Smithy

I mentioned his pressing desire that we should be removing things from the refrigerator and freezer. One reason is that he simply can't find things when the compartments are crammed. To be fair, I have the same problem, to a lesser degree, but I have a better idea of what's in those compartments. (The cupboards may be another story. The day before Thanksgiving I drove to town for a couple things I needed. I had been sure we had brown sugar, but I couldn't find it, and I also needed dark corn syrup for the bourbon pecan pie. Directly I got home and went to put things away, I found the stash of brown sugar. Later, whilst looking for a box of Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice, I found more brown sugar! The unopened package went to a food shelf.) One night we decided it was time to cook the half-package of shrimp and the container of cooked pasta that were taking space in the freezer. At his request, I agreed to make another crack at Shrimp Bolivar - one of the one-offs of mine that's never the same twice. Pasta, butter, garlic, cream, grated parmesan, and the shrimp. Garnished with parsley because it was taking up space in the refrigerator. It came out very well, and of course he wondered whether I'd kept notes, and of course I hadn't. The garlic braid came from a farmers' market in Duluth last fall. The variety is Russian Giant. It's well named, isn't it? Gorgeous and flavorful stuff. And huge.

The rising sun continues its march southward, for another week or so. When my darling was doing research in Egypt, he also tried his hand at making videos of the scenes and people around him. One of the more hilarious bloopers was when he said, while admiring the gorgeous sunset, "The sun sets every night in the Egyptian desert." Of course he meant to include a descriptor: spectacular, or beautiful, or something like that. But he forgot, and this was all on camera. We still laugh about it, and we often repeat that line to each other with the sunrises or sunsets in this place. Woe is me, I had the last of my precious smoked salmon pâté from New Scenic Cafe this morning! On toast, with cream cheese, and a garnish of cilantro that he discovered in the refrigerator. I can't say the garnish added any flavor, but it was a reminder that things need to be removed from the fridge and freezer. But what will I do without that pâté? Maybe I need to try making some. First I'll have to get smoked salmon, or else smoke some here. We have plenty of mesquite. I wonder whether mesquite-smoked salmon would have the right notes? Ideas and recipes welcome. Last night it was Superburgers and smoked corn, over the camp stove. When he cooks, he goes for the familiar faves. Lately it's been either hash or Superburgers. Reminds me of one of James Herriot's stories, when the housekeeper had to leave for a time and Tristan assured the other men that he could cook. It turned out that he could cook bangers 'n' mash, or bangers 'n' mash, or mash 'n' bangers for a change! They were very glad when the housekeeper arrived back home! Anyway, bless him for cooking. (His daughter, when told about our cooking that smoked corn in the burger grease, said "Oh, I love it!! Another way to make vegetables fattening!") I mentioned that when we got here we realized that nobody had disturbed our campfire ring and wood since last spring. He recognized some of the wood; I recognized some of the rocks. Here's what I mean. Look at the colors of the rocks we've picked up from the nearby wash! The wildlife shot is strictly gratuitous.

Here's the back story: I have a new friend whose mother died recently, and who is clearing out her mother's house. Her mother collected clocks. Big clocks. Little clocks. Lots and lots of clocks, and they all need to be shipped to purchasers, and my friend needs packing materials. That's how we met: I get stuff through the mail that's bubble-wrapped or otherwise cushioned; I give her those packing materials. When she discovered that I love to bake, it became a running gag for her to give me some doodad cluttering up her or her mother's house (that I don't need either, but it's funny) in exchange for packing materials. I now have a set of baking pans that seal at both ends, the way you can make specialty loaves and then slice the bread into cute little shapes for canapes. I'm pretty sure my mother had some too. Heck, I may have hers in storage. I want to try using these things to make fun-shaped bread but have no idea what sort of constraints there are on the dough. Are the any special recipes to be used? Time, temperature? Grease the bejabbers out of them? (One has fluted edges. I'm showing you the simple heart-shaped one.) Or maybe these are for some fancy pâté instead and I'm on the wrong track altogether...? Suggestions, guidance and recipes, please!

Here's a picture of the mini-pie set, from when I bought it in 2014. Maybe it'll be easier to find with more info. Edited to add: it looks like this (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is the current version. The dough cutter isn't quite as elaborate as on mine. Note also that mine was on blow-out sale when I bought it. You're welcome, from one enabler to another!

By the by, I'd like to know more about that bread you baked, please. It looks delicious.

Before Thanksgiving recedes too far in the background, I should tell about it. Last year, there were people in our preferred spot - a multi-generational, multi-trailer family - so we set up about a quarter mile away. This time, we were the only people in the area. A few trailers were set up about a half mile away across a road, but we only heard them when they came by on their 4-wheelers. It was quiet. It was also a quiet day for us. Here was the menu I'd set up: I should explain about that ham. We discovered that one of our favorite grocers back home carries very good double-smoked hams, and that they're willing to cut a whole ham into smaller chunks and vacuum-wrap them for us. We'd cooked the first half before leaving home, and had a fair number of sandwiches from the remaining slices. This was part of our trip planning. The other half came along, first in our cooler and then in our refrigerator, awaiting Thanksgiving. It weighed 8 pounds. That meant we needed to squirrel away my beloved 6-quart Le Creuset French Oven, because nothing in the trailer would be big enough for that ham. The pot fits into the oven, barely. I checked before we left, then wrapped it carefully and stowed it in an equipment locker. (When/if we ever move out of this trailer into another, it will take days. I swore I wouldn't keep accumulating stuff, but...well, I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam....) I intended but failed to do some of the prep work on days before: make the pie crust, for example, or even bake one of the pies. Trim the green beans. I had refreshed the sourdough starter - here's the initial refreshment ... ...but I hadn't mixed the dough, much less given it time to rise! The bread roll idea went out the window. I wanted to make mini-pies with a special 4-mini-pie tin I purchased years ago. The intent was to make 2 bourbon pecan pies and 2 apple pies. I think that was the second casualty to my poor planning; the pies became 4 apple mini-pies instead. Then the green beans with bacon fell off the menu. As I was trimming them, he pointed out that there was already more than enough food for the two of us. His appetite has diminished greatly in the last year or two. I finished prepping them and put them back in the refrigerator for another day. We had to juggle timing for the ham/potato pot, the scalloped corn, and the mini-pies, because the oven only has one shelf and the "glue pot" (his Mondagreen for it) takes up too much space for anything else to fit. He prepped the ham: diced the potatoes, tried and failed to find space for them under the ham, so put them around the sides instead, sprinkled the lot with Lipton's Golden Onion Soup mix. I don't have any pictures of the preparation, but I can show the sight we enjoyed while it was cooking, and the results of dinner. It was a hit! And it was a gracious plenty. I don't think we even touched the pies that night. We had two for breakfast the next morning. Not enough filling (especially in the double-crust pie) but tasty, and a good proof of concept.

You should see what my spellcheck/autocorrect tried to do with "backstrap" above! I'm sooo glad I caught it before it went out. (It tried to substitute "jo" for "ba")

Incidentally, your broccoli salad looks like it includes shredded cheddar. Is that right? It looks prettier than the one I make.

When you get around to it, I'd like to know how you cook the backstrap. My dear husband's daughter brought us one, vacuum packed, and I don't want to mess it up. Sous vide isn't an option here, but with something so tender it may not be necessary. Same question goes for the tenderloin, in case that's what is buried in our freezer! I love your BLTs and the broccoli salad. Hot sauce a special touch! LOL

😄

I find the fine work of chopping (to the proper size) to be either meditative or a massive PITA, depending on my time and mood. What's your take on it? Do you do it all by hand? What's your recipe, if you don't mind sharing?

Oh, and I wanted to confirm: is that a fresh salsa, or did you cook it after cutting everything up? It looks raw / fresh. I want some!

Last night's campfire cooking was a comparison of two types of Polish sausage: Schweigert's, brought from home, and a Texas company's version of the same. As with potato salad, my darling has never met a Polish sausage he didn't like. I'm more meh about them. A good one can be very good, but there's something in far too many of them that screeches a one-note flavor whine to my taste buds. I can't figure out what it is: overwhelming garlic? (It's difficult to believe there is such a thing.) Some sort of salt/fat/nitrates combo? I can't put my finger on it but I also can't ignore it by the time I'm halfway through the first sausage. I've learned that browning the sausages helps a lot. Schweigert's has been our go-to Polish sausage at home. We had fun with our compare-and-contrast dinner. Schweigert's has been my favorite until now. The Kiolbassa brand put it to shame: a coarser texture that made the Schweigert's seem like run-of-the-mill hot dogs, and balanced flavors without that one-note flavor whine that I dislike. I thought the Texas brand seemed a bit less porky. Could it have beef? I wondered. He pointed out that surely the price of beef would dictate against putting it into a Polish sausage. After dinner we looked at the labels. We also tried a new potato salad flavor. Not bad. He loved it, of course. I still prefer mine (which he also loves) but the convenience of buying it ready-made keeps me trying new varieties. Not shown in the dinner photo: the condiments, and a broccoli salad, for which I fried a bunch of bacon on the camp stove a few days ago, and which supplemented our dinner.

We've moved on: out of Texas, where we had happily tarried, but we wanted to be in Tucson for Thanksgiving. Along the way we ate sandwiches, or microwaved pea stew. One night he snookered me into cooking his beloved Superburgers on a stovetop skillet: he was going to, he had his taste buds set for it, they were already thawed...but then he was too tired! One good thing about it was my inspiration to cook some of the smoked corn in the skillet with the burgers, so that it could warm up in their spicy fat. A new favorite! Corn is not my favorite vegetable although he adores it. I like this smoked corn that his daughter gave us. Browning it in the spicy burger fat was just the ticket for both of us. We were going to spend Thanksgiving in Tucson...but it didn't work out that way. You may have read about how America is taking to the roads in record numbers, between the pandemic and the Boomers beginning to travel more. That seems to be the case at Tucson Mountain Park, where we've always had our pick of places during the fall. When we arrived at noon, there were only 4 places left. The one definitely large enough for us to open out was taken while we drove around. We'd have had to shoehorn ourselves into a spot too small to open out fully. Add to that the fact that even the traffic in Tucson had been off-putting, and we decided to press on. I hope that wasn't our last opportunity to spend time there. I was looking forward to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and the Babylon Market (we're getting low on some items), and the Mission Garden, and Bianchi's Italian Ristorante (which he hasn't experienced yet). I was hoping to visit the H.F. Coors factory and perhaps pick up more Mimbreño dinnerware. There are all sorts of culinary adventures to be had in Tucson, and I was sorry to miss them. But I won't be sorry to miss the crowds. At least the list isn't all of missed opportunities. We've been to most of those places at least once. It was only noon. We could make California. Perhaps our favorite camping spot would still be available. It was! It is! Our campfire structure was undisturbed from when we'd left it last spring, right down to wood he remembered and rocks I remembered. People had camped nearby, but not there. Sometimes, one missed opportunity makes room for another to be taken.

Oboy, another excuse to go shopping for kitchen toys!!

I think that food looks wonderful. I can't BELIEVE you still have tomatoes, even if they're dwindling fast! What's in that salsa -- jalapenos, or green bell peppers (we won't tell the others) or botth? And how do you do the tortillas for that salad? i still have tortilla ineptitude.

The hot sauce tastings remind me of a gift I gave a friend once. I was browsing a favorite kitchen store and spotted a line of salsas made by a company named Religious Experience. The name tickled me. I looked more closely and spotted their very hottest: with a bright pink label and lightning bolts. It's called The Wrath (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). How could I pass that up? I thought of a friend who loved very hot foods, and bought him a jar. When I presented it to him he promptly opened it, dug in with a large spoon, and took the whole spoonful without hesitation. He swallowed. His face turned red. Then he shook his head wildly, flapping his lips and making WUBAWUBA BLBLBL sounds, and finally calmed down. "Wow!" he said, "that's delicious!" And ate some more!

I wrote before of opportunities, both taken and missed. Our second night in Osceola, Iowa was of the "formerly missed, now taken" variety. It was a bit of a letdown, thanks to the pandemic. In past years we've often eaten dinner at the Lakeside Casino, which owns the RV park where we staying. In pre-pandemic times we've ordered from the bar menu. I've always drooled at their all-you-can-eat buffet, but we've passed it up because of its high price ($22/person, I think) and the unrealistic amount of food available compared to the quite adequate bar food. This time around, the bar was open for drinks only, and the only food choice was the buffet. Their supply chain is so poor that they gave up on menus about 2 weeks before our visit. Indeed, the waitress said there was no knowing from one night to the next what would be available at the buffet. I've searched in vain for pictures of the buffet back in its day as well as the buffet this trip. Can't find any, sorry. The buffet back in its day had: prime rib, sliced to order; roast chicken; fried chicken; various potato treatments, a broad selection of vegetables; probably some sort of pork dish; seafood - shrimp, crab, and fish; several choices of vegetable salads with dressings of your choice; fruit; more than one type of bread; a massive and gluttinous selection of great-looking desserts. I know I'm forgetting things, but you get the idea. It was big. Still, we chose the bar with its sandwiches and outstanding fries, for half the price and plenty of food. Here are the best pictures I can find, from this post a few years ago: This time the buffet was much more limited - and, to be fair, about the same price as the erstwhile bar food. As I recall the choices were a few types of pizza; fried chicken; ravioli in some kind of sauce; mashed potatoes; home fried potatoes; canned corn, canned green beans and some other canned vegetables; pre-portioned green salads in bowls with a selection of dressings also portioned into serving-sized containers. The desserts didn't look interesting enough for me to remember. Probably pie of some sort. I'm afraid none of it looked like our memories or lived up to our expectations, but we didn't have the heart to have a drink or two and then go back to the Princessmobile for dinner. These folks are struggling. We want them to survive. Our plates, and drinks: A final note on the supply chain issues: it isn't that we need more glassware(!) but my darling wondered whether he could buy one of their beer glasses. I wondered the same about the wine glass, because I liked its shape and I'd broken some of the stemware earlier. The waitress went away to ask the manager. When she came back she said the answer was a very firm but apologetic "No". Normally it would be possible, but they barely had enough for their own service, and had no idea when they'd be able to get more.

LOL yes, those ornaments called to me - direct from my childhood memories! - and that's why I had to take the pictures. I'm glad they spoke to you too. I broke down recently and purchased some Christmas dishes. Can't wait to see what he thinks about that! They're snug in the Princessmobile at the moment, tucked away with the rest of the holiday decorations.

On another note: today's "Pearls Before Swine" reminds me of some of our conversations here. 😄 https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2021/11/30

Reminds me of the song "Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise!" - great fun. The link goes to a YouTube recording of the song. (Sorry, @rotuts - no idea what that is! Oysters, perhaps?)

Lots and lots of wine! As to the deer...this was the highway sign we kept seeing in Iowa: Plenty around, but that's an expensive way to hunt. I'm with the others: your "hunting camp" is already far more upscale than any I've ever seen. I wish I were there! Then we could experiment with that Tajin seasoning! And I want to know more about the oyster stew when you get to it. 🙂 I don't think I've ever made oyster stew. I've enjoyed eating it, though. Am I correct in remembering that you have a chamber vacuum sealer so you could vacuum pack those oysters without wrecking the machine? My Food Saver wouldn't survive what you did.

I floated the idea of tacos, or enchiladas (the red sauce would be the right note) and he liked the ideas but kept coming up with other things to eat. (He's on a hash kick right now.) I also considered chopping, then gently reheating the brisket, then using it as a topping over mashed potatoes. I also considered chopping it finely and stuffing jalapenos with it to make yet another attempt at making my own "armadillo eggs". In the end, I suppose I made my other favorite with the remainder: a brisket sandwich. Sourdough bread, mayo, lots of lettuce, pickles. No tomatoes at this time of year, alas. Mine, all mine! (Greedily rubbing her hands...)

Yes, this one's a "family heirloom" in the sense that it was in our household from my earliest years. Mom gave it to me when I graduated from college and set up house. I don't remember now whether she had two or used the giving-away as an excuse to buy another.

I'll report back on the taste after we try it.