Smithy

Narrower (less surface area) and, I believe, usually cut from a different part of the animal. At any rate the chop rarely seems as marbled as the steak that is cut from a butt roast. I have the idea that chops are cut across a single muscle rather than a group, but someone will probably come along now and prove me wrong.

We took a trip across the sand dunes last week, to make up for (so far) not going to the Salton Sea. I've shown you the Imperial Dunes complex where Interstate 8 crosses it. At the settlement of Glamis, which styles itself something like the "Sand Toy Capitol of the World" the dunes are larger. (Note: I don't remember the exact title that Glamis has adopted, but I do remember that their sign uses the wrong word "capitol". Don't blame me for the misspelling!) It was the windup to Presidents' Day weekend, so the traffic was already building with people towing trailers and their sand toys. I hope the bottom half of the photo below conveys some of the immensity of the area. There were a bunch of campers already in place. Doesn't that look like fun? (I know it's exactly that for a lot of people. It just does't look like our speed.) Once over the dunes, the vegetation develops again, and then suddenly you cross a canal... ...and you're into the cultivated area. The little town of Calipatria was our destination. The grocery store there has what we consider to be a destination-worthy butcher counter. Is it of Stater Bros or H.E.B. quality or extent? No, but they have some of the best pork roasts we've ever had, and they cater to a lower-income population so the prices are good. They also carry boneless "chicken leg meat" - basically, boned chicken hindquarters - at a good price. If I'd wanted to get a 10-pound bag of chicken hindquarters for $10, I could have done that too. I didn't. They also have - glory hallelujah! - San Luis Sourdough bread, which you can just see at the lower right corner of the bread photo. We asked the butcher to cut one of the pork butt roasts into two pieces. He did a pretty good job of confining the bone to one cut, and he wrapped the halves separately. Here's the haul we came home with. This was the source of the flour tortillas I mentioned a couple of meals ago. They were considerably more flexible on Thursday, when we made the trip, than on the day we actually began using them. We had hoped to find thickly-cut pork steaks, to no avail. We instead decided to try a couple of pork chops, which were cut to more nearly the thickness we prefer for pork steaks (about 3/4" thick). I'd intended beef tacos for that night, but should have realized that pork would be inevitable. We breaded and baked the pork chops the same way we'd have done pork steaks. Green beans, and some of my beloved San Luis Sourdough, rounded out the dinner. We've noticed a funny thing about pork steaks: where we live in northern Minnesota, a fairly thick cut is common. It isn't at all common down here. We might have been able to ask the butcher to cut us a couple, but my darling demurred. Maybe he thought we were already buying too much? At any rate, the chops were about the preferred thickness. I thought they weren't as marbled and came out a bit drier than I'd have liked, although they were good. My darling thought them perfect, but agreed that next time we substitute them for pork steaks we'll cook for just a little less time. And now you know whence the beef clod and tortillas of a couple nights ago, and the lovely sourdough bread that's been appearing in grilled cheese sandwiches and other delights. It really is a favorite bread of mine. When I was making my own sourdough loaves I never managed that level of tang although my breads were reasonably good.

Yes! Half the time I don't know whether to "react" with a laugh, a thanks or a simple like.

Please tell more about this!

The truth is that none of them was truly fresh. We'd bought the flower tortillas on Thursday, 3 nights before cooking. The corn tortillas had been hanging out even longer. My bad.

I'm having a grilled cheese and salami sandwich on my favorite sourdough bread. Actually, each of us is having half a sandwich, but as you see these are big slices. I'll tell the story of how I got that bread in another post. I cooked these at the same time. Conscience dictated that I show one of each side, to show that I didn't guite have the heat right when I started. They were still good. Gloriously melty cheese, and crisply grilled bread. They're a far cry from the salad I should be eating. Away w' ye, guilt! Yesterday we awoke to a glorious sunrise, the type that tells us it's going to be windy. It was a good day to just hang out. I made another batch of granola, this time following the New York Times' Olive Oil Granola with Dried Apricots and Pistachios to which @heidih linked much earlier. Well, I followed it almost exactly. I used raisins and dried cranberries instead of the apricots, and cut down on the sweeteners. Today's breakfast was the trial. The verdict: pretty good. I think the sweetening still isn't right, but I'm not sure whether it needs less maple syrup only, or some brown sugar (which I omitted entirely) to substitute. My darling thinks it's perfect as is. I'm counting on him not to be as fussy about the flavors as I am! Breakfast yesterday was really brunch, for me, and another bit of self-indulgence using the selfsame loaf of sourdough bread. Neither of us had slept well the night before, so we were in a self-indulgent mood. We were also in a celebratory mood: the rotten sleep had been due to arm pain from our first Covid vacccinations! Yay! There were no worse side effects. In other news: the ocotillos are starting to put on a good show, and one little guy is apparently trying for the Youth Achievement award. It's nice to be able to find those blossoms at eye level. Another mature ocotillo seems to be trying for the craggly award. Maybe that's the ocotillo's equivalent of being a Grumpy Old Man. Or maybe it just doesn't know which way is up. The fairy dusters are also beginning to bloom. This particular bush gave us every possible stage: new buds, open flowers, last year's seed pods. Those bushes will all be showing off soon.

There's been a lot happening here, and it's going to take a few posts to catch up, with the order all out of kilter. At least it will be the order of the story, rather than our lives in general, out of kilter! Since we're on the topic of messy street food, I'll begin with last night's dinner: tacos, to use up some onion, (past) ripe bell pepper, cilantro-about-to-go-off, green onion (ditto), jalapeno, tortillas bought specially for this purpose, and a lovely shoulder clod of beef. I'll tell the story about getting that beef later. The espresso and ancho rub was a gift from my sister. She often gives me interesting spice blends from salty-savory-sweet Spice and Tea Shoppe for Christmas or my birthday. Many are great, and this one is particularly good. It has a hint of sweetness in addition to heat, and it did great things for the beef. The tortillas were another matter. I Do Not Have the knack of cooking them enough to get them warm and (in the case of flour tortillas) eliminate the raw flour taste without overcooking and getting them crunchy. Messy street food, indeed! At least we had plates and flatware. We added shredded lettuce, salsa (made at home last summer) and sour cream at will, at the table. It was delicious, but messy. Interestingly, he really couldn't tell the taste difference between the corn tortillas and the flour tortillas. He preferred flour tortillas for the larger size. I preferred corn for the taste. This is something that's changed for me over the last couple of years.

Here is the space over my stove, where the most-commonly used spices live. There's a similar cupboard to the right of the microwave. I keep bottled things and cereals in it. Since the spice cabinet is the biggest nuisance I'll focus on it. In the collage below, I show the bottom half of the opened cupboard. See the little plastic box? It contains a flour shaker, some packaged spices, a bulb of garlic, a spary can, and whatever spice jars I happen to have used last, because I had to put the box back in to have a little bit of counter space and I can't be bothered to pull the box back out again. Some sort of slide-out racks that hold the jars in place but pull out to let me see them (without getting out a step stool as noted above, and a flashlight) would be immensely helpful. I bought the plastic inserts at a kitchen store and quickly learned that they double the storage space but still don't keep bottles from falling over unless the plastic crate is in place to hold them upright. @Rilwan and any other kitchen designer should know that this tiny kitchen is in a travel trailer. Most normal people who love to cook don't live in travel trailers like this one. The solution would be for me to curtail my cooking so that I have fewer objects to stow, but I live in this trailer for 6 months out of the year and I'm not willing to do so.

Yes, do consider it. Our current situation is admittedly an unusual one, since it's a travel trailer, but it has very high ceilings with cupboards that go all the way up. I need a step stool (single step) to get at most things, and a step ladder (3 steps) to get at some. I joke that I get plenty of "step" exercise during the day, but it's a major nuisance to me and would be a safety concern for my husband if he were the main cook.

By "top cupboards" do you mean the cupboards above the countertop, or do you mean the really high cupboards that require a stepstool to reach? I have some of both, and the answers may be different. The more I think about it, the more I think I can show pictures of what frustrates me in my current kitchen, if you'd like to see it.

Too bad about the eggplant! I thought the lasagna and lamb korma looked appealing, the pasta not so much. I'm an eggplant fan, but I suppose that if I'd missed the "vegetarian" label and was expecting meat even I would have been disappointed.

Good morning! Yesterday there was a taco stand at the Farmers' Market, so I tried some of their fare: a grilled pasilla chile stuffed with carne asada and cheese, and topped with guacamole; and a taco - I've already forgotten, but I think it also contained carne asada as well as onions and cole slaw. It was pretty good, but messy. I'm not sure how I was supposed to eat that chile, but I tried a spoon and fork, and after a bite or two of the chile itself abandoned the effort. The stuffing was good. I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture of the stand itself. Maybe next week. The fare isn't as good as I've gotten at the other taqueria I've written about, but I like the idea of supporting the farmers' market, too. Last night we indulged in an old favorite for the first time this trip. He has a strong preference for Prego's Spaghetti Sauce with Italian Sausage and Garlic. When he makes it, he just boils the noodles and microwaves the entire jar of sauce. I can't leave things that simple, of course. I cooked a pound of hot Italian sausage with some chopped onion, then added the jarred sauce and a bit of wine that I used to rinse the sauce jar. We don't have spaghetti noodles, as such, so I used linguini rather than capellini. Grated parmesan went on it at the table. The bread is sliced from my latest loaf. The sun continues to put on a good morning and evening show.

I had to go back and find "flock" again in this context. Curiously, Google was of no help...it kept sending me to grain flakers and chicken flocks! But of course, WE have a topic in which flockers are discussed, starting about here. Since I was already starting with rolled oats, I take it I should have simply pulsed them in a food processor? I'm still not planning to combine oats with salmon again, but I may need to think about substituting rolled oats for quick-cooking oats in some other application. Edited to add: I think this is also what @chromedome was suggesting above. Am I correct?

Ah, now I understand why you were out here!

In fairness to the recipe I should have mentioned that step. The recipe did say to spritz the oats with oil, and I did do that. The rest of your comments also make sense, and if I try the technique with different flavors and coating I'll stick with a bigger cut.

In the "you win some, you lose some" department: I've had the tab open on my browser for months lest I lose this recipe for Maple Mustard Oat-Crusted Salmon. I've mentioned before that I'm not crazy about maple flavor, but it has its places. The occasional maple-planked salmon can be a good thing. I know my darling prefers things slightly sweeter than I do, so this recipe looked like a possibility. I pulled out a treasure brought from home and stored safely in the freezer. The salmon is caught by a Duluth fisherman who spends his summers in Alaska and brings/sends home fine salmon and halibut. By buying this I was supporting a favorite local restaurant making do during the pandemic AND a local (so to speak) fisherman. The recipe isn't difficult: make a paste of maple syrup and mustard; coat the salmon flesh with that; dip in quick-cooking oats. Briefly sear the skin in a skillet, then put under the broiler, then serve. It's entirely possible that rolled oats weren't a good substitute for quick-cooking oats. I know I overcooked the salmon under the broiler. Nonetheless, neither of us liked the flavors. The basic technique of coating the salmon with something (butter, oil, seasonings) and coating with chopped pecans, then doing that pan treatment, would work. I won't try this particular recipe again. I can close that tab now. The asparagus, on the other hand, was excellent: a brief blanch in boiling water, then a toss with good butter. What more could anyone want?

Oh baby, sing it! I realized long ago, thanks to these winter excursions, that I'd have made a terrible astronaut. At least here I can get outside by myself!

One more recent dinner bears description. I was disappointed to discover that the last frozen container of beans - a very large container - was not, after all, from Cooper's. My darling, on the other hand, was delighted. These beans were left over from our grandson's wedding last July. The Groom's Dinner was a barbecue buffet expertly done by our grandson's mother and some of her friends. Of course there were leftovers. We got some. What he likes about them, and I don't, is that they're sweet: whether with molasses, brown sugar, or both, I don't know. I didn't work out that I could like beans until I discovered that they don't have to be sweetened! That was one package out of the freezer. Another was this set of bratwursts brought from home. They've been serving as a freezer compartment divider all this time. We had originally planned to grill these over a campfire, but opted for the comfort and convenience of the Princessmobile's kitchen. I pan-fried the brats and microwaved the beans. We both added our favorite barbecue sauces to make the beans more to our liking. He'll enjoy the rest of the beans. As you can see, he wanted buns with his brats. I didn't, which is well because the last of the buns had also come out of the freezer. Last night as I was prepping dinner I spotted a pair of headlights come up the nearest north-south dirt road, shining a spotlight. The vehicle turned off the road and toward our campsite. "Company!" I yelled. It wasn't - which was a relief, since we weren't expecting anyone. It was quite dark, but we could tell from the side lights as it passed that it was a pickup towing a trailer. How big the trailer was we couldn't tell. The pickup continued on. "No problem," I said, "they're going to the other end of the clearing." There's plenty of room down there. That's where we stayed over Thanksgiving, when our present and preferred spot was occupied. The lights stopped. People walked around with flashlights. It was an incredibly late setup...but then all the lights disappeared! That must have been the quickest setup known to humankind. This morning, when we could see, we could see...nothing except the usual vegetation. There is a very narrow track off this area going the way they went. We tracked them for a mile this morning, expecting to find them stuck, or camped. The tracks continued on, along flats and across washes, to who-knows-where. Why they went that way, where they finally went, and why they couldn't have done the trip in the daylight will remain a mystery.

It isn't as though we needed meat anyway, except the kielbasas my darling insists on buying to keep us in hash supplies. He continues to kvetch about how much meat is in the freezer, yet can hardly stand to pass up a ham (he threatened this morning to buy another at the next opportunity) or his hash stash. Meanwhile, I keep buying more vegetables than I can reasonably deal with. I have an especially complicated relationship with cauliflower. I keep seeing good-looking recipes for cauliflower, and want to cook them. I buy a cauliflower. Then I hide it where I won't have to face trimming and cutting it, and working out what to do with it! At the back my mind I still have the wretched memory of my mother's treatment of the vegetable. She was a good cook, in general, but I think the only thing she knew to do with cauliflower was to boil (or maybe steam) it, cover it with cheese sauce, and bake it. Cheesy mush. Yuck. But I had a cauliflower, and I have several recipes I want to try, and some of them are in an Indian cookbook that I have littered with bookmarks. The other night I finally girded my loins, or whatever the woman's equivalent is, and dealt with the cauliflower. THEN I discovered that my darling loves the stuff! Raw! Cooked however! Thrown into salads! How did I not know this before now? The Indian recipe is for Aloo gobhi: garlic and chile-flavored potatoes with cauliflower. What I didn't understand until I began cooking is that you're supposed to cook the cauliflower and potatoes separately, then fry them with the spices (mustard seeds, cumin seeds, garlic), then toss with turmeric and cilantro. Seems a bit of a time-waster to me to cook those veg ahead of time, and the chicken was already in the oven. The microwave helped speed things along. The meat was chicken thighs breaded and baked. It was very good, even better when I added butter to the vegetables. But how could I not have known how much he loves cauliflower? Here's one of our better recent sunset views, looking both east and west from the trailer.

Last Wednesday was once again Geezer Day at Fry's: the day people over 55 years old get a 10% discount on everything, even the already sale-priced items. We had reason to be at the eastern end of Yuma, so opted to do our stocking-up shopping at the Foothills Fry's rather than our usual. I wrote about that store in fair detail here and in another post shortly afterward, so I only bothered with one photo. This really was a good deal! The surprising thing about this store is that despite its much larger size and outstanding seafood counter, its meat counter and selection weren't nearly as good as what we're used to. We didn't need any of the interesting rices or mustard I'd noted in a previous trip. What we did need was a lot fewer people. We learned that the downside to shopping on Geezer Day at the end of town where the Geezers are concentrated is waaaay toooo many Very Slow People and waaaay tooo much ground to cover from aisle to aisle to accomplish our mission. We'll stick to the downtown Fry's after this!

The sunrise has moved northward, just as it should. Whereas sunrise appeared in the largest notch in the center of the mountains on the Winter Solstice (see here for that sequence), it's now nearly clear of the mountains altogether. Spring continues. Only a week ago I commented that the ocotillos were putting out blossoms even though they weren't putting out leaves. Well, look at them now! I thank the folks who suggested granola as a way to improve yogurt. It does. A good avocado improves the ensemble even more, of course. Unfortunately, some element of the granola has a rancid taste. I suspect the oats, which are old, but it could also be the peanuts. I bought fresh oats, nuts, seeds and coconut flakes last week at Sprouts, another grocery store chain in town. I think making another batch and giving the current stuff to the desert critters is one of today's projects. I won't tell my darling until it's a done deal, though. He thinks the current batch tastes fine. It just dawned on me that I didn't take any pictures of Sprouts, so I'll have to give you that tour some other time. I did take a picture of the shrimp tacos from my favorite taco place, though. Somehow I had the tacos gubernador and tacos de camarones confused as to which had the fried shrimp. It's the shrimp tacos. The breading is crisp and the shrimp have just the right "pop" of delicately cooked shrimp. Delicious. I suppose sometime I'll have to try their fish tacos to see how they compare. Maybe next week.

That's beautiful! The gold charger plate under it is the perfect complement.

What type of vinegar, @Darienne?

There are some excellent recommendations for uses of rosemary, and I hope my entry here does not discourage further ideas. However, it can have its limits. I post this link as a cautionary tale, courtesy of our beloved Fat Guy. Enjoy.

I certainly hope so!