Kim Shook

keychris – the orange caramel entremets looks and sounds fabulous. Diana – that fraisier is beautiful and I would have loved that for Easter. Beth – would you please consider sharing the recipe for the candied fig cheesecake. They are now my 3 favorite words . jmacnaughtan – another incredibly beautiful fraisier! emmalish – I love the look of those chocolate cut outs. How do they differ flavor-wise from the snaps? Coconut cream pie that Mr. Kim’s mom requested for her Easter dinner: This turned out very well. My crust - CI’s vodka crust – was perfectly crisp and flakey. Though my MIL made it clear that she thought that the vodka was an unnecessary affectation . We had a friend of mine from way back in HS visiting us last weekend. Dessert included Nick Malgieri’s Heart of Dixie pecan pie I had to make a mid-crust panic call to my friend who originally gave me the recipe because my crust was WAY too dry, but a few sprinkles of vodka fixed it right up. Second dessert was a gift to me from Pquinene. I commented on how lovely her macarons were and she did an amazing and lovely thing – she sent me a whole boxful! Along with the recipe for a coconut and strawberry cream filling and advice on how to store and how long to let sit after filling and before eating. Thanks to her kindness, this is what I served: Bite: I think that I went a little skimpy on the cream. Mr. Kim had to do the piping for me since my hands won’t handle it (YET, I hope) and I should have paid more attention to the amount. But they were delicious. My friend, who spends a lot of time in Paris, loved them. And a few went to Mr. Kim’s office where they were duly swooned over. Thank you so much, Paula! Our last dessert was my friend’s contribution – his grandmother’s sour cream poundcake: Rich and dense, this was delicately scented with orange peel and was one of the best poundcakes I’ve ever tasted. I’ve been promised the recipe.

Anna – I love your open faced salmon sandwiches. Easter Sunday breakfast: Scrambled eggs, my MIL’s Hot Cross Buns and Wright’s bacon.

Restaurants that don't take reservations. I hate this and wish that I had the resolve to boycott those places. It is basically saying "We are so successful that we don't care if you have to wait an hour or more." Great first impression.

Welcome, Leilani! So happy to see you here - especially since you are in the UK - my favorite place in the universe! Dive in where ever - we are a pretty good bunch! I spend most of my time on the dinner thread: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/147265-dinner-2014-part-2/ - hope to see you there. Your dinner looks lovely!

Welcome, Naim! Just dive in where ever things look interesting. Very diverse and friendly crowd here!

Rob!!!! Mwah, mwah, mwah!!!! Good to "see" you! To the topic – I’m like Tri2Cook only officially left-handed. Mr. Kim is completely left-handed. I’m not at all kitchen-clumsy and he is like Frankenstein trying to do the minuet. So you may have something there. But, no, you can’t summarily not hire lefties, ‘cause then you’d miss ones like all of us!

Yikes! I somehow missed putting the temperature in! Thanks so much. I correct the recipe, but it's 350 degrees!

I'm always happy to share: http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/COOKIES/Christas_German_Shortbread_Cookies.html

I detest coffee and I can pick up the flavor in anything - even the recipes that promise "you won't even taste the chocolate, it just deepens the flavor". I can most always taste it. What do I use instead? An equal amount of plain water?

Supposedly it encourages tenderness. Using water in pie crust helps it bind together and be soft enough to roll. It also encourages gluten, which toughens the dough. Vodka in place of the water provides all the positives, without encouraging the gluten. This is all according to Cook's Illustrated. I just know that this crust is the most tender, flaky stuff I've ever made. So I'm not gonna mess with success!

I confess that I used a brownie mix - Ghirardelli is so good that I don't bother making from scratch usually. I smoothed the batter in the pan and for the DDL I used a can of the La Lechera brand. I nuked it for a few seconds to soften, spaced out a few plops of it over the batter and swirled it in with a chopstick. Multinational brownies !

Matthew – gorgeous cake! I wouldn’t have been able to resist buying it either! I tried out my friend Christa’s German Shortbread recipe for a board meeting of the VA Episcopal Church Women our church is hosting in May: Three different shapes – will decide which one to use tonight at church with some other members. Detail of lettering: This is a fantastic cooky – fragrant with almond paste and such an easy dough to work with. It holds its shape when baked – even those tiny little letters!

What lovely fried/basted eggs everyone is doing lately! My breakfast this morning:

Blether – yeah, thanks ! I admit to having a raw vegetable preference – there are lots of them that I love raw but wouldn’t touch cooked. I even adore raw potatoes! We are going to TWO gatherings on Easter instead of hosting. I’m taking a salad to one and a pie to the other. I almost wish I were hosting. The early meal is at 1:30 at Mr. Kim’s dad and stepmom’s. The later one is at 5 at his mom’s. We anticipate that his dad and stepmom will be irritated that we have to leave early and that his mom will be irritated that we aren’t starving. Ah…family ! Today I made the pecans for the salad I’m taking to the early meal: These are Super Crunchy Glazed Spiced Pecans and they are seriously like magic. You boil them in a sugar syrup and spices, then deep fry them. They get this amazing lacquer-like glaze on them. I’ll post a salad picture on Sunday.

I agree with that. It is a bit of a challenge. But this is just a standard vodka pie crust, so I think it will be ok if it is crisp.

Ann – I love chicken wings and yours are gorgeous. I had to look up TBQ sauce – it sounds delicious! Steve – fantastic sounding dinner – but my eyes kept straying to that CORN ! Blether – was that turnip raw? If so, I just might eat that ! Shelby – what a beautiful pot pie! Crust, gravy and everything else looked perfect and in just the right proportions. gfweb – lovely dinner. Isn’t Ann’s corn pudding delectable? Last night my mother and Jessica came over for dinner and to decorate Easter eggs. I made Dejah’s oven-fried chicken: Everyone really liked this a lot. I did it with chicken tenders since I had some in the freezer. This was the first time I ever did oven-fried chicken that worked – nicely crunchy and moist. THANK YOU, DEJAH!!! I served it with slaw and raw vegetables: Dessert was pineapple and strawberries drizzled with chocolate sauce and sprinkled with toasted coconut:

Thanks, everyone. I think I'm going to use the melted chocolate idea. I got some white chocolate and will be using that. That way I can fill the pie shell on Saturday evening and the crust should be ok Easter afternoon.

I'm taking a coconut cream pie to my MIL's for Easter. Having not made it in a bit, I'm looking at it tonight to see what I can do ahead of time since we'll be at church all Easter morning. I'm going to make the dough for the crust on Friday and bake it off on Saturday. I was thinking that I could make the filling on Saturday, too, and fill the pie and top with whipped cream on Sunday. But in reading the recipe it specifically says to fill the crust and cover and chill overnight. Why? Is there some reason that you would want to do this? Doesn't it seem like it would dampen the crust at least a bit? BTW, I'll be using the CI Vodka crust. I haven't made this in a really long time and don't remember what I did before. Thanks so much!

Anna – I think those cheese muffins look and sound great. How about adding some chives to them? Matthew – I think that your strawberry creation looks and sounds extremely special! Andie – your Dundee cake is gorgeous. I know that Ted, my English stepdad would have approved! Mr. Kim had a birthday in his office this week and she requested dulce de leche brownies: Very good, but VERY sweet.

Chris – thanks for the information re: the rosemary – I’ll definitely be making the rub. Ann – thank you for the kind words! I have to say that being raised with an English stepdad, your roast, Yorkie and gravy are MY kind of comfort meal! Soba- every time I see a picture of those gorgeous radishes, I practically swoon. They are exactly like the ones that we had in Paris, so seeing yours brings back both a flavor and a lovely memory! Kate – gorgeous pork and spring rolls. Love the trick with the sugar in the water! Dejah – beautiful corned beef! Franci – I loved seeing your beef liver. No one but me likes it, so I never make it. Came down with bronchitis last week, so not a lot of cooking got done. On Saturday, we finished up the meatloaf finally - Grilled meatloaf with BBQ sauce, mac n cheese, fries and baked beans: Very lazy meal – leftover meatloaf, boxed mac n cheese, frozen fries and fixed up canned beans. But it was very comforting – just what we needed.

Regarding peeling eggs. With Easter coming everyone and his brother is offering 'tricks' for easy peeling eggs in every magazine I've seen. I recently had a few to peeling and tried one of the tricks I'd remembered (might be from CI - not sure). It worked amazingly well for some and not quite as well for others, but overall better than any other method I've tried. Here it is, for what it's worth: crack the egg all over. Take a teaspoon (silverware, not measuring) and holding the bowl side of the spoon towards the egg, ease the tip of the spoon into a crack and slide it around under the shell. This sounds fussy and fiddly, but really isn't once you've done it a couple of times. I found that I could slip off the majority of the shell in 2-3 tries most of the time.

I can only add an echo to the thoughts and words of everyone else. Such terrible, terrible news that at first I thought it had to be a horrible hoax when I first saw the notice on FB. I owe so many friends, so many meals, so many new insights and so many new experiences to eG and, therefore, to Steven. Not one trip that we’ve taken since I joined would have been the same without him and his influence. I never met Steven, but he was always kind and attentive and quick to respond to any questions that I had. I remember when PJ was born. Prayers and love to Ellen and PJ.

Dejah – thank you for the info regarding the chicken! I’m hoping to make that soon. You gave me a giggle with the salt! rotuts – great minds! I was thinking either bacon or a good steak sauce brushed on. Chris – those ribs are gorgeous! Thanks for posting the link to the rub recipe. I think I’d like that. Tell me about the rosemary – is it very assertive? I like rosemary, but only when it’s quite subtle. What all meatloaf secretly wants to become: Served with ‘cruddyditties’ (family joke):

Dejah – your oven-fried chicken looks great. I’ve tried over and over again and never had any luck with it. I’ll be trying your method! Do you know the ratio of cheese to crumbs? And I’m so glad you liked the pork. We have a freezer full now, so we’ll be enjoying it regularly for the next couple of months! Regarding the salt – I didn’t have the red salt either and just used some Hawaiian pink salt (not pickling salt) that I got in my stocking this Christmas. Franci – those ribs look beautiful. Soba – Mr. Kim LOVES kumquats and I’ve never used them for anything but garnish. Never, ever occurred to me to put them in a salad. Just sliced into the salad? basquecook – your ‘pick up’ meals are better than my feasts that a month of planning goes into ! An early Sunday dinner with my mother. Roasted shrimp: Ponzu marinated halibut: Thanks to Dejah for the idea. Very subtle and complemented the fish perfectly. Salad: Corn: Much too early for corn, but Mr. Kim brought it home from the new Kroger and it was really good – tender, sweet and crisp. As good as any mid-summer corn we got last year. I’m starting my summer corn binge early if they keep getting this stuff! Three cheese demi from Panera: Also from Panera, some Danish and a chocolate croissant for dessert: Mr. Kim has been battling a sinus infection and still going to work every day, so I thought a comfort meal was in order last night. Meatloaf: This was a new recipe for me from the website “afamilyfeast.com”. The meatloaf tasted great – I’ll definitely use it again. But I think that those white places are unappetizing . It’s the panade and didn’t brown up very well. I guess that’s why most recipes call for some sort of coating for the crust. The recipe was for the meatloaf and also gravy. The gravy was NOT so successful. It was just blah and boring. Not much beefy flavor. I didn’t have any beef stock in the freezer, so I used canned. I’m sure that that is the culprit. Plated with whipped potatoes and green beans: And “gravied”: The gravy LOOKS good, huh? My potatoes where probably the best I’ve ever made – incredibly creamy and fluffy. I remembered all the stuff that chefs say about why their potatoes are better than ours and used half and half and the better part of a stick of butter to 2 good-sized russet potatoes. I’m convinced.

Those look great, Anna. I thought that I'd responded to your request for the Blueberry Breakfast cake, but I can see that I didn't. Here the link for you, and rotuts and Darienne: http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/QuickBreads/Stephanies_Blueberry_B39fast_Cake.html