Norm Matthews

Lunch came from the smoker today. Well first it came from Walmart. I was in there because Valencia oranges are in season now and they have them. About the only time I drink orange juice is when I can squeeze those wonderful oranges. After I got them I looked around and saw this big steelhead trout fillet and decided it would be good for lunch. It spent about an hour and a half in the smoker with corn and tomato topped with bread crumbs and butter and smoked with apple wood. The corn had a little too much time with the smoke but it was still juicy and tender.

I didn't want to cook today so we had DIY sandwiches plus some deli fried chicken and later some cookies.

Thanks ElsieD. That avatar is a picture of a card I got that said almost the same thing. It says WHOA, do you know how fast you went over that hill? or words to that effect.

Thank you Shelby.

It's my birthday but decided to stay in and do something at home. The steaks were grilled outside. I made a mango salsa to go with them. Charlie is getting tired of baked potatoes so i did scalloped in the toaster oven. Despite the heat, oven did not heat up the kitchen with sourdough bread in the oven. The bread takes less then 20 minutes and that includes it heating up. The chocolate cake was from the store.

We had pork loin chops with a Japanese style sauce, a salad and rice.

We had an early dinner which probably means we will be having late night snacks later. The recipe said it was Greek. It was marinated and grilled chicken kabobs and some grilled vegetables too. With it was a lemon rice and (not Greek) Strawberry Crisp for dessert.

NYT sends me an email once or twice a week with recipes. They usually block one and tell me that I can have full access if I subscribe (and pay money). When that happens and the blocked recipe is one I think I might want to try, I just google the recipe and find one with the same name at another place. This one is from Epicurious. It is peanut noodles with shrimp.

These ribs were on sale at the grocery store for $7.00. Purchase was more of less an impulse buy. I used to get brisket at a butcher shop but not since I found I can get prime at Costco for a less than half what he charges for choice. ps, I give credit to my smoker for the results I get. It was made in Oklahoma by Horizon. pps. Thank you for the compliment.

Charlie and I went to to the store to get an idea for what to have for dinner. I looked for a while at a pork shoulder roast but decided I didn't want to spend a lot of time prepping it for dinner tonight so we settled on strip steaks. Charlie said he'd rather have mac & cheese than potatoes. He made those. I just grilled the steaks. They were very tender.

I cooked some ribs in the smoker for dinner today.

We had grilled chicken wings for dinner today.

I wanted some salmon for dinner but I knew Charlie would not be excited about it so I made a side of Chili Rellenos which is a favorite for him. They were a side for me, the whole meal for Charlie. They were the only thing he ate.. along with some tortillas and salasa.

I made a pork loin Banh Mi sandwich for our dinner. I thought I took a picture of it earlier but it did not show up on the computer or my phone. This picture is what is left when we were done.

It's kind of a faster, easier cassoulet.

I made a recipe for Italian sausage and beans stewed with tomatoes from a cook book my son gave me a while back and a salad with celery root.

I used a Japanese recipe for fried chicken but left it in the oil a little too long so I shortened the time in the recipe for what I think will work better next time. We also had zucchini and spinach.

Both of the last two meals were done on the grill. On Father's Day, I took some Mango tomatillo salsa to my sister's cookout and had some left over. I put it on some grilled salmon. The salad was store bought. They said it was a Cobb Salad. I am glad they labeled it. I would not have known otherwise. I took the toppings off of the soggy iceberg and put them on some fresh cut romaine. The other grilled meal was a steak with twice baked potatoes.

I tried a recipe for slow cooker Mongolian Beef. It was OK.

I found a Food Saver in the freezer marked Korean Pork. It was a batch I mixed up last year and froze some of it. I didn't remember if it was cooked or not so I put the thawed package in water with the Anova for about an hour then finished it in a skillet. We had it with kimchi, rice and laver.

We had chicken leg quarters marinated and basted with some Asian flavorings then baked until the skin was crisp . The recipe wanted the meat deboned but I thought it would be easier to remove the bones after it was baked. It would be even easier for me if I let whoever ate it take their own bones out.

I actually miss the German Weiners available where I used to live. I like them better than "plain pork" hot dogs. Not only would it be nice if they sold them one at a time, it would be nice, since hot dogs come in an 8 pack if they sold 8 buns instead of 10 at a time.

In remembrance of Anthony Bourdain, we had fried hot dogs for a late lunch. I don't know if the kind he had were done differently. I just deep fried some to see what they would be like. Despite Frank Fritz of American Pickers assessment of people who have chili on their hot dogs are people who don't like hot dogs, I had chili on one with cheese and onions and only hot dog relish on the other. Charlie had one extra from the microwave and assured me that fried hot dogs do taste better BTW.

It's rare when Charlie makes a request for dinner but he did today. He asked for steak and bok choy. I also made corn on the cob and twice baked potatoes. This is his plate. He didn't want the croissant roll but I had one.

@rotuts @Toliver is correct. If you click the link at the bottom of my post, either here or at the meatloaf post, it will take you to the recipe. I don't think I can post it here because it is from the NYTimes.