Smithy

@ElsieD, I'll give a partial answer in case @Shelby is already collapsed asleep. I can't say how much they weigh, because birds are remarkably light for their size, but in terms of size most doves are larger than robins, blackbirds and blue jays but smaller than pigeons. Any further discussion about the birds in the wild belongs elsewhere, but I suspect Shelby will weigh in with how many mouthfuls each dove represents. I remember that when I was little, Dad and his buddies would go dove hunting. I don't remember how Mom cooked the birds, but I think each one was smaller than a thigh from one of today's supermarket chickens. ( @Shelby, please correct the record if I'm wrong!)

In my ramblings around Tucson with mi esposo y mis amigos I've hit on some wonderful places. I don't get as much opportunity as I did a few years ago. Still...if you've a mind to post about your restaurant finds in the regional Southwest & Western United States: Dining forum, I think a lot of us would love to read about them. Does Middle Eastern food turn your crank? If so, I highly recommend the Babylon Market and Deli. They have tables inside and out, and also offer take-out. I also highly recommend Bianchi's Italian Restaurant. I have only eaten dinner there but their salad and the lasagna special were the stuff of (wonderful) dreams, and they open at 11 a.m.

I give @Shelby credit for most of this, but I won't preempt her discussion for the purpose. Besides, my variation may give her the heebie-jeebies. 🙂 I've had a pile of tomatoes, some from a dear friend's garden but most from a farm stand that should have known better. Huge tomatoes. Not much aroma although it's been high summer in Minnesota. But I'd bought them, and they needed to be used. A month or so ago (I kid you not on the timing) I purchased some eggplants from an affiliated farmstand. They were huge, plump and beautiful. I got as far as slicing them, painting them with EVOO and baking them per this discussion. Alas, I let them overbake...but not so badly charred that I could bring myself to throw them into the woods. There they sat, in a container in the refrigerator, with me wondering when they'd start molding and I'd have an excuse to throw them out. They stubbornly refused to die. There sat our kitchen: tomatoes occupying the countertop, cooked eggplant slices in the refrigerator, no plans for either. Today, @Shelby graciously gave tips for her tomato sauce here and I remembered other things that needed to be used up. I rootled through the crisper drawers and found more candidates. I followed Shelby's instructions except for losing patience with peeling tomatoes. I think I peeled 2. I chopped and cooked 5 or 6. (Sorry, Shelby!) In the aromatics group I added leeks from a neighbor, red and white onions, lovely fresh garlic, and a green bell pepper given to me over my objections. All of them went into the pot at appropriate times, along with parsleyed butter from last week's dinner party, a glug or two of red wine, a bunch of fresh basil and parsley, Aleppo pepper, hot smoked paprika, Lawry's seasoned salt, and dried oregano. It simmered. I tasted. I worried about a metallic taste. I added Amore tubed tomato paste. I let it cook down...and the metallic taste went away. I began final assembly. The eggplant parmesan was based on this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, but I don't think there's anything extraordinary about their instructions. Olive oil to grease the pan. Layer of tomato sauce. Layer of eggplant slices. Layer of shredded mozzarella and grated parmesan. Lather, rinse, repeat. Top with the tomato sauce, then the cheeses. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Well. I programmed the oven to start at the right time, but forgot to tell it how long to cook. It cooked an hour instead of the intended half hour before I realized my error! The topping was a bit, er, darker and firmer than I'd have liked. Darker than we'd have liked on top. Still, it was good. Our only complaint is that the top is too solid. It needed to be cooked less, or else the cheeses should have been dolloped on top rather than being a solid coating. A dish like this shouldn't need a kinfe to cut the top. Thanks to @Shelby for talking me through fresh tomato sauce!

Lest @heidih's question get lost, I'll ask it again. You miss "*cooking*" and this doesn't qualify because....? I'm guessing that you started with a cooked chicken, but it's just a guess. It all looks delicious.

Did you cook them to a soft consistency? If you used any acid, what was it? I could imagine treating those greens and bacon as one would a wilted salad, but I suspect they'd need more cooking than spinach would.

So glad to see you blogging again, even if the season doesn't feel seasonable! As always, I love your decorations and admire your energy. I agree with @Anna N about housecleaning being overrated, but it still seems necessary sometimes. I find that having company coming is my best motivator. I have a surfeit of tomatoes that I should use up today -- several pounds worth. One can only have so many BLT sandwiches though I've been scratching that itch lately. I ask you, therefore: what's your favorite quick tomato sauce? These are big beefsteak tomatoes and I haven't been pleased with slow-roasting slices as I'd do with cherry tomatoes.

Seen in the grocery store yesterday. Not one was in motion!

"Western" what? Do you have a standard "western" sandwich, or were you making an omelette and decided to sandwich it? Looks good, at any rate, but I'm curious about the abbreviated term.

Some wonderful names there!

@sartoric may have some insights for you. I have none, but hope you'll post about your experiences.

What kind of cheese?

I have the same question as @heidih about the stuffing. This, however, makes me realize just how far behind the power curve (or 8-ball?) I am these days. You wrote about All Those Steps you did before work. Then, after work, you... I am in awe.

Let me know how it works out! Also, I remember now that when I had access to prickly pear juice I'd mix it with my yogurt. It turned a beautiful color and made a ho-hum breakfast much more palatable.

Here it is. The source was Sarah Lee-Allen, who did wonderful presentations at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's "Taste the Desert" events. (I wrote about the first one here, and in reviewing the topic I see you responded with your own comments about prickly pear fruit back then in 2019!) When I asked whether I could share the recipe, Sarah gave an enthusiastic "yes, as long as it's credited to Jay" (her husband). This photo is of the recipe she had printed out for anyone to take. Jay's Prickly Pear Sour Cream Ice Cream, by Jay Allen It bugs me that I never have an ice cream maker and the prickly pear syrup available at the same time, but I'm pretty sure I had a sample that night.

I love that stuff. I don't have regular access to the fruit, but I've had delicious ice cream and drinks made from it when I was near them at the right time. If you'd like a recipe for prickly pear fruit ice cream, let me know.

Some of it we're cooking tonight. The rest is already back in a deep freeze. As I understand it the texture may suffer from refreezing. As for food safety, I think it'll be okay: assume any bacterial growth happened at refrigerator temperatures rather than freezer temperatures. Cook it sooner rather than later, cook it thoroughly. No tartare from this batch!

I will never again drop off the trailer (Princessmobile) for "a few hours, or overnight" repairs without first emptying the refrigerator and freezer. That was last Tuesday, 6 days ago. On Saturday or Sunday, it occurred to me that the trailer's batteries and/or propane might not be adequate to keeping the refrigerator running. It also occurred to me that my splurge purchases from a really good meat market halfway across the state were still in the Princessmobile's freezer. As soon as work was done today, I went to the repair place to check. Batteries almost dead. Propane gone. Urk. I'm happy to report that everything had thawed but was still plenty cold. 4 ribeye steaks, 4 pork steaks, some flank steak, and some other splurge meats were all fine. Whew. The radishes in the refrigerator were a bit, er, soggy, and I haven't opened the carton of heavy cream to see how it fared, but we'll take that damage over the loss of all that meat!

I've posted about the restaurant here. They do indeed offer "Wok-o-Tacos" as described in their menu: "3 flour tortillas, buttermilk-fried chicken tossed in Korean BBQ, kimchi, pickled red onion, avocado, topped with cilantro, and a drizzle of soyoli". They also offer a bibimbap bowl with a description much more in keeping with what we're reading here. I suspect you're right that the eggs would have been problematic at a buffet table...especially one that was outdoors, as this one was, with only warming trays.

Over here in the Bibimbap Cook-off, I posted about attending a wedding reception with a bibimbap buffet table, something I'd never seen in these parts before. I decided I needed to check out the offerings of the restaurant that had done the catering: The Duluth Grill, which is part of a local group of three family-run establishments catering to different crowds. The business model for all of them is to provide organically grown produce and humanely raised / butchered meats, all from local businesses to the degree possible. It was too cool and rainy to want to sit outside, but their yard / waiting area is inviting on warmer days. The front of their menu describes more about their business model. We were shown to a booth and given menus. Oh, what a dilemma! It had been the bibimbap table at the wedding reception that had intrigued me so much with its collection of dishes to try, but in the end I chose their Korean Toast. This was a kimchi-stuffed omelet atop toast, gochuchang-tossed pork belly atop the lot, and chopped green onions and herbs scattered atop it, and drizzles of their soyoli. I asked for marinated kale (yes, really) as my side dish. There was also a small bowl of their Thai green curry sauce. My darling chose their meat-lover's omelet, with its delicious assortment of sausage, bacon and pork belly. I sneaked a sample of each of those meats. They were quite good. Kambucha for me, latte for him. These portions were huge, and we ended up with take-home packages for later. The verdict: I'm glad I tried their Korean Toast once. The pork belly was superb: tender, with a happy blend of spicy heat and cooling soyoli sauce. The eggs were tender and nicely wrapped around the filling. The kimchi filling was something I'm glad I've tried, but I don't think I'd try that one again. The entire plate had too busy a flavor combination for me, and it may be that kimchi isn't really something I want at breakfast time. His meat-lover's omelet was perfect, as far as I could tell. While we waited for our breakfasts, we admired their series of hot sauces set at the table. I tried one for fun, but really, my breakfast didn't need any helping heat. One other delight about the Duluth Grill is that they'll happily provide recipes for anything they make. I came away with a stack of things I'd had the previous weekend at the wedding: their coconut rice, larb, Thai green curry, Korean barbecue sauce, kimchi, pickled chilis, pickled onions, soyoli. Now I'll have to try making them, while cutting them down to size. These are restaurant-sized portions. In each case it gives the equipment needed, the proper method and storage technique after it's finished, and the finished batch size. In most cases it's a 2-gallon bucket worth. The larb portion? "Saddle bag"! 😄 More gratuitous menu shots:

*Bump* (or multiple *bumps* in light of this topic's long dormancy) A few nights ago I attended a wedding reception with two buffet table lines. One table was labeled the "taco table"; the other table was labeled the "bibimbop table". This was Northern Minnesota. Guess which table had the most traffic? 🙂 I boosted the bibimbap table traffic simply by recommending it to my fellow guests. It was clear that tacos were more familiar. We benefitted from the shorter line. (I don't think anyone left hungry, regardless of the buffet they'd chosen.) The dishes in the Bibimbap line were: coconut rice, larb, vegan larb, Thai curry, kimchi, fresh radishes, fresh chopped cilantro, marinated kale, pickled jalapenos, and probably one or two things I'm forgetting. There were NO eggs involved, either fried or cooked. I'm sorry to report that I have no photos from that night. It was all delicious. I'm happy to report that the catering company, associated with a local restaurant, was happy to provide me with recipes when I asked. This may have been a Northwoods take on bibimbap (not a bowl to be had!) but the flavors were delicious and it was nice to see a collection of family and friends be pleasantly exposed to a new cuisine. I do wonder whether the absence of egg changed the name or serving manner. I'd appreciate an answer, particularly by PM. I'll post information about the restaurant and a discussion of their approach to food, and bibimbap, when I get around to it.

Thanks. So am I looking for a can or a carton? Where?

I never thought to look in the refrigerated section for this; I've always gone for canned coconut milk. Do you have a favorite brand? Anything I should especially look for, or avoid?

Our tests of ready-to-bake sweet rolls continue. Back here I posted about a new-to-us brand of cinnamon roll. It was more satisfying to my husband, for whom I'm making these, than the Pillsbury rolls we've gotten in whomp packages. A week ago when we were visiting his daughter she treated him to realio, trulio, actual bakery caramel rolls: fluffy, pillowy, delicious, huge. Quite good. The gold standard. He liked the caramel. Yesterday, in the grocery store, I discovered that Rhodes "AnyTime!" rolls are made in caramel rolls as well as the cinnamon rolls I've tried in the past. I bought. I baked. With the cinnamon rolls, you put them in the pan, bake, and frost afterward. (This collage is from the post linked above.) With the caramel rolls, you spread the caramel on the bottom of the baking pan, arrange the rolls, then set the pan atop a baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes. When they're done baking, you invert them onto a baking sheet or into another pan so the caramel layer is on top. The verdict? He's happy. I think they're as toothachingly sweet as any of the other rolls we've had, but these are for him. As with the cinnamon rolls, these came out soft and pillowy. Not as good as the realio, trulio, good bakery sticky rolls, or the beautiful sticky buns folks are making from scratch and posting about here, but close enough for my darling.

My range hood has translucent covers shielding the light bulbs, so they are protected rather than exposed. Does yours not have that, or are you suggesting that the LED lights wouldn't fit with the covers in place? Another consideration is whether the base matches the socket, but you've probably addressed that already.

How interesting! I'm not sure I've ever had elk in any form. Venison, antelope -- yes. Not elk. Thanks for the report.