Camping, Princess Style

[Porthos]

What is a rain shadow?

 

I'm 6 weeks out from driving up that same highway. 

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, Porthos said:

What is a rain shadow?

 

I'm 6 weeks out from driving up that same highway. 

 

It is always, always, always drier downwind of a mountain range than upwind, where "downwind" indicates the usual wind patterns. At our latitudes the winds are "prevailing westerlies" so the western sides of mountain ranges are wetter than the eastern sides. The mountains wring moisture out of the atmosphere as the wind blows up and over the mountains. Death Valley is especially dry because it's separated from (and downwind of) the Pacific Ocean by at least 3 large mountain ranges. Eastern Washington and Oregon are much drier than their western sides for the same reason. The drier region downwind of the mountain range is its rain shadow.

 

Since you're coming up this highway, I very much hope you take time to stop and visit Manzanar if you haven't done so before.

 

We've been touring, and I'm learning that I can do at most 2 of these 3 things at once: cook, visit, write. We've been doing a lot of touring and cooking (and eating), but the writing about it will have to wait. I will say, however, that I finally got around to my first attempt at duplicating the Celestial Sauce from Cafe Luna. Pretty good stuff. I'll write more about it later.

 

The ingredients -- well, most of them anyway:

 

 

And the final sauce:

 

 

Texture about right. Flavor quite good. We kept wondering what could be done to improve it, and coming up blank while we kept dipping our bread into it. The fireplace burgers afterward were anticlimactic.

 

[Duvel]

As a non-native speaker of English this label confuses me …

 

 

Either this means something entirely different or you chose a rather unexciting product. 

 

No “succulent anchovies” or “delectable anchovies” available ?!

[chromedome]

7 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Particularly useful when giving hour long lectures. Worked better than some of the lectures I suffered through as an undergraduate where some dozy professor read out the same lecture he'd been reading out every year for the last 40. One rather famous prof managed to fall asleep in the middle of his own lecture.

I've run across the phrase "collegiate drones" in a novel, meaning young, idle college men loafing through their studies while trying to score with girls. For me it immediately brought to mind one specific prof I had, compared to whom Ben Stein's droning teacher from "Ferris Bueller" sounded like Robin Williams on a cocaine jag.

 

Oddly he was very good 1-on-1, and I did end up learning a lot from him, but at the front of a lecture hall he was spectacularly dull.

[Smithy]

4 hours ago, Duvel said:

As a non-native speaker of English this label confuses me …

 

 

Either this means something entirely different or you chose a rather unexciting product. 

 

No “succulent anchovies” or “delectable anchovies” available ?!

 

Oh, that gave me a good morning laugh! But in case your question is genuine: here it means "flat" as opposed to "fat" or "puffy" or "round". These little filets were indeed quite flattened, and so delicate that the contents fell apart as I was spooning out the amount I wanted. I used about half the tin's worth. I'll show it when I make the next batch of this stuff.

[Porthos]

@Smithy We went to Manzanar when our girls were school-age. Twirly Girl had watched the Original Karate Kid countless times, so being able to show her Manzanar was, at least for Sweetie and me, meaningful. 

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

But in case your question is genuine: here it means "flat" as opposed to "fat" or "puffy" or "round

Interesting. I always thought that it meant flat, plain, rather than rolled around a little bit of stuffing. I have gotten the rolled ones sometimes by mistake and I don't care for them.

[Duvel]

5 hours ago, Smithy said:

But in case your question is genuine: here it means "flat" as opposed to "fat" or "puffy" or "round".

😉

[Margaret Pilgrim]

5 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I always thought that it meant flat, plain, rather than rolled around a little bit of stuffing. I have gotten the rolled ones sometimes by mistake and I don't care for them.

Bingo.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

19 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Years ago, I discovered that when I write a list, the contents are ingrained in my memory and I don't need the physical list anymore. It has worked with shopping lists and recipes as well as unrelated things to be remembered.

 

Truth!    I often "read" in my mind, while shopping, from the list I left at home.

[Smithy]

6 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Interesting. I always thought that it meant flat, plain, rather than rolled around a little bit of stuffing. I have gotten the rolled ones sometimes by mistake and I don't care for them.

 

52 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Bingo.

 

Aha. @Duvel, note the correction here. i was mistaken about the meaning!

 

Thanks, @Tropicalsenior and @Margaret Pilgrim!

[Smithy]

My sister has gone home, and if the weather weren't too blustery for me to want to move the trailer I'd be on my way home as well. As it is, I have a day to clear the wreckage, get the trailer ready to move, and catch up on a few posts as well as some neglected business.

 

There isn't actual wreckage, of course, but things have to be stowed and restored for travel. For instance, this is what happened to the back half of the trailer, aka the "living room" while she was here:

 

 

The couch that folds out to a Queen-sized sleeper bed turns out to be rock-hard. Fortunately, I've brought along an inflatable mattress that worked very well. It has a built-in pump for inflating and deflating. This was a first use for the mattress. I hope getting it folded back up, with the help of the deflation pump, will stuff the genie back into the bottle.

 

I've already stowed the cookbooks she brought me. There's a funny story behind that. A cousin who was a consummate cook and collector of cookbooks died last year. While my sister was helping clear out the house, she called me and read off titles to see what I might like that hadn't been claimed by either of our cousin's sons. (Our grandmother's cookbooks, for instance, went with them.) By the time this telephone conversation had finished, there were way too many books to consider shipping. We weeded the collection down. There were still too many books to consider shipping. So she's been keeping them until we could meet in person. 

 

I'll have to show all the cookbooks some other time, probably in the "Show us your latest cookbook" topic, since most of these are put away under the bed already.

 

 

 

Two cookbooks are out for easy grabbing in my sparsely-filled book cupboard:

 

 

 

 

But in truth, I've stocked up on so much prepared food thanks to a trip yesterday that I probably won't be consulting any cookbooks before I get home. I also still have a few leftovers from our meals together.

 

 

 

I'll tell more about those in other posts.

[Smithy]

Yesterday, after my sister headed home for Reno, I drove back down to the L.A. Basin sans trailer to pick up a gift from my dear departed friend's daughter, and visit with her briefly. It's a long drive: supposed 3-1/2 hours, but a little over 4 for me on the way down and more like 5 on the way back due to traffic accidents clogging the freeways. Still, it was nice to see her and it gave me a chance to visit Wolfe's Market yet one more (final, really?) time. I called ahead, stocked up on their delicious chicken enchiladas and potato salad, had a couple of sandwiches made from their "Prairie Bread", still locally known as "Squaw Bread" but they're working to change their linguistic habits, and managed to get more information about both the bread and the enchiladas. I think they need to come up with another name than "Prairie Bread" since that's already taken for breads that don't resemble this at all, but the bakery is doing its best. Maybe they'll come up with another distinctive name. Southwest Heritage Bread? Los Angeles Brown Bread? What would you suggest?

 

Here's the basic loaf:

 

 

I've broken it into groups of several slices each, wrapped them tightly without crushing, bagged them again, and put them in the freezer. Perhaps half the loaf is sitting in its original wrapper at this point, for my use in the next few days.

 

A closeup of the ingredient list:

 

 

The bread itself:

 

 

(Hmm, I didn't notice the hair until after I'd shot this picture.) You can see just how brown it is. They list molasses, but it isn't as sweet as many brown breads so I don't think it has proportionally much molasses in it. 

Edited yesterday at 07:31 PM by Smithy
Another bread loaf title suggestion (log)

[Smithy]

Lunch today is a leftover from yesterday's visit. My friend had a selection of foods, all intended to be quick and easy, and altogether too much for one sitting. We ate Philly Beef Sandwiches, probably from Trader Joe's, and fruit. I came home with a spinach, Swiss cheese and turkey wrap set; some of the fruit; and this TJ's Vegetable Roll set. 

 

 

Given the "use by" date of today I decided I'd follow the suggestion. It's all pretty good.

 

 

My sister gave me a darling little ceramic bowl that's purrfect for the purpose of a dipping bowl, and I had the chance to try it out.

 

 

The wasabi paste had its usual sinus-clearing benefits. My sinuses didn't need clearing, but I like the flavor. 

 

On another note: the inflatable bed deflated beautifully, rolled up beautifully, and is now in its new home under the now-folded sofa. I hope I don't forget it's there. If anyone's interested, it's this one (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) although we paid considerably less for it when we bought it in 2019. I'd forgotten all about it, and only discovered it in storage during my frantic packing last January. Based on the date, we had to have ordered it for the last Princessmobile, then never had guests to use it.

[ElsieD]

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

ǰ(Hmm, I didn't notice the hair until after I'd shot this picture.) 

 

I trust that was one of yours?

[blue_dolphin]

21 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

I trust that was one of yours?

I dunno about the provenance of that particular strand but I've spotted any number of cat hairs in my own photos and suspect I’ve eaten (and probably inhaled) quite a few!

 

[ElsieD]

Zeus is decidedly not a lap cat as in he sits on no one's lap.  He is, however, a night cuddler and when I go to bed, he sleeps cuddled up next to me, sometimes as high up as next to my face.  When that happens, I invariably wake up with a cat hair or two on my lips of all places.  Not sure how they get there, but there they are.

[Smithy]

I've been off running errands and exploring this amazing terrain, and am now having a tide-me-over snack of a few bites of Wolfe's Red Potato and Bacon salad. It's thickly creamy, not soupy, of course not sweet. 

 

 

I didn't think to ask them the ingredients, but I can identify the red potatoes and bacon; also dried dill and something creamy...I suspect sour cream as well as mayonnaise. Maybe a touch of Dijon mustard but there isn't much of a mustardy kick. I'm sure there are other spices too. My darling never liked this stuff, which of course left more for me.

 

Oh, the drama of this area! There's a 20% chance of rain today, and the wind is picking up. (I'll stay another day if necessary, to avoid driving in rain or strong wind.) The scenery itself is amazing and the clouds are building over the mountains. It's raining atop the next range over. Maybe it will here also.

 

 

The area is dramatic in more ways than one. The improbable scenery has been the site of many a movie and television show. There's a History of Western Film museum here that talks about local filming and film stars, and if you look around you can find some of the markers.

 

 

 

Gettting back to food: I've been in the local grocery store twice now. For such a small town it has an amazing selection of goods, no doubt because it serves locals and tourists and is on a major US highway with not many crossroads. (This is a jumping-off point for many backpacking and climbing areas, including Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states.) There's a lot of fresh produce that I didn't photograph, although my sister and I bought some a few days ago. 

 

Their meat counter is wonderful and tempting.

 

 

I thought hard about getting some of their ready-to-grill dinners, but I already had things planned and knew we weren't likely to get to these. I left them alone.

 

 

The prices on the meat are surprisingly good.

 

The cold storage case has an amazing variety.

 

 

Alas, prices aren't necessarily good on these. 

 

 

I stretched my supply of half-and-half and restocked yesterday at Trader Joe's when I visited the L.A. Basin again.

 

I did, today, cave and buy another box of Pinot Grigio that I didn't get yesterday, and probably spent about 25% more than I would have: $24 here, $16 to $20 there if I'd found what I wanted. I had bought bottled wine at TJ's but wanted something rather less expensive for my trip home.

 

I also, against all practicality, caved and bought some chicken thighs. 

 

 

No, I don't know when I'll cook them. No, I don't need them for the trip home. But these are beautiful, fat chicken thighs at a good price, and I wanted them. So there.

[ElsieD]

A box of pinot grigio here will set you back an average of $45.00.  That's Cdn $, but still....

[Smithy]

21 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

A box of pinot grigio here will set you back an average of $45.00.  That's Cdn $, but still....

 

Thanks for that perspective!

[Dave the Cook]

20 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

A box of pinot grigio here will set you back an average of $45.00.  That's Cdn $, but still....

 

Seriously? The LCBO is ripping you off in a more offensive manner than usual.

 

https://www.totalwine.com/wine/white-wine/pinot-grigio-pinot-gris/c/000052?&pageSize=24&aty=1,0,0,1&instock=1

[Smithy]

11 minutes ago, Dave the Cook said:

 

Seriously? The LCBO is ripping you off in a more offensive manner than usual.

 

https://www.totalwine.com/wine/white-wine/pinot-grigio-pinot-gris/c/000052?&pageSize=24&aty=1,0,0,1&instock=1

 

Wow. I've usually been buying the Bota Box Pinot Grigio at about the price listed in your link. That's what cost me $24 today. I do expect higher prices in small stores in remote towns, but not as much elevation as Elsie apparently experiences.

[ElsieD]

9 minutes ago, Dave the Cook said:

 

Seriously? The LCBO is ripping you off in a more offensive manner than usual.

 

https://www.totalwine.com/wine/white-wine/pinot-grigio-pinot-gris/c/000052?&pageSize=24&aty=1,0,0,1&instock=1

 

I didn't realize your boxes were three quarts.  Ours are 4,000 ml or just over 4 quarts.  Tax on booze is high here.

[chromedome]

10 hours ago, Dave the Cook said:

 

Seriously? The LCBO is ripping you off in a more offensive manner than usual.

 

https://www.totalwine.com/wine/white-wine/pinot-grigio-pinot-gris/c/000052?&pageSize=24&aty=1,0,0,1&instock=1

A pretty reliable rule of thumb is that the Canadian price on any given bottle of wine or whatever is roughly double the US price (that's dollar-for-dollar, not allowing for any other factors). As Elsie says, taxes on booze are high here but also the exchange rate has had the USD sitting at roughly 1.35-1.4 CAD for the past several months. That in and of itself makes for a big bump in the cost of a US-made wine on our side of the border. 

 

(shrug) It helps offset higher production costs up here and make our homegrown wines more competitive, I guess.

[lindag]

I can buy Bofgle wines here normally for about $9.98 per bottle but they're often on  sale for a couple dollars less.

Their Zin is my everyday wine but I like their Pinot Grigio in summer.

Nice to close to California.