Norm Matthews

This was our dinner tonight.

It is possible that a wood burning pit can impart an unpleasant smokey flavor. I don't want to go into a lot of detail but flaming wood can overdo the smoke flavor. Also possible cause of an unpleasant smoke flavor can come from inadequate venting which can let the smoke go 'stale'.

We had dinner early today. One of the grocery stores here sells something they label boneless ribs. Both Charlie an I were fooled into getting some once. They are actually rather tasteless cuts of chuck. Charlie's package sat in the freezer several months before I decided to cook it in the Instant Pot today. I cooked it with soy sauce, ginger, honey, star anise and ginger. It turned out pretty good. We had it with rice and a salad. I didn't take a picture of the meal but here are some leftovers.

@Shelby I copied your recipe and plan to give it a try soon. Looks yummy.

I got some chorizo the other day and decided to have sandwiches made with them today. The sauce is lemony olive oil and cilantro. The toppings are onions and roasted bell peppers

I wanted clams or oysters for an appetizer but no one had any so I settled for shrimp. It was marinated, then sauced with honey, soy sauce, garlic and ginger. Charlie said it would make a great chicken teriyaki sauce if I thickened it. It was good with the steak too.

Well son came home and liked the chowder. He had three bowls.

I made a fish chowder for dinner tonight. Charlie isn't home yet and when he does, he may want to go to Bonito Michoacan down the street for something more substantial but it's what I wanted for tonight.

I tried a different recipe for pot roast today. It was a NY Times recipe for Japanese Style Pot Roast from Mark Bittman.

We had pork chops with Jerk seasoning, brown sugar, pineapple, ponzu and mushrooms. Dessert was strawberry shortcake. I didn't take a picture of the Super Bowl food but it was a chili bar with lots of toppings and mix-ins, hot dogs and corn chips with a nacho dip.

Tonight was meatloaf, potatoes, brussels sprouts and salad.

Our dinner was Instant Pot Chuck Roast with gravy, turnips, parsnips and potatoes, also had green beans and sourdough bread.

When the pan my son ordered came, they sent three. The packer must have grabbed three instead of one by mistake. He gave the other two to other people. I wish they made an 11 or 12-inch one.

Congrats, Franci.

I checked my blog and counted 7 meals made from scratch so far this month. The other meals were delivery pizza, left overs, sandwiches made with store bought cold cuts and home made bread or cheese, dry salami, celery, and crackers. Charlie was going to take me out to an Irish pub on the Plaza this weekend but we got weathered in with ice storms two days in a row.

I discovered a PPS show last weekend called Movable Feast and tried some recipes from their website. First I baked some sourdough bread for soaking up some of the beer sauce with Beer Steamed Mussels, Pecan Apricot rice, and Japanese Beef Tataki.

I had not heard of Darto until now. Last year I thought about getting a forged iron skillet from one place but when I went there, my computer warned me that it was infected with a virus. A little later I found some nice ones from a forge in Seattle but they were sold out before I got around to getting one and they are still not available there a year later. In November I saw one from Aus-Ion and was about to order one when my son sternly told me not to buy anything for myself at Christmas time so I put it and an Instant Pot on my Christmas wish list and he got both for me. Here is the skillet after I have seasoned it. It is a little under 10 1/2 inches. It's formed in one piece. Nothing riveted or welded. The handle is vented to keep the handle cool

How To Make Stuffed Cabbage Rolls - Japanese Version (Recipe) is shown in a video on You Tube.

I used regular green fresh cabbage and boiled it to soften the leaves. I had not seen a cabbage roll recipe that did not use rice, well excpt one used barley, but I did a search and found quite a few. To see the recipe, click on the normmatthewsblogspot link at the end of this post.

The picture of the cabbage rolls showed it served in a bowl with the thin sauce. I opted to serve it with rice on the same plate because I thought my Korean son would like it that way. When I said 'no rice' I meant that rice is usually included in stuffed cabbage filling, rather than on the side. Perhaps I should have said 'unusual' instead of 'strange'. I have several Japanese and Korean cookbooks and I can't recall the use of tomatoes in any of them. I have seen tomatoes in a few Chinese recipes though. At the time, It seemed to me that I have started seeing a few Japanese recipes (from Japanese cooks who live in Japan) which I thought showed Western influences. My son was not surprised at all. He is of the opinion that Japanese food is quite widely influenced by other cultures.

The tomatoes were in the sauce it was cooked with. It was stuffed with ground pork (1/4 lb), 3/4 lb ground beef, panko bread crumbs, nutmeg, onion, egg, milk, salt and pepper. The sauce was: 2 bay leaves, 1 large garlic clove, minced, 1 (14.5-oz, 411 g) can of diced tomatoes, 1 Tbsp. white wine, ½ tsp. kosher salt (1/4 tsp. table salt) and 1 cup (240 ml) chicken/vegetable stock

I made cabbage rolls tonight. It was in an online Japanese cookbook. I thought it strange that it was an Asian recipe, that it used tomatoes and no rice. I served with rice on the side.

I didn't take any pictures but I used the Instant Pot to make Chicken Pho.

I used to do this New Years Day meal for fun and in remembrance of my Southern mom. Lately I have been doing it a little out of superstition. Three years ago we had what Cassie said was a traditional Mexican New Years dinner. We had none of the Southern food that was representative of good luck and health in the year to come. The very next day, I fell and broke every bone in my ankle. Charlie is not a fan of black eyed peas with ham so I made my sister's chip dip with them instead. He like the dip. The ham hocks were cooked with canary or Mayocoba beans. We had collard greens, deviled eggs, corn bread, green beans with new potatoes, and pumpkin pie.

One of the gifts my son gave me for Christmas was an Instant Pot. I used it today to make Beef Pozole.