Smithy

Stuffed squash tonight. Two lovely Carnival(?) squash (please correct me if I have the wrong variety) have been traveling with us since we left home. They were last seen here amongst the wreckage on the floor, when we moved the Princessmobile a week ago. Here's an excerpt from the photo of the debris. I like this treatment of such squash: halve it, scoop out the seeds, score the flesh and drizzle with olive oil, then stuff the cavity with a tomato/pepper/sausage/whatever stuffing. Cover. Roast until the squash is soft. Uncover. Top with cheese, continue roasting until the cheese is melted and, preferably, beginning to brown. (I stopped at "melted" this time. The squash took much longer to cook than I'd planned, and we were tired of waiting.) My only regret is that this is the last of the oven-roasted tomato/pepper/eggplant/sausage mix from last summer's harvest season. Another container emptied; another happy dish relegated to memory's pantry.

I have yet to make the granola, but today I found a way around it when I remembered that I still have beans from Cooper's. That's one more container out of the freezer. The clouds at dawn presaged the wind storm that's hit us. The trailer is rocking, and dust is flying by. I'm glad I did my weekly errand-running yesterday. I expect we'll lose sight of the mountains altogether before this is over. It could be worse: back home in northern Minnesota, they're predicting wind gusts up to 50 mph and a snowstorm, with temperatures hovering right around freezing. Talk about a sloppy mess! Here, the worst that's likely to happen is that the freeway will get sand drifted across it from the dunes. They keep plows nearby for that purpose. Yesterday's errands included a trip to the grocery store. Since @ElsieD and others have expressed interest in seeing what's there, I snapped a few shots of things I thought interesting. It was VERY difficult for me to pass up this deal, but we already have our prime rib (brought from home) for Christmas. On the other hand, I'd hoped for more buck-apiece pomegranates. That deal is no more. Granted, these pomegranates were huge - the size of large grapefruit - but I passed anyway. My mother's creamed corn recipe, one of our special holiday dishes, calls for diced pickled jalapenos. Mom used to get those in small cans or jars, more or less the quantity of diced pimentos. I don't know where she found them. This was all I could find: No. I'd never get through all those. I'll chop some pepperoncini instead, as I did at Thanksgiving. I needed shrimp for a recipe from George Graham's Acadiana Table for Shrimp Creole Dip, as one of our Christmas appetizers. This was a good price too. It occurs to me, looking at the picture on his web page, that his "small" may have been intended to be bigger. I think this will work anyway. I got out with a relatively small purchase despite all the temptation. It might be because I'd eaten lunch before going to the grocery store. This unassuming little taco stand has caught my eye every time we passed by it. Yesterday, since I was on my own, I indulged my curiosity. Two women were working in the trailer. A little sign by the counter window said "Thank you for supporting my small business." I ordered a taco de cameron and taco gubernador, glad the woman taking my order could understand my broken pronunciation from behind my mask. I got the tacos loaded with everything, and then added extra condiments myself from the squeeze bottles at the counter. Oh, these were good! I liked the gubernador better than the straight shrimp taco, but both had a pleasant not-quite-too-spicy heat. The coating on the fried shrimp in the gubernador was crisp. The shrimp and fish were tender and cooked perfectly. And the tortillas themselves - well, those were a revelation. No wonder people like corn tortillas. When they're warm, soft and delicately fried like this I can see what the fuss is about.

Happy solstice! This mountain range makes a wonderful set of markers for the sun's movement. Since we arrived here, the sun's rise location has shifted southward (to the right, in this picture) until what we see today: just to the right of the small tooth in the big notch. The sun's time to peek over the ridge is also about 30 minutes later than when we arrived, but the uneven ridgeline has a factor in that. After today, the sun will start creeping northward again. By spring, it will be north of the mountains altogether. Yogurt, avocado and a walnut-filled date are breakfast today, with the juice of one pomegranate to drink. I love pomegranate juice. I'm glad I scored those buck-apiece poms at the grocery store. I may buy more. I am getting almighty tired of yogurt, with or without avocado. It's about time to think of something else. I wish I liked boxed cereal. Maybe I'll make granola today, although I think there's too much else on my schedule already. The dear friend whom we'd normally be visiting today is turning 100! There's a giant Zoom party, with all of us toasting and feteing her, and each participant getting a few minutes alone in a Zoom Room with her. It isn't the same as the feasting and singing we'd all hoped for at her house in person for this momentous day, but it's better than nothing and far safer.

I'm sorry, please explain this? I don't understand it. I never think of tangelos as being ready before mid-January or early February. (One of the better Valentine's Day gifts my parents sent me one year after I'd moved to Minnesota was a box of minneolas from home. ) Do you have a different variety of tangelo, or are the seasons so much farther along in L.A. than in Visalia?

More Christmas decorations. I realized yesterday that with the trailer oriented as it is, there IS no better light for photographing some of the decorations. I suppose nighttime with a flash might be better, but then there's the complication of a reflected flash in the photo. Yesterday we drove to a rest area to drop off trash and pick up water. It gave me a chance to photograph some of the outlandish, gorgeous scenery around here: a part of the Imperial Dunes complex. These sand dunes are hundreds of feet high, some 15 or 20 miles wide and over a hundred miles long. The highways and Interstate go through them and have to be plowed clear of sand after a good-sized windstorm. Parts of the dunes are wildlife preserve, but in this area they're prime 4-wheeler recreational area. If you look closely at the middle of the top photo you can see a couple of 4-wheelers for scale. One is near the top of the dune, the other is halfway up. Or down. I've forgotten which way it was traveling. To me the dunes look like a huge, beautifully browned meringue. Nobody felt much like cooking last night, so we pulled 2 of the 3 remaining chili containers out of the freezer for dinner. We garnished the chili with chopped onions and shredded cheese. There are leftovers. Despite removing 2 containers from the freezer, it still seems pretty darned full. My darling is a bit put out about that. It probably won't stop us from shopping again soon! I have been jonesing - no, make that JONESING - for a ham and cheese biscuit. This morning I finally got out the hitherto-unopened bag of Mary White self-rising flour that I bought in 2015, and wondered whether it needed a boost of baking soda at this late date. Maybe it could have used it, but I didn't bother. Despite ambitions in that direction, I haven't actually made biscuits in, oh, donkey's years. I was none too sure how it would work out. The tops didn't brown as much as I'd have liked, but I pulled them when the bottoms were beginning to brown. They flaked reasonably well. I've had better biscuits, but I've had worse. With some good sharp cheddar and slices of ham (yes, the same ham) the biscuits scratched that itch rather nicely. When I asked my darling what he thought about them, he said he was disappointed...that he couldn't manage a 3rd biscuit! I'll take that compliment.

Very impressive...and welcome back!

The Christmas decorations are finally up. I'll have to wait until the light swings around to the other side of the trailer to catch better photos of some areas, but here's a smattering: My mother used to wear this Christmas-light jingle-bells necklace at our family gatherings. Dad made it for her when they changed to the newer mini-light strings. It jingles when worn, which would be fun at a dance. (Remember those?) Mostly it hangs as a decoration. Last night I pulled a container out of the freezer that had a mix of eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and some sausage (Italian?) that I'd roasted together at the height of last summer's harvest season. We packed along a couple of these containers. They're good in pasta, or with roasted squash. Last night I chose pasta. Then came the pasta dilemma. I didn't have enough gigli left for the dish. I didn't want to open a new package of anything. I used the remaining half of the package of farfalle I'd opened last week. Doggonitall, I think the discussion of farfalle in the Pasta Shapes topic may have ruined me for farfalle forever. Now I'm all too aware of the different texture (from flat to squished) when cooked. I was afraid at first there was too much pasta for the sauce, but it balanced out reasonably well after good tossing and a bit of sauce-lengthening with the pasta water. Dinner was good, but we both thought smaller pasta bits would have been better. I'll use the remaining containers' worth with some other pasta shapes - or with squash.

Thanks, HardyH. Welcome to eGullet!

My husband has been threatening / promising to buy this shirt for me. I just now realized, though, that the model is carrying a coffee cup! Oh, the irony. Wait...maybe she has wine in the cup.

One might think that sitting out in the boondocks and socially distancing would lend itself to elaborate cookery. It can, but it also lends itself to loads of computer work and other non-food-related chores. I'm pretty good at procrastinating in the best of times, and the pandemic social distancing hasn't exactly helped me pick up the pace. The most elaborate thing I've cooked since the last post was scrambled eggs with cheese, ham (yes, the same one) and Campari tomatoes. In retrospect the tomatoes would have been better chopped and added as a garnish at the end, but they added a nice note. He had the requisite toast with his; I found one lone roll from Thanksgiving and polished it off. Some chores are specific to the boondocking lifestyle. We drove to the nearest trailer park / campground to dump the holding tanks. We were delighted to see that they've livened up the driveway with Christmas decorations! Even the cowboy and cowgirl silhouettes were pulled into the act with sparkly bandannas. Blurry photo of the view as we left and headed "home" again, along with more decorations. I think that night we had our "Bedouin-style tuna noodle hot dish" since neither of us felt much like cooking. The whole moving/dumping/resettling process takes a couple of hours even if one remembers to secure everything properly. If one forgets, there are also messes to clean up. What you see here is the contents of our little end table shelves and our two travel coffee mugs that fell from their overhead shelf, all inconveniently mixed into the pet food dishes. One travel mug's handle broke, but it's still usable. It could have been worse. My mother forgot more than once to close and latch the refrigerator door when she and Dad were trailering around. Anyway, here's my tuna noodle hot dish dinner. He had toast with his, of course! We made the trek to town a day or so later. I haven't taken many interior photos of the Fry's grocery store in Yuma, but we like the place. This really surprised me, and added to my sense that Fry's (a Kroger chain) is reasonably upscale. I think it's pretty neat that they list the smoke points on the labels. Dinner last night was more leftovers: the remains of a pork steak for me, along with asparagus; our single remaining Super Burger for him, with potato salad from the grocery store. Maybe I'll get around to Christmas decorations today. It's on my list. It has been on my list. It will continue to be on my list until I do it or Christmas passes!

That makes two of us. Mind you, I've never made toffee despite having (long ago) gotten a wonderful recipe from a friend of my parents. That recipe is probably lost forever. Yours, Darienne, looks delicious.

I have serious brisket envy. Everything else I could manage on my own, but we're far from good Texas 'cue now. That looks wonderful. Where in Yorkshire were you? I worked in York for a couple of months in 1980 and I don't recall any Indian or Greek food there. I suppose it's possible I was too enamored of the fish and chips I could get from the street stands anyway. Even more importantly: how did you make that moussaka? I've taken to an Egyptian version, but yours looks so good I'd like to try it.

Hello and welcome! I'll be interested to hear not only the sorts of foods and drink you like, but how you accommodate to doing those off the grid. Do you have solar power and inverters? Generator? What powers your stove (i.e. propane, the aforementioned solar power, or...)?

The sunset was almost as unusual as the sunrise had been. Tonight's campfire was a great way to cook the bratwursts and hot dog buns we'd thawed earlier. As it turns out, I should have planned on one brat only for myself. Not shown: I microwaved the bejeesus out of some of last night's green beans. They finally became tender, but as I'd feared the lemon dressing had lost its oomph. There's another container yet. Next time I'll try draining the dressing before cooking the beans, or - if there isn't enough dressing - just make another batch.

You're bringing him up right, @Duvel!

Well, this is an unusual morning. We saw fog over the sand dunes yesterday morning, but fog (as opposed to dust) here is very rare. The outdoor kitchen was downright wet when we got up. As the sun heats the air everything is starting to dry, but I enjoyed the cool damp air. It reminds me of home, growing up in the San Joaquin Valley, around Christmas time when fog was common. It also enhances the smells. I wish we had smell-o-rama over the internet, so I could share the desert aroma! Plants that are only beginning to turn green put out subtle spicy odors that we can't usually smell. Last night's dinner was simple, but didn't come out as well as I'd have liked. I bought a couple of pounds of green beans at our last grocery store visit. I love green beans. I don't love trimming them, so cooking them is a production that had Better Be Worth The Effort. The treatment is a simple Lebanese recipe from @linda dalal's cookbook Alice's Kitchen (eG-friendly Amazon.com link): steam them and toss with a dressing of oil, lemon juice, garlic and salt. (I prefer steaming to blanching because it uses less water. I love the fact that the author advocates saving the steaming water for other uses like broth.) This recipe has been a big hit with us before. Unfortunately, I didn't steam the beans long enough for them to be quite done, and they're tough. We'll try cooking the leftovers more today, but that will change the flavor of the dressing. The rest of dinner was breaded and baked chicken thighs. It's one of those nearly effortless dishes that minds itself so we can watch the Friday night news on computer. This morning my darling wanted to plan breaded and baked pork steaks. We looked through the freezer. We found thin-cut pork steaks suitable for schnitzel. We looked harder. We unpacked the darned freezer. No thick-cut pork steaks, but at least I confirmed that we have a prime rib for Christmas. We settled on campfire cookery for tonight. Then, with effort, we put the genie back in the bottle. It's hard to tell anything has come out, isn't it?

Sorry, I didn't know whether to "laugh" or "cry" or give some other emoji reaction. Both at once, along with a hug maybe. Sorry you're going through this. Glad you'll be able to have your lamb dinner. It will be gorgeous when you're done, but that's small consolation now.

I think this was the inspiration for last night's dinner. Shredded brussels sprouts, sauteed in olive oil and a bit of butter along with a bit of chopped onion and coins of Farmer John's Louisiana Style hot sausage (the tube steak du jour). I was going for a hash brown / latke sort of consistency, and didn't get that, but the sprouts cooked down and browned admirably. It may not look like much (in fact, I know it doesn't) but it was delicious. I'll be doing it again. Thanks for the idea, kayb!

That reminds me, I need to make crumpets again. Then again, I've had biscuits on the brain for weeks... I keep thinking of ham and cheese, warm, in warm buttermilk biscuits. I have the ham. I have the cheese. I have the self-rising flour and buttermilk, but still haven't gotten to making the darned biscuits. When breakfast time comes it comes with a vengeance and I'm grabbing for the yogurt and fruit. It's a time-management dilemma. Kim, would you adopt me?

Yes, you probably do know, but you're right that the visit simply can't happen. Our usual trip through the L.A. Basin is also cancelled. We'll have to help our friend celebrate her Century Birthday remotely, with hopes of a visit this spring before we head back toward home. I'm pretty sure it will just be the two of us for Christmas...not sure even my sister should make the trip. It will be a strange Christmas for all of us. This is important for me to hear. Thank you!

For breakfast this morning I used half of one the pomegranates we bought last week for a buck apiece. I need to do something with the rest of these before they dry out, and then maybe go back for more if they're still at such a good price. Juice them. Make pomegranate-flavored gelatin. They are huge, fat, juicy, and intensely flavorful if this one is typical. They are also messy, as good pomegranates often are. See the splashes on the side of the bowl? They're also on my tee-shirt. Note to self: don't wear a favorite yellow tee-shirt when dealing with pomegranates. In other news: last night we had what's called a 2-inch rain in the areas we frequent: rain drops (which we never heard or saw) 2" apart. Today, the side of our pickup is decorated with a perfect 3-D dust pattern. Doesn't that look like beads of water illuminated from below? It isn't. It's dust collected by water droplets and concentrated at the bottom of the drip, and it's bone-dry.

More mac 'n' cheese 'n' ham last night. I've run us out of the large penne rigate, so chose farfalle this time. I know that shape got little love - with a few notable dissenters - over in the Pasta Shapes topic, but I have a bunch and like them for some things. I decided to see whether mac 'n' cheese was a good usage. There was still a small bowl of the last batch, untouched, in the refrigerator. I reheated that at the same time I was baking the new casserole. We tried them side by side. (The color in these photos makes the stuff look like Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese with the suspicious powder. I promise I didn't use any of that!) Observations: The last batch contained a mix of colby/jack, pepper jack and cheddar cheeses. The new batch contained only sharp cheddar (Crystal Farms orange, brought from home, and Tillamook white, recently purchased). We couldn't tell the difference in flavor! The sauce was runny enough that it got into the penne. I rather preferred the texture of the hollow noodle and the way the sauce hid inside it, although we had no complaints about the butterflies. The leftovers that we've been reheating from the last batch have had a grainy texture. Neither batch from last night seemed grainy. Is this a matter of reheating a starch-based sauce properly, that we haven't been doing? By coincidence, this morning Hank Shaw's email from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook featured Green Chile Mac and Cheese with Pheasant. I don't have access to pheasant, but I love the idea of putting Hatch Green chiles into this stuff. Next time around, I'm going that way. I note, however, that Mr. Shaw uses considerably less sauce for his mac 'n' cheese than we do. I realize this is a personal preference. Still, I wonder how the rest of you prefer your version of this dish? Heavy on the sauce? Barely sauced? It's probably such a personal issue that we should take the discussion over to Homemade Macaroni and Cheese: the Topic ....

I finally got around to making a version of Armadillo Eggs. Some folks might think them indistiguinguishable from Jalapeno Poppers, when you come right down to it, but I was using guidelines from @Robb Walsh's Tex-Mex Grill and Backyard Barbacoa Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). He called 'em Armadillo Eggs. Right away, that book was helpful. I realized when I was setting up ingredients that I only had thick-sliced bacon. It's too thick and stiff to wrap around things easily. Well, said Robb's book, in that case you pound the bacon thinner with a meat mallet. "DUH!" I thought, "why didn't I think of that?!" I stopped slapping my forehead and grabbed the mallet. I snapped a photo halfway through to show the difference. I had some pulled pork and Neufchatel cheese from home, and barbecue sauce from Mineral Wells. I experimented with different cutting methods (cut off the ends per Robb's book, cut a slit down the sides per other sites) and experimented with the balance of ingredients in the stuffing. Some chiles had barbecue sauce, some didn't. There may have been two without pulled pork. I've forgotten now. After they were all wrapped and skewered with toothpicks to hold together, they went into the refrigerator. As it turns out, they stayed a couple of days while we had popcorn that night (no real appetite) and chili from the freezer the next (nobody felt like cooking). Last night was the big test night. It was cold and windy, so I cooked them in the oven at around 425, turning occasionally, until the bacon was crisp. Delicious! Strangely, neither of us could tell a difference in the flavors; the bacon and cream cheese dominated everything. I'll have to do something else with that pulled pork. I think I preferred cutting a slit in the sides rather than the end, but there was only one leaker. Next time I may try breading and deep-frying these things, just to add to the calorie count. A green salad was the other half of dinner. I'd intended to make Caesar dressing using a recipe from Schlesinger and Willoughby's Lettuce in Your Kitchen (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), but ran into a snag. I chose instead their Spicy Balsamic Vinaigrette (p. 74 in the book, if anyone else wants to try it). It's an excellent dressing, seasoned by celery seeds, coriander seeds, garlic and red pepper. I used about half the sugar they recommend, since I'm not a fan of sweet dressings, and it came out just right for my tastes. It was cold and windy here yesterday, but today isn't too bad. We may cook over the campfire. The sunrises and sunsets around here have been beautiful. Social distancing is easy around here.

I still don't understand what I'm supposed to do with the white. It looks as though the Julia and Jacques recipe linked above uses the whole egg. The recipe I asked about doesn't address it at all.

Now that you mention it, that's what I see too. I guess I was too hypnotized by the 'You bought this book on xx/xx/xx" flag.