Norm Matthews

Last month, I was reading the newspaper and it had an article about Pyet DeSpain. I know her. We aren't close friends and the last time I saw her was at my son's wedding. He was getting married to Pyet's half sister. At the time she had an office job for a local car dealer. I learned from the article that she had gone to culinary school, moved to LA and was making meals for delivery to clients when she decided to start creating meals based on her background. She and her mother and grandmother are members of the Potawatomi tribe and her father and his Mexican family lives in Kansas City She grew up in both cultures. Her food attracted some attention in Los Angles and was asked to be a contestant on Gordon Ramsay's Next Level Chef She was the winner of Season One. She has a cooking show on PBS. This was all news to me. I preordered her cookbook and after it came, had it signed it at a book signing event here in Kansas City. This is the first cook book that I will have read from cover to cover and am acquiring items for her recipes that are not often found or grocery store shelves, like sumac and juniper berries. I remember sumac trees all along an area where I used to take walks in Junction City and made tea with them once in a while but now have a chance to learn how to put them to greater use. Same for juniper berries. I have a tree in my backyard that has a gazillion of those blue seeds on it. She has some sauces that have been modified to use as BBQ sauces and I do a lot of BBQ in my smoker and have used fruit flavors in my sauces and her sauces also use fruit flavors. I have inclded another picture of my son's wedding day taken with is bride and her siblings. Pyet is on the left.

I have been cooking Christmas cookies all day and part of yesterday too. Dinner was a humble Southern comfort food that mom used to make whenever we had a leftover ham bone. Instead of Navy beans, though, I used Mayocoba beans. I had not seen them on shelves for quite a while but remembered how good they are and decided to use them with the ham bone i had in the freezer. The cookies were some brownies made in a skillet, some spicy oatmeal cookies that nearly everyone would not know they were oatmeal cookies and some eggnog flavored cookies.

@Shelby I have been AWOL from here for a while and I thought I just posted a reply here but I don't see it now. I'll try again. I did probably did say that about Kansas sunsets. I remember saying somewhere a while back that God didn't put mountains in Kansas because He knew they"d block the view (of our Sunsets) )

@Shelby I have been AWOL from this site for a few days and didn't see your quote until now. I probably did say that about Kansas sunsets. I know I once said" God didn't put mountains here because He knew it they would block the view of our sunsets

There are four of our families living here in Kansas City.We each take turns hosting the other three. Last year was my turn. My nephew's family hosted this year. Each day after Thanksgiving, when it isn't my turn to host, I cook an abbreviated version so we can have leftovers. I made turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry chutney, Parker house rolls and deviled eggs . I bought a frozen pumpkin pie but plan to cook it tomorrow.

Thank you. There was no sauce with the rice but the chicken had a sauce made with pan drippings, chicken stock, rosemary and thyme and thickened with butter. The chicken was seasoned with herbs de Provence, cayenne and salt & pepper

I came across a chicken breast recipe that has a crispy skin and is juicy inside like a thigh. It is served with the first joint of the wing still attached, otherwise boneless. It was first served at the Statler Hotel but everyone refers to it as Airplane Chicken because when airlines still served hot, fresh cooked meals, it was a mainstay. I cooked an Italian recipe to go with it called potato pie but there must be a learning curve on that and I served the chicken with rice instead.

Charlie found a recipe that looked like it was similar to a mussels appetizer he always ordered at an Italian restaurant but it isn't on the menu anymore. He said it tasted just like it but it didn't come with pasta but it was good cooked in the sauce until it was absorbed. I was cooking the Brussels sprouts first and he thought it was the only thing we were having. He was relieved to find it was just a side. I am not a fan of tofu, generally, but is was good roasted with the the garlicky seasonings.

Bahn Mi sandwiches were requested for dinner today. I like when I don't have to figure out what to have for dinner.

When we had a Cuban recipe for lobster, it made me want to do lobster again as I usually have it (not that I usually have it). So when Charlie asked for a crab boil dinner a few days ago, I thought it would be a good time to use lobster instead of shrimp with the crab legs. Only I broiled the lobster separately.

Through the KC Star newspaper I have been getting free NYT recipes. Yesterday was one titled American Itallian Meatballs. It had ricotta and Romano cheese as well as parsley, garlic and egg. Cherlie said it was good but liked our regular recipe better. I made two loaves of French bread this morning. One went to make garlic toast for today and plans for tomorrow is to use the other to make Bahn Mi sandwiches.

@Tropicalsenior I enjoyed the first video a lot. What I liked the most was number 7 "Sourdough should" Like people telling you what sour should be or else it isn't "real" sourdough. I think @MaryIsobel should watch it too as it addresses "my sourdough died" as probably a mistaken diagnosis of the reality of the sourdough condition. The one on preferments left me more confused about what it is and if it ever isn't something, if you know what I mean. I want to keep the bake wth Jack so I can watch the other episodes..

@Tropicalsenior Thank you. I will look at the videos later today

My son and I went to a Cuban restauant a couple days ago. He wanted to order a Creole Lobster dish for us to share but changed his mind when he found out it was $60.00. He ordered a Cuban sandwich and I ordeered aa appitizer of three empanadas. We shared both. While we were waiting, he looked up the lobster recipe on his phone and asked me if I could make it with lobster and shrimp. I said I would and made it yesterday

@Tropicalsenior Wow! Your breads look very good. I have not been able to get good slash marks on my only-sourdough starter breads. I did not know the term was preferment. I just called it aged yeast. A long time ago I read that commercial yeast cannot reproduce itself as the hybrid it was made, and will revert back to wild yeast if kept alive by repeated feedings. I don't know if that is as true with newer instant yeast or not. When someone gets some sourdough starter from me, I tell them "it's not a pet, it's ok if it dies. It isn't hard to start another one. I have not been in touch with other sourdough bakers before now. I didn't realize there are so many of us. Up to now it has just been trial and error for me.