Smithy

50 gallon drum!! Oh, mercy. When I was little, we were always issued hammers and probably some sort of plates or bowls for separating the extracted walnut meats from their shells and partitions. We used hammers to crack the nuts in the cement back stoop. I'm sure my mother chalked up a certain amount of loss to small, eager, but inept hands. Pecans are worse. I agree with the basic idea of toasting them once they're freed, though. We didn't do that when I was growing up, but I think it improves the flavor. I've done both oven and microwave toasting, but haven't settled on a preference.

I very much want to know how you set up the party joke, and what the reaction was! I used to have camping friends who used my place as a base camp /launch point for expeditions. We'd have had a hoot with such an egg and omelette!

They are beautiful birds. Who does/did the plucking and cleaning? Your grandson doesn't look happy at the prospect, but that might be the camera fooling us. 🙂

They are. If someone gave me 10 pounds as a gift, I'd gamely slog my way through them but if I'm buying, I'll pay extra to buy them shelled. It's much too fiddly to me to try cracking those hard shells just the right amount, then extract those intricately crennelated meats from their wrappers. Walnuts are easier.

I'm with you on the train sound! I grew up a mile or two away from a railroad line and found the whistle blowing quite soothing. It's different when you're close to a crossing, as we were at the Texas overnight stop. And yes - I remember now your describing the emu egg treatment. Have you ever eaten any?

We had beautiful sunrises and clear skies while camped at Pinal. Most of our dinners must have been fairly run-of-the-mill for us, since I didn't bother photographing many of them. At a guess I'd say there was hash at least one night, dogs and potato salad at least one night. Superburgers, probably. Leftovers from Cooper's, probably. The biggest success was when I opened a package of country-style pork ribs. This cut of meat used to be my darling's favorite. He'd cram them -- I mean, absolutely jam them -- into a Crock-Pot (TM), smother them and fill the interstices with barbecue sauce, and go to work. 8 hours later he'd come home to a fully cooked meat dinner, just as he liked it. Well. We had identical Crock-Pots (same size, same color scheme, same vintage) when we got married. They were first-generation devices with the heating coils built right into the ceramic. You couldn't immerse them in water, and you couldn't remove the liner. He used his much more than I used mine. When we got together, we gave one away. We received a larger Crock-Pot as a wedding gift. This one had a removable liner. Much easier to clean! And yes, we've used it a lot over the years -- but it apparently gets too hot. The ribs always come out overcooked. By the time we decided the crock was to blame, we'd given the smaller one away to his daughter -- and she'd given it away to someone else. Since then, cooking country-style ribs satisfactorily both has been quite an exercise. We've tried different crocks. We've tried all of my Instant Pots. We've tried high heat and low. High heat (atop a grill) has shown some promise, but I decided to try the good old low and slow braise instead. First, I rubbed them with an Espresso and Ancho rub my sister gave me a couple of years ago for Christmas. This is something I'll sorely miss when I've used it all up, unless I can get more. Then I loaded them all, closely packed, into my enameled cast iron baking dish. Then I put a bit of water in: enough to come a quarter to a half inch up the sides of the ribs. Covered it all with its tight-fitting lid, and put it in the oven at the slowest temperature I could manage. In this oven, that works out to somewhere around 275F on the middle rack. My darling looked rather pained when he realized I didn't intend to slather it all with barbecue sauce. How we could have been married so long without his cluing in our different tastes is a bit of a mystery, but there it is. I promised to baste half the ribs with his preferred sauce as the cooking went along. I kept monitoring the doneness of the meat, occasionally poking it with a fork. At some point I turned the oven off and let it all coast, then later turned the oven back on. At that point I added the sauce. Success! You can tell which plate is whose by the sauce coating. Mine has Cooper's, but of course it doesn't show up as his syrupy stuff does. We were both delighted with the texture and flavor. The rice dish was the gift that kept on giving (I just finished it off today). If it wasn't blind luck, I think I've figured out how to cook these country-style ribs without overcooking them. Hooray!

A commercial, full-service campground up the road from ours has propane, and we drove up there one day to refill a tank. The office has "Butt Nuggets", aka emu eggs, for sale. I've admired them before but never worked out what I would do with such a large egg, if I could even get it open. Last year when I discovered them, I asked at the campground and was told that each one is about the size of 8 chicken eggs and tastes much the same. I was curious, but not $25 curious then. I still wasn't when we passed through, but I'm still fascinated. These things are the size and color of a very large Haas avocado! I can see why they'd be good for decorative use. You can see some of the carving done on some of them. This time, we got to see the emus as well. Well, these were the babies: born in March, and already taller than I. Quite curious about us, and friendly-seeming though I didn't try to pet one. I'll just have to keep wondering about emu eggs, and enjoy handling the eggs when I have the chance.

Pinal County, in western Arizona, has a very nice although primitive campground where the stay is inexpensive, the rules are relaxed, and the sites are fairly well spread apart. It's fine for tent-camping or for trailers with adequate battery and/or generator power and adequate water. The only amenities are good picnic tables and shelters, good barbecue grills, a central dumpster for garbage, and an excellent host. We opened out and stayed almost a week. The cycling is excellent there. We drove to the nearest town (Stanfield) to check out their beer and bread selections. Struck out on bread, but enjoyed perusing this little Mexican grocery. Someday, maybe we'll stay long enough at the right time for me to feel like trying out their meat department. Not this time! It seems fairly common for Mexican markets around here to carry a lot of gewgaws that you wouldn't find otherwise. The nearby convenience store / gas station had only one person ahead of me, who was busily chatting with the checkout clerks. They were obvious friends. I held my beer and wine selections and waited...and waited...and then was mildly indignant when some young fella cut in front of me. Hmm. He went to the self checkout! I'd never seen something like this. I don't see how it could work with a lot of items, but for one or two things it was quite easy. I used it after he'd finished, and was pleased I hadn't taken him to task. I learned something. The way it works is, you put your items separated on that scanner platform, confirm on the touch screen that the items are properly listed, then tap your credit card on the scanner. Easy peasy. The lollygaggers were still at it with the checkout clerks, and I was glad not to have to wait.

Yes...the same is true in Duluth, where you also have to pay for bags, or tell it that you didn't use any, even if there are none nearby. This cart was in Arizona. We have reusable bags but I forgot to bring them in and probably wouldn't have had enough anyway. It's a struggle to use reusable bags at any Walmart we've encountered, because of their rotary bag turntables, but the grocers will usually accommodate us.

If I have only a few items and the self-checkout line is short, I'll kowtow to the pressure and take that line. With only one exception I know of, the darned voice is SO slow and allows no shortcutting. I can't scan a single can and say "I have 5 of these;" instead, I have to scan each one individually and place it in the bagging area as the voice tells me, slowly and distinctly and in complete sentences, to do so. Very irritating. By the time I've paid and listened to the slow, polite voice say "Thank...you...for...shopping...at... xxx. Please...take...your...receipt," I'm usually snarling. So no, I won't use those unless I have to and have fewer than 5 items. The other day, after a marathon shopping expedition, there was no way I was going to scan and bag all this by hand. Cell phone, puzzles and email are a wonderful way to pass the time while waiting! On the other hand, I did run across a new-to-me system that seemed to work well for only a few items in a convenience store.

So...backing up a bit...we left Llano and made a long drive, then stopped for the night at a wide spot in the road near Kent, Texas. That night we shared a bowl of his chili, that he'd made before we left for these sorts of days. He likes his plain, with crackers; I garnish mine with sour cream. Note that our "table" was the butcher block, set up at the end of the kitchen counter. We didn't even want to unfold the small table we use when traveling. The next day was another long drive involving road snacks, sandwiches, and interesting (read: terrifying) traffic. Actually, getting through El Paso wasn't too bad that day. They've narrowed the lanes so that I really could have reached out my window and touched the semi one lane over, but there were no accidents and the traffic load going our way was light. It helps to have a driver who was a pro during his formative years. I could more or less relax and just watch for road signs as we sailed along. Unfortunately, we were foiled by an unannounced road diversion (unannounced by our GPS, that is) and missed our usual turn toward New Mexico. The traffic coming the other way was prohibitively packed, so we stayed on the Interstate and went on into New Mexico via a more northerly route than intended. That took two potential night-time stops out of the equation. We drove right through the state to our next wide-spot-in-the-road stopover in Arizona. That's the truck stop across the road from us that night, and the train going by 25 feet away (many, all night, but we slept soundly) on the other side. I don't remember what we ate that night. Probably leftovers from Cooper's. Maybe peanut butter sandwiches. The next day it was but a short hop to our next open-out-and-stay-awhile stopping point.

Despite having run oodles of errands 3 days ago, including food shopping, we didn't get everything done. Nothing would do but that we had to go back yesterday to finish. This involved a trip to TWO Walmarts, one of which was jammed with slow-moving people and massive carts blocking the way. (We won't go back to that one.) I was ready to go home RIGHT THEN but my darling insisted we try the other for those few things we hadn't been able to find. We got everything done, including updated vaccinations, but were too pooped to pop when we got home. Too tired even to be hangry! We had very late lunch / snacks and a very light dinner. I think we're both a bit run down today, so we're sticking close to home. I should be able to catch up with a few more posts. Our late-afternoon snack was peanut butter and celery for him; hummus and celery for me. I packed 2 quarts of this hummus and I opened the last one yesterday. For my tastes, Holy Land Deli and Grocery in Minneapolis makes THE best hummus and THE best tahina to be found. They also carry our favorite Egyptian cheese. Unfortunately I never made it to The Cities this summer while we were home. We're down to just a couple of boxes of that cheese, and I haven't found a mail-order source for it. (Holy Land doesn't ship outside of the Twin Cities metro area.) At least our local co-op in Duluth carries the hummus. I brought along a couple of quart containers of that. When it's finished, I'll just have to put up with substandard stuff. (Mine never measures up, possibly because I don't have the right tahina, and possibly because I can't be bothered to peel the chickpeas.) He's in a slightly better boat with regard to his preferred beans. We found "barbecued brisket beans" that perfectly suit his tastes last season in Yuma. When we got back home, we found a Duluth grocery store that carries them, or something quite similar. He made sure to buy and pack enough to get us here. I don't like them, but I'm still hoarding Cooper's beans, which are much less sweet than his brisket beans. His beans taste a lot like Boston Baked beans, with added brisket, to me. When we finally got around to eating last night, all we wanted was beans and broccoli. It was an easy cleanup.

It's interesting that they've gone to black, and to a more rounded, almost squat look. I love my 3-quart IP and agree it's a great appliance for something like a dorm room or small apartment (or travel trailer). Thanks, @rotuts.

Our water consumption is much higher at home! Here, we have no garden or yard to water, and we're very careful with dishwashing...usually it's just one dishpan worth per day -- say, 1-2 gallons of water per day. I used to save that water for washing floors later, but I admit that this year I've taken to using a vacuum and a chemical mop (Swiffer). I'll answer your other questions offline.

We have gone across the border (on foot) in other states, but so far haven't done it here. It's about 50 miles each way to the nearest Mexican town. We may make the trip this year, just to see what's there.

I've reloaded the photo. Thanks for letting me know it didn't come up right the first time. You're right about guessing the proportions based on their order, and that's my plan. I'll also need to be choosy about the ketchup, I think. To me most ketchup is too sweet and I tend to turn my nose up at it.

We're on cellular wifi, and I must say it doesn't go very far when I'm doing photos the way I am. That's one reason I do so many collages; they save a lot of data. The trailer has water and waste tanks. We fill (or dump, as appropriate) at campgrounds such as the last one we visited. When we're out here boondocking, we can refill the water tank from a portable tank in the back of the pickup. That way, we can get water without having to tow the trailer. It's an interesting exercise in water thrift. The two of us use about 100 gallons of water in a week. We're pretty careful with water, especially out here in the desert, and try not to waste it. The Princessmobile has a generator that produces 110v electricity when we need to run the 110v appliances (microwave, coffeemaker). The generator also charges the 12v batteries aboard the Princessmobile; they run the rest of the appliances and trailer features. The refrigerator, for instance, runs on 12v and propane. When we aren't plugged into "shore power" at some campground, we make a point of having every battery-powered gizmo plugged into an outlet when we start the generator. As a rule we run 1-2 hours in the morning and 1-2 hours in the evening, and that keeps most stuff charged. There are also a couple of USB outlets for charging cell phones and the modem.

Further to the issue of barbecue sauce. This may really be my last Llano-related post for a while, but the sauce is important enough that it deserves its own marker. Cooper's barbecue sauce is perfectly suited to my tastes. It's runny and tart, not particularly sweet. There's obvious pepper in it, but not so much that it's hot. My darling prefers sweet, clingy barbecue sauces. I don't. I collect and hoard the Cooper's and try to make it last until the next visit. One day I asked a worker whether it was vinegar-based, and he said he thought so. That was at service time. The next day I went in early, before opening time, to see whether I could possibly get a recipe for my own use. I asked the workers first, and they referred me to the manager. I poured on the charm. "Your barbecue sauce is THE BEST barbecue sauce I've ever had! As I'm sure you can hear, I'm not from around here. I'd suuure like to be able to make it for myself for those times when I'm away; we only pass through here twice a year." He smiled. "Any chance I could get the recipe for my own personal use?" I wheedled. "I promise not to share it." Not a chance. "Well, could you at least tell me the ingredients? A list? Rough proportions?" Nope. "Is it vinegar based?" He politely explained that he couldn't even tell me that. There are franchisees who pay "big bucks" for that recipe, and it wouldn't be fair to share it with me. He couldn't even tell me the ingredients. But they sell it! By the bottle, by the gallon. And they ship! I thanked him for his time and explanation, told them we were looking forward to seeing them all that evening, and left. Of course when I made my purchase that night I loaded up on the free sauce. But I did also buy a bottle. The joke's on me! The first ingredient is ketchup! I never would have guessed that.

Desert land outside Yuma, on the California side of the border.

We're "home"! There's more to tell about Llano (yes, really) but as usual the timeline is going to be a bit jerky. Sometimes I have to work backward, then forward, and I hope you find it more entertaining than frustrating. (There's a wonderful sequence in T.H. White's The Once and Future King (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) where Merlin gets horribly frustrated because his invisible assistant can't give him the right hat. "Be more specific," advises the owl, "perhaps the poor fellow finds it as confusing as you do to live backward.") We were surprised and delighted that (a) our spot was available and (b) nobody had bothered our fire ring. This is the second year in a row that we've been so lucky. Even the decorative rocks, the poker stick and a horseshoe-shaped piece of wood were still there! We opened up and set up the interior. There are hunters nearby; you can see their trailer out the back deck doors. They're far enough away that we can barely hear each other's generators. What a relief to be set up, and know that we won't have to move for a while! At some point during the setting-up I got hangry and mixed up some tuna salad. Pickle juice, a diced hard-boiled egg and mayo went into it. We still had a few stray leaves of lettuce. We had no sandwich bread, and only 3 burger buns left. We split one bun and shared it. Later that day we relaxed on our deck, and luxuriated in the sunshine. That Llano Estacado Sauvignon Blanc from Luddock is good. I'd buy it again. That night, while rummaging around for celebratory food, we discovered that we STILL had brisket left over from Cooper's! We really did finish it this time, along with the last of the baked rice dish I posted about here. It reheated nicely in the oven, in a small Corningware dish that helped buffer the heat and keep the brisket from overcooking. As usual, we used our preferred barbecue sauces. The next day we had a beautiful halo around the sun: rain soon, maybe? We set up the outdoor kitchen anyway. That night I cooked 2 superburgers atop the camp stove. This time I tried using the cast iron griddle that I'd remembered to bring along. It's been riding in the oven all this time, adding thermal mass. I think it worked pretty well atop the stove.

Nice to see you here, @Porthos! Thanks for dropping by. 🙂

You may consider this too much like a salad, and I don't think it would freeze well, but a favorite of mine that can easily become vegan is Green Bean Salad with Almonds and Feta, from Cookie and Kate (it's excellent, even without the feta). I cook that one a lot. More recently, I've discovered and fallen in love with Ali Slagle's Baked Rice with White Beans, Leeks and Lemon. It can be frozen. It makes a lot. It's very flexible and forgiving. I wrote about my first time baking it here. My version wasn't vegan, because I used chicken broth and included Parmesan cheese, but they could be left out. In the writeup, she notes ways you can add even more vegetables, nuts, whatever. I think it fits quite a few of your requirements.

No, I left it alone too. I thought long and hard -- but I have 3 Le Creuset gratin pans at home, one of which is the same size, and I have other pieces that serve the same purpose here in the Princessmobile. (If I knew anyone who could use it, I'd buy it for them. I'll keep thinking.) When I got back to the barber shop my darling asked whether I'd bought anything. I held up my bag of clothing, then said I'd been sorely tempted by the kitchen goods but hadn't bought any. "Thank you!" he exclaimed. We all laughed. But I may go back for those sizzler platters....

Hubby needed a haircut, so I checked out the thrift store next door. Was looking for clothing, but of course the kitchenware attracted me. Oh, my! I have a series of wonderful Le Creuset enameled cast iron gratin pans. I'm not sure whether this one matches my largest, or the next size down. Descoware. The photo doesn't show the proper scale, but it's about 9" x 13" oval. Good condition. $4.00!!! These steak plates with chargers, or whatever you want to call the set, are a heavy shiny metal plate paired with a wooden base to set the plate atop a table. Think: heavy-duty sizzler platters. (Mine are aluminum platters atop plastic bases.) $1.50 each set. There are four. I left them alone...for today...but what a great set for entertaining! I may go back.

Sorry, but why? It seems that would cool things more than necessary. Is it a safety issue?