Smithy

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!

Haha! I was going to ask about that Aussie energy drink!

Welcome! What sort of cooking do you like to do now? Do you cook only for yourself, or for a family with its own collective ideas about what's good? Do you have any of your grandfather's or great-uncle's notes?

When I was growing up, we were strictly forbidden from touching or hunting jackrabbits because of Tularemia. Maybe it isn't as common in your area, but as it happens the disease is named for a town about 25 miles from our erstwhile ranch. The Mayo Clinic web page in my link suggests that other animals can carry it too, so maybe my parents were being overprotective.

I confess: I was so overwhelmed with the various choices that I just decided to wing it, based on loose principles of solids to liquids ratios and what I actually had on hand. I ended up with too much goo and not enough solids, thereby needing more oats and nuts in an attempt to balance it all out. It came out looking and tasting all right but despite quite a lot of cooking it's still a bit softer than my husband would like. One thing I did right: put the cranberries in after the cooking was almost done, so they didn't turn into rocks! I'll be going to a grocery store in the next couple of days, so I'll be able to stock up on the right ingredients.

My grandfather grew up as a subsistence hunter in the Tennessee hills, and when he could bring home rabbits his family knew there'd be good eats. I don't know how great-grandmama would have prepared them, though. Stew, possibly? (Once, he brought home squirrels as a desperation measure, and his mother passed them off as rabbit as a little joke between the two of them. Later, neither dared 'fess up to his father!) I have cooked rabbit a few times in my adult life, and enjoyed eating it. I look forward to seeing what comes across these pages for inspiration.

That would be a helluva huge fish, to need the largest openings. Then again, I guess I've seen them that big out in the ocean.

I've learned through private channels that @suzilightning, a member since 2001, passed away in January. I'll miss her. As with so many of my eGullet friends, we never met in person but had some good offline conversations. She was generous with her discarded cookbooks, and I still have many that she gave me. She was also an avid birder, and it was on our shared bucket list to meet up at my place during the hawk migration season. I imagine we'd have done some fine cooking together if that had ever happened. More information will be posted here if and as it arrives through public channels. In the meantime, please share your memories of her in this topic.

That dessert looks to me like a slice of cheese layered between 2 slices of lime jello. If it is, it belongs in the "what were they thinking???" category. Your poor husband's food misadventures remind me of stories I heard from a few cargo vessel cooks I've known who worked for shipping companies on the Great Lakes or the Mississippi River. The food budget was essentially unlimited; it was vital to crew morale to have good food, plenty of it, and warm for those cold trips. More than one told me that the gulls and fish ate very well until he learned his craft! One at least told me about hearing that a bad cook could simply...disappear...in the night if he was too bad a cook. I think (hope) that was urban legend, but it was probably a powerful motivator.

Heidi's right, it's a plastic honey bottle. So no honey-coated shards of glass, but lots of honey-coated melted plastic all over the rack and oven bottom might have been as bad. So glad I caught it in time!

I'd have been tempted to just sell the trailer as-is, or at least buy a new oven!

Here's my near-miss contribution to the topic. I will never again turn on the oven without double-checking its contents first. The honey had crystallized and was inside for gentle warming by the pilot light. Fortunately I remembered before the oven had reached its full 350F.

Filo wrapped around leftover chili. Now there's a concept I could have done without.

I'm surprised too. I had forgotte Fleischman's margarine! I don't think I ever knew that Planter's and Royal were under the Fleischman's umbrella. The mega-corporation model must be older than I thought. Isn't is funny how the photography and food styling date pictures? I know we've commented on this before but it's still striking to me.

..... Here's why I've been wondering about the ZIP code. This pamphlet has been in my cousin's collection for who-knows-how-long: since it was first published. JoNorvelleWalker's information puts it at or after 1963, but I know that the Sunnyside Packing Company is no longer at that Fresno location. Their web site says they opened their Selma plant, its current location, in 1978. I think the pamphlet's styling puts it more in the 1960's. My cousin lent the pamphlet to me a couple of times to make copies. Once I scanned it in its entirety; once I only shot the recipes, cover and overleaf. The snippets are all I can find right now. The persimmon cookies were a Smith-clan staple during the holiday season. We never had a persimmon tree, but neighbors did. Mother got lots of persimmons from them, and rewarded them with her Christmas cookie trays that included persimmon cookies.

Thank you for that. I've been trying to use the presence or absence of a ZIP code to establish publication dates, but didn't have the history (or the original of the acronym) right. Gotta love the librarians!

That's a good thing about the Princessmobile: a gas oven. I love having a pilot light to keep the chamber just a bit warm! I was surprised when I discovered that my best friend's new gas oven does not have a pilot light. Some modern foolishness about efficiency, I suppose. Made it tough to proof bread at her place when it was cold.