Norm Matthews

My son and his GF asked me to start a blog because they'd ask me about something i made a week or more ago and I would remember the basic recipe but not what I did differently and they wanted an accurate account so I started the blog. All I do is post the recipe and how I made it with pictures of the meal.

Not true -- the brine can have a little less salt than the amount in solution in the bird, and be both effective and actually decrease the salt content a little. Osmosis is a beautiful thing. The bird and the brine will try to reach equilibrium. With that salt transfer, some of the added brine flavorings transfer as well. It's not like a turkey is some kind of salt sponge. All this goes out the window if doing an injection marinade, though. Don't shoot more salt into an already-salty bird. For the rare times I find myself with a Butterball-type turkey, I'll shoot it with unsalted garlic thyme paprika butter. Probably the best thing one can do for one of those birds, short of not getting one in the first place. (I'm not at all OK with industrial turkey farming.) I would not call it a brine if you put the turkey in a solution that pulls salt OUT of the bird. Sounds like an attempt at a marinade to me.

Brining depends on the bird. Kosher turkeys and 'butterball' type ones have already been brined and more would just make them salty.

If the meat is one large chunk, I brown it first. If it is cut up, I usually cook it all together.

I have noticed a lot of people will grab one knife and do all the cutting with it. It is usually a small one. I asked some and the usual answer was it is the sharpest one in the kitchen. My son often used a cheap serrated steak knife to cut even carrots. He said it was because he was afraid to mess up my good knives. I let it go because I'd found my favorite paring knife in the dish washer a couple times but he is better now and I see he usually uses the better ones now.

My ex is Korean. She and her family used to run our Korean restaurant for several years. Our son got a recipe for Kalbi from his uncle and modified it until he was satisfied with the results. He made this recipe last June on the BBQ. We had some LA cut spare ribs (3 to 4 section bones) and also cut some traditional spare ribs that I cut into long strips. He thinks the traditional one bone kind makes the better ribs. this isn't the best picture but was the only one I could find just now. Son made his recipe for kalbi, I grilled some bok choy, rice cooker made the rice and the restaurant down the street made the kimchee. Kalbi 1/2 C. soy sauce 8 T. sugar 5 T. water 4 T. sherry 3 T. corn syrup 1 T. minced garlic 1/2 tsp. grated ginger 1/2 C. sesame oil juice of 1 lime juice of 1 orange chopped green onion pinch of pepper Marinate overnight, grill medium heat until done.

Todays dinner was chuck roast with onions carrots and mushrooms with skillet hash browns. No salad LOL

Son made bohn mi sandwiches today

Here is how dinner came out. The rice was flavored with Sazon Goya con culantro Y achiote and chicken base. Salad dressing was olive oil, balsamic vinegar and lime juice with salt and pepper.

This tread reminds me of the Julia Child skit on SNL where she (Dan Ackroyd) cut herself. I have taken the end of my finger off a couple times with a Santoku- which I never use any more-. I used elevation, pressure and bandaids designed for knuckles and fingertips in fabric. The first day I go through several bandaids and lots of Neosporin. I don't keep the bandaids in the kitchen though. Don't need them all that often. I do have an Aloe plant in the kitchen, partly because that is where the best growing sunlight is but also for minor burns.

Getting ready for dinner tonight and for sandwiches tomorrow. There were two pork tenderloins in one package-as always- so cut one up for sauteing tomorrow for bohn mi sandwiches and tonight will roast the other one with garlic, chilies and lime juice.

They make hot water dispensers for your sink. Not just the hot water from your tap but a separate devise can be installed that will dispense really how water on demand. Not nearly as glamorous as a Zouirushi but very practical. I use to have one and made tea one cup at a time with it whenever I wanted some. No prior set up required. Just have it installed and it is ready to go whenever you want hot water for soup or coffee or tea or whatever.

My son made dinner last night. It was Korean style chicken wings which were crispy wings with a sweet ginger glaze. He also made fried rice with kimchee. It was very good.

Hi Kaye. Martini chicken is a recipe from Chef Pino Luongo. Chicken breasts are pounded flat, dipped in flour, then beaten egg then finally in grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese only-no bread crumbs, browned in a skillet with some oil then finished in the oven with some dry white wine and blanched carrots and green beans (Haricot verts), I usually serve it with linguine and a butter sauce. You can probably find the recipe if you google Breast of Chicken, Martini-Style.

Came home from antiquing this evening and discovered both Cassie and Charles were going to be home for dinner so took a flatiron steak from the fridge and made Sukiyaki. Soup is beef broth left over from the recipe with some water and green onions. Salad is knife cut romaine lettuce with radish and plum. We also had kimchi that we already had gotten from the Korean restaurant/market not far from us and steamed rice. It took about 30-40 minutes to make the meal and cost was around $6.00 per person. There were enough leftovers for another serving.

Hassouni, thank for the explaination.

I made Chicken Cutlet Parmesan for dinner tonight. It was a hit. Son loved Martini Chicken so much I had stopped making this but it's back in the rotation now I guess. The pasta was gluten free. The breading was not. Cassie was on a gluten free diet for a few weeks and this was left over from then so I used it up. She still cuts gluten back but isn't leaving it out completely. Anybody know why Chicken Parmesan is called Parmesan when the only cheese in it is Mozzarella? I don't know, just wondering if anyone else knows why. I did add some Romano cheese to the Mozzaarella and squeezed a little lemon juice over the cutlets before I stuck it under the broiler to melt the cheese.

Later I confirmed the story with other family members at a couple of different times and they all said yes and didn't seem to think anything of it. My uncle said she'd sit on the back porch and almost never miss. I am quite sure that they didn't have a scope but I never thought to ask about that.

Iin the case of mom's chickens, they were not caged or fed by the family. They fended for themselves. They didn't just let themselves get caught. Shooting one was easier.

Ever try to catch an uncaged, semi wild chicken? When I was a teen, we were at the county fair in Buffalo NY with mom's childhood best friend. We passed a booth where you shoot out the star on the target with a 22. Now days they use an automatic air rifle but then it was a .22. Mom's friend said mom should try it since she was a great shot. It was the first time I'd ever heard that. I'd never seen her even touch a gun before. She demurred several times but was finally talked into giving it a try. She knocked that star into oblivion. That was when I was told the story by her friend. Mom just got red and smiled and never mentioned it again.

My mom also put stale cornbread in a glass with milk and ate it with a spoon. She also made wonderful green beans cooked for a few hours with salt pork. My son won't eat it any other way. I use bacon instead of salt pork. It isn't quite the same but it gets by. Mom told me that for a time there was a neighbor who had a cow and they bartered for milk from time to time. Before they lost the farm, they had one hog a year hanging in the smoke house. It had to last through the winter and when they wanted chicken, they gave mom the .22 and a bullet. She was the best shot in the family and the chickens were 'free range" ie they couldn't afford a hen house. FWIW, the stroganoff recipe I have does not use paprika either.

LOL. A few hours ago I saw a good 'ole Southern classic recipe remake and had to shake my head and wonder what they were thinking. It was for Chicken Fried Steak. The whole purpose of that is to make something palatable out of something inedible. Take a piece of beef as tough as shoe leather and pound the behaysoos out of it, then cover up the crime with flour, deep fry it and-quick- hide it under some thick white gravy... In the South, sausage gravy is for breakfast. Milk gravy is for dinner. Anyway this one used lean filet mignon, whole wheat flour, whole wheat panko breadcrumbs and baked it in the oven. The gravy was made with Italian turkey sausage and non fat Greek yogurt. HMMM now that I think about it i can see why some people complain about improvements. But I think this one missed the whole point.

Or sukiyaki

I suppose it comes down to a matter of degree and what you think of as original or classic. If you make a sandwich with toasted white bread, mayo, lettuce and bologna, you have no business calling it a Rueben. On the other hand, my mother got a recipe about 60 years ago from someone else. No telling who originated the recipe but it was a yellow squash casserole. All it had was squash, cream, onion and egg. It was topped with buttered bread crumbs. Over time that recipe has evolved or changed with the times. I see versions of it with carrots, eggplant, sour cream, cracker crumbs and cheddar cheese mixed in. You can find all of them online if you search for yellow squash casserole. If Louis Diat had created the original recipe, there would be people weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth over the awful changes people had made and saying it was not original. Squash casserole with sour cream isn't original but since it isn't a famous recipe with a famous name or romantic location attached, most people don't know or care what changes have been made. They either like it or don't. When a recipe is moved to a new location on the globe some changes are inevitable. Why worry and fuss about something added that might not have been a choice or maybe even been available to the original a couple hundred years ago? Paprika? I was an old man before I knew it came any way other than as a flavorless red decorative powder.

Jonnycake (fried gruel) is a New England term. In the South it's called hoecake and may sometimes be sweetened. My mother was from an extremely pour Southern family. They were migrant farm workers who worked the cotton fields during the depression. Sugar was a luxury item. So was white bread.