Norm Matthews

We had Shrimp Creole with rice. The recipe is said to be from Emeril when he was still at Commander's Palace.

Dinner was chicken thighs baked with tomato, onion and red potatoes.

"I love small furry animals, especially with a good gravy". Seen on a bumper sticker

We had French Onion Pork Chops. I cut the recipe down to two thick pork chops. Caramelizing the onions then putting them in the oven for 25 minutes caused them to become burned in part. It would probably have been better to just cook them until softened. It was still good after we scraped off the onions.

I seldom ever watched 'Friends' but the story probably came from that episode, either it was one of the few I watched or someone told me about it.

I will always share a recipe but one time my ex came over and asked for some of my recipes. I let her copy anything she wanted out of my hand written recipe book. This was before computers and the internet. Some time after she left, I discovered one of our favorites missing. I presume she stole it. When the internet came about, i found several recipes by the same name but they were different. Either someone had simplified the original or I had improvised some additions to the original which came from a magazine that said it was from a restaurant in California. I was able to recreate it to our satisfaction over time but I'd still like to see the one that was in my cookbook again. I expect any recipe I give out to lose my name sooner or later. I got a recipe from a friend and always refer to it as her recipe even though she told me she got it from somewhere else. Once there was a recipe that I gave out and the person asking was famous and my recipe is on her web site and attributed to me but she changed the recipe in a way that makes it not as good -in my opinion- even though people have told me about how much they enjoy it. ps the above recipe was printed in a California news paper and they said it was from the famous lady. I wish I could remember all the details of this one story I heard but it was about an aunt's fab. recipe for choc. chip cookies. She claimed it was an exotic recipe and gave it an fancy name. After years, the story teller discovered the recipe was the Toll House Cookie recipe.

I was going to do an easy meal with some slaw mix cooked with bacon, onions and kielbasa and have it with corn; mango and melon. Then Charlie said he'd like egg noodles too. I didn't have any so he said he'd make mac and cheese but there were several hours before dinner and I thought noodles sounded good, so I made some. It was pretty easy with the Kitchenaid pasta maker. Charlie said they were really good but I can never tell a difference between them and store bought.

We had a shrimp salad the other day that we liked a lot so I made it as a main dish today. I heated the oil and lemon juice dressing so it would wilt the lettuce this time and it is in the center of the seasoned rice ring. The shrimp covered it up in the first picture.

I wonder if there are differences in the composition of aluminum products.

Perhaps, but BKF isn't known for abrasiveness. We have an aluminum ice cream scoop that is dark gray from many times in the dishwasher. I just cleaned it with BKF and it shined again but left a dark spot on the dish rag. The rag is probably stained for good. Then I went after it with SOS and it polished a little more, but it's still gray. Cleaning the pizza pan right out of the dishwasher with BKF was easier. Below is the pan and scoop. Both are easily 25 to 30 years old.

He has not forgotten since I talked to him a year ago. It takes some elbow grease but if you get at it the first time, it shines again. Letting it go for a few times is a lot more difficult.

I tell my son to not put our perforated pizza pan in the dishwasher. Not because I am concerned about any ill effects of aluminum oxide, but just because I don't like the look of dull aluminum. When he forgets and puts it in anyway, I bring back the shine with Barkeepers Friend and sometimes finish it with SOS. It's an extra effort I prefer over looking at dull pans. I never put my sheet pans in the dishwasher but when they get grungy due to everyday crud build up, they are cheap enough to replace without much thought. It is nice to know, however, that there are stainless pans. I'll probably replace my pans with SS eventually.

My old wok got sold in a garage sale a couple years ago. It had not been used in a long long time. It did not do well on an electric stove. Now that I have a gas stove with a large burner, I thought it was time to get a new one. I broke it in today with some marinated steak. We had it with some roasted vegetables and rice.

Tonights dinner was Chicken Curry.

I went to a road side farmers stand and got okra and tomatoes for dinner tonight. I was going to just grill a steak to go with it but was afraid it would not be enough so I added a shrimp salad. I was wrong. Neither of us could finish it all. There will be left overs.

the only time I see any recipe from NYT is when they send me an email usually entitled "What to cook this week" It is out of curiosity that I even look at any particular recipe. When they send me a recipe title, then don't let me see the recipe, it feels like a bait and switch operation. Usually they are not blocked and I expect them to have original recipes, so I looked up Wedge Salad and Cheese Sandwich and a few others, because I thought: What is so special about that? Then what is so secret about it? Then I really don't care to spend money to find out.

Interesting idea @gfweb I would have expected more than wedge salad and grilled cheese from any paid recipe site, and especially more from NYT. My first reaction was they are slipping or sliding into meeting deadlines.

Since the NYT now has recipes set up so one must pay a subscription fee to see them, I have noticed, for instance, the following blocked recipe titles: Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Tomato Sandwich, Wedge Salad, Chicken Parmesan and Pasta Puttanesca. What is so special about wedge salad or grilled cheese that makes one feel the need to pay to see how to make them? Such food, if not intuitive, is at least so common as to be easily accessible. The first time I saw Puttanesca was over 40 years ago when it was called Harlots sauce.

Charlie is having friends over tonight. I smoked a brisket. I didn't want to take a chance that if I started today that it would not be done on time and the weather said rain for yesterday so I did it on Thursday, but the point was done way before the flat so we had it then and I finished the flat today. I grilled some hamburgers, smoked some brautwurst and they are keeping warm in the Breville. Also made some bread, potato salad fruit salad, and BBQ beans.the first shot of the brisket is after about five hours. The point was done in a little under eight hours and the flat took another three hours. PS it didn't rain at all on Friday but it did rain a bit on Thursday.

NYT recipe in my mailbox yesterday said it was Herby Pork Larb, a variation on a Thai dish. I had to wait dinner for a couple hours and when I reheated it, the herbs got a little wilted but it was still a keeper. We had bok choy with it and Charlie asked me to make again a fruit salad I made last month.

Using a CI recipe would give me indigestion. Not because the food would not be good but from reading all the superfluous verbiage.

I made a dinner that featured one of Charlie's favorites: Korean Chicken wings with sticky sweet ginger sauce. The candle on the cake is musical. It plays Happy Birthday

Charlie has been working 10 hours/4 day weeks. This week he went back to an 8 hour day and so we were able to eat earlier. We had a meatloaf dinner tonight.

Tried several recipes that were new to me: Vietnamese Steak With Cucumber Salad and Zucchini Pancakes with yogurt sauce. I don't like cucumbers unless they are pickled and these were, sort of. The recipe used a flank steak, but I used a chuck steak because I didn't want to pay almost twice as much for a flank steak. PS I just remembered I had rice ready to cook for this and forgot to start it.

If I could list all the recipes and variations on them I have made more than a few times, I bet Martini chicken would be right up there somewhere after hamburgers. Today we had a variation. It was made the same but topped with mozzarella and tomatoes marinated in a dressing with basil. Whoever wrote this recipe called it Chicken Milanese.