Smithy

"Banana ketchup"? I missed that discussion. Please tell more.

"Leguminati!" Thanks for the video and the new word!

Thanks for the welcome, everyone! First, a couple of answers: He grew up in a hunting family, and hunted with his father until his mid-teens. I'm not sure he ever shot a deer himself although he ate enough venison to develop a distaste for it. (As far as I know, he put away his firearms the first time he killed a gopher in the garden he and his first wife kept.) I don't know whether he actively dislikes venison or simply dislikes the idea. He seems to like what I cook with deer meat, unless I tell him what he's eating. The same thing holds true for lamb. It's a problem, isn't it? Thanksgiving has been just the two of us since we started traveling half the year. Our question will be what to do about Christmas. The cousins who took on the mantle of family social hub from our parents' generation took a break from hosting 2 Christmases ago for personal reasons. Then the pandemic hit, and there was no question about family gatherings for Christmas 2020. Between the pandemic and the personal reasons, I suspect we won't be gathering this year either. Nobody else is in a position to host. We may have had our last big Christmas together. I'm hoping to get my sister out to join us, at least. Thank you for that vote of confidence! Yes, it works sometimes...and then there are times like last night. Remember that ham that I'd said would go mostly for mac 'n' cheese 'n' ham sometime? Yesterday we had one of those "but I thought you said..." moments where I'd been sure he was going to cook hash and he'd been sure I was going to cook the mac 'n' cheese 'n' ham. Neither of us had done any prep work by sundown; each of us was counting on the other. I lost the coin toss. There's nothing intrinsically difficult about macaroni and cheese, I know. Grate the cheese. In this case, chop the ham. Make the bechamel and add the cheese and seasonings. While that's happening, boil the pasta. Drain the pasta, mix 'em all together, and load into a baking dish. Bake until bubbly. Toppings are optional. For that matter, baking is optional. We like it baked until it develops a bit of a crust. So why is it complicated for me? First off, because I never can remember the right proportions of flour to butter to milk for that white sauce. I've written down our "favorite" version and it keeps getting refined as I work out the type of pasta we like best and the right amount of cheese. I finally think I have it the way we like it, but I still have to keep looking it up. The other complication is digging things out. Behold the over-the-counter cupboards! Pasta top left, flour top right, and -- oh, dear -- spices bottom left. That small whitish basket has to come out to get at the containers of sweet and smoked paprika. I thought there was white pepper somewhere in there, but gave up looking for it and settled for a couple of twists from a mixed-peppercorn grinder. At some point while I was rooting around for all this stuff, my darling said "I had no idea this would be so much work for you. I can start chopping potatoes for hash instead." Grr. Brave and unrealistic words, fueled no doubt by beer! Anyway, it all came out well. My latest refinement is to put the mixture into a large, flat baking dish so it all spreads out more. The Corning dishes I used to use produce thick layers. This was better. Incidentally, we do also eat vegetables. I just haven't been bothering to show them because they're typically afternoon snacks. Above, you see celery conveying to me the last of a ranch horseradish dipping sauce from a few stops ago. I'll miss that stuff. Probably need to work out how to make it.

*Bump* It's amazing how elastic the concept of "roomy" is for me. After being on the road and confined for days to only half the Princessmobile, this feels downright palatial. This is the second time we've opened out since leaving home, but we were mostly preoccupied with non-culinary business. Now, my "must-do" list has shortened from a full tablet page to a short "to do" list, already half-cleared. Time is as elastic as space, and it's stretching out again. I'll have time to start writing about the culinary adventures that punctuated our stays so far. Here's an example of a leisurely "to do" item. The Princessmobile isn't riding as smoothly as it used to, or else we're driving over rougher roads. Almost every time I've opened the door I've found items knocked over that have to be cleared before opening the glides. Among the kitchen mayhem, the utensil caddy has come off its base and needs to be repaired. "Spare room" still doesn't apply to our refrigerator or freezer, however. We left home, true to form, with all cold storage jammed. Three factors came into play here: My usual habit of buying things and storing more during the summer than I could reasonably cook, and his thinking they were beyond him, meant a lot had to come out of the household freezers so I can cook them this winter. His usual ritual of making large batches of chili and split pea stew, divvied into containers and frozen for road food or too-tired-to-cook food. These have been life-savers and are a regular part of our trip planning. These first two items would have made for a full but not overstuffed freezer. The overstuffing came when... ...his daughter and her family came for a wood-cutting weekend at home, and she came laden with gifts she hadn't been able to give us earlier in the season. Smoked corn, frozen in vacuum-sealed packets. Freshly caught fish, fileted and frozen into packets to (unwittingly) supplement my backlog of Wild Alaskan fish. Ground beef from their grass-fed beef supplier. Prime venison cuts as well as breakfast sausage. (Don't tell my darling he's eating venison!) The refrigerator is similarly jammed. We actually have emptied a few containers of food. Our road food, including breakfasts, has relied heavily on the half-ham he cooked and sliced before we left. The container of slices is finished, and this is what's left: It will probably become mac 'n' cheese 'n' ham, most of it, but I'm eyeing some of it for a strata or frittata. On long-travel -- 400 miles, give or take -- days I've made sandwiches the previous night because we're on the road by 08:30. My sandwich preferences are more complex; his more pragmatic. Ham (or turkey) and cheese for him, with Miracle Whip and mustard. Ham (or turkey), cheese, lettuce and pickles go onto my sandwiches, with mayonnaise (NOT MW) and mustard. Mine are tastier, I say. His are better for driving without dripping. I don't like those long days. Sometimes I share the driving duties, but for the most part I sit in the passenger seat, read, watch the scenery go by and wish I could stretch. We've talked about getting a motor home when it comes time to replace the Princessmobile. The advantage would be that the non-driver could move around more. Last night was not a long-distance day, but it was a long one anyway, and we were plenty tired...much too tired for any cooking. It was time for chili and beer. Lots of beer. Then bed. Still...here we are, far southwest of that large "H", while our home base is digging out from its first snowstorm of the season. *I* think this map shows Duluth as the center of the country. *He* thinks it proves we were wise to leave when we did.

Question for those of you with more experience: how do you determine which setting to use for a particular mixture? For instance: in the creamy persimmon sorbet that @blue_dolphin did, there's no dairy. Is that what makes the sorbet setting right for that mixture?

I can see why! That set is beautiful. How large are they?

I certainly have nothing to add to those flavor combinations, but I think they sound terrific. I'll wait with interest to see what mgaretz suggests. So far I'm in the "why did I buy it if I wasn't goingo to play with it?" camp. A pint of persimmon mixture, treated with extra half-and-half and refrozen, is still sitting in our freezer. All too often, by the time we're done with dinner we aren't interested in dessert...and during the afternoons, we don't indulge. Go figure! That said, we (my husband and I) both want me to be playing with the Ninja CREAMi more, so inspirations and teasing are welcome!

You can also adjust your order to get add-ons. That's where the sablefish comes in. They also offer spotted prawns.

Maybe @jackal10 will weigh in on his experiences. Granted, his AGA was purchased secondhand and was made in the 1940's, but he did some fine things in it / on it during his foodblog.

I don't believe I ever followed up on subsequent batches. I haven't had any problem with mealy texture since that first time, and I've followed more or less the same procedure as you describe for thawing. I have still had trouble cooking salmon so that it didn't dry out: even steam-convection baking in the CSO managed to overdo it for us, no doubt because the filets are so thin. Oddly enough, I've had much better success with their cod, slightly better success with their halibut, and excellent success with the sablefish. What's odd about it is that I'll take salmon every time over a white fish for flavor...but hey, I'm finding ways to cook those white fish so that we both like it!

I sprang for "Buttermilk & Bourbon", since I had to leave my print copy behind for the winter, and for Julia Reed's "Ham Biscuits..." because it sounds like a howlingly fun read. Thanks, Toliver!

That recipe looks like something I should try. I don't grow garlic myself, but I am guilty of overbuying at farmers' markets and then needing to do something with it.

@liuzhou, is there any special type of mango that works best with this? I'm especially wondering about green vs. ripe mangoes, but I know there are many different mango varieties.

Half and half.

Earlier I reported that... I spun it tonight. I used the Sherbet setting, since it was more nearly sherbet than ice cream. It came out grainy, so I re-spun it. Maybe it smoothed slightly from the second spin. Flavor pretty good, but the concoction has a grainy - not icy - texture. Adding a small amount of half-and-half helped slightly but didn't get rid of the sensation. I suspect, but am not sure, that the "grainy" texture is the tannic gritty mouth feel that comes of eating not-quite-ripe Hachiya persimmons*. If that's the case, there probaby isn't much to be done about it. Since we aren't sure what's causing that sensation, we think it's worth tweaking. I've added about 1/4 cup of half-and-half and mixed it enough to melt and level. It's going back into the freezer. *That sensation is distinctive once you've experienced it, but hard to describe. Think of the gritty sensation you get on your tongue and teeth from eating a lot of spinach (yes, even if it's well washed) and you'll be on the right track.

I just unearthed a sealed package of chicken breasts from sometime earlier this year when summer was a-cumin in. May or June. There's no date. (What was I thinking?) The label says it was cooked at 145F and I'm sure it cooked at that temperature for at least 2.5 hours, maybe 3 to 4 hours. Why I didn't label it more carefully is a mystery. Why I forgot it and allowed it to be buried in a crisper drawer is an even greater mystery. My question is, can I count on it still to be pasteurized after all this time? Note that "all this time" consistutes a range of 4 - 5 months. The bag has no air gaps, no poofiness. It has been refrigerated.

I had to look up omani, and wade past the references to the sultanate and its people. Now that I have done so, I see that it's a treatment that can be given to lemons or limes (or, I presume, other citrus). What type of omani did you use? I bought black dried limes some time ago but haven't tried them.

Another idea: as I recall these persimmons have so much pectin that the pulp sets up in a heartbeat after you cook it. Could you cook it down and then pour it into molds for a firmer dessert? Maybe use some gelatin to firm it up, if freezing destroys the pectin? (I don't remember whether pectin is affected by freezing.) I made persimmon panna cotta last year. It tasted good but was rather bland. My husband and I agreed that it needed something to brighten its flavor and appearance. He, the traditionalist, opted for whipped cream. I thought a drizzle of prickly pear syrup was just the right touch.

I grew up with Hachiya persimmons. My mother always made persimmon cookies with them as part of the holiday baking sprees, and I had strongly polarized feelings about them: some flavor was nice, but what was that awful overlay? It was only recently that I realized I don't like, have never liked, and probably will never like the spices that go along with pumpkin pie -- and those are the spices used in the persimmon cookies and persimmon bread of my youth. When I got a windfall of them a few years ago I experimented with making persimmon bread, completely ignoring the usual suspects, and instead going with ginger, cardamom, coriander, saffron and a touch of Berbere seasoning. The loaves came out very well in flavor and texture. You can see them here. In fairness I should note that nobody actually identified the persimmon in the bread! One taster thought it a ginger bread; another knew there was fruit but couldn't identify it. The linked post is part of a larger discussion about spices that go well with persimmons. Cardamom got the most votes.

I can read it, thanks. Thank you also for including that hilarious precarious illustration!

I'll also bite: are you suggesting the potato and pasta salad will be IN the sandwich? Or just a standalone meal?

@Maison Rustique, what a delightful book! The names of the dishes alone are a riot, but the illustrations you've shown really pull it all together. Have you cooked from it? Would you be willing to show a photo of the "Persimmon Sponge" pages? I've a plethora of persimmons and wonder whether this might be a recipe to try.

If we kept ice cream around the house regularly, or if we lived within easy walking distance of good suppliers, I might not have jumped either. (There is a wonderful small ice creamery in Duluth. During the tourist season I can't get near it.) Still...the Shiny New Toy syndrome is powerful around here. I justified it by thinking I could customize ice cream in small batches to my own specifications. Yesterday I finally, after thinking about it all summer and probably the summer before, defrosted our chest freezer. To borrow a phrase from @kayb, some of the stuff at the bottom wasn't of drinking age, quite, but it was old enough to vote. That stuff at the bottom? Frozen pitted cherries; nectarine and peach purees; even some persimmon puree I hadn't realized I'd gotten as far back as 2003. Beautiful color. Flavor still identifiable. I thawed some of the persimmon puree - I had to, to find out what it was - and then mixed it with pureed cherries to balance the flavor more to my liking. Sugar and lemon added some brightness to the mix; a little half-and-half went in to make it more like ice cream or at least sherbet. I'll spin it in the next few days and report back. If the texture or flavor aren't satisfactory, then I'm not out much from the experiment. If we like it, why then - I'll have a dessert that even Love's Creamery hasn't dreamed up yet!

I did not know that. I bought something on Woot! once, at least a decade ago, and promptly lost my login information. Thanks (I think) for the enhanced enablement!

No. It was from our family recipe, but I can't even say for sure whether the mix I spun was from the final ready-to-churn batch or from an intermediate stage. Durned labels fell off in the freezer. No doubt I'll find them, disassociated from their containers, next time I defrost.