Norm Matthews

Welcome. I am an amateur back yard smoker. I too have a stick smoker... a Horizon made in Ok.

You're very welcome @ElsieD

Dinner tonight was Korean Chicken Wings.

Many years ago when they first came out, I thought they were really good but as time went by, they began to taste pretty much like all the others.

I was shopping for things I needed and looking for an idea for dinner when I saw two steaks with $2.00 off coupons attached so they came home and that was our dinner. Neither of us could finish it so it will be something with eggs in the morning or a sandwich at lunch time. Charlie said he was getting tired of baked potatoes so made potato pancakes and mac and cheese topped with buttered bread crumbs. I thought I had panko but didn't so used Italian instead.

We had Spaghetti With Bolognese Sauce, salad, green beans and a tomato from the back yard.

I got this one specifically for deviled eggs and have used it to fill large tube pasta. I thought it would probably do OK but like I said, it only took 9 or 10 jumbo shells to fill the baking dish and in the end, I didn't want to bother with it. I think care should be taken because too much time in the blender would make it more like pate instead of ground beef.

@chromedome I have filled penne pasta and deviled eggs that way and I thought about it this time but there were so few of them to fill that filling and cleaning the pastry tube would have taken more time than grabbing a spoon a filling them with it. Also the filling was lumpy and I was (a little) concerned about clogging- even though I have a really big piping tip.

Shrimp Scampi, Pasta ala Carbonara and roasted garlic. I am not sure if a purist would approve of this pasta with shellfish but I am not a purist.

I am not a fan of fiddy recipes like wontons or stuffing pasta but these jumbo shells are so big that they are easy to fill. It only took 9 or 10 to fill the casserole dish and it took a heaping spoonful to fill each one. I spooned the remainder of the filling over the top before pouring the sauce and cheese on top. Having said that, I see no problem with using lasagna noodles instead but I doubt the filling would be enough for more than one layer of filling between 2 noodle layers, one on bottom and one on top. PS another suggestion that might work is to use small shells and not fill them at all but rather just mix them in with the filling and layer the mixture between two layers of sauce and top with the cheese when it's time.

I was hungry for something curry so I made a curried pork stew. I also tried a recipe for Coca Cola cake. For me, it didn't work out until I made some changes. I had to add more flour and bake it about 10 minutes longer and the frosting which was supposed to be poured on when the cake was still hot just ran off and puddled at the bottom. The picture is the cake turned upside down so the frosting looks like it is where it is supposed to be. Afterward I looked at several other recipes with the same name and they all had the same ingredients but some listed 8 ounces of coke and the one I used said to use 12 ounces. 8 oz. should be closer to a correct amount. My son really liked it and vanilla ice cream is perfect with it.

That sounds like the same recipe. Mine had ground beef, yellow onion, taco seasoning, cream cheese, jumbo pasta shells, enchilada sauce, salsa, cheddar and, mozzarella. My recipes are almost always posted at the blog address listed at the bottom of my posts.

The recipe said it was Mexican Stuffed Shells but I suspect that it isn't really Mexican in origin.

I wasn't planning to take a picture of this and it isn't all that pretty, but then I thought I should give credit where it's due and let @Toliver know that I followed his suggestion and made a one-egg omelet using cheesesteak filling leftovers. The only thing I'll do different next time is do a finer chop the ingredients

Last night's steak was so thick, neither of us could finish it so I made cheesesteak sandwiches with the leftovers and a provolone sauce and a spicy mayo. we couldn't finish the sandwiches either. Now to figure out what to do with leftover cheesesteak filling. LOL

Charlie and I went to Costco. We got mostly non-food items but I picked up some thick rib eyes for dinner tonight. It was rainy today so I cooked them inside with an iron skillet and finished in the oven.

Wow @Kim Shook Yours looks nicer than mine did and everything else looks really delicious too.

I cut this recipe down because we aren't big on fish, but this Sous Vide Miso Salmon with Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette was really good. I expect to make it again.

No. I used an apricot spread in a jar. The label says Thick Apricots. All Natural Ingredients 100% fruit sweetened only with fruit juice concentrate.

We had leftovers with chicken drumsticks grilled on the Weber , then finished with an apricot, mustard, soy sauce and molasses glaze.

The list of new recipes I wanted to try was getting long so I did several for dinner today. I did some of them yesterday. I fired up the smoker for baby back ribs, made some bread, coleslaw, potato salad, scalloped corn, and I tried a BBQ sauce made with Dr. Pepper

Breakfast. OK it was 2 in the afternoon but it was the first time I ate today. I was going to just cook a hamburger but then I realized I had everything for tacos and that sounded better, so there it is.

I frequently do partial prep earlier in the day so it is ready to finish at the last minute, ie when my son gets home from work. I'll have everything ready so there is nothing left to do but the final cooking.

We had Creole rice and Shrimp and Corn Soup, also a Creole style dish.

If you call in an order, you can go right in and get it when it's ready. We went in on a whim yesterday at 3:30, thinking the line would be shorter. We were going to go to Cheesecake Factory for my birthday but decided to go there instead because we drove right by and it's close to where I live in Olathe. But we had been shopping and walking a lot and I was getting tired and didn't want to stand up that long. In the end we decided that Cheesecake was probably busy too and went to a Tex Mex place across the street from Joe's. When I first moved back to Kansas City, 5 years ago, we went there a couple of times and the lines were short. (Frankly I think my backyard BBQ is as good or better most of the time but this was a time when I wanted to go out)