Norm Matthews

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.

While at the Asian market the other day, I noticed packages of bulgogi and kalbi in the freezer section. It was all ready to thaw and cook. We both were happy to find that they were both good. They will be good to keep some in the freezer for a quick meal. One package would not have been enough for the two of us though. Notice the cooking direction on the package.

Charlie showed me a recipe in the Koreatown cookbook and asked if I would make it. He said he had it once at a restaurant and it was really good. I made it and he said it was perfect so it goes on the keeper list. It is Daeji Kalbi. It has a quite a spicy marinade for baby back ribs that have been cut apart before marinating. It makes quite a mess on the grill though. I added a few slices of beef short ribs to see how that worked and it didn't. They were quite tough. I made a spicy baby eggplant to go with it and some creamed corn. A friend told me about making a potato water sourdough starter and I tried it. It was ready to use today but I didn't take as much time as I could have with it. Still it turned out OK.

I got a pretty good hunk of fresh salmon at the Asian Market today because I saw a recipe for Thai Salmon that looked good. The sauce is coconut milk with chili paste, garlic, ginger, lemon grass brown sugar, and lemon. We liked it. We had it with radish kimchi and rice.

Our dinner tonight was pork chops, spinach and cornbread.

We had tacos tonight.

I cooked the Cornish Hens that didn't get thawed in time for dinner yesterday.

I get in breakfast ruts. For a long time I only ate a poached eggs on toast with sausage. Then for a long time I only had Julia omelets with sausage and toast. Then it was scrambled eggs. Now I am trying to lose weight and skipping breakfast most of the time. But sometimes now I have some Cheerios and berries.

I was going to have game hens and cake for dinner but the hens didn't get thawed in time so we ordered take out from a Mexican restaurant. A while back Charlie was watching a show where people who had never been to the USA were given typical food from here. It was about people from Ireland tasting Southern food. He brought me the recipe for Hummingbird Cake and said it looked really good. I don't generally have the patience to stack and ice cakes, and I didn't do a photogenic job on this one but took pictures anyway. The recipe asked for three cake pans the same size. I had two the same size and one smaller so it came out sort of domed shaped. We both thought it was good but I won't make it again unless I get a request for it.

Charlie suggested dinner again. This time he asked for ribs in the smoker. I left the ribs in about an hour longer than I planned to and they were falling off the bone when I cut them. A while back, @Ann_T mentioned using rye flour for sourdough starter so I tried it. I put a cup of rye and cup of water in a stoneware jar and let it set about 4 days before it started to bubble. When it did I fed it again and the next day it was a very active starter; so I made my usual sourdough french bread with it and it turned out very well. The potato salad and coleslaw came from a deli. The butter is Irish Whiskey butter that I forgot to put on the table for St. Patrick's.