Smithy

I'm getting a pretty good stock of Cooper's pinto beans, which for some reason are much better than the ones I make. I'm running out of refrigerator space, though. What happens to cooked pinto beans if they're frozen? Does it destroy the texture?

I confess, I thought at first that one was "Hang yourself" and it seemed like an odd first clue...and unusually rude!

Green chile cheeseburgers are one of life's pleasures, I think. Nice job on that one, @Steve Irby.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, Cooper's offers ribeye steaks and baked potatoes in addition to their usual offerings. I've been wanting to try that for a while. Last night was the night. I pulled into a slot and this cutie greeted me. (I'm posting his picture with his permission.) Things were winding down, and we had time to chat while I was placing my order. I asked if they're open on Sundays, because my darling thought they weren't. "Well," he smiled, "is it Christmas?" "Nope," I said, "although when this coronavirus thing is over it's going to feel like it!" Laughs on both sides. I ordered a ribeye for myself, a rib for my darling, some beans, potato salad and beer. "Want that beer while you wait?" he asked. "The steak will be about 15 minutes." Gotta love small-town Texas. The order eventually came, I paid, we thanked each other, and I headed the two blocks back to the park. When I got there, I learned that we'd also gotten things we hadn't asked for: An entire chicken! And these plates and flatware that we didn't need. They will be useful along the road sometime when we don't feel like doing dishes, but I hate the waste. It also appeared that we'd gotten the rib but no steak. I went back up to Cooper's. "Did anyone get a ribeye when they'd ordered chicken?" Nope. no ribeyes sitting around, no disappointed customers. They offered to cook me a steak, but it was already closing time and I didn't want them to hang around. We'd paid for the chicken, so that would do. "Come back tomorrow and you'll have a steak on me," said my waiter. I assured him it wasn't that big a deal. "Hang in there," I said, and headed back home. When I got back to the Princessmobile and started unpackaging things, I discovered that the steak and the rib were packaged together. We had paid for it, and we'd gotten it. We'd just also gotten a chicken we hadn't ordered. Well, we like chicken too. It will go well in salads, or for sandwiches. My darling is of the opinion that there is one, and only one, way to cook a ribeye steak: by doing it ourselves, on our own grill. I'm so glad I tried this one. It was juicy, and tender, and flavorful. It might have been a shade more done than I'd have done it, but at worst I'd give it an A rather than an A+. Delicious. It was also huge. We have leftovers! Hooray!

I checked on The Outdoor Kitchen: Live-Fire Cooking from the Grill [A Cookbook] at Amazon, and it does look good. It's quite new! Maybe I can talk my library into purchasing it; in the meantime I've saved it to my list. Thanks for the recommendation!

See what we scored at the grocery store yesterday!

Ready for another rebus? Or are y'all getting tired of them?

Across the way from Miller's is a sit-down restaurant, The Hungry Hunter. We've never been inside, nor were we in its previous incarnation (I think this was the place) as an Italian restaurant. We're too comfortable, even in normal times, sitting on our deck and eating take-out or else eating our own cooking. We favor take-out from places that can do what we can't - or else can do it much, much better. Like Cooper's and Miller's. I do wonder whether this one will survive, though. Even at the best of times we've never seen many vehicles parked there. Maybe we've simply never visited at the right times.

Miller's Meat Market & Smokehouse is another favorite place in Llano. They've been around a long time and probably don't need our financial support, but we do like their products. Come in through the front, and you're in their market/deli area. Go around to the back at the right time of year, and they'll take your game for processing. (We've never had occasion to use that service.) They are set up for curbside pickup from an online order, but customers can also come in and pick out what they want. I didn't see many masks there, but the social distancing was evident. There was a large pump-bottle of hand sanitizer at each cash register. They offer quite a variety of sausages and cured meats, and all the materials necessary for making one's own sausage. I was tempted to buy sausage casings, but have no idea when we'll be getting around to trying that at home. A Texas company named La Boucherie specializes in frozen Cajun dishes - crawfish-stuffed chicken, for instance - and Miller's carries a pretty good line of their stuff in the freezer department. We won't be making it to the Gulf at all, much less to Cajun country, so I scratched the itch here. They also have a gorgeous deli counter. I was there specifically for the Gator Tooes and Brisket Poppers. If they'd had Armadillo Eggs I'd have gotten some of those too. Not shown: a fair amount of produce for such a small store, and a pretty good selection of wine and beer. We didn't need any (you heard it here first). This was the total haul: The poppers and toes will be dinner one night on our way home. Maybe 2 nights.

My darling commented on that too, wondering whether the puzzle-makers have something against the younger generations.

Well, of course...but where's the fun in that? 😆

It was an interesting sort-of lockdown day, but I'll have to tell the stories tomorrow. In the meantime, here's another rebus.

It was only after I took this picture that I realized Lone Star Beer bottles come with twist-off caps. There will be no bends in future photos, I promise!

You got them!

I'm not usually big on buying packages of prepared vegetables, but I have made an exception for green beans. Green Giant seems to do a nice job on them. I'm working my way through the latest bag. There's little to do with them except rinse, do minimal trimming, and cut to appropriate size. That was the source of last night's green beans. Tonight I did more and incorporated some of the roasted red peppers in olive oil.. (..from fall 2018 ...all this time in the freezer!) Today's foraged wild onion greens went in, and as a flavor balance I added juice from my preserved lemons. Pretty darned good.

Here's another attempt. Any better?

Yes on the answer, and I admit the earlier pictures aren't as high quality... not (she said defensively) because of my photography but because of the printing on the caps! Those pics were the best I could do. Lone Star really needs to hire Shelby for their artwork. If there aren't any cogent questions or guesses in the next day or so I'll start putting out hints...like what a particular symbol means. If anyone's interested, that is.

Leftovers tonight. I may or may not get around to posting a picture of dinner. In the meantime, here's tonight's rebus. I think it's easier than the previous two. (Since I didn't figure those two out until this afternoon, I figure they're harder. It's all relative! 😆)

When we're in this area, we -- that is, I -- buy Lone Star Beer in bottles. It really isn't my normal sort of beer: not a very good lager in my opinion - but inside each bottle cap is a rebus. I can't resist. Here are two from last night.

Llano, Texas: a small and interesting town in the heart of the Hill Country. Every year when we arrive after months of living in a desert climate, I'm surprised anew at how lush, green and humid it is here. The flowers are almost entirely different than what we've been seeing. One of the reasons we like it here is that the City has an RV park right on the Llano River. The wading can be good, and there's always something interesting going on. These days it's dredging the river, because the river provides the city's drinking water and the impoundment has been getting shallower by the year. The City of Llano is 5 years into a 10-year contract for the purpose. Unfortunately a severe flood in the fall of 2018 undid much of their good work (and destroyed this park) so a lot of progress was undone. Another reason we love Llano is the Texas barbecue available. One of our favorite places is closed because the owners retired and sold a year or so ago -- I heard last year they were relieved to be done with the business, and I'll bet they're ecstatic now! However, there's still our other favorite, Cooper's Old-Time Barbecue. When we come to Llano we figure there will be little cooking and a lot of takeout, out of sheer gluttony. This year we also figure we're doing our civic duty, helping them stay afloat. That's our story, and we're sticking to it. They've worked out a way to do takeout safely. In two nights here, we haven't had to text our presence because someone spotted us coming in. They take the order, and a little while later come out with the bags and a credit card reader. We put the card in the reader, the waiter hands it back wrapped in the receipt. The waiter never handles the card. Portions are generous as always, and the free sides are plentiful if you ask. I'm in pinto bean heaven: pinto beans for breakfast! Gussied up with their barbecue sauce and some (quite unnecessary, but oh so tasty) sour cream. Burrp. Dinner our first night here was beef ribs. I also got potato salad (not free), and free bbq sauce and beans. These ribs are immense; in fact, we weren't able to finish what we'd bought. Last night we went for brisket. This time we got cole slaw for him, potato salad for me, more beans and sauce, and pickles and onions. I didn't ask for jalapenos (theirs are reliably VERY hot) or bread, but they gave it to us anyway. We couldn't finish this either, and didn't expect to. It was very, very good. I cooked green beans as a nod to some sort of green vegetables; he had cole slaw. As much as we want to go back tonight and keep stocking up, we'll probably work on leftovers tonight. If I get enterprising (more enterprising than I've been so far today) I'll work some of them into a pasta or potato dish of some sort. I have some extra incentive; along the river I found some sort of wild allium. Pretty good flavor, just begging to be added to food. I harvested a handful.

So do I! They look beautiful! I'll be making buns in the next few days. Thought I had the recipe all picked out, but now you're making me wonder about changing my mind...

Jicama, perhaps?

We spent 2 long days driving, and have made our last (anticipated) full set-up until we get home. I seem to have forgotten to take pictures of our sandwiches and road food (tomatoes, asparagus, crackers, cheese, and so on) but it wasn't really as interesting as the sights along the way. I have never seen El Paso's freeways so empty. El Paso is usually an occasion for me to put my head down and read, lest I upset my darling with gasps of "look out!" and "what is that driver doing?!" every 15 seconds. This time, I was in a better position to appreciate the architecture and decorations of the freeway. We spent a night at Kent, Texas. This little ghost town near the Davis Mountains once had a school, at least 1 gas station, a post office, and a number of residents. There are still ranchers around, and railroad work staged from the lot where we stayed for the night. We were well out of the way. The nearby houses are a reminder of how quickly life can turn. Who knows the stories this house could tell? The setting sun evoked the miles we have to go. We had leftovers that night -- I've already forgotten what, since we had a fair amount stashed. It could have been more of the ceviche. Incidentally, the jalapenos and toasted corn helped the dish a lot. It still is clearly not my darling's favorite dish, but he liked it better and I thought it a treat. As I said, we've set up for a few days in a favorite spot. Here's a preview:

Well...that was exciting. I have avocados, limes, shrimp-that-I've-been-hoarding, the last of the Campari tomatoes, a couple of jalapenos, some red onion. Everything I need to make ceviche. I dug into the pantry and found the mais cancha that I'd bought for Peruvian-style ceviche, keeping in mind our earlier discussion about wanting a bit of crunch. I remembered my teacher in Duluth saying that the little corn thingies need to be toasted to develop crunch and flavor. Sure enough, that's what it says on the back of the package. Put a bit of oil in a skillet, it says. Toast the kernels to the desired doneness, continually stirring to prevent burning, it says. I did not know that the stuff would pop! And oh, how it popped! (Who would pop corn in a skillet, I ask you?) Bits of oversized corn kept leaping out of the skillet: onto the stove, onto the floor, onto my shirt, very occasionally back into the pan. I had no time to dig out the spatter screen, and wasn't sure I could be coordinated enough to juggle the skillet with that screen in place. Finally I turned off the fire and removed the skillet from the stove so it could pop over the sink. The floor was a sight to behold by the time I was done. This doesn't do it justice, but I was too traumatized to try for a better photo. The worst part is, I'm none too impressed with the flavor of these things. They're better than when they came out of the package. That isn't saying much. The proof will be in the ceviche, I suppose. Don't ever toast dried corn in a skillet.