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HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
One potato, two potato ... or five pounds of potatoes?
.A
FOOD
FOR
THOUGHT
Charlotte
Perkins
Staff writer
One potato, two potato...
or five pounds of potatoes?
For those of us who cook
a lot of solo meals, or cook
just for two, the microwaved
Idaho baking potato is a
good staple, and can be a
main dish as well as a side
dish. I like cottage cheese
and pepper on top of mine,
which I’ll recommend if you
haven’t tried it. A baked
potato with a protein-rich
topping is a good workday
lunch if you have a micro
wave at work.
If you’re trying to stay
ahead of the rising cost of
food, the way to buy pota
toes is by the bag, because
you typically double your
per-potato cost if you pick
them out from the bin indi
vidually.
Here’s an example from
a local store on Saturday. It
doesn’t matter which one,
Getting started with a garden compost pile
.4 '
Tim Lewis
Garden
Columnist
Last week I promised more
information on making a
compost pile. The month of
September finds us begin
ning to think of ways to
dispose of the many leaves
which will soon be gracing
the ground in our yards.
Leaves can be a major source
of the bulk of the compost
pile.
As gardeners, we know
that the soil is our most pre
cious resource. The type of
soil we have will determine
both what kinds of plants
will grow well for us and
what kinds of soil-improve
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Pork Check-Off
Richly flavored and colored with crushed red pepper and chili powder, this is
a robust Texas-style stew featuring pork and vegetables. It’s great with com
bread anad a combo of sliced oranges and pineapple.
Recipe of the Week: Pecos Red Stew
2 pounds boneless pork shoulder or
sirloin, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh'cilantro
4 Tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 cans (14 1/2 oz.) chicken broth
3 cups cubed (1-inch), peeled pota-
because it’s the same every
where. The fewer potatoes
you buy, the more you pay
for each potato.
At this store, individual
baking potatoes (you pick
your own) were $1.49 per.
lb.
Most baking potatoes
weigh about half a pound, so
you’re paying about 75 cents
per potato.
Now, consider the 5 lb.
bag. I bought one for $3.99
and it had a dozen potatoes
in it. That comes to about
33 cents per potato. Were
they all funny-shaped and
all different sizes? No. They
were fine. Later, I saw some
on sale for $2.99 for 5 lbs., so
it’s worth watching the ads.
I did a little internet
research on storing pota
toes so they won’t sprout or
go soft, and learned these
facts. You shouldn’t wash
them before storing them.
You shouldn’t store them in
a moist place. You shouldn’t
store them in the refrig
erator or freezer. You
shouldn’t seal the air out
by keeping them in a plastic
bag or snap-top container ...
You SHOULD store them in
ment programs we’ll want to
undertake.
The structure of the soil
and the soil pore space
determine how well water
moves through the soil and
how easy it is to work. Good
structure develops when
sand, silt, clay, and organ
ic matter in the soil clump
together, forming a loose,
crumbly mass. A good top
soil, for example, is made up
of about half minerals (sand,
silt and clay) and half pore
space. Half of the pore space
should be made up of large
pores filled with air, and the
other half small pores that
hold water. Sandy soils have
too many latge pores, which
make them drain well but
not hold enough water. Clay
soils, on the other hand,
have too many small pores,
causing them not to drain
well enough, water-logging
the soil.
toes
2 cups fresh or frozen kernel com
1 can (16 oz.) garbanzo beans,
drained
Heat oil in Dutch oven. Brown pork
over medium-high heat. Stir in onions,
green pepper, garlic, cilantro, chili pow
der, oregano, salt, red pepper and chicken
broth. Cover; cook over medium-low heat
for 45-55 minutes or until pork is tender.
Add potatoes, corn and beans. Cover;
cook 15-20 minutes longer.
Serves 8. Source: Pork Check-Off.
a cool, dark, dry place, and
if you don’t happen to have
a cellar, that means in a
bottom kitchen cabinet that
isn’t close to the stove. That
way they’re supposed to be
good for a couple of months.
1 did that two weeks ago. So
far, so good.
Here’s one of my favorite
things to do with a baked
potato.
Chicken Idaho
Experienced cooks will
know that this is a variation
on Chicken a la King, used
as a topping for baked pota
toes. It’s easy to make and
a great comfort food.
(Serves two)
2 Idaho potatoes, baked in
microwave or oven
11/2 cups cooked chicken
in bite sized pieces
2 tablespoons butter or
margarine
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/3 cup milk
1 can mushroom slices,
with liquid
1 chicken bouillon cube
1/2 cup frozen green peas
(optionalO
Melt butter in a heavy
One thing will help
improve the structure of
any soil, whether sdndy or
clayey, and that is organic
matter. Organic, matter can
be added to the soil in many
forms including peat moss,
chopped leaves, grass clip
pings, wood chips, manure
and vegetable parings, but
compost is the ideal soil con
ditioner. So, plan on adding
plenty of organic matter to
your soil by working com
posted organic matter into
the soil wherever practical.
A gardening friend of mine
in Dooly county exemplifies
this concept of building the
soil by incorporating many
pounds df Ifeaves in his gar
den each fall and winter. He
testifies as to the positive
difference it makes. Indeed,
he grows the best collard
greens, cabbage, and broc
coli around-thanks to thfe
prime condition of his gar-
FOOD
skillet and stir in flour until
well blended and bubbly.
Add can of mushrooms, liq
uid and all, and stir until
blended.
Add milk and bouillon
cube and cook on medium
heat stirring carefully until
sauce thickens and bouillon
cube is dissolved. (You may
need to mash the cube down
with the back of your spoonO
Taste and adjust seasonings.
Add peas and chicken and
heat through. (The peas will
cook quickly). Adjust sea
sonings. I think the bouil
lon cube provides enough
salt, but that’s a matter of
taste.)
For each serving, place
a baked potato in a soup
bowl and break it open. Top
with generous amounts of
the chicken and sauce. You
may want to serve this with
a soup spoon.
Banana bread
revisited
I ran into Emily Heath
while I was shopping.
(Emily’s the energy behind
Project Linus) and she hap
pened to be looking for but
den soil.
To make a compost pile,
start with a layer of brush to
hold the pile off the ground
and aerate it. Be sure the pile
is in full sun so it will heat
up more quickly. Then add
alternating layers of slow
decaying materials such as
leaves, wood chips, sawdust,
and fast decaying materi
als such as grass clippings,
manure and food waste.
Finished compost looks
just like thte dark, almost
black material you find
under the layer of leaves on
the forest floor. It has little
odor. There are three tricks
that will speed up the com
posting procfeStf:
1. Put materials through
a shredder or chipper before
adding them to the pile.
Leaves can be chopped with
a lawn mower. The finer
the texture, the faster the
decomposition.
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ter pecan cake mix to try the
banana bread recipe from
two weeks back. They didn’t
have it, and my suggestion
to her, and any of you plan
ning to make that recipe is
that yellow cake mix will be
fine.
Stocking up
The economy gets weirder
by the day, and since I started
writing about price-watch
ing, just about all the items
I’ve mentioned have gone up
in price. The 87 cents frozen
peas I mentioned before are
now 99 cents. Cold cereal
keeps climbing. I’ve switched
to oatmeal.
My working theory now is
that it makes sense to stock
up on a sale item IF it’s
something I’m going to buy
anyway. I think homemade
soup is better than canned
soup, and I’ll make it the
first time it gets a little cold,
but good canned soup has
provided me with plenty of
fast, cheap, low-calorie sup
pers.
I particularly like
Progresso soups. So when I
saw cans of Progresso - all
varieties - at four for $5 - I
2. Layer in a variety of
materials so that the overall
carbon to nitrogen ratio is
close to 25 or 30 to 1. Use
the list that follows to deter
mine the ratios of the mate
rials you have on hand.
3. Turn the pile every
7 to 10 days. This brings
more oxygen into the pile,
which serves as fuel for the
millions of microorganisms
that are actually breaking
down the organic materials
at high temperatures of 100
plus degrees.
Carbon/nitrogen ratios
of composting materials
Cornstalks, 60to1
Fruit wastes, 35t01
Grass clippings, 19 to 1
Leaves, from 40 to 1 to 80
to 1
Hay, 25 to 1
Manure, rotted, 20 to 1
Paper, 170 to 1
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got 10 cans.
Another good item to have
on hand if you’re cooking
for one or two is the small
packages of combread mix,
which are nearly always
under $1 dollar and make
enough for one meal. One
of my favorites is Martha
White’s Cotton Country
Combread.
It’s a “just add water”
mix, and you bake it in a
hot cast iron frying pan.
This is southern combread,
crunchy on top and bottom,
and not sweet. I have an
idea hat you could make
hoe cake (or what some
Perryans call “lace cake”)
with it, but haven’t tried
that yet. It goes great with
turnip greens, collards, and,
of course, soup. There’s a
recipe on the package for
Tamale Pie.
Stocking up makes sense
if you’re buying food on sale
that you would buy anyway,
and with prices tending to
go straight up, you may save
a good deal from some stra
tegic shopping.
Shop around folks. It’s
dollars you’re saving, not
pennies.
Sawdust, 500 to 1
Straw, 80to1
Table scraps, 15 to 1
Wood chips, 700 to 1
Tim Lewis is a Georgia
Green Industry Association
'Certified Plant Professional,
gardening writer, former
Perry High School horticul
ture instructor, and former
horticulturalist at Henderson
Village and Houston Springs.
He and his wife, Susan, own
and operate Lewis Farms
Nursery located on Hwy. 26
two miles east of Elko, where
he was horn and raised. He
can be reached at 478-954-
1507 or timlewis@alltel.
net.
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