Kim Shook

Egg recall.

Just mushy. Some people use smoked turkey, though. I think beans without pork is like greens without cornbread.

Looks wonderful. Sadly, there is not one person that we gift that would appreciate pate.

Salt always goes in when we actually eat it - otherwise, mine gets watery.

@caroled - we talked about Chris while we ate the catfish!!

<shiver>

Hostessing for coffee hour at church last Sunday: Ghirardelli brownies with dulce de leche and sea salt. I love this brownie mix. I have tried and I honestly can’t make a better brownie. So, I save my efforts for things that I CAN make better.

Some recent breakfasts: ET bagel and leftover smoked fish from dinner out the night before. Scrambled eggs (yes, with catsup), sausages and perfect toast (I like it dark!) ET bagel w/ cream cheese and (canned) corned beef hash (guilty pleasure of mine - I seem to have a lot of these).

Not doing a ton of cooking lately. Mr. Kim and I stole a day recently and drove up from Richmond to Fredericksburg. We had dinner at Le Petit Auberge – a real old school French restaurant. I started with the Smoked Fish Platter: Lox, honey smoked salmon and trout – with crème fraiche, capers and red pepper jelly. This was amazing! I’d never seen this dish at a French restaurant before. Now I wish everyone offered it. Mr. Kim’s: Onion soup. Lovely. Mr. Kim’s entrée: Seared yellowfin tuna overtop dressed arugula and white beans topped with lemon aioli. Mine: Flounder stuffed with crab meuniere, au gratin potatoes and some nasty, crunchy green beans. The fish and potatoes were excellent. Dessert was frozen custard from Carl’s: One chocolate and one vanilla. And some chocolates from Neuhaus: Dinner the other night – started with salad: Chicken quesadillas: Easter dinner at my SIL’s - my contribution: Love Potion Salad. Dumb name, good salad. Night before last – found this for a good price at Lidl: It had mostly ingredients that I would use if I had made it – Swiss and Gruyere cheeses, wine, kirsch, etc. I don’t think I’d be using locust bean gum, but then I didn’t have to make it and it was quite good, actually. All the go-withs: And a salad: Tonight: Leftover ribs and chicken from dinner out last night. Plus butter beans, rice and corn bread: The BBQ was from Buz and Ned’s – a local place that beat Bobby Flay years ago on his Throwdown show. Good stuff.

A recent lunch – mashed multi-colored Easter eggs: Dukes mayo, mustard, pepper and sweet relish: Salad: Lunch:

Last Saturday we took the day and drove up Rt. 1 to Fredericksburg, stopping at all the little junk/antique places along the way. Lunch in Ashland at a wonderful new discovery – the Southern Soul Café. Mr. Kim’s plate: Catfish, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy and a corn muffin. Mine: Fried chicken, mac ‘n cheese, candied yams, collards and a corn muffin. Every single thing was delicious.

This is the recipe that I use. It was given to me by a good friend and I've used it for years. Oddly enough, I've had success making pate with leftover fried chicken livers. I'm the only one in my house that likes liver, but Mr. Kim will eat pate. So when I just HAVE to have chicken livers, I order them at a local restaurant, take home the leftovers (there are always LOTS of them - folks are very generous with chicken livers, I find), scrape off the breading and proceed with the recipe.

This is the best fish and chips I've had in my life and nary a scrap of newsprint: (And malt vinegar is the nectar of the gods). Master's Super Fish - London. Forever grateful to @Harters for the recommendation.

Genius. I make a LOT of PB cookies (especially at Christmas) and this will come in handy. Any issue with the cookies sticking to the bottom of the rack? I sugar half of mine and put sea salt on the other half.

It is possible you got a dud. This is what a slice of the petite should look like: Not overly fatty. If you think you got a dud, call Edwards - they have great customer service. That price is killer though. We saw the petite hams yesterday at the grocery store for about $27 - half of what a mail order costs. As far as what to do with the ham - pretty much anything you can do with sliced deli ham, you can do with the Edwards - just slice it paper thin. And I don't find that it needs soaking like some country hams. Slip slivers into Shrimp & Grits. This is a wonderful small plate that uses crab, country ham, corn and butter beans. And remember that the ham is completely freezable. Cut it into y'all-sized chunks and freeze them wrapped separately. A little goes a long way. We eat country ham as a snack around our house and even the petite was too big not to freeze!

Sounds like they need a new judge. I know that I would not care for this dish due to the chilies and a HUGE aversion to soft poultry skin, but I'm not a culinary judge and would never try to pretend to be.

With an excess of grapes, you might like this. I think y'all are right. Love Potion (isn't that the dumbest name?) it is, I think. I might pass a bowl of the bleu cheese separately, though. Mr. Kim's family is picky. One more to put in the mix: Fig and Arugula. I have some TJ's frozen figs and wonder if they wouldn't work for this recipe. What say?

With all of the crazy ladies in my life (mother in the beginnings of dementia, 93 year old grandmother who should be in assisted living, but refuses and lives 4 hours away, a daughter out of work for the 3rd time in 2 years and a sister who is using me as a psychologist) and having a cold that just won't let go of me, there was no way that I was going to host Easter dinner this year. So I just kept my mouth shut until my SIL finally offered. Yay. She requested some kind of salad. She is serving ham, broccoli, potatoes and rolls. I will either do this one or this one. Any opinions?

One quarter turn and it looks like you made a scary face for the littles. LOL

Welcome Raimond! I'm always happy to meet new members, but especially those from outside the US! I'm looking forward to your contributions. And feel free to put a link to your blog under your signature. A lot of us do it and no one feels that it is out of place!

So glad that you enjoyed your visits! That biscuit at L'Opossum is amazing. And the attitude at Edo Squid was NOT unusual. Good thing that their food is so wonderful!

That doesn't help at ALL.

Oh, those things are addictive. I never buy them, but sometimes when I was working drug reps would bring them in. I could eat a dozen over a couple of hours.

I have had saba on my refrigerator shopping list since January 2017. We had it on butternut squash agnolotti and I was entranced. No idea where to get it where I live, but I'm determined to find some. I was thinking perhaps a Mediterranean store?

This is one of the best "hacks" I ever tried. I've never made my own pasta (ashamed to admit it, since I've owned a pasta roller for about 5 years - it is still pristine), but I use wonton and eggroll wrappers as substitutes all the time. For ravioli, lasagna and cannelloni. About 10 years ago (wow!!!) @David Ross gave me a recipe for Meat Filled Cannelloni that used the wrappers for pasta and I was hooked. BTW, David - I still use that recipe and we love it. Using the wrappers and the small amount of chicken livers in the filling were revelatory!