Norm Matthews

Charlie was reminiscing about Teriyaki restaurants in Seattle, how they were all the same and even all had the same salad dressing. He said he always ate the salad because of the dressing. We did some on-line looking and found it a while back. You mix it up in a blender. It might separate if you just throw it all together and beat it with a whisk. China Coast salad dressing 1 cup mayonnaise 10 tbsp rice vinegar 4 tbsp white granulated sugar 4 tbsp sesame oil 2 tbsp soy sauce 1/2 tsp garlic powder

I grilled some chicken thighs with the teriyaki sauce Charlie got from a restaurant that he says makes chicken teriyaki like all the teriyaki restaurants in Seattle. We also had rice and a salad with China Coast dressing that all the teriyaki restaurants in Seattle used. He said he always ate the salad because the dressing was so good.

When I make Charlies mushroom soup chicken, I substitute Cream of Chicken soup, add dry onion soup mix and sour cream and garnish with lemon zest. I added some paprika this time but it didn't look as good after it was baked.

I can relate. Years ago there was such a restaurant here that I LOVED. I still miss it.

A while back Charlie was telling me about when he lived in Seattle and 1. How the many Chicken Teriyaki restaurants were all alike and how good they were (and about the China Coast salad dressing) 2. The chicken thighs he made at home that was just to dump some undiluted Mushroom soup over the chicken pieces and bake them. I was planning to make a more ingredient version of the dump recipe today but overnight he brought home a bottle of teriyaki sauce form a restaurant here in Kansas City that he said tastes like the West Coast version. So I got a little more thighs and tried both. I wasn't very hungry and just had a taste of both. I liked the teriyaki that was grilled outside.i

Dinner tonight was grilled steak, roasted potatoes and strawberries with angel food cake.

I wanted to vary our St. Patrick's day boiled dinner from our usual. I made cabbage fritters instead of boiled, Irish baked potatoes instead of boiled and @Shelby the recipe looks pretty much the same as the British baked potatoes you made and were discussing with mommpomps and CookBot last October. But this recipe said 'Irish' so I felt that gave me permission to make them today. Everyone liked them. I made Irish soda scones instead of soda bread, Irish whisky butter and Irish Pots de Créme. To drink, I had an Irish red ale. I did boil the rutabagas, carrots and corned beef. I got a good price on a whole brisket in Feb. and pickled it for 4 or 5 weeks instead of the usual 1 1/2 to 2. It was a little more salty than before. I won't do that again. The Pots de Créme were in small tea cups but it was so rich, that even that was too much for one serving.

We had breaded pork chops, steamed asparagus, and mashed potatoes and gravy.

I got a stewing hen to make some broth for chicken & dumplings. After the broth was made, I used the white meat to make chicken salad. I used the stewing chicken thighs along with regular chicken thighs with the dumplings. It was all good but I don't know how it happened that the inside of the dumplings were dark, like they were made with rye flour or something.

Bahn Mi sandwiches

I actually used a ten inch cake pan and it rose up at least an inch over the top. I can't imagine how much taller it would have been in a nine inch pan.

Yesterday I made a Chocolate Brownie cake and two loaves of sourdough bread for sandwiches. I didn't take a picture of the bread but it looks just like what I usually make.

Tonights meal was pork chops from a Tyler Florence recipe which coats them in seasoned flour then uses the same flour to thicken a gravy with chicken stock and buttermilk. The potatoes came after I googled recipes like I learned about from people here discussing this general method. The corn came from the freezer and the bread was from yesterday.

I saw a recipe on Facebook that said "Traditional Irish Beef Stew" I googled that to see if that was really a thing. The impression I got that Traditional Irish Stew is made with mutton but if it isn't, they tell you what kind of meat is used instead... Sorta like Brandy is always made with grape wine- unless it isn't -and then you have to put the fruit it was made with in front of the word brandy... peach brandy, cherry brandy, etc. I saw a recipe that looked good and decided to make it. I got the stuff I needed at the store yesterday but only had time to get it ready to go in the slow cooker this morning. The recipe said to only use one cup of beef broth but that didn't come close to covering all the other stuff so I added more. It may have come out more like soup that stew. While I was doing that , Charlie went to a near-by Mexican grocery store that has a place where you can get ready made food and marinated meat you can take home to cook. It is always mentioned as a place that has good traditional tacos. He got some refried beans, fried rice, some sauces, tortillas, some tacos and somechicken legs that I grilled. We had that yesterday and the stew today. I made some bread to go with it. sorry for the double post. I thought this one didn't post.

Charlie invited his car club over to watch the Super Bowl. Thank goodness not everyone showed up. I made some sourdough bread and made Italian grinders with them, two chip dips, a shrimp mold that I had almost forgotten about. It was popular when I was teaching, Scotch eggs and a sauce for them and jalapeño poppers. Strawberry Hill bakery was having a half price sale so I got some povitica bread as well. Some of the other people who came brought food and drink too. I forgot to take pictures until people were eating.

While wondering what to have for dinner, Charlie told me he was making kimchi stew (Kimchi-Jjigae) I don't know what all he put in it except some of the beef bone soup stock I made a few days ago, Napa kimchi, tofu and Spam. I looked up a recipe and it uses pork belly instead of Spam, sesame oil, red pepper flakes and paste, green onions & Kimchi brine as some of the additional ingredients.

The prepackaged Bulgogi soup was good but it was not the way Charlie's mom makes it. From the description it is a soup base called ox bone soup and several soups start with it. It makes no sense to a Westerner like me to go to such an extent to make a cloudy milky white soup with almost nothing but beef bones and water. I made it once 8 or 9 years ago when Charlies mom came for his wedding. She liked what I made. This batch took three days to make because you should use the same bones to make three batches and combine them all in the end. Most of it is in the freezer now but I heated up a small amount with some noodles, green onions and bulgogi. Earlier I put a chuck roast in the slow cooker and we had both for dinner. I forgot to take pictures until we were already eating.

I hadn't heard of HMart before. I'll have to check it out. It would have to be an on-line purchase though. There are two Asian markets where I usually shop. This one, where I shopped yesterday is Oriental Supermarket. It is more Korean-specific than the other one which is 888 International Market. Both are about a 15 minute drive.

It is handy and they have other kinds too.

Charlie reminisced about his mom making bulgogi stew when he visited her. He said she made it once a week with leftover bulgogi and asked if I could make some. I had never had it or even recall hearing about it but I looked up a recipe and went to the Korean store. I wasn't looking forward to making bulgogi then turning it into a stew. I went to get some ready made bulgogi but actually found packets of Bulgogi stew. All I needed to do was tear open the package and heat it up. It's really good but Charlie said it was much more intensely flavored than his mom's. Her broth is almost like Korean Bone Soup he said. He thinks he will water it down when he heats up left overs.

Charlie suggested fajitas for dinner yesterday but there wasn't enough time to make them then so we had them today.

There were no potatoes, only cabbage, onions, eggs, flour and seasonings.

I have never had an interest in making Shepards pie until now. It was curiosity that finally got me to try it. I used beef instead of lamb. Lamb is not easy to find here. The cabbage fritters were good though it may not sound like it.. Charlie made a face when I told him they were like potato pancakes but with cabbage, but he liked them when he tasted them. Both were a hit.

The cubes are diakon radish kimchi. The light green is made with mature Napa cabbage and the dark green is baby Napa kimchi. As far as I know, baby Napa kimchi is something new. Neither of us had only ever heard of it a couple months ago( and didn't know just what it was) and only first tried it today.

No it's not deja vu. Yesterday we had beef bulgogi which has a little sugar in it. Today we had spicy pork bulgogi. It tastes different. I didn't do much cooking for it though. I went to the Korean grocery and got the spicy pork out of the freezer, picked up some cabbage bulgogi, some baby Napa bulgogi and some kimbap. About all I did was thaw it, cook it and make some rice. We had never had baby Napa bulgogi before. I didn't know if it was the same thing so I got some to try. Regular cabbage is made with Napa cabbage but this was greener and tasted different. I haven't decided if I like it better or not.