Smithy

This area is where I pick up mesquite flour and tepary beans, both grown and sold by the Tohono O'Odham whose land is nearby. I've been experimenting with using mesquite flour in savory applications. This flour, from the seed pods, tastes not at all like the mesquite smell of barbecue and smoke. Rather, it has a warm, slightly sweet flavor, vaguely reminiscent of cinnamon but neither as pungent nor sweet. It adds a certain mystery and depth to grilled salmon. Today I tried it on chicken thighs. As a safeguard and comparison I rubbed two thighs with mesquite flour and the other two with smoked paprika; some rosemary, coriander and Aleppo pepper were also added. Into my clay pot they went, covered, for a low and slow oven session. Tepary beans are mild-flavored and fairly easy to cook, and I was going for benign neglect tonight so I could wander away to a lecture for an hour or so. Carrots, onion, celery, beans and a dried chili pod went into a stovetop pan. I left the chicken and beans to fend for themselves, and went to learn about roadrunners. Staying in a congested campground has a (very) few advantages, and I count Ranger programs among them. When I came back, the chicken was done: ...or, perhaps a bit overdone: tender and falling off the bone, but just the wrong side of being overcooked. Good flavors, though, with plenty of juice to be mopped up slices of sourdough from my last effort. Dinner:

Yes, I too like the handle and the lower price compared to the Oxo. These things are very sturdy, and I like the selection of sizes and shapes they have available.

That's certainly quicker than my version, which takes weeks. Thanks, David. I'll have to try that method.

We've moved eastward with some reluctance, on into Arizona. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is quite close to the Mexican border, and a showcase of the Sonoran desert. It's considerably more lush here than where we've been staying. You have to watch where you're walking, however; the cactus is much more plentiful and varied here than in the Colorado desert. We weren't here 15 minutes before two of us had picked up thorns. We arrived late in the day, having delayed leaving our favorite spot and forgotten about losing an hour when we crossed the border. Dinner was another of our dead-easy standby dishes. We used the last of our Egyptian feta cheese for this, and cleared out half a container of sliced onion as well as another whole sweet onion. It really is easy: chop the onion, cook if desired, boil and drain the noodles, mix them with the cheese, onions and tuna. Serve with cumin and (if so inclined) pepper. Sweet onion is best. We usually cook some of it and throw the rest in at the last so there's a mix of onion crunch and flavors. I didn't get photos of the dinner serving, but we always make plenty for leftovers. He "invented" this dish during his Egyptian research days, over the protests of his driver and guide. For reasons we never understood, they liked the boiled noodles with cheese, they liked the cheese with the tuna, but they didn't like to mix the three. It's his little joke to call this "Traditional Bedouin Tuna Noodle Hot Dish".

The shrimp on sugar cane looks mighty tasty. I love the lines of the Vietnamese coffee cup! Was it easy to manage? I generally like a fully looped handle instead of an open handle like that, but it looks cool.

I feel your pain, MetsFan5. Our kitchen remodeling was done in "record time" - meaning it only took 3 times as long as estimated - but we were very pleased with the final result. I bet you will be too...over and above the sheer relief of being done.

Welcome, Carmen! Barcelona is quite the culinary scene these days. Do you like to eat out a lot? Do you cook for yourself? What sorts of foods do you like?

Well, you've come to a good place. Dive right in, start learning and reading, and join in the conversations. Welcome!

It looks delicious...and it's on another gorgeous plate! That looks very 1960's, maybe early 1970's to me. Dansk?

mm84321, that is even more striking than your usual beautiful platings. I especially like the border. 1. Is that dill? 2. Did you use tweezers to accomplish that precision? Smoked salmon. Caviar. Would you adopt me?

Today we set off sight-seeing. We've heard great things about the wildlife and scenery in the Picacho State Park, situated far south on what's left of the Colorado River. Google Maps gave us 2 route options. The most direct route is about 25 miles, but advertised to take around 21/2 hours to drive. The less direct route, which involves some freeway travel, is between 50 and 60 miles - more than twice the distance - but estimated to take less than 2 hours! We decided on a circle route, and packed a lunch. About 12 miles along the shorter route we reached a very steep, twisty, rocky track down into an arroyo that - according to the folks we met who'd traveled it 2 years earlier on a guided tour - has hubcap-deep sand at the bottom. "What you've been over so far is the good road," they said. I had been quietly checking my fillings to make sure they were intact after the washboard and rocks we'd experienced so far; at this comment, my jaws clamped shut. Yes, we have 4 wheel drive. No, we are not a short wheel base. No, there is no cell phone coverage. We did not wish to chance getting stuck, having to trek out and trying to find a tow truck company that would/could come get us unstuck. We turned back and found a nice picnic spot. Our tailgate lunch harkened back to his Egyptian desert research days: the Egyptian white feta cheese, canned tuna, tomatoes. (Warning to Anna N:, this IS a very salty cheese. I don't know that it can be rinsed, although much of the brine stays in the box.) In an ideal world we'd have had chopped parsley and/or cilantro to gussy it up, and pita with which to eat it. We had crackers, chips and no gussying. We added stuffed grape leaves and dates. Nobody bothered to build a fire for tea. We looked at rocks and birds, enjoyed the sunshine, and rambled home again.

Shelby, is that like a pecan pie (corn syrup etc. filling) with different nuts? It looks tasty and rich.

Thanks, cyalexa. That particular site didn't help, but I did find two sites that said, in essence, 1 cup starter for 1 packet of yeast. This website has more detail, along with adjustments to be made and considerations for hydration level.

I will never again leave carbonated liquid in the outside refrigerator for the winter. It was June before the caramel-colored explosion thawed enough to clean.

This is a fascinating look at the process of developing, pitching and publishing a book. Thank you for bringing us along. (I'm still reeling at the idea of needing to build a Facebook following, much less a Twitter following. Never even crossed my mind.)

I tried a riff on the merguez meatballs last night. For 1 pound of already-ground lamb I added the zest of 2 Minneola tangelos, 2t each of whole cumin, fennel and coriander seed (toasted, then ground), 2T paprika, about a T each salt and Aleppo pepper. I think some already-ground cumin may also have strayed into the mix. (My notes are a bit hazy at that point.) I wouldn't have thought of a dipping sauce except for your posts, David. As an accompaniment I marinated chunks of ripe bell pepper and red onion in some olive oil and the juice of those Minneolas. When it was time to grill, I boiled down the marinade until it was syrupy, added the juice of 1 orange and boiled that down. The sauce thickened beautifully, with an unexpectedly gelatinous quality from the outset. I think it must have picked up something from the vegetables to help it on its way. It was very, very good. The whole lot was cooked over a campfire in long-handled grill woks. The only problem was timing: the meatballs came out overcooked, because the onions and peppers were added too late in the cooking process. Cooking the vegetables in a separate basket would have improved control. At the table, in addition to the dipping sauce we had labne and a parsley/garlic/olive oil sauce. Those three (separately or in various combinations) did wonders for the dryness of the meat, but aside from being dry the meat's seasonings were perfect to our tastes: a subtle citrusy note, the usual pleasure of cumin, coriander and fennel together, and the sneak heat of the pepper. Unfortunately the photos don't do it justice, nor do they do justice to this photogenic topic. If someone's interested in seeing what it looked like, take a gander at Dinner II: The Gallery of Regrettable Meals (Part 2) or Camping, Princess Style. I'll definitely do it again. Thanks, David.

OK, I'll share. This meal actually tasted good, except that the meatballs were overdone. (Look for the blackest, roundest chunks to find them. ) The photo suggests otherwise, however! Merguez-seasoned lamb meatballs and vegetables, grilled over a campfire. Doused chicken and asparagus with an orange vinaigrette sauce, looking like something the dog ate and didn't like. It tasted better than it looks, but wasn't one of my better efforts. The idea of this dish is to grill chunks of chicken over a hot fire, then douse them with a dressing. I generally use a lemon vinaigrette similar to my standard salad dressing. This time I tried a few things different on my erstwhile reliable dinner. The sauce was much too runny. I'm glad we didn't have company!

Last night's dinner was an effort at merguez meatballs and vegetables over a campfire, with a citrus dipping sauce boiled down from the marinade. I've written more about the seasonings and the dipping sauce in the eG Cook-Off#68: Citrus Fruits topic. At one point all 3 burners of the camp stove were in use: brussels sprouts with bacon, the marinade, and extra bacon being cooked for another salad. In the meantime, the campfire basket was in use for the meatballs and vegetables. My darling thought it a "virtuoso" performance as I dashed between various fire sources (he was more or less in charge of the stuff over the campfire, but not elsewhere) and the trailer. I thought it more like a one-woman imitation of the Keystone Cops. The result was delicious, except that the lamb suffered from being overcooked. Timing was off. At the top of the photo is the dipping sauce: citrusy-sweet and tart. Not shown in the photo: labne, and a parsley/garlic/olive oil sauce I've had hanging around in the refrigerator. They all played nicely together and on the meatballs. This photo is less than optimal, but I had to show off The Plate again. The close-up of the meatballs and vegetables in the bowl has been relegated to the Gallery of Regrettable Foods.

That looks delicious, Nicolai. I'd never heard of masgouf before. Your photos and description make me want to try it. That looks like quite the convivial feast! I'm not sure of how the fish is presented at the table. Is it skin side down? Is the flesh heavily crusted from contact with the embers? Thanks for posting.

Another argument for using unsalted butter is that (the arguers claim) you're more assured of getting butter with good flavor; they say that salt can mask the flavor of poor butter, but that you'll taste off-flavors in the unsalted butter and know that it's substandard. This reason seems plausible to me, but I admit that I rarely follow it unless it's for a very precise recipe (usually for baking). Supermarket butter seems to have so much variation in quality that I stick to brands I like that seem to have consistently high quality and good flavor - not the cheapest store brands, which were probably supplied by the lowest bidders. Perhaps because of nothing more than inertia on my part, they're generally salted.

That looks wonderful! How was the second rice dish (with lentils, walnuts, dates and broad beans) served: hot, warm or cool? Did it have a sauce or dressing on it? The rice looks as though it may have had saffron.

Thank you for that, Thanks for the Crepes! We do have bubble wrap around, and I discovered this morning that the plate fits inside a padded mailing envelope I had hanging around. It's just one more thing to cushion and secure before we move the trailer. Did you like to cook on your cabin cruiser? Got any good small-galley meals to share? During my sailing days it was mostly sandwiches, boil-in-the-pouch meals, or something similarly easy because we'd be out for less than a week at a time. It was considered "gourmet cooking" for me to cook up scrambled eggs and sausage, or some sort of omelets. One of my friends had grown up sailing and did wonders in a wok, but it's too long ago for me to remember specifics. In general, during those trips she cooked and the rest of us cleaned up.

That's a heck of a good question, Toliver, and I don't think I'd call it 'absurdly, stupidly basic' - which is to say, I don't know the answer. My guess is that baking the cookies might drive off enough of the alcohol to eliminate that odor / flavor, whereas your dip was (I assume) neither cooked nor even served warm. There may also be a certain amount of evaporation that occurs when cookie dough batter is mixed and aerated, that wouldn't happen with the creamy elements of the dip. Whether mixing the extract with powdered sugar first would have helped seems unlikely, but not impossible. I'll be interested to see what others have to say!

What Darienne said. Thanks for the notice that "cut resistant" is not the same as "cut proof".

Er. You used a boat motor to mix it? And you call that a smaller container?