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Smithy

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  1. I too dislike sweet potatoes in almost every possible circumstance. That salad sounds detestable! When I was in San Diego last week Mr. BFF made a potato salad that I didn't photograph but did like very much. It had a touch of mayonnaise -- not much -- and chopped kimchi. Gave it a nice reddish color and a good kick.
  2. Ah, I get it! Slow on the uptake. Sorry!
  3. What would you expect instead? (I don't see a discussion of sprats in your topic about Fish Etc. in China, so i'm in the dark.)
  4. This may be too many updates at once, but I'm getting ready to move and want to follow up on the remaining pork tenderloin tips. They'd been marinating since yesterday, and I absolutely, positively had to cook them today. This despite the heat and my getting-ready-to-go activities. In the collage below: a layer of mushrooms (purchased yesterday on my final, really final local grocery shopping trip that I haven't shown yet) covered by the marinated meat. On further reflection I decided to add the marinade to the cooking mix instead of cooking it down for later use. I put it in my Descoware dish, brought it briefly to a boil on stovetop, then put it into the oven at the lowest possible temperature. Then I went off to do other chores. The lower right image in the collage shows the cooked meat, but doesn't really show the sauce well. I had cooked rice on the stove. The sauce and meat went atop the rice, and some of my chopped chopped herbs went atop that. It also needed more soy sauce, then lemon and butter. Not bad. Not one for the "must repeat" books, but it has promise. The interesting thing is the texture of the meat. Nobody would accuse this of being tough. It was fork-tender. Was it mealy? Some might say so. I dunno. I didn't object to the earlier high-heat fast-cook treatment of a few days ago. My darling and my best friend might prefer this texture. I'll have to try side-by-side treatments with a broader jury.
  5. I am delighted with the vinyl flooring in this trailer. I may see about adding a small vacuum cleaner to collect the loose fluff (I kept the old stick vacuum from the previous trailer) but in truth a broom and mop (Swiffer) do most of what a vacuum could do. Depending on the layout, might you add a drop leaf to the counter? That's what we did with the last trailer. My darling very carefully measured the thickness of our Boos Block cutting board, then mounted two very sturdy drop-down shelf brackets to support it. That made a huge difference in the working space for the previous Princessmobile. You can see an end view here (scroll down a bit) and a couple of top views here and here to see what I mean. We had to remove the board and drop the supports in order to bring the kitchen glide in and move, but once we were in place we kept them up all the time.
  6. Thank you. I considered a motor home but since I already had an excellent tow vehicle I decided to stick with the pickup and fifth wheel. For the money, I get more space. What is comical to me is that, large as this trailer is for one person, it still can seem crowded sometimes. (Well, you've seen what I'm doing with the space - that is, filling it up). Given the 2 cats and large dog along for the ride, I think my darling and I would find it too cramped for months on end. It should suit more than one person in the shorter term, though. I am considering going home by way of Nevada so my sister can stay with me a few days. The couch folds out into a Queen-sized bed. I haven't decided the route home yet. If she does come stay with me, we'll see about the claims that this place can sleep 4!
  7. One day in San Diego we went to North Park Produce, a Middle Eastern grocery store where I could get lost for days. My friend needed halal meat for a dinner party she was throwing. She knows my love of shopping and browsing, and she suffers from no such predilection herself -- at least, in the grocery store, she's more of a buyer than a shopper. We indulged each other: I aimed for the things I most wanted to see but skipped a lot else I'd like to have seen; she let me wander a bit and called my attention to things I might have missed. Her aim was the meat counter, for halal chicken. I admired a lot of other items there too. Look at that beautiful meat! I had to ask what a banana shank was. Have you heard of it? Know what it is? I wanted to look there for sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, for the dipping sauce I intend to make at some point. I found 3 different brands. Couldn't decide. One has sunflower oil; one uses olive oil; one had sugar added. That one was the cheapest, of course. I left it and took one jar each of the other two. I'd thought that the one with sunflower oil also had olive oil mixed in. I see now I was mistaken. That's what happens when I hurry. Speaking of olive oil: there was a wonderful array of the stuff, as well as canola, canola/olive, sunflower, avocado, avocado/olive oils, and so on. I couldn't remember the status of olive oil here in the trailer. I knew the open bottle was getting low. Did I have any in abeyance? I decided to err on the side of caution. There was also a wonderful array of canned fish, smoked or otherwise. I have quite a few cans of anchovies and sardines, but this caught my eye and my curiosity, and made its way into my basket. I've heard of sprats but never had them as far as I know. Then there was a the produce section. Amazing! Huge, fresh ginger as big as my hand; sour melons; sour plums; tomatillos and carrots and other familiar produce that all looked fresh and good. I bought a largish piece of ginger and have already used most of it. Should have bought more. Ditto for the herbs, but I settled for mint since I knew I needed it. This is the first time I've seen green almonds or raw garbanzos. If you'd asked me, I'd have guessed that garbanzos / chickpeas come in pods more like peas. I'd have been wrong. I didn't take photos of the restaurant section, the breads, the spreads, the cheeses, or the kitchen gadgets. As I said, she was trying to hurry without hurrying me too badly. I bought some Danish white cheese. And now that I'm back "home" in the Princessmobile, I see I already had two, count 'em two, unopened bottles of olive oil. I'm sure there are two because I bought twice, forgetting what was in the belly box storage. I should make it home safely without needing to buy more. 🙂
  8. I'm back inside after some 2 or 3 hours of exterior work. Air up tires, clean and lube glide seals, check generator, mount bike back on rack, clean interior of pickup. It's a good thing I started when I did, because it's getting hot outside now and the black surfaces (ladder, stair rail) are almost too hot to touch. I've plenty to do inside where the air conditioner is running. Before I forget, I want to show you a wonderful salad I had at my friends' house. It's based on Feasting at Home's Asian Slaw recipe. It's easy to make, once you shred / chop the cabbage. The main ingredients are cabbage, cilantro, a few green onions although we used finely chopped "regular" onion instead. The dressing is olive oil, a touch of sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, a bit of sweetener. We topped ours with peanuts; the recipe calls for optional toppings of chopped nuts or sesame seeds. The recipe writer notes that it's also a very forgiving and adaptable recipe: other elements can be added to the slaw (carrots or kohlrabi, for instance) so it's a pretty good clean-out-the-fridge salad recipe. We ate a LOT of this stuff, and it's something like tabbouli that I'll be able to eat again and again. It also made a nice topping for other salads, or for meats. It took well to having nut pastes added to it. It'll probably lend itself well to the wrap idea that @rotuts mentioned. I intend to do that with tabbouli, too. Tabbouli is on my list of interior chores for today. Oh, a comment on the finely chopped onion: my friend likes the flavor but it irritates her mouth and gut when she eats it raw even in small quantities. She tames the onion's bite by soaking the chopped bits in vinegar for a half hour or so. It did seem to keep the flavor but blunt the bite.
  9. Breakfast. Urrp. I'll give myself a little time for that to digest before getting back to work, and tell you a bit about the San Diego trip. Working backwards, for the moment. I make no promises about chronological sequence. On my way back here on Monday, I stopped at Barons Market, near my friends' house, in hopes of scoring more of that great Bread & Cie bread. No luck this time: there were baguettes and a few other loaves, but none of the type I wanted. That's all right, though: this market's bakery also offers sourdough bread. I came away with: You can see some of the kalamata bread slices under all the avocado in the first picture. I don't know yet what I'll do with that lavash, but it looked too good to pass up. Other lavash offerings contained a dough conditioner, sodium citrate or some such. This doesn't. I didn't buy anything else at Baron's. I got back on the freeway for a few miles, then found my way to an H-Mart. H-Mart! A Korean superstore!! I've read about H-Mart from some other eGers but had only visited one for the first time during my previous trip to San Diego with my friends. That time, I'd picked up some soap dishes and some massively useful adjustable suction cups with hooks for the shower. I was hoping to find more of those suction devices. No joy. I didn't buy anything at H-Mart, but during my blitz through the housewares department I snapped a few photos for your enjoyment. Their produce and meat departments are wonderful too, but I didn't want to take time to be tempted.
  10. I don't remember where or when I bought it. Its label says it's made in Ottertail, MN, where my husband's daughter and her family live. Odds are I picked it up there on some visit to the local farmer's market when we were making salsa together. We egged each other into buying a lot of experimental products! Edited to add: the link above goes to Buehler's Produce, the place we like to frequent. If you wish to see a glorious place during the height of the Minnesota growing season, see this post.
  11. I need to be packing up and heading out. Originally I'd planned that for tomorrow, but at the rate I'm going it will be Thursday instead. Here's my to-do list: ...and here's a glimpse of what has to be stowed, after weeks of the Princessmobile's being in one spot and connected to electricity, and my just having unpacked from a weekend trip: Yes, it's looking pretty well lived-in by now. It won't take long to stow all those things, but I didn't get to them today and I only got to a few of the trailer inspect/service items. On the back side of that sheet of paper is the town errands: final grocery shopping, really-truly-final laundry (I thought I'd done that already, but events conspired against me), refueling the pickup and topping off its fluids. i did get those things done...this afternoon, when I should have been packing. I'd thought my final grocery shopping list would be shorter than this, but I just got back from visiting my best friends in San Diego again and came away with More Things I Must Have. I'll tell more about that later. For now, here's the list: While the laundry was going, I marveled at the emptiness of tthe parking lot. During the peak season, it was packed. By now I should know myself well enough to know that if I do all that running around in the afternoon I won't be interested in long cooking. I should also be disciplined enough to get in and do the running around in the morning. But NOOO...that was my darling's department. If he were still here, we'd be packed and ready to go. On the other hand, if he were still here we wouldn't be here at all. So it goes. My original plan for dinner goes back to something I cooked in San Diego. I'm sorry I don't have pictures of that dinner, but I was so busy cooking and managing the mess afterward that I didn't take any. I had taken along a package of pork tenderloin tips (from 2022! and it was a bargain even then!)... and cooked half of them there. I'd used only half the package, given that there were only 3 of us, and we still had enough leftovers for lunch the next day. I had cut the pork into chunks and marinated it in my favorite marinade of lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, onions, parsley, dried oregano and a touch of salt and pepper. In the same mixture I'd also marinated slices of red bell pepper, onion and mushrooms. All that had been skewered and grilled outside, along with cherry tomatoes. I was quite pleased with it and the others liked it well enough. My BFF thought the meat too chewy, although Mr. BFF and I didn't. My darling had also always thought this cut of pork too tough, so there you go. We served the whole shebang over wild rice, and had my friends' usual (delicious) green salad on the side. There are two schools of thought on what to do with lean meat: cook quickly at high heat (flash-sear, or grill), or cook low and slow. As I recall, the current wisdom is that low and slow works well for things with a lot of fat and connective tissue: pork shoulder, for instance, but not lean meat like pork tenderloin. I've always gone the fast-hot route. But hey, I'm willing to try new things. I might learn something. So today I set the remaining bits of pork up in a marinade of soy, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, a little lime juice, and vinegars. I say "vinegars" because I exhausted my rice wine vinegar today and refuse to buy more before getting home. I instead opened a bottle of maple vinegar, purchased Heaven knows when. It's pretty good stuff. A slight sweetness, but plenty of vinegar punch. After loading the meat into the marinade I decided it needed to be cut down to size. I cut it into chunks of one or two bites' worth, stuck it back in the marinade, and finally decided I'd better go do those last running-around errands. That's where my plans went awry. By the time I got home, crazy hungry, and unpacked groceries and tended animals and the trailer, I needed food. Quick food. Crackers, olives, salami. I don't even have salad made at the moment. So I did those, thought guiltily of the pork marinating in the refrigerator, and left it there. It can keep until tomorrow. I'm glad I refrigerated it before leaving for a few hours. I'll tell more about San Diego, where we went and what we ate, in other posts. I'll close this post with this final-packing-before-leaving-home -in-January checklist that I discovered in my wallet while I was away this weekend! I really don't clean out my wallet often enough.
  12. So. Yesterday after turning on the A/C and lying under the fan for a while, then taking a shower, I girded my figurative loins and went to work chopping the washed produce. I learned -- and this was news to me but maybe it won't be for those of you who routinely live in hot climates -- that even a few hours of lying on the counter is enough to start wilting herbs, leafy greens, and even carrots! My latest bouquets of cilantro and parsley got a few hours of soaking in water, then they were put back into the refrigerator with their stems in water. I'll deal with them later. The previously cut herbs made their way into last night's stir fry. This was a clean-out-the-produce-drawer stir fry. Red bell pepper, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, kale, green onion, jalapeno, mushrooms, chopped parsley and cilantro from a few days ago. Some of the shredded chicken I'd originally bought for the Peruvian Aji de Gallina. The sauce was the package of stir fry sauce you see above. (Incidentally, its "best by" date was in 2024. I know I bought it over a year ago, on our last trip out here.) If I'd had a package of cooked rice ready to hand I've have put this concoction over the rice. I wasn't interested in actually cooking any rice. I wasn't interested in rooting through the belly box storage to see if any such packages were lurking in there. I decided that if I needed a starch I'd use bread. It was plenty as it was. No bread, rice, potatoes or other starch needed. Well, of course there was wine. 🙂
  13. I think you are. Unless the freezer isn't really keeping things frozen, I think the loss of quality is the first and most likely outcome of overlong frozen storage. The USDA agrees, so far at least. This is what their website has to say about frozen food storage. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/freezing-and-food-safety I did have some sort of frozen seafood -- was it lobster? shrimp? -- go off in my freezer one year, but that was about 40 years ago with a refrigerator I'd bought for $10. It had come from someone's hunting shack and had a bullet hole through the side that had been plugged with solder. The aroma of the overlong-kept seafood was intense. Cooking didn't improve it. I threw it away.
  14. Reach. Grasp. And what the heck was I thinking during those recent shopping trips?? Now I have to do something with this stuff! Starting with washing and chopping it, and right now it's so hot that I just want to lie under the air conditioner. I broke down and turned it on a little while ago. In other news: I remembered today that I'd forgotten to show you my Easter treat, purchased some time ago in a fit of self indulgence. Poor bunny should have been in cold storage. You could say it lost its temper. Ears tasted good anyway. I still have about half of this one, now in the refrigerator.
  15. I hope he was good at catching things thrown to him!
  16. I thought of you and this conversation when I read today's "Luann" comic strip. 😀 https://www.gocomics.com/luann/2025/04/22 And thanks to @Shelby for continuing to enable us!
  17. My darling and his first wife ran a restaurant for a while on a resort in Northern Minnesota. They'd buy whole rib roasts with the bones still on, and she would cut the ribs off (with generous amounts of meat attached), retie the roast to the rack and roast it all, then save the cooked ribs as the rest of the roast was sold as prime rib. Every so often, when they had enough ribs saved up, they'd advertise "All you can eat Texas ribs". Of course it was a big seller. Their trick to not running out? A generous salad bar, and plenty of "cooking time" for the already-cooked ribs to be warmed, so that most customers filled up on salad and bread first. 😀 I should perhaps explain that in Minnesota at least, "ribs" means by default pork ribs. "Texas ribs" is the term for beef ribs. It may exclusively by a Minnesota thang. Of course, when you're in Texas it's the other way around. We used to get funny looks when we'd ask in Texas for Texas ribs, and after a few corrections along the lines of "you mean you want RIBS" we learned. (Similarly, I used to be baffled by the label "California burger". I mean, don't all burgers automatically come with lettuce and tomato, and maybe pickle?) Thank you very, very much for this tip. I have a lot to work with here, and now it won't go to waste.
  18. As @ElsieD said, it looks amazing. Thanks for the link to that video -- and the warning about the audio volume! Maybe I'll try making this sometime. He had me at flaming the marinade. 😄 I was intrigued by his explanation that the alcohol "cooks" protein and that's why you flame it off. I know in other applications it intensifies and enriches the sauce flavor, but I hadn't thought about its effect on protein structure.
  19. I'm a person whose reach routinely exceeds her grasp. Sometimes that's good -- it stretches one to have ambitions -- but sometimes it simply leads to overloaded freezers and pantries. That was true even before my darling died, but now that I'm cooking for one (and with a reduced appetite at that!) it can just mean a lot of extra food carried around. I mentioned earlier that I'd packed this Princessmobile in haste and packed as much of the household freezer contents as I could. Yesterday, Easter, a feast day, I decided that the beef ribs I'd bought for a special occasion would have to come out and be cooked. It was Easter. I wasn't throwing a feast for anyone else, but I didn't know when I'd manage to do so. I pulled out this carefully vacuum-packed, cherished rack of beef ribs from a favorite meat market in Duluth. We'd never managed to cook it. How long had it been there? Oh. Why did we buy so much food, and then not use it? I can't answer that, really. Reach vs. grasp. Ambition vs. reality. At any rate, this giant package of ribs has been along for the ride, or sitting at home, for far too long. I'm happy to report that my vacuum packing had held well, and there was no sign of freezer burn. That's not bad for 3-1/2 years. I'm pretty sure the initial ambition was to try a low, slow barbecue method like good Texas 'cue, inspired by Cooper's in Llano, Texas. That's probably why I bought it in the first place. We have the proper grill at home. I'm not set up for grilling where I'm currently parked. I decided not to let that stop me. I had to figure out how to cook that rack. What was the biggest pan I had? My Sur la Table Dutch Oven almost made it. I had to cut off a corner of the ribs to cram them in. Below the ribs were stalks of (incredibly fibrous) celery and some of the baby potatoes I'd cooked a few nights ago. Low and slow. I got the oven to register around 275F, more or less (lower than the gauge indicates) and left the meat to cook for some hours. Did I mention that the rack was frozen when I started? This was a spur of the moment thing. Our erstwhile manager @Pam R wrote about cooking a roast without thawing it first, way back in 2008. It does work. That Dutch oven is about as good as it gets in this Princessmobile. When the meat started looking and acting like it was cooked, I rooted around and found the only thermometer I'd packed for the trip. The results: I've read that barbecue judges say that bones pulling out cleanly means overcooked meat. At least, they say that in pork competitions. I assume they say it in beef competitions. I respectfully disagree. This was not dry, tough or stringy. It was delicious and tender. And it pulled away from the bone cleanly. Still, it's a LOT of meat. I'd have happily fed this to a crowd, and that may have been the original plan. Maybe I'll get more and throw a party when I get home! But it will be a while before I get through this myself. This serving: ..had these leftovers, along with the other two ribs wrapped in foil. I ate maybe half the meat from the first rib yesterday. I just finished the rest for tonight's dinner. I'll have to think about what to do with the juice and the fat from the pan. (As I write, a day later, that upper layer has congealed and turned white.) You know what? It doesn't have the wonderful flavor of slow Texas 'cue done over mesquite charcoal, but it's pretty darned good. Tender. Beefy. I'd feed this to any meat-eater without shame. But I will try doing it at home over charcoal to see how the wood can improve the flavor.
  20. Thanks for showing us some Mexican wines. I'm only a few miles from the border, but currently overscheduled so not planning to cross the border any time soon. When I next do, I'll take a list of wines to look for in their shops!
  21. Why am I not surprised? 😁
  22. I've been wondering if the truly delicious restaurant tortilla shells were fried instead of baked. Thanks for that. Since I'm not set up for deep frying and my $2 thrift store find is supposed to be a way around that, I'll try the oil trick. So far you, @rotuts and @Dave the Cook have suggested it. That's strong guidance!
  23. I've forgotten how you cook them? Fried? (I personally am fond of their byproduct, but I've never tried eating it.)
  24. I wish I'd seen this before trying the tortilla bakers tonight, but now at least I've tried them with plain, fresh flour tortillas. I'm still getting to know this oven and may have overcooked the first shell slightly. It holds its shape well after baking, though. Tonight's dinner: Meh. Not impressed with the flavor of the shell itself -- and maybe the advertisement that this brand 'doesn't puff" is not a good thing. I'll try Dave's suggestion next time around, to see if that helps with the flavor.
  25. I'll have chances to try the tortilla bakers again soon. This morning I attended an event close to the Sprouts "farmers market" and parked in their lot. By way of thanks, when the event was over, I went into Sprouts. I really have wanted bulgur. Resolutions to work through beans and rice first have gone out the window, and I was right there at -- as far as I know -- the only place in town I can get bulgur. What did I see first? A whole display rack of tortillas! Corn. Wheat. Many sizes. Many brands. Was it time to get more? I wandered through the store and left the tortillas for the time being. Sprouts' produce section is beautiful. I didn't really need produce, except that I've been jonesing for nice crunchy cabbage. The gravitational pull was strong. I said "yes" to the cabbage, some kale, and -- because I'd dealt with the prior bouquets of cilantro and Italian parsley -- another bouquet each of those. The olive stand caught my eye. Look! They also had salt-cured capers! I'm nearly finished with the stuff I packed. I know there's another huge jar waiting for me at home. I thought I'd picked up a package anyway, but since it isn't in my bag now I must have changed my mind. I picked up the bulgur that I'd come in for in the first place. Then I wandered the other aisles. The olive oils looked interesting. Mine is getting low. I kinda wanted to buy both types, but I settled for the one you see on the right. Ounce for ounce it's more expensive, but it's from an olive variety I don't normally see...and the bottles are plastic. Better for travel than glass bottles, although I've plenty of those on board. I went back by way of the tortillas. What the heck. And then, when I went to the checkout line, I was seduced by a sample of this chocolate, grated atop a dairy-free yogurt that turned out to be pretty good (coconut cream based) with blueberries. I skipped the yogurt but got a chocolate bar. On my way to yet another errand, I ran into the nearby Albertson's for "just a few things" and came staggering out with enough pet supplies and coffee to last me until I get home, I hope. Well, most of the way home. I have been avoiding the urge to "panic-buy" against the price rises due to anticipated / threatended tariffs, but I do love my coffee. Starbuck's Sumatra coffee, specifically. I bought several large bags of it. I wonder whether the supposed "sale price" shown here is really a price reduction? Albertson's usually is more pricey than the Fry's where I usually shop. I wouldn't put it past them to post a "normal" price that's very high and then reduce it as a "sale" price. Exhibit A: This bread is normally in the $4.50 - $5 range at Fry's. I left it alone here. On the other, other hand, this was a pretty good price for this oversized jar of peanut butter. I'll be relying on it heavily soon. I bought it.
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