Kim Shook

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!

Hello, Baudouin and welcome to eGullet. I always look forward to hearing from members outside of the US!

Hi, Devin and welcome. My husband, daughter and I lived in Batesville IN for a couple of years in the late 80's/early 90's. I, too, miss tenderloin sandwiches. Also the pie tables at community meals. And sublime fried chicken. A friend who is originally from Alabama but now lives in Indianapolis calls Indiana the northern most southern state in the US!

Hi, Dan! Welcome to eGullet. I'm looking forward to your contributions.

Welcome, Liz! It's so nice to have a new,enthusiastic member. We are a very friendly, helpful bunch here at eGullet. I hope you'll dive right in.

huiray – gorgeous morels! Mitch – I love both of those clam dishes, but the steamed ones really got my attention. Norm – I ended up seeing the cooked picture of your chicken first and wondered what the hell kind of bird you had cooked ! Great looking skin on that! Bruce - Growing up going to the eastern shore in the summer, you could count on almost any seafood restaurant having hot crab dip, but it isn't to be found here in Richmond, so I had to make my own. That green rice looks delicious! I was at church most of the day today prepping for our big meeting that I mentioned on the sweets thread, so dinner tonight was easy: Kielbasa w/ fried onions, fusilli w/ cheese sauce (package mix that Mr. Kim likes), Brussels sprouts and leftover cauliflower and corn.

Welcome, Daniel! I am not a maker of confections (I lack the talent, not the desire), but there are lots of them here and I know that I'll enjoy your contributions!

Hi, Steve! Welcome to eGullet. We'll love hear about your experiences, too. I love caterer's 'tricks' and entertain large groups fairly often, so you may get some questions from me!

Andie – I’ll be trying that recipe. I’ve only ever made the recipe with the sweetened condensed milk. I love using Whip-it, but can’t always find it, so I’ve started using plain gelatin. Nina – thank you so much for the recipe – I’ll try those soon. 300 Cookies for the Episcopal Church Women’s Board Meeting at our church on Thursday: German shortbread (stamped): Sprinkled: Emma’s Chocolate Snaps: Whew! Now all I have to do is organize serving them breakfast, cooky snack, box lunches, sending them off with cooky bags and cleaning it all up (with a LOT of help – even Mr. Kim is over at the church tonight setting up tables with some other fellows).

Andie – I love key lime pie and haven’t made one in ages. I need to rectify that – the perfect summer dessert! Ryuuk – thank you so much! Nina – my daughter (a pumpkin seed fiend) flipped out when she saw your crisps. Any chance that you would share the recipe?