Smithy

I suddenly remembered this topic yesterday. Has the note helped?

I saw a neat trick for this in a bread-baking course that I'm taking: if the sheet pan is rimmed, turn it over and use the bottom for the flat surface. No rims to interfere with sliding parchment on and off. I slapped my head. Why hadn't I thought of that? (My thanks to Peter Reinhart!)

Well, the stars aligned properly and we got our logistics worked out for a trip to Silver City! We made a couple of stops in Deming, then drove north another hour as the terrain slowly rose into the hills and mining country. Somehow I missed getting an exterior photo of The Curious Kumquat. There's a courtyard in front with tables, chairs and a choice of shady or sunny spots. Some people sat outside, including a couple with three large dogs placidly enjoying the sunshine. We considered sitting out there, until we went in and were greeted by gentle, savory aromas. I was hooked. Once indoors, you're greeted with a display case of confections. There are several small dining rooms, each with its own decor. Our room had nice artwork and a ceiling full of Japanese lanterns. I'll bet it's even prettier at night. (The drunken perspective is because I was shooting over the heads of other diners.) The place had a relaxed, happy, uncrowded atmosphere. Here sat two women lingering long over the meal and possibly discussing college courses. There sat four people, apparently out-of-towners like us, enjoying the food and the room. We sat next to a bay window overlooking the courtyard, so we enjoyed the sunlight and spring-green tree... ...and the antics of the dogs outside as they became restive. Is it possible for 3 dogs to actually braid their leashes together? It looked as though they were trying. Cheerful wait staff helps set the tone. Justin, our server, was happy to let me snap photos of the bar. Check out those hanging meats! And the wine cooler! The beer and wine selection looked good, but we had much too long a drive home and errands still to run. The lunch menu is diverse enough that we had a difficult time choosing. My darling settled on an African Pork Wrap: large whole-wheat burrito with slow-cooked pork, a peppery peanut sauce, cucumber and greens. It was huge! He grudgingly allowed me a bite. The balance of savory meat and spicy peanut was excellent. I chose the Duck Confit salad with goat cheese, raspberries and tender greens. It was also a generous portion... ...and the duck was so tender that the provided sharp knife was unnecessary. I grudgingly gave him a bite. If I had to pick a last meal, I could die happy after that one. By the time we'd finished, no dessert that appealed to us remained. (I was intrigued by the "Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie - No, Really!" but the supply had been exhausted before we arrived, so I can't describe it.) I bought a small box of confections, to be savored later. I must remember not to hoard them. The lone fly in my ointment was that I couldn't meet Chef Rob. I was told that he comes out to greet guests in the evening, but is too busy during the afternoon. I would like to have been able to tell him in person how much we'd enjoyed the place. We finished up our errands (Silver City has a better bicycle shop and grocery store than Deming) and headed home.

I like the look of that food, especially the barbecued asparagus. That looks like something I could do! Did you come across anything new that you want to try making at home? I know you've been doing a lot of Japanese cooking of late.

Washington, DC! I can tell I've fallen for the usual stereotype of pavement and cherry trees there, with the only decent garden being at the White House. I'm glad to learn there's more arable land in that area than I'd thought...even if it is up on the roof. I like the idea of gardening but not the discipline, so I stick to herbs, flowers and the occasional potted tomato. At present I have a basil plant growing and traveling with us in our trailer. At home, once the snow melts, a few perennials will come up: sorrel, some bulb flowers. There are good ramp patches in the nearby woods. Fortunately I have friends who are excellent gardeners, so I can support their farmers' market enterprises. I'm with gfweb: pictures of your garden, please!

Today involved a mountain of chores: they don't go away when one travels. Late in the afternoon I contemplated the beautiful baby eggplants from our last grocery stop. I'd reserved some pineapple from the last fruit salad. I had ginger, garlic, celery and small Mexican onions that needed to be used up. The wind had been blustering all day, and a campfire was out of the question. It looked like a good curry was in order. Halfway through the prep work, and well after sundown, we realized that the wind had died. Change in dinner plans! A campfire was hastily assembled, and burgers came out. The vegetables altered course accordingly; somehow, a curry with eggplant, pineapple and ginger sounded clashy against burgers. (Can you say "cognitive dissonance"?) Back into the refrigerator went the pineapple. Out came several peppers. The resulting campfire salad was dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and garnished with fresh basil. Here's dinner, cooked over the campfire while we admired stars, played guitar and sang.

I'm hoping to do that! I'm still trying to work out the logistics. The drive is a 3-hour round trip from here....short compared to, say, coming from Minnesota, but maybe not in the cards for our current schedule.

Welcome, JanRed! What do you grow in your roof garden? Do you feel comfortable telling us your general location, so we have an idea of your growing conditions?

Thanks, SLB! I'm still working my way through the sweet lemons, but I can give a preliminary report at least. Here's a photo of 3 sweet lemons (left front), 2 standard lemons (right) and our last, pitifully aged Meyer lemon (rear). The Meyer is decidedly more orange than either of the others. Only part of that is due to age-intensified color. Note the difference in shape (length to diameter ratio) between the sweet and the standard lemons. I've had some Meyers that were roughly the color and shape of standard lemons, but never seen any as round - almost squat - as the sweet lemons. This Meyer was smallish compared to most I've seen. Cut in half, here's what they look like. Again, the Meyer is at the left rear, the sweet lemons are in the front row and the sour lemons are at the right rear. The color didn't come out as well in this photo, but the sweet and sour lemons are a pale lemon yellow whereas the Meyer has an orange cast to it. I juiced each, and was surprised to see that the juice is roughly the same color; a photo doesn't show any appreciable difference. The taste, however, is very different! The Meyer is, to be fair, a bit too far gone to have typical floral Meyer perfume, but it tastes like a lemon with a hint of sweeter citrus. The sour lemon tastes like a lemon, with a good powerful tartness. The sweet lemon - well, it tastes more like a lackluster commercial lemonade than like a lemon. I taste a lot of sugar, a hint of something bitter, and the barest hint of lemony citrus flavor. I wish my pH stick weren't broken! I suspect that the sweet lemons have much less citric acid than their kindred. No wonder they go off so quickly. I'll be able to use the sweet lemon (some juice is about to go into my salad dressing), but unless I find some truly wonderful use for them I won't be bothering to buy more. Edited to correct position description of the cut lemons.

rotuts, I'll give you vicarious visits, anyway. Irma's is in Columbus, about 2 blocks from our park/campground.

I've always heard it "tastes like chicken" :-D Yes or no?

Cape Malay Chicken Curry tonight, with many thanks to JohnT and ElsieD: I didn't have chicken breast, but I skinned and boned chicken thighs, then cut the meat into bite-sized pieces. The last photo looks for all the world like what happens when I try to adjust colors in a photo processing program. The more I magnify, the worse the finished dish looks. Take my word for it: this was wonderful, and I'm grateful for the instructions. It would have been even better with cilantro, but I quite lost track of time this evening and didn't take the extra time to deal with that herb. One of the interesting things about dinner tonight was the results of comparing lemons (sour vs. sweet) squeezed over the curry. I noted in an earlier post that the sweet lemon was indeed sweeter than a standard lemon. Tonight the differences were striking: the regular 'sour' lemon set off the curry nicely; the sweet lemon tasted as though I'd put sugar on the curry!

New Mexico: "Land of Enchantment" is the official term, and we found the skies and open spaces to be an enchanting change from the mearness of the Tucson hills. Granted, there's a lot to New Mexico and we're traveling along the southernmost, flattest part. You can see that the terrain rises not far away. Pancho Villa State Park is located in Columbus, New Mexico, about 3 miles north of the Mexican border. The town's rich history results from its having been the site of a raid by Pancho Villa and his men in 1916. There was a small army camp here. As a result of the raid, a very large garrison was built up by Black Jack Pershing, whence he launched a punitive expedition into Mexico after the Villistas. They didn't catch up to Villa or his men, but they learned a lot that helped shortly thereafter during World War I. Some of the old buildings remain, and there are nice botanical gardens, although they are recovering from a severe freeze several years ago. Many of the campsites have water and electricity; each has either a grill or a fire ring. We chose one with a fire ring in order to enjoy a bit more campfire cooking. Last night was campfire fried fish and potatoes again. The fish turned out well. We rehashed (heh) the conversation about potatoes not turning out crispy. Some folks have short memories. By the way, the sweet lemons from Babylon Market really are sweeter than regular lemons, but I don't think they're Meyers. I used half of one on my fish. I'll post comparisons later, if anyone's interested. This morning we walked into town for breakfast. For as long as we've been coming here, the Pancho Villa Cafe has been closed, looking forlorn on the main highway. Irma's Kitchen opened in the refurbished building last November. They have cheerful wait staff, fun decor (by which I mean, the chicken and rooster decorations are better than most), and a menu comprising classic American and Mexican food. My darling had eggs, bacon and potatoes. I had menudo. I made the mistake of telling him what was in it, so he chose to bypass even a taste.

I take it there's no oil filter in this unit? It sounds like something HR should consider.

Ohh, those ham hocks look luscious!

Thank you all for the suggestions about what to do with the Texas Two-Step Tortilla Soup bottled mix. Tonight I got that bottle emptied, along with some pantry cans, two pork chops, frozen chicken bones and a bunch of tortillas. I'd say this was considerably more than a two-step process, and would have been so even if I'd followed the company's instructions as given on Amazon. Following rotuts' advice, I emptied the bottle and mixed the contents. Faced with having to find something to do with the remnants if I didn't cook them all at once, I did not divide the mixture in half and save half for later. It took a lot of fishing with a chop stick to get the material out of the bottle; the contents were surprisingly well packed in. Check out the difference between content volume in the bottle and in the 1-quart measuring cup! I've been saving chicken bones in the freezer for months - essentially since we started our trip - and today was the day to make space and broth. I simmered those bones with some celery and carrots; when it was done I strained the contents... ...and used the broth to rehydrate the Texas Two-Step bottle's contents. The contents simmered and the tasting began. Whuff, what a strong flavor! Which of the dried ingredients had so much character? I added chicken broth from a package. I added water. I kept tasting and considering as the cooking continued. The next step was tortilla chips. It isn't clear to me whether the tortillas to be added at the table to this soup are supposed to be fried or raw; I've seen both suggested. I opted to cut several tortillas into strips and fry only some of them. We have flour tortillas and flour-corn mix tortillas, but no straight-corn tortillas. The narrow strips are the wheat-corn mix. More tasting of the soup. Ufda! There was something still too strong, as well as a pronounced bitter taste. My heart sank. Would further adjustments amount to throwing good food after bad? I didn't know. All recipes I'd looked at had included tomatoes or tomato sauce; I'd been hoping to avoid that because I'm not a fan of tomato-based soups. This seemed the time for desperate measures. Into the pot went one or two cans' worth of diced tomatoes, as well as a small can of pizza sauce, the closest thing we have to tomato sauce. The soup was still strong, but better. Two pork chops had been chosen for the meat. They were boned and then cut into strips. Grilling was out of the question (it's pouring outside!) but the skillet was available. The pork strips got a light dusting of cumin, a quick browning... , and then into the soup they went. At the dinner table, we made our own choices of how much shredded cheese and how much tortilla garnish to put on. My darling had given me the fish eye earlier at the news that we'd be having soup for dinner. He sang a different tune this evening, and went back for seconds. I have no idea whether this dinner was anything close to official Tortilla Soup, as neither of us has even had it. He loved it. I thought it was 'okay': pretty good, but the flavors were a bit strong, with a bitter note to my palate. It could be an effect of bottle age; even dehydrated vegetables go off after a while. I'll be curious to try it at a restaurant sometime.

I miss Meyers, too. We came away from The Ranch with a lot of them, and I've exhausted the supply. These don't look or smell like Meyers - none of that perfume - and they're flatter, almost shaped like a Mandarin orange. I miss the other trees I grew up with, as well. It's a privilege to still be able to go visit there.

I posted about this dish here, but the photo of dinner really belongs in this topic. Pork roast, potatoes and sauerkraut. A truly excellent dinner. A truly regrettable photo.

Oh, the luxury of electricity! It helps compensate for the congestion of a developed campground. Yesterday we set up dinner before we left for the afternoon on errands. We loaded our small crock pot with chunks of potato as insulation, loaded a pork roast atop that (seasoned with cumin, coriander and a touch of rosemary), and left it on low. When we got back and the thermometer said the roast was nearly done, we opened our last jar of sauerkraut from home. (Another supply finished! Not that I'm making headway against our supplies, given our stocking-up at places like the Babylon Market ) The kraut was given a small dose of brown sugar and caraway, and loaded atop the roast. We went outside to admire a rare sight: clouds overtopping the hills, hiding the peaks and promising the rains that would come soon. Dinner - well, maybe this belongs in the Gallery of Regrettable Results, but we loved the flavors.

Thanks for that information, JohnT. We had a surprise extra couple of days in Tucson, so we were able to get the necessary ingredients. Sometime in the next week I expect to try that Cape Malay chicken. We ran errands yesterday and went back to Babylon Market, to see if they'd gotten our preferred Greenland feta cheese in stock. They had! We stocked up, and bought some other items we'd either overlooked or decided we needed. Lunch was beef shawarma, one wrap each. It was as good as we'd remembered. Another purpose of visiting the Babylon Market again was to bring them a copy of my earlier post about them, as a thanks for letting me photograph their store. Mr. Rashid, the partner in my first photo, was so pleased at the writeup that when we made our purchases he gave us two pieces of that lovely baklava! It was at least as good as it looked: lightly sweet, with what seemed like a slight touch of lemon. (My darling didn't notice that flavor, so it may have been my imagination.) The pastry was light, flaky and deliciously crunchy. Here's our haul from yesterday. The jar with the greenish contents is an Arabic pickle with mango, lemon and lime juice, and chili. I couldn't contain my curiosity. Note the "sweet lemons" we found there. I asked whether they might be the same lemons one typically gets in Egypt (Clifford Wright referred to them as 'daq' lemons). Nobody knew the answer to that question, but they all said these are sweet lemons as opposed to sour lemons. The lemon at the bottom right of this photo is a more typical lemon: Lisbon or Eureka. We're looking forward to trying these with fish, to see how well they match our memories.

Y'all are killing me with the corned beef. We're going grocery shopping today. Maybe I'll have to pick one up...not as good as home-cured, no doubt, but it's bound to be on sale now that St. Patrick's Day is over.

I think Cherokee tomatoes have excellent flavor. I hope yours do well, Okanagancook.

Welcome indeed, OrganicFarmer. That's a great logo. What an excellent background you have! I look forward to having you join into discussions on these forums. Please describe more about your "underground" house. One of my friends used to live in an earth shelter-type home in northern Minnesota, with the south-facing wall open to the sunlight but the rest of the house covered over. It was almost like he'd built into a hill, but the hill was apparently built up around it after construction. On the other hand, I know of a once-beautiful home that was built entirely of underground rooms connected by tunnels, with skylights and greenhouse rooms in Fresno, California. What was your place like? On a more food-related note: what sorts of crops did you raise during your CSA years? Once you left Corporate America, did you ever eat processed foods? :-) If you need help with the forums, don't hesitate to ask a host. Meanwhile, come on in and join the fun!

We're thrilled and delighted to have you here! I, Like SyliaLovegren, look forward to reading about what you've learned and done over the years, and what you like to cook and eat now. Where in the UK do you now call home?

JohnT, the simple phrases "leaf masala" and "Malay curry masala" took me into new domains of the Internet today. I hope Cape Spices gives you some information...but if they don't, I'll still have new ideas to explore. Thank you!