Food, Glorious Food (chapter 6)

Chapter 6: Potatoes

For the past 2 years, we've tried to grow Russet potatoes in the garden spot next to the house. They didn't develop properly, and we always had a small crop of teeny-tiny, odd-ball-shaped potatoes. Our neighbor Frank always had a good crop of Yukon Gold potatoes, and in years past, he's shared some of his bounty with us. Since we'd had no luck in the past with the Russet potatoes, we decided to try a different kind this year. We've liked eating the kind that Frank has given us, so Josh ordered some Yukon Gold seed potatoes this past spring. And I'm happy to say that this was the first year we've had a good crop of potatoes! In the second week of October, the boys helped me pull them up. They LOVED digging in the dirt and finding potato treasures!!!

We quit weeding the garden at the end of August--and the weeds got so big and out-of-control in just six weeks' time! Ugh. Weeds are the pits. And weeding the ginormous garden is never fun. Especially when you have to direct four boys to help, all of whom whine, argue, and fight while doing the task. But--it WAS fun for the boys to see the 'fruit of their labors'. Even though none of them liked weeding, all of them liked helping with the harvest of the garden! We pulled up enough potatoes to fill 2 large burlap bags.

I let the potatoes dry in the bags outside for a week, then I brought the potatoes up to the house, wiped off the dirt from each one, counted them (just for the fun of it), inspected them for rot spots (only 2 had them), and divided the 180 potatoes back into the two burlap bags and set them in dry/cold storage under the house.

We use potatoes a lot. We eat and love: mashed potatoes, potatoes au gratin, potato soup, fried potatoes, baked potatoes. Am I starting to sound like Bubba off of Forrest Gump when he talks about shrimp? Anyways, trying to find a new recipe for potatoes that I hadn't ever used was a little more challenging. But, I did find one: Oven Potatoes. They were very good! They are similar to Potatoes Au Gratin, but the potatoes are sliced instead of shredded. The consistency of the potatoes and the sauce combined was perfect; they were really creamy and very good!

Oven Potatoes recipe:

1. Cook 8 potatoes, drain and cool. Slice into a 9x13 pan.

2. Combine 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1/4 cup margarine, 1/3 cup milk, 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup shredded cheese, and 1/3 cup chopped onions. Pour over potatoes and stir well.

3. Bake at 350* for 35-40 minutes.