Norm Matthews

We had an early supper. It was shrimp and vegetables Tempura. It's too messy to make very often but too good to not make at all. Charlie thought I'd made too much but there was hardly anything left when we were done.

The first cook book I had was the James Beard cook book. The second one was a gift from a friend. It was James Beard's American Cookery. Country Captain Chicken was in the book and I always intended to give it a try but never did. A couple days ago I was in a waiting room at a car garage and this recipe was in a Southern Living magazine and I decided it was time to give it a try. We both liked it. I left out the almonds though.

My first smoker was the same design as that. (40 + some years ago) They work very well. Looks like it did well for you too. Properly smoked ribs have some tooth 'tug" to them. Falling off the bone is overcooked... at least BBQ judges think so. What you like to do at home for yourself is what matters though. edit: PS I like apple wood smoke with ribs.

I have not been cooking much lately but two things I did make were Swedish Meatballs and mashed potatoes and today we had Chicken and Dumplings

@Shelby, You could made the marinade and baste it with a small amount as they bake, then thicken it into a sauce and pour some of it over the hens before serving and serve the rest on the side.

A while back I read that Italian Alfredo is not at all like it is in America. I saw the Italian recipe on Facebook today and gave it a try. The sauce is only pasta water, butter and Parmigiano Reggiano. No cream. It was lighter tasting and good except the pasta water in the recipe was too salty for my taste. I'll cut it in half next time.

Rueben sandwich

Even if I didn't have an Irish ancestor, I'd still make corned beef at least once a year. We like it so much. My great great grandfather was born in (now) Northern Ireland almost 200 years ago. He was married in Ohio and settled about 50 miles south of here in Kansas. He is buried at Trading Post and he may have never had corned beef or even heard of it but it is an American Irish tradition and we are glad it is. Someday I will get soda bread down right and I came closer this year that any but I still have a ways to go before I am totally happy with the outcome. I tried a recipe called Irish Apple Pie. I don't know if that is a real thing or not but I wanted to give it a try. If it is a real thing, it was a lot of work for someone who may not have had electric kitchen gadgets. I may have made meringue before but I don't remember when. It got a little brown on top. The first piece out of the pan is always the messy one. I made two sauces for the corned beef. One was a mustard and beer sauce and the other was sour cream and horseradish.

@Smokeydoke Yes.The recipe as I saw it was just the a video.

I saw an oven recipe for Baby back ribs by Alton Brown today. It had a rub, mop and sauce that looked interesting. I never thought I'd ever do ribs in the oven, especially not on a nice day, when my smoker is ready and I have a stack or apple wood but I decided to try the recipe as written first. That is up until the end. The sauce didn't thicken so I added some KC Masterpiece which I don't care much for but my son likes it. In the end, I decided I like my old way better. I did not plan ahead to make Brussels sprouts, I just got some on a whim a while back and decided I'd better do something with them before it was too late. Same with a very small amount of broccoli which i threw in as well.

@HungryChris I like the idea of thin whole potatoes on the top of Shepard's Pie.

We had a Mexican themed dinner too. We had Mexican stuffed shells and a sweet corn cake (Pan de Elote)

I read that in the 1880's in Tombstone, an individual serving of booze cost the same as a bullet and bartenders would accept a bullet from poor cowboys for a small glass. That is how it came to be called a shot of whiskey. It is possibly how getting a shot came to be called "buying a round"

@heidih The strawberry pie I made has all the same ingredients as the one pointed out but different amounts. The one made was for a regular pie but the one I saw was for a deep dish pie and the crust, instead of graham cracker, used: Crust • 1/2 c. 1 stick butter, softened • 3 Tbsp. sugar • 1 c. flour

Dinner was a flat iron steak marinated in Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar and mustard then grilled. The baked potato had toppings left over from tacos the other night and strawberry pie. A friend said it looked like a pie she made in the 60's and 70's and it does look like something from that time. Ingredients included jello and fresh strawberries.

Charlie has been away for a week so I didn't do much in the kitchen until today. I made potatoes that are sliced like Hasselback then par-baked, then cheese (I used Fontina) and Canadian bacon are placed between each slice, topped with more cheese and bechamel and baked some more. We also had asparagus and some bread I made the other day. The hollandaise came pre-made in a tube. It was not awful.

@JohnT Thank you. That oven is convection capable but I just used it as a regular oven. The tray is 16" by 8".

I baked my usual sour dough bread in my new-ish gas oven using the lower oven for the first time for bread. The center came out perfectly baked but the crust was much darker and a little crustier than usual. Not that that is bad, just unexpected. The only thing I can think that I did differently is put the egg wash on the crust a little heavier than usual. Oh another thing was I forgot to put some water in there for a little steam. I guess I will have to try some different things with this oven to see what makes a difference.

I tried a recipe called Steak Cutlets Caprese. I made some Southern style white gravy "just in case" too. I am glad I made the gravy. I think the recipe needs some tweaking. It was a mistake to use a tomato at this time of the year as well.

@ElsieD Whenever you want a recipe of mine, just click on the blogspot at the bottom of my post. This one is from a couple of Koreans and is for two differnnt meats so I hope it snt too convusinig. BULGOGI FOR BEEF OR CHICKEN WINGS notes from Jung Ja, My sons mother. i deleted most of the part for beef. 1/4 cup sesame seeds toasted 2 cups soy sauce 3/4 cup sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce 3/4 tablespoon ground black pepper 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger 1 tablespoon garlic minced 1/4 cup sesame oil 1 tablespoon corn starch 1/4 cup water 1 tablespoon brown sugar Notes 1 T. pineapple juice. Grind onions with soy sauce. Add a couple packs mushrooms. use 1 T soy sauce & 1 T. water. use hot sauce for chicken, not beef. Use meat cut for Shabu shabby because it is thin and tender so you don’t have to marinate tougher meat over night. Blissfully wed also adds Caro syrup (1T) and 1/4 C. coca cola. Sesame seeds. MIx cornstarch and water; dissolve brown sugar in water. Add all other ingredients and simmer in pan briefly to thicken slightly. Store, refrigerated in covered glass container until ready to use. Cut beef into very thin slices or cut wings into sections. Pour sauce over meat and mix until well coated. Let stand 10-15 minutes. sauté, cook in wok or grill until done but not browned. Bake chicken wings @ 350º 45- 60 minutes. Cover with foil if they begin to brown too much.

Charlie suggested dinner tonight. We had Chicken wings Bulgogi. This is not the sticky wings I have made recently but an older recipe from his mom.

I made Shrimp Jambalaya for dinner tonight. I was very briefly married a second time and #2 made Jambalaya and I disliked it so much I never even considered making it myself but this recipe from Fine Cooking looked good. It said to use long grain rice and I used medium grain rice which makes it clump together and not be fluffy like it should. I had my reasons though. First, I have several pounds of medium grain and it is all we ever use and I didn't want to get some for one recipe until I had tried it this way first. Second, #2 used long grain rice and even though I probably hated it because of her recipe and it wasn't the fault of the rice, I still used medium grain. Third, Charlies' Korean side of the family does not like long grain rice in anything and I was afraid Charlie might not like it either but apparently his tastes are more catholic than I thought.

I saw a recipe for veggie pot pie and it looked good but I was tempted to add some chicken until I saw another recipe from Hispanic Kitchen for meatballs rolled in pork rinds. I am not a fan of pork rinds and I could not find any anyway so I used Panko bread crumbs and had them on the side. I made biscuits from scratch for the pot pie using White Lily flour and a Shirley Corriher recipe.

I tried a meal kit today. It's like Blue Apron I suppose except it is a local company and instead of delivering it to you, it's delivered to a grocery store and you pick out which meal you want to try. I got Jerk Chicken with cucumber mango relish and roasted Ranch potatoes. Charlie, who is much more familiar with cooking from that part of the world said it was good but it wasn't Jerk Chicken. The cooking time for the potatoes was too long and too short for the chicken. Both seasonings burned on the bottom of the glass Pyrex plates I cooked on. If I try another one, I'll cook on parchment or foil. I made a salad to go with it.

I tried a Moveable Feast recipe for a Spicy Balinese Roasted Chicken. We had rice seasoned with Sazon Goya Con Azafran. I had a green salad and Charlie had a macaroni salad.