Kim Shook

Hi! Welcome! I'm very happy to see you here. Since Greek food (US-style) is a favorite of mine, I hope you'll share savory foods as well as sweet!

So impressed with all of the gorgeous, delicious looking desserts. Foodfacts Dotus – love the rose cake on 7/26. What tip did you use to pipe those? Beth – let me add my admiration for your flock of colorful sheep. I can’t imagine anyone of ANY age not being delighted to find them on their cake! CatPoet – your Fairy Soap story is both funny and frustrating! How odd that they should still be foaming. But I know that plastic can hold smells forever – why not suds? Blether – your flapjack looks fantastic! I had to Google it, since in the US a flapjack is a pancake. Thanks for posting the recipe, I’d like to try them. For his birthday dessert, Mr. Kim requested the Tunnel of lemon pumpkin ginger cake: Slice: The ‘tunnel’ migrated to the very top of the cake and became more of a ‘schmear’, but it was good and everyone seemed to like it.

I have been MIA for quite a bit, except for an occasional glance in. Low energy this summer (for no discernable reason, really). So I’ve sat here today and read every single dinner post since I last posted. Lord have mercy, you folks can cook. I am sitting here craving pork roast, a great main-course salad, bubbly crusted pizza, bierocks (I really need to make these, Shelby), gooseberry goo tarts, green beans & liver & onions & gravy & potatoes & biscuits (good God, Shelby – what a feast), smoked chicken, ribs, moussaka, salmon cakes, meatballs, etc. etc. I am NOT craving what is cooking in my oven right now. Rotuts – I’m sorry I missed your question regarding the orange sauce that I served with the hens. It wasn’t actually a CI recipe, even though the hens were. I found it on about.com and here is the link to my version:http://http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/SAUCES/Orange_Sauce_for_Poultry.html I have been cooking a little and taking pictures, but nothing like I should be. Some meals since my last posting – Spaghetti Bolognese w/ garlic bread: I’m sure there was a salad in there somewhere! Another was breakfast for dinner: Farm egg omelet w/ cheese and asparagus, Wright’s sausage and collards. This dinner started with The Salad: Mr. Kim had some chicken coated with a packaged spice mix from our Asian grocery: It was purported to be “Spicy” and “Thai” and was not at all spicy…or good, for that matter. Mr. “Never throw anything away” told me to toss the other packet. My dinner was much more successful: Just some shrimp sautéed with some garlic and ginger paste that we got at the same store. Delicious and delicate. I’ll be using this jar again and again! Another night I did steak and sprouts: Success: Chili is a wonderful thing to have in the freezer:: Served with corn and corn muffins: That corn is my first try with the method of cooking unhusked corn in the microwave, then cutting off the stalk end and pulling everything off husk and silk included. It worked VERY well. A little more work getting it all to come off than the youtube videos show, but still much, much easier than shucking and boiling. I will still use the old method for large amounts of corn, but for just a few ears this is my new method. We also got the first really good tomatoes we’ve had this summer at a nearby farmer’s market: They were the first tomatoes we’ve had this summer that I considered worth the trouble of peeling! Another night – Mr. Kim’s dinner: Salad with grilled chicken. Mine: Same grilled chicken over pilaf drizzled with teriyaki. The 14th was Mr. Kim’s birthday. By request, the meal was steak, sweet potatoes, butter beans and salad. The salad was “Lettuce with Cream”, a weird concoction of lettuce with a simple dressing made with equal parts cream, sugar and white vinegar: I used Bibb lettuce this time. No reason it should be as addicting as it is. Dinner: Mushrooms on the steaks for Mr. Kim and Jessica. I subbed a baked potato for me. The steaks were far and away the best I’ve ever made. For years, I’ve coated steaks with a mixture of Montreal steak seasoning and sugar, let them sit, seared in a pan and then oven roasted until they reach temperature. Lately, becoming convinced that the pepper and garlic in the seasoning mix were just burning and adding bitterness, I’ve been doing just the sugar. I never grill, because I don’t trust myself to do a good job on the grill and I love the crust that develops in the iron skillet. Since Mr. Kim, Jess and I had dinner before a bunch of folks were coming over for dessert, I needed to get the dinner mess out of the way quickly and decided to go ahead and grill the steaks. A couple of nights before his birthday, we’d seen a show about a steak competition and people were talking about doing a dry salt brine on steaks. I did some reading online and gave it a try. The result was incredible. These were ordinary grocery store steaks. I used a crappy (not very well-maintained) gas grill. And I cooked them about 5 degrees beyond where I meant to. They were still astonishingly good. Last night my mother brought over beef stew: She made this from the same recipe that I use: my grandmother’s - practically the only good thing my grandmother ever cooked. I had thawed a cheap roast to make CI’s Roast in Foil recipe. It is in the oven now. Beef roast, carrots, potatoes, gravy. It just hit me looking at Momma’s stew. Sigh .

I love the idea of doing this, but in reality I get irritated with someone trying to use the kitchen when I am. In my defense, we have a very small kitchen with almost no counter space. I was a lousy mother in this regard.

Welcome, Firefoxx!

I find shucking corn to be a giant PITA. I always have. I tried this method for the first time tonight and it will be my go to method from now on. I don't care for grilled corn - I find it just shrivels the corn and makes it tough. I like corn that is hot through, but not really cooked. I did 5 minutes for 3 ears and they were perfect. I ended up with a few strands of silk. Miracle to me.

Welcome, Lydia! I love hearing folk's stories about how they got interested in cooking! Looking forward to your contributions!

Anna - I believe that you need to shut those "panty doors". Especially if it is still cold up there. Ladies, I am having such a great time reading along. I somehow missed the beginning of this and sat here last night (actually this morning) reading through until 3am! I had a 8am FASTING blood draw this morning. Do you know how hard it was not to snack while I was catching up? Not to mention getting up this morning! As a doctor, Kerry, you should know better than to do that to someone! Seriously, this is wonderful and like so many folks have already said, something that I look forward to every year!

Huiray – thanks for your response. I just thought that the batter looked perfectly crisp and bubbly – just like I like it. I’ll try your batter recipe next time! Last night a friend came over to have dinner and show us her pictures from her trip to Vienna, Budapest and Prague. I did the CI roast Cornish game hens with an orange sauce: Green salad with my dad’s Creamy Parmesan dressing: Long grain and wild rice: Brussel sprouts: And 3-cheese bread (I used some of this to make the croutons): Dessert was Eton mess with blackberries, toasted coconut meringues and lime curd:

emmalish – you are so kind. Here is the recipe for Dream Cookies:http://http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/COOKIES/Dream_Cookies.html They are similar to shortbread – very buttery and crisp and I’ve been making them since I was a little girl – about 45 years. They are our family’s favorite cookies. CatPoet – see my response to emmalish regarding the cookies. I looked at some recipes and descriptions of Swedish dream cookies and I don’t think they are the same. The Swedish ones are light and airy and mine are dense and crisp like shortbread. I really don’t know where the name for mine came from. The recipe was in a book from a series of books that my mom got from a grocery store. alienor – what a lovely tart! Dessert last night was Eton mess with blackberries, toasted coconut meringues and lime curd (meringues and curd were purchased): The blackberries and lime was a very, very good combination!

I am amazed and impressed by y’all’s lunches! This is as good as it gets for me (since I usually don’t even eat an actual lunch): Open faced ham and salami sandwich, toasted Swiss and Dijon, and just buttered 3-cheese bread. With some gorgeous local white peaches.

Mark – thank you! I made notes and will try it next time that I have a craving. CatPoet – thank you so much for the offer of the translation. I’d really appreciate it! Blether – I, too, like a good black pepper hit with breakfast sausage (and a little sage). You may be appalled to hear that I love breakfast sausage dipped in Maple syrup. Actually, the best way I’ve ever done it is dipping sausage into honey infused with black pepper . Breakfast yesterday: Eggs, more Wright’s sausage and nectarines and plums.

rotuts – here’s the link to the chicken recipe: http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/CASSEROLES/Pecan_Chicken_Casserole.html - the topping is just more of the pecan crust crumbled. BonVivant – gorgeous mussels! One of my favorite summer meals. CatPoet – the same thing that happened to your rogan josh happened to Rachel on Friends and she ended up with a meat trifle. Your ‘mistake’ looks MUCH better ! liuzhou – your crab and your salad are both just absolutely beautiful. Pristine! huiray – I love the look of the crust on your salt and pepper shrimp. How do you do that? Mark – Mr. Kim is extremely intrigued by your smoked chuck! I think he’s going to be giving that a try. Love the bark you got. Kelly – lovely first post! That steak is stellar. Mr. Kim’s office picnic was Saturday. I made a brown sugar pound cake and a wild rice salad with balsamic vinaigrette: I was very flattered – a number of people came up to me to ask what I had made and then went right to them to help themselves! A recent pre-dinner ‘snack’ was inspired by this cheese that we got from Relay Foods: I made a tomato/basil bruschetta topping: Split open the cheese: And made these: So good and filling that we scrapped our dinner plans!

emmalish – blush, blush! I’m honored! And you must try Toast Dope! I always have a jar in the fridge. I haven’t made regular old cinnamon toast for 7 years! pjm – gorgeous biscotti! I was especially drawn to the chocolate ones. Any chance you’d share the recipe? On Friday my sister and niece took off driving to Washington State. I made some treats for the cross country trip – Dream cookies: And my oatmeal cookies: Also some granola clusters: For Mr. Kim’s office picnic on Saturday, I made a brown sugar pound cake: Then on Sunday I made a chocolate chip coffee cake for coffee hour at church: Both were very popular.

I did try Lisa’s technique and it worked pretty well. I baked it again at a very low temp for as long as it seemed to be safe and they were still a bit sticky, but held together very well. I actually had to cut them with a bench scraper – too sticky to break apart. They tasted great, but I won’t be able to reproduce them. I used a kit that someone gave me. It was crazy expensive – not something I’d spend my money on when I can buy the components for about 1/4 the price (though, very much appreciated as a gift, of course):

Welcome, Chris! Looking forward to hearing your stories and POV!

Blether – the Wright’s sausage was just pure USA country breakfast sausage. No fillers, gentle spice and deeply porky. I love all kinds of sausage – in all varieties. But for breakfast, I really love a classic American-style country sausage. Does that make any sense? Mark – your French toast looks EXACTLY like I always aim for, but never really get. I love that beautiful crust. I am not a fan of a really custardy interior, so I usually slice the bread thinner than called for, but I’d love some pointers!

Hi, Dusty and welcome to eG! Looking forward to your contributions!

dcarch – love your happy squash! Norm – thanks for posting the recipe for the fried chicken. The crust looks wonderful. Soba – gorgeous fattoush. One of my favorites. Blether – lovely quiche. I have been getting eggs from one of Mr. Kim’s co-workers lately and you’ve reminded me of the perfect way to use them. CatPoet – that steak looks delicious, but the best thing on the plate is that gorgeous charred onion! A couple of nights ago we had my mother, sister and a niece over for dinner. We had Pecan Chicken casserole, salad, broccoli and marinated cucumbers: Casserole serving: Creamy and comforting. This casserole is really easy – just a pecan crust with a custard based chicken filling. But you can put it mostly together early in the day and bake it last minute. For dessert we demolished an entire box of Pepperidge Farm assorted cookies, 2 nectarines, a plum and an apricot! I will be so sad when the stone fruit is gone. Night before last I did French dip-type sandwiches, chips and crudités: For the sandwiches I made a caramelized onion and fig jam ‘confit’. The last time that I made this beef (the recipe is named ‘Drip Beef’- dreadful name) I had a jarred confit with the same ingredients from Stonewall Kitchen and thought I’d make my own. It was incredibly good:

emmalish – please tell me if the house next door to you ever goes on the market, because I want to buy it and be your cooky-friend ! CatPoet – your dinosaur cooky is adorable! Nakji – that blueberry muffin cake looks astounding. Thanks for posting the link. I am trying that one! Blether – love the idea of using figs in oatmeal cookies! I just made a batch of my oatmeal cookies (will show later) and I wish I’d seen your post before I bought raisins to put in them. Chocomom – that cake is lovely and NOTHING to feel shy about! I made a rum cake for Mr. Kim’s office: I’m having a little trouble with the cake – I suspect that I’m overbeating it. I have the 6 qt. KA and I know that recipes tend to be written for the smaller one. I didn’t really adjust for that. Does anyone have any other ideas? The crust is separating – not just on top: but also on the sides. It doesn’t affect the flavor and the top ends up being the bottom on this cake, but it looks a little raggedy on the sides.

Blether – beautiful sausages. With my sister visiting this week, I’ve made breakfast every day! Here’s one: Wright’s sausage (really good) with eggs and toast.

Welcome, Earlene! Looking forward to getting to 'know' you. You'll find a LOT of great ideas and information here - no matter what your specialty is!

Welcome, MyMommasHands (I love your screen name - hands are a bit of an obsession with me)! Looking forward to hearing more from you!

Welcome, Vencislav! Can't wait to see what you have to show us!

I use one very similar to the Serious Eats one that boudin noir posted. Marlene gave it to me and I use it a lot. It is very, very good. It's quick and easy and you don't need any unusual ingredients. I can't tell the difference between that and the one at our favorite Japanese place.