Norm Matthews

Charlie liked the chicken shawarma so much from a few days ago that he asked for it again.

We had Chicken Shawarma grilled on skewers over charcoal. We had it with rice and a sauce made with Greek yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice and garlic.

We had loin back ribs from the smoker. Charlie said i should try my sauce with some liquid smoke in it. Instead I put some sauce in the smoker with the beans for a couple of hours for the smoke taste. I think it tastes better than liquid smoke. I also added a little smoked paprika.

I am not a big fan of deep fried shrimp but several months ago I impulse bought a bag of Zatarain's shrimp fry and I had a package of shrimp in the freezer and decided to use them both now. My moms family live in the Ozarks and I have been to a lot of fish fries with catfish and hush puppies but I had never heard of fried shrimp until I was teaching in another town. Arthur Treacher's opened a fish and chips store across the street and they had them. My first thought was well yeah why not. After I tasted them I just thought: Why? When I was young, we had only a New Orleans style boiled shrimp in a neighborhood tavern. They had them on Fridays. Charlie asked what I was going to make to with them and I said I hadn't decided yet so he looked in the pantry and came up with corn and macaroni.

We had Swedish meatballs for dinner last night along with asparagus. Charlie said the asparagus tasted a lot better than usual. I told him that I added some oyster sauce to the usual melted butter ( 4 tsp. butter & 3 tsp. sauce)

Yes it does. I was not sad to hear that news.

This recipe caught my eye as being a step up from the Martini Chicken I have been making for, maybe, 15 years. It has the Parm cheese in the breading like the other one does but also uses lemon zest and juice in the egg dip part of the breading and lemon zest in the bread crumbs. There is a lemon and oil sauce tor topping. When Charlie said it was good, I said I was thinking about replacing the old recipe for this one, he said to keep the old one in the recipe book, he likes it better. That suits me, I guess. This one took a lot more time. I made an Alfredo sauce for the pasta.

i guess we all have biases about certain foods, especially if it is our home food. I have ordered Kansas City Bar Be Cue in places nowhere near KC and get meat that has not been grilled or smoked, just pan fried and completely hidden under a ton of sauce. I once ordered Korean pork at a chain restaurant and it came with brown sugar and pineapple in it.

Charlie and I were talking about what to call these since they aren't Philly but they are cheese, peppers, & beef. I think from what I have seen in stores, a steak can be any cut of meat or fish that is meant to be an individual serving while a roast can sometimes be the same meat but cut but to serve more than one. So I think it's still OK to call it a cheese steak but not a Philly. Texans have a different idea of chili than what I make but it's still chili, I just don't call it Texas chili. How about I call it a KCBBQ cheese steak? We have often made these sandwiches with Steak-Ums before. We both think think thin sliced smoked brisket is a step up. We also like to add jalapeño.

I used about half the left-over smoked brisket from Sunday's BBQ, to make Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches. Charlie likes provolone and I like Cheese Whiz so I put in provolone in all of it, pushed some of it aside and added Cheese Whiz to my side and more provolone to his side. I'll make sure not to use a stainless steel skillet the next time I cook something with cheese in it. Clean-up was a chore.

Charlie wanted one last cook-out of the year with friends. I smoked two slabs of ribs and a brisket. The first picture is of the brisket after 6 hours @ 250. It took a total of 10 hours to finish. It was very tender and juicy. I cooked the ribs and brisket a day apart and kept them in the refrigerator until serving time, then re-heated them in the oven and kept warm in a large covered pan on a electric griddle. The day of, I converted the smoker into a grill by taking out all the insides and scraping out all the grease so there wouldn't be a grease fire when the charcoal went in. I lined the bottom with foil to further keep the charcoal apart from any fat, but mostly for easier clean-up. I had some Grill Grates that fit the smoker. They have a ridged side and a flat side. I used the flat side up (We don't need any stinkin Blackstone) I topped then with grill mats from Walmart so I could change them when I changed from pork bulgogi to beef bulgogi. That prevented any flavor cross over. Sides were a Mexican street corn salad, a fruit salad, and a coleslaw made with a tangy vinaigrette.The beef bulgogi and pork bulgogi was kept warm in slow cookers. By the time they were done, people were starting to arrive and I didn't think to take any more pictrures

Ribeye with the usual suspects. A fast and easy meal. I cooked some garlic, rosemary and thyme in butter and oil to infuse the flavors and then cooked a salt and peppered $12.00 ribeye in it. I took it off the heat when the thermometer read 129º and let it sit for a bit. Then I cut it in half and there was enough for the two of us. We had it with mashed potatoes, peas, gravy and garlic bread.

I made beef bulgogi today. It was the same recipe I made a couple weeks ago. Charlie said it was better than the last time. I said I used rice wine this time instead of mirin, if that makes much difference. I found out I was out of mirin just as I needed it so I ran to the closest store and they didn't have it. Probably the only store in Kansas City that didn't have it. I was about to drive to another grocery when I realized there was a liquor store across the street and they must have sake and they did. He said it was the best he ever had except for once at a restaurant in Seattle. He said I probably shouldn't make it when his mom comes to visit. 😋

One store has crab legs for 9.99/lb. for people who have a discount card.

A few days ago Charlie asked me to make some more of the bulgogi I made earlier this month. Yesterday I was in Walmart and saw a two pound pork Picnic roast and thought that would be an ideal size roast for us, even with a couple days of leftovers. Picnic and shoulder roasts are right next to each other on the pig and taste the same and picnic is easier to slice up. Also yesterday I got some okra at the farmers market and fried it up today. I only see it at farmers market and mostly only around August and September, so I try to make is a couple times a year. We also had rice and kimchi.

I've use dehydrated tomatoes on pizza. They are sweet. Charlies ex once described them as almost like candy. When I don't want tomatoes to make my sandwich or salad watery, though, I just take out the seeds.

Our back-yard neighbors gave us sone tomatoes so I told Charlie that I was going to make Pico de Gallo with a couple of them. He said "lets have tacos with it then" I said OK and headed to the Mesican grocery because their avocados are ripe enough to use the same day and you can't rely on getting them like that anywhere else. While I was there, I decided to get some of their Pico de Gallo because I didn't feel like making both Guacamole and a salsa before making the tacos. Also Pico de Gallo is better the next day. I'll make some tomorrow and see if I like theirs better. I am pretty sure garden fresh tomatoes will be really good for as long as they last. I've never had good luck with growing my own.

I made chicken wings for supper. We had rice, blue cheese dressing and honeydew melon to go with it. The three sauces for the wings were 1.store bought wing sauce, 2. lemon pepper sauce and 3. Charlie's mom's recipe for teriyaki adopted to be a wing sauce.

It's wall art. Last time it was connected, it was still functioning.

The recipe I have used lately is baked instead of fried and came from a cookbook titled Irish pub food. The trick to getting the sausage to stick to the egg is to not try to get it to stick to the egg but rather to use enough sausage to make it wrap around the egg and get the sausage to stick to itself on the other side.

I just happen to be having a cold brew. Thank you.

Today is Charlie's birthday party. I have been preparing for a few days. I converted my smoker into a grill to have enough surface area for everything. I grilled hot dogs. They are keeping warm in the slow cooker in the corner of the picture with scotch eggs and condiments. I cooked two kinds or bulgogi from scratch because buying that much ready to cook would have been too expensive. Charlie said not to tell mom but it was better than she makes (because she is always trying to make it healthy instead of good) Sides will be kimchi, vinaigrette coleslaw, and baked bbq beans. There are also a few Scotch eggs

I added a rotisserie to my grill today and did a chicken that I basted with Korean teriyaki sauce. Everything else was store bought except I planned to do some corn on the cob but completely forgot I had them in the fridge until I saw the corn on @Shelby menu.

I took a picture of these cooking directions quite a while ago. Sorry I don't remember what it was other than it came from an Asian Market.

Charlie was telling me about his plans for his birthday party early next month. He is planning hamburgers and hot dog on the grill. I said I could do something in the smoker if he liked. He remembered Mr. Kim, our next door neighbor in Junction City and he and his brother borrowed our smoker (different one) to do a small pig. The younger brother owned a succesful Korean restaurant in town. Charlie said they basted it with tons of sesame seed oil and it was so good. I told him I could get some pork butt and experiment. Today I did. I cut 6 1/2 lbs. into two pieces. One was marinated overnight with a marinade that had sesame seed oil in it, the other was injected with a liquid with sesame seed oil inside it. It took about six hours in the smoker and I basted both of them with a mixture of 1/2 cup light soy sauce, 2 Tablespoons of sesame oil, 1 teaspoon each of granulated onion and granulated garlic. a half teaspoon of grated ginger and 1/8th teaspoon red pepper powder. They were slow cooked to 202º. When they came out, we couldn't tell any difference. When they are cool enough to chop up, maybe there will be a difference... maybe not. At least they were both tender and juicy.