Smithy

Right you both are!

That looks like a wonderful Easter dinner. Ramps!! Oh, you lucky duck! Ours will be coming up in about a month.

Yep! (Taken out of context, that sounds rather uncomplimentary. ) OK, here's the other one for the day:

This one probably isn't too tough...

More sights from my walking tour. I did not buy the cute cookie jar, nor any of the very large apothecary jars (bargain-priced), nor any of the other pretty jars, nor the stiff wooden basket large enough to double as a crib, nor even a pressure gauge. Nor did I buy (or even try to fit into) the vintage cowgirl outfit, for that matter. Later in the day we went to Miller's Smokehouse & Market. They have a great selection of fresh and smoked meats, sausage-making supplies, preserves and a few "normal" groceries. Here's a very small selection of their offerings: We bought some of their sausages, the massive chicken breasts I showed in the sous vide post earlier, and a selection of their stuffed peppers: jalapeno poppers, armadillo eggs, gator toes and brisket poppers. The brisket poppers are supposed to be the local favorites; having sampled some, I can see why. We baked them in the oven at 325F or 350F until the bacon wrapping was brown. They were good! We also bought pork steaks. It seems as though most areas that we travel favor thinly-sliced pork - something appropriate for quick frying, but not satisfying for the breaded, oven-baked version my darling prefers. These overcompensated: each steak was immense in thickness as well as area. We decided to share one. I couldn't finish my half. Lest you think we're only eating meat and potato salad in Llano, let me tell you about the green beans I cooked from @JAZ's new book, The Ultimate Instant Pot Cookbook for Two. (Disclosure: I was one of several eGullet recipe testers for this book, and Janet was good enough to send me a free copy by way of thanks. I'll also say that I liked the recipes I tested so much that I bought a copy of the book for my best friend when it hit the presses.) My copy finally (finally!) caught up to me in the roving mail, and it's bristling with sticky-notes for recipes to try. For this dinner it was the Warm Thai-Style Green Bean and Tomato Salad. Simple, from start to finish, and delicious. I didn't tell my darling it contained cilantro. He loved the salad as much as I did.

I wrote last fall about the terrible flooding along the Llano River that prevented us from visiting then. The park where we like to stay was badly damaged. I'm happy to report that most of the trailer camping facilities have been repaired, so we were able to visit for a few days, get our fill of barbecue, and see how the town fared. I have been enjoying Cooper's pinto beans for breakfast for the last couple of days, and it's a good way to fortify myself for walking tours. The Inks Bridge that connects the northern and southern sides of the town actually had water over it at the worst of the flood. It wasn't damaged, but the river bed has been scrubbed down to the rock. On the downstream side of the bridge, there are two photos that show the "before" so you can see how much that flood affected the vegetation. I walked across the bridge and admired the sculptures that have gone up in another riverfront park. (Note the flood debris high in the tree's branches!) I walked on into town, and by sheer dumb luck discovered that there's a Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings! I went to the Courthouse Square to see what they might have. I walked around two corners of the square before I found it: 3 stations, only. Well, this was the first weekend of the season for the market. One woman was selling vegetable plants that wouldn't appreciate being asked to flourish where we live. Another woman was selling baked goods. The third vendor was a man selling hand-woven cloths. To the left of the spinning machine were some plain, soft cotton napkins; the cloth to the right was woven of linen, or maybe linen and cotton. I had never seen a spinning machine like this, but the style dates back to Mahatma Gandhi's day. Lest this veer off into politics, please see this link for more information. This vendor is making his own yarn from cotton, but the cloth I bought as a table centerpiece is made from purchased yarn. It's luxuriantly soft. You'll see it in use at the table before we get home...but not when we're eating something messy! The weaver assured me that it's been washed many times, and that as cotton it's quite washable. Still, I don't think I want to risk it with barbecue sauce.

Yeah, I had to work backward from the knot on that one to work out that it was a lass at the upper left!

I've written before about Lone Star Beer. To be honest, I buy it more for the bottle caps than the flavor, but it's become a tradition for us: when in Texas, we have to buy at least one 6-pack of the stuff so we can enjoy the puzzles. Here are two. Can you make out what they say?

I found some ripe prickly pear fruit! I only took a small sample because I didn't actually see anyone from whom to ask permission. They probably wouldn't have cared, since there's a significant number of tunas on the ground - but still. I settled for just three. They're in the freezer now. If I manage to get juice out of this paltry sampling, I'll report back on the taste and tartness.

In reponse to my kvetching about the Joule, I'm happy to report that I used the Joule successfully yesterday for 3 separate cooks, with no trouble. It may be because the firmware and app have both been updated. It may be that I've finally figured out that I have to turn the Joule on before launching the app. At least, that's how I did it yesterday, and it all went smoothly. The chicken breasts received two different spice treatments, and I used 145F (working my way toward Shelby's numbers) for 2:15. We'll be set for sandwich meat and chicken salad until we get home. The lamb was cooked at 125F for 1:30 in my standard Greek-ish marinade. I'll plan to rewarm it, then give it a quick sear on a pan or a grill, depending on when I cook it. How nice to have a trouble-free experience with the Joule!

So whatever it is was a starter set.

Oh, I think the puzzle alone is worth that! @Anna N, do those things have a flat section around the oval hole, or are they cupped over the entire surface? I keep thinking of what we call "cocktail plates" that have a hole to hold one's stemware, so that one can hold the plate with the stemware and have another hand free for eating. The felt backing doesn't make sense with that, though - and neither does having the hole smack in the middle of the "plate"!

"We blithely speak of Nature's laws, but do things have a natural cause? Black earth turned to yellow crocus is undiluted hocus-pocus." ----- Piet Hein, from his Gruks

Last night's dinner was breaded, baked chicken thighs; broccoli salad; and the cauliflower mascarpone mash I mentioned earlier from Fine Cooking. I'm not sure I agree with the article that I'd never miss mashed potatoes with this as a substitute, but it was pretty darned good. I'll do it again. A little grocery store in Columbus, that I haven't bothered to photograph, has a surprising selection of frozen goods - better than I'd expected, based on their small selection of fresh produce. We went in yesterday to stock up on beer. I couldn't resist buying these: I keep running across recipes for nopalitos but not getting around to cooking the cactus paddle bits that I bought until they were starting to go off. These frozen bits can hold until I'm ready to use them. The mango bits will come in useful for a mango salsa, either with Mexican food or with some of the Indian and Thai curries I've admired. Suggestions for either of these items are welcome! We're on the road today, headed eastward (and, incidentally, out of cell coverage). It's tough to catch good photos from the windshield, but we've noticed over the past few years that this "Christmas tree" gets more colorful each time. Our road food includes hard-boiled eggs, cheese and crackers, but as i write this we've managed to have an austere breakfast: We've been indulging our appetites much, much too much this trip. It's time to make some changes. See you in a few days!

They are beautiful. I have a little cordial glass with that pattern that I use it as a bud vase. It's another style I wouldn't mind having, but our wedding goblets are clear cobalt blue, and I love them too. Too bad I didn't get a better closeup, but here's what I have:

Since I'm on the topic of blue-rimmed glassware, I'll point out a new style added to their wares in the last year or two: These are full-sized (12 oz? 16?) tumblers. This is the one set that didn't tempt me even a little. Imagine trying to drink out of these, or clean them! Imagine trying to set them down without toppling them, after a beer or three had been quaffed! They were available last year when we visited, so somebody must be buying them...I suppose they'd make for a great party game.

If I were good for more than one or two margaritas per year I might have considered these: I laughed when our margaritas arrived at the table. Scroll back up, and you'll see that they didn't use these classic glasses! There was a sauce under the chiles rellenos, although it isn't mentioned in the menu. Colorado enchilada sauce, I think? It had just a touch of heat. You can see it better in this close-up shot:

That's a brilliant way to deal with the broken pitcher! I had one that I bought in Duluth from some import shop, but unfortunately it leaked at the bottom where the blowing-rod would have been detached. Eventually I stopped using it as a decorative piece and gave it away. I also had a blown-glass pitcher that I inherited from my parents, that developed a crack at the handle. I think it's gone too. I looked hard at these and considered adding a pitcher to my collection: In truth, we throw few parties for which it could be used, and I'd have trouble figuring out where to put it when it wasn't in use. Maybe after I've done some housecleaning I'll have room.

I am surprised there isn't more of Mexico represented where you are...I think you're near Phoenix? I would expect more variety there.

3 miles south of Columbus, just the other side of the US / Mexico border, lies the town of Palomas. Today's weather was cool, and it threatened to rain, but we decided to go visit The Pink Store anyway. It's quite the place: painted a shocking pink outside, and colorful with wares inside. The sights begin at the door. When we arrived, a musical trio was serenading the diners with lively music. We enjoyed listening to them while we browsed the store. The place is packed with goods from Mexico and Central America, and one could spend hours looking if one wished. It's important to look up and down as well as at eye level. There are, of course, dishes and table linens as well as decorative doodads, lights, clothing, purses, toys, pottery...miniatures and immense sculptures. I have some drinking glasses and a large salad bowl of the style shown above: clear glass with a blue rim. A few years ago I passed up the opportunity to buy some matching small salad bowls. I've never seen them since. If they'd been available today, I might have bought some. As it was, there wasn't serious temptation to buy anything. (When I said so to my darling, he checked my forehead to see if I had a fever!) We sat down in the restaurant. It's been expanded quite a bit since our last visit. We were treated to music after we ordered. They asked if we had any requests. In my broken Spanish, I asked them (at least, I hope it's what I asked them) to sing the song they most love to sing. Much to my surprise, they trotted out "Cielito Lindo". I like the song, but would have guessed it to be such an old standard that they'd be sick of it! We pondered the menu and noshed on chips and salsa and pico de gallo. Eventually we ordered: chiles rellenos for me, hamburguesa con rajas (green chile cheese burger) for him, guacamole for us both. Margaritas for each of us. The portions were generous. The margaritas were decidedly moreish. We resisted. We won't need to eat much, or cook anything, tonight.

We intended to go to Hatch, New Mexico, while we were staying in Columbus this week. I'm getting low on Hatch chiles and have counted on the trip north to get more. We also wanted to go to a recommended restaurant for their take on green chile cheeseburgers. Our pickup had to take precedence: an error message that appeared when we were leaving Tucson wouldn't clear on its own. We made an appointment in Deming, about 30 miles north of Columbus and some 60 miles southwest of Hatch. The plan was to go to Deming, get the truck fixed; go to Hatch, have lunch and get more chiles and chile powder; return to Deming and get groceries, and go home. That was the plan. It became the plan-gone-awry. The truck repairs took much longer than we'd expected. When they finally got us in, an hour after our appointed time, we accepted their offer of a shuttle to Walmart for grocery shopping. That wasn't where we preferred to shop, but it was the closest possibility. We picked up Subway sandwiches while there also. So much for Sparky's burgers in Hatch! By the time the truck was repaired, the wind storm was so furious that the nearby freeway was likely to be closed. We didn't need the freeway, but we were concerned that the road south, back to Columbus, would also close. We stopped at Pepper's, our preferred grocer, and grabbed things we couldn't get at Walmart. I got this consolation prize: A 1-pound bag cost approximately the same as the 5-pound bags I got in Hatch at the last visit. I forgot to look for ground Hatch chile powder while we were there. I also picked up a couple of interesting-looking bottles of wine. Here's one. We headed home. Here's what it looked like - in town, going south, and at sunset. The gusts carried dust from plowed fields and dirt roads, so heavily that we nearly had to stop a couple of times. (A local told us they call it "swapping land" because all the dirt blowing to the next county will come back when the wind reverses!) We could see the reduced-visibility stretches easily enough before we got into them. We made it home safely, and were glad to be there. The wine tasted darned good with dinner that night. It blew like that for 3 days. We haven't done much sightseeing. I made broccoli salad (you've seen that before) using my new-favorite technique for cooking bacon (microwave). I also made a Cauliflower Mascarpone Mash from the Cauliflower Power article in the latest issue of Fine Cooking. They claim you'll never miss mashed potatoes once you've done this. We'll see!

Thanks very much for that link! The recipe specifies lemon marmalade. Had you already made that? Did you do something else instead? I think I want to try this before the rest of my hoarded lemons go south.

Dried beans, stock (chicken and pork, especially), rice, cheesecake, casseroles such as enchilada casserole. Last year I'd have listed yogurt as a most-frequent use, but I've gotten away from that for no particular reason.

@blue_dolphin - that is a beautiful cup and saucer. I have my grandmother's chocolate set! I always wondered whether it was REALLY for hot chocolate, as she said, because I'd never heard of chocolate sets from anyone but her. Guess I know now. Let's make a deal: I'll come by for hot toddy next time I'm in the area, and you come up for an equally decadent chocolate drink at our place!

I'm curious about this, and have a couple of questions in the interest of troubleshooting. Can you identify what it is specifically that you haven't liked about them - the one above, for instance? To what degree do you use processed / prepackaged foods to do this? For instance, have you tried it with the shredded potatoes that contain onions, and then tried again without? Is it possible that, say, the onions don't get cooked enough, or crushing the corn flakes would make a textural difference, or a different cheese would help? This is idle curiosity alone, unless you're interested in trying to find a recipe that you do like. You make so many delicious-looking things that one less rich recipe probably won't leave you feeling short-changed.