Kim Shook

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.

huiray & Liuzhou – thank you for the help with the mushroom ID – now, if I can find more – Mr. Kim loved it! caroled – Mr. Kim should have noticed that – he’s the family Trekkie ! Shelby – too bad we don’t live closer. We’d take that Wensleydale off your hands. We love it - especially the ginger with pears. And, oh dear – BLT’s. Nothing on earth beats one. dcarch – ah! That explains a LOT . Those stuffed wings look and sound so good. Nina – that belly looks really meaty and gorgeously crisp! Steve – that tarte looks so incredibly gorgeous and browned. Do you use just regular old bucket lard or leaf lard? CatPoet – those crusty potatoes look perfect and the Permafrost meat sound really interesting. I’d love to try it – what is the texture like? Mark – If I could produce something that looked as good as your tri tip, I’d repeat myself every week! William – gorgeous pizza. Now I want pizza for lunch! A couple of nights ago - just salad and spaghetti: Then another salad: With fried flounder, creamed corn and marinated cucumbers: Didn’t have the energy for hush puppies, I’m afraid. Night before last was Relay Foods rib eyes and kale: Just a tad over medium-rare: They were good, but I’m not sure that they were $24/lb. good. Mr. Kim’s ‘overflow’ plate with squash and creamed corn:

Thank you, ma'am! I'll do just that in the morning.

I've made a batch of granola and it will make delicious cereal or yogurt, but I wanted to give it to my sister for on-the-road snack. Is there anything I can do at this point that will make it clump up a bit more? Thanks!

I saw what you did there, Pam.

cyalexa - Actually those pepperoni rolls are store bought. Just a nice, buttery dough stuffed with pepperoni slices and Cheddar with more cheese scattered on top before they baked them. I’m quite sure they could be made better at home, but probably not by me ! Shelby – thanks for the link. Mr. Kim would love those – he’s trying to cut carbs. We got some mushrooms from Relay Foods: Shitakes on the upper right and maybe oyster on the lower left. Is the yellow one a lone chanterelle? And what the heck it is this fuzzy fellow: Here they are all sautéed and ready to go into an omelet: Mr. Kim nibbled the yellow one before I could take a picture. The omelet with some fairly good (early) Hanover tomatoes: Served with kale: Don’t blame me for those stems. Mr. Kim cooked the kale when I was out and forgot to de-stem them. He was in heaven with this meal. I don't care for kale or mushrooms, so I had more pepperoni rolls and tomatoes!