Norm Matthews

Charlie and I walked into the kitchen at the same time and he asked if I had any ideas for dinner. I said I was planning to eat a hot dog but did he have anything in mind? He thought a little and said he'd like something Italian like chicken Alfredo. We went to the computer and looked at some menus from local Italian restaurants and didn't see anything that looked good. I said could make some Chicken Martini with fettuccini and Alfredo sauce from a jar. He thought that was a good idea so I went to the store and got the stuff to make it and it was ready about 45 minutes later. While it was being made, a friend who is going through a break-up with her boyfriend called Charlie and during the conversation asked what he was having for dinner. He told her and she came over and had dinner with us. I had just enough for the three of us. I took the picture of the food on the stove while she was on her way over... she lives close. I added some extra parm. cheese to the sauce and heated it so it would melt. We had it with some white Zinfandel.

I was just reading a list of cooking hacks yesterday and one was that olive brine could upgrade savory dishes and add depth of flavor. It also said a table spoon of vinegar (which is in olive brine) can add umami to a pot of chili.

Charlie asked for Dak Bulgogi (Korean marinated and grilled chicken) I pulled the skin back so the meat would get more exposed to the marinade, scraped a lot of the fat off the inside of the skin and left it in longer than the recipe said because, I intended to cook the pieces whole. The skin was crispy and the meat was moist and tender. I cooked it to 175. That is higher than most recipes specify but it turned out OK. It is what Cameron Treu recommended in an article for ThermoWorks about chicken thighs for BBQ competitions. These were grilled, not smoked but I like the way they turned out.

The top one came with a pizza pan, I think the other one was from a restaurant supply place.

Several people have said that they think they are the best ones so far.

I cooked some spare ribs and beans in the smoker today.

I went to the Korean store today and got everything for dinner. The only thing I made was the marinade for the beef spare ribs. I got there early enough to watch the lady make the kim bob. I never noticed before but she has a machine to roll it up and heat it and another machine to slice it. The sides were pickled radish, green onion and Nappa cabbage. The other meat was spicy pork bulgogi

One of my relatives in the Ozarks posted some recipes by a colorful guy named Pepperbelly Pete. I tried the Crock Pot Beef Short Ribs one with the addition of some diced tomatoes. It was good.

I wish I'd known that earlier. I had a bowl with a design on it that I thought would make a nice presentation but threw it away because I couldn't keep the rice from sticking.

I have a small bowl that I use and the rice sticks to it so I line it with Saran wrap first then pull it off after it is on the plate.

Charlie made out the menu for dinner last night. I still was the one who got the pots and pans dirty though. He asked for grilled chicken, mac&cheese, a salad and French fries. For for dessert he wanted something either Little Debbie or Hostess. I got some of both and he put them away for later.

All your food looks delicious. It was the combination of the rub and the mustard sauce together. The mustard sauce got put on one of the next batch of ribs as a binder for the dry rub and it turned out really good. I am going to do that more often. I used the same rub on brisket a while back and it turned out well but the two together was just too salty for me. I tried to eat them but couldn't. I threw them out. I don't dislike any of my neighbors enough to have given them to someone else. Actually I was planning to share them until I tasted them..`

I have never had any interest in smoking a bird before. Probably because I once had a smoked turkey at a Church social and didn't like it. But now I think it was the fault of the kind of smoke used that I didn't like. I want to try some things different this year. One was to do a chicken the other is to do a chuck roast. Before I got the chicken, I looked in the Cool Smoke cookbook to see if he had a recipe for a whole chicken. He did but I didn't really look at it until after I got the chicken. That is when I found out that it was a involved version of beer can chicken. First there was a brine that took two days to make and another day to marinate the chicken. Finally it was cooked at 400º while sitting on a beer can. There is two problems with that. First I don't think my smoker will get that hot. My grill might but if I put a chicken sitting up, I won't be able to close the lid on either one. So I did this: First I sprayed a slotted tray with non stick oil. I mixed a teaspoon of Cajun seasoning in two Tablespoons of softened butter and rubbed it inside the chicken and over and under the skin. I smoked if for about 1 hour, 15 minutes at 325-350º and sprayed it with a solution of 2 tablespoons of sugar dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water then added 5 tablespoons of lemon juice and sprayed it on every 20 or so minutes.. It turned out lightly smoked with a hint of lemon and very juicy.

I think it was Buddha who said Your best teacher is your last mistake. Yesterdays ribs were a mistake. I tried again today and got some good results. One was spare ribs, trimmed St. Louis style and the other one was baby back or Loin back. Since the last two were very meaty, I noticed that the package said it was extra meaty.

I tried a new recipe in that Cool Smoke BBQ book. It used a mustard sauce that was a modernized version of a Carolina BBQ sauce from the 1700's. I did a second slab but finished it with a tomato based sauce. Neither one was a winner in my opinion. The rub was too salty and they were over-cooked. Oh well, you can't hit a home run every time you step up to bat. This one wasn't even a base hit. The mustard sauce was good but got old after the first bite. If you lived in a time when tomatoes weren't generally eaten, it was probably what everyone expected. I will try it on some chicken and see how that turns out.

Crab legs are still on sale at this one store.

I found some chicken thighs in the freezer and did them in the new air fryer. The slaw and beans were leftover from the brisket dinner.

i cut off and froze the thick part of the brisket I got for St. Patrick's Day and put it in the smoke today. It turned out really well and took less time that I expected... 6 hours at around 225. It stalled out at 157 for an hour, but then I wrapped it in foil and it finished up an hour later.

Today was a chuck roast in the crock pot.

We had again that pasta and shrimp dish we both liked a while back. I imagine the sauce is Alfredo made like it is in Italy since it isn't made separately and added later but the ingredients are added to the pan one at a time while the rest of the food is finishing and there isn't any added thickener.

I made Banh Mi sandwiches yesterday but didn't take any pictures. As long as this one store keeps selling crab legs for 7.99, I am going to keep having them every 5 or 6 weeks.

I don't know. There weren't any corners like that in the dish today. It was just baked until the fresh buttered bread crumbs were browned. I'll ask him what he thinks about that. He said the chicken was perfect and the mac n cheese was delicious.

Charlie liked the fried chicken in the new Air Fryer but said it needed more garlic. He requested to have it again with mac and cheese but he is tired of the kind that comes in a box so I made some homemade with bread crumbs.

I made some fries with fresh potatoes as prepared above, some Ore-ida fries and Ore-ida shoestring. The one with the least number of fries is the one I did first because i ate some while the other two were cooking. They are the ones made with fresh potatoes. I used the preset for fries @400º for 18 minutes. While they were cooking I read the back of the fries package and they said to cook them for ten minutes so i did and there were no Air Fry instructions for the shoestring potatoes so I cooked them for 10 minutes. You can see the from fresh did not brown as much. They were dry on the outside but not crispy. The inside was creamy... maybe a little too creamy but they tasted more like potatoes that the other two. The other two looked and acted like fries but did not have as good a flavor IMO. I thought the shoestring potatoes were the most successful over all. PS I reheated the first batch for 1 minute to reheat them but they did not improve the texture. Sometime in the future, I'l see if pre-frying the potatoes for a couple minutes or until they take on a little color makes any difference, but by then, I don't really see the point unless they still taste better.

I cut up a potato and boiled it today. It is in the freezer now. I'll try it out when it's frozen. That may be later today. If it is, I'll report back later.