Smithy

It's quite a while since I did that too, but I've always liked it. Yours looks excellent. Why did you put "grilled" in quotation marks?

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind for the future. But... My particular recipe was provided by a chef who served in the Peace Corps in Peru (I'm not sure when). She was good enough to provide the recipe for the stew she made that I liked very much. In her notes she says that it must be this particular pepper to taste right. Granted, I couldn't find the brand of paste she uses, but when I make and post about this recipe I think I owe it to her to follow her instructions as closely as possible. Later, I'm sure I'll be taking liberties as I always do. 🙂

Not much to report on the culinary front from yesterday. I made a chicken salad (heavy on the chicken and mayo, lighter on the capers, and that's it) and turned it into an open-faced sandwich of sorts. I ate chunks of cheese, and melted cheese atop bread. (I really do wish I'd packed the toaster, but I didn't want to dirty up a skillet or Papa's pan.) I finally finished the panade from what, last week? It really holds up well. I'm glad I have all the elements with which to make another one soon. It wasn't a nice day to be outside, nor had it been on the previous day. For two days straight, the wind blew so hard that the local flags seemed starched and we were sandblasted every time we crossed a street in line with the sand dunes. Still, I had to go out. It was Old Farts Day at the local Fry's: 10% discount on everything, for senior citizens, on the first Wednesday of the month. Know what? I have too much food already. You probably won't be surprised at that. So household cleaning items, pet supplies, coffee and half-and-half constituted my shopping. It still added up. Pet food and treats are expensive! I've already shown you some of that Fry's. But going back to last week, I see I haven't shown you the local Albertson's or the Oriental Gift Shop next to the laundromat I use. Sit back and enjoy the show. If there's something you want to know more about, or get a better peek at, ask away. First, the Oriental Gift Shop. I've posted about it in years past. They have a lot of fun decorations in the window and even more inside. If I were inclined toward redecorating, I'd probably spend a bundle in here. I actually had a goal: to see whether they carry the Aji Amarillo paste I wanted, since @C. sapidus had found some at H-Mart. This store is a lot smaller than H-Mart, of course, but it was worth looking while the washing machines ran. They have a dizzying array of noodles, sauces, beans, spices, vinegars. Canned and fermented eggs. There's a refrigerator section that I didn't even photograph, but it's full of interesting foods too. I still have some of their kimchi from last year. No Peruvian chili pastes, though they had plenty of Chinese and Indian chili pastes. And curry sauces. Have a look! (I love those little parasols. I didn't buy any, though.) I went out empty-handed. On the way out I admired the elaborate sculpture/fountain by the door. Unfortunately this is only a still photo. It had quite a few moving parts: spinning wheels and balls, with changing light colors and moving bubbles. You'll have to use your imagination. When the laundry was done I went to Albertson's for something...now I've forgotten what. I know I looked for the Aji Amarillo paste there too, without success. I want to show you some of the meat and seafood offerings! That's right. A whole, wild-caught (now frozen and dead) octopus. I wasn't tempted. I thought this pompano was interesting, but didn't buy it either. I'm amazed at what can be found here in Yuma! Granted, we aren't far from the Pacific Ocean or the Sea of Cortez, but it still isn't like being at a port for easy access. After all that, I went to the Post Office and picked up my package: Very securely wrapped, with triple wrappings of bubble packing. I'd worried that my paste, having zinged around the country for weeks, would have been damaged. Nope. Excellent condition. Based on this experience, I'd buy from this company again -- if I like the paste. I haven't gotten far enough to decide on that yet.

Congratulations on your thrift and creativity, @Maison Rustique! Nice "save" on the strata!

Yes, once I've reconfirmed it. The handles outside are only listed as "grey" (well, "gray") vs. "black" without even being listed as 1 or 2 although the tank gauges inside are numbered. I've established which handle goes to which tank, and labeled accordingly. When I've reconfirmed which tank # is the kitchen then I'll finish the labeling.

Keurig has a storefront? I had no idea!

Last night's dinner seemed like a good idea...get some stuff out of the refrigerator and freezer, and use it before it goes off. I also thought it would be a relatively easy "set it and forget it" type of meal while I took care of bills. That's two jalapenos with some of my Egyptian feta creamy cheese; a mushroom, and delicate little asparagus spears, all wrapped in applewood-smoked bacon. Well, it looked good! Pretty bland, though. It needed some sort of kick. I expected the salt from the cheese, and the spice from the jalapenos, and the bacon itself to do something. All bland. Oh, well. Can't win 'em all. In the midst of washing dishes, I discovered that the kitchen sink had stopped draining. The holding tank that's been registering as full for a couple of days finally was! I went out and pulled the dump handle -- it really is handy to be hooked up to a sewer connection -- and made a mental note that now at least I know which tank is which. If only I could remember now which one it was! 😉

I was just posting about soups and stews when this popped up! We're on the same page. When it's cold, and the weather as dreary as my mood, I also find soups or stews to be easy comforts as these things go...and as BeeZee points out, easy on the stomach. Easy to eat just a few spoonsful and then save the rest for later. And easy for family to bring, even if they can't duplicate Mom's homemade chicken noodle soup.

I totally lost my appetite also, beginning with when my husband was ailing and then continuing after he died. I found that convenience was the key. I ate a lot of hummus and tabbouli, which were easy to make and lasted well. I usually ate them scooped into tortilla chips. I also bought a rotisserie chicken from time to time and feasted on that. I was lucky in that I had concerned friends but only one came by with food -- a quiche. It was delicious. She was funny and rather apologetic about it: "Now I understand why people bring food," she said. "You want to do something to help but you don't know what, so you bring food!" Still, it took me about a week to eat it. Getting back to the original question: I think the real problem is that they don't. At most they can serve as a distraction. My wonderul favorite aunt might have disagreed with me. She gained a lot of weight with her favorite comfort food -- a whole pint of her favorite ice cream, while watching TV! -- after her husband, one of my favorite uncles, died. But that came back to bite her, because of course she never lost that weight again. And as astute as she was about many things, I suspect she was distracting rather than comforting herself. If I'm going for the distraction I'll do wine, but I know that's no better for me than ice cream! So, knowing that your family wants to do something for you and won't take "no" for an answer, I suggest you ask for things that will keep well in the refrigerator (or freezer) and reheat easily. Think of the grocery money you'll save later! My own personal favorites are chicken and pasta with something salty or savory. If I'm in a mood to mess around in the kitchen and be distracted that way, I'll do something with those that takes time. If I'm not, or if I have friends helping, I'll ask for something easy. I personally would not be above asking someone to drive to the nearest KFC and bring a bucket of mashed potatoes and gravy, but it might depend on how far they had to drive. 🙂 Edited to add: toast with melted cheese, or else a grilled cheese sandwich with some meat along with the cheese, is another easy dish that goes well for me. I've found that one grilled sandwich can provide 2 meals. And yes, to me it's comforting despite what I've just written above.

Thanks, @FrogPrincesse. I've passed your information along. So the lemon bars were more of a success than I'd expected, but I learned a number of lessons on what not to do next time. First, the summary: the flavor of both the crust and the lemon filling / topping were good. I took the extra step of straining the custard before setting it in to bake, so I didn't have the lemon zest interfering with the smooth custard texture. The custard was a bit bubbly, and not the bright yellow I'd have expected: it was more of a dirty daffodil color. I don't know why, but those bubbles probably had something to do with it. Did I overwhisk the filling? I dunno. So between that color and the extra-thick crust, which incidentally was a bit too brown around the edge, the entire assembly didn't look very promising when it came out of the oven. This morning when I pulled it from the refrigerator the custard had cracked! I pressed down on it with a spatula to try to mend those cracks, and saw that the yellow became more intense. That's why I suspect I'd simply aerated the thing too much in the first place. With that very firm and very thick crust, I worried that I really would need the parchment sling that I overlooked, in order to get the stuff out of the pan in one piece. I worked all around the edge with a knife, and then started cutting portions in order to get it out of the pan in serving-sized pieces. This is where the Quality Control taste tests began, of course. The lemon layer didn't adhere very well to the pecan crust layer, as you can see in the lower right of the photo above. Still. That lemon filling is quite lemony and delicious. The pecan crust is pretty good too. This was one of several desserts at a potluck party I attended today. I came back with only a few pieces left. I'll keep some, but as with my previous desserts try to foist most of it off on my landlords and neighbors. And in case you need a refresher, this was a NYTimes recipe for Lemon Bars with Pecan Crust, by Lisa Donovan.

I'm going back a bit here. My best friend, who lives in San Diego, just got back from a trip so I told her about the bread I'd bought and your comments about that bakery. She's delighted that their stuff is in a nearby grocery store, but wonders if you have recommendations on the "more bakery options these days".

@cdh, I was looking for kickstarter campaign discussions and stumbled over this. Your link has disappeared, so I've no idea what the product was called but your description still looks interesting. Did yours ever arrive? What did you think of it?

Well, it looks okay -- paler than I'd expected. When I make lemon curd or a lemon meringue pie the filling is brighter yellow. The proof will be in the pudding, though! Most of the little divots are from my poking to see if it was firm enough to remove from the oven. The one in the upper right is self-made. I'll be curious to see what happened there.

It's now in the oven. I see, now that it's too late, that I was supposed to not only grease the pan (which I did) but also put down a piece of parchment to use as a sling to lift it later! Ah well, it'll be an adventure. One instruction the recipe doesn't include but I did anyway was to strain the custard as I poured it atop the crust. In general, I don't like the texture of lemon zest. Maybe if I used a finer grater I wouldn't mind, but my microplane leaves detectable strips. The batter tastes good, though. On to my next batch of cleanup! Look at the garbage bag! (Okay, the watermelon rinds are from lunch, and the water bottles are to keep from dehydrating.)

I fear this particular recipe will be more trouble than it's worth, given the equipment (and room) I have. So far, here's the cleanup debris from making the crust. The recipe is for a 9x13 pan, and the 9x9 Corningware baking dish I bought last week is the biggest thing I have. I probably should have scaled it down, or found a second pan for a smaller batch. An additional issue is that my handheld wand blender isn't really good for creaming butter and sugar. It ground my toasted pecans nicely, and it's about to whisk the eggs for my lemon curd. I have no doubts about its ability to handle that job. However, it's woefully inadequate for mixing the dough. I tried the chopper blade and the whisk. Below, you see what I had to work with for patting into the pan, and you see the baked crust. That crust was pretty puffy. I used a flat spatula to compress it a bit, based on comments that the crust as written tended to develop holes and leak the filling down to the bottom. Assuming I keep traveling like this, I'll make a point of packing my handheld mixer. Sure, I could buy another -- but there's one sitting at home. I'll just avoid recipes that need it for the remainder of the trip. More updates later!