Smithy

Well, this is an unfortunate culinary development. I spent several hours in town, running crucial errands that took so much time I didn't manage to include an intended social event. I got home around 4pm, savagely hungry, and tore into the tabbouli, green beans and hummus from yesterday. Report: the hummus definitely benefits from the extra vinaigrette (lemon, olive oil, garlic, mustard, salt) that I made yesterday. The green beans, now only a fond memory, already contained some and were still a delight. The tabbouli... well, it's better with that vinaigrette but I can still taste the staleness of the old package contents. Maybe I'll be able to finish that stuff. It isn't terrible, but I may decide that the local wildlife would appreciate it more than I. By the time I'd eaten my fill of all that, it was 5pm. Now at 7:30 pm I'm still not hungry, so this campfire... intended to cook something wonderful... is just keeping my feet warm while I sip a beer. That isn't all bad, of course. Just goes to show how rapidly my food plans can go awry.

We used to stumble over county parks too, back in the days when "app" meant "appetizer". (Yes I'm THAT old. 😀) One memorable experience was in Laredo, when the state park was full because it was Easter. The entire park filled up with locals picnicking and driving their little wheeliess around us, wishing us "Happy Easter"with kids grinning and giggling. A lot of fun, really. The park itself was so full of goatheads and other stickery weeds we never wanted to return. But it was fun once.

Thanks, Alex. Their catalogs are always appealing!

I chose carefully...did I want more floor space or a kitchen island? Did I want the pantry or a shorter trailer? And so on. So far, I'm very pleased with the choice I made. 🙂

I outdid myself yesterday, by recent cookery standards. In addition to the tabbouli and hummus I wrote about above, I went after a batch of green beans I bought last week that really needed to be cooked. Green beans are one of my favorite vegetables, but I dislike trimming and cutting them enough that it's easy for me to "forget" them until it's almost too late. Yesterday it was almost too late, so I got down to it: threw away the moldy ones, trimmed the rotting ones, and still had plenty for 2 meals for me. I used Cookie and Kate's Green Bean Salad with Feta and Toasted Almonds, more or less. I say "more or less" because I once again discovered things missing. I could have sworn I had chunks of feta that I could sprinkle on top. Couldn't find it. Used some of my Egyptian feta, which has more of a cream-cheese texture. You can see it as white smears in the photos. I also thought I had slivered almonds. Couldn't find them either. They're probably at home. So I roughly chopped the almonds I could find, and used them. I did get to use fresh basil leaves as garnish, from my plant. It was a good dinner. Then, I had to deal with the wreckage. All told, during the afternoon I'd made hummus, tabbouli, and the green bean salad - which also included making a vinaigrette. Mine was getting low, and I think both the hummus and tabbouli will need it due to being rather flat-tasting, so I juiced 3 lemons rather than the half-lemon called for in the recipe, and made a 7x batch of the salad dressing. It'll do well, with its oil, lemon, mustard, garlic, salt and a touch of pepper. But now, I had to deal with all this! I admired the sunset... ..ate dinner, and got to work. It really didn't take long, but there was a lot of moving-things-around to be done so I could use the sink for washing, then put things back for draining. All finished: ...and doggone it, it looked the same this morning. If household brownies were an option for this trailer, I forgot to add them.

We've seen them sometimes and stayed in a few, but can't reliably find them. Do you have a reliable search source? US Army Corps of Engineers campground are also great, if you happen to be in a party of the country where they exist.

Wow! Good job all around on handling the emergency!!

As for what I'm drinking today (and the day before, and the day before, and for some days to come yet)...well, it's pretty pedestrian. I like it well enough to keep drinking it. When I remember, I go back to a Pinot Grigio by, er, maybe Bota Box and maybe one of the other boxed wines. This has a bit more floral quality and less crispness than the Pinot Grigio, but it's a good value for my money. A nice everyday wine.

How did it taste? I wouldn't normally consider mixing those two either, but I have several times had a South African wine that's Shiraz and Viognier. I don't even like Viognier on its own, but it adds a certain je ne sais quoi to that red. It was a surprise the first time (that I didn't expect to like). I've bought it several times since that gift.

Hmm. It looks as though I forgot to pack bulgur, too. Either that or it's in a canister in the belly box, in one of the two coolers or the produce box holding overflow stuff. I have fresh tomatoes, cilantro, mint and parsley...but no bulgur. I found this in the pantry: Babylon Market. In Tucson. How long since I bought this? Oh. Well, time to try it and either use it or feed it to the wildlife. If need be, I can supplement it with the fresh herbs I'd bought for the purpose. The instructions are simple enough: Just have to dig out a mixing bowl. The Swizz Whizz is up there too. It really did sit for an hour after I mixed all the ingredients. I wasn't willing to put it into the refrigerator to cool, though, no matter what they said to do. (The dark color is mostly the photographer's fault.) It's been an hour, and the result isn't bad, although I can taste some age. Amazing for something so old. I'll be able to polish this stuff off. I'll probably add more lemon and salt after a few tastes, and possibly some of those herbs. And hallelujah, I've emptied a box from the pantry!

Further to the question of what I left behind, accidentally or otherwise.... I'm not sure why I decided to leave behind my 1-quart pot that we always used for reheating coffee. It's T-Fal, relatively old, and each of us was sure we'd brought it to the marriage: in other words, we probably each had one at one time. Anyway, I left it behind deliberately and regretted it the first time I tried to reheat coffee in the 2-quart pot and pour it, without spilling, into my coffee cup. I corrected that omission in Texas when I stopped for a day on the way out here, and went to Walmart. I mentioned before that I'd deliberately left behind the electric food processor. I have a 110v wand blender with me, but I also have a small handheld food processor that's like a mini salad spinner. I've had it for years, but been too lazy to use it. Today, I wanted hummus and I haven't wanted to start the generator yet. It was time to try the Swizz Whizz and see if it's worth keeping. Here it is, about to accept ingredients. Its capacity is something along the lines of 2 to 3 cups. The ingredients, those that I bothered to photograph: The last of the chickpeas I cooked before leaving home; Some of the best tahini I've ever had, from a favorite shop in Minneapolis: Chickpea juice from cooking almost went into it, until i opened the container and it fizzed at me. Well, it IS old. It's going out to the bushes. Not shown: garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt. But how could I have forgotten to pack ground cumin?? I must have 2 bottles still in the freezer at home. There's none in the wire baskets, and none in the spare tub of spices. There is whole cumin only. Time to see whether the Swizz Whizz could cut it too. Everything went into the whizzer, and I began pulling. Not unlike starting the generator. I pulled 10 times, checked; added water; pulled 20 times; checked, tasted, and added more lemon juice, salt and tahini; and kept pulling until I had the consistency I wanted. Actually, it worked well. The flavor isn't as good as it should be but I suspect that's because the chickpeas had been out of the freezer and aging in the refrigerator for too long. So far, I'm not regretting leaving the food processor behind. But how could I have forgotten ground cumin?

I just remembered the other item!

Thanks! That was part of a years-belated Christmas and birthday gift from my sister. 😀 The amaryllis bulb starting to bloom next to the couch was also part of that package. I think there was some other kitchen gadget included... when I stumble across and remember it I'll show it.

Please do...and show us the result and method!

I'm finding another thing to love about this new rig: the solar panel and the 12v accoutrements on board. As I noted above, I opted not to get an inverter because it wouldn't produce enough oomph (that's scientific lingo for "wattage") to run things I really wanted to run. However, a lot of the gear on board is 12v...including the ceiling fan. See it, there behind the island pendants? When I got up this morning the trailer batteries were almost fully depleted. The sun was up, though, and bright. I made coffee and eventually went for a walk, and when I got back the batteries were nearly charged. Unfortunately, the trailer was hot (eat your hearts out, snicker snicker) and It's too windy to put out awnings. So I have open windows and a ceiling fan doing its thing, and the batteries are still fully charged! It's a shame the range vent hood doesn't also run on 12v, as it did in an earlier trailer. It does, however, vent outside rather than recirculating back into the trailer as it has in the last two. That's an improvement. I just have to start the generator if I want to use it. Breakfast this morning -- brunch, really, since I ate it at noon: smoked salmon pate from my favorite Duluth store, and watermelon I picked up at the grocery store last night when the hunger alarms were shrilling. This is the last container of smoked salmon pate I brought from home. When it's gone, it's gone...and I'm sorely tempted to try to hoard it. However, it's the sort of thing that won't last forever. I'm already past their "best by" date, though the quality doesn't seem to be suffering yet. I do have some of their specialty meats tucked away in the freezer. You'll see them as I pull them out. You saw some of their smoked salmon already in the pasta dish. The pate went on Club crackers. I'm happy now.

Campfire success. @rotuts may laugh because I have ice in my white wine, but I'm enjoying it.

Yes. I'm down to 2 cats and 1 dog. They're all champion travelers. It took time for them to settle into the new rig, but they consider it home now and are as happy as I to be in our old familiar campsite. Sometimes, my determination to eat well goes awry, or astray, or at any rate falls by the wayside. Earlier today I showed that oh-so-healthful bowl of yogurt and blueberries. A little after noon I made a pretty good-sized sandwich (salami, cheese, pickle and lettuce on sourdough bread) and figured it would be lunch and dinner. It was instead road lunch as I went to town for a social event and some shopping. The social event went well and was fun, but then afterward I still had to get tome of the hardware I've been missing, and a few groceries, and fuel; I also had to dump trash. The upshot was that by the time I was leaving the grocery store (I'll show it to you in other posts) it was 6 pm. I was already hungry. I was almost an hour from home, and I knew I'd be savage by the time I got home if I didn't eat. So, I bought their last 2 fried chicken thighs and their version of spicy potato wedges. I ate a little bit on the drive home, enough to get me past the "savagely hungry" stage. That made it easier to appreciate this sight as I approached the trailer: Their fried chicken isn't as good as I remember, nor is it as good as the splurge from my favorite market at home. That's okay, my canine companion isn't as picky as I am. The spuds were pretty good. I got a good selection of matches and firelighters. Campfires, here I come!

While I have a late breakfast -- very common for me these days -- I'll start talking about packing up and leaving in this new Princessmobile, and what I think so far about my packing job. (I'm sure the story will continue to unfold.) By the time I'd chosen this trailer and made arrangements to take it home, it was mid-January. I packed as quickly as I could, given the bitter cold weather. I've already mentioned that this trailer is smaller than the previous one. I haven't mentioned that it doesn't have an onboard generator. It has a solar panel that does a fine job of charging its batteries. If I'd wanted to lay out the extra money, I could have gotten a smallish inverter that would run some electrical outlets, but at a low wattage. It wouldn't run the microwave, or a toaster, or even (from what I could tell) a coffee pot. The trailer wiring wouldn't support a more powerful inverter. I opted instead to spend money on a couple of portable generators. Two, so I can pair them and run the air conditioner if necessary; the rest of the time one will do it. Two instead of one larger so I can lift the darned thing. The bad news about that design choice is that nothing I could find and plan to be able to lift had a remote start. So...when I want 110v power, I have to go outside and pull a cord. The generator starts easily enough, but it isn't the way I want to start with my coffee in the morning! So I left the electric coffee maker home, and have been relying on the old French press I bought for our first pickup-mounted camper. Here's the routine: Get up, deal with animals, put the kettle on the propane stove. Do more housekeeping chores while I wait for the water to boil. Measure the coffee. When the water's boiling, pour it in, stir the grounds, make sure they're well wetted. Put the lid on to steep. Finally, pour the coffee and enjoy. It's a far cry from the good ol' days when one of us would start the onboard generator, my darling would turn on the coffee pot, and then he'd bring my first cup while I was still lolling around in bed! But that was a choice I made. I also deliberately left behind the toaster, the small Instant Pot and the food processor. Part of that was because of the power issue, and part was simply because I'd hiked up the hill as many times as I could stand, to our storage shed, to find and retrieve things like bedding and kitchen utensils that had been stored neatly out of the way last November. I did take time to find the salad spinner and the wand blender, but those other things were a bridge too far. A choice I didn't make on purpose arose the other night. The wind finally let up enough that I could have my first campfire. I planned to cook over it: one of my darling's Superburgers, in his honor. (A batch of Superburgers is made this way: 3 pounds ground beef, 3 pounds hot Italian sausage, one large Vidalia onion coarsely chopped: all mixed together, pressed into 6-oz patties. I now have 17 left.) I'd considered lighting a campfire for fun and grilling the burger, until I realized I'd brought charcoal but no lighter fluid or chimney. OK, then: I'd cook it over the campfire in Papa's pan. It's a perfect fit. Then, and only then, did I realize I'd forgotten to pack any firelighters! There must be half a dozen at home. None here. I couldn't believe it. That's okay, though: our camp box has a huge box of those trusty strike-anywhere matches. The strike-anywhere matches wouldn't strike anywhere. Too old... I rooted around and found my darling's spare Egyptian camp tool kit: flashlight, candle, cigarette lighter. Cigarette lighter too old. No spark! I finally hit on a solution: I lit some of those strike-anywere matches from the propane stove inside the trailer; used them to light the candle; used it to light the fire. All in all, I'm glad I started the operation before full dark! The campfire was nice, and the burger delicious. It was a good way to honor my darling's memory, with the first campfire of the season.

Thanks for that! Yes, I know a lot of people took to the roads when Covid hit. It's a good way to manage social distancing. Unfortunately at the time it also meant our favorite on-the-way campgrounds were packed to the gills. Now it means that a lot of people are trying to sell rigs they no longer use or want. I looked at a few in person and a lot online, then decided that I wanted to buy new for the sake of factory warranty and an extended service contract. Yes, it cost more -- but there's a lot to be said for peace of mind, under the circumstances. My darling was also generally in charge of outside while I managed inside, and he was the one who drove almost exclusively because he loved to do it and found it quite relaxing. Last year, on the way home, we split the duties because of his health issues -- and that's when we discovered that he didn't know how to run the GPS! Grr. Or LOL. Take your pick. 🙂

The tour continues. I've cleared spaces off enough...put things away...so I can show a little more before I head out for an afternoon walk. I mentioned that the sink is a generously-sized "stainless steel". I put that in quotes because it looks like stainless steel but it's already a bit scuffed. I suspect a lightweight and possibly inferior alloy. I'm not complaining, though. It's more than big enough for anything I'd be washing, especially as long as I'm boondocking. To fill this sink would take way too much water. As a rule, I have a small dishpan in the sink, as you see here, to collect water and for washing dishes later. In this collage, you can see more clearly the roll-up style drain rack. It usually lives under the sink when not in use. The faucet is a nice style: high relief, with a pull-down head that can spray or stream. I don't think it's an unusual design any more, but I still love it and consider it essential. There's pretty good counter space, enough to truly clutter things if I've a mind. In the corner there is a box that some of you might recognize from the Panettone topic. Yes, there's still a bit in there. Atop the box is a batch of cardamom rolls and a batch of korpula (the Finnish answer to biscotti) that my neighbor baked and gave me before I left home. I won't bother pulling all the doors and drawers open, but I'll show you the dish storage and some of the cooking and prep gear I brought along: those that are in the cupboards above that counter. I mentioned that the kitchen designers might have intended a drawer for spices. I'm just guessing, but this double-drawer arrangement, with slots, makes me wonder. At any rate, there's no way I could fit enough spices into that top drawer! These two drawers are one on top of the other from the same pull. The bottom is most easily exposed. It took me a few days to remember that the top drawer was even there! Beneath that drawer is a pull-out for the trash can. Finally, some of the furniture. I very much like having an actual table with chairs, unlike the dinette system we had in the previous Princessmobile. There's storage in the bench at the left. My largest cooking pots are in there. At the back of the rig is a couch that folds out into a queen-sized bed. I have some fruit in the basket at the right-hand end. Behind the musical instruments on the left is an amaryllis bulb thinking about blooming, and a healthy basil plant that I bought after arriving here.

Welcome! How exciting! I've never made candy more sophisticated than fudge, but you'lll find a lot of great experience and advice here from experts. Feel free to wander in, look around, make yourself at home. If you have any questions about how the forums work or where to post, ask me or another staff member by Personal Messenger. Given your professional work, I doubt you'll have any issues. 😀 What kind of music, and what instrument(s) do you play?

So okay, it's a partial tour. The kitchen's a mess right now, with stuff scattered over every surface...exactly what everyone probably expects of me, but I'd rather show the place off as it looked until a few days ago! i'll start with the refrigerator. It's a generous side-by-side: refrigerator on the right, freezer on the left. Despite having had little appetite or interest in cooking for some months, as my optimism began to resurface I began to imagine interest in cooking and eating again. Besides, I still had many packages of my darling's favorite tube steaks. The upshot: this is how everything looked when I left home. i fit as much food from the house refrigerators and freezers as I could. The pantry is a kick. It is similarly loaded for similar reasons, as well as the fact that when my friends helped me empty the old Princessmobile we did it in a hurry. We found boxes and bags of spices, read-to-cook mixes, jars and jars of salsa (homemade) and jams, jellies, and prizes from various shopping trips in years past. I put as much into the pantry as I reasonably could. This pantry has a lovely feature: automatic LED lights come on when you open the door. They're on a motion-sensing switch. If the door stays open long enough the lights go out, but when you go near the pantry they light up again. (The bedroom and bathroom have similar features at floor level. I haven't needed them but they're a nice touch for a nightlight if one is so inclined.) Incidentally, I have 2 coolers and a produce box also filled with spare food items. I doubt I'll be able to work through all of them on this trip, but I shouldn't need to buy much except fresh dairy and produce. The spice cupboard was very problematic when I bought this Princessmobile. Narrow and deep. No shelves. I don't know what the designers had in mind (they may have intended a drawer for spices instead, but I'll show you why that wouldn't have worked later.) I fixed that pretty quickly along the way, when I stopped in Texas for 2 nights. Walmart isn't my favorite place, but they do have a good stock of handy items! Those little wire baskets pull all the way out for easy access. There's an entire tub of spices in another cabinet. I'm still working through which spices need to be ready to hand and which ones can be hidden away. At some point I'll probably start culling the collection. The oven and stove are wonderful: propane and powerful. I cooked a ham and potatoes for a friend one night after arriving here, but didn't bother taking photos. Sorry. I've done a fair amount of stovetop cooking already. I may have shown this on the dinner topic: smoked salmon alfredo, with a salad. The kitchen island has pull-out trays for pet dishes. I didn't think I'd like the arrangement, but it works well. Finally, for now, I'll show part of the dishwashing arrangment. The kitchen island has a large, "stainless steel" sink with a great faucet --- I'll show you that later -- and a rollup rack that fits over the sink for dish draining. The only awkward part is that those dishes have to go someplace until I'm done with the sink and washing! I'm still working through the process. There are a lot of processes to work through, and I'm still deciding where things live -- and finding out what I should have packed and didn't!

New Year... New trailer... New life. My darling died abruptly last June. Although we'd been dealing with health issues (a foot wound that wouldn't heal) we didn't think they were life-threatening. They weren't. He died instead of a brain hemorrhage. It was quick for him, and that's merciful. It was hard for me because we had no warning. As you can imagine, I spent some months in a fog of grief and confusion. I'm not the first person to lose a partner without warning, nor will I be the last. I simply couldn't post about him, or discuss the fate of the Princessmobile, until now. I spent quite a few months debating what to do about the Princessmobile and the rest of my life. How was I going to live the time I had left? What did I want to do, if anything? I had begun losing weight during his health struggles, and the weight loss continued. I'm down a bit more than 30 pounds now, largely due to a diminished appetite. I eat well, I just don't eat as much as I used to. Gradually, I worked my way through the fog. I gave the old Princessmobile to his son, who wanted it and was untroubled by various mechanical issues that had developed. (He's a mechanic and is much more willing to deal with those issues than I would be.) I spent a lot of time kicking tires, trying to work out what I wanted, if anything. I knew I wanted to spend the Holidays at home, celebrating in ways we hadn't since we started traveling to avoid the cold winters. Eventually, I decided that I did still want to travel -- not 6 months out of the year, but more than a few weeks' worth. I have friends and activities in Yuma. I have other places I want to see. I had originally thought that this post would be a coda: a final post explaining why the story had ended. But I think I have enough to say about travel-food, and camping, and things I see along the way, to continue. So I will. I'll give you a tour of the new rig in the next post.

Why not order directly from Tyler's? What am I missing here?

There are ways to control the touchness / crunch of the crust vs. the tenderness of the crumb (the interior of the bread). I hope the bread experts will weigh in on this. How nice to see that you like the taste and texture of the interior! That's encouraging!