Camping, Princess Style

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

It may be that I adopted Judy Rodgers' idiom without realizing she'd pulled a Humpty Dumpty on us.

In Simple French Food (1974), on p 266, Richard Olney said, “An onion panade is surely the ancestor and still the best of all the onion soups.”  Being Richard Olney, he has more to say and includes a recipe for onion panade. Here’s a bit:

Quote

…Many French peasants still begin every meal with a great tureen half filled with dried crusts of bread over which is poured a boiling broth. And a pot-au-feu, a garbure, a bouillabaisse, or an onion soup without crusts of dried bread is unthinkable. But the mere presence of bread in a soup does not constitute a genuine panade, which for most of the French, is but a memory and, for many a detested one, recalling the boiled bread and water on which, as children, they were nourished of an evening.

Soup panades have mostly disappeared from today’s cookbooks. One, however (a curiosity published in 1907, entitled Menus Propos sur la Cuisine Comtoise and signed “Une Vieille Maîtresse de Maison” with no further attempt at identity), after attributing the extreme longevity of the author’s grandfather to the daily consumption of panade and the local wine, contains a detailed exposé of the art of making a perfect panade. It is described as “the best, the cheapest, and the most digestible of all soups.” Its preparation consists of pouring boiling water into an earthenware vessel filled with slices of dried-out bread, simmering for at least an hour and a half and, shortly before serving, stirring in a piece of butter. The secret to its success lies in not stirring it until that point. This, the primordial version, I have tried and I cannot claim to have been ravished by the result. Others, but slightly more elaborated, are sound and succulent fare. The Périgord peasants replace the water by a stout and richly saffron-flavored chicken broth—only enough to be completely absorbed by the swelling bread—and leave it undisturbed, but for an occasional and slight addition of boiling broth, in a gentle oven for an hour or so. It is delicious and they call it mourtairol….

 

Edited to add that in 2005, @russ parsons wrote this about Olney's recipe in an LA Times piece about favorite cookbooks:

Quote

Want to know why Richard Olney’s “Simple French Food” is my favorite cookbook? Read the recipes -- the one for onion panade, for example. In fact, just read the first sentence: “Cook the onions, lightly salted, in the butter over a very low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 1 hour, keeping them covered for the first 40 minutes.”

In that one brief passage, we get three cooking lessons: Salt the onions from the start to help draw out the moisture so the onions wilt faster. Start them in a cold pan so they melt without scorching. And cover the pan early on to trap the heat, helping retain moisture and keeping the onions from browning.

Even better, the dish is a total knockout. It’s like a transcendent French onion soup -- deeply aromatic, nearly custardy, with a stunning gratineed cap. All this comes from only the humblest ingredients. No fancy foodstuffs, no expensive equipment and no tricky techniques. With Olney’s cuisine, time and care are all that are required to work miracles. There is no more important lesson for a cook to learn than that.

 

 

Edited Friday at 06:15 PM by blue_dolphin
To add quote (log)

[Smithy]

I'm home!

 

I spent the night before last at a Walmart parking lot. Although I gave the company plenty of money for pet food items and other things I needed then or would need soon, their deli was closed when I started shopping. That was okay; I enjoyed the last of the chicken and rice dish I'd made a week or two before. I also celebrated: finished one fine (by my lights) wine and opened another. I was almost home, and I had the blessed sound of frogs at the pond across the way. The first I've heard in months.

 

 

Yesterday I arrived home around noon, finally got the Princessmobile parked on our snaky driveway, and began the fun of unpacking and enjoying being home again. The dog and cats felt the same way.

 

 

It feels as though I've been gone forever, but it was actually only 4 months, as opposed to the 6 months my darling and I were gone each year. It feels longer. One factor is that I'm back a month later than usual. I have the green jungle ("yard") to prove it. The ramps are up. The chives are already about to flower.

 

I've started laundry and emptied the boxes that have been waiting for me. Hallelujah, the capers I ordered back here have arrived! The packaging was superb.

 

 

I've been on a considerable venture and adventure, and am on my way to establishing my new life. There's a mountain of chores and a sea of choices ahead of me. But I'm glad I went, glad to be back, and glad that I wrote about it here.

 

Thanks for coming along, folks, and for your comments (culinary and otherwise) and encouragement. 

 

 

Maybe it's time to revive the Best Use of Stale Bread topic?

 

[Shelby]

12 minutes ago, Smithy said:

I'm home!

 

I spent the night before last at a Walmart parking lot. Although I gave the company plenty of money for pet food items and other things I needed then or would need soon, their deli was closed when I started shopping. That was okay; I enjoyed the last of the chicken and rice dish I'd made a week or two before. I also celebrated: finished one fine (by my lights) wine and opened another. I was almost home, and I had the blessed sound of frogs at the pond across the way. The first I've heard in months.

 

 

Yesterday I arrived home around noon, finally got the Princessmobile parked on our snaky driveway, and began the fun of unpacking and enjoying being home again. The dog and cats felt the same way.

 

 

It feels as though I've been gone forever, but it was actually only 4 months, as opposed to the 6 months my darling and I were gone each year. It feels longer. One factor is that I'm back a month later than usual. I have the green jungle ("yard") to prove it. The ramps are up. The chives are already about to flower.

 

I've started laundry and emptied the boxes that have been waiting for me. Hallelujah, the capers I ordered back here have arrived! The packaging was superb.

 

 

I've been on a considerable venture and adventure, and am on my way to establishing my new life. There's a mountain of chores and a sea of choices ahead of me. But I'm glad I went, glad to be back, and glad that I wrote about it here.

 

Thanks for coming along, folks, and for your comments (culinary and otherwise) and encouragement. 

 

 

Maybe it's time to revive the Best Use of Stale Bread topic?

 

Yay!  I'm so glad you've made it!!  I know you (and your wonderful husband) are perfectly capable of everything you do, but I always did/do breathe a sigh of relief when I know you guys are home safe and sound.  PJ is LOVING that stream.  Those are my favorite kind of capers.  I need to order some.  

[MaryIsobel]

34 minutes ago, Smithy said:

I'm home!

 

I spent the night before last at a Walmart parking lot. Although I gave the company plenty of money for pet food items and other things I needed then or would need soon, their deli was closed when I started shopping. That was okay; I enjoyed the last of the chicken and rice dish I'd made a week or two before. I also celebrated: finished one fine (by my lights) wine and opened another. I was almost home, and I had the blessed sound of frogs at the pond across the way. The first I've heard in months.

 

 

Yesterday I arrived home around noon, finally got the Princessmobile parked on our snaky driveway, and began the fun of unpacking and enjoying being home again. The dog and cats felt the same way.

 

 

It feels as though I've been gone forever, but it was actually only 4 months, as opposed to the 6 months my darling and I were gone each year. It feels longer. One factor is that I'm back a month later than usual. I have the green jungle ("yard") to prove it. The ramps are up. The chives are already about to flower.

 

I've started laundry and emptied the boxes that have been waiting for me. Hallelujah, the capers I ordered back here have arrived! The packaging was superb.

 

 

I've been on a considerable venture and adventure, and am on my way to establishing my new life. There's a mountain of chores and a sea of choices ahead of me. But I'm glad I went, glad to be back, and glad that I wrote about it here.

 

Thanks for coming along, folks, and for your comments (culinary and otherwise) and encouragement. 

 

 

Maybe it's time to revive the Best Use of Stale Bread topic?

 

Thank you for sharing your first solo venture. I am in awe that you can drive, park and maintain that rig all on your own - not sure I could do that. Whenever my husband and I go on a long trip in the RV - the night before we will be home I pack an "evacuation bag" - electronic devices, medications etc. When we get home, we plug the RV in, take our evacuation bag in the house and call it a day. We start the cleaning process once we've had a good night's sleep in our own bed!

 

[rotuts]

Thank you for taking us all along.

 

M.P and P.J. look very happy.

[ElsieD]

I have enjoyed travellling along with you.  I'm glad you are safely back home with your 4-legged buddies.

[FauxPas]

Welcome home! 

 

Funny, I was just listening to Jimmy Rankin's North Country. I think you might be familiar with The Rankin Family? The song is about a homecoming in the Fall, but somehow I thought it might appeal. The original version:

 

 

And JImmy:

 

 

Edited 12 hours ago by FauxPas (log)

[Shelby]

2 hours ago, Shelby said:

Yay!  I'm so glad you've made it!!  I know you (and your wonderful husband) are perfectly capable of everything you do, but I always did/do breathe a sigh of relief when I know you guys are home safe and sound.  PJ is LOVING that stream.  Those are my favorite kind of capers.  I need to order some.  

To  clarify I know that your beloved husband is not with us...I was just trying to be delicate.  

[Smithy]

3 minutes ago, Shelby said:

To  clarify I know that your beloved husband is not with us...I was just trying to be delicate.  

 

I knew that. But thank you. 🙂 🤎

[Smithy]

14 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

Welcome home! 

 

Funny, I was just listening to Jimmy Rankin's acoustic version of North Country. I think you might be familiar with The Rankin Family? The song is about a homecoming in the Fall, but somehow I thought it might appeal. The original version:

 

 

And JImmy's acoustic version:

 

 

 

It does far more than appeal. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

[DesertTinker]

@Smithy Thanks for sharing your bold relaunch into your journey. It takes a boatload of courage to go “on the road” solo, not to mention publicly sharing the experience as it unfolds. Truly appreciated!

[blue_dolphin]

I’m in awe of you for undertaking and sharing your grand adventure with us but this little sentence makes me very happy:

5 hours ago, Smithy said:

But I'm glad I went, glad to be back, and glad that I wrote about it here.

 

[Maison Rustique]

Hooray!! There's no place like home!! I so admire you for doing all you did on your own. You are an amazing woman! I hope next time you'll be able to stop here!

[chromedome]

12 hours ago, FauxPas said:

Welcome home! 

 

Funny, I was just listening to Jimmy Rankin's acoustic version of North Country. I think you might be familiar with The Rankin Family? The song is about a homecoming in the Fall, but somehow I thought it might appeal. The original version:

 

 

And JImmy's acoustic version:

 

 

The Rankins were part of my "homesick music" when I lived in Alberta, 20 years ago. I had copies of "Fare Thee Well, Love" (their second album, originally on an indie label and then re-released to great success after they signed with... EMI, I think?) and "North Country," and played them both regularly.

 

Cape Breton music was having a real moment in the sun back in the '90s, and for a while it was pretty easy to find even on the other side of the country. Fiddler Ashley McIsaac's "Sleepy Maggie" was a surprise club hit worldwide; Mary Jane Lamond (who'd sung on "Sleepy Maggie") had a couple of pop-tinged major-label releases despite singing entirely in Scots Gaelic; two of the Barra McNeils' albums charted nationally (and one of their singles got as high as #12 on the Canadian charts); fiddler Natalie MacMaster had an album rise as high as 32nd on the charts; and of course in a more mainstream vein Rita McNeil was hugely successful on Canada's pop and country charts from the mid-80s through the mid-90s (sales-wise she went toe to toe with international stars like Garth Brooks in those years). 

 

It's a fact of life here in Atlantic Canada that many of our people go away to find work (I myself have Newfoundland* and Nova Scotia relatives all over Ontario and Alberta), so it's not surprising that much of the music recorded by our artists has that wistful homesick air to it. In fact, a couple of performers strongly associated with the East Coast (folk legend Stan Rogers, and the aforementioned Mary Jane Lamond) grew up in Ontario to expat NS families, where the word "home" - unless otherwise specified - always referred to NS, not the actual place where they lived. Rogers' early albums in particular were filled with songs of the East Coast, and the vanishing way of life in the scattered fishing communities; while Lamond returned to her ancestral Cape Breton to attend university and never left. 

*(A common joke in NL is that the population never grows, because "every time a young girl gets pregnant, a young feller runs off to Alberta!")

[ElsieD]

I saw Rita McNeil a few times when she played here at the National Arts Centre and she had a fantastic voice.  Remember the song "It's a Working Man I Am?", a song that paid tribute to the Cape Breton coal miners?  When she sang that song, men dressed as coal miners complete with head lamps on, walked slowly from the back of the hall to the stage.  Given that the lights were dimmed, it was almost haunting.  Happy memories.

 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by ElsieD
Fixed a typo (log)

[chromedome]

33 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

I saw Rita McNeil a few times when she played here at the National Arts Centre and she had a fantastic voice.  Remember the song "It's a Working Man I Am?", a song that paid tribute to the Cape Breton coal miners?  When she sang that song, men dressed as coal miners complete with head lamps on, walked slowly from the back of the hall to the stage.  Given that the lights were dimmed, it was almost haunting.  Happy memories.

 

 

She usually performed that song with The Men of The Deeps, a choir from Cape Breton. They aren't as technically proficient as most choirs, but there's a reason: you can't join unless you've actually worked as a miner. So yeah... it was an impressive bit of theatre, but the guys joining her on the song weren't just there for show. They'd been there and done that. 

[ElsieD]

18 minutes ago, chromedome said:

She usually performed that song with The Men of The Deeps, a choir from Cape Breton. They aren't as technically proficient as most choirs, but there's a reason: you can't join unless you've actually worked as a miner. So yeah... it was an impressive bit of theatre, but the guys joining her on the song weren't just there for show. They'd been there and done that. 

 

Thank you for that.  With your post, I remembered that they actually were The Men of the Deeps, and her show was advertised as such.  That was a long time ago.  I'm listening to her now on Spotify.

[chromedome]

At the risk of *utterly* hijacking Smithy's thread, I'd recommend catching the movie "Margaret's Museum" if you can find it. It's the film adaptation of a novel called "The Glace Bay Miner's Museum," by local writer Sheldon Currie. Helena Bonham Carter plays the lead role as the daughter and sister of coal miners, who swears she herself will never marry one. So instead she finds herself an itinerant bagpiper (yes, they were a thing in Cape Breton for generations, though after the advent of radio they quickly dwindled). 

It's a well-told story, and HBC and the other international actors don't get themselves into trouble by trying too hard to capture the local accent accurately (must of the supporting roles went to locals, anyway). It's not entirely what you'd call a feel-good movie, because coal mining was (and is) dangerous work, but it's well worth seeing if you haven't already. 

[Smithy]

Thanks for the music and movie references, folks. FWIW the Duluth folk musicians with whom I play play a LOT of Cape Breton fiddle music. It's one of many, many reasons I'm glad to be home.

[chromedome]

38 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Thanks for the music and movie references, folks. FWIW the Duluth folk musicians with whom I play play a LOT of Cape Breton fiddle music. It's one of many, many reasons I'm glad to be home.

Fun fact: Jack White of the band White Stripes was born Jack Gillis (he took Meg's name when they married), and his grandparents were Cape Breton expats. Some of the musicians mentioned above are distant cousins. As you might expect, it was a Really Big Deal back in the day when White Stripes included a Cape Breton date on their Canadian tour. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/distant-relative-confirms-jack-white-s-n-s-roots-1.638620