Camping, Princess Style

[Margaret Pilgrim]

There's probably as many "larbs" as there are Laotian grandmothers.    I wouldn't sweat the minutiae but rather how the general taste and texture appeal to you.

[rotuts]

@Smithy 

 

BTW  what are liquid Aminos ?

[Kerry Beal]

3 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@Smithy 

 

BTW  what are liquid Aminos ?

Soy sauce for vegans and celiacs!

[gfweb]

19 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@Smithy 

 

BTW  what are liquid Aminos ?

 

A bottle of glutamates

[Smithy]

38 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@Smithy 

 

BTW  what are liquid Aminos ?

34 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Soy sauce for vegans and celiacs!

 

18 minutes ago, gfweb said:

 

A bottle of glutamates

 

In fact, I don't have any in the Princessmobile and spent some time looking for decent substitutes. Soy sauce (which I also don't have -- it's now on my shopping list) and miso were listed as possibilities. I used miso and some dried mushroom powder. From the little amount required, I doubt it made much difference.

 

Thank you, Kerry Beal and gfweb, for the explanations! You've saved me trying to work out whether to buy liquid aminos! (I'm sure I have, or had, an unopened bottle of Bragg's in the cupboard at home.)

 

In the substitution department I also didn't have Sriracha! Actually, I may have some squirreled away in a back compartment, but I opted instead for an easy and delicious substitute. I fell in love with Mazavaroo, a Mauritian delicacy, when I visited friends in South Africa. They brought some back for me last year.

 

 

It's a hot, piquant chili sauce that I haven't tried making but really should. I'm sure, like every other chili sauce in the world, it depends on the variety of chilis available. Its texture is nowhere near the smooth texture of Sriracha, but it provided a delicious kick to the meat.

[Kerry Beal]

Here's my larb recipe based on a variety of recipes from eG

 

Larb

 

Asian, International, Main dishes, Salads and dressings

Servings: 1 Source: eG adapted

 

INGREDIENTS

1 pound chicken thigh meat diced in processor

1 tablespoon oil

1-2 tablespoon chicken stock

2 or 3 limes juiced

1 tablespoon palm sugar

2 or 3 tbsp fish sauce

2 or 3 cloves garlic

1 inch chunk ginger (or powdered ginger)

1 tablespoon frozen lemongrass

3 kaffir lime leaves

1 big squirt siracha sauce or a diced thai red chili or two

1 sliced shallot

1 tablespoon toasted rice powder

DIRECTIONS

Mix all the ingredients for topping together. Correct to get the right balance of sweet, salty, sour and hot.

Heat the oil and add the chicken. When the chicken starts to lose it's pink colour add the broth to prevent the meat from browning. Cook until just loses the pink colour. Top with sliced scallions. Dress with sauce. Serve on romaine or endive. Top with toasted rice powder.

 

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

Have you guys ever camped in Quartzite? From what I understand it's a small city in the winter but clears out completely in the summer. Is it a free for all in terms of sites, or are there organized areas? I admit to being a little curious.

[lemniscate]

32 minutes ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

Have you guys ever camped in Quartzite? From what I understand it's a small city in the winter but clears out completely in the summer. Is it a free for all in terms of sites, or are there organized areas? I admit to being a little curious.

Quartzite in the winter is cray-cray.  Officially has 2500 population normally, but winter the general area has a temporary population of 1 million, in RV's, mostly dry camping.   Some estimates are more than that.

 

The exits and entrances and overpasses on the I-10 around Quartzite are quite insane in the winter months.  There is no peace and quiet in Quartzite from Oct-Apr.  

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

Have you guys ever camped in Quartzite? From what I understand it's a small city in the winter but clears out completely in the summer. Is it a free for all in terms of sites, or are there organized areas? I admit to being a little curious.

 

What @lemniscate said. We have driven by it a few times, looked at the congested area and said, "not for us!" A few friends and acquaintances have gone for a week or two. They say that Quartzite is the place to go if you want to hook up with RV technical expertise -- for instance, convert to solar power from someone who knows what he's doing. A few others love the social aspects of it. But we live out in the country during the summer, and have no particular wish to move to a city during the winter. 🙂 Day visits (say, to Yuma) are good enough.

[FauxPas]

We drove through Quartzsite (I think there is an 's' in there) once when we used to spend a lot of time in Arizona. We weren't RVers so that part of it didn't mean anything to us. We were just amazed at the crowds in the middle of nowhere. It didn't seem like a very attractive area to us. We have a friend who had an RV for a few years and was a bit of a rockhound and was interested in that part of it, but it was too busy for his liking. You have to enjoy being in a crowd to be there. But I can see that some people who live a certain RV lifestyle might enjoy it and might get some good info and equipment while there and enjoy the socializing, too. 

[Smithy]

A friend of a friend was fascinated by the movie "Nomadland" and even more fascinated (upset?) that we never watched it. Too much bandwidth for us, and probably not representative. Maybe someday I'll try, when we aren't on metered wifi.

[MaryIsobel]

18 minutes ago, Smithy said:

A friend of a friend was fascinated by the movie "Nomadland" and even more fascinated (upset?) that we never watched it. Too much bandwidth for us, and probably not representative. Maybe someday I'll try, when we aren't on metered wifi.

A friend of a friend was fascinated by the movie "Nomadland"

We both love Frances McDormand and were eager to watch it. She was fabulous as always but it was not an uplifting movie by any means. There are those of us who have RV's for fun and those who have Rv's as an alternative to having a permanent home, not always by choice. That said, it was a really thought provoking and well done movie IMHO.

 

[chromedome]

8 hours ago, MaryIsobel said:

A friend of a friend was fascinated by the movie "Nomadland"

We both love Frances McDormand and were eager to watch it. She was fabulous as always but it was not an uplifting movie by any means. There are those of us who have RV's for fun and those who have Rv's as an alternative to having a permanent home, not always by choice. That said, it was a really thought provoking and well done movie IMHO.

 

I would agree, it's full value for the critical acclaim, awards etc but not what you'd call a "feel-good" movie. Well worth watching nonetheless.

 

Barbara Ehrenreich's book "Nickel and Dimed" would make a suitable companion piece, either before or after the film.

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

I'd watch Frances McDormand take out the trash. She's a chameleon--a brilliant actor who's different in every movie.

[Smithy]

Sometime in the night, a ferocious wind came up and woke us up briefly. This morning it's still windy, but nothing like it was. The clouds must be associated. 

 

 

The larb burgers are still sitting in the refrigerator. Yesterday he decided he wanted to get the rack of pork ribs out of the freezer and have them. We got half the rack out anyway. The other half is sealed and back in the freezer. 

 

 

I did the low, slow thing in my trusty Descoware pan. We were able to find a mutually acceptable barbecue sauce at the grocery store the other day, and I'd forgotten to apply a spice rub, so I slathered the rack with Kinder's Gold.

 

 

We were happy!

[lemniscate]

12 hours ago, FauxPas said:

We drove through Quartzsite (I think there is an 's' in there) once when we used to spend a lot of time in Arizona. We weren't RVers so that part of it didn't mean anything to us. We were just amazed at the crowds in the middle of nowhere. It didn't seem like a very attractive area to us. We have a friend who had an RV for a few years and was a bit of a rockhound and was interested in that part of it, but it was too busy for his liking. You have to enjoy being in a crowd to be there. But I can see that some people who live a certain RV lifestyle might enjoy it and might get some good info and equipment while there and enjoy the socializing, too. 

You're right!   There is an "s".    I'm a rockhound and defaulted to the rock and not the town spelling.

[blue_dolphin]

20 hours ago, Smithy said:

Late last fall I spotted a lightning deal on Amazon, and bought this (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) for $30:

 

 

Great deal! Though I can see its limitations compared with a battery unit in the RV.  I have an older, but very similar-looking KitchenAid stick blender and get a ton of use from the whisk and the little processor bowl.  The other day, I used it to chop nuts and blend them with the flour for a cookie recipe, then used the whisk to cream the butter and sugar and finally mix everything together.  The actual stick blender can be a little unwieldy for me to use on the stovetop as it's kind of heave and the cord barely reaches the nearest outlet but I use it elsewhere and use the attachments all the time. 

[Smithy]

10 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Great deal! Though I can see its limitations compared with a battery unit in the RV.  I have an older, but very similar-looking KitchenAid stick blender and get a ton of use from the whisk and the little processor bowl.  The other day, I used it to chop nuts and blend them with the flour for a cookie recipe, then used the whisk to cream the butter and sugar and finally mix everything together.  The actual stick blender can be a little unwieldy for me to use on the stovetop as it's kind of heave and the cord barely reaches the nearest outlet but I use it elsewhere and use the attachments all the time. 

 

I'd be tempted to get another cordless KitchenAid unit, except it was so expensive and it's so useless now, all because tthey changed the styling slightly and the new battery pack won't fit the old unit. With that kind of planned obsolescence, I'm not going for the expensive units again. And I'm still carrying a grudge against KitchenAid! 😂

[Smithy]

We've been away most of the day, and dinner tonight was quite easy but will be repeated at some point. I'm going to write instead about yesterday's dinner: the next trial of the pork / laab burgers.

 

I couldn't be bothered to break apart and remix what I'd done, once I realized I'd forgotten the ginger that may or may not be necessary anyway. Instead, I used the $30 wand blender and food processor attachment to mix up a sauce of ginger, garlic, cilantro, lime (juice and peel) with a bit of salt and olive oil. I used that sauce to augment my burger, as well as the asparagus I cooked up.

 

The verdict: the sauce was almost exactly what I thought it needed! It has a slightly bitter taste due, I fear, to too much lime peel. Still, it very much perked up the burger. And the asparagus. And, I think if I'd done potatoes, it would have been great on that too. Very nice flavor profile.

 

 

My darling was pleased that I was pleased, but didn't find the sauce as much of a game-changer as I did. To him, they were burgers. He's never met a burger he didn't like. Some are more exciting than others. These weren't in the top tier, but they were fine. We'll have no trouble finishing off the rest of the burgers, and I'm pleased with the enhancement of the sauce.

[FauxPas]

@Smithy, I thought of you when I saw Kitchenaid's Cordless system. I am not really familiar with this group of products but it seems you can run a number of small appliances - chopper, blender, grinder, mixer - from the same small rechargeable battery. You can buy one or more of the products, they all run on the same battery. 

 

I don't know if the prices seem reasonable to you or not, but thought I would share as they seem to have some Black Friday specials. 

 

https://www.kitchenaid.com/countertop-appliances/cordless.html

 

 

[Smithy]

On 11/23/2023 at 8:30 AM, FauxPas said:

@Smithy, I thought of you when I saw Kitchenaid's Cordless system. I am not really familiar with this group of products but it seems you can run a number of small appliances - chopper, blender, grinder, mixer - from the same small rechargeable battery. You can buy one or more of the products, they all run on the same battery. 

 

I don't know if the prices seem reasonable to you or not, but thought I would share as they seem to have some Black Friday specials. 

 

https://www.kitchenaid.com/countertop-appliances/cordless.html

 

 

 

I didn't see anything to interest me there yesterday, but Black Friday is young yet! And there are lots of listings on Amazon. I may find something, thanks.

 

Right now I need to take advantage of the fact that everyone else apparently competing for the same cell phone tour seems to be asleep or out riding. A town's worth of trailers with 4-wheelers and other motorized toys has sprouted for the holiday weekend, as it always does, near the Interstate and the dunes and the cell tower. Last night the little internet service we could get was S--L--O--W and, of course, reminded us of how spoiled we've become in the last 10 years or so. I have a chance to catch up on the last few days, if I don't dawdle!

[Smithy]

First, a trip to the grocery store. The two major grocery stores we shop at here are Fry's (part of the Kroger chain) and Albertson's (soon to be merged with Fry's, if I understand correctly). There are other grocery stores here:

• 3 Walmarts,
• 2 Del Sols that cater more to the Hispanic crowd,
• 1 Sprouts "Farmers Market"
• and a partridge in a pear tree (sorry, couldn't resist).

A Trader Joe's was supposed to be built in the more upscale area of Yuma, but I heard about it a few years ago and see no evidence that it's happened. They may have changed their minds.

 

Anyway: we usually shop at Fry's: we like their selection, they have excellent prices if you consent to being tracked by using their loyalty card, and you get points off gasoline or diesel. It's a pretty good system for us all around. Oh, and they have very special deals for senior citizens on the first Wednesday of the month. I call it "old farts Wednesday".

 

Our first visit once we arrived was after a few weeks on the road, and required a lot of stocking up on produce, beer, bread, wine, paper goods...it was a big trip. I took no photos except of the cart full of bags, here in the topic about using self-checkout or waiting for live humans. We usually bring in our own bags, but forgot them. I think the baggers use too many bags, but they'll be used for other purposes or recycled when necessary. It was certainly no time for us to wait on ourselves.

 

My next trip was to pick up a few things for our Thanksgiving feast, and since I was operating alone I had more time to poke around and take a few pictures. You'll see more as the season goes along. These shots were from the Foothills Fry's, at the easternmost end of Yuma. It's the newest and most upscale part of the city, and the size and selections in the store reflect that.

 

Massive produce area with astonishingly low prices (I need to do something with the more perishable items today). I'd never seen or heard of a pink pineapple. I didn't buy one, so can't comment on the flavor. In light of the price differential, they might do better with sales if they offered samples. Maybe they do sometimes, and I wasn't there at the right time.

 

 

They have an "ugly duckling" or some such named area offering special prices area on produce that needs to move quickly: bags of onions, tomatoes, potatoes and such are 99 cents; bananas are also cheap. I bought both tomatoes and potatoes there.

 

 

Their seafood department is a sight to behold. I noted Dungeness crab, and thought of our dear departed @David Ross and his contributions to the Dungeness Crab topic. I didn't buy any that day, but need to make plans to do so before they disappear. 

 

 

The meat department is also massive. I'm showing just a very small subset of the meat and seafood departments. More pics will be along, by and by.

 

 

The "ethnic foods" area allowed me to find coconut milk, which I needed, and Bragg's liquid aminos, which I decided I didn't. The pomegranates in this collage were back in the produce area. Good price for those huge things!

 

 

The next day, after I got home, I made my darling's latest batch of breakfast fruit salad from my purchases. 

 

 

That funny yellowish thing in the picture with the oranges is my knife sharpener. I'm pretty sure it was @rotuts who put me onto the Edge Pro system, and I have one tucked away here in the Princessmobile. Call me a heathen, however: when that blue blade was too dull to cut the orange peel, I grabbed the easy, quick sharpener you see in this picture. A few passes through, and I was good to go.

 

Not shown: 5 pounds of green beans. I'll tell about that in another post!

[Smithy]

Someplace in the last few days I made a nicely stacked sandwich using sliced chicken I'd bought back in Duluth before we left. "Hmm," I thought, "the stuff is getting a bit mushy. Tastes okay. It's nearly a month old, though. Better use it up."

 

 

I couldn't finish it. It didn't really even taste like chicken any more. I ate a few bites, removed the chicken and had a very nice spinach / pickle / cheese sandwich with mayo. Even the dog wouldn't eat the meat!

 

The sun is moving southward toward its solstice rising-point on the right side of that big notch. Even over 2 days you can see a bit of movement!

 

[Shelby]

9 minutes ago, Smithy said:

First, a trip to the grocery store. The two major grocery stores we shop at here are Fry's (part of the Kroger chain) and Albertson's (soon to be merged with Fry's, if I understand correctly). There are other grocery stores here:

• 3 Walmarts,
• 2 Del Sols that cater more to the Hispanic crowd,
• 1 Sprouts "Farmers Market"
• and a partridge in a pear tree (sorry, couldn't resist).

A Trader Joe's was supposed to be built in the more upscale area of Yuma, but I heard about it a few years ago and see no evidence that it's happened. They may have changed their minds.

 

Anyway: we usually shop at Fry's: we like their selection, they have excellent prices if you consent to being tracked by using their loyalty card, and you get points off gasoline or diesel. It's a pretty good system for us all around. Oh, and they have very special deals for senior citizens on the first Wednesday of the month. I call it "old farts Wednesday".

 

Our first visit once we arrived was after a few weeks on the road, and required a lot of stocking up on produce, beer, bread, wine, paper goods...it was a big trip. I took no photos except of the cart full of bags, here in the topic about using self-checkout or waiting for live humans. We usually bring in our own bags, but forgot them. I think the baggers use too many bags, but they'll be used for other purposes or recycled when necessary. It was certainly no time for us to wait on ourselves.

 

My next trip was to pick up a few things for our Thanksgiving feast, and since I was operating alone I had more time to poke around and take a few pictures. You'll see more as the season goes along. These shots were from the Foothills Fry's, at the easternmost end of Yuma. It's the newest and most upscale part of the city, and the size and selections in the store reflect that.

 

Massive produce area with astonishingly low prices (I need to do something with the more perishable items today). I'd never seen or heard of a pink pineapple. I didn't buy one, so can't comment on the flavor. In light of the price differential, they might do better with sales if they offered samples. Maybe they do sometimes, and I wasn't there at the right time.

 

 

They have an "ugly duckling" or some such named area offering special prices area on produce that needs to move quickly: bags of onions, tomatoes, potatoes and such are 99 cents; bananas are also cheap. I bought both tomatoes and potatoes there.

 

 

Their seafood department is a sight to behold. I noted Dungeness crab, and thought of our dear departed @David Ross and his contributions to the Dungeness Crab topic. I didn't buy any that day, but need to make plans to do so before they disappear. 

 

 

The meat department is also massive. I'm showing just a very small subset of the meat and seafood departments. More pics will be along, by and by.

 

 

The "ethnic foods" area allowed me to find coconut milk, which I needed, and Bragg's liquid aminos, which I decided I didn't. The pomegranates in this collage were back in the produce area. Good price for those huge things!

 

 

The next day, after I got home, I made my darling's latest batch of breakfast fruit salad from my purchases. 

 

 

That funny yellowish thing in the picture with the oranges is my knife sharpener. I'm pretty sure it was @rotuts who put me onto the Edge Pro system, and I have one tucked away here in the Princessmobile. Call me a heathen, however: when that blue blade was too dull to cut the orange peel, I grabbed the easy, quick sharpener you see in this picture. A few passes through, and I was good to go.

 

Not shown: 5 pounds of green beans. I'll tell about that in another post!

Those pineapples are so cheap!

 

Looking through the pictures I felt like I was in Dillons--which is the store I go to when I venture to the big city.  Google tells me Kroger operates both of them so no wonder they look alike 

 

 

[heidih]

We discussed the pink pineapples when they were announced   https://forums.egullet.org/topic/161558-del-monte-announces-pink-fleshed-pineapple/ Guess price dropped a tad....