Norm Matthews

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.

It was Alfredo.

The chicken I got a few days ago got used for stock, tandoori and the last of it was the breasts which got breaded, pan fried and served with pasta, sauce and vegetables.

Charlie gave me a chicken cookbook for Christmas. He thought it must have some good recipes in it because it was on the NYT best seller list. After we looked through it, we realized that it was not the recipes that made it a best seller. The name of the book is 50 Shades of Chicken. One of the recipes uses Tandoori seasoning and since Charlie really likes chicken from a local Indian restaurant, I made it for supper tonight. It was good but not a lot like the one from the restaurant. Charlie said he'd like to have it again. I cooked it in the steam oven and we had caramel apple tarts from Omaha Steaks with ice cream for dessert.

Our dinner was an Asian str-fry beef from the NYT.

We had a buffet at my sisters today. I took some raw veggies and a couple dips plus stuffed mushrooms. I made mini sausage meatballs with leftover filling. Sorry about the blurry picture of the mushrooms.

My sister sent us a package from Omaha Steaks. We cooked two of them for dinner tonight. My son wanted scrambled eggs with his so this is his plate with a twice baked potato. One of the things he gave was me a cast iron press which I used on the steaks to get good grill marks.

The Instant Pot made our pot roast tonight. It had parsnips and Brussels sprouts. I eat Brussels sprouts from time to time. I like them OK, but not a great fan. However it is my opinion that cooking them with a pot roast was a mistake.

We had breaded pork chops with spinach and mushrooms tonight.

We had a spicy sausage, white bean soup and collard green soup. I had mine with a cold cut sandwich and egg nog.

Those baked apples look delicious.

We have been making sandwiches by the light of a lantern for almost a week. Something happened to a switch in the dining room and it took out the kitchen lights, microwave and a couple more outlets. On top of that the garbage disposer switch wore out too. It was not all of a sudden and I put it off until it was too late. It's interesting how late it is before the sun lights up the kitchen and how early it gets dark. By the time everything got fixed today and I ran errands, I was feeling like I needed an easy meal so it was steak and mashed potatoes for dinner tonight.

LOL. The girl that was the inspiration for that image was Evelyn Nesbit, a super model at the turn of the last century. Not knowing who she was, Lucy Montgomery, said a picture of her in a magazine was her inspiration for how Anne of Green Gables should look. We live on Prince Edward Island St. and in order to get here, you have to go on or cross streets named Charlottetown Rd., Green Gables and Lucy Montgomery Way. I thought it an apt picture for this address.

I lost everything in a fire in the 70's. Most of the items but not the sentiments were replaced thanks to antique stores and later, ebay. The kitchen treasures now are fairly new, being gifts, mainly from my son. One item I enjoy is this knife forged in pre WWII France. A non kitchen treasure is this hat from my son. When he was 5 or 6, we were in a dept. store. He saw this hat and said I had to get it. Why? Because people who are famous wear this kind of hat. He got up on a chair and put it on my head, adjusted it and said, "Say 'Here's lookin at you, Kid' "

https://www.darto.org/us/ This just in my mail box. Free shipping world wide an all Darto pans.

I made some bread and Charlie made sandwiches with it and yesterday's leftover steak. I cut one end off the picture of the sandwich because i took a couple bites out of the other end before I remembered to take a picture.