Kim Shook

I'm so sorry you are going through all this and hope you will get to go home soon. That food is worse than anything I've seen in a hospital in years. The vegetable mixture was truly horrifying.

I want to be able to punch both the "like" and the "haha" buttons!

Those eggs give me the gagging shivers. Ewww.

Growing up, we had a place on Chincoteague Island and driving from Northern VA to the island we passed through MD – and dozens of farm stands. My mom would stop and buy enough Silver Queen and tomatoes for the weekend. Sometimes our meals would be just that – corn and tomatoes. The only condiments being butter, Miracle Whip, salt and pepper. Can’t ever find Silver Queen corn anymore, but that was my favorite. My mom always boiled corn, but now I do it one of two ways – if I’m just doing a few ears, I use the microwave method of cooking for a few minutes, cutting off the end and shaking the ear out of the husk. If I’m doing a large amount, I do the cooler method – husk the corn, put it in a cooler and cover with boiling water. My favorite ways of serving having corn (other than dripping with butter, sea salt, and pepper) are Maggie's Shrimp w/ Corn & Basil: Fresh Corn Chowder with paprika oil: And the way it is served at our favorite central American restaurant – Al Carbon in Charlottesville VA – mayo, cotija, chili powder, and lime:

Mennonite-made sweet potato biscuits and sage sausage:

Well, I'm not really sure these qualify since I made them with a box of leftover Anne's Flat Dumplings that I found in the freezer: But they were good! Just brushed with oil, docked, and sprinkled with Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel seasoning.

@Toliver – thank you for sharing your taco salad memory! When they started turning up everywhere in the 1980’s, I was shocked - I really thought my roommate had invented them! @Owtahear – that salmon looks so good. I really need to cook more fish! @Ann_T– I get a craving for mashed potatoes and gravy a couple of times a week. But somehow it never turns up in my kitchen☹️. Such a gorgeous meal! Yesterday was Mr. Kim’s birthday. Jessica offered to make Mike his dinner. He requested spaghetti, apologizing for being boring. Well, she did it, but it was NOT boring! She did a roasted Roma tomato marinara. Tomatoes: Sauce: The flavor of this sauce was fantastic. Really deep and rich. She also did a buffet of different toppings so everyone could choose what they liked, including Sausage Craft (a local, amazing artisanal sausage maker) Italian sausage, Parmesan, and sautéed mushrooms: Plate: Greek salad: Garlic/Mozzarella bread: This was so gooey and garlic-y! Delicious. Five of us almost finished an entire loaf of this. I made dessert. He wanted a lemon icebox pie:

It was Mr. Kim's BD yesterday and he requested Lemon Icebox Pie. I just saw it made on Pioneer Woman, so I gave that recipe a try. Pie and slice: It was very good - light, refreshing, and really tasty - but we all agreed that there was too much whipped cream to lemon filling. I’ll adjust that next time. Also, I’ll add just one drop of yellow food coloring to the lemon filling – it was so pale that you couldn’t see where it ended and the whipped cream began.

He wanted to go home. To a HOUSE. Still with the dog. 😁

I'm with the dog.

You are a hero. That has the possibility of being worse than my BK taco.

Sorry, I meant to add that they are staying near the airport. They will have a car. Thanks so much! I'll pass this off to Mr. Kim!

I don't drink Pepsi or Coke anymore - gone off of it since I had a gastric bypass, but when I did, I preferred Pepsi. It tasted less sweet to me. I didn't want any flavors adulterating it, though - no cherry or vanilla and certainly no cinnamon! Now, even though I shouldn't, I drink Mt. Dew. (Answering for @Shelby, too 😁).

I did search and all of the threads seem to be really old. Mr. Kim and a friend are headed to Pittsburgh this weekend to attend a Steelers preseason game. They will need dinner Friday night, breakfast, lunch and a quick dinner perhaps on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday. Mr. Kim likes everything, but his friend is really more of a meat and potatoes guy. He likes American versions of Mexican and Italian and that's about it. The last time they went, they tried Primanti's and didn't care for it. Any suggestions would be wonderful. Thanks so much!

@Smithy – It is literally a smear of their cheese fondue on the bottom of the bun. Delicious! @demiglace – well, the Indian Pizza place was just ok. The oyster place was the only one where we had a bad dish and the good dishes and wonderful service completely made up for the bad! Did you see where @rotuts and @chromedomeanswered the currant question?

Lots of eating out lately. Long post! Had an interesting pizza experience the other night. We were just looking for a new pizza place and one called “Chicago Pizza with a Twist” has recently opened up near us. Turns out they are a chain we hadn’t ever heard of and the twist is that about half their menu is Indian inspired. We ordered the samosas: Mr. Kim and Jessica enjoyed them, but they were way too hot for me. Butter chicken pizza: Mr. Kim and Jessica thought this was just ok (they love butter chicken). I, unfortunately, haven’t ever tasted an Indian dish that I really care for, so I didn’t like it at all. Deep dish with pepperoni and sausage: I am not normally a big fan of deep dish, but this wasn’t as formidable as true deep dish, so I actually liked it. The “Caesar salad” was a bit of a joke: Good commercial dressing, powdered cheese and cherry tomatoes (???). I don’t imagine we’ll bother to go back again. Mr. Kim gave Jessica a gift certificate to Salt Box Oyster Company for her birthday and she asked me to share dinner with her. We started with roasted oysters: Jessica had a sampling of all the raw oysters they had on offer: Both the cooked and raw oysters were lovely. Sweet, briny, perfectly presented. I originally ordered 3 and when those were gone I asked for 2 more! Jessica said hers were perfect (I’ve tried, but just can’t do raw oysters). Jessica ordered the charred octopus with white beans, arugula, shallot, lemon, and EVOO: Unfortunately, this went back. The octopus was so tough that it was inedible. They were extremely nice and apologetic about it and insisted on substituting anything she liked at the same price. She substituted with PEI mussels with a sauce of wine, butter, oregano, and garlic bread: The mussels were absolutely gorgeous and perfectly cooked. The sauce needed some punch, but tasted good. I chose the crabcake on a brioche rolls and parmesan fries: The crabcake was good, not great. There didn’t seem to be a lot of filler or vegetables, but the meat was kind of demolished – no big chunks. On Saturday, we celebrated my MIL’s BD at Brenner Pass. Jessica started with the Focaccia w/ taleggio, prosciutto, honey, blueberries, and Aleppo and the Malakoff with Gruyere, brioche, cornichons, and Dijon: Both were delicious, but the Malakoff was possibly the very best cheese-based thing I’ve ever put in my mouth. Mr. Kim started with the tuna carpaccio with porcini mushrooms, sherry, and puffed farro: Mr. Kim and Jess said this was incredibly good. I am not a raw fish person, so I had to trust them on that. I had the Tinned Seafood Platter with sardines in tomato sauce with aioli, bread, and cornichon: Just lovely. I tried to stop eating it since I also ordered a main course, but I kept nibbling until it was almost gone. I SHOULD have stopped, because my main was huge: This is a dinner plate. It was the veal Milanese with smashed fingerlings, red wine jus, and frisee. I never expected it to be an enormous chop. Incredibly tender and delicious. I ate about 1/4 of it. The potatoes: The frisee looks like fancy garnish, but eaten with a hunk of veal, it was surprisingly on point. Mr. Kim had the Fondue Burger for his main course: Ground brisket & short rib, fondue, frisee, speck, cornichon, brioche bun, and fries. Fantastic, as always. Jessica had the gnocchi: With Jimmy Nardello peppers, walnut, pecorino, and wild spinach. Perfectly prepared. And I might need to find some of those peppers, because I didn’t find them at all offensive. For dessert, Mr. Kim had the Cavaillon melon sorbet: This was just lovely. I’ve never had Cavaillon melon, but had heard they are very, very special. Similar to a cantaloupe, but without the funk – very floral. I had the Blushing Peach Sundae: Raspberry sherbet, peaches, almond granita, and a crunchy meringue shell. I loved this. Especially the peaches and almond granita – what a perfect combination. Jessica decided to go with cheese to finish: I’m not positive what all this is. Some cracker things, the fruit was pickled blueberries and currants (which I’d never tasted before – growing red currants is now legal in VA, but still no black ones). The cheeses were (from the top going clockwise) Beaufort d’Alpage (2 year, Savoie, France), Bleu d’Auvergne (Auvergne, France) and Robiola Rochetta (goat, sheep and cow, Piedmont, Italy). All very, very good. This is one of our favorite restaurants – we’ve taken out of town guests there and sent Steve R. there and it has never disappointed anyone. Last night was a rerun of taco night – pan fried tacos: Refried black beans: And a salad that I’ve been eating since college: On taco nights, my college roommate taught me to scoop up all the stuff that had fallen out of my tacos, including shards of shell, add any toppings not used and add Kraft Zesty Italian dressing. Since then (40 years ago!) taco night just isn’t taco night without this salad!

Had a craving: Once in a blue moon, I want bologna, cheese, lettuce, and mayo on soft white bread. I heated up some leftover onion rings and chicken skin (naughty me) from Popeye’s in the CSO on convection/steam: The onion rings were honestly better than when they were fresh.

Took Chocolate chip-pecan-banana bread for after church coffee hour:

A recent breakfast: A favorite summer breakfast since I was a child.

Wow! That taco looks nothing like mine did! What a lot of difference location can make. I have to say, though, that I think you may have gotten lucky. Almost all of the comments on BK's FB page were negative. Glad you got a good one.

You'll be passing through my old stomping grounds while you are in VA. I went for one semester to the University of VA, Clinch Valley Campus (couldn't stand the isolation) and Mr. Kim, Jessica and I lived in Roanoke for a few years. I don't have any current recommendations for you (I agree with @donk79, though - if you can manage to get to The Shack, it is supposed to be remarkable) but I hope you'll report on your trip. You will certainly have a beautiful drive. If it works into your timing travel north on Rt. 11 rather than I-81. So much prettier and a good road.

I'm not much of a drinker (vodka and girly drinks for me), but I found this article about this group of mad scientists trying to recreate old spirits and artificially aging new spirits fascinating. I searched and didn't find the article on here anywhere, so I hope I'm not repeating! "Time in a Bottle"

That will depend on how firm the cakes are and how firm they stay during baking. I've had some things droop right through the grids!

@Smithy – looks like the CSO got the crust on those crabcakes nice and crispy! At what temperature and how long did they cook? Mr. Kim requested waffles for dinner last night. No time for yeasted ones (our favorite), so I just did basic waffles, but I put some pearl sugar in the batter so we could pretend they were liege waffles: A friend had brought us some lovely little strawberries from a farmer’s market: Served with ham, sage sausage, and fruit:

@Ann_T – Once again, Mr. Kim was peering over my shoulder when I pulled up that last breakfast. He kinda lost his mind over the tomatoes and back bacon and your toasted bread. If he had his way, he’d be heading northwest right now. @liuzhou – those eggs are utterly perfect! My extremely ordinary breakfast this morning was surprisingly satisfying: Toasted white bread and sage sausage.