Norm Matthews

http://community.kingarthurflour.com/node/5754 This is a very popular burger bun recipe at King Arthur's Community

Cassie brought home some mini pita rounds from the store so I made a Tzatziki sauce to go with them, stir fried some broccoli slaw then tossed it with a reduction of soy with brown sugar and also made a Honey Garlic Chicken. We also had rice but it isn't pictured.

I tried a new recipe called Vaca Frita or Cuban Shredded Beef. It turned out to be pretty much the cuban beef version of carnitas. Charlie even got out some soft tortillas and put some in a wrap. I winged a dressing with some pineapple flavored balsamic vinegar, Framboise, some lime juice, honey, salt, and olive oil.

I remembered something. I always use wax paper under a box grater to catch the grated material so i can transfer it without making as big a mess.

That corn soup looks great but no cooking here today. The kids were gone at lunchtime and will be going out again tonight so I got some Croissants, Deli cold cuts and cheeses, and Panera soups (Potato and tomato) so everyone can have whatever whenever. There is enough for tomorrow too.

Thanks. She is very good. My cakes usually look like they came from Pisa.

I don't remember what mom made but it was undoubtedly a box mix. Cassie ( my soon to be DIL) makes cakes for people for special occasions. Here is the one she made for my birthday a few months ago. Maybe it counts since I think I am entering my second childhood. Knife, spoon, carrots, mushrooms & peas are all edible.

Tomatoes of course plus pears and peaches. Also just about anything at the Farmer's market.

The picture didn't turn out very well but it is Cod poached in wine with mushrooms, shallots and coconut milk. We also had cornbread, hash browns and peas.

We seldom have fish so I was looking at some recipes and found two. This is one of them. I think I will do the other one tomorrow. This one is Asian themed. Pan Glazed Salmon, laver, kimchi, rice and a salad.

Just remember that there are thousands of varieties of yeast. What is indigenous to your area might or might not be the same kind on the grapes that makes good bread for La Brea Bakery. Also there are some California red grapes that won't grow in Canada and some native American grapes that don't make good wine.

No. With wild yeast, it's a coin toss whether you will get a good yeast for bread or not. It might be amazing, it might be awful. There are thousands of different varieties. What makes good wine might not be good for bread. A little cultured bread yeast will be a better bet. It will revert to wild in a week or two.

The BBQ sauces I like are more like tangy steak sauces than the sweet sauces most people attribute to BBQ. Many serious BBQ smokers only use sauce as a light finishing baste or as a table sauce if at all. What gives BBQ sauces a bad name are the kind that you find in places like McD's and other places that think dousing anything in tomatoey sticky sweet stuff qualifies it as BBQ.

That white film on the skin of things like plums, grapes and cabbage is wild yeast. When it is fed, grown, and kept alive in a batter of flour and water, it is sour dough yeast. Cultured yeast are strains that are developed to promote certain characteristics like rapid rising in breads or to promote the best fermentation results in beer or wine. Cultured yeast will quickly revert back to its wild state if fed and grown in sour dough like conditions. Heat kills yeast, cold inhibits it.

This is the best BBQ sauce I have ever had and it can only be got through mail order http://www.horizonbbqsmokersstore.com/servlet/the-300/Horizon-Original-BBQ-Sauce/Detail Some history: When Oklahoma Joe sold his renowned smoker company to CharBroil, they closed the company and put it out of business and OK Joe moved to Texas. A few years later his brother who was also in the original company opened Horizon Smokers and offers the same commercial, competition and back yard smokers and the same sauce also sold by the company but now it is called Horizon BBQ sauce. When it had beed sold under the Oklahoma Joe name, it had won Jack Daniels World Championship BBQ contest: Best Sauce in the World, American Royal International Sauce Contest: Best Sauce on the Planet, and Memphis in May BBQ World Championship: Best Sauce in the World. The original rib rub recipe is also excellent and can be found on the web in several places. Here is one link http://www.food.com/recipe/oklahoma-joes-rib-rub-118966

Clementines are good in a salad.

Don't refrigerate olive oil or salad dressings with it in it, but I seldom make enough salad dressing to have to refrigerate it. I never heard of keeping fish sauce out of the fridge but I just bought my first bottle of it. It is ginger flavored Viet Nam sauce. When I grow tomatoes and I have more than I can eat before they go bad and not enough to can, when they are perfectly ripe, they go straight in the refrigerator so they last a little longer. I don't like cukes unless they are pickled so they aren't even around my house most of the time. Melons are something I like cold. They always go in the fridge. It is nice to keep butter in a butter keeper but to be honest, it is easier to keep it chilled. If I want it softened, I wash the butter dish, bottom and top in very hot water, wipe it dry and set it out. It softens in half an hour.

Ann-T, I was looking at those pizza ovens the other day. They look like they'd heat up a lot faster than a stone wood fired pizza oven. That pizza peel is very pretty. What kind of wood is it? It looks sort of like olive wood.

The Asian market had some good looking pork hocks so I made them with beans and greens along with a few new potatoes. I planned to make corn bread but forgot.

Sani-Tuff is a form of rubber. It's hard to sand due to density, but has more resiliency so it gives while glass doesn't. http://www.notrax.com/Products/36-11-Apex-Food-Service-Products-Cutting-Boards/177-T45-Sani-Tuff%C2%AE

It bothers me a little too. It's like saying Chicken Fried Chicken for regular fried chicken. BTW I think I have figured which came first. It depends on your belief system though. If you believe in evolution, the egg came first because whatever laid it wasn't quite fully a chicken yet. If you believe in Creationism, the chicken came first. She was created from the rib of a rooster.

Years ago a church group to which I belonged prepared Thanksgiving dinner for the rest of the congregation every year. I was assigned to make the green bean casserole. i didn't know what it was until I went home and googled it. i was appalled that they would ask me to make something with canned green beans, cream of mushroom soup and canned onion rings but I made it and it got eaten completely. My son likes it now and wants it for Thanksgiving and I don't mind it either.. once a year.

I made some Seolleongtang (Korean Beef Bone Soup) yesterday. Charlie and Cassie had some last night and I froze the rest for his mom when she gets here for the wedding in a few weeks. On Wed. I plan some pork hocks, navy beans and greens. Here is one of the kids recent engagement pictures.

I thought the issue was putting them in the refrigerator before cooking.

It is the refrigerating that causes the off flavors. The cold converts starches in the potato to sugar. See an explanation here http://www.stilltasty.com/questions/index/74/page:1