Recipe: Potato Confetti

I had an interesting potato dish at a dinner recently.  It was not only more colorful than most potato dishes but it was delicious.  So I went on cooks.com to look for the recipe.  I didn’t find one exactly like it, but one very similar.

The recipe I found had a very generic name so I decided to give my version a name that better fits its colorful look.

Potato Confetti

4-5 red potatoes, cooked in skins, then cubed

1/4 lb. fresh green beans, steamed (I used a bag of microwave green beans instead)

1/2 C. green olives

1/2 C. black olives

1/2 C. sundried tomatoes, pack in olive oil

3-4 T. olive oil from the jar of sun dried tomatoes

1 C. chopped onion

3 T. parmesan cheese

Saute the onions in the olive oil for two minutes.  Then add the potatoes, green beans, olives and sun dried tomatoes, and heat through.

Sprinkle with parmesan cheese before serving.

We had this with breaded pork chops for dinner today.  Delicious!  I love food that is as pretty as it tastes.

A ticklish situation

School was new to him.  His school didn’t have a kindergarten so he was having his first school experience in first grade.  So far he was enjoying it, especially the recesses where he had the opportunity to play with lots of new friends.

That was many years ago but he does still have a couple of vivid memories from that time.

Like his first experience with store-bought milk.  He lived on a farm where they had dairy cows, so fresh milk was what they drank.  He remembers that the first time he drank the homogenized milk at school, it was so different from what he was used to that he threw up.  But he soon got used to it, and found out that he really enjoyed the lunches at school.  Thus began a long tradition of him making friends with the ladies who did the cooking in the cafeteria. They liked him because he was a good little eater (and I assume just a likable little boy) and he liked them, well, because they made him lunch every day!

His other memory is one in the classroom.  They were having a play time in their classroom when the teacher stepped out the door a minute.

He and some others decided to play hide-and-seek.  The kid who was “it” had already started counting so he quickly looked around for somewhere to hide. There was a cubby hole that he could climb into … perfect.  He crawled as far back as he could into the cubby hole and sat perfectly still in hopes “it” wouldn’t find him.

But suddenly everything changed when the teacher walked back into the room! She told everyone to return to their seats and she walked to her desk and sat down.

OH-OH!  He was trapped in the cubby hole of the teacher’s desk!  And then she kicked off her shoes!  Well, he was just a little kid and even though it had surprised him to get trapped under there, he wasn’t so worried that he could resist what came naturally to a fun-loving little boy — he gently tickled the bottom of one of her stockinged feet.

Well, that got a response!! The teacher shrieked and jumped up!  Then she looked under her desk, fully expecting to see a mouse but just saw a sheepish little boy, who wasn’t sure what to do next.

As soon as the teacher realized what had happened, she laughed out loud so, of course, the whole class laughed too.  And the little “tickler” was just relieved he wasn’t in trouble.

In case you haven’t guessed, the little boy was Hubby, and I’ve repeated this tickling story many times because I think it is so cute.  But what made me think about it recently was when a story was on the national news about a first grader who was suspended from school because he told his teacher she was cute!  That makes me sad and to long for the days when little boys weren’t punished for doing innocent things that come naturally to little boys.

Making Memories with Mimi!

Hubby and I recently spent a long weekend at DD’s house.  And DD had set one of the days we were there aside for her and me to take Mimi shopping.  She needed to buy Mimi’s first communion dress and I wanted to buy Mimi a belated birthday present (Because we couldn’t be there, I had sent a card with a “gift certificate” for one shopping trip with Nana in it.)

The first store we went to, looking for the special dress, had one Mimi liked, but DD wisely suggested we have that dress held and go to at least one other store to make sure we didn’t find something Mimi liked better.

Boy, was DD’s suggestion the right one!  The second store had a huge selection of first communion dresses and all of them were beautiful.  We picked about six for Mimi to try on and the fun began.  I had no idea that spinning would be part of the test to find the perfect dress.  In every dress Mimi twirled to check its fullness and well, I guess, its overall “twirlability”.  Hubby and I are Lutheran, so I had never taken a little girl to buy a beautiful white dress with a veil before, so this was a new and fun experience for me.

After we found the “perfect” dress (yes, it twirls beautifully!), DD had promised to get Mimi’s ears pierced.  So she suggested that while they went to Claire’s to get Mimi’s ears pierced, I go to the restaurant a couple doors down and put our name in for a table. So we parted ways and I did my part … I put my name in at the restaurant then sat down in the waiting area to wait for DD and Mimi to join me.

I had no idea how long it would take to get ears pierced, but I was thinking it would be a pretty simple procedure and only take a few minutes.  Wrong.  I would guess I waited 15 or 20 minutes.  In fact, I was told our table was ready, but because they weren’t there yet, the hostess said to let her know when they got there and she would seat us then.

Okay … I was getting a little nervous now.  I was wishing it wasn’t so noisy in the restaurant lobby, because I wouldn’t have been able to hear Mimi screaming, even if she did it very loudly.  Luckily, not too long after I had that thought, DD and the newly pierced Mimi showed up.  Mission accomplished!

Mimi was soooo proud of her little flower earrings.  Every few minutes, all through lunch, she would say, “I can’t believe I got my ears pierced!” (btw, one improvement since the days when I and her mother had our ears pierced — two people do it now so that they can do both ears at the same time.  Verrrry smart.)

After lunch, our last stop was the build-a-bear store.  That is where Mimi wanted to spend her birthday money.  I have bought build-a-bears before but I never get tired of looking at all the fun stuffed animal choices and the clothes to put on them.  Also, they have added one new dimension since the last time I bought one — Mimi was able to pick a song by her favorite singer (Justin Bieber) and have it recorded on a chip inside her bear so that she could push a certain spot and hear the song.

It was time to go home after that.  But on the way home, Mimi told DD and me that this had been one of her best days ever.  And, of course,  “I can’t  believe I have pierced ears now!”

Because we don’t live in the same town with any of our grandchildren, shopping trips like this are something I don’t often get to be part of … but I’m so glad I got to be part of it this time.

I think it was a day we will all remember fondly, but especially Mimi.