Kim Shook

@Ann_T – that peameal bacon that you’ve been making is so lovely! @Miss K – I am fond of box mixes and I love muffins. I like the nice domes you got on those muffins, I need to try that brand! Still struggling to get caught up and loving all of your beautiful meals. Breakfast a few days ago was just toast, but made with some beautiful sourdough that we got at a Mennonite market that we discovered on a trip to pick peaches: Another day my breakfast was a massive fail. It was something I saw on a YouTube channel, “Dollar Tree Dinners”. It sounded and looked easy and tasty. It WAS tasty, but not easy and more trouble than it was worth even if it had worked. The basic idea was to make sausage stuffed pancake muffins. And it was clever. You formed raw sausage links into patties, tucked the rounds into muffin tins and baked them. Then you removed the cooked patties and put pancake batter into the tins. The sausage patties went back in and then were topped with additional batter and baked. The result was something that looked like a muffin, but cut open revealed a sausage patty. You were supposed to use maple flavored sausage links and cheese slices to approximate a McGriddle. We don’t find the idea of cheese and maple syrup appetizing, so I skipped the cheese. I had a problem right from the beginning: These just looked so unfortunate 🤨. She used sausage links that didn’t have casings and it didn’t occur to me to take mine out of the casing. Also, since hers was cheap Dollar Tree sausage, it was much fattier and made more lubrication for the batter (foreshadowing here). I carried on and put them together: Another problem with using better quality sausage than she used was that mine didn’t shrink a lot and was, therefore, the same size as the muffin cups which meant that the batter didn’t encase the patties. Which meant that this was how mine came out: “Came out” is actually what they did NOT do: 🤬This was the mess that I was left to clean up. SO not worth it. These were presented as a “grab and go” breakfast. Something that you could pop in the microwave and take in the car. Mr. Kim and I both thought that they really needed to be dunked in syrup which made THAT idea a non-starter. Luckily, I had some batter leftover and some pecans in the freezer. I made us a couple of regular pancakes: Which were delicious and much less trouble. Breakfast after all that: A few days ago, breakfast Campari tomatoes on that good Mennonite toast: Pancakes and bacon: Pancakes and bacon. I used up the pancake mix that I bought to make those failed pancake and sausage muffins. It’s funny – I’ve never used a mix before to make pancakes. Momma used Bisquick, which is about the same, I guess. I never loved them, so I’ve always made mine from scratch. But I have to admit, there’s not a huge difference between these and mine. Yesterday - 1st breakfast: BEC on an English muffin. Then, because I was hungry about an hour later and this luscious pear was calling to me – 2nd breakfast: Also, I was afraid that the croissant was going to go stale 👀.

@OlyveOyl - as always, your desserts are perfection. A question that I've often wondered about: when eating with currants that are still partially on the stem, do you pick them off before eating/put them your mouth and maneuver the currants off the stem and then discretely spit the stem out (like that bar trick girls used to do in the 1970s 😉)/EAT the stem? Or is it dealt with some other way I haven't thought of. Well, here I am among the Dessert Gods/Goddesses with my silly little offerings 😄. I mean - y'all!!!! You are just doing incredible things. And I'm offering two variations on a icebox dessert made with Jello Pudding, Cool Whip, and graham crackers. This one was for Father's Day: made with cheesecake flavored pudding, chocolate graham crackers and fruit. This one was for a dinner last night: lemon pudding, regular graham crackers, and blackberries.

My rib roast turned out very well. I chose the sear, then SV method, which was a bit undermined by the fact that I scored the fat cap. I don’t have a picture of the pre-seared roast, but this is it post-SV and out of the bag: As you can see, I overdid the sear in some areas and some didn’t get touched at all. But I fixed that up with a torch: Still not sure about the scoring, but I do like the sear, then SV method. I’m a big fan of doing what you can ahead of time and that’s one thing out of the way. I can’t complain about the results: I did it at 135F for 8 hours. It was wall-to-wall medium-rare and tender and juicy. I could call it a little bland, but that is the fact that I bought it at Kroger, I think. Just not the most flavorful meat. If I’d paid $50-$75/pound for it, I’m sure it would have been better. But I didn’t and this was pretty good: Those white marks going through the middle of the meat are bits of sunshine coming through the kitchen window – at certain times of the year dinner photos are difficult!

I do not claim to have the most delicate, discriminating palate, but I think the EVOO is very good. I find it tasty enough to dip crusty bread into. As far as the apple cider vinegar goes, I claim ignorance. I buy the cheapest store brand of that and have always been satisfied with that. My mother was a complete name brand shopper and always used either Heinz or White House and I never could taste the difference between those and my store brands.

They are pretty cheap, so I'm not worried about sharpening. And I'm a BIG girl - I just put my weight on top of it, and it WORKS! 😁

Time for more bitching and moaning! When a recipe calls for seasoning something raw (like chicken or beef) and says "season to taste". What the hell does that even mean?????

They look and sound great. I love a chopped cheese and places in our area are finally starting to make them!

That all sounds great! Thank you so much. I'll be searing first, then SV'ing. I'll definitely take pictures! Yesterday I made the beef stock with the rib bones. I roasted the bones and veg in the CSO and then made the stock in the IP. I'll be making the actual gravy later today.

Bumping this up hoping someone will respond to my question above. The roast is 7.5 lb.

Not much of a dark chocolate fan - except for covering excessively sweet things, i.e. - dried fruit, candied peel, etc. My favorite chocolate that I've ever tasted is British Cadbury.

For Father's Day Mr. Kim chose our favorite pizza place. Jessica’s Caesar: She also had a slice with feta and Italian sausage: Mr. Kim had a loaded steak and cheese (lousy photo): I had a cheese slice and an Italian sub:

This morning was a Lidl croissant, honey butter, jam, and strawberries: Just like a good tomato sandwich, croissants should be eaten over the sink:

I'm planning to SV a rib roast that I've got in the freezer. I cut the ribs off before I froze it and will be using them to make my stock for gravy. I want to sear the roast and then SV it. Everyone eating will be fine with medium rare. Any tips for me - timing/seasoning? This will be a classic roast beef dinner - roast potatoes, Yorkies, sprouts. Thanks!!!

@gulfporter - that is one gorgeous pie! And best wishes for a good and speedy recovery to your husband! <hugs> @RWood - Happy birthday to your extremely lucky Pops! PB and chocolate is one of my favorite combinations. As my mother used to say, "If God made anything better, he kept it for Himself!"

What a treat this would be for me! I adore apples, apple cider and hard cider. When we went to England in 2011, cider was my drink of choice since I'm not a beer drinker. Those all look so interesting. I confess I do lean more towards the sweeter ones - though not too sweet - which is not a surprise to anyone here! Thank you for sharing your voyage of discovery with us!