Kim Shook

That looks and sounds so good, @shain! Would you share the recipe?

@Senior Sea Kayaker - I agree about the pannetone making excellent French toast. We always buy a few loaves at Christmas and slice and freeze them for later in the year. I have breakfast ennui. Nothing is appealing - I have on hand bagels, bread, waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon, country ham - all my favorites, but nothing is calling my name. This morning I had a gingerbread man that one of Mr. Kim's staff dropped off in a CARE package yesterday. 😁

Shelby – mmmmm – French dip! One of my favorite sandwiches. If it’s on a menu, I’m almost sure to order it. Yours looks wonderful. Last night I managed to make a salad: And we ordered a pizza: Tonight, we went on a COVID-responsible Xmas light tour. We stayed in our car and got food through the drive-thru at Hardee’s, of all places. We drove out to a small town that Jessica and I especially wanted Mr. Kim to see, and the options were either Hardee’s or McDonalds. I haven’t been to a Hardee’s in years – the last time was when the car behind me in the drive-thru blew up. Seriously – there was a huge explosion, my car rocked, and when I looked in the rearview mirror the hood of the car behind me was wrenched up and steam was pouring out. It seemed like a bad omen, and I haven’t been back since. We might have to change that. It could have been our appetites finally starting to return and a bit of toast-fatigue, but it was all really good. Mr. Kim and Jessica had big, juicy bacon cheeseburgers and fries and I had really good, crispy chicken tenders and slaw. We’ll see when we return to normal, I guess!

I may have said this before, but I find Velveeta really helpful for stabilizing cheese soups and sauces - especially if you are going to try to freeze them. When my grandmother had a stroke and had daily care providers, she complained that they were terrible cooks (most of them were very young). So I made a bunch of things that I knew she'd like and took them down in portions to stock her freezer. One of the things that I took was broccoli-cheese soup - which I'd never had much luck in freezing. I subbed half the Cheddar in the recipe for Velveeta and it worked great.

I've started telling people that usually get goody boxes for me to expect COVID-free goodies in January! 😁

Not at all. I was just referencing another plain cracker - like saltines, cream crackers, etc.

Yesterday: Deli roast beef and Havarti. Deli beef is always a little bland, but I punched it up with some good horseradish cream.

This morning: Toast is just the best when you feel bad!!!

I don't have any idea what is going to get done this year. I want some cookies, but don't know what I'll be able to manage, if anything. I'd love to see what other people are doing though.

Funny, I would say exactly the opposite. Cream crackers are a poor imitation of a Premium saltine. Cream crackers are thick and leaden and heavy. Fine for a big wedge of strong cheese, but very limited in scope. A Carr's water cracker on the other hand is heavenly - crisp, light, with a truly delicate flavor.

My SIL is a last-minute person, too. I just makes me crazy. This Roasted Onion dish SHINES with beef of any kind. It can be made ahead and served room temperature or heated up in a hot oven for a few minutes.

Cheese toast this morning: It hit the spot.

@BetD - thanks so much for bringing this forward. How I miss @maggiethecat's writing! Time to send her a message!! I'll be spending some time on this topic!

@Shelby – your canned green beans always look so good. I love home canned beans. They stand up to long cooking so much better than commercially canned beans. But I have such bad luck with stringy beans that I’d never bother doing it myself. @lindag – chicken ala king is something that I haven’t had in a long time. Thank you for the link. I’ve actually gotten a lot of recipes and ideas from that site. @Marlene – that is one gorgeous char on your steaks! Dinner on Saturday was supposed to be Tree Trimming night with our traditional beef fondue for dinner and chocolate fondue for dessert (dessert often stretches to the following night), but Jessica tested positive for COVID that afternoon and came home and went straight to bed. Mr. Kim and I were pretty tired after being out all morning at the ladies of the church Xmas party (me) and the church men’s breakfast (him) and then shopping, so I bunted the whole fondue thing and just marinated the beef chunks and tossed them in the CSO to roast. The marinade consisted of honey, cider vinegar, oil, soy sauce, dry mustard, ground ginger, garlic powder, and onion powder. It was a 3-bone rib roast, and it turned out very well: The shrimp was supposed to be dipped in tempura and then fondue-d, but I just roasted them with olive oil and Old Bay: Some steamed and roasted potatoes (which were also supposed to be fondue-d): Crudités: A baguette from Lidl and some packet Béarnaise: Sauces – A1, Green Goddess, and cocktail (there was also bottled BBQ and HP): Plated: We knew Jessica was sick (we suspected a sinus infection as she is prone to them) and felt like we wouldn’t feel like doing the dessert fondue, so we stopped at the new location of one of our favorite bakeries that has just opened near us for some goodies. Not pictured is the croissant that Mr. Kim and I devoured in the car: Brownie, giant key lime macaron, chocolate raspberry macaron (they are the size of a drink coaster – and perfect), a pan au chocolat, and éclair, and a salted caramel blondie. Every single thing was excellent. Sunday night, it was my turn to test positive for COVID. I don’t believe I ate anything that night. On Monday morning Mr. Kim tested positive for COVID. I don’t think we ate all day. All we did was drink. Our dear, sweet former neighbors did a porch drop and brought us a huge batch of Hot and Sour soup from our neighborhood Chinese place. We just slurped it up! It was delicious. Dinner tonight for me (we are all eating as we get hungry or not, as the case may be – if one of us has the energy to make something we are offering to make something for the others, too) was some leftovers: Hot and Sour soup, fried noodles, veg, Green Goddess dressing, and leftover not-fondue beef with A1 and HP. The meat survived a second trip through the Bake/Steam cycle of the CSO incredibly well.

@Ann_T– you can probably tell from my posts that I’m a “traditionalist” 😉 when it comes to breakfast food, but I’d eat your chicken and gravy and dressing any meal that it was offered to me. It always looks so incredibly good. @Senior Sea Kayaker – both your breakfast and your snowy view look wonderful! Well, we’ve all tested positive for COVID over the weekend at the Shook house. We’re doing our best to stay fed and hydrated. My breakfast this morning: It looked great and I needed to eat so I could take my medicine. I ate about a third of it.

Well, we at the Shook house all tested positive for COVID at some point over the weekend. We are up and down over an hourly basis, but all on various medications and trying our best to be patient with one another and help where we can! On Sunday (after Jessica tested positive, but before Mr. Kim and I did) I was hungry for a very specific thing at lunchtime – I wanted ham and Swiss on rye with ballpark mustard. Mr. Kim gloved and masked up and picked this up for me at our local deli: That half sandwich was all I ate all day. I started feeling awful and tested positive for COVID that night. I have no idea what Mr. Kim ate all day. Mr. Kim and I picked at this today: Supermarket Cheddar, butter, leftover shrimp, a sleeve of saltines, and cocktail sauce (for the shrimp and the cheese).

Quintessential Southern snack in the US: A sleeve of saltines and a stick of butter. I adore saltines. Of course there are ALL different kinds of crackers, but better??? I don't agree. Just different. For different applications. Saltines (specifically Premium for me) are the perfect plain snack cracker - flaky, crisp, with a light wheat flavor and lightly salted. You want salted - unsalted is like matzo or cream crackers. Which are fine, but for other purposes. Saltines with butter or peanut butter, with Braunschweiger or liverwurst or bologna. With soup or sliced tomatoes and Dukes. My granddaddy used to crumble them into his buttermilk if there wasn't any leftover cornbread in the morning. And they absolutely SHINE in @racheld's incomparable Redneck Gazpacho! They are an American classic - deservedly, I believe.

I am in the "a meal without bread is incomplete" camp. Fried chicken without biscuits or a stack of homemade white bread? Ham without cornbread? A Greek salad without chunks of crusty bread? Soup without just about any kind of bread? No for me, thanks. I am completely able to make a whole meal of bread and gravy, if that's what is available. I can remember years ago after I'd started posting my dinners in that thread someone asked me if I always had bread with my meal - e even the ones with corn or potatoes. And I truly didn't understand the point of the question 😂. I don't always have it - especially if all I've got is sandwich bread, but I always miss it if I don't have it.

I don't think they are actually baked together. When I Google "Angel Slices recipes" I get recipes that talk about baking cake layers and then making a buttercream for the middle. They all seem to be three layers rather than two, like those you linked. But you could adjust for that, if you want to. I don't want to steer you to any particular recipe because I've never made them, but just Google "angel slices recipes" and you'll find a number of them. I'd ignore the ones that reference "The Joy of Cooking" because they aren't at all the same thing. The ones you want to replicate seem to be a British thing. They remind me a bit of Battenberg Cakes which Mr. Kipling also makes! Good luck and I hope I haven't steered you wrong!

We're getting a SS next year. This burger-lover is excited!

I'm adding my thanks to everyone else's. Mrs. Duvel and the dear boy are absolute champs for being ok with taking us along. For Mr. Kim and I, our trips to England and Ireland felt like homecomings. I've never in my life felt more "right" in a place than that. I've always wanted to go to Scotland - thanks so much for taking me there!

I've never had a cold bun from 5 Guys - they always wrap it in foil and by the time I open it the bun is steamed and warm. I'm confused though - you said: "the bun , tomato , lettuce , mayo \were cold." Do you want the tomato, lettuce, and mayo to be warm? I like them to be cold - nice contrast to the heat of the burger and I hate slimy, warm lettuce.

@mgaretz – there is just something so satisfying about your tuna salad sandwich and split pea soup. Jessica and I went for Vietnamese food at a new, to us, place. We shared the fried wontons: Definitely handmade and very good. For me, eating at a Vietnamese place is always going to be the Banh Xeo – the “Yellow Pancake” with shrimp, bean sprouts, and roast pork. This time I tried something I’d never seen before – miniature fried pancakes: Banh Khot: They were little individual pancakes – crisp and tender at the same time – perfectly seasoned and topped with a steamed shrimp. Really delicious and the dipping sauce was great and NOT HOT! I did miss the roast pork and bean sprouts, but Jessica got sprouts with her pho and I stole some from her. I don’t know that it replaces the regular one, but it’s definitely on the rotation! Jessica got the Pho Hai San – seafood pho: With shrimp, surimi, and squid. Excellent broth and lovely, tender seafood. Last night none of the three of us were very hungry at dinnertime. So, we just got our own meals as we got hungry. I ended up with a very late supper. Awhile back on someone’s recommendation I got this at Trader Joe’s: I’d never tried it before - it was excellent – tender and delicate: On an ET bagel with cream cheese: Tonight was a lazy meal of ramen and a ham & cheese omelet: Which looks like some kind of mutant crab.

Lunch today with Mr. Kim at Five Guys: I know that this place isn’t popular here, but we love it. Everything except the prices. That was a little bacon cheeseburger and it was almost $13 👀!

I can't remember if it was someone here or in a Buzzfeed article that I heard about this: But I bought it when I saw it and it's been languishing in the cupboard for awhile now. I finally got it out late last night when I was poking around for something. It was excellent: Very delicate. I loved that it was packed in olive oil. I put it on an ET bagel with some cream cheese: My scrounged meal ended up being one the best I've had in a while!