Cooking: Sauerkraut Soup? Oyster stew and fried potatoes.

Daily Miscellany

Thoughts and flashes of brilliance that enter my head from nowhere.

Enjoy.  Or abhor, depending on the effect of my "wisdom".

Cars. My biggest failure in life.

Cars.

Which is not to say I didn't buy plenty of cars in my almost 70 years of life.  Stupid cars.  Dumb cars.  Let us delineate.

A Volkswagen Rabbit.  I have no idea why I ever purchased this car and in the color neon green to make matters worse.  The hood fell off while I was going over the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

A Renault LeCar.  A French car?  The French, go with me on this, are not notorious for making cars.  The Renault LeCar ran out of oil...yes the oil light was on but the mechanics told me to ignore.  The engine melted.

A Ford Maverick.  This was not a bad car in the day. $19,000 in the day.  It was a simple thing but not known for its luxury and comfort.

Finally I leased a car which turned out not to be a good idea as you got charged for your mileage and I moved to Delaware and couldn't drive back to Baltimore in it.

My last car, purchased in 2005, was a Jeep Liberty.  I still have this car although in this day and age it's way bigger than I need.  But I kept it great shape, Lord knows it wasn't cheap, it is mocked by the "real" Jeep owners.  But it works, it's comfortable and I don't drive all that much.

Took me almost fifty years but finally I found the car that isn't stupid.
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Oyster Stew

My stepmother used to make oyster stew for my father.  This back in the day when oysters weren't over a thousand dollars a pound.

It was delicious.

I make oyster stew every once in a while but I am not at all sure I'm doing it right.  I use three ingredients.....oysters, milk (or half and half) and a stick of butter.

One thing about oyster stew, it really needs to sit in the fridge for a couple of days so the oyster flavor can permeate the milk.

Beyond that, my oyster stew is ok, a nice treat in those months that have an "R" in it.  My stepmother's oyster stew had a lot of oysters in it and mine does not.  I get about three oysters in a big bowl of the stew.  My stepmother allowed near an oyster in every bite.

As it was the oysters cost me almost $20.00 for that skimpy amount.

Like I said, a treat once in a while.
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Fried Potatoes

My stepmother used to make terrific fried potatoes.  Oh, did I sing that song before?

This was back in the day when there were no food processors or even fancy slicing knives.  Her fried potatoes were the perfect texture of soft, but not too soft.  There were always plenty of onions fried within the pan.  She properly salted and peppered them and I loved them with ketchup spread upon them.

So I made some fried potatoes the other day and they were almost as good as my stepmothers.  One thing I did learn from preparing them...start frying the onions first.  Then add the rather thinly sliced potatoes, plain white potatoes are just fine.

Salt and pepper and for about ten minutes, cover them in the frying pan with a loose lid.  This helps them to soften.  Toss them about once every minute during the time they are covered.

Then removed the lid, turn up the heat,and fry and turn to cook evenly for about another fifteen minutes.

Once on your plate, cover generously with ketchup.
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Sauerkraut Soup

I saw the title of this recipe and my eyebrows rose in puzzled issues.

First, I love sauerkraut.  I am not German or have any DNA that would indicate such a preference and since I am from Maryland, we always had sauerkraut with our Thanksgiving turkey.

I have a recipe for Sauerkraut Salad that I make every once in a while.

But Sauerkraut soup?

Th sauerkraut is put in the slow cooker.  Chicken broth is added to cover.  Other ingredients include an onion, Also a potato, some bacon and mushrooms.  My recipe doesn't include green peppers but I think I shall add.

Put it all in the slow cooker for about eight hours and enjoy.

This is on my cooking list for this week.  I will report back with a picture of my creation and the entire recipe next cooking post.

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Crime is not normally funny. These short stories are.