Smithy

This may not be new, exactly. I've seen and read about things like this before and thought they were bound to be useless. However, earlier this week I was in Bed, Bath and Beyond with a 20% Off Entire Purchase burning a hole in my pocket. I was looking for, oh, a food processor or kitchen scale that I couldn't resist. I didn't find anything big or even pricey, but I found this: Huh. $5. Worth a try. (No, I did not use the wonderful coupon to bring it down to $3. I still have hopes for that coupon.) 5 bucks seemed a small enough risk for another gadget that might or might not work. It made short work of the parsley for that night's dinner: much shorter than my painstaking finger technique, and much neater than my slapdash knife technique. Next time I have kale or collards, I'll post about it here.

@sartoric, that Charmaine Solomon cookbook has an interesting set of cuisines: Thai, Indian, Asian and ... Cajun?! She really jumped the ocean there, didn't she?

To see the discussion about the Fasta Pasta microwave pasta cooker, please go here.

Over in this topic, @ninagluck said: I've noticed for the past few years that pomegranates are available in very off-season months (i.e. summer) in Duluth, MN, far from where they're grown, yet they disappear promptly from the California and Arizona markets that I visit right around Christmas. I don't understand it - they're grown in California, harvested in the fall and presumably available for storage and later distribution, but they aren't to be found. How about the rest of the USA? Are you seeing pomegranates right now, in March? Am I just visiting the wrong markets in California?

Only the pomegranate molasses, without any fresh pomegranate added? Did you make the molasses yourself?

Did you make that fesengan sauce yourself, @ninagluck? I'm always looking for more things to do with pomegranates, although it will have to wait since our season is finished.

Welcome!

"Lady fingers" =? Are they some type of banana?

Can you scrounge up phones from friends for the event? Do you have tablets, or older backup phones, that could be pressed into action?

Yesterday the solar oven proved to be handy for thawing a jar of frozen sauce (herbs, citrus, and a bit of oil). It went from solid to liquid in under an hour. Leftover green beans also reheated handily in about 15 minutes, though the only picture is of them in the 'oven'. Lunch, aside from aforesaid green beans, was a salad of chopped cukes, tomatoes, spring onions, parsley and cheese, dressed with a citrus vinaigrette. Dinner: salmon over the campfire, with the handily-thawed sauce. I sprinkled half the salmon with corn flake crumbs; it wasn't a good fit, either in taste or texture. More of the salad accompanied it. Here's some more desert color. The Desert Five-Spots are beginning to bloom!

Thanks for that information. I'll keep it in mind for future developments. This was just a test run using easily-found and -disposable supplies - something I won't mind 'losing' at the next trash drop. Even this bush-league setup is working well for quick thaws and rewarming food, though: the glass jar of frozen sauce was thawed within an hour, and my leftovers were plenty warm in 15 minutes. It is probably relevant that the deck that the rig is sitting on is well over 100F.

Welcome to eGullet, Tammy. Has your doctor given a list of items that you can eat, or nutritional guidelines? When my mother's kidneys began to fail she was given lists of good foods, foods to minimize and foods to avoid altogether. If you have a list of approved foods you might be able to get some specific and constructive help. As an example, you could post a list of approved ingredients in this topic: Create my meal - the game and see what folks suggest. You may also wish to peruse the offerings in The eGullet Culinary Institute for some good how-to classes. The courses are old, but still valuable. I like your line "I cook by smoke detector". Years ago, a friend gave me some napkins that said, "Dinner will be ready when the smoke alarm goes off". If you have any questions about where to find things or the appropriate place to post, feel free to contact a host by PM (personal messenger), or ask in the Moderation and Policy Discussion forum.

Everything was cut into pieces of about the same size ... and the piece sizes were inconsistent with wrapping it all into tortillas. The tortillas will have to wait for another opportunity. At the table, we spent a fair amount of time considering the Pointillists' influence on this dinner: eat a bit of this and a bite of that, and get an entirely different picture of the dinner than one might imagine from the individual elements. At least, that's what I think the conversation was about.

I won't sully Vivian's ingenuity and your wonderful posts with too much detail, but I will ask: do you think the collard greens would lend themselves well to dolmades with a more traditional profile but with her treatment of the leaves? I ask because the dolmades recipe caught my eye but I don't have most of the ingredients as specified in this recipe. Meanwhile, I have some aging collard greens (bought on unthinking impulse) that need to be used in the next few days.

*bump* Has anyone here been experimenting with solar cookery lately? I assembled a box with foil and plastic kitchen wrap before remembering that this topic exists. I'd have done things differently if I'd done more research first; still, in my current situation (lots of sun, lots of heat) I've got a solar slow cooker for cheap. This was just a smallish box picked up from a convenience store's stock of not-yet-crushed boxes. If it had been slightly larger I could have put my cast iron griddle on the base and improved the heat collection. (That's a dark brown plastic cutting board in the top photo.) I've tried it twice, both times using a clay pot. Oven temperature reached 186F the first day, but I didn't measure the temperature of the pot's contents. The second day I didn't get the oven temperature because I was gone most of the day, but as the pot's contents were cooling down I measured 155F. Both times I've succeeded in getting nicely cooked peppers (bell and chili) out of the deal. Not bad for a discarded box, aluminum foil and kitchen wrap! Next time I'll try some of the designs linked above. In addition, I'll be on the watch for a Fresnel lens.

I should have thought of this days ago. I plead brain addlement from the heat. A few days ago I remembered that I've had solar cookery on my list of things to try for years, and it dawned on me that we're in the perfect situation. If I'd thought of it sooner I could have collected enough Mylar from the balloons I pick up off the desert floor, but they've all gone out with the trash. (Ever wonder what happens to those wonderful balloons when you release them?) I acquired a box from the gas station/convenience store we last visited, and when we got back I went to work on it with a utility knife, foil, tape and clear wrap. After I assembled the 'oven' and before I put anything into it, I measured an interior temperature of 186F. I was a bit late getting the filled pot into it, and never saw quite such a high temperature after that, but we still had a nicely cooked melange of peppers and onions, touched with oil, by the time I was ready to cook. We didn't bother with a campfire. I cooked chorizo over the camp stove and added the pepper mix; I heated tortillas over another burner, and we had burritos. The photos got lost in the ether. Today I've been at it again. The same clay pot and glass lid, the same mix of peppers and onions, tossed with oil and salt, went into the solar oven at around 11 a.m. We ran errands. (Our pickup is fixed, o frabjous day! We' can move when we wish, calloo, callay!) When we returned in the late afternoon, the pot was quite hot to the touch. The aroma of cooking peppers is wonderful. The temperature inside the pot was 155F, and it was probably starting to cool. The vegetables don't look it, but they're soft. A little touch of fire will crisp their edges nicely. They'll be added to marinated chicken chunks cooked in a grill basket over a fire, with leftover potatoes and fresh asparagus. Tortillas for wraps again. I'll try to not lose the photos this time around. This solar cooker is a simple bush-league test of concept, but of course I found a topic on Solar Cooking here on eGullet - after I'd begun on my own. There are some good designs and comments. I'll be on the watch for a Fresnel lens, and I may try again with a better box design before we get home.

I still have several jars of jelly that my mother made, no later than 2004. I don't eat jelly often, but every once in a while I'll open one and use it. It's lost its vibrant color but tastes fine, and - well, the fruit came from the family farm.

Well, you've come to the right place. Dive right into the forums and start learning with the rest of us! Do you have any particular foods that you like to eat and would like to try to cook?

FOB = Far OutBack?

No, I'm not talking about what happens when an Aussie gets angry. Here in the podes we have a baked good called "Aussie Bites". They look like mini-muffins, are slightly larger than bite-sized, and are made of various seeds, ground nuts, chopped dried fruits and a bit of oil. My best friend found them at Costco, but I see they're available from Amazon and a quick Google search brings up recipes for them. We baked them from this recipe, more or less. They are delicious! My question is what makes these Australian, if they are. Is this some Australian delicacy that's made its way to our side of the pond, or some marketer's dream? If they're an Aussie specialty, does anyone here have a favorite version?

Whoops! Sorry, @Okanagancook - credit where credit's due, and I apologize for the mistake. Anyway, that way of cooking shrimp is a keeper. Many thanks.

Bless me! Isn't language fun and fascinating? I'm glad to know the shrimp preservation wasn't my imagination. I'll use that method in the future. I didn't much enjoy baking inside, but wanted that pita and the dough was impatient as well. I thought about cooking it on the camp stove, but it was just as hot outside as in. I did use the camp stove later on to steam the potatoes before grilling them. These little fingerling potatoes are perfect for skillet or campfire dishes. The last of our bacon went to wrapping the cheddar-stuffed shrimp per @ElsieD's recommendation, with a little left over to wrap asparagus for the grill. We had eight shrimp. Four were treated with cheddar and bacon; four were left in the shell and butterflied. All were grilled over the campfire. The steamed potatoes were tossed with olive oil and garlic, and grilled in a basket. I've read about grilling shrimp in the shell and peeling afterward. It was a tasty nuisance. Now that I've tried it, I'll stick to shelling them first. Although both treatments were good (the non-bacon shrimp got garlic butter) I think ElsieD's version was the winner. Thank you, Elsie! The shrimp was overcooked but delicious. The asparagus was less overcooked and wonderful. The wash, blossomless when we arrived, is breaking into shouts of color. Nonetheless, we'll be glad to get our darned truck back and clear out to cooler areas. "They hope tomorrow," they said today. We think it will be Thursday if we're lucky. Edited to add: as noted in the next post, @Okanagancook deserves the credit for the shrimp recipe.

Lunch:

Bacon is coming out of the freezer, right now. Thanks!

TriSodium Phosphate. It's a powdered cleaning/scrubbing agent available in hardware stores.