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Saturday, July 19, 2008

Let's talk potatoes

I love potatoes

I mean I can eat potatoes for just about every meal. and often I have them WITH every meal they are the side dish, part of the main dish, or the main dish.

I make the worlds best Baked Potatoe soup but if you want my recipie you better be prepared to play with food because I dont measure anything when I cook

I am growing potatoes this year in my garden

...welll.....not really IN my garden

my potatoes are growing in a bunch of stacked tires in front of my front deck

classy hey ??

no they dont look all that pretty. Right now one of the plants is 3 tires high and in need of a 4th tire which it will get tommorow the other one two tires high

Why oh WHy am I growing potatoes in tires?

well first off I have tires and need a use for them

and secondly I wanted potatoes and needed a place to grow them

I read somewhere that using a stacked tire method would work just as well if not better than growing them in barrels or buckets or in mounds in the ground

So there are my potatoes growing inside of the tires

It cost me nothing to get these plants I started them from ..sprouting potatoes out of a bag

2 different kinds I have the big bakers and then some smaller ones if this works next year we will try a few other kinds as well

3 comments:

Marc said...

Morning Sue!

You must have read my mind!

I was just thinking about making up a big batch of one of my absolute favorite German (or maybe it's really Jewish?) breakfast of champions - Potato Pancakes (latchkes?). I think they call them Katofelnpoofers or something that sounds funny like that.

I take about 10 potatoes, shred 'em in the cuisinart. Mom used to peel 'em first and handgrate. Way too much work for me! I just leave them unpeeled cause I'm a lazy frugal gourmet;^)

Next I dump the shreaded potatoe in a big bowl, throw in a small handful of plain fluor (I don't like to measure either) - you could probably leave out the fluor or add much less, you just don't want to add too much. Then you add 2 eggs, and hand mix. Then put a large spoon full of mixture in hot vegi oil, mash flat, and fry till brown on both sides.

Now that I think about it, this is like the Amercan hashbrown.

Not the healthiest meal, I know. But with a little Texas Pete it's well worth the occasional caloric gluttony.

Growing up, my brother and I used to beg our mom to make them. And we would sometimes eat them with sugar on top too, but I prefer them better with salt and Texas Pete.

Another of my favorites is the German breakfast called "Strong Max" or Straumamax.

All you do is slice the potatoes (once again I eat the peels), fry them in oil until golden brown, add one sliced up onion, and then a couple of eggs at the end, toss together until eggs are mixed in and cooked, then serve. Kind of a variation on the above theme. Also great with Texas Pete.

Most germans would add caraway seed, but I absolute despise caraway seeds, so of course I skip that old traditional step.

And then there's the Birthday special dish of potatoe dumplings or Klosse with buttered crutons inside, lots of rich gravy, very thin Roladin flank steak rolled up with pickles, onions, mustard, and bacon inside, and a side of red cabbage...I could go on and on.

Potatoes are definately the #1 German staple and a frugal menu must-have too.

Our family used to go through about fifty pounds a week or more. I'm down to about twenty a week now. lol

Gutenmorgen und gutten appetite!

Ryan said...

Can we see some photos of the potatoes?

Sue said...

I am of Irish descent and my hubby is of Irish German descent so potatoe pancakes are nothing new to us

I have not made them in years my grandmother made them different she used the left over mashed potatoes (or shredded potatoes depending on what she had readily available)flour milk butter(or buttermilk) diced onions salt pepper and then mash it all together

the whole mess was fried in leftover bacon grease

Grandma made her own lard too

I come from a family of extremely poor people

So living frugally is nothing new to either of us

Off to take pictures of my tire potatoes!!

have a great day professor!