Smithy

Now that I think of it, my mother did something much like what y'all have been describing with her pot roasts. I don't remember at what point she switched from simply salt on the roast to the onion soup mix. I had totally forgotten it. My darling learned this trick from watching his sister make grilled potatoes in foil: wrap 'em up with the soup mix and a lot of butter, and grill with whatever the main course is until done. So what was old became new again, at least for me. And if my Sister-in-Law never bothered reading Peg Bracken, she certainly shared that attitude. She hates to cook. She turns out good meals, but they're always easy. Hmm, now I remember one of my early responsibilities for cooking such a roast for the family so it would be done when Mom got home. I remembered everything (by then it was the onion soup mix) except to turn the oven on.

That is correct. It makes its own juice, and those juices soak luxuriantly into the potatoes. The side-buffer potatoes don't cook as quickly because they get less juice, so if we want to be fussy we par-cook the potatoes in the microwave before packing them in. We've gotten pretty lazy about that step, though.

Who knew? This quote, under Rule 4, especially caught my eye:

Cut a bunch of potatoes into chunks about 11/2" - 2" diameter. Smaller is okay but not necessary, unless you need them smaller to pack them in. Put the potatoes in the bottom of a heavy pot (we use enameled cast iron) or a slow cooker. Coat the pork roast with Lipton's Onion Soup Mix (now called Lipton Recipe Secrets, Onion flavor). Place the pork atop the potatoes and surround it with more potatoes to keep the roast from touching the walls of the pot. Cover tightly, and cook on low slow-cooker heat or in a low oven until internal temperature is about 160F, maybe slightly higher -- but keep in mind it will coast upward after turning the heat off. It takes a few hours, depending on the size of the roast, and is a nice treatment for a cool or cold day. The roasts we're cooking are typically about 3 pounds, and we're trying to think how much time we allow: 2 hours, 3? I think 3. He says "cook until done". That's it. You can add carrots or other vegetables if you wish, but we generally don't. It's dead easy and delicious. If I remember, I'll document it more carefully next time we cook it.

I am quite taken with the meat section of that little market in Calipatria. On the way through from the Salton Sea to our current camping spot, I stopped again. My darling grumbled about our having too much food already, but at $1.99/lb for good pork shoulder roast and for good boneless/skinless chicken leg meat I couldn't resist. i had specific desires for that pork and chicken. I had the butcher cut the 7-pound pork shoulder roast in half. He cut it so that only one half had a bone. The boneless half will be cooked as a pork roast, with the requisite Lipton's Onion Soup Mix and other accoutrements preferred by my darling. I took the half with the bone, and split it more. The bone has gone into the freezer to help with the next batch of beans. Part of the remaining meat has gone into storage for souvlaki. The remainer went into a Pueblo Green Chili Stew, from the cookbook Jane Butel's Southwestern Kitchen. I found this book in a library sale last year, and have enjoyed the book and recipes without posting much about it. The flavors were good, and the basic technique is a keeper. We both thought the stew was too hot, but that probably had to do with the heat of the Hatch chiles in the freezer. They came from two different sources, and were classified differently.

We are so elated to have a generator again that we're kicking over the breakfast traces this morning. Well, that and he's out of cereal. I'm headed to town later to pick up a few things, including his cereal. I'm treating myself to rewarmed leftover chili from last night, garnished with the last bit of an avocado, a last tomato, and sour cream. The presentation isn't pretty, but the flavors are good. I hope it'll keep me going through the day without getting hangry and overbuying at the grocery store. He's treating himself to sausage, eggs and toast. I took this before he added his preferred seasonings. I can still see the eggs under all that pepper, but only just.

We made it. The generator seems to work properly. We tested it a couple of times before the service crew left, then we headed out. A half hour or so after we'd hit the road I got a call from the repair-company boss, telling me to run the generator for an hour, with a load. Too late! He told me to do so after we'd set up. I stopped at Calipatria and hit the Market Square again, and bought a pound of boneless chicken leg meat (leg +thigh, boneless and skinless, same as last time) and a pork shoulder roast that I had the butcher cut in half. My plans are to take that shoulder roast in a few different directions over a few meals: Greek (souvlaki), Mexican (tacos al pastor? carnitas?) and no doubt my darling's favorite roasted-pork-with-Lipton's-Onion-Soup-mix coating. The chicken has equally flexible options. It all depends on when the weather gets to be nice outside again. It was at least 15F colder when we arrived, and the wind was even stronger than when we'd left the Salton Sea. Whatever I cooked would have to be cooked inside. As it turned out, leftovers came to the top of the choices. My darling had no energy or enthusiasm for waiting while I cooked something. We turned to last night's chili. This is why we tend to cook in large batches! We also polished off the chopped onions from last night and some shredded cheese from several nights ago. Progress (ha) in the freezer. It still isn't enough to make up for what I bought today.

Glad you like the photos! When the generator is fixed, we plan to go back to our earlier spot in the desert outside Yuma. I hope that's going to be today. The service folks just arrived with the replacement part. I've heard 2 attempts so far to start the generator. <Cue sinking feeling> . . . wait, I just heard a relay clunk! We have power!

I bet you're getting it again today, another Tuesday. There are whitecaps on the Salton Sea now because of the wind shift and the still-strong winds. Since I shot these pictures an hour or so ago, the wind has come up even more. There's spray blowing off the waves. We are sitting captive, waiting for the replacement part for our generator that was supposed to have been picked up yesterday afternoon and installed forthwith this morning. (Time now 10:50.) At least it's a pretty day, if blustery, but we'd like to be on our way. This morning I finished my yogurt, along with flax, some grapes, avocado and a tangelo. I am quite tired of yogurt by now. It's time to take a break from it and think of another easy, fairly low-cal breakfast.

We've had to relocate back to the Salton Sea for a few days so the generator repairs can be redone by the folks who didn't quite finish the job(!) the first time. The lake always puts on a show, so it hasn't been too bad being back here except for the inconvenience. Last night there was quite a sunset show. Here's what we saw last night, and this morning. What a weather change! That's more or less the same view, but the mist and dust blocked the view of the opposite shore. It was blowing a good 20 - 30 knots most of the day. The Princessmobile shook and rocked in the wind - not enough that we worried about being blown over, but enough that we closed the tailgate to stop the draft. I'd have been game to cook the jalapeno poppers and call it dinner, but with the sudden drop in temperature my darling decided he wanted chili. We've been carrying the cans around since we left home. We bought burger yesterday on a road trip. I don't particularly like frying food in the house or trailer, because the smell lingers for days and the grease gets everywhere. I'd have made an exception today, given the weather, but he decided to haul out the camp stove and set it up on our deck to fry the burger. The rest of the chili was made inside. It worked well, and was delicious! He garnishes with chopped onion; I like a little of that and a touch of sour cream. Crackers rounded it all out. If we ate like this all the time we'd be rounded out. There will be several more meals from this batch. We aren't sure yet how we'll make room in the freezer, but we'll figure it out.

Back to the roast: my sister reports that it's 2.5 pounds. She describes the dimensions this way:

That sounds like the advice I received when traveling in Egypt: if you like the food, don't look in the kitchen. We almost always ate at the cheap places too, and we loved the food.

Heidi is correct in not overcomplicating things, but thanks for the thoughts on wok vs. skillet. I summarized the responses to my sister in an email, and included a link to the discussion. (As a non-member, she can look at her leisure.) Here's what she said at the time: At the risk of derailing this conversation (I hope it doesn't) I'll add that she went on say: Discussion about THAT idea should go elsewhere, but I thought I'd share it. Thanks for the responses so far, folks. Keep the ideas coming! I'll relay her questions or comments as appropriate, and I hope I'll be able to report what she did and how it worked out.

Your creative muse won't let you, and that's our good fortune.

Yes. I was thinking "Vienna sausages" but cocktail sausages (or even the less-appealing-to-me term cocktail weenies) is the more generic term.

It's very possible I misunderstood you, then. I did envision a wok and finely cut vegetables as additions, but I suppose the same could be accomplished with any skillet light enough for her to toss materials in. Thanks for the clarification.

I'm not sure stir-frying is in her repertoire, but she might be tempted to learn. As far as I know she'll be feeding herself for many, many days. My penchant for buying food with high plans of dinner parties, or ambitious cooking projects, is not a one-off in our family. Thanks for the responses so far, folks (and for the link to an earlier topic, JoNorvelleWalker). Keep the ideas coming, please!

My sister is cooking her way through her freezer contents, and has unearthed a very well-wrapped beef chuck roast. (I specify well-wrapped because if the short ribs she recently cooked are an indication, the beef won't have any freezer burn.) She asked me for advice about how to cook it. I had to admit that I've never cooked a roast from a grass-fed cow. I understand that it may be leaner and may need special handling. She doesn't have a low-temperature circulator, or a pressure cooker, or an Instant Pot, or even a Crock Pot. She does have enameled cast iron. So it's stovetop or oven cooking for her. Should she cook it as a whole, or treat it as stew meat? In the oven or atop it? Dry heat or moist? Especially important: how will the grass-fed aspect of the beef play out? What special precautions should she take to ensure its tenderness and to take advantage of its flavor differences? I'll tell you right up front that she doesn't like onions and detests Lipton's Onion Soup mix, that magical addition. But she's open to carrots, celery, and most not-hot herbs and spices. I can ask her questions about size, shape and bones if someone asks.

As Anna said: please report back! I have the Buttermilk and Bourbon cookbook and it's chock-full of recipes I want to try. The fried chicken recipe is on my must-try list for when it gets warm enough for me to fry outside. FWIW I think the buttermilk ranch dressing from that book is excellent. I've been able to resist the Momofuku Ranch Dressing frenzy because I'm so satisfied with the Buttermilk and Bourbon version.

We finished the last of the tamales just now. As noted before, they needed help. My darling would have been happy for me to throw them away, but he was game to try the modification. I loaded them into a baking dish and chopped them into chunks, added about a cup of our salsa, topped with cheese, and let it all bake in the oven until it was warm. We added our own refinements at the table: more salsa, some chopped parsley and cilantro; I also added black olives and sour cream. With some crisp, crunchy, delightfully salty Santitas corn chips, it was a fine meal. I still don't think I'll buy that guy's tamales again, though.

A few years ago I spent most of the summer in Visalia, roughly 200 miles north of the L.A. Basin. A couple of farmers' markets had been established there, and my sister and I gloried in the offerings. We were surprised that some of the materials sold (produce, canned goods, etc) were coming up from someone who also sells at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market. Yet more vendors were coming all the way from the San Francisco Bay area, and from Reno. By that time I was listening to KCRW's Good Food on an intermittent basis, and so it was a delight to see a few of the goodies I heard about making it all the way up into the Valley. I spent 4 years in Claremont and another 4 in Azusa, watching the orange groves that had so comforted me (reminding me of home) disappear during that time. I'm sure my perception was that there was no agriculture any longer in the L.A. Basin. I was gone by the time the Santa Monica market started.

I wish I had appreciated farmer's markets when I lived in the L.A. area. I don't think I ever went there. I lived in Azusa and thought nothing of driving to Westwood or Hollywood to see a movie in a really good theater, so the market would have been an easy drive for me. Oh well...too soon old no longer young, too late smart.

Pomegranates bamboozle me. I love the idea and flavor of pomegranates, and simply can't resist them when they're plump and red in the grocery store. Then they sit in the basket and age and shrivel while I ponder the workload of getting those pips out. Funny thing is, it isn't really difficult or even time-consuming. It's simply one of those chores that seems huge until I go at it. This morning, I decided to take the easy way out and have pomegranate juice with breakfast. Delicious! Even better than cream cheese and avocado! I think I'll have to buy more pomegranates, if there are any to be had.

We're having some stressful times involving mechanical and medical issues. Last night I was all set to make ceviche, something I've been wanting since Christmas. My darling flinched. He likes ceviche when I make it, but he has some sort of mental block against the idea. "Can't you make Shrimp Bolivar instead?" he asked. He really wanted comfort food. I admit it was good, and hearty, but didn't scratch my ceviche itch. There's more shrimp in the freezer. I'll ambush him with it after our woes are resolved. This morning, it was MY comfort-food breakfast.

@BonVivant - oh, those lovely ceviches! I am so very glad you're posting all those photos and enjoying the food so much. I had planned ceviche last night, but my husband wanted something more hearty done with the shrimp. I cooked a shrimp/pasta/garlic/parmesan dish instead, but didn't bother with pictures. It was good, and satisfying to us both after a difficult day. But it wasn't ceviche. And I want ceviche! I'll make it soon, even if I have to ambush him with it.