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ditto

I too am prone to pick up "shiny objects". The other day I found a salted caramel chocolate drink mix in the cupboard.............dated Best Before 2023.

Thanks, y’all! @Smithy & @Shelby, your encouragement is appreciated! I was pleased with the components. I really wish I’d had ketchup packets for the hash brown patty, but didn’t think to try to acquire them, and I bet a fast food place would’ve donated some. I also didn’t want to use my own plastic condiment containers for this. 🤷‍♀️ @Shelby, you suggested egg bites early on in this thread, and a few other people chimed in, I think. I guess this was my way of using your idea. Thank you!

I'm sure it did. I've started learning to use skimmed fat, or excess oil from a salad (even though it includes vinegar by that time), for sauteeing other ingredients. Works a treat, I think, and it's thrifty!

Oh boy, I can relate! Laughs and frowns, all around!

I think we're definitely related. I bought a fancy brand chocolate sauce that I've saved for "a special occasion". The other day I had some vanilla ice cream that I wanted to eat and decided that it was a good day to just break that out. Why wait? It was moldy 🤣

@Smithy thank you for taking the time to show us the tour of that store. I visited my sister in TX , north of Austin. the H.E.B. in her town ( Georgetown ) had a Tortilleria , not quite as impressive. the I visited the H.E.B in downtown Austin : theirs was as impressive as the one you visited.

Camarones a la pimienta (peppered shrimp): Saute sliced white onion, garlic, jalapenos, and roasted chile Poblano. Add shrimp and a ton of black pepper, saute until done, and finish with a dollop of mayonnaise. This is a long-time favorite. Edit to add: I skimmed the chicken fat off the stock and used it when sauteing the onions. Probably added some flavor. Arroz poblano (green rice): Blend garlic, white onion, parsley, cilantro, spinach, and one of the roasted chile Poblanos with Mrs. C's chicken stock. Fry jasmine rice until lightly browned, stir in the green paste, and steam with chicken stock. Finish with diced roasted chile Poblano. This is probably my favorite green rice recipe.

They had several balsamic vinegars although I can't swear that they all were. My problem is that I buy these things thinking they look like a wonderful idea, then don't get around to using them for donkey's years. At least the vinegars shouldn't go off, but I know I have bottles of citrus-infused balsamic vinegars at home from trips we took at least 10 years ago. I'm kinda like a culinary magpie: it's shiny, I pick it up, then take it off somewhere to stash. 🫠 I'm trying to change that, and one way is to stick with the more straighforward stuff I know I'll use. I do like and use the varietal olive oils.

Me too and WOW that is an excellent price on that ham!

@patti, I continue to be in awe of your project and how it all works out. Those quiches look delicious! The hash brown patties and satsumas are just the right accompaniment.

@Smithy Are the vinegars balsamic? If yes, i have a bunch of fruit flavoured infused ones and love them. Wise buy on the kalamata olive oil - i love the stuff. I also use a butter infused olive oil.

It is cool! The first winter in my new house, years before I met my darling, friends came up for a winter camping and skiing trip. They brought a mini-keg of beer as a house-warming gift. It's too long ago now for me to remember its size, but it was probably a couple of gallons' worth. Opening it was a bit of a mess because none of us had messed with something like it before, but the mini-keg was cool and it did keep the beer in good condition. Not that the beer lasted long enough to go off. 🙂

Amusing signs seen around Alamagordo:

Well. I think someone should start making those barrel containers on a smaller size. I think the oils would keep for longer. Plus it's cool.

I think that may have happened to me once, but I'm a slow learner.

If you mean the big barrels, I think those are for tasting and supply. They pour into the squarish bottles of the size you choose, and then give them a special stopper that requires a bodacious press to shove it in. When I wondered aloud how I'd get the stopper back in once I'd opened a bottle, she told me that it has a built-in pour spout. I haven't taken the wrapper off one to see it yet (each bottle has a black plastic shrink-wrapped cap atop the stopper) but when I do I'll show you a photo of it.

Yeah....either I'm a wimp (probably) or (or also lol) I think they get hotter because of different growing temps. etc. I've gotten the mediums and they sometimes would blow my head off. You showed incredible restraint.

I LOVE this OMG the oils and vinegars--I LOVE the containers. Just like my wine. Do they sell them like that or is it only for tasting purposes? I would assume they stay fresher--like my wine advertises that it can last months. Which I can only attest to the fact that they last days around here 🤣

It all began because I wanted roasted and peeled Hatch green chiles. Well actually, that's not true. It all began because I realized one night that the ham and potatoes I'd cooked before leaving home were on the verge of going off...er, the potatoes had gone off but I thought I could salvage the rest of the ham. So I trimmed and diced the ham, and made mac 'n' cheese 'n' ham, more or less according to my darling's and my favorite proportions. (It was sobering to realize I probably hadn't made this since he died. I had to refer to my notes!) I used some really good white cheddar cheese, and this was dinner that night. It was okay, but bland compared to the usual. In the night I began dreaming about "Jim's Famous Green Chile Burgers" in Hatch, NM. I'd be passing near there. I've never had that burger, just heard about it. I love green chile cheeseburgers. Maybe I should take a detour through there. Maybe I could find some of those chiles roasted, for my own purposes. I asked my camp hosts the next morning, and learned that I shouldn't need to go to Hatch, or even stop in Las Cruces, for those chiles. I could probably get them at the local Lowe's grocery store. So away I went. For roasted green chiles. Can you guess the outlines of this story? 🙂 It was either Valentine's Day or the day before, and the place was geared up for the event. (There were more overtly Valentine's Day delicacies, like chocolate-dipped strawberries in heart-shaped plastic boxes, but I rushed past them.) This Lowe's is quite large and well-stocked. I was told that they'd recently renovated, and that may account for why they're nearly unrecognizable from their counterparts that we visited in past years and other cities. I got past the sweets-bakery section and ran full into the breads. Wow. It smelled good. It looked good. The jalapeno-popper-sourdough loaf caught my eye. "How hot is that?" I asked the man at the counter. He didn't know. I decided to find out, and that's what you saw in this morning's brunch. (Answer, a little kick, not much.) Across the way from the bread bakery is a staggering selection of wine, beer, and other spirits. Aisles' worth! I picked up a couple of bottles of Malbec. Then, on I went to the produce area. It's also quite well-stocked and attractive. The prices are good. Chiles? Did I want chiles? I had my choice of fresh or dried... ...but this is what I'd come for: All mild. I'd been hoping for medium heat, but now that I've had some I'm glad they only offered mild. The meat section was interesting. I've just remembered that collages like these have fuzzy detail. If anyone's interested in more detail from the labels, like prices, let me know. I'll post a better photo of the item in question. I was on my way out, more or less having stuck to my shopping list, when I passed by their tortilleria. Wow. This was a new experience for me! I didn't manage to get pictures of either of the gentlemen working the equipment, and probably should have asked. They were quite friendly and probably wouldn't have minded showing off their smiles! This machine was fascinating. At the front end (far back in the photo, top of collage) one man was kneading, rolling and shaping each tortilla, then loading it onto the conveyor belt. From there it went through the oven, came out puffed onto the blue curved conveyor in the center image, and then went through the traveling grid of cooling screens you see in the front of the photo (bottom of the collage) until it came out to the second gentleman. He'd inspect. If it was torn or split, he dumped it into a waste bucket. If it looked good, he stacked it. He watched me watching. The smell was wonderful and the machine was fascinating. I guess I've heard of tortillas puffing like this, but I've never seen them do it. The entire process reminded me most nearly of what we used to see in Egypt when pita bread was being made. "Would you like a sample?" he grinned. "Sure," I said, "hand me the next torn one you get." "Oh no," he responded as his buddy at the front end of the equipment laughed. "Only the best for customers!" Well. Let me tell you, you have't had a proper flour tortilla until you've had a hot, fresh, recently puffy one. I had no idea! I said so, and said "You're a great salesman!" as I grabbed a bag of ten tortillas. They both laughed and we bade each other good day. So that's my story of Lowe's in Alamagordo. I'm happy to report that the green chile is exactly what the mac 'n' cheese 'n' ham needed, with a slice of yellow cheese for extra cheesy flavor and color. I just wish I'd gotten more than one package of those chiles.

I found an unadvertised sale on ham this week and happily took advantage. Not only was it plenty of ham for this week’s Ham & Spinach Crustless Quiche CFM, but I am left with a ham bone with lots of ham still attached for the freezer and future meals. Most of the ingredients for the crustless quiche, baked hash brown patties, and satsumas/cuties/mandarins/citrus. I was using two hotel pans and decided I would compose each one separately. Each hotel pan got 30 eggs, a pound of diced and sautéed button mushrooms, one diced and sautéed red bell pepper, and a pound of chopped and sautéed spinach, plus a little over 2 pounds of ham (in each pan). I really thought the care I took to get rid of as much liquid as I could from the vegetables before adding them to the mix, but there was still more liquid released than I would have preferred. I really wanted to get this posted today, so my narrative is short. Hope to edit in more info later.

@gfweb but no ' CIA ' just yet. Ill work myself through them , from time to time , just in case.

Still more noise than signal in this one, as you say.

Thanks for the reviews and insight into this product, you saved me from some disappointment.