Norm Matthews

Protein in flour is what makes gluten when it gets wet. Regular bread flour is high makes high gluten dough. You can increase the amount of protein in flour by adding Vital Wheat Gluten which many places carry, including health food store. Bob's Red Mill is probably one of the largest distributers and can be ordered on line if needed. Semolina flour is the highest in protein level and Red Mill has that too but it takes some extra time a patience to work with that kind of flour: It needs a long rest time to absorb the moisture and become workable. I have never tried to make pizza dough with it but it works well with as a pasta dough.

That sounds right.

Usually when the starter and the alcohol separate out, that means the yeast is resting. I supposed the bubbles were left over from when it was active. p.s. 90 degrees is the upper limit of what the yeast should be when it is growing. If it develops too quickly, it might acquire some stronger-than-wanted off flavors..

For best results, stir the liquid and the settled out part together, feed it and when it starts bubbling again, use it to make the dough. At present it looks inactive. If you want to refrigerate it, it will keep for at least a couple weeks after you feed it. I have best results if I take it out of the refrigerator and let it set overnight, then feed it and use it. Feed the left over and refrigerate it again. Leave it out on the counter if you plan to feed and use it every couple of days.

I smoked spare ribs again today. Trim rib St. Louis cut. Save large boneless strip. Pat dry, coat with The Squeal overnight wrapped in plastic and foil. Next day start lump charcoal in chimney, bring out ribs, coat with Oklahoma Joe rub- about 2/3 to 3/4 of recipe. Let ribs set until room temperature and coals are ready. Add some coals to fire pit and pour lit coals over it. When smoke chamber is about 250º add ribs, bone side down abut 2/3 of distance from fire with large end closest to fire. Lay ribs diagonally and add boneless meat on the far side of ribs (closest to flue) Let smoke two hours, adding a chunk of hickory to fire pit every half an hour. After two hours, add some more coals to top of dying fire and start another chimney full of charcoal. Add juice from a can of sweet cherries in heavy syrup to remaining Oklahoma Joe rub and baste ribs on both sides. Wrap both pieces of ribs in heavy duty foil and flip. Let cook in foil for another 2 hours. Save juices from the ribs in foil and use to thin out the BBQ sauce a little for basting, uncover ribs, baste with BBQ sauce and let smoke another hour. When Charlie and Cassie get home from work, I'll make some corn on the cob and a salad. Probably start on some potato salad in a minute or two. How to trim spare ribs to St. Louis cut on Utube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_MGM_RRTUQ The Squeal BBQ rub is available from Oklahoma Joe's restaurant in Kansas City. Rib rub 2 tablespoons sugar 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 teaspoon white pepper 1 teaspoon black pepper

I always get a years supply of honey from a bee keeper who lives about 3 miles from here.

Our dinner was grilled ribeye steak. This one got a little too charred on this side but it was OK. Potatoes were twice baked with butter, cream, milk, bacon, cheese, salt, pepper and green onion. Salad was garden fresh tomato- but not my garden, mine is done, grated carrots and green peppers. The bread was French bread brushed with olive oil infused with garlic and salt, then topped with spinach, tomato, mozzarella and romano cheeses then broiled briefly. Next time I'll add mushrooms, I think.

I need to wear my glasses. I thought the heading was adultery and honey.

I thought I'd try some chicken apple sausage. I really didn't expect much but they were pretty good. As I looked in the refrigerator for something else to cook with it, I found 1 1/2 eggplants, an opened package of kraut and 3/4 package of fresh mozzarella. I thought eggplant parma and kraut with sausage might be a weird combination but I made it anyway.

Next time put some easy cheese and ketchup on a cracker and call it a pizza.

I didn't know pork belly had any bones.

Maybe better than liquid smoke, try hickory smoked salt dissolved in your solution instead of regular salt.

There is a difference between curing and brining. Injecting ingredients which will flavor the meat is not going to give it a hammy taste. A cure will do that but it takes time-days. If your injections don't have any curing agent and you do it just before you smoke, there won't be and concern that it will come out tasting 'hammy'

Here is a picture of dinner. Fettucini with alfredo sauce. parsley and peas, and for the chicken I cut up the breast into boneless, skinless strips and the rest skin on and bone-in, marinated all of it in water with salt, thyme and brown sugar, then in buttermilk, finally breaded the strips with panko, garlic powder, salt and pepper and a tiny bit of curry and fried them. I breaded the rest with flour and corn starch plus thyme and garlic powder.

I cut up a chicken and made boneless, brined it with salt, thyme and brown sugar, then in buttermilk and an egg then took the skinless strips with the breasts and breaded them with panko seasoned with garlic powder and curry and fried them The rest of the chicken got breaded with half flour and half corn starch with thyme, garlic powder and salt and pepper and fried. I also am making fettucini with Alfredo sauce.

One restaurant here has two menus for the customer. One is the same all the time, the other features seasonal items.

If you like it on hamburgers, try seasoning a patty with seasoned salt, worcestershire sauce and cooking it in butter and oil.

Commercial hoods vent all the way out the roof. Most domestic hoods just vent to in between the walls. Having one installed is not cheap.

Lunch today was clean out the refrigerator soup. I know, I know. It's hot. Who wants soup? but I was watching Jaques Pepin and and he did a soup so I got inspired, besides I needed to use up the last of the chicken stock I made last week. I cut up some eggplant, carrots, celery and onions and sauteed them in butter and olive oil for about 5 minutes, l then added the chicken stock, and cut up tortilla strips. I tasted it and added some cooked green beans, salt, little bit of Goya Sazon seasoning and adobo and boiled for 7-10 minutes. Today is son's birthday so we will probably go out for dinner.

Shelby you made me smile. Thank you.

The word recipe originally was spelled receipt because the lady who was more or less illiterate would go to the grocer and tell him what she needed. He wrote it down and gave her the items and the receipt. It was just a list of ingredients. ladies passed on recipes with amounts like butter the size of an egg, a pinch of salt or a handful of flour. Over time measures were standardized so that one knew that a tablespoon was half an ounce and that a wineglassfull was a couple of ounces. As time went on and up to the modern day, ways of communicating and measuring have become more sophisticated and precise. It is too bad that some recipes don't work any more because the manufacturer changed the formula for pudding and then changed the amount in a package. Those of us who like to cook have to make do with best guesses sometimes but accuracy is always preferred.

I was given a cookbook for my birthday and made a recipe from it called Malaysian Spiced Beef. The rice is medium grain in a rice cooker with a packet of Sazon Goya Con Azafran. The beef is braised with onions and a mixture of paprika, curry powder, red pepper and coconut milk. Recipe at http://normmatthews.blogspot.com/

I have a white porcelain sink and I have to use Soft Scrub on it every day to get rid of the staining and there is nothing to do about the black dots that appear with it gets chipped. There are white resin sinks that look like enameled porcelain. I'd suggest you take a look at those for your next kitchen.

My ex and I owned a Korean restaurant for about 9 years and all the food was cooked from scratch. But food was chopped, ahead of time- up to a hour ahead. The "sous chef" ( me often times) would keep the various vegetable trays filled so the chef (MIL) could just get what she needed for the dish and add the meat, fowl or fish which was also prepared ahead of time, weighed and portioned and refrigerated earlier that same day or frozen as was the case with the egg rolls, squid, etc. I would not say it was harder, just different, fresher and efficient. I know and am friends with a few Chinese restaurant owners and have been in their kitchens. The chef can make a big difference in how one dish or the next tastes and one thing that they have that you don't find in any other restaurants is a special stove for woks that put out a tremendous amount of BTUs. I think that is one of the things that make authentic Chinese food taste the way is does. BTW there is a Chinese restaurant in town that has a lot of Chinese exchange students coming from the next town over to order "real Chinese food" and it is nothing like you see in Chinese restaurants that cater mostly to non Chinese patrons. Up until a few years ago I think most locally owned, ethnic restaurants worked pretty much like that but recently I have seen huge refrigerated trucks delivering pre made Chinese food to one of the buffet places near-by. So with that development, some of them may become a lot like the truck stops along the highway where a chicken fried steak tastes the same no matter where you go.

The best service/food (and it was consistently great) was at the Kona Kai in Kansas City. It isn't there any more though. The best Mahi Mahi was at a restaurant on the pier close by Pike's Market in Seattle. The best Cioppino was at a restaurant in Pismo on the beach. The scenery may have been part of that though. We had a corner table by the window and watched the sunset over the Pacific and I was dining with Joanie Sommers.