What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Local ,grapefruit lovers are grapeful.

Auto-correct finally gets one right!

Occasionally their bounty tends my way with passion fruit, eggs etc.

Good. At least the plant bears some kind of fruit you can eat.

[Jenise]

Tonight will be grilled sausages and fresh lical cherries. We're camping in the heart of Washington cherry production. Might hzve to leave out the sausage, though, and sub cheese and crackers. The Limburger I brought along has filled the fridge with quite an odor--even for a stinky cheese lover like me.

The Great Work Has Begun.

As I write this, I am churning three incredibly unattractive over-over-overripe bananas into ice cream. I'm following a David Lebovitz recipe: mix the bananas with brown sugar and butter, roast in a hot oven for 40 minutes, then mix with milk and vanilla, and churn.

I'm at the soft-serve stage and it's quite good.

ETA: But the final product is powdery, like sorbet or ice milk. I did wonder why he called for milk instead of cream but I trusted. Perhaps I need to let it get more melty when serving.

ETA: More melty doesn't happen. It's banana-flavored snow and that's all it is.

Dinner last night was Thai stir-fried chicken with Thai peppers and holy basil (pad prik gai bai grapow).

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

We're home from our camping trip. I wish it were easier to post pix on this site as I took some great photos of all the little miracles I produced with but two pans and a camp stove. Much of which were like episodes of Chopped. I combined leftover fresh Mexican salsa, tabasco sauce, butter and dried oregano (one of the four dried herbs I packed little baggies of for the trip) to make a Shrimp Creole on the fly that I served on leftover Mexican rice. I had thrown a little baggie of 12 frozen, still in the shell gulf shrimp in our van's freezer the morning we left with thinking I'd just do a simple grill with olive oil and garlic--but like everything else, no real plan, everything's a blank canvas--but the leftover rice and salsa picked up on the road suggested this other dish. It was FANTASTIC. I love the challenge of creating something out of nothing.

But the trip got cut short, as a sciatic condition I've recently acquired made it almost impossible to get in and out of the van. Haven't done much since we got home except sit around with ice packs and a massage machine. Dinner last night was hamburger patties and green salad.

Which is a huge problem as Bob's son and granddaughters arrive tomorrow. I have four extra people to provide meals to for four days. I don't know how I'm going to get through this!!!

I wish it were easier to post pix on this site as I took some great photos of all the little miracles I produced with but two pans and a camp stove.

So, make a gallery on some picture-sharing site that is easy to use and just link it here. I use Fotki and a link looks like this:
https://public.fotki.com/jeffg165/family/2018-07-jeremy-visit/

...and dried oregano (one of the four dried herbs I packed little baggies of for the trip)

Let's guess the other three: tarragon, sage, thyme?

But the trip got cut short, as a sciatic condition I've recently acquired made it almost impossible to get in and out of the van.

Ouch. And once the silly thing is inflamed it can take days to settle down. I'll think cool thoughts for you.

I have four extra people to provide meals to for four days. I don't know how I'm going to get through this!!!

Pretend you're camping....

[Jenise]

Jeff, I'll take a look at that.

Close, re the herbs. I have SO little space in my little RV--it's a 22 ft van, not a big-ass motor home, I have room for very little in the way of pantry staples. What I can take is one type of vinegar, one type of oil, salt and pepper (both in grinders from Costco, very handy), Lawry's garlic and seasoning salts, and a little half pint carton that holds sandwich baggies of a few tblsps of spice/herbs. This time it was red chile flakes, oregano, French basil, tarragon and herbs d'Provence. The oregano's the only iron-clad regular, others like those listed and berbere, dill, sage and thyme will depend on my mood when I'm packing. I'll choose a bottle of hot sauce to go along (I have many on hand, usually for hard-boiled eggs), and have tiny bottles of soy and oyster sauce. That's all there's room for in my one tiny cupboard, which also holds dishwashing soap, PAM, paper plates and all the disposable bags acquired enroute. Everything I cook gets seasoned with those things.

Which actually makes it fun. The restrictiveness makes it even more a fun challenge to think outside the box--like that shrimp creole I described.

Hey Jenise, I loved all the fun we had over 47 yeas of camping. The challenges of limited cookware, ,pantry staples, fridge space etc. make for lots of fun and good things emerge surprisingly.
When we wer very young we crossed the country Melbourne to Perth (and back) in a VW beetle, with a two person tent, single burner stove and an Esky (small ice chest) in summer! We had fun and some great meals, it’s about the logistics and wanting to eat real food and a determination to eschew such traditional camping food like baked beans.
Our final camping journeys were in a small 5 meter RV, luxurious in comparison, but challenging in a good way and so much fun, we had solar so were able to go bush and be away from civilisation for days at a time. So many wonderful memories.

[Jenise]

Barb, thanks for chiming in. Bob and I didn't start out together so camping didn't occur until we had a suitable vehicle. Our tiny RV is very luxurious but small and portable enough for adventure and fuel efficient (we get 22 mpg) enough to avoid guilt. Don't need campgrounds or utility hookups, we can boondock for days at a time--solar would be a great addition, and we're thinking about it. But owning it is the result of having wanted, back in the day, to be like you and see the world in a Volkswagen. Really. Our van isn't a second home like those monster RVs with five TV's, as we put like to put it it's a luxury car we can sleep in. To have done that in Australia? WOW.

And I know what you mean about baked beans. No canned food here, no hot dogs. We DINE.

[Jenise]

Oh, dinner tonight: cedar-planked steelhead salmon from the Columbia river, apple cider vinaigrette splash for a sauce, pasta salad, grilled nectarines.

Hot dogs and hamburgers here; very traditional July 4th.

Final note on the roasted banana snow: I whipped some cream, stirred in the snow, and layered it atop some graham cracker crumbs (flavored with espresso), chocolate shavings, and toasted hazelnuts. It takes a long time to defrost and the balance is not right but, every now and then, a spoonful of it comes out good.

My Yankee husband gives me props for doing the utmost to make something good come from three way overripe bananas.

Making a cassoulet for Sunday lunch with friends coming fromMelbourne, going to follow it with Lime delicious,a self saucing pudding (heaps of limes at the moment). But still needing something fresh to start. Ideas welcome.
The cassoulet should also be enough for my goddaughter and her husband who are coming the next day to spend the day with me and take the kids fishing (like they go across the road to the river, too easy). So cassoulet for grownups and kids will be offered it but backup plan for them is a sausage sizzle. then a fruit flan.

Weighty main dish so perhaps something light to start? How about a simple ambrosia: chunks of pineapple, orange segments, shaved coconut, a couple maraschino cherries, if you have them.

Thanks Jeff, that sounds like a nice starter and I’ll put in the to do list. My guests are currently living in Bali so probably eating heaps of pineapple and coconut! And papaya and lots of good stuff. They may be able to convince me to visit!
At the shop earlier they had cherry tomatoes on the vine soo... I’ll splash themwith evoo and roast and serve on wilted baby spinach, season and maybe balsamic drizzle or squeeze of lime.

I’ve heard about the banana ice cream, I just chuck overripes whole in then freezer and make banana bread when the need arises.

We had a fun 4th, Cambodian corn, grilled clams with fried garlic, lots of other stuff. But hit of party was an (incredibly easy) dish of grilled tuna with green garlic/wasabi aioli). I did 4 tuna steaks, 3 lbs total. I did biggest medium rare, next rare, the 2 smaller ones bleu and med+. Sliced on a big platter by doneness. Perfect for varied crowd, everyone got a slice that worked for them. 5-8 minutes to make aioli, 2 minutes for marinade, 10 minutes total grilling.

https://food52.com/recipes/12101-tuna-p ... ith-wasabi

[Jenise]

That sounds delicious, Dale. That aioli would be great with any fish. I'm so envious that you're able to buy tuna. Bizarre thing here--no tuna. I mean, it's caught out in the Pacific and we can it but none makes it fresh on to fishmonger's shelves. Crazy. And by the way, this is a town of 100K and the only fish store here closed a few years ago.

Tonight I'm making rigatoni pommodoro. The granddaughters have responded well to everything I've cooked so far but I think it's time to make a vegetarian dinner and avoid being meat-centric. However, some salami (which apparently they love) will make an appearance on an antipasto platter.

I’ve heard about the banana ice cream, I just chuck overripes whole in then freezer and make banana bread when the need arises.

Banana bread was my #2 choice but I reached for ice cream. Sigh.

[Jenise]

Tonight I made Chinese for the extended fam, having been alerted that it's a favorite cuisine for the kids. My back issues being what they are, though, I couldn't plan ahead to do anything elaborate; for these five days, I had to instead back up every plan A with a plan B and a plan C just in case I was too crippled. So, you know, here's what I'll do and if I can do one more thing I'll do that and if I'm up to it I'll add that...and so on.

Tonight I managed Chinese ribs glazed with plum sauce, fried rice with bok choy and corn, shitake mushrooms in oyster sauce with shaved mac nuts for the adults (kids don't like mushrooms) and sugar snap peas flash fried with ginger in sesame oil which I figured would be a shoe-in for the girls.

Turned out I didn't have the plum sauce I thought I did, so I took a relatively low sugar strawberry spread, thinned it with vinegar and added szechuan peppercorns, and that was my "plum glaze". OFS!!! Truly amazing, and only I knew about the substitution. So good I'd do it like that again, call it strawberry and own it!

After adding the bok choy to the rice I cursed myself--stupid, stupid stupid. After feeding them for nearly a week, I felt qualified to guess that the girls won't know what it is and they'll be certain they don't like it. Guaranteed fail, right? Wrong.
They didn't know bok choy was, but such did they love the rice part that they were willing to eat everything in it. In fact, Mae ate one rib and three helpings of rice and Ivy, the little one, took ate four ribs and FIVE helpings of rice--more than any of the adults. She cleaned out the bowl. And neither would eat the snap peas. (Btw, they'd had ice creams cones three hours before.) So much for knowing what kids eat.

In the morning: buttermilk waffles with macerated fresh raspberries (we picked 9 pounds today at a U-Pick farm). And then they leave. I'm going to spend the whole day with my feet up and start drinking at noon.

...and start drinking at noon.

You are a strong woman, Jenise, to wait till then.

I love your nouveau plum glaze! I once maintained a plum sauce solera for a few months: I started with a commercial plum sauce and augmented it with some actual plums sauteed in a pan, dressed with sesame oil, roughed-up a bit, and stirred in. And I just kept doing that every couple weeks, into the same jar. Yes, it did get better the longer it went.

[Jenise]

Jeff, just three minutes to go.

Last night I made Moroccan braised chicken with olives--a tagine-type recipe (I used a large saucepan and did the braise on the stovetop). This is the first time I've used the preserved Meyer lemons that I prepared some months ago. It was delicious, and the preserved lemons added a more subtle flavor than the fresh lemons I've used in similar dishes in the past.

-Paul W.

Lemons! That reminds me to say that I made some tomato confit per some Mark Bittman instructions. I don't think it's really a confit, it's just stewed tomatoes with a good glug of olive oil, lemon zest and juice, and herbs. But it is very good. I used some as a sauce on pasta and the rest received sauteed zucchini coins for a really fresh and light ratatouille-oid. Good enough to make again.

[Jenise]

Paul, I love that Morroccan classic and haven't made it in several years. You mentioning it, though, makes me want it NOW. Will definitely put it on the list for this week: don't have any preserved lemons but I can make a shortcut version.

[Jenise]

Italian tonight: thin-cut veal chops rubbed with garlic and a stacked veggie side dish of crusted eggplant rounds layered with cheese, basil leaves, and beefsteak tomato.