Norm Matthews

This was some Stroganoff from last week.

I visited my son in Seattle a few years ago and tried several fish dishes when I was there. The one I enjoyed the most was mahi mahi served outdoors on the pier. Although much maligned and misunderstood, fresh water catfish can be delicious if properly prepared.

I am from Kansas City and I have a smoker in my back yard. But in reality, smoke only is important for a couple of hours at most for spare ribs. The rest could be done in the oven. Some people think you can pour sauce on anything and call it BBQ but actually it often has nothing at all to do with the cooking process. Many serious smokers think of sauce as a table condiment, not a part of the BBQ process. Having said that, if you cannot use a smoker, the rub is where most of the flavor comes from during the slow cooking time. I suspect you can get decent results by using hickory smoked salt as part of the rub and doing the whole cooking of the ribs wrapped in foil, then if you want do a quick baste of a smokey sauce under the broiler to finish them.

It's the day after St. Patrick's day with leftover homemade corned beef and boiled potatoes. Of course its Rueben sandwiches with pumpernickle bread and potato salad. This was last years picture. this year we are packing for a move and I didn't take pictures but we had the same thing.

Nordic Ware makes a microwave egg cooker that will make soft or hard "boiled" eggs. It cooks 4 eggs at a time. The lower section has water added to it. In the upper section, the eggs are shielded from micro waves by being in a metal compartment. The whole thing is shrouded in plastic. The water boils and sends steam into the upper part through small holes. Eggs cook in under 10 minutes depending on how powerful the microwave is and how well done you want your eggs cooked. I was skeptical when my son brought one home but it works well.

But it's not 'anything from a cow'. Note that the centrifuge is used to remove fat from beef trimmings - leaving what? Beef. No two ways around that. And if there was a labeling requirement, it would probably read "Contains boneless lean beef trimmings". The only thing I find potentially controversial is that ammonia is used as a food safety instrument. But it appears to work as.... (from the above link) Food safety experts in 2011 acknowledged the role of such processes in protecting the United States’ food supply against events such as the European E. coli outbreak.[5] Okay, so it's safe, but it's an inferior product, right? On December 24th, 2011, McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell announced they would discontinue the use of BPI products in their food.[6][4] Has anyone noticed a difference? I haven't. Anyone care to claim that they're awesome now? Apparently there was a mis read on what I was saying. The USDA allows gristle, fat, bone meal and pink slime-aka- lean beef trimmings to be present in hamburger and still be labeled 100% beef.

Looks like another Ken Onion creation. It looks to me to be well shaped for slicing, not chopping vegetables. It's to short for a roast beef though.

Not so interested in eating something labeled "beef filler" either. The problem is that no labeling is required and it should be. I don't object to them selling the stuff, I object to them selling the stuff as ground beef. Just as they have to label poultry injected with a brine solution, they should have to label ground beef with this filler in it. It is not ground beef, it is centrifuged beef. I didn't mean to imply that I thought it was OK. I think it is gross that the USDA thinks it is OK to label something as 100% beef and still allow anything from a cow to be called beef. It does not have to be meat. And the other statement I made was meant to say that whoever thought it would be OK to call it 'pink slime" should never, ever be given a job with any PR firm.

I suppose it isn't as interesting when it happens out here in the hinterland but a locally famous restaurant called the Calico inn had a family fall out and a second one opened down the highway called Calico Too. There is a plaque on the original restaurant beside the front door. It says "On this spot, April 17, 1889, nothing happened"

Sorry if this is a repeat of what someone else has already said, but USDA 100% BEEF does not mean it has to be 100% MEAT. However I doubt so many objections to pink slime would exist if it were called 100% beef filler instead. It just does not sound so objectionable that way, but it is still the same thing.

Boiled eggs are best not boiled but steeped in very hot water so the term many cooks use is hard or soft cooked eggs rather than boiled eggs. As I mentioned before, hard or soft cooked eggs can be cooked with steam as well. Steam cooked eggs usually peel more easily and run less risk of that green ring around the yolk.

When I make eggs for myself, I almost always have the poached or a plain omelet with a little "cheese" mixed in. Don't pillory me but I said "cheese" because I actually like processed cheese in eggs. I don't mind if it is browned a little on the outside (country style according to Pepin) but I want it creamy on the inside. I don't try to brown omelets but sometimes they brown if the butter browns before I add the eggs. My son likes hard scrambled eggs, his GF likes them soft scrambled. Nordic Ware makes a microwave egg cooker that actually hard cooks eggs very will with an easy peel shell and no discolored yolk. It steams the eggs instead of cooking them in hot water.

I remember a family care giver waxing euphoric over the bastard eggs her mother used to make. Whaaaat? Yeah, she says, they were fried eggs but she used to spoon the fat over them to lightly cook the tops. That is what I thought basted eggs were. My grandmother would fry them in the same pan that she'd fried the bacon in and baste the hot bacon grease over them with a spoon, no flipping. Am I wrong? That is how my mom and grandmom cooked eggs. They had a stamped steel skillet, cooked bacon first then added the eggs and spooned ( with a spatula) over the tops of the eggs until they were white. When someone asked for basted eggs, that is what I thought they meant.

It seems to me that you were adding saltiness to umami. Salt brings out flavors. You kept adding MSG until you got too much saltiness. You were not adding savory to see if you got too much but adding MSG until you got too much salty.

EVERYONE'S dinners look really great. I had some strip steaks to use up and had some grilled ones the other day so I didn't want to do that again so soon. A friend mentioned Stroganoff and I thought that would be a good way to go but I didn't see any recipes I liked so I started with a James Beard basic cream soup as the basis for the sauce. I used beef stock and cream with egg yolks in an old fashioned glass Pyrex double boiler. I cooked the mushrooms, onions and cut up steak in butter, added some green peas on a whim and sour cream, then added it all to the cream base and served over noodles. I seasoned with salt and pepper. I think Adobo would be good next time.

Watermelon and kiwi salad Caribbean inspired salad. Red onions need to be soaked in ice water to tone them down Avocado and bacon with balsamic vinegar as the dressing Tomatillos salad I got this idea for a salad when I saw Jaques Pepin cut thin strips of cucumber for garnish

If it is any consolation, if I had a nice big rib roast, I'd be tempted to cut into nice thick steaks anyway. I like nice crusty Delmonico steaks better than a rib roast.

There was over 2" of snow on the grill so I used the cast iron skillet on the stove inside.. smokey. Strip steak, sweet potato baked fries, salad, asparagus with alfredo.

Dinner plans tonight are strip steak, baked sweet potato fries, tossed salad, steamed asparagus with alfredo sauce instead of hollandaise and garlic rolls.

Chocolate Raspberry Torte. Recipe (From “Angels in My Kitchen: Divine Dessert Recipes” by Caryl Westwood, Celestial Arts.)

SobaAddict70, thanks for the sauce moutarde recipe. It looks really interesting.

The best salad is just about any salad made for me by anyone else. Coffee too. Coffee and salads always taste better when someone else makes them LOL

Mixing chicken and beef stock half and half is a decent substitution.

Last night I wanted to make a fish stew. (not very easy when you live in north central small town Kansas) Kids wanted tacos. We had tacos. Today I made a compromise. I made my fish stew with fish broth, red wine, tomatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers, shrimp shells, clam broth and scallop broth. I baked the scallops and clams and made Louisiana boiled shrimp. For myself, I put some rice in a bowl, added the individual fish and ladled the fish stock over. I let the kids follow suit or have the shrimp, scallops and clams without the broth, as they chose. I also made some sourdough French bread. I made two short loaves instead of one long one. I also added and egg and some oil and adjusted the flour accordingly.

The farmer here in Kansas- Lindsborg-. who started the Heritage turkey fad also has began raising Heritage pork. Heritage Foods USA sells Berkshire pork. Another site, http://www.americanberkshire.com/ has recipes for this kind of delicious pork. http://www.porkbeinspired.com/Recipes.aspx It isn't a speciality method for raising pigs but rather an old style breed with great flavor.