Norm Matthews

Charlie asked if I would cook something for dinner today. I asked if there was anything in particular he'd like. He thought for a while and asked for Korean Fried Chicken wings. That is something he'd have to ask for 'cuz I wouldn't volunteer it. But then he looked up the recipe he had in mind and it was easier than the one I've made before. It is a big job to clean up after, but it's really good.

It was pretty cold yesterday but today it was very pleasant to be outside. Last night Charle brought home some pre seasoned chicken for me to cook. I went to the store and got some plain chicken pieces to cook with them. I was afraid the store ones wouldn't be very good. Charlie took one bite and discovered that was the case with these. He liked the other ones. I brined them for about 20 minutes with two cups of apple juice, a couple tablespoons of honey and 1/4 C. Canning and pickling salt. I rinsed and dried them, sprinkled them with Cajun seasoning and smoked them all @250º until they read 165º... about 3 1/2 hours, spritzing them with more apple juice every 30 minutes or so. I roasted the potatoes using a Greek style recipe, the slaw was a KFC copycat.

This was a fairly quick meal on a chilly day. The recipe name is Hungarian Mushroom Soup. I added some cubed ham on the side in case someone wanted meat to add.

This slab of baby back ribs was less than half the price they were last summer. I had to get it. It was nice enough to smoke it outside. When my son lived in Seattle he created a cherry BBQ sauce for ribs. When I saw a recipe for baby back ribs with cherry glaze in a BBQ book I recently got, I wanted to try it to see how close it was to his. Except for having a little more heat, they are pretty similar.

I didn't boil the eggs. I steamed them separately and added them in later. My son always asks for them if I forget.

Here is what I used but more water and beer instead of wine. New England Style Crab Boil Prep Time25 minutesCook Time40 minutesTotal Time1 h 5 mServes8 People IngredientsRecipe makes 8 Servings 1 cup(s) water 2 cup(s) white wine 2 bulbs of garlic, cut in half, horizontally 1 large white onion, cut into quarters 2 lemons, cut in half 2 Tbsp old bay seasoning 2 springs of fresh thyme 4 fresh corn, cut in half 2 Lb baby red potatoes, cut in half 4 smoked sausage, cut into small chunks 4 Oz unsalted butter 4 crab clusters 1 Lb shrimp, peeled and deveined 1/4 cup(s) fresh parsley, chopped Instructions 1In a large stock pot, bring water, wine, garlic, onions, lemons, old bay seasoning and thyme to a boil. 2 Lower heat to medium and add corn, baby red potatoes smoked sausage and butter. Cook 15 to 20 minutes. 3 Add crab and shrimp and cook an additional 5 to 8 minutes or until shrimp are pink and fully cooked. Toss everything gently to cover in cooking liquid. 4 Season with a little more old bay as needed and serve on a large platter. 5 Garnish with fresh chopped parsley.

Crab legs were on sale again at Hen House for almost half price.

I get good comments when I add about a teaspoon of dry powdered Ranch dressing to the egg yolks and skimp a little on the mayo. Sometimes I also like to add a little sweet pickle relish.

When we were having dinner last night, Charlie asked if I could use this recipe and make it with garlic and cheese. I thought about it and figured he was describing Focaccia. I am sure I have had it before, probably even made it once or twice but I don't have a good memory of what it is supposed to be exactly. I think I used too much cheese. I hope he likes it.

It's pot roast season now. I hope prices start coming down soon though. The bread is the same recipe I usually make but without the sour dough for flavor... just regular French bread with just flour, yeast, salt and sugar with enough flour to make a soft dough. I cooked a potato with the meat in the crock pot, mashed them with cream, butter and salt and added them to some instant potatoes. PS the weird lines in the gravy and around the plate is a reflection of a new light fixture that Charlie installed.

I made Salisbury steak with some vegetables from the farmers market. i forgot to serve the sliced tomatoes .

Did two kinds of chicken wings tonight. One was Alton Brown's and the other one was cooked with sugar, oil, soy sauce, salt, pepper, paprika and beer. it didn't look anything like the demonstration nor had much flavor other than chicken. I won't be keeping it.

Charlie asked for one last cookout for the year with his friends. He wanted some Korean food. I made pork and beef bulgogi. I was going to make a type of kalbi with the ribs but ran out of ingredients so I made Kansas style ribs in the smoker. Sides were coleslaw, potato salad, baked beans and store bought four bean salad.

As per requested, the dumpling maker has been used. It came a while ago but I first used it today. The biggest problem I had was with the home made dough. I'd love to find some premade ones that I didn't have to order. I rolled out the dough and let it rest while I made the filling but they shrank and had to be rolled out again to fit and then I had to trim the excess. Other than that and the learning curve of how much filling to use, it works just fine.

Thanks. Here in Kansas City the one place I have found sprouts lately is at Asian markets but when I don't want to drive that far, I use canned ones. They don't need cooking first.

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.