Norm Matthews

I've bought several things from ThermoWorks so I am on their email list and sometimes they send me links to recipes. Filipino Chicken Adobo came last week and I tried it today. It wasn't braised but grilled and we both liked it. Charlie said he'd like for me to make it again sometime. I forgot to take a picture until we were almost done. We had it with just rice and kimchi. I made a half recipe.

I have never seen whole briskets at the grocery store before but they had a whole end aisle of them the other day and they were not expensive so I got one and smoked it yesterday. I also had just got a roll of butcher paper and used that too, but when the brisket was almost done I was testing if it was ready with a probe and punctured the back and the juice started running out so I added foil for the last half hour or so. I made BBQ beans and corn and had store bought slaw and potato salad.

About a week ago, I got an email from ThermoWorks with a YouTube link to "Texas Style BBQ Ribs with Rusty Monson". I had some ribs that I had trimmed in the freezer so when they thawed, I tried it today. There are a lot of things in this recipe that are similar to Franklin's Brisket technique so I doubted it would turn out as well on pork ribs, but it worked out very well. I thought cooking it to 202º would be too long for ribs but it wasn't. I had cooked ribs by time but I probably will go with temperature from now on. The flavor was a lot more robust than how I have always made them. He wrapped it in butcher paper and two ply of foil. I didn't have butcher paper and used parchment which was not wide enough to hold itself down so the foil made it possible to hold it tight around the ribs. I took the paper off before I took this picture. Sides were garlic bread, slaw and potato salad.

LOL> I did not mean to knock it. I just meant to ID what it was. My son is a huge fan of it and I don't hate it. I like it left over, cold, right out of the refrigerator.

As far as texture, I have noticed about a year ago that both Bob Evans and Jimmy Dean are not as firm . I like to cut them thick and press them out into a bigger round and I noticed when I did that that they were both looser or softer in feel before cooking them.

No Wegman's here as well.

I believe I've seen that. I will give it a try.

I don't think I have seen it in stores here. I may have to order some. I trimmed some pork ribs recently and ground the trimming and tried an Irish sausage recipe. It wasn't a breakfast sausage we are used to.

Our strip steaks were nothing special, just done on the grill and served with hash brown for dinner. Charlie also had some shell pasta and cheese, the kind in the blue box

We had pork chops and eggplant with tomato and poblano dressing. It would have looked better if I had read the directions better. They were talking about straining the tomato meat through a strainer to remove the skin and meat. I skinned it and pulled out the seeds with my fingers then pureed them. Later it said to coarse chop the tomatoes. It also had roasted poblano in the dressing. I used small Japanese eggplant instead of the normal kind. The regular kind an identifiable tomatoes would have improved the look, IMO. I used some BBQ seasoning for poultry instead or the parsley in the pork recipe. The berries are what I know as ground cherries but the package called them Cape Gooseberries. Wikipedia said they are know by both names and more.

I was wondering if anyone who regularly has this has noticed a difference it taste? I have cut sausage out of breakfast for the most part. I have cut breakfast out of my daily menu for the most part. I have been losing weight (finally). I sometimes still eat breakfast food but at lunch time. So I have not had sausage as often as I used to and I used to think Bob Evans sausage was very good but when I have it from time to time now, I don't like it nearly as much and so I was wondering whether it's just me, my tastes have changed or if anyone else has wondered if they changed the recipe?

Day before yesterday, my son and the back yard neighbors were texting and they mentioned they were going to BBQ ribs on Monday. Charlie said he found a Korean recipe for ribs that we really liked. They asked him if I could make it and he said yes. They were spare ribs and I trimmed them into St. Louis ribs, then got a second slab of St. Louis ribs to make sure there would be enough and marinated them overnight. I also made creamed corn. The picture was taken inside before I knew they were planning to have it outside. The outside picture is our patio before they swept up all (OK some of) the debris from the Locust tree above us. They brought potato salad, red white and blue tossed salad and a mixed fruit cobbler and vanilla ice cream.

I used a generic version of Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to wipe down my cabinets before painting them.

Good idea. Thanks.

That is a bit more daring than I would have the courage to do. I notice all but one had very modern furnishings and the all kept some very large areas white for contrast. I can't imagine how many coats of new paint would be needed to cover the black if they ever decide to change their minds. a facebook friend in California said her neighbor painted his kitchen it dark blue and had put in a copper farmhouse sink. I agree that matching stainless pulls would a nice accent.

Thank you. The cabinet doors were originally 1980's wood but the previous owners painted them white. I painted them with Behr Marquee Dark Navy in eggshell latex. Color number S530-7

Thank you. My main concern was that the dark color would close in the kitchen and make it seem smaller.. and it is small in the first place. It probably would have been safer to match the gray on the stove but I really liked the dark navy color.

I saw an episode on the Property Brothers where they did kitchen cabinets in dark blue. I showed Charlie some kitchen like that on line. He liked them too. I have been planning new floor and counter tops but this I could do myself. The job isn't finished but it is far enough along to see how it looks. The next one was taken within a month of so after we moved in in 2012 and the last one is how it looked in April.

I recently got a couple cans of pear nectar because it's in another recipe we use, and I used the last apple in another recipe we did recently.

Yesterday when I told Charlie that I was doing a pot roast today, he asked if I could do it Koreas style. I said I would if he could find a recipe with ingredients we already had. He found one. The only substitution was to use some pear nectar instead of apple. (Imagine being out of apples but having pear nectar!) I had mine with potatoes and carrots, he had rice and kimchi He wants me to make it again next time I do a chuck roast in the slow cooker.

That used to happen with me. So the kids set up a blog and told me to post every menu and the recipes right away so that would stop happening.

So far this week I have done two dinners on the grill. One is a strip steak (Kansas City strip if you please) and some baby back ribs from a Korean recipe that is very good, spicy and makes a mess on the grill.

She does have good recipes. I have not been able to make a good cabbage kimchi. Maybe I'll look at hers if I get up the courage to try it again.

Charlie occasonally mentions his mom's fish stew that she makes when he visits. At the same time he asked me about the Korean babyback ribs, he asked me if I could make that stew sometime and I forgot until he asked me if I planned to make it. I told him I forgot and lost the recipe. He gave me this one https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/maeuntang and I made it today. The fish they sell at the Asian market are whole until you buy it and then they scale and gut it if you want. I wanted. I got a couple of striped bass. The head and tail and fins were still on it. getting those fins off were not easy. I even tried garden tools without much luck. I finally used an Asian cleaver and a wood mallet to hammer through. Charlie said it was good and tasted like it was supposed to.

Tried a different bulgogi recipe from the Korea Town cookbook. It was different in several ways but I thought it was really good. Charlie invited our back yard neighbors to join us. He is and EMT and she works for a medical research lab so they both are knowledgeable about safety in this day and age. Plus they are our closest friends in the neighborhood. I also tried a new recipe for peach cobbler and we had that for dessert.