Norm Matthews

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.

After the Norman Conquest, the English ruling class spoke French while the poor people who did all the work spoke Anglo-Saxon. That is why the food "on the hoof" is called something different from the people who saw it on the table. Lamb- mutton, Deer-venison, pig-pork, cow-beef, etc.

Chicken fried steak. Take a piece of inedibly tough beef, 'tenderize' the crap out of it, hide the crime by breading it and then pan fry it and conceal the whole thing with a white gravy. Or call it schnitzel.

In a restaurant kitchen things might get wet and stay wet and warm all day which will allow germs to grow while in a home kitchen, it will dry out and cool off and germs won't survive.

I always clean and dry mine before I put them up. I find restaurant rules are for worst case possibilities where there are lot of busy and tired people using the kitchen all day and who don't know what someone else has done. They aren't likely to be a problem in a domestic kitchen with one or two people who use the kitchen once or twice a day.

I made tacos for dinner tonight. I used Cassie's recipe for guacamole but she said I used too much cinnamon. She uses a pinch. I might have used a bit more. I'm also pretty sure I used more seasoned salt than she does.

When I was in high school, I worked at a soda fountain at the drug store and people said I made good sodas and sundaes. Then when I graduated from college and was living alone, it was before microwaves and fast food places, at least in the small town where I was teaching. Frozen dinners had to be thawed and that took longer than making something from scratch. After a few weeks I thought I could probably do as good or better than they had at the restaurant and cafe in town. I knew I could eat cheaper if I made it myself. I started reading The James Beard Cookbook and the local grocery store let you buy things on a running tab so you paid for everything at the end of the month. I also started collecting recipes for entertaining from Playboy magazine. I watched The French Chef on PBS and mom could always be called for help when needed. People said they liked my cooking. Now that I am recalling that time, I remember the pizza restaurant was McMurphy's, had Tiki decor and the music was Stan Getz style jazz.

My knife block has vertical slots for the steak knives and horizontal slots for the rest. I store the steak knives sharp side up. No particular reason except I thought it would be nicer to the wood over time. When I owned a restaurant, the health dept. told us not to use a knife block but use a magnetic strip instead.

Cassie made dinner tonight. She said it was sort of a tapas dinner. There were poblano tempura, scallops, bacon wrapped dates and french bread topped with bleu cheese, walnuts and pears. She did a great job and it was pretty too.

The boneless watermelon reminded me of a time I was in a grocery store and was drawn to the meat counter to check out some strangely white packages beside the pork chops. Turned out it was pork fat (lard) and was labeled Pork, the other White Meat.

Thank you. We decided to put my old dishes out in the next garage sale and start using the dishes Cassie and Charles got as Wedding gifts.