Smithy

@FrogPrincesse, where do you get edible quince? I've given up on trying to get it from a grocery store in the Upper Midwest. Maybe I've just forgotten what it's like to live in California. In the Central Valley we had access to loquats, but I'm not sure even there we got quince. I'm envious. Your color looks perfect.

Well, Dorothy -- we're in Kansas. I'd hoped to make it most of the way through the state, but I pooped out after 6 hours of driving and found a truck stop with electrical power and hot showers. Enough driving for one day! I've mentioned before that when I'm driving I can't take photos. You'll just have to use your minds' eyes. I've been driving through rolling prairie, watching the Minnesota snow give way to Iowa's stubble fields with occasional snow, and now Nebraska's and Kansas' obviously soft ice on rivers and ponds. Don't go out there now. There were snowmobile tracks on the rivers in Minnesota. I've been fascinated with hawks perched atop power lines, maybe one per mile, each one watching quietly for field prey as intently as a fisherman watching a bobber and hoping for a bite. I giggled yesterday a bit, when I passed a sign in Iowa pointing off to "Hawkeye Point -- the high part of the state -- 1,670 feet"! I realize that may sound pretty high if you live in Florida or Louisiana, but folks from the western part of this continent will likely be as amused as I was. (Why, Minnesota goes all the way up to 2,301 feet!) I'm happy to report that it's warmed up as I'd hoped. I'm done with long underwear for the trip! I'll be able to put water in the trailer tank soon! I think I can switch from boots to sneakers! And things seem to be working commensurately better in the Princessmobile. I discovered this morning that the inverter I had installed last summer actually has enough oomph to run the microwave. I'm thrilled. Now I hope I can find decent truck stop coffee before I get around to brewing my own! The chains around here offer multiple bean varieties and brews, but even the "strong" and "rich" stuff from this truck stop chain seems insipid. As for food: this morning I made a peanut butter sandwich -- whoopee -- and didn't bother taking a photo. A little after noon I was decidedly peckish and realized I've been jonesing for pizza for a while. One and a half slices were lunch. Gooey, fatty, but pretty good. Two slices were dinner, after I was mostly set up and incredibly hungry. If you're horrified at the idea of salad from a paper plate, then look away now. This was the rest of dinner. Why dirty a paper plate when there's just enough greenery left from a salad mix in one of those ready-to-eat plastic bins? It's headed for the trash anyway.

@blue_dolphin, that story took me through chills and shivers (I grew up near the Sierras and know those roads) and laughs and admiration! Too bad about the Awahnee, but good on you for the entire adventure! My "jury rigged" system wasn't as dire. For reasons that I don't fully understand, and need to call about, the mobile repair folks "fixed" the problem, temporarily at least, by switching the "in" and "out" wires for the glide. So far it seems to be working, instead of jamming cockamamie in the frame as it had been. I've been able to move on. The Greek Chicken salad in a "shakeable bowl" turns out to be exactly as @chromedome described. After shaking the mixture (without explosions, splashing or other culinary disasters) it looked like this: If I'd made this salad I think I'd have torn, chopped or cut the greens finer, but the flavors were excellent and the salad was a fine dinner. More than one type of lettuce and olives; pepperoncini; chicken breast that wasn't dried out; tomatoes; cucumbers; shredded cabbage; feta cheese. No doubt I've forgotten a few things. There was a gracious plenty of dressing. All told, I'm pleased with this dinner.

I applaud your goal! But I can see what you mean about needing your husband's help and support on this. I look at those stacked boxes (or bags, at other times) and think about all the money that you're spending on containers as well as supplies. It's wonderful, it's laudable, and it takes a household.

I'm no confectioner, but as a customer I wouldn't be inclined to buy them.

How I wish I had a campfire ring here! But no, the burnables all go into the trash. That will change soon, I hope. The mobile repair folks came today and jury-rigged a repair that I hope will get me through the season, or at least to a dealer with more pleasant weather. I may be able to move on tomorrow. With that in mind, I had what I hope is my last Hardee's breakfast for a while. Well, except maybe for tomorrow. (To be fair: I'm a little afraid of growing too fond of them. Their food isn't half bad, but it's no longer what I'm used to eating, and I don't think I should get used to it again.) I had made it in time for breakfast, so I treated myself to a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit, accompanied by their hash rounds or hash browns or whatever they call them. Potato thingies. I couldn't figure out why the biscuit was fracturing in such a funny way. Was it 2 biscuits? When I turned it over, I realized the fun.... We're coming up on St. Valentine's Day! Much, much later in the day I made what I hope will be my last trip to town, at least for this visit. I needed more half-and-half, and body cleansing tissues (what my darling used to call "baby wipes" and didn't that cause confusion in Egypt!) and I had some hardware I wanted to buy. The hardware was a bust. But this time, I actually used my phone to show you the barest hint of what a "Lunds & Byerlys" grocery store is like. As far as I know it's exclusive to Minnesota, focused much more near the Twin Cities than to where I live, and the highest of the high-end grocery stores in this state. I knew I'd be in trouble if I went in. But it was the closest. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. This greeted me at the door: Sorry for the fuzzy photos, and I forgot to get the price on the mushrooms. But the ribeye steaks shown here and the sirloin steaks in another part of that display were "30% off!" ...from $39/pound. Yikes. They did look good, but I wasn't tempted. Their deli counter, both hot and cold offerings, was lovely. (Those gloved hands were dishing up my dinner.) I bought a Greek salad. What does "shakeable bowl!" mean? I'll find out tomorrow. There were soups I didn't buy and loads of cheeses -- this is half, or less, of their offerings: ...and plenty of produce I didn't need. This doesn't even scratch the surface, sorry. At this point I was wondering where the heck the half-and-half was. Not in either of these display cases! I found it, and found myself mentally yelling "lemme outta here!" as I wandered, lost, along endless aisles. I did pick up some crackers. It took a while to find the ones I wanted. Back home, really quite hangry by now, I tucked into the Mediterranean cucumber salad I'd bought there. Delicious stuff. The dressing is a tart, but not too tart, vinaigrette. I kept thinking it needed something more substantial, so I wandered across the way where I needed to pay my camping fee anyway. They have these things called "tornados" that I've been wondering about. They look like tortillas wrapped around hot dogs, and they seem to be cooked like the hot dogs in these roller displays, where the cylinders rotate over heat and gradually move to the "cooked" area. They advertise the filling as "steak and cheese", "pepperoni and cheese", "Southwestern chicken," and so on. I decided to try a couple. I didn't take a picture of the intact product (what can you do with a cooked, breaded cylinder?) but after trying a bite of two of them, I opened the contents of one: Meh. Didn't finish it. Went back to the cucumber salad and finished it off. At least now my curiosity is satisfied!

I'm afraid the paper plates and plastic cutlery (if I find some) will continue until I can dewinterize the trailer and put water in the tanks. That will require warmer weather, but I can't get there until the Princessmobile is ready to start traveling again. And yes, I'm getting tired of it! I was supposed to be in those warmer climes by now!

The article does mention the tradition of the crab (or crawfish) boil as a launching point, but this is apparently waaaaay past that. Pasta, really? Or even a big bucket of fried chicken, although I'll admit it could look like it had started that way once my darling and I were done with a bucket. I think I'd draw the line at anything that requires cutlery. Good idea, @Maison Rustique, about being otherwise busy. 🙂

I made another, shorter trip to town and was less overwhelmed but still disinclined to take pictures. Part of that is because I was driving when I saw the most interesting things: a restaurant named "Canaan Thai" and specifying Thai cuisine; many huge grocery stores; a small grocer whose name I didn't catch but that stated "we have camel and goat meat" on the side of the building. Lots of Mexican joints, pizzerias, and so on that I'm used to seeing, but also plenty of offerings from cuisines we wouldn't see in Duluth. I think this town has a broader ethnic mix than Duluth does. In addition, I was near the local university and that always broadens the variety of cuisines. I'm sure I could feast inexpensively and well here. Before that trip I enjoyed (really, I did) a bacon cheeseburger for brunch at Hardee's when I discovered I'd come in too late for breakfast. Too bad, but this was good and plenty filling: I savored it as I allowed my hair to finish drying after a marvelous shower in this truck stop's facilities. Clean, spacious, plenty of hot water and plenty of pressure. They provide the towels. Lovely. Truck stops have come a very long way since my first experiences with them. Just now I finished dinner, selected from refrigerator contents loaded from the home refrigerator: ham, potatoes, and roasted vegetables. The potatoes got a dollop of butter after microwaving; both the potatoes and the vegetables got a slathering of that wonderful House Dressing I've been rabbiting on about. Kono wine in the stemware. I decided tonight that I'm going to do dishes, in as water-sparing a way as possible, but I'm tired of stinting on tableware in the name of a winterized trailer. So stemware it is. Tomorrow I hope to hear from the mobile mechanic. Even better, tomorrow I hope the mobile mechanic can send me on my way with a fully operable Princessmobile.

File this under the "strange but not important, I hope" heading. In today's U.S. version of The Guardian they have an article about "dump dinners". No, it isn't the sort of dinner where you throw everything into the slow cooker or casserole dish and cook it. Nor is it the dump cake where you throw everything into the cake pan and bake. Nope. If this article is to be believed, there is now a TikTok fad in which people cover the table with foil and throw all the food onto it. No bowls or plates or flatware. And of course they film and post it. Here's the article, which may or may not be unlocked: The dump dinner: spaghetti is now being served straight on to the table – but why? https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/feb/03/dump-dinner-spaghetti-served-straight-onto-table-why?CMP=share_btn_url Has anyone else heard of this? I don't have (or want) a TikTok account or the recent US version, so I'm not in a position to confirm it. Maybe it's an outrageous canard.

Hello, @aliiaashan - do you cook for yourself only, or for family and/or friends? What are some of your favorite cuisines? This is a good place to look for information about new cuisines, share information about your own cuisine, and make culinary friends. Come on in, look around, and enjoy getting to know the place! If you have any questions about how the forums work, or where to post, feel free to use the PM (Personal Message) system to ask a host. We also have Help files here.

@Jacksoup, I wish I'd known about dehydrating the Meyers and preserving them that way, back when I had ready access to them! If I ever get another glut of them I'll try it.

Without having tried it myself, my guess is that if you toast some and store them unground, you'll be able to keep them in pretty good condition for at least a week...maybe 2 weeks? A month? From what I've read, the degradation in flavor begins when the peppercorn is broken apart, i.e. ground. A good way to test your own tolerance for flavor degradation would be to devise a flavor comparison, if you have the equipment to do it. Toast some peppercorns and store them in one grinder for, say, a week; toast another set and grind them the day of the test. See if you can tell the difference. Keep working at that until you reach the level of perfection vs. convenience that works for you.

That looks delicious, and I love tabbouli! You mentioned mint and parsley, but do you not include cilantro? My recipes call for equal amounts of parsley and cilantro, with a bit of mint. Not that it matters: I've been taken to task here for the relative amount of bulgur, so I'm certainly no expert. 🙂 More to the point: what sort of dressing do you put on the tabbouli? Oh, and...did you make those spring rolls, or buy them prepared?

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I went into town for a few supplies. I'm sorry: I was overwhelmed by the first place I visited, the nearest Fleet Farm. This place is huge. It has massive areas of hunting supplies, pet and livestock supplies, gardening supplies, machinery, automotive supplies, clothing (work and casual), assorted hardware, barbecue equipment, snack food of types I generally avoid. I was looking for a propane tank heater to try for better performance in these cold temperatures. I'll tell you in the morning whether it helped, if I can tell. The strange thing is, I walked in and thought "WOW! I could spend hours in this store wandering and having fun! WOW! I need to take a lot of pictures and share them around!" About 15 minutes later I was thinking "WOW! I've spent hours in this store wandering and I'm exhausted! Lemme outta here!" So, no photos. They do have a lot of culinary equipment, but I can't show it to you. I had the same experience a few miles later, when I'd grabbed more salad mix from a mega-mall masquerading as a grocery store and only then realized that the wine I was after was in a different building altogether. Sorry, no photos here either. I did get more bottles of the Kono Sauvignon Blanc that's my current favorite. By the time I got home, unpacked everything, installed the new equipment, and did other routine chores, I was hangry. I'm very grateful to my best friends at home, whom I've mentioned before, for many reasons including helping get the Princessmobile unstuck and loading the refrigerator. Tonight an additional reason was the dinner they'd packed for me from the remains of a dinner we'd shared 2 nights before I left. Slices of pork roast from their latest locally-raised happy pig. Cauliflower from their garden, steamed, with cheese over the top. Persian rice, complete with raisins. I didn't get any of the tahdig, but I'm not complaining. I am very grateful for these friends, for many reasons, but tonight I'm especially grateful that they packed this Care Package for me.