Norm Matthews

Yesterday at the store to get stuff to make yesterdays dinner, I saw a 2 1/2 lb. package of pork shoulder. It is very seldom sold in such a small package, but I thought it would be a great size to make Carnitas without having a ton of leftovers. ( BTW 2 1/2 pounds of pork cost 50 cents less that one pound of hamburger. ) One of Charlies friends from his low rider car club was going to be here for dinner so we had Carnitas Tacos. There were jalapeños and salsa that were not in the pictures.

I think it is so dark is because it has two cans of French Onion soup in it. When I was younger and more opinionated, I doubt I would have made any recipe with a can of soup in it.

I was looking around for some idea for dinner when I saw this for Salisbury steak. It looked good and simple to make. I can't remember if I've ever made it before. Charlie said he wouldn't mind me making this again. He said he used to get them in frozen dinners and make sandwiches with the meat.

Thanks. I hope you like it. I didn't mention this in the blog but I added some cocoa powder. It seems to give the chili a deeper flavor.

Glad to give it to you. I found the recipe in an Irish pub food magazine at the grocery check-out line. Scotch Eggs From Irish Pub Food ©2021 10 eggs, divided 2 T. vegetable oil 1 1/2 C panko bread crumbs 1 lb. bulk breakfast sausage (I always need more than a pound for that many eggs) 1/4 C thinly sliced green onions 3/4 C AP flour 2 T. whole grain mustard preheat oven to 400º hard cook 8 eggs ( I steam them) heat oil In med. skillet over med. heat. Add panko; cook about 8 minutes or until toasted and golden brown, stirring occasionally. Remove and allow to cool. Combine sausage and green onions. Place flour in another bowl add mustard to two lightly beaten eggs in another bowl divide sausage into 8, spread out and wrap sausage around each egg. roll each sausage in flour then in egg/ mustard mixture. Roll in Panko crumbs. Place on lined cooking sheet and bake 16 to 18 minutes. Drain well on paper towels. Serve warm.

I made chili for dinner and while it was cooking, I made Scotch eggs for snacks for the next few days. They were baked instead of fried.

We had all Korean food for dinner. It was Kim Bob, Kim chi, Galbi, spicy Pork Bulgogi, medium grain rice, seaweed, and salted sesame oil for dipping.

Yes. All the things in that picture are on the blog except the steak. Not much to say about cooking a steak.

Last night's dinner was ribeye, green beans with almonds and feta, stuffed baked potatoes and a salad.

My son put a CO monitor by the stove and another one by the gas fireplace. Neither one has ever gone off.

Hmm. The house I live in now had an electric stove but the oven thermostat was unreliable. I got a new electric stove and in a couple years the two front burners didn't work. One would not heat up. I'd turn it on and come back a few minutes to turn it down and it wasn't heating much at all. The other burner went to high even if the dial was turned on low. It would have started a fire if I had not caught it in time. When shopping for another stove, I learned that gas lines could be installed for less than half the previous cost and I switched. I am not inclined to change again even though I am pretty sure induction stoves are probably better in almost all aspects.

Thanks to @Dejah for the Chicken Breast Neptune and @Shelby for the green bean salad ideas. Both were delicious and are keepers.

I've read somewhere that lemon-lime carbonated beverages can help tenderize meats in marinades and boost ingredients in baking mixes. I have used club soda instead of water in tempura. It helps the lightness of the batter.

https://www.food.com/recipe/7-up-biscuits-496614 Here is a link to a recipe. It uses 2 Cups baking mix (Jiffy or Bisquick) 1/2C. sour cream, 1/2C. Sprite or 7-Up 1/4 C. melted butter. Sour cream is cut into the baking mix. Stir in the Sprite. Dump dough on board with a little added Jiffy and knead two or three times, adding as little more mix as possible to have a soft dough that you can handle. Pat dough out to about 1-inch thick. Melt butter and put in baking pan. (I used a skillet to melt the butter then added the biscuits to it and baked them in it.) Cut the biscuits into rounds (about 9) Bake 450º oven for 12-15 minutes.

I was going to cook strip steak for supper but we actually had these for lunch with stuffed potatoes. Steak wasn't very flavorful. Supper was just some biscuits made with Jiffy baking mix, Sprite, sour cream, & butter with some milk gravy. You could use 7-Up and Bisquick instead.

We had Alton Brown's recipe for Buffalo Wings. Every time I have made it, Charlie says it is perfect so I have not had the nerve to try the Cook's Country recipe someone on here said was good too.

I made chimichurri and empanadas tonight. Even though there is a Mexican grocery close by, I have never been able to find the commercial wrappers and make them myself. I am not very patient at trying to make them look good and they don't. They aren't pretty but i made 14 and by the time I got around to taking the picture, this was all that was left.

Feel free to use the recipe and good luck with the cook-off.

Your dinner looks yummy! We loved the shrimp.

On the first day of 2013, (note the bad luck number 13) I decided it was time to stop following moms New Year meal which always included black eyed peas for luck and served Shrimp cocktail instead. The first thing the next day as I was taking out the trash, I fell on a patch of ice and broke every bone in my ankle. They kept me on pain killers at the hospital for three days before the surgeon could get to me. The first thing i saw on facebook this morning was a note from them and a picture showing that very dinner of nine years ago. I've been reluctant to quit including those ingredient since then but because it is really hard to find decent ham hocks any more, and because Charlie is getting tired of plain old black eyed peas, I decided to find another way to use the traditional ingredients in my Mom's Southern New Year day dinner. I deleted ham hock and collard greens and substituted pork sausage and spinach in a soup. I used corn chips for corn bread and then made some corn bread any way. I made black eyed peas and cheese into dip for the corn chips instead of cooking them with the ham and collard greens. The rest of the stuff was just added to round out the meal a little more. The shrimp is a recipe that got made because @Steve Irby and @Kim Shook recently endorsed it so I wanted to try it. There was a pineapple and mango salsa that I forgot to put on the table until after I took these pictures. Charlie invited a couple friends over and we all had a good time.

At Charlie's request (again) we had a repeat of Thanksgiving turkey dinner for Christmas. These are friends who are staying with us for a while. They are Kalven and Ariyana. Ari requested tamales for Christmas and we had some for breakfast this morning along with some Mexican style rice that I made. Through one of Charlies car club members we were able to find a place that has some good tamales. It was a small mom & pop store that also sold food, but they only sold tamales on Friday this week. We pre-ordered got two dozen. They were very good and we still have some for later. I cooked the turkey yesterday. cut the breasts and dark meat off in whole pieces, vacuum packed them and reheated it in the sous vide. The back of the turkey was cooked in some homemade chicken stock I had frozen and that gave me enough stock for all the other dishes that used stock. It made some very good gravy. I made a paste with butter and flour and added enough to stock to make the gravy, then added salt and pepper and a little cream, rosemary, sage and chives. Charlie said it was the best gravy he'd ever had. I had enough time to make some bread. It was the same bread I most often make but without any sourdough flavoring. It is just water, salt, sugar, yeast and enough flour to make a soft but not sticky dough. Dressing was Pepperidge Farm country style with some turkey bits mixed in with the broth. There were some bits in the gravy too. Not pictured (besides the tamales) is an apple crisp like I made for Thanksgiving and a store bought pecan pie. Merry Christmas.

Tonight we had bone-in baked ham. The glaze was made from apricot preserves with some brown sugar, spicybrown mustard, ground cloves and maple syrup mixed in. I also made some cookies.

We had chili tonight

We had breaded chicken breasts with fettuccini and Parmigiano melted into a béchamel sauce. As far as I can tell it was the same Martini chicken I have made dozens of times but he said it tasted different.