Norm Matthews

I took a picture of these cooking directions quite a while ago. Sorry I don't remember what it was other than it came from an Asian Market.

Charlie was telling me about his plans for his birthday party early next month. He is planning hamburgers and hot dog on the grill. I said I could do something in the smoker if he liked. He remembered Mr. Kim, our next door neighbor in Junction City and he and his brother borrowed our smoker (different one) to do a small pig. The younger brother owned a succesful Korean restaurant in town. Charlie said they basted it with tons of sesame seed oil and it was so good. I told him I could get some pork butt and experiment. Today I did. I cut 6 1/2 lbs. into two pieces. One was marinated overnight with a marinade that had sesame seed oil in it, the other was injected with a liquid with sesame seed oil inside it. It took about six hours in the smoker and I basted both of them with a mixture of 1/2 cup light soy sauce, 2 Tablespoons of sesame oil, 1 teaspoon each of granulated onion and granulated garlic. a half teaspoon of grated ginger and 1/8th teaspoon red pepper powder. They were slow cooked to 202º. When they came out, we couldn't tell any difference. When they are cool enough to chop up, maybe there will be a difference... maybe not. At least they were both tender and juicy.

Charlie suggested supper tonight: Steak and shrimp kabobs. There was also mashed potatoes and gravy but they were store bought in a bag and a bottle. I did add some cream and butter to them though.

This recipe is from La Methode by Jaques Pepin. Charlie tells me that our backyard neighbor did something like this at one of her parties but she split the brie, put raspberry jam on top of one half and put it back together before encrusting it. This brioche used a LOT of melted butter, four eggs, another yolk, and a little milk and sugar and that was the only liquid used. The rest was just flour and yeast. The rest of our meal was take out from a chicken restaurant. (Canes) The brie was inside the brioche with the decoration. The other one was left over dough

I made myself a cake. I should stick to sheet cakes. I have never had any luck making a stacked cake look good. I also made breaded pork chops and potato pancakes. Charlie wanted YumYum sauce with instead of a gravy so I ate mine plain.

I was planning to cook a brisket in the smoker on Sunday to have it ready for Monday. But 6 weeks ago my sister invited us to a backyard BBQ on that day. I suspected she was planning a surprize birthday party because it is the day before my birthday. She kind of clinched the hunch when she called yesterday and asked what was my favorite cake and icing. So what happened is I cooked the brisket yesterday, sliced and reheated it today and we had some along with some sides.

Charlie suggested tacos today since it was Tuesday and when I said OK, he started looking for a place to get delivery but I said I'd make them. Tacos mean guacamole and that means ripe avocados and the only places to be sure to find ripe ones are at one of the Mexican groceries nearby. Two of them have taco bars and tables to eat-in and store made salsas. Fresh made Pico de Gallo is a better tasting salsa on tacos than any commercial taco sauce I have tried.

It seems like whenever I don't feel like planning dinner, like yesterday, I default to steaks on the grill. A local grocery usually has these KC Strip steaks at a good price. Just toss them on the grill, pop some corn in the oven and get a salad from the grocery salad bar. I was going to make hash browns bur Charlie suggested steak fries and that was easier... a little messier but overall easier. Charlie asked for his to be skewered. He puts an Asian sauce on them.

Charlie was telling a friend just now that I used to make these a lot when he was in elementary school and he'd eat one on his way to school. School was only 4 blocks away. I originally made 6 at a time, then 8, now I made 12 eggs this time. They always run out too quickly. 4 are already gone and they just came out of the oven ( I ate 2 of them) There are several versions of where Scotch Eggs originated but the most likely one, in my opinion, is that they were first sold in 1830's in an English costal town at an eatery called William Scott and Sons. They were called Scotties but later the name became Scotch Eggs. Originally they were coated with a rich creamy fish paste before being sprinkled with bread crumbs. Sausage replaced the fish paste merely for packaging reasons. The source of this information says that he recently visited that town and they still use fish paste. The recipe I have been using for the last few years comes from a cookbook titled "Irish Bar Food". I like it not only because it tastes better than other recipes I have used but it is baked instead of frying. The coating tends to shrink and pull away from places on some eggs when deep fried.

A couple years ago I found a store bought spaghetti sauce that was better tasting than any I'd tried before. Charlie told me it was from a local restaurant and he'd eaten there, and it was very good. We have gone together a couple of times. They are best known for their chicken Spiedini. While at the store a couple days ago I saw some packaged chicken spiedini from that same restaurant so I got a package and a bottle of their sauce and made it today. It tastes pretty much the same way as it did when we ate there this year, about a week before Fathers Day.

Thank you for the compliment and suggestion. For anyone who does not get the link, here it is: http://normmatthews.blogspot.com/

We liked the marinated, skewered and grilled steak that we did a little while ago well enough I that we did it again. This time I left it in the Teriyaki sauce a little longer and cooked some onions and mushrooms in a little butter and olive oil and added in the meat when it was done on the grill. We also had rice, and corn cut off the cob and cooked with some salt, butter, cream and rice syrup.

I almost always post recipes on my blog. There is a link to it at the bottom of this post.

Charlie loves Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches so when I showed him a recipe for Philly Cheesesteak Meatloaf, he was all for trying it. The picture that came with the recipe looked like it was topped with cheese as well as having it in the middle but it didn't. All the cheese was in the center and I didn't want to take it apart by then so when it came out of the oven, I grated the rest on top and put it under the broiler for a few minutes.

I wasn't planning to cook today, just eat something left over but there wasn't anything. There was one steak, not enough for two and some shrimp in the freezer. They were quickly defrosted , skewered and so was the steak. Steak was marinated a few minutes in teriyaki and the shrimp in Japanese BBQ sauce. They were grilled and we had them with rice and kimchi. Charlie had his with Yum Yum sauce. I didn't even think to take a picture until this was all that was left.