Smithy

I think my mother may have tried the "beans and franks" thing once, but certainly never the brown bread steamed in a can. I say she may have tried it "once" because I know it wouldn't have gone over well. To this day I loathe sweet bean dishes such as those canned things, and my sister detests cooked beans of any type except green beans. However, my husband loves 'em and has taken to buying "barbecue beans" and eating them with sausages of his choice.

I think another name for what @rotuts is asking about is "peasant food" in various regions: inexpensive, nutritious, filling, not particularly fancy. My husband's version of that is probably split pea stew, with chunks of ham and, if I have my way, chunks of potato also. I'm drawing a blank on what my family might have had in that category, but I discovered a favorite in Egypt: khoshary. The Wikipedia link has some pictures. Here's what I wrote about it in (good grief, so long ago?) 2005: We've made it here in the States a few times, but it's a pain because so many ingredients must be cooked separately before mixing them all together and it necessarily makes large quantities. It's much better for cooking for a crowd. I've never quite gotten the lemon / garlic sauce or the red sauce right, although I might do better at it now. Hmm. The more I think of it, the more I might be willing to try it again. It IS nutritious, cheap, filling, and good.

I guess I haven't made the big time with Google yet! 😄 You'd only find it described in this topic, because it's a dish I invented while we were camped on the Bolivar Peninsula on the Texas Gulf Coast. Unfortunately, it's one of those one-off-things that I've never been able to reproduce, but the different versions have been good anyway. Here is one of my earliest descriptions of it in this post: This post has a picture.

Today's dinner: a salad made of vegetables that needed to escape the refrigerator (the last of the cabbage and green onions; much of the washed lettuce hanging out; leftovers from last night) plus fresh and chopped tomatoes. Last night's shrimp were reheated. Our usual salad dressings were added. Much to my surprise, he liked the "Bang-bang sauce" from last night's dinner. The real issue from last night's dinner disappointment seems to have been that that last night's fried shrimp didn't meet his expectations; everything else seems to have been good. "Don't get rid of that (bang-bang) sauce!" he said. 🤷‍♀️ The few leftovers, after tonight's dinner, are tucked away in separate containers. For myself, I'm delighting in the marriage of my usual lemon vinaigrette salad dressing with this bang-bang sauce. Here's my dinner: Man, that bangs. Delightfully!

A quick look at the weather maps shows that we aren't the only ones in wild weather right now. The current situation explains all the wind that's been rocking the trailer all night... ...but we really don't have much room to complain, given the rain and snow predicted to fall elsewhere... Still, it's interesting to be able to look directly at the sun even after it's cleared the horizon. Shortly after this sequence, the mountains disappeared completely. We have the Princessmobile closed up to keep as much dust out as possible. All the other nearby campers are tucked up against a tree screen, as we are. The forecast nearby is for 65 mph winds! Last night I tried a new-to-us recipe. Something like this has been discussed somewhere on eGullet, but what caught my eye was a recipe from SimplyRecipes that came in my email: Bang-Bang Shrimp Tacos. I found the title irresistible, and made sure to get peeled, deveined shrimp when I was at the right store for it. The instructions in the recipe I linked to are clearly written, and that's useful for a fryophobe like me. They detail the frying station setup and the frying process: Soak the shrimp in buttermilk for at least 20 minutes, then dredge in a mixture of flour, corn starch, salt and pepper, then allow them to dry on a rack while the oil is heating. Have another tray set up with paper towels to drain the shrimp. Keep the oil at 350F (I settled for 180C) and do the shrimp in batches. Keep the fried shrimp in a warm oven until everything's ready. In the meantime, warm some tortillas, and thinly slice vegetables for garnish / additions to the tacos. I sliced cabbage, radishes, jalapenos, green onions, cilantro. One could use other things too. The Bang-Bang sauce is a mix of mayonnaise, garlic-chili sauce, sriracha (optional, and I left it out). I didn't have the specified garlic-chili sauce, but I substituted this Trader Joe's product. The mixture was very stiff, so I thinned it a bit with water until it seemed right. It was quite a production in the Princessmobile. I've said before that I detest frying inside, but the outside campstove would have gone flying into the next county in this wind. I didn't want to wait for good weather (days away) and my darling has never met a fried shrimp he didn't like. He was impressed and happy that I planned to fry those shrimp! Never let it be said I'm not a good sport. I didn't bother photographing the wreckage clutter in the kitchen. Here's the dinner table, and a couple of taco shots. He didn't like it!!! The first issue was that the tortillas were tough. (True.) So on his second round he made it more of a salad. Nope. Still didn't like it. Didn't like the breading. I realized this morning that I was supposed to toss the shrimp in the sauce to coat them -- think of a shrimpy version of Buffalo Wings -- rather than serving it atop the shrimp. I don't think that would have helped for him. The breading was "different". Yes, it was: crisper and crunchier than anything I've ever managed. He can't explain what he thought was missing. (In fairness to him, let me note that he almost never says "I don't like it" for fear of hurting my feelings. At least not until the next morning. He takes a more roundabout route, like suggesting that there are too many leftovers, or oven-baked prebreaded shrimp would have been easier. But I got the rest of the opinion out of him this morning.) So, scratch that recipe. I learned some valuable technique and will thoroughly enjoy polishing off the leftovers! But I'm more than happy to go back to, oh, shrimp scampi or shrimp Bolivar or skewered and grilled shrimp or....anything less messy than last night's dinner!

Brilliant, @Shelby! I especially love the Mardi Gras coloring on the cinnamon rolls. And reading this, the day after Fat Tuesday, I realize that I have a jar of olive salad and could easily have made muffaletta. Didn't think of it yesterday. Oh, well!

This is the first time I've ever thought of a Dutch Baby as an appealing pastry. Nicely done!

I was interested to know that he started out with a chemistry degree! I think I've corrected the links. If not, someone can let me know and I'll try again.

This man was my introduction to Indian cookery, and he was utterly charming on The Splendid Table and in his cookbooks. This article in the New York Times says he's in the final stages of colorectal cancer, but making the most of what time he has remaining. The article should be unlocked for anyone to read it. The title is He Taught Americans to Cook Indian Food. Now He's on His Final Chapter, in case someone needs to look it up otherwise.

We liked them. The browning helped with flavors, and of course the bacon and balsamic did too. They were a little softer than I'd have liked because I added too much water to cook them under a lid after they were browned. (I forgot to mention that part up above.) Once they were cooked as I liked them, I took the lid off to let the water boil off so the balsamic could concentrate and turn into more or less a glaze. That took longer than it should have, because of the extra water. Next time I'll use less water at that step.

Tonight's dinner was relatively simple: bacon rendered, then set aside; then brussels sprouts, halved, browned in the fat; then cooked down in a mix of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. All reassembled, and served. His bowl looked nice. "I need to show your bowl, not mine. Mine has too much schmutz on it." I admit: I may have been mispronouncing the word, and I may be miswriting it now. The most interesting part is that he'd never heard the word. And his parents were of Germanic parentage! His grandfather drove for the Kaiser! That led to a silly but funny discussion of Yiddish / Germanic words he didn't know. It all started with schmutz. I just hadn't dished out my bowl beautifully enough for a good photo. Schmutz. He didn't know the word. That led to "schmaltz" and "smarm" or "smarmy". Our dinner conversations range far and wide.

@Porthos and @FauxPas: I never had any Kliban cat mugs, but I have at least one book of his sketches, complete with his "love to eat them mousies" blues bit. I also have at least one set of socks with Laurel Burch cats! Next up: fun with food language. Schmutz, schmaltz, smarm (or smarmy). Well, maybe that last isn't a food term.

Does anyone have experience with the Ninja Foodi SP101? It's a relatively uncomplicated Ninja product, I think, that appeals to my best friend as a replacement for her toaster oven which is on the way out. It's this one: https://www.ninjakitchen.com/exclusive-offer/SP101WBKT/ninja-foodi-digital-air-fry-oven/ In rereading this topic I see multiple versions of air fryers and grills, but I'm not finding anything specific about this model: good, bad, reliable (or not). Advice would be appreciated. She isn't going to go for something elaborate like a programmable (Anova) or steam, but there may be something better out there that is easy, relatively inexpensive, a good countertop oven but that still makes good toast.

I just realized that I haven't shown the rest of the Taylor & Ng mug. The two "catfish" are simply mirror images of each other. Dinner tonight was left- planned-overs: ribs for both of us; beans for him; cabbage and beans and kielbasa with a bit of horseradish sour cream for me. We were again delighted. Although we claimed to love all of the food, I think we were privately pleased to have our choices. I didn't bother taking photos.

Once again I got to play with fire for dinner last night. We used to have wilted spinach salad often, and then got away from dinner salads for some reason neither of us can explain. The Los Angeles Times California Cookbook, that I wrote about here, has a recipe for flaming wilted spinach salad. The ingredient to be flamed is cognac. I used VSOP brandy, and it worked quite well. You've all seen beautiful, fresh spinach, and bacon cooking down, to I'll cut to the chase: (In case you're wondering, I had a lid ready to slap on that pan if necessary. It wasn't.) We both liked it, although we thought it too sweet and I'd only used half the sugar the recipe specified! That book has its first written note now. He confessed as we were eating that, although he liked the salad, he'd been hoping I would opt for leftovers (planned-overs, as @Anna N calls them) so he could get back to the barbecued ribs! 😄 Yesterday a bunch of Yuma aviation enthusiasts came out for the afternoon. Once they knew that we too are aviators, they were good enough to put on a show for us.

Here's the other Taylor & Ng "reprint" I carry in the Princessmobile.

That's a delightful trove, Elsie! How big is each bottle?

For clarity's sake, I probably should have written that as pee CAHN.

Pee CON, or Pih CON if I'm in a hurry.

That looks wonderful...and so much better than the sweet roll I had, followed by yogurt! Gotta make me some pita, and some egg salad, and some quick-pickled onions. Tomorrow, maybe. Thanks for the inspiration! (And @billyhill, we aren't a "bad influence" so much as "endless source of inspiration"! 😉 )

My darling says these sweet rolls are even better than the last batch. I'm glad he likes them. I had one for an early breakfast this morning. Not bad. Certainly not bakery quality, and maybe not even whomp-roll quality. (I'm sure the grocery rolls have some sort of dough conditioner.) But he says these are as he remembers his mother's sweet rolls when he was a kid, and at his age he deserves a nostalgic treat. I'll stick to my usual breakfasts: avocado sandwich, peanut butter sandwich, or today's breakfast: Yogurt, granola, fruit (in this case, a couple of cuties). I need something to counter the sugar rush from the roll!

Today's baking project, when I wasn't teasing y'all about the mug: making another batch of sweet rolls for my darling. He insists that his mother used to use her basic bread recipe, and roll up some of it with (shudder) raisins and maybe nuts. He kept insisting to me that the pecans and craisins I'd used before were excellent, but he actually asked me during our last shopping trip to buy raisins. So I did. And I used the same soft-bread recipe I used last time, but used whole milk we bought at the grocery store. (BTW, @heidih, that really was evaporated milk in the can and not condensed milk the last time around. I checked the labels in the store, as well as the label of a can I found lurking in the cupboard here, and see that I named the wrong product. Thanks for asking for the clarification.) Here's the before and after. I was much more generous with the fillings this time than the last time around. It looks to me as though these things need to be put into smaller pans, and I rather regret giving my mother's cake pans to my great-niece last fall. My darling assures me that the pale rolls in the middle look most like what his mother did. There was quite a lot of non-culinary activity today too. Dinner was a simple affair: the last jar of Maya Kaimal simmering sauce (Jalfrezi, in this case) lurking in the back of a cabinet. I'd bought some boneless skinless chicken thighs yesterday, with curry or kebabs in mind. The weather still isn't pleasant enough for cooking outside...so Maya Kaimal it was. I cooked a mix of basmati and wild rice for the bottom of the bowl. Delicious! We both thought so.

Impossible!! Just, er, not quite what Taylor & Ng had in mind. Probably because they didn't think of it. 🙃

Such great answers! I kinda hate to tell the actual story; these are so much better. 🙂 It's a catbird. The design team Taylor & Ng did a lot of fun kitchen stuff, at least in the 1970's. I have quite a few of their original mugs, either with funny French puns or with various animals doing The Naughty in funny poses. My sister gave me a couple of reissued mugs, and this is one of them. This morning, for whatever reason, my first thought when I saw the winged cat that I first showed you was "why does Pegasus look so funny?"

Some might disagree. 😉