Norm Matthews

@rotuts I'm looking forward to exploring the possibilities.

Today I used a discount coupon to order a Cuisinart steam oven. You all have piqued my curiosity and I want to try it out. These Forums are getting expensive. LOL I am afraid to add up all the new stuff I got since I joined here. For years I would say "if I have lived this long with out one, I don't really need it." I stopped saying that when I first got a KitchenAid mixer.

The title of the recipe. It has no eggs if that matters. Maybe I un-Amished it by using the stand mixer.

Looking back on recent dishes, I noticed I'd made a lot of pasta dishes so I thought I'd do a sour cream and ranch seasoning mix potato salad with Chicken Stroganoff instead. There is a good reason you don't see that combination anywhere else. Egg noodles would have been a better idea. Both were good though. I also made an Amish Cake. It was pretty simple and good too.

I have a bakers bench scraper that I use to scrape down the board from time to time. Every few years, I hit this one with an electric sander. Not the rotary kind.

Yoshihiro boards sound and look like they function the same way as the rubber cutting board I mentioned much earlier in this thread. The one thing about both kinds that I would strongly say is don't get one that is too big to fit in your sink. If you can't easily clean it, it's too hard to keep clean. In time it will get the the counter dirty and mold could even develop on the underside. I have used a rubber cutting board for at least a couple decades. I have two and now use the smaller one. It's big enough to fit over one of my double sinks when I use it (so I can scoop off waste in the other sink -with the disposer- or scoop off product into a bowl or pan and then slide it down into the sink itself to wash it off. I store it on its side in a place reserved for it. I used the bigger one forever until my son complained about how hard it was to clean the counter with all the stuff on it and the heavy board. I had to agree and switched configuration to keep the counter-top clean. for quick small jobs we use the Epicurian hanging beside the counter and for whole dinner prep. I use the cutting board pictured here. I don't think one bigger that this is an asset in the long run.

@Shelby It might be that your wine got over exposed to air before it was bottled and oxidized. It could have happened during the secondary fermentation if your air lock got compromised somehow.

French wine ( claret) vs Spanish (port) re: Scottish verse from the time of Charles II Firm and erect the Highland chieftain stood Old was his mutton and his claret good 'Thou shall drink Port' the English statesman cried. He drank the poison--and his spirit died.

It has been almost 40 years since I lived on the Smokey Hill River where there was clay for me to use at my pottery and wild grapes enough to make around 10 gallons of wine a year. I made some from cherries that was good and I have tasted some well made wine from elderberries, which is not to my taste. I found with local fruit, I needed to test the acid and sugar content and correct them both to get decent results. I had a cool basement that helped with the secondary fermentation and with making beer but the beer was not as successful. Dry Riesling is one of my favorite wines but I have never made wine from vitis vinifera grapes

They are a lot less at our local Asian Market.

Welcome. I am an amateur back yard smoker. I too have a stick smoker... a Horizon made in Ok.

You're very welcome @ElsieD

Dinner tonight was Korean Chicken Wings.

Many years ago when they first came out, I thought they were really good but as time went by, they began to taste pretty much like all the others.

I was shopping for things I needed and looking for an idea for dinner when I saw two steaks with $2.00 off coupons attached so they came home and that was our dinner. Neither of us could finish it so it will be something with eggs in the morning or a sandwich at lunch time. Charlie said he was getting tired of baked potatoes so made potato pancakes and mac and cheese topped with buttered bread crumbs. I thought I had panko but didn't so used Italian instead.

We had Spaghetti With Bolognese Sauce, salad, green beans and a tomato from the back yard.

I got this one specifically for deviled eggs and have used it to fill large tube pasta. I thought it would probably do OK but like I said, it only took 9 or 10 jumbo shells to fill the baking dish and in the end, I didn't want to bother with it. I think care should be taken because too much time in the blender would make it more like pate instead of ground beef.

@chromedome I have filled penne pasta and deviled eggs that way and I thought about it this time but there were so few of them to fill that filling and cleaning the pastry tube would have taken more time than grabbing a spoon a filling them with it. Also the filling was lumpy and I was (a little) concerned about clogging- even though I have a really big piping tip.

Shrimp Scampi, Pasta ala Carbonara and roasted garlic. I am not sure if a purist would approve of this pasta with shellfish but I am not a purist.

I am not a fan of fiddy recipes like wontons or stuffing pasta but these jumbo shells are so big that they are easy to fill. It only took 9 or 10 to fill the casserole dish and it took a heaping spoonful to fill each one. I spooned the remainder of the filling over the top before pouring the sauce and cheese on top. Having said that, I see no problem with using lasagna noodles instead but I doubt the filling would be enough for more than one layer of filling between 2 noodle layers, one on bottom and one on top. PS another suggestion that might work is to use small shells and not fill them at all but rather just mix them in with the filling and layer the mixture between two layers of sauce and top with the cheese when it's time.

I was hungry for something curry so I made a curried pork stew. I also tried a recipe for Coca Cola cake. For me, it didn't work out until I made some changes. I had to add more flour and bake it about 10 minutes longer and the frosting which was supposed to be poured on when the cake was still hot just ran off and puddled at the bottom. The picture is the cake turned upside down so the frosting looks like it is where it is supposed to be. Afterward I looked at several other recipes with the same name and they all had the same ingredients but some listed 8 ounces of coke and the one I used said to use 12 ounces. 8 oz. should be closer to a correct amount. My son really liked it and vanilla ice cream is perfect with it.

That sounds like the same recipe. Mine had ground beef, yellow onion, taco seasoning, cream cheese, jumbo pasta shells, enchilada sauce, salsa, cheddar and, mozzarella. My recipes are almost always posted at the blog address listed at the bottom of my posts.

The recipe said it was Mexican Stuffed Shells but I suspect that it isn't really Mexican in origin.

I wasn't planning to take a picture of this and it isn't all that pretty, but then I thought I should give credit where it's due and let @Toliver know that I followed his suggestion and made a one-egg omelet using cheesesteak filling leftovers. The only thing I'll do different next time is do a finer chop the ingredients

Last night's steak was so thick, neither of us could finish it so I made cheesesteak sandwiches with the leftovers and a provolone sauce and a spicy mayo. we couldn't finish the sandwiches either. Now to figure out what to do with leftover cheesesteak filling. LOL