Smithy

I expect you're right that it was a setup, but I still thought it was funny. Part of my dark amusement at it is due to the explosion of people who took to the road during the pandemic, and who drastically changed the dynamic of parks and camping. If we hadn't been experienced boondockers already, we'd have been in a world of hurt for campsites in parks this year, given the new trend of many campers reserving in advance, then not using the campsite. More than one article this year has talked about "sold out" campgrounds being maybe half full, with campers who need sites being turned away. I also have a certain amount of disdain for "influencers" and their nonstop staged photos. Once in a while is fine, but are they living for themselves, or for other people's opinions? I think most of us here know the answer to that question.

It's rained a little over the last couple of days, and last night the fog moved in. Fog! In the desert! The humidity right now is 45%! Not something we're used to out here. My sister sent us a box of Harry & David Royal Riviera pears as a Christmas present. I tried the first one on Tuesday and was sorry for my misjudgment. I've been firmly leaving them alone except for checking. Today my patience paid off: Perfection! It's really brunch, though. We spent far too much time this morning trying to work out why the portable pump was so slow to transfer water from the pickup tank we'd refilled yesterday to the trailer tank. We have a few ideas, nothing conclusive. It may be that the pump is simply wearing out. Yet another thing to troubleshoot, and somehow fix! That reminds me of a story I read in the New York Times earlier this week. I thought it was a real howler, and at least some of the commenters thought the same thing although others were far too shirty about it. (I stopped reading comments after about the 10th one.) I give you, as a gift from a NYT Subscriber, this great read from Caity Weaver: I Lived the #VanLife. It Wasn't Pretty. (Link didn't work. Try this: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/magazine/van-life-dwelling.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhkTFUZAybQVNcuvByAiL_Rybp5gn7wIW2ZVjtGy-UTDM6A50LJL-JFVucE4g66FpVHIaN9A7t71PNeNEhgDFahrsrbwc4MZn8-94z2AzM_jtedUb01tGOyM2C3c-wvzeCz51jOKjW_ANyp2nMiJwZnqJtnZAvqjSROnvGZZ7Yzjtpu3v4hBYR5RiMBZUSJtvrvDRZ9OLaWf02Wq1l2C6wCB2alzZPL4KkAcQ5TFVvFUHt-hG42499ZM9sUV73tNLNDLHaNpsGWnlcgB-bZsw)

Did he say why?

Dejah, that's generally my experience with stir-fries. I'm pretty sure that if I did it more often it would go more quickly, but the chopping and prepping is necessarily a major part. What's the dark green in the picture above? Green onions, or did you get that from the bok choy? You are a trooper. First, cooking when you don't feel like it; second, cooking something Ronnie wanted rather than what you wanted (now he owes you!); and third, cooking such complicated things! I adore chicken piccata but wouldn't consider it a quick dish. And that stromboli! Beautiful!

Anna, thank you for reminding me about larb! We need to revive that topic, don't we? It's another high-spirits-of-20-somethings story. I spent one summer and fall as a part-time bartender in a pub in York, England. We part-timers were all about the same age and we thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. On more than one occasion after closing we'd hie off to Mick's parents' house and do serious damage to their stock of liquor (pub-sized bottles, purchased from the pub owners with their blessing because Mick worked there). At some point in one of those parties I developed the hiccups. A bad case of hiccups. Nothing stopped them: not holding my breath, not "7 sips of water slowly" or any of the other remedies I was raised to try. Mick kept insisting: "try my way!" I finally agreed. He took a spoonful of sugar and dripped just enough vinegar into it to turn the crystals translucent. "Take this," he ordered. I demurred: "You *hic* don't expect me to *hic* take *hic* that, do you?" He did. There may have been a certain amount of physical persuasion involved. But I took it. It tasted wildly vile...but the hiccups stopped immediately. To this day that's my remedy on the rare occasions I get hiccups. The day I convinced my now-husband to try it, he nearly threw up after swallowing it. But it worked!

Description, please?

Our aforementioned cases of Covid-19 seem to be mild. I'm pretty much over it, and my darling is a few days behind me but generally okay (except for being grumpy as a peacock caught showing when the sprinklers turned on). We're counting our blessings -- I, more than he, so far -- for getting off lightly, but neither of us has been terribly interested in cooking or eating. This is where things like the massive Christmas ham shine. Last night it was (most, not all) of the stew of goop, potatoes, and carrots from the original roasting. Tonight it was grilled ham 'n' cheese sandwiches. There's nothing special about these sandwiches from a culinary standpoint. However, they're easy and delicious, and require minimal effort and cleanup. Did I mention that they're delicious? Earlier in the day, as the mood took us, we ate cereal, snippets of cole slaw, or the Christmas green beans. Lots of coffee. I'm past needing cold medicine, but he began today. *Sniffle Honk* Rain last night, but the best part was the clouds yesterday afternoon presaging the rain to come. Much of the country is getting too much of the wet stuff. We got just a little.

We all have them, running through our lives: the first encounter with some new food, and the realization that a world awaits. Or maybe that first encounter is a happy memory because of the surroundings and circumstances. Or maybe it's a funny story about something you loathed then but remember fondly now. (To this day, I use the horrid but effective hiccup cure I learned while tending pub in England.) Over in the Breakfast topic, @billyhill mentions cooking (Mexican) chorizo and eggs for breakfast. I flashed back to my first encounter with that dish: aboard a sailboat with 5 college friends, and Francesca -- an accomplished sailor and cook -- feeding us chorizo and eggs for breakfast, with tortillas. I think that was it: no sour cream, no garnishes, certainly no fancy dishware. It was marvelous. I'd never had anything like it. The ocean air may have added spice; being with good friends on high adventure certainly was a marvelous seasoning. My experiences with ground meats before then had been limited to hamburger, bologna, and pepperoni. "This is wonderful!" I exclaimed, "what's in this sausage?" Cesca looked at me, grinned and winked. "Don't read the label." 😄 To this day, I can't cook chorizo and eggs without thinking of her and that trip. I'll bet everyone here has equally evocative stories. C'mon. Spill.

Never noticed it or heard of it before, but now I'll have to look for it! Thanks!

My remoulade sauce recipes all include ketchup and so, of course, are red. What goes into yours, and what is Durkee sauce?

THANK YOU for a reminder of a book I picked up on Kindle some time ago, on the cheap -- and then forgot! I'll have to start exploring the book; your samples here look really good.

Lovely photos and descriptions; thank you! I'm envious of having such ready access to lamb, and intrigued by the yoghurt to cleanse the palate. It looks like the yogurt may have some olive oil atop it? Does it have anything else, like garlic? I'm thinking of tzadziki, with its garlic and cucumber, rather than straight yoghurt.

Oh, how lovely! Thank you for a fun, inspiring and hopeful post. This food text caught my eye: Ful I know (in fact, I have a couple of cans in my pantry) but to me lupins are a flower...a lovely but aggressive plant, with wildly dispersing seeds once their pods start to pop. I don't know it as a food source for humans. Are we talking about the same thing? If so, what part of the plant?

@Anna N, I appreciate your efforts, and realize that my "huh" emoji might not be an adequate response. Thanks for your thoughtful efforts at describing the book. Although I do not share your dislike of chickpeas, hummus, eggplant or guacamole, I am (like you) baffled by some of the flavor combinations you describe. Maybe if someone else comes along to defend the book I'll gain a different point of view.

@CKatCook, did you have time / energy to take a photo of your result? No worries if you didn't (I wouldn't have either) but it would be fun to see.

This combination of sentences really takes me aback. I'm guessing that the items in question are unrelated, and that there isn't actually a popcorn salad or popcorn salad dressing. If I'm wrong, please illuminate me on that combination! This paragraph made me laugh (regarding what isn't in the Sweets section), then scratch my head: German chocolate cake, check. Medjool dates and pecans, check. Those items combined? Nah, I don't think so. So while I personally like chickpeas and eggplant (together or separately) I don't think this would be a book for me either. Many thanks for the review and the giggles!

@rotuts, we used to make a tradition of Prime Rib for Christmas and/or New Year's, but this year we're on a ham kick. We got less expensive meats (sausages, stuffed peppers, etc.) from Miiller's this year. We do have a package of beef ribs from I-don't-remember-where-or-when, carefully cryovac'ed, that will make an appearance sometime this trip, but they didn't come from Miiller's. I think I bought them from one of our meat shops in Duluth. I got answers via chat from Miiller's earlier today as to our questions. 1. The beef skirt is apparently the entire skirt, not separated into the thin and thick cuts. They use the same thing for pinwheels. 2. The beef comes by truckload, once a week, from Hereford, TX. The company's name is Caviness. 3. The Chat Man was apparently talking to The Boss to get these answers, and I quote my final question and their answer: -- "Any idea whether it's feedlot finished?" --"He says it is mostly grassfed." Whether that means most of the beef is grassfed, or some of it is finished in a feedlot, or all of it gets a little time in a feedlot is unclear from that answer, but I didn't want to bug them further. Here's the website of their supplier: Caviness Beef Packers. Looks like a pretty good outfit.

Sorry for the shorthand! I've touted the Cookie & Kate Green Bean Salad with Feta and Almonds so many times that I just threw the reference out there with neither a link nor a care. My best friend and I discovered this particular recipe about a year ago and loved it. The technique for cooking the green beans, regardless of seasoning, works out well with other vegetables too -- including last night's brussels sprouts. Let us know what you think about the cookbook, please!

@rotuts, judging by the look of those packages I'd guess they were the thicker part. I'm trying to remember whether I've seen pinwheels there -- maybe? -- they're that kind of a shop. They have a Chat function. I'll ask for more information about the skirt part, and if I get an answer I'll post it here.

Last night's dinner was a much-needed change of pace, since neither of us was terribly hungry but both wanted vegetables: brussels sprouts, browned in olive oil, cooked briefly with a touch of water and a brief covering (a trick I learned from Cookie & Kate), then tossed, simmered and finished with a balsamic vinaigrette and some garlic. Some cherry tomatoes that had gone begging for salads also went in there. It looks better in this skillet photo than it does in any of the dinner pictures. Maybe that isn't saying much, but we both liked it and it was a gracious plenty. With leftovers! I owe @Franci thanks for the original lesson of browning sprouts, cut side down, in olive oil before doing anything else with them.

Here's a better photo; that one's a bit misleading because the collage cut out the wrong detail. They've labeled it as beef skirt. While I'm at it, I'll indulge in some more high-pixel shots of their lovely meat and deli selections. Beef here is sky-high in prices, as everywhere else in the country, but from what we've seen it's all high in quality although we didn't buy any of it. We came away from here with plenty of sausages, jalapeno poppers of various types, and snack sticks. They also have a freezer section with ready-to-heat dishes such as loaded potato casserole and various pastas. I didn't take any photos of those.

How about bird's eye chilis? I've never paid attention to them before but I recently realized they may be the driving force behind my preferred hot sauce. Now I have a bee in my bonnet about trying to make some, but I don't know that I've seen them in stores here.

That advert is hilarious! Thank you! 😄 As for finding cool stores: thanks for that, too. I'll be sure to tell my darling that it's all in the name of research. That'll make him feel sooo much better. 😉

Back to Llano, for a shopping trip to my other favorite food-related place there: Miiller's Meat Market and Smokehouse. (They ship, folks!) This is an old-style meat processing, butchering and packing place, with plenty of other food as well. We went for some of the sausages and stuffed jalapenos of varying types, but I had to snap plenty of photos and ogle other goods. This is the place in Llano where you can get everything you need for curing your own meats and blending your own sausages, if you don't want to buy some of theirs. Their camp food supplies seem to be pretty good too. There are plenty of preserves, both packed there and brought in from the area: They have some fresh groceries, though we've never bought any there; the fresh produce at the local grocery sttore is generally better although this fall the pickings for lettuce were pretty slim. There's a huge selection of wine, which I didn't photograph, and a fun selection of gifts. A massive selection of meats, including a good variety of jalapeno poppers of varying recipes. We bought some of those, and some sausages that have appeared in some of our meals but haven't been photographed alone. Their sign at the entrance regarding pets made me laugh because of its thoroughness. The beer packaging made me scratch my head. I never did figure out what the extra H's were all about on that box of Busch light.

Yes, that's the recipe. And I can certainly remember times in my life when, oh, cauliflower pounded into submission would have been grand fun relief!