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When cooking purple potatoes, this past week, we discovered an electrical problem with the little stove-top in our conference room kitchenette.  Actually, the smell wafted all the way out to the front desk area.

When the burner was removed it was very black and in desperate need of a good cleaning.  After soaking it for a long time, there was still plenty of black remaining.

Sr. Christina thought some vinegar might work well, but there was none handy.  However, she was taking out a jar of pickles anyway to have at supper and decided to pour some pickle brine to soak on the burner.

When this had soaked thus through the evening and over night, a lot more of the black “gunk” was removed.

Little did we know all the wonders of pickle brine!

When doing an online search for uses of pickle brine, one finds a multitude of suggestions:

Pickle brine is suggested as a meat tenderizer as well as for enhancing other foods, such as barbecue sauce and “mac and cheese,” fish, veggies, and salad dressing.  It can be used in homemade rye bread, cocktails, sports drinks, and even pickle soup.  Pickle juice can be used for acidifying soil, cleaning copper, trapping fruit flies, making copper sparkle, killing weeds, stopping hiccups, and curing heartburn.  It can also serve as a laxative and to treat an upset stomach.

Resources:

• https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/39-ways-to-use-leftover-pickle-juice
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/82647/12-uses-pickle-juice
• https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/cooking-tips/article/15-ways-to-use-leftover-pickle-juice

This past weekend, we had a little surprise visit from our administrator’s (Sr. Rebecca) brother and sister-in-law.  Along with the gift of their mere presence, they also brought us a bag of special spuds – purple potatoes!

We’d never seen the like before.  The visitors assured us that they taste just like any other potato; if you were blindfolded, you’d never know the difference.

Wednesday afternoon, Sr. Christina set to work with one of our residents who loves to “keep busy,” waiting eagerly to see the lady’s reaction when she discovered that they were purple potatoes.  Soon, others in the activity room were being shown the never-before-seen specimen.

Every Thursday, we have mashed potatoes as part of the lunch menu.  So it is that Sr. Rebecca is planning to cook up and mash the peeled potatoes to see what kind of reaction she gets.

Purple potatoes, though deep violet on the inside, have ink-colored skins.  They are good for baking or mashing, being dry and starchy.

They are rich in a certain antioxidant called anthocyanin which is also found in berries and pomegranates, helpful to the immune system and in preventing some cancers.  Purple potatoes also have energy-rich properties, lots of vitamins, proteins, fiber and antioxidants.  They can help with your blood pressure and prevent blood clots as well.  Purple potatoes have been grown for hundreds of years in areas like Peru and Bolivia.

There are even recipes available for using these pretty little gems, including home-style green beans and purple potatoes, purple potatoes with caramelized onions and shiitake mushrooms, mashed purple potatoes, and roasted purple potatoes and cauliflower.

Resources:

• http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Purple_Potatoes_641.php
• https://draxe.com/purple-potatoes/
• https://communitytable.parade.com/382580/stephaniemanley/how-to-prepare-purple-potatoes/

Our Resident Newsletter, The Broadcaster, will be released in the next couple of days.  It includes tidbits of news from around St. Anne’s as well as articles pertinent to the upcoming month.

If you’d like to subscribe to receive it via email, simply fill out this form.

We think you’d enjoy it!

This week Mother Nature got a jump start on Autumn. The calendar states “Autumn Begins” September 22. Our exceedingly creative God got ahead of the date and was doing a magnificent paint job already a week before.

Sister Rebecca and I attended the North Dakota Long Term Care Conference in Fargo for three days this week and were able to drive back and forth from Grand Forks each day instead of traveling to Bismarck and staying overnight for the duration.

This meant six separate 81 mile trips, three to Fargo and three back home to Grand Forks. We were privileged to delight in the numerous fall colors: gold, yellow, red, rust, green, yellow green, brown, tan. Oh, so beautiful! The trees were still fluffy because the wind had not yet divested them of their leaves thus creating an even more gorgeous grove of individual colors.

The fall colored grasses in the ditches took on a special hew that delighted one’s view as we drove by. Such a multitude of mixed beauty!

And, to really top off the experience, Sister Rebecca pointed out a flock of geese flying over the Fargo Holiday Inn. What a marvelous additional sight adding to the already amazing experience, a sure sign of fall.

Thank You God for giving Mother Nature these gifts of color and her ability to present them to us in such varied ways for our amazement and joy. May You, O Creator, be thanked, honored and adored.

Did you know that there are lots of opportunities to give back to the community by serving as a volunteer at St. Anne’s?

Whether you’re interested in doing one-on-one visits with a resident who doesn’t have much family, if you’d like to help with our special events, if you’d like to lend a hand with regular activities, or you have another idea of how you’d like to help, the St. Anne’s Volunteer Program is worth checking into!

In fact, we’re getting ready for our annual volunteer business meeting, which will be held on Thursday, October 5th.  It’s a “working lunch” from 11:30 to 12.

If you’re interested in attending, please RSVP with Shelly Mack (701-746-9401) no later than Monday, October 2nd.

We hope to see you there!

We just finished cutting up about 130 pounds of a green plant with red highlights.

Yes, it was rhubarb!

This was actually the second batch we received and processed within just a few days.  The generous donors of both batches sell one batch per year to a local winery, but had extra now to share with us.

We would like to extend a special thank you to Deacon Wally Dalman and his wife Colleen for their kindness!

We’ve begun to use their rhubarb already, making sauce, jam, and cake.

However, this really doesn’t put much of a dent in our supply, to which we added roughly 245 lbs. since this past Wednesday.  There will be plenty to provide for rhubarb desserts for months to come, which is good because our residents do enjoy them.

Due to the large quantity of produce, we had two “rhubarb cutting parties” today with our residents; one began after snacks, around 10 a.m.  The second was after dinner and lasted until supper time.  A few people came and went, but some stayed in our activity room for the entire afternoon of “festivities.”

Good conversation, camaraderie, and the satisfaction that manual work can bring,  make these parties an uplifting experience for our residents.

If you’re interested in joining in with future “parties,” please let us know and we can give you a call.  We’ll be having corn and apples come in as well during the coming weeks and would be happy to have you come and join us!

We have a job opening for a “Universal Worker.”
This individual would work about 27 hours a week (including every other weekend). Duties include laundry, personal care and a bit of evening receptionist work.
Interested? Visit www.stannesguesthome.org/employment.html or stop by St. Anne’s to complete an application.

Also, anyone who has not yet seen our video of photos from our 65 years in Grand Forks, you can view it below.