Smithy

That's a great idea, thanks! I drive past that Sprouts fairly often and can check there. I did get my most recent jar of duck fat at a Sprouts, although it might not have been that one.

Not that I've found so far. Good suggestion, though - and with this population size maybe I haven't looked properly.

50% off appeals to me more than "buy 2 for the price of 1" since I can't think who else I could get one for. That said, I don't know where I'd put one if I got it! So I'll probably still pass although it looks like a really fun gizmo. Not being able to get the extra trays is a factor also. I got the light grey email too. I don't think it looks nearly as pretty as the current, pearlescent finishes, but someone apparently thinks there's a market for it.

@Senior Sea Kayaker, it looks lovely -- the food and the scenery (especially because I didn't have to deal with that snow or the power failure). Please tell more about those blueberries and tomatoes. Blueberries commercially grown? They look too big for wild. Can you get them "fresh" at your grocery store, or were these frozen? What about those tomatoes and that lettuce? It all looks very summery, and a delicious lift from winter darkness.

Oh, how I want some of that! Right now! I think I'll have to go on a search for duck...smoked or otherwise...but I also think it will be pointless in my current location.

A4 Box just sent me a "Buy 1, Get 2" holiday sale. Now I'm really tempted. The code is "BOX1GET2". The email shows the blue and white versions, $249 each. I haven't looked to see whether the sale also applies to accessories. Once again, code is BOX1GET2

*bump* I love the Moulinex that I bought as a result of this topic! An interesting thing about it is that the cheese shreds come off in long strands if the chunk of cheese being grated is long. It doesn't work that way with my box grater, because of the back-and-forth motion of my hand.

I had no idea Saltines would strike such a nerve! The pro/con Saltine crowds may be even more polarized than the Miracle Whip vs. mayonnaise crowds! Last night's dinner was therapy for an allgoneaphobe: several items finished off, an excellent meal out of it, and leftovers. In the Allgoneaphobia topic, @Katie Meadow and @liamsaunt wrote about keeping lots of pasta around, and buying more than one package at a time. In particular, this comment from liamsaunt caught my eye: Oh, that's my excuse at home, but it simply doesn't work in the Princessmobile. Well, I do have multiples of a lot of stuff here, but with so much of everything I have trouble finding anything. For that reason I have specifically been trying to reduce the variety of sizes and shapes of pasta. I had it pared down to 2 or 3, then @gfweb introduced me to cavatappi. Gotta have it. It's THE best thing, we think, for mac 'n' cheese. Last night I finally used the last of my penne by the simple expedient of mixing it with cavatappi, giving the penne a head start for cooking. It worked. The last of my preserved tomato harvest went away in this dish: oven-roasted tomatoes (you can see the process) saved in olive oil. The lighting in the picture is lousy, but I can't re-shoot the photo. I had to supplement it with a jar of sun-dried julienned tomatoes that I unearthed from the easiest cupboard. Somewhere hidden around here is an entire stash of items like that from Trader Joe's -- purchased last spring and forgotten as I hoarded them. I have to find them again. I'm perilously close to finishing off the garlic that I bought at home and brought along. Last year I had a braid of garlic that lasted almost the entire season. I couldn't find those folks this summer, but I stumbled over this and immediately bought a bunch of packages: There's a very sad but also inspiring story here. Paul was a great kid: quiet, pleasant, and the apple of his father's eye. They took an aviation ground school from me when Paul was about 15. When he was 17, he was murdered. (The details aren't relevant to this post.) His parents fell apart, understandably, but realized that his sister also needed love and support. Eventually they pulled themselves together. They planted an apple orchard in his memory and began selling the apples. As you see, now they're also growing garlic. I'm not sure of the variety, but it's good. I wish I'd bought still more. But garlic doesn't hold well, and I don't want to waste this. I finished off a half-wedge of parmesan with the nifty Moulinex I bought thanks to this topic. I still have 2 more wedges, so this was a room-maker but not a clearing of the hoard. The living herbs I bought came into play, although I didn't finish them -- nor do I want to. The basil especially needs trimming at times to keep it healthy. (The parsley isn't rooted, but this seems to be a good way to keep it.) The cooking steps and finished bowls: Ohh, it was good. And we still have more, and we'll probably hoard the leftovers!

Now that one old topic has been revived, it's time to link to another. @Kerry Beal introduced us to the illness allgoneaphobia some years back, and oh boy am I a hoarder. Last spring, when I was near a grocery store that carried my favorite sausage, I bought something like 5 pounds of it, wrapped it carefully in smaller packages, and have been doling it out grudgingly. I don't know when or whether I'll be able to get more. This morning I decided that the final pound needs to be used. It's been kept frozen, in a plastic bag wrapped in the original butcher paper, and taking up a fair amount of space in the freezer. Alllgoneaphobia struck. Maybe I could use just half a pound of it and save the rest. I unwrapped the package to see how easily I'd be able to separate the sausages. Well, no. These are still usable, but judging by their juices and aroma it's time to cook them lest they truly reach the last results of allgoneaphobia: saved to the point of uselessness. It'll be pasta tonight! Lots. With leftovers.

I just had some belly-laughs reading through that topic, even as I too mourned the loss or disappearance of so many members. This story in particular cracked me up. I am pleased to see that there are many fellow butter-on-saltines and saltines-with-chili aficionados. I also see some pretty good suggestions for other ways to eat them. Thanks for the link, @blue_dolphin!

Oh my, yes to @BetD: thanks for bumping this topic up! So many good ideas, and several belly laughs for me. I'm glad you didn't incinerate your crackers the way @JAZ did all those years ago. I'm going to have to look for one of those metal tins. Haven't seen them in ages; haven't thought about them (or the fact that they used come in perforated squares of 4) in as long.

I'd forgotten about the twofer packets of Saltines at coffee shops! That used to be a thing in the Northern Minnesota coffee shops too. It's been so long since I ate at one I don't know whether it's still true. I loved, loved, loved Saltines when I was a kid. Slather a bit of margarine (yes, really -- that's what we used back then) on a Saltine and I was happy although I usually wanted several. Peanut butter occasionally was the topping of choice. Then in the 80's or 90's I realized there were much, much better crackers out there and lost my taste for Saltines. My darling still prefers them to the "fancy" crackers as a rule, partly because they're cheap and partly because they're comfort food for him. I keep "fancier" crackers around (usually Club) as well as Saltines. I was surprised the other night at just how good the Saltines were with that chili.

I just realized that my previous answer didn't address the photo and the point of your question. Sorry! He usually likes his toast browned somewhat, although the dry crunch is the main criterion. In the picture above that you asked about, the toast is really too pale because I was jumpy after the near-fire. I'd turned the toaster down ALL THE WAY until I could be sure that the scorching was due to jammed toast rather than a malfunctioning toaster.

We did occasionally have rolls with dinner. I think those were reserved for the special dinner occasions (holidays, or special guests over for a roast beef dinner) but I'd forgotten that until you brought it up. Thanks! I honestly don't know what Texas Toast is. I see croutons with that label sometimes, and they seem thicker than regular toast. I've never seen it at the Texas barbecue places we've visited.

He likes it to be dry, for the crunch; he isn't picky about the color. The whole wheat bread he prefers has some honey in it, so caramelizes and browns more than the sourdough bread I prefer. Either, on the same toaster setting (i.e. not jammed and burning) works for him. eta: this was a nonsense answer, once I looked at the post again. A better answer is down a few posts.

Last night was a cracker night instead of toast. It was rainy and cool, with enough wind to rock the trailer; chili seemed an excellent choice. We still had 2 freezer containers of the chili he made before we left home. (I wrote about this batch of chili, and the wreckage of my favorite pot, back here.) It's funny how the charred bits added textural interest without ruining the flavor. I had a bad moment, though, when the microwave cooking began to release aromas. "The toast is burning again!" I yelled as I rushed into the kitchen. Then I realized that we weren't toasting anything. 😆 Saltines actually are pretty good with this.

My father's father always wanted toast or bread, I forget which, with dinner. In a time when white bread was the thing to do and we generally had Rainbo bread (cheap version of Wonder Bread) my mother would splurge when Nana and Papa came to visit: it had to be whole wheat. Roman Meal was the thing then. As I recall, we children felt rather put-upon after Nana and Papa left, because we had to put up with that whole wheat bread until it was gone! All our tastes changed sometime in the '70's or '80's. Dad also wanted toast, or maybe just bread, with his dinner. It never caught on with the rest of us, except for garlic bread with pasta. For my darling it must be toasted so he has some crunch, as well as something with which to sop up sauces. I do quite as well simply collecting the sauces on the meat, pasta or vegetables, thankyouverymuch. 😉

He is a hard-core "must have toast with dinner" person. The rare exception is, say, crackers with chili, or when we're having tortillas with something. It took us 10 or 15 years of marriage before I started getting that toast thing into my head. Now, whenever he cooks dinner, he doublechecks to see if I want toast! (The answer is almost always "no, thanks" but I guess it's nice that he checks.)

The wind has come up and is expected to continue coming up until a storm system passes this evening or tomorrow. It's a good day to sit inside, write and work on projects. We're congratulating ourselves on having had the foresight to cook over the campfire last night. We've had it laid and ready, but weather, fatigue, cold, etc. had so far convinced us to be lazy and cook inside except when he cooked hash over the camp stove. A few days ago I pulled one of our bargains from home out of the freezer. I have no idea why these weren't selling well, but the blowout sale was our bonanza! I wanted kebabs. I cut the tenderloin into bite-sized pieces and marinated them: half in my go-to lemon/oil/garlic marinade and half in this Peri-Peri sauce. I don't remember when or where I bought it, but it was time to open it and see what it was like. Since I was a bit leery of the unknown sauce I committed only half the meat to the Peri-Peri; I marinated the onions, red bell peppers and the rest of the pork in my standard marinade. I might as well not have bothered making such a distinction. I could see which was which by the color difference in the skewered meat in the kitchen, but over the campfire it was another story altogether. I quickly lost track, and simply basted all the skewers with first one and then the other of the marinades. It was a beautiful evening for sitting outside. We love moonlight, but the stargazing and satellite-watching are far better when the moon is below the horizon. So it was as we were cooking. Meanwhile, I cooked pilaf inside over the stovetop. We had things timed well enough that it all finished at about the same time...and then the toaster jammed, and his toast charred to the point of nearly catching on fire! I threw the blackened piece out the door with the haste of a heroine in a thriller pitching the bomb out the window just before it goes off. Then we spent the next half hour with the ceiling vent pumping warm air out of the trailer while the smoke cleared! Oh, well. (No, I didn't stop to take a picture of the blackened toast. Would you stop to take a picture of a bomb just before it went off?) Dinner was delicious. The Peri-Peri sauce is tart with a touch of sweetness, and has a decided Sneaky Pete heat that catches up after a few bites. I wouldn't serve it to certain of my family or friends (those who think ketchup is too spicy) but I'd use it for anyone who isn't afraid of a little heat. I took this picture before we started adding sauce to our pilaf: I had reserved some of both marinades for the purpose.

I forgot to take a picture of jamaica brewing in the 1-quart measuring cup, but here it is as part of my breakfast this morning. It's prettier in person, but I did my best with the photo. Incidentally, I first learned of this drink by its Arabic name, karkadeh. If you ever have a chance at karkadeh in a Middle Eastern restaurant, hibiscus tea is what they're offering you. "Hey!" said my darling. "Don't use so much ice! Remember it takes 3 days to make a fresh tray!" I reminded him that our refrigerator and freezer are working better now. 🙂

I remembered kayb posting about it in the Cook-Off topic, but apparently she simply posted two links (the one above, and another) here. This is a good place to post a reminder, however, that the Cook-Off never stops, and there may be more holiday pâtés that someone wants to explore. 🙂

Thanks for that note, Heidi. For those who can't find it, the specific topic is here: Chicken Gizzards.

I agree with the comments above that there are as many ways to make chili con carne as there are people. For my money, THE best version is from @JAZ's All-in-One Dutch Oven Cookbook for Two: One-Pot Meals You'll Both Love (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). When I went to Amazon to look for this book and link, I used the "Look Inside" feature to look for the recipe. It isn't available. Perhaps if we ask nicely, Janet will share it here.

I have no idea where or when I bought this Peri Peri sauce, but it's delicious. A fair amount of chili heat, combined with acidic lemon and some sweetness. My husband and I have often talked about the way some hot sauces (Huy Fong Sriracha, for example) have good flavor but too much heat to appreciate it. This has a very nice balance.

Yuma has a 5 Guys, In 'n' Out, and Freddy's along with the usual coterie of Burger King, McDonald's, Carl's Jr. etc. I have yet to get my darling to any of the first three. Based on what I'm reading I think I'll give 5 Guys a pass -- at least until he's tried the other two.