Smithy

I've never worked with a Danish dough whisk but any sort of whisk looks to me like it would be very difficult to move through bread dough. Help me visualize this, please. At what stage does someone use this, and why is it so great?

@kayb, I agree they look like weird horseradish roots - if that's what they are - but I have seen them split. I remember digging one up from its happy place too near the house foundation. It wasn't nearly as thick, but it had split into two segments as it went deeper. To prepare horseradish, lemniscate has the most of it...except I'd start with a fine grater (food processor) rather than blender. My blender, at least, wouldn't handle the fibers. A little bit of hand-grating is a simple test to see whether it's really horseradish. Believe me, the released juices will clear up any mysteries (and sinuses) if it is! The more vinegar you add, the more potent it will be. The horseradish I've bought at grocery stores, incidentally, would happily resprout and take root. If it's horseradish, you may have the gift that keeps on giving. Just be sure to plant it in some sort of confinement.

I'm awake now, I think, and still can't work out what that "root" is. Scallion root? Is it just the root, or is the rest of the scallion lurking in that sandwich under what I think is a burger? I like the looks of that bread.

West Texas is like that. I'm impressed with the diverse selection of seasonings you've come up with. I used to be very disciplined about herbs and spices when I was kayak camping or sailing and space was confined. Now I'm less selective and more inclined to throw things in willy-nilly. Then I have trouble finding what I want because I've crowded the cabinets! It's all looking good. Keep up the inspiration, please!

*Cue Logan's Run: "Last Day, Last Day..."* God willing and the water don't rise, tomorrow will be the last day for this trip. I hesitate to proclaim this in advance, due to my Irish and Appalachian extraction. Still, that's the plan. i hope it works. It was another long drive today. We learned upon leaving that the nearby Subway wouldn't open until 10 am! Much too late. They lost our business. We're sure this is a later start time than we've ever seen before. Is it because of a business downturn since the pandemic began? We don't know. The adjacent business, which shares the building, had ready-made sandwiches. We looked askance at them. We always look askance at such offerings, but expedience is overtaking quality on this last gasp of the trip. We asked an attendant for her recommendations. She recommended against the BBQ Ribs sandwich we were both considering, and suggested the Sausage, Egg and Cheese sandwich as her personal favorite because of its fresh quality. I changed my mind; my darling didn't. My choice was quite good: basically as good a breakfast biscuit as we could have gotten at a big-name chain. Just as she said when she recommended it. His BBQ sandwich had good, tender, flavorful meat, but the bun was incredibly tough. Much of that bread went out the window. He marveled that bread could be soft and inedibly tough at the same time. I had no insights for him. He didn't get enough breakfast from that disappointing sandwich, so there was a lot of noshing on Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips that we had bought along with our "not-Subway" sandwiches. Later in the day, it was Burger King at an Iowa Welcome Center. Yes, I know we had plenty of food on our own. No, neither of us cared. My Whopper was excellent. I didn't take a picture, but he was as pleased with his BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger. Tonight we're in a Walmart parking lot. I strolled their deli and learned that it closes at 7 pm. The counters behind glass that should have held cafeteria trays of stuff were all inactive and covered. Welcome to the world of the pandemic. The counters in front and below had packages of already-cooked food staying warm. The fried chicken looked unappetizing. The rotisserie chicken looked decent, but the 7 pm closing time was a problem.We decided to work on leftovers in the Princessmobile. This is the view from our windows. This is our setup as viewed from the outside. Our idea of "working on leftovers" was more than plenty. Each of us ate a few spoonfuls from the potato salads we've been hoarding. He's already called it a night. I'll do so soon. In the morning I'll make one last set of ham and cheese sandwiches, so we won't need to call on Subway. We hope to be long gone before they open in the morning. Thanks for coming along with us, folks. You've made the trip more fun. And yes...that wine glass could be cleaner. So could the two of us!

A cheap eye? I can guess maybe, but I'd like your elaboration on this comment so I don't go amiss. The food looks delightful. Quite a bit better than what I'm cranking out after months on the road. I'm surprised you don't have co-workers banging at the tailgate to join in.

We got through Kansas City yesterday without any traffic mishaps. We could see southbound traffic horribly snarled from some accident, and were glad to be going the other way. Kansas City is another nerve-wracking traffic adventure for me, due to the convergence of multiple freeways that box the downtown area, but we've done it enough times that we know the way reasonably well. Still, the GPS warned us of a significant delay. It didn't materialize, but my darling started singing anyway: "I got to Kansas City on a Friday, by Saturday I hadn't gotten through..." (with apologies to Rogers and Hammerstein). Ham sandwiches for road food, along with the vegetable snacks, coffee and water. The Lakeside Casino, formerly known as Terrible's, is a pretty good stopping spot for this leg of the trip. Like many other places, they've gone to a reservations-only system in their RV park. Fortunately there's a free parking area, first-come first-served, where truckers and a few intrepid RV'ers who don't need electrical service can park. If we were to spend a couple of days it might be worth paying the RV park fee and putting up with the aggravation of looking for a reservation WHEN THERE ARE OODLES OF OPEN SPACES but for an overnight it doesn't make sense. There seems to be a nationwide trend pushing everyone toward a reservation-only system, but we don't like it and prefer not to participate as long as we can avoid it. The Casino business seems to be picking up again, though they're still a long way from being at full capacity. We could have cooked something in the trailer, or reheated some leftovers (we still have some) but we wanted to support the restaurant and casino operation, and we have historically liked the stuff. Besides, I could snoop while I waited for our food. They tried to insist on social distancing. The signs insisted that everyone wear masks that cover nose AND mouth except when actively eating or drinking. At least one bartender didn't have her nose covered. At least one patron had no mask at all. I considered going into the casino proper to see how much action there was, but I'd have had to go past a greeter and a sign that said STOP. LOWER YOUR MASK. I think it was just for an ID check, but decided not to wait around to see. There was a line. The restaurant buffet was closed, but one could order from the usual menu. Unfortunately, to-go orders could not be placed or picked up between 6 and 9 p.m. because that's the restaurant's busiest time. That meant ordering around 5:30. His BBQ cheeseburger, my Awesome Chicken burger, and our fries suffered from languishing until he was actually ready to eat. He even admitted it. That's about as close to an apology as he gets for holding up the show on food.

@rotuts, I opened the Cabernet Sauvignon last night. It was also quite nice: smooth, fruity without being too fruit-forward. I was surprised that it had no apparent alcohol burn as so many wines do with such a high alcohol content. I'm not sure it really had much Cabernet distinction, though. If I'd been tasting it blind, would I have recognized the grape? It didn't have much in the way of noticeable tannins, either. In other words, it didn't seem to need any breathing to be good. I'll look for this wine when we get home. I'd curious to try the two varietals side by side, and others if they are available, to see how distinctive they are. They're both better than the Black Box Merlot that I had most recently.

Those look and sound delicious. How long would you steam them, given that it's all raw when you start?

I opened the zinfandel tonight. Nice for the price. Smooth. Not as brambly or spicy as my favorites, but very drinkable.

Pulled pork, left over from a long-ago picnic. It had been frozen and vacuum-packed, then kept frozen until now.

I found a frozen container of cooked rice. It looked like a good bed for the stuffed chiles. After careful consideration of the suggestions uptopic, and of what we had on hand, I went with this: 1. Lay stuffed chiles on a bed of cooked rice 2. Drizzle with barbecue sauce from Cooper's (my favorite, and he wasn't cooking...so there!) 3. Drizzle with bread crumbs mixed with melted butter 3. Bake covered until chiles starting to soften and brown 4. Bake uncovered until bread crumbs properly browned Serve at table with preferred barbecue sauces and, in his case, toast. Pretty good. Worth repeating? Not unless the ingredients happen to be lying about in need of use. Not worth seeking out the ingredients to make it happen, but definitely a good use of things we needed to use. The leftovers will not be a problem. Incidentally, neither of us thought cheese was necessary. 🙂

Anna and rotuts have convinced me. This pork is flavorful but bland (who knows about the chiles) and probably needs something other than cheese to offset it, either in texture or flavor. A drizzle of barbecue sauce, topped by seasoned, buttered bread crumbs? I don't want to overdo the sauce because that's more a table condiment for us, but a little might be good.

I take it neither of you is a fan of bratwursts with cheddar in the mix? Edited to add: never mind, I see Anna acknowledged the cheddar smokies. Probably the same thing.

Yes, that coring tool worked reasonably well. The triangular teeth along its spine helped clean out the ribs of the chiles. Is it any better than a knife to cut and teaspoon to scrape? I dunno...I'll need more practice to work that out. I agree that the stuffing looks like tuna and mayo, but it's just the pulled pork as purchased at the picnic. The creamy appearance seems to be from the pork juices and seasonings. When they served it on sandwiches at the picnic there was barbecue sauce on the side so you could add your own as you wished.

It's been rainy today, a good day for puttering around in the kitchen and writing. We will have some of our leftover pork steaks from last night. I see no point in showing them again. Nor do I think it's worthwhile to show the potato salad or chopped vegetables we've been noshing on. It may look as though all we eat around here is meat, but the salads and fresh vegetables are abundant as well. What I'm going to show you instead is the prep for tomorrow's dinner. I've rescued another package from being a round-tripper. We Won't Talk About When I Collected This Pulled Pork. Suffice it to say it's from a pre-pandemic airport picnic. I thought it wonderful, and bought extra, divvied it up into vacuum bags and froze it. What came with us this winter almost made it home again. Then I remembered the jalapenos in the crisper drawer. I also remembered the special chile-cleaning knife I picked up in Yuma at a closeout sale. It worked pretty well. I still ended up slitting the peppers down the side for easier stuffing. Here they all are, stuffed. They've gone into the refrigerator for tonight, since we have leftovers. Besides - after the last time I started stuffing peppers late in the day I promised myself to do the prep work in advance. The top two chiles are half of a poblano. The rest are all jalapenos. I had originally thought I'd add cream cheese, and wrap with bacon, then bake. The bacon seems like overkill. Cheese, and hot sauce, maybe. Bread crumbs? Put them all in a casserole dish, cover with cheese and bread crumbs, then bake? What do y'all think? It will happen tomorrow, our last day here in Kansas.

Let's see if I can help here. The photo I was asking about was of his stove / oven. This photo, and its companions, were in links in this post.

Lovely dinner! By "needs mass dampening" do you mean for thermal control?

I like the camp stove/ oven combo you show in one of your smugmug photos. I've looked at them in stores but never been able to justify buying one given our venerable Coleman 3-burner stove and a trailer oven. Have you used the oven portion yet? Is the unit propane powered? Does it ride in the back of the pickup?

That's a great explanation, especially with the linked photos. What a great-looking device! I can believe it helped save your sanity during lockdown.

You know what? As I reread the discussions about butter quarter sizes and shapes I think I have it exactly backwards. I've been buying Challenge Butter in Arizona and it's been the Elgin quarters. The last place we shopped, I found Challenge again - in Western Stubby shapes. Now I'm really confused. Quick, the rest of you! Where are you, and what shape is the butter in your household? I think Challenge is just messing with my mind.

The question of different butter shapes has been discussed on eGullet before (what a surprise!): Eastern v. Western US Butter Sticks. Basically, the reason is history. The Elgin shape (long and skinny, named for the machine that dominated the market) was the standard and continues East of the Rockies. According to this article in The Kitchn, when the Western states started catching up on dairy production the classic equipment wasn't available. The "Western Stubby" butter quarter was born. I'm sure @andiesenji has discussed this in more detail, but I haven't been able to find her contribution to the topic. I'll be pleased to tell you what I think of the wines, once they're opened. Maybe I'll open one tonight. If I like it, there'll be time to go back and get more. Welp, I'm back to yogurt and granola for breakfast. I may have to make more granola before we get home.

I meant to ask about this. What is a Solo fire pit? (Incidentally, you should get a notification that you've been quoted. A quote is another way to get someone's attention!)

That's a lot of driving. Travel photos will be welcome, if you have time, energy and inclination. If not, show us what you will! I've already learned about Earnest Mickler, and his name hadn't registered on me before although his cookbook(s) had.

Some of the honkers (Canada Geese) that inhabit this lake have babies afloat. We don't know whether all have hatched yet; the behavior of some of the geese on shore make us think there might still be nests. At any rate, the little floating puffballs are charming. I like the adults too but they make a frightful mess on the grass! He cooked dinner tonight. Well, I prepped it and he stuck it in the oven, else we'd still be palavering and nothing would be cooking yet. These are not schnitzels. These are pork shoulder steaks, done his favorite way with the breading and baking. You've seen it many times already this trip. Now I have a question that may deserve its own topic: why are the pork steaks getting so huge? Are the pig farmers killing off all their brood stock? If so, what happens next? And no, we didn't even try to eat all that in one sitting. One steak would have done the two of us handsomely, with leftovers - but then we'd have had to argue over who got the bone. This way, each of us has leftovers. They may be tomorrow's dinners, rather than the crab cakes I'd envisioned. Heck, they may be tomorrow's dinner and lunch the day after.