Norm Matthews

The first thing I was told by the maker was to fire up the smoker a couple of times while it was empty to get the smoker tempered with a coating from the fire. It is supposed it be "smoked" inside. I clean the racks every time I use them with SOS in the sink. I usually clean the convection plate by scraping it with a putty knife maybe three times a year and scrape the excess out of the bottom once a year. I never gave a thought about the smoke build up inside. The metal is a quarter inch thick and not supposed to ever burn or rust through, at least not for at least several decades.

Charlies cat is 21 years old and that is one of his medicines. I probably should have moved it but it has sat there long enough to have become almost invisible to me.

Charlie asked if we could ask his cousins family over for dinner tonight when I told him I was going to smoke a pork shoulder. The pork was about 5 lbs. and took 10 hours. I made some corn relish from Stevensons Apple Farm Restaurant cookbook that closed 15 years ago but once was a great place to eat. I made a salad that the lady who gave it to me about 20 years ago said "even men love this salad" and she was right mostly. I also made baked or roasted potatoes that are waffle cut and seasoned with butter, herbs and parm. cheese.

I was preparing some sides for dinner for tomorrow so Charlie went and picked up some Korean food from a restaurant he said was well known for fired chicken and a had just opened one here in Overland Park. He got some wings that he said were fried then grilled. They were spicy-sweet. A little sweet a LOT spicy. I needed to eat some ice cream after. He also got a dish with vegetables, fish cake and rice cake and some white radish kimchi. We already had the rest.

When I was 9 or 10 and we were visiting my aunt and uncle in West Plains, Mo, my uncle saw me spread my toast with butter then some jam. He commented disapprovingly, I think it was something about excess. Even now, I always remembered that, but it never stopped me from doing it.

Charlie suggested hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. We ate outside. I tried a new brand of hot dogs: Wimmer's Las Vegas Brand made in Illinois. They were really fat and kind of long. They tasted like i remember hot dogs tasting when I was young. Charlie like them too.

It was warm enough to grill outside today so I got a couple of thick ribeye steaks and some corn on the cob. I had mine with a salad and a small baked potato. Charlie had Mac & cheese with his.

We had crispy pork chops. They got a little too crispy around the edges. There was a sauce and pickled radishes and apricots included in the recipe.

Charlie made dinner tonight. I told him I was going to the Korean grocery because we needed rice and fresh kimchi. He told me not to throw out the old kimchi because he wanted to make stew with it. His best friend from high school had made some when he visited last and gave him the recipe. He gave me a shopping list that included Dasida ( seasoning blend) tofu and lite Spam. It was very spicy. I also picked up some frozen, ready to cook spicy pork bulgogi.

Our dinner was beef sirloin in an oyster sauce based marinade. It was good but I don't think I'll make it again.

Yes it is a cherry preserve. There was a story in the KC Star about how the owners of Bonne Maman helped Jews during WWII.

I picked out three chicken wing recipes that I thought looked good. Charlie narrowed it down to two. We had one about a week ago. It was a Korean style. Today it was one with a cherry glaze. We had mac and cheese with it

Valentines...valentines. That seems to ring a bell. I'll have to look it up if I can't recall what it is pretty soon. We had galbi for dinner. I double checked the sugar cannister to make sure it wasn't filled with salt this time.

Today is the second day in a row that I made these. We couldn't eat them yesterday because somehow I filled the sugar canister with salt. Charlie ordered sushi for delivery. Fortunately I had an extra package of chicken wings to properly make this Korean style chicken wings.

They were good and they just needed thawing with the steam in the pot. I will wait until they are on sale because they are expensive. During Christmas through New Years and a little beyond, they were $10/lb. Now they are nearly twice that.

@liuzhou One way I enjoy brisket is braised in beer and I always put some in Chili. I will have to remember to try it with mussels. We had crab boil tonight. I am pretty sure this will be the last time I get crab legs when they are not on sale.

Charlie had a pretty simple request for dinner tonight: steak, asparagus and mac n cheese. The mac and cheese box said to use 3T. of butter and 2T. of milk. That is less than usual. The only difference was the one we had today was gluten free so it didn't use wheat flour in the pasta, and the serving was ten calories less. We could not tell any difference.

For dinner tonight, I made Anne Burrell's recipes for Marinara sauce and Meatballs.

@Kim Shook Thank you for that, Kim.

I guess me getting the humor dates me too.

I don't know. Maybe just once more.

A while back, while shopping at the Asian market, I picked up what I thought were Cornish hens. They were frozen and the label was hard to read. I made out "New York Dressed" which I took to mean some kind of seasoning. I cooked them today. When I took them out of the wrapping, they still had heads and feet. They had their insides too!. The breast meat was dark. They were SQUAB, not Cornish hens. I made corn, parsnips and rice to go with them. I made an orange sauce for them. It's the first time I've had squab.

Once she (Martha) had a cookie contest and the grand winner was for chocolate cookies. Two of the ingredients were Dutch Cocoa powder and baking soda. Turned out the recipe does not work with those two ingredients. You need to use either baking powder or cocoa powder like Hershey. Dutch cocoa powder does not have the acid needed to work with baking soda. The first time I used Hershey cocoa and they came out fine. Next time I uses Dutch cocoa and they were totally flat. They even spread. It took me six months to figure out what was wrong.

I use a fries recipe very similar except it makes thin fries and the boil time is shorter. Cut potatoes into 1/4-inch strips, soak in water a couple minutes, transfer to pot with water to cover.. about 4 cups. Add 2 Tbsp salt and 2 Tbsp. white vinegar and turn heat on high. When boiling, time for five minutes, then transfer to cold water to stop cooking. Spread on dish towel and dry. Fry @ 375 for just one minute. Drain and freeze. When ready to cook fry from frozen@ 375 for three minutes, transfer to paper towels, salt and serve.

This recipe looked good and it was but I didn't notice that it was a Martha Stewart recipe until I got back from shopping. I have noticed sometimes on her recipes, the list of ingredients don't always jibe with the directions. This one said bone-in pork chops when they must have meant boneless because the directions said to pound them thin and then after cooked and before serving, to slice them up. I did neither and they came out OK. Charlie said it was good.