Norm Matthews

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.

The other day Charlie asked if I could make empanadas again plus find recipes for Puerto Rican chicken wings and rice. I made the empanadas a couple days ago. I have made those before. I showed Charlie a couple recipes for PR chicken. One was for wings and he picked it. It was marinated and grilled or roasted. It was way too cold to grill so it went in the oven. It didn't brown very much but was good. I will look for a fried chicken recipe to try next. I have found almost everything for the rice but made a Mexican style today. It was a Goya mix from the Mexican grocery.

@TdeV Here is the recipe Potato skin nachos 4 SMALL RUSSET POTATOES WASHED (1 POUND TOTAL) OLIVE OIL SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE 6-8 OUNCES COLBY JACK CHEESE SHREDDED 1 15-OUNCE CAN Black Beans, DRAINED 8-10 STRIPS THIN SLICED BACON CHOPPED AND COOKED UNTIL CRISPY 1/3 CUP PICKLED JALAPEÑO RINGS 1/3 CUP RED ONION FINELY DICED 1-2 ROMA TOMATOES DICED CHOPPED CILANTRO TO TASTE 1/2 CUP SOUR CREAM OR MEXICAN CREMA The potatoes were cooked (in a microwave) to fork tender, then cooled enough to handle; cut in nacho size wedges. Preheat oven to 400ºF. First cook potatoes to fork tender (in microwave). when cooled enough to handle, cut into wedges.. about 4 per potato if small. Cut into smaller wedges if potatoes are larger.Scoop out the meat, leaving enough so you can move them without breaking. they were then transfered to a baking pan, basted with oil and baked until browned and a somewhat crispy. Then they were layered (about 3 layers) with cheese, beans, bacon and jalapenos and baked again until the cheese was all melted. Before serving, topped with onion, tomato, cilantro and sour cream.

Our dinner tonight was pork spareribs with a tamarind glaze with basmati rice

My mother's family is from that part of the country. She was born near Mountain Home, in northern Arkansas, one of her sisters lived in Little Rock all her life. Another in West Plains (southern Mo.) We spent lots of time there in my childhood. In the last couple of weeks I have traced her family back to England in the late 1500's and early 1600's. They came to the Ozarks region largely from Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia.

I made Korean chicken wings with a ginger glaze for dinner tonight.

@Kim Shook This is in the sauce: 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup Greek yogurt 1 tablespoon sugar 2 tablespoons white vinegar 1 teaspoon lemon juice 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Charlie asked about this dish yesterday. He said he had it in New York several years ago and it was really good. It is chicken and rice with a white sauce. (See blog address at the bottom) I could not find the hot sauce or pita, so got some flat bread that I thought would do. Turns out the dish he had did not have any bread, hot sauce, lettuce or tomato so it didn't matter anyway.

We had chili last night. We have had several inches of snow, it's not melting and more is forecast.