Norm Matthews

Crab legs were relatively well priced and we had not had them in a couple years so that is what we had along with some of the garlic sausage from the other day, corn and new potatoes.

I suppose it could double as a duck press too. This one says Laclede Mfg. St. Louis pat. 1897. Without the insert, it is it is nearly identical to the new ones for stuffing sausage, except the new ones are stainless and this one is cast iron.

I went to Bass Pro today to look at sausage stuffers and what I saw was a stainless steel version of a cast iron antique I got decades ago at a yard sale. Because it had a perforated liner, I thought it was an apple cider press but the liner comes out and there are two plates that screw on to the crankshaft. One that fits inside the liner and one larger on that is for ground meat. The problem is that the collet (or whatever it is you call it) is missing. That is the part that fits over the spout and locks the feeder tubes on. I originally bought it for its decorative potential but instead it has been moved from one garage to another as I moved from place to place. The same size stainless one at Bass Pro has all the parts and I trust stainless more than this old thing but still it's fun to realize this thing has more than one purpose.

My son's grandmother made Kimbap (Korean sushi roll) with hot dogs.

Dinner tonight was deviled chicken thighs. We also had some store bought potatoes and cheese that wasn't very good. We also had angel food cake with strawberries and ice cream.

I appreciate what you're saying. I had a iot of busted casing too. I probably threw away as much casing as I used, and clean-up was a chore. Edit, here they are out of the smoker (after 2 hours at 225º)

Well this was a real chore. I made a garlic sausage recipe that I wanted to try and it took almost all day. In fact they are still an hour away to being done and it is 6:30 pm right now. I used a KitchenAid meat grinder and stuffing tube and they are almost like toys compared to a dedicated sausage equipment. I will definitely invest in the proper equipment if i ever think about trying this again. I saved the beef trimmings from the last 3 briskets I smoked and was going to add them to the pork trimmings from the ribs i did the other day but when I went to the freezer to get them, they were gone and the freezer is half full with tamale stuff. I wonder what happened? I got a pork shoulder to round out the meat. The sausage tube was too small for the bigger diameter sausage so it was really hard and time consuming to stuff those casings, especially by myself. Oh well, when I fried up a small batch to taste for seasoning, it tasted really good. Hope the smoking will make them even better. I decided to smoke them instead of just plain cooking like the regular recipe. The recipe is from Anne Burrell.

I smoked two trimmed slabs of pork spare ribs. The first picture is after the first two hours on. I am going to freeze one and we had the other one for dinner.

I had some left over chicken from the Saturday, so made some chicken soup with and had it for lunch today along with some crackers. If I get hungry again before dinner, I'll probably have some of yesterdays Old Chicago Pizza.

Dinner was an Asian style crispy skinned roast chicken with a honey and soy glaze, green beans and a dessert with a nut crust, cream cheese and whipped cream and chocolate pudding.

The store had some nice meaty smoked ham hocks, so combined them with the leftover Easter ham bone, navy beans and collards to have for dinner later today. Oh, also had corn bread, yeee haw. http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/DSCN3411_zpssuxoshhw.jpg[/IMG] ps I see my pictures still aren't posting.

I didn't realize it was a blend until I got home and looked at the label more closely. I got it, initially, because it was the brand in the Godfather movie and got it for the fun of it, plus we were using a lot of oil so got a big can because it was economical. We liked it's mild flavor and so I would not be opposed to getting it again.

I recently got some Genco olive oil blend in a gallon can at an asian market. It was not expensive, tasted good and I used it for cooking. I'll pick up some more next time I go.

I have had this one for several years. It is still available. It also has some Korean recipes. http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/DSCN3407_zpsunwa3ggd.jpg[/IMG] https://books.google.com/books/about/Quick_Easy_Tsukemono.html?id=uhmWD6NAvGIC

The best thing about a corned beef brisket dinner is making Ruben sandwiches the next day with the leftovers.

We had our annual March corned beef dinner tonight. My corned beef takes two weeks to cure but I have done it in less time. We had soda bread with whiskey butter, cabbage with a balsamic reduction, carrots, rutabagas and corned beef. We also had smashed potatoes but they were still in the oven when I took these pictures.

Genco olive oil was the front company owned by Vito Corleone.

I recently got some olive oil from an Asian Market and later discovered that it was a blend. It was Genco brand. The same brand in the Godfather movie.

Kim Shook, I made the gravy with with bacon fat from bacon I used with the green beans and meat loaf, flour, salt, pepper, garlic and beef broth.

I made some tweaks to my regular meatloaf recipe. I also started eating it before I remembered to take a picture. We had green beans, roast potatoes and gravy.

Rotus, if you click on the link at the end of this post, it will take you to the notes I made while smoking the brisket.

I cut a large amount of the flat off the whole brisket and am curing it for corned beef to have on St. Patrick's Day. Temp at the end varied from place to place around the brisket but average was just under 180, but by now I can tell if it is done just by the feel of the thermometer when I stick it in.

Cassie has been telling me about Bechelmeyer Meats which has a very good reputation for meat and the Mexican food next door. I decided to go there on Wed. and get a brisket and use a lot of the flat for corned beef for dinner later in the month. Today I smoked the point and remainder of the flat. I smoked it for 8 hours and it looked like it could go two or three more hours but I ran out of patience and fuel so it is done and moist but not falling apart tender.

Quaker Oats (a cooked cereal) was the sponsor of Sgt. Preston at the time.

I remember that deed to land up North but I thought it was a square inch in the Yukon. In any case, they took it back some years later. PS I found this is from Wikipedia: It appeared in newspapers around the country. "Get a real deed to one square inch of land in the Yukon gold rush country" and, "You'll actually own one square inch of Yukon land".[1] The promotion was tied to the Sergeant Preston of the Yukon radio show which Quaker Oats was sponsoring at the time." and this: "Due to $37.20 in back taxes, the land was repossessed by the Canadian government in 1965, and the Great Klondike Big Inch Land Company dissolved in 1966. The land is now part of the Dawson City Golf Course. To this day, Yukon officials receive letters and phone calls about the deeds. The land office of the Yukon currently contains an 18-inch thick file folder of correspondence regarding the promotion."