Norm Matthews

Son gave me an Italian cookbook for fathers day and I am making dinner with recipes from it. I want to make as much ahead as possible so last minuted prep will be at a minimum. The recipe is for risotto with onions, mushrooms, red wine and chicken stock. After I have made it on the stovetop, is it going to be ok to keep it warm in the rice cooker?

Son and his fiancee made Father's Day dinner for me today since Cassie works tomorrow. She made mixed vegetables cooked soft but still crunchy with jalapenos and Creole seasoning and fried sweet potatoes while son made T-Bones on the grill. Dessert was a trifle made with cake, baked apples, fruit jam, cake and whipped cream.

Once several years ago when I was driving to Seattle, I stopped at a truck stop in Idaho and ordered a Chef's salad for lunch. The menu said the salad had HB eggs, ham, chicken, cheese, etc. I would be surprised if they wouldn't have hard cooked eggs for breakfast. How hard is it go cook eggs ahead of time? The one I had seemed to have been cooked quite a while ago and/ or held in hot water for a while since the yolk was about as green and any I'd ever seen. The chicken and ham were processed lunch meat and the cheese was Velveeta. I didn't feel very for well the rest of the afternoon.

Kim Shook: Cassie said she used a Wilton #21 tip and started with a star in the middle then did a circle around it for each flower on the cake. It was only a 5 or 6-inch cake. Cassie has does cake making-decorating as a side line. If you are on facebook, you can see some of her work here https://www.facebook.com/CassiesCakesAndSweets

I just watched the video and noticed that short grain rice was used. Here in the US, most people use long grain rice which would have a different texture and taste. (I personally prefer medium grain rice.) I have some experience with pottery and am pretty sure that that cooker will crack if not used with a gas flame. A regular electric coil stove will likely heat the bottom to much while the upper part stayed cool enough to cause thermal shock. I am not sure about a flat glass top electric stove though. It seemed to take longer to prepare rice with this cooker than it would with a good quality rice cooker which is about 20 minutes from start to eating.

I recall several years ago Nobu did a guest appearance on Martha Stewart show and she asked him how to cook rice in a saucepan. He showed her. Then she asked "Is that how you do it at your restaurant?" He said "No. We use a rice cooker" My ex is Korean. She used a rice cooker every day at our restaurant and had one at home. After 30 some years, I finally replaced it last month. I would not think about trying to cook rice any other way.

Today was Cassie's birthday dinner. I got everything ready today and was going to pre prepare as much today and have it ready for her birthday tomorrow then I found out that she works tomorrow so everything got finished today. I am tired. We had Cuban steak (Chuck eye with garlic oil, adobo and Cajun seasonings) grilled; with chimichurri sauce, nopalitos, french fried sweet potatoes with jalapeno catsup, and a Latin style salad with corn, black beans, red onions, avocados and a dressing with orange and lime juices. Cassie made her own birthday cake.

I can't recall that that has ever been my experience with grocery store eggs, but in the grading system used by the USDA, one dozen “Large” eggs could contain some eggs that are significantly smaller, or larger than others, providing the total carton weight is approximately 24 ounces, all eggs in that carton are, based on an average, “Large” for the purpose of sale. This means a large egg should weigh, on average, 2 ounces. That’s all it is, an average weight.

I went to a boutique olive oil store yesterday and tasted some oils. Grapeseed was the most neutral tasting oil they had. Sunflower oil tasted like sunflower seeds. It would be interesting in mayo but not sure I'd like it on a regular basis. Grapeseed oil was very expensive at the boutique store but then I went to the Asian market and got half a gallon of rice bran oil for about the same price as a pint of grapeseed oil at the other place. It is pretty neutral tasting too.

Grocery store large grade AA eggs are all close enough to being the same size and age that there isn't a need for concern over the differences. If you raise your own chickens or get them from a farmer down the road, those concerns might be valid. Fresh eggs tend to be harder to peel but steaming them seems to ameliorate that problem. This is an observation made from using this steamer for about 7 years. Most recipes expect one to use large eggs for use in baking.

Several years ago my son brought home a Nordic Ware that steams eggs in the microwave. I was skeptical but it works. 6 to 8 minutes steams the eggs and they peel easy and do not have a green ring. The eggs are shielded from the microwaves while the steam cooks them quickly. The steamer will only do 4 eggs at a time but that has not been a serious problem for me. Here is a link to what they look like. http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Ware-64802-Microwave-Boiler/dp/B0007M2BN0

A couple months ago I discovered an olive oil speciality store, almost across the street from the Farmer's Market. I just finished a small bottle of their butter flavored olive oil. They also have coconut oil and infused flavored white and red balsamic vinegars. I mixed some pineapple white balsamic vinegar with a BBQ sauce and it went well with chicken. I will check out the Asian market for rice bran oil and see if they have any.

Many years ago I had a book by Euell Gibbons who was a proponent of natural diets. If I recall correctly, he said that the young dandelion leaves were edible and I think he said the roots could be roasted, ground and used as a substitute for coffee. I think I have a recipe around here somewhere for dandelion flower wine. edit PS: I could probably make around 5 gallons of wine from my neighbors dandelions.

Sorry if you took offense. I wasn't referring to you but rather separating it from other types of olive oil that can and often do get used for frying. I wanted to make the point that just because it's olive oil does not mean it has a low smoke point..

Smoked Pork Chops with a salsa made with fresh cut pineapple, red bell peppers, onion, kiwi, sriracha and cilantro; sugar peas and rice.

I have never used extra light olive oil but mentioned it to illustrate that for high heat cooking and frying, that olive oil isn't always a low smoke point oil. When you heat any olive oil it loses many, if not most of it's good attributes. I do keep EV olive oil in these two containers and notice that it gets rancid smelling after a short time. However, on the other hand, I have not noticed any unpleasant odors with canola oil, so I went to the kitchen just now to see what the fuss was and discovered I don't have any at the present time. All I have right now is peanut oil, unfiltered EV olive oil, and sesame oil.

One wouldn't want to use Extra Virgin olive oil for frying due to relative cost alone but Virgin olive oil, Pomace olive oil and extra light olive oil all have higher smoke points than lard.

I was at the Asian Market the other day and noticed they had Genco olive oil in gallon tins. Isn't that the company that was owned by Don Corleone?

Some things someone in my family thinks they don't or won't like will get added when they aren't looking, like a dash of brandy or anchovy paste.

I use mostly butter or olive oil or both in combination for sauteing. I use peanut oil for deep frying, but I have no problems using canola oil either. I think it is a shame it was the target of those urban legends.

There are a lot of google tutorials on doing this but most of them are more involved than they have to be. I just cut down the ribs to the breast bone then rotate the breast out in front of the back. The part about cutting the thighs away from the back is a trick I learned from Jaques Pepin.

LEAPING FROG spatchcocked grilled chicken for Banh Mi sandwiches later tonight. Charlie always makes Banh Mi sandwiches with pork but Cassie's sister is visiting and she does not like pork so we are going to make it with the more traditional chicken. I spatchcocked a chicken but instead of cutting out the backbone, i left the whole chicken intact and cut the breast free and rotated it in front so it looks sort of like a leaping frog. I slashed the part between the thighs and back to open it up so that part can cook faster. That part usually is still raw when the rest of the chicken is done. Since the vegetables in the banh mi sandwich are marinated in rice vinegar and sugar, I basted the chicken with garlic, paprika, lime juice and honey flavored olive oil. The chicken was roasted on the closed grill with the outside burners on low and the two middle burners turned off.

The Asian market had some really good looking short ribs. They had a lot of meat and marbling. They looked like they could have been prime. I got 4 lbs and son made Khalbi with them last night. They were really good. We had them with laver, rice and two kinds of kimchi. I grilled some baby zucchini and we also had some okra chips.

Will do.

I smoked a small brisket and small pork shoulder today. I didn't take any pictures. There was about an inch and a half of grease or maybe two inches in the grease bucket I put there to catch it. I came back a couple hours later and the grease was gone. The bucket was even clean. The neighbors dog must have drank it. Charlie and the neighbor both said they saw her nosing around there.