Norm Matthews

Thanks. It did take a while to learn how to regulate the heat with a charcoal/wood smoker. Having been a potter who sometimes used a wood burning kiln didn't help much. Very different goals.

Those plastic scrubbies work well on dough not only in the bowl but on the beater blade too. Use under running water. Afterward toss the scrubby in the dishwasher.

These are beef back ribs. Temp never reached 225 or went lower than 185, most of the time at 220, (about 95% of the time) for 5 hours. It could have used a little more time. Rub added the night before, smoked for 2 hours with apple wood then, basted with bacon fat, rub and beef broth a couple times after an hour, then an hour later, basted with BBQ sauce, wrapped in foil and continued to cook another three hours. The smoker is a Horizon which is owned by one of the original brothers who started Oklahoma Joe Smokers. It is made with quarter inch steel. Oklahoma Joe was purchased by Char Broil who then dismantled the company and sold off the assets. The rub I used this time was from www.woodyardbbq.com. For pork I like to use The Squeal Hog Rub www.cowtownbbq.com. Another good rub is Plowboys BBQ Yardbird Rub. I have a recipe from Oklahoma Joe that is really great too but the last time I printed it here, it got deleted. I can send it to you via PM if you would like it.

Fired up the smoker and did some beef ribs.

Thank you Shelby. The lobster tails were too small to make a meal with one each so when I saw the steak on sale too I knew what dinner was going to be. I also got some pumpernickel bagels but forgot to put them on the table...

Hen House Market had Lobster tails on sale yesterday for $5.00 each and strip steaks for $6.00 each. I made dinner around those today. The lobster was served with Buerre Monte and a cream sauce loosely based on the one used with Lobster à l'américaine. The steak was grilled outside. The lobster was cooked first in a skillet with a little oil until the shell turned red, then finished in the oven. I got some BBQ sauce that won first place at the American Royal BBQ contest in 2012. I had some of that on the steak to see how I liked it, and we had smashed potatoes with sour cream. The salad was made with lettuce, garden tomatoes, radishes, carrots, green onions and some leftover chicken salad.

Shelby, are those bread and butter pickles?

I know heidih that BBQ has a lot of different interpretations. Being from Kansas City, around here BBQ usually means long and low smoking and grilling means cooking hot and short. Sometimes the two are called Country BBQ and City BBQ and for some it just means soaking something is some kind of tangy sauce after it is cooked. I was being kind of contrary when I said it wasn't real BBQ. Here are the ingredients. They were simmered then the shrimp was added and partly cooked, then finished in a hot oven. 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter 1/2 cup olive oil 2 teaspoons finely minced garlic 4 whole bay leaves, finely crushed 2 teaspoons finely crushed dried rosemary leaves 1/2 teaspoon dried basil 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt Cayenne pepper, to taste 1 tablespoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice 2 pounds large shrimp, in the shell and preferably with heads Crusty baguette, for serving

A spoof on Cooks Illustrated http://www.iwritefunny.com/2008/03/10/cooks-illustrated-recipe-boiled-water/

I had a restaurant before I was aware Victorinox was available but I outfitted that kitchen with similar NSF restaurant supply knives with thick stamped blades and comfortable molded handles. The ones I had were like Victorinox in that they sharpened very sharp and very easily and kept an edge reasonably well. Victorinox knives are popular with food service people probably because they are good service tools, easy to care for and not expensive to replace when they disappear or get lost. I have nothing against Victorinox knives. They are decent knives, I just tend to get a little rabid at the mention of CI sometimes.

Tonight I tried a couple new recipes. I don't know why it's called BBQ shrimp. It isn't BBQed or even grilled. It's cooked in a saucepan and then stuck in the oven for a few minutes. I tried a new baked potato topping: Mascarpone, blue cheese, butter and chives with mushrooms. I don't think I'll try it again. We also had Korean spinach. For dessert it was strawberries and pound cake. It's attractive to bring to the table but messy to serve. I should make it in individual serving sizes.

It's taking quite a bit of self control for me not to go into a large vent over the times and ways that CI reviews have been "sometimes flawed"

When my son left home, I gave him an 8" Henkels and a paring knife, same brand, made in Germany. I also gave him a copy of How to Cook Everything. I discovered that he seldom used the knives because he was afraid to mess them up. They were too nice he said. So I got him a Victorinox Fibrox 8-inch chefs knife. He used it about a week then laid it aside and started using the Henkels. The Victorinox went into a yard sale less than 6 months later. If you read Cooks Ill. first knife review, you will find them highly biased against any forged blade because they got ruined in their electric knife sharpener. They also said in that article that forged knives were made by pouring molten metal into a mold. As far as I know, knives have not been cast in a mold since the bronze age.

Dorothy Lynch dressing is a tomato based dressing.

I think a good basic cookbook would be more practical than any monthly periodical. I also think Food TV isn't as useful as a teaching vehicle as it used to be.

I'd like to draw an analogy between photography and cooking. If one has a very nice and expensive camera that does lots of things automatically, it still won't take the pictures that it will in the hands of someone who understands lighting and composition. With lighting equipment and an understanding of symmetrical composition, one can produce images that are admired for their technical proficiency alone. With a computer program, colors and images can be manipulated to the point of surrealism, creating something that is astonishing, but one knows in the back of their mind that such an image cannot really exist in nature. A person with a creative mind and talent can produce a picture in a dark room with film from an old SLR that can move you. But no matter how basic or exotic your tools, knowledge must be gained and skills must be developed in order to get the most out of them. Same with cooking.

"Hence, the shortcuts to easy but good foods... Granted, to some degree it is a mental theoretical exercise and the reality may turn out to be different." The reality may indeed turn out to be different. How to make food easy but good is something I have heard people asking about and wanting to do for years. I am afraid that isn't possible unless you like to limit your cooking to simple foods. If painting portraits were easy to do well, everyone would do it. Likewise for cooking, if it were easy to do well with gadgets but otherwise without effort, restaurants would be out of business. ps even a salad, which requires no cooking, needs some knowledge and time to assemble.

Dinner was pretty easy and quick. Grilled strip steaks, grilled peaches (with raspberry jam and brown sugar) salad, garden tomato and baked potato.

I saw this recipe, thought it looked good, made it and the kids immediately knew what it was even though I'd never heard of it before. They told me the superheros were eating it in the movie Avengers 2. It is Chicken Shawarma with Lime Avocado Mayo. I skewered it with onion, red and yellow peppers and grilled it. I added a salad made with mixed field greens, chopped dates, orange sections, and a trail mix that is mostly nuts and raisins. Salad was dressed with vinegar, oil, orange juice and cilantro. We put the salad and chicken in pita bread and had it with the avocado mayo or hummus. ps also had rice.

FauxPas, The rest of the menu was coleslaw made without mayo but rather with apples, scallions and hot oil, vinegar, red pepper flakes, sugar, dijon mustard. BBQ beans made with baked beans and molasses, brown sugar, minced brisket ends and a spicy BBQ sauce mixed to taste and to balance the tangy with the sweet. Also had store bought potato salad; Cassie made a macaroni salad and had a watermelon which she added to farmers market peaches and orange to make sort of a sparkling white sangria. Other drinks were Kansas whiskey, Glenfiddich, beer, cola, and apple juice. We also had hot dogs and hamburgers with the regular toppings and condiments as well as basil from the garden to go with the tomatoes if someone wanted them with the hamburgers. (I did). PS we also had potato chips but no one ate any.

Son's birthday was yesterday but he is having friends over today. He said he wanted BBQ. To me that means firing up the smoker but he meant he wanted grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. Sooo I am doing both. The slabs of spare ribs and back ribs just came out of the smoker. The brisket needs a couple more hours. When his guests arrive, I'll start up the grill and do the rest of the food.

I had some leftover steak and a potato that was about to sprout so decided to make a variation on Salade Parisienne. Made with pan fried potato slices, (one potato slice got a little too brown) garden tomato, hard cooked egg, left over steak, swiss cheese from Ireland of all things, and mixed greens. Dressing was 1/2 T. dijon mustard 1 1/2 T. white wine vinegar 6 T. olive oil salt and pepper to taste

I use pyrex in the microwave. Several of them do stack. There are more that are in use but I don't need a ton of them so stacking isn't all that critical.

I prefer to use clear glass (mostly pyrex) for food storage and microwave use. I don't like putting food in containers that I can't see without taking off the lid. I think someone with a fridge full of tupperware has a fridge half full of spoiled food.

While I agree that CI has been wrong so many times as to be considered unreliable, I don't nuke anything in soft plastic either. However I wonder if cooking something in water is hot enough to affect the plastic as much as grease. I have seen the heat of grease melt plastic in the microwave but never noticed it with water.