Norm Matthews

@HungryChris I like the idea of thin whole potatoes on the top of Shepard's Pie.

We had a Mexican themed dinner too. We had Mexican stuffed shells and a sweet corn cake (Pan de Elote)

I read that in the 1880's in Tombstone, an individual serving of booze cost the same as a bullet and bartenders would accept a bullet from poor cowboys for a small glass. That is how it came to be called a shot of whiskey. It is possibly how getting a shot came to be called "buying a round"

@heidih The strawberry pie I made has all the same ingredients as the one pointed out but different amounts. The one made was for a regular pie but the one I saw was for a deep dish pie and the crust, instead of graham cracker, used: Crust • 1/2 c. 1 stick butter, softened • 3 Tbsp. sugar • 1 c. flour

Dinner was a flat iron steak marinated in Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar and mustard then grilled. The baked potato had toppings left over from tacos the other night and strawberry pie. A friend said it looked like a pie she made in the 60's and 70's and it does look like something from that time. Ingredients included jello and fresh strawberries.

Charlie has been away for a week so I didn't do much in the kitchen until today. I made potatoes that are sliced like Hasselback then par-baked, then cheese (I used Fontina) and Canadian bacon are placed between each slice, topped with more cheese and bechamel and baked some more. We also had asparagus and some bread I made the other day. The hollandaise came pre-made in a tube. It was not awful.

@JohnT Thank you. That oven is convection capable but I just used it as a regular oven. The tray is 16" by 8".

I baked my usual sour dough bread in my new-ish gas oven using the lower oven for the first time for bread. The center came out perfectly baked but the crust was much darker and a little crustier than usual. Not that that is bad, just unexpected. The only thing I can think that I did differently is put the egg wash on the crust a little heavier than usual. Oh another thing was I forgot to put some water in there for a little steam. I guess I will have to try some different things with this oven to see what makes a difference.

I tried a recipe called Steak Cutlets Caprese. I made some Southern style white gravy "just in case" too. I am glad I made the gravy. I think the recipe needs some tweaking. It was a mistake to use a tomato at this time of the year as well.

@ElsieD Whenever you want a recipe of mine, just click on the blogspot at the bottom of my post. This one is from a couple of Koreans and is for two differnnt meats so I hope it snt too convusinig. BULGOGI FOR BEEF OR CHICKEN WINGS notes from Jung Ja, My sons mother. i deleted most of the part for beef. 1/4 cup sesame seeds toasted 2 cups soy sauce 3/4 cup sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce 3/4 tablespoon ground black pepper 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger 1 tablespoon garlic minced 1/4 cup sesame oil 1 tablespoon corn starch 1/4 cup water 1 tablespoon brown sugar Notes 1 T. pineapple juice. Grind onions with soy sauce. Add a couple packs mushrooms. use 1 T soy sauce & 1 T. water. use hot sauce for chicken, not beef. Use meat cut for Shabu shabby because it is thin and tender so you don’t have to marinate tougher meat over night. Blissfully wed also adds Caro syrup (1T) and 1/4 C. coca cola. Sesame seeds. MIx cornstarch and water; dissolve brown sugar in water. Add all other ingredients and simmer in pan briefly to thicken slightly. Store, refrigerated in covered glass container until ready to use. Cut beef into very thin slices or cut wings into sections. Pour sauce over meat and mix until well coated. Let stand 10-15 minutes. sauté, cook in wok or grill until done but not browned. Bake chicken wings @ 350º 45- 60 minutes. Cover with foil if they begin to brown too much.

Charlie suggested dinner tonight. We had Chicken wings Bulgogi. This is not the sticky wings I have made recently but an older recipe from his mom.

I made Shrimp Jambalaya for dinner tonight. I was very briefly married a second time and #2 made Jambalaya and I disliked it so much I never even considered making it myself but this recipe from Fine Cooking looked good. It said to use long grain rice and I used medium grain rice which makes it clump together and not be fluffy like it should. I had my reasons though. First, I have several pounds of medium grain and it is all we ever use and I didn't want to get some for one recipe until I had tried it this way first. Second, #2 used long grain rice and even though I probably hated it because of her recipe and it wasn't the fault of the rice, I still used medium grain. Third, Charlies' Korean side of the family does not like long grain rice in anything and I was afraid Charlie might not like it either but apparently his tastes are more catholic than I thought.

I saw a recipe for veggie pot pie and it looked good but I was tempted to add some chicken until I saw another recipe from Hispanic Kitchen for meatballs rolled in pork rinds. I am not a fan of pork rinds and I could not find any anyway so I used Panko bread crumbs and had them on the side. I made biscuits from scratch for the pot pie using White Lily flour and a Shirley Corriher recipe.

I tried a meal kit today. It's like Blue Apron I suppose except it is a local company and instead of delivering it to you, it's delivered to a grocery store and you pick out which meal you want to try. I got Jerk Chicken with cucumber mango relish and roasted Ranch potatoes. Charlie, who is much more familiar with cooking from that part of the world said it was good but it wasn't Jerk Chicken. The cooking time for the potatoes was too long and too short for the chicken. Both seasonings burned on the bottom of the glass Pyrex plates I cooked on. If I try another one, I'll cook on parchment or foil. I made a salad to go with it.

I tried a Moveable Feast recipe for a Spicy Balinese Roasted Chicken. We had rice seasoned with Sazon Goya Con Azafran. I had a green salad and Charlie had a macaroni salad.

Someone on Facebook asked "What did your mom make that you hated and never had again?" That got me to thinking about mom's salmon croquettes. I wondered if my tastes had changed or if they would be better if made with fish that didn't come out of a can. Charlie liked them. He said they reminded him of crab cakes but better and that they would make good sandwiches on a hamburger bun. By the time I had two, I, myself, was over them. I will make them again if he asks. We had them with latkes from a box mix and a salad. I figured as long as I had the oil heated up, I might as well use up that box mix.

We had two kinds of sausages, polenta with cheese and colored bell peppers.

We love this recipe but don't make if very often. I have had the original recipe since before I had a computer and kept recipes in a loose leaf notebook but someone took the original out and this is a recreation. We think it's pretty much like the original which was called Honey Lacquered Game Hens. We always have it with rice and I cooked the rest of the bok choy from yesterday.

I got a couple of the Christmas Omaha Steak pork chops out of the freezer and made them using Korean style ingredients and served it with some baby bok choy. I thought I made some rice but when I opened the cooker, I realized I forgot to add water! We didn't really miss it though. I also put out some kimchi but we didn't eat any of that either.

Charlie seldom ever makes any suggestions for dinner so I was sure to make one when he asked. He said it's a Soul Food recipe called Smothered Chicken. We had it with rice and he had already helped himself before I remembered to take a picture.

Last nights dinner will go unmentioned. Tonight we had a one skillet dish with rice on the side. It was Cuban Beef Picadillo.

I have a good friend from Australia who lives in Seattle. She gave me this recipe from a Scotsman who prior to making this recipe, said she didn't have a clue as to what meatloaf really was. My friend has made it several times and vouched for it. We agree that is it different and good, but along with converting it from metric to US, I made some changes that I think are relatively minor. We had it with leftover green beans, potatoes cooked with the meatloaf and Amigo Joe's corn relish which is spicy with cumin.

New Years Day lunch: Black eyed peas, pork shanks, collard greens, corn bread sticks and Povitica bread.

Thank you. Those taters were really good. They looked prettier in the recipe picture than mine turned out but they were still good. The recipe is a keeper. It is posted on the blog listed at the bottom of the post.

Our New Years Day dinner is always the same: Collards, black eyed peas and ham hocks or shanks. That is tomorrow. I skipped that good luck dinner once and broke my leg the next day so I always make it now. We will have some povitica bread with it which was a tradition on Strawberry Hill in Kansas City where I grew up. Today we had an early dinner of rib roast, scalloped potatoes with a garlic cream sauce, green beans and from the Cheesecake Factory, a Dulce de Leche Caramel cheesecake.