Kim Shook

Ham, scalloped tomatoes, collards, mac n cheese, black eyed peas, and cornmeal waffles.

That is my favorite jam in all the world. I'm sad that Santa somehow forgot my jar this year. This morning: Cornmeal waffle and ham from yesterday's dinner, topped with an egg.

I'll show mine later. I did both my black eyed peas and my collards (my green of choice) in the IP. I'd done the collards before, but not the peas. They are wonderful - creamy and tender, but not complete mush. Ham is in the oven as are the scalloped tomatoes. I did cornbread waffles this year and they will get toasted in the CSO just before we eat.

You have a standing invitation. All eG'ers do!

The recipe is here. It is for the 1 lb. loaf. The source has scaled up amounts for 1 1/2 and 2 lb. loaves. Not sure if would be ok to post a picture of that page here, so I've sent it to you in a PM.

My Christmas goodies were made over the month of December – mostly from the middle of the month. I was very, very late this year – worse than I have ever been. Most years I have almost everything in the freezer by the beginning of the month. The Christmas Eve goodie buffet: Sugar cookies. Including Jessica’s shot reindeer and Mr. Kim’s zombie gingerbread man and snowman: I have a weird family. PB cookies, ginger cookies (store bought), and chocolate chunk shortbread cookies (a big thank you to @jedovaty for sending me the recipe for these – they were a huge hit): Mincemeat tarts (store bought) and Lemon chess tarts: Chocolate fudge: Reeses cup fudge: Iced almonds, peanut brittle, sponge candy, and pretzel turtles: Happy Accident Candy: This is all of the leftover crumbs and shards from making the sponge candy mixed up with some melted chocolate. The toffee this year was my greatest success ever. @Darienne gave me her recipe a few years ago and it is delicious, but I had a large learning curve getting the chocolate to stick – I finally figured it out, but haven’t managed @Darienne's feat of a chocolate coating on both sides. Thank you from me and from every single person who tasted this, @Darienne! Unbroken (the moment before disaster or success): Success – hardly ANY chocolate loss: Look how nice and thick it turned out: Toffee (again), happy accident candy and GF cookies: That sweet tray that the candy is on is no more☹️. Mr. Kim was washing it and it just fell apart in his hands and cut him fairly badly. He waited a couple of days before going to the doctor and they said they would have probably stitched it had he come in immediately. Not on the goodie bar, but gifts that I made for a few folks – Holiday bread with candied fruit and walnuts: All of the loaves were that dark on the bottom and sides – and that was the lightest setting. I’ve put a new bread machine on my wishlist. I love using the bread machine and I think mine is almost 30 years old – time it retired. But the insides were lovely and made good toast: I also made classic Ranch spiced oyster crackers: Everyone laughs when they see this stuff and remembers it from the 1980’s, but then they grab handfuls and scarf them down!

If you go back and look at what I posted on 1/2/2018, that is exactly what I expect to be eating in a few hours. We have done the same thing for the past 30+ years - with a few missed years. We go to the same friends house and eat junky 1970's party food and play cards. We sip a little champagne at midnight, put the food away and come home. We started back then because we were all broke and had little kids that we couldn't find babysitters for. Then we discovered we preferred it to anything else! The only change is that those babies do a lot of the cooking now. One of them called me the other night for the "recipe" for that Velveeta dip. The jam/BBQ sauce is in the Crock Pot right now. Happy New Year to you all!

Those are very cool and I love the towel, too! Is that vintage or retro (meaning: could I hope to find it somewhere? - LOL). And your pudding is just gorgeous! I wish @Ted Fairhead were alive to see it! He would be making reservations for a flight to WA!

After church brunch at our favorite deli - Boychik’s. We love this place. The family is from NY, but manages to fit into Richmond, too. They have the best matzo balls I’ve ever had and fantastic lox, but also great sausage gravy and bologna burgers😁! Mr. Kim had the chicken salad and chicken noodle soup: I had the matzo ball soup and the grilled knockwurst, pastrami, Swiss and kraut on a Kaiser bun:

<wow button> I am just gobsmacked! When you first started this thread, I sent the link to Mr. Kim so he could see. And every time you update, I send him another one saying: "go back! He's posted again!!!"

Between @Ann_T's smoked pork chops, @Paul Bacino's lobster Benedict (I think I lost consciousness for a minute) and @liamsaunt's beautiful loaf of bread, I am all ready for breakfast in spite of only finishing dinner a half hour ago! Christmas breakfast – my MIL’s Candy Cane: Orange sweet roll tree: This may be the last year for this. I think only 2 got eaten that morning and maybe another 2 or 3 in later days. Bagels, cream cheese, and smoke salmon & Boursin: Sausage rolls and quiche: @CantCookStillTry - see what I mean about my sausage rolls? A friend brought over a cheese and cherry Danish on Christmas Eve to add to our breakfast: Boxing Day - toast made with my holiday bread: Made this again this year as gifts and I’m convinced that I need a new bread maker. The crust was overdone on all the loaves and one didn’t rise at all. But the toast was yummy.

@David Ross – all of your seafood dishes sound so incredibly good. Crab and shrimp are my favorites. We can get Dungeness crab at Costco. Not sure of the quality, but it’s worth a try, I think! And I love your booklet! It reminds me so much of the Rooster Eat, Drink and Be Merry plaques that one of my grandmothers had in her kitchen. She cooked a fabulous dinner once a year (Christmas) and the rest of the time the only thing found in her refrigerator was vodka, gin, olives, cocktail onions, and Metrical. LOL. I’d give anything to have those plaques now. @liamsaunt - your baking is as delicious looking at your savory cooking! @chromedome – please do post pictures of the gingerbread village, if you get a chance! I’d love to see it. @CantCookStillTry – on the bottom picture, bottom left item. Are those sausage rolls? If so, I’m liking that they are flattened. As you’ll see, mine are very rounded and I think the sausage to pastry distribution would be better on yours. Do you just roll and then flatten before cutting? @&roid – I like the sound of that bread. I’d leave out the mushrooms, but I’d love the recipe, if you’d care to share it. @Shelby – your prime rib is absolutely gorgeous and perfect. @Okanagancook– best wishes for a swift and easy recovery!!! @kayb – glad you got advice from others on your leftover sprouts. Honestly, I’ve got nothing. I just don’t save sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, etc. I think they get too stinky and are just irredeemable. I’m honestly not sure where to put everything. I’ve got Christmas Eve food, sweets, and Christmas morning breakfast! I’ll see where it seems to fit as I go along! And I’ll probably break it up a little – I did a LOT of cooking in just a few days. Our main thing for our Christmas Eve party was, by request of Mr. Kim, Brunswick stew. I don’t claim to be authentic to either VA or GA, but it is good and very popular. Mr. Kim and Jessica adore it. Started with two Costco rotisserie chickens: My mise: (the chicken is in the big bag) The scraps made my stock in the IP (LOVE my IP for stock): This le Crueset stock pot is FULL of everything but the meats (the 1/2 gallon pitcher is there for scale): The contents of the stockpot were put into 2 large slow cookers and cooked on HIGH for 4 hours: At this point the chicken and 2 lbs. of Mr. Kim’s BBQ are added to the stew: Which results in BOTH of these vessels being full of stew: Then it gets whirred up a little with an immersion blender: Tasted and seasonings adjusted. I find that Brunswick stew takes a LOT of pepper. I finished up with about 14 quarts. Mr. Kim insisted on my doubling my regular recipe because we’d invited about 60 people. I knew that we’d only get about half that, but humored him. We took about 4 quarts to his mother’s for her gathering Boxing Day and I have 5 quarts in my freezer. 🙄 It was very good and seemingly enjoyed by all.

Welcome! Looking forward to your posts!

Just stunning. Thanks so much for "taking us along"!

There is so little activity in this section that I thought the addition of this article from Style Weekly (a magazine about the Richmond area) would be a good starting point for folks looking for Richmond area eats. The Year in Food.

If they are deviled, it won't matter. Mashed all to hell, you won't see any green. Believe me. I know this.

I have no business being here. It is 1:38am and in approximately 15 hours anywhere from 28 (number I've heard from) to 41 (that + number I have heard from) people will be descending on us. I will come back after the holidays and tell all. But I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Festivus, etc., etc. Enjoy yourselves and I hope you find some joy and peace in the next few days!

@Ann_T - meat, bread, gravy. Is there anything better to eat in this world. Last meal territory. From the sublime...Mr. Kim's breakfast this morning: Ugly omelet (my perfect omelet flipping spatula was MIA) with ham and cheese.

Ranch oyster crackers for Xmas goody bag gifts: Aunt San’s fudge (milk chocolate) and Reeses Cup fudge: I am going to have to find a new peanut butter/chocolate fudge recipe. I've been making this for years, but somehow the consistency has changed. It is too sticky and gooey. Very hard to serve. It has to be ice cold and that is just not practical.

😖That is EXACTLY how Mr. Kim's family likes it, too. I don't care for it at all and the first time that Jessica tasted it (she was about 5), she said, "Momma, there's something wrong with this fudge!" I shushed her and said I knew, but that was how they liked it. LOL. I is NOT easy to make. I've got their recipe and directions and have given it a try a few times. Never any success, though I did come up with Tootsie Rolls one time.

At first, I was, but now I put it on the bottom.

If you have a CSO, you might try this method. If not...anyone??? @Anna N?

Usually 325F. I'll try your method next time! Thank you!

Last night, I heated up some brioche dinner rolls in the CSO and they demonstrate a problem I’ve noticed recently. When I heat rolls on bake/steam they always burn on top. These were only in for 7 minutes and I’m not remembering that happening when I first got the CSO:

I roasted 2 turkey breasts and a ham for Mr. Kim’s office Xmas party. There was enough extra that he brought some home. Turkey, lettuce, and mayo: Along with the end of the cheese spiral we got at TJ’s: I drizzled it with honey and sprinkled on some pepper – exactly what it needed.