Kim Shook

rajoress – oh, dear. I went straight to the blog and printed out the strawberry cake recipe. That cake just reached out and grabbed me! Some recent baking: Daiquiri pound cake: Missed getting a slice picture, but the texture was nice, as usual. This is a real go-to recipe for me. I’ve never had it fail and I started baking it as a teenager! Did some orange rolls for a ladies of the church meeting: These are cheat-y, but delicious rolls. They start with whomp Crescent rolls, but then the filling and glaze are made with fresh orange zest and OJ concentrate, so that redeems them somewhat. Made some Torie’s Cherry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies for an party at Mr. Kim’s office:

I adore hot dogs and can enjoy them any which way. My only request is that no poultry or cereal fillers invade it. Only beef or pork or a mixture of them, please. My favorite dog is a Carolina dog with no onions (chili, mustard and slaw). But I like cheese or sauerkraut, too. Relish and mustard? Sure. Mustard only? Yup. Sans bun, sliced up for Beanie Weenie? Please! I love them charred on a grill or a frying pan, but boiled is ok, too. Love the snap of natural casings, but Ball Park is fine. I tend to brush mine with bottled BBQ sauce just before I take them off the grill. Ketchup? Not my favorite, but I don't object. Oh, and I love those jelly and BBQ sauce cocktail weenies, too.

Anyone looking for an easy and foolproof Yorkie recipe should try Marlene’s - http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/QuickBreads/Marlene39s_Yorkshire_Pudding.html I make it all the time and have never had it fail. Kay – “as I was the only one in the house who likes hollandaise” what kind of crazy people do you live with? Do you need to be extracted by a SWAT team? Mark – Mr. Kim just caught sight of your pork and said he’d kill for that bark and ring. Shelby – I’m so glad that you got to have such a wonderful time with your mom. I feel so blessed to finally have her living near me. We lived most of my adult live pretty far apart and I missed her so much. This was in the pre-cell phone days – long distance phone calls cost a LOT! Your food looked wonderful. Was she surprised at your expertise, or have you always been a good cook? Mother’s Day brunch was very simple meal this year. There were only ten of us, so we actually ate at the table: (Unheard of at the Shooks.) And since it was Mother’s day and I wasn’t doing any dishes, I used my wedding china and the sterling ! We started with some nibbles: Chili-Lime rice crackers, nuts, sesame sticks and Goldfish (Goldfish or Combos are a family tradition – I don’t think that my family has had a party without one or the other since the 1960’s) I did my friend Stephanie’s Ham and cheese croissant strata: Kind of a Monte Cristo casserole. Small croissants are stuffed with ham and Swiss and an egg, milk and Dijon custard is poured over. Topped with Gruyere and baked. Very good. Served with a simple fruit salad: And a green salad with a fantastic Green Goddess chive dressing: I haven’t made this dressing in forever and everyone was raving over it. I’ll have to get it back into rotation. My Vitamix made preparation really easy. Dessert was a strawberry poppy seed cake: More on that in the dessert thread.

What lovely and delicious looking things everyone is doing! Franci – the texture of that Gateau Nantais is absolutely perfect. What I strive for every time I bake a cake and almost never get! Thanks for the link! My Mother’s day dessert didn’t turn out very well. I did strawberry poppy seed cake: I’ve made this many times in the past and the icing is always a challenge. It’s white chocolate whipped cream and it does tend to slump, which it did this time. But it tasted great, so that was ok. But the cake itself kind of failed. It was too dense and didn’t rise very well. Usually it is a light, springy white cake with poppy seeds. It was almost gummy this time. It tasted good, just the texture was off. Those are actually 4 layers – two split cakes with strawberry jam, icing and sliced strawberries in between. Pretty sure that the baking powder was good and I know I didn’t overbeat after adding the milk and flour mix. Perplexing. I beat the butter/sugar mixture a lot, but that should be ok, right? Any ideas?

Kay – that shot of the chicken cooking took me back to my childhood. When I was a kid every summer weekend on the route to the Eastern shore and Ocean City, MD you could smell that chicken. I think that every men’s organization and church set up a chicken BBQ’ing stand and it was the best tasting chicken I’ve ever eaten. Every grilled/BBQ’ed chicken I’ve eaten since has come up short. On our last beach trip, I kept my nose out the window for a whiff of that chicken. We had to settle for Catholic pit beef. Good, but NOT the same. Thank you for the memory boost! I should probably be ashamed to post this meal, but I’m not . Frozen chicken Kiev on Uncle Ben’s long grain and wild rice. My dad and I were talking the other day about foods that we used to eat that we never make/buy anymore. This was one of my memories. I used to make this all the time in the late 80’s. Then I read the calorie and fat count of the Kiev and even I was somewhat appalled. So I got out of the habit and we haven’t had it in years. But after our conversation, I got a craving. Turns out they still sell it and they are actually better tasting now than years ago. The ones I used to buy were already cooked and frozen. These were raw and the chicken was much more tender. We probably won’t have them for another few years, but since I can’t imagine that I’ll ever bother to make it from scratch again and restaurants don’t serve it anymore, they are there for the next craving.

Norm – thank you, that sounds really good! Thanks for the crepes – your spinach salad sounds fantastic. I miss that spinach you are describing. I almost never find it here in Richmond and find that ‘baby’ spinach insipid. Tossing a salad with it is futile because all it does is lie flat in the bottom of the bowl. Last night I did Jessica’s favorite meal – salad and short ribs on polenta: Slow cooker polenta: The only way I cook it anymore. The short ribs were my Hoisin Braised Ribs, a recipe that I developed when I wanted a good hoisin short rib, but all the recipes I tried were too strongly flavored with the hoisin – the beef flavor was lost. We like this one a lot:

This is all so lovely and so wonderful of Kerry (and Anna!) to take the time to share her marvelous trip with us. Already I've seen so many places that I missed on our short trip in 2011!

Thanks for the crepes – more like served with. It was too large to make an actual sandwich, so we tore off hunks and wrapped our brats and onions in it and dipped in mustard. Mr. Kim would have loved peppers, too. But I detest them unfortunately and didn’t want to go to the trouble of doing two pans. Those ones at the fair (and in front of hardware stores) always smell so wonderful, but have a weird texture and taste OLD! And your clam, steak and corn dinner sounded amazing. I’d have given anything for such a meal last night! liamsaunt – I am SO stealing your scallops over creamed corn idea this summer! I am not a pepper fan, so I’ll leave that out, but those look fantastic! Norm – what kind of dressing is that on your salad you posted on the 15th? It looks good! mm – gorgeous asparagus! Wish I could find some fat ones like that for Mr. Kim! Rachel – I’m so honored that you signed on to praise my Easter dinner! Your special brand of posting is missed here – I’m sure lots of old timers would agree with me! Wish you could have shared it. I would have requested that you bring Paminna cheese! And that sweet little pot lives there full time! Dinner a couple of nights ago: Not a great experiment. I got a craving for spaghetti and had all the makings but no ground beef or Italian sausage. So I used cut up brats from the other night. German-Italian spaghetti? I figured that it was pork, like Italian sausage and simmering in the sauce all day should make it soak up those flavors. Whatever, it tasted quite peculiar combined with the sauce.

This morning I had a NYT inspired breakfast: Ham, egg and cheese on soft bread. I didn’t have a roll. NYT recently had an article extolling the virtues of this NYC workday morning classic. Made me hungry and it was all I wanted when I got up this morning.

Brats and fried onions for dinner tonight: Served with this chow chow: And mac and cheese and salad. Those brats were HUGE! That is a very large dinner plate.

Thanks, Alex. I'll add Marcel's to the list. She's actually eating at Restaurant Eve the night before I get up there! We had lunch there during her last visit and fell in love with it!

John - the shredded coconut only goes on the outside of the finished cake, so I would guess that shredded fresh coconut would be an improvement!

Hi, John! Sounds fascinating (and frustrating) and I would LOVE to hear more about your experiences there! Anyway cream of coconut is this: http://www.cocolopez.com/creamofcoconut.html It is mostly used to make Pina Coladas and Daiquiris. The ingredients are: coconut juice (pressed coconut meat, milk, oil and water), sugar, assorted thickeners and preservatives and, oddly enough, natural rosemary extract. Can you get sweetened condensed milk? If so, I found a source online that said that you could just add coconut extract to taste. If not, there is a rather complicated sounding procedure I found here: http://ask.metafilter.com/236898/Homemade-Cream-of-Coconut-aka-Coco-Lopez-for-Pina-Coladas Best of luck and let us know how you fare. Does anyone else have any good ideas?

Thank you so much, I'm terribly flattered! Here's the recipe: http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/CAKESandPIES/Coconut_Layer_Cake_w_Cream_Cheese_Frost.html Make sure to read my notes.

Suzi – thank you ma’am! I am thrilled that you appreciate a good egg plate. It’s funny, but everyone who marvels at mine has always been a Yankee! Kay – completely understand about breaking egg plates – they are hard little suckers to hold onto when soapy and most won’t fit in a dishwasher. Here’s the recipe for the ‘soufflé’: http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/SIDEDISHES/St_Pauls_Cheese_Souffl_.html Dinner last night started with a not very interesting ham salad made from the last of the Easter ham: Dinner itself was just deli fried chicken and Kraft mac and cheese. The purchased parts of dinner were a lot better than the homemade. Sigh. But then Jessica arrived with a HUGE bag of leftover chocolate dipped strawberries from her part time job at Godiva and the evening improved considerably .

Well, crap. They did it to me again. Reservation made by someone else at Founding Farmers. But that's for Thursday night. There will be one other person and I around on Friday and I'm going to offer her your suggestions and let her choose. She's a great person to go restauranting with, so I have high hopes. Thanks so much for the help!

Back again! Same group, same request - just 1 1/2 years later. So is this list still good: Mintwood Place Graffiato Marvin Agora Birch & Barley or is there an even hipper and cooler place that I can impress my LA pal with? Thanks!

Distinctly peculiar looking egg salad for lunch today: Made from the brightly colored eggs that I dyed (per Jessica’s request) for making Easter dinner deviled eggs. Thank goodness I only had one color left when I went to make the egg salad! Tasted good, though.

Anna – thank you so much for your kind words. I sometimes worry that my food is a little pedestrian for eG, but your attitude gives me confidence. Jo – I love hot dogs – and have my whole life. I remember that when my English hot dog-hating dad would go out of town, my mom and I would revel in the foods he hated and hot dogs would be the first meal! I like them basically carbonized – fried hard and split. Dinner last night was a very minimalist sort of Easter leftover dinner: But extremely satisfying!

Hi, busybee and welcome to eGullet. We are a very diverse group and I hope you'll find us friendly and helpful! If you are blogging, you should be able to add a link to your blog at the bottom of your posts. I am not very tech savvy, but someone should be able to help you with that if you can't figure it out. I'm looking forward to hearing more from you!

Kay - do you have a good sized Asian grocery near you? Both of the ones near me always have quail eggs. I don't know if they are used a lot in Asian cooking, but it's worth a look.

Ann – your food always makes me hungry, but the pizza crust and halibut on 4/2 looked especially wonderful. Norm – lovely Easter dinner! That ham is so glisten-y! Paul – that ham is amazing looking. Someday, I’m going to splurge on a heritage ham. Kay – I love that corn casserole. If you remember the from-scratch one that I made recently didn’t match up at ALL! And I’m SHOCKED, I tell you SHOCKED that you don’t have a deviled egg plate, southerner that you are ! One of my guests was surprised that I have THREE (one is specifically Easter themed) and borrowed another one in order to serve 22 people. She’s a Yankee. I told her that not only did I have deviled eggs plates, but ice tea spoons in my silver pattern . Our Easter menu included ham: This was an interesting cut that I found for the first time this year at Costco. It was a boned out, but not formed or pressed, ham. Almost exactly like a boned leg of lamb - long, wide and flat. I cooked it low and slow and with moist heat and it was fantastic. Jessica’s country ham rolls: St. Paul’s cheese soufflé: More like a strata actually and probably the most popular thing on the buffet. St. Paul’s is a local Episcopal church that does Lenten lunches and is famous for their good food. I’d been hearing about this dish for years and finally got a cookbook for Christmas with this recipe in it. Incredibly easy – just bread, cheese and a custard. You put it together the night (or morning) before and pop it in the oven an hour before serving. Something called Dale’s “Can’t Stop Eating It” Salad: Dumb name, but a great, simple layered salad. My mother made her potato salad: My friend, Cathy’s recipe for broccoli salad: It is that standard broccoli, bacon, onion, pecan and raisin mixture found at almost every pot luck, but the salad is elevated by a great home made dressing rather than a bottle of Ranch. These crazy deviled eggs: Jessica requested dyed deviled eggs, like I used to do when she was little. Apparently the dyes have become MUCH more intense! My MIL’s yeast rolls: I’ve posted the desserts on that thread.

Jessica made chocolate dipped strawberries for the post Easter Saturday vigil reception at our chruch: She is currently looking for work and doing part time work at Godiva’s. One of her jobs is dipping fruit. I was her sous – she needed a little guidance since she’s used to working with professional equipment and supplies (a giant temperer, chocolate bits and pre-washed and dried fruit) and not a home kitchen. These were very well received! Easter dessert included this lovely, goopy, creamy fruit salad that a young friend of ours makes for all gatherings: It has fresh fruit, but the whole thing is swamped with Cool Whip. A guilty pleasure! Jessica’s best friend’s currant rolls: Her family is from Trinidad and this is apparently a traditional sweet. The crust is like pie crust. These flew off the dessert table! A friend brought her wonderful pound cake with a choice of chocolate sauce or fried apples (I missed getting a picture of this). And I made coconut layer cake w/ cream cheese icing: Detail of the top: The curls were from Wilton and I found the flower gummies at Fresh Market. Slice: Great, as always. More than one person said it was the best cake they’d ever eaten. I usually get that with this recipe!

I go with whatever the people I'm with are comfortable doing. I will share with almost anyone I know. We are big huggers and kissers and I figure if I will do that then I'm ok sharing food with them. Down to and including sipping from drinks and eating from the same fork. If they aren't comfortable with that, that's ok. I have some in laws who won't share with their own spouses or children and I do find that a bit odd.

I am so sorry to hear about this. Such sad news. If anyone is in touch with her family, please pass on my condolences. I remember her posts as being generous and interesting.