Kim Shook

I love that book! It is on my "Keeper shelf" - never to give up because I, too, re-read it every couple of years.

Just lovely and Happy Birthday to Mr. Franci!

Yay!!! And that pork belly looks meaty. I hesitate to order it in a restaurant because I've seen some too-fatty-for-me belly on tv shows. But Costco has some nice, thick slices that look pretty meaty. How did you cook yours? The fat looks like cracklin' - just gorgeous!

I had one of these cookies (Jacques Torres' Chocolate Chip Cookies): And I'm pretty sure I'm good until tomorrow.

So, here's an odd thing. I just took a bite of one of the cookies and it tastes much better to me than it did warm last night. I think I will probably finish the entire cooky (and call it lunch - they are SO huge). The chocolate taste is more pronounced. Odd, huh? Still hoping someone will chime in with some judgement about my choice of chocolate and whether it would be worth it to get something of a higher quality.

I need a little guidance, please. Mr. Kim asked me some time ago to make the Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies. I finally put the dough together day before yesterday and baked them yesterday. They are enormous cookies (3.5 oz. each): They should really be called chocolate CHUNK because he specifically dissuades you from using chips. They are really gorgeous – top: And bottom: Inside, too: Crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle. The perfect cooky. Mr. Kim and Jessica were having serious moments with these cookies. You know, I’m not sure if I really like chocolate chip cookies, even orgasmic ones. Because I’ve never had one that I went crazy over. And these were good. But I’m not tempted to go downstairs to get another one. But here’s the thing – I’m not sure that I used REALLY excellent chocolate for these. I just decided on the spur of the moment while I was at Aldi to make them. I had everything but the chocolate, so I bought 2 bars of Moser Roth 70% dark and 3 bars of Choceur 49%. What I’m wondering is if I went ahead and bought the Jacques Torres or the Valrhona chocolate, are they SO much better that I might love these cookies? I am just so ignorant about dark chocolate. I spent just under $10 for 1 1/2 lb. of chocolate. The Jacques Torres would be about $15 for the same amount – half again as much, which isn’t bad, but I’m sure I’d have to pay postage. The Valrhona is more than twice that, so that’s out. I’d really like to be able to go to a local store and buy what I can feel confident is really GOOD dark chocolate to try next time I make these. Your opinions would be wonderful!

Cracked open virtually perfect eggs this morning: Just exactly the firmness and consistency that I want - perfect for egg salad, deviled eggs, or for eating out of hand. A hint of green, but I can live with that. This was 25 minutes at 210F steam. I might keep experimenting with the IP for when I need lots of eggs, but my rack holds 7 and that is usually plenty for us.

I always make my turkey gravy ahead of time and freeze it. I use turkey necks to make it and it is good enough to elevate even the driest, dullest breast of turkey to sublime. There are only two things in this world that I think I make better than anyone else - peanut butter cookies and turkey gravy. I wish I thought my MIL would let me supply the gravy, but she likes the drama of the last minute gravy prep. I think I would actually like that Cantonese Chicken Salad, @heidih! It calls for "rice sticks". Do you reckon that these would work just as well?

Of course! I always share: Apple Cake.

Thinking of you every day, my friend! It is interesting to see a place where the people have a long view instead of just worrying about their immediate situation. I understand that things change when actual starvation looms, but it is heartening all the same.

I forgot to take a picture of this when I made it. Mr. Kim usually makes this apple cake, but I ended up doing it for him. He wanted to take it to the BBQ competition he went to last weekend. There was a little left and this is one of the last pieces:

I'd like to sit right down at your table. I would sit for hours and just nibble at all of it. Very cool about the Food 52 thing. Will you please let us know when it happens? Woo-hoo! I found the recipe 1st try. That's getting printed out and I'm making that for sure! I grew up on my grandmother's - lemon jello instead of raspberry, no apple , but she did add celery (??) . And I'm thinking that her's was more 'gelled' than yours is. If I'm allowed to make something for Thanksgiving, I'd love to do that. I have no idea what we are having. My MIL is having dinner this year and she's odd about what I bring. She and my SIL will do a jillion dishes each (you know that southern thing where you do every vegetable in existence) and she'll ask me to bring some random thing, but "make sure that it isn't too heavy". 😑 She's a great cook, so it's not jealousy. She's just odd when it comes to either Jessica or me bringing food to her house. LOL

I've secretly made the dough for Jacques Torres' chocolate chip cookies that Mr. Kim requested about two months ago. The dough is resting now. I haven't made chocolate chip cookies in years because every recipe I ever tried was ho hum to me. But if these knock my socks off, I may make them for Christmas. I always do my peanut butter cookies (one of only two things I actually brag on) and sugar cookies (just sprinkled, not iced - and they are made with Pillsbury dough, so no bragging there), but usually add something else to the mix. Last year it was my sister's mocha chocolate chips. And I always buy a tin of Nyacker's gingersnaps - I can't make a gingersnap that perfect, so they do it for me!

I read an article about that book and her journey on Eater (I think). It was really interesting and I'd love to read the book. I love how she started out with this idee fixe about what she was going to find in the towns and how her perspective changed when she met the people running the restaurants.

Made spaghetti and meat sauce in the IP tonight. All meezed this afternoon and tonight it was 35 minutes from sauteing the meat to serving up. It wasn't the most delicious meat sauce I've ever eaten, but the pasta was perfect and I can work on the flavor! This was weird to do: But this is what it turned out like:

@fug – I agree with @Smithy, that crab cake is one hell of a first post! Thanks so much for posting the link, too. I am definitely making those. @Paul Bacino – I had to laugh when I saw Kirby’s face. That’s just precisely the face I’d make if someone tried to sneak cauliflower into my mac n cheese. Decided late today that I wanted spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight and thought I’d give making the spaghetti and meat sauce in the IP a try. I did some Rachel Ray meatballs in the CSO. I used a recipe from thekitchn.com for the spaghetti and meat sauce. A little scary to do this: But just a few minutes later, I got this: It was cooked just fine. To be perfectly honest, this recipe makes a very ordinary sauce. It was fine, but with jarred marinara, a little salt, garlic powder, and onion powder, you aren’t going to get a delicious sauce. But I can work with that. I meezed this afternoon and tonight the entire process was 35 minutes from browning the meat to serving up. I just had time to heat up the meatballs and make a salad: With meatballs and Parm: So, I’ll definitely be making this again. I’ll just add my own ideas to this basic method.

I have NEVER in my life been able to find frozen cranberries. I have a fair number of recipes that call for cranberries and the recipes always say, "Fresh or frozen". Since I can't find them frozen, but want to be able to make the recipes all during the year, I have an annually repeating reminder on my December calendar to "Buy 4 bags of cranberries". 🙄

When I make Super Sized Ginger Chewies with Sugar Babies, the Babies on the edge tend to melt and form a lacy caramel edge. I trim these off to make the cookies look neater. And, of course, eat all the trimmings.

I sometimes see them at Fresh Market or Wegman's. I've never tried them because I don't care for the real ones. My English grandmother used to smuggle bacon and sausage to us when she visited. I'm not a fan of fiber in my sausage. Years ago, we went to Bermuda for a week. The first morning I requested all bacon, no sausage on my "Full English". When asked why, I explained that I'd had it and just didn't care for it. The waiters were a cheeky bunch and every morning for the rest of our trip, my bacon came with a flourish - on it's own platter with a silver cover. 😊

Just wanted to report my very good result using the steam function (210F) on chuck eye steak tonight. I seared it in a cast iron skillet, then cut it into chunks when it was cooled: I steamed it in a sauce that I made and it turned out very, very tender: What you can't see is that inside each of those little chunks, the meat is medium-rare. I'll probably try using sous-vide next time I want to eat these as a steak, but I was thrilled that this ended up almost as tender as pot roast in just over 15 minutes!

Last night we had brats: Mr. Kim likes the ones that you buy raw, I prefer the already cooked ones. It was my turn. Served with kraut, fixed up Kraft, and baked beans: s I’ve been noticing some folks here using chuck eye steak, but I’d never seen it. I found some at Walmart the other day and had an idea of how to use it. I decided to do a kinda-sorta burrito thingy tonight. I started by getting a good sear on the steaks in an iron skillet, then chilling them: When they were cold, I cut them into fairly small chunks: I made a sauce of Bisto, Worcestershire, and A1 and put some on the meat. I cooked it in the CSO on steam at 210F until it was hot, then put it on a flour tortilla with more of the sauce on top: Then topped with sunny side up eggs: Served with a salad and fried potatoes and onions: I’ve always had trouble making these and my issue is timing. I start with cold, boiled potatoes and chopped onions. If I try to make the onions and potatoes in the same pan, I end up with more or less burnt onions. I start with the onions and let them get a little soft (if I start with the potatoes, I end up with undercooked onions), then dump in the potatoes and stir and stir. The only way that I end up with perfectly cooked onions AND potatoes is if I cook the onions completely first, take them out of the pan, THEN cook the potatoes and add the onions back in at the last minute to warm up. Not THAT much trouble, but I wish I could figure out the timing to do it together. My egg got a tad overdone: It all tasted really good, but we decided that since this was really a fork and knife sandwich, next time I’ll just serve it on some garlic bread or something. It doesn’t really work well as a burrito or a wrap. What was remarkable to me was the chuck eye. Lots of flavor and incredibly tender. I’m guessing that is due to the fact that I steam cooked it.

This morning: (a Edward's country ham and (almost) hard cooked eggs on a toasted sub roll. (Wish I'd had one of @Ann_T's biscuits to put it on!).

@liuzhou - So odd how things happen. This popped up New Content today and apparently I’d somehow missed the entire thread because it took me to your first post. I’m reading along fascinated and salivating and come upon your post about Bánh Xèo, which is one of my favorite things that I’ve ever tasted. There were only 2 restaurants that we could find that serve them in our town and the one that had the best closed. This morning, I was determined to clean out all the stuff I’ve saved and bookmarked on my computer and came across a blog post/recipe for… Bánh Xèo! It is by some Australian fellow who fell in love with it somewhere and couldn’t ever find it, so he did some research and experiments and promises it will be earth shaking. We’ll see. But the point is that after the giant clean out, I came to eG, opened this thread and there it was! Thank you for doing this report back then. I’m glad I stumbled upon it!

Thank YOU! I've been sharing these posts with Mr. Kim and you have whetted our appetites in more ways than one. If there is any possible way, I think we may someday try to follow in your footsteps.

@Anna N - what is “timer pepper”? I googled but only got Szechuan pepper.