Smithy

Heidi hosted and oversaw the eG Foodblogs for years when she was a host. She also took a turn at the wheel. In case you've never read it, or would like to reread it, here it is.

I'm still reeling. It's so very difficult to believe, and terribly unjust, given her family circumstances. She was my window into the L.A. food scene, and we had similar reminiscences about food trends. RIP, Heidi.

Not at all a weird question, and as it happens I'll be able to test it by early next week, maybe as soon as Sunday. I'll report back. My particular electric opener seems to need 2 revolutions, maybe 3, to get the lid off. I let it do its thing and decide when it's finished. (If I'm looking for entertainment I just watch it go; otherwise, I work on other kitchen tasks while it's working.) The Oxo manual safety opener I had took many more turns around the can, and -- as somebody else pointed out earlier -- was difficult to attach and then, later, release.

It was. Its principal seasonings seemed to be salt and various pepper flavors. The base meat was also probably something like pork loin, with none of the internal organs. I'm guessing at this point, but I know I won't buy it again from that source.

I didn't like my Oxo safety can opener. At all. Couldn't make it work properly, and it was more trouble than it was worth. This summer I "splurged" on a battery-powered safety can opener on Amazon, and love it. I have no idea how long it will last, but it's a hoot to watch and works on both 14-oz and 28-oz cans. (I haven't tried any other sizes.) I wrote about it here. That particular model is no longer available -- that is, when I try to look at the product page I get a 404 error -- but this looks much the same: Talowaric Electric Can opener New 2023, One Touch Automatically open the can for Any Size Smooth Edge and Safe Best Gift for Chef Senior and Mom (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). If you look on that page you'll see a lot of similar designs.

Thanks so much for bringing us along, @Shelby! I'm always inspired and impressed by your spreads, and I love the context you provide by telling about the hunt (or non-hunt).

And please show them to us! I love lobster. My DH is 'meh' about them, so I rarely indulge. Some very dear friends who were married on New Year's Eve used to celebrate their anniversary with a lobster dinner. He's gone now, but I still associate lobster dinners with them. Hmm, maybe I'll get lobster tails for our New Year's feast!

We blew right through New Mexico on our way west this year; consequently I didn't manage to get chiles rellenos in Columbus or Palomas. I've been wanting them. I remembered earlier discussions in this topic about chile relleno casseroles, and how they took some of the effort out of the dish. I found this recipe by Elizabeth Poett on The Splendid Table's web site, and decided to try it. (The recipe is taken from Poett's book, The Ranch Table (eG-friendly Amazon.com link).) Well, it's still a labor of love. I had purchased poblanos for the purpose. I needed to roast and peel them, and because I'll be gone most of this week I decided I'd better do the same with the jalapenos and red bell peppers I'd bought for some other purpose. I blistered them all under the broiler, loaded them into a bowl and covered it so they could steam themselves. Overnight. This morning I set to work on them. This collage shows the before, intermediate and after pictures. I managed to get one or two poblanos peeled and seeded enough that they might have made decent chiles rellenos in their own right, but I think I now understand instructions I've read elsewhere to remove the stem and core before roasting. (Note to self: wear gloves when handling jalapenos, even after they're roasted. My hands are still burning, hours later! It occurred to me that the recipe as written didn't involve meat. I thought of my darling. I remembered that there was a package of chorizo in the freezer. I pulled it out. Why I bought chorizo in Duluth I don't know. Why I bought it in October 2022 is a further mystery. I don't know whether it made the round trip with us last season, but here it was, and out it came. I didn't think of it soon enough and had a fine time getting it cooked slowly enough to thaw and break into chunks for the casserole. While it was thawing and heating, I grated cheese using the Lunar Lander. Here's a chance to show off a toy I bought last summer on Amazon, one of those Lightning Deals. For $15 I figured it was worth a try: an electric, side-cutting can opener. I wish I could show you a video of this thing in action. You put it atop the can with the cutting wheel along one side, and push a button. It clamps itself to the can, then around it goes -- several passes around the can -- until the lid is loose. When the lid's loose, the opener stops and releases the can. It works on 28 oz. cans as well as 14 oz. cans like this one. For those interested: the specific unit I bought is no longer available, but this one (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) looks much the same. We're really glad to have this. The side-cutting Oxo hand-cranked unit I bought in Texas a couple of years ago has long since been donated to some other hapless person. I took liberties with Poett's recipe: she uses poblanos only, no meat, and seasonings in the eggs that I decided were unnecessary because of the chorizo. But I followed her basic outline: put a thin layer of tomatoes into the bottom of a baking dish; scatter a quarter of the peppers atop the tomatoes; scatter a quarter of the meat atop that; scatter a quarter of the cheese atop that. Repeat the layers until everything is used except some of the cheese. Pour a mixture of beaten eggs and cream over the whole thing; give the custard time to settle through everything; top with reserved cheese. Give it a few minutes to sit before baking, to make sure everything is settled. I gave it a couple of hours while I washed dishes and admired the gaps in the refrigerator shelves. Look at that empty space! 😄 When it's time to bake, bake it at 350F for 45 minutes or until the eggs are cooked and puffed, and the top is golden brown. After pulling it from the oven, give it at least 15 minutes for the mixture to set. This casserole was still runny, but I think it's due to the extra liquid from the peppers, possibly also from the chorizo, and possibly because my egg/ dairy ratio was off. It was good! Is good! (There are a lot of leftovers.) We both agreed that salsa and sour cream helped: salsa to sweeten it slightly, and sour cream to tame the heat. This chorizo had red pepper, black pepper and white pepper, according to the ingredient label. It also had a lot of salt, and I'm glad I didn't add any. (I swear I can taste a bit of freezer burn also, but my darling couldn't -- and the salsa and sour cream helped cover that up too.) I'll do something like this again, but I won't do it with Duluth chorizo! The stuff is much better down here.

You're so ambitious! ALL we had for dinner yesterday was green beans cooked to death with bacon...and they were leftovers from a previous dinner! 😅

This may or may not be of help to the original question, but I've found a few links here relevant to Bobotie From the Dinner topic (no specific recipe) and here is @JohnT's post on the topic:

It was fairly predictable, I suppose: the final two slices of pork roast didn't make it to dinner. Sandwiches just seemed to call our names today. Especially since there were juices begging to be soaked up with the bread.

I've wondered, along those same lines, about making a sweet pie filling in the appropriate shape, then loading it into a pie crust for baking. I've wondered, but not gotten farther along than actually making and freezing peach pie filing. In 2022!

That is a delightful expression, and I plan to steal it! Glad the cheesecake zhuzhing worked. Too bad about the browned-butter cookies and the bread, but I'm very curious about almond cookies that punch well above their weight. Got a recipe, or a link to one?

Ooh, ooh! @Kim Shook's suggestion of breakfast pockets reminded me of this recipe for crawfish hand pies, from Acadiana Table. I bet you could do a good riff on that. I plan to start experimenting with hand pies as soon as I get back from a trip later this week and can lay my hands on puff pastry. You, my dear, could make some of your bierocks, or use some of your good pastry methods (or whomp crescent rolls) to make something like that. Edited to add: Kim's suggested breakfast pockets sound darned good, too. I'm glad she added a link for those!

Yesterday we packed up the trailer enough to move it, and went to the nearest RV park to dump the waste tanks and refill the water tanks. We know several of the people there and enjoyed seeing them again. Packing up for a short trip like that isn't as big a deal as breaking camp altogether, but it still all takes time. As practiced as we are, it's somewhere between 3 and 4 hours from getting ready to travel to being set up again. The upshot is that we worked on leftovers for our meals. For dinner, the question was how to reheat the pork roast and potatoes. In March 2022 I found these charming enameled baking dishes at a shop in the Salton Sea and picked them up for a song. Brand new, they cost $6 each. Last night they proved to be the perfect reheating and eating dishes: put what we wanted for ourselves into a dish; put them both into the oven on a baking sheet, cover with silicone lids, and heat gently until ready. I have so many cooking vessels in this trailer that I know I'll be swearing when we move out of this Princessmobile, whenever that is, but it's nice to have Just The Right Thing. Today we don't have any errands to run, so I hope to spend time puttering in the kitchen. I have chiles that need to be sweated, peeled and used; I have fresh red bell peppers; I have a bunch of eggs bought in anticipation of baking another huge hot dish; there's other stuff too. It all needs to be used before it goes off, and Monday and Tuesday will be busy.