any people food. No one wants a hundred pounds of Weim with food issues 🙂
All cooking is is applied chemistry (with a bit of physics added). That’s why it is so fascinating to me to look at recipes, etc., and try to figure out the effect of a proposed change on the final outcome.
Baking is ever so much more precise than cooking. I’ve learned the hard way to be a slave to the recipe when baking things (I do OK with cakes and pies; bread is both my biggest success as well as a memorable failure; cookies usually turn out well) when I’m trying something from “scratch”. I guess that’s why there are box mixes, premade pie crusts, refrigerated cookie dough, etc., available for me to screw up…..
Yeah 617, that’s why I dont bake. It requires too much precision.
Funny, but I dont approach cooking like chemistry or physics, but rather like music, or the composition of music.
A nuance of chicken stock here to smooth the melody, then a crescendo of chili powder leading to a key switch of serrano peppers, then some tomato puree to add the richness of trombones to the sharper trumpet tones. Top it all with the percussion of a crunchy topping. And I love the bass notes of beef and bacon and wood smoked barbeque that reminds me of the baritone section.
Sooner or later the goal is for it to taste like a whole piece of music, no matter if it’s an aria or a rock opera.
heheheh. Damn, now I dont know whether to turn on the smokey blues music or go stir the mariachi chili…
Maybe I’ll just go with the gospel of fried chicken. They do call it the “gospel bird” in the south because it was always on the menu on Sunday!
See, 6? I was never good at chemistry. 🙂
Seriously, I’m not a bad cook, although I did nearly poison the then-hubby when trying to learn to make gravy. He was very good about and ate the paste I made without complaining.
I think one of the newer reasons I don’t enjoy cooking is two-fold. For twenty years I did the Sunday chicken dinners, twice a month, roast once a month, and freedom the fourth Sunday, thanks to the KANG. My kids still ask for my friend chicken, but in the almost 10 years we’ve been gone from the farm, I’ve maybe done it once. I don’t like my own fried chicken. They like it.
The other reason is that too many times I spent making dinner, only for “someone” not to be there to eat it. I was tempted many times to leave a tray in the middle of the driveway, so that at 3 a.m., “someone” would have dinner waiting.
I made goulash(sp?) last night. I’ve cooked more in that last two weeks than I have in a year, I think, what with a third person in the house now. Which is not to say that we didn’t hit fast food several times.
I eat when I’m hungry, which isn’t all that often, because I’m always too wrapped up in something else and don’t want to stop. My youngest is always hungry. 4’10” and tiny. (She’s the runt of the litter, I always say.) Her next oldest sister eats more than her boyfriend. She’s also beginning to show it. LOL
Your comment about your next older daughter reminded me of a girl friend of mine in high school; 5’1″, maybe 98 lbs soaking wet, who could eat way more than I, or most of my male friends (all of whom were football players) regularly, and just smile (as we combined our funds to pay for her dinner). Saw her at the 40 yr. reunion; still 5’1″, but maybe up to 100 lbs. At the dinner, still ate like a harvest hand. Damn her!
prairiepond, I like your approach to cooking; it does make a lot of sense to me. However, at the bottom of it all is basic mathematics (I’ll let you wonder just how the Hell I got to that :-)).
I can see it now; prairiepond Symphony in G (as in good food); the antipasto movement, light and inviting; followed by the robust, harmonious entree; and brought to a fulfilling conclusion by the marvelously resolving dessert. How does that sound?
Embellishing a bit on the Symphony in G: the antipasto movement, light and inviting, featuring the reeds and violins; the robust, harmonious entree, with a lot of brass, bassoon, cellos and double bass; and the fulfilling conclusion by the marvelously resolving dessert, featuring the entire orchestra.
Oh, geez, now I’m getting hungry!
OMG, 617, I like it. Symphony in G. And yeah, the whole meal has to be in harmony, not just one dish.
Wicked, I know others who say the same thing. They slaved all day and then no one showed for dinner.
I neglected to say that my Mom, while a great cook, HATED cooking. It was just a grind to her.
My Dad, bless his heart, always ate whatever was put in front of him. I never, ever heard him complain about food. Or anything else either, except for lack of rain and the price of wheat 🙂
“However, at the bottom of it all is basic mathematics”
I think when we really do get to the TOE, Theory of Everything, it will be a math formula. I think the universe really does run on math.
Who’d a thunk that god was really math?
Certainly explains why I’m an athiest!
Or too much rain (especially at planting and harvest times), and the price of wheat were also subjects of complaints around the place “back in the day”.
My geek son-in-law holds that math is the foundation for everything; this is why, he claims, he was so attracted to the elder, as she was a math major. I don’t know how credible that is, but hey, it sounds good.
If math is the foundation for everything I’m doomed. Doomed. May I squeak by with a great respect for, or is the ability to perform an absolute necessity?
“If math is the foundation for everything I’m doomed.”
Ditto for me, fnord, ditto for me.
And as for me, I got by most of my life on charm and bs. Now? Age and treachery.
If the ability to “perform” is a necessity, I’ll be living under a bridge and panhandling for a living.
Oh, and btw, my NPR name will be Ksandra Juarez…. hee hee hee heeeeee! Unless Brownsville is smaller.
Oh no! Actually it will be Ksandra Nuevo Laredo. HA!
Actually, he says that math is the highest level science, without which no other science would exist, and thus is the foundation for “everything”. Want to get the citation correct and all that.
He is “scary smart”; from a bragging father’s perspective, so is the elder. They’re quite a pair.
Speaking of “scary smart”, he comes by it honestly. His father (also a particle physicist) is so stinking bright that when I am having a very in depth conversation with him, which is quite coherent and detailed, I realize that the other half (or more) of his brain is busy with other tasks. His mother (who is one of those persons you feel as if you have known for 20 years five minutes after you meet her) has advanced degrees in public health, etc. and can overwhelm you with her abilities to analyze and resolve problems, all the while reminding her elder son (the son-in-law) to be sure to pack a change of clothes for the trip tomorrow. Yep, I really like them; too bad they don’t live closer (and, according to the elder, have extended the TDY to Geneva another year), so we could see them more often. Good people.
And, don’t get me started on the younger son, who intellectually is another order of magnitude brighter than his brother. Same age as our younger, and at the wedding five plus years ago, the two of them hatched a few pranks at the expense of their older siblings. Judy and I just stood and watched in amazement.
Yeah, they do indeed sound “scary smart”.
Something I was once told I could be if I ever stopped smoking pot.
You see which path won out. heheh. HAHAHAHAHA!
…and on that note, it’s thundering again, so I guess I better go do chicken chores before the girls kill me in my sleep on this gloomy day.
I’ll report back after the mandatory detour to the rain gauge.
When is the baby due?
Can you even imagine the potential there??
Baby is due “late June”; the time window is, last I knew, between the 21st and the 28th. I recognize that there will be quite a lot of potential there, I can’t imagine just how much, though (keeping fingers crossed).
Speaking of baby, I need to be a snoopy prospective grandfather and find out if there has been an agreement on the first name for the (expected) little girl. I keep reminding them there needs to be a male name in reserve, just in case the sonogram was “wrong”. Otherwise, the kid will graduate from high school under the name “Baby Boy Strait”.
Hmmph; daughter of snoopy prospective grandfather cannot take his call right now, as she is busy in an important, big meeting, but she can call him back later. Darn it, she paid too much attention to the receptionists…..
So 617, the people I work with are expecting a baby in May, and they are also told it will be a girl. They refuse, however, to tell us the name picked.
Therefore, we are calling the baby-to-be “Smoochie” because that is what we will all be doing to her once she is born.
She’ll probably have that name stick if we dont cut it out NOW!
Oh, and the rain gauge says 2 inches and thirty hunnerts as we say out here. That’s a certified downpour for us. And it looks like the skies will open up again any time.
Good for the onions and potatoes, bad for me getting to town on Monday…
Right now, grandbaby to be has the name “Fred”; we also need to cut that out as well.
Looks like we’ll be getting some of that moisture later today. Clouds are getting heavier, but it’ll be a while.
No relation to George, I’m assuming. 😦
Did I tell you all that we’re adding to the family, too? #2 daughter is due in September (I think). The doctor says the fast heartbeat points to a girl, but we’re waiting for the sonogram in a month or so. We’re arguing on the name. Daughter wanted Arianna (ah sound), but we gave it a thumbs down. Too many ways to mispronounce and screw up. The rest of us are rooting for what the youngest boy’s would have been if he’d been a girl. Delaney Lynn. No telling what boy’s name she’ll pick. She said yesterday she fears twins. I told her to leave one at the hospital. That was always my plan.
6, I’m not nearly as excited as you. That first is oh so special. After four and being daycare provider for them, the glee begins to wear off.
Actually, wicked, George was the name for the elder when she was in utero, which is still the parental nickname for her to this day (I try to be good and not use it around unrelated third parties).
I am excited, but apparently not excited enough in the view of my younger daughter, my mother, and several other folks. One good thing about their living “away”, I’ll not be doing a lot of daycare or any other care duties; St. Paul to Wichita is a bit far to drive to “drop the kid off” for daycare.
Re: the twins remark. When the younger was on the way, early in the process, I got a call from the wife; the question was “Is there a history of twins in your family?”. This was asked by the OB at an early, pre-sonogram appointment. I said “yes, there is” (my father was a twin; and there are other twins down (up) the family tree on that side). Well, the sonogram put all at ease. There was only one (all 9lbs, 5 1/2 oz. of her at birth) after all.
Well, congrats anyway Wicked. I know you’ll be excited when the day comes.
And hey, what’s one more pb&j to fix if you are already fixing four?
Easy for me to say, I know. I only have to fill the kibble bowl twice a day.
…but OMG, twins?
Woof. You all are waaaay better people than I.
Random thoughts……………………………………..
I have come to the conclusion that you are all nuts, not in the WEBlog way, but in a good manner, one that I am proud to share with you all.
Cooking: Goddamn I love it. I got the bug when I received custody of my children and they relied on me for subsistence. Since then, I have become an award-winning grill master (my own category) and enjoy cooking for anyone that has the stomach for my brand of fire.
(Hash brown notes: if you are going to do it from scratch, remember to DRY the ‘taters after slicing and dicing – too much moisture keeps you from getting the desired level of crispness. Drying and draining is sometimes necessary halfway through the process. The trick is to maintain SOME moisture while getting them crisp. End of sermon!)
Susan Boyle: What a story and what a voice. If this woman doesn’t have a recording contract by Monday morning, then there is no justice in the world.
I thank God everyday that I have a president that I am proud of, and that I believe has MY best interests at heart.
Thank you, God!
Did I mention that sheetrocking sucks?
I have been away each day this week for about eight hours, and each day when I arrive home, my Rufus greets me with unrestrained joy. I know that it is a small thing, but for me, having my dog greet me at the door is one of the greatest thrills of my life. I know, when I turn the key and push open the door, the first thing I will see is his wet, black nose, waiting for his Daddy.
Did I mention that sheetrocking sucks?
Anyway, I have a TON of work to do around the house, but I will be back later to torment the PP&P crowd……………………….
Oh, yeah, thank God that Dave is home and doing better – love to you Mary and may God bless you and your man.
Later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree; sheetrocking sucks.
Well, gotta go now; it’s been fun, y’all.
Everyone have a good evening, stay dry, and I’ll hopefully be able to check in tomorrow.
So Linda had invited me to stop by, I may be quiet for a little while at first. Though, I’m not entirely certain exactly how well I’d fit in considering I tend more to the ‘conservative’ side of things on a few issues.
I don’t believe that I’ve ever once name called or anything to that end when it came to disagreeing. Anyway, long story short, hello all.
I haven’t figured out who you are — soooo, you can’t be that quiet, or I’ll need to think and think. 🙂
Welcome! (scratching head, wondering… when and where did I share this site with this person…) You’ll need to post something so I’ll have a hint! But I think I’m going to enjoy this.
Differences of opinion are very welcome! It’s how we all learn. If we don’t hear the other side of the story how can we make an informed opinion?
I can tell you it wasn’t “West End” but the “Knightly Muteness”. Of course, I go by djr4488 one, and not the other.
After seeing the movie, Alice’s Restaurant earlier this week for the first time ever, I did some research. A few interesting tidbits probably everyone already knows:
The church is now The Guthrie Center. It’s a popular folk-music venue, hosts an annual ‘Thanksgiving dinner that can’t be beat’ for people in need, and has an annual “Garbage Trail Walk,” retracing the steps of Arlo (as told in the song) which raises money for Huntington’s Disease research.
Alice and Ray Brock divorced not long after the movie was made. Today Alice owns an art studio in Massachusetts. She has many talents, but — she paints rocks! Waaaay better than any rocks I’ve painted, but she and I do have that in common. In fact, our techniques are completely different, but I can see why she gets to sell hers — she does some very attractive female shapes.
http://www.alicebrock.com/
According to wiki: Guthrie revised and updated “Alice’s Restaurant” years later to protest Reagan-era policies, but this second version has not been released on a commercial recording. He sang a third version during the Bush Administration years that was recorded and released by the Kerrville Folk Festival.
fnord,
Check out amazon.com for a comment on Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo himself. It was posted a few years ago.