Kim Shook

@blue_dolphin – that black cod is gorgeous. I love the taste and texture of it. Hard to get here. @BKEats – that looks like an absolutely perfect BLT. @pastameshugana – lovely looking bread. Can we have a peek inside when you cut the next one? @Dejah – I’d say that you truly needed that virtual hug from your mother. I’m sending one, too! Your “Tornado Cake” looks delicious. @mgaretz – I know your marsala was mushroom-free by accident, but it looks so wonderful to me! I detest both the flavor and texture of mushrooms (except, oddly enough, enoki) and when I make something that really requires mushrooms, I just cut them very large so that I can eat around them. But it would have been lovely to not have to eat around them in your marsala! So, Mr. Kim’s birthday was Friday, but he wanted the dinner on Saturday. He also wanted fried chicken (great minds think alike, huh @robirdstx and @liamsaunt , huh?). I got the chef’s treat while frying: Mr. Kim and Jess don’t eat liver anyway. According to the two of them, this was the best fried chicken I’ve ever made: It is basically the recipe I always use, but I made some changes so I’m going to be rewriting the recipe. I added some semolina flour to the coating. I doubled up the seasoning and dusted the brined chicken with it while it air-dried in the fridge AND added some to the flour coating mixture. I also did a buttermilk dunk before dredging in the flour mixture. Sliced tomatoes, butter beans, and whipped potatoes (with obscene amounts of butter – 5 russets and 1 1/2 sticks of butter): Gravy – which was excellent. Having bags of homemade stock in the freezer is just the best thing: Cat head biscuits: My MIL’s green tomato sweet pickles and kosher dills: Plates: Jessica brought dessert from a local favorite restaurant: Salted Chocolate Caramel cake, Bourbon Pecan Cake, and Chocolate PB Pie. All very good. Extremely rich - LOTS leftover.

@pastameshugana – that ham looks almost like a Pittsburgh chipped ham sandwich! So good. On Saturday we did the preparing and delivering lunches to the homeless shelters. Got burgers at a local burger place. Not my favorite burger in Richmond. I think they aren’t properly balanced as far as the build goes and I find the burgers a little overcooked and dry. My classic cheeseburger: Mr. Kim’s with jalapenos. We shared an order of fries: Good fries. I will have to remember to say “no seasoned salt” next time. I really wish places would tell you upfront that they are going to wreck your delicious fries season salt or with anything but salt. On Sunday we went out to visit with Mr. Kim’s dad and stepmom and picked up lunch on the way home at a local sub shop. We’d noticed it a couple of weeks ago and wanted to try it. Mr. Kim got the pepperoni steak and cheese: He liked this a LOT. The pepperoni was very spicy, so I didn’t try it. I had a sandwich that was SO good that it caused me to be disappointed that they missed a chance to make it perfect. It was the Thanksgiving sub – roasted turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce: Actual roasted, carved turkey, REAL stuffing (not instant), and cranberry sauce. Where they missed a chance was that the sub was barely warm and should have been HOT and there was no gravy. I just assumed that a sub with turkey and stuffing would have gravy. Luckily, I had some in the fridge leftover from dinner last night. I would honestly say to someone to only order it if they have access to good chicken/turkey gravy. That’s a real shame. My gravy saving the day: Wonderful fries: Unfortunately, another place that sprinkles season salt on unannounced. Nonetheless, these were almost finished in the car on the way home! So good. Mr. Kim is working from home today. I had some leftover biscuits: So, I made sausage gravy and hash browns (frozen😟) for lunch: Served with watermelon:

@pastrygirl – I really like the sound of strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream. Would you share the recipe? Mr. Kim’s birthday was Friday. His mom and our daughter, Jessica, came over for dessert (he decided that he’d rather have his birthday dinner on Saturday). He picked Frosted Daquiri Pie: Slice: He loves this pie. I’ve been eating it since high school. One of my mother’s friends gave her the recipe and it was a common “company” dessert. Honestly, it’s not my favorite. I’m just not crazy about gelatin-based “creamy pies” – I prefer them to be heavy cream- or cream cheese-based.

@blue_dolphin – I believe that I may have lost consciousness a bit looking at those gorgeous plums and pancakes. Just lovely. @shain – that Kubaneh bread is incredible looking and sounds so interesting. Friday was Mr. Kim’s birthday and he took the day off. He requested Bobby Flay’s Cheddar-Black Pepper Waffles with Sausage & Apples and Maple/Apple Cider Vinegar Agrodolce for his birthday breakfast. Waffles: The apples and onions: And the sausage: Which looks exactly like dog kibble😄. All together: The dressed waffle - drizzled with the maple/apple cider vinegar agrodolce: He loved this. I am not much on apples and onions together, but the waffle with the agrodolce was good. His staff had doughnuts from a Rise Biscuits in our area sent to the house for his BD: Raspberry jelly filled, cookies and cream, classic glazed, chocolate iced, maple bacon, crème brûlée. I taste a bit of each one and they were very good. Here’s the crème brûlée: It was rather lovely.

Afternoon snack board: Tillamook Cheddar and Fig “Salami” with orange zest and Aleppo pepper.

Completely agree. LOTS of otherwise good chefs oversalt.

Here you go!

This. I'm ready to start researching electric/battery can openers and pepper grinders. What's really bothering me is how hard it is to use my knives and to grate cheese. I bought one of those chopper things, but hate digging it out. I can foresee lots of changes to get used to. I can remember being really snotty and arrogant about gadgets (not quite as bad as that twit Alton Brown), but now that I am older and have hand issues, I am much more understanding about many of them.

It's weirdly pale.

I cook bacon in the oven on baking sheets covered with the large heavy duty foil. No mess, no trouble. I never cook less that the entire package. It will get eaten in a week.

What about those things that you ordered, @Shelby?

Pretty sure it would. I think the point is that it shouldn't be the really low-fat stuff - just doesn't melt right.

@Franci – in all the crab and pasta talk, your fried cod got lost! It looks so good. @Anna N – so how did you make your nice looking gravy😄? @robirdstx – I love smashed burgers best of all! Not sure where this belongs. I remember a discussion of this somewhere. Almost 2 qts. of corn cob stock: Now I’ve got to figure out what I’m going to do with them. Appetizer tonight: @robirdstx's Pan-Fried String Cheese. So good and surprisingly filling. I only ate one and had to wait awhile to have the rest of my dinner! Salad: And penne rigate with meat sauce:

Biscuits (US kind)? What temp and what setting, please. Thank you!

I've been many times. The original store was directly behind my college dorm and every time we could afford it, my boyfriend and I would skip the dining hall and go get a box lunch. I've never had anything that wasn't delicious. As a matter of fact, Mr. Kim and I celebrated our quarantine wedding anniversary back in March with Sally Bell box lunches - as chronicled here. It's a wonderful tradition that I hope carries on as long as I do! Thanks so much for posting that wonderful video.

I hesitate to post this here. All I did was bake biscuits from frozen, macerate some berries, and activate some aerosol coconut whipped cream: It was really good, though.

I did not. I found them at Wegman's. I need to get some rings and make my own and English muffins, too.

The VA Diner peanut pie is just exactly that. And it is incredibly good. Just make sure to use REAL VA peanuts. They are the absolute best.

@Ann_T - Every time I see one of your posts, I get a new craving. @CantCookStillTry – The vegetable mix is sold here as “Veg-All” in the US. Here you can also get it in cans. I have to say that yours looks like better quality vegetables than the bags I’ve purchased in the past. It’s not a bad start to a quick soup. Hot dogs for dinner with fixed up canned baked beans and fruit: And corn (it’s August):

@Duvel – lovely pictures. That church reminds me a little of one that we saw in New Orleans: And the crackling is just incredible. @chefmd – as you can see, you influenced my lunch yesterday: Bologna on white with Duke’s and lettuce.😁

@blue_dolphin – loved reading about Fettuccine Alfredo vs Pasta all'Alfredo. I realized after seeing the video that while I may not have eaten much Fettuccini Alfredo in the past (see dinner thread), I have been eating Pasta all’Alfredo all my life. In my family, Pasta all’Alfredo is what you give to babies who aren’t ready for tomato sauce yet and to sick people and to yourself when you need a little comforting. It’s funny to sometimes find very Italian things still happening in my extremely assimilated Washington DC via Mississippi Delta via Genoa Italy family. Like the fact that they ALL put cabbage, white beans, and pasta in their "vegetable" soup. @Ann_T - gorgeous blueberries. We love picking them in the summer and stocking the freezer with local ones. On the Great British Baking Show whenever someone tries to bake with blueberries, one of the judges always says, “Blueberries don’t really have any flavor, do they?”. Lead me to wonder where in the world they are sourcing tasteless blueberries! 😄 My breakfasts are all looking same-same, I know. But the truth is that I am just not adventurous by nature and especially not in the morning. If I eat at all, I want crunchy, buttery bread, eggs, and pork. Potatoes if they are very easy or if someone else is making them. Yesterday: English muffins, NC sausage, IP eggs. Today: IP eggs, crumpets, and some of a ham slice that was languishing in the deli drawer.

I really wish these sauce mixes were better than they are. I'd really love to be able to use them to make a gravy or sauce without a lot of fuss. But, I find, like you did, that they tend to taste like chemicals. One of my sisters fairly brags about her turkey gravy - she makes no secret that it is just made by the book McCormick powdered mix. I do like the Knorr mixes better than the others I've tasted. I confess to using the Knorr hollandaise and Bearnaise when i want a quick sauce. And I do use some of the powdered mixes to either begin a sauce/gravy or augment it when I want gravy in a hurry. The Heinz Homestyle Roasted Brown gravy mix is the start for a truly delicious IP braised beef recipe I developed. My uncle was a regional manager for McCormick for his entire working life. He (and therefore WE) got free McCormick products all the time. So, I grew up with them. But none of us used the gravy mixes straight - they were always "fixed up" in some way. I love having homemade stocks in the freezer, but life doesn't always give me the freedom to make sure that happens. When I want gravy and haven't planned for it, I will use the mixes, but I will play with them - using boxed stock or "Better than Bouillon" rather than water, wine, herbs, and often a little Gravy Master to food the eye!

And Kim.

It is a long name. Mr. Kim was calling it "Le Cockaigne", but I just said apple souffle! 😁 Peeling the almonds was a bit tedious, but incredibly easy. You just cover them with boiling water for one minute, then rinse in cold water to cool them off. Then all you do is "pinch" them and they pop right out (sometimes across the kitchen!). I got to a point where I would kind of twirl each individual almond between my fingers and thumb and they would just slip right out. I wouldn't want to do it as a job, but I won't avoid recipes that call for them anymore. 🙂

Another date use that is SO good.