Norm Matthews

I decided I wanted Kabobs today. I asked Charlie if he'd prefer chicken or beef. He said he didn't care. Why not do both. That's what I did. The chicken was brined briefly before marinated in honey and soy sauce. The beef was also marinated.

I got used to less salt in my food when I married a Korean. I also got used to not having bread and potatoes every day.

I think most people have different salt tolerances based on what their bodies have become accustomed to.

I don't use a lot of salt in my cooking and when I do follow some recipes I regret not reducing the salt level. But I did discover that my salads taste better if I lightly salt each layer as I am making it. I have started to try to be a little less conservative with salt in most things now.. I am curious about saltless Tuscan bread. I'll have to look up the recipe and try it. I like to use canning and pickling salt because it is pure salt with no additives and (I think) not as "salty". It dissolves quicker so I don't use it when kosher or large grain sea salt is a better idea. I have not tried very many other speciality salts.

I thought I'd freeze the leftover chili dog sauce but Charlie asked for chili dogs again last night and invited a few friends over so now there are no leftovers.

Thanks. I hope you enjoy it. Jimmy said his recipe is based on another sauce which he as tweaked and is not Texas Weiner sauce someone else thought it was. I didn't mention it in the recipe but I steamed the hot dogs. I think it helped give them an old time flavor and kept them from splitting. I don't know if that is any help but I thought I'd mention it.

I bought these grilling mats at Walmart several years ago and at the end of the year put them away and forgot I had them until now. I dild not remember any cautions about using them. I have used them twice. Once over a charcoal fire (embers) that was quite hot. They did not melt but I did notice an impression of the grate pattern on the back of them. Thanks for the warning. I will use them only on the LP gas grill from now on.

A friend of mine in New Jersey gave me this sauce recipe a few years ago. I thought it tasted like a chili dog I had a few times when I was 8 or 9. There was a street vendor guy down the block from our church a few times one summer. I tried to do a copy of the way he served them with the bun toasted in butter and with the middle cut out, not just a slit down the middle. I think it turned out well. Charlie said it was the best chili dog he'd ever had. Jimmy called it a Greek style sauce. Another friend from New Jersey said in her part of the state, it was sold bottled as Texas Weiner Sauce but that it was mostly sold in Greek Delis. PS Jimmy says it is also good on top of hamburgers.

The rest of the rib roast from Costco was cut up for bulgogi and grilled today. I used flexible grill sheets to keep from losing anything between the grates and to keep it cleaner. The side made with bean sprouts recipe is on my blog side listed below. The radish kim chi, cabbage kim chi and kim bob were picked up at an Asian store today.

A rib roast is often called a standing or prime rib roast. Sometimes the rib bones are removed for easier carving. When cut into individual serving serving sizes, it is called a ribeye steak. A rack of those ribs alone are called prime ribs. The stuffed potato starts by splitting a whole baked potato and scooping out the insides, leaving enough on the sides for support. This a list of ingredients for 8 potatoes: 8 baking potatoes 3 tablespoons of olive oil 2 sticks of unsalted butter 1 cup of sour cream 1 cup of cheddar or Jack cheese 1 cup of whole milk 2 teaspoons of seasoned salt 3 green onions (chopped) Salt and pepper (to taste0 Mix together all ingredients with the potatoes except the green onions and cheese. Scoop the mixture back into the potato shells, top with the cheese and bake until reheated through and cheese is melted. Serve topped with green onion. That is the basic recipe, You can improvise. This time I used cream cheese instead of sour cream, omitted the milk and used mozzarella instead of cheddar and mixed the white part of the onions in with the rest of the ingredients and garnished the top with chives.

I got some tomatoes at the Farmer's Market this morning and a boneless rib roast at Costco this afternoon. I figured I could cut 6 steaks from the roast but Charlie said he'd like to use some of it for bulgogi. After I cut one steak, we both agreed that one steak between us would be plenty. I made a stuffed potato in the microwave. PS we split a peach from the Farmer's Market a little later.

I did not use pureed pear and apple and instead used a can of Pear nectar. They also said to to wipe off the marinade (it was thick) . I might have left too much on and used a charcoal grill instead of the bottled gas one so it was a lot hotter. Those all were probably factors.

I used a Korean marinade before grilling them. They cooked much faster than the recipe said they would. I almost burned them. They got charred a little but they were still good.

I made pork loin ribs with cherry BBQ sauce, rice and potato salad today.

Crab legs were on sale for the first time in a couple of years.

@Shelby got my attention when she asked @KennethT about a bowl he has. When he told her where he got them I ordered one too but I broke it and they were out of stock by then but they had the same style in a smaller size so I got 4 of them. I think I like the smaller ones better. The other two are in the refrigerator with leftovers.

@rotuts Most sellers ask $21-25. for them and the one I got cost about $15. They are all made by the same company, I think. They all look alike. @heidih That is a good idea in theory.

This should arrive soon. Charlie loves empanadas and I don't love making them. This might make it less of a chore. Dumpling Skin Maker Molds ,Household Double Head Automatic Dumpling Maker Ravioli Press Mold Making Tool,Make Dumplings Empanadas Quickly (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

Charlie is about to have his birthday party. There will be pork shoulder, brisket, four bean salad from Costco, pasta salad that Charlie made, a Summer Fruit salad, coleslawpotato salad. I think that's everything.

Charlie asked for a BBQ party for his birthday. The party will be tomorrow. I have been making dishes for it for the last couple days. I will post pictures tomorrow but today I did a brisket. The target temperature to pull it was 202. It got to 199 and stalled there for two hours. Then it took only twenty minutes more to finish. I have heard of it taking longer but I hope this will be the longest I will ever have.

@liuzhouI'm not Asian, I can't determine what makes it Asian or not Asian. It was in the name of the title of the recipe. Perhaps it is because it has a few Asian ingredients in it, like 5 spice powder, hoisin and soy sauces and ginger. In competition BBQ judging, rules say that there should be some "tug" in the bite. Meat that falls off the bone is considered over cooked. That is a competition rule. Competition participants seldom cook for friends and family the same way for them as they cook for judges. Competition BBQ is judged by a single bite (and there are points given for things other than taste. They can even be disqualified for things that have nothing to do with taste such as a garnish that isn't green. it is done in an attempt to make the playing ground as even as possible but that really isn't possible. It is one reason I have no interest in ever competing against anyone else in a contest.

I get recipes sent by Thermoworks fairly often. The ones I try are alway good. This one for Asian Sticky Ribs was very different from the way I normally do ribs even it included smoking them for part of the cooking and then braising in the oven. They were totally falling off the bone. Normally that would not be a good thing but these were good. We had a couple of people eating with us and every one liked them.

The only thing of note I made today is a cake. I don't make cake often enough to know that something that sounds off really is off and I didn't know that one can of cherries will not come close to being 2 1/2 cups, and that the frosting would need to be whipped. I figured it out eventually though.

Thanks. I live a mile from a large grocery store so picking up stuff at next no notice is barely a problem.

Charlie gave me a scare. He asked for a salad for lunch. I knew he was OK later when he asked for meatballs and spaghetti for supper. It was too hot to turn on the oven so I used the grill instead.