Kim Shook

How about peaches?

I did try that. They mostly reference much smaller roasts. But I persevered and did indeed find one using a 4 lb. roast! Thank you!

Jessica just requested hot dogs (and fixin's), corn on the cob, tomatoes, cucumbers, and a short drive north to King's Dominion to watch their fireworks. Not sure about dessert.

I need some advice, please! I've got a 4.3 lb. sirloin tip roast. Can I cook this as is (meaning whole) in the IP? How long? I'm planning to brown it first along with some onions and garlic. Maybe some Montreal steak seasoning. Would one cup of liquid be good? Thanks, as always!

I think this makes perfect sense. Fish is, of course, different. I think it really benefits from leaving it alone - especially if you want a nice crust on it. If you turn it too often you risk it breaking apart and every time you turn it the 'cool' side has to heat up again. That's my theory anyway.

What is a cheese bun??? Some Canadian delicacy? Looks delicious.

Couldn’t make up my mind between toast with strawberry jam or an egg, so I had both:

@chefmd – I’m sorry about your beans, but those scallops are calling to me. I need to have some soon! The other night - Hanover tomatoes and cucumbers: Spaghetti Bolognese: Garlic bread: I told Mr. Kim that I didn’t have bread for garlic bread. If he wanted some with dinner, he needed to stop on his way home from work and pick it up. He came home with frozen garlic bread. Bless his heart. 🙂

That's fantastic - I've bookmarked it! Thank you for linking it. BTW - my broken in half spaghetti twirls just fine. 😉

My English Nannie ( @Ted Fairhead's mum) lived through WWI, WWII and rationing. Her cooking was very plain, classic British cooking. It was delicious. I learned how not to boil Brussels sprouts to death from my stepsister's mother and have converted many American sprout-haters with her method.

I do the same thing. I joke that I know it is time to make some banana bread when I open the freezer and frozen bananas fall out. What is the frosting? Looks good.

There are many, many rules in cooking. Some make sense, others are just wrong and a scientific research into them disproves them - the ban of washing mushrooms comes to mind. There are also shibboleths that may or may not have a foundation, but are accepted as law. I'd love to see a discussion of this. I'll start: I hear everywhere that it is just wrong to break spaghetti in half before cooking it. Why? Sometimes I do it because I'm cooking it in a saucepan rather than a large stockpot or Dutch oven. As far as I can tell, it doesn't change the flavor or texture. But I hear it all the time: "Never, ever break your spaghetti in half!". Like only a rube or barbarian would do that. So, why?

Some folks I know use gift certificates from these services to give to new parents and folks just out of the hospital. At our church, we have a casserole group that fills the same need, but it is homemade. I find that much more personal, but some people don't cook and still want to contribute. I've also known people to do it for a loved one who lives far away from them. I guess it means that the people being gifted at least get to pick out what they want to eat. So that's one reasonable use, I think. We've never used one of these services. The only thing we ever get delivered is pizza. Crap pizza - Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's. But since we've found 2 very local places that make good pizza, I've convinced Mr. Kim that it is worth going a mile or so to get that! I've always had a guilty love of delivered food, though. In the 60's, I used to sometimes spend the night with my father's mother. Her house was fascinating. She and my grandfather knew everyone in politics in Washington DC and she had pictures and dance programs and invitations to embassies, grand hotel ballrooms and even the White House. Her refrigerator was not so fascinating (at least to a 6-7 year old). She cooked one night a year (Christmas) and that was it. The freezer had bottles of gin and vodka and as many ice cube trays as would fit. The fridge section had bottles of olives, cocktail onions, milk (for her morning coffee) and Metrical shakes (like SlimFast). When I'd get hungry, she'd had me a sheaf of menus and say, "Pick what you want and The Man will bring it". To this day, I have no idea who "The Man" was. I don't know if she had contacts at all the restaurants who would deliver to her or if this was someone on retainer who delivered meals for her or what. But she'd make a phone call and in a bit we'd be sitting down to chicken or Chinese (our favorite) or spaghetti.

Welcome, Dave! Boston is somewhere I've never been, but would love to visit. Looking forward to your contributions!

Ham and cheese on toast, my Grandma Jean’s Easy Pickles, and chips:

@CantCookStillTry – cheese toast is one of my very favorite things in the world. I grew up eating it as a snack or with soup, but no one else I knew did. Mr. Kim hadn’t ever had it until I served it to him. Then a couple of years ago, I served it with soup to a British friend. He said “oh, good – cheese toast. I haven’t had this for years!”. My stepdad (some will remember Ted) was British and I’m wondering if it is a British thing? @Shelby – what did you do to your potatoes? They look great. Well, I made the trashiest thing in my repertoire last night – “Tamale Pie”. I’ve made this for years. I honestly thought I’d invented it when Mr. Kim and I were newly married and broke, but I’ve seen it in community cookbooks and on “downhome” websites, so I guess not😊. Canned tamales: Cheese (pre-shedded): Canned chili: More cheese on top and baked: Served with tortilla chips and slaw: The slaw itself was in a bag, but I did make the sauce.

@BeeZee – I really love the look of that shrimp salad. I’ve never thought to put all of that into shrimp and it sounds absolutely wonderful! Night before last was breakfast-for-dinner: Sausage rolls, orange segments, nectarine, and scrambled eggs with cheese. Last night: French dip w/ provolone and fried onions, fries and broccoli.

That looks gorgeous! And those eggs! A couple of questions - was that done in a regular waffle iron or Belgian? And do you think the recipe would work without the asparagus? I'm not an asparagus eater.

Everything looks delicious, especially those lovely onion rings!

For Father’s Day, I decided to try a Strawberry Ladyfinger Icebox Cake from Tasteofhome.com. I had some trouble with it and am still not sure was worth it. The springform pan lined with ladyfingers: All layered up with strawberries, mascarpone, and whipped cream. This layering is where I got into trouble. The ingredients list the strawberries as “6 cups fresh strawberries, sliced”, which SHOULD mean “measure out 6 cups of strawberries and then slice them”. That really is a bad direction. Strawberries can be all kinds of sizes – huge or as small as a thimble. I decided to prep the mascarpone/whipped cream portion and prep as many strawberry slices as seemed correct. That worked fine. But I was so freaked out about that that I think my attention wandered while I was doing the layering. The layering is supposed to go: ladyfingers, creamy layer, strawberries, creamy layer, strawberries, ladyfingers, creamy layer. I somehow missed the final ladyfinger layer. I was expressing my confusion and fears on the “absurdly, stupidly basic cooking questions” thread here and everyone was sharing my frustration at the strawberry measurement issue. We were a bit worried that the lack of one of the ladyfinger layers would affect the stability, but it was actually fine: It was good. And impressive looking. But I guess I thought it would be kind of spectacular tasting and it just wasn’t.

So, the strawberry icebox cake turned out fine. I'll be posting pictures and comments on the Daily Sweets thread. Thank you all for your help and comments and laughter - it made the whole thing less stressful. I did go to the original recipe at Tasteofhome.com and voice my opinion! 😄

We hosted Father’s Day dinner. Started with cheese, crackers, trail mix and peanuts: (clockwise from top left) Mary Cambozola Black Label, St. Angel, Truffle Parano, garlic and herb goat, and honey goat. Bread, crackers, trail mix, and Old Bay peanuts. Ribs: This was a Cooks Country recipe and it very good, but not without a problem. The rub and sauce were very good (though I added a little extra sweetness to the sauce), but the method was the issue. They were supposed to be cooked in a slow cooker by cutting a full rack in half and putting the two racks sitting up in the cooker. I don’t know what size slow cooker they used (it wasn’t specified, unfortunately), but I have a large one and the ribs were too tall for the cooker. So, I cut them into 4 ribs each and that way they tilted against each other and fit. Hanover tomatoes (locally celebrated) and Duke’s: Pickly stuff: Top right are my MIL’s sweet pickled green tomatoes and middle right are the Jake & Amos pickled green grape tomatoes. Jessica’s gorgeous salad with mixed greens, crumbled Wensleydale & apricot cheese, candied pecans, crisped Prosciutto, pickled shallots and a balsamic/saba dressing. Marinated cucumbers. Cooler corn. I don’t know if anyone else does this method. It is a great idea for serving corn to a crowd. You shuck the corn, put it in a clean cooler and cover with boiling water. In about 30 minutes the corn is cooked and hot and usually stays that way for a couple of hours. Jessica’s hashbrown casserole. Her best ever rendition with Swiss, Cheddar, and Monterey Jack cheeses and mild green chilis. Spoonful: Jessica’s pineapple casserole. It went really well with the ribs. Monday was my grandmother’s funeral in Reidsville NC. After the funeral and the burial and speaking to people I haven’t seen for years – hearing how loved she was and how many people helped her when her niece and nephew and I couldn’t be there - and going back to the house and looking through pictures and telling stories, we needed supper before heading home. Where else but Short Sugar’s – the BBQ place that I grew up going to and have written about here before? I’m guessing I had my first meal at Short Sugar’s before I had teeth. Granddaddy probably had me gumming hushpuppies on my first visit to Reidsville. We just shared an assortment of stuff – a wonderful burger: When I spent my summers here as a kid, I ate a lot of these burgers. But as an adult, I haven’t spent as much time there and so, when I have the chance to eat there, I usually choose BBQ. The burgers are wonderful, though – just the right size and griddle cooked. Brunswick stew and hushpuppies: A chopped pork sandwich with slaw: And an order of pork rinds: One of which was as big as Jessica’s hand: Everything was delicious and as comforting as we needed it to be.

Welcome to eGullet! I think you are going to fit right in! Your desserts are lovely - I agree with @Smithy: you are going to answer as many questions as you ask! As far as Philly goes, I've only been once (and loved it and am hoping to come back some time), but because of friends I am familiar with Stock's Bakery. I don't know about anything but the pound cake - I'm posting about that today - it is the best I've ever tasted, so I can recommend a trip there for you!

I love fried dill pickles, so I'd try them. Hamburgers, hot dogs, topper for potato salad. I make fried dill pickles for Mr. Kim's BBQ pork: and I think I'd try the packaged kind there, too. I'm actually getting interested now. 😄

That's wonderful! Sexy picture, Rob!