Smithy

Beautiful photos! Thanks!

Bake it as is, then turn into croutons? Bake, then use for a panzanella or fattoush?

One of the ways off Galveston Island is to take the ferry to the Bolivar Peninsula, a sand spit that almost - but not quite - connects Texas to Louisiana. The ferry ride is a very entertaining 20 minute chance to watch dolphins, pelicans, gulls, ships and enthusiastic tourists. Once across, you find yourself on low land that was scrubbed almost clean by Hurricane Ike a few years ago. Communities are rebuilding, but there's also open beach where you can just camp, for a $10 annual permit. This is a typical view out the window: We had shrimp from Allex's and I had plans for it, but while I was shelling the shrimp the skies to the north turned darker and a light show began. Judging by the radar, people directly under that series of storms probably didn't appreciate them as much as we did. I refrigerated the shrimp, left the roasting brussels sprouts to their own devices, and went outside to enjoy the show. Lightning backlit clouds, or occasionally zapped into view; sometimes the entire sky to the north was backlit at once. I couldn't get a photo. When we finally came in, we were glad of leftover lentil stew that I made some time ago and didn't write about. It's easy and delicious, and one recipe makes a lot. The sprouts were good, too. I think Franci was the person to put me onto roasting sprouts, but I can't swear to the source.

We left Rockport with the intention of staying on Galveston Island for a couple of days, only to find the park full. Fortunately, Allex's Seafood Market was open when we passed through on the way farther north. They don't mind photos. This place is smaller than the Rockport market but is very nice, with friendly people. It smells clean, unlike many fish markets that we've wandered into and promptly left. These photos are unfortunately not very informative because everything is so nicely covered. On the fish counter side they had drum, redfish, flounder, Scottish salmon, farmed tilapia and one or two others I've forgotten. I'd been hoping for grouper, which they didn't have that day (they usually do). I chose to ignore the fish this time around. It looked good, but didn't fit my agenda. On the shellfish side they had 3 sizes of Gulf brown shrimp, freshly shucked Galveston Bay oysters, crab meat (both lump and claw). I looked hard at the crab meat, but since I still had some from the last stop I just stuck to the oysters. In the freezer section they carry a tantalizing selection of Cajun foods from some clever company not far away in Louisiana. I really, really wanted to buy one of these chickens, boned (except for the wings) and stuffed with dirty rice, or jambalaya (your choice): It took all my won't power to resist. We have no room for it. Maybe this summer I'll try making it myself, or maybe we'll manage this another time. I got more shrimp - a last hurrah - and freshly-shucked oysters to make JohnT's oyster pâté.

Thanks for the Crepes, the name of the place in Rockport was Pop's Place. They don't have anything like a deck, but it seems to be sort of a neighborhood hangout. I remember my first few experiences with lobsta in New England - bib and all, and I too could see why! It's messy but good. It's been a while since I had lobsta, though: 7 years, perhaps, since I was in the right location?

"Slugs"?

This all looks so delicious! Thanks, Anna and Kerry! I too would like to know more about those round things. It looks like they were served alongside pickles and olives.

That was a lovely and enticing report. Thank you!

I'd love to walk into a shop and find ready-made sandwiches that look like those! I was in Barcelona once, on a tight budget, and don't recall seeing anything like what you're showing us. Thank you. I'm surprised at your comment (supported by rotuts) about the Rioja. If what I've had and liked has been substandard, then The Good Stuff must be stellar.

We were in dire danger of whacking our heads on the bay bouquet every few minutes, so I've put almost all the leaves in a sealed bag in the freezer. The interesting thing is that the new spring leaves were starting to curl, unlike the mature leaves. I'm looking forward to trying some of the spring leaves to see what difference it makes in cooking.

It looks like those squid (?really?) are fried crispy. How did they taste?

Glad to know the hotel breakfast could make up for the airline breakfast. I'm looking forward to seeing more!

I started out with a pocket's worth of them, and then found a hedge where whole branches had been trimmed off by a brush trimmer. Woohoo! There's a bunch hanging like mistletoe inside our trailer, another in a vase (but not putting out much aroma as I'd hoped) and more drying off before I wrap it for freezing. The young leaves have a lovely, delicate scent.

Thanks, JohnT. I expect another chance at oysters in a couple of days, and look forward to trying this. Shelby, the shrimp was my first attempt at Caramel Shrimp from the book Dining with Headhunters: Jungle Feasts & Other Culinary Adventures, by Richard Sterling. The recipe is a Vietnamese treatment that looked complicated but turned out to be very easy, even the first time through, despite some surprises at step 1 below: 1. Make caramelized sugar water by cooking a 1:1 sugar/water mixture until the sugar caramelizes, then dilute with twice the original amount of water and a touch of lemon; 2. Make a stir-fry sauce by mixing some of that caramel water with fish sauce and more sugar; 3. Stir-fry a little garlic, add the shrimp, toss with the sauce, and cook until the shrimp are glazed. He doesn't say what the shrimp should be served with; that's probably one of those things that any fool familiar with Southeast Asian food would just know. In the absence of many small dishes I opted for rice, and during the last few minutes of the rice cooking I set the asparagus atop the rice to steam gently. That trick worked out well, and I'll do it again. By the way, I love this book. It's full of fun stories as well as interesting recipes, and it's one of the few cookbooks I've read straight through - laughing aloud in some parts, and crying in others. This is the first recipe I've tried from the book that wasn't brilliant the first time through. Somehow the sauce didn't seem very balanced to me - the fish sauce came through too strongly. Despite all the sugar it isn't a sweet dish. I think that with a little adjustment - maybe just better fish sauce on my part - I think it will be outstanding.

I think it depends partly on the context. A thin cracker dough will be thinner than a thin bread dough, and both will be thicker than a thin pasta dough. This is one reason I like it when someone specifies a thickness range. I have a cracker cookbook that specifies thickness (inches and millimeters) and includes a pasta machine number setting where appropriate.

rotuts, we're near Rockport, Texas on the Gulf Coast. It was almost All We Could Eat to get through that food, although we managed to share a bit more of his fish. I'm with you about oysters on the half shell! It's a while since I had the opportunity. My own oyster dishes are so hit-and-miss that I rarely buy them when we're here. I'm hoping JohnT will help rectify that. :-) Believe it or not, those weren't the largest shrimp in the market where we shopped yesterday. This place is our favorite, but they wouldn't allow photos. Too bad. The grouper filet was huge and looked fresh; they had other good-looking fish but no triple-tail, so I stuck to local shrimp. These were white Bay shrimp, caught the night before not far away. It defeats the purpose to buy a lot of very fresh shrimp and then not cook it all at once, but I did anyway, so we'll be having more shrimp for dinner tonight. That colander was once *my* mother's!

JohnT, please tell me more! I'd love to have a good oyster pâté recipe.

It's seafood time now! One of our home dishes: A local restaurant's fare... All You Can Eat Fish and All You Can Eat Oysters and one of their wall decorations (made from beer bottle caps - and the entire mosaic encased in, we think, acrylic):

What Shelby said. The photos and descriptions are great. Thanks for posting the link! Did you consider buying morels for the return home? Would they keep?

Fresh bay leaves! Look at the difference between the new-spring leaves and older leaves from the same bush. They're all fragrant.

I'll be interested to hear how it turns out, Crepes. We went shopping today and I considered buying a bag of mesquite charcoal chunks, but decided to wait; we should have other chances at it. We've moved on from brisket country, and not a moment too soon - or perhaps a few moments too late - for our waistlines! We used up our leftovers on the day we moved. This was in part because I wanted something fairly easy, but also to remove the temptation. On Sunday evenings the only brisket place still open is Cooper's, and that's no hardship. I also bought sausage, having discovered that they had supplied the sausage served at the LVFD fundraising feast. The brisket was gone by the time we moved on, but I'd kept that luscious smoked sausage in reserve. I also had bread left over from a baking course I'm taking online. The mise: The stovetop view: Dinner: I had bruschetta on the brain. We'll be eating more lightly for a while now.

Yes.

In addition to changing the hydration, is it possible you're kneading too much? According to Reinhart's Artisan Bread class, as well as bethesdabakers' book, the stretch and fold method is a good way to develop gluten without losing those nice airy holes.

The packaged yeast I've used has always had a "use by" date stamped on the package. When I've tried using yeast well past the "use by" date it usually hasn't worked - not that it produced a bad taste, but it just wouldn't activate. Apparently the yeasts died. If your packages have those dates stamped, I'd believe them within a couple of months. Aside from that, I think heidih covered it well. Edited for brevity.

I'll play! My first thought was that it was the squatting guy with the hat, but looking at it now he seems to be a bit too well bronzed. OTOH Kerry has turned out some brilliantly smooth, shiny confections that look like gold. I'm leaning toward it being the gilded, er, hyperendowed woman in the bottom photo. Kerry, you'll let us know after a bit more time guessing, I hope?