Norm Matthews

It is cool today, Cassie said she was getting off early so I took some left over corn from a meal Cassie made, some bacon left over from something I made plus some ham that had been in the freezer since Easter and added potatoes, onions, cheese, corn meal, and a few other things and made chowder.

I wonder if a torch could have been used to finish the potatoes?

The way I did it was to slice the potatoes into water then chill until they were crispy, drain and dry, put them in melted butter and arrange them on the fish. Then I put the parchment paper on top of them, covered with plastic and refrigerated them for a couple hours. I put the parchment on the fish because I didn't want the potatoes to possibly stick to the plastic. I cooked them over low to medium heat until I could see the fish was cooked more than half way through. Then i flipped them and finished cooking them until they were white all the way through ( I used swordfish) They were not overcooked to my taste. They were cooked all the way through but not dry and flaky. The potatoes were not as well browned as they were in the original picture. I don't know anything about bicarb. I noticed you put them on the parchment instead of on the chicken. Perhaps, using that technique, the potatoes could have been cooked a while before the meat is added. I did not oil the paper but rather put the potatoes in butter. There was enough butter in the potatoes to cook them.

I wanted to try Elaina A's Mushrooms Berkely and the fish with potato scales on parchment that rotuts brought to our attention a while back so I did both for dinner tonight plus some little round white and short eggplant cooked in butter with a Korean dipping sauce and Ponzu mixed together and brushed on them. The potato scales were hard to judge for browning but I guess it was an OK first time effort. My stove was actually acting up. The first burner I used, when I turned down the heat, it stayed high. I moved it to another burner. Guess I'll have to call a service person. It isn't the first time that burner has acted up.

Tonight was my nephew's semi-annual bacon-n- bourbon party only this time he called it scotch and swine. I made these again. It's pineapple bratwrust, queso quesadilla cheese, roasted poblano peppers with a light brushing of BBQ sauce and rolled up with a bacon wrap, tied with string, and smoked @ 240-270º for a couple of hours. I did that yesterday, then wrapped in foil and refrigerated until today when I reheated them in the oven and cut them into medallions.

Son and DIL just got back from almost a week in Seattle so I started cooking again. I still ate alone though because they are conked out asleep until later and I am not on East Coast time. I got too hungry to wait. This is grilled Huli Huli Chicken thighs over rice, a tossed salad with Southwest Airlines peanuts tossed in and baby bella mushrooms with some corn.

I think that pan is either forged iron rather than cast iron and/or black steel.

Nice looking brisket. I smoked lots and lots of food on my Weber. They do a great job. Did you know they make grates that are hinged on the ends so you can add coals without moving the stuff on top? Mine has been jury rigged together so many times I am surprised it is still as functional as it is. Franklin’s book was very informative for me. I had shied away from doing a brisket for years because the results were always just so so. Franklin said a lot of things that I doubted but it made me rethink things I’d taken as a given before. If I had not been grilling and smoking for a long time, I would not have even understood some stuff he was saying. It would have gone right over my head but because of having some experience I was able to imagine how i could use my smoker to accommodate his methods. I am glad I bought the book. There is still some stuff I think I can glean from it.

I'll have to try that thing with corks on pot lids. This is all I have done with corks.

Many years ago I made some rice wine for my then father in law. After the primary fermentation, I syphoned the liquid away from the rice into a carboy and attached a fermentation lock until it was still and cleared, then bottled it, again with a syphon above the sediment. ps I used a wine yeast.

Jeff Smith had a recipe for Haggis. He said it would serve 4 Scots or 20 people from Sweden.

Correction, Windmill inn is on Rain road, not Rainbow. I guess I was letting visions of Dorothy and Toto get in my head when i said Rainbow.

I found the Jaques and Julia recipe and it looks really good. I am definitely going to try it sometime after Thanksgiving.

I wanted to do the most conservative way possible on this trial run so as to see what changes I thought would be good for later. A long time friend in New Jersey told me that she does that with the dressing too, and I thought about doing it in the future but this turkey had about half an inch of fat in the bottom of the cooker after it was done so I am wondering if I should try it after all?

Here is the recipe given me by Windmill Inn on Rainbow Road south of Chapman Ks. PRAIRIE PUFF WITH SEASONAL FRUIT 2 Tbs. Butter 3 eggs 2/3 C. milk 2/3 C. flour pinch of salt 1/2 tsp. Almond flavor Put 2 Tbs. Butter in cast iron or oven proof skillet. Put skillet in over and preheat to 425 degrees. Meanwhile, place eggs in processor and process for about 5 seconds. Add milk and process for another 5 to 10 seconds. Add the flour to the eggs and milk mixture and process for about 15 seconds. Next add a pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp. Almond flavor. When oven is heated, pour batter into skillet and bake for 20 minutes. For summer months, offer fresh berries, melons and other summer fruit mixed with sugar. In winter months peel and slice apples. Sauté the apples in butter, toss with honey and add brown sugar and cinnamon. Just before serving add sliced bananas. Top with powdered sugar Serve with syrup of your choice.

The turkey was not brined or stuffed but I did cook it with a carrot, stalk of celery, 1/2 an onion and a peeled orange inside, which was not part of the Nesco recipe. I thawed a 21lb. frozen turkey which did not need brining. I think the only time a turkey needs brining is when it's fresh killed and not processed in any way. Nesco roaster ovens are well known for making good turkeys and cakes. The problem with a Nesco is that it doesn't brown things very well. I looked up a recipe specifically for Nesco and it said an option is to baste it with a browning sauce: salt & pepper to taste with a teaspoon of Kitchen Bouquet and 1/4 C. melted butter and poultry seasoning. For seasoning I used 1 teaspoon sage and 1/4 tsp. thyme. After regular prep, and initial baste, It said to start at 400º and after an hour to use a baster to remove liquid from inside the bird and save for gravy, baste with browning sauce again and reduce to 350 and cook until done to 180 at the thigh. It said to allow 15 to 20 minutes per pound. That was not good advice. It was done in less than three hours. 15 to 20 minutes per pound would have been 5 to 7 hours. While the turkey was not overcooked nor dry, next time, I think I will cook the turkey to 160-165. The roaster oven comes with a rack that holds the bird off the bottom and makes for easy removal. I basted the turkey with the browing sauce a couple more times after turning it down to 350.

Thanks for the Crepes, when I was visiting a bed and breakfast south of Abilene Ks. several years ago I got a recipe called Prairie Puff with Seasonal Fruit. It's one great big breakfast popover made in a cast iron skillet and it's really good. I later found out that it's a close derivative of a Dutch Baby which is made with ham and cheese. I'll list the recipe for the Prairie Puff if you want.

I am doing a trial run for Thanksgiving, trying out some new ideas and techniques. My sister always has resisted letting anyone else do the dinner before but last year right after dinner, she must have been really tired and asked what we thought about rotating the meal between the different families in the future. I volunteered to do it this year. I was pretty sure she'd forget or try to back out so when my DIL saw her at the restaurant where she works last month, she reminded her. She started to waffle but Cassie said I had bought extra chairs and already had the menu planned. That wasn't entirely true, but it made me start thinking ahead. I wanted to find out how well the Nesco 18qt roaster would do on a big turkey and wanted to try a couple new recipes to see how we liked them. Dinner tonight will be the turkey, creamed corn, buttermilk mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy and green beans. In the next couple weeks, i plan to experiment with a few other ideas. Others will also be bringing some dishes on the big day.

The only thing I cooked today was an apple cake.

When I was in college (Ottawa University) I fantasized about Trader Vic's Mai Tai. 18 was old enough to drink 3.2 beer but aside from that, Kansas was a dry state. I was 21 when I was at Fort Lewis, Washington and got leave to go into town where I had my first Mai Tai at Trader Vic's. I only had one and had a buzz on afterward. At the time Trader Vic's recipe was a secret but now it's published. I have the recipe in a Trader Vic recipe book but I like his Scorpion drink better.

Our dinner tonight was broiled Spencer steaks (chuck eye) with adobo and chimichurri sauce. The store only had two Spencer steaks so the big one is a round steak. We also had Spanish Rice, fried sweet potatoes with Ranch dressing. I wanted to make bleu cheese dressing but found out too late that we were out of bleu cheese. Something new we tried and liked were store bought Snapea crisps, baked, Caesar flavor.

A booklet that comes with it gives you the amt. of water and cook time depending on how much pasta you use.

Sometimes it is quaint, sometimes I find recipes there but I now usually look for recipes online in places like here and Foodily. It's really interesting to see that there are so many things known back then that I didn't realize people knew about. There are lots of cheeses that I didn't know when I was young that are listed in the book. There are 2 recipes for pineapple upside down cake -one is a sponge cake-as well as upside down cakes for Dutch cherry, peaches, blueberries, apricots and 8 different butter frostings. Every time I open the book I get caught up in one thing or another, like just now.

Sometimes I am annoyed by a recipe that is too precise and sometimes amused by one that tries to be exact but actually is very vague, like mentioning the amount of flour by grams and amount of liquid by %hydration, then being oblivious to the fact that there are different kinds of flour that make those measurements useless. Last week I used a recipe that measured some ingredients my metric and others in tablespoons. (British, Australian or American Tbs.?) It also used 2 punnets of cherry tomatoes and half a head of cauliflower, 2 large sprigs of rosemary and a few pinches of some other ingredients. Having said that, I have a fascinating two volume cookbook from 1949 called Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. It has a section on game that includes health of the animal, prompt and adequate bleeding, dressing and evisceration, removal of shot, removal of feathers, removal of fur, fat & glands, scrubbing and washing, storage and cooking. It includes bear and beaver. The first 400 pages address "what every meal planner ought to know", breakfast, luncheon and dinner suggestions for every day of the year, canning & preserving, buying food, both fresh and canned & frozen. There is a two page color picture of 24 different kinds of apples. There is a section on entertaining as well as lots more really interesting recipes and insights into those times.