Well....it's a foodie week. As such, I think it all sounds like sound choices, since you have said station wagon—except the sausage stuffer! Friends don't let friends experiment with sausage on friends. I'm not concerned so much with the sausages as the potential for cross contamination in a crowded and less familiar place, OTOH, your DD is an experienced professional kitchen manager, but the question is whether she can wrangle adults who are not her minions while performing delicate operations and saving the world from potential pathogens.

Me? My first reaction to the title was I haven't had the camping gear out in awhile, but it should be good to go. It includes Joseph Joseph nesting bowls, strainers and measuring cups, a lovely all purpose knife with wood sheath, and just about everything one might need, writ compact.

But that's not the brief. The circulator, with any vessel and the water displacement method of getting the air out of the bag sounds like a compact way to add an oven, besides a perfect temperature steak, given power. I'd do that. Without weight restrictions and with genteel circumstances, I might bring my 9 qt. Le Creuset “bean pot” (aka big round enamelled dutch oven). It's the perfect size and shape to cook just about anything for a lot of people, and it doesn't care what the fuel source is. It's so much better (for me) than a generic stock pot and iffy fire. I might bring a good knife or two, but more likely, under the circumstances, I'd buy a couple new restaurant quality knifes from the chef's store and not worry about others touching or losing my cutlery.

But those are for personal comfort and luxury, rather than thinking I'd really need them. I'm not foodie enough, I think, and I'd be more likely to design my menus around the kitchen than bring specialy stuff. Two things that came to mind were crêpes and Molly's duck leg with cherries braise. I can make crepes with a jug, a whisk and a skillet, and I can use frying pans, or even sheet pans (foil dams if they have rolled edges, and foil lids) as braisers. That's it! I don't use much at home, but I can think of all kinds of ways a big box of foil would be useful!!

Corkscrew

'Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it' is my most often repeated motto 😃

As long as packing and toting all those things is not an issue, I'd go for it. They might stay in the car until needed, I think.

I would not take both wok and paella pan - I would make a choice between the two. Take the paella pan if the crowd will be large enough - otherwise take the wok, which you might use multiple times.

I would only take the ice cream maker if it has a condenser and does not require an element to be stored in the freezer.

I would not take the sausage stuffer and save that for another time.

No reason not to take the spiralizer, and it sounds like fun.

I do not know what a sous vide stick is, and so I cannot speak to that.

One pan I use very frequently is my pressure cooker, and I have one at both locations, including two in L.A.

Paella pan and wok !

Besides our main family home in a country town 100km from the city, we have an apartment in the city where DH lives during the week for work. It has a small kitchen which has basic equipment but DH doesn’t cook much, and doesn’t do any baking or specialised cooking as he often works a 10 hour day and is happy to reheat meals I send with him when he goes back on Sunday night.

So if I come down to spend time there when I have time off or we’re having a big family lunch etc, I generally bring all the equipment I’ll need to do whatever cooking I have planned. DH sighs but he knows there’s no use fighting it 😁

Just this weekend I came down but I forgot to bring the roasting pan I wanted to make a roasted chicken. Oh well! I discovered it is possible to roast a chicken in the oven in a cast iron frying pan 😂

Lake Tahoe cabins must be quite different from Adirondack Mountain cabins. Here, we‘d worry more about bringing things like aluminum foil, beer, ice, and marshmallows. lol!

eta: I missed that your cabin comes with food processor. Here, you’re lucky if your cabin comes with a spoon. :)

Any of those items, if left behind, are just going to leave an unused space in the car. So why not take it all? I just hope you have a secure spot for parking your filled car if you're spending a night on the road. It's probably a doable one day drive, but don't know if you will. So many car break-ins these days, I wouldn't want to have to replace any of those things.

I'd take the paella pan, the sticks and the wok. I'd leave the sausage stuffer at home. Imagine cleaning that out after - it's supposed to be a holiday LOL

I always schlepped the cuisinart....but you don't need to. When going to the jersey Shore, always had to be sure to have a pot big enough for a mess of crabs or a couple of lobster. One time on a ski trip to a condo I brought the deep fat fryer and we had one evening meal of "everything fried"...cauliflower, broccoli, potato chunks, mushrooms, meats, sea foods and dough chunks both sweet and savory. Like a glorified fondue party....and we did have a lot of teens present.

I would take the wok, the sous vide sticks and perhaps the icecream maker

From my cabin days, pancake mix, maple syrup and good coffee and unbleached filters. If the cabin has a coffee maker that is. If not, the coffee maker too. I know you don't do carbs . . . I have a bare minimum "chuck box" that I usually bring for cooking utensils, etc. It has a big frypan and big stainless soup pot. I use the frypan for anything flat, and the pot covered by the frypan for anything hefty. I stir fry in it but I know that's not the best, but it works. It's flatness on the bottom also can double for something like a paella due to it being big. But not probably big enough for a large family. My crew, even with friends, tends to be small. A wok could do a paella in a pinch, no? I love my paella pan though, it's usually my "go to" for large meals and anything fried too.

I also have a good knife set in the chuck box, and a serviceable cutting board. A good spatula and tongs and flipper and wooden spoon and I'm probably good to go on most of my cooking. Don't forget wine opener and can opener!! I have a small strainer in my chuck box, but again, we're big on pasta and I also use it for draining rinsed produce.

I'm much more likely to cook ahead of time and bring food than utensils for cooking while on vacation. Again, with me it's likely to be carbs, like muffins or good cheese and crackers, hummus and pita for snacks.

On the sausage stuffer, is there some especially good source of meat where you'll be going? If not, I too would save it for another time when I could use it to the best of its abilities. On the flip side, I'd bring some cured meats for a charcuterie!!

The sausage stuffer stayed behind. The rest of the list was stuffed into the wagon, along with two knives, a stone, and two cookbooks (“Classic Chinese Cuisine” and “Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art”).

Station wagon-free since college, I have disremembered how much they hold. Even with inflatable kayaks, their accessories, my fishing gear, cooler, three suitcases, computer, Tetrapod v3.2, art supplies, and two hundred pounds of clay, we could have fit the sausage stuffer - but, food safety.

Why did “estate cars” fall from favor? You can hardly buy a new wagon anymore. This one is hardly-new, being a 2004, but new-to-us, still wearing temporary tags, and not-that-old, bearing under 30,000 miles. I don’t buy new cars; this is as close as I’ll get.

We usually do the 600+ mile drive in a 10 hour day, but we were delivering clay from Portland to friends in Klamath Falls, Ore. It is hard to be a small-town ceramic artist with your raw material 300 miles away. A consideration for the future pied-a-terre. We overnighted in their 1926, Mission style house, full of details such as this Alice in Wonderland door.

Alas there were no bottles labeled “Drink Me”, so we did not go to Wonderland, but the next day drove the rest of the way to Tahoe. The countryside is unusually green from the deluges of winter and a mild-ish summer. We saw only one fire camp and passed through only two smokey areas, unlike previous years when we’ve seen miles of smoking ruin. There was a 100 mile stretch with NO COFFEE until we stumbled on a little cafe in the middle of nowhere with this lovely Elektra machine which made me feel right at home.

After we arrived at the lake and enjoyed a lovely sunset, the rain started. There is nothing I love more than the sound of rain on a thin-roofed sleeping porch. The rest of this week should be clear skies.

So now it is time to plan the two dinners I’m making, on Thursday and Friday.

One will be an American-Chinese meal. DD will be relied upon for dumpling and shao mai, I want to make Sizzling Rice Soup and Honey Walnut Shrimp, so I need two or three other dishes. Velveted chicken? Spareribs in black bean sauce? Fried rice? Congee?

The other will be . . . no idea. I could make small steaks (we will be 12+, so big ribeyes all around will be expensive) or paella or what else sounds fun?

LOVE icon! Made me miss road trips even more, but I am so bogged down here with projects, who knows when I'll ever hit the road again!

Paella definitely sounds fun! Nice that you were able to take the clay--and thank-you for the picture of the Alice door. What a boon to the imagination!

Re the demise of the estate car, I saw it happening. A relative has a beloved Buick, but needed a new daily driver as the Buick aged into "classic' status. He got one of the last full sized station wagons (new) available, and it was a kind of crappy unloved stepchild of a car, which didn't survive, unlike the Buick which has a few hundred thousand miles on it and is still running. The killer was the mini-van and congress. Easier for moms to get to the kiddies without getting out in a mini-van. High gas mileage for the size. Low entry price. Not the old, big heavy work vehicle. But the Buick, which was originally a work and camping vehicle, had been replaced by the current owner's father by a long bed pickup with electrician's boxes sides. Trucks were exempt from mileage standards at the time, which was the last nail in the coffin. Moms went to mini-vans and work vehicles went to trucks. The replacement for the last, bad station wagon was a half ton Suburban back when it was still a truck. After station wagons were no more, SUVs started filling the niche for work able, high seating vehicles...and gas guzzlers.

So, congratulations on your delightful wagon!

Sizzling rice soup and congee at the same meal? Maybe too much wet rice? I vote for the soup. :) Love black bean sauce, too. One of my favorite American Chinese dishes--alas gone with an excellent restaurant during the pandemic--was noodles in a spicy bean pork sauce. Your A-C evening sounds great. Has your daughter done dumplings and shao mai for 12+ before? It might be a good practice for the potential food business she was considering... ;)

Have fun!

I hauled a lot of science students and gear around in a Suburban back in my day. Terrible gas mileage, but a super utility vehicle. My Dad and I were just waxing poetic about his old Pacifica, that was another great hauling car, helped me make two cross country moves. Works out better when it is your second vehicle, and you have a high mileage "runaround car." I thought we were getting that when hubs got a med. sized truck, but he's too protective of it, doesn't want any dirt or scratches on the bed . . . hrmph! I had an Eagle Summit wagon, the absolute BEST haul around car ever. Too good of a value, they quit making it. It's cousin was the small Dodge Colt station wagon and some other Mitsubishi model because that's who made it. It was like a mini mini van. Good mileage too.

L, you might think of getting the man a bed liner for Christmas. :)

Where cars are concerned, I live in the past. A twenty year old car is ”modern“ to me. By 1990 every required automotive feature had been developed, and by 2000 the nouveautes verged on excess. In my opinion.

I am thinking about two whole steamed fish, for my A-C dinner. Easy and not common.

The challenge when cooking A-C for friends is that the cuisine is so available, reasonably priced, and often well-executed.

Cooking at home, you can achieve clearer flavors and crisper textures than the too-much-cornstarch places, but dare make a popular dish like, General Tso’s Chicken, and friends are apt to say, with surprise, ” hey, this is as good as the GTC at Chin’s Kitchen” as you deflate. Which is why I try to make less commonplace A-C dishes.

My French friend here loves fried rice, so I might make that too, even though it is the commonest of A-C dishes. You seldom get good fried rice in restaurants, because it takes too long to actually fry the rice.

He has a bed liner. His fastidiousness about his truck baffles me. He doesn't even like me to drive it. I've driven trucks all my life, my first vehicle was a Chevy S10 plus I had to drive them for work. My husband is a very insular person, doesn't do well with sharing his things. No matter, I have my own stuff, had a whole house and life of my own before I married him. If anything, he shares my stuff, but I don't have those kinds of issues. Too busy.

As for A-C cooking, I wish I had places to go to that executed the dishes well. We have one Chinese restaurant in my home town and it is slightly less than mediocre. I try but am not particularly good at Chinese cooking. I would not have to try too hard to beat what is available for miles and miles. Even the medium sized towns up the road have bad Chinese. The closest good place is at least an hour away. There used to be a wonderful place just up the road but the family running it is long gone, much like the rest of the small businesses around here.

I would just adore steamed fish with fried rice. Any kind of fish is a treat for us, no matter the source. It's as dear as steak here. Other than the free small pan fishes, (perch) which my Dad gets from his buddies. They are getting old and have cut back too . . .

I drive a 2007 Pacifica when I visit my parents. Loved that vehicle, but it has an A/C leak so not great for hot Texas summers.

lpink, how available is frozen fish there? I am perfectly fine with buying fish frozen; I suspect much of the ” fresh fish ” I get was previously frozen, including the sashimi, and the quality is fine with me.

I made a big batch of gelato custard and divided it into smaller batches to chill, waiting flavoring. My gelato custard is whole milk, heavy cream, egg yolks, and sugar; very standard, change the proportions a little and it would be an ice cream base.

The flavor ingredients for the first few test gelatos will be avocado, Parmesan, and peach. The idea is to lure people in with a conventionally yummy peach gelato, then spring the avocado on them, and survivors will be confronted with the Parmesan.

Ice Cream Boy works perfectly, a relief, and the peach gelato turned out tasty. Maybe add a little honey next time.

Fish for serving ”raw” here, in the USA, and, I think, EU, AFIK,has been flash frozen to kill the tapeworms. Probably expensive still...

It looks so beautiful. I vote for paella on Friday!

Even the frozen stuff is beyond our budget, particularly because I want the sustainable stuff and read the labels and know way too much about the relationship between water quality and fish. No Atlantic salmon for me, for example. Don't get me started even on shrimp, one of my favorites but due to cholesterol, a rare treat. That's another reason fish is a rare treat, locally caught stuff probably shouldn't be consumed regularly . . . sigh. I find farmed fish varies greatly. I used to hate catfish, and then had some really good stuff, but I find it and tilapia both very spotty in quality. The most common fishes for us to eat are canned tuna and salmon. That's where the value is at our price point. We will splurge on a fish we love for a special occasion or if we find it on sale, which is rare too. We splurge on Great Lakes fish when we are on vacation which is almost always near a fishery. That's why any type of fish is a special treat for me, and often a "vacation splurge."

Quick update.

Everyone grabbed the meal slots so “my” meals are at the end of the week. DD insist we don’t be strictly “ABC” and make a wider variety of Chinese dishes. She will allow Sizzling Rice Soup even though it is very ABC.

I have mostly occupied myself with Ice Cream Boy. If you make a big batch of custard base, each new gelato is very little work. My base was a Serious Eats recipe: 2 c milk, 1 c cream, 4 eggs, 2/3 c sugar. I doubled this and the result is enough for six batches of gelato from Ice Cream Boy’s small tub.

First we had peach gelato, which could have used a bit of honey. The process for peach is similar to that for berry flavors; cook the peach with a little sugar (and next time, honey) on med-low heat until a little syrupy, then cool and add to the base.

Then I inflicted avocado gelato on the crowd, and it was actually semi-well received. ” It’s like sweet cold guacamole”! ” This was two large avocados, mashed, with some lemon juice and a little honey, plus the base.

Tonight we are having mint chocolate chip, with fresh chocolate mint from the garden, pureed with 1/2 c milk then added to the base. Melt semi-sweet chocolate chips and drizzle into the churning gelato to freeze and shatter into chips. Also chocolate-peanut butter, which is simply melted chocolate chips and peanut butter added to the churning base. Both were special requests.

Tomorrow we resume weird gelatos. Basil is a possibility, as there is a lot of it growing here. Parmesan is another. DD is daring me to try scallop gelato and she herself is musing about Szechwan pepper gelato which I think might be like pepper spray ice cream - unheard of, for a reason.

With 15 people, even two batches from Ice Cream Boy is just a small bowl of gelato per each, so it is dessert without guilt, or so we tell each other.

The strangest sorbet I ever tasted was oyster. It was an amuse bouche in a michelin star restaurant so I thought I'd better eat the unapetising grey mass on a spoon..... absolutely delicious.

https://www.assiettesgourmandes.fr/2013/12/index/carpaccio-de-saint-jacques-sorbet-huitres-caviar/

I’m delighted that the oyster sorbet was tried and happily amazed that it was delicious. John, why the interest in Parm gelato?

I can imagine a Parmesan ice cream being very tasty but your base contains sugar so I didn't feel it would go well with the cheese. However, it seems I was wrong ... https://www.parmigianoreggiano.com/recipes/parmigiano-reggiano-ice-cream/

I listened to an NPR interview with a woman who researched the history of ice cream. When ice cream was introduced to England, way back when, it was an expensive delicacy because ice was imported from Canada (!), used as a course in an upper class meal, and the flavours were savoury. Parmesan was apparently a popular ice cream! This was in the Victorian or Edwardian era.

Ice was certainly imported from North America (and Scandinavia) in the 19th century, not just for ice cream but also for food preservation. But that was not the start of ice cream here. Ice cream was introduced long before that for the wealthy. Country houses had ice houses back in the 17th and 18th centuries for food storage and they also made ice cream. Ice was collected from ponds and lakes in the winter and kept in underground storage buildings through the summer.

I heard the same segment on NPR, John 😀

And Tasting History on YouTube made parmesan ice cream from a 1789 recipe...

I was bumped off one of my two dinner nights :-(

So DD and I get to make one dinner. Menu looks like

- Sizzling Rice Soup

- Shao Mai

- Szechwan Chicken

- Honey Walnut Prawns

- Fried Rice

- Steamed Veg

- Basil Gelato

oh boy, we just had the best chicken. My French friend took boneless chicken, rolled in flour, salt, and pepper, braised in stock, and gradually melted onions and mushrooms into the dish, on med-low heat, finished with creme fraiche and mustard. This kind of slow flavour development is something I just love about French cooking.

carol, that’s a great video!

I want what you're having!!

DD made Posset, which is an old English dessert, a lemony custard served a halved and hollowed lemon. It is normally torched to brulee, but we didn’t have a torch. I made, instead of the basil gelato, an Ube gelato, ube is a sweet yam of deep purple color.

Oh, I just saw the thread on Posset. What a coincidence! I feel the same way - why has it taken me so long to hear of this dish?

Dinner was the dishes listed above. They were generally okay, with the overarching big problem that we ate outside and night had fallen so you couldn’t actually see the food, and taste is partly visual. Otherwise things turned out well. My rice sizzled when it hit the hot soup, the walnuts were honeyed, the Szechwan chicken was not toooo hot, etc.

I’m tired!

It sounds wonderful, but I just can't help wondering what kind of demented friends you must have who would take one meal prep away from you and DD. I'd be trying to foist a few more onto you, based on what I read on this board.

We had American Chinese last night, and inspired by you, John, we ordered the honey waknut prawns. The place is mediocre, but Mr Picky likes it. These were the best honey walnut prawns I've ever had! So thank-you for putting the idea in my head!

Wow! I don't have magic massage. Magic massage sounds good! So great that Ice Cream Boy enjoyed the trip. They grow up so fast.

Thanks for the explanation of the dish. I could definitely taste the honey. When I've had it before, I think it was probably more authentic to standard, but the honey before was kind of lost, the shrimp smaller, the sauce thicker and too much, and the shrimp and nuts definitely fried. Last night's (okay, and today's breakfast) had larger shrimp, big, flat, nicely curled to about 2” in diameter, nicely crisp on the outside but no discernale crust, very tender and delicious. Not deep fried, probably lightly through a wok. Maybe pan fried. The sauce had the expected flavor and clung perfectly, but was thin and light. None of that can't eat another bite of mayo feeling. The walunts were perfect halves, tasted very walnutty, and honey, but not oil. I think they were roasted or air fried. And instead of the usual bed of shredded iceberg lettuce, it was full on salad with baby butter lettuce, carrot and purple cabbage strings, and nice big slices of seeded cucumber. It was a perfect catch for the sauce drips playing dressing, and delicious in its own right rather than just garnish. Authentic to its history, perhaps not, but an excellent treat! Thanks again for the suggestion!