Smithy

I've just hit a stumbling block with my copy of Lettuce in Your Kitchen (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). The recipe for "Regulation Caesar Salad with Lots of Garlic Croutons" calls for 2 large eggs in the dressing ingredients. The first instruction says Does that mean that the whites will be firm and I'll have only yolks running out after I crack the eggs? If so, am I to do something else entirely with the cooked whites? I can't find this issue addressed anywhere in the recipe. I'm making another dressing for the time being, since I'm loath to possibly waste a couple of eggs. Advice, anyone?

The hard-backed copy of Lettuce in Your Kitchen (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby, is unexpectedly and inexplicably selling for $5.92. Don't ask me why, or for how long. I'm liking this book, although I ran across a question that I'm posting about in another topic this evening.

I adore Buffalo Wings, although I generally opt for ranch dressing rather than bleu cheese. @liamsaunt, yours look wonderful. So does the rest - as always - but you hit my special weakness.

Sorry...you need an explanation of this, or do you plan to use it as part of your webinar? In case it's the first: this was an old (1960's? 1970's?) gasoline station that wanted to make it services known to freeway drivers. In very large letters, the side of the building advertised that they sold fried chicken and that they had diesel. Whoever painted the sign didn't think carefully about word order or changing the lettering, and we thought the result had comical implications of how the chicken was fried. I'd attach a photo if I could find one. Diesel used to be very difficult to find except at truck stops. It still isn't a given that any gasoline station will sell diesel as well, and it's common to see a notation if they do. I suppose soon there will be signs that prominently display the presence of charging stations.

Heidi, you must be psychic. Look what turned up in my mail this month!

@Shelby, I may not have been paying enough attention over the years. I know Ronnie fishes and hunts, and you cook what he brings home - beautifully, if photos are to be believed. Are his hunting and fishing catches all, or at least most, of the meat you eat? (I'm not counting the oysters and crawdads you occasionally score by mail. ) If so, you're impressively self-sufficient!

Thank you for the update, @Shelby. It has been a discouraging year for all of us, and the pain and uncertainty aren't over yet. One of my favorite writers from the Duluth News Tribune also wrote about how strange and unsatisfying it was to try pheasant hunting with friends in North Dakota. They did it to carry on their decades-long tradition, but they couldn't be together swapping stories and sharing meals in the farmhouse in the evenings. We talked to some Texas deer hunters a couple of weeks ago about Chronic Wasting Disease precautions. They said they'd taken their deer to the registration station and that wildlife personnel had removed the lymph nodes from around the neck and sent them to a lab in Del Rio for analysis. The hunters had already processed the meat, but would be able to use it only after the results came back and verified that the meat was safe. (One hunter was sure his doe had been healthy; he'd seen deer with the disease before. Still, he was going to wait.) Do you get your deer meat tested that way? If so, what does one do with the meat if it isn't safe because the deer had CWD? I forgot to ask the hunter.

The place is gone now, but there used to be an old service station in Van Horn, Texas that prominently advertised DIESEL FRIED CHICKEN

It sounds like this guy worked hard for a long time. I'm sorry I've never had one of his tacos. What defines an Ensenada-style taco? I may never have had one.

This morning's breakfast was an indulgence. I finally broke into a small pot of smoked salmon pâté I brought from one of my favorite food places in Duluth: Northern Waters Smokehaus. It was very difficult to stop so there will be another meal or two later on. I've never had this pâté of theirs before. Now I wish I'd gotten more, or could figure out how to make it! It's tart, not very smoky, and packs a bit of unexpected heat. I can make out horseradish, green onion, and something that looks like dill although I don't taste it, and probably lemon juice. Ah, I just looked at their description of this treat: I'm sure I didn't pay as much as their listed price, but I think I got a smaller container. At any rate, it's delicious. I'm glad my darling isn't crazy about smoked salmon.

Now that we have a fireplace and grill, I'm figuring on a meal of stuffed-and-grilled stuff before long. Stay tuned.

On a different note: today was breakfast-fruit-salad making day. I was especially interested in how much time and effort it takes me to deal with dates the way I normally do, due to this discussion. I don't think I'll be changing my method.

We went to Yuma yesterday to get some supplies, see the doctor (routine visit, nothing serious), pick up meds and mail. The Wal-Mart customers were generally good about masking up, although we saw a lot of noses. Fry's grocery store customers were even better, with people giving each other room and waiting patiently when someone was perusing the same shelf or bin area. Supplies were generally good, although the shortages on paper products and cleaning products continued. Fortunately for us there's no apparent shortage of bread, wine, beer or fresh produce! We saw some amazingly good prices. We have been extremely lucky so far with regard to the Covid-19 pandemic. Yes, there have been closures and restrictions (and more are beginning) but in the places we usually frequent the inconvenience and business impact have seemed far away. Not so for the Carl's Jr we visited for brunch yesterday. The place looked closed. I went to check while my darling sat in the pickup, and when it turned out they were open I went inside and ordered our food for takeout. I thought at first the place was just opening up and they hadn't finished cleaning. Then I realized I was looking at seating restrictions. One person sat in the restaurant, alone. I got our orders and left. The good news is that the drive-through line got busy while we were eating, so their business may be all right. That isn't so for the little place in Winterhaven where we used to get propane and cheap beer. It's closed. Whether it failed because of the pandemic or other business issues I don't know. Yesterday it looked as though the place was being remodeled under new ownership. We never thought it was well run during our previous visits, although it served our needs. Today we tooled down to the little encampment where we get the occasional ice cream bar and where we take the trailer when the holding tanks need to be emptied. The campground is open, full nearly to capacity (everyone hiding out) but the store and museum are closed. We're in the middle of nowhere, but still in Southern California -- and in a county that's particularly hot. They're abiding by the rules. Yes to the trailer dump. No to ice cream, nor will I be able to look for charming plates in their shop.

I just finished pitting and chopping dates for my husband's fruit salad. The dates were a blend of barhi and medjool, admittedly not the freshest in either case. I think I'll stick with my method: pit, then lay flat and chop with a large knife. It didn't take long. I realize that in a professional kitchen and with professional-scale quantities a faster method might be necessary, but for my purposes this was much faster than scissors. (No lectures about cutting toward my thumb, please. The dates are soft enough to do that with impunity. )

Maybe soak them in syrup, then incorporate into a sweet bread with other dried fruits, along the lines of a stollen?

I circled back and took a look because of this post, and then also bought the book. One of the things I love about these bargain prices is that I'm getting a chance to try a recipe for just the time, ingredients and a couple of bucks. If even one is a winner then I've gotten a bargain. The Nashville-style Hot Chicken looked way too interesting to pass up.

I can't decide between giving a "Thanks" or a "Groan / Wow" response above. Do you know whether Stater Bros in 29 Palms does curbside pickup? If we go that way, early morning won't be an option. 😒

No, we're just across the border in California. Still desert. Quite a bit less crowded than Tucson.

Ham 'n' mac 'n' cheese last night for dinner. The ham will keep on giving for a while - there's a lot of it! - and bolstering it with pasta and cheese sauce just added to the congestion in the refrigerator. No cooking will be necessary for a while, except for vegetables. It's funny: the last time I made this dish I used penne rigate and we thought it perfect. This time, we thought the penne too long. Maybe I used a smaller gauge last time around. I finished this pasta, though. That made room to move another pasta from an outside cooler to an interior canister. I also finished the deli-sliced cheeses that I bought for sandwiches before we started our trip a month ago. They were getting a little long in the tooth, but they were perfect in this. Sharp cheddar and pepper jack are a nice cheese sauce combination, especially when it's augmented with paprika (sweet and smoked), white pepper, cumin and Dijon mustard. Today the desert wind is blowing like stink. It would be great for sailing, if we had water and a sailboat, but it's not so great for being out walking. I'm glad I have a lot of inside work to do. I may have to close the lid of the camp stove to keep it from blowing over.

Assisting kayb here, since we happen to have a couple of smoked pork shanks purchased last fall at a favorite meat market. This shank weighs 1.79 pounds so is plenty for two of us, with leftovers. Hmm, since we have two of 'em, I may try Kay's treatment with one instead of our usual pork shanks with spuds and sauerkraut. Her idea seems a fine one.

I'll be curious to see what you think about the book, Porthos. I thought it an interesting idea, then decided I make up my own mind about that anyway, so I saved a couple of bucks spent that money elsewhere.

Cotton-pickin' sonofagun, Toliver. Every time I open this topic my tablet gets heavier and my bank account lighter. At least I was reminded that I'd already bought The Cuban Table (and no, I haven't cooked from it yet). Nonetheless I've added Diana Henry's book and For the Love of the South to the collection.

In my very-quick search of this new-to-me technology, it looks as though the autoclave strip indicates a minimum temperature but not time at that temperature. Don't you need both? https://ehs.princeton.edu/book/export/html/485 That's pretty interesting stuff, though. I'm glad you mentioned it. ETA or is that high temperature enough to kill bugs regardless of time?

Sous vide is out of the question for now, but for future reference: what time and temperature?

The neighbors have cleared out, we've relocated to our usual location, and there isn't another trailer within a mile. If we hadn't been here for Thanksgiving Week, we'd have had no idea how 'crowded' it can get. Crowding is a relative concept, though. As noted before, there was plenty of room between them and us for privacy. Still, we didn't want to go to the trouble of setting up an outdoor kitchen when we expected to move in a couple of days. Yesterday, we (mostly my darling) set it up. It was more of a production than usual. Our neighbors, or somebody before them, had torn apart our usual campfire ring and replaced it with a huge one. It's difficult to tell by scale, but the new one is at least 6 feet in diameter. Plenty big for social distancing; too big for efficient cooking. My darling built a smaller one, to our specifications. The previous group left a neat campsite, but unfortunately (in our opinion) were eager to clear out dead wood. The paloverde snag that has been our hummingbird feeder hanger for years is no more. Somebody -- probably the proud 11-year-old who told me about the work he'd been doing -- cut it and uprooted it. You can see the remains in the stack of firewood they left. The tree was quite dead, having given up the ghost over the years we've been visiting, but still. We'll miss it. Here it is, with one of last spring's flash floods as a backdrop, in memoriam. We haven't actually used the outdoor kitchen yet, but there will be superburgers and hash and a stir fry or two before long. The Thanksgiving prime rib and sides have kept us well fed. Last night we cooked a ham that my darling spotted and simply had to buy when we shopped in Tucson. Picnic ham, or a near facsimile, at less than $1.50/lb is too good to pass up these days. So it's been taking space in the refrigerator until yesterday, and we will be enjoying the leftovers in many ways... ...including breakfast snacks this morning.