Kim Shook

Toliver - those look so good. I'm going to search out some cinnamon chips and make those soon. I haven't made them that way in ages. They really are our family cooky. Not necessarily what we want all the time, but if we were asked to choose, they'd be our favorite! Glad you liked them.

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Dejah – I haven’t cooked corn on the cob any other way since I found that method. My daughter even video-d me and put it on FB! MetsFan – thank you! We were in Jacksonville and Sarasota. Hope you got your grouper. I never tasted any until my parents moved to Florida and now it is one of my favorites! Don’t see it much in VA, though. I tasted black grouper for the first time this trip and it was one of the best things we ate the entire trip. Yesterday was Sunday dinner on Labor Day Monday with my mom and daughter. Our neighbors joined us for dessert. Roast beef cooked in the rotisserie oven: Perfectly cooked, but a little tough. This was a rib eye roast and should have been tender, but we actually needed steak knives (similar to Thanks for the Crepes issues). The flavor was good, though. Marlene’s Cream Roasted Potatoes: Just gorgeous, as always. Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts: With pancetta. New recipe and fantastic. So much easier than my regular method of steaming, cutting in half and then sautéing in butter. But it left the house a lot stinkier. Sliced tomatoes: Marlene’s incomparable Yorkies: Plated: With gravy: I was really happy with my gravy. I hate making gravy last minute and always do my turkey gravy ahead of time, but hadn’t tried it with beef gravy. Yesterday I gave it a go. Made a roux, deglazed with some red wine and then just used a carton of beef broth. I added a little onion, pepper, thyme and Penzey’s Mural of Flavor. I simmered it for a couple of hours and then refrigerated it. Today I heated it back up, added a lot of water and a spoonful of Better than Bouillon and a little Kitchen Bouquet and let it cook down for a hour or so. It was great – really rich and beefy. And it turned out that I only got about one tablespoonful of drippings, so I was glad I’d done it!

Inspired by Kay, lunch today was a BLT with heirloom green tomatoes and steak fries (no Pringles in the pantry – not even any Aldi baked BBQ chips that I’ve become addicted to ): the tomato kind of gets lost with the lettuce, but it’s in there!

John T – thanks for the recipe! I’ll be keeping that and sending it on to my friend. Every time I go there are MANY more green figs than ripe, so we’ll be using the recipe. cyalexa – the recipe is similar, but they are dehydrated (or roasted at a VERY low temp) after three days of simmering: http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/FRUIT/Lenas_Candied_Figs.html I finished the figs yesterday. Out of the oven: Sugared: I sugar them so that they won’t stick together during storage, but usually brush most of it off before I eat them. They are sweet enough! Dessert last night was Cream Cheese Pound Cake with blackberries: This is one of my favorite pound cakes. The flavor was wonderful and I love a dense, tight-crumbed cake, but this time it was slightly too dense for me. Still really good, though.

Thanks, everyone! Next time, I'll leave out the corn syrup!

Mr. Kim is in love with it, so I couldn't sell it. Keep looking, though - I've seen lots of these in various antique/salvage store.

Well, I’ve missed almost an entire section of this topic! Just a combination of stuff got in the way. Been out of town a LOT and am hoping to start cooking more and contributing here more, too! I couldn’t possibly mention all of the lovely dishes that made me hungry when I read back over the more-than-two-months that I’ve missed. It took me THREE days and one day I actually used up all my allowed ‘likes’ (didn’t know THAT was even possible – another rule to learn ) – so if your gorgeous and delicious meal is missing a ‘like’ from me, it’s not MY fault. We celebrated the 4th of July with friends and my contribution included Caroled’s baked beans (my new favorite method for quick beans): A few meals (prior to our Florida trip on the 15th)- Mr. Kim saw Jamie Deen make a steak salad with molasses marinated London Broil on TV one morning and had to give it a try. Salad and crackers: London Broil: All together with some crumbled Bleu: And some corn: Another night Chicken Parm: Breakfast for dinner: Mushroom and cheese omelet and fried potatoes. We finally got some good tomatoes: (with marinated cukes). Chili dogs, beans and some of those tomatoes with mayo and LOTS of S&P: Another one - salad: Meatballs w/ gravy and rice: Corn: The only thing I’ve cooked since we got home from Florida last week – starting with the usual salad: Sausages, kraut, mac and cheese (packaged – it’s a comfort food, what can I say ), nice crusty sourdough roll and corn: The sausages were great – bratwurst and knockwurst from the meat case at Fresh Market. The kraut was a little dull. I should have known better. It was in a jar and we always like the super sour kind in the can. I won't ever apologize for serving too much summer corn and tomatoes, but maybe I need to find something other than salad to make with every meal.

While we were in Florida, Mr. Kim picked this up at Relics (a salvage place that our friends took us to): 1930’s McGraw toaster. We bought a few things, so he’s not sure, but he thinks he got it for about $40. I shined it up and it looks gorgeous. It gets hot, but I haven’t tried to make toast in it yet. The fact that it belonged to strangers is squicking me out a little bit.

Just apple cider. Not apple cider vinegar. Not sure I'd like that at all.

I went down to visit friends in Chesapeake yesterday and they very kindly let me pick every ripe fig in their garden: I’m making my friend’s candied figs. First day simmer down: Not the most appetizing looking thing now, but they will be delectable in a few days.

Nicholai – I had to Google Knafe bel Jibn. It sounds wonderful and, like scuba, right up my alley! Breakfast this morning – I couldn’t decide which I wanted more, tomatoes on toast or some of my friend’s good fig preserves. So I didn’t decide:

I made some apple fritters awhile back. I decided to glaze them and used a recipe that called for 1 cup apple cider, 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar and 1 tablespoon of light corn syrup. They were delicious – especially fresh and warm, but I wasn’t satisfied with the glaze. It made them a bit soggy – I was hoping for a more glazed doughnut-like glaze – the kind that dries solidly and flakes off when bitten into. This just kind of soaked into the fritters. I’m wondering if the culprit was the corn syrup. What do you all think?

We celebrated the 4th of July with friends and I made this: It’s a crazy Paula Deen recipe – Frozen Banana Split. An ice cream torte made with caramel, hot fudge, cherries, bananas, Cool Whip and ice cream sandwiches. It is ridiculously good. Jessica made me a chocolate/Nutella cake with candied hazelnuts on top for my birthday. Without the dulce drizzle: With: Peach cobbler for one of Mr. Kim’s co-worker’s BD: Coffee snacks for church – apple fritters with an apple cider glaze: They were delicious – especially fresh and warm, but I wasn’t satisfied with the glaze. It made them a bit soggy – I was hoping for a more glazed doughnut-like glaze – the kind that dries solidly. This just kind of soaked into the fritters. The recipe included corn syrup – do you think that that would have caused the problem? Blueberry Breakfast Cake: I made a double batch of both and didn’t bring one thing home!

Welcome, Peggy! You'll find lots of folks here ready to answer questions and ASK them, too! I'm sure you've got lots to teach us. We love having professionals to pester!

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So glad that you liked it! Shaloop was great and I wish that s(he) still posted here. I miss a lot of old timers!

Oh, man, I'd LOVE this machine. I love to chew ice, but try not to do it very often. On the rare occasion when a restaurant has crushed or (be still my heart) shaved ice, I go to town on it. Don't worry about me - I have blood tests every 4 months and I'm fine.

Michael Ruhlman once said: "Many argue that breakfast is their favorite meal and of course it's "the most important meal of the day" (who came up with this slogan?—I do fine on coffee and Crest)" I agree. I adore breakfast food - sweet or savory, but only after I've been up a few hours. I grew up eating dinner at 7 or later and still like that hour. Mr. Kim grew up eating at 5. I accuse him of being raised by seniors. He used to start hanging around the kitchen at 6 (about the time I'd just be getting started with dinner prep) looking woebegone, but he's used to it now.

I've never quite understood the whole "It's 100 degrees outside! Time to stand in that heat over a grill" thing. When the temperature rises I crank up my AC and cook INSIDE. For me, outside cooking and eating is for spring and fall.

Dinner tonight was sausage sandwiches made with Aidell’s Italian style chicken meatballs with mozzarella, fries and fried green tomatoes:

Sunday we had BLT’s for lunch. Untoasted and toasted: Discovered after 33 years of marriage that Mr. Kim doesn’t like toast for his BLT. The things you find out! Interesting topic, though. Are there sandwiches that you prefer toasted to untoasted and vice versa? I go back and forth. Served with corn and fries:

Shelby – fantastic meals. Those onion rings look great and your mac and cheese always gets me craving some. Too funny about your scratch batch of Sloppy Joes not being very good. Heidi – I think of that discussion every year when I start my pickles! tug – loved your sardine pasta. What a great pantry meal. Sunday night was breakfast for dinner: Croissant French toast and scrambled eggs. Topping on the right is the stewed plums that Caroled made and sent home with us: So incredibly good.

Smithy - I've sent Mr. Kim a message asking him to give me the info to pass on. Maybe Caroled could chime in here, too, since she lives with the fellow. huiray – we saw plenty of Skylines and White Castles in Indy. Just too busy with our visit to bother stopping. It made the perfect on the way home lunch. Funny you should mention Hollyhock Hill. We ate there on our last visit to see Racheld and Caroled. We loved it. As southerners we were surprised at how good the fried chicken was in Indiana when we lived there. Rachel’s husband calls Indiana the northernmost southern state and the fried chicken bears that out!