Smithy

I had no idea the pink peppercorns from those trees were edible! We call them "pepper trees" in California, but I grew up thinking they were simply lovely ornamentals with a wonderful smell. The next time I visit, if the peppercorns are ripe, I'll try to harvest some. This has been a delightful blog. Thank you very much for showing us more of your part of the world, and your life there.

The Shopko Hometown chain is going out of business. The liquidation sales are down to the last 10 days, and I finally decided the prices had dropped enough on their 6-quart enameled cast iron Dutch ovens. I love this color! I bought this Dutch oven for our trailer, but now it's sitting in our house waiting to be used. In the meantime, I'm so thrilled at what seems to be a well-constructed 6-quart ECI pot for 30 bucks that I'm thinking about buying more as gifts.

It is definitely easier to buy shelled pecans! However, I have a weakness for local foods picked up during our travels, and that includes fresh pecans. They also keep better in the shell.

You get the Good Spouse Award here. Faced with the same circumstances (I am not) I might be inclined toward a friend's approach to her husband's breakfast: "The Cheerios are on the top shelf." Wisecracks aside, I compliment you (in no particular order) on your early-morning energy, your food sensibilities, and your food photography.

Like KennethT above, I'd like to know more about this. I envision a lot of hard work without a juicer or blender, but I might be surprised!

I've had a hard copy of the Black Dog cookbook since it first came out. Love it.

Salmon and pecans have an affinity for each other. Somewhere in my files I have a recipe for pecan-crusted salmon with sorrel sauce. I no longer have sorrel, but I decided to try fennel (from the farmers' market) and lovage (from the garden) in a butter sauce. The pecans were toasted, then chopped, then pressed onto the salmon with the help of melted butter. The salmon was baked, skin side down, until it was done. A drizzle of lemon balanced and brightened everything. Crunchy, toasted pecans, meltingly tender salmon, and a summery vegetable with just a hint of that anisey flavor - what's not to love?

Some time ago, in another topic, @rotuts recommended a particular style of pecan cracker. I found one and bought it, and finally got around to trying it today. It worked well, once I decided that a plastic bag was needed to keep shells from flying all over the kitchen. (Sure, this could be an outside activity - but it was 55F and rainy today.) Tonight's dinner was pecan-crusted salmon with a fennel-lovage butter sauce. My darling's plate included toast. The combination of toasted pecans and salmon is a winner. This was the first time I tried sweating fennel and lovage as an addition, but it seemed an easy way to add vegetables. It was a bit too heavy on the butter, but otherwise lovely with a simple squeeze of lemon to brighten the flavors. Even my darling, who is not a fan of salmon, liked it.

I really need to come to this topic BEFORE I go shopping, to remind me of things already in the freezer that need to be cooked. @Margaret Pilgrim, what is your shrimp-frying recipe/technique?

So much for too little time! You win the no-prize! Here are the rest of the teaser photos. This last, to me, is quintessential Panaderia Canadiense: She'll open the foodblog tomorrow morning. Enjoy the anticipation, everyone!

We have a volunteer foodblogger starting up...tomorrow! I know I have commented in the past that you lot are such good guessers that I needed to keep the guessing-game period short. Well, a matter of a few hours is short. Very short. Rest assured, this is shorter than I'd have set it, but Life has gotten in the way of good timing. This is the first time I've been near a keyboard so I could post a teaser photo after receiving it. Honest! To add to the compression, the forums will be going down at 11pm (CDT) tonight for an hour or three during the software upgrade (you HAVE read the banner announcement above, haven't you?) so there isn't much time left. I'll post one teaser photo now, and another in about an hour if I can stay up that long. (It's been a long, long day here at Chez Smithy.) Guess away. Tomorrow morning, all will be revealed unless someone identifies our blogger in the meantime.

Earlier this week it was Leah Chase; now it's Maida Heatter, gone at 102. I think I'll have to make one of her desserts in commemoration.

I aspire to that status (assuming it's voluntary!) but have a long way to go. Your creativity is inspiring!

It pains me to give up the dream, but I'm going to have to change my "maybe" to a "no". Discretionary funds just took a serious hit. I hope y'all have a wonderful time! Post lots of pictures, and make the rest of us envious!

Well, this is embarrassing but not unheard-of in this crowd: I see I bought the Simple Thai Food book in 2015.

I have no experience with Pectinex, but I have a lot of experience with receiving shipped goods. Do you know how this shipment would be sent? For instance, would it be in an insulated container, with cold packs? Can you get expedited shipping with it?

Pan-roasted vegetables drizzled with smoked and regular olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then joined by slices of a spicy sausage for the last part of the roast. Leftover potatoes from a ham dinner were warmed separately and added at the table, along with the ham juice. My food photography isn't up to snuff, but this dinner is so easy and delicious it's worthy of note. It has become part of our regular rotation. It's forgiving, too: the tomatoes, corn and ramps were all past their prime, but they were a nice addition to the mix and the roasting process brought out their fading flavor.

What a lovely send-off. Thank you for that link, @SLB!

In the United States we have a lot of "convenience foods" packaged in the grocery store freezers. They're ready to take home and cook, either in a conventional oven or in a microwave oven. Some packages also include instructions for cooking in a "toaster oven" which is considerably smaller than a conventional oven. I've never seen any come with steam oven instructions, but since I don't buy these things my casual survey may have missed a new option. I think steam ovens are still relatively rare for the home cook in this country, although this topic will show that they're catching on! Is this the sort of thing you mean? You'd have to work out a cost-effective way of producing them, and I hope you'd also find a reusable package. The waste from these is one reason I don't buy them. (Another is that I tend to cook from scratch, as do the other participants in this topic so far.)

IMBC, perhaps?

I think it's pretty funny, and I am the most casual of gardeners, so it doesn't take much gardening knowledge to appreciate it. Ah, those Blenheims! The last time I managed to lay my hands on some - I spent most of the summer in the San Joaquin Valley that year - I got a load of those lovely fruits. If you haven't tried making semifreddo with them, I recommend giving it a try. I got the idea from a Fine Cooking magazine, issue 124. Here's a link to their current article about it, complete with video: How to Make Semifreddo. In rereading the recipe I see they say not to use fresh apricots. I don't recall minding the "icy texture" one bit when I used the puree.

Wow, that's a lot of produce! Are you indicating that that was a Sunday leftovers haul? Next question: any idea what type of apricots those are in the bottom photo? Whether or not you know the variety, please describe them. They look soft, juicy and fragile - like the type I grew up with in California, and unlike what I see in grocery stores. I'm fantasizing here - but if you burst my fantasy bubble, I'll survive.

Welcome!

I hear you with regard to smoke in the house! Anything smoky or grease-spatteringly messy happens outside around here. In my (limited) experience, soot like that suggests that the burners aren't burning cleanly. Is there any way to clean the burners - say, make sure the ports are clear? I'm not sure I'd know how to do it with our gas grill, but we have a lot of tinkerers on the forum (@dcarch, are you listening?) who may be able to help. Another possibility is to use a pan that you don't mind getting and leaving sooty for the season. We have one dedicated to outdoor work that hangs on the outside wall. A variation on that would be to put a griddle atop the burners and let it be the one to get sooty, then put the pan atop the griddle. The pan shouldn't get smoky then. I don't think the heat transfer would be as good with that setup, though.

@JoNorvelleWalker, that steak really does look delightful. How thick was it? How did you cook it?