Norm Matthews

I'm not sure what to call dinner tonight. Cassie suggested enchilada salad or Mexican lasagna. It was layers of taco sauce, tortillas, seasoned ground round with onions, cheese topped with green onions, tomatoes,lettuce and sour cream. We also had some okra chips. They are dehydrated, and/or roasted until crispy like potato chips.

Lodge cast iron has a lifetime guarantee. They should replace it for free.

Thanks for the advice Toliver. The sauce was a little dry. I should have added more chicken stock I think. BTW, since my son's fiancee does not like celery, so I did substituted some water chestnuts and romaine lettuce ribs. Bok choy is a good idea that I have not tried yet. I'll keep it in mind next time I want to try a substitute something for celery.

I had some chicken in the freezer that was left over from making gumbo recently. I decided to make chicken pot pie by using up other left-overs as well. I ran into a few problems. I was half way through it when I discovered there was no milk or cream so I made a gravy with chicken broth and part of a jar of Alfredo sauce. I had a little left over broth and pie dough so I made noodle soup for lunch with those. I couldn't find the rolling pin to roll out the dough so I used an Olive oil bottle shaped like a wine bottle. I rolled out the dough and was surprised that it turned out round instead of looking like Texas. I buttered it and folded it over, buttered the half and folded it again and rolled it out again. Repeated the process in hopes of making the crust flaky. It was... sort of. Noodle soup with pie dough noodles for lunch Chicken pot pie and a little salad.

Here are the non electric-manual versions of the vacuum coffee pots. Both have cloth covered porcelain filters as well as the glass filters that were extra. They will break if used on an electric coil stove unless those wire M's or W's are placed between the element and the bottom of the pot. One is Silex, the other is Pyrex. The small opening of the Pyrex makes it a bother to clean. Looks like the electric ones that andiesenji has are easier to use.

Just for a different approach, chef Pino Luongo makes Chicken Martini Style which initial prep. is very similar except the final coat is freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese instead of bread crumbs.You can finish it as per the original recipe or use it as the breast in a Chicken Parm. dish.

I've been using induction and a stainless (but induction-ready) pour pot. Hard to control the flow with Pyrex but I may give 'wave' a try (and stir). Can you recommend a good stainless pour pot? Pyrex sucks since Corning dumped it. I believe Anchor Hocking still makes good quality tempered glass measuring cups.

I skipped breakfast and had it at lunch time instead: An egg, bacon and potato pancakes.

While I don't have experience with the unit you've acquired, Norm, I generally find that machines that do more than one thing don't usually do either of the things they do better than a single purpose unit. That said, it will be interesting to hear from you how this thing works out over the next couple of months. As to the Brazen, while I haven't seen a full-blown review on the product yet, Sweet Maria's has a video review - they like it but with a few caveats. Even with the temperature on the unit set to 205°F, the temperature at the brew head was actually 196°F. They also don't love the flat-basket design. As to the ability to control temperature of water, many people like to play around with brew temperatures. A quick search here through some of the coffee threads will point that out easily. Your comment brings to mind the Oster Kitchen Center that had one motor to drive a mixer, blender and processor. My ex sister in law got one after she asked me to teach her how to make potato bread. She left it here when she moved and it did not do anything better than individual dedicated appliances. I can only hope this coffeemaker does make coffee from two sides. I have only used the small side and am satisfied with it so far. There are more complicated and finicky ways to make coffee and I have tried most of them, but I am not sure the extra trouble is worth the end results. Good coffee, decent water and hot enough temperatures are all I really need at this stage of my life.

Silex and Pyrex made vacuum coffee makers 60 to 70 years ago. Sometimes you can find them with good rubber and still in working order in antiique/junque stores for reasonable prices.

One thing about this coffeemaker that does not excite me is the large basket is flat bottomed. When most coffeemakers work, the water goes into the center of the basket in a single stream. The problem with that is that coffee floats. The water goes into the bottom of the filter then perhaps a third of the carafe has water in it before most of the grounds even get a chance to get wet. The advantage of the pour over method is that the pourer can move the stream of water to get all the the grounds wetted down earlier. A coffee basket with a cone shape is more efficient as well.

Senseo, This machine takes Senseo pods but it also takes loose coffee which is what I plan to use in it. I made a cup this morning with my regular brand and it was quite satisfactory. I have a 'collection' of coffee pots that include a 40's-50's Vaculator, a French press and a Chemex type arrangement. What I like about this is that I can control smaller brews and still have capacity for full pots. It's less fuss than the other kinds I have as well.

Here is a picture of the coffeemaker. It is different than any in the previous discussion. I believe it is a new one offering pod brewing on one side and carafe brewing on the other side. Both sides can be used with loose coffee. It comes with a travel mug or a regular mug can be used.

Keurig became popular after I got my ‘free’ Gevalia coffeemaker so I was not inclined to get a new one and not a Keurig because 1. I wanted to be sure it wasn’t a passing fad with coffee pods disappearing from the market after a few years. 2. I drank more than a cup at a time and 3. I prefer coffee black, no flavors please. Now time has passed, my Gevalia is dying and I am retired and only drink a couple cups a day. Keurig and pods seem here to stay but pods still seem a compromise over Peet’s whole bean coffee, but I see there are little filters you can buy extra so I can use my own coffee... I went to Bed Bath & etc. with my 20% off coupon to get one. What I came home with was a Hamilton Beach coffeemaker that has a full pot on one side and a single cup brewing feature on the other side. The single cup is actually 2 1/2 of my normal mugs worth. I think I can use pods if I want or the supplied filter to use with my favorite brands without getting extra stuff. I hope I made a good decision. Anyone have opinions/ experience advice with either of these?

Dinner tonight was chicken breasts breaded with Parm cheese and panko, green beans and corn cut off the cob then creamed with roasted red peppers, cayenne, bacon, milk and cream cheese. Store bought Italian bread made with olive oil and rosemary.

Instead of cooking by time, cook with a probe thermometer or thermapen. I presume your tenderloin is beef, if so cook it to 120º to 130º, depending on your preference of "not over cooked" Take it out at the target temperature and cover it with foil and let it set a while. The temperature will rise some more as it continues to cook for a while outside of the oven.

I'd tend to trust the candy thermometer more than the thermapen. The candy thermometer is in the middle of the boiling liquid and measuring the ambient temperature while sometime i wonder if my Thermapen is measuring the surface of the liquid or the bottom of the pot. That little red dot isn't stopping in the middle of the batch.

Professional bakers don't bake two loaves at a time either. even weight based recipes from one kitchen won't necessarily transfer seamlessly to another.

Fish seems to be a theme this week. Here was our dinner. I made fried catfish, hushpuppies, coleslaw (cooks recipe) and brussels sprouts.

I plan to fry some catfish on Sunday so I copied your technique and will try it. Thanks Dejah.

Shel-B the chart you referenced looks as good as any for a start but measuring by weight will only give you consistent results, not guaranteed good results. When it comes to making bread dough, I don't measure flour. I add the flour to the mixer until it is the right consistency. That way I can change the basic recipe by adding eggs, fats, or substituting some or part of the liquid for another and still use the right amount of flour by sight and feel. I think that is the best way to go but it takes some experience before you get to that point.

Vinaigrette is or can be emulsified. It's a stretch to put it in the same category as hollandaise though. Vinaigrette can be used as a sauce or marinade as well as a dressing. If Antonin Careme came up with 4 in the 19th century and Auguste Escoffier added one in the 20th, maybe its time to add one for the 21st.

Partial quote from https://stellaculinary.com/blog/five-french-mother-sauces-mother-all-resources The French mother sauces were originally four base sauces set forth by Antonin Careme in the 19th century. Careme’s four original mother sauces were Sauce Tomat, Bechamel, Veloute andEspagnole. Then in the 20th century, Chef Auguste Escoffier added the fifth and final mother sauce, hollandaise, with its derivatives covering almost all forms of classical emulsion sauces including mayonnaise.

A few years ago when I was still watching the Food Network, I noticed Bobby Flay did some sauces which I would consider vinaigrette based. He used oil and acid when cooking meat dishes and would add other ingredients too, like tomatoes. Someone told me what this kind of approach was called but I don't remember. The result were sauces for meat that were lighter than some of the more traditional heavy sauces. BTW, I consider Sauce Veloute a mother sauce too. In the James Beard Fish Cookery, he has a chapter on sauces and one if them is Sauce Mayonnaise. It is the 'mother' of quite a number of other - sauces, all cold or room temp. edit, my bad. The first time I looked, I didn't see that he does have sauce veloute.

We had gumbo and a salad for dinner tonight.