Norm Matthews

We had sandwiches today. I smoked a small pork shoulder and made some copycat KFC slaw. The balls are honeydew melon

Charlie has a car meet today so dinner was quick, easy and early. It was grilled steak.

It was a real downpour this morning but it stopped by noon and I did pork ribs in the smoker. Charlie told me he invited a couple of guys who were visiting to have dinner with us and this is what was left by the time I got back to the kitchen.

It was chicken wings night. They were cooked in the oven, but instead of tossing them in Buffalo sauce, I served it on the side with three other wing sauces. One was a spicy Apicot glaze, one was Ranch dressing with some chopped pickled jalapenos stirred in and one was a bottled teriyaki wing glaze. I got some BBQ sauce to try because it had the same name and Charlies old cat. We also had kimchi and rice.

I agree with @EatingBen re bristle brushes. My main basting brush is a 1 1/2-inch bristle brush from an art store. I once was an art teacher in high school. I have had it so long the ferrel cracked and fell of the handle but never a lost a bristle. A little Gorilla glue and it is back in service.I keep it clean by using dish washing soap alone at first. If there is no water at first, he soap will emulsify any oil in the mixture you used if you scrub it in the palm of your hand and take care to work it all the way down to the base of the bristles. Then wash out the soap with warm water. ( when I was in elementary school some guy came to class. I don't remember anything he said except to not wash brushes in hot water because it will make the hair fall out) I don't think that applies too much any more. Good quality art brushes are made better than that but to this day I don't use hot water on brushes. For a long time I was afraid to use hot water when I shampooed in the shower. I have tried silicone brushes and don't like them. The glob on the baste instead of giving a more controlled baste.

I ordered from ThermoWorks and awaiting Cool Smoke: The Art of Great Barbecue by Tuffy Stone.

I found a meatball recipe that Charlie said was really good. This is the second time I have made it. I used the same jarred tomato sauce because I think it is really good too. Just before I started posting this I checked to see where it is made and it is distributed by a company here in Kansas City and the restaurant is here in Overland Park. PS Charlie just told me he has eaten there. He said it is a really nice place and a lot of the food seems to be very authentic and not what you usually expect to see on an Italian restaurant menu.

I just read an article from Thermoworks https://blog.thermoworks.com/beef/brisket-style-tri-tip/ that does tri-tip in the smoker for 5 hours and it's supposed to be almost as good as brisket.

Dinner tonight was Salisbury Steak and cracked potatoes.

I've heard something like that before. I don't remember the details but the jest of it is American Alfredo isn't the real thing.

When I say Parm, I always wonder if I am being too vague so i thought just this once, I'd explain.

I wanted to try a recipe for Alfredo sauce that looked good. It was made with cream, butter and a lot of parm cheese. (I use the real Italian kind, I just don't know how to spell it) The sauce did not use any thickener so I thought it would thicken with the cheese. It didn't. It did thicken when the pasta absorbed it though. I made some chicken breasts stuffed with crab to top it. I added some onion, celery and mushrooms to the sauce. I was going to try another recipe from a friend who said her mother made corn on the cob by simmering it in a seasoned mixture of milk and honey but Charlie told me he was going out soon so I didn't have time do do that. I just threw them in the boiling water and cooked them with the pasta.

We had dinner a little early because Charlie has a car show now. I did pork ribs in the smoker. With it there was black bean and corn dip, beer cheese dip, corn chips. corn bread and corn on the cob. There was also some fresh cut pineapple, potato/egg salad, and BBQ beans. We will have some store bought brownies later.

I don't know the answer but Aaron Franklin once smoked three briskets at the same time in a wood burning smoker. Two were wrapped after a couple hours and one was never wrapped so it got smoke for the full time (at least 8 hours almost certainly more) and when they tasted the three, the unwrapped one did not taste overly smoky so there seems that there is a point where smoke stops penetrating. The point of wrapping is to speed up the finish point and apparently wrapping does not decrease the desired amount of smoke.

I can't think of a thing where the quality and price ratio are not inequitable.

I will stay out of the smoker, BBQ, grill debate. I wouldn't change any minds, nor will anyone change mine and that's OK with me. We had "Italian Breaded Pork Chops" with green beans. I was thinking fetucinni and Alfredo sauce but I asked Charlie if he'd rather have smashed potatoes. He opted for rice and Southern milk gravy... the kind with lots of black pepper.

I hope it is OK to post this here since it started here. I went in the kitchen around 6:15 this morning and by 7:30 all the pots and pans were either cleaned and put up or in the dishwasher, and Charlie loaded the food in his car and left. I ended up going anyway. It was not too far and I got there at about 11:00 while they were still setting up and there weren't a lot of people there yet. Even the kids had customized bikes. There is a middle school shop teacher that helps them.

Almost done. All I need to do is mix everything together in the morning and keep warm in the oven.

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.