Forget Brunch

Who wants inferior scrambled eggs and limp bacon to celebrate Mother's Day? Not me. I have better eggs and bacon at home, and besides, what I really want to do today is can potatoes.

Yup. That's what I said.

See, we always end up with way too many seed potatoes. We never plant them all, and they get all withered and too sprouted before we can eat the rest. A couple of years ago, it occurred to me that potatoes can actually be canned. I had never done it, but the prospect of having already-prepped potatoes is very appealing. Especially in the heat of our awful (un-air-conditioned) summer, when we have meat on the grill and plenty of vegetables from the garden, but I can't bear the thought of boiling water to cook potatoes or rice or whatever.

Good plan! Let's can the extra seed potatoes! Except they have to be pressure canned, which takes awhile, as does the peeling and pre-cooking before the potatoes are put in the jars. And last year at this time I was quite pregnant and in no mood for extra food processing.

So I never did it.

I've been talking about doing it this year for the past few weeks. But once again, finding the time to do it without it keeping me up until way past nine o'clock at night has been a challenge.

When A. asked what I wanted to do for Mother's Day, I told him I wanted to work in the garden without interference. But now it's blowing a gale outside and our forecast is calling for well below freezing tomorrow night, so that's a no go on planting tomatoes and basil. My second choice was canning potatoes.

I know. I'm totally crazy. It's okay.

Happy Mother's Day to all the active-duty and retired* mothers out there. Here's hoping your day is filled with whatever makes you happy.

* Although it is a great truth of motherhood that there is no retirement. Just ask my own mother, who still spends hours patiently listening to me talk and complain, albeit now via long-distance phone calls. Happy Mother's Day particularly to my own mother, who is, without doubt, a truly amazing mom.