Smithy

Nothing exotic about this, but it's a celebratory sandwich after my oven has finally (finally!) been repaired! One of the heating elements wasn't working, then a circulation fan needed to be replaced. It's taken 3-1/2 months of wrong or broken parts being shipped from the supplier, and at least 4 repair visits, but it's fixed! Meanwhile, back at the sandwich board, I have a lot of breads, cheeses and meats to use up from a party where folks didn't eat as much as I'd expected. Hence today's offering: (overtoasted) brioche bun, slices of ham, salami, cheddar and pepper jack cheese, lettuce after the cheese was melted. Mayo and mustard on both interior layers. Oh, and I managed to palm off some of this Danish Kringle on the repairman, who'd never heard of it and was delighted to try some. He was so delighted that I sent him away with more.

So how was it done? One of those side-cut can openers, or is it a special can?

The first time I had one of these, it was a luxury buy from my best friend's Colorado father. I don't know how he had learned about Racine, Wisconsin and its Danish kringles, but he had -- and he shared. I'm sure he ordered from this same bakery. Over the years, when I could, I'd buy one or two to share with family. Last weekend I was at a Trader Joe's in St. Paul, and scored one! It's tender and almondy and incredibly sweet. Here's a cutaway photo. For those who've never seen one of these: the oval is roughly 10" wide by 12" or 13" long, and about 4" thick. I've gotten away from sweets over the years, especially for breakfast, so I'll have to share this around. But it's delicious. I also stocked up on their chiles rellenos, and I bought another beef birria bowl. They didn't have the pork tamales I'd liked before, but I took a flyer on another type of tamale, and some burritos, and a chicken shawarma bowl, and maybe something else. I'll have to show them later. They're all loaded in the garage deep freeze. It was -20F when i got home, and I was in no mood to unpack, photograph, and then stow!

The dam has burst, and I've added yet another pair of cookbooks to my collection. What happened was, Hank Shaw (he of the blog Hunter Angler Gardener Cook) was wrapping up a nationwide book tour at last weekend's Chick of the Woods Holiday Forest Fair in Chaska, Minnesota. He was also selling cookbooks. Here's what he wrote on his blog about the presentation: I missed the presentation. It was -16F here that morning, and I took a long time to get going, and I arrived too late. But the greenhouses were still packed with foragers and crafts, and he was still there signing and selling books when I arrived. He seems like a lovely man. I enjoyed chatting with him, to the degree I could: the table was busy, and everyone was chatting -- with him, with each other. It was a good time. I came for his latest book: Those of you who have read any of the Camping, Princess Style topic know that my darling and I spent a lot of time in the southwestern United States, especially at this time of year. (If he were still alive, we'd have been long gone from Minnesota.) I do like the food. I like the cultural mix. I like the idea of "borderlands" where everything is mixed and shared, and lines are blurred. (Well, it's supposed to be. 'Nuff said.) Besides, I like Hank's writing. I've checked out some of his earlier books from the library. If I were a dedicated hunter, angler, gardener or forager I'd probably have bought some of them before now. This book is the first I've seen that looked like I could use it a lot...starting with making tortillas! The book is broken down by region, with stories. It's beautifully photographed (of course) and I love the inscription he wrote for me. Well. As I said, the dam had burst by that time. He was discounting the books. I looked at all four that were available, and decided that I probably could get good use from this one as well, given my love of fish and seafood: An example of a recipe I want to try: It will all make good reading, and teach me good techniques (I hope), and give me some good ideas.

That's vintage stuff, @Shelby!

Bumping this up because I had eggplant involtini the other night that showed me just how good this stuff can be. The restaurant in question was Rinata, in St. Paul, MN. (If you're ever in the area, I recommend you make the opportunity to eat at Rinata. Wonderful food! Excellent staff! The appetizer in question was eggplant involtini, which the menu says is The exterior of each roll was firm, not tough: with some bite, almost crisp. I can't remember whether I thought it was fried or baked. The thing I learned is that my previous efforts at making rolled eggplant anything used much too thickly sliced eggplant: this was probably 2 mm thick, and I think my thinnest attempts have been along the lines of 1/4" (more like 6 mm). I seem to be on a kick of rolled foods lately, given my determination to get burrito-rolling (and filling) technique right. The eggplant is another challenge to enjoy. So: who likes to make involtini -- doesn't have to be eggplant -- and how do you like to make it?

No apparent problems with sticking, or the interior crazing?

Thanks. In fact, their virtual assistant just told me that the panettone is expected to arrive Dec. 16. I feel better!

I got an email from Goûter a couple of days ago that my order had been released to Purolator, but I still haven't heard anything more! It doesn't help that "Purolator" sounds to me like an oil filtration system. 😆

It could be argued that it's all "the good stuff" LOL. That said, I'd probably be doing the same thing...and telling myself that it's a waste of time...and doing it anyway. 😄

Tried microwaving the burrito to warm the contents, then toasting it to get some browning on the outside. As you can see, it got more done on one side than the other, but there's browning. This burrito, with liberal additions of sour cream and salsa as I went, is the best I've had out of this batch. Still, I don't like the tortilla flavor and this is too many steps for the grab-and-go convenience food I want to make for myself. I do think I got the wrapping technique right, though, and that's where I started in this topic. Progress!

No bubbles. Really, I think it's the brand.

Didn't work for me, at least with this batch. I tried it with the last tortilla. By the time it was toasting, it was too stiff to wrap the way I wanted. Meanwhile, I still don't like the flavor of the tortilla. Time to try another brand.

I went into my favorite local kitchen store, mostly to get coffee but also to browse. I came out with this book: This is foolish, I told myself. I haven't done sourdough in years, I told myself. I haven't baked bread in years, I told myself. But take a look at these ideas and photos! For apple-cheddar hand pies there's this photo (recipe on preceding pages): Maybe this will give me some guidance that I can share for savory hand pies. Hey, a girl can dream, right? 😃

Quick! What happens when you freeze russet potatoes? They freeze, of course...but does it affect the texture? The flavor? I realized I was going to find out when I went for a couple of handsful from this bucket of potatoes given me last October. It's very cold outside. It's very cold in the garage. Water in the garage refrigerator still isn't freezing, but water bottles in the car are. And, it turns out, the potatoes are frozen. I was too busy scrubbing to take photos of the washing and cutting process, but it was interesting to have a glaze of ice form on the exterior of each spud as I washed and rinsed. I could see ice crystals in the interior of the cut potatoes. On some, the skin started to loosen as I scrubbed and the outer layer began to thaw. I was doing this because I'd unearthed from the freezer a bone-in pork butt roast from April 2024, purchased as a Good Deal while my darling was still alive. Pork was his favorite protein, and pork butt roast was one of his favorite ways to eat pork. I used to chafe at his opinion that there is One True Way to cook pork butts, or pork steaks, but it's been long enough that I decided to cook a roast in his honor, as he liked it. Besides, I could see whether I want to keep our 6-quart slow cooker or donate it. The procedure: dice the potatoes, load them into the crock of the slow cooker, and microwave for 10 minutes to give the potatoes a head start. Season the butt roast with a package of Lipton Recipe Secrets (in this case, Golden Onion Soup Mix). Pack the roast into the potatoes, making sure that they protect the meat from the ceramic crock, and sprinkle the remainder of the soup mix atop the potatoes. Put the cover on. Turn the heat on High, and walk away. I did all that, and went out to shovel snow. Some hours later, the meat was done to perfection and so were the potatoes. Dinner was served. As for the potatoes: if they suffered from having been frozen, I couldn't tell. They mashed beautifully and soaked up the juices from the pork. In The Good Old Days I might have added butter to them, but these didn't need it. The only problem is that this is a huge amount of food. This dinner was more than I usually eat, and I still have at least 4 dinners' worth to go. I've loaded the meat and potatoes into separate containers for now. Maybe I'll invite company over. Maybe I'll parcel these out and freeze some dinners. But the potatoes - well, this form of cold storage doesn't seem to hurt them!