Kim Shook

So what's a Tennessee crab cake like???

Happy Birthday, ma'am! Hope it was a wonderful day!

Ok - so my child says: "Nota Bene, SB’s Lakeside Loveshack for breakfast—which they serve all day, Whisk for dainty snacks and sweets, WPA Bakery, Proper Pie, Pik Nik, Salt & Forge for breakfast or lunch, Shaved Duck, Peter Chang’s, Metzger’s, The Jasper for cocktails, Greek on Cary, Alamo, Red Cap Patisserie for good baked goods, The Jefferson is always great for a wow factor. " I'd add Garnett's, Kuba-Kuba, Heritage, L'Opossum (one of our favorites), Perly's delicatessen, and Shagbark - we haven't been there, but it is getting great reviews. To me, the best bakery in town is Sub Rosa on Church Hill - the croissants are as good as the ones we ate in Paris. Be thinking about where you want to have lunch, @robirdstx!!!!!

Thank you!!! So, this one?

We haven't eaten there yet, but I've heard good things about them.

OK, I'm ready to put this on my wish list. Keep in mind that I STILL haven't used my Anova, but I have high hopes of doing so soon. Ironically, life has gotten in the way of me actually having a life. But Christmas is only 6 months away. You can barely see through the window of my toaster oven, so I figure I'm due for a replacement 😉. So, my question is: which model do I want? Ta!

The Hardee's that I've been to recently (Richmond VA and Reidsville NC) still have great biscuits. The biscuits themselves are really good and all the fillings so good that it makes it hard to choose - the eggs taste really fresh and are moist and tender. They have actual country ham, pork chops, country fried steak and really good sausage. Damn. Now I want a biscuit and I'm not even dressed yet.

Oh, my. That is a BIG subject. Give me a little bit to gather the info! Our daughter knows more than we do these days! I'll ask her.

That looks wonderful, Kay!! The best that I've ever made are James Briscione's Sherry Shrimp and Grits.

I'm ok with the scrapple here. But I need an "everything but the zucchini" button. Especially with @HungryChris!

I've had good luck heating cooled brownies. I love super chewy brownies, so I tend to overcook anyway!

I adore those pancakes! They are a little hard to find around here. When I find them, they are called "yellow pancakes" and are always on the appetizer menu. The only sauce I've ever gotten is a very thin sauce that looks like (but can't be - not strong enough) fish sauce with a few strands of pickled carrots and daikon on top. The pickled vegetables are also served along side the pancake - to roll up with the herbs in the lettuce (I am too messy to do that. I just pile it all up, drizzle with sauce and get going with a knife and fork!).

I am living through this right now with my mother. Humor helps (sometimes, she shares the laugh, sometimes I laugh later). But like you, I have arrangements.

Thank you! I'll try them with the "tweaks"! Here is a picture of Mr. Kim's cookies - no way they could be bars - the things were flatter than pancakes.

I’m looking at the recipe that you linked and comparing it to the one that Mr. Kim brought home. There are a number of differences that look substantial to me. The recipe you linked uses twice the butter, 1 cup of sugar (half brown, half regular) instead of 1 1/2 c. of all white, no sour cream, no whipping cream, no baking powder and they add an egg, vanilla and another cup of white chocolate chips. And the picture of those cookies looks NOTHING like what Mr. Kim ended up with. I’m going to give that recipe a try soon. So, @Toliver and @Anna N – any ideas? Here’s Mr. Kim's recipe and a link to the one that @blue_dolphin mentions. Thanks to you all!

@rotuts - RK treats are not something my mom ever made, so I came to them late in life (along with Sloppy Joes and most casseroles). I love them. @Shelby – I just use the recipe on the side of the box and it works fine. I think the secret is you just have to keep mixing beyond when you think you should stop and you have to REALLY press it down. I cover with wax paper and put another pan on top the same size and really lean on it. And buy the small box until you really, really like RKs – otherwise you will be making treats forever. @patris– oh, wow. I will try browning the butter next time! That sounds amazing. @ChocoMom – like you, I’ve made RKTs out of all kinds of cereals – they are always popular with both kids and adults. Cap’n Crunch regular and PB are big favorites around here. Many years ago @deensiebat recommended a very grown up version from Momofuku: Sesame-Ginger Rice Krispie Treats. These were pretty incredible. I didn’t make this, but I wish I had: This was a gift from a friend. He brought it back from some Italian bakery in Philadelphia. Look at that crumb: If I could bake a pound cake like that, I’d die happy. It was the best pound cake I’ve ever had.

Turkey on rye and vegetable beef soup: On another thread, some of us ended up confessing our love for some Campbell's soups. So, of course, I got the taste for it. Vegetable beef. With the carrots fished out, as usual! I know it's ridiculous. I know that all the vegetables taste the same after the cooking and the canning, but I hate cooked carrots and feel like I can taste the difference.

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: