Smithy

Ooh, ooh! @Kim Shook's suggestion of breakfast pockets reminded me of this recipe for crawfish hand pies, from Acadiana Table. I bet you could do a good riff on that. I plan to start experimenting with hand pies as soon as I get back from a trip later this week and can lay my hands on puff pastry. You, my dear, could make some of your bierocks, or use some of your good pastry methods (or whomp crescent rolls) to make something like that. Edited to add: Kim's suggested breakfast pockets sound darned good, too. I'm glad she added a link for those!

Yesterday we packed up the trailer enough to move it, and went to the nearest RV park to dump the waste tanks and refill the water tanks. We know several of the people there and enjoyed seeing them again. Packing up for a short trip like that isn't as big a deal as breaking camp altogether, but it still all takes time. As practiced as we are, it's somewhere between 3 and 4 hours from getting ready to travel to being set up again. The upshot is that we worked on leftovers for our meals. For dinner, the question was how to reheat the pork roast and potatoes. In March 2022 I found these charming enameled baking dishes at a shop in the Salton Sea and picked them up for a song. Brand new, they cost $6 each. Last night they proved to be the perfect reheating and eating dishes: put what we wanted for ourselves into a dish; put them both into the oven on a baking sheet, cover with silicone lids, and heat gently until ready. I have so many cooking vessels in this trailer that I know I'll be swearing when we move out of this Princessmobile, whenever that is, but it's nice to have Just The Right Thing. Today we don't have any errands to run, so I hope to spend time puttering in the kitchen. I have chiles that need to be sweated, peeled and used; I have fresh red bell peppers; I have a bunch of eggs bought in anticipation of baking another huge hot dish; there's other stuff too. It all needs to be used before it goes off, and Monday and Tuesday will be busy.

I love the mug and wineglass! And the charcuterie spread! And that pizza' But this really broke me up: 😆

When we first arrived at this spot and visited a grocery store, I was starved for good fresh produce. I went a bit crazy -- overboard, really -- on purchases, and I'm still working through them. Today it was brussels sprouts. They took a bit of trimming, I'm sorry to say, because they'd been threatening to go to mush out in our cooler. But trim them I did. And I thawed bacon ends and pieces; the package includes "uncured pork" as well as bacon. My darling insists on calling it "bacon and unidentified stuff". I've taken to slowly browning sprouts in the rendered bacon fat, then dousing with a balsamic vinaigrette. You can see more about the process here and here, if you wish. What was slightly different tonight was that I couldn't find any balsamic vinegar. I think I'm out! I decided it was time to open a bottle of balsamic date vinegar that we've been carrying unopened with us since, I kid you not, sometime before the pandemic. I opened and tasted it. It tasted a bit too sweet and dately to me, so I used that plus red wine vinegar at the saucing stage. This stuff is thick: very syrupy, like good balsamic vinegar. After I added the vinegars and saw how they were cooking down, I diluted a bit with water and kept letting it thicken again. Good stuff. Well worth doing again. Maybe I won't add balsamic vinegar to our shopping list.

Ooh, that looks good! (I'd never have thought of putting pepperoncinis with a pot roast!) I'll have to try that sometime. Many thanks! Have you ever used that recipe on pork roast?

Okay, you Dungeness Crab aficionados -- I need advice. The local grocery store has frozen, cooked Dungeness crab available. This topic has been haunting me. I don't think I've ever seen live Dungeness crab, and if I got it I wouldn't know what to do with it. But there are some mighty fine-looking dishes in the pages of this topic. I'd like to try some of them. However, the consensus seems to be that the frozen cooked crabs aren't all that great. For the kind of money they cost (even with a loyalty discount card) I'm leery of trying one. Yet I'd like to try some of the dishes in this topic. What say you? Is it worth the effort and risk, or would I be better off buying crab meat in a can or plastic deli package?

Thanks! Yes, Lipton's Onion Soup Mix. They now call it "Recipe Secrets" but it's the same stuff.

My darling has been jonesing for pork roast for some time, and a few days ago we pulled one from the freezer to thaw and cook. Then came the problem of what to cook it in. I left behind my largest Le Creuset Dutch oven this year, figuring that the Lodge cast iron Dutch oven would be good enough. No! he said, it's too small! So was everything else readily available. i sighed. Some years ago I splurged on a Sur la Table double roasting pan for purposes of prime rib cooking. It's all nonstick. The lid and pan are both good for stovetop cooking. But it's big. Too big to fit in any of our cabinets except the one above the TV set. The cabinet that has extra pantry supplies, and office supplies, and trailer manuals, binoculars, electroncis...the list goes on. It fits under the rack that supports office supplies, here. It's too wide to fit between the legs of the rack. The only way for one person to get it out is to unload everything from the cabinet to the left (you can see how much stuff that is) and pull it out sideways. I insisted on getting his help. "Here," I said, "take this. And this, and this, and this..." At last the binoculars, office supplies, and some random jars were out from in front of or atop the rack. I could lift the rack enough to pull the pot out. (I am NOT stowing that pot back in place until we get ready to leave here. It can live out on the deck if necessary.) Here it is, loaded and ready for the oven. You can see what I mean about the lid being a usable skillet. You can also see that nothing else can fit in the oven at the same time! Still, dinner was good and it was worth the effort. And we have leftovers! Hooray!

Yes. I wonder whether the Monster Tacos sign has drawn attention yet, or whether it's enough different to not infringe on the trademark? Based on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in favor of Jack Daniels against the Bad Spaniels squeaky toy, I suspect Monster Tacos may have trouble some day.

We went to town yesterday for gas, water, and (really, this time) just a few groceries. Along the way I marveled at a restaurant I've been watching go up for the last couple of years. I haven't visited yet (and probably won't) but I finally figured out that its name is Taco Monster. I've wondered what connection, if any, it must have with the Monster energy drink, which I've also never tried but which seems to be everywhere. If no connection, then how could they use that name and logo? Since I wasn't driving yesterday, I had time to take a better look at the logo. The "claw marks" are chili peppers!

I think I remember your writing about that. Yes, do try the sous vide on something and see if it helps! Easy for me to say...I'm not the one tearing around preparing royal feasts for company! 😄

I think that's what my hunting friends used to do. I remember being heartbroken one time when they saved a roast and had everything else ground up into burger. Everything! Then they slathered that roast with cream of mushroom soup and made a pot roast out of it. I hadn't shot the deer, so had no say in the matter...but what a waste! I don't they they even kept the tenderloin intact!

Any success with sous vide on tough deer meat?

How long will your friend be there? The full rifle season? And how long is your deer (rifle) season?

I'm going to try pork tenderloin sous vided like that, next time I have a chance. It does look perfect. Actually, @gfweb's paillard suggestion sounds good too. Actually, I'm just going to come back to this topic next time I need cooking inspiration!

This article from KTLA crossed my news feed this morning. It says that a dozen California restaurants made this year's Top 100 USA restaurants according to OpenTable users. It includes a link to each restaurant's booking site on OpenTable, with comments, photos and ratings. Where possible there's a link to the restaurant's menu. The ratings are from OpenTable users. https://ktla.com/news/california/these-are-the-top-rated-restaurants-in-california-according-to-opentable/ It's fun for me to browse. I used to live in the L.A. Area and when I see lists like this I almost (almost!) wish I still did. When I was a broke college student or recent graduate, my friends and I made good use of a book titled something like "The Best Little Restaurants in L.A." whose purpose was to include little-known, and inexpensive, restaurants along with the better known places like Lawry's Steak House. Thanks to that book, we discovered the Musso and Frank Grill in Hollywood and loved it. It appears from time to time in Michael Connelly's books. But I really thought it had closed down...and here it is, still listed in the top tier! The L.A. Arts District and Newport Beach areas have more than one interesting listing in this article. I'm going to enjoy looking through menus and photos. Maybe I'll even get some ideas for things to try cooking.

It looks like a great food haul, and I love the story about the cattle living pumpkins! That's a very nice closed food cycle. I'm especially eager to see what you do with the pork loin. I always have to buy it on the sly, because my DH thinks pork must be ribs, ham or shoulder. While I agree that those are all worthy cuts, I like doing things with the tenderloin too. (Or other cuts, like the loin.) I hope I'll get some new ideas from you!

Sorry, that quote function makes it more difficult to read the recipe. Here it is, without being in the "quote" display: Hi Nancy, I would be happy to share the recipe with you and whoever. 1 can corn drained 1 can creamed corn 1 8.5 Oz corn muffin mix 1 cup sour cream 2 eggs Mix all together Put in sprayed 9 x 9 pan Bake 350* About 45 minutes or a bit more. I used a toothpick to check it. For the party I doubled the recipe, it wouldn't all fit in a 9 x 13.

I heard back from her, and she's happy to share. For review purposes (as rotuts likes to say) this is the cornbread that a friend brought to the Thanksgiving party last week: Here's what she wrote: So I was mistaken about its being her copycat version of a favorite restaurant's cornbread. Not very complicated, though. I'll try a single batch here; as it happens, I haven't gotten around to making the scalloped corn my darling likes, so I have the ingredients already.

And here it is. The potatoes are considerably more crunchy than last time around. Maybe there's something to his theory that salt pulls moisture out and gets the fried food crunchier.

I think *my* carnivore missed his animal protein also. Tonight, we're having his hash with good Texas sausage. 🙂

You ask a great question, actually -- and at this time of the year, I certainly understand the sentiment! We used to spend a lot of time along the Gulf Coast: head almost straight south to Mississippi, then east along the Gulf Coast to Florida and family, then back along the Gulf Coast to at least the Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston, sometimes farther south. (If you go back to about page 5, when I took this blog over from @Marlene, you'll see some examples.) Then the hurricanes started wiping out the areas we liked. We kept thinking it would be better next year, and it wasn't. Instead, the campgrounds we especially liked were wiped out. We do miss the seafood. There were (maybe still are) some great places to get fresh oysters, shrimp, and fish. Even alligator, though I never really cottoned to it. Now it seems we're resigned to good-quality grocery store seafood. Not the same thing at all, I know. FWIW I was back in the upscale grocery store today, ogling the frozen (cooked, frozen, wild-caught) Dungeness crab and seriously considering buying it. But I have to figure out first what to do with it...including how to get into that shell.

I would leave out the sweet potatoes, but I'm not a fan of them and that could be my bias showing. With the other ingredients you list, I'd consider paprika, sage, bay, maybe something to give it a bit of spicy heat (hot paprika?). Or...I wonder if you could take it in a curry direction, with some turmeric and cumin?? That is just a wild idea to get you going.

I didn't even think of that! Do you have a proportion (so many drops RB40 for 1 anchovy) or is it a guesstimate and taste? If you wanted to make proper Caesar dressing, would the fish sauce work for that?

He isn't very good at analyzing why he likes or doesn't like something, and I learned a few years ago not to try to get him to analyze it. Now that I've had time to think about it (and eaten some of the leftovers for lunch) I'd guess that it's a little too subtly flavored for his tastes. He likes strong flavors. About the only strong thing in this dish is the onions. I can't taste the anchovies, so unless he has a knee-jerk reaction to the idea I suspect it's the lack of spicy heat.