Smithy

Thanks for that suggestion, Lisa. On this particular occasion we dumped everything in at once, but we usually chop things separately and add them in stages: potatoes first, then onions when the potatoes are almost done, then the pre-cooked sausage when the onions have nearly sweated. We use separate containers for each item until it's thrown in, but serve from the skillet. Your method would save the 'mise' dishes but require a separate serving bowl. It sounds like it would take the guesswork out of exactly when the potatoes are 'almost done' enough to add the onions, and so on. I'll try that next time.

How practical! Here is the pan that we use, stored in our largest trailer drawer: I guess the drawer could accommodate something larger, but here is that skillet on the stove: The green thing is a ruler, for (heh) scale. We used to visit friends at their former resort in the Canadian bush. They no longer ran the resort but still spent their summers on the lake and cooked with their original resort equipment. Shore lunch, usually with the day's fish and with potatoes and onions from the garden, was a standard dinner. The skillet was big enough to fry fish and potatoes for a dozen people at once, and when the cooking was done the cleanup was easy: pour the grease onto the fire and douse the skillet in the lake. We'd both love to have a pan like that, but have no idea where we'd put it. Anything much bigger than we already have, and I'd be posting to the Cleaning things that don't fit in your sink topic. There is also the problem of Leftovers Discipline: the more leftovers we have, the less discipline we exert. Something's gotta give - either the size of our servings, or our waistbands.

Now I have serious cooktop envy.

I'm always mystified by fruit stand purchases with poor fruit, but it happens. If the fruit stand is one of those personal fruit stands with hand-picked local fruit, I agree there's no excuse for poor produce. Unfortunately, the packing process seems to be part of the equation with grocery store fruit. We used to swear that the tree was the best place to store the fruit and the packing house ruined it. That's a heck of a thing for citrus ranchers to admit, but it was our perception: something about the fungicide, or the ethylene treatment (that thins the skin and intensifies the color), or maybe just picking at the wrong time, damaged the fruit. That isn't much help to Darienne. My best advice, in addition to the 'heavy for its size' and the general appearance tests noted above, is to sniff carefully. If you can train your (or your husband's) nose you'll be able to distinguish pretty reliably between a truly fresh, good orange, a once-good but now tired orange, and a never-good flat orange. I don't know how to describe the differences, except that the truly good oranges have a bright note missing from the others. Cakewalk, I agree that it takes as much time, labor, water and money to grow bad oranges as good. One problem is choosing a good variety. From time to time an orchard needs to come out (the trees are too old, the market forces are against their size, or some such) and then the rancher needs to replant - or graft a new variety onto the old root stock. It takes a couple of years to come into production with the new variety. If it's a good variety that sells well and comes ripe at a strategic time, that's great. If it's flat and flavorless, or looks too strange to be a good seller despite its excellent qualities, or is otherwise undesirable the grower still needs to try to recoup the expense of planting the trees and bringing them into production.

Since nobody else has answered, I'll go first, but it may not be very useful. My yogurt tends to be of the generic variety: Dannon plain or Old Home plain, or - if I really want to go upscale - Fage or Greek Gods, also plain. I tend to use yogurt *in* things as opposed to eating it straight, and for my purposes haven't noticed much difference.

Somehow we've completely missed the Desert Rain Café on our travels through Sells. As you note, it's on the way between Tucson and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, but Sells has been no more than a wide spot in the road before now. We'll have to rectify it the next time through; that looks like a delightful stop! Thank you also for the link to the book. You're right that it's pricey, but it looks beautiful and interesting, and I get the idea that the proceeds go to help the community. In a simple scan through the preview I see more ideas for dried ciolim (cholla buds) than I'd come up with. I bought them on impulse, tried one simple thing, and they've been looking at me since. It looks like some of the squash recipes should be tested for the eG Cookoff #71: Winter Squash topic.

Here's what the flap meat looked like after I'd seasoned it and before I started cutting: The entire piece. What do you think? Is this sirloin tips before being cut? Closeup of the texture It was delicious meat. If we get there again I'll take more photos and ask more questions. Today at another market I saw a package of chicharróns and saw them translated as pork cracklings. They were deep fried, dry (no doubt crispy) and packaged in a room temperature bag like potato chips. Not the same treatment at all! I had asked him about the meat and he'd said that sometimes he does beef and sometimes pork. Our sample tasted beefy to me. I agree they'd be wonderful in burritos, tacos, enchiladas, salads, or simply eaten out of hand.

I think the meat costs less per pound than in surrounding stores for the same apparent quality. The ribeye we bought would easily cost $1 - 2 dollars more per pound. That's a good question about the flap meat. It wasn't at all like sirloin tips. Honestly, I assumed it was akin to flank steak or plate steak, but it may have been too thin. Are you saying it might have been peeled away from an inner cut? That would make sense. It was thin and very strongly grained with easy separation. If I can find my photos of the unwrapped meat I'll post them for discussion.

Two Thermapens - one for the house, then when I found how much I liked it another for the trailer - and a better IR thermometer than I had before. Whether that last is really valuable remains to be seen, but it's fun to point at things and see how hot they are. It'll be useful for campfire cooking in a couple of months. @Okanagancook, that IP topic is a really good read. You can probably afford to take a peek or three. I haven't succumbed. Yet.

We found a new market in Tucson! We spotted this place on E. Fort Lowell Road: Hmm, we should investigate. We walked around to the front: and wandered in. The interior is neat, clean and nicely stocked with basic groceries and Mexican specialties. Mariachi music was playing on the radio - loud enough to be heard, not loud enough to be intrusive. It drives me crazy to go into a market where you have to talk loudly to be heard over the music, and major grocery stores are frequent offenders. We wandered over to the meat counter. "May I help you?" asked the young man. Well no, we weren't really looking to buy anything, but he was happy to answer questions about what he had. "Have you ever had chicharrón?" he asked. "Would you like to try some?" Oh, my. These trimmings from their meat cuttings are nicely spiced, cooked, salty-but-not-too-salty, with a pleasant blend of fat, crunch and meat. I swooned but forgot to ask how much it costs. We bought flap meat and a ribeye steak instead. As I paid for our purchase, I asked the young woman at the counter about the market, and the meat-counter man came to help with the conversation. The market has been open for 9 months now. I think this is their first commercial venture as a couple, and I hope they make a success of it. We walked out with our meat, then I walked back inside and told them about eGullet and this series of posts. "May I take photos and post about your place on the web?" They were happy to let me do so - right until I pointed the phone at them. "Oh, no!" they laughed, and turned camera-shy. Photos of the interior were fine, but not of them. This purchase of a rib-eye steak and the flap meat cost us all of $12. Later that day the flap meat became part of our dinner burritos. I didn't bother with photos.

Have you checked with See's Market in Visalia? They're out on Ben Maddox Way, just a little south of Houston Avenue, or they were the last time I visited. They had an amazing selection of Oriental foods and might be able to tell you whether they can get this for you. The Mee Chun Canning Company that makes this still seems to offer it - but you're right that the Red Food Dye #2 might be a problem in this country.

Mitch, can you give an idea of what you mean by "astoundingly cheap"? I'd love to have access to a place like that, too.

@GlorifiedRice, I think you need to test the devices and compare them...and then, of course, report here on your results. I purchased a spiralizer on promo sale at one of my favorite kitchen stores earlier this year. It sat in its box, in the shopping bag, and glared at me for nearly 2 weeks before I took it back without putting it through its paces. I'm impressed with some of the dishes that have been posted on this topic, but decided it was more likely to be an impulse buy that would not get much use in our kitchen. After I took it back I made lot of similar vegetable dishes by thin-slicing with my mandoline...right up until I thin-sliced a finger instead.

We finally found weather nice enough to make cooking outside pleasant, and set up the camp stove for the event. Way back in Alabama, an excellent grocery store meat clerk convinced us that - despite our small shopping list and still-full refrigerator - we needed to check out some of the local products. We had come away with 2 types of sausage, both made within 50 miles of our location, and a bottle of "Southern Seasoning" that she assured us carried the flavor of true Alabama-style barbecue. I can't say we've been excited about the seasoning blend, but the sausage has been good. The DeRamus sausage is long gone. Now we opened the Conecuh to make hash out on the camp stove. There isn't anything elegant about this meal, but it's good camping comfort food. By the light of the lantern we sipped our beer, enjoyed the clear skies, and gave the pan contents an occasional turn: Those of you who followed along last year may remember that DH never thought the potatoes crisp enough; the eGullet consensus here seemed to be that the pan was too crowded to get proper crisping. We've had a running disagreement since then about how many potatoes and onions to cook for two people: he wants the pan filled to capacity, to maximize leftovers; I want enough space to be able to spread and turn the contents. I won this time. He complained that there wasn't enough, but the texture was just right.

@Shelby, did you accompany those oysters with any sauce? If so, what kind?

So do I! It looks as though your Pannetones are in bakeable paper. Is that something you're able to purchase easily where you are, or do you have to mail-order it from the States? Or do you make it yourself? I'm ogling the King Arthur Catalog and wondering where I could have something sent as I travel. Maybe I'm making a bigger deal of baking in paper than I need to.

WOW! Shelby, that's a wonderful gift indeed! I hope you'll post about what you do with more of those beauties.

You mean the filling was dried out? It wasn't in my batch. If you mean it didn't taste like that uber-rich sweet frosting to you, well, our taste buds are calibrated differently. :-)

That's interesting advice about the Twitter feed with a foraging hashtag bringing in new people, and reserving your domain now. It sounds sensible.

I returned to the service station and wandered into the office. On the counter were large, heavy (my scale says almost 4 pounds) plastic bags full of local pecans in the shell. They looked beautiful: well-cleaned, no dust, good size. The price: $10. What a deal! When the shop owner came in from working on our tire, I asked to buy a bag. "Cool!" he said, "this is *my* money" (instead of the shop's). These pecans came from my tree! I almost bought 2 bags, just for that smile. Now, what shall I do with all these pecans, once I shell them? I have some favorite uses, but I'll bet I can get new ideas here.

Shelby, the ice wasn't bad enough to freeze the door shut. The problem came with stepping out onto the icy metal steps. We managed, carefully: I went gingerly down, and he gave me helpful advice about what I needed to do outside. Fort Davis, TX is a town of slightly more than 1000 souls. It is also the county seat, and despite its diminutive size it seems to have a vitality that many similarly-sized towns have lost in this country. In a very small area one can find a decent supermarket, a number of hotels and RV parks (at which we've never stayed), a couple of very good hardware stores, and several historical sites. One also can find the Stone Village Market. Even given the disproportionate vitality of the town, this place seems unlikely to succeed. Yet it has succeeded, as far as we can tell, for at least 6 years. Maybe it's their quirky nature. Maybe it's their offering of organic foods and whole grains, or their deli case with cheeses and meats not to be found anywhere else within 100 miles, or their extensive selection of coffees from the Big Bend Coffee Roasters: I think it's a bit of all those, but I also think it's their deli menu and staff. We were stopped in town for tire repairs, and I had time to stroll through town, visit, shop and order sandwiches. The gentlemen working the place were delighted to chat, answer questions and have photos taken. Over the years I've seen shopkeeper attitudes range from 'no photos - can't control what you post' to the Hollywood attitude that 'there is no such thing as bad publicity'. These gents were in the latter camp, and I'm grateful to them. The breads could be selected from half a dozen different loaves of commercially-packaged sliced bread, or from housemade bread rolls. I selected a 7-grain roll and a sourdough roll, and let fly with a combination of chicken, pastrami, roast beef and salami - I forget in what order - along with cheese, lettuce, tomato, condiments and (on one) green olives. While the sandwiches were being made, I perused the rest of the store and selected packages of coffee. If I had needed any grains or flour I could have bought them here, but I'm still backlogged. Our sandwiches were works of art. The checkout clerk and I chatted about the town while he was ringing up my purchases and I was finding other things to buy. (Chatting is a good way to keep the customer shopping, isn't it?) We talked about what a nice town Fort Davis seems to be. "It is," he said. "I moved here from Dallas and suddenly found myself part of a community instead of a bunch of strangers living together." I paid for my purchases. He walked to a magazine rack, came back and slipped a small magazine into my shopping bag. "Here's how it starts," he said. "Find yourself a little piece of land that you like, put some money down, and come stay a while. That's how I found myself here." I enjoyed looking through the Real Estate ads during our next drive.

Oh, but the recipes!

Very nice, Shain! What are the greenish garnish things? Pepitas?

I don't usually like peanut brittle, but I'd give yours a try. It looks delicately crunchy and beautiful!

Some of those flowers have beautiful coloring. Could you grind them and use them to season sauces, or steep them for the same purpose?