on peeling potatoes

Today is Labor Day and I guess you could say we celebrated it by not laboring. But it was the weather that kept us from it. If it had been a nice day instead of gray and overcast, B would have been working in the yard. Since it is gray and overcast he suggested we go see The Help. I had asked earlier this weekend if he would like to go see it as I had just finished the book. The movie was good but as always the book was better. I left the movie feeling a bit disappointed knowing I probably would have liked it more if I had not read the book. But I'd rather read the book. I did like the Celia character in the movie. She actually seemed a bit more real than Celia in the book.

If I had stayed home I would have started cleaning and organizing my sewing room....a job I have been wanting to tackle but have been putting off. It's one of the last things to do now. I've tackled all the ironing that has piled up, gone through all the stacks of papers on both desks, sewn buttons back on and hemmed skirts. Once I get the sewing room cleaned I can start sewing and it scares me a little. It's something I think I want to do but it's been a long time. What if I find I've lost the desire or the creative spark?

I've cooked and baked some this weekend. I've found that I haven't lost my creative spark and desire in that department too much. I made those Blue Moon cupcakes. I made fresh corn cakes. I made Wheat Germ French toast, grilled pork tenderloin and Chiavetta's chicken. Tonight I'm making Swiss steak. I bought a sirloin from Wegman's from a local farm, Angus Hill Farm. I pounded flour, dry mustard and salt into it. Browned it in olive oil. Put it in the oven with canned tomatoes, green pepper and fresh garlic. I had four potatoes that were a tiny bit past their prime. They had grown a few eyes. Normally I don't peel potatoes but since these were past their prime but not bad enough to throw away, I thought I'd use them up and placed them in with the meat while it roasted.

As soon as I started peeling, the thought that always comes into my head when I'm peeling potatoes came into my head. It was 1974. B and I had been dating since the beginning of our sophomore year. He had an internship with one of the Big Eight accounting firms and was living at home and working in downtown Chicago while I was still at Illinois State. I took the train from Bloomington to Joliet to stay with him and his family for a few days. He was at work and I offered to help his mother cook dinner. She gave me the task of peeling the potatoes. I wanted to please so very badly. I didn't want to peel too deeply and take too much potato with the skin or gouge the eyes out too deeply and leave big holes. So I erred on the other side. Trace pieces of potato skin remained. She looked at the potatoes and scoffed "My family would never eat potatoes with skin still on them". Maybe she didn't scoff. But she did say it and scoff is how I heard it. It's how I hear it yet to this day when I peel a potato.