Norm Matthews

Those are nice. I've smoked sausage and Canadian bacon , but they were laying down.

I have a Horizon smoker. The one I have did cost about 1K USD and it is the smallest one they make. It is as big as I want to go. It's made with 1/4" structural pipe and is fully welded. The thermometer is an extra. At least it was when I got mine about 3 years ago. http://www.basspro.com/Horizon-Smoke-16-Classic-Backyard-Smoker/product/10202039/?hvarAID=shopping_googleproductextensions&om_mmc=shopping_googleproductextensions&kpid=10202039&kpid=10202039 I am not particularly interested in doing a whole brisket though. That is too much meat for my family. A lot of people who use Horizon smokers are serious competitors, caterers or restauranteurs who need to do a large amount of meats. I was never interested in doing that. I am just interested in improving myself to be able to get the best results from my smoker. edit, ps: I have modified my smoker with a convection plate (link below) and had a larger burner grate custom made to make more room under the heat source in order to make it easier to clean out the ashes during long smoke sessions. http://www.horizonbbqsmokers.com/accessories-1/

I just ordered the book. Looking forward to reading about smoking brisket. I have an offset smoker. I have smoked a few briskets but am looking forward to reading about his take on them. I consider brisket more challenging than ribs or a pork roast, but that may be because I do those all the time.

I cooked some spare ribs and their trimmings in my smoker today.

A saute pan is the one with is wide flat bottom and straight sides while a skillet has sloped sides. The bottom of a 12-inch saute pan is 12 inches while the bottom of a 12-inch skillet is about 10 inches. The saute pan allows for more volume and less chance of spillage when you move it around and a lid fits tighter so there is less evaporation. With a skillet, it is easier to flip or toss the food without using a spatula (if you do that sort of thing) I choose a saute pan if I am going to fry or boil something, or have a large volume to cook, and a skillet for most other things, plus evaporation with a skillet is faster so reduction of a liquid is qucker.

If you are used to European knives but want a Japanese-ish shorter knife, take a look at the Australian made Furi knives. I had one, (santoku) didn't love it, but thought is nice enough. My son loved it. They make chef style knives too. http://furiglobal.com/au/products

Meatballs and spaghetti for dinner tonight.

This evening Cassie and Charlie got back from visiting her brother in NYC for a week and I made a dinner for the first time in a week. I made Shrimp in Escabeche and served it on a bed of romaine lettuce and Chicken Manicotti with lots of cheeses, salsa and an enchilada sauce. I also made some garlic bread.

The package said achiote on one side and annatto on the other side. I figured they were both the same thing. Thanks for the explanation. I didn't know that. The recipe I used was from a video demo and he used seeds but called them achiote.

Achiote seeds was in a Mexican recipe I recently made and had to take a trip to the Mexican grocery down the street to find. They had it in a paste form. I had a Rick Bayless cookbook but gave it away because at the time I lived in a rather small Kansas town and could never find at least one ingredient in just about every recipe. I got rid of a Mario Batali cookbook for the same reason. I kind of wish I had them now. I am a fan of Diana Kennedy cookbooks though. PS We like Queso Quesadilla cheese in place of any Mexican style recipe that uses Mozzarella. My DIL has a Mexican father.

Shipping and handling: $800.

I told the kids that if they were going to spend a week in New York, I was going to have a lobster dinner. The picture represents a lot of firsts for me. First time I have taken a picture of food with my phone, first time I have taken a picture of food while in a restaurant, first time I have sent myself an email from my phone and first time in almost 20 years since I have been in a Red Lobster restaurant. Well hey, if you are going to have lobster in Kansas, there aren't many places that have it. The food was better than I remember but still the lobster was my least favorite thing on the plate. The parts of the crab that weren't overcooked were my favorite.

Carbon steel knives can be sharpened very sharp and with relative ease but they take a lot more care.

Except for the boning knife, they seem rather small, at least for my hand. IMHO somewhat awkward shapes too. If it is any consolation, they will get rusty and will be very difficult to clean with that texture.

I wonder why those who sell vegetarian food tend to tout how much is tastes like meat?

There is a restaurant in Salina Kansas that is around 80 (+) years old that makes sliders exclusively. They put some diced onions on the grill, toss a small meatball on top, smash it quite flat, poke holes in it with the back end of the spatula and cook it. They sell them by the bagful. About 10 years ago a new owner bought the place and replaced the grill. He had so many complaints that they had to go to the dump, find the old grill and re-install it.

I recall once on a TV show where a famous British chef who likes to yell and cuss went around and "saved" failing restaurants, gave one place a hamburger sandwich recipe that sounded more like a meatloaf sandwich.

Kansas City has something called 'burnt ends'. They were originally just trimmings from briskets but the concept of burnt ends has changed from it's origination and now is offered by several restaurants in pork too. I believe the pork spare ribs trimmings are used. I believe they are smoked along with the ribs, then cubed, seasoned again and smoked a little longer.

Kim Shook As near as I can describe the salad dressing, it was approximately three parts Ranch dressing, one part sour cream and powdered taco seasoning to taste.

A full slab of spareribs has a lot of excess that needs trimming before smoking. The trimmings amount to quite a lot of meat and need to be used for something. It also adds quite a nice flavor to anything to which it's added. Pork butt is what I was thinking about when I said you needed to add some fattier meat. Here is an illustration of how much meat trimmings are left after getting a slab ready for smoking.

I saw a Mexican pork roast recipe here on another thread this morning and decided to make it for dinner tonight. No one is home from work yet but here is the Puerco Pibil we will have along with some Spanish rice.

It makes some tasty sausage. You'll need to add some fattier meat with it though.

My DIL does not like meat with bones so I smoke large slab of meat trimmed off the ribs along beside the ribs then cut it into 1-inch squares, serve along with the ribs. I also like to shred some of it and add it to my BBQ beans.

Dinner tonight was salmon over rice, salad, asparagus and snap peas.

As Cassie was walking out the door for work this morning, she said she got off at 8pm. I wondered whether that was a hint that she'd like something ready to eat when she got home so I started thinking about dinner. First I cut up an onion into rings and put them in a jar with pickled pepperoncini juice and added some rice vinegar and sugar and let them pickle all day. I decided to try a hamburger mix with 1 lb hamburger, 1bratwurst, bread crumbs and seasoned salt. I also got some triple cream brie, mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce, avocado, dill pickles and some pasta salad. We had grilled hamburgers and the pasta salad along with some baby watermelon. BTW, I did not squeeze the hamburgers on the grill .