Camping, Princess Style

[Smithy]

22 minutes ago, heidih said:

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....

 

 

Holy moly...$49 for one back then?! The mind, she boggles. There are some funny comments in that topic, though. Thanks for the reminder!

[Smithy]

Right after I'd left the grocery store with stuff for our dinner, I got an invitation to a friend's house for a feast. Heck, we could put off our own feast to another day. "What can I bring?" I asked, and offered things like cranberry salad, Hasselback potato casserole, green beans with bacon. She asked for the green beans, so back I went to get more than I'd already bought.

 

Five pounds of green beans.

 

You ever wash and trim five pounds of green beans? It's definitely a labor of love. I bought them one day, trimmed and cut them the next, cooked them up -- after dreaming about them all night --with a pound of bacon chunks the morning of the party. (My darling, who loves to make up songs, is in the process of writing a ditty about how they interfered, days in a row, with his desired plans. The working title, and refrain, are "them darned beans". 😆)

 

You ever try to fit a pound of cut bacon into a tall stockpot, render it down until nearly crisp, then add almost 5 pounds of cut green beans into that pot? Of course it all fits, but stirring it is a real treat. I was using the biggest pot in the Princessmobile: the 12-quart stockpot we generally use for stews and chili. Eventually it all got done. I kept tasting and adjusting, wondering why it seemed so flat. "Needs salt," I finally decided, and I'm glad I did. It didn't need much, but the bacon hadn't done enough.

 

I transferred it into our Lodge Dutch Oven, which had been well-preheated, for transport to the party. It was an hour's drive from our camping spot, and I wanted it kept warm. The Dutch Oven, wrapped in two towels, held the heat well.

 

Sorry, but we were all too busy gabbing, eating, cleaning up, making music in the post-feast jam session to take any pictures. There were turkey, ham, gravy, 2 types of potatoes, salads galore, relish tray, cocktail shrimp, bread, beans, yams, and of course desserts. The only photo I have is from a piece of cornbread brought by another guest. 

 

 

I've asked to see whether she'll share the recipe. It's her copycat version of a cornbread from one of her favorite restaurants. Good stuff!

Edited November 24, 2023 by Smithy
spelling (log)

[Smithy]

It's supposed to turn cooler in the next few days. I'll plan on having our Thanksgiving weekend feast on one of those cooler days, so the pork roast I plan won't heat the trailer too badly. I pulled it out to start thawing today. 

 

"Ooh!" he said, "that'll make room in the freezer so I can have ice cream bars in there!"

 

Absolutely not.

 

 

We're having burgers tonight because, after I pulled things out to get the pork roast and started putting things back in, they kept falling out.

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

 😆

 

I've asked to see whether she'll share the recipe. It's her copycat version of a cornbread from one of her favorite restaurants. Good stuff!

 

If you get it will you share?

[Smithy]

Just now, ElsieD said:

 

If you get it will you share?

If she says it's okay, I will. 🙂

[Kim Shook]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

Right after I'd left the grocery store with stuff for our dinner, I got an invitation to a friend's house for a feast. Heck, we could put off our own feast to another day. "What can I bring?" I asked, and offered things like cranberry salad, Hasselback potato casserole, green beans with bacon. She asked for the green beans, so back I went to get more than I'd already bought.

 

Five pounds of green beans.

I almost given up buying fresh green beans.  They are labeled "stringless" and sure enough when trimming them, there is no string to pull off.  But as soon as they are cooked it's like green dental floss.  My SIL made wonderful tasting green beans yesterday and they were stringy.  I'm wondering if other people had that issue or if it is perhaps a regional problem.  

[Smithy]

Just now, Kim Shook said:

I almost given up buying fresh green beans.  They are labeled "stringless" and sure enough when trimming them, there is no string to pull off.  But as soon as they are cooked it's like green dental floss.  My SIL made wonderful tasting green beans yesterday and they were stringy.  I'm wondering if other people had that issue or if it is perhaps a regional problem.  

 

No strings in mine. Anyone else seeing this? It could indeed be regional.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I have not cooked green beans since my health faltered, but with the ones I used to purchase I always had good luck.  I believe they were imported from Guatemala.

 

 

[Katie Meadow]

7 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

I almost given up buying fresh green beans.  They are labeled "stringless" and sure enough when trimming them, there is no string to pull off.  But as soon as they are cooked it's like green dental floss.  My SIL made wonderful tasting green beans yesterday and they were stringy.  I'm wondering if other people had that issue or if it is perhaps a regional problem.  

My experience for the last few years is that green beans aren't what they used to be. Every once in a while I will get a batch that is not tough and actually tastes like green beans. But mostly they are nothing to write home about. Even in summer from the farmers' market they are hit or miss. Hope springs eternal: I keep on buying them anyway.

[Smithy]

8 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

My experience for the last few years is that green beans aren't what they used to be. Every once in a while I will get a batch that is not tough and actually tastes like green beans. But mostly they are nothing to write home about. Even in summer from the farmers' market they are hit or miss. Hope springs eternal: I keep on buying them anyway.

 

Someone - maybe @russ parsons - commented that the flavor had been bred out of them along with the strings. That may be true. I don't think they have quite the same meaty taste they used to, but I still like them a lot.

[lindag]

@kaybTry them this way.

I think they're much improved.  In fact, that's about the only way make them now.

[ElsieD]

4 minutes ago, lindag said:

@kaybTry them this way.

I think they're much improved.  In fact, that's about the only way make them now.

 

When my mother cooked green beans, she always put a bit of sugar on them after they were cooked.  Not as much as the recipe you linked to, as much sugar as salt perhaps, just a sprinkling.  To this day, I still do the same thing.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I greatly dislike large green beans, so I either carefully sort out small (young) ones or pop for French green beans (haricot vert).     Excellent flavor, no pith or strings.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Margaret Pilgrim (log)

[Kim Shook]

This is the kind of thing I was talking about.  My SIL sent me home with a lot of beans since she knows they are a favorite vegetable of mine.  

It's so aggravating because they  are otherwise SO good.  Made with lots of fatty smoked pork.  

[Porthos]

22 hours ago, Smithy said:

 I was using the biggest pot in the Princessmobile: the 12-quart stockpot we generally use for stews and chilis.

At home my biggest had been 16 qt. I've taken to poaching turkey for Thanksgiving and the 16 qt. was challenging to use. I bought a 24 qt. and it worked very well. Of course, it doesn't fit into the dishwasher. 😪

 

 

[Katie Meadow]

5 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

Someone - maybe @russ parsons - commented that the flavor had been bred out of them along with the strings. That may be true. I don't think they have quite the same meaty taste they used to, but I still like them a lot.

Like seedless watermelon: when they lost the seems some flavor went along for the ride. No seedless watermelon compares to the best seeded once. As for for low-flavor / poor texture green beans, I help them out two ways. One is to roast them with olive oil ad salt, which concentrates the original string bean flavor. I also think long-cooking with bacon or smoked ham product and tomatoes helps them a lot. Or maybe it just helps me.

 

@Margaret Pilgrim   you  must have a good source for haricot vert, because I have found them often to be just as tasteless as bigger ones.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I guess so.   For larger green beans, our favorite method is scorching them in a smoking-hot iron skillet + Maldon salt.   The kids skarf them! 

[Smithy]

9 hours ago, Porthos said:

Of course, it doesn't fit into the dishwasher. 😪

 

 

It wouldn't fit into the Princessmobile, either! 😄

[gfweb]

On 11/24/2023 at 2:49 PM, Smithy said:

Right after I'd left the grocery store with stuff for our dinner, I got an invitation to a friend's house for a feast. Heck, we could put off our own feast to another day. "What can I bring?" I asked, and offered things like cranberry salad, Hasselback potato casserole, green beans with bacon. She asked for the green beans, so back I went to get more than I'd already bought.

 

Five pounds of green beans.

 

You ever wash and trim five pounds of green beans? It's definitely a labor of love. I bought them one day, trimmed and cut them the next, cooked them up -- after dreaming about them all night --with a pound of bacon chunks the morning of the party. (My darling, who loves to make up songs, is in the process of writing a ditty about how they interfered, days in a row, with his desired plans. The working title, and refrain, are "them darned beans". 😆)

 

You ever try to fit a pound of cut bacon into a tall stockpot, render it down until nearly crisp, then add almost 5 pounds of cut green beans into that pot? Of course it all fits, but stirring it is a real treat. I was using the biggest pot in the Princessmobile: the 12-quart stockpot we generally use for stews and chili. Eventually it all got done. I kept tasting and adjusting, wondering why it seemed so flat. "Needs salt," I finally decided, and I'm glad I did. It didn't need much, but the bacon hadn't done enough.

 

I transferred it into our Lodge Dutch Oven, which had been well-preheated, for transport to the party. It was an hour's drive from our camping spot, and I wanted it kept warm. The Dutch Oven, wrapped in two towels, held the heat well.

 

Sorry, but we were all too busy gabbing, eating, cleaning up, making music in the post-feast jam session to take any pictures. There were turkey, ham, gravy, 2 types of potatoes, salads galore, relish tray, cocktail shrimp, bread, beans, yams, and of course desserts. The only photo I have is from a piece of cornbread brought by another guest. 

 

 

I've asked to see whether she'll share the recipe. It's her copycat version of a cornbread from one of her favorite restaurants. Good stuff!

Looks to be a very floury/cake-y cornbread.

[gfweb]

10 hours ago, Porthos said:

At home my biggest had been 16 qt. I've taken to poaching turkey for Thanksgiving and the 16 qt. was challenging to use. I bought a 24 qt. and it worked very well. Of course, it doesn't fit into the dishwasher. 😪

 

 

 

serious equipment, @Porthos!

 

[Smithy]

2 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Looks to be a very floury/cake-y cornbread.

 

It was very moist, not at all as dry or airy as many cornbreads I've tried (or discussed here). I'm not sure where that falls in the cake-like spectrum.

 

I sent her an effusive compliment and asked for the recipe, and asked also whether I could share it if she shared it with me. So far she hasn't responded. That is, i think she hasn't responded. My internet has been down for most of the day. She might have responded 5 times without my seeing it!

[Smithy]

Still no response on the cornbread recipe, but I actually have a good signal and can tell about Cabin Fever, Princessmobile style. 

 

It's windy. It's blowing up to 30 mph and expected to continue that way for the next few days. It's also cool -- cold, according to my darling, whose circulation isn't what it once was. I realize that none of this is likely to elicit sympathy from those of you in winter snow storms or rain, but I bet most of you have a larger space to hunker down in. We can, and do, walk in the wind and try to find routes that are more or less sheltered, but it's still uncomfortable walking. And then Cabin Fever sets in, at least for me. When the internet signal is good I can roam online. But I've been competing for bandwidth with this holiday city of RVers, all camped within a half mile of the tower. 

 

 

Yesterday I addressed my Cabin Fever by tackling some of the produce I'd bought and cooking Julia Child's Provençal Potato Gratin, from the New York Times. (Here's a gift article, for curious nonsubscribers.) It's pretty easy once all the prep work is done, but the prep work involves thinly slicing potatoes, onions, and seeded tomatoes; grating Parmesan cheese; smashing garlic and making a paste of anchovies, garlic, herbs and olive oil. In my case, doing it all by hand.

 

You would be justified in noting that Ste. Julia and her cooking partners in France no doubt did it by hand all the time. I personally would have preferred using a food processor. But it was the middle of the day, and I didn't want to start the generator. I used my trusty Moulinex, except for the paste. (For this I used the battery-powered wand blender, and decided it's worth keeping.)

 

 

I think my darling may be suffering a bit of cabin fever also. Just as I'd finished all the slicing and grating, he decided we should go to town to get beer. Well. I'd already realized I had no anchovies or anchovy paste, and had been trying to think of a substitute. Now I didn't have to. Away we went, 30 miles each way, with our brief but important shopping list.

 

An hour or two later, we were back. I made the anchovy/garlic/herb sauce, then began cooking. Cook the onions in olive oil until soft and golden (not browned), then fold in the tomatoes to warm them. Take it off the heat and begin assembly in a baking dish: a layer of the tomato / onion mix, then a layer of potatoes, then some of the sauce. Lather, rinse, repeat. Top with the last of the tomatoes and onions, then grated parmesan, and a drizzle of olive oil. Bake at 400F until the potatoes are cooked and have absorbed all the liquid. That last bit didn't actually work for me: even with the potatoes fully cooked there was free liquid, and it seemed the longer I cooked the more free liquid there was. Maybe I didn't seed the tomatoes adequately. Maybe my ingredient balance was off.

 

 

No matter, though. I liked it, well enough to do it again. He was less enthusiastic about it, not (he says) because it was meatless but because he wasn't crazy about the flavors. (I only used about a quarter of the anchovies called for in the recipe, but I suspect it's the anchovy flavor that he didn't like.)

 

 

There are plenty of leftovers for me!

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Smithy
Corrected abbreviation: "Ste." vs. "St." for Julia (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Thanks for making this.   The last time I made it was ??? 40+ years ago.    A good recipe.   

I'm guessing that the excess liquid came from the potatoes.  We have been having the same problem with classic scalloped potatoes.    

Edited November 26, 2023 by Margaret Pilgrim (log)

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

It's been my experience that using mashed anchovies or paste isn't noticeable in most dishes if the eaters don't know it's there, especially when there are tomatoes involved. Just sayin'.

[Smithy]

1 minute ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

It's been my experience that using mashed anchovies or paste isn't noticeable in most dishes if the eaters don't know it's there, especially when there are tomatoes involved. Just sayin'.

 

He isn't very good at analyzing why he likes or doesn't like something, and I learned a few years ago not to try to get him to analyze it. Now that I've had time to think about it (and eaten some of the leftovers for lunch) I'd guess that it's a little too subtly flavored for his tastes. He likes strong flavors. About the only strong thing in this dish is the onions. I can't taste the anchovies, so unless he has a knee-jerk reaction to the idea I suspect it's the lack of spicy heat.