Norm Matthews

I'd like to draw an analogy between photography and cooking. If one has a very nice and expensive camera that does lots of things automatically, it still won't take the pictures that it will in the hands of someone who understands lighting and composition. With lighting equipment and an understanding of symmetrical composition, one can produce images that are admired for their technical proficiency alone. With a computer program, colors and images can be manipulated to the point of surrealism, creating something that is astonishing, but one knows in the back of their mind that such an image cannot really exist in nature. A person with a creative mind and talent can produce a picture in a dark room with film from an old SLR that can move you. But no matter how basic or exotic your tools, knowledge must be gained and skills must be developed in order to get the most out of them. Same with cooking.

"Hence, the shortcuts to easy but good foods... Granted, to some degree it is a mental theoretical exercise and the reality may turn out to be different." The reality may indeed turn out to be different. How to make food easy but good is something I have heard people asking about and wanting to do for years. I am afraid that isn't possible unless you like to limit your cooking to simple foods. If painting portraits were easy to do well, everyone would do it. Likewise for cooking, if it were easy to do well with gadgets but otherwise without effort, restaurants would be out of business. ps even a salad, which requires no cooking, needs some knowledge and time to assemble.

Dinner was pretty easy and quick. Grilled strip steaks, grilled peaches (with raspberry jam and brown sugar) salad, garden tomato and baked potato.

I saw this recipe, thought it looked good, made it and the kids immediately knew what it was even though I'd never heard of it before. They told me the superheros were eating it in the movie Avengers 2. It is Chicken Shawarma with Lime Avocado Mayo. I skewered it with onion, red and yellow peppers and grilled it. I added a salad made with mixed field greens, chopped dates, orange sections, and a trail mix that is mostly nuts and raisins. Salad was dressed with vinegar, oil, orange juice and cilantro. We put the salad and chicken in pita bread and had it with the avocado mayo or hummus. ps also had rice.

FauxPas, The rest of the menu was coleslaw made without mayo but rather with apples, scallions and hot oil, vinegar, red pepper flakes, sugar, dijon mustard. BBQ beans made with baked beans and molasses, brown sugar, minced brisket ends and a spicy BBQ sauce mixed to taste and to balance the tangy with the sweet. Also had store bought potato salad; Cassie made a macaroni salad and had a watermelon which she added to farmers market peaches and orange to make sort of a sparkling white sangria. Other drinks were Kansas whiskey, Glenfiddich, beer, cola, and apple juice. We also had hot dogs and hamburgers with the regular toppings and condiments as well as basil from the garden to go with the tomatoes if someone wanted them with the hamburgers. (I did). PS we also had potato chips but no one ate any.

Son's birthday was yesterday but he is having friends over today. He said he wanted BBQ. To me that means firing up the smoker but he meant he wanted grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. Sooo I am doing both. The slabs of spare ribs and back ribs just came out of the smoker. The brisket needs a couple more hours. When his guests arrive, I'll start up the grill and do the rest of the food.

I had some leftover steak and a potato that was about to sprout so decided to make a variation on Salade Parisienne. Made with pan fried potato slices, (one potato slice got a little too brown) garden tomato, hard cooked egg, left over steak, swiss cheese from Ireland of all things, and mixed greens. Dressing was 1/2 T. dijon mustard 1 1/2 T. white wine vinegar 6 T. olive oil salt and pepper to taste

I use pyrex in the microwave. Several of them do stack. There are more that are in use but I don't need a ton of them so stacking isn't all that critical.

I prefer to use clear glass (mostly pyrex) for food storage and microwave use. I don't like putting food in containers that I can't see without taking off the lid. I think someone with a fridge full of tupperware has a fridge half full of spoiled food.

While I agree that CI has been wrong so many times as to be considered unreliable, I don't nuke anything in soft plastic either. However I wonder if cooking something in water is hot enough to affect the plastic as much as grease. I have seen the heat of grease melt plastic in the microwave but never noticed it with water.

Here is the correct link. Sorry for the mix-up http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/2014/7/21/how-to-create-your-own-zucchini-bread?xid=DISH0727143CleverWaysToUpgrade

If you want to do something, you gotta learn about it from someone. If they are good teachers, they make a lasting impression. I learned about cooking in the 60's from reading James Beard and watching Julia Child. In the 70's it was Pepin's La Technique that was a source of instruction. I still enjoy watching him though I don't generally watch TV cooks very much anymore.

My son told me about this article a couple days ago. The thought crossed my mind how much things had changed. As an art teacher, I had usually started my section about color by relating how Howard Johnson restaurants, back in the early 60's had increased turnover by changing the decor to brighter colors. Quite a different kind of dilemma for restaurants today. The last time I asked a server to take a picture of us, was in California when I was having dinner with friends that included singer Joanie Sommers. The occasion was about 12 years ago.

I find them useful for finishing cooking something that isn't done and you are running out of time... like baked potatoes.

Doesn’t it come down to a matter of common usage and context really? Without context one would not be able to determine the meaning of the word band. Is it a metal band, a music band, a band of brothers or a rubber band. Likewise the word oven out of context could refer to a chamber that dries, melts or bakes. When one modifies the word with kitchen oven or electric or gas or wood fired, one more readily understands that it is for food preparation by radiant and/or convection but when "oven" is modified with the word microwave, one understands that food is heated in a chamber by the transfer of energy that does not turn into heat until it reaches the food. In all cases, the food is heated. Saying just microwave without oven is a less precise a description.

Please reconcil Please reconcile the sentence that says a microwave can not heat up the food with the sentence that states that you use the microwave for heating and reheating.

This is the source for the recipe. I used a whole chicken except the back and wing tips. Marinate the chicken in all ingredient except the lemon wedges, potato starch and oil for a few hours. Toss the chicken in the potato starch and fry in oil either in a skillet or in a deep fryer. Garnish with lemon wedges. Tori no Kara-age Japanese fried Chicken From The Japanese Kitchen by Hiroko Shimbo 1 1/4 lbs. Chicken thighs, bones and skin attached 1/4 C, shoyu 1/4 C. mirin 2 Tbsp. sake 1 Tbsp peeled, finely grated ginger 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1/4 tsp ground chile pepper (cayenne) 1/8 tsp ground allspice 10 coriander seeds, toasted and crushed 1 C. potato starch or cornstarch Vegetable oil for deep frying lemon wedges With a cleaver,hack the chicken on the bone into 2-inch pieces

Someone at the Farmers market had Japanese eggplant and we all like that so started the menu with that and added fried chicken from a Japanese recipe and made strawberry dessert with whipped cream and pound cake .

I see this was started quite a while ago but I think this recipe from Paula Dean makes the best zucchini bread ever. I'd rather have it than banana nut bread. OOPS forgot to post the link http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/zucchini-bread-recipe.html

Our dinner tonight was a salad with shrimp, avocado, and soft cooked egg, scaloppine and stuffed mushrooms.

This is the recipe I have used that my kids love. Regular self rising flour works too. Georgia Touch of Grace biscuits. 10 biscuits light and fluffy Cream is the KEY to flaky biscuits. This recipe makes a feather light biscuit. Non-stick cooking spray 2 C. Southern self-rising flour (Or 1 1/2 C national self rising flour plus 1/2 C Wondra -or 1/2 C. cake flour- plus 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/8 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4C. sugar 4 Tbs. shortening 2/3 C. heavy cream or whipping cream approximately 1 C. buttermilk, or until dough resembles cottage cheese 1 C. bleached all purpose flour for shaping 2 Tbs. melted butter 1. pre heat oven to 425ºF. and spray 8 or 9-inch round cake pan with non stick spray 2. Combine the self rising flour, salt and sugar in a small mixing bowl. With fingers or pastry cutter, work shortening into flour until there are no lumps larger than a large pea. 3. Stir in the cream and buttermilk and let stand 2 or 3 minutes. This dough is so wet that you can not shape it in the usual manner. It will look like cottage cheese. (YOU do NOT want it to be stiff enough to shape) 4. Pour the cup of all purpose flour onto a plate or pie tin. flour your hands OR spray a 2-inch ice cream scoop with non stick spray and gather a biscuit sized lump of dough and place it the flour. Roll to coat. shake off excess flour. The dough is so soft it will not hold it's shape so place them tightly side by side so they will rise up, not out as they bake. Continue until all dough is used up. 5. Bake just above the center of the oven until lightly browned. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 to 20 minutes, then brush with melted butter. Cool 1 or 2 minutes in the pan, then dump them out, cut them apart, split and butter while hot. Eat! Note: you do not want to make a biscuit with self rising flour that you can shape because the outside of the biscuit will likely be bitter from the leavening used.

Everytime I ask the kids for suggestions for dinner, they can't come up with anything so yesterday I said would you rather have chili, meatloaf or lasagne and they chose lasagne. Cassie made a spinach salad with raisins and walnuts and some tender crisp carrots. (They aren't really kids except to me.)

Quite true. Heritage pork is not easily found and isn't cheap either.

Some American hog raisers are bringing small farm methods and heritage breeds back on the market. http://store.heritagefoodsusa.com/cured-pork-cuts-c94.aspx

I cut the corn off like your mom too. But before I cut it, I usually put it on the grill for a couple minutes per side to darken the color and char it a little. Then I cream it with some butter, cream, salt and honey.