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anyone knowledgeable in the banana trade? bananas are usually a "mono" crop - huge plantings of the same variety . . . I know there's currently a virus spreading and killing off huge swaths of 'old' plantations - new planting are different strains. reason I ask: at Costco, bought a bunch of "organic" bananas - the eventually go speckled / brown spots skins - but the banana itself did not go mushy/over ripe as the "usuals" do. origin was Columbia - I'm presuming there's new plantations with virus resistant types there?

@Smithy, I wondered where you were. So sorry to hear about your darling. Hope he is recovering, and that you have a safe trip home. When I was in the hospital in February with a broken hip I really resisted going into rehab and was allowed to go home after I proved I could grope my way up stairs and reassured them that my husband was up to the task. If I had suspected rehab had edible food I might have reconsidered. But the hospital food was so dreadful I assumed rehab would be the same. As it is, my husband has made more progress learning to cook in the last couple of months than he has in 40 or so years of living with me. It's so very humbling to be incapacitated.and to rely on someone else to do everything for you. Wish him well. And kudos to you. Being a caretaker is one crazy job.

my favorite Athen's street vendor:

There's a woman in Vancouver who has a successful and well-regarded Thai cooking site. I was referencing something on her site today and came across her video about making Thai-style tacos using easy-to-find supermarket ingredient. I immediately thought of you @ElsieD https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/thai-taco/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EyElhNgsG4

Actually, there is a Whole Foods here and I just checked them out. They carry that brand's Heirloom White Coon Massa as well as the Heirloon Blue Corn Massa.

Thank you for the update. Safe journey home, I'll be following your updates with interest.

Not a lot if you don't use lamb, use corn and disregard the traditional/nostalgic value.

@Smithy The usual response is 'I can't imagine what you're experiencing' however I know exactly what you're experiencing. We're dealing with my 90 year old mother in the hospital and spending a lot of time there. My reaction has been to take on very finicky cooking projects which takes my mind off things or to make one of the comfort/traditional dishes I ate growing up. Best wishes.

We aren't having our family dinner until the end of next week due to my parents being away. Mom will make brisket and bring in the crock pot to reheat at my house. I am not inclined to make matzoh ball soup this year, I'm feeling like a pureed carrot-based soup would be nice for a change. I've never made one before, but I'm looking at recipes for minas (layered dish made with matzoh, think of the format of lasagna without noodles). Maybe one with spinach/feta. Then some plain roasted yukon golds for the brisket eaters.

Ditto the Masienda masa harina recommendation. This doesn't help @ElsieD in Canada, but for those in the US, Masienda masa harina is available at Whole Foods. Most stores have the white and blue. I've also seen the yellow at my local Whole Foods but not the red. Since I'm usually a solo cook and eater, I like that I can easily scale the recipe to make the number of tortillas I want without having to make a big production out of it.

@Smithy thank you for you update. Im hopefully your full family will return in good health. Ill keep them all mindfully.

We never expected or intended to be there so long. We finally left yesterday, and these pictures show just how much the sunrise had shifted from its position at the winter solstice. Our campfire ring, which we were so pleased to find unmolested when we arrived last November, was just as pristine when we left...not because we did a fine job of cleaning it up, but because it sat unused and forlorn all season. Wind was a frequent interference. Medical issues were the other. I dislike dropping a narrative abruptly, as I did over a month ago, so I'll do a bit of catching up and wrapping up in the next few days. What happened was, my darling was a guest at a hospital, then a rehab hospital, for nearly a month. During that time I drove back and forth from the Princessmobile to the various facilities watching over him. I took care of the Princessmobile, animals, bills, my own self...checked in here on eGullet and continued hosting duties...but did very little in the way of interesting eating. In fact, you could say my cooking was minimmalist and perfunctory. I now understand folks who really want good food, only a little of it, with a minmum fuss and cleanup. @MetsFan5 and her Tovola Smart Oven come to mind. So do folks who participated in the topic @ElsieD started: Help! I've lost my cooking mojo and I want it back! Well, except in my case I was too busy, tired and dispirited to even want it back at the time. Things have turned around since then. I ate a LOT of salads and leftovers. The leftovers were from when my darling was in the hospital and had very little interest in food. I can't say there was much good food to come out of there, although I had an excellent pork chile verde one evening. Even my darling had liked it, but he'd had too little appetite to eat much of it. The rehab hospital, on the other hand, had excellent food at an astonishingly low price. For under $5 I could get a full lunch or dinner, if I wished, while I ate with my darling. i didn't usually want that much, but their green salads were generous and delicious, and their tuna salad was at least as good as anything I could make. I often came home with a clamshell containing the remains of a lunch salad, and ate that for dinner if I hadn't already had enough. One thing I learned at the rehab hospital is that there actually is a bottled dressing that I like. It came in plastic packets in their dining hall, but I discovered I could buy it in a grocery store. Well, it's ALMOST the same thing. I'm a bit surprised and mildly disgruntled at the difference. The bottle needs shaking, and the individual packets don't. I think that's interesting, but haven't really investigated why it is. I also ate, and continue to eat, a LOT of hummus and tabbouli. It took at least one bunch of neglected and thrown away cilantro and parsley before I finally found the mojo to try making the tabbouli, but it's become a staple. Makes a pretty good salad topping,... ...and goes well atop a tortilla chip, with or without hummus. Sometimes this was dinner. The recipes for tabbouli and hummus both come from the cookbook Balaboosta (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), which I bought way back in 2018 and quite forgot until I began looking for tabbouli and hummus recipes from my onboard Kindle collection. I recommend this book. These particular recipes have become my gold standard for the foods in question. My only problem with the tabbouli is that it makes enough for a crowd, and when I'm eating it alone the bulgur gets mushy before I've finished it off. I need to remember to scale down the recipe. During the time we languished in the desert, waiting for my darling to recover enough to travel -- and then waiting for trailer repairs! (but that's another story!) -- I saw the entire bloom-to-seed life cycle of some of our beloved flowers. A few hardy late bloomers like the paloverde trees are just starting to blossom. I don't have any photos of them in their full, frothy yellow glory, but they've been a welcome sight on our road trip. I learned a few things about easy cooking, and will share them in future posts.

Looks like we're safe from this one here on the left coast. I usually get herbs at the farmers market but do occasionally pick up Italian parsley or cilantro at TJ's. Both are from a local grower in Oxnard.

Love that plate (as well as the loaf 😉)!

Mrs. C's sourdough bread. Best one yet! Side note: Mrs. C does glass fusing, and the plate the loaf is sitting on was one of her recent projects.

this is my current salad : from TJ's" bagged spinach . it's regular ' baby ' Id like to easily find more mature s[inach , but the MarketBasket savoy is frequently chewed up a bit . Campari tomatoes . I buy them two packs at a time , and they sit on the counter for several days before use. TJ's sauerkraut a large forkful chopped walnut pieces , one of 4 TJ's EVOO I have from MarketBasket : Kimchi again , a large forkful MB carries this brand : Tj's brand comes in a much smaller jar . Im fine w this one and the last item from MB : you spotted it , w those eagle eyes : generic small shredded wheat , for the croutons . I always have them no sodium , or etc. I wouldn't sub them for your homemade version but they work well for me. the kimchi//kraut//campari have enough acid , no vinegar .

Are you one of the "lucky" ones: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/salmonella-outbreak-prompts-trader-joes-recall-herbs-sold-29-states-rcna148356 p

I can only speak about the little that I know of the banana situation in Costa Rica. Every year the production of bananas goes down. The price of bananas here goes up all the time. The only ones that seem to have stayed the same price are the little finger bananas that they don't export. I pay about $2 for 18 of them. And that price has been steady for about the last 2 years. I prefer them as they don't go mushy quite as fast and they are a lot sweeter.

for the longest time , bananas were 19 cents per banana. then jumped to 24 cents per apron 26 % increase at that time , bananas were 39 cents //lb ( w 10 c off ) at Market Basket this was a week or so ago now they are 29 cents @ TJ's , and 59 cents //lb ( again w 10 cents off ) at market basket Crop failure ? demise of United Fruit ( chiquita ) ?

Sweet potato, baked and then sauteed in butter with onion, ginger, garlic, cayenne, cumin, and garam masala. I am often dissatisfied with savory sweet potatoes but this was quite satisfying. We had a pre-baked sweet potato because Mrs. C had air fried one last night, and it was still there this morning . . .

Breakfast for Two! Had a leftover chicken breast from last night's dinner so I made Toasted Clubhouse Sandwiches with roasted russet potato wedges.

Grilled chicken caesar salad with tomatoes

I had some turkey breakfast sausage patties I wasn’t wild about and some bread from a bakery I am wild about so made a breakfast sandwich. @Katie Meadow I agree with you on NM! I only lived there for three years but I get homesick for it but don’t for the also beautiful state I grew up in. New Mexico is extraordinary. We’re lucky that a local company here brings in Hatch chiles and roasts them. Last year we bought a peck and processed them to freeze. I found I could freeze the chopped chiles in ice cube trays then pop them in a freezer bag. One cube is often all I need to add to whatever I’m making for two of us.

Any diff between this and sheppards pie?

@Ann_T fabulous going right into the f0od p0rn folder