Easy Potato Soup

I found this Potato Soup Recipe that is so easy and thought I would share it with you.

Unbelievably Easy Potato Soup
From www.recipezaar.com Recipe #74275 | 30 min | 5 min prep |
Ingredients
1 large potato, per person
1/4 cup chopped celery, per person (include leaves)
1/4 cup chopped onion, per person
1/4-1/2 cup milk, half and half or cream
salt and pepper, to taste


Peel and cube potatoes.
Put in a saucepan along with the onions and celery.
Add water, but don't quite cover the vegetables.
Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer for 25 minutes, or until all of the vegetables are very tender.
Using a potato masher, coarsely crush the potatoes, but don't mash them--you want chunks left.
Add enough milk or cream to thin to desired thickness and add salt & pepper to taste.
(It will take a lot of salt!).

Putting up fig leather!

First you must aquire your figs, mine came from a wonderful family that lets me pick as many as I want. Bring them home and wash and stem them. A small paring knife works well for this task.
Next I get out my handy dandy VitaMix. I tried doing this with a regular blender and the results were much better with the VitaMix. A food processor might work I just don't have one.
Puree in batches of a cup or two making sure there isn't big lumps. Sometimes there are some figs that haven't been chopped up and I just add them to the next batch.
Spread the puree on a teflex sheet or plastic wrap making sure the edges are slightly thicker than the middle, don't stress this isn't an exact science. The idea is to make sure that it is thin enough that it will dry evenly.

Place in the dehydrator that has been preheating at 135F. It takes about 10-12 hours to dry. Make sure that the leather is just tacky and not still coming off on your fingers. A good test is to peel some off and if it comes off in a sheet its is done, if some still sticks to the teflex or plastic wrap let it dry some more.

When the leather is dry-it will be darker than the puree, peel it off and lay it on a sheet of wax paper or platic wrap and roll it up. I prefer wax paper but didn't have any at the time. I like to cut the rolls into 1 to 2 inch pieces and vacuum seal in bags or jars.

Dehydrators and teflex sheets can be ordered on the internet. I bought mine through ebay.

What happens when the bugs don't like you.

This is what happens when you don't know that walking up the ramp will make the wasps angry!! I was minding my own business when bam I get nailed several times- I really don't know if it was two or three times. I screamed really loud, I mean really loud. I imagine that if anyone was around they would have thought that I was being mauled or something. Anyway I ran into the house and quickly put baking soda on my foot then went for the bug spray to nail those boogers. Can you guess what foot got stung? It doesn't hurt but in a day or so there will be a lot of itching. The swelling is making my foot real numb, there won't be any shoes on this foot for a while.

Wildlife up close!

One thing about living in the country is the amazing amount of times you encounter wildlife up close. In my case I actually get to see animals up close which just thrills me. I am always admiring how much God has created such diversity in nature and how blessed I am to see so much so often.


Just driving down the paved road and here come the Momma turkey and her clan. Wish I could enlarge this picture, just can't quite figure it out yet.

Found this baby hummer laying on the porch. I put it on the feeder, had to do it several times! The poor thing was so hungry and weak but it did finally get full and flew off a happy camper. I like to think it is one of my regulars at the feeders now.



I was going out the drive and noticed this turtle. I always try to avoid running over them! I slowed down to see what was going on and lo and behold egg laying was in progress. I feel so blessed to be able to witness this. I have since marked the location and made a note on the calendar to start watching for the hatchlings in three months. Hopefully I'll be there to take some baby pictures.

What is this flower?

I thought this was an amaryllis until it bloomed. I love the look of this flower, my Aunt kindly shared this with me and told me it is from the amaryllis family but has no idea what it is called. If anyone knows the name please let me know.

Everything is coming up green

All this rain is such a blessing and it has been coming down in manageable amounts, yesterday we had about 1". I wish it could be spread throughout the summer but God knows best.

The tomatoes are doing great with such promise for the up coming harvest.

The volunteer eggplants and summer squash love where they sprouted. Wonder what they will look like since both are cross pollinated, what I mean is that the summer squash crossed with zucchini which last year produced squash that had the shape of a zucchini and the color of yellow squash, they tasted great! The eggplant was a cross between a black beauty and a white that produced a beautiful lavender and white striped fruit that tasted great and boy did it make a lot. Please be kind and ignore the weeds that are also loving this bountiful rain.

The first planting of carrots is coming along nicely
and the second planting is coming up.

The second time I planted I scattered a few radish seeds,
it's supposed to help aeriate the ground for the carrots when you harvest the radishes.

The stevia plants are loving this rain as are the parsley and chives.

A Garden Update

Well it has been a while since posting so here are some updates:

The vegetables have been growing a lot since last posted.


The rains have been a blessing for all of us. Some things that really have grown are the mushrooms!! I don't know what kind these are but don't eat these please.


These are where fairies hide right?












A half moon fairy ring found in our front lawn. I don't know why there is one here but it is an interesting formation.























It's twins! There is a lovely pattern in the
center of these mushrooms.
















The Muskadine Vines have grown and they
look like they will bear a lot this year.

Just look at those lovely little fruit clusters.
















The bean patch has grown a lot. I've been trying to grow green beans for several years without much success. Last time I had a good stand of beans I put up almost 100 jars. Most years the beans die out when the hot weather gets here but that year they kept on producing through August.



I had my fill of canning beans and tilled them under. To bad I didn't know it would be a while before I had a nice bean crop again.

Here is a nice stand of green beans.
My first try at growing butter beans.
They look so healthy.