Kim Shook

Are you really coming to Richmond???? We have tons of good places. Including THREE Peter Chang locations. If you have time (and the inclination), we'd love to meet!

Today is Mr. Kim's and my 36th wedding anniversary. Lunch was at Can Can, a local French brasserie. Mr. Kim started with the tomato-lobster bisque: This was fantastic. I thought that the lobster flavor would get lost in the tomato, but it didn’t at all. You got the roasty tomato flavor and the fresh, clean lobster, too. I opted to go old school – onion soup and a Croque Madam: Lovely. Mr. Kim had the Sole Meunière with spinach, potatoes and lemon brown butter sauce: Beautiful fish and perfectly cooked spinach.

Last night was Slow Cooker Cranberry Pork Roast, red cabbage and green beans. The flavor and ease of the pork was great. It was also VERY tender. But it was a little dry, as slow cooker meats sometimes are. I’m thinking that it is because of the low-fat nature of a pork loin. The sauce helped the dryness, though. Corn muffins would have been nice with this. Served with red cabbage and green beans.

Those are adorable. I'm impressed and can't wait to see more of your artistry!!!

I am impressed and amazed with how y'all's brains work in the morning. If I am hungry at all the only thing that runs through my head is a refrain of "eggs, bread, pig" over and over.

So, I finally found time to redecorate the fridge after the painters left. This is the "business" side - stuff I need while cooking. This is the goofy side - Oz magnets, travel magnets and stuff only I find hilariously funny. Overflow - gift coupons (from Jessica - for things like movie night at her house and winery tours), freezer list, recycling and leaf collection schedules. Upper left is a thank you photo to Mr. Kim from our most recent Governor.

They are my favorties, too! Santa usually leaves a jar in my stocking!

I have a sinus infection. Dinner last night called for comfort food and a guilty pleasure: Hamburger Helper. Broccoli and salad, to make it slightly more healthy!

Due to my current sinus infection, lunch yesterday was carb heavy comfort food: Dressing, gravy and toast.

Well, it is better than McCormick's (or Frenches', or whatever it's called now). But it isn't miraculous. I mostly use it to augment or thicken gravies/sauces. My beef stew and pot roast just don't 'work' without a little Bisto and Kitchen Bouquet. All by itself, I find it a little...gelatinous. But then I tend to dislike cornstarch thickened sauces. So, YMMV.

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is what my mother always called "Tamale Pie" - tamales in a casserole, topped with canned chili (with beans) and shredded Cheddar - baked until gooey. We had this when my meat, potatoes and veg dad would go out of town.

Man, I should really move to Britain. I had no idea Bisto had so many products.

Hi, Tom! Welcome! Just dive right in. Folks here are pretty good about answering questions.

With that thin metal handle, I can well believe that it is miserable for use.

I sympathise. I am not a Bittman fan. Just took all of my Bittman books to the second hand store.

We were walking through Costco and smelled their rotisserie chickens and decided that it was time for a roast chicken dinner. I can’t remember the last time that I roasted a chicken. With Costco’s so good and costing $5, it just doesn’t make sense. I had some of my turkey gravy and cornbread in the freezer. Chicken: Gravy: Mashed potatoes: Green beans: Cornbread dressing: Rolls: These were from Lidl and purported to be sweet Hawaiian. They were decent dinner rolls. Plate: Dessert was a cake mix fix-up: Almond Joy cake:

We gave up eating out for Lent and will donate what we would have spent to the Food Pantry at Easter. Since Sundays are "little Easter" and we love eating out, we are really looking forward to Sunday brunches. Our daughter has been insisting we go to a new area restaurant: SB's Lakeside Love Shack, so that's where we met her yesterday. We shared a cinnamon bun topped with salted caramel maple syrup and cream cheese frosting: It was good: Cream cheese frosting is often too much for me. Heavy and overly sweet. This was fluffy and light and tangy – a really nice foil for the very sweet syrup. Jessica had the “Benny”: Poached eggs, VA ham over a grilled croissant topped with smoky tomato hollandaise. Nice fruit and great bacon. I had the Hot Brown w/ Texas toast, turkey, Mornay sauce and eggs: Mr. Kim had the Cuban on a grilled croissant: Very nice house-smoked pork! We also shared a pancake and smoked Cheddar grits: The Love Shack sells individual pancakes for $1. This is a GREAT idea.

I grew up with Bisto, too. My late stepdad was English ( @Ted Fairhead), and his mum would bring boxes over when she came once a year. We finally started being able to get it in local stores. My mom insists that the granules aren't as good as the powder, so I get the powder for her when I can. I can't tell the difference. I do like Bisto and still use it. Usually I make my own gravy, but it provides a 'boost' of color and flavor and it beats extra flour as a thickener. I also happily save gravy in the fridge or freezer. To me, gravy is the point of roasting a piece of beef or chicken and tossing it is horrifying! I have made a meal of rice and gravy or even bread and gravy!

One Christmas Eve morning, I was cutting up oysters to put in the stuffing and I realized that one of my cats had gotten out of the house because I was only being circled by TWO of them. Almost had to cancel Christmas - my almost 9 months pregnant and ENORMOUS self wandered around our neighborhood sobbing (pregnancy hormones) and calling "Sugar....SuGARRRRRR" for 2 hours. I was hot (hormones) in the 30F weather, so I was in a tent/housedress, socks and slippers (swollen feet). I'm sure that people are still telling stories about that. When I circled back to the house, there he was on the stoop, waiting for me to let him in. We DID have Christmas and oyster stuffing (brought it back to food!).

Thank you for posting this, Diana! Mr. Kim and I are hoping desperately to get back to England next year. We were there in 2011 and spent our time in the Cotswolds and south of them. We were supposed to come this year, but my mother's health issues prevented it. The next trip, we plan on heading north - including Yorkshire and the Lake District. Will add this to my growing notes. It looks lovely.

Mr. Kim and Jessica complain that I cook something wonderful and then they never see it again. I am easily bored and love to try new recipes. I do repeat stuff like basic weeknight meals - spaghetti Bolognese, fried pork chops and, as anyone who has seen my posts in the dinner thread lately, "Chinese" salad . But that's not where my heart lies.

Late dinner (after watching UVA win the ACC - Wahoowa!!!!): Fried egg sandwich and the best clementine I've had this season.

This morning: ET bagel, cream cheese and Benton's bacon.

Except for the coffee, it sounds like a LOT of my breakfasts. I adore granola bars. With a Mt. Dew.

I am currently using a small iron skillet, but the tiny little rim tends to tear the meat.