Norm Matthews

Yes, with technology as it is now, you can get every recipe on line and Jaques Pepin is a great teacher. My first cookbook was The James Beard Cookbook in paperback. I used it until it started falling apart and then got another one in hard cover. By the time I lost it in a house fire, it was out of print and there were no computers with online selling, so the next two were James Beard's American Cookery and Jaques Pepin's la Technique. I think the early James Beard cookbook is somewhat dated now in that some of the peripheral information is no longer relevant. PS When my son left home and moved to Seattle in the '90's, I gave him How To Cook Everything, a Henkel chef and paring knife set and some measuring cups and spoons.

Charlie came to me yesterday with a request for dinner someday soon. He asked for small Swedish Meatballs with egg noodles. Someday soon was today.

Yes, It is medium grain rice cooked with Sazon Goya Con Culantro Y Achiote for seasoning and color.

I tried a new recipe for baked crispy chicken wings. It said to let them char a little. I would have liked them better if they were charred about 30 second less but they were still good... a keeper, IMO.

I made shrimp and sausage kebabs on the grill outside today and @ElsieD, I don't think the smokeless indoor grill would measure up to the smoky flavor I got with the grill. The recipe said to put the vegetables and the shrimp on the same skewer and cook them all together but I felt that the mushrooms would take longer to cook than the shrimp so I did them on different skewers and put the shrimp on after the vegetables were done on one side.

@ElsieD I guess. I'm old and my taste buds are not as acute as they once were but to me it seems pretty much the same as an LP grill, it just was not as windy or cold as if I was outside.

We had steak cooked on an indoor smokeless grill. It was the second time we used it. The steaks turned out well.

I used the grill today. I also used the butane grill. I used both in the kitchen instead of table top. The butane grill was faster but smoky and did not leave grill marks. The fat did not drain away because of the arrangement I had set up. The Philips bottom tray and top grill cleaned up easy. The insides below the grill plate will take a little more work. The butane grill took no clean up. I just threw away the non stick foil. I used the griddle on my stove to keep all of them warm while the rest was cooking.

I have a recipe we liked for chicken breasts, spinach and cream sauce but this time I substituted thighs and peas and added spaghetti. I thought I'd use the thighs and forgot there was spinach in it so used the peas.

@JoNorvelleWalker I was wondering about that. Perhaps I can set it up high enough so the food is at eye level. Maybe I'll have to cook things in the kitchen instead and maybe I'll just have to go back to the (new found) old butane grill.

This site is getting expensive. It was the kalbi in the first picture that decided it for me. I have a butane grill from Sam's or maybe it was Costco that I had not been able to find for months. I decided the best way to find it was to get a replacement. BB& Beyond has the Philips Indoor Smokeless Grill (with coupon) for $224. The coupon expired yesterday so I got one then. I have not tried it yet but now we can grill Korean food at the table again. Of course as soon as I got home, I decided to get rid of several empty boxes in the basement and the butane grill was under them. I have also been looking at toasters because of another thread.

I seldom make corned beef hash. I usually don't have enough left by now.

There are very times out of the year when anyone can predict what we will be having for dinner, but on March 18th, it will always be Rueben sandwiches. That usually finishes up our corned beef but this time I corned a whole brisket so there will be some hash soon and probably some for the freezer too.

Our dinner is ready but we are not ready to eat yet. Our March 17th meal is of course home made corned beef. We will also have cabbage, parsnips, rutabagas, carrots, scones with pear and Irish cheddar, Irish butter and potatoes. Here is how it looks now. I don't think I will be able to post a picture of it after it is served.

Yesterday's dinner was nothing much worth mentioning. I came from a box in the freezer. Dessert was improvised. It was not very pretty but worth trying again. It was a very ripe and juicy pear over melted cherry ice cream and topped with some sour cherry jam. Todays dinner was veal piccata with egg noodles and a salad.

We thought our dinner was pretty good tonight. It was Emeril's braised chicken thighs. We had it with rice.

We had shrimp creole for dinner tonight.

I made some lasagna last night. I didn't take a picture then. My niece arrived with her children to play with my potters wheel about the time it came out of the oven. I gave them about a third of it when the left to take home. Charlie and I had a piece and then I mentioned that maybe the neighbors behind us might like some because there would be too much leftover for us to eat it all. I didn't think about it again until I came into the kitchen just now for another piece. This is all that was left.

Charlie had friends over last night and ordered pizza. There is enough left over for a couple meals, so I only made some fried rice tonight.

Charlie asked for some sourdough French bread to eat with some brie I had in the refrigerator. I guess I had the oven set a little too high. Even though I cooked it to 190º, it came out browner than usual and almost burnt on the bottom. I trimmed off the bottom before we had it. Charlie also ordered out for dinner. He ordered Chicken Tandoori. I didn't take pictures of it. It came with some sauces, rice pilaf and some kind of flat bread.

A few days ago, I saw a package of corned beef at the store that said it was point cut brisket. I almost never see that part offered in regular stores. That is the fatty end and (I think) the best part. It was small enough to be a good size for the two of us so I got it and cooked it today.

We had brisket braised with vegetables and with gravy and salad.

We had Polish sausage with cabbage and noodles tonight. I think Charlie has requested this about 5 times in the last six months.

I was able to get a small duroc pork shoulder and decided to make a Cuban sandwich. No one that I know of has Cuban bread so I looked up the recipe and made it this morning. T

Made a second stab at Charlies request for chicken wings done Pureto Rican style and PR rice to go with it. After some reading up on the rice ingredients, switching to a fried chicken version, and a trip to Bonito Michoacan grocery, I was able to round up everything. It all turned out very well this time.