Norm Matthews

Thank you. I won't be going. I hate crowds and am pretty quiet and withdrawn around people. She provided aluminum catering tubs and Charlie will take them there. She will be the one supervising the other stuff. I am not too worried. Who ever takes then complains about beans anyway?

I have agreed to a bigger job than I thought it would be. The president of Charlie's low riders car club said his wife asked him to ask me if I would make some sides for a party she was having. Turns out it is her birthday and it is also tomorrow, and it is going to be during a huge gathering and car show of all the low rider car clubs in the Kansas City area as well as other people coming in from as far as Mexico. She brought the food over a couple of days ago. Not in the picture are some bacon, onions and molasses. I had no idea it was going to be for that many people. The food is just for their members and family though. There are going to be food trucks and vendors for the rest of the crowd. I am a little nervous but feel I can handle it, I just hope people like the sides as well as she did when she had them here before. She asked for green beans and BBQ beans. They have to be ready by around 9:30 AM tomorrow.

I have been thinking about the laver vs lettuce and I seem to recall that Charlie's mom & family nearly always had the seaweed as a wrap with bulgogi but at restaurants, it's always been lettuce.

I think seaweed and lettuce can be used interchangeably.

Charlie made kimchi stew yesterday which is what he does when Kimchi starts to get too soft. He said we were going to need some more red pepper paste, so I went to the Korean market and got some and some fresh kimchi and a few other things for dinner. We had spicy pork bulgogi and some radish kimchi. I didn't know we were out of laver or I would have had some with dinner. I cooked it in the wok which is the easy way. It tastes better on the grill but it is wet and cold so I wimped out.

We had Buffalo Wing. I planned to have potatoes but used them yesterday so we had rice. Charlie wanted Kimchi.

I wasn't planning to cook today but when I got home from the store, Charlie told me that Carlos had given us some pork steaks so I grilled them and made new potatoes by boiling them tender, splitting them with a fork and frying them until crisp on the outsides. I forgot to take a picture until after dinner. These are leftovers. We also had a salad and some banana nut bread. Carlos is one of Charlies car club members who has started renting a room from us. There is a Mexican market nearby that sells meat ready to cook. It's already cut up and marinated. I grilled it outside. The meat is thin and cooked quickly.

Our Easter dinner was ham baked with a glaze made with 1 part Boar's Head Brown Sugar and Spice Ham glaze and 3 parts Apricot preserves. After a taste, I added a little more ham glaze. The green beans were @Shelby recipe except I didn't have any almonds or Feta so I left out nuts and used Swiss cheese. The deviled eggs were made with mayo, Dijon mustard, sweet pickle relish and some powdered Ranch dressing mix. Everything else was leftover from yesterday. PS looks like I need to clean the lens on my phone camera.

I finished Tuesdays brisket today. Charlie invited people over. I also made potato salad, coleslaw, bread and (not pictured) BBQ beans.

One of Charlie's friends and his wife has been over for dinner at least once and another time or two with a larger group. She is going to have a dinner with a group she is in and asked me if I could make a couple sides she had here and liked. One of them is BBQ baked beans. She is getting all the ingredient for me. Except a couple of them aren't available at the store. One is the rib rub I use and the other is drippings and shredded brisket that I add to the beans. Sooo I made a brisket today to have some for the beans. Well I started it today and will finish it on Saturday when Charlie told me that he wanted to ask friends over to help eat all that meat. I wrapped the brisket two layers of foil and will finish it in the oven on Sat. So that we would have something to eat tonight, I had some saved corned beef from St. Pat's day in the freezer, thawed it, and put it in the smoker at the same time. I thought the piece I had tasted too salty but Charlie is more sensitive to salt than I am and said his was good. The rest of dinner were left overs too.

I went to Costco for the first time this year and saw that crab legs were a few dollars less than anywhere else so that became dinner.

I have doing this recipe for Cornish Hens since the 1990's but I don't marinate it anymore. I just add the sauce after it's cooked.

Thank you Shelby. Charlie had a couple of friends over when I served it and they both said it was good too. The one I like better has béchamel sauce in it.

Lasagna tonight. Charlie said it was really good but I wasn't too impressed.

The oven in the stove when we moved in was not working. I replaced it with an electric flat top stove. Within three years the front burners were not working. One would be turned on high and as soon as the pan got hot, I'd turn it down but when I came back in a couple of minutes, it was still on high. It wouldn't work on any setting except high. The other one would never get hot enough to boil water. When I was looking for another one, I mentioned that it was too bad it costs more to run a gas line to the kitchen than would the stove. He told me that gas lines could be installed for gas stoves and fire places at a fraction of the cost they once did. That was the best news. I had the gas stove put in about a month later. It has been working just fine for nearly 7 years now..

Thanks. That is a vintage phone that has a real bell. Sounds loud enough to startle the cat. It had to be modified to be able to ring with lower voltage electronic ringers used now. It still works but isn't connected anymore. It is there to cover up the wall plug but it will always stay.

In a couple of weeks I will have been in this house for 10 years. I thought it would be fun to see how the kitchen has changed over that time. There are a lot of pictures. Maybe I should do one part of the kitchen at a time. So the first picture will be of a part of the room as it looked just before or just after I moved in.The next one will be after a year or two, then some time later and the last on taken today.

@liuzhou Is very correct. Rijoa Reserva are generally chosen from the best vintages and grapes rich enough to support being aged in oak for at least a couple of years. What happens to them after they are bottled is unknown, but after bottled, generally, are expected to be drank after 3 to 5 years. Some factors that might make it too far gone after 20 years are being stored upright, in a room with fluctuating temperatures, exposed to sunlight for a period of time . PS Very few wines continue improve with that much age even in the best of conditions.

The recipe called for hazel nuts but there weren't any at the store so I settled for pecans instead.

I copied @Kim Shook recipe. I'll try it soon. I don't make pancakes or waffles very often and usually use (Formerly know as Aunt Jemima) brand. I usually have to throw it away because I use it so little, it passes its expiration date. Since it uses only added water, I can make small amounts but I know scratch made are considered better and this looks like a good one. PS: FWIW Bread flour has higher gluten content, Ideal for yeast breads. Lower gluten flours, like Southern type flours are better suited for use with baking soda/ powder as leavening. AP flour is a compromise between the other two kinds of flour. It works OK for either kind of baking but not as well suited for either kind.

It was a nice warm day when I decided to fire up the smoker and do some ribs but then it turned rainy and cold and stayed that way for the next few days. The forecast for today was only moderately cold and minimal rain so I went ahead with the plans. I thought I'd do pasta with mushrooms and nuts instead of potatoes but whimped out and did potatoes too. The cole slaw was the KFC copycat one that Charlie likes. The pasta sauce was made with creme fraiche

We had Buffalo Wing for dinner tonight.

I simmered my brisket for 3 1/2 hours the day before and refrigerated it in the water it cooked with. That way, when cold, it slices quite nicely and then is returned to the broth and reheated.

Often in the past, I have made Irish butter: it is butter, softened, then some Irish whiskey and sugar are whipped in.

Thanks. The white sauce is 1 cup sour cream, 2Tablespoons scallions, 6 Tablespoons horseradish and 1 Tablespoon chopped dill pickle.