Norm Matthews

Long ago before the internet, I occasionally made a German Christmas dessert called Stollen but stopped when I could not get cardamom any more. I was thinking about making it again and wondered if I could find all the stuff I needed to make it now that I am back in Kansas City. I looked all over for the almond paste. Cassie used to get marzipan somewhere but I could not find it anywhere. Finally I went to a cake and candy bakers supply store way out on the old Santa Fe trail road. The parking lot was full when I got there and it was busy inside. When I finally got to the cash register, the lady told me she didn't have any but Hen House grocery did. That is a place I shop often and it's close. So yesterday I got everything I needed and today it has been snowing since before dawn and will still be snowing by dark so it's a good day for baking. The recipe was for one big or two smaller loaves. I made one big one and that was a mistake. By the time the inside was done, the edges were crunchy but it was still good. Charlie had seconds and it was better than I remembered. Another thing I was thinking about was a cookie jar that got broken a long time ago and so I looked for it on ebay and found it.... so i had to make some cookies to fill it. The jar is full and those are the cookies that won't fit. We will have to eat those right away, I guess. For dinner Charlie called Grub Hub and ordered from an Hawaiian restaurant. We had some pork and chicken plus some Spam grilled with teriyaki and wrapped with rice in some seaweed.

My son brought this home yesterday. He said this isn't a joke but it is still funny. Cereal with no cereal in the box.

More leftovers. Today ham and bean soup with challah bread. Charlie had his with a turkey sandwich. I was at the dentist today and soup was all I was up for...a little ice cream too.

Because Thanksgiving dinner was moved up sooner than I wanted, I was still finishing up at the last minute. I was still making gravy and slicing bread when people started arriving. That is why I did not have time to take any pictures. I brought ham back to the Thanksgiving table after many years absence. My uncle never ate any kind of fowl so we always had some ham along with the turkey. I started serving Heritage ham along with turkey because it is so good. People have started looking forward to it as much as the turkey. This is a "Leftover Ham and Egg Salad" that is Charlie's favorite. I added some ham slices to my sandwich. The following is a description of one of the farms that raises pigs for Heritage Foods. Healthy Heritage Hogs Unlike the overcrowded inhumane conditions of industrially farmed pigs, which makes up 97% of the dry, tasteless pork sold today, White Oak Pastures’ pigs forage on lush pastures and pecan groves, while also enjoying farm fresh eggs, nuts and grains. These accommodations coupled with the mixed heritage breed of Tamworth, Berkshire, and Gloucester Old Spot result in the most astonishingly healthy, full-flavored ham you will ever enjoy. Ham n Egg Salad Ingredients 2 c. Left over baked ham, diced very small 4 hard boiled eggs, chopped 1 c. mayonnaise 1/2 c. chopped celery 1/4 c. chopped sweet onion 1/4 c chopped dried apricots Have used dried apples and or golden raisins. Salt and Pepper to taste

My recipe used to be a lot longer and more complicated too.

I used to marinate it for two or three days but I just serve the hens with sauce poured over it now.

Here is the recipe. Hoisin sauce is optional. Cornish Hens with orange sauce 2 Cornish hens 3/4 cup fresh orange juice 1/2 cup honey 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce 2 tablespoons minced orange rind 3 cloves garlic minced 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root 2 teaspoons oriental sesame oil Mix marinade ingredients. Simmer on stove to reduce by at least half. Bake hens according to package directions. Before putting in oven, place slice or onion and slice or orange inside and rub outside with oil. salt and pepper. Reserve some sauce for basting. Bake, basting with sauce every 15 or 20 minutes, Serve with remaining sauce. Spinach: Blanch the spinach in salted boiling water only until wilted, 30 - 40 seconds. Drain quickly and shock in cold water. Squeeze out water. Cut into 3-inch lengths. Toss with 1 tablespoon of chopped scallion, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, 1/2 teaspoon of sesame seeds and salt and pepper to taste.

Charlie requested this. It has been a favorite of his since he was about six or so. It is Cornish hens with an Asian flavored orange sauce. We had Korean style spinach to go with it.

Hen House grocery had big packages of "Smoked Hocks" so I got some. They used to have big honking ham hocks and these looked like they might be some like before, but they turned out to be mostly bone and skin with a bite or two of meat and it was smoked pork not ham. They were good anyway. They didn't have any collard greens so I went to two other stores before I found some. At the other store that didn't have any, they said it was because of the season, weather and the ones they got in were not good enough to put out. Those were bogus excuses. This is just the season and weather for collards. I used navy beans because Charlie doesn't care much for black-eyed peas and besides, it isn't New Years.😋

I thought it would be difficult to use the smoker on a cold day but I got some ribs anyway. The smoker fired up and held for four hours just like it was a warm day. I added some beer brats during the last hour or so.

I have not been cooking very much lately. It really hit me how long it has been when I checked in and saw how much had been posted since I did. I made chili and corn cut off the cob and cooked with a little honey and milk.

I have only used it two or three times. I had plans to use it the other day but didn't. I used a butane grill instead.

I wish I had known that sooner.

Charlie had a request for dinner: Either strip or ribeye steak, mac & cheese and a vegetable, no potatoes. I added strawberries.

That reminds me of a Chinese restaurant where I used to live. They had two menus, one for regular people and one for Chinese customers. We always asked for the Chinese menu then had to have everything explained to us. Some of the food had a lot of those little red chilies. They were good but I had to take them in moderation.

Fifty years ago when the World Atlas of Wine , Hugh Johnson's other book - Wine, The Signet book of Wine, and Time Life's Wines and Spirits were all published, the world of wine was smaller. California wines were in their infancy and grape wine variety options were smaller. In other words it was easier to be 'knowledgeable" There were no mentionable wineries in the US outside of Northern California, there were too few to mention in South America , Asia, Africa, Australia, or Canada. Today the subject has really expanded to the point that it is difficult to write a comprehensive book about wine, at least not in a single volume. One would need several volumes just to have the wine labels pictured.

A bit of unimportant (IMO) trivia: Herbs come from the green leafy part of a plant and spices are from any other part, like stem, bark, flower, seed, etc.

Every once in a while I have to go over the top with something. It is a Scotch Egg inside a layer of grated potatoes which is fried until the potatoes are browned then baked until the sausage is done.

Now that you mention it, I recall using Ritz cracker crumbs or something similar a couple of times.

I saw a box of corn flake crumbs on a shelf at the store and it brought back memories of when I was single. I often made a James Beard recipe for oven "fried" chicken. It dipped chicken in evaporated milk then rolled it in corn flake crumbs and baked. I thought I'd try it again and followed the recipe on the box that made a batter first, then added the corn flake crumbs. Almost a year ago Charlie got a lot of mac and cheese at Costco and we are finally down to the last box. The green beans were cooked for about a minute in the Instant Pot.

When I was at the store a few days ago getting the pork shoulder for the bulgogi, I also picked up a couple of steaks. A day or two later I got some okra at the farmers market and today when I decided to cook them I noticed a package of Velveeta alfredo cheese bowl in the cupboard that had been there a long long time . I thought I should either cook it or throw it away, so I cooked it, we tasted it, and then I threw it away.

The Korean BBQ seasoned Wagyu Short Ribs from Heritage Foods (Kalbi) arrived and was cooked for dinner a few hours later. They were delicious. We had them with some of the spicy pork bulgogi from yesterday.

People have come to expect big breasted turkeys with lots of white meat and generally prefer modern birds to the old breeds. It's a different story with hogs, in my experience. This will be the first time I will have tried their beef.

It was several years ago when a farmer here in Kansas started raising vintage breed turkeys for sale. It started a company called Heritage Foods which took the idea and expanded it to all kinds of food and is headquartered in NYC now. I plan to have some heritage ham for Thanksgiving along with a more commercial turkey. They sent me a catalog that had Korean BBQ Wagyu ribs (beef) which I ordered and expect to get here tomorrow. Today I made some spicy Korean pork to go with it and a couple of steaks for today but Charlie wanted to have the pork today and there is a lot of it so I did some on the grill and that was our dinner.

@robirdstx I imagine you should lock your doors and pull down the shades when eating Cincinnati chili in Texas. . @BonVivant I didn't know barnacles were edible. Live and learn.