Cooking Is Good Therapy...

Been baking breads all day, one more bake day tomorrow, then to market. Hope ya'll have a good day.

GA- first you boil potatoes in just enough water to cover them and until they get soft as if you were making mashed potatoes. Then after they cool you puree or blend them in the water you boiled them in. Then you spread them on dehydrator paper or plastic wrap will also work. Put them in the dehydrator about 125 degrees for about 12 hours or more depending on the thickness you spread. Flipping them over when one side dries. Then drying them until they crumble not bend. Then blending to flakes.
To be honest with you what I have decided is. Store bought is way easier. But I had to give it a try. But to me, not worth the time. Kinda like growing beans, beans are cheap enough to just buy, and more trouble to grow and harvest. If I had more time I would rather do it that way than buy, But limited time makes us choose.
So, thats my potato flake story. :)
Earl will be getting bought flakes. :)

Smeshque, how to you dehydrate potatoes to make potato flakes? Do you cut them very thinly, dehydrate, then puree? Or puree first and then dehydrate?

On the subject of potatoes, I noticed that the sweet potatoes that have been patiently waiting to be cooked and eaten have decided instead to sprout. Once the weather becomes a little less intense (close to 90's for the next few days), the sweet potatoes will go into the ground or containers to complement some petunias I hope to get at Memorial Day sales.

I'll be planting my father's containers as well, so some of the potatoes will go into the 3 tiered one to create vines to fill in the bare spots.

I was surprised that one year the sweet potatoes grew so well as vines that I actually had some to harvest for eating.

Yes Dehydrated tomatoes are a good treat. That is one think my mom will snack on, instead of muffins. I will be doing some as soon as possible. The potao flake starter I use is pretty resilliant. Have had him for over a year. Yeah I did say him, when you feed something regularly it becomes personal. My mom named our starter "Earl". I'm not crazy just silly. So she always says is it time to feed Earl, and that makes her smile, so I go with it. Mom smiling=me happy.
Happy cooking everyone and enjoy the blessings this day brings.

Great ideas smeshque and GardenArtist. I hope the potato flakes work. I’ve tried making sourdough starter a couple of times and always give up. I will have to try one with the potato flakes. I’ve heard dehydrated onion turns out well at home. I do tomatoes and they are good too. Also, the herb wreath is a great idea. I need to do soon. I try planting new herbs every year. It is great when they come back. Such a joy as they are some of the first things to harvest in our garden.

Dehydrating my own potato flakes. Experiment, will see how it goes. I am out of store bought, that I use in my sourdough starter, which I just fed today. So I am seeing if I can do my own potato flakes, using online recipe. I am hopeful. I just hate buying things if I can make it, and I never thought of making my own.
Thinking of oven fried green tomatoes this week sometime.  Getting several on the vines. And gonna make some kale chips, kale is doing well.

CDNReader, you are SO kind to make that suggestion! I think the approach of living more from your own resources is gradual, something that people develop as they create bonds with nature, and begin to rely more on their own resources.

And you can do it - just cooking is the best way to start, along with growing herbs or just a simple garden. You can even start one if you don't have a yard.

Do you have any special or favorite foods? You can get fresh produce at a farmer's market or organic food market - it's not the same as growing your own, but I've always found farmer's markets to be dynamic and especially refreshing with their fragrant aromas. It's so different from shopping at a big chain grocery store.

Martha does have a garden, but one of the aspects I dislike about her approach is the extensive use of fats and sugar in her creations. I feel like I'm overdosing on sugar if I watch her programs.

You made my day with your compliment; thanks again!

Dear GardenArtist,

I appreciate your words. I think you put Martha Stewart to shame. I wish I had the same way of thinking about gardening and preparing food. Right now, I try simple recipes so hopefully I can build my skill set.

Pumpkin Pie with cool whip soooooooo good.

Speaking to the therapeutic part of cooking, for me it's also the harvesting, of going out in the back yard and picking the ingredients for a salad, or tomatoes, peppers, and onions for spaghetti or pasta based dish.

Or making an herbal wreath of basil, sage, thyme, lemon balm and/or lavender or other herbs, to dry and be available for fall and winter soups and stews...

Or pumpkin for a pie, so very appropriate for the chillier days accompanying harvesting of pumpkins and squash.

Pick a pumpkin, save and clean the seeds and dry them in the oven...put on a pot of coffee and savor the taste of a home made pumpkin pie.....ymmmmm! Or, for summer treats, pick a fresh watermelon, collapse into a comfortable outdoor chair and savor the juicy sweetness of fresh fruit.

I don't cook anymore because cooking means eating and I already do too much of that. I used to spend a big part of my week watching for sales and planning meals based on foods I knew everyone would enjoy, cooking the treats I grew up eating and also trying new recipes. I think that the therapeutic part of cooking comes after the meal/goodies are prepared and you sit down to share with friends or loved ones.

The sage bread sounds good. Will need to try it. I have never used except as a garnish. I do love the blossoms. Love all fresh herbs especially oregano.

I am definitely going to try the dill potato salad. I am a fan of German Potato salad.
Going to be experimenting with some sage bread. I have harvested quite a bit of sage.

Real that sounds delicious anything with your garlic onion oil. We do a sheet pan with oil, a ton of chopped onion, then press in ground meat. Bake whole sheet in a 400 degree oven. Then cut into squares. It looks like brownies, but savory. Smeshque I made some dill potato salad this morning after thinking about it so much. It’s a fun change and lighter on the taste buds. Hope you like it if you give it a try. I still love an old fashioned yellow mustard potato salad with a plain old hotdog. Happy cooking:)

Real- that sounds great. And delicious, good idea!

I created a lovely garlic and onion oil this weekend to use on just about anything.

I ran across some peeled garlic and thought it would be nice with a ribeye, so I put it in my small cast iron skillet, then thought I better add oil, used olive and avocado, then thought onions would be good with steak, charred those on the BBQ, then thought how yummy they would be with the garlic, so I tossed them in the pan, everything was on the BBQ. Oh, yummy surprise!

I plan on making a quart of this tomorrow. After I fried potatoes in it for lunch I just knew I have to keep this yummy healthy oil combo on hand. (My hubby who can't smell much, thought it smelled and tasted wonderful)

Ga- that would be great if you shared the recipes. Thank you.
Yeah living in city limits one. Maybe that's why they call it "city limits" :)

Cdn- shrimp recipe sounds good if I weren't allergic.
Dancer- dill potato salad super better huh?

Happy cooking everyone.

I do love sourdough bread. Bought a store brand Kroger round loaf in San Fran 20 years ago and it was the best I ever had. Including high priced artisan gourmet breads. The unique shrimp salad sounds good. Love dill. Discovered I love dill potato salad over my old yellow mustard style. So anything with dill is a must try. We went to Texas Roadhouse for Mother’s Day lunch and when we left the line was out the door. Enjoy your Sunday!

Hi all,

My colleague just shared the tastiest and easiest recipe. Its peas and shrimp with chopped green onions and celery with dill dressing. So simple yet delicious. This is going to be my new go to recipe.

Hope you are all cooking up something delicious for Mother's Day or going out for something good!

I'll see if I can find the rhubarb bread and chocolate brownie recipes for you.

That wheat sunflower oat bread sounds like a really healthy combination.

I'm also going to see if I can find the gardening forum in which we discussed baking bread with bricks or alternatives, to get that special crust on artisan breads. It might have been in the earlier forum which if I remember correctly was closed when Rodale changed the content and format of Organic Gardening.

I'd love to have a brick oven outside! That's another reason to get out of the city and into an area more flexible and amenable to gardeners.

GA- Thank you for asking, There is not many breads or pies I don't make.
yeast breads(wheat, white, wheat sunflower oat(my fav),onion basil,tomato bread, rolls
sourdough in which I use a potato flake starter(plain, rosemary/garlic(my favorite)italian herb,
quick and sweet breads,cheddar pepper, even chocolate zucchini. from pumpkin, caramel apple, peach cobbler bread, you name it.
close to 100 different breads, you name it I probably make it.
Even salt bread. An older woman came to the market once and asked if I made salt bread, never heard of it. She came back next week and had a recipe for me. Asked me if I could make it for her. I said I will give it a go. Treacherous. Took me 6 times to get the recipe to work. But she was pleased with it. And it is so time consuming I only make it for her, or by request. It kinda has a cheesy flavor, its odd.
I started selling at the Farmers Market, where I live you can have a home bakery. So it was a hit and we developed a customer base.
I am intrigued by the rhubarb bread, that is one I have yet to do and never heard of. I have not done much french bread. But I intend to.
I am trying to perfect some flat breads.
And chocolate zuchinni brownies.
Once I had a surplus of cucumbers. I came across a cucumber bread recipe. So I made it. Came out beautifully. It doesn't taste bad, but I never made it again.
And DH has been talking about building me a brick oven, oh the delicious pizza that can be had. Been dreaming about a brick oven for several years now.
But rhubarb, that is intriguing.

smeshque, please share more information on your bread baking. Do you ever make French bread or "artisan" breads with the crust that has be baked differently, on a ceramic plate or something? I guess the genuine method is making it in a brick oven (perhaps preferably outside so the neighbors can be tantalized by the aroma, and treat the gardener/baker better and not complain about grass that's a few inches too high).

My mother had a great recipe for rhubarb bread, and of course that perennial favorite for all the prolific zucchini - the chocolate zucchini bread.

Or do you bake yeast breads?

Thanks for sharing your ideas. That sounds yummy. Haven’t had all of those dishes. I especially love scampi with lots of vegies. FF with gravy no stranger to me. As a kid I would have chicken fried steak with fries all covered in white cream gravy. Plus I would add a touch of ketchup to the fries. No vegetables I guess the ketchup must have counted. I sure can’t eat like that now at least very often. My doctor would be on it😆 We didn’t know the health consequences back then. Here’s to healthy choices 💗

I used to cook in a restaurant in the south - so I can make grits, country ham with red-eye gravy and red-beet eggs for Easter. ;-)

But I also learned there to make:
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Southern Fried Chicken
King Neptune (a filet mignon cooked to order, topped with sauteed lump crabmeat, hollandaise sauce and parmesan)
Seafood Newburg (shrimp and scallops in a wine/cream sauce with veggies)
Shrimp Scampi
Chicken Dijon (I still make this frequently)
Surf n' Turf (Lobster tail & NY Strip steak)
Prime Rib
...and so on...

As employees, we weren't allowed to eat the "good stuff" - we could have hamburgers or fried chicken, but our favorite snack during our shift was french fries with brown gravy. LOL

Mac and chz definitely a favorite. Also mashed potatoes and cream gravy or brown gravy. Once I ordered them with half and half gravies and they didn’t think I was crazy😊 It’s just that I don’t have it that often. Making eggplant lasagna this weekend to make up for the winter comfort foods.

Hi all,

I wish I was a good cook. Sadly, I'm better at visiting the deli for a soup and sandwich.

My favorite comfort foods are mac and cheese and mashed potatoes! I wish I could have mashed potatoes every day.:-)

We had breakfast for dinner. Mine was just poached eggs on fried potatoes and onions. Simple and quick after a full day of spring cleaning.

Wonderful chefs. Everything sounds so good and inspiring.

I am all about making and eating massive quantities of Chinese and Indian food. (I grew up in Vancouver.) I kinda stopped when I started staying with mom.....mainly because she refuses to eat vegetables, always hated cooking, and doesn't own any decent pans or knives! I finally sucked it up and splurged on new cooking implements a couple of months ago. (I won't bring my own stuff here on a principle - that principle being that I am only "staying" here, and I have my OWN home, and that's where my stuff is going to remain.) So I've been getting back to it since, because new pans and knives are kinda inspiring, plus mom's apartment really does have an awesome kitchen (even if it's totally wasted on her). The rhythm of Chinese and Indian cooking makes me feel really grounded and serene.

Also potato and bacon soup - I could make it in my sleep, though I don't do it much lately. I learned it from the cook at my first waitressing job. When I was younger I made it a LOT, because it was ridiculously cheap, really filling, and hugely popular with my equally poor friends! But I'm kinda over it because it makes me....well, let's just say "gassy!"  Plus I'm kind of hopeless at making it in small quantities and potatoes turn to mush in the freezer.

I bake different breads weekly, summer or winter. And eat a lot of fresh salad homegrown. My favorite thing to cook is Italian and Mexican food