Kim Shook

Our TJ's has their all-butter frozen puff pastry in stock this year. I think that it is so much better than Pepperidge Farm and so much cheaper than dufour! But they don't always have it.

I just keep a quarter in my car - especially for Aldi. Ours is a block away from my usual store and I go to Aldi first. The prices are really much better on basics and I like their deli stuff, particularly the sliced cheeses.

Thank you all! It was a lot of work, but fun. A wonderful stress relief from all the family stuff that I've got going on. I did some of it ahead of time - I hardly do anything that I can't freeze. We made $400 on Saturday and then sold more after church on Sunday. We don't put prices on - just rely on donations. We find that people are more generous than we would be in pricing. One man took a mini pumpkin loaf and one of those coffee cakes and gave me $40!!

Saturday was the Holiday Market at our church. For the past three years I’ve overseen it and made the majority of the baked goods. My contributions – Table of treats (not including the cakes): Cocoa-Banana Muffins: Double chocolate cherry cookies: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins: Strawberry-Banana White Chocolate Chip cupcakes: Ginger Chewies w/ Sugar Babies: Lois’ Best Coffee Cakes: I got this recipe from @Maggie the Cat years ago. It is so simple and delicious and freezes beautifully (a necessity for bake sale items, in my opinion). Chocolate-Chocolate Chip cupcakes: GF Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Vanilla Icing: Apple Cakes (two were pre-sold whole and the other was cut up and sold in pieces: Gingerbread Cake w/ Cranberry Filling and Orange Cream Cheese Icing – layers: Cranberry-Orange filling: Finished cake: Pre-sold two of these and sold the other at the bake sale. I am one tired puppy.

I've been super busy lately with family obligations and overseeing the bake sale for the Holiday Market at our church. So meals have been pick-up at best. A couple of recent ones - Easy dinner of tuna salad sandwiches and tomato soup: I was in the middle of a baking marathon for Saturday’s bake sale, so that was good ole Campbells’! The day of the bake sale dinner was Short Sugar’s BBQ (Reidsville NC) from the freezer and fixed up Kraft: and, The Salad:

I thought it was a humped up sausage patty. That is one pitiful looking baked good.

@Anna N – lettuce, tomato and mayo has been one of my favorite sandwiches my whole life. It looks so good that I think I have to add Camparis (thank you, Canada) to my shopping list! @mm84321 – gorgeous dessert and I love your plates! Ubiquitous salad: Last go at the Shake and Bake plus some really good home fries made with leftover baked potatoes: Makes for a rather beige plate, but it was all good after a mammoth day of baking!

Nice man!

Oh, I agree! My grandmother could cook an entire meal extremely fast using only a paring knife held in her hand. I used to love watching her make potato salad - peeled potatoes, pared them, chopped onions, pickles, celery and eggs - all in her hand with that little knife and FAST! I think that the only thing the large knives were used for was carving meat! I was really talking about people who I know would get along faster and safer using a bigger knife - like my friend!

One of mine that I’ve been reminded of lately is using things that are too small for the job. Knives, bowls, pans, etc. It drives me crazy going to someone else’s house and watching them cut up vegetables for a salad with a little paring knife. A friend of mine takes almost 30 minutes (I surreptitiously timed her) to make a salad that would take me 5 – and that does not include washing things. TV cooks are especially bad about using too small bowls. They will add ingredients to the rim of a bowl and then try to stir. I realize that most of them don’t have the power to insist on specific equipment, so that is the fault of the director, I expect.

That looks and sounds amazing and I've never seen anything like it before!

This is what I had at lunch time, so I guess it counts. Mr. Kim surprised me with a visit to a new patisserie in town – Mon chou: Raspberry meringue tart bar and two macaron – key lime and coffee. Amazingly good and gorgeous. I’m thrilled to see something like this open in Richmond!

Mr. Kim had a poker game Friday night, so I contributed to the clean-out-the-freezer-before-Christmas-baking project: Frozen biscuits and Stouffer’s cream chipped beef. Dinner last night: Kale, a Lidl croissant, Shake and Bake BBQ pork chop and salad! I will probably serve this again this week, as I have another 2 chops and another envelope of Shake and Bake and I am furiously trying to help my daughter pack to move home, finish the majority of the baking that is being done for our church Holiday Market this Saturday and deal with my increasingly needy mother and grandmother.

I’m not usually a weekday breakfast person, but I woke up hungry this morning: Disappointed with that green ring on my yolk! I steamed these like I always do – never gotten green yolks with that method before.

Is anyone else reminded of @Chufi?

Doing a report for us???? Please?

Me neither. The idea of an egg hard enough to hold taco contents makes me feel extremely horky. And I like Taco Bell.

Glad to see the Shake and Bake love! Have to say though – it doesn’t make good leftovers. All those crumbs get sodden. Ick. Last night was pumpkin carving night. We had Shake and Bake leftoversand this: A really good Murray cheese (High Plains Cheddar), crackers and cocktail sauce. Cocktail sauce with Cheddar is a family tradition. I’ve known it all my life. Not sure which side of my family it comes from – I’ve seen it done by both sides. Now I’m curious - does anyone else do this?

Breakfast this morning: (crappy cell phone picture) Leige Waffles w/ homemade lemon curd and bacon.

Here you go: Anna's Chicken Casserole @Ann_T – those arancini are truly amazing looking. One of my favorite foods and I’ve never made them! A very plain dinner tonight that turned out to be really good. Two hour green beans that were as good as 4 hour beans (of course, I boiled the neck bones for an hour before adding the beans): A pan of Jiffy cornbread (I did coat the pan with Benton’s bacon grease): And, as my magnum opus to my recent dull meals – Shake and Bake chicken () and sweet potatoes: I did not grow up eating Shake and Bake and was amazed when @Marlene confessed to using it and liking it a lot. I don’t use it often, but I do like it occasionally. This time, I soaked it in Montgomery Inn (Cincinnati OH rib place) BBQ sauce before coating with the crumbs. Everything was very good and comforting! And this was dessert: My favorite ice cream thing in the world (except for a Crunchie ice cream bar).

Dear God, those eclairs.....thunk!

Just buttered panko.

I'm already loving this! Thank you for taking us along!