Smithy

One of my favorite stores in the Duluth, MN area is The Blue Heron Trading Company. One of my favorite restaurants in the area is The New Scenic Cafe. Therefore, when the Blue Heron offers a cooking class taught by Scott Graden, chef and owner of the New Scenic, that class is not to be missed. Most classes fill up within a day of being announced; Scott's classes typically fill on the very day of announcement. I was lucky enough to get wait-listed and fill in on a cancellation. I've taken a class or two of Scott's before. He is funny, interesting and creative, and he engages well with his small audience. His classes are clearly taught, with recipes, and they always seem accessible in the sense that those of us attending the class can do the same thing. As a bonus, he always makes it clear that small quantities of things not readily available to the home cook can be gotten "from the back door" of the restaurant if we come and ask: a little butter, some herring roe, sourdough starter. (Just don't ask for too much, or do it too often!) I've never tried it but if I'd had time before we left for the winter I'd have done so. This September's class was titled "New Scenic Feast" and one of its main points was to show that a fine and elaborate feast can be prepared in advance for a large or small gathering, to minimize fuss on the day of the holiday. You can enjoy the wine (beer, whatever) with your guests instead of tearing around like a crazy person and missing the fun. Much of the menu he presented was something that he and his staff had prepared for 300 guests at a festival the following weekend. Instead of making this a single long post as I am prone to do, I'm going to post in stages. It will help me clarify my memories, and give readers a chance to comment or ask questions as we go along. Here are some teaser photos, starting with the menu. Scott Graden, in the Blue Heron's classoom kitchen: One of the drinks he provided to pair with an appetizer:

Here are some bettter shots from our current setup. One of the unusual features of this trailer is the side deck that folds down, with sliding glass doors to allow sun into the living area. This is one of my favorite features of the trailer. The deck is a good place to hang out in the sunshine (or shade), sitting and listening or reading. The stargazing last night was wonderful until the moon rose. On the other side of the trailer (bottom half of the picture above) you can see the room glides that move out to make living space when we're parked. At the back of the trailer is the ramp that allows us to get the wheeled toys out of the "garage" when we're parked. The ramp can be set to a level position, as it is here, for a rear deck. This also has an awning and rail, if needed.

I found a patch of prickly pear cactus loaded with fruit (tunas) and have harvested some for the juice. I picked about 30 and froze them, with the intent of following instructions given me on the Camping, Princess Style topic here and here. Now they're rinsed and draining for the second step. @lemniscate chimed in with a steaming operation for the juice instead, here. Next time I'll try that for comparison purposes. So far, the things I've learned are: 1. use metal tongs, not silicone, to harvest the tunas if possible; otherwise you'll spend precious time removing glochids (very, very fine small spines from the fruit) from the silicone when you're done; 2. immediately discard the plastic bag (or box, if you use that instead) into which you collected the tunas, instead of reusing it for something else; otherwise, you'll spend precious time removing those glochids from your fingers.

The frozen tunas are rinsed and draining into the tallest bowl I could find, with a standard footed colander to provide some space between the juice and the pulp and a fine-mesh colander inside that one to block more of the glochids. Per @Shelby's suggestion, I've started discussing this operation in the Foraging for favorites topic, here. Note to self: if you harvest the fruit into a plastic bag, discard that bag immediately after dumping it. Do not plan to reuse it, because it's loaded with glochids. Those teeny devils are darned hard to spot and grab with tweezers! I've made enough room in the freezer to start a fresh batch of ice. My darling should be happy.

@Kim Shook, I too am in awe of your gravy...and the timing of making it. (I have a small idea of what a grab bag your visits can be. Here's hoping this is a good one. I'm sure the food will be delicious.) If I ever try making turkey gravy again -- I haven't cooked a turkey in years, and don't plan to this year -- I will look back at your tutorial and give it a try.

Indeed it was.

After we got back from Deming, we continued south to the border, and walked across to Palomas and The Pink Store. I didn't take as much time shooting photos of the contents as I have in past years, because I was On A Mission for a friend, looking for glassware. Besides, we were hungry! Still, leisure was encouraged. They greeted us at the door with a "would you like a drink?" and cheerfully brought us margaritas to carry around as we perused the store. My darling was more interested in perusing the menu. I enjoyed perusing both. I could spend hours wandering around there and still not see everything. The view from our table, looking outside to the courtyard: These gentlemen serenaded us with an extremely creative version of "El Paso". I know the song well enough to know that the rhythm and tune were off a bit, and the lyrics even more so. My Spanish is very rusty, but I'm quite sure Marty Robbins never sang about drinking tequila in the last verse! I ordered a shrimp salad - I forget where the shrimp came from - and a bowl of squash blossom soup. My darling went with some sort of burger and fries. I forgot to take a picture of his dish, but I sneaked a few fries and they were quite good. He said it was one of the better burgers he'd ever had. The squash blossom soup was supposed to be a small bowl. It was enough to be a meal on its own. Then my salad came. It too was huge. The shrimp was deliciously tender, just cooked through, with lemon and butter, I think, for seasoning. The greens, onion and cucumber were crisp and fresh, and the onion had just a slight sweet bite to it. What kind of dressing did I want with it? our waiter asked. The choices were ranch, bleu cheese, thousand island, and something else - Italian, maybe? I chose ranch dressing, and it arrived. Okay, so they don't make their own dressings. The salad didn't need it anyway. There was a lot of food, and I ended up taking half the soup home with me for that night's dinner. We floated home on the strength of a successful expedition and some excellent margaritas, and made an early night of it.

We wondered whether it was a supply vs. demand thing. Thanks for the link to hat great article! It's well-written and informative. As for Socorro ...well, give us time.

The first one was indeed badly shredded. The second one we caught when it was just beginning to leak, thanks to having a full set of operating tire pressure monitors. That's the one we had hoped to get repaired...but alas, it couldn't be done. Note the statistics: we aren't even 2 weeks on the road yet, and we've gone through 2 tires! Usually we hve no flats at all. Since we bought several new tires before the trip we're hoping that the old ones have all been found.

This is a terribly blurry photo, but it's the best I have for this story. We had to drive north from Columbus to Deming, NM to get a new tire when it developed that our blown tire couldn't be repaired. There's a Border Patrol check station between the two towns. This truck was ahead of us, and while we were stopped I could see what looked like red peppers (dried? maybe?) peeking out between the slats. When it was our turn to speak with the officer at the check point, we asked about the truck. Yes, it was peppers. We asked where they were going. "They go to Las Cruces or to Hatch," he said. We looked at each other. "Wait, the peppers we drive to Hatch to buy are coming from Mexico?" Sly smile. "Yes!" he grinned, and sent us on our way. What could we do but laugh? Especially since we saw at least a dozen of these trucks on our trip that day. I'm sure the Hatch harvest season and the resulting green chiles are at least partially a local production, but it sure looks like there's some good marketing going on as well.

That's exactly what my mother used to do!

What a bittersweet time, @Kim Shook. I'm glad there are plenty of happy memories for you, and that you could indulge in some nostalgia at some favorite restaurants.

@JoNorvelleWalker, I don't know whether to laugh or groan over that one. Both, I think.

It sounds like you'll have to learn to make it!

I don't know what a steam juicer is, or how it works. Got a link or a picture?

What she said!!

I'll try to find that when we reach Tucson. Whole Foods only had the sweetened stuff, and I already had some of Cheri's - which is nice, but sweetened.

Her "harvest" photo shows more pink flesh left behind than I saw. Makes me think they may be past their prime. Nonetheless, they're in the freezer now. Looks like I could have harvested more! I don't know why my darling is complaining about the freezer being too full. There's still a gap below and behind that bag.

No doubt if I'd asked they'd have said "no" but these things are falling off the cactus and littering the ground. Others took a slight twist to get them off, and a couple left behind brilliant red spots on the plant, making me wonder whether they were too early. How can you tell whether they're at their prime or past it?

Do use tongs. Don't use silicone-coated tongs. I just spent a few minutes picking the glochids out of my thumb and good silicone kitchen tongs. Shoulda known better! BTW needlenose pliers work, I think tweezers would be better because the glochids are so fine.

Well, look what's in full fruit at our campground! The prickly pear juice I was able to buy last spring was / is good, but already sweetened. Someone -- @heidih? @blue_dolphin? -- had asked about the taste of the juice. Now I'll have a chance to find out. How I'll jam a bag full of these things into the freezer is a good question, but I'll figure it out.

I tried using egg roll wrappers this summer for another filling altogether, and the lot fell apart during the boil. Are there any tricks to using egg roll wrappers as opposed to pasta?

That's quite a selection of drink flasks! I think we'd have to go to a specialty store: sporting goods, or possibly a Starbucks, to see such a variety. The tea flowers are beautiful. I love the intense colors some of them have. I had no idea that peony flowers were edible. With such a variety, do you think people choose teas more for their aesthetic appeal (flavor, color) or for their supposed benefits? For instance, in the USA I see chamomile packaged in "calming" teas.

Here's a clearing-out-stuff dinner. 1 carnival squash, some leftover pepper stuffing from the freezer (sausage, corn, tomato, onion, who knows what else) stuffed into the halves. Topped with shredded cheese (leftovers from a dinner party). Baked until the squash was soft, topped with more cheese at the last. We needed easy today. Lots of miles driven, and yet another flat tire! At least this time we caught it before it started to shred.

I think the "two birds in a bush" goes along with "a bird in the hand is better than two birds in a bush", but that would have been much much too long for the bottle cap. Just as "2 peas in a pod" would have been clearer if they'd stuck a "like" or "as alike as" in front of it. The last one was the toughest for me. I've heard the expression, but can't think in which context.