Kim Shook

@Smithy – there is cream of chicken soup in the recipe, but I’ve used that in other things that I like. That’s really the only processed thing – the recipe includes sour cream, Cheddar, hash browns, Swiss, hot sauce, pepper, onions (which I cooked before adding). The flavor is a little bland ( @heidih is on the right track with it being one-note). Also, the potatoes just don’t get soft enough. I like @kayb’s idea of par-boiling the potatoes. I do that with au gratin potatoes because I’ve never had luck not doing it. Tony Bourdain’s Gratin Dauphinois instructs you to simmer the sliced potatoes in cream and that was the first time I successfully made potatoes cooked in a sauce. Thanks to everyone for the help and questions! @Norm Matthews and @David Ross – gorgeous meals! Two of my favorite comfort foods – roast chicken and Swedish meatballs!

I've got to admit that African food is not my favorite. I always find it too spicy. Our church is home to an Ethiopian congregation that meets on Saturday mornings. To thank us for that, they made a feast for us one Sunday after church. I ended up eating the bread a a couple of non-spicy things. But Mr. Kim was in heaven!

@rotuts - thank you so much! You would have been welcome, wig or no. Our priest came with his wife and so did one of the gentlemen from our vestry. Our small city has an amazing assortment of restaurants for a place this size: all the expected ones plus Ethiopian, Balkan, West African, Colombian, Peruvian, Persian, etc. We are very, very lucky!

Our ladies group at church had an afternoon tea last Sunday. The food was a mix of purchased and homemade. Cucumber sandwiches on pumpernickel: Jessica’s Liptauer cheese on cocktail rye: Fruit & dip: Mini lemon cakes and petit fours (purchased): Chocolate dipped macaroons and American scones (purchased): Another lady’s Cheese Ribbon Sandwiches: No idea what kind of cheese spreads these are, but I do know she made them. Very good. Palmiers (purchased): Mini Jamaican meat patties: These were purchased, but made by a local Jamaican restaurant and really delicious. Chicken salad on mini croissants: Cheese gougères: We had way too much of some things and this time I made copious notes for next time.

Jessica made dinner the other night. Salad: What isn’t shown is the incredibly good salad dressing she made with olive oil, lemon juice and Saba. Also pasta: Olive oil, lemon zest and juice, Parm and basil. Delicious. Another night was breakfast for dinner. I tried one of those goopy, cheesy frozen hashbrown casseroles again: I guess I just don’t like them. But I can’t figure out why. I love goopy, cheesy casseroles. And I adore potatoes. But I’ve never found one of these that I care for. Scrambled eggs, those potatoes, asparagus for Mr. Kim and Father’s bacon, Served with the last of the Callie’s cheese and country ham biscuits from my Charleston SC trip: Hope the Fresh Market has this variety.

You need to get Ronnie to portion out the fries - larger hands=more fries.

Dear God, my all time favorite combination - peanuts and chocolate! ETA - LOL - I went to bookmark the recipe and realized I made these almost 11 years ago! I loved them and saved the recipe on my webpage. But I didn't think to coat them in chocolate. Must try that!

I am perilously close to 60, but grew up spending a LOT of time with my grandparents. Thus, I know more about 30's & 40's music and actors than I do about my own generation's.

Hey, @JoNorvelleWalker - I'll eat the cauliflower if you take care of the fungus. Deal? 😊

A sweet roll from Lidl's bakery: I am really a fan of their baked goods. The oatmeal cookies are the best bakery version I've ever had.

Not sure where to put this, but it will be lunch on Sunday. We are having a tea for the ladies of the church and I'm providing some of the goodies. Gougères:

I am watching "Barefoot Contessa" and she just suggested using mascarpone as a substitute for clotted cream. I Googled it and found lots of suggestions for mascarpone plus whipping cream and some suggesting a little sugar. Has anyone tried this? I fell in love with clotted cream in England and would love to find something here that I could use.

I can get to it.

A piece of quiche Lorraine from Kroger: I've spoken before about Ukrops - a former Richmond VA grocery chain that closed years ago. They still make certain bakery and prepared foods and provide them to area stores. This quiche is one of those items. It is actually quite good. Especially the texture - very creamy and fluffy. The crust is good, too - nice and flaky. The only thing that I don't care for is the inclusion of onions. This is my own taste - I just don't care for onion in eggs.

Salad and spaghetti:

LOL! It is one of our favorites! For anyone who is curious - Figs, Raspberries, Orange peel, and Ginger

POCKETS!!! Not many of mine have them, but I love them.

A few recent dinners – Mr. Kim was in Urbanna VA last Saturday and Sunday judging a BBQ competition and brought home some of his tastings. He made delicious soup with them: I took the leftover smoke chicken from our trip last week and shredded it to make “pulled chicken” bbq: So good. Another night was salad and pizza: I made the salad. A local joint made the pizza. It was fine. I’ve given up on finding really good pizza in Richmond. Last night was taco night. Chippy dip: Jessica’s amazing street corn (off the cob): Accompaniments: My plate: Beans, taco, Jessica’s corn and Mexican rice (Rice a Roni). My traditional end of taco meal salad, complete with Kraft Zesty Italian: I’ve done this since college. My roommate taught be about this delightful thing. You just take everything that fell apart from your tacos, add more of what you are short of. It must be served with Kraft Zesty Italian – very important. It was the first time I’d ever had anything like this and we didn’t call it a taco salad.

A couple of recent breakfasts – Eggs, hash browns and Father’s country ham: Biscuits and jams & honey: Another one was more of that Father’s ham on sweet potato biscuits and a cinnamon roll. The biscuit and roll were from bakeries in Smithfield VA that we went to on our recent trip. Sorry for the crappy pictures. Mr. Kim went to work with my camera in his car and all I had was my extremely crappy cell phone!

I love aprons and wear them all the time I am in the kitchen. The one that I wear most often is actually 100% polyester, but feels exactly like cotton. It is a classic plain white with extra long ties (so that it ties in front and I can drape a towel through the ties). It was a freebie from a cooking class I took years ago with Roberto Donna. I have them for almost every holiday and wear those when entertaining. My other favorite is one made for us by @maggiethecat It is two-sided. My side is flowered and Mr. Kim’s side is camo. It is one of my most treasured gifts.

Welcome!!!

Mr. Kim and I were discussing Reese's cups just the other day. Unlike other candies, which we prefer in the "fun size", we like the proportions of the regular Reese's cup better than the little ones. And we both agreed that the Reese's egg was the best. The real question is: How do you pronounce Reese's? "Reesus" (like the monkey) or "Reecie"? That's the Mason-Dixon line of candy!

I did, too. Between the pollution aspects and the child/slave labor prevalent in SE Asia, I just don't choose to buy it.

I, too, like cottage cheese. Straight is fine with me. I can't find my favorite anymore, though - dry, large curd. I used to eat it a lot as a kid. I saw America's Test Kitchen do a tomato and cheese lasagna where they swapped ricotta out in favor of cottage cheese - swore it had more flavor.

My take is it needed LOTS more time - 8-10 hours on low and liquid. Honestly, as much as I love my slow cooker for many things, braising red meat is not one of them. Slow cookers are supposed to cook at 200F on low, but I doubt it. I have multiples of them and I think they all cook higher than that on low. I prefer to braise my short ribs covered, in the oven at 300F for five hours. Like this. I also do them on top of the stove like this.