Pt. 2 of the "Great Tater Caper", hahaha

good afternoon my beautiful friends.         I hope and pray that you all are doing good today.        it's pretty nippy in my neck of the woods.        we went from hot hot hot summer to cold cold cold winter and skipped fall.       well, not really, but it kinda feels like it though.        it's in the low 50's here right now and it's about 2:30 pm.        we was out this morning getting some gas and I got out the car and almost froze my pork chops off.      hahaha         I try not to be one that complains about the weather, so I'll try real hard to enjoy it.      hahaha          because I'm really not a fan of the 100+ temps, so I'll take the cooler temps and try to be real happy.       anyway, I hope wherever y'all are that the weather is near perfect for you.       

so, last update I told y'all about my great "tater caper".        I bought 20 lbs on sale and I'm really wishing I had gotten 25 lbs now.          I'm getting them knocked out pretty quickly.       I got 5 lbs done on friday and the another 5 lbs done on saturday.        I got them all jarred up and they are gorgeous.

so this is what 10 lbs of potatoes look like.       the first 2 jars on the left are the potatoes I done on friday and the the 2 jars on the right are the ones I done on saturday.        the 2 jars on the left were sliced much thinner than the ones on the right.        I don't know if you can tell it or not, but due to the difference in thickness, there is a little difference in the colors of the 2 batches.        that is simply due to the thickness.        the thinner they are, the more almost see-through they are.       the thicker the slices, the more opaque they are.       I sliced the ones on friday with a fixed depth cut mandolin.        I just change out the blades and that the only depth of straight cut that I have.        they are more like the thickness of potato chips.      that's why they're almost see thru.      the ones I done on saturday are 2 times the thickness of the ones done on friday.      

notice the slices in the jar above.         this is friday's taters.  there is one that you can see the side of it real well and it's really thin.         potato chip thin.        these are actually too thin for what I wanted them for, but I'll crumble them in soup, so they will be used.   

the ones above are the ones I done on saturday and I used my adjustable mandolin and cut them twice as thick as friday's taters.         you can see the ones where the sides is showing.        much thicker than the ones done on friday.

I will use these in soups and stews.        for the really thin ones, I'll probably crumble them up when I put them in soup or stew.       that's how thin they are.      I also plan on using some of the thicker ones  as air fryed potatoes.         I'll rehydrate them in some chicken or beef stock for extra flavor.        season them a little more with salt, pepper and whatever else strikes my fancy and spray them with avocado oil and put them in my preheated for 5 minutes air fryer on 400* and air fry them for as long as it takes to get them nicely brown and crispy.        20 to 25 minutes, maybe.        these will be so good.         

a lot of times when I'm rehydrating produce, I'll use chicken or beef stock just to give an extra bump of flavor.         it works well.          if you've never tried it, I'd urge you to do so.         I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.    

so there will, more than likely, be a 3rd part and maybe a 4th part to the "great tater caper".      hahaha   I got another 5 lbs on the dehydrator this morning.        these are 1/2 inch dice.       they should be dried by morning and then I can get the last bag on the dehydrator.         I'll be happy to have the project done, but still wishing I had gotten the 5th bag.     

I had mentioned the other day in a blog post about shopping and being flexible enough to change my plans to accommodate any good sales and this was one of those times when it really paid off to be flexible in my grocery shopping.        so always be on the lookout for ways to maximize your spending power and stretching every last penny you have.       the payoff is always fantastic.        there is always a few things on my list every week, whether I need it or not.       and it's those items where I can be flexible and then next week, I'll get back on track with getting a few things each week just to stay stocked up, even if I'm not running low.    

back on sept 13th, I found 4 red potatoes in my cabinet.        that statement kinda made it sound like I didn't know they were there.        well, I knew they were there, I had just been saving them  and almost saved them a little too long.   hahaha    when I pulled them from the cabinet, every one of them had almost 2 inch sprouts on them.        well, I'm happy to say that I planted 'em.       I'm also happy to say that they have taken off like gang busters!!!

these are 1 month and 3 days in the pots.         I took that picture just before I sat down to write this blog post.   when it's supposed to be cold, I'll move them to the greenhouse and if necessary, we'll move them to the garage.        we're hoping to have potatoes by Christmas.         don't know if they'll make it or not, but I'm sure gonna give it a good try.      when I put them in the pots, I just barely covered the potatoes with soil in the bottom of the pots.      as the sprouts grew up, I added more soil.        I think I done that about 5 times and then the soil was at the top of the pot.        I don't know if they'll make taters or not, but I'm praying they do.          my husband and I have been talking about it and in the spring I'm going to start 2 or 3 pots and and then every 3 or four weeks start 2 or 3 more pots and keep potatoes going all year long if possible.        it would be awesome to not have to buy potatoes at the store.       we'll see if I can do this or not.        I hope it works.

I plan on having more greenbeans this coming spring too.        I'm going to remove the strawberries in my 2 large green stalks and fill them both with greenbeans.        we can't have too many greenbeans.      I'll try to get my garlic in the big container beds before the end of the month and see if I can grow some garlic too.        I'm pretty excited about that.     

well, that's just about it for today.         like I said there may be more "tater capers".         I can't wait to see what 20 lbs is gonna look like all dehydrated and jarred up.       if I get any taters from the ones I planted, I'll be be sure and share pictures of them also.       

I hope and pray that you know that God loved you enough to provide a way to be in right relationship with Him thru the shed blood of His Precious Son, Jesus Christ.       we are living in some troubled times and I'm living in great expectation of our Lord and Savior coming back any day now to claim His own.       there is a saying in the Christian community, "see ya at the house".        so I'll say that while we may never in this life, if you know Jesus as Lord and Savior, then at some point we can say "see ya at the house".        with the wonderful meaning of  "I'll see you in heaven" someday.        blessings, love and hugs, patty