Kim Shook

emmalish - snaps for pound cake - good trade for me! Blueberry Breakfast Cake for Mr. Kim to take to work today: Scarfed up in minutes. He was barely able to save me a piece. I love cooking for those folks!

Here you go: http://www.pineappleandcoconut.com/recipes/hawaiian-style-slow-cooker-kalua-pork/

Dejah – I love the sound of the halibut and ponzu! I found a nice piece of halibut in the freezer and I’m going to try that! basquecook – ouch! Hope the healing goes quickly! Soba – mussel soup! Jessica and I were saying just last night that we’d be happy with just the mussel broth and a giant loaf of crusty bread! Jessica asked me to make a recipe for Cuban Quesadillas. In order to do that, I had to first make the roasted pork. I’d been wanting to try an online recipe for slow cooker Kahlua pork that I found a while ago, so I did that yesterday. The finished pork in the cooker wrapped in banana leaves: Unwrapped: Out of the cooker and shredded: The pork was easy and really, really flavorful. Mr. Kim (AKA Smoking Guy) was surprised and impressed. The Cuban quesadilla: With mustard, provolone, Swiss, pickle, ham and the pork. Plated: Delicious. We’re having it again tonight. I have a LOT of leftover pork. My in-laws are coming by today to pick something up, so they will get some. I’m seeing pulled pork sandwiches and maybe pork-topped cornbread waffles later this week, but a lot of it is going in the freezer!

Breakfast for dinner tonight – fruit, sausage biscuits, gravy, scrambled eggs and cheese potatoes: Plated: The sausage was some that we picked up in NC last weekend – small producer and really good. The potato was from the freezer – the last of the ones I made for Christmas and really past their prime. But THIS is why I made breakfast for dinner: I was thinking about it all day!

I did slice them 1/4" and they were pretty snappy. I think just a touch under 1/4" would be perfect and since I've decided to make them for that meeting in May, I'll have a chance to test them out. Also - they froze beautifully! Here's the recipe for the pound cake: http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/CAKESandPIES/Chocolate-Coconut_Pound_Cake.html

emmalish – Mr. Kim took some of those chocolate snaps to his office and they evaporated! Gone almost before he hit send on the notice! Anna – gorgeous crackly crust on those brownies! Brownies are my favorite dessert. New recipe try out today – Chocolate-Coconut Pound Cake: Slice: An absolutely beautiful and delicious cake. The crumb is perfect. Hard to believe that something this rich has only cocoa in it and no melted chocolate. We just got home from a dinner of dim sum and dessert at Sweet Frog and I just finished a slice of cake.

Franci – thank you! That clams and lobster dish is beautiful! I love clams and never cook them since Mr. Kim is not a fan. Kate – so great to see you posting! You’ve been missed. Mark – the hash looks great. Soba – thanks! Those are some of the most gorgeous vegetables I’ve ever seen. Radishes are one of my favorites, so I’m especially drawn to them! Dinner last night: Chili mac w/ cheese and sour cream.

Hassouni – you gotta come down to the lower counties, my friend. I was born in the district and raised in Alexandria and never ate better (or cooked better) than after I moved to Richmond! Brunswick stew: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_stew and my general set of directions: http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/SOUPSandSTEWS/Brunswick_Stew.html If I have some BBQ pork, that goes in, too. Annabelle – your Indiana dinner sounds delicious to me . Too bad they didn’t serve you fried chicken and pie – we ate some of the best of both when we lived there.

Ann – that St. Patrick’s day dinner looked wonderful. I don’t much care for the boiled version, either – yours looks perfect! And the sandwiches after? My word. Bruce – your beef slivers w/ cilantro looked and sounded so good. And it’s something that I could eat without the peppers – I could just add them at the end for Mr. Kim after taking out my portion. Teapot – beautiful halibut! I’ve got to see if I can find some that doesn’t cost the earth this year! Baron – how in the world do you get your asparagus peeled so perfectly? It is just lovely. Soba – dying over the Eataly pictures! I’ve never done the milk in Bolognese thing – what do you think it added? dcarch – ok, you! Smart aleck! Professional photographers? You say that then show that pork shoulder picture ? Gorgeous and delicious looking! Norm – she stole your smoker and you let her live??? You ARE a good guy . Those hens are beautiful. Thank you for posting the recipe! Dejah – we love lamb, too! I’d pay to have anything in your house fixed if you made that lamb for me! Basquecook – love the look of that fried chicken dinner. I think we have a mutual friend who would love every bit of it, too! For dinner the other night, I tried a new recipe. Not this: This was just Kim’s obligatory salad! The recipe test was for ‘Chicken Pillows’. This dish was a result of insomniac perusing of Pinterest. I could tell that the recipe was going to be trashy (Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and cream of chicken soup? How could it not?). But would it be good trashy (Paula Deen) or bad trashy (Sandra Lee)? Turns out to be somewhere in the middle. I have no objection to whomp bread dough. But that unmistakable ‘cream of whatever soup’ flavor is off-putting. Even with the addition of sour cream and real cheese, it reeks of FAKE. The original recipe called for no seasoning AT ALL. I added S&P, parsley and hot sauce to the chicken mixture, but it still needs something to amp up the interest. A friend suggested broccoli. Not a bad idea, I think. But the thing is – do I like this enough to devote the time and effort it would take to ‘fix’ this recipe. To be honest, probably not. But here’s what it looked like: Bite: There’s just something about a rich, creamy chicken filling inside a crunchy bread crust that appeals to me. Maybe I’ll make them again and just serve them with some homemade gravy. My all by myself dinner tonight while Mr. Kim plays poker: Fried eggs on toast with salami. He’ll be home in time for the UVA tipoff, but I couldn’t wait after reading through this thread!

RWood – Happy Birthday! That cake is gorgeous! Just exactly what I’d make for myself if I had your skills! Paula – what a beautiful macaron! And the flavor combination is one of my very favorites. I’d give a LOT to be able to taste one. I tried out emmalish’s chocolate snaps recipe this week. I’m making cookies for an Episcopal Church Woman’s board meeting that our church is hosting in May. I wanted a recipe that made lots of cookies and could be frozen: I took them to this week’s ECW meeting. Everyone loved them. They are thin and full of chocolate flavor and very ‘snappy’. I’ve got some in the freezer now to see how they do, but I imagine they will work fine.

Thank you, William! I should have said (since I couldn't post my pictures) that the ceramic liner is there. Do you think just a good wash with hot water and dish soap is enough?

I found a Keystone ice bucket at an antique shop in the Outer Banks. We paid $25 for it. Based on the research I’ve been able to do, I’m not sure it was a great deal, but I love it. I’d like to actually use it - how would I make sure that it was sanitized fully? I don’t want to use anything that would leave an odor behind that would get into the ice. Having trouble with pictures - flickr has changed and I can't figure out how to get the pictures to actually show. Funny how often "improvements" complicate once simple things, huh? Anyway, this is a link to an online picture of the piece: http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-keystoneware-ice-bucket-art-129860752

Thanks to everyone for the help! I did have better luck this time thanks to following the suggestions from Mjx and Melissa. I also periodically thwacked the ends of the logs as I was rolling them to ‘contract’ them. I only got a few holes this time when I sliced the cookies. I’ll be posting the cookies on the Daily Sweets thread later.

VA would be country ham, certainly. But you can't forget Brunswick stew. I've been to lots of BBQ restaurants in VA that have only so-so BBQ, but fantastic stew. There is even a really good canned stew made in our area - Mrs. Fearnow's. NC has to be BBQ pork, of course. IN - pork tenderloin sandwiches.

Whenever I make slice and bake cookies (from scratch), I always have the same issue - when rolling up the logs, there is always a fissure that runs through the middle. I can't seem to manage to get a solid log. Then, when I slice them, the cookies have a ragged hole in the middle. I have to squeeze each one to mash it back together and end up just wishing that I'd just scooped and flattened them. Does anyone have any techniques that will help me avoid this problem? Thank you!

I made the mistake of reading this thread today. I wasn’t even hungry. But then I began to crave eggs and bread and PORK! If I had had any patience, I’d have had sausage gravy, but this was FAST: Egg, cheese and sausage on a buttered and toasted scali roll.

robirdstx – that is some gorgeous pulled pork. Mr. Kim is dying to do one – if it will ever stop snowing here! Paul – what beautiful halibut cakes. Halibut is crazy expensive here, but you’ve got me craving some. Soba – your salad is beautiful and, as always, I envy you the ability to obtain such varied and lovely greens. And I agree with you about the green salad. Often, that’s exactly what I want – just tender greens with a light vinaigrette! dcarch – thank you! Beautiful leftovers! And I love the char on those greens – just perfect. Were those romaine hearts? Norm – your corned beef dinner is gorgeous! Makes me wish I had some plans tonight other than leftovers! Bruce – wonderful looking pork. Please tell Mrs. C congrats for me. And I love, love, LOVE that you served it on white bread – the perfect foil. Steve – good lord, MORE fantastic looking pork. I need to visit our butcher! Had a potluck lunch at church yesterday. I made Rachel’s (some of you will remember racheld) chicken salad, Michael Ruhlman’s rolls and a Coca-cola cake with coconut cream filling: My cooking mojo is still a bit off, as the rolls were very tough and coarse (but tasted good). The chicken salad and cake were fantastic, though.

emmalish – I love the orange coconut cookies! They are going in my ‘to try’ file. Most all of the cookies in that file are from you! I’ve got a big regional church ladies’ meeting that I have to make cookies for in May, so I’ll be testing out the chocolate snaps since the recipe makes so many. Do you think that they would freeze well? Made Coca-cola cake with coconut cream filling for a church potluck lunch yesterday. I missed getting a shot of the whole cake and it’s too bad, because it was really attractive, for me! This is the chocolate cake that the folks I used to work with called "That Cake". When they requested "That Cake", I knew they meant the Coca-cola one! People were scrambling to take some home!

dcarch – I think that I could taste that crispy pork skin you showed back on 3/2. Out in the country in the south you can sometimes still find a little café that serves fried hog jowl. Like bacon on steroids, it is pure fried pork. If it is deep fried, you get that crackly, hard to bite intensity that I remember from the pork of my childhood. My English stepdad and I would fight over the crispy cracklins. THAT is what your pork skin reminded me of. Robirdstx – beans and cornbread!!! I have a bag of great northerns and a hambone. I think I know what I’ll be making next week! Franci – everything that I said above to dcarch about his pork skin goes for your delectable belly skin! Shelby – pheasant livers sound so good! Never had anything but chicken, goose, duck and rabbit. Ann – beautiful gougères! I’ve only made individual ones. I’ll have to try the ring for company sometime – it looks really impressive. mm – I admit that I am so jealous of your beautiful, perfect pommes soufflés! We had them in NOLA and I was determined to reproduce them. I read everything that I could find on preparing them and completely failed. Not ONE puffed up! We ended up having homemade potato chips that night! The last time I posted a dinner was March 1st. Apparently, I haven’t cooked a meal in 2 weeks. That can’t be right, can it? I guess it depends on what one means by “cooking”. We’ve certainly eaten. Our clothes aren’t falling off our bodies. The refrigerator is disconcertingly full of Styrofoam clamshells. And there are lots of soup cans in the recycling bin. I’ve even thawed and heated up (homemade) spaghetti sauce and chili. But today I actually cooked – sautéed and simmered. Tasted and added salt and pepper and oregano. Chopped vegetables and sliced meat into chunks. And it was very good. Good to taste and good to DO. I don’t have my ‘mojo’ back yet, but I think it’s coming. Dinner tonight started with…wait for it - Salad : Lamb & Lentil stew: I haven’t made this for years. But I found some beautiful leg of lamb steaks on sale at Kroger. They were about 1-inch thick with just one little curl of bone in the center (like a ham steak) and were perfect for cutting up into stew meat. As good as I remembered! Served with crusty rolls and a meltingly soft brie: Nice to be doing some cooking again – even if my vegetable chopping hand is a bit sore tonight .

I'm with Bruce on the World's Best Braised Cabbage. Thanks to his recommendation this former cooked cabbage hater now loves it. Here's a link to the recipe: http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/VEGETABLES/Worlds_Best_Braised_Green_Cabbage.html

Emmalish - thank you! I think I'm going to stick with the bare sides. I like it and Jessica thinks that if the sides are iced, it will be too much. Anna - I am a fairly accomplished home baker and the cake that always gives me trouble is pound cake!

I did a recipe test today for a possible Mother’s day dessert. I tried a recipe for an embellished angel food cake that I found online. It was angel food cake with coconut whipped cream and grapefruit syrup. The whipped cream is made with the solids from a can of coconut milk. I decided to garnish it with candied grapefruit peel. Finished cake: The whipped coconut cream didn’t make enough to ice the sides, but I’m kind of liking the look of the un-iced sides. Grapefruit syrup: This stuff is delectable. I could eat it with a spoon. Slice with syrup drizzled over: Seriously delicious. Just the right balance of sweet and bitter. Definitely going on the Mother’s day menu.

emmalish – thanks for the recipe link! And then you post two more cookies that look and sound so incredibly good. I’m printing out those recipes (and cakewalk’s notes) now!

robirdstx – I have become addicted to English muffins lately – sometimes with eggs and sometimes just with about a half a stick of butter ! Ann – beautiful sausage gravy! It looks absolutely fantastic, as do your biscuits. And I agree with Ashen – that breakfast is perfect. The toast is a thing of beauty. gfweb – those potstickers are lovely. I love how thin the skins are. Mr. Kim’s breakfast yesterday morning: Salami & Cheddar omelet. I had a slice of a local bakery’s fantastic pecan ring that I only buy when we have company because I will eat one in a day .

Bill – welcome! Gorgeous tenderloin! Ann – thank you! Wonderful looking pork belly. Steve – a lamb po-boy sounds so delicious! One of my sisters came down for a couple of days and she and my mother came over for dinner tonight. Bibb lettuce salad with creamy chive dressing: Spaghetti Bolognese: And a version of Ann T’s Italian Bread w/ Gorgonzola: Except with mozzarella since my sister doesn’t eat Gorgonzola. Really good variation!