Norm Matthews

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.

http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/B0007M2BN0 The microwave egg cooker is by Nordic. Here is a link and a picture. This method steams the eggs in the microwave in about 8 minutes. Here are some links to steaming eggs with a steamer basket http://www.onegoodth...ut-boiling.html http://whatscookingw...e-easy-to-peel/ http://www.kokoscorn...uaranteed-.html They always (98% of the time) peel completely and easily for me whether. I peel them under cold running water as soon as they are cooked and cooled slightly. Soft boiled eggs are a little more delicate.

In South Louisiana okra is gumbo. But gumbo is also the soup-ish dish made with almost anything sometimes including okra. The menu had both okra and gumbo but only okra was served. The gumbo was supposed to be the soup with the sausage and shell fish.

It is cold and rainy today. I wanted soup and had some stock in the freezer along with stuff that needed to be used up: some corn on the cob that I forgot to use a few days ago along with left over hamburger, mushrooms, onions, a carrot, a couple of fingerling potatoes, and part of a tomato. Son isn't a big soup fan but went back for seconds.

I don't think there is such a thing as uncured bacon. If it is uncured it isn't bacon. It is pork belly. "Uncured bacon" is cured, just not using nitrites or nitrates. It is probably cured with a some type of salt . If the bacon smells ok, and does not feel slimy, then I think it is ok to cook. If you need long term storage, put it in the freezer.

I am just seeing this thread for the first time even though it was started over 2 years ago. My response is to the original post. My first beef is with the Today Show never giving cooks enough time to present the recipe they were invited to show. The hosts want to chat and would talk away all the time the cook needs. So don't be surprised when cooks spill stuff or uses approximations in measurements when they don't have time to be more accurate or mix the batch thoroughly. The Today Show is going to start playing music and cut to commercial before they get finished anyway. I am quite sure Martha didn't say those things or imply that that was how it should be done, just because it happened while she was trying to get done before they went to commercial. It seems everyone loves to pick on Martha these days. And sure, lots of times someone on her staff will make a mistake in typing out a recipe of hers. I am not defending her but that circumstance is too extreme to think was SOP for her or any other cook one is watching while their child gets her teeth checked. By the way, baking is not a science. Exact measurement is not as important as most people think. Especially flour. Baking works on chemical principals but there is a lot of room for playing around. An good baker knows full well that any home recipe for flour is an estimate and experience is what is needed for good results, not a set of scales. Now someone who has their own show and has control over editing and does stupid things is on their own. I agree with many of the other comments I saw as I was scrolling to the end of the thread.

I am not familiar with outliers. I have only a passing contact with Zagat's. I got the impression that one of the top rated BBQ restaurants by Zagat's in Kansas City was put there by tourists, not locals who knew better. My concern is the ability of a random sampling of people to be able to judge what is good. For years I lived in a small midwest town and was often amazed at how many people raved about professionally prepared food that I thought was mediocre or not well prepared- like perhaps it had sat on a warming table too long. Here is an example: I was at a private affair where the menu was designed by a CIA trained chef and executed by professional caterers. One of the items was gumbo. Apparently the caterer didn't know what that was and served okra. That is what they pointed to when I asked where is the gumbo. I over heard one person eating the okra say that the gumbo was very good and several agreed.

I have made a pumpkin cheesecake (yes it is a pie, not a cake) with this kind of crust. Also a strawberry cream cheesecake with graham crackers and walnuts.