Kim Shook

Last thing out of the oven tonight: or White chocolate cranberry bread with white chocolate chips and fresh cranberries. Cooling now. I hope this stuff sells. Last year was weird - no one bought cupcakes or muffins, but the coffee cakes and quick breads sold out. So I'm making lots of that kind of stuff and a few kinds of cookies.

Starting to stock the freezer for the bake sale I manage every year for our church Holiday Market. Pineapple Upside Down Biscuits: These are made with whomp biscuits - they aren't cakey, more like a sweetish roll. Nice with baked ham. Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Loaves: Think monkey bread. Also made with whomp biscuits. Hey, I'm making a TON of stuff - I gotta take shortcuts where I can.

I've sent you a PM, @Pete Fred. Hope it helps your problems with the strudel!

Gak.

I didn't. I assume that mine is already seasoned by years of use. I looked online and found lots of varied information about seasoning, but they were referring to "aluminum" and I couldn't tell if they were talking about CAST aluminum or just plain aluminum pans. Advice??

Welcome, @sbain! You should find all the help you need here. Your candies are gorgeous!

Welcome, CP! Glad you found us. There are lots of talented candy makers here (I am not one of them)! Enjoy!

Thank you so much! I didn't know all the science stuff, but I figured that if 3 generations of women had cooked sauce, soup and chili in that pot, we were probably safe! 😊

Another question has occurred to me. I started cooking with my grandmother's cast aluminum many years ago. Certainly before I knew about any problem with acidic foods and aluminum. I just realized that I routinely cook spaghetti sauce, vegetable soup with tomatoes and chili in this pot. Am I slowly killing myself and my family????

I have two Dutch ovens that get a LOT of use. One is an old Club aluminum and the other is a non-stick Calphalon. They suit my day to day purposes just fine. I also have a really good stockpot and a super cheap huge one that I almost never need to use. The reason I'm thinking of buying the caldero pot is for when I need something really large for things like the gravy I made yesterday.

I have a sirloin tip roast - almost 4-inches thick and 4.3 lbs. How do I handle this? Thanks!!! ETA: I should say that I did do some research and someone at amazingfoodmadeeasy.com suggested 131F for 13-48 hours (!!!!!). As you can imagine, that timing has me stymied.

Gravy is done! Nice, jellied stock: This is the color I like for my roux: A little white wine, then the stock. At a good simmer (I add LOTS of stock, then simmer it until it is the consistency and flavor I want): The picked neck meat: I use LOTS of this. My mother says that my gravy is more like hash because I use so much meat. I think she’s just jealous because the only gravy she’s ever made was Bisto! 😁 Finished: It is GOOD! Now it cools and gets packed up for the freezer. I’ll probably have to add a little broth when I reheat it.

Thanks so much, @boilsover! I do cook tomato sauce and chili, but I have other pots that I could use for that. Now, I just have to approach Mr. Kim carefully about this, as he is the one who has bought most of them for me. 😊

I am seriously thinking of trying to sell my Le Creuset pots. They have to live in the attic and are so heavy that I have a hard time using them with my bad hands. With them in the attic, I hardly ever even think to use them. One of them is a HUGE stock pot (not cast iron) that I cannot lift when it is full. I keep noticing the cast aluminum caldero pots in the Latino section of supermarkets. They seem to come in lots of sizes and are very light and cheap. I love my old Silverstone cast aluminum and wonder if the caldero pots are comparable to those. Thanks!

I toasted up some good bread that Mr. Kim found at Costco: C Cranberry and walnut.

I did do some nibbling as I was picking them later. Such good meat. Old country grandmas were known for taking the backs and necks of chickens. Everyone thought they were sacrificing the "good" pieces to the family. But I think they knew that the necks had the best meat and the backs had the "oysters"!

Jessica made incredibly good blondies: I’ve never had much luck with blondies, but she has the knack! Full of white chocolate chips and walnuts and made with browned butter, these were delicious!

Lunch yesterday - tuna/noodle salad: and a turkey, cream cheese and cranberry sauce sandwich on some cranberry walnut bread that Mr. Kim got from Costco:

A very disappointing dinner last night. Menu was fried oysters, ffs and slaw. This part was fine: Here is where it started to go wrong: I had these in the freezer for a couple of months. They looked great and I liked the coating very much, but the oysters were terrible. I don’t think they had quite gone bad, but they weren’t far from it. So, they went in the trash. Side dishes were French fries and slaw: These were fine out of the pan, but I put them in the CSO to keep warm and they came out flabby and tough. gfweb suggests propping the door slightly open next time to prevent this. The slaw was just blah. I never use a recipe for slaw and it always turns out fine, but it just didn’t seem to have much flavor this time. So, we filled up on flabby fries and dull slaw and at 11:30, this was my protein: One of those nights. This, however, turned out very well: Lovely roasted necks and veg for my gravy. Popped into the slow cookers all night. Will be making gravy today.

I need some advice, please. Should the CSO produce steam on the convection bake setting? Mine does. I made some french fries last night and when they were done frying, I put them in the CSO on convection at 300F to keep warm while I finished up the other stuff. They came out a little flabby and tough. Should I have used the "keep warm" function instead? Thanks!

I'm assuming that Andrew Zimmern had a hand in this. 😉

Starting my turkey gravy today for Thanksgiving (and a sooner than that turkey dinner - had to take a turkey out of the freezer to make room for all the soon to be goodies I'll be making for our church Holiday Market): Currently roasting turkey necks, onions, celery, carrots, tomato paste, Bell’s seasoning and sage. When done roasting it will all go into slow cookers with chicken broth to make my stock. We'll all wake up tomorrow morning craving a turkey dinner!

English muffins with home made jam: from plums that would have been compost without help from my fellow eGer's!

Thanks for the help! I ended up making jam - I roasted the plums in apple cider and added some cinnamon and cloves: Really good! Thanks for the advice!

Grilled kielbasa and chorizo: With green beans, sauerkraut and noodles: