tekobo

Great news re your KKs. I did not realise you were actually in the middle of moving house. Good luck and I hope everything goes smoothly.

Super exciting. If all goes to plan, my ship will come in tomorrow. It has spent the last few days pootling around in the sea, waiting for a berth at port. This is the plot for the last 24 hours: Here is its path into port at Southampton: And if I get up early enough to catch it at the right point in its journey, the point on the map named "Southsea" is about ten minutes's walk from my house and I can watch to see my ship go by. Exciting.

Hey there @Paul. Still super keen to see more of your house. I hope you managed to build in some things that you've always wanted and that you are enjoying the ease of being back in a place of your own.

Thanks for all the information and great advice @Troble. My thinking is that if we cross the border to Mexico we might travel around a bit more and then fly back home from Mexico rather than attempt a return border crossing. I worry about places closing down too. The good news for us in the UK is that restaurants and bars have received some support through these bad times. The most cheering thing for me is the woman who has taken over a shop across the road from my house. She worked really hard to set things up during our second lockdown and opened up her new pastry shop just last week. There were queues of customers from the first day of opening and disappointed people walking by on Sunday when they found out she had taken the day off. A ballsy move to open up in these times. I hope she succeeds. @RokDok, we love botanical gardens and seek them out in every city that we visit. Looking forward to travelling again. We had thought of doing a "travel light" version of Vietnam and Cambodia and may yet manage it. Not enough time in each year and we are currently still wedded to building up our friendships in and enjoyment of Padova in Italy.

Tee hee. Poor @Troble. The English (and a British Nigerian) are coming! Hey RokDok. It feels like some elements of our lives intersect. I have not been backpacking but The Husband spent a couple of years working in South America and I got to visit Chile, Brazil and Argentina as a result. Actually, that is a bit of a stretch, those countries are not much like Ecuador and Mexico. I guess the first challenge is getting out of this tier system and making a connection in Ye Olde England. Using @Braai-Q's nomenclature, we are still in a pints-with-chips tier. Hopeful that we can soon move into the pints without food tier so that friends visit indoors. Baby steps, and a vaccine, will get us across the Atlantic ocean eventually.

That sounds great Troble, i will call on you for that. It is lovely to have something to dream about. When I was a kid we lived in Palo Alto. We have stayed in touch over the years and have a few family friends to visit in the Bay area. We might manage to stop in Carmel on the way down and one of my husband's ex-Royal Navy friends is based in San Diego so we will definitely make it to your town. Valle de Guadalupe sounds like a great place to end our journey. Just waiting for The Husband to wake up so that I can persuade him that this is a great idea.

What an inspiration. I can feel a Californian road trip coming on when all of this COVID stuff is over.

Ha. New sofa arrived from Italy on Thursday so that has kept us occupied and distracted me from waiting for KK angst. The ship has been hanging around at sea, not far from the port for days and was predicted to dock at 9am tomorrow morning. This morning the ETA at dock suddenly changed to 8 December. Oh well, the KKs almost certainly won't make it through customs and to me this coming week. Fingers crossed for the week after. COVID, Christmas and Customs. What could go wrong???

Thanks @Troble. I genuinely haven't thought much about my first cook. Having had KKs before, it doesn't feel like a "first" cook either. I think bread followed by pizzas on the 32 is going to be the first big test of whether I made the right choice in moving up a size. Being able to get three loaves on at once with steam will be great and I can a) crank it up a little for the pizzas and b) use that cook as a test of Dennis' factory burn in. All good.

Wow, that looks very tasty!

I took a look at the links that you sent, @tony b and @Sir Bill and my heart was still with the Lodge. That was until I looked around on the Netherton Foundry site where Sir Bill found the grid. Wow. What a lot of fun outdoor cooking stuff! The good news for my wallet is that it made me realise that I pretty much have most things that I need. That said, I can see me commissioning a nice paella pan in the new year when they get past their Christmas rush. Cool.

I love Lodge products and they are usually way over priced in the UK so I wait and buy them when I visit the US. That said, I have found this grill topper on the amazon.co.uk site and it looks well priced. It is on my waiting to be added to cart list. Allows me to pretend that I am exercising restraint!

Liking the Raymond Blanc book. So far I have found his description of this Frenchman's Damascene conversion to steak, kidney and oyster pudding intriguing enough to want to try that soon. @Basher, I love cast iron and like the look of the grill pan with holes in. Can't find one in the UK so will wait for when I make it back to the US or even, maybe, back over to Australia.

Hilarious!

Now @Jon B. did you have this on order already or was it @ckreef's bad influence that has you lying to your family???

There is an ice cream recipe for apricot noyau which involves breaking out the kernel of the apricot, grinding it and infusing milk with the ground kernel. Not dead yet but I am sure that is because only small amounts are used in the ice cream and it is not my main diet!

You would be very welcome but for the small complication of COVID and all the random rules that govern everything we do. Let's make it a date to eat Southern food together somewhere, somehow, when all this is over. In the meantime I have ordered catfish from our local fish market (will be brought back from the London market tomorrow morning) and have found fresh groundnuts, called "monkey nuts", at our local greengrocer today. So I am all set to start practising for Christmas. Think I am going to enjoy the journey.

Thanks Tony. Some of this farm to table deal has to be about using what I've got to hand here. I hope, one day, to make it back to the States and I may buy some of his specialty ingredients but he is soooo specific that he seems to be urging us all to go out and buy stuff for every recipe that we cook. Big source of food waste. All of that said, I am so pleased with this book that I am planning my Christmas dinner around it. Nibbles to start will be boiled groundnuts, devilled eggs and chilled oysters. Thinking will follow with a fish dish, maybe substituting monkfish for catfish in one of the recipes. Then grilled quail. Looking at a whole beef fillet next, maybe substituting the beef for his lamb loin in the lamb and rhubarb recipe or I might find a different Southern recipe to try. And finally, he had a plum upside down cake. I think I will make one with quince. The Husband is on board with the Southern vibe although he did draw the line at my suggestion of chicken wings for Christmas lunch. Should be lots of fun!

Wow @Paul, that looks like one hell of a kitchen. Beautiful, great to have so much counter space and the two dishdrawers are a must in my opinion - somewhere to put dirty dishes while one washer is going. I was not on the forum when you lost your home but I am very pleased to see that you are getting such a beautiful place to make up for it. Any more pix???

Gosh. Thank you @Tyrus, @BOC, @tony b and @jonj for your glove recommendations and comments. I have a pair of long tongs for handling logs and coals so am all set there. I told The Husband that I would like a pair of BBQ gloves for Christmas and I was worried, like Jon, that I would end up with a pair that would be too gaudy for me to want to wear. I have found the Geekhom's on amazon.co.uk and the all black ones look good. I have also find the RAPICCA gloves. They look like they would go well with a pair of black leather trousers and a whip!

My copy arrived yesterday. You are right. Lots of specialty ingredients. Will just have to work out some substitutions. Some of these recipes might even make it to my Christmas lunch menu. Yum.

Thank you very much for sharing the recipe and your greaseproof paper tip @MacKenzie. It made the whole process so much less stressful than normal. This will help me get my pizza game down before my KKs arrive. It is sooo disappointing to heat soak a KK, build up everyone's excitement and then end up with nasty wet, sticky dough and guess the continent shaped pizza.

Small matter of darkness and the fact that the Isle of Wight is between my vantage point and the ship means that I will stick to tracking the ship online!

So near and yet so far. The MOL Treasure will be going by near Portsmouth, where I live, in the next hour or so on its way to Rotterdam. Should be heading back my way in a day or two. The Husband says there is no point going down to the sea front to see if I can see the ship go by. He reckons it will be about 20 miles out at sea. Boo.

Today I used the pizza dough recipe recommended by Mac Roberta’s Pizza Dough Recipe - NYT Cooking (nytimes.com). It was simple (made up the dough in my mixer) and a huge success. Homage to Italy - home made strachiatella cheese topped with lardo. Super yummy start. Loosey goosey - sliced cured goose atop a hot tomato sauce