Red Posole: Using Ancho Chiles, Hominy & Queso Fresco for the First Time

I made this recipe the other day - Rachael Ray's Red Pork Posole - sans the pickled onions. It was delicious!

It took me three to four hours and was an education in using a couple of new ingredients (to me).

Ancho chiles: 

The Great Potato Harvest of 2013 (Kind Of)

I planted clearance potatoes halfway through the summer. Some say that planting potatoes later in the summer can fool the bugs, and may prevent some pest problems.

I'm not sure. But they were cheap, I hadn't ever tried potatoes, and I had space. So I bought some that I normally wouldn't, and tested them out. Why not?

Here was my grand harvest, all 11 of them:

Potatoes, fresh from the garden

Now granted, I have never grown potatoes before, and wasn't sure what the best practices were. I didn't realize that once the plants reach 6-8 inches tall, you mound the soil around it so that just 4 inches or so are showing. That will increase your yield if you continue to do that over the summer.

The beauty of being a beginning gardener is that you learn more every year. Next year, I'm going to try out grow bags from Gardener's Supply.

I'd like to use them for both potatoes and for sweet potatoes, which we eat quite a lot of and are supposed to store well. Seems like an easy way to keep them away from the weeds in my garden ... which I'm still fighting post-flood ... and keep them away from pests.

I ate my entire potato harvest tonight with the assistance of my man; I have to say, breakfast for dinner is the best! And the potatoes, like all food fresh from a garden, tasted so good!