Kim Shook

I love a LOT of these mugs/cups, but I have to say that these are special to me. My parents had a whole set like this (copies, perhaps) that they used as everyday table pieces. I'm guessing that the last mug bit the dust when I was still a child, but I loved them.

So this wasn't a Freudian thing? 🤣

I am truly losing confidence in the IP. Or at least my ability to use it. I attempted to make some hard-cooked eggs on Friday. This is what my hard-cooked eggs from the IP looked like: This is how they’ve looked with the exact same time, same method, same egg temp, same everything for months: So that’s my hard-cooked egg issue. Just recently, I had a problem with my long-standing method of soft-cooked eggs – they also turned out undercooked when I cooked them the same way and time that I’d been doing them for a few months. This was how they looked recently: Then, back in February, I did a “tried and true” spaghetti and meat sauce recipe in the IP and it turned into mush. I honestly don’t know what’s going on, but if I can’t count on results, I know that this will turn into another attic appliance like my rotisserie oven and Mr. Kim’s giant juicer. (I ended up cooking them ‘old-school’ on top of the stove. They were fine.)

@weinoo – that lox breakfast looks perfect to me. Exactly the right amount of lox on the bagel and the bread. Whenever we went for breakfast with my mom, she would order lox and bagels and get them to put an extra bagel in a bag for her. She’d take half of the lox and the extras off the bagel she was eating and put them on the bagel she was taking. It gave her lunch, dinner, or a snack later. She wasn’t cheap – they just put on too much for her taste! @chefmd – seeing as I grew up in NOVA and spent vacation times on the eastern shore – mostly MD and DE, it seems so odd that I’ve never tasted scrapple. I’d like to, though. Is it mushy inside when it is heated? That’s what stopped me from enjoying Spam when I finally tasted it. I actually liked the flavor and the crisp crust, but the insides were mushy and hot and that texture just put me off. @Ann_T – your cheese biscuits are absolutely, positively perfect and, as a fellow cook, I’m awash with admiration. As a Southerner, I’m a tad jealous. 😁 On Friday, I tried out a new recipe - Coconut Sour-Cherry Granola: This is supposedly the same granola that NYC restaurant Eleven Madison Park gives to customers at the end of their meal for breakfast the next morning: Really good. Not super sweet. It contains sour cherries, pepitas, pistachios, coconut, maple syrup, and – interestingly – EVOO. It made enough to share: Mr. Kim’s brother is in town to visit their dad and stepmom and came by for a quick, masked, socially distant breakfast visit and to pick up the food that I’d make for them. I served fruit salad: Strawberries, pineapple, grapes, mandarin oranges. Scrambled eggs: Served right from the pan – family style! Tomato Jam and Benton’s Bacon Bruschetta: This is one of those easy, delicious things that I forget to make. Sunday before church (parking lot, masked, socially distant service): Bread machine white bread, toasted, and leftover fruit salad. After church, Mr. Kim, Jessica, and I took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Stopped on our way out of town at one of our favorite bagel joints for Hobbit’s breakfast. Jessica had a salt bagel with scallion cream cheese (no picture). I had an ET with bacon, egg, and cheese: Mr. Kim had something that I would have never thought to order and was absolutely fantastic – a chicken, egg, and cheese on a salt bagel: Only issue was that I wanted to go over to the deli up the street and get a biscuit to put that chicken on.

This is the one that I ended up ordering from Amazon: It is similar to, but not exactly the one that @Hassouni referenced. It was just over $20 with free shipping. The other was $20+$10 shipping. I did check and it doesn't seem to have a coating to flake off. I'm loving the 3 pronged model - thank you, @Hassouni! It has those weird little noodle-y things for protection, but I think I'll try @Margaret Pilgrim's suggestion and just try a cork from the next bottle of wine we open.

@Margaret Pilgrim – you’ve inspired me. I need to cook Chow Fun again soon. @robirdstx – your frittata looks lovely. So often, I think they are much too dry and overcooked (even coming from “professionals”), but I’d love to sit down to that! @Shelby – I’ve just gone to my recipe for Lasagna soup and added a note to get campanelle pasta next time I make it. @liamsaunt – all I can say is that your Cape cooking causes an occasion of sin in me. I truly covet your lobster and scallop rolls. I have a good friend in Sudbury who is thinking of buying a retirement home on the Cape and she is always after me to come visit (when it is safe again). I am going to be sending her the pictures of your food and saying that is what I want to find when we come up north!!!😁 Mr. Kim’s stepmom is not doing well (they think a mini-stroke), so his brother is in town to visit with their dad and her. I made a dinner for him to take out to them on Saturday. Just a casserole (which she loves like the elderly Midwesterner that she is!), salad and rolls. I did my grandmother’s prize-winning beef casserole: She actually won 2nd place in a recipe contest held by the Greensboro (NC) Daily News and Record newspaper in 1973 for this recipe – I have the clipping with her cooking in some strange kitchen I’ve never seen🙂 . This is basically Hamburger Helper – ground beef, shredded cheese, macaroni, tomatoes, cream of mushroom soup, etc. I remember her making this when I was a little girl in the 1960’s, so this pre-dated HH. This will get baked when they want it, so the cheese on top isn’t yet melted. Saturday’s dinner was a pull together of various leftovers: Broccoli salad, flank steak and gravy, and the same bread as that morning’s bruschetta, except with fresh tomatoes and Duke’s.

Thank you, @heidih and @rotuts! I just went and looked and the brand I have is Thai Kitchen - probably because I'm trying to lessen the number of different stores I go to and that's what Food Lion or Kroger stocks. We love fish sauce and use it the same way I use Worcestershire - drop by drop when a dish needs "something", but you're not sure what! Mr. Kim is not a huge mac n cheese fan, but when I was testing recipes for @Michael Ruhlman, I cooked his Macaroni and Cheese w/ Soubise, which has fish sauce, and Mr. Kim loved it. I'm convinced it's the fish sauce that makes the difference in that for him.

Googled RB-40. All I can find are references to early retirement (Retire Before 40). I need to know bc I have the same issues with opening anchovies and using 2 filets and a year later throwing the scary jar away.

Google "le creuset stonewear lids" and see what comes up. I found this., which I don't think is the right one, but keep checking and it may turn up. I also found some (le creuset and other kinds) on ebay. Again, keep checking. You can also find square (or rectangular - it was hard to tell from the picture) silicone lids on Amazon - they are cheap and work really well, so you could get one of those to use until you find what you really want.

You win. Love this so much!

I know this is too late for tonight, but I was out of the house all day. I haven't done this with duck skin, but have with chicken skin. 400F on Bake/Steam for however long it takes (sorry, I don't remember exactly - but since you were just re-crisping, I'd guess 10-15 minutes?).

To be fair, if you don't have garlic bread how do you mop up the last of the sauce on the plate. And if you don't have leftover garlic bread, what do you pile cold spaghetti on top of the next morning? 😁

Thank you, ma'am! I'll look for those later. So, thin skinned, but bigger and it looks like they were peeled. Honestly, have you ever seen someone so fixated on fricking potatoes? I am a carb fiend! LOLOLOL

Yes! I've always done it with the liquid at the bottom and the yeast on top and away from the salt. Do you mean I should reverse that?

@patti – thanks so much for the oven fries directions. I’m planning on doing those soon. You said you used “red potatoes”. Does that mean they are new potatoes? Have you used russets, and have you noticed any difference? Sorry for all the questions. They just looked so good that I want to make sure I get them right! (Right next to the “quote” is a + sign – I think that you can hit that for every post you want to directly address. Someone will correct me if I’m wrong.) I use my iPhone for photos but run them through my computer for a Picasa makeover before posting. Dinner was one of those rare meals where every single thing turns out really well. Menu was SV flank steak, gravy, roasted cipollini onions, @Marlene's Crispy Smashed Potatoes, broccoli salad, and yeast rolls. The flank steak was done at 133F for almost 3 hours and it was incredibly tender: Might do 130F next time. The onions were so deeply flavorful and sweet. Starting – just salt, pepper, butter, and onions: Broccoli salad: I’ve made this and other versions over the years and all three of us thought this was the best I’ve ever made. Not a clue why – though I did run short on bacon and end up adding some small diced Edward’s country ham. Even the gravy turned out especially good: The yeast rolls where store-bought, but they were our favorites from the Kroger bakery – pillowy and slightly sweet: Plate:

@blue_dolphin – those poached eggs are my poached egg goal! They look perfectly cooked – nice, gooey yolks and completely cooked whites. And it doesn’t look like you’ve lost much white to the poaching water! Breakfast this morning was a freezer gift: My MIL’s Hot Cross Buns. The “cross” had become brittle and fallen off and the buns were too warm to pipe on a cross, so I just blobbed on some icing. Hot Blob Buns? These freeze so well. It was like she brought them to us yesterday.

Thank you so much for the link to the operating manual (I've bookmarked that) and the information and insight. I will definitely veer away from the manual recipes and try some that I had success with when I had my old machine.

I guess I could check amongst my FB friends for a handyman who could cut the glass. I will do that. @Duvel - my butter lives on the counter (we keep our house at about 68F all year long - cooler in the winter), so I don't need to worry about headroom. What kind is that? @chromedome - I will check with a niece who was doing a lot of pottery. I'm not sure if she is anymore, but she might take a commission from a favorite aunt!

Tuesday: Bacon on homemade white bread with a light smear of HP. Wednesday was the 40th anniversary of our first date and Mr. Kim surprised me with a bagel buffet breakfast: Today: Toast from the gigantic loaf of bread the bread machine makes and some pretty ordinary bacon.

@heidih – this was even MORE salty because it was the canister container that has multiple servings in it and no matter how much you shake it up, the last couple of servings always have more than their share of salt/seasoning. Stovetop is one of those rare things that I think have actually improved over the years – it is less salty than it used to be and the seasonings taste fresher. I hadn’t bought it for years, but my mom used it and when I tasted it a couple of years ago and found I liked it. @patti– those do not look like oven fries. They look great. Will you share your method, please? @Shelby – my MIL put a peach pie on FB yesterday and now I see your cobbler. I have two bags of really good peach wedges in my freezer. I believe I have an idea. 😁 I made a genuine lost recipe for dinner on Tuesday. My mother’s best friend, Gerry, made a summer salad that I always loved – even as a child. It was chicken, macaroni, and pineapple, of all things. When I was a young married, I got the recipe from her and made it every few weeks every summer. I got out of the habit of making it and lost track of the recipe. She passed away a few years ago and I thought I’d never have this again. Then, about 5 years ago, I saw a recipe in Taste of Home magazine that seemed familiar. I made it and, with some adjustments, it is almost exactly Gerry’s salad: Served with Poppaw’s green beans: And yet another story. My great grandfather, who was born about 2 weeks after his parents’ ship from Italy arrived in NY, used to “make” these beans: canned whole green beans + bottled “Italian” dressing😄. It is still one of two ways I like green beans. Salad with Momofuko ranch and a lovely late season nectarine:

Welcome, @Susanwusan! I always love seeing someone from my very favorite place in my known world! I've already seen one of your posts (garlic bread) and am looking forward to more! If the UK ever welcomes US visitors again, we plan on coming back for a second visit.

Thanks, everyone! Most of the ones mentioned would still involve butter getting smeared on the butter dish. Actually, @lemniscate, that Japanese butter tub is the closest to what I want. Except not in plastic😄.

I think that what I'm looking for doesn't exist. Remember the old sugar bowl/creamer set that was on every grandmother's kitchen/dinner table. The sugar bowl lid had a little slot cut into it so that the sugar spoon could be in there all the time. I'm looking for a similar idea except in a butter dish. This is the butter dish that I've lived with most of my life (please do not ignore the smears, they are part of the story): The first one that we got was brought over from England by my Nanny in the 1970's. She got it at a store like Woolworth's. Walmart now carries it and when we need a new one, my Mom and I would get one there. We've always used it "upside down" because it is steadier and holds two sticks of butter. This is how it usually looks: We usually leave the butter knife in, but because there is no place for it (like there is in the sugar bowl lid), it is unsteady, falls out (smearing butter) and causing the lid to tumble. This is a pain in the butt. I would love it if someone sold something that could accommodate the knife. But the only ones I've found are like this or this. These don't really address my problem because you would have to clean the knife every time you put it down and if I am willing to do that, I could just clean the one up there every time I used it. Anyone know where I could find something that would work for me. I guess I could take a pottery class and make one myself, but now is not the time for such activities.

I don't think anyone would be wrong in serving garlic bread with pasta, but you were definitely not wrong in not serving it. And for a guest to correct someone who has cooked for them is beyond the pale. Especially since she was wrong.