Indeed! And the cool knot used to rig the temporary mast is a jury mast knot, a very cool knot.
Why are my side notes always more interesting than my main topic? I am the Queen of digression!
Pasta alfredo: Cook the pasta, then add milk, butter, and Parmesan cheese.
Been there. I feel your pain/delight.
I wouldn’t call any of those “jury-rigging” as much as “just making stuff from scratch”. Tartar sauce is essentially mayo with chopped pickle. My recipe for tomato sauce basically consists of cooking grated onion and garlic in olive oil, then adding canned tomatoes and spices.
Bah. Alfredo doesn’t need milk; just toss the pasta with butter, parmesan, and a bit of the boiling water.
Interesting fact about the Queen of Digression; she was never expected to become a queen at all. As the Princess of Sidebars she was fourth in line of succession, but a series of unexpected diversions occurred…
Exactly. That’s how we made cocktail sauce at a seafood restaurant I once worked at which was part of a chain.
2 Avocados + 1 pint container of store-made Pico de Gallo = Guacamole
Ah! I remember a Jerry-rigging I do!
If I need buttermilk for making skillet cornbread and I don’t want to a)walk to the corner or b) pay for buttermilk, I will whisk a heaping spoonful of sour cream or plain yogurt into a half-cup of skim milk until smooth. Works great.
That would work well. What I usually do is slice the avocados onto a dish, squeeze a lime over, salt, and squeeze a little more lime over.
WHY DILUTE THE AVOCADO GOODNESS
I usually take a potato masher to the avocadoes and then add in a bit of salt, pepper, lime, olive oil, and a few dashes of hot sauce.
Tomatoes and cilantro and what-not belong in the pico de gallo, which I learned how to make by observing what my Hispanic customers at the grocery store would buy all the time; Roma tomato, white onion, serrano pepper, lime, and cilantro.
If this were Facebook, I’d thumbs up the shit out of this.
There’s a variant of that with vinegar; I don’t recall the exact measurements, but I do know not to use cider vinegar; gives cornbread a weird flavor.
They may not be the best versions of these sauces, but they’re adequate, and I think most people haven’t had anything significantly different. My friend’s bar and grill used to sell pizzas made on a big tortilla as thin crust pizza. Sold it at the same price, big saving in prep time cost, cooked in about 3 minutes. The young women in the place couldn’t get enough of the low-carb pizza.
I do both of these as well, and hot-dog spread in my house is equal parts yellow mustard, diced onion, and pickle relish with about a tablespoon of the oil from a jar of good hot giardiniera.
You are also the queen of making me hungry lately. Good thing dinner’s in the oven. Not any kind of -rigged, just sausage and veggies.
Totally stealing this tomorrow. Yum!
Waitaminute! Am I to understand that tartar sauce does.not somehow include cream of tartar?
It actually could be in some commercial preparations as a thickener or stabilizer.
However, steak tartare was so named for being served with tartar sauce.
I’d say that a common jury-rig in our house is to cook something one day, and then repurpose the leftovers into another dish.
For example, we might roast a chicken (or buy one at the grocery store or Pollo Regio up the street), and eat that one night, then strip the carcass and make chicken salad the next night. Or get barbecue one night, and then have brisket tacos the next night.
In the winter, soups become quite the thing in our house; leftover ham, turkey and chicken make great soup.
Honestly, I’ve never seen a recipe that includes it. I don’t know of any connection between tartar sauce and cream of tartar. I’ve only used cream of tartar for the acidic component in a baking powder or to help egg whites stiffen.
My take on tartar sauce usually also involves capers, but typically a basic one is mayo, finely diced onion, relish, and lemon juice. I’ll also add parsley, chervil, and/or tarragon if I have them on hand. And, of course, salt and pepper to taste. But plain mayo and relish is close enough to call homemade tartar sauce.