Smithy

@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.

It looks like the Nourished Essentials Easy Fermenter set (available on Amazon here), or a cousin. I'd like to know more too. They look efficient and unmessy.

They grow in our yard at home, and are an excellent reason to be sloppy with the lawn mower.

I found a street fair / farmer's market in downtown (Old Historic) Yuma! I don't know yet whether it's a weekly thing. I was there for another purpose, but pleased at the find. I took time to check out a couple of stands. I got lunch here: a nice little pork taco ($2) and a huge cup of lemonade (another $2). I should have gotten a photo of the beguiling activity at the griddle. The meat was slapped on, and as it started to cook she chopped it, added vegetables to the mix, and kept chopping, scraping and stirring. It was the unconscious showmanship of well-practiced action. Across the way was a corn roasting stand. He had quite a few seasonings to add after the corn had been roasted and husked. He looked as lonely and forlorn as the Maytag Man so I went to check it out. No, business was not good and he might be heading for home next week. "I don't understand it," he said, "these sell like hotcakes back home in Alaska." I didn't have any ideas either. As it happened the batch he had going wouldn't be ready for a few minutes and I couldn't wait. I bought 4 ears of uncooked corn from him, figuring we could have it with dinner. They felt like good, heavy ears. I went to the Post Office, and a man outside sold me a bag of hot beef tamales. So much for our original dinner plans! But I got back to the Princessmobile with dinner well in hand. Or so I thought. I am learning that tamales are very much a grab-bag, surprise sort of meal unless you know their provenance. You never know until you've opened one just how much filling there is compared to the masa coating, and what the filling is like. These were mostly masa and in serious need of gussying-up, but by the time we figured it out it was too late to do much about it. I had another for lunch today, gussied up. Behold the original and final rendition! The corn was great, though: plump kernels and good flavor. We'll have the other two tonight.

Oddly enough, I know that egg/toast treatment as "Sunshine in the Window". Sounds much more appetizing than "Toad in the Hole", if you ask me.

I agree with Heidi and Anna. Aleppo (style) pepper would work. A touch of harissa would do. I think black pepper would overwhem the other flavors, and I don't think I've ever had it with za'atar. Maybe, just maybe, a touch of white pepper...but that seems to go in a more Greek direction than za'atar would suggest.

@chileheadmike, I'm pretty sure you explained / translated ABT before, but perhaps you'd do it again? I think the A stands for Atomic, but my memory may be off. The Corona beans were a mixed success. I sweated onions and carrots, then threw in a couple of smoked turkey tails and heated them slightly because they were still frozen. Then I added the well-soaked beans and water to cover. Brought it all to the boil, reduced the heat and let it bubble all day at a simmer, covered. I didn't add the aforementioned sage or bay leaves, out of negligence. After hours...realio, trulio hours...when those old and tired beans were finally starting to soften, I took a wand blender to them to hasten the thickening. In another pot I had steamed some green beans, then treated them to olive oil, garlic, salt and lemon following a recipe from Linda Dalal Sawaya's cookbook, Alice's Kitchen. I have had this cookbook...part family album, part cookbook...for well over a decade. It's a favorite. If you want an easy introduction to Lebanese cookery, I recommend it. If you don't intend to cook Lebanese food but you like family stories, I recommend it. There's no photo of the meal as we sat down to it. We spent a fair amount of time dissecting the results. The green beans were a smashing success! My darling wanted to make sure that I had written down what I'd done this time, because they were SO good. I assured him that I'd been following a recipe (with only one small refinement) so notes weren't necessary. If he was disappointed that I hadn't invented the recipe, he was too tactful to say so. The Corona beans and accompaniment ... well, neither of us was impressed but we didn't agree on the reasons. He thought the smoked turkey tails were bad news. I thought the beans were too old. We both thought the dish needed more seasoning, and our attempts to improve it were comical. Anyway, here are the leftovers. I suspect I'll be finishing off the Corona beans and turkey, and he'll sneak the green beans when I'm not looking. Fortunately for our marriage, they're easy to do again. Meanwhile, here was tonight's sky show.

Aha! No, I think the joke's on me! Now that I look again, I think you're right.

Neither was my leftover bean soup with a healthy squirt of sriracha, but it sure was good. I couldn't figure out why it was so much hotter and more flavorful than I remembered the original soup, until my DH admitted he'd dosed it with what he calls "Sri Lanka" sauce.

Thanks for this post! When I've thought about cooking mustard greens I've never thought about including the flowers. I'll have to try that.

@Captain, what's in that Lambington rollup, aside from lamb? Your feast looks delicious. Too bad I'm on the other side of the world!

I am itching to try those pepper recipes! Right now there's still too much stuff in the fridge to justify buying them until I've used up other fresh stock. Keep those photos coming, please, so I can enjoy them vicariously! Last night was his turn to cook, and apparently we didn't take any pictures. It was tube steaks in the grill basket and sweet corn (from frozen) with butter in Papa's pan, all done over the fire. He was skeptical of doing corn that way, but I thought the corn might pick up some good flavor from the previous use of the pan, which had left a hard-cooked layer that I hadn't properly cleaned. (I also suspected that the corn juices and butter would loosen some of that hard layer, but he doesn't need to know that.) The corn was good that way. What I did photograph, repeatedly, without ever getting the exposure I wanted, was the sight of the moon forming a delicate bowl with Venus dangling directly above it. They'll be closer together tonight, but the bowl will be fatter. Yesterday I started soaking the remainder of a bag of way-old Rancho Gordo Corona beans. Shame on me. I like beans, but somehow - as with pomegranates - I delay using them because of the anticipated workload until they're past their prime. I'm going to sweat some onion and carrot, then throw the beans in and give them a good, long cook with some bay and sage. This would be the time to bring out the Instant Pot, but we don't have any other reason to run the generator until this evening. Once they're cooked, they'll either be kept whole and tossed with, oh, a vinaigrette? or mashed into a dip. Suggestions welcome! And keep those peppers coming!

Thanks for that information, @lemniscate. We aren't near a Cost Plus World Market, but I see from the store locator that I should be close to one in the next month or so. Yesterday it was time, finally, to put our latest ham bone and scraps to final use. We kept forgetting and overlooking that little container in the fridge, hiding amongst the others. Before I went for my afternoon walk I diced the remaining meat, stripped the knuckle as best I could and put it in the freezer for bean or pea seasoning. I also grated the cheese I'd need for mac 'n' cheese 'n' ham. It seems that if I don't do much of the dinner prep before the sun goes down then I'll run out of energy and we'll end up eating dogs or burgers. Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't keep the refrigerator and food stocks balanced. I bet I'm not the only person here who is inundated with charitable-donation requests that include notepads, address labels and, for the holiday season, gift stickers. I finally realized this month that the gift stickers have a perfect use in the kitchen. Why did it take me so long to figure this out? I went for a walk, and spotted these brown-eyed evening primroses. (@demiglace, this is especially for you. ) Each flower is about 1 cm across. When I got home and we'd finished admiring the sunset, then I started what turned out to be a late dinner anyway. I balked at the idea of a pot for the pasta, a pot for the cream sauce, and a dish to bake it all in. I know it can be done in fewer pots, but after some stalling decided that sequencing was more of a pain than dishwashing. My last two cracks at mac 'n' cheese 'n' ham involved the melty cheese calculator and sodium citrate. Last night's was the classic white sauce-based version. We loved it. It was worth dirtying up that many dishes.

We're getting better at the burger timing. Last night he was in charge and I left him to it, once I got the camp stove running. (It's getting cranky.) We have finally emptied the squeeze bottles of mustard (coarse Dijon, and horseradish) from home so I pulled two jars out from storage and let my darling pick. The jalapeño mustard is one of the things my DIL egged me into buying last September.The mustard in the stein is a Dusseldorfer mustard that I find once in a while at good grocery stores . It's sharp and delicious, one of my favorites. My darling flinched at the idea of jalapeño mustard on his spicy-hot burgers (half beef, half hot Italian sausage), so it went back into the cupboard. In other news: spring is coming to the desert. We're seeing the first tiny flowers. We're also spotting fresh young mustard greens. A handful, foraged from a huge patch, made it into our salads.

@Darienne, I recommend both. @heidih, I think you nailed my biggest objection. I have had coconut flakes that weren't objectionable, and I think it was because they were unsweetened. Still can't stand the shredded stuff from most grocery stores, nor candy bars nor cookies containing them. Anyone eating a Mounds bar or a macaroon is safe from me!

How did that work, Elsie? I've been enjoying the stuffed pepper show over in the Cooking forum.

I never liked shredded coconut before I tried basbousa in Egypt. It was a revelation to me that shredded coconut could be moist and tasty, and not overpower all the other flavors. Your basbousa looks delicious!

Welcome home! Thanks again for taking us along!

Thanks for that recipe! It looks like a keeper, well worth trying. To answer your question, though: I cooked them long enough to cook that thick, raw bacon...half an hour over the fire? I didn't see a way around that. Porthos' suggestion of par-cooking, and Shelby's of using thinner bacon both would have helped. It looks like I'll have to buy some toothpicks, too. My BBQ skewers would be another option, but they're thicker and wouldn't allow individual turning of the peppers.

I fear this will be behind a paywall for non-subscribers, but I recommend this funny article by J.J. Goode in today's Washington Post: As a cookbook writer, I just knew my children would be good eaters. Then they were born. It's a funny essay about high expectations and low capitulation. Here's a small sample:

Ha. I just thought to Google the issue and discovered this web site owned by the San Diego Farm Bureau. Farmers Markets lists location and schedule - and by golly, there is more than one in Rancho Bernardo! So I've answered my own question. Nonetheless, pointers from others who know will be welcome.

I'll be making a trip soon to visit my best friend in Rancho Bernardo, just north of San Diego proper. Where would we have to go to find a good farmers' market, if there is one? Escondido and Poway are the two towns I can think of that aren't too far away. Rancho Bernardo would be ideal, but I think she'd know about it if one existed. Locations and schedules would be most welcome.

I like eating jalapeño poppers, "armadillo eggs", "gator toes" and the like, but have only tried making them once - and that without a bacon wrapping. Last night I realized that the jalapeños I'd bought for the purpose were headed south fast. It was time to try making them. First question: does the cheese matter? I decided to try two candidates side by side. The Egyptian feta cheese is saltier than cream cheese. One set of peppers had the stem on so we could tell after the fact which cheese was which. Next question: how the heck does one get that bacon to stay wrapped? I think the bacon slices were too thick, for starters. This was thick-slice hickory smoked bacon from Cooper's in Llano, Texas. We may have more in the freezer, but I couldn't find it. We don't have toothpicks in the trailer. i didn't want to dig out the step stool to dig out the box that has the butcher's twine. I opted for Papa's Pan instead. Given the messiness of the cheeses, containment seemed like a good idea anyway. The dogs were delicious. The poppers - well, they weren't poppers. Too bad I didn't take a picture of the pan after cooking, when it was open. Everything had disintegrated into a cheesy, peppery, bacony mess. You could make out the peppers' carcasses. A couple had cheese inside them; all were coated in cheese. The flavor combination was delicious, but I need to do some research on how the heck those things are supposed to be made! Comments and suggestions welcome. How do you make jalapeño poppers?

Wow...this whole trip has been one that made me with we had a WOW! icon. Thank you for the great photos! Happy (well, uneventful at least) travels back!

It's a bit of ambiance and a bit of control. I think when we did that we still hadn't cut and sorted the firewood, so it would have been difficult to pick and choose the size wood we needed. Another reason is that the fire puts soot on the bottom of the pan and the camp stove doesn't. We've never cared about that before - I just do a final cleaning before we pack up - but he decided somehow that I don't like it and is trying to be careful of the cookware. I think I've just about got him convinced that it's really okay for the "outside" pans.