Norm Matthews

Kim, if interested, you might try this shrimp boil. It makes really good shrimp 2 tablespoons rosemary 2 teaspoons dried thyme 1 teaspoon black pepper 5 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped 1 teaspoon celery seeds 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 2 quarts chicken broth 3 ounces tomato paste ½ cup butter 1 ½ pounds shrimp, peeled, tails on, save shrimp shells. Combine all the ingredients with the peeled shrimp shells and simmer 30 to 45 minutes, Strain out the shells, return to heat and cook shrimp a few minutes, until just opaque.

If you break the egg into a glass custard dish and look at the edge of the white and see no watery edge, it is fresh enough to use without vinegar. If there is a little water around the egg white, vinegar helps congeal it but you may also have to trim away some of the trailings to make it look 'professional' . I lower the custard bowl into the water and let some of the hot water in to help set the egg before slowly and carefully letting it drop in the water. If you must, take a spatula and coax the wayward white strands back in the middle. The biggest problem with the vortex method is that you can only do one egg at a time. You can cook them ahead, then drop them in cold water to set and keep them until you have enough or are ready to eat, then just reheat in hot water.

Everyone's dinners look amazing. Thank you C.Sapidus and Nikkib for your comments about the brisket. Last weekend two of the neighbors helped us take down a dead Austrian pine so I invited them over for dinner last night. We had Shrimp appetizer with beets, hard cooked eggs and a dressing on the side. Cucumber salad Bread Slottsteck (Norwegian pot roast) roasted potatoes, zuchinni and yellow squash and pan juices from the pot roast and Black Forest cake... lopsided. LOL

Despite the morning rain and subsequent cold and damp, I fired up the smoker for possibly the last time and did a small (2 1/2 lb.) piece of beef brisket. Because it was small, it only took about 4 hours.

As i mentioned before, I first make ham and beans with chicken stock and then make baked beans from left over beans but beans for BBQ is a step farther. Start with baked beans, either your own or in a can. For this i prefer canned- Bushes is fine- because they are blander than my baked beans and they take the additional seasoning well. For BBQ beans I add finely minced smoked brisket, BBQ rub, BBQ sauce, brown sugar and molasses.

Thanks Kim and robirdstix. I am a retired art teacher and although I taught calligraphy, It was a different kind. I just recently started teaching myself in this particular style.

Thank you. The pen is a jade green Sheaffer'S from the 1920's, a style described as Oversized Flat Top. Here is a picture of it.

Everyones dinners look great. Me? Ever have one of those days where things just don't go the way you want? Today was sort of like that. I had not cooked in a while but wanted to try a couple things I had never made before. One, I saw stuffed clams in the store and decided to make some from fresh clams. I also saw an iceberg wedge salad from Thomas Keller. The kids made suggestions for sides and the menu was set. And at the last minute I decided to try a different version of cheese biscuits. Then I realized that I misspelled spinach. I was telling myself it was NOT spelled spinache and trying not to add the e but did anyway and left off the 'h' I also misspelled Hollandaise. Drat. After I made the stuffed clams, I realized there would not be enough for us so I got some frozen crab cakes and three more stuffed clams from the store. I am sorry to say the store bought ones were better than mine. But if those crab cakes are what they are supposed to taste like, then i can honestly say I don't care much for them. Here is the lettuce salad with bacon, semi dried tomatoes with herbs, home made croutons and buttermilk dressing with mint and lemon juice. It was good but next time I'll put the dressing and toppings on some torn romaine leaves. Also pictured is the spinach. I made Touch of Grace biscuits with more flour than called for and added cheese. I did that so they would hold a shape better. It baked longer than it said to but still didn't get done. After this picture was taken it went back in the oven for a while longer. Son wanted asparagus with Hollandaise sauce. I made the sauce from a mix. First and last time I'll do that. It was tasteless. Here is some of the crab and clam on a plate And i forgot to serve the rice until we were almost done but here it is.. AND it turned out this was NOT the rice pilaf they had in mind when they asked me to make it. All-in-all, I learned a few things to do differently next time... and which things for which will be no next time .

Navy beans are generally considered better than Great Northern bean for Boston baked beans. Great Northerns have a thinner skin and absorb flavors better than navy beans but navy beans have a thicker skin and hold up better to the long process of making BBbeans The primary thing that makes beans stay hard is how they are stored and age. Dried beans from this years harvest and stored an relative cool and low humid areas cook up much better than old beans stored in a hot and humid place. Salt does not really affect them all that much. I like to make Boston baked beans out of navy beans left over from a ham hock, beans and greens dinner. I use molasses, dark brown sugar, dry mustard, catsup, onion, salt and paprika + some meaty ham. If Heritage ham is used, go easy on the added salt..

Now that I have moved to a city that has a butcher shop with grain fed roasting chickens, I poached one and then made dumplings. My son reorganized the kitchen to make it more efficient. I spent more time looking for stuff (and cussing) than cooking and didn't take any pictures.

I know a couple of airbrush artists who do not have compressors but instead buy cylinders of CO2 for their airbrushes. They replace them like you would a propane tank for an outdoor grill.

Norm, thank you very much for the link. Do you use yellow or white corn syrup? And regular white vinegar or some other kind? I will be making these for sure. Your are welcome ElsieD. My son made the wings this time and I did not notice what vinegar he used but we usually use rice vinegar and white corn syrup. If he didn't use rice vinegar, I am sure he used cider vinegar. He would not have used any of the other vinegars we have. When we had our restaurant, his mother and grandmother used Essig vinegar.

Jewelers solder comes in soft, medium and hard. Soft is easiest to work with. The tool i make when dealing with chocolate coated truffles is a plastic fork with the two center tines broken out.

Early dinner today and sandwiches for a few days: roast chicken with home made gravy. Made stock with neck, giblet and onion. Gravy with chicken drippings, flour, stock, S&P and a splash of sherry. We had it with rice. Son had fresh squeezed orange juice (Valencia) and I had Diet Coke.

annebelle, I just moved out of a house that had an apple tree. I wish I'd known about leaving the skins on!

Here is a good link to Korean chicken wings with pictures included. The recipe is kind of involved. http://abeautifulmos...t-ginger-glaze/ Edit: The mom of one of my son's friends does this in the oven but it isn't as crisp. You can also put the wings in the oven to keep warm after they have been glazed if you want to hold them while preparing other things.

Dinner tonight was divided up. Son made Korean Crispy Chicken Wings with a sweet ginger glaze Cassie made stuffed and bacon wrapped jalapenos and I made a winter squash dish with onions, garlic ,queso fresco, coconut milk and pecans.

Pot lucks aren't over rated unless your expectations are over blown. I don't consider a structured meal where everyone is assigned to bring a specific course to be Pot Luck in the true sense of the word. Frankly it is those type of dinners that I find are often mostly stiff and boring. It is usually better for one mind and two hands to conceive and orchestrate themed dinners.

Right. There is a time and place for everything and expectations of culinary excellence at a pot luck is wishful thinking.

I have invited people and said, just bring yourself. Nothing else yet they bring something anyway and it usually does not go with the meal I've planned. One couple- the one I mentioned above- always brings a bag of pretzels. If I have an Asian theme dinner and someone brings apple pie, that makes me crazy. Especially if it came ready made from the grocery store bakery... still in the box. i already have a dessert planned. However i don't mind when someone else says bring something. When the pretzel couple asked me to bring something, I brought a big bag of pretzels. They seemed upset. When someone asks me to bring something to grill, I bring marinated chicken wings. It's their grill. Let them clean it up.

I have a friend who built a castle in his back yard (4 acre back yard) complete with turrets, flags, cannons, drawbridge and moat. A couple times a year he invites a hundred or so people for shashlick-grilled, skewered lamb and he has several coolers with beer and soft drinks. Many of the guests bring something. It is all spontaneous. There are a wide variety of people from young kids just out of school, some with infant children- to wealthy- to frugal- to people who retired a decade or more ago. They are doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers, firemen, shop keepers, constructions workers, carpenters, insurance agents, politicians, salesmen, etc. It is fun to watch what they bring. There is one couple that always brings a big bag of pretzels. One always brings a cake from the bakery at the store, another a box of giblets from the deli counter. One person always brings beanie weenies in bbq sauce and grape jelly melted in. One always brings Scotch eggs. Another potato salad, brownies, veggie trays with dips, etc. A fewpeople bring something different every time. Thankfully some don't bring anything because if 100 people brought food for 100, there would be 100 entrees and lots of left overs. One couple bring a box of wine then stand around it like they are guarding it while they drink from it with plastic stemware. All kinds of people and all kinds of responses to pot luck . it is a cross section of small town in the midwest.

Your soup looks very good Kim. I can't imagine duck stock not going well with anything.... Well maybe not licorice.

You can tell if a hard cooked egg is overcooked when the yolk is green on the outside and it is too mealy on the inside. To further explain about steamed eggs, I peel hard cooked eggs under running cold water while they are still hot. I think cold water and hot eggs help the shell to come off cleanly. Steamed eggs nearly always peel easy. I have problems much more often with hot-water steeped eggs. I never actually boil them. Some people say fresh eggs are harder to peel but grocery store AA eggs that are fresh and steamed peel easy nearly every time. Fresh eggs don't have the air bubble dimple on the big end. You can tell in dcarch's picture that the one boiled and cooled in air is older than the other three.

Boiled eggs that are cooked too long will develop an ugly green ring around the yolk.

The micorwave egg cooker by Nordic also steams eggs. I find they peel cleanly 98% of the time. I usually peel them under cold running water as soon as I can handle them.