After a few days to recover from our wintery detour, we are ready to go exploring. Our first priority is to enjoy the Amador County wine region. Could we go wine tasting in Napa? Sure. But that is crowded and overexposed. There is plenty of fine wine to be discovered across California. And our hosts are well versed in their local wineries.
There are so many ways to cook a gumbo. Some are regional. Some are familial. Mine is practical. After traveling through Louisiana and our Great Gumbo Excursion last year in New Orleans, it is time to make some gumbo ourselves.
Welcome to the Flying Fish in scenic, downtown Little Rock Arkansas. We came for the animatronic singing fish, we stayed for the frogs legs.
We didn't have plans for lunch until we drove by the Cotham Mercantile, "Where the elite meet to eat". The sagging porch roof, faded hardware hanging from a pegboard wall, and farming equipment leaned against the register were like a full set of gold stars to a traveler in search of a novel experience.
Some recipes seem to go so wrong but they turn out so right. Here is a tale of frustrated ambitions that resulted in a superior breakfast bread. I call it: "Camper's Berry French Toast Loaf." You can call it "delicious."
I know I'm with the right sort of group for an authentic backcountry Tennessee camping trip when one fellow eyes my mason jars and asks "that homemade 'shine?" No, I'm not making moonshine, I'm making sangria!
I have been wanting a Dutch oven for quite a while now. Pretty much all of my cooking on the road has been on a cast iron skillet. But a cast iron Dutch oven stands to greatly expand our cooking options. So, when asked what I wanted for Christmas, the answer was easy: a Dutch oven.
After relaxing in New Orleans, it is finally time to get back on the road. We have finished the Natchez Trace and are about as far south as we can make it in Louisiana. It's time to make like a gold miner and head west.