Smithy

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!

Tonight we had a large dinner salad: The usual salad greens - chopped, washed and spunThe usual salad crunchies (peppers, peas, celery, radishes, carrots) - washed and choppedCherry tomatoesSteamed eggs, slicedSliced scallionsCroutons Supplemented by: Bacon ends and pieces - cut into chunks, partially cooked, drained, and cooked to completion with...one of our precious Alaskan salmon filets - skinned, dusted with flour and spices, then cooked with the bacon, then...deglazed with balsamic vinegar, mixed with olive oil... ...and tossed with the salad, juices and all. I'd originally intended some sort of panzanella with the remnants of my latest rosemary olive oil bread serving as croutons, but it seemed simpler to slice the bread and toast it. I'd also intended to dress said panzanella with the Caesar dressing that I made yesterday, from David Ross' post on the eGullet Cookoff: Citrus topic. Instead, the dressing was at the table to use as we saw fit. We both agreed that the salad would have been wonderful with more of the hot pan dressing, if only there had been enough. We also agreed that David's Caesar Dressing is excellent: it took the flavors in a different, but still delightful, direction. The beauty of a meal like this is that it gave us time to sit outside, look at the stars, listen to the coyotes, and contemplate more intricate meals for another evening.

Great ideas, folks! Keep 'em coming! Re the Tequila Chicken: I think the original was done with chicken breasts. I tried it for years with chicken breasts, but we always thought they ended up too dry. The answer might be in simply simmering the breast meat in the pan sauce instead of trying to brown it first, but I'm partial to those maillard reactions. Meanwhile, we've decided that we prefer breaded chicken cutlets (see earlier post) as a use for chicken breast.

I have two mystery products for which I'd like to solicit ideas. I picked up this Texas Two-Step Tortilla Soup Mix bottle a few years ago, probably at Big Bend National Park, and its traveling time will come to an end this trip. It didn't come with any directions. I've been wondering whether to rehydrate it with water, beef broth or chicken broth, and not even sure what's in it. I had planned to ask here about what to do with it, but decided to try the wonderful world of the Rest of the Internet first. It didn't take long to find answers... on Amazon, of course. I'll admit right now that I wouldn't have come close to what Bear Creek Kitchens had in mind for this mix. Anyone else want to play along? Without looking at the link: what do you think is in this bottle, and what would you do with it? The other product is a spice package I picked up in Capetown, South Africa last year after discovering Cape Malay cookery. So far I've used this to coat chicken and make a butter-cream sauce around it to serve with rice. The label calls it a marinade, and makes me wonder whether the chicken is supposed to be marinaded in this spice with some liquid before simmering it in a cream sauce. My questions about this are, for anyone who may be familiar with the cuisine: How would Cape Malay chicken be made by people who know what they're doing?What's in this spice packet, aside from turmeric? It has a nice spicy heat, with intensity according to the amount of spice used. Sooner or later I'm going to exhaust this supply, and I'd best work out how to make it for myself.

That sounds like a nice variation on the same theme, FauxPas. I remember the original Tequila Chicken as being spicy-hot in a way that ours isn't, and the addition of hot peppers or red pepper flakes would get closer to that memory. I swear...between you and rotuts, I may end up giving counter space to a Cuisinart Steam Pro yet, once we get home.

Thanks, everyone, for the request! I'm happy to share, and flattered that you asked. JohnT, thanks for the suggestions. It isn't a precise recipe. I'll begin by showing you what I was given, in spring of 1998. I don't think I'm giving away any restaurant secrets at this point, since the hotel has changed hands and the restaurant, if it's still open, is under quite different management. Over the years I've tried to duplicate it, kept careful notes, and - as with so many of my attempts to recreate some great restaurant dish - eventually forgotten what the original was like but come up with something we like anyway. Last night went along these lines (note the substitution of orange juice for lime juice, which took it in a very different but delicious direction): 1-2 Tbsp olive oil2-4 Tbsp butter3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces. (More would have been fine, but it's what we had.)the juice of 1 medium orange (Note! The usual citrus is lime, but we didn't have any; this was different but good)the juice of 11/2 lemonsa good glug or two of tequila (no more than 1/4 cup)about a quarter cup of soy sauce1/2 red onion, thinly sliced, then the rings quartered1 red bell pepper, seeded, deveined and diced1 Anaheim chile, seeded, deveined and diced (I didn't like the flavor and may have used only half)8 - 10 oz fettucine (I started with 1/2 lb, then added more, but probably didn't need to)1/2 - 1 cup half-and-half (the heaviest cream we have)small green onions thinly sliced, for garnish (I think I forgot to add them)a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish (cilantro haters can use fresh parsley, or omit the greens)salt, Aleppo pepper, dried oregano, and possibly thyme for seasoningCut the chicken into bite-sized chunks and marinate in the citrus juices, soy sauce and tequila while the rest of the prep is under way. Do the chopping and slicing of the vegetables as noted above. Start the pasta. This will no doubt sound heretical, but I've taken to using minimal water (1-2 quarts in this case) and putting the pasta in while the water is barely warm. It saves both energy and water, and for our purposes does not produce gummy pasta. YMMV. Remove the chicken from the marinade (save the marinade), pat dry, season. Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat - we use a nonstick heavy skillet, so it doesn't take much oil - and when the oil gets that characteristic "hot" sheen add the vegetables. Note that for crunchier onions one can soak them in ice water and add them toward the end. I didn't do that last night. As the vegetables start to sweat, add the chicken (with a little more oil if necessary) and brown it slightly. Deglaze with the marinade, and cook down slightly. Add more herbs and spices as you see fit. By this time the pasta should be mostly done. Remove it with tongs from the pot and add it, dripping, to the pan. Stir. Add butter and cream; stir and pull the noodles through to coat; add pasta water to lengthen and thicken the sauce. When the pasta is fully cooked and the sauce is the right consistency, garnish and serve.

I just realized that I have a question about this: does the garlic get strained out of the olive oil after being steeped, or is it incorporated into the salad dressing? Is it a matter of personal preference?

No frying tonight! The wind blustered and gusted all day, to the point that we had the awning down for all of 5 minutes before retracting it. It was a great day for walking, a fair day for cycling, and a fine evening for cooking indoors. Many years ago we stayed at a DoubleTree in West L.A. for a conference. Their in-house restaurant served up a dish they called "Tequila Chicken". I wheedled them into giving me the ingredient list and rough instructions, thereby setting me off on a merry but fruitless chase for 'manufacturing cream'."Oh," they said, "you can get it anywhere!" I've seen the same assertion on these forums. I have yet to see the stuff in the wild. Nonetheless, we've morphed this into a home recipe that never comes out the same twice but is always good. Tonight may have been better than usual. We need to keep a steady strain on green vegetables. This didn't exactly go with the chicken, but we usually like it: brussels sprouts halved, browned in bacon, cooked down with honey, vinegar and (this time) chicken broth. Get your Vitamin K here. The photo is from roughly the halfway stage. I was also determined to bake bread - partly in honor of andiesenji's return, and partly because of my success last week at rosemary olive oil bread. I swear I used the same proportions (by weight) during the mixing. The mixture was much firmer and drier than the last time around. As I kneaded, stretched, waited and folded (lather, rinse, repeat as necessary) I kept adding more water and olive oil in stages, trying to get the sort of dough texture I've come to expect. I still ended up with an unruly stiff loaf. The loaf split, but it tasted good and the texture was quite nice. What a happy surprise! Dinner:

Shelby, I hear ya. This sounds like excellent advice, although I'm not sure how I'd get the walls and overhead areas lined without defeating the purpose of the range hood. I confess: I hate frying indoors. When I contemplate the mess, the lingering smell and the subsequent cleanup I work myself into such a tizzy that I probably make things worse than necessary. My mother, bless her memory, used to make wonderful fried chicken in an electric skillet. She did it often, as it was a family favorite and a never-failing guest treat. Years later, she confessed to me that she'd hated the cleanup. She did it for love of the meal (it was also one of her favorites) and of the family, and she gets points in my book for being a good sport. Someday, I may overcome my aversion to frying and work out ways for it to be less messy. If I do, I'll write about it and name my book "Fear of Frying". (bada-BUMP)

rotuts and Andiesenji, the Babylon Market also carries what they call domiati (Egyptian feta, essentially) in a stainless steel tub of brine, in chunks. We didn't buy any because of the shelf-stability issue, but I may try it anyway, as our schedule has changed and we're likely to get another chance at the market before heading east. Thanks for the information about Bulgarian feta. This may just be an off brand, or even an off batch One of the cheeses we bought, the yellowish rumy cheese, has been opened. Upon my first taste I remembered not being crazy about it as an Egyptian breakfast staple at some of our hotels. After the second and third tastes, I decided my darling could enjoy the rest of that blast from the past. I inspected the label earlier today. It's from water buffalo milk.

Irish Cream mousse?

I agree with JoNorvelleWalker about not wanting a small direct heat source under your clay pots, even if they can take it. You need the heat to be distributed more evenly, and not as intensely, as most "simmer" burners provide. For those who may not own a flame tamer or two, I'll point out that at one time Paula Wolfert swore by the http://www.amazon.com/Simmer-Mat-5200-Diffuser/dp/B000W24RW8/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=http://www.amazon.com/Simmer-Mat-5200-Diffuser/dp/B000W24RW8&linkCode=as2&tag=egulletcom-20">Simmer Mat; she thought it was an outstanding product. I haven't bought one, having gotten by all these years with a garden-variety flame tamer a friend gave me, but if I were starting out I'd consider the Simmer Mat for its even heat distribution.

My darling has been hankering for a classic Friday Night Fish Fry, and we'd seen advertisements along the road for such. We went to the Coyote Paws Cafe, part of the Cat Mountain Station Complex that includes a "Trading Post" and a Bed and Breakfast. The cafe has a fun desert mural painted on its exterior, but it was too dark to photograph by the time we got there. The interior is what I'll call Southwestern Kitsch: paintings, weavings and funny posters on muted blue and yellow walls. Most of the artwork is for sale. I didn't see a price tag on this bit of weavery, but I thought it the best bit of artwork in the place. The menu had a number of promising offerings; I thought the poached salmon looked especially delectable on other people's plates. By the time our order was taken, they were out of everything that took our fancy except the fish and chips that had brought us in the first place. It made our decisions simpler. We liked our choice. The fish was crisp and flavorful and held together well; the fries were very good; the accompanying cole slaw was not too sweet for my tastes, as most cole slaws are. The slaw was billed as prickly pear cole slaw; it didn't actually contain nopalitos, but the dressing was pink due to the addition of prickly pear syrup. I think there were also mustard seeds in the mix. It was a nice, flavorful side salad. In retrospect we think this wasn't the place we'd seen that advertises a Friday Night Fish Fry, because this fried fish was part of the regular menu. Nonetheless Coyote Paws Cafe had captured our attention on earlier trips, and we were glad to have tried it. On the way home, the True Agenda appeared: "At last," said my darling, "I won't have a mound of dishes to put away in the morning."

It's great to see you back, Andie! We're going out tonight, but I'll try to do something in your honor tomorrow. Bread, for sure. What sort of cookery did you do in your motor-home? Since you were showing and cooking for your dogs, did you have to settle for quick-and-easy meals for yourself? I'm guessing not. :-)