Saturday, March 18, 2017

Papas Fritas and Irish Coffee


Despite not being Irish, we still decided to have some Irish Coffees yesterday :) My boyfriend made that amazing foam again that doesn't seem to melt away ever, I don't know how he accomplished that! He had his Irish coffee with Baileys and I had mine with Kilbeggan whisky. Kilbeggan is my favourite Irish whisky. It's not very "peaty" (or smoky) like a lot of the other brands and it's got a bit of fruitiness to it. We both had a splash of Irish Mist on top. Only problem is we had them at 10pm so we were up until 3am forcing ourselves to try to fall asleep! I thought the alcohol would cancel out the caffeine...not so.




For dinner, I wanted to try to have some kind of potato dish! :) I didn't really go Irish, I went with Papas Fritas instead! It's the thought that counts lol...these are SO DELICIOUS. I make mine with chicken to make it a full meal instead of just a side dish. I'm still happily using my window-garden chives from last summer!


It's another sunny winter day today. It's just a shame that all we can hear outside is the vroom vroom vroom of snowmobiles, it kills the solitude! Two more winters of this and that's it! :) I wish we could manage a way to buy sooner, but realistically we have to pay off some big debts first and no matter how you crunch the numbers, it won't be before 2019.


The river is really flowing. The sun is starting to melt things very nicely, that waterfall is really loud, but I love the sound!



Charlie and Marlene decided to take some snow naps this morning!


But my little fella Jack didn't want anything to do with the winter! I put his hoodie on and he tolerated me as he posed for some pictures :) This is Alex's old hoodie that I turned into a dog hoodie for Jack. What are you all up to this weekend? I have some baking planned and I hope to try out a recipe for homemade Cracker Jacks (minus the peanuts!).

21 comments:

  1. We have nothing special planned. Grocery shopping ... yikes ... and some work around the farm.
    The picture of Jack is just too cute. If I'd show u a pic if our huskies right now...they would fit right in with Marlene and Charly :)
    Oh ... haha. Coffee in the afternoon ... never mind evening, does the same thing for me. I always have decaf in the house for occasions like this.
    Your supper looks delicious like always :)

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    1. Thanks Nik :)) Supper was so good! Potatoes really stretch the budget because they're so filling :) Yeah, we should have known better about the coffee...not much sleep last night! No more caffeine for me after noon! The huskies love that snow...I wish we could have them out in the yard more often, it just won't work here though...but soon enough! Good luck with the grocery shopping on a SATURDAY yikes is right!

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  2. I am so going to give your 'Papas Frittas' a go, they look divine!
    So far we've taken the dogs for a walk and tomorrow is roast dinner day. I put it in the oven and if the weather is good we take the dogs for a walk while the roast cooks itself, perfect :D
    Have a lovely weekend.x

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    1. Hi Yarrow :) Your weekend sounds nice and relaxed! It's hard for me to walk the dogs on the weekends here, there are so many snowmobiles, it can get dangerous for anyone on the trail. So I take them on a short walk as early as possible then they get to have the yard off and on all day weather-permitting! Weekdays I make it up to them with longer walks. And yes, the Papas Fritas ARE divine!!! Enjoy your weekend!! :)

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  3. Rain - you need to get yourself some free tires from any garage in your area - no - it's true - they give them away for free because they have to pay to get them picked up! and then go start some tire tiers for your potatoes. we have been growing potatoes in tires for over 10 years - don't worry about leaching or anything like that. give them a good scrub with soap and water, rinse them good, fill the first tier with some really good dirt, plop in a couple of organic potatoes - and blam - you'll be growing your own. as the potatoe plant grows 4-6 inches, drop another tire on it and fill it with dirt. we do this up to 4 high. and even though we have built raised beds and hugelkultures - we have learned that the potatoes loooooove tires! we grow 4 kinds now - we have 40 tires to start and then add 4 more throughout the season. garages are always trying to give jambaloney tires but we have enough now (160 plus about 20 spare). when you use tires they heat up the dirt faster so you can plant the potatoes sooner and we have never had to harvest all of our potatoes until mid-december...that way you harvest the potatoes daily as you need, then when harvest season comes in (september-october), you can focus on other things and leave the potatoes until december. this method really works for us and has for over 10 years.

    you could get 8 tires and stack them 4 high and it wouldn't take up very much room in your yard! you can search our blog and find out step-by-step details of what we do.

    sending love hon. your friend,
    kymber

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    1. woops - all of that to say that your papas frittas would taste so much better with home-grown potatoes!

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    2. Thank you Kymber!!! That was a great lesson. We have a really good mechanic not too far from here, when we go for our spring check I'm going to ask him if he can give me some, I'd LOVE to have homegrown potatoes for my Papas Fritas!!! And we eat so many. Thank you, I'm going to search your blog for more information. I didn't think I'd have the room to grow them because I see lots of folks growing them in the ground in hills and that's not possible here. I'm already digging up an area for my pumpkin patch and I don't think I could get away with much more since we're still renting :) We have similar climates, though I think we get more of a deep freeze, but that's always after Christmas. Thanks so much for the suggestion!

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    3. This makes me want to grow potatoes. I wonder if deer eat the plants.

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    4. I wonder about that myself. But I do remember when I lived in another area, the deer ate everything!

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    5. we've never had a problem with deer eating potatoe plants

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    6. That's good news! I can't wait to try :)

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  4. Rain, you and Alex have the best drinks, you create the best meals and you take the best pictures! It all looks so professionally done. Could the two of you come live with us, serve us drinks and cook for us? We have a very large fenced in yard where your two outdoor lovin' dogs could be as much as they wanted and Jack could stay inside and be his cute self with us peoples. ;o)

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    1. LOL...you're cute Mama Pea...but I suspect you might start tasting the arsenic as we make our 1940's-movie-type plans to take over your estate!! ;) Thanks so much for the compliments! You should see me at suppertime, I'm moving things around, trying to get the best light, wiping drips...lol...I put so much love into the food that I want it to look really nice! And Alex is a really good bartender...I got lucky that's for sure. I'm a wino, but he's more of a spirits and liqueur connaisseur so he makes us the best cocktails and he always makes the presentation gorgeous!

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  5. The Irish coffee looks better than I've ever seen! Sorry it didn't cancel the coffee out....I would've thought the same thing. You have a waterfall near you? How cool is that? Your dogs are the sweetest and Jack just cracks me up! I am going to make those Papa Fritas for sure! I wish I lived next door....I'd for sure pop over right before dinner! LOL!

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  6. Thanks Sam :)) I'm lucky to have a cocktail enthusiast as a boyfriend! :) The waterfall is just under the covered bridge over the river, it's so beautiful and charming. I'll have to take more photos when the weather is nicer. Jack is a character alright. He gives me that "when will this be over?" look but he LOVES his hoodie lol...I've been told by my neighbour that when she walks her dog around 8pm, she is always sniffing the air around our place because it smells so good ha ha!

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  7. Hello,
    Your dinner and drinks look and sound wonderful. The lack of sleep part not so much.
    Looks like you live in a wonderful place with similar weather to me. We have rain and snow thawing and my ponds and creeks are roaring. I love hearing it also.

    Thank you for your lovely messages.

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    1. HI Tammie Lee :) I do love living here, I could do without the people though. I think I'm meant to be a hermit...well, we are meant to be a hermit couple! The sun is doing its job again today, I'm so looking forward to the big melt!!!

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  8. Hubby and I had a very intense weekend. I'm glad it's over with and I can get back to this week now. I didn't have time to grocery shop, nor meal plan. I'll be looking into the freezer stash today.

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    1. Hi Kristina :) You're so busy all the time...good thing you do have a stash in the freezer! That's why I have those frozen pizzas and a list of leftovers in case I'm too busy to cook!

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  9. Hi Rain! That recipe for Papas Fritas looks DELICIOUS! I need to give that a try for sure. Such a busy weekend as they usually are. This one was extra special. Our son turned 21 on Saturday :) We had a great day out and then went out to a restaurant for a nice Italian dinner. Then back to ours for cake and tea. I was going to make a cake for him but we decided to go to one of our local bakeries that have been around forever and get a neopolitan cake. Similar to the ice cream it had vanilla, chocolate layers and the middle was a raspberry cream filling. It was delicious! And the best part was you could freeze the leftovers which I did - save it for another day!

    Today I am on a vacation day. My last one for the year. Our fiscal year where I work is April to March so if you don't use your time by then you lose it. So I make sure I use up mine - do not want to lose it!! So the dogs and I are just relaxing, waiting for morning to arrive. First day of Spring and I could not be happier! Winter tends to be hard on my soul so every day I feel myself feeling better. I may take myself to a local nursery to take in all the flowers and just the experience of being in a large garden. That makes my soul happy! Then I have to go and pick up some fruit and vegetables.

    The grocery store where I shop does not have the freshest or the best produce or fruit so I go elsewhere for that. It makes for more of an adventure than I would really like but I hate wasting food ad I would wind up throwing stuff out because it went bad so here we are!

    Just look at the snow bathing!! :) Huskies just love that! Your Jack looks like he could very well have cocker spaniel in him. Our Tucker is a cockapoo and he howls also! We can usually hear him if we are outside and he is the only one inside. He sounds so forlorn but he's a picky one and if its raining, snowing, windy or just plain weather-y outside he chooses to stay in :) - but then he express himself by howling. He's a character for sure!

    Have a good day!
    Dianna

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    1. Hi Dianna :)) Thank you ! The Papas Fritas are a hit! But we have to be careful not to eat them too often because we never want to get tired of them :) I'm glad you had a nice night out for your son's birthday...it's been ages since we went out to dinner, but Alex says my food is better anyway :)). We did the same for our birthdays, we bought cakes. We don't have a very good bakery around here though, which is kind of surprising because I live about an hour away from a huge ski town...maybe there's a hidden gem we need to discover this summer!

      I'm glad you have a day off on the first day of spring! I feel the same as you...I'm starting to feel better every day, I'm more motivated to do things, my mood is happy...I do love the winter, but does it have to be so long? I suppose it makes us appreciate spring/summer/fall all that much more! :)

      I do think Jack has some Cocker Spaniel in him, simply for the look of his face and those ears...but he's got a kind of bulldog or beagle body...the spots are pointer-ish...and that lovely howl. Don't you love the howl? :)

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❤ Thanks for your comment, I love hearing from everyone! ❤ Why not join me and my fellow artists every Thursday for TADD? That's Thursday Art and Dinner Date! It's a lot of fun!
Love,
Rain