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abnorm said:

"COOKIES" ?

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Have you been a good boy???

At last…. Sunshine and 70 degree afternoons coming to visit my campsite . Very nice weather for August! I am really in need of that increase in solar power and dry, sunny but not too hot weather to get more products made for my Etsy store ahead of the upcoming holiday season. My inventory was getting very depleted with all those rainy days. But I did enjoy the downtime for getting to binge on reading books and watching more films.

Update on the missing boy story that happened just a ways up the same forest service road I am camped on. The family is a Jewish one vacationing here from the east cost. They knew about a search and rescue group from the Jewish community in New York so the mother called them shortly after the boy went missing and could not be found. The team gathered and got on a jet and flew to Flagstaff! They are the ones who found the boy sitting against the base of a tree a half mile away from where he went missing. Cold, wet weak, etc. it was a very stormy night, down into the lower 50s during the early morning hours.
News story link https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/8-year-found-unharmed-arizona-wilderness-113093332

Should have stayed in the Catskills. Worse that could happen is some dirty dancing. Or someone puts baby in a corner.

I was just this morning thinking it was likely to be time to go looking for mushrooms. I just glanced up from my book and saw people moving around in the trees a distance away where no one was camping. Looked a little longer and sure enough they were carrying sacks and bending down hunting “Lobster Mushrooms” which are very easy to identify and find in the Coconino Forest. You just look for areas near the base of trees where there is a 6” or more raised up area of pine needles. Then check underneath that pile.

Went for a brief walk around my campsite and found a few lobster mushrooms. I will clean them up in the morning and saute them. I have not eaten any before but I do like mushrooms. I am sure there are lots more around if I like the taste. The look so dirty because the grow just underneath the pine needles near the base of the trees. I have some cheap paint brushes around to get rid of most of that dirt.

I wish I knew more about mushrooms and I am sure if I did some research I could find someone who could show me what I needed but I am the only one in the whole tribe that likes mushrooms so usually I don't cook with them. Let me know how they are?

The lobster mushrooms are very easy to identify and finding them is not too hard. You will quickly get used to spotting little pushed up mounds of pine needles. There are some other mushrooms out here in the Coconino Forest but none that look like this so no confusion in identifying them. There are tons of articles and videos about Lobster mushrooms on the internet.

But this is nothing compared to the mushroom hunting bounty that was at the Grayland Beach State Park in Washington state. I met two local women who were from Germany who came to hunt there every fall. They were real experts on identifying the many varieties of edibles that were abundant in the woods in the park. Great place to camp! This is a photo of the basket one of those women gathered. There is a small fee and a daily limit to pick mushrooms in that park.

What do you cook them with? I love grilled with chicken on the Q and love them on pizza and in pasta sauce. And yum! in a quiche. I am not real crazy about raw but if they fall into my salad I'm not going to remove them.... And those look big enough to stuff and roast.

vanbrat said:

What do you cook them with? I love grilled with chicken on the Q and love them on pizza and in pasta sauce. And yum! in a quiche. I am not real crazy about raw but if they fall into my salad I'm not going to remove them.... And those look big enough to stuff and roast.

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I did not gather that basket of mushrooms so I do not know how the person who did cooked them. As to my cooking while on the road, it is all done on a stovetop. I do not travel with a grill or an oven. I am a good cook but cooking is not a hobby or a particular passion,it is simply what I have done since a very young age. I learned the techniques and use of spices at a very young age so I guess there never was a thrill about it, it was just one of many skills I was expected to acquire as a child and master to a high level of competence. By the age of 11 years old my mother would say make such and such for dinner and here is a cookbook with the recipe. I was capable of reading and following instructions and safely working with tools and machinery at that age. Like I said it was just a chore I got assigned to. I neither hate nor have a passion for cooking. For my taste I like mushrooms fried in a skillet in butter. If I am having mushrooms as a side dish then Julia Childs technique frying them in butter works best. Never crowd them up in the pan, leave space between each individual piece so the whole surface gets browned just right.

vanbrat said:

...finished my yearly jam making. I now have 20+ jars... but they all like the goodies.

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Eugene Oregon.
Berry season.
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Immediately followed by wine season, and occasionally brandy season.
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Our jars are glass jugs and each holds five-gallons.
"20+" five-gallon jugs of home-made wine sounds just about right.
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And before anybody gets their 'judgement' all in an up-roar, we only use wine for cooking, gravies and sauces, that sort of thing.
Probably.
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As always, we loathe and abhor 'get it on-line'.
As always, we do local-owned family-operated... with a preference for dog friendly:
www.homefermenter.com/search?q=carboy

vanbrat said:

I wish I knew more about mushrooms and I am sure if I did some research I could find someone who could show me...

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Eugene Oregon.
This area is known as the mushroom capital of the known universe.
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This area is also a Wilder's Supermarket.
Can't hardly step out the door without tripping on something tasty and nutritious.
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Eugene has mushroom clubs, we have foragers guided-tours.
https://cascademyco.org
If you want to sell your foragement, we have buyers shipping mushrooms all over this particular planet.
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And we have mushroom festivals:
https://mountpisgaharboretum.org/festivals-events/mushroom-festival/
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Here are some mushroom cooks doing whatever it is mushroom cooks do:

Nobody I know, but we would probably get along just fine.
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If you come across a brown-paper grocery-bag of chanterelles, you could rough dice, then saute in your cast-iron skillet.
You could dump that muck in a blender with heavy cream.
You could season your smoothie with salt and pepper and a few grinds off a meg-nut in a nutmeg grinder.
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You should absolutely share your smoothie.
Call me, OK?

Today’s unusual coincidence. I had just been reading a passage in a book which reminded me of the night camped just west of Yuma in the desert. That situation was a women came up to my trailer after dark and called out to me. She apparently had a fight with her boyfriend and ran off. She just wanted to know what direction the road was and to sit down and rest awhile outside my trailer and talk through the window to another woman where she felt safe. I offered to call 911 but she did not want that. While I felt uneasy I did not actually feel my safety was threatened.

Just a couple of minutes after remembering that situation I heard a woman outside my trailer calling out “hello?”. I have seen her now and again out walking for exercise, a very fit snd attractive person. She asked if I could spare two bottles of water. Fortunately I had just filled up several plastic recycled water bottles that I was perfectly happy to donate to her. No drama involved, merely just a strange coincidence of timing to have a woman walk up to my camp asking for a bit of kindness from a stranger when I had just been thinking about the other woman from two winters ago. Fortunately this woman was not under any duress other than just being thirsty. She did chug down most of the first bottle right away!

Another lovely day in my forest camp, nice and sunny without any thunderstorms or strong winds or extreme heat. Can’t ask for better than that in late August!

Uh oh. Never feed stray cats lesson time!
The woman I gave some water to yesterday returned today with two empty gallon sized jugs asking for more water. Turns out she is homeless and the shelter in town kicked her out for fighting. I do not have the resources, patience or ability to take her on as an adopt a stray pet project.

Time to use the common sense “turn the key”’and find a new a neighborhood solution. I will be packing up tonight. But first I have to get an Etsy order ready to ship out.

How suddenly plans can change. I just went online to catch up on the news and found out they are on water rationing inside the Grand Canyon National Park. This time they have closed all the hotels! The only water at the campgrounds is a spigot in front of the campground entry kiosk. I was planning to head to thevNFS dispersed camping just outside the park but will delay that trip a while longer I hopes the break gets repaired. I go into the park for fun and get showers, do laundry and drinking water there. Sight seeing too! It is now in the lower 80s for a high temp there so comfortable enough for camping. Still monsoon season though but that is true of my current camping area. About three weeks left but it does seem to be winding down on the thunderstorms..,maybe…my hopefully optimistic view point that is shaded with realistic experience, meaning I am prone to wishful thinking

The woman who was asking me for drinking water showed back up today with more gallon jugs fully expecting me to fill them! I told her sorry but I cannot be her water service supplier as it is hard enough to keep myself supplied as it is a long drive into town and I have to buy the water and cannot transport enough for two people. Of course she went away mad yelling at me as she has an anger management problem. Right as she left a forest ranger just happened to pull up. He was out in the area recording license plate numbers saying you have 14 days. I explained what had just gone down, he had seen her walking away from my trailer yelling but thought my trailer was hers so he did not knock or call out to see if anyone was at home. I had heard his truck pull up so I opened the door to see who had arrived. I explained the situation that had just occurred. He drove off to find her. Hopefully he has some resources to get her into a better situation where she can get her very basic needs of food and water met.
The monsoon season is not over but winding down. No significant rain this last few days, just minor sprinkles of rain. That means she cannot capture enough rain water and has to daily knock on stranger’s doors.

I was just thinking about that woman who came to my camp for water and has so much anger in her. Albert King’s blues tune “Born Under A Bad Sign” is very likely a pretty good description of her whole life. The frustrations just keep piling right in on some folks starting with being a baby who always feels frustrations very intensely and never getting a real handle on how to control anger. There is a whole lot of that in the world, it shows up constantly in the news reports. Taking a guess at the root cause in her case I would say she was likely born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. That is definitely being born under a very bad sign.

Purely in the interest of health, I have decided to take probiotics.

^^^^
Probiotic chocolate ice-cream might be a big seller!

maki2 said:

^^^^ do they make probiotic chocolate ice cream???

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This was the only flavor that was $.77

Happy Camper said:

This was the only flavor that was $.77

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My understanding is ALL yogurt has probiotics develop as part of the fermentation process for making it. Kefir is supposed to have higher levels of probiotics created during fermentation than yogurt. I like yogurt but I typically eat it as a snack right after buying it while sitting in the parking lot. Definitely a first aid rescue tratment. Who doesn’t need an immediate reward and the calcium mellowing treatment after shopping at Walmart