Kim Shook

@BonVivant – I know that I would hugely overserve myself with that crate of figs next to me. @Chris Hennes – that sandwich has Mr. Kim and I regretting that we have no access to such gorgeous meat and bread! Well done! @chefmd – Love the bologna and mayo on white bread. It is sometimes the perfect treat! I agree with rotuts that mortadella is lovely (I even like the pistachios), but I love bologna for what it is, too. Saturday lunch was some Wegman’s goodies I’d gotten on my shopping trip: Fruit salad, baguette, a hybrid bleu/Brie cheese, and local honey.

I neglected to say, "Thank you SO much, @JoNorvelleWalker!!!!" I also neglected to say that doing this: was SO much easier than I thought it would be.

@blue_dolphin – I would love that pizza combination for any meal, any time! @liuzhou - thank you for that gorgeous egg! What a color! @Shelby – that reminds me – I need to add hash brown patties to my shopping list. I’m satisfying my crumpet cravings these last couple of days – yesterday: Buttery, buttery crumpets and IP eggs. This morning was my international breakfast: NC sausage and British crumpets. 😄

Delicious looking bakes, y’all! @jedovaty– your blueberry “pie” is lovely. I made the Joy of Cooking Sour Cream Apple Cake Souffle Cockaigne that JoNorvelleWalker introduced us to: Thank God that Jo was available by PM because I have the 1975 edition and some of the directions were odd. It called for “shredded almonds” and for baking in a 12x17-inch baking pan. I have no idea what a shredded almond is and neither does Google. And the only pan I have that size is a baking sheet with a less than one-inch rim. Jo had a newer edition and set me straight. I have to say that I really hate the format of Joy of Cooking and never use it unless I’m looking for a specific method/recipe that I can’t find anywhere else. It has great information and background, but the format of interspersing ingredients throughout the directions, rather than at the beginning, drives me crazy and I’m always afraid I’m going to miss an ingredient. All that said, this was a delicious and unusual dessert. I really appreciated the fact that it is actually BETTER when very cold because it can be cooked ahead, and leftovers taste great. I served it with Cool Whip (because I had it in the freezer): On Sunday we took a pie over to my MIL for her birthday. She’s been craving this pie for months and the restaurant that used to serve it has closed for good: This is the Surrey House Peanut and Raisin Pie. I was deeply suspicious of all those raisins. I love raisins but wasn’t at all sure about them in a pie with peanuts. I needn’t have worried. It was a delicious pie. Very rich, but hard to stop nibbling. Slice:

I'm betting you have a big boy blender. Why not give this a try and report back? 😁

@Anna N - it just looks gummy to me. I recently had a store-bought quiche that was the same way. That got tossed, too.

I've wanted to taste a date shake since reading about them in one of the Sterns books!

Lovely article! Thank you for posting.

Welcome to eG, @Marvinator! Congratulations on your retirement! I'm looking forward to your contributions. What kinds of foods do you like to cook/eat?

Funny thing. We got a big box of these at Costco awhile back. We've been eating them and noting that they were a little bland and not terribly figgy and that Fig Newtons are actually better...blah, blah, blah. Just realized last week that they are filled with DATES. Not figs. Duh.

I may have been watching too much British Baking Show, but that pastry looks raw to me.

Rob, this is amazing and truly thinking outside of the box. A good friend of my daughters has a FB page for sharing information about local restaurants that my daughter is helping him to administrate. They get posts from the public and from the owners/chefs also. As far as I know, no one is doing what you are doing. We've avoided some restaurants because we are not ready to dine in, but feel like the food wouldn't travel well to get home. And eating in the car has always meant getting things in take out containers, which can be awkward to deal with. Your solution seems so perfect. I hope that you have great success with this to carry you through until things are safer. Would you mind if I shared your story and perhaps links to your videos with the folks in the FB group I mentioned?

Mr. Kim ordered two bags of nuts last night.

I agree with JeanneCake. Send the picture to Replacements. I sent pictures of my great aunt's obscure pattern - front and back of each piece and they identified the pattern. I'd never even heard of the manufacturer.

As far as I know, all southern pepper jelly has bell peppers in it. Sometimes hot peppers are also added, but this kind (Braswell) and the one that I make has bell peppers.

Yep. That's what I said: "It’s funny that I like pepper jelly...".

Today's afternoon snack: Typical southern treat of cream cheese, pepper jelly, and crackers. I don’t have any Ritz, so Keebler Wheat crackers are subbing. It’s funny that I like pepper jelly since I have an aversion to all things bell pepper. I like pimento cheese, too. But the only other pepper thing that I’ve liked in my entire life is an amuse brought to the table at Mon Oncle in Paris – baguette slices, mascarpone, and chopped candied/pickled red bell pepper (sounds like the French version of my snack, huh?).

English muffins (extra toasty) and IP hard cooked eggs.

Instituted pre-dinner cocktails last night: @Michael Ruhlman's Lemon Drops with a touch of St. Germaine. Lovely. We won’t do it every night – maybe weekly. I also made the world’s easiest soup – Camille Glenn’s Tomato Consommé. It is one of those greater than the sum of its parts things. This is V8, canned beef consommé, sweet onion, celery, and bay leaves. I sometimes add cheese tortellini after this simmers for 20 minutes: The ridiculously easy and delicious result with tortellini and some parm: We also had the first BLT of the season. I make them similar to how they do the “toasted” sandwiches at the BBQ place I grew up on - Short Sugar’s in Reidsville NC. SS’s breakfast sandwiches are actually grilled so that you end up with the outside of the bread toasted and crunchy and the inside (next to the fillings) soft. I didn’t grill these, I just toasted them on one side in the CSO: Sandwich:

I can vouch for this one.

@gfweb – thanks for the mac n cheese link. That sounds like just exactly what I like. @heidih – I actually don’t mind Kraft – as long as it is the kind with the Cheez Whiz-ish stuff. Can’t stand the powdered cheese one. I tart it up with mustard powder and more cheese and hot sauce. @CantCookStillTry – the BBQ looks fantastic! What an amazing assortment! And re: your “use it up” pizza. What happened to all that BBQ???? 😄 @liamsaunt – I really like the sound of miso glazed monkfish. @mgaretz – Hooray for non-mushy dinners!! @ambra – So good to see your posts! You have NOTHING to be shy about! Those are beautiful meals. Last night dinner was this: Tomato sandwich for lunch and the same for dinner except this was toasted with ham and cheese. Served with Campbell’s chicken noodle soup (total comfort food) and excellent watermelon with Maldon salt:

@liuzhou – the pork burger and chips look like a perfect lunch. Does the burger get season or brushed with anything? Yesterday the parade of tomatoes and bread began in earnest. Lunch was a classic tomato sandwich: Peeled tomatoes, white bread, Duke’s, and S&P.

Well, I would answer Green Goddess, but I would honestly be comparing inferior dressings (bottled and not homemade). I've only made Green Goddess a few times and preferred it to bottled or homemade (?) Hidden Valley. But, then, of COURSE I would. I'm printing out your recipe for Ranch, @weinoo - it looks amazing. I can't promise that I won't add some grated pecorino to some of it and compare the flavor of regular Ranch and Cheese Ranch.

@blue_dolphin – glad to see you got your shrimp and grits. Those are some serious grits. They look outstanding! @CantCookStillTry – are square crumpets a thing in Australia? I can only get them at one grocery chain that I know of and they are always round. Even with the vegemite, they look so good that I just went and added them to my grocery list. 😄 This morning: Fried egg on a heavily buttered English muffin.

@pastameshugana – what a lovely thing for you and your daughter to share! That is a great looking pizza! And the bread is fantastic. @weinoo – I don’t care if no one else in my family will eat it, I am making that pasta and clam sauce SOON!!! Jessica has said that she’ll try it and Mr. Kim, who won’t, is ordering the cockles from Amazon for me. He’s tried clams over and over and just doesn’t like them. I’ve converted him to so many things over the 40 years I’ve been cooking for him that I let a few things slide! @Shelby – re: your BLT, cucumber, and fries dinner. I am having incredibly good leftovers tonight, from one of my favorite restaurants and I would trade it in a minute for that meal. What’s in that cucumber salad besides cukes and onions. Dill? Something creamy? I must make them. @mgaretz – that lentil soup looks great. I love lentil soup and haven’t made it in forever. Lentils are one of the things that Mr. Kim filled the guest room with when he was buying emergency supplies, so I need to put that on my list. Hope you are doing better and better! @kayb – ooohhh! I hate dental crap! I joke that I would prefer actual body surgery to dental surgery (it’s not totally a joke either – I’d do my gastric bypass again in a minute if insurance would pay for it). Hope you feel better soon and that it really is the last one you need. @Nicolai – that Greek meal has me very envious. Some of my favorite food. @Duvel – gorgeous food and views. I’m starting to wish that we’d made our England trip in March, after all, and gotten stuck there. @gfweb – which Kenji recipe is that? I’m finding a number of them when I Google. @Anna N – I wish I could get one single cabbage roll like that. I’ve never had them and generally do not care for cooked cabbage, but seeing them prepared on TV, I suspect that I might just like them. Wednesday’s dinner was a bunch of leftovers: Even the tomato slice was leftover from dinner the night before! We had a huge lunch yesterday, so last night’s dinner ended up being at breakfast food at 10pm: Toast, eggs on frozen hash brown patties, and Benton’s bacon.