Smithy

So far, I've managed to take that pitiful chicken from a couple of days ago, use it for a couple of dinners, strip the meat from the bones, and have a couple of breasts left. I simmered the bones to make broth yesterday. There's nothing special about what's going on there, but I like the wisps of steam in the picture. 🙂 The finished product looks pretty milky. I often find that to be the case when I start with roasted (or otherwise cooked) bones, as these were. All freezer bones went into the mix also. The flavor is all right, not great, but certainly usable. It even thickened a bit by the time I'd finished cooking it down, but it won't pass for chicken jello. If you look carefully, you can see a few chunks of breast meat in today's salad, along with olives, tomatoes, very tough croutons from Whole Foods (I won't get them again), and the last of my spinach. Oh, and part of a stellarly-good avocado from last Wednesday's shopping trip. I've been waiting patiently for those avos to ripen, and I'm being rewarded now! I had to make salad dressing today, having finally used up all the dressing I made before moving into town and leaving for San Diego. That was here, when I had to deal with green beans. (I have more to deal with before they go off!) This time, as I was juicing the lemons, I realized that I might as well zest them and save the zest for other purposes. That led to a search for my little plastic condiment cups -- you know, those cups with lids that contain salad dressing or other items from take-out? I looked in the plastics storage drawer at floor level (see bottom arrow). Nope. Found a lid, no cups. That would be too simple. If I had any, it had to be in one of the upper cabinets. But which one? I didn't want to haul out that stepladder. But finally, after exhausting other sensible possibilities, I did. Found them tucked away inside my bread pan, along with a couple of funnels. Of course! Where else would those little condiment cups be? Now, the lemon zest is tucked away in the freezer in one such cup. I also finally emptied one of my mustard squeeze bottles. I have more mustard in the cupboard and the overflow coolers in the belly box. I'm trying to get the refrigerator stock down. I think I'm down now to an old jar of Trader Joe's Aioli Garlic Mustard Sauce. I'll probably open something without garlic, at some point, but for now it's nice to be whittling down the condiment creep. Speaking of letting things go too long without attention: does anyone have tips for reviving artisan bread that's sat out so long it's gone stiff? I may have to take a hatchet to the beautiful loaves I bought in San Diego, and turn them into croutons or bread crumbs, but I'd like to be able to cut slices and eat them as bread if possible. It's a shame...my maxima culpa...I really should have frozen them, as I noted here. I didn't do it.

Welcome! Since you've decided to de-lurk, you probably already know that there are a lot of artisan chocolatiers here, willing to share their experiences and help each other learn. I'm just an admirer of the work. 😀 There's a lot of other culinary discussion around here too. Feel free to poke around, contribute where you can, and enjoy the company!

I expect them to have been included with the flatware and other basic essentials...but @liamsaunt will have to say whether it's true. There's also the question of quality and variety of knives.

I belong to the Naked Wines Club. Name notwithstanding, it doesn't specify how I must be clothed (or not) to sample their wares. As far as I know it also doesn't say anything about the wineries' clothing habits. What it does do is offer a more direct sale to consumers, and -- more to the point, for me -- offer a guarantee that if I don't like something I can get a refund. No questions asked. I don't abuse the privilege, and I suppose if too many people do it will be the end of that marketing strategy, but for now it allows me to try new wines without fear. Today's wine: It's nice enough. I won't go out of my way to order it again, but I'll have no trouble finishing this bottle. My earlier discovery, and I've been a fan of theirs now for over two years, is Arabella Wines out of South Africa. I should have snapped a photo of their Shiraz a couple of days ago. It has body. It's juicy, a bit of spice and tannin. It compliments food, but sips well by itself. Heck, it even lends itself to guzzling if one is in such a mood. And that's just their Shiraz. They also put out a beautiful Sauvignon Blanc and a delightfully interesting and tasty Shiraz/Voignier blend. I'd never in a million years have tried that, but they sent it to me on a flyer and I keep ordering more.

Well, it all looks lovely (except the beached sailboat) and I don't blame you for not wanting/planning to cook. Still...this sort of selection would make me want to stay. right. there. in. my. accommodations. Gracious -- that's a better stockpile than I have at home!

The brisket itself consists of two major muscles (the interior pectoral and the exterior pectoral) and typically, one cut will have more of one than the other. A fairly deep discussion of the technical difference is here, at Texas A&M's Meat Science department. Here's a good picture of a brisket, from that web page: You can see that the "flat" will be more regularly shaped than the "point", and that has implications for even cooking and for slicing afterwards. I noted, after buying, that my point cut package says "perfect for shredding" and that isn't the way I like my corned beef. Note also that the flat cut is typically a bit more expensive than the point cut. In my case, and in rotuts' case, the difference is $1/pound. I think, in retrospect, I wish I'd gone for the flat -- but hey, I was in a hurry and feeling extravagant already. I can't remember from one year to the next which kind my husband and I have bought, and what we thought of it. I should probably keep better notes. I'm leaving the question of cure type to someone who knows more about it than I do. You may also get good information from the in-depth discussions on corned beef: In fact, if you have followup questions it would be better to post them in one of those topics -- probably the first one.

Thanks for that link. I like the interview and the associated story. Incidentally, the delicious bread at the RPCV "Taste the World" event was donated by Bread and Cie! So I've had occasion to sample several of their loaves. They've all been delicious.

I loved this comment on the menu: It sounds rather hoity-toity to me. On the one hand, it sounds aspirational. On the other hand...well, I'm guessing they don't offer peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! That would be fine with me (never liked them anyway) but I wonder about folks with picky kids. Maybe they just don't go there?

This very late lunch will probably be my main meal of the day. I had an apple earlier in the day, starting at around 9 and finishing at noonish as our group played music and tried to convince people to buy things at our yard sale. We may be our own best customers! I came away with some storage containers, some musical equipment, and the nut meat picks that I contributed that didn't sell. Afterward there was the cleanup, and carting items to the donation place. Then I had to run a couple of errands. By the time I got back I was plenty hungry. The salad was the main course; the dressing is the same dressing I used on the green bean recipe back here. I had to nuke it to get it to soften quickly. You know what? That dressing, hot, is even better than at room temperature! The chicken is no better today. I think the rest will go into a chicken salad, or maybe a stew of some sort. It actually tastes a bit old...not so much so that I'd try taking it back, but it makes me think this was an old "fresh" chicken that they roasted to avoid losing it altogether.

If only I'd known! We went to an H-Mart in San Diego last week after the RPCV dinner. We were in a collective hurry -- but if I'd known, I could have looked for it there. Oh well. My jar is supposed to arrive in about a week.

No ready access to a smoker here, and I may not even have packed for sous vide. (If I did, where did I put it?) Nonetheless, you have earned some Enabler Points. 😉 My Kroger's card knocked the price down to $4.99/pound.

In that case, maybe I'm safe! 😉 Although I admit, now that I'm thinking about it, that a good supply of corned beef for reuben sandwiches would be wonderful. You enabler, you.

Dammit, rotuts, I do not need more meat in my refrigerator. Nonetheless, I think I'll have to see if the sales are on here too! Grr.

After a social event this morning (Yuma Old Time Fiddlers yard sale, with jam session) I went with some of the fiddlers to Olive Garden for lunch. I think Olive Garden is sneered at in some quarters of this forum, and I don't think it's as good as the Cafe Luna I wrote about earlier, but we had a good time and the food was pretty good. I ate about half my lunch (lasagne) and brought home the rest, along with all the uneaten salad and bread sticks. I don't like wasting food. Besides, old habits of the once-penniless die hard! So, the rest was dinner. (Actually, the bread sticks are still sitting. I microwaved one and am regretting having done so. I'll try reheating in the oven next, unless someone has a better idea.) The lasagne was okay. I've had better, and I've had worse. The salad was excellent at lunch, and still quite good for dinner. I like their vinaigrette. After that late lunch I staggered off to a Mexican market in hopes of finding Aji de Amarillo (Peruvian chile paste) for the purposes of making Aji de Gallina. I've received the recipe from the chef who made it for the RPCV "Taste the World" event last week, and she assured me that the chile paste is very particular: it must be Aji de Amarillo for the dish to taste right. She's in San Diego and gets hers at a Mexican grocer. She sent me a photo of what she uses. Away I went, in search of it. (For the record, I'm sure I have a jar of this paste from another manufacturer, sitting at home. I'm not planning to wait until I get home to try this dish! I went to this market, named Del Sol, with one of my favorite murals ever: I've mentioned before that she must be emblematic of the Sonoran desert, maybe a goddess, maybe just an artist's fancy. Every one of those creatures and plants is from the Sea of Cortez or the Sonoran desert, which surrounds that sea. The market itself has an interesting mix of household goods and food. Prices seem pretty decent, although Duke's mayo is sky-high here. It may be sky-high all over the country, though. It's a while since I bought any. There are interesting canned meats -- when is the last time I saw deviled ham? My mother used to love that stuff. I never liked it. I've never seen canned "abalone type" shellfish. Don't know what that might be, but I wasn't tempted. Lots of pastes, sauces, salsa, and so on. Excellent looking produce, which I didn't need because I shopped yesterday. Alas, no Aji de Amarillo. I even showed the photo to a clerk. She confirmed that they don't carry it. I don't know where else around here to look, and I had trailer chores to do, so I ordered some by mail (guess from whom) once I arrived back at the trailer, and before beginning evening chores.

Thanks for the reminder about chenin blanc, @weinoo. I tend to forget about it because so often it isn't dry, it isn't crisp, and it's downright disappointing. Did you get that bottle in The States, or bring it back from your most recent trip?

Thank you for your kind words. 🙂 You may be less impressed with tonight's dinner. Some background: this afternoon I only ate half the sandwich I showed above. I stopped and put the remainder away because I was full, and feeling sluggish, but knew I needed to get going with the afternoon errands. I had a pickup load of laundry to wash, some trailer equipment to buy, and groceries to buy as well. The first Wednesday of the month is Old Farts Day (10% discount for seniors! Woo-hoo!) at Fry's so of course I had to shop. I actually did pretty well on sticking to the shopping list. There's still no need for me to buy meat. Except... By the time the errands and laundry were done, and I was at the grocery store, hunger was gnawing away. I'd suspected that would happen, and have been wanting a rotisserie chicken, so I think my hindbrain was planning on it. Besides, I have plans for that chicken (see: Aji de Gallina, above) but there are other possibilities as well. Tacos. Chicken salad. Chicken sandwiches. I love chicken. For some odd reason, I don't seem to have any in this well-stocked freezer. But I was getting HUNGRY. This particular Fry's doesn't carry rotisserie chicken! This is the same Fry's with the (IMO) substandard fried chicken. They labeled this as roasted chicken. Dinner: and the last, finally, of the tabbouli I made a couple of weeks ago from an old boxed mix: (I am glad to be shut of that stuff.) A nice sunset walk. For the time being, I've traded mostly-silence, the occasional coyote, and brilliant stars for mockingbirds, cactus wrens, orange blossoms (and other flowers), nonstop barking dogs and convenience. I'm not sure I like the trade although the blooming citrus is marvelous. I'll give a bit of a tour of this particular Fry's in another post. I'm not impressed with their chicken.

In the interest of keeping old information alive, I'll note that we have two recipes for Pita in RecipeGullet, complete with discussion: There is also this discussion: Most of the participants haven't dropped by in a while, but I see some of them pop up from time to time. For those who want to see different takes on the same subject, dive right in!

Thanks for this report. I used to make pita frequently, usually with success, but for some reason never posted about it on this topic -- and it's been a couple of years since I made it at all. I'll have to get back to it, and try the recipe and method you've linked to.

@Shelby... wind or no wind, I'm moving in with you! It all looks so good... except the cauliflower risotto....

There's no Trader Joe's near where I live usually, or where I am now. It's strange, because both Duluth and Yuma seem big enough to support one, but TJ's hasn't seen fit to come. As for other wine stores nearby: I'll check as I have time. The grocery stores here can sell wine, so I may even find it when I go shopping later today.

My San Diego friends are inveterate declutterers, unlike me. They knew I was coming back to Yuma to a yard sale for an organization I belong to here, so they cast about for things to unload on me. Among the booty was a bunch of nut-meat (or crab meat?) pickers and some bottle corks from South Africa with hand-carved, beautifully smooth wood. My BFF says these things always sell better if you provide a little sign on a bundle. Her suggestion: "Drink your wine and pick your nuts"

I've spent the morning in a futile effort to find a mobile RV service that will come pump my holding tanks. There's a sewer hookup here, but it's so far from the trailer that I'll have to go buy (a lot of) extra hose to reach it. That means there will be (a lot of) extra hose to clean, rinse and store. But the alternative seems to be to take the trailer to a trailer dump. My darling and I used to do that periodically, at our desert camping spot. I'd rather expected I could avoid it given my current location. So it goes. While I make phone calls and rest between chores, I'm having a sandwich.... This would definitely be better grilled, and I do wish I'd packed the panini press. That said, there's nothing but sheer laziness to stop me from pulling out a pan and cooking it on a stovetop. The sandwich involves my usual favorite sourdough bread. However, I have other choices now thanks to my San Diego trip. I've sliced into the Kalamata loaf already. It has a lovely flavor and open crumb. I probably should put both of these loaves into the freezer, given the slow rate at which I eat bread these days. So far, they're out on the counter in their bags.

Yesterday I decided it was time to tackle one of the sausages I'd bought last summer in Luck, Wisconsin. I showed it to you before: it's one long coil, and when I realized that I hadn't taken time to thaw, much less cut it, I put it back in the freezer a couple of weeks ago. I had no clear memory of the seasonings. I remember liking it when I'd been fed it in a cafeteria, and that's why I'd picked up a couple of packages before leaving the area and coming home. But what to do with it? I chose a simple enough approach: uncoil it slightly; pack the interspaces with wedges of potato and onion; drizzle with a bit of olive oil and some dried herbs; cook at about 425F until done. By golly, it worked. I'd been afraid that the little sheet pan, which is the largest sheet pan in this trailer, would be too small. There may have been a bit of drippage onto the oven floor (my new, clean oven! *sob*) but the little pan did well. Dinner last night: (The corn was a nod to health, as well as whittling down the supply of frozen corn. My darling loved it. I dislike it almost as much as @liuzhou does, and am looking forward to the day I get shut of all the stuff.) it's a lot of meat. There were leftovers. Tonight's dinner involved some of them: There's still some left. It's good, but maybe I'll let the rest sit for a day or two before finishing it. Oh, and I think the predominant flavor of that Danish brand sausage is salt! The label simply lists salt, sugar and spices, but I can't detect any distinctive herbs or spices: no fennel or sage, for instance. It shall remain a mystery to me.

My San Diego friends introduced me to this; it was $9/bottle at Trader Joe's and I came home with half a case. As I understand the Marlborough-style wines from New Zealand, they usually have a more pronounced mineral flavor than this one does, but it's very nice. Crisp, slight minerality, flavor notes leaning more toward the citrus than the floral or tropical fruit end. I'll try not to drink it all at once. It's lovely stuff, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to get more.

I'm back from San Diego, where I had excellent meals and a couple of feasts. The Returning Peace Corps Volunteers of San Diego had their annual "Taste the World" event, and we ate ourselves silly sampling foods even though each serving was small. I especially liked a Peruvian Aji de Gallina (a spicy chicken stew) and was fortunate enough to get the recipe from the chef, so you may see it appear in these pages at some point. I also particularly liked a Mexican lime soup -- tart, tangy, delicious, with "add your own" cilantro and fried tortilla strips. That chef hasn't responded to my request for a recipe, at least not yet. When I Google the dish "Sopa de Lima" I find several different versions, so I hope I don't have to start trying to reproduce that particular soup without some guidance. But hey, I'll try if I have to! On another day we met up with friends at a little family-owned Italian restaurant, Cafe Luna. The sign at their door asked people to please keep their phones off, and I took that to mean I shouldn't be taking photos. Besides, the conversation was too brisk. But we all had variations on the soup and salad theme, where the soup was Italian Wedding soup. (Finally, I got to try it! Delicious!) The bread was fabulous, and they had a house-made dipping sauce that they called either Celestial Sauce or Celestrial Sauce. We practically went after that stuff with a spoon: it was unctuous, savory, tomatoey, slightly spicy. I can't remember whether the proprietor or her husband or father-in-law made up the recipe in the first place, but it's clearly a hit. The proprietor, who's in her 10th year of ownership now, was happy to list the ingredients. I didn't ask her for proportions. I foresee many happy experiments. The ingredients are olive oil, sundried tomatoes, anchovies, parmesan, roasted garlic, canola oil, salt and pepper, and Herbes de Provence. She said the canola is needed to keep the stuff from getting too thick. The sauce is blended but still has a slight chunkiness: not as smooth as catsup, not a coarse as salsa. If you're ever in the northern end of San Diego, go check out Cafe Luna. I hope to go there again, many times.