Kim Shook

Breakfast today: Rye toast and hard boiled egg. Still using Mr. Kim’s friend’s eggs. So good. Still hit or miss on the green edge on the yolk, no matter what method I use.

Love the bench! And Chum! And if we were not on a flood watch here, I'd be on the way to the store for the makings for chips and dip. I am really craving it now. Wonder if Mr. Kim would be willing to stop on the way home?

Same. I treated myself to one a number of years ago with some birthday money and I have yet to try it out.

I've always called it an "omelet" sandwich, but it is a very particular omelet. Very FLAT. When I make an omelet NOT for a sandwich, I like them fluffy and beat a lot of air into the eggs. Sandwich "omelets", on the other hand are just eggs that are dumped into a pan, stirred up a little and then allowed to cook - I drain off the wet egg under the cooked, flip it once sprinkle on a little filling (cheese, meat, etc.) and fold once. Then I cut to fit my bread/roll/toast. And my omelet would NEVER be a Western because it would never contain bell pepper.

I am addicted to the Capellini pasta salad. They don't always have it, but when they do, I buy a LOT!

A recent dinner out at a local Italian restaurant we hadn’t tried yet and then an odd experience. We started with Risotto “Fries”: Very like arancini – delicious. I had the Linguini w/ Clams: Wonderful – even better the next day when all the juices had been soaked into the pasta. Mr. Kim had the Veal Saltimbocca with Sautéed Spinach, Prosciutto di Parma, Fresh Mozzarella & Garlic Potatoes: Every single thing was delicious and we had perfect service. The potatoes seemed odd, but were the perfect accompaniment. We were so impressed that we went back for my mother’s birthday. Things were considerably less delicious and perfect that trip. Still decent, but not nearly as good. And the service was incredibly slow – both the food service and table service. Our town has really had a restaurant renaissance in the last few years and there are so many really excellent options. If you disappoint a customer, they likely won’t be back. Because we had such a good first experience, we probably will give them a second chance – especially since good Italian is, for some reason, hard to find here. But there were surely folks there that night for the first time – and the lackluster performance might very well have chased them away for good. Really too bad, considering what I know what this place CAN do when they try. A completely different experience on Mother’s Day. We ate at Note Bene – a place we’ve been to again and again and never had anything less than stellar. This is the kind of place that I take food loving guests from out of town, because we know we can count on them. We started with Fig and Pig pizza: Wood-fired with fig preserves, prosciutto, gorgonzola. Just amazing. And Sullivan’s Pond Baked Goat Cheese: With olive oil, pepper, local honey. I had the roasted whole flounder: Mr. Kim had the Pappardelle Lamb Sugo: Jessica had the Pappardelle Wild Mushrooms with mixed mushrooms, porcini broth, cream, thyme (no picture). Dessert was biscotti with whipped ricotta: And almond cake: The chef is a friend of Jessica’s and came out to apologize for the not crispy enough biscotti and bitch about trying to bake crisp things in a 100+ degree, humid kitchen in a 19th century brick building that can’t really be insulated. The texture of the biscotti was somewhere between biscotti and oatmeal cookies. But they were delectable and the whipped ricotta was heavenly. We tried to reassure, but chefs are tough on themselves. Wow, it was good. All house made pastas, everything that can be put in the wood fired oven is. Everything was delicious!

We had a ton of Rice Krispies for some reason, so I made Treats with almond extract: Mr. Kim came home last night with a recipe and ingredients and wanted to make these cookies. They are inspired by Creamsicles and that sounded good to me: (That in the back is our garden ). While they tasted wonderful, these were a little problematic and need some tinkering. They baked up extremely flat, but soft, not crisp – actually, they were sticky. They became even stickier upon storing. I don’t think that the white chocolate chips add anything that a good glug of vanilla wouldn’t do just as well (and you wouldn’t get the little mini-mountains that the chips create). And next time, I would add more orange zest. But they really do taste good! If anyone would like to go to the link and give some advice, I’d be thrilled!

A couple of recent breakfasts - More good eggs: Fried on toast. And an omelet sandwich: Served with toasted coconut yogurt and fruit:

Jeez. For the past few weeks we've been getting eggs from the flock one of Mr. Kim's co-workers has. Hope those ladies continue to be good layers.

Yay! So glad you are doing this! And so sorry about the poison ivy! Take care and sleep in gloves!

We quite like a lot of Campbell's. Bean with bacon, tomato, split pea with ham, beef and barley, old fashioned veg, vegetarian veg, and every so often - chicken noodle. They don't compare to homemade and we don't eat them very often, but when we do, we like them.

Last night before dinner snack: Some more of that Caramont goat cheese and water biscuits. Pickly stuff: Some pink Key West shrimp rescued from the freezer and roasted ala Ina Garten: Served with cocktail sauce, crackers, a salad with Caramont feta: First of the season corn: (not at all bad). And a little bit of leftover Popeye’s dirty rice: Couldn’t let THAT go to waste! And Mr. Kim brought home some goodies for dessert:

Ok, that makes sense. So, I guess the better question is "What is it NOT?".

I recently finished How America Eats: A Social History of U.S. Food and Culture (American Ways) by Clementine Paddleford. I got interested in this book after reading Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, the Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate. They are very interesting read in tandem. Clementine Paddleford was not a name I was familiar with before reading Hometown Appetites. Her writing is very much of her time. She is chatty and intimate and charming. If you have read much magazine writing of the 50’s and 60’s, Mrs. Paddleford will be a recognizable voice. She truly had an amazing career and her travels were extensive. The recipes in How America Eats are incredibly varied and fairly complete for the time that she was writing in.

These bring back good memories! They were a favorite of my dad's - @Ted Fairhead - (can't make it link to his name for some reason).

Margarita cake for a BD at Mr. Kim’s office: Just a cake mix fix up with a sweetened pretzel crust and Cool Whip frosting, but it tasted pretty good - only because of the Cool Whip frosting the cake has to be refrigerated and I'm not a fan of cold cake.

Recent dinner: Rotisserie chicken (store bought), roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts. With Bisto gravy: And veggies: Very nostalgic meal for me. I was telling Mr. Kim that this exact meal was one that my mom made almost every week when I was a kid. It was one of the few meals that everyone at the house would eat! With our blended family of Americans and British folk, she had to stick close to a few select things. When she and I were on our own it was pizza and beanie weenie!

This just isn't my experience where I am - Richmond VA. We have a number of German restaurants here - some recently opened by young, very good chefs. Just lucky, I guess. @AlaMoi and @Honkman - I'd be really interested in what is authentically German. I've never been, but my husband and some other family members have been and were lucky enough to eat in both homes and restaurants and loved the food. Other than a Bavarian restauant (that we love) in nearby towns and the more upscale, modern ones I mentioned above (which we also love), I haven't eaten much in the way of German food, but am very interested. I always think of German food as being very meat and carb-centric and that is right up my alley! Thank you!

A co-worker of Mr. Kim’s keeps chickens: Lovely! Just scrambled with buttered toast: One of my favorite breakfasts.

Not cooking much lately, but I wish I could. Everything y’all are doing is so inspiring! A few recent “feasts” Before dinner snack - Caramont goat cheese w/ herbes de Provence and water biscuits: The cheese is from Caramont farm. Jessica took us there for a day of baby goat cuddling. The three of us had a lovely day together thanks to my MIL who stayed with my mom. She also provided us with dinner one night. We shared one of her Shepherd’s pies: Served with broccoli and salad: Another night was spaghetti and veggies: A couple of nights ago – pickle-y stuff to start: Veggies: Chili dogs, tarted up canned beans and frozen fries: We are living the good life here.

We had a ladie’s tea at church a couple of Sundays ago that I helped cater. We were ladies and it comprised lunch, so I’m guessing this is the proper thread! The sweet table: Missing from this picture – beside the butter and strawberry jam - are the biscuits (still in the oven) and the clotted cream that someone promised to bring. She didn’t. So instead of “scones” and clotted cream and jam, we just had a more Southern US version! The savory table: From 12 o’clock: Ribbon sandwiches (cheese), chicken salad on mini croissants and cucumber sandwiches on thin pumpernickel. Tea selection, mini Jamaican patties and Jacques Pepin's Gougères. The Gougères. It was an international tea! One of the ladies is from the Caribbean and she provided the Jamaican patties. I gave cucumber sandwiches a German twist with the bread and did French gougères!

Thank you, ma'am! I got that recipe from @Maggie the Cat originally. Mr. Kim and Jessica would LOVE the addition of asparagus and I could easily pick them out. Great idea!

Dirty, dirty secret re: the Spanish Rice version. Many years ago (35, at least) when I was a broke newlywed, a co-worker brought in a casserole for a lunch potluck that everyone loved. She was an even younger and broke-r newlywed than I and she confessed it was just a pound of hamburger cooked and added to Spanish Rice-A-Roni when it was almost done. The dirty secret part is that it is still a once a year guilty pleasure for Mr. Kim and me.

I don't care for those fries, either. But those thin, crisp crusted, griddle cooked burgers! Glad ours is WAY over on the other side of town - limits how often I get to it!

We eat a LOT of rotisserie chickens. I save the scraps and bones and make my stock with it every few weeks. It is every bit as good as the stock I make from fresh home-roasted bones. And, for an extra bit of info - longtime (ago) eG'er @racheld (mom of @caroled) has a really delicious little sauce that she puts together for rotisserie chicken. It takes about 90 seconds to make.