Norm Matthews

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.

Andiesenji made a good case for the Pasta Boat so I decided to get one after I received a gift card that allowed me to get one at no cost to me. We used it yesterday. It is lighter than a pan full of water, uses less water and so it boils faster than a big pot on the stove. It is easier to drain and I didn't have to watch it for over-boiling. Whether it saves time or not isn't as compelling as simplicity of using it. Just drop in the spaghetti, put in some water, pop it in the nuker, set the timer and move on to other things, drain it when done and it's ready. It is also a handy steamer for potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob and the like.

Grocery store meat depts. sometimes get creative with what they name steaks. Even if they don't, the same steak can be called by several different names. Club steaks are supposed to be from the loin, therefore from one of the most tender parts of the cow. Sounds like you got something else. I remember once when I visited my son in Seattle, he got some steaks for us that were so tough, I bent my fork while trying to cut it.

Before computers and the internet, I kept a hand written cookbook. I transfered all the recipes worth keeping onto archival 3 ring note paper with copper reinforced holes and put it in a note book with metal hinges. No one stole it but an ex took some pages out of it when she left. (she stole my smoker too) I put recipes I want to try on my Mac now. It has a feature called Time Keeper where everything is stored on a separate back up hard drive and if anything happens to the computer, I can go back to before it happened and reload everything. I can transfer it to a new computer if needed too. I don't sort the recipes because the search feature on the computer lets me find anything by typing in a couple of key words that are either in the title or in the recipe. I also keep every recipe I do use on a blog so I or anyone can retrieve it. My kids asked me to start doing this after they'd ask me about something I'd done in the past and I couldn't remember what i had done different from the printed recipe.

A friend sent me this recipe and said it was good. It's called Tomato & Basil Meatballs with Cauliflower Puree. It is good but I also made some spaghetti in case someone didn't like the puree which is made with cauliflower, parmesan cheese and almond milk. My son liked the meatballs with the spaghetti and the puree on the side. Cassie isn't home from work yet.

suzilightening, I suspect Cassie didn't like the pasta and shrimp idea because it came from an Hispanic website and she is half Mexican and said that no recipe with spaghetti can be Mexican. She can be a picky eater at times too. Cassie

I was going to try a new shrimp recipe but Cassie didn't like the idea of shrimp with pasta so I was going to make it with a cilantro sauce but then I saw one for Shrimp Avocado Bisque and decided to try it. I added some scallops to it. I let the bisque get away from me for a second and it boiled so it was not as smooth and creamy as it was supposed to be but we all liked it anyway. Also had asparagus and a salad.

My son bought some rocks made of ceramic that he keeps in the freezer and uses that to keep drinks cool. There is no dilution that way.

I wrapped the boneless rib trimmings which are not all shown in the photo, in the paper, and the bone-in ribs in foil. I first smoked them with a rub before wrapping them, I put some margarine (like Franklin) brown sugar and honey then put them, wrapped, back in the smoker for an hour. I used margarine instead of butter because butter could burn at only 250º. The ones wrapped in paper had a sweeter flavor than the ones in foil. I didn't add any BBQ sauce. I seldom ever do add it when it is in the smoker but put it on the table for people to add if they want. What I find curious is that the meats I smoke in my little smoker get done a lot faster than they do in other larger smokers but I use the same temperatures. The log for the ribs is posted at the little blue link at the end of my post.

I did some spareribs in the smoker today.

Our dinner tonight was chicken breasts with rice and a cilantro-lime cream sauce, green beans dressed with soy sauce and garlic, fried okra and a salad. Son put some okra in his salad and used them like croutons.

I have been doing some recipes from here. https://www.facebook.com/HispanicKitchen.HK?fref=nf

There is a recipe that my family really likes and I have made it often. It's Breast of Chicken, Martini-Style from chef Pino Luongo and it has you pound out the breasts until they are thin. Lately I usually butterfly the breasts instead. I am wondering if there is any culinary reason why the breasts should be pounded out instead of just cut thin? Chicken breasts don't need tenderizing and they are just as thin when butterflied as they are when pounding plus it's faster and doesn't wake anyone up.

I have a Watson cookbook but it was published in 1944. Mom bought it right after I was born and Watson was a herb & spice company. It was the only cookbook she ever bought. It was stuffed full of hand written recipes and ones clipped out of other publications.

I would think that while it is possible to copyright a photograph, it would be unlikely to be able to copyright the subject of the photograph.