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Majorly agree. She's amazing.

Yeah, it's interesting (or maybe only interesting to me because I used to live next to one 🙃) that bananas and other refrigerated stuff have developed their infrastructure (refrigerated warehouses and distribution) in smaller niche ports. So Wilmington instead of New York/New Jersey and Port Hueneme instead of Los Angeles/Long Beach out here on the west coast. This map is outdated but shows the comparison between banana boats and container ships at US ports.

My local TJ's increased their banana prices from 19 cents to 23 cents each for the regular bananas last month. Organic bananas went from 25 cents to 29 cents each some time ago and that wasn't changed in this round. TJ's reports that 19 cent price had been in effect for 20 years so not really that surprising to see an increase and at 23 cents each, that's probably still less than the 63 cents/pound that's been the average for the last 2 years (see graph below) On a year-over-year basis, retail banana prices in the US have been pretty stable. Obviously supermarkets often price them super low in their ads but there haven't been any huge year-long price swings. When I look at this graph and think of the big price bumps in other food items, my first thought is that banana prices should probably increase so the farmers and workers can be paid more. Graph from here I don't believe we're seeing any huge price swings from either global warming or disease just yet but I'm sure we will, sooner or later. The disease thing could be sooner but both will happen. NPR's Science Friday had a piece today on the efforts of a North Carolina biotech working with Dole to develop a strain of Cavendish banana plants that are resistant to the TR-4 fungus. They've been working on it since 2020 and are just now ready to test plants in the field, still years away from production. Chiquita is also working on this and Australian regulatory agencies have recently approved a similar plant. These are all GMO bananas where genes from bananas that are naturally resistant to the TR-4 fungus have been incorporated into Cavendish bananas. I wish they'd end the big Cavendish monoculture but it seems that after decades of being top banana, the Cavendish has become so productive and so ingrained in consumers minds as THE banana that moving away from it is an uphill climb. On Science Friday: Fighting Banana Blight In A North Carolina Greenhouse and: A North Carolina company is trying to make a fungus-proof banana Australian approval: Genetically modified banana resistant to Panama disease given approval for Australian consumption

Often, I'll cover the pan almost fully, and I find this helps. Nothin wrong with medium heat, and leaving it a minute longer on a side.

Reading the past 24+ hours of this thread, my previous opinion of you is cemented, "strong woman crossing the plains', but in 2024 rather than 1860. I'm so very impressed with you, Smithy, for "holding the fort" or Princessmobile in this case. Amazing job. All good thoughts for you and your darling.

Strangely enough, this is usually my reaction to "take my mind off things" but this time around was different. "Easy" was the ticket! And continues to be, for the most part, since we're closed up for travel and have no dining room. One benefit of all the vegetable prep I did for our sadly-delayed travel was that I already had asparagus and red bell peppers ready to go. There were cherry tomatoes too, but they don't need much prep. We also still have a variety of tube steaks (Caprese Chicken sausage made by some artisan I've forgotten; Beef Polish sausage from Kiolbassa company, some others) that are simply made to be cut up into coins and added to some dish. One of my back-pocket-I-don't-need-to-think-how-to-do-it recipes is more or less pasta Alfredo. I'll say "more or less" because the proportions may not always be right, and the additions probably make it Alfredo no longer, but it's easy and we love it. Take a bunch of pasta and cook it. I had elbow macaroni and cavatappi, not enough of either to do a full pot of the stuff, or so I thought. I cooked it in as little water as possible in the deep part of the big pot I've kept out for travel. In the shallower half of the pot I sweated chopped onion (already in the refrigerator), the peppers. When they were soft I added the meat coins, browned them, then added the pasta, butter, cream (half and half, in this case) and grated parmesan. The steps, in case anyone's interested, are to add the butter and toss everything in it to be coated with melted butter, then add the cream (about twice as much by volume as the butter, but who's measuring?) and the parmesan (about the same volume as the cream, but whatever it takes to make a thick sauce). Stir and toss. Add the asparagus when it seems the mixture is only a few minutes from being done. Serve. Enjoy. This was the first night's iteration, as we sat with a broken suspension. I learned something important, too: if there's too much cooked pasta, bung the unused cooked stuff into a container and freeze it. I'm pretty sure we've talked before in other topics about reversionary starches. This qualifies. Henceforth I think I'll PLAN to cook too much pasta so it will be ready to use from the freezer. A few nights later, I used more of that pasta for a different iteration of the Alfredo dish. I'm out of asparagus now, and peppers, and tomatoes (I cut up my remaining Camparis and added them to the second dish). I hope I'll be able to find something in a local grocery store before we start driving again, or the road food pickings will be pretty slim!

I also tried this product. The flavor is exactly as advertised but I wasn't a big fan of the texture. They are hollow and very crunchy / dry.

This was the sweet corn burrata ravioli. I think next time I will just make the pesto from scratch with fresh basil. I have access to fresh herbs, nuts etc and it's not that hard to make. I just got "lazy" this time...

@FrogPrincesse what ravioli did you use ? does TJ's still have Dorot Fz basil , in the container w the small segments ? try that for the basil part next time , w TJ's various EVOO's from Italy you will get close enough to pesto , and add some of Tj's parmesan - rsh. thank you for the reviews of the TJ's items .

Here is dinner I made two days ago using all TJ's products: sweet corn burrata ravioli, pesto, ricotta, and arugula. Out of these 4 products, the ricotta is the standout for me: it tastes as good as the one I make from scratch! It's a great product. On the other hand, the pesto tastes very vegetal if that makes sense, and not very basil-y. Homemade is clearly a notch above. The ravioli is decent, good but not great.

Never mind. Amazon Produce network is the larger importer of mangoes into the US, and has no connection to Amazon. Sigh of relief!

chicken tortilla soup

Thanks. We should be arriving home at around our normal time, but making a quicker trip of it than usual; as a rule we take 4 - 6 weeks to come home so we have plenty of time to lollygag at other good places to ride our cycles and eat good restaurant food. Medical advice suggested we should do make a quicker trip of it. When it started getting really hot in our camping spot, we decided to head out and take a week (my preference) to two weeks (his). The day we were packed up and ready to leave, I realized on my last walkaround that the trailer suspension looked strange. (Tires rubbing together are NOT a good thing.) Of course this was on a Sunday! We were delayed 3 days while a mobile repairman came out, figured out the problem, ordered the parts, brought them out, realized they were the wrong size despite the parts guy's assurance, then came back with the right parts to get us back on the road. We've now made it as far as Columbus, New Mexico, where the weather isn't much better but we have electricity. The weather to our east is very bad (thunderstorms, hail, rain) so we're staying and resting here a couple of days. I suppose the one good thing about all that delay was that I'd washed, cut and packed a bunch of vegetables for our road trip and then we'd had to cool our heels in place. Those vegetables became the basis of some of the most "complicated" cooking I've done recently. I'll tell about that in the next post.

My Trader Joe's had these mangoes a couple of weeks ago. Only got a box, and regretted not getting more. It looks like they didn't get more. They were really good. Funny now I see the fine print: distributed by "Amazon Produce network"! (odd, especially after reading this)

I made a pan-fried burger for lunch today. It's something I rarely do, maybe three times a year, although I truly enjoy such a treat. I rarely make such a burger because my apartment gets smokey and smells somewhat greasy afterwards, and the smell lingers for a day or two. Is there any way to minimize or, better yet, eliminate the grease in the air? I use the vent over the stove but it does a poor job, and I open the windows and the apartment door to get better air flow through the place. These things help, but the results are only marginally better. Might there be a cut of meat that minimizes smoke and grease? Cooking at a lower temp (I still would like a nice crust)?

Passover is the one time of the year when I make all the traditional things. I mean, I really can't get tired of something that I only make it once every 12 months. So in the freezer right now are my mother's Passover chocolate hazelnut torte and two whole Ferret Roll cakes. (I'm sorry but I can't tell you why our family calls this Ferret Roll - a flourless banana/walnut cake rolled with coffee whipped cream - because it's a disgusting and horrible story and I am mortified about it.) In the oven is new-to-me version of potato kugel, because I was never all that happy with the one I usually make. Recipe here: https://www.seriouseats.com/potato-kugel-arthur-schwartz-passover-recipe. Will report on results. Had to search high and low for a horseradish root in my local area because I had planned to use my home-grown horseradish but when it was dug up last week, it turned out to be all hollow and woody. Son does the grinding wearing ski goggles. All the other usual suspects will make an appearance - chopped liver, gefilte fish, matzoh ball soup, etc., etc., etc. I have my weekend cut out for me.

ps: I'm not going to make my own . . . whatevers in our markets, only flour tortillas are offered. do corn recipes not have a 30 year shelf life? no clue. simply put, corn tortilla are just not available . . . I do a breakfast burrito - pre-prepped: bacon strip - microwaved for speed/ease flour tortilla re-toasted in a dry hot pan scrambled egg the soft/toasted tortilla is ready . . . lay in one strip of bacon add one scrambled egg add ~1 ounce 4-blend cheese trim side edge of tortilla to make fold/wrap/roll "ideal" roll the tortilla and fasten with toothpick the residual heat melts the cheese the grins show 'we loved it"

Chocolate cake... It's from a Clare Damon cake (hers has a gianduja topping and the whole thing is encased in a chocolate glaze). Being oil- and cream-based, it's very soft and moist. The chocolate element is cocoa powder, so it doesn't exactly scream chocolate, but it's chocolatey enough and I like the texture. One of these days I'll get around to doing the gianduja and glaze.

I buy it. My favorite was Tropical Pepper Company Mango coconut pepper sauce, but i have not been able to find since covid, but my local Weis grocery sells a very similar ( bit spicier ) brand called Jamaican choice mango coconut sauce.

Spinach, chorizo, and egg, topped with pickled shallots. Added chopped cilantro stems to the spinach. Blended chipotle in adobo, tomatillo salsa, ginger (!), cumin, and cream, and mixed in with fried onion and garlic, and Mexican oregano. Would have been prettier if I didn't drop the fried egg (in the pan, not on the floor). Whoops

I was just about to start a topic called "Where's Smithy?" I'm sorry your spouse ended up in the hospital but I'm happy he's on the mend. Having just had a couple of nights in a hospital, and will have another one coming up, I can vouch for the quality (or lack of same) of hospital food. Calling it boring and tasteless is generous. I don't know how they expect people to get better when they are confronted with such terrible food. (Many years ago my mom was in a Seventh Day Adventist hospital in Boulder, CO, and complained that there was no meat on the menu. I've subsequently heard that their food was highly regarded as being delicious. Vegetarian, of course.) Will you have to delay your usual time of return? Hope it's not too long and that the weather in your neck of the woods is pleasant, and warm enough! It sure has been a weird winter, weather-wise. In any case, safe travels whenever you pack up and head north.

Sounds delicious. How do I make the mango habanero sauce?

Breaded shrimp ( popcorn ) lettuce,tomato,cheese, garlic aoli, and habanero mango dipping sauce is my favorite filling.

Yes, I always thought it was interesting that corn tortillas had no added fat while flour tortillas are traditionally made with lard. I guess if there was no fat in the flour tortilla it would turn out like matzah!

Two recent dinners. Wings in the Speedi with broccoli. Having missed out on eating a sausage roll on my recent visit to London, I ordered some frozen sausage rolls and assorted bangers and chipolatas from Jolly Posh Foods. Made the sausage rolls. They were just OK, not bad but not great.