Kim Shook

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.

Is this recipe on your blog? Looks so good!

That sounds delicious. I just Googled a recipe and it sounds like something I'd love - after leaving out the red pepper flakes.

Crashing silence from all the Southern eG'ers, who are too polite to argue with you.

Here is the story. It is really sad - a very old candy company that makes lots of special candies. It is the oldest continuously operating candy company in the United States - since 1901.

Yep. But I think those, at least, would be picked up by another company. Maybe not the Neccos and Mary Janes. I just received a 5 lb. bag of Mary Janes in the mail, thanks to Mr. Kim

That is so weird, @Shelby! I wish that would happen to me (not the flu - just the ability to eat spicy stuff). I don't want to be some stunt eater, but it would be nice to be able to eat a piece of pizza with spicy sausage! I'm sorry you were sick - glad you're better!!!

@Toliver - the milk chocolate ones are our favorites, too. I adore Cadbury milk, but think they just don't have a good dark. I'm currently snacking on Necco wafers. We are starting to hoard them and Mary Janes, in case the company truly folds.

If you mean thinly sliced and unfried, I have. Actually that is the way we usually eat it. We've never had a whole ham, though. Either sliced of the petit Edwards or asking the deli to shave the country ham. We've found that we have to taste a sample of deli country ham before we buy it - as @MetsFan5 has found the quality can vary widely even in good brands.