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Well, we've made it! At the beginning of this trip I wrote about how we'd made it to Texas in record time. This return trip was also a new record: 10 days from our desert camping site to home. We pushed pretty hard, with the day's distances ranging from 200+ miles to nearly 400 miles, and with a couple of days' stops for weather. We shared the driving on the longer days. We managed to stay behind or ahead of bad weather, and are now successfully parked at home, with things put under cover or into the house before the rain arrived. We still haven't finished the burgers from Braman, Oklahoma, but last night we ate fried chicken from the central Minnesota Walmart where we'd parked for the night. I don't seem to have gotten a picture of the chicken. I was too thrilled to show our parking place, and the scenery! This place was only a couple of hours' drive from home. We managed to time our travel so that we arrived home, parked, and got things under cover before the rain began. It's supposed to rain for the next few days. Tonight we almost polished off the pork roast from last week. There's still some left over, thanks to our diminished appetites, but it will be finished in the next day or two. This was a nice celebratory dinner. (His plate looked like mine, except it included toast. 😉 ) It's good to be home. Thanks for keeping us company, y'all. I'll see you over on the other topics!

I wasn't familiar with this, had to look it up. Your cocktails really do sound like perfectioni! The first Hawaiian island I visited was the Big Island. My husband took me there for my birthday one year not long after we were first together and we returned about a year later. Some good memories! But haven't been back since as we acquired a very decent timeshare on Kauai and so spent most of our time there (a leasehold which expired a few years ago). Looking forward to a vicarious return to the Big Island! 🙂 Thanks for bringing us along.

I liked using the springform; the cake was very easy to remove from it (and the leak was minimal). The book just says to use a 10-inch cake pan. The pineapple caramelized just fine in the springform. Fresh pineapple is much better than any canned product, in my humble opinion. She says the recipe was inspired by a "yellow cake from a box" recipe, which sounds very typical. The dark color is from the light brown sugar. Also I used coconut palm sugar instead of the regular granulated sugar that's called for in the recipe, for another flavor boost. If anything it looks even darker in the book - see below.

Not really, although the chicken had plenty of flavor. Perhaps baking rather than grilling might have preserved the cilantro flavor. Or making a sauce from the leftover marinade. smashed cucumber salad sounds like a great idea

The plastic bags of roast chook served up by grocery stores are known as "batchelor's handbags" here. Emma Buswell was the winner of the City of Joondalup 2022 Invitation Art Prize for her work, ‘The sometimes luxury handbag and other suburban fables.’

The one I have, from Rancho Gordo, tastes sour and pineapple-y. I can't detect a citrus note in that one. I love it for making quick pickled red onions or a simple salsa with manzano chiles, onion, oregano Indio and a little salt.

I would never have thought of using a spring form for upside down cake. Always used a cast iron fry pan. We have a family debate about using crushed pineapple (me) or rings (her). Both work. Cherries are only if you are making it with kids. Is there anything unusual about the cake recipe? It looks quite dark inside.

Does it have a pineappley-citrusy taste?

That all looks great. Did the cilantro taste come through after grilling? I've taken to smashed cucumber salad. It really seems to integrate the dressing into the cuke and the cuke into the dressing.

No photos, but I think I did a pretty good stir-fry prawns and veg. I'd say I'm getting it down, but I like the fact that it is never quite the same. Fried the prawns in my Korean chili oil, which gave a light snap, which suits my aging upper digestive system. Pulled them out and added red capsicum and zucchini chunks, along with some rice bran oil to char. Then onion, garlic, ginger, and a few mushrooms that needed to be used up. Oyster sauce (not a great variety but needs to be used up, and vegan fysch sauce, which frankly I like better than fish sauce, so shoot me. I was going to post about it in the fish sauce topic but didn't want people coming at me with pitchforks for being off topic. Finally prawns went back in with some sesame oil. I think the key is to try to get the zuke charred on the outside but creamy soft inside.

Grilled chicken, marinated with a paste of cilantro, garlic, black pepper, and fish sauce. Served with a dipping sauce of simmered-down rice vinegar and sugar, mashed garlic, and Aleppo pepper flakes. No pic of the finished products but here is the chicken on the grill. Stir-fried broccolini with garlic, fish sauce, and oyster sauce. Cucumber salad with sliced shallots, rice vinegar, sugar, and fish sauce.

Pork spare ribs. Cooked in the toaster oven. Creamy mash potatoes, peas and honey butter carrots.

Hi everyone, I just came back from a trip to the Big Island. It was not my first time there, far from it, but this time I made sure to document everything food-related so I would eventually share here. So here we go. Aloha! 🌺 The night before leaving, I made classic Trader Vic Mai Tais to put us in the mood. I used homemade orgeat of course, Denizen rum (which is a mix of Martinique and Jamaican, especially designed for Mai Tais), and Clement creole shrubb for the orange liqueur component. Perfection! Then I finished packing my carry-on for the week-long trip. We did check one bag for bulky snorkeling equipment and my trusted kitchen knife (a must-have when staying at a rental, actually bought at a kitchen supply store during one of my first trips to the Big Island, many years ago).

if you SV , SV the trip first Ive done this 130 F until tender . then rapidly chill , and work from there .

Orange date coconut macaroons, prior to dark chocolate drizzle

I made a tasty Americano the other day with the last of my bottle of rhubarb amaro. Good stuff! 1 oz amaro sfumato rabarbaro 1.5 oz Cocchi vermouth di Torino soda water

I made the quick kimchi from Dining In with napa cabbage, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, rice vinegar, a crisp (red) apple, and salt. I didn't have gochugaru, the Korean chili powder, so I used piment d'espelette instead (vive la France!). It was very easy (I used gloves to give it a thorough massage before jarring it). I tried it right away, it was already good but missing something. A couple of days later, it is better, but I think I would tweak it a bit to make it exactly to my liking (more ginger maybe). I also miss the fermented more funky flavor of the real thing, to be perfectly honest. I made another kimchi omelette with it. It's growing on me!

Chipotle cream sauce for leftover potatoes and green beans, topped with feta cheese and a quick shallot pickle. Shallot pickle is getting crisper and spicier. Chipotle sauce included fried onion and garlic, freshly ground cloves, cumin, and Mexican cinnamon, and cilantro. Would make again. 🙂

omg I need that meat bag.

I couldn't find one, either. And yes, it's very expensive for what it is, so I hope someone is able to provide the exact proportions for you. The company is based in Monsey, NY, so it's undoubtedly owned and run by members of the Hasidic community there—which, in my opinion, accounts for the ridiculous price ($13/lb from Amazon).

Pineapple vinegar is another mild one that could be used as a sub.

I boil the noodles for one minute, drain then fry. The other stuff is fried first until almost done and then I add the boiled noodles. They have never stuck in th hundreds of times I've done something similar.

How do you cook the fresh noodles? Do you boil/drain then add to the stir fry or stir fry directly? Do you need to do anything to keep them from sticking in the wok?

@Maison Rustique a secret benefit of cooking for one is planned leftovers. some of the things I cook are good for several days after on purposes. that goes for shopping also I buy 2 packs of Capari tomatoes from TJ's that's 4 days worth of tomatoes when I start in on a pack. etc.

Chicken liver and matsutake fried noodles*. Also contained garlic, ginger, chilli, Chaoshan fish sauce, soy sauce, coriander leaf and Chinese chives. *Fresh hand-pulled noodles. I know they were fresh and hand pulled because I saw them being made when I was in the local noodle shack this morning . They aren't on their menu but I pleaded insanity again and scored some to take home to make this dish. They know me well.