Kim Shook

@Thanks for the Crepes – I ADORE those layered salads. They seem to make SO much, though – I’ll be using your serving trick next time! Father’s Day Dinner – Mr. Kim chose the menu - Grilled Spare Ribs w/ cherry cola glaze: A crappy picture of the fantastically rich sauce - cherry cola, cherry preserves, Dijon, horseradish, soy sauce, hot sauce and malt vinegar: This was a recipe that Matthew on CK gave me a few years ago – I’ve made it a few times and we just love it. These were devoured! Corn on the cob: My Baked Beans w/ Benton’s Bacon: These were truly delicious and much darker mahogany than the picture shows. While they TASTED wonderful, the texture was not perfect. There were some beans that were not as tender as they should have been. Because of timing issues, I tried to do them in the slow cooker and they would just not get tender. I found a recipe that didn’t require the one hour boil and I’m sure that was the problem. I tried to save them by simmering on the stove after I took them out of the slow cooker and, mostly, I did. But trying to balance between simmering them at a high enough temperature to soften the beans and low enough to not burn the thick sauce took an almost all night babysitting job! Tomato Salad : This was a really good quick marinated salad with spring onions, parsley, balsamic, olive oil, garlic and jarred pesto. Marinated cucumbers: Cornbread muffins: Dessert was Brown Sugar Peach Pie w/ ice cream and bourbon caramel sauce & Kiwi-Lime Pie:

Well, I've come to the conclusion after watching most all of this season that the show is just boring now. I don't have a problem with the recipes - and I know that is what it should be about, but the people are just relentlessly perky and sweet and all the fake laughing at each other's lame jokes just gets on my nerves. It just isn't interesting.

@BonVivant – your photos are just breathtakingly lovely! That cured salmon is especially gorgeous – positively jewel-like! We had some of Mr. Kim’s BBQ a couple of nights ago. w/ yellow squash and slaw. My sandwich – chopped w/ slaw: Tonight was raw veggies: And Country Shrimp Pizza: This recipe is so old! I remember that I saw someone make it on the Regis and Kathie Lee show! And I had to send in a self-addressed stamped envelope to get the recipe! Remember THAT? I also remember that Boboli pizza crusts had just come out and that’s what I used to use. I’ve decided to make it for one of our dinners when our friends visit us in July, so I tried it today since I haven’t made it in forever. I reworked it a bit. It is basically a ricotta and horseradish sauce on crust topped with bacon, cooked shrimp and mozzarella. This time, I used garlic naan instead of a Boboli, prosciutto instead of bacon, BARELY cooked shrimp and fresh mozzarella. This was really, really good and easy and I will be happy to serve it to guests. MUCH better than the last pizza I tried to make (my total fail breakfast pizza that I posted about on another thread).

This is a great idea, Lisa! Croissant dough (along with bagels) is a project that I promised myself I'd try when I retired. It has been a few years now and I have made NO progress. I want to do that, but I don't think I have time for it before our friends arrive. I'll be asking for advice when I get to it, though!

Yesterday’s breakfast: Cherries, rye toast, sausage and egg. You know, I love sausage with a natural casing – except for these little breakfast links. You can’t get them off before cooking and they draw up and burst and shred and if you don’t pull them off (a PITA), they make the sausages sticky and have an unpleasant texture.

@mgaretz - We agree with you - we really love a maple glaze on salmon! @Shelby – the four of us could have a happy meal together – you and Mr. Kim could enjoy beets and Ronnie and I could sneer at you all’s dirt eatin’ ways! The other day my sister stopped for the night on her way to Florida. My daughter, niece and mom came over for dinner. Mr. Kim was smoking a couple of pork butts for a poker party and he did two chickens for us for dinner. Just gorgeous: To go with it, I just did a simple pilaf, salad, marinated cucumbers and Aldi ‘croissants’: This was a kinda-sorta pilaf. Since I was serving the chicken plain (I did offer BBQ sauce if anyone wanted it), I wanted to ‘fancy up’ the rice a bit. I sautéed some onion until it was browned and set it aside. To the water, I added one of those Knorr Vegetable Stock Concentrate tubs and cooked the rice as usual. At the end, I tossed in the onion. It was surprisingly tasty. I get these a lot. They are really cheap and less like croissant than classic crescent rolls I remember my grandmother making from scratch. Mr. Kim’s pork: It was glorious!

Thank you all for your advice and help. I tried again this morning and I may come back to this at some point, but I think I've given up on it for now. I think that it is too fiddly and the results too undependable to serve to guests for breakfast. This morning, I tried it with purchased pizza dough (on a bright note, I managed to press/pull out a decent pizza crust!). Either the cheese is too done and the egg disgustingly underdone, or EVERYTHING is overdone. I really wanted to showcase bacon jam - these folks have heard us talk about it, but never had it and they will definitely appreciate it. I make something that I call ET bacon crescents. It is just 'Whomp' crescent rolls filled with cream cheese and bacon and rolled up. You sprinkle them with everything bagel seasoning mix and bake. I was thinking that I'd make them, subbing bacon jam for the plain bacon and serve them with eggs on the side!

Cold - white bread, catsup. Hot - grilled, open faced on grilled garlic Texas toast, BBQ sauce, slaw, ONION RINGS!

Well, THAT didn't go too well. This is what my pizza looked like: It was WAY overdone. You can't see it, but it was incredibly salty. Mr. Kim was trying to be polite, but he obviously didn't like it. You couldn't even cut it with a knife - you had to pick it up and break it with your hands. Sigh. OK - here's what I did - oven was at 475F. Layered in this way - Naan, brushed edges w/ olive oil, spread cream cheese, sprinkled with Montreal Steak Seasoning, spread with bacon jam, sprinkled with mozzarella, Asiago, parsley and the the egg. Baked for 13 minutes - obviously too long, but at 10 minutes everything BUT the egg looked too browned – the egg white was VERY liquid <shiver>. I would really like to succeed at this. I'm thinking that the crust overcooking could be solved by NOT using cooked naan, but raw pizza dough. I detest the thought of trying to roll out pizza dough early in the morning (rolling out pizza dough is one of my bugaboos - no matter how long I let it rest, it still springs back to the size of a drink coaster), but I'd give it a try (probably with store-bought dough). That still doesn't solve the problem of all the cheesy stuff getting overdone, though, does it? Sigh. To lessen the saltiness, I thought that instead of using the steak seasoning, I would make my own "Everything" seasoning mix and leave out the salt - just sesame and poppy seeds, dried minced onion and garlic. So - any ideas? Should I just give up and serve fried eggs and Pillsbury frozen biscuits (I don't make good biscuits, either). I made this kick ass Benton bacon jam that I have to use! Thank you all so much for putting up with this nonsense!

Cheese toast w/ a friend's black fig preserves and cherries:

Oh, boy, we LOVE these things. So far, we've only found them in the larger bags, which we have discovered is dangerous.

@HungryChris – thank you for the instructions. I keep noticing them in the store and online and that usually means that I’ll be buying them soon! @Norm Matthews – I must NOT let Mr. Kim see your steak dinner. I’m not planning on steak anytime soon! Your stuffed potatoes look great! What do you do with them? @JoNorvelleWalker – Ooooh! I’m sorry about your burns…and your floor…and your fish! Take care! @Thanks for the Crepes – I ADORE Club Aluminum. I have a whole extra set in the attic in case of something happening to the ones in use. I can’t imagine what that would take – those things seem to be indestructible. I could never make good, Southern green beans like my grandmother’s until she gave me one of her old Club Aluminum Dutch ovens. Dinner a couple of nights ago – salad with Caesar dressing & homemade croutons: Pork tenderloin w/ a fig, mustard and sherry vinegar sauce, fixed up Kraft mac & cheese and toasted baguette: I love doing tenderloins this way. I just roast them in the oven at 425F until the reach temperature (usually long enough to make a salad and simple side), tent them with foil and use the pan to make a sauce out of things dug out of the fridge – hoisin, jam, leftover sautéed apples, etc. I almost always add mustard and some kind of vinegar. It takes longer to get the silverskin off than it does to pull the dish together. And one tenderloin is enough for the two of us to eat plus one meal for Mr. Kim to take to work!

@rotuts – the fat is almost gone by the time it finishes cooking. It just leaves behind a rich and unctuous flavor. @Thanks for the Crepes – It’s funny – I’ve never tasted mutton, that I know of. I suspect that I might actually like it. Since being introduced to lamb at age 8 by my English step-dad, I’ve loved it – the stronger the flavor, the better. As a matter of fact, I complain a lot that today’s lamb tastes too bland for me. I bet my wonderful butcher-lady could get me some!

That Cheetoes thing looks scary. I actually like the Crunchwrap Supreme - basically a double decker taco wrapped up top and bottom. And I confess to being a sucker for "Nacho Sauce"! Awhile back, they were selling small ones for $1 a piece. Wish they'd do that again - one was the perfect size for me.

Welcome, Yuen Mi! I'm looking forward to your contributions! I think you will find many here at eGullet that share your interest in Korean food and I don't doubt that there are folks here that are knowledgeable about even Cambodian food - or at least will be interested in your explorations!

When life gives you a smashed lemon tart, make TRIFLE!

@ninagluck – here is the recipe I use for Liptauer cheese. It is from an old issue of Women’s Day magazine, but the taste is very similar to others I’ve tasted at Eastern European restaurants and delis. Liptauer Cheese Dip @HungryChris – how do you heat your crab legs? I’ve never eaten them or King crab legs at home. Alton Brown recommends the microwave. @scubadoo97 – I agree! Summer corn and scallops are one of nature’s perfect combinations! Nice char on those scallops! @JoNorvelleWalker – I think if you don’t normally love burgers, even the loveliness of those fried onions won’t make them yummy to you! Weird about the fries! I use those a lot, too, and haven’t ever had that happen! @jvalentino – what is that yummy-looking dark juicy stuff on your steak? @Anna N – was the naan for your pizza homemade or store bought? I buy it at the store all the time and love it for quick pizza/flatbread. Inspired by watching local butcher Tanya Cauthen of Belmont Butchery win on an episode of Chopped, we trekked down there to get something for dinner yesterday. We decided on a cheese/meat/bread meal with leftover salad from our takeout pizza last night. Cheese plate and bread: The bread is from Flour Garden Bakery in Richmond. The cheeses are Humboldt Fog, a crappy Cheddar we had on hand and Appalachian – a raw milk cheese from Meadow Creek Dairy in Galax VA. The bread and the two bookend cheeses were fantastic. The meats and some cherries: The pate is house made at the Butchery – chunky with pork, liver, fat, onions, S&P, coriander, ginger and nutmeg. It is a perfect rustic pate. The sopressata is from Fra’ Mani and it was gorgeous. Close up of the pate: We count ourselves very, very lucky to have such a place locally.

Watched an episode of “Chopped” a couple of nights ago. It was won by local butcher, Tanya Cauthen of Belmont Butchery. We’ve been going there since it opened and consider that we are extremely lucky to have such an incredible butcher shop in our fairly small city. We bought some stuff for dinner and a couple of things for breakfast (more later about the other breakfast item) including lamb bacon that is done in house: Breakfast: Toasted bread from a local bakery – The Flour Garden, scrambled eggs from Mr. Kim’s co-worker, lamb bacon and cherries. The cherries were the only non-local part of the meal! The lamb bacon was incredibly rich – we are both still full 4 hours later – and our house smells marvelous!

@Lisa Shock - exactly - I was afraid of them being too bland. I think that what I've decided on (with y'all's help) will be fine. Thank you for the idea of eggs in purgatory - I might try that some time for Mr. Kim, but I do not care for eggs and tomato sauce together at all.

I confess to finding AB's recent persona tiresome. I liked his Good Eats guy. And the original Iron Chef America guy was ok, but the latest "Evil Grin Alton" is wearing.

I’m in the process of trying out recipes for house guests that will be here in July. So it was breakfast for dinner tonight. I decided that I wanted to try to make Liège waffles from Smitten Kitchen. These are seriously delicious. Dough studded with pearl sugar: On my wonderful new waffle iron – with removable grids: Plated with Benton bacon: Just amazing – you get a really deep caramelization on the crust and the pearl sugar turned into half melty-half crunchy bits. They are yeasted, so even in a regular waffle iron they rise up well. We weren’t sure what toppings would work best so we tried bananas, maple syrup and whipped cream (not pictured since all I had was a can): These are KEEPERS!

Thank you so much for taking the time to share this experience with us. It was amazing! How lucky you were to be included!

@ninagluck – I had to look up ‘Langos’. It sounds amazing. Almost like a Navaho taco. I saw that you could have it filled with Liptauer, which is a favorite at our house. Wish I could find a Hungarian festival around here! @Shelby – I feel your ‘crunchy taters’ pain. One of the few potato gratins that I’ve had success with is Tony Bourdain’s – because you first simmer the potato slices in cream. I now use either that method or judicious microwaving when making potato casseroles of any kind. I remember for years having to delay dinner while trying to microwave the ‘finished’ potato dish. We had dinner the other night with some friends and our daughter. The Richmond VA area is very lucky – we are a growing restaurant/grocery area. We are having friends come to stay for 4 days in July and my before-winnowing-down restaurant list includes 16 places! One of the best things to happen in our area is the arrival of Peter Chang, the amazing and elusive Chinese chef. I haven’t the slightest idea what drew Chang to the Richmond area, but I’m so glad that he came. We have 3 restaurant here – two (Peter Chang and Noodles and Dumplings) in a suburban Walmart shopping center. The other is along a stretch of main road in the city that is transitioning, but still pretty seedy. There is no way I’ll be able to identify everything that we ordered. But I’ll do what I can! Kung Pao Buns: Shredded Duck w/ onion and scallion: Hot & Numbing Beef: Scallion Bubble Pancake: This is a little deflated – the thing is only slightly smaller than a soccer ball! Smoked Duck Roll: Jing-jiang Duck Buns: Pork Dumplings: Shrimp dumplings: Big Soup Bun (with a straw to sip the liquid portion): There were numerous other dishes between the six of us that I didn’t manage to get pictures of. Everything was delicious. Dinner last night – salad and sandwiches: Sorta French dips made with leftover prime rib roast, caramelized onions, provolone cheese, horseradish sauce and some rich beef stock for dipping.

Thanks so much. Ok - so NO alfredo. And the cream cheese is a good idea, @Lisa Shock! I'll go with that. And I'll put the eggs on from the beginning since my crust will be already cooked, like you suggested @Shelby. So, I'm now thinking: cream cheese, mozz, a little Parm, parsley, bacon jam, eggs and naan bread. I'll try the recipe out on us before making for our house guests in July. I'm thinking that eG is the only place I can admit to doing meal planning in May for July house guests without sounding weird. One other thought. The combination of bacon jam and cream cheese reminds me of my very favorite bagel breakfast - cream cheese and bacon on an ET bagel. How about a sprinkle of Montreal Steak Seasoning on the naan before adding the toppings?

I want to make a breakfast pizza using bacon jam and some kind of creamy base and then put raw eggs on top that they will cook at the end. I’m not really interested in putting any greens on it. So no spinach or anything. I was thinking a layer of some mixture of ricotta and maybe mozzarella, dollops of bacon jam and then the eggs. Two questions: 1. Regarding the creamy mixture – does that sound too bland? Maybe add some Parm? Or maybe something more like Alfredo sauce? And what about herbs? Any additional ideas? 2. Should I cook the base before adding the eggs, or will everything take about the same amount of time? Thanks in advance!!! PS – I will probably wimp out and use naan for the crust – can’t see wrestling with pizza dough in the morning!