Kim Shook

Welcome, Paul! Hope you find everything you need/want here! I'm looking forward to your contributions!

I enjoy this so much! I am not allowing myself much break time (I am so far behind, I may have to postpone Christmas to February!), but THIS is on my "allowed" list!

Well, I somehow missed last year completely. I'm skipping along reading and "liking" everything and suddenly realize that it all said December 2018! So, I finished reading it all, but didn't hit the like button anymore! I am enchanted.

I need some guidance re: vacuuming my meat. I tend to season and vacuum them when I get them home from the store before freezing. Therefore, when I thaw them to sous vide this is what they look like: Lots of liquid in the bags. Is this ok, or should be taking them out of the bags and drying them off before re-vacuuming them before cooking? It seems so wasteful, but if it will significantly improve the texture/flavor of my meats, I’ll do it.

A few nights ago - tuna salad sandwiches and chicken chili from the freezer: I had some rice leftover from chicken Kiev dinner and tossed that in. Good idea. Our Sunday brunch was so filling and so late and filling that this became dinner: It was good but needed something - we decided that black pepper infused honey might be right. Tuesday night was “try to finish the tree” night. Dinner was sous vide steak, cheese potatoes, some garlic shrimp, and salad with Momofuku ranch dressing (missed getting a picture): The steaks were just ok. They were ordinary grocery store steaks and they were not particularly good meat. I told Mr. Kim it proves that sous vide is a tool, not a magic wand. Crusty bread and (Knorr) bearnaise: Last night was pimento cheese, crackers, and some salami: Chef salad: And leftover pizza from TWO DIFFERENT pizza places: We are eating way too much take out lately.

So, I'm thinking that I could use a combination of my infared and thermapen - infared until I'm 'close' and the Thermapen after that? And I didn't really need the candy/frying thermometer I just bought at BB&B? 😄

Neither of those look like you could do that with them.

The Canadians have the right idea about Thanksgiving (among other things).

Thank you so much! I do have a question, though. One thing that made me stop using my thermapen when cooking sweet stuff like this is that after a certain temperature a coating of the syrup gets on the probe and immediately solidifies. If I am temping every few minutes, I have time to soak this coating off in water. But if I am "close" and need to temp again in a short time, I don't have the time to soak off the coating. What is your solution to this? Thanks again!!!

I totally get wanting to do something new. That being said, you really can't beat deviled eggs and pimento cheese. 😄

Not sure about which pan I used last year, but it was probably the same based on the size. When I got to Amazon to look at the Cooper Atkins thermometers, I am getting lots and lots of results. Could you possibly link to the one that your would recommend? Thank you! I got a candy thermometer yesterday. This candy tastes good, so I won't bother trying to make again, but I still have my honeycomb-type candy to make and I'll use it for that. I have no idea where those damn bubbles went. 😄 I didn't spread it out or handle it at all. Just poured (more like nudged) onto a baking sheet and put on a cooling rack. And I definitely used baking soda - the jar is still on the island.

Everything looks so delicious, y'all! Especially since the only bread in my house is bound for sausage roll filling (I can't leave because I'm waiting for a delivery) and I'm eating yogurt for breakfast. The only recent breakfast worth of this thread is from Thanksgiving. While we watched the parade: Sausage gravy and biscuits, fried potatoes and onions, and Ukrops quiche that Jessica brought.

@Duvel – Mr. Kim and I have a dream of spending a holiday season in Europe – the German Christmas market figure prominently in those dreams. He’ll love seeing your pictures. @liuzhou – gorgeous Peking duck. That is my favorite duck preparation. Not only do I love the skin, but I am a philistine and like my duck cooked all the way. I finally got one of these: It was very good, as chicken sandwiches go. I’d still rather have an actual piece of bone in chicken. Went to brunch after church this past Sunday at Home Sweet Home in Carytown. Started with poutine and fried pickles: The poutine tasted good and the fries were great, but not too sure that was cheese curds on top. The pickles would have been fantastic with another 3 minutes in the fryer. The restaurant is all about grilled cheese variations. Jessica had the Upstate – super sharp Vermont Cheddar, applewood smoked bacon and gala apple on honey wheat with a side of maple syrup and tomato soup. I had the WTF – fontina, home smoked brisket, caramelized onion and fried sage leaves on mountain herb bread, also with a side of tomato soup: There was no detectable smoke in the brisket and I couldn’t taste the sage leaves either. A good sandwich, but without the stand-out qualities touted. Mr. Kim had the DHW Memorial Sandwich (??) – house smoked pork, Edwards country ham, homemade kimchi and pimento cheese on white. Except they ran out of kimchi and didn’t give him the chance to change his order – they just brought it out (late) as a fait accompli. Everything we had was fine – good even. But it was all just a little same/same. And if your signature side dish is tomato soup, it should be excellent. I had some leftover prime rib and baked potato from a restaurant meal the other night. Heated them up in the CSO and made a sandwich with the beef: Really good and tender.

Well, Thanksgiving was every bit as weird as i thought it might be. Mr. Kim's mom made the turkey and her fabulous yeast rolls and some sides. His sister brought more sides and both of the other granddaughters had done the traditional Thanksgiving Eve pie night with grandma and provided pecan, pumpkin, and apple pies. And Jessica and I walked in with nothing, as we were told to. When she was complemented on the meal, my MIL said "it was a real joint effort". Jessica and I couldn't even look at each other for fear we'd either crack up or tear up. It was decidedly odd. The food was very good (and traditional 😏), though.

We recently tried this: It was good, but not as sharp as we would have expected with the assortment of cheeses. We thought that a drizzle of black pepper infused honey might be good.

Sugar and lemon crepes are the first crepes I ever tasted. My stepdad, @Ted Fairhead, made them for me when I was about 9. Being British, he called them "English Pancakes", of course!😄❤️

That makes perfect sense. I guess it's time to use my Bed, Bath & Beyond coupon. 😁

I made my peanut brittle today and wasn't completely satisfied with the texture. This is todays: This is last year's: I hope you can see the difference in the candy itself. Last year it was foamy and therefore softer and chewier. This year is more like hard candy - no foam. I like foam and the texture that it brings to the candy. It tastes just fine, but is very hard. Here's the recipe. So, my question is: do I have bad baking soda or did I let it get too hot? When I put the baking soda in, it foamed up like always. And I don't have a candy thermometer - I just used my infrared. Like I've always done. Do I need to go get a candy thermometer? I have an instant read, but have discovered over the years that it is kind of useless with things like this that harden on the business end. Thank you all!

I am kinda half and half. I chop half of the chicken in a mini processor until it will bind together if gripped in your palm. The other half is hand shredded then roughly chopped. I prefer the texture and the fact that it doesn't need as much mayo to stick together. I like a cohesive chicken salad. Awhile back, Costco started selling bags of shredded rotisserie chicken. It is a wonderful shortcut!

Thanks so much, @Norm Matthews! It sounds great. So, just so I'm clear - other than basting a few times and serving with the it, you do not actually marinate the hens in the sauce?

With me, becoming middle aged did it. Life started zooming by. I honestly can't even get an ordinary dinner on the table with the same ease that I used to.

@Ann_T – those scones are some of the prettiest I’ve ever seen. That gorgeous high rise and perfect color and then the drizzle of icing. I am craving them. @blue_dolphin – I’ve just offered Mr. Kim his choice of tuna salad sandwiches and chili or steak and cheese baked potatoes for dinner. He chose the tuna – wish I could offer a couple of those lovely sables for dessert! This morning: toast and Benton's bacon.

@Margaret Pilgrim – your beanie weenie looks lovely. I always love when I have leftover baked beans and can make it for lunch, but yours looks and sounds really special! @robirdstx – that meatloaf meal looks perfect! It needs a piece of pie to come in behind it! And then that sandwich! Wow. @Shelby – I’m still convinced that you have access to some giant CSO that the rest of us don’t. I can’t imagine fitting 2 cornish hens in mine much less fricking DUCKS! Just gorgeous. @Norm Matthews – Cornish hens with Asian style orange sauce sounds just perfect to me. Would you share the recipe? @scubadoo97 – your crab cake looks fantastic. I can’t see a glimpse of anything vegetal in them. Perfect. No offense, but I’ve given up ordering crab cakes in Florida – the restaurants ineveitably include bell peppers in them. SO wrong. Great story – my dad and stepmom were eating in a new local (Sarasota) restaurant a couple of years ago. They got to talking with some guy at the bar, who recommended the crab cakes. He said he’d recently moved down from Baltimore, so they figured he knew what he was talking about. The crab cakes came and were perfect – lots of lump, tiny little bit of bread crumbs, a little mustard and a touch of Old Bay. When the guy got up and left, the bartender told them that he was the owner of the restaurant! @blue_dolphin – lovely onions and that pizza slays me. What a great combination. If you really feel like you need to lose one thing, I’d say keep the cheese and lose the bacon (or maybe just use a little less?). One thing that goes great with the pear/bleu cheese combination is toasted hazelnuts. Night before last was breakfast for dinner. Snacking before – pimento cheese and Ritz: Mr.Kim: Fried apples, eggs, Benton bacon, and toast which was not quite as burnt as the picture indicates! Me: Both the fried eggs and the scrambled eggs stuck to my non-stick pan pretty bad. I cooked in ghee. Does this mean I need to replace the pan? I’m thinking that these freezer/easy meals that I’ve been making are what we are in for until Christmas. I need to get the freezer cleaned out for when I finally start my holiday cooking (starting to panic about the delay): Freezer chicken Kiev, CSO steamed rice, and broccoli. The rice, while still slightly sticky, was a great improvement over my recent stove-top attempts.

Welcome, @Toast! So glad you've joined in. I love to welcome new members, but I'll admit to being especially excited when they are from somewhere that I love! And, being a lifelong anglophile raised by an English stepdad, I LOVE London. Nice to hear you mention DC - I was actually born there (a true native Washingtonian) and we live a couple of hours south now. I'm very much looking forward to your contributions!

I promise, I wasn't ignoring you! 😊 I just have no experience with those kinds of bowls. And I'm a mess when it comes to pricing. I don't ever remember prices. I have to depend on Mr. Kim at the grocery store to tell me if something is a good deal or not. 😄