So yesterday I tried a new recipe.

LIMA BEAN SOUP

4 cups water
5-6 beef bouillon cubes
2 bay leaves
4 stalks celery, diced
2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 large carrots, sliced in ½" slices
1 large diced onion
1 large package dry lima beans
salt and pepper to taste
1/2-1 pound smoked kielbasa

Cook in your crockpot 6-8 hours on low. Soup will thicken as it cooks.

Pretty lean in the directions department but that's not
a problem for me. Turned out quite tasty except for one
thing. That damn potatoes. Now, I generally avoid red
potatoes because I prefer russets, so I generally substitute
russets when red are called for. Well when I made that
chowder a couple of weeks ago I bought a bag of red potatoes
because it called for them and I thought, what the hell I'll
be different for a change. Now, for that soup, because I
didn't want to peel potatoes, I decided to bake them first
and then cut them up and throw them in the soup. They were
great that way.

This time I used the rest of the potatoes from the same
bag. I just diced them raw and threw them in. But they
taste awful! Sometimes when I eat red potatoes (and it
may only be when someone *else* cooks them) they taste fine.
But it seems like any time (as least in the last 5 years or
so) that I cook them with the skins on, they have this weird
grassy taste (like alfalfa sprouts or something nasty like that).
It's really objectionable. Now since these potatoes are from
the same batch as the last time (kept refrigerated between then
and now) I don't get it. (They haven't sprouted or gotten
"green" under the skin or started to soften and wrinkle
or anything - they're just as good as they were when I bought
them 2 weeks ago!)

Could the difference between baking them and just boiling
them cause the difference in taste. Maybe baking gets
rid of the raw, grassy taste. And what the hell is
that taste anyhow? I don't ever remember tasting that in
red potatoes years ago, only very recently. Granted I don't
use them much but I *do* use them from time to time. I often
eat them in restaurants or in dishes other people have made
and don't recall ever coming across that weird taste in
other people's red potatoes. Only seems to be when I
use them! Grrrr! It's so frustrating. I guess I just
have to avoid them for the rest of my life! There are one
or 2 things I actually prefer them for, mostly because of
the size and color of the skin, so I want to be able to
use them whole and *unpeeled*! But it's the peel that
causes this problem. I've never had it when I've peeled
them.

Kate

--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?