Wednesday, May 17, 2017

STUMPOT

Today is overcast and cold.  Not very good Garden Centre weather.  But just right for a Dutch dish that I learned by trial and error from my Dear One, born in The Netherlands.  I had never encountered this growing up--my parents were first generation Americans, born to Dutch immigrant parents, and this wonderful dish for cold, damp days did not come down to me.  But here is my recipe, evolved from several "failed" attempts to imitate what Jim grew up with:

STUMPOT
Peel and cook an appropriate amount of potatoes (for how many people will be eating).
(Today I'm cooking just two very large Red Norlands.  I peel them,  cut them up and bring them to a boil.  Put on the lid and leave them in the hot water for an hour or two.  They're cooked just right that way.)
Cut up onion and sauté it.
Cut up sausage or ham (I like Mild Italian Sausage for this.) and cook in the onion pan.
Wilt Swiss Chard or spinach, drain and cut up very fine.

Heat up the potatoes, drain and mash.
Mix all the ingredients together, season with salt and pepper (a bit of nutmeg would also go well)and "anoint" with (lots of) butter.

Makes a hearty, satisfying meal on a cold, damp day.

We'll add some fresh, cut-up tomatoes on the side, or maybe some homemade applesauce.


The applesauce looks a little chunky here because it's not completely thawed.

Mentioning the nutmeg reminded me of my friend Connie who married a Dutch immigrant a few years before I married my Dutch immigrant.  Connie commented on Dutch cooking: They add some nutmeg to the boiled green beans and think they're really cooking with spices!  I still chuckle about that.

Jim opened the greenhouse doors a bit after 9 a.m. this morning, and maybe an hour later a lone customer showed up.  When Jim got out there, the woman told him that there had been a deer in the greenhouse when she first walked in.  It must have been a young one, as a mature deer would be very leery of being in an enclosed space.  I hope she gave it a good scare!

We can't grow a vegetable garden here anymore.  There is a herd of six deer that live south of the greenhouse in some brush around the dugout, and on the east side of the railroad that marks the east end of our property there is a herd of about 12 deer.  I wouldn't mind sharing with one or two deer, but when you have 18 eating from your landscape and garden you become VERY discouraged!  When they invade the plants at the garden centre and even those in the greenhouse, I just get really mad!  They know they're safe here because they cannot be shot this close to town.  Why can't there be a cull of this terrible nuisance? 
A pot of spinach pretty much eaten up.

My "indoor" garden, which I thought was safe from deer depredations:

The corn and the acorn squash will be planted out in the raised garden beds, as maybe the deer do not care for those plants!

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