Our accommodation was a pretty modern, well kept 3-bedroom 2 1/2-bath
house with a pretty nice equipped kitchen and a deck that we didn't
check out. The master bedroom had an ensuite bath; my room's bath was
next door and had a very good shower tub. I found my bed exceedingly
comfy, and once I figured out to push the button on the router, some
of the fastest wireless in the east was at my fingertips. The lighting
was not ideal, though, so I kept having to move the computer around in
order to see.

--

Back to the picnic, where we were greeted with wholewheat sourdough
biscuits, which must have been good, as I originally figured I'd have
half of one and ended up with a whole, mostly to serve as a vehicle
for spreads.

I liked Ruth's blueberry jam best and had seconds on that; also good
was a marmalade made by I think a friend of hers. There were also
cider jelly from an outfit in Vermont, tart but I thought light on
the apple flavor, and the house honeys, including sourwood, of which
we've spoken here before, and a pleasant orange blossom mix. Last but
not least, a homemade olive oil-butter spread that was as expected.

For some reason steak and kidney pie was on the agenda. Apparently
in the course of our offal discussions Dale had reminisced fondly
about this dish, and Nancy had said, well, I've made it, and somehow
this translated to let's do it at the picnic. Okay, find the kidneys.
Ruth and Stephen suggested that Petra the Halal market was the only
place in town that might sell the desirable lamb kidneys, so that
was our field trip for the day. It's a small store next to and at
least formerly affiliated with a restaurant of the same name. A look
at the shelves showed that most of the merchandise was of Turkish
origin. At Nancy's instigation I got a box of Aleppo pistachio halvah,
which was a bit of an indulgence; I also found a pound of Apollo brand
phyllo for my cream of wheat dessert. An inquiry of the counter guy
revealed that kidneys would be in the next day's delivery.

Next stop Publix, where I got the cream of wheat in question, some
onions and garlic, and a couple of potatoes, though the good kind
were not available in small quantities. Also eggplant and zucchini
to accompany skordalia and a couple pounds of chuck shoulder "steak."

Stephen had a couple nice sirloin strips cut a little under 2" thick
so he could show off his Vision ceramic grill later. Nancy found
Norm's elderberry ginger pecan jam, which turned out to be as
advertised, though less ginger than I'd prefer.

At the house, snack time.

Steve fried up some jowl bacon on his induction unit. I've
had various non-side bacons before, including this, but it
was apparently new to most of us. He cooked it somewhat hard,
good for the skin, which otherwise is tough, but the fat
isn't as melting as I like. He saved the drippings for me to
cook the beef in.

Nancy brought Camellia brand souse, made someplace in New
York state, but with an appropriate southern tang. It comes
in regular and spicy, but she brought just the latter, which
I liked very much - hot enough, vinegary enough but not too,
with a texture I find unspeakably enticing but that some of
the others present found unspeakably something else.

I cut up the shoulder steak and made a little pile of interior
meat to snack on raw. Nancy and I had most of this; I think
Steve also had a piece or two. The rest was floured lightly
(Nancy protested that she never did this, as it's an extra
step, but I just sneered at her) and browned in that jowl fat
and then put to simmer with onions and celery and thyme and
savory and a bay leaf. After a couple hours it was pretty nice
but a little pale still, so I cheated with a couple splashes
of tamari. I'd have used Lea & Perrins, but having been warned
by Weller on the echo, tasted it and found it severely wanting,
sweet and tasteless like runny brown ketchup, undeserving of
the name. Worcester, Mass., perhaps.

That got stored in the fridge for finishing next day.
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