Kim Shook

My mother used to say that chickens and eggs had minds of their own and cooked how they wanted to at any given time! 😄

@Norm Matthews – I will have to try that trick with the deviled eggs and the ranch powder. I know we’d love that. Easter dinner. Predinner snacks were an assortment of pickles/olives and these seasoned mini-saltines: We found the cracker seasoning mix in a little boutique in Staunton while on our anniversary trip. It’s from a company called Savory Fine Foods. They have a few different flavors. This one was just a tad spicy with a little onion, garlic, and cheese flavor. You mix the dry powder with oil and then add the crackers to the seasoned oil in a large ziplock bag and toss it around for a day or so. Really good. I’m planning to order a bunch for Xmas gifts. Next time, though, I’ll measure it out by weight and make a half batch. The buffet: Ham: Like others I’m not a fan of spiral sliced hams. I do like the ease of carving that a boneless ham offers. We buy Costco’s Master Carve boned out ham. It is nothing like a canned ham or even other boneless hams. To me it is indistinguishable from a regular city ham in taste and texture – just incredibly easy to carve. Done in the slow cooker – patted down with a brown sugar/mustard/pineapple juice crust and cooked on a rack over a puddle of Co’cola. Not pictured was @Tropicalsenior's amazing mustard sauce. I am no longer allowed to serve ham without the sauce 😁! Jessica’s deviled eggs didn’t get their own picture (though they are in the buffet shot), but they were excellent, as always. She really has a way with them. Mine are good (everyone’s are GOOD) but hers are fantastic. @Shelby’s cucumbers: Which Jessica requests with every special meal. Broccoli salad: Which I never get quite right – this time I didn’t make enough, and I had WAY too many chopped pecans! It was still delicious and even my BIL requested a second serving (he hates mixed up things). Jessica’s Watergate salad: Jessica’s pineapple casserole: Creamy Dijon Garlic Potatoes Dauphinoise: Which tasted great, but my old dauphinoise enemy – hard potatoes – showed up. Mostly they were fine, but there were still some that were harder than they should have been. I will make adjustments next time. Jessica’s A-fricking-mazing mac and cheese: Not only is it one of the best I’ve ever tasted, but it tasted even better leftover and steamed in the CSO. Southern green beans: Earlier this week, I found a chair to replace a broken down one in our family room. One of Jessica’s friends very kindly offered her vehicle and her muscle to help us get it home. Afterwards, to say thank you, all four of us went out for Chinese for dinner. We shared the crab Rangoon (real crab) and an order of their fantastic ribs: The others got soup which I forgot to take pictures of and I got an egg roll: Our guest got coconut chicken. I was happy she offered me a bite because I love it but it’s too sweet for me to have an entire portion of: Jessica got the Beef Chow Fun: I got the Moo Shu Pork: It was odd, every part of this dish was good – crisp vegetables, tender and tasty pork, tender pancakes, etc. – when it was all wrapped up and eaten it lacked something. Not enough richness. When I ate it at home the next night, using our bottle of hoisin, it was MUCH better. That had to be the difference, I think. Mr. Kim was not thrilled with his: (Sorry for the blurry picture). I think this was the Szechuan beef. It wasn’t spicy enough for him, of course, but he said besides that, it just didn’t taste good to him. I tasted the beef and it seemed ok to me.

@Elkyfr – I’m loving all of your chocolate critters and those transparent strawberry thingies! @rotuts – I remember boxes of frosting. I used to use the fluffy white before I realized how easy 7 Minute Frosting was to make from scratch. Apparently, you can still buy the mix, but I don’t remember seeing it lately. @RWood – your cookies are exquisite. There is just no other word. @Pete Fred – all of those fritters look fantastic. I’d be diving right in! Our church has a champagne reception after the Saturday night Easter Vigil. Jessica did the chocolate dipped goodies again this year. She handled it very well and with very little help from me. The table: Strawberries and marshmallows: Matzoh with sprinkles and with nuts: Marshmallows and pretzel rods: Easter dessert was Jessica’s idea, but I simplified it. She came up with this elaborate lemon-blueberry cake with lemon icing recipe. Scratch cake, filling, and icing. I did a cake mix fix-up with a white cake mix, Dream Whip, and lemon zest 😁. I filled it with a jar of @Tropicalsenior's lemon curd that I had in the freezer and topped it with canned icing infused with lemon zest: It tasted great. But, as always, my berries sank: This always happens to me, no matter what maneuvers I take 😡. One of Jessica’s friends helped us pick up a new chair in her large vehicle (all we have are two little sedans – a Hyundai and a 1998 Mazda). As a “thank you” we took her to dinner and I baked her this loaf: I didn’t have much time, so I tried to do a poundcake mix fix-up with mashed bananas and chocolate chips – something I’ve done with banana bread with great success. But, for some reason, it wasn’t a great success. The recipe made two loaves and I kept one so I could see if it was good. It was just a bit solid, which you can see. Kind of gummy and the banana flavor is lacking. Ah, well. That’ll learn me!

On Monday, freed from my Lent promise of giving up restaurant food and having the car (I dropped Jessica off at work), I treated myself to a steak and cheese and fries from Mr. Submarine. The enormous sub: That is much wider than my very large dinner plate. It was so good. Needed a couple of adjustments – more cheese and more condiments, but it was really good. The fries were a real indulgence, but I didn’t eat them all and I was careful the rest of the day. They were hot and crisp – thin like McD’s:

@blue_dolphin – I have to say that I love the looks of the poached egg that you deemed “overcooked”. For me, the perfect poached or soft boiled egg is one where the yolk is the consistency of poorly cooked jam – gooey and slow flowing. I like a sexy, slow motion yolk 😄! Yesterday’s breakfast was all Easter leftovers. Sweet potato roll: Ham: Easter egg: Some of @Tropicalsenior's delicious mustard sauce: So good: Inspired by @Shelby's gorgeous looking egg on her Spam and egg sandwich, I made an egg and ham English muffin. I sat down to look at eG, saw that drippy yolky goodness and got right back up again to make my breakfast! Slightly overcooked the egg, but it was still good: Thanks for the inspiration, @Shelby!

I only did a dozen at a time - just like always. I have one of the stackable racks.

Ok, here's another egg mystery. I did 3 dozen eggs for various things last week - devilled eggs, dyeing, and just having around. About half of them were nearly raw. And they were mixed - same batch and some were done and some were almost raw. I know they were in the same batch because I did a dozen at a time and put them back in the carton when each batch was done. I did them on LOW pressure for 5 minutes, left naturally release for another 5 minutes and then released the pressure. What in the WORLD????

This conversation is reminding me so much of my daughter talking about the MLM scams and pyramid schemes like LuLaRoe going on right now. At least with Tupperware you got a really good (if expensive) product that seemed to last forever.

I know! My first thought was, "Dammit, Mark"! 😄 @Raamo – I’ve always wanted to try bastela and never had the opportunity. Looks really good. Happy birthday to Madam @TicTac! @NadyaDuke – I love using sturdy spinach for cooking. My favorite is savoy, but that is impossible to find in any grocery store in my area. I’m determined to make an effort to find a farmer that grows it this year. @Shelby – I’m making that broccoli salad for dinner tomorrow. And your creamy cucumbers – special request from Jessica. Found a great price on boneless short ribs and did a quick IP cook with hoisin. Served on ramen noodles w/ blistered sugar snaps: It was so satisfying and it felt good to serve a balanced REAL meal. Mr. Kim was out playing poker one night, so Jessica and I had cheese fondue with all the dippers. A not very interesting photo of the fondue: This is a Lidl product. It is shelf stable and tastes great to us. Various dippers, crudité, and pickly things: Ham, tiny roasted potatoes, cornichon, cocktail onions, dill pickles, bread, radishes, and cukes. Monday night no one wanted much dinner and they definitely didn’t want it at dinnertime, so we all just wandered into the kitchen at various times and grabbed something. Mine: That’s a gorgeous Mineola, some Cheddar cubes leftover from my church coffee hour hostessing, an English muffin, and a horrible photo of some soup I made from Mr. Kim’s BBQ judging leftovers, some boxed stock, a bag of Veg All, and some Bisto: Tasted very good, though. Thursday night, in what has become a tradition in the last few years, we dyed Easter eggs and ate pizza – take out this year: Along with some crudité: Our efforts were fairly perfunctory this year:

Good Friday breakfast compliments of my MIL: Her best batch ever, Mr. Kim says. They are fantastic!

It's the real thing. We have a KFC less than a mile from our house. We've lived here for almost 30 years and I think it's the only thing I've ever purchased from there. It is perfectly good (not as good as homemade, but better than any grocery store deli), inexpensive and makes a no work vegetable when I need one. A few spoonsful at lunch along with an apple and I've done my veggie/fruit duty! 😁

@Dejah – I love “As Time Goes By” and I adore beans on toast. With this current low-potassium diet, I’m missing baked beans, pintos, kidney beans, butter beans, black eyed peas, etc. – all my favorites. And that brand is exactly what I buy! And I must admit, even though I was raised with an English stepdad and 3 English stepsisters, I’m with your husband on the beans – the British ones are just too tomatoey and bland to my palate. I like the punch of molasses and pork. A food truck that specializes in lobster rolls came to a local food hall and I guess since it is possibly a one time only occurrence, Mr. Kim decided to ignore Lent and surprised Jessica and me by taking us there for lunch. It ended up being a 45 minute wait, so while he was in line, I went to a stand that was selling smashburgers and got a Smashed Chopped Cheese for us all to share: This was fantastic – smashed burger, American cheese, fried onions, and their special sauce. He got lobster rolls and also crab fries: The lobster was very good, but could have used a lot more butter. The crab fries were ok, but kind of pointless, to be honest. I mean, who wants their crab diluted by fried potatoes, bacon, ranch, and cheese? They are also touted as “Boardwalk Fries” which they are absolutely NOT. They are some kind of batter dipped fries. On Sunday we had lunch at our old favorite Chinese place. We both started with Hot and Sour soup: It was delicious tasting, as always, but it was so incredibly peppery that I couldn’t eat it without choking and coughing. It was so weird – H & S soup never bothers me. But as soon as a sip slipped down my throat, I would choke. Mr. Kim got to finish it for me. He got the double fried hot pork: Really good. I love the way that they fry the cabbage – still crisp and not funky at all. I had the orange chicken: Monday: Tuna salad on a bun and pretzels. What you can’t see are the 4 spoonsful of slaw that made my vegetable! Yesterday: Ham, salami, and Swiss on a pita with an apple. Today: Last night our church had a Seder Dinner/potluck. Lots of churches do Seder dinners to teach us about our ancestors in faith and to promote understanding and tolerance. The chicken and cholent were leftover from last night and the slaw is the KFC stuff I keep on hand.

Last night was the Seder meal/pot luck at church. We were asked not to bring anything with pork, shellfish, or leavening. That must have thrown all those southerners because every single dish (other than the purchased fried chicken that 3 of us brought) needed serious seasoning. 😂 The cholent that the organizer made was excellent, though.

@Ann_T – your fried chicken breakfast looks scrumptious and I’m so glad that I’m picking up fried chicken for dinner tonight. It won’t be as good as yours, I know and it won’t have that gorgeous gravy, but at least the fried chicken craving that you’ve inspired will be soothed! @lindag – yeast waffles are my favorite. I don’t often think of them in time, but they are the best! Day before yesterday: Small ET bagels with smoked salmon cream cheese and extra ET seasoning. This morning: Ham, egg, and cheese on a bun.

That is a great idea. I miscalculated when buying eggs during the last week and we now have 5 DOZEN (😑)! We'll dye a dozen and use another dozen for deviled eggs for Easter, but that still leaves a LOT of eggs, so I was planning on massive cheese omelets for dinner tomorrow. I have biscuits in the freezer and a batch of cream gravy in the fridge and I'll pair that with the slices of pork belly for dinner tomorrow! Thank you!!!

I got the pork belly that you recommended @rotuts. I did it exactly the same way you suggested - sliced thin: cooked at 425F in the CSO: Getting it to this point took 15 minutes, a flip, and then another 5 minutes. It is incredibly porky and delicious. Unlike some I’ve seen, this had a good 50/50 balance of fat and lean. If it were done this crisp I think I’d be ok with a fattier belly (it would probably be similar to fried fatback), but I’m pretty sure Mr. Kim would balk. Now, I just have to figure out what to do with it! Thanks so much for posting about this, @rotuts!!!

Yes. My daughter is very ambitious...on my behalf. 😉

Tonight our church is having a Passover Seder to help everyone understand the practice and celebration of our Jewish faith ancestors. I'm sure this will be an abbreviated Passover meal, with small examples of each item on our plates. This is what I've seen at other Episcopalian churches. We are also having a pot luck afterwards. We were reminded to not bring pork, shellfish, or leavened bread to the potluck, but we'll see how well folks understand that. Without thinking or checking, I ordered a pile of fried chicken from Publix and that's not really kosher for Passover, I've discovered. Better than the man I did Meals on Wheels with yesterday - he completely missed the note and was planning to bring ham biscuits 😄! I missed an opportunity, I realize. I should have gone to my favorite Mediterranean shop and gotten an assortment of dips and his fantastic lavash. We are hosting Easter this year. Jessica was very particular that we should and promises to be very helpful. So far I'm not seeing much help beyond coming up with too many items for six people 🙄. We are starting with spiced crackers (a mix that I found on our anniversary trip - you douse the crackers in oil and then the spice mix) and a relish tray. Dinner will be slow-cooker Co-cola ham with @Tropicalsenior's incredible mustard sauce, a cheesy potato Dauphinoise, green beans, Watergate salad, @Shelby's cucumbers, broccoli salad, Jessica's pineapple casserole, Mac & Cheese, deviled eggs, sweet potato rolls, and blueberry lemon cake. I have a few of @Jim D.'s beautiful chocolates left and I might share them, too. If anyone has room.

Wow! Real English Cheddar. That doesn't seem to be available to me where I am or to be shipping to me unfortunately. This is the one that we get at Costco and it is very good, but I'd love a taste of that English Cheddar. Costco is very careful about what they put their brand on, so I'm confident it is great cheese.

They are. The combination of a dill pickle and the sweetness of sugar works really well, we think.

Welcome to eG! I'm sure you'll find what you are looking for here - we're a pretty diverse group and there are lots of knowledgeable folks here. Looking forward to your contributions.

If it is the Cabot one in the black wrap, I know that Costco Cheddar very well. It is pretty much the only Cheddar we buy. Your shrimp and chips look and sound great! And the “spatzle” are very familiar. When I was in college, my roommate and I would designate one day a month a “Greasy Day” and head off to eat family sized portions of fish and chips at Long John Silvers. Those little fried squiggles were a favorite and we always asked for extra. My roommate was an accomplished flirt and they were usually quite generous!

I'm loving everything, but especially the stuff from my favorite place in the world - England. Thanks so much for posting, @Pete Fred and @Elkyfr! I've saved the flapjack recipes, along with your notes, Pete and I wish I could nibble some of those chocolate ears, Elkyfr!

PP (pre-pandemic) the Fresh Market grocery store use to stock a serve yourself bin of them in the produce section. They were moist and tender and as big as my two thumbs put together. They were the perfect size for stuffing with nuts or cheese and wrapping with prosciutto. But when I bought them, I'd have to figure in "shrinkage", i.e. what I'd snack on myself! Here's the recipe. But what I haven't included, but should is that the jar of pickles I use is 24 oz. Kosher Baby Dills.

I've discovered that almost anything that is a batter works as a waffle. I do cornbread waffles and all kinds of muffin waffles. But my favorite is making waffles our of leftover stuffing and topping with gravy!