Smithy

That apology gave me a good morning laugh. Thanks!

Next question: do you have a link to, or would you please describe, the JAZ Technique™? I haven't found it in the forum posts. I am seriously jonesing for frie that look like that. And sorry for being picky, but when you say ... ...do you mean by weight or by volume? Or doesn't it matter much in this case?

Many thanks, Dave! Yes, I hope to be frying fish in the next few days, and there's still shrimp in the freezer. Of course I have questions... 1. If I can't find rice flour (it may be at home) what would be the substitution amount for cornstarch? Same weight? Same volume? Or neither? Or should I add rice flour to our shopping list 🙂 ? 2. By "plus a couple tablespoons for dusting the food" do you mean after it's been pulled from the oil? (Why?) 3. About what size did you cut that fish to? 4. Did you cook the potatoes in the same oil, but without the coating? 5. What accounts for the slightly more substantial nature of the second coating? The extra carbonation from doubling the beer? The only other difference I see is the amount of salt. Edited to add: so far I've found garbanzo flour in the Princessmobile. Do you have any ideas about how it would work in place of the rice flour?

So did I! 😄

We went to the grocery store yesterday in a vain attempt to make it the final shopping trip before we leave here. (We already know some things we missed!) I haven't shown you much of this store chain's stock this year. It's too late to start now, but I did snap a couple of photos to show how well their "loyalty card" program pays off: in other words, how much money one can save simply by letting them track the purchases. (There's also a gas/diesel disount based on money spent.) We didn't buy either of these huge chunks of meat -- no room, no need, no crowds to feed, and they're still expensive. Still, look at the price difference! If you were planning a party, the Fry's loyalty program would be A Good Thing. If you weren't planning a party, you could go broke saving money. He's been complaining about the chili powder we have with us: too bland, and somewhat bitter to his tastes. We explored the spice aisle. Fry's carries at least 5 different brands of spices in neat bottles, and they were on "buy two get a third free" sales, but they still were more expensive than the bagged spices. We came away with a variety to try. (We always keep cumin and paprika around, but these bags are convenient for refilling bottles.) We also went to the barbecue sauce section so he could get more of the Kinders Hot BBQ Sauce, his current favorite. I decided to try another version. Haven't opened it yet, but there will be opportunity in the next couple of weeks. Once we got home, we had to find a place for everything. Our vows to keep the inventory down so we can find things has lasted about as well as a drunken New Year's resolution. Spring is finally, finally! arriving...just as we're about to leave the area. Boo! These blossoms are about a month late. On the bright side, I'm not whinging about the heat.

Last night I took another crack at Shrimp Bolivar. I'd purchased peeled and deveined shrimp from a good grocery store on Monday. I already had the rest of the ingredients. I've noted before that it's one of those never-quite-the-same dishes; always good, but never as good as we remember the original. I looked around for my binder with recipes; unfortunately, that binder has become 3 binders and the one with Shrimp Bolivar notes is at home. So I had to look back at this 2015 post to see if I could get back to basics. Here's part of what I wrote: I skipped the dried herbs (maybe I shouldn't have) and used a mix of butter and olive oil. I confess to snitching quite a few of those shrimp before they got mixed into the pasta; they were delicious on their own! The finished dish was good too. This time, the dispute was that he remembered and wanted short pasta. Egg noodles. Macaroni. Anything. I swear he's moving to spoon foods! I have never done this dish with short pasta. He swears I have. We got into a semantic discussion. He asserts that his memory is correct; I know it isn't (and have pictures to prove it from some of my efforts). To which he responded that I can't possibly know what's in his mind, and only he knows what he remembers! Well, that much is true. 🤷‍♀️ 🤣 It's probably a good thing we can't really read each other's minds. In other news, yesterday evening's cloud formation was fascinating. High winds, front coming through.

Sometimes, a simple dinner is all we want. So it was a few nights ago: brussels sprouts with bacon, in a balsamic vinaigrette. I think I've shown you this before. It's becoming a regular part of our meal rotation. We usually do it with another dish, but this was enough for us for dinner. Here's the before-and-after: We had a gorgeous sunset that night, and commented again on how far north the sun has traveled. When we first got here, it was setting to the left of the leftmost tree (the snaggy branches) in this picture.

Oh, I've zested more than my share of citrus after the fact of squeezing. Each time, I swear I'll remember to reverse the process the next time! I'm a slow learner, though: I probably still forget to zest first about 20% of the time. *blush* @ElsieD, I misspoke. I was thinking of cutting the zest -- that is, the peel without the pith -- using a vegetable peeler, then freezing those strips for use in infusions, salad dressings, or (if cut into smaller chunks) in hot cereals or yogurt. That's what my best friend does. You can also dry that peel and then break off chunks. If you know you want finely-grated zest, however, my method is useless. A Microplane or equivalent is your friend. Sorry for the sloppy writing.

My darling used to count on frozen peas or corn for lunch: a container (say, 2 cups' worth) of frozen corn or peas, with a touch of butter, microwaved until the butter melted. That was his routine lunch for a couple of decades of work before we met, both at his work and on his road trips. He has frequently spoken of how "cleanly" the energy burns from those midday meals, as opposed to a burger or other heavy fast food. I have come to appreciate their convenience.

We were gone several hours after my last post. Although I'd fortified myself with the aforementioned tuna salad sandwich, he'd only eaten his normal breakfast of fruit salad and cereal. Can you say "hangry"? There was NO time for dithering or fussing over dinner when we got home. We'd already decided on a pork steak (breaded, baked at 425F for 25 minutes) and vegetables. I'd planned on cauliflower tossed with tahini and yogurt, and roasted with shawarma spices. That would have had to share oven space with the pork steak. We quickly decided that there was no time for faffing about with juggling 2 dishes on 1 shelf. We settled for frozen vegetables of our choice, microwaved to preference. He chose frozen peas with a couple pats of butter. I chose frozen spinach dotted with crumbled feta. He also had toast, of course. We both loved the pork steak and our respective vegetables. Of course we also loved our respective beverages.

Sorry to read that your erstwhile favorite restaurant in Loreto was a disappointment. Thanks for the update, though. It looks as though you've found plenty of other good places to eat!

It's easy to forget how quick and satisfying a tuna salad sandwich can be. Canned tuna, a touch of mayo, olive oil, salt-cured (and rinsed) capers. There's only a bit of mayo in there, so I put more on the bread along with several small spinach leaves. This should hold me for a few hours. There's some for him too, if he wants it. No doubt he'll want to add Miracle Whip. Maybe he'll be satisfied putting it on his bread. 🙃

Snack for breakfast today. Uptopic I mentioned making tahini sauce. Some of it went into hummus using chickpeas I'd cooked some time ago and stored in the freezer. I'm still adjusting the seasonings. It didn't have enough pizzazz, so in addition to the lemon I'd already put in I added a touch of white vinegar and more salt. Not bad. The other things I've learned is that my hand-crank blender simply won't get this smooth enough. I didn't want to climb the stepladder to get the stick blender, but the hummus needs it.

Ribs again last night. I feel as though I'm showing the stereotypically dull "family vacation" slide show: "and here we are, standing in front of the Washington Monument...and here we are, standing by the Jefferson Memorial..." with nary a change. I did one thing different yesterday: sliced Yukon Gold potatoes and put them under the ribs, with the typical 1/2 cup or so of water in the bottom of the pan. It made for a one-pot dinner (except the greens we'd eaten earlier) but didn't really do the potatoes any good. They were done, but I think that so much water prevented them from absorbing much of the pork juices. He complained that I hadn't put enough barbecue sauce on during the cooking. I left it off mine altogether. Now that he's settled on a favorite of the ones we've opened, I'm going to start adjusting the other one to my tastes.

It's a little of both. We plan to leave this particular spot and start eastward again in a week, but we'll only be moving a couple hundred miles. Our general plan is to be home May 1, but if the weather continues to be as bad up north (and along our way) as we have then we may delay our arrival. This is the 6th snowiest winter on record at home. We aren't crazy about the weather along our way in our usual spots, either: central Texas keeps getting walloped; New Mexico is high enough that it keeps getting snow. Truth to tell, I'm not crazy about leaving here yet. I've gotten comfortable and developed a good social life, so could happily stay here longer. I'd be singing a different tune if it were as hot as usual for this time of year!

I've sent a PDF of the article. If anyone else wants it, PM me.

Have hair dryer, will travel!

We intended to, but didn't pick up the corned beef brisket during our last grocery store visit because we expected to be back this week. Didn't make it back. We're having ribs tonight, and maybe tomorrow we'll find some bargains!

I think it's hard to beat the combination of tomtoes (sun-dried or not) and cheddar, and your omelette looks delicious. What was especially special about these particular tomatoes?

Thanks, Dave. I notice you don't have tamarind in the recipe. Did you try it and discard the idea? (It may be too long ago to remember.) eta I'm not sure about the sauternes either. I was thinking along the lines of white balsamic vinegar, since we already have that around and it's another of DH's preferred condiments.

In past years, by this time I've been ready to expire from the heat for at least a month. This year has been cooler, but as I noted above the seasonal switch has been flipped from "winter" to "late spring". I've been watching and listening to the refrigerator labor, especially in the afternoon when the sun is hitting that side of the trailer. It was time to defrost today, and take stock of what we have. There's still a lot. Will that stop us going to the grocery store, or the specialty meat stores in Llano? Probably not. But there really are a lot of tube steaks in there!

I wrote Lea & Perrins to ask about the product, and they were good enough to inform me that they'd "taken the liberty" of forwarding my email to the appropriate department. This morning, Kraft-Heinz Consumer Affairs was good enough to write. I don't like the answer, but it's nice that they didn't simply ignore me. Now, on to finding an appropriate substitute!

Before the advent of eGullet, before I had even heard of Paula @Wolfert, I discovered Kitty Morse and her Cooking at the Kasbah (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), my first venture into Moroccan cookery. I don't know why, but I lost track of Kitty. I've now learned that she has a newsletter and a blog, and -- very enticingly -- a new book out that is part cookbook, part history from her grandparents' items stashed in a box in the closet. Bitter Sweet: a Wartime Journal and Heirloom Recipes from Occupied France (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) looks like it's going to be well worth diving into. Her blog entry announcing the book and giving its background is here.

I wash (if necessary) and reuse plastic wrap and plastic freezer bags until they develop holes. I have two strategies: for things like meat or bones, I put them into one of the lighter gauge plastic bags from a produce or bread purchase, then seal that inside the freezer bag. For things that aren't terribly greasy, or if the freezer bag gets dirty anyway, I wash it in hot water with dish detergent, then air dry and reuse. I haven't seen a fat scum build up in them, even though I know plastic is lipophilic. You may wonder whether I saved anything by using produce/bread bags inside the freezer bags. Well, this generally keeps the freezer bags from being messed up, and later I'll use the lightweight bags for collecting and disposing of garbage: possibly food scraps, more likely non-food waste that requires plastic for odor control. Someday I may be able to stop using those bags for that purpose, but I'm not there yet. Here's an example from my freezer, in case I'm not describing it clearly. When I'm done with that chicken, the interior bag will be used for garbage and the exterior bag will be fully reusable.

I'd never heard of it until my husband came along. It's his go-to condiment for adjusting many of my sauces; he prefers things sweeter and I prefer them more tart. I may have to try those copycat recipes to which FauxPas linked above!