Kim Shook

Wish they had made them with Clark bars, which has REAL chocolate. Unlike Butterfinger. When I saw that they had supposedly “improved” Butterfinger, I hoped that meant they had switched to an actual chocolate coating. Alas, no.

I am not normally a big fan of potato soup, but that looks wonderful to me tonight! Breakfast for dinner tonight - mini quiches & Benton's bacon: @Captain's Pikelets: We loved these, @Captain! Thanks so much for the recipe!

Half Fig Newton and half nutty oatmeal cooky sounds like heaven to me!!!

Benton’s bacon on toasted multi grain Italian from Publix.

I am not a candy maker, but what @Saturable has described is my favored sort of caramel. I love the texture of a Storck Riesin. If someone would post a recipe similar to that, I might just give candymaking a try!

We need a pouting emoji.

I thought of that before starting - I added a minute to the cooking time and a little extra water. I'm flummoxed. And petulant: when I put the IP away this morning, I muttered, "Last time I use you for a while." 😊

Doesn't this look yummy: Well, it wasn't. Last night's dinner was a complete failure. I made spaghetti (linguine) with meat sauce in the IP. I’ve made it twice before – once with regular spaghetti and once with ziti. Both worked great. This time I kept getting a “burning” message. I carefully scraped the bottom, added a little water and tried again. Decided to take it out of the IP and see what I could do with it stove top. It went from way too al dente to complete mush in just a few minutes. Not fit to eat. We ended up getting take out. Equanimity is not my super power. And being sick for so long is making me a little fragile, I know. But I was SO disappointed. I haven't the slightest idea what I did wrong.

@Dejah – thank you so much. Would you use soy to season and moisten, or something else? The dish that I’m remembering had a very thin light sauce that LOOKED like soy sauce, but tasted sweeter maybe? @Shelby – I believe that prime rib gave me a relapse into a coma. And where in the world are you getting such lovely strawberries? I’ve just been bitching about out of season rubbish strawberries on the Valentine’s thread! LOL @Duvel– gorgeous crust. I pass on the fungus, but I’d pick those off and devour that slice!! @TdeV – that peel is the one recommended by ATK, I think. I saw it in action on an episode and it looks fantastic. A couple of Saturdays ago, we road tripped 2 hours up to MD for a dim sum brunch (eG folks are the only ones I know who don’t find that fact bizarre – our local friends think we’re insane). We then went to the National zoo and stopped on the way home at one of our favorites in Ashland VA, the Trackside Grill. Jessica started with a Caesar: We shared the baked crab dip and I had a cup of chili: Mr. Kim had nachos and Jess had potato skins: One of our very favorite restaurants in Richmond, Acacia closed this month. It is one of our top 2 or 3 places to eat in the area. We take out of town guests there and recommend it to folks coming into Richmond ( @Steve R. went after my recommendation and very much enjoyed it). We were so sad to hear the news and as soon as we did, we made reservations. Ended up getting a table during the very last week. They could be excused for being low on supplies and not really up to par with employees going on to new jobs, but that was NOT the case. Every single bite was delicious and up to their standards. I started with oysters: Fried with slaw and spicy mayo. As usual, absolutely the best fried oysters I’ve ever tasted. Mr. Kim had the white anchovies: With grilled romaine and radicchio, fourme d’ambert (an ancient French bleu cheese), pine nuts and garlic dressing. While everything we had was fantastic, this was the dish of the night. Just outstanding. People who don’t think they like anchovies should try the white ones. My main was crab cakes: With grits, Brussels sprouts and their remoulade. Mr. Kim had the pork schnitzel: With mac and cheese, broccolini and mustard sauce (under the pork). This looks so plain – it was anything but. Perfect crust on the pork and swoony mac and cheese. Dessert was an apple cobbler bar: With dulce de leche and caramel ice cream. Acacia is just a stellar restaurant. The chef/owner was voted one of the best new chefs of 1999 by Food & Wine Magazine and since then he’s gotten 4 Beard nominations. They insist that they will be opening another restaurant and we really hope that is true. Another day and another one of my “I’m sick, but hungry” meals – before dinner nibbles: Sourdough, bleu cheese, dipping olive oil, and Alp Blossom Austrian cheese. Shrimp Alfredo on linguine: The sauce was refrigerated, but I did cook the shrimp. Salad: Last night’s dinner consisted of all the leftovers from Valentine’s day (shrimp, crabmeat stuffed soft pretzel, CSO bake/steam broccoli and coconut cake) plus a few things. I set out a few cheeses: Some crab (snow and king) claws that my cousin and his wife sent us for Christmas: Salad:

Interesting article. Jessica and I make chocolate covered strawberries at church to serve after the Saturday Easter vigil service and the strawberries are usually pretty good then. But these were pretty tasteless.

I did broccoli in the CSO on Bake/Steam at 450F for about 15 minutes Valentine's night. Tossed it with a little butter and lemon pepper seasoning and it was perfect. It got a slight char on the edges like when you roast it, but not as much (which is a good thing to me - completely roasted broccoli is not my favorite).

@chromedome– congratulations on your precious new little love. I got all verklempt at the photo (grandma wannabe here – never going to happen, but I still adore babies!). @gfweb – gorgeous salmon. I’m always amazed at how miso complements seafood. @FeChef – no veg? My kinda meal! 😁 As I mentioned before I had a lovely meal all planned out including scallops with miso mustard sauce, an unusual salad, spinach/cheese souffle, etc. With being sick for a month +, that didn’t happen. Instead, I went to Wegman’s and bought a bunch of stuff that didn’t need much attention. Started with crab-stuffed giant pretzel and olive/cheese mix: I could see what looked like some green pepper flecks in the crab stuffing but was thankful they couldn’t be detected. I am a serious Eastern shore purist when it comes to blue crab and have a deep-rooted prejudice against cooks who add peppers of any sort to it. Steamed shrimp with saltines and store-made cocktail sauce (which was surprisingly robust): I added some Old Bay to the shrimp. They were very good – large and not at all over cooked! Sourdough and CSO bake/steamed broccoli: Salad bar salad: Coconut mini cake with some chocolate dipped strawberries: I don’t really understand how chocolate dipped strawberries became a Valentine’s day “thing” considering February is hardly prime strawberry season, but I always fall for them and get a few. Well, they ARE pretty and the chocolate is good. 😉

I am the designated birthday dessert maker for Mr. Kim’s staff at work. One particular guy has chosen Tin Roof Brownie Bars for at least the past 10 years. They are a brownie base, topped with marshmallow crème, salted peanuts and a coating of chocolate. The only change that he requests is no nuts since so many folks are allergic. That is very thoughtful, but to us they are just WAY too sweet without the salted nuts. Here are the brownies right out of the oven (Ghirardelli brownie mix – no apologies since I cannot make a better from scratch brownie) – applying the marshmallow crème: After applying Hershey bars: Melted chocolate all spread out: And the mess that results when cutting, even with a hot knife😟. The chocolate on top just breaks into a bunch of shards: After years of making these, I’ve finally realized that if I score the chocolate when it is firm, but not hard, it might not do this. I may be slow, but eventually I get there!😉

@Captain– the Pikelets look delicious. I had to Google them. They look puffy enough to satisfy me! I either like pancakes flat (crepes) or fluffy and high! I’d love the recipe, if you would care to share. Mr. Kim brought me home a raisin bagel from a platter at work and I cinnamon toasted it:

@BonVivant – the coating on the scallops and prawns for the tacos looks amazingly puffy and crisp. I wish I could find someone around here doing that! A couple of Saturdays ago, we did a little road trip with Jessica to go to a dim sum place in Wheaton MD (a couple of hours away) that she’d read about in the Washington Post- the Hollywood East Café. We had a wonderful meal and a great day. Spontaneously decided to go to the zoo (turns out the mall the restaurant is in is on the same road as the zoo) also. From 12 o’clock (the green ones) Steamed shrimp dumplings, shu mai, beef rice crepe, steamed ginger and chicken dumpling, steamed pork buns. We agreed that the beef rice crepe was one of the standouts of the meal. Baked roast pork croissant – the other standout. Steamed scallop and shrimp dumpling, steamed ginger and chicken dumpling Egg tarts, baked pork buns. In the middle of last Saturday’s errands, we stopped at the Glen Allen Bistro. Mr. Kim had the steak, cheese & pepperoni sandwich: This sandwich was surprisingly good. We shared the fries and I had the gyro: It was fine – those preformed frozen strips, but a good tzatziki and pita. After church last Sunday, we decided to try a place I’ve been meaning to try for a couple of months, since they opened - Zara Mediterranean Charcoal Grill. Excellent food. Very casual (fast food-type place) and reasonably priced. We ordered more than we normally would in order to taste more stuff. Shared the falafel: Which came with grilled pita: The butter looked really odd to me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen pita served with butter in my entire life. It made me wonder if the pita cultures DO use butter on them. I think that the folks at Zara are Turkish and wondered if that makes a difference to the use of butter. I got the lamb skewer sandwich: With tzatziki. Lovely! Mr. Kim had the steak skewer with rice and a grilled tomato: Really tender and flavorful. He had the cilantro sauce. We shared a ground beef skewer: Perfectly spiced and cooked. We will definitely be going back.

I really like the idea of using the mustard. I will try that next time I make mine. Mine is from the old "New Basics" cookbook and I've been making it for about 30 years.

Welcome, @Rieke3520! I'm looking forward to your contributions to eG! I'm in the US and love it when we get new members from outside the states!

I somehow missed this post. I will be trying that method. I like that it uses whole eggs. I hate using just whites or yolks - I always save them vowing to use them and usually end up tossing them. @Avachocolate - that is incredibly beautiful! What kind of meringue?

How long you reckon it takes to get from Virginia to British Columbia? LOL. I even have a niece in Abbotsford that I can stay with! 😁 All sounds wonderful (except the fungal part) and, for some reason, the ice cream is calling to me more than anything else.

As I’ve posted in some other threads, I’ve been sick for over a month, so lots of make do and eating out meals for lunches and dinners. Nothing deadly – just one aggravating thing after another – virus, infection and now what they are calling “significant anemia”. Not to mention the burning mouth syndrome that I talked about awhile back. Sigh. @robirdstx – I got the recipe for your chicken pot pie in 2013 and we still think it is one of the best we’ve ever had! Need to make this again soon! @mgaretz – glad to see you taking steps to recovery – even baby steps! @CantCookStillTry – I’m not a fan of fluffy mashed potatoes, either. I like them pretty solid. Plus, the airy kind let your gravy wander away!😉 @Dejah – welcome back! Sounds a bit scary and I’m glad you are feeling better. And thank you for posting the char siu recipe. I love it so much and haven’t ever made any that I really liked! Is a 24 hour marinade long enough for the meat? Also, now that I have the char siu recipe, would you please give me your recipe/method for the bean sprouts with char siu? I had a favorite Chinese restaurant from college up to a few years ago when it closed. One of my favorite dishes was something they called Roast Pork Bean Sprout and a few years ago, I realized that the roast pork was char siu. I’d love to try to replicate it. I’ll go ahead and post the meals I’ve got on my computer. I’ve got more on my phone, but I still need the ICloud class that Jessica has promised me. Until then downloading the phone pictures to my computer is a long, PITA process!😉 We did a ‘shop’ at a Helen’s restaurant in Richmond for a friend who is doing some consulting for them. Helen’s has been a restaurant and under the management of the same family since 1927. We hadn’t been in years. We always want to try the new places and sometimes forget the stalwarts. We started with this: mussels w/ Pernod broth, garlic, tomato, herb de Provence, sweet potato chips, and lemon aioli. Maybe the best prepared mussels I’ve ever had. Not one “funky” or gritty one and all of the flavors were so well balanced. The sweet potato chips might seem to be an unnecessary “chefy” embellishment, but they were perfect with the other flavors. The broth was so good that we were were afraid that we would be overfull from the broth-soaked bread, so we switched to spoons and got every last drop. Mr. Kim’s main dish: Bacon wrapped chicken breast, country sausage pistachio stuffing, broccoli, Yukon gold mash, and double chicken jus. This was very, very good – oversalted, though. Mine was not over salted and every flavor was perfect: This was the pork chop with Gouda grits, Brussels sprouts, pecans, cider glaze, and an apple-fennel relish. As I said, it was delicious BUT – the pork chop was badly overcooked. Very tough and dry. I should have sent it back, but the rest of the dish was SO good that I decided to keep it. We didn’t order dessert, but on the way home we stopped at Country Style Doughnuts: 😁 Another night Mr. Kim had a very specific cheeseburger craving: Worcestershire burger with bleu cheese, bacon, and caramelized onions on brioche buns. Served with sweet potato fries, sliced tomatoes, and slaw (slaw and potatoes were both purchased): Jessica generally gets 2 birthday dinners. One casual at-home one with just the three of us on her actual BD and another “splurge” dinner with a guest of her choice at a favorite or new restaurant. Her home meal was a taco night. She requested ATK’s Tacos Dorados – these are the ones that you stuff with the meat mixture, fold, and fry in a little oil. Frying: With too much oil, though. I had to make a note on the recipe to be careful about using too much oil. If it is too deep it will seep in around the sides and “fry” the already cooked meat. They were still good: All kinds of fixings: Including the cutest little cucumbers I’ve ever seen: Chips, queso, and salsa: Street corn (Jessica’s version): Plated with beans and corn: They are a little hard to stuff. But I heated the leftovers in the CSO and treated them like tostadas – just piled everything on top! Also by request dulce de leche cheesecake with cinnamon sugar. Because we were going out the next night to a fancy dinner, she was ok with frozen. I found a Junior’s cheesecake at Wegman’s that was small and much better than I expected. I topped it with cinnamon sugar and warmed up dulce de leche: The next night was for her “fancy” BD dinner. She chose Demi’s, a favorite Greek place. We started out with 3 appetizers. Saganaki: Oysters poached in butter and garlic: Dried apricots stuffed with ricotta, Spanish almonds and drizzled with a balsamic reduction: I had the lovely pastichio: Mr. Kim had the special - rockfish with shrimp: Jessica had grilled salmon with potatoes and spinach: Her guest had the pork marsala: Jessica had little filo cups filled with chocolate: Her guest had the sweet cream empanadas and gelato: Mr. Kim had the baklava: Every single thing was wonderful. Another night - before dinner snack: Murrays Fromager D’Affinois and Cabot 3 Year Cheddar. Dinner was toasted cheese bread and Mr. Kim’s (and Emeril’s😉) wonderful split pea soup: Another short cut meal: Frozen Swedish meatballs with an ersatz stroganoff sauce! Tasted pretty good in spite of the presence of Campbell’s!

Any way of getting to Costco? That's where we got ours last year and they were wonderful. I'm seeing them on the Costco website at $31/lb. Sorry you all won't be able to get your hands on her right away, but congratulations!

I’ve been sick for over a month, so lots of make do and eating out meals for lunches and dinners. As I said on another thread, nothing deadly – just one aggravating thing after another – virus, infection and now what they are calling “significant anemia”. Sigh. A few recent lunches. After delivering lunches to 3 homeless shelters one Saturday (one of our projects at our church), we had lunch at Nomad’s – a favorite place in an older city neighborhood. Mr. Kim had the fantastic chicken sandwich: I always say I’m going to have something different, but once again chose the shrimp po’boy: It is enormous. I take all the shrimp off one half and pile it on the other half, so I end up with double shrimp. I could never eat both halves. And we shared fries: Lunch at a local pharmacy after one of my doctor’s appointments: Egg salad on rye and house made potato and kielbasa soup. They make such great soups. I don’t even usually like potato soup, but this was so tasty. Having lunch there reminded me of being a little girl. When I had to go to the doctor’s office, Momma would always take me to Drug Fair’s in Shirlington (northern VA) lunch counter for lunch or an ice cream. This was the perfect lunch counter meal. Another day, I had a couple of Tacos Dorados leftover from Jessica’s BD: Done tostada-style. Jessica got 2 BD dinners this year – an us-only casual dinner at home (tacos) and a favorite place of her choice with us and a friend of hers. She chose Greek, so the next day I had leftover pastichio and bread for lunch:

According to my family, adding blueberry preserves to this combination makes the world's best breakfast, snack, or dessert. It really is the pinnacle. 😁

A couple of recent breakfasts – I was starving and thought I wanted all of this and in the end, I mostly ate watermelon: 😉 Another: Raisin bread toasted with peanut butter. This is an inheritance from my paternal family. We all turn bright red when we laugh, drink vodka tonics with extra lime and adore raisin toast w/ PB!