I had bought some small white potatoes at Pate’s Farm Market earlier in the week. They were displayed loosely, and I selected most of them to be the same size. Not sure if I knew what I was going to do with them. One thought had been to fix some potatoes & green beans seasoned with bacon. Done well, the flavors are delightful. *I think it was Essie Davis, at a Bear Creek Senior Citizens luncheon, who brought a delicious dish of greens beans & potatoes seasoned with bacon. I recall that I did not go back for dessert, but for another helping of green beans, potatoes & bacon. The luncheon was held in the old fire station, that had been used for Boy Scout meetings, but now a meeting place for senior citizens. I was probably working for Region P Community Action Agency at the time, and that would have been more than 40 years ago.

I already had some white potatoes at home, but with darker skins, and larger.

Through the years, microwaving a potato, for about 5 minutes, and then cutting it up with margarine, sour cream, some herbs (marjoram, thyme) and S&P was a “go to” for me. I could have it by itself, or as a side with a pork chop or a hamburger. But for several months now, I haven’t had the desire to fix a potato this way. My favorite potato had become the Yukon Gold, but I’m not sure what has happened, but they don’t seem to be in the market (any grocer) any longer. *I took this to be a result of COVID, but haven’t checked. I don’t think I could blame the same on the small, flavorful “Sweet Bites” tomatoes from Sunset (company). But, those too have disappeared from the store shelves.

Maybe a year or so ago, I saw a way to bake a potato giving it a soft center, but a salty, crisp skin. This was on America’s Test Kitchen. The steps. Use Russet potatoes and brine them briefly before baking. I’ve tried this and it does make for a good baked potato.

This afternoon, I took about six of the small white potatoes, and quartered them. I boiled them with a little salt water. I later cut most of the quarters in half. As I was boiling the potatoes, I cooked some bacon in the microwave. For me, currently, this is the way to get consistently good bacon. After four minutes, the bacon is cooked, not overcooked, and crisp. As I am cooking the bacon & boiling the potatoes, I started to cook a couple of “round bone” lamb chops on the stove top. I use both olive oil and some grapeseed oil in the pan, but also added some bacon drippings as they were produced from the microwave. I needed to attend to the doneness of the potatoes because I don’t want them to overcook, nor do I want them undercooked and hard. Once they were done, I drained them and put them in a bowl for a little later.

The bacon finished and I took it out of the microwave. The lamb chops finished and I took them out of the skillet and set them aside in a plastic container, only planning to eat one of these for lunch.

I poured off most of the oil from the skillet and added some finely chopped onion (not a sweet Vidalia onion) to the pan. Not all of the onion was finely chopped. I like enough onion to distinguish it from the other ingredients. I cooked the onion down until it was translucent, but not blackened. I chopped the bacon into bacon bits. I now added some red wine vinegar and sweetener, and Agave Nectar to the skillet and mixed the onions with it. I then poured the potatoes into the pan, along with celery seeds, and added the bacon bits. I mixed the potatoes, onions, vinegar and sweetener in the pan. Tasted, and added a little more Splenda and vinegar to taste. Yes, another good German Potato Salad, but made with the small white potatoes.

I now had a lamb chop and warm German potato salad, and I pulled some rotkohl (Red Cabbage) and some of the Cranberry beans with chard, that I made yesterday out of the refrigerator. I left both of these cold. The flavors and different temperatures worked well together. A little slice of lamb, and some rotkohl. Some potato salad. Some of the beans & chard. Really good flavor. And now mixing and alternating each of these. It was all good, and all good together. *I do think I will make the Cranberry Beans & Chard again. I now think that it is the chard which adds that distinctive, earthy flavor. I plan to try chard in several dishes to see.

I normally would not have potatoes and beans in the same meal, but the two sides above were distinctive enough, and warm & cold, and sweet & savory. The starchy items that I usually would not have during the same meal are potatoes, beans, rice and pasta. All four of those starchy items would be used to “soak up” any gravies or sauces that came with the meat entre.

NOTE: I just thought, those small white potatoes would go well, sliced and mixed with fresh goat cheese and ramps. Ramps have a distinctive flavor, which are as different as garlic is from an onion, and ramps are as potent as garlic. You can’t eat either one without others knowing. Ramps only grow above a certain elevation, in the mountains and at a certain time of year (I think early spring.). I first got them at the State Farmers Market in Asheville, NC.

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NOTE [05/26/24]: Tonight is the second time that I have thought to cook a white potato with some water in my microwave “onion” cooker. I think it actually causes the potato to cook more quickly because it is “steaming” it. The cooked potato ends up moist. *I added some salt to the water, but am not sure if it flavored the potato. However, the water was completely cooked off in just 3 minutes. I stuck a fork in the potato and it seemed to be done, but I cooked it for about another 30 seconds. **I didn’t add any margarine or sour cream to the finished potato, but just salt, garlic powder and pepper.

I thought I had bought same Country Crock Margarine Original Flavor from the IGA. I even recall looking at two sizes of the Country Crock in the display. The smaller size was about $5.99 and the larger container was about $7.99. I made a mental note that I didn’t need the larger size, but did think the smaller sized container was smaller than what I usually get. But, it might have been the same size. Still, that I apparently did not put the container in my shopping cart is amazing to me. Still, I didn’t find it in my refrigerator, my kitchen, on my dining table, or anywhere in my car. So, I must not have bought it. This is almost like running out of onions. I cook an onion for most of my meals (at least lunch & dinner), and even saute some to go with my liver mush for breakfast. I ran out of olive oil earlier in the week. This too was unusual.

I am wondering if these “things” I am forgetting, or misplacing, are illustrative of a fading memory, in my old age. And, I am old. I am 70 years old, and that IS old. And, when someone introduces you as “70 years young,” you know that they view you as being “old.” I ran out of lime juice.

I have certain things that I try to make sure I “buy ahead of time,” before running out of them. They include Splenda, chicken broth, garbage bags, and dish washing detergent. I try to drink a little milk every day. I use Half-n-Half regularly for both my coffee and some of the tea I drink. *I have learned to love my “Scottish Tea.” The first time I tried it, I didn’t like the overpowering flavor, but very quickly fell in love with it, and love it with the creamer. The hot teas I like include: Bigelow – Constant Comment / Earl Grey / Raspberry Royal. I have drank Constant Comment and Earl Grey since about 1985. Rick and Linda Bell introduced me to both of these long ago. I think they lived on Brynn Marr Road in Jacksonville, NC at the time. I came to like the Raspberry Royal flavor from a short vacation I was on. I stayed at a Quality Inn in Lynchburg, VA about 2017 and tried this tea (on a whim) as I was checking out one morning. I fell in love with this flavor and ended up buying boxes of it from Amazon.com.

I have a drink that I make almost every day and consume a carafe. I add some cranberry juice and orange juice to a combination of Iced Tea with Lemon and Pomegranate Lemonade flavor packets (added to water) that I get at WalMart.

One of the things I do, is to give Christmas presents of the various things I have tried and liked in that year. I’ve given away the Bigelow Raspberry Royal tea, some Tiger Sauce, and even bought a hand grinder to grind the Indian Long Pepper that I fell in love with a couple of years ago. The Long Pepper is oddly shaped and hard and won’t grind in a regular pepper mill. But freshly ground, the Long Pepper has a pungent pepper flavor and aroma. I’ve given an old style metal vegetable peeler, that serves a double function when peeling a cucumber. It will peel the cucumber, and once done and halved, you can use the opposite end of the peeler to easily scrape out the bitter seeds. I’ve even given one of the plastic microwave onion cookers because you can cook various fruits & veggies quickly in the microwave with it. It will cook an onion, a white or sweet potato, and a apple. But you can also cook an egg in this cooker and it will come out with a rounded edge that will fit in an English Muffin, like an Egg McMuffin. You can even add shredded cheese in this cooker, and the egg will encase the melted cheese inside. [end NOTE]