Nancy in Pátzcuaro

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. That looks very much like some of the sausages we bought at Barnesville Grocery in Barnesville MN a couple of years ago. The grocery makes all the sausages, and they were definitely worth eating. Some sausages were standard long tubes but others were coiled like yours. All were sold frozen, of course--it's a small town and a small store, and I'm betting they made large batches of all their sausages that then had to be frozen. One interesting one was a potato sausage, which we gave to friends. Don't recall if they had some comments about it. (I think we gave that one to them because we were pretty much out of freezer space. It's a little fridge after all, and we try to reserve space for important things like ice cream.)

Well, it was too much to just throw away, and I didn't have any other parmesan in the fridge, which meant I had to change my plans. So I guess when we go to Morelia, aka the big city, I'll have to resupply.

Thanks--I'll try that. I did think about warming it but was afraid it would begin to melt. Probably unlikely given how hard this chunk of cheese is.

I have discovered, waaay back in my fridge, a block of parmesan. And when I say "a block" I mean something akin to building materials. It's a fairly sizable chunk--over 7 oz.--and I'd like to somehow rehabilitate it. Hand grating is out of the question if you want to keep the skin on your fingers. Does anyone have any wisdom about how to soften it enough to grate? I think it's too small too use as a doorstop. Bonus points if you get the joke title. Thanks for your help. Host's note: the sentence above refers to the original title of this post, which was "Hard Cheese", before it was merged with an earlier topic on the same subject.

Do you have a photo of your new rig?

I did a little poking around on the internet, using iOverlander and, surprisingly, the Winnebago website, https://www.winnebago.com/lifestyle/winnebagolife/travel/hidden-gems-free-county-city-rv-parks though it seems to be more Texas oriented. My spouse says we used iOverlander the most. A favorite was Burwell City Park in Nebraska, on our way back to Colorado. A few small sites right on the river (the dog, who's a swimming fool, loved it) but with larger sites adjacent to the main part of the park. No water hookup but electric at all sites. And Barnesville, MN, with the vegetable garden--dry sites in a large meadow and full hookups in a more organized area, where the big rigs were staying. We walked into town (about a mile) for supplies and found it a charming little town. Too many empty storefronts, though.

I'm trying to remember how we discovered them. This was a couple of years ago and my memory ain't what it used to be (along with a few other things). We stayed at several in the time we spent in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa in 2023. My notes only describe the parks themselves, not how we found them. I'll ask my spouse when he gets home--maybe he remembers. if so I'll post more.

We had a similar experience in North Dakota. I was driving the speed limit (65mph) on US 85, heading toward Theodore Roosevelt National Park, when a right rear tire blew. We were driving a Pleasure-Way van and everything rattled violently. I was able to pull over on the modest shoulder in the absolute middle of nowhere--no buildings in sight in all directions and very little traffic. There were chunks of shredded tire for a quarter mile behind us. (We kept a piece as a souvenir.) Of course there was an (inadequate) bottle jack but I told my husband that under no circumstances was he allowed to try to change the tire. We were headed toward an RV park so we called the manager who recommended a tire shop. A nice young man named Derek came out with his rig, changed the tire, and followed us into town. Four tires later we were back on the road the following morning. Lesson learned: Tires "age out" before they wear out. Our tires had plenty of tread but were in some cases over 10 years old. Our van get taken out of storage every summer for a couple of months but the rest of the year it's in an open lot with a couple hundred other rigs. Granted the tires are covered and protected from the sun, but Colorado's a dry place and it takes a toll on tires. I'm not sure that covered storage would solve the problem. This was an expensive lesson, but at least we're assured that our tires are good for another 10 years. Not sure if we are (good for another 10 years, that is). But we'll keep using the van as long as possible because we love driving our little house around the country. One thing we discovered on this trip was the availability of city and county parks. Many of them have electric hookups and are much more reasonably priced than traditional RV parks. When all you need is an overnight with (or without) electricity, these are wonderful options. We found one that was the equivalent of a high-end RV park, and one where the host had planted a vegetable garden for everyone to use. Great tomatoes!

Gee, I made a lot of apple butter in a pot on the stove in my time and it didn't burn. Like any jam/jelly product, you have to stir a lot and pay attention at the end. Perhaps I was just lucky? I do like the idea of a slow cooker, though.

I'm with you. I've always started my polenta in cold water (or what other liquid you want to use) and proceeded from there. I don't recall where I first heard about the cold-water method, but it makes sense. Why struggle with slowly adding polenta to boiling water and stirring madly to avoid lumps. We like the results and it's a lot simpler.

Ooh--good one!

I find that after I wash my sikpats there seems to be a very thin layer of grease left on them. Is there some special cleaning technique that will eliminate the greasy feeling? I know they're kinda slippery to start with, but I don't think I'm getting them completely clean. Thanks--

One food I forgot to mention about Christmas food traditions--bacalao. Stores are full of it right now, including one store that brings in wood crates of bacalao from Norway. Very fragrant stuff! I love it, so instead of shrimp in the chiles rellenos on Christmas Eve I'll use bacalao. I always have some already soaked in my freezer. After this year's salt cod feast I'll have to restock. One year I bought an entire side of fish and soaked it all to put in the freezer. I realize some people don't care for it. More for me!

Christmas in Mexico has traditions that are not familiar to most of us. There are 9 days of posadas, when the neighbors parade along the street with a small creche, carrying candles and singing (tonelessly--I haven't figured out the tune if there is one) a call-and-response song about Joseph trying to find lodging for his very pregnant wife. He's turned away 3 times by surly innkeepers (the neighbors) before finally being welcomed. This is preceded by a lengthy recitation of the rosary. Then folks bring out the ponche (fruit punch that includes thin strips of sugarcane along with a variety of fruits), hand out the aguinaldos (bags of candy for the kids), and string up a pinata. We're assigned a neighbor to purchase everything for one night. Usually there's someone roaming around with a bottle of mezcal to "sweeten" the ponche. We've tried to incude mandarinas (in season now) or small jicamas, but the neighbors tell us the kids don't like it--too healthy! January 6 is when kids get their main gifts, though they get small ones at Christmas itself. There's a special cake--"rosca"--with small plastic baby Jesuses inside. Whoever gets one of those is supposed to supply tamales on Feb. 2 for Candelario. Most families eat tamales at Christmas with atole, but if there's food especially for Christmas I don't know what it is. I usually make something with fish on Christmas Eve, like chiles rellenos filled with shrimp.

Any ideas about how to separate the panettone from the wrapping?

That Netflix movie is the reason I no longer eat octopus.

When I first saw this topic I immediately thought of Giuseppe Arcimiboldo (1527-1593) who painted portraits composed entirely of fruits and vegetables (among other things).. Something of a gimmick at the time and not taken very seriously by critics, but pretty amazing. Check it out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Arcimboldo and https://duckduckgo.com/?q=arcimboldo&atb=v321-1&iax=images&ia=images1&iax=images&ia=images The paintings "read" normally from a distance but as you get closer you realize that the cheeks of that man are apples.

My deepest sympathy, Smithy. I didn't realize you'd lost your husband. That would definitely put me off cooking, so I understand how your mojo is gone.

Boy, do I sympathize with you, Smithy. I went through something like that earlier this fall. No interest in food (much less cooking), weight loss--the whole deal. I suspect it had something to do with depression, which has never been a problem for me, and after trying some medication that didn't agree with me I decided to just "snap out of it!" Seems to have worked, though the interest in cooking has taken longer to return. I am, however, happy with my new weight. (Gives me a chance to buy new clothes!) My spouse keeps bugging me to eat more because he doesn't want me to lose more weight, but I think that won't be a problem since I'm eating more normally (i.e., meals rather than snacking). I've also become interested in sourdough, both the bread and all the wonderful things you can make from the discard. Tortillas, English muffins, crumpets, crackers, pancakes (the best)--I'm having a grand old time. So there's that, at least. I'm confident the rest will return, eventually.

We're looking at that but for other reasons--we want to use a heat pump for our badly-installed in-floor heat. But getting rid of the CFE bills would be the cherry on top.

My new LG gas stove has a central burner like that. I don't think it's measurably higher than the others, but it has 2 rings for flames. If you turn on both of them it sounds like a jet engine, so I rarely turn it all the way up. I used it for wok cooking and for quickly heating my canning kettle. Supposedly it can be used with a comal but I prefer putting that on 2 burners for more even heating. By the way, all the talk about eliminating gas stoves will work only in the US and other countries with relatively low electrical rates. Electricity is much too expensive in Mexico for anything electric--portable heaters, stoves--so everyone uses gas (or wood) for cooking. It's a 3-rate system: the lowest usage gets the lowest rate, much of which is government subsidized, and at the upper rate it's eye-wateringly high. And if you dip into the highest rate in one month you're stuck with that rate for 12 months regardless of whether your normal usage is lower. We spend a lot of time turning off lights even though we've converted to LEDs.

Found them! Good old King Arthur--https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/golden-raisin-biscuit-cookies-recipe Now, of course, in lieu of buying them I'll have to make them myself.

Reading this topic, I was reminded of an old fave of mine. I think they were called raisin bars or wafers or something like that. Thin, with raisin puree (?) between two thin layers of cookie. I haven't had one in decades but now I want one.

When we bought our house 13 years ago, I was delighted to find 2 tall cabinets (95cm x 32cm) with removable glass shelves on either side of the stove. The shelves are 2 jars deep, which makes it easy to find what I need. (Would someone please give a medal to the person who realized that square jars are better than round ones!) Baking items and larger jars for things like caraway seeds are stored in one cabinet and savory herbs, etc., are in the other. The doors keep out light, but probably it is a little warmer than desirable because of the location near the stove. The only problem was that whoever drilled the holes for the pegs that hold the shelves drilled them just a teensy bit too big. So once I decided on the spacing, we glued them in place. I buy much of my herbs and spices from Penzeys, of course, but locally there's a bulk store in nearby Morelia that has an impressive amount of herbs/spices. Unfortunately they only sell them in 100gr. amounts. So the overflow goes into the freezer. I'm still working my way through the thyme--just hope it doesn't get lost in the freezer. I grow my own basil so that's one I don't have to buy.

Long ago I bought a Kamerstein digital scale (n Costco, I think) on a whim and then discovered just how useful it is. Takes a standard 9-volt battery, is compact (fits in a drawer), has all the right functions, measures to 0.1 grams (pounds, ounces, kilograms and grams), and is of course indispensable when baking. I also use it for a lot of other purposes, such as when a recipe calls for 8 oz. of pasta, but the bag/box contains 16 oz. I never imagined, in those old days making cookies, that I would be annoyed when the recipe is in volume measurements instead of weight. How long will it take before the people who write and publish these recipes finally consider using both volume and weight measurements? More and more do, I admit, but it's not universal.