Smithy

Tell me the sequence of making the sauce and adding the pasta, please. Do you just bung all the ingredients together in the pot and let the sauce cook the macaroni?

We went to town yesterday for groceries. The bottom right image is of the spillway that we drive across to get to and from our campground. I asked a few years ago what happens when the water level gets too high for safe driving across the spillway. The rangers said there's a back route out that comes out through "The Base". We think that means under the arch in the top picture. The high school sign gave us a laugh. Anyone who follows the Crazy Good e-Book Bargains topic, or topics devoted to dead tree cookbooks, knows that I find cookbooks irresistible. Sometimes I wonder why. In my case they're probably a triumph of ambition over good sense. When I buy them at bargain prices, or borrow from the library, they're cheap entertainment. But when it comes time actually to cook I often turn to old faves. I work from my own notes (paper scraps or electronic file) and work on refining the dishes to our satisfaction. So it was last night. We still have leftover ham from the last one we cooked, sometime before Llano. There are still sandwich slices for when we hit the road in a couple of days, but there are also chunks. Mac 'n' Cheese 'n' Ham it was! I used elbow macaroni, and less cheese sauce than in past iterations. I also baked it in a shallow baking dish instead of the usual Corning pot. This was my best result yet! The shallower baking dish meant more even cooking and a better texture overall. It could have used perhaps a touch more sauce, or more likely, less pasta. I'd like it to have been slightly more cohesive. I'd also like it to have had more brown crust, either on the top or the bottom. I think a hotter oven will take care of that. I forgot the mustard, and neither of us missed it. The only thing I don't like about making this dish is the cleanup. My best friend says she makes her version of it using a single pot. I want this to bake after being mixed. So there's the pot for the pasta, the pot for the sauce, the cutting boards and knives and graters and measuring cups/spoons...here's what I did after the baking dish went into the oven! (Okay, there's also a pre-dinner cocktail glass and a lunch dish or two.) In an ideal world I'd have had all that done earlier in the day, but we were in town and then I had a conference call that delayed the prep work. I was tired. We both were pleased. This morning's leftovers are put away, and they're as cohesive as I'd hoped.

So much for my moratorium on buying new e-books until l've explored the ones I already own. Crikey.

@Kim Shook, we really need a "drool" icon.

He was in charge of dinner tonight. Breaded and oven-baked pork steaks. Frozen peas, microwaved with butter. Toast from Cooper's for him. I'm about to wash up, then deal with the nascent asparagus soup.

A photo would be welcome. I have my grandmother's wavy potato masher at home. Is that what you mean by a heater coil? (Don't worry, I won't be insulted if it is. ) Anyway, the straits just got more dire. My would-be potato masher system for the Princessmobile seems dead in the water. Remember the asparagus trimmings from earlier today? They've been simmering away on the stove top, yielding their goodness for soup. It's prettier in person than in this photo. The idea is to blend it all to get the best of the flavor, then strain out the fiber - a mighty project, I might add - and then reheat with a bit of cream, and possibly top with fresh asparagus tips. I have a small food processor aboard the Princessmobile, and we have shore power, but my preferred way to deal with something like this is a wand blender and a deep container. The food processor tends to throw liquid too high in the container, and leak out onto the counter, unless I do very small batches. I have a wand blender with excellent attachments, and there's the connection with mashed (okay, whipped ... I know it isn't the same) potatoes. This was a Christmas present some years and one trailer back. I put the battery into my Ace of Wands so it could do its magic. Nothing happened. The battery was dead. I put the battery into the battery charger. What you can't see in a still photo is that the battery charging light is flashing rapidly. The battery is dead, not as in "drained" but as in "refuses to charge". I don't think it's a problem with the charger, since it shows the error light. I've cleaned all the contacts. Same error. The next step is to contact KitchenAid, I suppose. Maybe the battery can be rebuilt when we get home. In the meantime, those asparagus trimmings are simmering with a quart of my chicken broth - and no good way to extract the most flavor from it all. I think a very simple colander straining will be in order, despite the potential loss of flavor from the more stubborn stalks. Who knows? Maybe the convenience will be worth the lost intensity of flavor? And I do realize this is a first-world problem.

@Shelby, I'm torn between giving a "sad face" over your gardening and weather issues, and laughing over your potato masher comment!

We could be home from here in 4 hard days of driving, or even 3 very hard days of driving. We plan to stay here a few days and give the cold weather to the north time to move out. If all goes according to our loose plan, we'll move at the end of this week to Kansas, spend a few days there, and then drive longish (but not arduous) hours the last 3 days.

Leftovers for lunch today, in an effort to start clearing the freezer and refrigerator. He pulled out the container of potatoes from our last ham. We have ham slices left, but have been using them in sandwiches. The spuds are surrounded by a salty, smoky ham goo. I almost changed my mind about what to eat when I saw that, but had already started thawing my own choice: leftover rice from some recent roasting exercise - chicken, I think. Our refrigerator door shelves are littered with dribs and drabs... small containers of ketchup from takeout, little mustards. Two small containers with the very last of my Little Green Dress. A mystery jar with, er, oil? Garlic? Roasting juice? I was so sure I'd remember that I didn't bother labeling it. My bad. No matter. The rice, along with a spoonful of that mystery juice and a container of LGD, was peppery and lemony and a bit salty and flavorful. Delicious. I'm glad I didn't opt for the potatoes.

It's difficult to believe that we left the desert only 2 weeks ago. The memory of being out in the open and tracking the sunrise and sunset seems distant already. The water and greenery are beautiful, of course, but the desert had its own beauty. It's cool here (despite the view) and frost is forecast tonight. We're taking advantage of electricity in the park, and I'm about to fire up the Instant Pot for some soup. I'm amazed at much asparagus I've collected in the freezer by saving the trimmings! That's chicken broth in the upper left corner. I took out another container after taking this photo. We're still working on leftovers from Cooper's in Llano. He's looking forward to getting them out of the refrigerator. I'm not; it will be the end of a treasure. We have options here in Mineral Wells for one last hurrah, but it won't be Cooper's. Tonight, though, will be something warming from our oven - most likely breaded and baked pork steaks. He's been hankering for them again. Dinner last night: Breakfast this morning: One small freezer project I have going is avocado preservation. My best friend had gotten a windfall of them earlier this winter and had saved them using this method: mash them up, mix with a little lemon juice to prevent browning, stuff into freezer bags and squeeze out all the air. Freeze. The resulting guacamole, with addition of salsa after thawing, was quite good. I decided to try it for myself when I spotted avocados in New Mexico at bargain prices, and I loaded up. I realized in Llano that I didn't have a good way to mash the avocado. A blender or chopper seemed a bit much. I don't have a potato masher aboard the Princessmobile. I did what I could with forks until I ran out of patience, then loaded it into the storage bag and mashed and squeezed the pulp while it was confined. Here's the beginning and result (so far): This avocado adventure may seem a bit of a shaggy dog story, since I won't be doing anything with the stuff until after we get home. It's still a kitchen project. If I like the results, I'll post about it someday in the What Are You Preserving, and How Are You Doing It? topic.

I hope you don't mind another couple of questions! Do you normally put the potatoes under the rack and the duck (or whatever) on top of the rack, or does it all go atop the rack? This time, when you added the potatoes later toward the end of cooking, did you still put them under the duck and maybe the rack?

It seems I'm not the only one asking what happened. So far, Lone Star ain't telling.

The writers had fun with that article!

A short walk from this park is the main north/south road through town. It's a busy road, fairly easy to cross despite the traffic, but there's also a path under the nearby bridge. During the busiest times that's my preferred route to the other side. There, one finds some of the aforementioned not-Cooper's restaurants, a museum, the Visitor's Center, and a lovely botanical / sculptural garden that improves each time we visit. This curious sculpture appeared recently. Next to the sculpture is Tommy's Mesquite-Fired Pizza. I've been curious about them for a long time. I'm not sure I've ever had wood-fired pizza, as opposed to what gets delivered from Pizza Hut or Domino's when we're traveling and staying in hotels. I've been wondering what the fuss is about, but they're only open on Fridays and Saturdays and we've never managed a visit. We checked it out earlier in the day, when the pizza oven was getting going and the staff had their own separate grilled foods ready for snacking. "Help yourself to some asparagus!" said the proprietor. This pencil-thin asparagus had been a bargain find at the grocery store. From what I could tell it was simply the untrimmed spears laid on foil and generously dosed with butter. I'll try that in the future. I think I might trim the stems, but that's a minor quibble. It was good. (He didn't offer me any of the pork tenderloin!) Here's their menu, printed on the business card he gave me. When the time came for dinner, I walked back under the bridge and placed an order: Pepperoni and Italian Sausage on the entire pizza, jalapenos and mushrooms on half. He only charged me $13, since I was only using half the extra toppings! I'd been prepared to spend $14, so the extra dollar went into the tip jar. (I might note that this was an extra-inexpensive dinner, since I'd scooped up $7 in found money during trash pickup earlier in the day!) They also offer salads and drinks, but I didn't investigate them. While I waited for my pizza, I took pictures of the outside dining area. It was cool and windy, and I think everyone else had done as I intended: taken their order to go. I carefully photographed around people; it wasn't as deserted as my photos seem to imply. I enjoyed watching the oven operation. In between pizzas the cook would rake coals forward over the front bricks to reheat the surface, then scrape them back and brush the bricks to clear ash before laying down the next batch of pizzas. The proprietor kept the storage area under the oven chamber filled with fresh wood. I heard the occasional admonishment to "watch the fire and don't let it go out" so it's possible the cook was in training. This wood-fired pizza oven procedure may be common knowledge for most of you, but I'd never seen the process before yesterday evening. It looked easy but took a lot of attention. I went to check out the sculpture more carefully. The placards made it all clear: it was a collaborative effort on the part of some local Junior High School and High School students, with guidance from very good teachers. The creativity and multidisciplanary nature of this is wonderful. There's a solar panel atop it with LED's running in strategic locations. Maybe tonight I'll go back after dark to see how it looks. I finished admiring and photographing this project at about the time my pizza order was ready. They handed me this box... ...I went back under the bridge and to the Princessmobile... ...and deliciousness ensued. The pizza had a thin crust, crisp on the bottom, with a bit of charring that seems to be the main goal of our die-hard pizza fans. I liked the bite. I loved the tang of the tomato sauce beneath the topping. There were no leftovers for breakfast this morning.

I think it's obvious that we come to Llano in part because we like the park and the area, but mostly because we love the Texas barbecue. I don't wish to imply that there are no other dining options around. There's a Chinese restaurant, at least two Mexican restaurants, at least one Italian restaurant. They may all be excellent, but they aren't 'cue. Last night I decided that we really needed to try something from someone other than Cooper's. My darling would have been pleased with leftovers from Cooper's (we have a lot) but he knew the unyielding signs of my determination. I'll show in the next post what I chose for us to eat. Right now I'm going to take you on a small walk around town to get a bit more flavor of Llano. I was on my way to Miller's Smokehouse, home of some fine house-made sausages and stuffed jalapenos of various types. Oops. They're closed on Sundays. The Hungry Hunter, across the road, isn't. The Llano Crawfish Open was this weekend, hence their sign. It looked like they were doing land-office business. Cooper's, a couple of blocks away, was also open and doing brisk business. But Miller's is closed on Sundays. No stuffed jalapenos from them this time! I spoke with someone who'd worked the crawfish festival this weekend. He said they'd cooked something like 15,000 (or was it 18,000?) pounds of the little devils. It might have been fun. It might have been a very loud scene. Given the fact that the pandemic is far from over, we weren't interested in making the drive and checking it out. Seen around town: It's been cool the last few days, but the flowers are still spectacular I generally only show the pretty stuff, but this town has a wide variety of houses, from well-tended to, er, thoroughly lived in Creative display at an "antiques" store

That's a great idea. We live out in the country, so it wouldn't work for us, but you've given me an idea. (I tried in vain to find a library that would let me donate my collection to their used book sales. No dice.) Much of my magazine collection has already gone to recycling, but since our Farmers' Markets will reopen this summer (I hope) they're a potential giveaway source. Hmm, even the Little Free Libraries are a possibility.

That sounds sensible, but I can vouch that my grandparents' tree was satisfactory for over 20 years...as long as they needed it. I forgot to mention the grapefruit branch. As far as the sour orange rootstock taking over...well, that's what suckering and pruning are about. Ask me how I know about those sucker thorns!

My ideal would be to graft a branch or three of different lemons on the same rootstock. So in Franci's case, graft a bud or three of Lisbon (or Eureka, whichever grows better there) lemons to the Meyer. My father was very good at that sort of thing. He grafted a variety of citrus onto one orange tree for his parents. As I recall that single tree had Valencia and Navel oranges, Mandarin oranges (what we called tangerines back then) and lemons - probably Lisbon, certainly whatever passed for the standard lemon there. It was their "fruit salad" tree.

It IS pretty funny, although I'm sure Marks & Spencer doesn't think so. I wonder how many news articles and blog posts are already out there showing how easy it is to make your own caterpillar cake. The (admittedly clever) concept seems a difficult thing for M & S to protect, even though they may have been the first to market it.

The plancha made me laugh aloud in self-recognition. We have never had such an appliance, new or old, but I've lusted after the concept and I imagine I'd have exactly the same experience as yours. I gave away to my DIL the oversized electric heavy-duty electric skillet that I'd bought for party purposes because it sat unused. She cooks for crowds. My version of a crowd these days is 6 dinner guests. I have much the same feeling about restaurants. i miss the swishy restaurant experience but my husband doesn't, so we so far settle (post-vaccinations) for places that can cook things we can't or I won't.

This essay made me laugh. Cookbooks are great, pastry is easy.... I think he nailed what's so wonderful about restaurants. His discussion about the value of cookbooks and of his kitchen remodeling was fun. I fear I recognized a bit of myself in his comments about ambition vs. reality. 😄

Thanks. Speaking of brew: we went to Cooper's Old-Time Barbecue again tonight for takeout. Third time this week so far, oink! This time around I asked for a Lone Star beer. The gentleman behind the counter pulled one out of the ice and handed it to me. In the excitement of paying, loading up on sides, visiting with clerks who said "welcome back, glad to see you again" I forgot the beer. I missed it only when we got back to the Princessmobile. I drove back up the couple of blocks, walked in, and the gentleman greeted me with a smile. "I kept it cold for you!" he said, and pulled the bottle back out of the ice. 🙂 Gotta love that level of customer service! The story takes a strange turn, though. The bottle looked odd, and after a moment I realized it had a plain silver cap. Normally it would have a Texas star on it. Worse yet, when I twisted the lid off there was no rebus inside! Whaaa...? That's the main point of the beer! I need to find out whether they've dropped the puzzle permanently or are experiencing a temporary bottle cap shortage.

Aww, how cute! Thanks for the link. 🙂

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I'd like that insurance adjuster to come see what hail did to my airplane's paint one year! Still, it could have been worse here. Just before I climbed up to the roof I was talking to some RVers who are staying in a campground a mile or two away. Their hail was somewhere between golf ball and baseball sized. Punched holes in all of the air conditioner covers! We only had cracks in the one skylight, and no other visible damage to the Princessmobile. Thanks on the compliment about the food! My best friend and her husband trade off cooking duties. More than once this year she's texted me: "what are your dinner plans tonight? I'm looking for ideas!" 😄 Thanks also for the well-wishes on my darling. It's never fun to be sick. I think he'll be better after another day of rest.