Smithy

The successes were largely what start as one-shot wonders: things I make up on the spot, and then may or may not be able to reproduce. I try. I write down what I did as soon as we realize that it's a hit. Sometimes I succeed in reproducing it later. More often, I have v.1, v.2, v.3 and so on, never quite the same. During one of our stops with prolonged electricity I made good use of the Instant Pot and the Joule. I had a B-S chicken breast that had been partly cooked sous vide (1 hour at 149F). It was at the lightly-cooked stage. I pressure-cooked pinto beans in the IP; drained them and then added the chicken (cut into bite-sized chunks, minus the pieces I filched) along with some Hatch green chiles and their juices, some torn-up tortillas (whole wheat, because that's what I had) and some grated cheese. Then I slapped the lid on, closed the vent, and pressure cooked for 11 minutes with a cool-down before natural release. (I had intended 10 minutes of cool-down, but it ended up being about 18.) We were both delighted, although the casserole had a bit more free liquid than I'd intended due to my inclusion of all the juices from those frozen-then-thawed chiles. The chicken was a bit overcooked. I think that with this pressure-cooking treatment the chicken really didn't need to have been cooked ahead of time. I'll try it again sometime, and if I like the results I'll post in the Instant Pot topic. Another success was inspired by the first margarita I've had in years. It was so delectable, and I so like tequila chicken pasta, that I decided to try a sous vide tequila chicken. The juice of a Mexican lime and a Persian lime, a splash of tequila, and half a chicken breast (one of those sumo-wrestler chickens) all went into the bath at 149F for 2 hours, which gives me the preferred flavor and texture of chicken breast. It was brilliant. After the chicken was cooked it went into quesadillas and onto salads. I've done another such chicken breast - a full one, this time - but not broken into it yet. If it works, I'll post about it in the sous vide topic. The biggest surprise - and this one does seem to be repeatable - is what I named "Use-it-or-lose-it" salsa. I had cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, ripe bell peppers, green onions and jalapenos all languishing in the refrigerator. There wasn't much more time to use them. They all went into the skillet (the tomatoes after everything else had begun to soften) until it cooked down. Then I used it with some smoked beef sausage that had been browned in the skillet. The salsa alone was so good that my darling insisted I write down RIGHT THEN what I had done. He also insisted that the salsa was so good it didn't need meat. Indeed, he ate most of the rest from a bowl, as a snack.That didn't keep him from wanting meat the next time I made it, but we both agreed later that the meat was unnecessary. Especially these particular sausage links, whose main attribute is that they're cheap. This one (without the stupid tube steaks) is going into my permanent recipe file. The others, as I've said, I'll post in relevant topics if they are repeatable. If not - well, maybe I'll start a topic about One-Shot Wonders: the meals that can never be reproduced.

I promised a couple of flops, and some other successes. None of the successes is as great as meeting up with another eG'er, but we can't be doing that every day! Although @Jaymes told me she'd gone on a round-the-country road trip one year to meet a lot of eGullet friends in person. That sounds like a fun thing to do. Anyway, to the flops. It's beautiful, isn't it? I like hibiscus tea. I thought it would be nice to have bags of it, instead of dealing with the loose-leaf tea. I brewed 2 or 3 glasses, trying to get the flavor right, and I was baffled as to what the sickly-sweet flavor was. Alas! I didn't read the can carefully enough. I detest sugar substitutes. Once I realized this contained stevia, I binned the rest. It was my fault for reading the front and not the back label. The other massive flop was a combination of what may have been a poor recipe, and my trying to do too much at once. We'd been carrying a package of frozen ground lamb the entire trip, and I'd been jonesing for Merguez sausage. My darling isn't a big fan of lamb but he likes it well enough with this treatment. Just to cover the bets, I used the same spice mix for beef burger. Then life got in the way. It doesn't stop getting in the way just because we're on the road. As noted before, sometimes life gets more in the way while on the road. I set the burgers aside in the refrigerator for a day or two, then fired up the charcoal grill. And got distracted again. It was a totally off-kilter dinner: badly overcooked, but also off with the flavors: the meat was entirely too salty. I'd used Melissa Clark's New York Times recipe. We love cumin, coriander, garlic, fennel with lamb or beef. I increased all those spices and reduced the salt called for in the recipe, and it still came out entirely too salty. Next time I'll leave the salt out altogether...and make sure I have attention to spare for the grill. Can't win 'em all.

My best friend, who grew up with Mexican food but spent her professional life in Africa (most recently in Capetown) says that she could never find what we think of as corn tortillas in Africa. The masa flavor was missing. We recently had a spirited exchange over what constitutes a "proper" enchilada because I'd made mine with flour tortillas, and to her tastes they didn't have the right flavor. Flour tortillas are similar to the simple flour rounds she could get there, but the masa/corn tortillas have a flavor all their own. In order to make masa, the corn needs to be treated ("nixtamalized"). The process is discussed in this topic: Making Fresh Masa although the first few posts are so old that the photos are lost.

Nobody's mentioned yet the classic 3-bean (or 4, 5, 7, whatever) salad. Mix cooked beans of your choice - for example, kidney beans, butter beans and yellow wax beans (the classic combo on this side of the pond) with a nice tart vinaigrette. This is verry flexible as to the type and quantity of beans and the other additions. Add or omit finely chopped onion, garlic, herbs, mushrooms, tomatoes if you can find them. This salad is typically a summertime salad in the States, but I can't think why it would be unacceptable as a warm dish.

And now, for a smashing success... @Jaymes and I met up for lunch! We had some backing-and-forthing over where, when, how, etc. It turns out that Llano is only about 40 road miles from Marble Falls, home of the Blue Bonnet Cafe. "The Blue Bonnet Cafe is the 'de rigueur' spot there," she told me. "Very, very old school home-style cooking. Nothing modern or fancy. Particularly famous for pies & baked goods." We met there. That, in itself, was comically uncoordinated: there was a line going in through the entry hall, and I wondered whether to get in line or wait outside in the small courtyard. I opted to sit outside and wait. Meanwhile, she was apparently waiting at another entrance of which I was unaware. When she came around the corner, there was enough of a tentative look to her that I took a chance and called her name. Why yes, that was her! She had been looking for a couple, expecting my darling to have accompanied me. Well let me tell you, she is a funny, sassy woman who charmed the socks off everyone she met. The folks at the table next to ours were soon laughing, and one gentleman commented "I can tell we sat in the right area!" We talked. We looked at the menu We gabbed some more. The waitress had to come by 2 or 3 times before we were ready to place our order. It was an old-school place, and we each selected meat-and-three (sides). My choice: smoked chicken, and for sides I selected mashed potatoes with white gravy, pinto beans, and buttered spinach. Jaymes opted for smoked chicken, a green salad, mashed potatoes (I could have sworn she'd asked for brown gravy, but she got white anyway), green beans. You can see the bread basket at the side of her plate. We talked some more. We laughed a lot. Then we ordered pie: banana cream for her, lemon meringue for me. Check out the extraordinary height of that meringue! I couldn't finish it. I took it home for later. Two hours later, we headed to our respective homes. What a great day!

The link to the second challenge is embedded in this post, partway down the last page. I'll make it easier, though: here is an index of the entire* series: Round 1 Round 2. Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Round 7 Round 8 Round 9 Round 10 Edited to add: *Whoops! Not the entire series. See below. Thanks, Kerry. This is a very impressive series, and I'm glad it was pointed out. I don't think I saw this challenge when it was going!

You got the riddle! Another that I remember showed a bottle popping the top, an eye, a sailboat, an oar, and something that was apparently intended to be a man. I couldn't make out the man, but by that time it was obvious: "Popeye the Sailor Man".

I have to admit you lost me with the maple syrup...but given my changes of heart (taste?) in the past year regarding pinto beans, pimento cheese and cornbread I won't say "never".

I picked up the Family Reserve a couple of years ago and think it's better. Now that I've done so, however, my other half has decided he doesn't like Tabasco in any incarnation. I may be a long time working my way through that bottle. Interesting about the fizzy white vinegar in the "champagne" version. It might be interesting to try, but if I were taken unawares by it I suspect I'd pitch it too!

If you'd told me a year ago that I'd come to love pinto beans for breakfast, I'd have said you were barking. We spent a week in Llano, Texas. In previous trips I've reported on the abundant and wonderful - and entirely too tempting - barbecue. This time around we focused on Cooper's and Laird's, depending on how eager we were to drive. (Cooper's was within easy walking distance; Laird's not so much.) We have concluded that the brisket and sausage at Laird's tastes better, and is a much better bargain. We like Cooper's sauce better. I suddenly discovered their potato salad, which is almost mashed-potato consistency and contains something tart like dill pickle relish. That's my kind of potato salad. My darling won't touch it. That's fine; he can have his store-bought Reser's. But back to the beans. After a lifetime of not liking pinto beans, I discovered a taste for Cooper's pinto beans last fall, and now I've a positive craving for them. With dinner, especially with a shot of their barbecue sauce. For breakfast, with avocado and sour cream. Go figure. I don't have elaborate dinner setup photos. We went out; we got brisket, sausage, ribs, steak or (usually) a combination; we came back and drank beer and/or wine, then ate. It was good, but how many times do you want to see the table setup? Here's a sample of what we got from Cooper's: brisket and sirloin. That brisket slice was from the fatty end. Later we tried their brisket from the lean end. We've learned that we prefer the fatty end, or at best the middle, of the brisket. The lean end - which doesn't seem to have survived in photos - was generally a bit overcooked for our tastes. That's where the "burnt ends" come from, and we prefer something that will slice nicely for sandwiches later. If there are leftovers. Our pig-out meal from Lairds: sausage with just the right juicy "snap", and brisket from the fatty end of the middle. The Lairds are trying to sell and retire, and have cut back to Thursday - Sunday only. When we left with our purchase after what might be a final leave-taking, the conversation went along these lines: Me: "Well, for your sakes I hope you're able to sell, but I'll be selfishly sorry if you're gone next time we come by." Esther: "We've had this place on the market for 5 years with no action. We'll probably still be here." Me: "Well in that case, I'll do a little happy dance and then make a face and say, 'Oh, so sorry!'" We all laughed. They really are delightful people. They want time to do other things instead of being glued to the business, and I don't blame them after as many decades as they've been at it. If you or someone you know wants to take on an old-time barbecue joint with an excellent reputation, you should contact them. (Warning before you click: that link goes to their Facebook page.) The Llano City Park, also known as Badu Park, was a nice park when we first started coming; now it's taken leaps forward. The river was dredged to make a deeper intake pond for their water supply, and the dredged sand was used to make a walk that goes for some distance down the middle of the river. You could swim to it, easily, from the park. There may be a place farther upstream where it connects to shore, but we didn't find it. Meanwhile, adjacent to the picnic pavilion there's now a "splash park" for children. When it's on, during daylight hours, inventive fountains spurt and spout in funny patterns. During the hot days the shriek of happy toddlers rings through the park. Look the other way, and you can see the new disk golf course. A school coach brought out classes to show them how it works, and they had the equivalent of a disk golf scramble. Lots of teenaged laughter and shouts! One time a very wild shot got caught by a wind gust, skipped off the top of the Princessmobile and landed in the back of our pickup. I tossed it to the chagrined teen as the coach shouted, "wild throw!" I responded, "yeah, but what an arm!" It was too much fun watching the action, and going on outings, to spend much time cooking. I did take advantage of electricity to pull out appliances, but I'll show that in another post. Texans know, but maybe folks from other parts don't, that there is such a thing as a drive-through liquor store. We visited Steve's one day, fascinated by the concept. As it happens their wine selection is in a walk-in shop, so we ended up parking, but we picked up some Lone Star Beer in the drive-through. This is a fairly light beer, and I generally prefer ales to lagers, but I'm good for a six-pack or two per year. I get a kick out of the rebus inside each bottle cap. They usually are more amusing than challenging. Can you make this one out? Steve's also had wines from a winery about 50 miles away. I've had unfortunate experiences with wines from Texas and New Mexico, to the point that I generally ignore them. This one was $10.55, including tax. I liked the label and the description. I took a flyer. Surprise! This was a delightful, smooth, soft merlot. Perfect for going with 'cue or almost any other dinner. I went back for more, and picked up some of their cabernet also. I haven't tried that yet. We cleared out of Llano after a week. Neither our wallets nor our waistlines would stand much more, and we'd done the important non-food business that required being near a town. I have a few more tales to tell - a couple of disappointments, and a couple of wild successes. I'll save those for other posts.

Truer words were never spoken. We have gotten a lot of use out of both our campfire basket (for trapping chicken thighs, burgers or even sausages and being able to flip at will) and our campfire wok, which is great for tossing vegetables or smallish bits of meat - meatballs, chunks of meat I'm too lazy to skewer - over a campfire. As you note, the campfire grates can be rather unsavory looking, and these implements allow the flame to come up but keep your food off the grates. I'm looking forward to seeing how your camp cookery develops!

By the way, the color balance in that photo really is off. The cheese is more of a red-orange. Maybe I'm not doing the originators of that recipe any favors.

This latest batch is some of our road food, hence the overly harsh light as we'd stopped at a picnic area. This is a nice version, and I'll try it again with some sweet onion. The old, strong onion I used really does detract from the overall balance. I guess y'all can see where we stand on celery.

Thanks so much for the writeup and the pictures, @blbst36! They remind me of my earlier days of primitive camping, either from a backpack or a kayak...or in some cases, a sailboat. I've seen those fire ring/grate arrangements. They look like they should work well, but they can require a lot more wood than one might expect. I thought your skewers looked like a great idea, well worth doing again for dinners. We used to do eggs for breakfast, or packets of cereal (boil water, toss into the bag of your choice: oatmeal, cream-of-wheat, etc.) or boiled eggs with cheese. We also "splurged" on things to supplement breakfast eggs, like Jimmy Dean sausage that had started out frozen and had thawed during the trip. It sounds like your cooler worked perfectly. As for dessert...well, I admit that for the most part our desserts were of the liquid, alcoholic variety. We probably also packed chocolate and nuts to be shared around. I don't remember anything exotic... ...except... ...there was one memorable kayak trip in which most of us went paddling with the unsuspecting girlfriend while the prospective groom and a few close friends prepared dinner...and dessert. I don't remember what dinner was: beef stroganoff? Something impressive. The dessert was even better: a cheesecake. We were kayak camping. Maybe he'd smuggled it in amongst his gear, but I believe he made it from scratch, using a then-new "oven" that fit atop his backpacking stove. This story shows how much room for creativity there is when roughing it, if you're so inclined. Please do keep us posted as your camp cooking evolves! Oh, to finish the story: as she was marveling over the dessert he proposed. Ring, knee and all. She accepted, we all wowed and cheered, he popped the cork on a bottle of champagne, and the entire group celebrated at one of the most memorable camping trips of my life. Assuming they stayed together, they should be celebrating their silver anniversary about now.

My friend reports that she found the bookLETs hiding amongs some other books. She was looking for something bigger. She appreciates everyone's help, especially the comments about better references than the books.

@blue_dolphin - yes, those are the charts. Thank you. It seems I was looking in the wrong place. @Anna N, thanks for that recommendation I'll be sure to pass it on. I'm glad IP doesn't seem to have abandoned their print manuals after all. I'll tell my friend to check around, but I suspect that the packaging is long gone from their house.

My friend reports that she didn't get any hard-copy manuals with her IP. I got two: a user's manual, and a book of recipes. I bought my IP at least a year before she bought hers. Does anyone know whether the hard-copy booklets have been replaced with online PDF copies? Also: can anyone report on whether the tables for how to use the IP to cook common ingredients (grains, beans, greens, meats) have been eliminated? I can't find them in the online PDF's, but it's hard to believe they would have been eliminated.

I just made a batch of this pimento cheese recipe from @JAZ and @Dave the Cook's site He Cooks, She Cooks. Well actually, I made a double batch, because I wanted to use up an entire 8-oz block of cheddar. My initial assessment is that it's easier to make than the last one I tried, because it has fewer ingredients. I like the base flavor better, because (I've learned) I'm not a fan of American cheese. On the down side, I used part of a rather strong - and aging, at that - onion, and I fear it will take some work to tone it down. They do note that sweet onion gives a milder flavor, and I should have paid heed rather than trying to rescue an onion fragment from fridge storage. I'll report back when it's had time to let the flavors mingle. I expect that when I'm done with this project, I will have settled on my Very Own Recipe, a hybrid of many others.

I need to make a quick survey, please, on behalf on my best friend who just bought an IP Duo 6 quart and is trying to make rice in it that will match her erstwhile rice cooker. 1. What is the correct proportion of rice:water for long-grained white rice? She doesn't use basmati or jasmine, and that's all I can find in the online manual. 2. What has been your go-to method for rice cooking in the IP? Does anyone use the "Rice" setting, or are you doing manual pressure cooking? If manual, what settings have you used? 3. Do the proportions of water, or the time settings, change for the pot-in-pot method? Thanks. I find myself in the same quandary that a lot of folks do: hundreds of pages to comb through, looking for specific answers to small questions....

The Life of Pi, for one. I don't know whether there are more, but this made me laugh when I spotted it.

Well, you probably already know that there are a lot of sourdough enthusiasts (including me) in this forum. I hope you'll let us know how it comes out!

Let me know what you think, if you try it. What's your current go-to bread?

Welcome! It sounds like you'll fit right in here, with your various collections and interests. I'm getting a lot of funny mental images, but rather than describe them I'll just ask: What's a sourdough intervention?

You really are earning Grandma points, @kayb. Your MacD's sounds worse than most.

Who here has tried Barrio Bread's products? They were featured in a recent Tucson travel guide and I bought a loaf of their bread at the Food Conspiracy Co-op on 4th Ave. Actually, I had gone to the co-op to purchase the White Sonora Wheat that Barrio Bread uses. The article was incorrect on the availability of the wheat at the co-op, but they had loaves of Barrio Bread for sale. I bought a single loaf of sourdough. Later, how I wished I'd bought more! It was as flavorful as it was pretty. The texture was excellent and the flavor wonderfully complex. It wasn't as sour as, say, a San Francisco Sourdough, but it had enough sourdough flavor to satisfy me. We were just passing through. Next time we pass through, assuming there is a next time, I'll try more of their bread. I have no business relationship with these people, but I hope they flourish. Has anyone else tried their stuff?