Camping, Princess Style

[FauxPas]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

If I get a chance, I'll take a money shot to post later. Maybe if I feed everyone enough Guinness they'll like this cake!

 

I'm pretty sure they will enjoy it, looks really tasty! I'd love a piece!  🙂

 

It might have been fun to smooth the icing on top and use a bit of your cocoa powder to do a beer mug or something but that would have meant finding/making a stencil. Something like the image below. The Guinness Harp would be cool, but I think it would be hard to do. 

 

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Beer-Bottle-Mug-Glass-Stencil-Template-Reusable-8-5-x-11-for-Painting-on-Walls-Wood-Etc-By-Stencilville/293151931?classType=REGULAR

 

Also, I'm interested in your oven shelf issues! 

[Shelby]

I'm literally drooling.  Looks delicious...moist...frosting looks amazing.  I'll be right over.  

[Smithy]

Well, it came out as well as you commenters predicted! Better than I'd expected, in fact.

 

This being a happy desert climate at a good time of year, the main courses were outside and I didn't take any photos. There were clam chowder, corn chowder and onion soup, all made by the hostess. The clam chowder was my favorite. There were also some wonderful cheese biscuits, made by the host. I didn't know he'd been a professional baker at one point in his life. I told him that if he weren't already taken, I'd be proposing marriage on the strength of those biscuits! 

 

The dessert table was already groaning by the time I arrived.

 

 

I took some good-natured tweaking for bringing a round cake to a thing where small portions were to be doled out. Who knew? I hadn't known! But the good-natured tweaker, who is a friend and made sure I knew she was teasing, started the process and then left me to figure out how to cut slices. That's when I took my money shots. 🙂

 

 

It did turn out well. I was surprised that I couldn't actually taste the Guinness. No stout flavor at all that I could discern. The chocolate came through. The frosting, cloyingly sweet on its own, played well with the cake. A lot of people commented on how moist the cake was, and how delicious. I came home with maybe a third...more than I'd hoped, but still a compliment given the variety and quantity of desserts available. Maybe I can foist some of it off on my current landlords and neighbors.

 

 

@FauxPas, I love your idea of the stencil -- but that definitely wasn't in the cards for today! Maybe sometime. Also, the oven explanation and shots will have to wait until I have better light. The oven light glares too badly. But consider this a placeholder.

 

Will I bake this particular cake again? Maybe. If I do, I'll try the Leite's Culinaria frosting to which @Dave the Cook linked above, and I'll increase the Guinness content. I'll also use the proper springform pan, assuming I wait until I get home, and I'll adjust the oven temperature down a bit for more even baking.

[FauxPas]

10 hours ago, Smithy said:

I love your idea of the stencil -- but that definitely wasn't in the cards for today!

 

Those things only last for a heartbeat anyway - start to cut and they're lost, ha. 🙂

 

[Smithy]

Further to the question of the oven and oven racks: it turns out to be relatively difficult to photograph what I'm talking about, but I'll do my best to describe it with words and pictures.

 

The oven racks themselves are anchored to the oven wall ridges that define the slots with a fore-and-aft arrangement. The back hook, if you will, (at the right of this photo) sits under the ridge. There's a stopper along the bottom of the ridge to prevent the rack from being pulled all the way out by accident. Closer to the front of the rack (at the left of the photo) is a loop that also sits under the ridge to stabilize the rack.

 

 

The way you move a rack from one slot to another is, first pull the rack out enough that the loop at the left will clear the ridge. Then slide the rack all the way to the back, where there's a gap between the ridge and the back wall to let you lift that back hook. Reverse the process to install the rack in another slot.

 

 

This is how a properly installed rack looks:

 

 

However, the very top slot has a light bulb and a thermocouple interfering at the back wall. If you push the rack all the way back and try to lift the back end, as for every other rack position, you bang into the light bulb at one side and the thermocouple at the other. This is what confused me yesterday and required that I pull out a flashlight and look carefully inside. That top set of rack ridges has the gap for the back hook farther forward.

 

 

It works fine, now that I know the arrangement, but it confused the heck out of me yesterday, in the heat of battle so to speak, until I grabbed the flashlight and looked. Fortunately I hadn't started the oven yet!

 

In other culinary news: I had the usual morning walk, gleeful in having found some open space within easy walking distance,

 

 

 

then had my usual breakfast of yogurt, fruit and nuts. Nothing new about that, and I didn't bother to photograph it. Then we were gone most of the day, for social engagements in the late morning and much of the afternoon. Between engagements I had my first (no kidding) fast-food-joint burger since my darling died.

 

 

It was actually pretty good, though I still marvel at the way prices have shot up. This was $11, about what it would have been last year, but I'm still mentally back in the $4 or $5 burger era. I shared most of the meat patty with my canine buddy. I liked the flavor very much, but didn't really want all that food. Now, at 7 pm, I'm still not hungry. It'll be a big dinner salad. Maybe I'll post a photo, maybe not.

 

If the oven rack issue isn't clear enough, ask away!

Edited Friday at 02:59 AM by Smithy
Clarified "pulled all the way" with "by accident" (log)

[Smithy]

Okay, so I changed my mind about posting about dinner. This salad looks pretty and is delicious, and the recipe is worth repeating. Here's dinner.

 

 

The dressing is an oregano vinaigrette from this article:

 

Don't feel like cooking? Try this easy and savory antipasti salad.

 

I didn't much stick to their salad recipe. I have asparagus that needs using, ditto spinach, and I've gotten into another jar of years-old kalamata olives that, I'm happy to report, haven't gone off yet. Meats from the charcuterie board I put together last week. I didn't bother with peperoncinis, cheeses, roasted red peppers or artichoke hearts or basil garnish. (My basil plant has died.) But this salad dressing is one of my favorites, and I'm glad to have a batch of it made again.

[FauxPas]

13 hours ago, Smithy said:

It works fine, now that I know the arrangement, but it confused the heck out of me yesterday, in the heat of battle so to speak, until I grabbed the flashlight and looked. Fortunately I hadn't started the oven yet!

 

Good bit of detective work there, it certainly would take me a while to figure it out! 

 

PJ looks to be digging a very big hole. How deep does he go?  🙂

 

[Smithy]

It's 88F outside and, although I don't especially like this area, I admit that I'm glad to have electricity so I can run the air conditioner. While I wait for it to cool down enough for our evening walk and dig (halfway to China, @FauxPas!) I'll catch up on the culinary front.

 

This rather unflattering photo is of the "barbecue" meal I bought today at a 4H fundraiser.

 

 

It was at a private airport about 20 miles from here, and some impressive airplanes were on display in the spotless hangar.

 

 

Seriously, we could have eaten off the floor of that hangar! But they had tables and chairs set up. 😀 There were also dozens of raffle items -- bread from local bakeries; dates; other food goodie baskets as well as plenty of non-culinary items. I didn't take photos of any of these.

 

The main course was shredded beef that gives the lie to my idea that shredded meat has to have been overcooked. This was delicious and not dry. I wish I'd rearranged the tortilla before taking the photo so you could see how much beef was there. There were also beans, as you see, and salsa, and cole slaw.

 

 

Dessert was a selection of cookies and other desserts. I noted things like pineapple upside down cakes, but I went for the chocolate.

 

 

I've already eaten the chocolate chip cookie. Maybe later tonight I'll feel like having that brownie. Right now I'm having trouble imagining taking in anything except water, and more water, and more water for the rest of the evening. With lots of ice.

 

Speaking of chocolate: I mentioned earlier that I'd come home with some of the Guinness Stout cake I'd made for the soup and dessert party a couple of days ago. Here's a refresher photo:

 

 

Well, I had some of it yesterday and my opinion of it went from "good" to "very good". I don't know whether I was just fatigued by the process on that first night, or overwhelmed by all the choices. Perhaps it improved from sitting a day or so. Yes, I'll make that cake again. In the meantime, I did foist the rest off on my hosts/landlords, and they're delighted with it.

[Smithy]

Yesterday's culinary adventure: I finally got around to making the Sopa de Lima I've been raving about from the San Diego Peace Corps Association's "Taste the World" event that I attended in January. This recipe came from chef Matt, who graciously gave me the recipe and permission to post it. Here it is, as he sent it to me. At some point I'll post it in RecipeGullet.

 

Lime Soup (RPCV).docx

 

The recipe calls for both a skillet and a pan, and I opted instead for my enameled cast iron pot for both steps. That meant digging it out of its hidey hole inside the bench I'm currently sitting on. (Of course, that space didn't remain empty for very long.)

 

 

My stash of Penzey's Spices was still easy to find! I opened the jar of Mexican Oregano. That's very nice stuff. It isn't as full of stems as the Rancho Gordo version I've used before. I'm going to like using this.

 

 

Then there was the question of juicing the Key limes. Of course I was going to use my trusty juicer, but I decided to test the methods suggested above by @Margaret Pilgrim and @KennethT as well as simply slicing and squeezing them.

 

First up: simply slice along the equator and squeeze. After doing that to 4 limes, I had 40 ml of juice.

 

 

Next up, I microwaved briefly and rolled them around on the counter to release more juice. It looked as though it should have released more juice -- certainly the squozen halves looked like they had less juice left in the pulp -- but juicing 4 limes that way only gave me 30 ml of juice.

 

The third trial was to slice off some of the outer skin and pop the limes into the juicer otherwise uncut. I have to admit that each lime made a very satisying "pop" when its structure finally let go, but my results were along the lines of 20 ml using that method. Maybe a bit more. As you can see in the photo, it gets harder to judge the gradations as the total goes up, but I was disinclined to keep emptying that container for more precise measurements. The kitchen scale would have been even more precise, but I wasn't up for that either. 

 

 

I finished the process on the final 8 limes using my original method: cut in half equatorially, no heating, no rolling. Squeeze. That yielded another 60 ml, which means it was more or less in line with the heating method but quicker. The total yield of Key lime juice was 150 ml.

 

The rest of the mise: a chopped onion, sliced carrot and celery, minced garlic, chopped cilantro, sliced green onion, the oregano, 3! containers of homemade chicken broth from the freezer, sliced tortillas to be fried, chopped avocado. Shredded chicken from Albertson's. I bought it last week and tucked it away in the freezer. Not shown: a bay leaf, because I seem to have left those at home.

 

 

First up: gently fry the tortilla strips in oil, just until they start to brown, then move to drain on a plate. I was surprised at how much they continued to brown after they came out of the oil, and how deliciously crispy they were. Set them aside as garnish, for later.

 

 

Sweat the onion, carrot and celery until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic, oregano, and bay leaf it you have it, and cook for about another minute. Add the broth. At this point your're supposed to put in boneless, skinless chicken breast to cook, and here I took the shortcut of already-cooked shredded chicken. This saved me about 15 minutes but probably made a flavor difference. When the chicken is cooked, remove it to shred it while the soup continues to simmer. Then, after the chicken has been shredded into bite-sized pieces, return it to the pot and add the lime juice and green onions. Cook until the chicken is heated through. Taste and adjust the seasonings, especially the salt. Serve the soup hot, with garnish of the tortilla strips, avocado and cilantro.

 

 

This was very, very good. It had a slight citrus peel bitterness that I suspect was from oversqueezing the limes. Next time I won't be quite so vigorous. The broth also might have been richer if I'd cooked the chicken in it rather than using precooked chicken. Still, it was good. It'll be worth cooking again and again, and I'll have no trouble eating the leftovers!

[Kerry Beal]

44 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Yesterday's culinary adventure: I finally got around to making the Sopa de Lima I've been raving about from the San Diego Peace Corps Association's "Taste the World" event that I attended in January. This recipe came from chef Matt, who graciously gave me the recipe and permission to post it. Here it is, as he sent it to me. At some point I'll post it in RecipeGullet.

 

Lime Soup (RPCV).docx 17.82 kB · 2 downloads

 

The recipe calls for both a skillet and a pan, and I opted instead for my enameled cast iron pot for both steps. That meant digging it out of its hidey hole inside the bench I'm currently sitting on. (Of course, that space didn't remain empty for very long.)

 

 

My stash of Penzey's Spices was still easy to find! I opened the jar of Mexican Oregano. That's very nice stuff. It isn't as full of stems as the Rancho Gordo version I've used before. I'm going to like using this.

 

 

Then there was the question of juicing the Key limes. Of course I was going to use my trusty juicer, but I decided to test the methods suggested above by @Margaret Pilgrim and @KennethT as well as simply slicing and squeezing them.

 

First up: simply slice along the equator and squeeze. After doing that to 4 limes, I had 40 ml of juice.

 

 

Next up, I microwaved briefly and rolled them around on the counter to release more juice. It looked as though it should have released more juice -- certainly the squozen halves looked like they had less juice left in the pulp -- but juicing 4 limes that way only gave me 30 ml of juice.

 

The third trial was to slice off some of the outer skin and pop the limes into the juicer otherwise uncut. I have to admit that each lime made a very satisying "pop" when its structure finally let go, but my results were along the lines of 20 ml using that method. Maybe a bit more. As you can see in the photo, it gets harder to judge the gradations as the total goes up, but I was disinclined to keep emptying that container for more precise measurements. The kitchen scale would have been even more precise, but I wasn't up for that either. 

 

 

I finished the process on the final 8 limes using my original method: cut in half equatorially, no heating, no rolling. Squeeze. That yielded another 60 ml, which means it was more or less in line with the heating method but quicker. The total yield of Key lime juice was 150 ml.

 

The rest of the mise: a chopped onion, sliced carrot and celery, minced garlic, chopped cilantro, sliced green onion, the oregano, 3! containers of homemade chicken broth from the freezer, sliced tortillas to be fried, chopped avocado. Shredded chicken from Albertson's. I bought it last week and tucked it away in the freezer. Not shown: a bay leaf, because I seem to have left those at home.

 

 

First up: gently fry the tortilla strips in oil, just until they start to brown, then move to drain on a plate. I was surprised at how much they continued to brown after they came out of the oil, and how deliciously crispy they were. Set them aside as garnish, for later.

 

 

Sweat the onion, carrot and celery until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic, oregano, and bay leaf it you have it, and cook for about another minute. Add the broth. At this point your're supposed to put in boneless, skinless chicken breast to cook, and here I took the shortcut of already-cooked shredded chicken. This saved me about 15 minutes but probably made a flavor difference. When the chicken is cooked, remove it to shred it while the soup continues to simmer. Then, after the chicken has been shredded into bite-sized pieces, return it to the pot and add the lime juice and green onions. Cook until the chicken is heated through. Taste and adjust the seasonings, especially the salt. Serve the soup hot, with garnish of the tortilla strips, avocado and cilantro.

 

 

This was very, very good. It had a slight citrus peel bitterness that I suspect was from oversqueezing the limes. Next time I won't be quite so vigorous. The broth also might have been richer if I'd cooked the chicken in it rather than using precooked chicken. Still, it was good. It'll be worth cooking again and again, and I'll have no trouble eating the leftovers!

I've got keylime juice in the freezer which is not palatable due to the amount of oil from the skin since I used a juice extractor - I really should pitch it. 

 

Last sopa de lima I made I used persian limes and I was very happy with it - and so much easier to juice!