Kim Shook

Anna – was there something wrong with the cherry almond loaf? It looks beautiful and I love that combination. Paula – thank you! That means a LOT coming from you!

CatPoet – I love your descriptions! Scuba – gorgeous shrimp! Dinner was salad and spaghetti Bolognese: Mr. Kim also had asparagus: He managed to find fat ones at Fresh Market and I tried peeling the stems for the first time. He loved them and said that he could really taste the difference.

Thank you to everyone for all the lovely comments on the cupcakes. Andie – thank you for the information. I’ll try roughing up the cooky before using an adhesive next time. And I’ll try royal icing, too. merstar – gorgeous brownies!

Welcome, CatPoet! Great to see someone from Sweden! Have fun here. We are a good group and a sense of humor is VERY welcome, you will see!

Ashen – your sunny side up eggs are so lovely! I still do them the way that you taught me when it’s just the two of us (they are a tad hard to manage when you are doing more than a couple at a time). Nakji – your muffins are beautiful. I’m glad you managed to choke them down, in spite of them being too sweet . Ann – eggs in cream….heaven. I am so suggestible. I was reading a book in which someone stopped at a café for a sausage biscuit. I put the book down, came into the house, got biscuits and sausage out of the freezer and made breakfast: Sometimes you gotta be TOLD what you want. I just wish all my culinary whims could be so easily satisfied.

Anna – I could not agree more – when you don’t know what you want, you can never go wrong with eggs on toast! Mark – thanks so much! I showed the site to Mr. Kim and we lost him for a couple of hours! Good stuff, he says. And I thought they were tiny Brussels sprouts, too. Patrick – that chicken, rice and cucumber dinner is just the perfect meal. Especially for summer. Norm – please tell Cassie thank you for the information. I went to her FB page. She is very talented! Soba – the Spaghetti con salsa di pomodoro is lovely and fresh! I can almost taste it. Shelby – lovely bugs! I would sit right up to either of those meals. Seafood enchiladas !!!! huiray – beautiful spring rolls. Love the sound of the filling. On Saturday, Mr. Kim spent all day smoking pork butt for our church potluck Sunday. So for dinner, he put some kielbasa on the smoker and I prepped some raw vegetables and opened a sleeve of crackers to go on the side: And for dessert I sliced a peach: For some reason Food Lion is again this year getting the best stone fruit in town. I’ve shopped at most of the other grocery stores and they don’t have anything approaching the quality at FL. This has happened for the past 3 or 4 years. Truly ripe, juicy, sweet and not a bit mushy. Bye-bye apples and bananas! Sunday was the potluck. Mr. Kim did the BBQ and I did the slaw. His took 12 hours and mine took 8 minutes (I adore my Vitamix). Look at that smoke ring: Ready to pile in the buns: With some slaw: I made an Aaron Franklin BBQ sauce to go with the sandwiches. It was an authentic recipe, because I actually saw him make it on youtube, but it really wasn’t very interesting. I made another one purported to be his a month or so ago and found that one way too heavy on the cumin (I’m not wild about cumin). I think I’m going to have to do some more experimenting. Or just keep buying Bull’s Eye !

Paula – I love the look of that blueberry cheesecake! It just screams summer. Shuba – I love the little meringue puffs on your lemon tart. They look lovely – sorry they didn’t ‘work’ for you. Your oven sounds like a real pain. I can’t believe that you get such great stuff from it! I volunteered to make cupcakes for a graduation party for our neighbor’s daughter. My BIL, who knows me so well, had sent me pictures of some cupcakes that looked like high heels he’d seen somewhere. So I gave it a try. It was easier than I feared and I was happy with how they turned out. The possibilities are endless! Naked cupcakes: Pretty nicely domed. I like big domes on my cupcakes and found a trick online – you fill the cups 2/3 full and preheat the oven to 400, lowering to 350 when you put the pan in the oven. Not perfect, but better. Milano cookies as the sole. You carve out a little half-moon on one edge of the top of the cupcake, dip one end of the cooky into candy melts at an angle and prop them up for a bit: Those little pieces in front are Pirouette cookies that will become the heels. The heels attached: Close up: This was where I had my only problem. On some of the shoes, even after sitting for 1/2 hour, the join between the bottom of the ‘sole’ and the melted candy melts came loose. It stuck perfectly to the cut end of the ‘heel’ and I’m thinking that it is because the end of the ‘heel’ is rough and the surface of the Milano that makes the ‘sole’ is smooth. There is nothing on the Milano to ‘hold onto’. I was thinking that next time it might be a good idea to rough up that area a bit with the end of a knife or something. Or maybe use another adhesive? Any suggestions? Almost finished: The color theme was pink and gold. So pink frosting with pale pink sprinkles and gold dragées. This is the first design option: Fondant flower, painted with gold luster dust and a little candy flower. We decided that the flower was too vibrant, so the final product is just the fondant flower: My mom said I shouldn’t show these to anyone because I’ll be inundated with orders for every birthday, shower and girlie party given! Hope not since I spent all of last evening with my hand in the heating pad !

A big Welcome from me, too, Cecilia! Have fun here - we are a pretty good bunch. Very diverse, so no matter what you are interested in, there is bound so be someone interested in the same thing!

Soba – the fish and pea potage dish is just lovely. Your photography is just getting better and better! Anna – that noodle soup looks delicious. I wish I could think what to do with all the seasoning packets I discard! I toss at least half of one every time I use the noodles! Ninagluck – those lamb shanks and potatoes look wonderful. Would you share the potato recipe? Shelby – great minds (see below). But yours is MUCH prettier than mine. And I didn’t think of it early enough to have the oh-so-necessary boiled eggs! Norm – Cassie decorates a heck of a cake! Would you mind asking her for a quick explanation of her method (including which decorating tip she used)? Dejah – that chicken soup looks really good. And I had to laugh at your mosquito appetizer. Last night I posted on FB that I have so many mosquito bites that shaving my legs has become hazardous . Ann – ooooooohhhh! French dip . My favorite sandwich in all the world. I have NO hope of getting such fabulous bread here, but would you share your jus method? Bruce – your fish and rice dish looks gorgeous. And now that I can eat rice, I’m not nearly as jealous! Mark – fantastic smoke ring. Mr. Kim is ready to tackle brisket again and you’ve made me hungry for it. Dinner last night was a chef salad, some cream of shrimp soup that my mother made and toasted pumpernickel:

Welcome, Melom! You'll find lots of friendly folks here who will be very interested in your food and Barcelona!

This is fantastic! I'm loving all the pictures and descriptions.

Dinner tonight: Egg, ham and cheese on torta rolls, sautéed yellow squash, tomatoes and plums.

Ashen – I wish I could find some nice, fat asparagus like that for Mr. Kim – everything I’m finding here is pencil thin. Dejah – thank you! You would be MOST welcome at my table. Not the first meal that I would rather have served to my online friends rather than the folks who were actually here ! Funny you should serve that rainbow trout. Just this weekend Mr. Kim said that he’d like to try to find some trout to stuff with citrus and grill! Anna – thank you. I’ve never seen those sprouts either – I assumed they were mung bean. The preparation sounds really good. Norm – Mr. Kim drooled mightily over your smoked pork chops and that salsa. I think we’re going to have to approximate that recipe before long. Soba – everything was beautiful, but tonight I think I’ll take the scallops with that beautiful tomato bread! Scuba – those fries look amazing. I didn’t have any luck the time I tried that method, but yours are inspiring me to try again. Shelby – gorgeous cornbread. At first glance, I thought it had pepperoni on top! Ann – beautiful meals. I’d like to get messy with those quail! Last night I piled some Kahlua pork from the freezer on cornbread waffles and topped that with slaw. Pile ‘o waffles: These are SO good. I had one for lunch, toasted and positively slathered with butter! Finished dish: Served with corn: It is only the beginning of June and we are already getting really good corn. Better than the corn we were getting in August last year. Not local, of course, but very good.

Welcome, Celia! We have LOTS of experienced bakers here (not me, though - I am a thorough bread amateur) and folks are always willing to help!

I actually like surimi. I don't expect it to taste like blue crab, so I'm not disappointed. But it doesn't taste much different than snow crab to me. I use it in crab dips (hot or cold) or "crab" louie when I have a craving and am needing to economize.

Hi, Antonio! Welcome and I hope you find what you are looking for here. I found that the folks at eGullet are a friendly and helpful bunch.

I think this depends so much on your level of expertise and your cooking style. I still get lots of good information and recipes from CI and Cook's Country. I get the Southern Living Annual every year and finds lots to try. Fine Cooking is gorgeous, and I love looking at it, but I don't think I've ever cooked a thing from it. Not a criticism of the magazine at all, it just goes to my point that it depends on who is doing the cooking.

Apparently we share a palate! Plain, dense cheesecake is my favorite, too. But I'm a fool for anything that contains peanut butter!

Anna – I love bean sprouts! What were they dressed with and were they cooked at all? merstar – that trout dish sounds fantastic. gfweb – It is almost midnight. I am filled to the gills with Greek food and I want some corn and grilled beef right now. Bruce – I also would like a shrimp po’boy. Last night was assorted leftovers. My dinner: Redo of the salad from the disastrous dinner with our visitors, cottage cheese and a creamy fruit salad from a good friend. Mr. Kim chose a Dagwood instead of cottage cheese : Tonight Mr. Kim brought home a semi-disappointing meal from the Greek festival: Pastichio, dolmades, tiropita, spanakopita, Grecian green beans and pilaf. The only thing that was exceptional was the tiropita. Everything else was just ok. The gyro was very much a disappointment: The tzatziki was so dull (mine is much, much better) and I think when actual Greek people are selling it, you should expect something more than frozen portions of machine made meat : The dessert assortment was stellar: From top left: finiki, ergolavos, kourambiedes, kataifi and baklava. Every single one was perfect. I don’t get how you soak something in honey and it stays crisp. Next up is the Lebanese festival. Then the Armenians (the best, in our opinion). Opa!!!

Welcome, Ollie! I hope you enjoy eG. I've made lots of friends here and learn so much. It's a great place.

Welcome, Stephanie! You will get lots of help here and we can't wait to share your food experiences!

Anna – perfect looking Scotch eggs. I haven’t made them in years. Need to remedy that. dcarch – congratulations on your win! Not a bit surprised. Beautiful dish. Franci – your fritters are beautiful. If you can get the flavor how you like it, you are set since your technique is obviously perfect! And those crabs were lovely. The best part of summer is crabs! Mark – gorgeous ribs. I would much rather have had those ribs than the dinner I ate out that day. On Saturday we had company – my aunt and her adult grandson. This dinner comes with a story. First the food. I did a sandwich buffet with sides. Mr. Kim’s smoked turkey breast: Amazing – so incredibly moist and tender. Ham and roast beef with assorted bread/rolls: Condiments, fixings and assorted cheeses: Pickly stuff: Cheesy egg noodles: Delicate, tender and slippy. Almost nursery food, but so good! Devilled eggs: Salad: One of the simplest salads in the world – just iceberg with a dressing of equal parts light cream, white vinegar and sugar – but delicious. You let the dressing sit on the tossed salad for 10 minutes and somehow it transforms. Corn pudding: From our local grocery store, because they make it better than I ever have. Dessert was coconut chocolate pound cake and Eton mess with lemon curd: That’s the food. Now the story. My aunt is Ted’s (my stepdad – some of you will remember him) sister from England, visiting her family in Chicago. Her grandson drove her down here to visit for a few days. The dinner was in her honor. I took great pains to make the meal varied, because I knew that my cousin was a picky eater. When he visited us last year, the only things he ate were eggs, bacon and hamburgers. My aunt was supposed to be much less problematical. She was a Navy cook just after WWII and continued to cook for schools after being demobbed. Momma had spent time with her in England and said she cooked all kinds of things. When the two of them came back from the buffet table each of their plates had a single slice of meat and a slice of bread. That was ALL they ate. My aunt proceeded to say how she detested American food ( ) and when she was here couldn’t wait to get home for good English food (she seemed to be talking about the quality of American ingredients, not the recipes). I confess that she ate and enjoyed both of the desserts. I was disgruntled and mortified. For the first time that I could remember someone was going to leave my house hungry. I am such a weirdo that it cast a pall over the next couple of days. Now I can see the funny side – everyone else at the table (Mr. Kim, Jessica, Momma, and a niece and her husband) looking at the almost bare plates with ‘WTF’ expressions, Jessica raving about every bite, my niece and nephew talking about how they are going to miss ‘regular American food’ during their tour of duty in Germany. And it makes a great story – all who hear it are appalled on my behalf. And, other than dinner at my house, it was truly a lovely visit and I was glad to see them both. Sorry for the mile long post, but you are the only folks who would truly appreciate this story!

shubashuba – I like the look of your candies. And pandan coconut jam filling sounds delicious! pjm – that Frasier is lovely. jmacnaughtan – your tart is just beautiful. I love how you’ve formed the meringue. Saturday night we had a little dinner party. Dessert was coconut chocolate pound cake and Eton mess with lemon curd: Isn’t that crumb gorgeous? For the third year in a row, I made the cake for the website anniversary party for a young friend. He requested that I not change one thing: (Picture is from last year, but it looks just the same.) Chocolate Coca Cola cake with my fluffy white chocolate icing. The symbol on top is made from homemade fondant and is supposed to be a “play” button. We celebrated my mother’s birthday last night. Last November one of our honorary nieces made a fantastic Reeses Cup cheesecake and my mother loved it and said that she wanted nothing but that for her birthday. That’s what she got:

Would these be anything like fondant leeks? We had those in Paris and I've never forgotten them. If so, I'd love to know how they are done!

Welcome from me, too, Emeline! You sound busy! I'll look forward to hearing about your interests and your food!