Smithy

Who knew that a schnitzel coating could be too tough, or could overpower the meat inside? In this case the meat was 4 very thin boneless pork steaks that had been in the freezer too long. 😒 I'm not sure we have liked it any better if we could have tasted the meat... but the next time I do schnitzel I'll make sure the ratio of coating to meat thickness is better. (I'll also post about this in the Schnitzel Cook-off topic if I can think of something more sensible to say about it.)

My friends live in suburbs with no room for a firepit, and not much view of the night sky, but we had a great time anyway. The moon shots are from when I got back home to the Princessmobile. We have a firepit, but when it's warm sometimes we just sit out on the deck and don't bother with the fire. It's funny about elbow macaroni: I'm just beginning to appreciate it myself. I have unhappy associations with the boxed macaroni and cheese mixes. Now that I'm learning what you already know I think I'll keep it around and ignore most of the "cute" pasta shapes I've bought in the past. I have one more package of butterflies/bowties to use up. A couple of nights ago I did a smoked salmon pasta that used the last of the World Market Orechietti (little ears) that I bought pre-pandemic. They were fun, but not worth seeking out again.

I've been away for a week, visiting my best friends, over in San Diego. It's been a delightful break, filled with fun changes of pace and scenery, and some very good food as well. My friends keep expenses and fat down in the food choices, but anyone who thinks that means poor food would be in for a surprise at their house. I only took two food photos, however. My first night there we had a grilled salmon with their own barbecue sauce - delicious, and the only way they'll cook salmon since they hit on this method oh, 25 years ago. I didn't get a picture of that. The next day we had a "stretch the leftovers" lunch, a common routine for them. The resulting salad was brilliant, and almost too much again! In addition to the salmon there was elbow macaroni, chopped red pepper, chopped green onion, cut cooked asparagus, chopped kalamata olives, a bit of oil and vinegar (with mustard?), a sprinkle of Presidents feta cheese crumbles. I've probably forgotten something. It really came together as a "what needs to be used up" sort of dish, never to be repeated, worth commemorating as inspiration. The other food photo showcases a brilliant 3-way collaboration on dinner on my last night there. He roasted a chicken in a cast iron skillet, and cooked mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot. She made her delightful cornbread dressing, and gravy from the chicken drippings. I made cranberry relish and (the forgettable part of the dinner) steamed broccoli with lemon vinaigrette. In between times we had a lot of meatless dinners and never missed the meat. Some other time I'll cook up the brussels sprouts with white beans that we tried, from a Washington Post recipe I flagged last December. The recipe is a keeper. We did some good things with those leftovers too. Back home, I find that flowers and plants are FINALLY starting to come to life. It's so much later in the season than usual that I'll be surprised if we are here to see the wolfberries ripen. The tiny flowers (bottom left in collage below) are just starting to appear. The full moon has been putting on a show. We don't track its orbital antics as carefully as we do the sun's, because it varies from night to night. I'm not talking about the phases of the moon; I'm talking about where it rises and sets. Note the butte in the collage below. Two nights ago the moon came up well to the left of the butte; the next night it rose from behind. I wish I'd known to expect that! I'd have had my good camera set on a tripod. These are all cell phone pictures. (The glow at the left is from neighbors.) This morning I made another batch of granola, this time based on my best friend's recipe. She started me down this path a year ago! For 1 c oats there's 1 T honey and 1T oil. I doubled the batch, and baked at about 325 (stirring occasionally) about 10 minutes before adding a handful each of sunflower seeds and chopped pistachios. After another 5 minutes I turned off the heat and went for a walk. When we got back and I'd broken everything up I added a handful each of raisins (for him) and chopped craisins (for me). Breakfast will look a lot like this for the next several days: I remembered belatedly that I had no yogurt, so I poured the only fruit juice I could find on it - passion fruit pulp, purchased for a dessert that still hasn't happened. He thinks the granola is fine as is. I think it has too much dried fruit and possibly too much honey - it's pretty sweet - but I also think something tastes a bit rancid. The oats were purchased fresh from Sprouts a few weeks ago, but I sitll suspect them. I'm almost done with them and will try another source next.

@FauxPas, thanks. I think.

A couple of nights ago it was MY turn to cook a dud dinner. Hank Shaw's Hunter Gardener Angler Cook blog had a recipe for Green Chile Stew that looked just the ticket for a cool night. We had a package of roasted, skinned, chopped Hatch Green Chiles from a grocery store in Deming a few years ago, when we couldn't make it through Hatch. I had spotted an eye of round (beef) roast at a great sale price during our previous grocery visit. It was too good to pass up. I know it's a challenging cut, but surely a stew would be a good use. The steps are actually pretty simple, and as Shaw notes it's all about the quality of the ingredients. I tested the "medium-hot" Hatch chiles after they had thawed. A-HOO-ah! I used half the recommended amount. I supplemented it with a deribbed, deseeded and chopped fresh Anaheim chile I'd bought when I purchased the beef. That has nice flavor without a lot of heat. The stew steps: The stew: There are extra potatoes in there because as I'd been tasting the stew I could tell it was too hot. Even with the extra potatoes it was too hot. All we could taste was chile heat! We supplemented the stew with sour cream. That helped tame the heat and we could taste some pretty good flavors. The beef was good: flavorful and not tough. Still. The day had been trying for reasons irrelevant to this story, and this dinner was a terrible disappointment, certainly not worth the effort I'd put into it, especially when The Partner is perfectly happy with microwaved tube steaks and grocery-store potato salad. I was all in favor of taking the rest out into the wilds to see if it made the coyotes howl with pain, then throwing away my cooking gear. My darling persuaded me to try putting pasta into the stew instead. Maybe that would dilute the heat and let us taste the underlying flavors. What the heck. I'm not into abusing wildlife anyway. I heated up egg noodles in the stew and turned off the heat to let it sit overnight. By the next morning the noodles had cooked, the stew had thickened and the good flavors could be discerned. It's still hot, but tolerably so. We had some leftovers for lunch, and the remnants are divvied up for later meals. So the dinner and cookware were rescued, but I'm not buying those medium-hot chiles again. I think the recipe I tried is a generic enough stew recipe that it need not be saved.

I'm getting ready to leave town for a week and leave my darling to his own devices in the Princessmobile. We made a quick trip to town to get propane and fuel, and stock up on his preferred foods. His preferred dinner foods are tube steaks, burgers, potato salad and leftovers - especially if there's chili or pea stew in the freezer. He really isn't into cooking things that need more than one cooking step or utensil. I'm glad he likes my cooking. "Tube steaks" is a catch-all term and I'm being a bit too broad with it. He's had Polish sausage on the brain lately. Especially smoked Polish sausage. Especial Bar S brand smoked Polish sausage, which has the added benefit of being inexpensive at the best of times. Today they were on sale, and downright cheap. We bought a package of these last week and have already made a sigificant dent in it. He wanted more to make sure he didn't run out. He likes other sausages like Andouille if it's mixed with rice or pasta, and Italian sausage if it's mixed in a pasta sauce, but the nights are beginning to hint at being warm enough to cook outside over a fire. For that, it must be Polish sausage. I was intrigued by these specialty bratwursts, although we didn't buy any. It's fun to see that Four Peaks Brewery, of Kilt Lifter Scottish-style ale fame, has branched out on its brew and bratwurst offerings. We got home around 10:30 a.m, hungry because we'd skipped breakfast in order to expedite the expedition. I indulged in brunch: a pork roast sandwich. Oinkerooo. That will keep me until dinner! Speaking of those Polish sausages: nothing would do but last night we had to cook some over a campfire. We, ah, got a refresher course on the difference between cooking over a fire and cooking over coals. Patience is a virtue.

It looks as though we could set up two of the slim racks side by side in the space available. Each rack could roll out individually to allow access to what we need. Of course, I'm talking about a roughly $100 solution for an aggravation that I've almost gotten used to. There's also the question of how exactly we'd manage to install the racks. Drill holes in the base, then slide the racks in and insert the screws? Mount the whole thing to a base board and slide that into the cabinet? And then anchor that somehow? It's something to think about.

The dimensions for that one are wrong (too large to fit through the opening) but the idea might be workable. That site has another possibility that looks more promising and - wait for it - considerably more expensive. Still, it's a possibility. Thanks!

Thanks for that. In fact, I was thinking both corn and wheat. I even have masa! But I have yet to try making tacos of either type. Does the rolling pin or a skillet mash work for corn tortillas also?

Interesting that the salad book has a vase of scallions. Here I thought that technique for keeping them around longer was a new discovery! It must have been new only to me. Does every photo in the Quick and Easy book show a time piece?

Every one of those I've seen is for a small tortilla, though: 6" or 8", I forget which. Are there bigger presses for the grande (10", 12") size you'd use for burritos?

The other day when I was at the East end of Yuma I discovered a kitchen store! Oops. It won't be here much longer. Everything must go, and everything's half off except the shelving and other store equipment. I don't remember what the deal was on those appurtenances. Too bad I'm making the discovery so late in the store's life cycle. I'll take you on a little tour anyway. This place was a gadget-lover's paradise. You want silicone trivets or pot lids or bowl stabilizers? You got 'em. You want individual covered holders for cupcakes? They're here. How about silicone double-boiler inserts, or an old-fashioned peanut butter stirring gizmo? (I'd have gone for that last if "natural" peanut butter that settles and separates hadn't been banished from the household.) They also had the old-fashioned wall-mounted Swing-a-Way can openers, though I didn't get a picture. I'd have bought one if I could have figured out where to mount it. It may be a cheap revival of an old standard anyway. That's my story and I'll console myself with it. There were gadgets it never occurred to me to want. My sales resistance was high, so I wasn't tempted. I love the idea of entertaining. If I actually entertained guests the way I'd like to, I might have gotten some of these cute little shell plates. I've already tried a pepper roaster similar to this one, so it wasn't much of a temptation. If I actually made popsicles instead of drooling over the delightful creations of other eG members, I'd have gotten one of these kits. But my sales resistance was high, and it's rarely warm enough for me to want popsicles. Did I mention that I love the idea of entertaining? These party lights were so cute! But my sales resistance was high, and we don't entertain enough to use the cool stuff we already have. There were graters in styles I've never seen before. Has anyone else ever seen a fan grater? My sales resistance wavered here. I love the idea of making my own tortillas. For $8 it could have been mine. I really had no idea where I'd stow it, though, and we've seen my ineptness with tortillas. Maybe I'll try rolling them out with a rolling pin first, or flattening between two skillets - if, that is, I ever get around to trying to make them myself. Besides, it shouldn't be difficult to make one of these. But I admit to circling back more than once and picking up then putting this down. Sales resistance.... There were plastic baskets of the type one loads burgers and fries into, and unbreakable drinkware, and a few odds and ends of "gourmet food" (popcorn, salsas, dessert sauces). The baskets were $0.50 each, and that seemed a good price. I didn't need 'em. My sales resistance finally crumbled in the juicer section, and I walked out with this for $12.75. I think we already got $13 worth of entertainment just trying to figure out how it's supposed to work! There were no instructions on the package. I'll take photos later of the thing in action, and post an assessment of how well it works. Does that rotating reamer really produce more juice? Time and tests will tell. Speculations about its action are welcome, of course.

While I don't think it's a normal accompaniment for posole, what about sour cream, or Mexican crema? My green chile stew last night was an overspicy disaster until I added sour cream. Hmm, maybe a dollop of guacamole would achieve the same effect of toning down the heat.

How big did that bamboo get? I suspect these are dwarf varieties; otherwise I can imagine them taking over the house. I really like the mustard but the beer steins give me a qualm about throwing them away. I collect them and then when I have several I donate to a thrift store. I can imagine using them for food gifts, but haven't done so.

We usually have horseradish mustard around. When French's first came out with theirs I called and said how happy we were to find them getting on that particular bandwagon. The customer service person was so pleased to get a happy comment that she sent us a coupon or two for more. We made a point of buying French's for quite a while after that. Apparently it didn't catch on in our local grocery stores, though. When we could no longer find it we went back to buying some other brand. I had no idea McCormick was the parent company for French's, Zatarain's and Lawry's until I followed your links!

I had occasion yesterday to be at the far eastern end of Yuma again, so I once again did grocery shopping at the Foothills Fry's. I'm beginning to think that Wednesday may just be the day all the old fogies come out to shop, regardless of whether it's super-discount day! At any rate, the place was packed. Fortunately I only had a few items to buy. I wish I'd thought to peruse the meat counter for "pork steaks" so I could show the cut and the bone it contains, but it didn't occur to me. Still, there was a lot to see. I was ogling the plants and realized that there are some very creatively-trained bamboo plants for sale. We aren't in a position to have something like that, but it was interesting to see the offerings. The citrus season is full upon us. Grapefruit were parked right next to pummelos. The grapefruit were large, as I expect them to be. The pummelos dwarfed them! Want some rice cakes? These were on the back side of the sushi bar, which I've never mentioned before (or explored). They were the size of my hand. Is that typical for rice cakes? I wanted to pick up some of my favorite mustard, which can't be found at the nearer Fry's. I was momentarily alarmed to see that it wasn't amongst all these choices. Then I remembered I had to go one aisle over to the "European Foods" section! Couldn't get a picture of it because of a couple standing in the way, but I got three of these. I also spent time looking at all the bottles sauces and marinades. It seems that Aji Amarillo has become all the rage; ditto Peri-Peri sauce. This find surprised me. I thought back to ElsieD's question about being able to dish things from a buffet by oneself instead of having to request it. I don't remember seeing this buffet before. I don't know whether I simply overlooked it or they're relaxing their restrictions a bit. They're still requiring masks, and the customers seem good about abiding by it.

I'm still not sure, after puzzling a couple of days, how you might have thought your posts were like spam...but at any rate, thanks for the compliments!

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.