Norm Matthews

We had our Irish-American meal this afternoon. If there weren't a St. Patrick's Day, I'd invent a holiday for making corned beef brisket from scratch. Maybe my birthday... well no, that's July. Not a good time for boiling a big chunk of meat for hours. Maybe that Seinfeld holiday.. Festivus. I told Charlie that I'd make it even if I lived alone . I did not serve an everything-boiled-in-one-pot this year. The soda bread recipe said this one is more likely to resemble the way it would look and taste in a typical Irish home. It contains some whole wheat flour and rolled oats. I bought a turnip for the colcannon a few days ago but could not find it today. I made a quick trip to the closest store to grab one and they did not have any. Instead I got a rutabaga. It was from Canada and cost $4.53. A pretty hefty price for one Canadian rutabaga. Trump tariff? This is the first time I have made colcannon. Charlie liked it and the mixed cabbage cooked in butter instead of boiled too. The colcannon recipe said to use peeled red potatoes but the red potatoes available were the size of river rock so I boiled and mashed them with skins on. The dip sauce for the Scotch eggs is made with butter, cream and mustard. I left out the flour and instead let it thicken as the butter cooled. Just to explain the Scotch eggs today, the recipe came from an Irish Pub Food cook book.

I gave them some sourdough bread and butter and coleslaw. The guy that Charlie invited ate enough crab for three people but there would still have been enough ribs to feed the extra people if it hadn't been pork ribs. I could easily have adjusted for them if it hadn't been at the last minute. I could have cooked the sausage separately. But I didn't know until they were there.

Tonight was the night Charlie's friend came over for a crab boil. Charlie and him have been friends since high school. Charlie explained that the trash talking was not serious, it was just the way they kid around with each other. He came over with his girlfriend and about noon he called to tell Charlie that his brother had flown in to Nebraska from Philly, bought a car and drove down to see him and he was coming with them. He and a friend came but the friend was Muslim and could not eat any of the food because it was cooked with pork. He ate some of my sourdough bread and some coleslaw. HIs brother didn't eat anything either.

Thanks. It was good. Charlie suggested having it often. I am going to start doing spinach that way from now on. A little fat and garlic: how could it not taste better?

We had coq au vin tonight. The spinach was cooked in a little oil, salt and garlic instead of just the water left on the leaves after rinsing. It was pre rinsed. Mashed potatoes were made from red potatoes with butter, salt and half-and-half.

I didn't make pork bulgogi very often when I had to cut up a roast, even a small one with a bone. It took too much time to just cut up for me to want to do it very often but now that the Korean grocery where we have started shopping has fresh pork shoulder and ribeye beef cut up perfectly for bulgogi and Charlie thinks the recipes I have found for both are the best. So it isn't such a hassle any more and both are not as much as they are at regular stores. The thing on the plate that looks like white Spam is tofu. Charlie cooked that. To me tofu is like salad: it tastes better when somebody else makes it. At first I was surprised that people even considered it food. Counter clock-wise to the tofu is fish cake. It doesn't taste like fish though.

I made a mistake when I said Charlie was making kimchi stew. He made bulgogi soup from leftovers

There was a blanket of snow on the ground when I got up and the temp. was 1º. I shoveled a path from the garage to the car and the mailbox. Then it started snowing again and has not stopped. This has been a whiter winter than usual. Instead of going out to get food, I decided to make a loaf of bread and Charlie is making some kimchi stew using beef bone broth. That will be our supper in a little bit.

Or when the recipe title starts out with "The best".Also when someone presents a "Korean" recipe and their name is Pam Rogers and it had pineapple as an ingredient.

I did that once. I had a big party and invited members of the city arts council for a raku party. I had a lot of different foods so one thing over cooked was not a big deal but I thought keeping the shrimp hot in liquid was a good idea. Afterwards I found the shimp entirely unaten. The raku party was for the people to decorate bisque pottery then I'd fire it quickly and it would be ready to take home right then but it rained all day... ALL day and the kiln was outside. I had to fire them another time.

Staff note: This post and responses to it were split from the Dinner 2025 conversation, to maintain topic focus. My son has a friend that I have never met. They talk on the phone mostly. Charlie told me he brags about how good his BBQ cooking is. Charlie tells him that I do BBQ a lot and he thinks it is good. The other guy blows it off, like he doesn't think it is possible for an old white guy in Kansas to be able to match what he can do. Charlie said he's Puerto Rican. He asked him if I cooked anything else. Son said yes and that we had a crab boil recently. I don't know any of the details but apparently he is coming over for a crab boil with his girlfriend and they set up the date as Feb 28. He sent $30.00 to help cover the costs. When I do a crab boil for the two of us, I keep it pretty basic. I hate contests. I'd never enter a cooking competition, specially not a BBQ.one. I guess now I'll have to do a complete crab boil and if the weather is mild enough, I'll probably do a slab of ribs too. I hope he accepts that there are other people who can cook but if he says he doesn't like it, I won't care..much.

I bought everything for the recipe all at once so I could see how much it costs and my recipe ingredients cost almost $100. too. I forgot to get heavy cream and sent son to get it, so it may have been a little more. Of course I had some left over ingredients and didn't try to figure the cost minus the extra cheese, etc, that didn't go into it. I like your idea about making smaller servings. I have cut mine into individual servings and wrapped them for the freezer.

Charlie asked if I would make lasagna a few days ago. I said I'd do it the next day but forgot. Said I'd do it tomorrow and today is the day and I forgot again until he reminded me. Something else I forgot is how much active time it takes to make it. I'm getting too old to spend 3 or 4 hours at something like that without taking a break. I am about to rewrite the recipe and cut down on the amount of stuff and combine some steps in assembly and plan a way to do some of it the day before.

Charlie had some friends over tonight so I made some Korean fried chicken wings for them.

Local store has pretty good prices on crab leg clusters with their rewards card. Charlie asked if we could have it tonight.