MaryIsobel

If I could get the quality of takeout that you do for the price you pay, not sure I would cook very much at all. Take out options here are few and far between; not good, not healthy and stupidly expensive for what you get!

Being on the North West side of the Pacific, I have never heard of soft shell lobster. Here 6-9 dollars would not get you much lobster at all. Are they like soft shell crab? You can eat the whole thing, shell and all?

After a thankfully uneventful trip home from Mexico, we very much enjoyed a simple dinner of barbequed hamburgers and fresh corn, eaten on our deck. It is PNW cool and no humidity to speak of. Blissful and not in the least taken for granted.

Interesting. Don't know if it is available here, not sure I could try it without my beloved Tenessee Walker flashing in front of my eyes. I did have cows too but understood from the get go that they would become dinner some day.

I have never had horse (although I have had horses, but not to eat.) Is it comprable to beef, taste and texture-wise?

They were my mother's and now they are my favourite for pies too.

Yes, they were so small. There was only a bite or two from each body. I'm sure they added flavour though. I certainly won't miss this humidity.

Reminds me of our poor old Gravenstein. It's at least 60 years old and has been badly pruned more than once.An ice storm a few years ago amputated several of it's limbs. It still produces a paltry amount of apples but I have a sentimental attachment to it.

Our last night here. Shuttle picks us up and noon and we fly out at 4:15 (fingers crossed!) The humidity has been really hard on us, so we have been eating lightly, at our condo a lot of the time. None of the restaurants here are air-conditioned, so makes it hard to enjoy a meal. Our condo has AC so we keep retreating to it. Tonight we went to La Caleta. My husband had octopus, my daughter had cocnut shrimp which oddly was served with mashed potatoes, but the tamarind mango dipping sauce was really delicious. Sweet and sour with a little bit of heat. I had seafood soup which was great, shrimp, mussels, crab, octopus and fish in a zesty broth, with diced raw onion, cilantro, lime and a habenero served on the side. I passed on the habenero but added every thing else. The crab were tiny so the only meat worth working for was in the body.

Thanks @BonVivant Your user name is certainly accurate. You have taken me to places that I will likely never see - the beauty of virtual connections.

Lame loaf aesthetics? Sir, I aspire to make a loaf that looks like that. Too hot right now for me to bake bread (I don't get up at 3 am like AnnT does!) Once we get fall temps, I'll get back at it and will definitely put this one on my list. I am invisioning it with smoked salmon and cream cheese.

My husband has a lte afternoon dentist appointment so since dinner plans are up in the air, we went for brunch. We went to Tradewinds http://tradewindsbydimelopa.weebly.com/menu.html A michelada for me, iced coffee for my daughter, Coronoa for my husband. I had a scrambled egg and cheese burrito which I foolishly assumed would be smaller than a dinner burrito - it was not. I managed half. Husband had posole and our daughter had a BLT (she had the other half in her hand when I took the photo. Everything was great and once again, very reasonable.

Low key dinner tonight. My husband grilled some sausages, not the variety that we were hoping for but really good. I sauteed some onions and poblano peppers. Subbed pico de gallo for relish, a bit of dijon which was 6.50 Cdn for a jar that was 175ml. Served on bolillo. The sausages were labelled (in Spanish) picante pork. They were nicely seasoned and not picante at all.

My husband uses a pellet smoker all the time with no issues. Could it be the brand of pellets? He's sleeping right now but I will ask him in the morning what brand of pellets he buys.

I need to get a new paella pan. I used to make it fairly often but my pan didn't work when bought an induction stove top and it sort of fell off my radar. Yours looks perfect.

On our last trip to Chedraui - the nearest large grocery store, there was a big bin of tamarind pods and a lot of locals picking through them. I had thought that I would just buy the paste but will research what to do with the pods. Not sure they would pass through Customs, will have to check it out.

My husband left for the dentist at 1:30 and it is now 8:00 and no sign of him. My daughter's fiance had to go home today, daughter is staying for another week with us. She and I went and did some shopping in the kind of stores that the boys had no interest in, then stopped for a bite. Mango marg for me, strawberry marg for her. We split at shrimp quesadilla. I'm glad we shared it - I barely managed half. It was delicious but very rich with a lot of shrimp and a lot of cheese. Full moon view from our balcony is pretty tonight. ETA - sorry for the goofy pictures my phone and laptop still aren't getting along.

I'd like to give that a try. I still have my Mom's old meat grinder that clamps on the edge of the counter. I have been perusing the dried peppers here and plan to replenish my stock at home and then some. The only one I don't recall seeing was the cascabel. I just look it up and apparently it is also called chile bola, so I'll look for that.

It's likely the last day he will be able to, that was part of his decision.

Went back to the Nauti Burro as they have a locals jam session on Sunday. It was obvious that some of the people had played together before. It was very enjoyable, mainly classic rock. I had a tamarind margarita, husband had lime. I had shrimp ceviche, he had nachos. We've had the same waiter every time we've gone there and tonight he when we left he hugged me. A young guy from Cuba whose dream is to visit Canada.

I couldn't agree more. It is my favourite fish but like you, I don't buy it as often as I would like due to the cost. My husband used to fish on the west coast of the Island so we would have lots of halibut but lately with the ferry cost and gas for the boat - it certainly wouldn't ba any cheaper than buying it from the fish market!

I don't like lamb. There, I've said it. We raised sheep when I was a kid and to me lamb tastes like sheep smell. I've tried it over and over because everyone I know loves it, but it just doesn't work for me.

I find the portions surprisingly large here - perhaps they are following the lead of Canada and the States. Also I find rice and beans together very filling.

We have been eating but not a lot. Grazing has been the MO. It is quite hot, which we expected but the humidity is laying us low. We've been eating lots of mango and pineapple, cheese and crackers, avacado toast - that sort of thing. We will be going out for octopus at least onceI have also been having problems with my phone not syncing with my laptop so photos are a bit of a pain. We spent a long time in the Chedraui grocery store as it is air conditioned and I love perusing grocery stores that are not familar to me. I have never seen green sesame seeds for sale at home. The chicirones are bigger than my head, I was a bit leary of the pastor, but the cuts are on a slab of ice - just not too sure about the meat on the spit. We bought enough for a taste and if we suffer no ill effects from that, we'll get more. Bought a couple of kinds of sausage to grill and some poblanos and onions to go with. Unfortunately they didn't have the bright green cilantro sausage that I was looking for but there is a smaller grocery near by so I'll check there. Last night we went for a late dinner, I had a pastor burrito which was great but very filling.L

I'm going to pass your ideas along to my daughter. She is 5'6" and her fiance is 6'7". She works on the counter and he works on the island but says he wishes it were a couple of inches higher.