Norm Matthews

I use it for many of the things already mentioned but one use I didn't notice is when I make Irish butter, I put it on wax paper, lay the top over it, place a ruler or kitchen scraper on top and pull the bottom of the sheet. It makes a perfect round log. I twist the ends and let it set up in the refrigerator. I suppose you could do the same with refrigerator cookies. Putting a folded layer between things in the freezer, like hamburger patties, helps separating them when cooking one or two.

How do you cook them? Boil, baked, steam, fry, pressure cook, etc? Do you cook them whole, peeled or with skin on? Do you slice and pan fry or make hash browns. When peeled or cut, Do you keep them in cold and or salted water until used? Or do they set out for a while? Do they turn brown in the air before you use them?

Last night we had oxtail soup with bok choy, mushrooms, onions and a tossed salad.

Lisa Shock beat me to it but to add a little, when people started moving in large numbers to the city from the farm for factory jobs, chicken was not readily available in local city grocery stores until they started mass producing chicken for sale in the city for meat. Until then they were mostly raised for eggs and only killed and eaten when they stopped producing... or had one too many roosters.

You are correct. City Chicken was made with veal. It was not lamb. My friend used to make lamb on skewers but it was called shashlik. My mistake. I have another friend who still makes it today. He uses pork. Perhaps that is just him. I have never made it.

Most people could not tell it wasn't apple pie. City chicken was usually pork, sometimes with lamb on a skewer to resemble a drumstick. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_chicken

The recipe I have used is a lot like IowaDee's. Recently I 'changed' it to "Mexican Lasagne" by layering the filling with corn tortillas instead of cornbread and topping it with cheese. Sometimes I added canned tamales on the bottom but I didn't know that was part of some recipes... I thought I was just improvising. I also have that recipe for mock apple pie. I think it was of the depression era like City Chicken was also.

When I lived west of here there were a couple of ranches that raised beef for sale. The meat had to be processed at FDA monitored plants and freezing the meat must have been a requirement because that was the only way it was available. Steaks and roasts from Dodge City and Omaha are also only available frozen. I have never cooked one from frozen though. I don't think I'd be tempted to try either.

That reminds me of quite a long time ago in Lindsborg, Kansas. It is a town with a strong Swedish heritage. The King of Sweden even visited there once in the early Seventies. About that same time, that is where I had a blacksmith make me a potters wheel that I still have. I enjoyed Smorgasbord at the Swedish Crown restaurant every time I could. And here is a souvenir I still keep from that past time.

I had a fondue party a few years ago for friends who were moving away. I found a couple fondue pots and a couple chafing dishes at thrift stores. I had cheese with bread sticks, crackers, pretzels and crunchy vegetables, hot oil for chunks of ribeye steak and three or four dipping sauces and chocolate with vanilla wafers and marshmallows. For the kids, ( three under 7) I breaded and fried chicken tenders and gave them ketchup along with some of the other sauces.

Oh my! I just looked in my bookshelf and discovered around half of my cookbooks are from the 60,s Fondue was big back then. Some of the Cook books I have are by Trader Vic, Elena Zalenta, James Beard, Julia Child, Jaques Pepin, Amy Vanderbilt of all people, Betty Crocker, Craig Clariborn, Southern Jr. League. One interesting thing I found was that a cookbook called Famous Brand Name Cookbook is practically useless because all the brand name products don't have the same amounts in a package and /or don't have the same ingredients as they do now. I have a cookbook that features meals on passenger train passenger dining cars of several RRs that aren't around anymore and I think I have one from Steamships too but I didn't see it just now.

I made individual salads with the last of the tomatoes from the garden. Sorry for the blurry picture. I also had enough stuff in the refrigerator to use up some stuff and make an enchilada casserole.

Cassie made dinner tonight. She made breaded chicken breast and spinach salad with walnuts, bleu cheese and raisins. There was a honey mustard dressing that we used for both the chicken and salad. She also made some green beans with mushrooms and served leftover corn that i made a few days ago. It was all good. The chicken breasts were moist and tender, not at all dry or tough.

I used a birds beak paring knife to cut corn off the cob yesterday and thought it worked very nicely. It was much easier to use than the chef's knife I usually use.

After my old slow cooker broke down several years and going without one, I got one today and did a chuck roast with carrots and turnips. I also did some corn cut off the cob (because Cassie does not like it on the cob) as well as some mushrooms and gravy made with some of the juice in the slow cooker. The picture was an after-thought.

Chili with toppings was supper tonight. Toppingssour creamAvocado thinly sliced green onions slice or diced fresh jalapenogreen olives, halvedfresh lime wedgessour cream grated monterey jackred beanssaltinescorn chips

I made Pasta Puttanesca for dinner tonight. I didn't take a picture. One bowl of spaghetti looks pretty much like another.

My apologies to Kim Shook. I did not see your question until now: "Norm – gosh, your chicken parm looks so crispy and good. Is there sauce under the chicken, on the pasta? And is your chicken coated with panko? " The pasta was tossed with Parmesan/ cream sauce until it was absorbed into the pasta, then more sauce was served on the table for anyone who wanted to put more on the pasta or the chicken. The chicken is coated with a combination of panko and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. The ratio is approximately 2 parts cheese to 3 parts Panko. Flour coat first was salted, then beaten egg, then panko and Parm. Reg. It was browned in butter/olive oil, then the Mozzarella cheese was placed on top and melted in the oven. I chose not to leave it in until it browned. I didn't want to take a chance it would over bake and be dry. PS sorry about your thumb. I know how painful it can be. I sliced the end of my finger and part of the fingernail completely off a couple years ago.... it grew back.

Hi Smithy, Yes I have always baked squash before this time. I agree that baking would probably be more tasty.

Both my mom and aunt lived in apartments for the elderly while they were able to live on their own (assisted living) They had facilities to cook for themselves, get meals delivered or go to the dining room. Mom's dining room had better than average food. My aunt lived in a larger and nicer place and the food was very good. The dining room even had a scenic view. Mom moved in with my sister when she got too old to live alone but I have vistied a couple nursing homes for invalides. One was nice one was awful. I don't know what kind of food was in the awful one but the other one had food a little better than I remember from my high school cafeteria.

HI FauxPas, With the Carnival squash, I cut it in half with a chinese cleaver that I hammer through the squash with a wooden mallet. After that I scooped out the seeds and followed the recipe that was on the paper sticker that was stuck to one of the squash. It said to boil the squash in water for 15 minutes, meantime cook a couple apples in a skillet with butter then add 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. allspice and 1/8 tsp. black pepper and then mix it in with the mashed the squash.

I was going to make Chicken Parmesan and Carnival squash tomorrow but Charlie and Cassie have tickets to an outdoor theater for Wed. and they asked me to make it today. The cooked squash is mashed with cooked apple, cinnamon and allspice.

I made some creamed corn and later got comments from people about how good it was. One even asked for it again on his next visit. The first thing I do is put ears of corn on the grill for a few minutes so it turns a darker yellow and even chars in a few places, then I cut it off the cob and scrape the cob with the back of my knife to get all the corn 'milk' out of the cob. My recipe does not thicken very much. After that the amounts are due to taste and the amount of corn I am making but the approximate amounts are For 5 ear of corn, I used approximately 2T. honey 1/4 C. cream 4 pads of butter Salt and Pepper to taste. I heat all the ingredients in a saucepan until the liquids boil down a little.

I am planning to make chicken parmesan on Wed so I got a whole chicken and cut it up. I was trying to figure out what to do with the wings, thighs and legs when I remembered Darch's stuffed chicken wings. I boned the legs, thighs, and wings, stuffed them with Stove Top for Chicken, rubbed with oil, salted, and baked them at 450 for 45 minutes. Charlie said they were really good and Cassie said they were her new favorite chicken. I also steamed some broccoli and then tossed them with a little mozzarella and butter. We also had some corn relish that I got at the Farmers market a couple days ago. Pictures didn't turn out all that great looking though and I didn't get a picture of the corn relish.

I have used Tender Quick (1 tsp per pound) as part of a dry cure when making Canadian Bacon and allow seven days per inch to the center as curing time. I don't know how different it might be for chicken and a wet cure. When making corned beef brisket in a wet cure, I use canning salt and let it cure for up to two weeks but have had OK results after just one week.