Kim Shook

Thank you, ma'am. I believe that Mr. Kim would leave me if I tried to make pulled pork. He is much too proud of his newly acquired status of smoker guy to put up with that!

But we LOVE Taco Bell.

Actually, I'm not from the UK. I live in the US. But, I had a British stepdad who fostered my lifelong love of all things British and I finally got a chance to visit in 2011. I've never been anywhere that felt more like home to me and I hope that we can make it back someday. If you'd be interested here is my trip report. The chocolate business sounds perfect - also the timing. Keep up posted!

Oh. The polenta that I buy is fairly coarse. I've never thought to use fine cornmeal for it. I need to try that - I have a feeling that polenta made with fine meal would be much less likely to pop at me when I fry it up as cakes. Thanks!

That is a great idea! Thank you. I'll look next time I go. I've taken her there in the past and she loved the stuff on the hot bar. It never occurred to me!

Ok, just curious. The recipe that I'm going to use says to cook the pork roast for 2 1/2 hours. I just noticed on the lid to my sous vide plastic bin, it says to cook a pork roast a minimum of 18 hours. What gives?

We are so screwed. They are opening a Taco Bell just around the corner from us - right in front of the grocery store that we usually use.

I do this, too. I was really having to resist the urge to bake bread yesterday. I don't have time to bake bread! But it took a lot of willpower! The Salad: Spanish Rice & Hamburger stove-top casserole and fresh butter beans: Admitting right now that the rice dish is just hamburger and a Knorr Spanish rice packet with hamburger and cheese. I've been making variations of this dish for the past 35 years. We like it a lot. Started when we were first married and broke and for less than $2, I could feed both of us dinner and lunch.

Lunch for my mother - grilled cheese and ham: Slaw and baked beans: So what's the deal with old people and this wanting to eat 3 times a day???? I am spending my whole day preparing meals and washing dishes. 😉

@ElsieD - that looks delicious! Also - if you find polenta, you will get a texture closer to grits. Might be easier to find where you are.

You will certainly find a lot of chocolate expertise (not me, though). Welcome, Jamal. Where in Britain are you from? And what brought you to Qatar? Love to see some of the food that you are seeing there.

Thank you all so much. Hoping it thaws in time for me to do it tomorrow. Any reason not to add some onions and garlic?

Ok, I am thinking of getting started finally using the Anova that I got for Xmas. I took a 2 1/2 lb. pork loin roast out of the freezer this morning. I am thinking of using this recipe. I have a Foodsaver, so I can vacuum it. But I don't have a smart phone, so using the App is not something I can do. And, unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an old fashioned instruction manual. I am NOT smart, ok? I went to the website and have poked around a bit here and I'm finding lots of the charts perplexing. From what I can tell from the recipe, I rub it with the salt and seasonings and let sit in the fridge for 5+ hours. Vacuum pack the pork. I bring the temperature of the water to 137F, put the vacuum packed pork in the water and let it set for 2 1/2 hours. I'm assuming that I need to temp it. Do I just stick the thermometer in the pork through the bag and immerse it again if it isn't up to temp? Then I sear it. PLEASE tell me if you think I need another set of directions or if you have any ideas for me. I'm sure I'll be asking a LOT! Thanks!

Like Julia said, "you are alone in the kitchen".

I have a terrible time finding fryers that small. My best bet was a store that used to have a small kosher section. They have closed that section and now I'm at a loss. I love the little ones for frying.

That's a great idea! I've never made corn stock, but I use the denuded cobs to flavor the liquid in my corn chowder. It is amazing how much flavor that adds. I would freeze all our leftover cobs all summer, but they are gnawed on and I don't think anyone would appreciate gnawed cob stock.

Mr. Kim’s BBQ: Star’s slaw from Burlington NC: About the only purchased slaw we like. French fries: @caroled's baked beans:

Yesterday's breakfast was this cinnamon rolls that Mr. Kim brought home from our favorite/local doughnut place: The plate it is sitting is a dinner sized one. It was still tender and flaky this morning. This morning was waffles, sage sausage and bananas: Those waffles are frozen. One of life’s little adjustments to having my mom living with us. She likes a big breakfast every morning and she actually likes them. Nothing like scratch, but not too terrible. They are what i grew up on, after all.

Is that rice pressed into a heart shape? Thank you so much for sharing this trip with us. I confess when you first said that you all are not beach people, I wondered why you were in Bali, then. How ignorant of me. What a beautiful place with so much to see and TASTE!

I don't really do gelatinous - except for congealed salads 😉. I have, however, had fried strips of pig ear and they were incredibly good.

The night before my birthday, my MIL invited us over for a celebratory dinner. She made chicken Kiev. When was the last time you saw that? It happens to be one of my favorite things, a taste developed in the 1970’s, I think. And I used to make it when I was trying to impress Mr. Kim with my culinary prowess. But it is such a PITA that I haven’t made it for years. And hers was delicious! I don’t have a picture from that night, but I have a picture of the leftovers that I reheated tonight: For my birthday last night Mr. Kim and Jessica took me to Shagbark, a fairly new restaurant. We started with the Crispy Chicken-Fried Chesapeake Oysters - sweet corn cake / mâche / Jim Kite’s country ham / baby spinach / tabasco butter: Perfectly fried oysters and the corn cake was a great pair with them. Slow-Simmered Vidalia Onion Bisque - jumbo lump crab / Edward’s slab bacon / fresno-rhubarb hot sauce: I am definitely bisque-ing up my onion soup. Up-South Fried Green Tomatoes – Edwards bacon & sweet corn succotash / marinated blue crab / Powhatan pea tendril salad / blue cheese vinaigrette: And the Ham and Cheese – Sam’s deviled ham and Bundy’s pimento cheese with bread and crackers (Sam and Bundy are chefs): We shared all of these incredible and delicious dishes. For our main courses – Mr. Kim had the Olive Oil-Roasted Scottish Salmon - Jim Kite’s country ham / roasted creamer potatoes / Swiss chard / parmesan / horseradish emulsion: I had the Rosemary & Mustard-Braised Border Springs Leg of Lamb - toasted couscous / orange marmalade / Buttercup cheese / Marcona almonds / roasted garlic tapenade toast / grilled fennel / preserved tomatoes: Horrible picture, but truly one of the best lamb dishes I’ve ever tasted in my life. And that tapenade toast was so perfect with the lamb. Jessica had the Chesapeake Rarebit – jumbo lump crab / applewood smoked bacon / parmesan sourdough / roasted red peppers / Worcestershire: Completely delicious. I asked (for subsequent visits) if the chef would object to leaving off the peppers and the server said he’d be happy to!! We ordered and shared two desserts - Limoncello Crème Brûlée - citrus liqueur / toasted fennel and Averna wafer / vanilla bean whipped cream: And Warm Sticky Toffee Pudding - toffee glaze / bourbon gelato / roasted oat streusel (I thought the blueberries were an odd touch, but the oat streusel!!!): Outstanding meal. Before we were finished with our appetizers we were planning who to bring back here!

For my birthday gift, Jessica took me to the Jefferson Hotel for afternoon tea. Mr. Kim went, too. Menu: Jessica and I had the Jefferson blend and Mike had the Richmond blend. I adore Hotel Silver and would start a collection if I weren't trying to pare down my others. Tea goodies: Cucumber on pumpernickel, chicken tarragon salad, cheese-arugula wrap and country ham rolls: All really good, but the chicken salad was a standout. For me, it is really easy to find tarragon overdone, but this was perfect. Savory scone – sun dried tomatoes and cheese: Savory scone, sweet scone, chocolate and yellow slices and a cookie: The sweet scone was an abomination – they had put mini M&M’s in them. More sweets: Macaron, strawberries, lemon curd mini tarts with blackberries and blueberries and a little chocolate mousse filled tart. Everything was delicious, but the strawberry and the mousse proved that you shouldn’t choose festive-ness over flavor. Those little sprinkles have a flavor – actually, a fairly strong one and they compromised and cheapened the pure flavor of the fruit and the chocolate. Since it was my birthday celebration, they brought out a lovely cupcake: The cake was excellent – like a poundcake, really. I’m not a big fan of buttercream and since the cupcake had been refrigerated, the frosting was pretty stiff. What a lovely gift for this Anglophile!

Look what Mr. Kim got me for my birthday: Now I have to read this whole frickin' thread!

I love that hot dog. What a dumb idea. Like Chik-fil-A deciding to replace their delicious slaw (oddly it is hard to find good slaw either in a store of restaurant) with the so-called "Superfood Side salad". No thank you - when I am eating fried chicken sandwiches, I want SLAW.