Norm Matthews

At my DIL's request, I made this chocolate raspberry torte for Valentine's Day.

100% ground beef does not mean 100% ground meat. Lots of parts of beef aren't meat. I like McD's hamburgers except they don't taste like beef to me.

The last time I ate at Fiorella's Jack Stack BBQ restaurant on Metcalf, I took my mom there for lunch. We walked in and were seated immediately. That was a while ago. Mom has been gone several years. In the meantime Zagat has rated them the best BBQ restaurant in the country. Twice in the last two years, after I moved back to Kansas City, I wanted to go there for some special occasion, but the wait-time was a couple hours and they don't take reservations. We went somewhere else both times. The other day I ordered some Jack Stack on line. It was delivered the next day (almost as fast as waiting in line at the restaurant itself) Yesterday we had part of it for dinner. We had beef burnt ends and chopped beef. I made a coleslaw with hot vinaigrette instead of mayo, potato salad and BBQ beans (from a can but doctored a little). It was good but I suspect that most of the people who rate restaurants on Zagat are from out of town. I like the ambiance at Fiorella's as much as anything, it must influence the taste of the food .

My DIL does cakes, most of them are theme birthday cakes. Some of her earlier cakes have fondant but recent ones have used regular icings. I think she used buttercream a lot. https://www.facebook.com/CassiesCakesAndSweets

Rather modest overkill compared to that is the Fattie: peppers, cheese and other stuff inside a wrapping of sausage and bacon weave on the outside. http://www.smoking-meat.com/january-2010-bacon-wrapped-stuffed-sausage-fatty

Here is the video of Pepin boning a whole chicken. http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pepin%20debone%20chicken%20youtube&qs=n&form=QBVR&pq=pepin%20debone%20chicken%20youtube&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&mid=C3706587436056076A92C3706587436056076A92

People are being critical of BBQ contests while admitting they have never been to one, are passing judgement on what they suppose are the rules, having not bothered to listen to what has been said about them. Some statements indicate a misunderstanding of what is BBQ. A great deal of BBQ served in restaurants is steamed until it’s overcooked then drowned in sauce. It gives BBQ a bad name, because people think it is what BBQ is supposed to be. Some really great BBQ isn’t sauced at all. It puzzles me that people say “what good is a chili contest if all the entries are chili?” Indeed, what good is a smoked rib contest if all the entries are smoked ribs? By that standard, what good are beer judging competitions if the only thing judged is beer? Why bother rating wines if they are all pinot noir?

Rules are made to set boundaries, to keep some kind of focus, otherwise someone might think it is OK to submit smoked pies. If there is a smoked pie contest, then OK but a smoked meat contest needs to define what is going to be judged. One cannot function as a competitor or especially as a judge if there are no definitions of what is within the purview of the situation at hand. There are rules in chili contests so the subject will stay on chili and not on spaghetti. There are rules of the road: everyone drive on the same side, yield to kids in a school crosswalk. Artists have natural boundaries within whatever media they choose, in all cases, creativity still has room to exhibit itself.

Darch, there is an interesting diversity in just about any hobby or avocation. Some competition BBQers have successful restaurants and/or commercial lines of food and BBQ products. Some are caterers. I am sure some watch collectors are less interested in telling time than they are about trying to impress people. There are fountain pen collectors who have a difficult time constructing a lucid paragraph.

Cassie made floutas for dinner tonight. They were really good. She also made some kind of Mexican rice, guacamole, salsa, black beans (I want to get her recipe for them) and also had sour cream.

KCBS has members in every state and several in Europe. There were some in Japan last i heard. They train judges for the purpose of giving boundaries and uniformity to a contest. I don't think the rules are intended to influence one style over another, just to make sure the playing field is somewhat level. They specify what cuts and types meat are acceptable and what isn't but also leave room for the individual sponsor to include other categories. About sauces, the rule is you can serve it sauced or without but not on the side. Experienced participants tell me that they cook for contests differently than they would cook at home because the BBQ in a contest the meat has to leave a lasting impression on a judge after only one bite. I have eaten in several restaurants who are top prize winners at the American Royal and in my heart believe that what they serve the public isn't what won them their awards. EDIT: Posted before I realized that Joiei had posted on this second page.

Semolina, in my experience, is a lot harder to work with, takes longer and the results aren't all that much superior to a good bread flour. Your recipe sounds good.

Weighing flour insures consistency as long as all factors remain constant. That means a good recipe will always be good, but a bad recipe will always be bad too. If I recall correctly, I think it was Shirley Corriher who said that relative humidity does not make any significant difference in results when it comes to flour.

Nickrey, so see to hear someone else making that observation about home bread making too. There are too many variables to think the method and conditions someone else uses to measure flour is going to produce identical results elsewhere.

Pre mayonnaise home made salad dressing Cooked Salad dressing for potato salad- makes 2 cups. 1/2C. dry milk 1/4C. flour 1C. water 1 tsp. dry mustard 2 eggs 1C. sugar 1 Tbs.salt Whisk, cook over double boiler 5 minutes to thicken.

I didn't follow a recipe but it is basically Cordon Bleu with laver added and then marinated in vinegar, garlic and oil before being browned in a skillet and finished in the oven. We also had sweet potato yams baked with apples and asparagus dressed with melted butter, store bought Greek salad dressing and honey. Asparagus tasted good this time. Last time it was funny tasting.

If you have an electric stove, don't put an old glass coffeepot directly on it. The uneven heat generated at the bottom is what cracked it. You need to put a wire grid between the coffeepot and the burner. Here is one type http://www.amazon.com/Chemex-Stainless-Steel-Electric-Stove/dp/B000VTRYX6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Okanagancook, The chili powder I use is actually a blend of dried chilis and other seasonings such as salt, cumin, onion powder, paprika, cayenne, garlic and oregano. http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/glossary/g/Chili-Powder.htm

55 or so years ago I remember having them at Katz Drug store luncheon counter with potato salad, cut in 4 triangles with toothpicks and a sprig of parsley.

Sorry wienoo, I didn't see your post before. OK cat is gone, here is the quote from the cookbook. Club Sandwich or Clubhouse Sandwich This must be included in the chicken chapter, for it is one of the great sandwiches of all time and has swept around the world after an American beginning. Nowadays the sandwich is bastardized because it is usually made as a three-decker, which is not authentic (whoever started that horror should be forced to eat three-deckers three times a day their rest of his life), and nowadays practically everyone uses turkey and there's a vast difference between turkey and chicken where sandwiches are concerned. The perfect club sandwich starts with a piece of freshly made crisp buttered toast. On this goes a leaf of lettuce and a bit of mayonnaise, slices of chicken breast, slice of peeled ripe tomatoes, a sprinkle of salt, crisp bacon rashers, more mayonnaise and a second piece of toast. Some people toss in an additional piece of lettuce but it isn't necessary. Green olives and sweet pickles are standard garnish.

In American Cookery, James Beard describes the original Club House Sandwich (paraphrase as i have a cat on my lap and don't want to get up and get the book) as bacon, lettuce, tomato and fresh chicken breast on TWO pieces of buttered freshly made toast with mayo. He said that whoever invented the triple decker should be forced to eat them three times a day for the rest of his life. He specifically said (IIRC) turkey was a later and not as good substitution.

In Korean restaurants and when my son and I make Kalbi, we have sometimes cut the meat off of short ribs in a long thin strip, but leave it attached to the bone so one will know what it is. These didn't look like real short ribs so I googled them and saw that they were chuck. When I got them out of the package I realized that one (cut into quarters) was not enough for our meal so I went to another store and got a similar sized chuck and cut it myself. The two looked and tasted alike but the whole one from the other store was about a dollar a pound cheaper. I braised them and they were good but they did not taste like short ribs, in my humble opinion. PS this link shows real short ribs. One cut they call a flanken sp? cut for Kalbi is what a lot of Koreans call a LA cut (for Los Angeles) Korean short ribs, both kinds

i don't know anything about SV so I can't address those issues but I got some boneless short ribs once last year. I had never heard of them before so I looked them up and found that they basically were chuck roast cut into strips to look like short ribs. They didn't taste anything like short ribs to me and I would not ever buy them again. These were cheaper than short ribs but per pound, but expensive for chuck roast.