Camping, Princess Style

[Anna N]

35 minutes ago, kayb said:

God love you. Nothing more miserable than having no escape from the heat.

 

It's going to snow here tomorrow, the weatherpeople say.

 

-10 with flurries. 

[sartoric]

Love Charmaine Solomon, my mother in law took a cooking class with her in the '60s and I have the notes !

[ElsieD]

I had never heard of adjika until now.  I did some googling and found various recipes.  I think I'll make up a batch this summer when tomatoes are in season.  I assume, @Smithy that yours contained the ingredients you listed?  Sounds delicious.

[Smithy]

50 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

I had never heard of adjika until now.  I did some googling and found various recipes.  I think I'll make up a batch this summer when tomatoes are in season.  I assume, @Smithy that yours contained the ingredients you listed?  Sounds delicious.

 

It is indeed delicious. I've written more about the sauce and the process in this post in the Meatball Cook-off topic.  The recipes specifies 4 red chilis (nothing more specific) and I substituted half a jalapeño, some red chili flakes and Aleppo pepper. I think that accounts for my making a multicolored sauce instead of the red paste they describe, but we had no complaints here. 

[blue_dolphin]

Over in the meatball topic, you wrote:

7 minutes ago, Smithy said:

I loved finding a recipe that uses barberries!

 

I loved that you had barberries at hand in the Princessmobile!

 

[Smithy]

@sartoric, I count myself lucky to have scored this Charmaine Solomon book. I'd never heard of her before, but I like her writing style.  I was a bit taken aback by the Hunza Pie recipe, which opens with "Remember when every "alternative liefstyle" resaurant was serving Hunza Pie?" I certainly didn't...and that's when I realized she's from the opposite side of the globe. 

 

@kayb, I have to ask: is "God love you" the equivalent of "Bless your heart"? If so, I'll laugh and apologize.  

 

Dinner last night was more of the salad, meatballs and adzika, this time all in one bowl apiece.  The mess from frying was as bad as before, but fewer dishes needed to be washed.

 

[sartoric]

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

@sartoric, I count myself lucky to have scored this Charmaine Solomon book. I'd never heard of her before, but I like her writing style.  I was a bit taken aback by the Hunza Pie recipe, which opens with "Remember when every "alternative liefstyle" resaurant was serving Hunza Pie?" I certainly didn't...and that's when I realized she's from the opposite side of the globe. 

 

@kayb, I have to ask: is "God love you" the equivalent of "Bless your heart"? If so, I'll laugh and apologize.  

 

Dinner last night was more of the salad, meatballs and adzika, this time all in one bowl apiece.  The mess from frying was as bad as before, but fewer dishes needed to be washed.

 

 

She also has another revered book, The Complete Asian Kitchen. 

I remember Hunza pie, tried to make one once in the '70s. Only once.....

[Smithy]

1 minute ago, sartoric said:

 

She also has another revered book, The Complete Asian Kitchen. 

I remember Hunza pie, tried to make one once in the '70s. Only once.....

 

Ah, then perhaps I won't give that one a try?  

 

I spotted The Complete Asian Cookbook on Amazon when I was linking to the vegetarian book.  Have you cooked much from it?  

[sartoric]

16 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

Ah, then perhaps I won't give that one a try?  

 

I spotted The Complete Asian Cookbook on Amazon when I was linking to the vegetarian book.  Have you cooked much from it?  

I haven't got the book, but borrowed it from the library a few times. I see them in op shops from time to time, however I'm on a bookshelf moratorium. If a new one comes in, an oldie must go.....

[Okanagancook]

Her Complete Asian cookbook is the most used book in my collection.  In fact I trashed the binding on my first copy and DH got me a new one several years ago and it has duck tape on the spine to keep it together.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.  Not a bad recipe in the book.  The Indo section meat recipes are really good in the summer.

[kayb]

@Smithy, yes, "God love you" is interchangeable with "bless your heart." It was my grandmother's preferred usage, and I guess I picked it up along the way.

 

 

[Smithy]

3 minutes ago, kayb said:

@Smithy, yes, "God love you" is interchangeable with "bless your heart." It was my grandmother's preferred usage, and I guess I picked it up along the way.

 

 

 

My grandmother's version was "well, bless your gizzard!" She usually was joking but we grew up knowing what it really means.

[Kasia]

On 12/18/2016 at 0:12 AM, IowaDee said:

I really like them too.  Why do I think they look Polish or Russian?  Kind of kinky to see those big, blue eyes among the lettuce leafs.  Anxious to hear the story.  

Loved the site with the dinosaurs.  Heck, I'm loving everything about  your trip as usual.  

beeing Polish I would say that they may be rather Russian:)  - I connote them rather with matryoshka dolls

[chromedome]

On 11/03/2017 at 9:13 PM, kayb said:

@Smithy, yes, "God love you" is interchangeable with "bless your heart." It was my grandmother's preferred usage, and I guess I picked it up along the way.

 

 

In my neck of the woods, "God love him/her" is often used as a gentle slight, an expression of amused tolerance over someone's just-can't-help-it foolishness. I think it probably parallels the Southern "bless his/her heart" in that respect. 

Edited March 13, 2017 by chromedome
fixed minor typo (log)

[Smithy]

52 minutes ago, chromedome said:

In my neck of the woods, "God love him/her" is often used as a gentle slight, an expression of amused tolerance over someone's just-can't-help-it foolishness. I think it probably parallels the Southern "bless his/her heart" in that respect. 

 

That's kinda what I was getting at.  Just wanted to make sure I understood the message. 

 

So yesterday while many of you were dealing with cold, snow and winds, we awoke to an outside temperature of 70F.  The peak temperature in the afternoon - both inside the trailer and out - was 95. I had done all the necessary prep work for dinner and lunch during the morning hours.

 

Tabbouleh was the plan for lunch, yesterday and today - and if it lasts, tomorrow.

 

A couple of days ago I began defrosting our last package of shrimp from somewhere on the Gulf of Mexico.  I've been saving these huge beauties for butterflying and grilling, or some other treatment ideal for large shrimp.  Despite those plans, ceviche seemed in order.

 

(As a side note: freezing shrimp with the ice in which they were packed seems to be an ideal method.  It took a couple of days for that interior ice to melt, so the thaw was slow and gentle.  These shrimp still smelled delightfully briny and fresh. I felt guilty for tossing the shells, but I already have shrimp broth in the freezer for which I have no plans.)

 

We're out of Mexican limes and didn't have any regular (Persian) limes, so it was nice to have a jar of frozen juice from last year's(!) batch along with us. 

 

 

I reserved a few of the shrimp whole for grilling, and that's going to happen tonight.  There was still plenty for the ceviche.  Shrimp ceviche and chips: that was dinner, sometime well after dark.  There are no dinner pictures.

 

I'll write about my exciting bread preparation and the mess it made later; we're going for a walk before it gets too hot.  In the meantime, here's a bit of the local color.  If you look carefully at the shoe, in there for size, you'll see a lot of mustard-yellow.  That's pollen.  The desert is blooming!

 

 

 

 

 

[Shelby]

Those shrimp look so good I can almost smell them.  I love ceviche.  

 

I hate being hot, though.  You have my utmost respect.  I would be sniping at my husband to get to someplace cooler (even if our vehicle was in the shop lol). He would probably leave me in the desert. 

[ElsieD]

@Smithy. Those are phenomenal shrimp.  One of our local stores sell Mexican shrimp for $23 a pound.  I have yet to try them as I have trouble shelling out $23 for a pound of shrimp.  How much do they weigh?

[Smithy]

 

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

@Smithy. Those are phenomenal shrimp.  One of our local stores sell Mexican shrimp for $23 a pound.  I have yet to try them as I have trouble shelling out $23 for a pound of shrimp.  How much do they weigh?

 

The 8 that I held back weigh 268 grams (9¹/₂ oz), which works out to 33.5g apiece.  That makes them "Extra Jumbo" according to this chart.  They were more expensive than the smaller shrimp, but not as exorbitant as $23/lb.  Maybe we paid $15 or $16/lb?  I wouldn't have bought them if they hadn't been so gorgeous and fresh, but they passed the sniff test at the shop and I'm glad I bought them.

[Smithy]

The other thing I did yesterday morning was mix sourdough pita dough.  I set it in the refrigerator to rest and develop overnight, with an eye to baking it this morning.  This morning, when I pulled it from the refrigerator, a packet of cheese was stuck to it.  Overnight it had become the Monster that Ate the Refrigerator.

 

 

Perhaps it's because in yesterday's heat the refrigerator was up to 54F.  This morning it had crawled down to 42.

 

I took the silicone lid off and cut the overflow away.  It's a bit on the dried and crusty side.  I have it under a damp tea towel to see whether I can moisten it enough to make it pliable again.  The remainder of the dough, that stayed in the container, seems okay.

 

 

Any advice about what to do with this mess?  I'm going to clean up my breakfast dishes and then start rolling the pita.

 

Edited to add: The dried stuff on the right was successfully rehydrated and also made into pitas. We're set for snack / sandwich breads for a few days.

 

Edited March 13, 2017 by Smithy
Added update (log)

[Okanagancook]

Those shrimp remind me of the big ones we got when in Mazatlan, Mexico (shrimp capital apparently). 

We used to slice them open to make a pocket; tuck in some cheddar cheese then wrap them in thinly sliced bacon; on to the grill.  

Edited March 13, 2017 by Okanagancook
typo (log)

[Smithy]

7 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Those shrimp remind me of the big ones we got when in Mazatlan, Mexico (shrimp capital apparently). 

We used to slice them open to make a pocket; tuck in some cheddar cheese then wrap them in thinly sliced bacon; on to the grill.  

 

 

Bacon is coming out of the freezer, right now.  Thanks!

[Smithy]

Lunch:

 

[kayb]

How in the world do you stand to bake when it's that hot inside? My bread-baking drops back to, if not nothing, very little during the summer. Although, of late, I haven't been eating much bread, so it hasn't been very much anyway.

 

Love those shrimp. I still have some from last fall I brought home from Florida. I put them in a container and cover with water and freeze; they last wonderfully!

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Beautiful pita bread right in the middle of the baking desert! Lovely meals too, and the shrimp are amazing.

 

14 hours ago, chromedome said:

In my neck of the woods, "God love him/her" is often used as a gentle slight, an expression of amused tolerance over someone's just-can't-help-it foolishness. I think it probably parallels the Southern "bless his/her heart" in that respect. 

 

 

Ah, the nuances and misunderstandings we can have with language. Until we all evolve into telepathy, I'm afraid we're stuck with its shortcomings, though. As a Southerner, I can assure you that @kayb's usage of "God love you" held no negative connotation at all. Bless their heart/God love you/them/her/him is always a sincere expression of sympathy for an adverse situation. Sometimes, and not in this case, it can have an implied meaning that the victim of the adverse situation inflicted it upon themselves though foolishness, or feeble-mindedness. I have never heard this inflection addressed directly to the person by a Southern speaker. It is always when speaking to someone else about the person when that person is not present or out of earshot. I thought Southern speak was pretty straightforward, but we find here, that it can be vulnerable to misunderstanding too.  I'm pretty confident when I state that anyone who has gotten to know Nancy through her postings thinks of her as the opposite of foolish or feeble-minded.

[chromedome]

I believe the quote is "divided by a common language," isn't it?

I've most often heard the Southern-ism described as a behind-the-back verbal knife, but will cheerfully and whole-heartedly defer to first-hand knowledge. I had no intention of my comment being a reflection on anyone specific, I was (in my own mind) simply contributing to a digression on the subject of regional colloquialisms. If I've inadvertently slighted anyone, please accept my apologies.