Camping, Princess Style

[Okanagancook]

Snap.  I have the exact same juicer.  I found it in a junk shop for $13 and they actually had two so I got the other one for a good friend.  They are magical, especially for juicing limes.

[heidih]

Snap also. My friend found that one in a thrift store. It is such a cool thing she displays it on a special shelf. No I'm not envious at all. (imagine last bit in green)

 

[Smithy]

My mother gave me hers, but then missed it, so I found another in a thrift store, or on eBay - I don't remember - and surprised her with it. When she passed, my sister got that one. Since then I've bought at least 2 more when I found them: one for the trailer, at least one more for friends who admired mine. 

[Smithy]

Last night was our first campfire, and first campfire cooking. Hash. We're a bit out of practice, so the potatoes were a bit, er, crisp.

 

 

No matter. It's my darling's comfort food,  and the landscape was drenched with moonlight after the fire went out. 

[lemniscate]

12 hours ago, FauxPas said:

 

Curious about the pom juicing. Would love to hear more about it. 

 

I made a topic for the pomegranate juicing here with pics.

[heidih]

I so miss cooking with fire. I sold my fire pit and Weber kettle at a moving sale. Stupidly didn't check out OSH (Orchard Supply a hardware chain Lowe's just closed completely) in final days. Thanks for inspiring me. There is a stack of dry firewood on the kitchen patio.

[Smithy]

@heidih, are you saying Orchard Supply is no more anywhere? 😞 I loved that chain.

[heidih]

Yup - all gone.  The one up the road was brand new - maybe a year old. Now I'm stuck with the hell of Home Depot or Lowes (across street from each other!) further away.   https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-osh-closure-20180822-story.html

Edited November 22, 2018 by heidih (log)

[Smithy]

I hope y'all had a nice Thanksgiving. Ours was typically quiet: we'll be with family for Christmas, we hope, but Thanksgiving has been on our own since we began spending our winters rambling. Yesterday was no different.

 

One advantage to not doing Thanksgiving with others is that we aren't bound by the firm traditions. Turkey is okay, but we'd rather have prime rib. I have never liked pumpkin pie, and he isn't much of a dessert eater. Sweet potatoes aren't our bag, although they can be nice if simply roasted, perhaps served with butter - but none of that marshmallow junk, thankyouverymuch. So it goes.

 

My first batch of sourdough bread, which was proofing during an earlier post, came out pretty well. It used the Sonoran wheat blend, and the sourdough starter is still my original starter from home. I'm glad I didn't pitch it. Could I tell a difference between this wheat blend and King Arthur white whole wheat? Well, no. I'll try the next loaf with commercial yeast to see if anything stands out.

 

 

(I think I left the dough in the banneton too long. The surface was quite firm, as evidenced by the slashes.)

 

The menu: scalloped corn, scalloped potatoes, green beans with bacon, prime rib with horseradish sauce, and the above-mentioned bread. The only stovetop dish was the green beans. The oven has a single rack and a small chamber. Consequently everything was done in stages - bread first, then the corn and potatoes (those two dishes could share a rack) and finally the prime rib. With the oven running at high temperature, the back of the range - where the oven vents - served as a good warming rack. The dishes were all kept covered until serving time. The bread is still in foil, behind everything else, in this picture.

 

 

While the prime rib was cooking, I grated a small horseradish root and made sauce for the meat. I wrote more about it here. It's been a while since I tried making horseradish sauce. Are there any enthusiasts out there who'd care to share their methods?

 

 

Dinner.

 

 

This morning, all that remains is to re-squirrel away the baking dishes in their various hidey holes!

[FauxPas]

This looks delicious! 

 

[lindag]

46 minutes ago, Smithy said:

. Sweet potatoes aren't our bag, although they can be nice if simply roasted, perhaps served with butter -

 

I love sweet potatoes (yams) but not the sweet, marshmallowy kind.

Cooks Country provided me with a super simple way to achieve wonderful mashed  Sweet Potatoes.

Just simmer the sliced up yams in a saucepan with butter and a small amount of cream until soft.  Mash and add a pinch of salt....just perfect.  A sum much greater that those parts.

Edited November 23, 2018 by lindag (log)

[Kim Shook]

That meal looks amazing!  Every bit.  But the green beans are speaking to me for some reason.  Time to put the big Club aluminum on the stove and get some side meat out of the freezer, I guess!

[Smithy]

32 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

That meal looks amazing!  Every bit.  But the green beans are speaking to me for some reason.  Time to put the big Club aluminum on the stove and get some side meat out of the freezer, I guess!

 

Thanks! I guess in this one way, I am a traditionalist. That green bean treatment has been one of our family holiday fixtures for as long as I can remember. My grandmother used one of her Wearever aluminum pots for it, and simmered those beans for hours. I have that pot set, although it isn't along with us in the trailer.

[Smithy]

The Sonoran sourdough starter is alive and well. In this collage, the left-hand photo was just after refreshing and the right-hand photo was only 4 hours afterward. I put the "TUC" label on the container, with the bottom of the label at the top level of the starter, just after I took the photo on the left.

 

 

In these pictures, the left-hand photo is of the newly-refreshed starter and the right-hand photo is of the discard.

 

 

I think I'll mix some bread with it tomorrow.

[Smithy]

I like chiles rellenos. I really do. I want to learn to make them. So with that in mind, and spurred by some philanthropic project to boot, I bought this book some time last year:

 

 

It sounds like a neat deal: mix up a stuffing, prepare the chiles, fill them, batter and coat them, fry them, eat them.

 

No, wait. That already sounds like too many steps.

 

Nonetheless, today was the day to start. I was on a trailer-cleaning binge, and the cleaning extended to the refrigerator. The stuffing incuded, in stages: 

• chunks of white bread from a recipe test back in October (scary that it hadn't molded yet)
• chopped scallions
• hamburger pulled out of the freezer and mixed in
• at least a cup of cherry tomatoes, roasted and covered in olive oil, per @ElainaA's recipe (and no, @Shelby, the tomatoes were not peeled )
• chopped celery - another bag gone from the 'fridge'!
• a peeled, seeded and chopped Hatch chile
• spices such as cumin, oregano and a bit of chili powder
• the last bits of Fagundes Farms' Hanford Jack - San Joaquin and Hanford Jack - Smoked Jalapeno cheeses with us

 

 

(Ignore the lower right picture until later.)

 

I got the stuffing mixed. I started preparing the chiles. I had a number of jalapenos, a couple of poblanos, and a couple of red (ripe) bell peppers. I've never bothered to peel bell peppers, but my book assured me that the poblanos and jalapenos needed to be peeled. I fired up the outside stove, blistered those babies, put 'em in a covered bowl, and went for a walk.

 

 

I came back. Those peppers were staring at me from beneath the bowl cover. I peeled and seeded them. I stuffed them.

 

I realized that 

(a) there were more peppers than we could possibly eat in one night and 

(b) I didn't want to mess with mixing a batter, firing up the outside stove and frying those things. The jalapenos went into a container for tomorrow (that's the lower right picture, two photos above). The bells and poblanos went into the oven.

 

When they came out, we ate.

 

 

Filling was runny. It needed rice (my preference) or orzo (his) to absorb more of the juices. I didn't have enough bread in the mixture. Nonetheless, it was good. Maybe tomorrow I'll have the gumption to batter and fry those jalapenos.

[Shelby]

Looks delicious to me!  I'm craving that now.  I've always used this recipe  that comes from the place that I buy my Hatch peppers.  However, I've had this recipe for chiles relleno casserole--- suggested by @Darienne --on my list to try .  

 

I'm regretting that I didn't order fresh Hatch chiles in August....I thought I had a ton in the freezer...turns out, I didn't have as many as I thought, and I've used a bunch, so I placed an order for frozen ones that should be here sometime this week.

[Smithy]

@Shelby, I've had that same casserole recipe bookmarked. Thanks for the reminder!

 

When you order the fresh Hatch chiles, do they come really fresh - and then you have to roast and peel and seed them?

[Shelby]

9 minutes ago, Smithy said:

@Shelby, I've had that same casserole recipe bookmarked. Thanks for the reminder!

 

When you order the fresh Hatch chiles, do they come really fresh - and then you have to roast and peel and seed them?

 

Yes, they are wonderful--just picked.  They smell amazing just fresh from the box.  The upside is that they are so very good fresh, the downside is all the work to roast and peel......

 

The ones that they roast and freeze are very good, too.

[Smithy]

By the way, that link of @Darienne's led me down a fine rabbit hole to Yet Another Cookbook that I bought in anticipation of this trip. "Seasoned With Sun: Recipes from the Corner of Texas and Old Mexico" is a cookbook by the Junior League of El Paso, Inc. and it has an interesting selection of recipes.

 

 

There's a Chile Relleno Souffle, a Green Chile Pie, and - yes - a Chilie (sic) Relleno Casserole, compliments of Old El Paso Company, that is the inspiration for the recipe in Darienne's link. There are numerous recipes for Chiles Rellenos, enchiladas, tamales, salsas...and that's just  in the "Mexican" section. The main part of the book is broken into the usual: Soups and Sandwiches, Entrees and so on. I am looking forward to trying "Chile en Escabeche" / "Cured Chile", which is a pickle. I thought of @Shelby when I looked at the Entree section: sure, there are plenty of chicken, beef and ham recipes, but there are also Glazed Duck with Plum Sauce, Dove Casserole, Fried Quail with Cream Gravy, Quail with Wine Sauce, and Pheasant with Brandy Cream Sauce. There are a couple of venison recipes as well. I don't have ready access to the wild birds or game any more, but if I did, I'd be trying these.

Edited November 26, 2018 by Smithy
added information (log)

[IowaDee]

The cover of that book is perfect.  Name me one person who could possibly resist going through that door!  You just have to see and taste what awaits you on the other side.  We are currently on a mole kick and that along with chile rellenos are the perfect foods until further notice  

[Jacksoup]

@Smithy  I have that cookbook!  My parents lived in El Paso and my mom gifted it to me so long ago I can’t remember the exact year.  Time to get it out for a look through.  All this talk about Chile Rellenos is making me want some.  I made them once 40 years ago, with a Hispanic friend.  I only remember that the batter started with whipped egg whites.

[Smithy]

15 hours ago, Jacksoup said:

@Smithy  I have that cookbook!  My parents lived in El Paso and my mom gifted it to me so long ago I can’t remember the exact year.  Time to get it out for a look through.  All this talk about Chile Rellenos is making me want some.  I made them once 40 years ago, with a Hispanic friend.  I only remember that the batter started with whipped egg whites.

 

Do get that book out, and check it out! Maybe we can explore it together, in a "Cooking from..." type topic.

[Smithy]

Ooops.

 

 

I baked bread yesterday. While the oven was preheating, I remembered - just a bit too late - that I keep the Tucson starter at the back of the stove to get a little heat from the pilot light. I cooked part of the starter! Fortunately, I also had a larger container back there for building my first batch of bread from the Tucson colony. It hadn't overheated yet, so I was able to discard what you see above.

[MelissaH]

3 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

Do get that book out, and check it out! Maybe we can explore it together, in a "Cooking from..." type topic.

I love community cookbooks. In particular, it's amusing to see which ones list women as Mrs. Husband's Name, whether the women get their own names, and if time and place have anything to do with it. We don't currently have a topic about them, do we?

[kayb]

One of my treasured cookbooks is from Marion United Methodist Church ( @Smithy, that's about four blocks on down the street from where we ate lunch). It has two pages which are so grease-stained I can barely read them any more. One is my go-to dinner roll recipe. The other is curried chicken salad. Both are absolutely outstanding. That church had more wonderful cooks than I've ever known congregated in one place!