Norm Matthews

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.

Dinner was simply steak and hash browns tonight.

@ElsieD here is a picture of the bottle. It came in a 4 pack. Charlie ate all four, then asked for more and this one was left over. The only time I tasted the peaches was in the cobbler so I don't know how they taste alone but the cobbler was good.

LOL. I was hoping the ice cream would melt into the cobbler before I got around to eating it.

Our dinner tonight was beef enchiladas, potato nachos and peach cobbler. Charlie asked for some peaches from Costco a while back and one jar didn't get eaten, so I made the cobbler. The potato nachos is one of those recipes that you have to decide if you want to make it again and if so, what changes need to be made.

New Years day dinner was the same as always, sort of. The store had pork shanks. A brand I have had before. It was mostly bone with just a bite or two of pork. Pork not ham. So I got a nice sliced ham and cut the meaty small end off. You know the end that is never sliced and hard to get at the meat. I have a butchers bone saw that I used to cut the bone. I cooked it with the black eyed peas and the meat just fell off the bone and tasted just like ham shanks or ham hocks, plus there was a lot more meat for future meals. We also had collards and cornbread. I cooked the collards like spinach- in a skillet with just a tiny bit of water instead of boiling it for a couple of hours, then added onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, and the ham and some bean water. I think I will do it that way in the future. I hope everyone had a great NYE and will have a great new year

I saw a recipe on line today and decided to make it. It is Italian style chicken breasts with a cream sauce, parm cheese, sun dried tomatoes and spinach. I added spaghetti and corn to try to round out the meal but in the end neither of us ate any of the corn.

I was not sure where to post this. I guess this is as good a place as any. Sister gave us some Omaha steaks so I went to the store to get something to go with it and saw this. It made me laugh, so I got some.

@heidih They were Seneca brand Granny Smith Apple chips. I suppose they were made like potato chips. The recipe said to use potato chips but I thought I'd try apple chips instead.

We had Christmas eve dinner today a short time ago. Tomorrow we will be at my sister's. We had smoked salmon appetizers with sour cream on apple chips. Rib roast, salad, potatoes, Brussels sprout hash, sour dough bread and chocolate cake. I made the cake and bread yesterday. My initial plan was to make a flourless chocolate cake but better sense took over and I just got a Duncan Hines cake mix instead. Why is it that when you watch someone frost a cake, it looks so much easier? Also why do they never put enough icing in those store bought tubs and too much in two? I put cream cheese icing on top and the middle and chocolate around the side. Charlie cut some before I took the picture of it. A friend told me that Yorkshire pudding is normally served with gravy so I made some beef gravy and put a dash of Irish Cream in it. Some of the oil in the popover pan must have spilled out in the oven because it started smoking a lot and I took them out early. They were still good and had a creamier texture in the middle that they didn't have when I made them before. That is probably because I took them out early but I liked them better that way.

I was remembering when I first started cooking and learned the hard way that you can't cook a brisket like a rib roast. Thank goodness they were cheap cuts back then. Then I discovered braising brisket with beer and how that was almost as good as the kind mom made when I was little and she would put one on low in a covered skillet in the morning before church and how good it was by dinner time. I don't think slow cookers were on the market by then. Anyway, I got the slow cooker from the basement and a bottle of beer and cooked it with a package of dry Lipton onion soup. We liked it but mom still made them better.