Kim Shook

Well, I have to say that there is no way possible for me to comment on everything I have been seeing on this thread. Due to Christmas and COVID and the impact on my energy levels, I haven’t been posting, but I’ve been LOOKING and I’m just knocked out by the quality of y’all’s food, as always. I hope everyone had lovely holidays and here’s to a wonderful and healthy 2023 for us all! Sorry for the long LONG post. Now that I’m caught up, I’ll try to stay that way! @scubadoo97 – Sorry I missed your good wishes almost a month ago! We are all feeling much better, but still getting ambushed by exhaustion. Thank you so much. @Marlene – your roast pork dinner from before Christmas bypassed my lack of appetite! That exact meal was one that I grew up on. I have to say, though, that your gravy looks much better than my mother’s Bisto! I will remember to add a bit of lard to my next batch of roast potatoes. @Steve Irby – I remember every upscale seafood restaurant had their own version of stuffed flounder or stuffed shrimp. I always felt so elegant ordering it as a teenager. Yours looks gorgeous! @Shelby – I loved your Christmas day interspersed with cats, good food and naps! And your NYE dinner made me gasp – that seared foie! Happy Anniversary! @Ann_T – I just loved that turkey, dressing, and gravy dinner you posted on the 27th. I have a turkey tucked away in the freezer and I think February is going to have a holiday meal in it this year! @Dejah – Happy Birthday to your Mr. Back before Christmas, we got some take out from our favorite Thai place and I made some Trader Joe’s green onion pancakes that I had in the freezer to go with it: My favorite shrimp and pineapple fried rice: Mr. Kim and Jessica got curries and I wasn’t interested enough to take pictures, to be honest. A couple of days before Christmas I roused myself enough to come up with this menu 🙄: Whomp biscuit corndog wraps, butter beans, mac and cheese (homemade, but from the freezer), and apple sauce (from the orchard we visited in Charlottesville in November. Out of quarantine and with all three of us working on it, we managed quite a nice and tasty Christmas Eve dinner. Even before we got COVID, we knew we didn’t feel comfortable hosting the usual horde of family and friends this year. We did ask Mr. Kim’s immediate family, but they had already made plans together and didn’t say anything about us joining them 😳. So, we invited Jessica’s best friend and his dad for dinner. They lost his mom in 2021 and the friend is in the middle of a separation. They needed comfort and tradition, and they are always with us for Xmas Eve, so they decided we were safe and came to us. With five of us at the table I set a Christmas Eve table for the first time that I can even remember: For appetizers Jessica did dried apricots filled with almonds and a mixture of ricotta and goat cheeses and drizzled with a balsamic reduction: Really good. The other appetizer was just ok. She heated up blocks of feta and topped them with red and green pepper jelly: It was ok when first served but didn’t fare well at all as a leftover. I did a Coca-Cola and peach ham in the slow cooker: This was one of those Costco Master Carve hams. Boned out and so easy to serve, but still a REAL ham and they taste fantastic. I served it with @Tropicalsenior’s Gourmet Mustard, which is nothing short of remarkable: Everyone loved it. Mr. Kim’s relish assortment: Jessica requested @Shelby’s cucumbers, which are the perfect no-cook, make ahead veg: Jessica’s challah and dried fruit dressing and pineapple casserole: Both absolutely perfect with ham. Her chive and onion cream cheese stuffed peppers: I made Ina Garten’s pan roasted Brussels sprouts drizzled with Saba: Due to my potassium issue, I’ve been avoiding these and was SO happy to have a small serving! Jessica also made her sweet potato latkes with Brie and dressed arugula. Without the greenery: And with: This is such a weird dish, I always think. It seems like it shouldn’t work, but it truly does! I actually served whomp biscuits with dinner. Pillsbury cornbread rolls: I blame COVID 😁. I had lemon curd all ready to go into tart shells, but no one ever wanted dessert. There was also fruit salad, but I forgot to take a picture of it until I served it with Christmas breakfast: One night we stopped for Greek/Italian. Tiropita: Salad: Mr. Kim had the Chef’s special baked spaghetti: Basically, all the meats plus mushrooms. I had the chicken alfredo: Their incomparable bread: We took home some of their wonderful limoncello cake: We had New Year’s Eve at home this year – just the three of us. Jessica requested most of the goodies. Chippy Dip: Crackers, chips, and seafood spread (some store thing – I wanted shrimp cocktail but didn’t have the energy – still fighting the COVID exhaustion): Crackers and hot bacon and Swiss dip: Bite: It tasted as good as it always does, but I had a problem with it: it “broke” – it separated into the creamy, cheesy part and lots of oil. Does anyone have any idea what might have gone wrong? The only thing I can think that I did differently this time was to use good Gruyere cheese rather than supermarket Swiss. Momma’s meatballs: Just good old 1970s apricot preserves and BBQ sauce. Three of us and a bag of frozen meatballs – almost none left at the end of the evening! Those little ham and cheese sliders brushed with mustard-mayo-poppy seed sauce and baked: We were all so worn out that we barely saw in the New Year: New Year’s Day, I was still so tired. I did manage to dig out some sidemeat and make black eyed peas and use the IP and make some kale: For ham and cornbread, there were leftovers from Xmas Eve and instead of making my usual scalloped tomatoes, there were some Camparis in a bowl on the island, if anyone wanted. I think I had a nibble of each and crashed on the sofa. On the second Mr. Kim found some energy and smoked three butts. SO good. I’m not sure I ate anything that day except pickings from these! My MIL came over for dinner last Friday. Predinner nibbles: Cream cheese with pepper jelly, melba rounds, kumquats, pickles, and olives. Dinner was Colleyberry’s Shepherd’s Pie: I got this recipe many years ago from @Marlene. It’s so dern good – I have no idea why I make it so rarely. Sometimes this can be a little dry, so I made some beef gravy (you almost always need it with leftovers): Sides were some apple/pear sauce that I made with the last of the apples we got in Charlottesville back in November: And an apple/walnut green salad: Dressed with shocking pink cranberry vinaigrette: And some of @Shelby’s white bread: Dessert was lemon curd tarts: This was made with @Tropicalsenior’s microwave lemon curd. Saturday dinner: This is so often a meal for me these days. Between trying to figure out what I should eat re: the potassium issue and still being in an exhausted fog from COVID, I tend to grab bread/crackers, an apple or pear, and some kind of cheese or ham and call it a meal. All three of us have still been so tired and trying to rest when we can that a stop for fast food or opening a can of something is happening a lot. Tuesday was all leftovers: Leftover egg and sausage from Friday’s breakfast out, slaw from some I bought to go with Mr. Kim’s BBQ, and a freezer bagel. Whew. Still with me?

I carefully save, label, freeze them and add to my Freezer List. Then I throw them away a couple of months later 😑. I just never seem to have anything to use them for. I'm not at all fond of an egg white omelet. I don't mind adding one white to a couple of whole eggs, but that's as far as I go. So, I'll save a couple in the fridge to do an omelet or a scramble but when I have a bunch of them and I don't want to make a cake, I really might as well toss them. And, as expensive as they've gotten, I hate doing that. It's one of the reasons I love @Tropicalsenior's lemon curd - it calls for 3 whole eggs instead of the recipes that call for yolks only.

As I said in the 2023 lunch thread, I’m a goober – I posted my update at the end of the 2022 thread instead of here. @liuzhou – the buns are a favorite in our house, but very few places do really excellent ones. We are lucky enough to have Peter Chang here in my town and he used to have a noodle and dumpling shop right next to his restaurant, but he closed it. I’ve been missing those buns ever since and recently discovered that he’s serving them AND soup dumplings at his restaurant now. I have informed Mr. Kim that we need to visit SOON! @Duvel – those eggs are perfectly perfect! @Ann_T – I hope that Huey continues to improve and that the charges don’t climb too much higher. Vet bills, especially emergency ones, can be so high! All of those lovely, gooey yolks are making me wish that I had fried or poached my eggs this morning!

I had either forgotten or never seen @Soupcon's previous post re: freezing curd. But a German friend who I gave a jar to some months ago mentioned that they froze what was left of the jar before they went on a long trip. I tried it a month or so ago. I also made a fresh batch of @Tropicalsenior's Microwave Lemon Curd (which is amazing) and tested the fresh against the thawed and couldn't tell the difference. We can never finish up a batch in time, so this is a wonderful thing for us.

@Steve Irby – love the idea of Durkee’s in a remoulade! It is over 100 years old and beloved of many American home cooks. So, yeah, it counts as a “classic” even if it isn’t found in a classic remoulade. And I love that you have the recipe card in your mom’s writing! I wish I had more handwritten recipes from my family members – I really cherish the ones I’ve managed to save. I’m planning on making this. I don't have a lot of lunches to post. As I said elsewhere, the combination of Christmas and COVID has wiped out most of the cooking I normally do this time of year. Mr. Kim was on vacation from the 1st through the 9th. I had a dental appointment on the 9th, so he went with me and took me to lunch at the Westwood Pharmacy Fountain – one of our favorite places. It is an old fashioned lunch counter with an expanded menu (not hipster – just really good sandwiches, salads and house made soups). The creamy chicken noodle soup: House made. It was more like chicken and dumplings and very good. I had a really good patty melt: Why do so few places make these anymore? The onion rings were not my favorite type – not crazy about that batter coating. Mr. Kim had the club:

@billyhill – glad to hear about the quick recovery! I hope that by now you’re feeling even better! @Ann_T – a turkey and dressing sandwich is one of the blessings of this life! So long since I’ve posted and yet so few things to post. The combination of Xmas and COVID severely impacted my cooking. As of today, I STILL have cooky dough in the refrigerator to make sugar and gingerbread cookies out of. Sigh. Before Xmas, trying to get some stuff for us to have for quick breakfasts, I dug a package of thin breakfast pork chops out of the freezer and fried them up to have handy: Mr. Kim was the one who ended up eating most of them. I found they didn’t suit my tender tummy, so: Garlic bagel and ham. Christmas morning, we had our traditional breakfast: Those whomp orange Danish rolls: Usually this is in the shape of a tree. This was only one roll though, and so apparently I usually get two rolls 😁! We always laugh at this goofy remnant of Jessica’s childhood – but it always gets finished! Fruit salad from our Christmas Eve dinner: My MIL’s traditional candy cane sweet roll: Quiche: Sausage rolls: The good ones, from John T’s recipe. Bagels, Trader Joe’s Lightly Smoked Salmon, and cream cheese: My plate: I really went off breakfast for a while, but this was one last week: Mr. Kim was on vacation the first week in January and wanted to go to our favorite deli one morning. He got the “Adkins special” – 3 eggs and double bacon: SO healthy (😄). I got the big breakfast: But I only ate half the bagel, one sausage patty, half the grits, and one egg. So, who’s was healthier 😳 😄? Not a breakfast yet, but it will be. Early in December, we got a couple of panettone to cut up and freeze for future French toast: These had a good amount of fruit and were really tasty: This morning: The end of the loaf of @Shelby’s white bread and some scrambled eggs.

Welcome to eG, @multimatumc! I'm sure you'll find a lot of good info and support here!

I associate that bright green relish with Chicago dogs. It is MUCH brighter than the Mt. Olive or Heinz kind. As a matter of fact, if you Google "Chicago relish" you'll see that glow in the dark green.

I make these fairly often.

A lot of people are "stuck" in how they define "chili". I love all kinds of chili, as long as it isn't too spicy. Same for BBQ. So many Texas BBQ folks distain NC BBQ - heck, Western NC and Eastern NC folks look down their noses at each other! I would gladly try it, but I admit no-bean chili seems weird to me - like eating spaghetti sauce with no pasta 😁. Of course, those Texans are sneaky. They'll holler "NO BEANS IN MY CHILI" and then dump a spoonful of beans on the side and scootch them onto the same spoon 😄.

I like it, but never think to buy it. Mr. Kim remembers Kraft sandwich spread sandwiches (meaning a good layer of the spread on white bread and nothing else) on especially lean weeks when he was a kid.

Skyline Chili was founded by Greek immigrant Nicholas Lambrinides. Camp Washington Chili Parlor was opened by another Greek immigrant, Johnny Johnson. The oldest chili parlor in Cincinnati is Empress and it was opened by a couple of Macedonian (Greek) brothers.

????? Cincinnati chili was invented by immigrants to Ohio from Greece.

Well, it was fantastic, @Tropicalsenior! The five of us sat around the dinner table scooping it up with ham and bread and thinking up ways to use it - potato salad, deviled eggs, egg salad, cole slaw! Thank you so much for posting this!

Stella's is excellent. We've been really lucky with various Mediterranean restaurants in Richmond, but Stella's is the old standard. There's a place I grew up going to in Alexandria and when I went there on a trip a few years ago and mentioned that I'd moved to Richmond, the owner said, "I'm glad you still love us after going to Stella's - she's the best!".

Not chili (at least that I can remember), but very common with BBQ ribs in some places. Or fried chicken. I've always wondered if it connected in some way to chicken and waffles - same flavor profiles.

Cincinnati chili is ambrosia! I'm sorry that your palate can't appreciate it, but it is truly lovely. Yet another culinary gift from immigrants to our country.

Thank you so much! I hadn't seen it and we were delighted.

This is my favorite bakery in Richmond. We go as often as possible.

I just made a batch of this tonight - the microwave method. It smells wonderful. I'm going to serve it beside my ham tomorrow night.

You know, I feel like we made that. When I did this recipe, Mr. Kim and I kept saying we thought I'd made it before, except with grapes and distinctly remembered the flavor of the roasted grapes, but I couldn't find that I'd saved the recipe.

What was it that bothered you about the sandwich? The jam? I love the jam part - makes a nice counterbalance to the savoury of the sandwich. I like it made with fig jam on the inside, too!

We really liked this Italian sausage w/ shallots and apples sheet pan dinner. It was uncomplicated and tasty and we thought it would be great with bratwurst, too.

Tuna salad has been calling lately - today I answered: It was pretty good.

I'd love that recipe!!! Nevermind - found it in the Christmas Cookie topic!