Kim Shook

A roll is important if you have biscuits!

Benton's is our favorite, but Wright's is great,too and we can get it at Kroger!

Beautiful breakfasts, everyone! I'm recovering from some hand surgery, so my breakfasts are limited to what I can manage with one hand. I can't even open bread if it's closed with one of those plastic clips ! Can't wait to make some eggs and bacon!

I’ve been gone so long that I don’t dare go back and comment on all of the incredible meals that you have all been sharing. But I have been keeping up and reading and WANTING so many things! My long absence was due to technical difficulties that SEEM to have been fixed now (thanks so much to Chris!). I haven’t posted in forever, so I’ll start with Thanksgiving. We did Thanksgiving at Jessica’s. We potlucked it – I did the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and cranberries (the forgotten dish – it languished in the fridge until after dinner). Everyone else did side dishes and dessert. Jessica’s delicious salad. Sweet potato latkes with brie and arugula. These were fantastic. Jessica made them in honor of Thankshannukah. I really didn’t expect to like them since I prefer my sweet potatoes to taste like dessert, but they were fantastic. My mother’s fruit salad. Jessica’s challah and dried fruit dressing. Another winner – she tried 2 new things this year and both were really good. My MIL did the baking – apple pie and pecan. Also her wonderful yeast rolls. The feast: Some more recent meals - spaghetti with meat sauce and Italian sausage: Breakfast for dinner: Skyline chili dogs and baked beans: With Skyline chili nachos: Apparently Cincinnati chili is an acquired taste, but we loved it as soon as we tried it when we lived in southern Indiana. Luckily we have a Kroger grocery store (Cincinnati based store) that stocks frozen Skyline chili and can get a fix pretty fast! Decorating the tree night. We decided with everything going on this fall, we’d punt the traditional fondue meal and just go with the basics: Steak with béarnaise and Jessica’s mushrooms, Marlene’s crispy smashed potatoes and collards. We also had salad and bread (crusty rolls and cornbread) and I bought a cake that no one had room for! I’ve got more to post, but it is mostly still in my camera!

kayb - I’d like to know more about beer candied bacon. Does it taste strongly of beer? How is it done? One of the best football snack that I’ve ever had are Norm Matthew’s Korean Style Chicken Wings that I made last year: http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/APPETIZERS/Norms_Korean-Style_Chicken_Wings.html

Beautiful bread, Norm! Challah is one of my very favorite breads. Is that for eating, dressing or both? In this house we would use one for the dressing and save the other for turkey sandwiches!

I’ve been gone a long time. Lots of health issues, as some of you already know. I ended up with a kidney stone (that is apparently what’s been going on with me since August) and am still recovering from the back injury. I’m feeling much better – still really tired, but very little pain except for an achy back. I actually made lemon chess tarts and mini quiches to put in the freezer for Christmas yesterday. Mr. Kim is helping with the mise so that I can get things done. Sitting in a chair has been difficult, but I’ve been checking in from time to time and vicariously enjoying all of the incredible meals that you’ve all been making. They have been inspiring and appetite stirring! Thank you all for your good wished and I particularly appreciated your prescription, lesliec! This is the first real meal I’ve made in a LONG time! It was very simple, but I was glad to have done it finally. Salad and brats with kraut and fried onions:

I am so, so sorry to read this sad news. I have enjoyed Dave's posts and blogs so much over the years and he was always so generous with his responses. He will be very much missed.

No, it doesn't. And I can't make any sense of it, either.

Patrick – funny man! judiu – thank you, ma’am! Jessica has decided to do Thanksgiving and I’m in a bit of a holding pattern for Christmas right now. Mr. Kim is having shoulder surgery tomorrow, so we’ll see what we are capable of when the time comes. I’m sure we’ll both be in good shape by then, but there is so much pre-holiday cooking and prep that needs doing. Not sure how cooky and candy making will work into our various injuries! Shelby – Happy Birthday. Everything looks scrumptious! Did you do the foie yourself? Ann – of all the exotic and delicious looking meals on this thread, the one that draws me again and again and makes me wish for the energy to cook is your prime rib dinner. That gorgeous meat, the creamy potatoes and those high, crusty Yorkies! Fantastic. Bruce – that stroganoff looks perfect. One of our favorites and I love trying new versions. I’ll have to give that one a try. Leslie – I, too, am gnocchi-challenged. I’ve never had any luck with traditional recipes. At home, I always just make Jacques Pépin’s Gnocchi Parisienne. When I want traditional, I eat out . Dcarch – love the caramelization of the squash! I’m eating vicariously here. Having problems with a bit of a relapse and back not feeling too good. Mr. Kim is having shoulder surgery tomorrow morning, so we’re off for a quick, simple meal out tonight. Hope to get back to cooking soon, but in the meantime thanks so much for keeping me hungry!

My mother brought dinner over last night: Roast chicken, dressing and cranberry sauce. I added some green beans, gravy and bread.

Breakfast this morning: Cheese omelet on an ET bagel, ham and hash browns.

Thanks so much!

Kerry - sorry to be a bother, but one question from this metric-hampered American. Are all the measurements by weight? Thanks!

Kerry - bless you, my dear! I've printed that out and will get to it this weekend!

I’m finally back after a long absence. Long story short – an almost month long illness followed by a bad fall that resulted in a fractured vertebra that has me in a back brace until at least the beginning of November. That has put a crimp in my cooking and made sitting at the computer very uncomfortable. I’ve done a bit of cooking and with my lap top, I’ve been having a veritable feast the last couple of days looking over all of the incredible meals in this thread they you’ve all made since I went MIA. I couldn’t possibly go back and mention everything that amazed and impressed me, but I loved it all and deeply appreciated the recent defense of the ordinary type of food that I tend to cook. Like others mentioned, I enjoy seeing food in all its guises – plain and ‘fancy’! Some things that I’ve managed over the last few weeks - A throw together dinner of cheeses, meats and veggies: Mr. Kim’s birthday – I began an almost month long illness early that morning and so Jessica, and our nieces together to get his birthday dinner finished. They did a remarkable job. He had requested muffalettas, salad and bananas Foster for dessert. They got a good picture of the sandwich for me: My mother made some BBQ pork tenderloin and I served it with baked beans, green beans and some boxed mac and cheese: A dinner of shrimp tacos and black beans: Spaghetti w/ Bolognese sauce and garlic rolls: Baked spaghetti w/ raw veggies and garlic rolls: Pecan coated tilapia w/ steamed potatoes and green beans: The fish is served with an orange and wine sauce and I thought that the fish was a little bland. Next time I think that I’ll add the zest to the sauce along with the juice. Very successful day of cooking today. I tried 2 new recipes and they both turned out delicious! I did Geoffrey Zakarian’s Caesar salad and Gruyere and black pepper popovers: The salad is really delicious – the dressing is made with white anchovies. They were hard to find, but really worth it for their more subtle taste. The popovers were spectacular and something that I’ve been wanted to try for a long time. My mother and I went down to Chesapeake to visit friends. They have a lovely garden and urged us to pick as many figs as we liked from their trees. One of the ways I used them was to make a prosciutto and fig pizza: Topped with arugula: Served with white anchovy Caesar salad: A soup and sandwich dinner – Mr. Kim’s ham and cheese: Mine was a BLT, made with some of the last of our friends’ amazing heirloom tomatoes: The best tomatoes we’ve had all summer. The soup was Ruhlman’s Rotisserie Chicken and Leek soup: Breakfast for dinner: Cheese omelet, cheese stuffed potatoes and Benton’s bacon. Served with French toast and fig syrup:

Kerry - oooooohhhh! That sounds incredible. If you would only give me directions for doing that ganache, I promise to do just that!

Thank you all so much for the good wishes! It seems to be more of a waiting game than anything. Hoping to be a bit more active in this particular thread since my breakfasts tend to be fairly quick!

When I look at this thread, I know that I can’t claim to be a candymaker. You all just slay me! I don’t even understand what you are talking about sometimes, but I read and look and drool all the same. Thank you all so much for taking the time to share your wonderful work! Some good friends who have multiple fig trees invited us down for a visit and to pick figs. I jumped at that and came home with TONS. Most of them ended up as candied figs. Dusted with sugar: These are perfectly luscious – soft and chewy and full of fig flavor. A serendipitous result of making the candied figs is the syrup that results from simmering them in a sugar/water mixture. The syrup is fantastic over pancakes and such.

gpark – I really like your spin on eggs Benedict! It got me thinking of a southern version – grits cake, country ham, egg and some kind of variation of béarnaise! Thanks for the inspiration! Anna – that Vietnamese pancake looks so incredible. My daughter and I have fallen in love with that very dish at our local Vietnamese restaurant. Thanks so much for telling us how to find the recipe. I’m going to give it a try and surprise her. Ann – all your breakfasts look divine, but those apple fritters are just amazing. I’ve been seriously MIA, I know! I have had health issues since the middle of August culminating in a bad fall a couple of weeks ago – right now I’m in a back brace with a fractured vertebra. This all means that my time cooking and sitting at a computer has been (and will continue to be) very abbreviated. But I have cooked some – Scrambled eggs and sausage biscuits with gravy. And some watermelon: Another: Thick and Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes, Benton’s bacon and some sausage that Mr. Kim smoked. Fabulous.

emmalish – those lemon-poppy seed cookies look and sound delicious. One of my favorite combinations, too. Thanks for giving the recipe link. I’ve printed it and will give it a try when I can! A couple of recent desserts – the first is a chocolate éclair cake from Cook’s Country: This dessert has been a guilty pleasure for years at potlucks and office lunches. This version is made with a from-scratch custard and chocolate glaze and it makes a world of difference in the flavor. I also did a Blueberry Breakfast Cake: The recipe is from a friend who got it from Pinterest, I think. We still have a couple of gallons of blueberries that we picked and I stuffed a good 2 cups into this cake! Delicious. Sunday I made Ruhlman’s angel food cake for a family birthday celebration. It was a special request (angel food cake is Mr. Kim’s traditional family favorite) and just evaporated! Served with a choice of blueberry sauce or caramel sauce.

Saturday’s breakfast: Swiss and Monterey Jack omelet and fried ham. And Sunday’s: Benton’s bacon and a fried egg, spinach and cheese ET bagel.

Thanks, everyone. I decided on the not fresh-deli mozz. I figured that that was what they used at Central Grocery and I'd do authentic for Mr. Kim's BD.

Mr. Kim has requested muffulettas for his birthday dinner. We have a jar of Central Grocery olive salad and I've narrowed down the meats to hard salami, mortadella and capicola. Every recipe I've found calls for Provolone and mozzarella. I believe that aged Provolone will be good, from what I remember of our sandwiches we had there years ago, but as far as the mozz goes - fresh or not?

It has been a VERY long time (since almost the beginning of July) since I’ve been able to spend any time perusing eG. We’ve been so busy lately – going out of town, house guests, entertaining and, oddly enough, trapping cats. Yep, cats. My mom and I have been trapping feral cats for local rescue groups that trap, spay/neuter and release. Anyway, I’ve been taking pictures, just not posting! I cannot possibly go back and comment on all the fantastic things that I’ve missed, so I’ll just comment on some recent posts – Bruce – you got me!! Crab cakes, corn and iceberg salad. Could anything be more Eastern shore? We snuck up to Pope’s Creek a couple of weekends ago to pick crabs, but I’m still yearning for a soft shell sandwich! Ann – your potato gratin looks perfect. Some recent meals: Cheeseburger w/ egg, marinated cukes, squash and a friend’s potato salad. Is that a lovely egg, or what ? Thanks to Ashen for that egg method. A post yoga dinner: On yoga nights I try to have something light and easy to eat when we get home. Otherwise we are tempted by appetizers and drinks at Friday’s and go to bed greased out, bloated and tipsy – NOT the way one should follow up yoga ! A lunch: Shrimp salad sandwich. My mother was over the other night and dinner started with Watermelon Daiquiris: Just a tossed together drink w/ watermelon juice (purchased – homemade will be wonderful), lime juice and rum. I did Korean Grilled Beef: I got this recipe ages ago from someone at chowhound.com and it turned out great. We all loved it. Really tender and flavorful. Served with green beans and jasmine rice (which turned out perfectly for me – it just about never does): And garlic naan: Another night Mr. Kim brought some BBQ (sliced beef and chopped/minced pork) from King’s BBQ – an old family place in Petersburg, a nearby town. Beef: Pork, served with fries and corn and my first ever use of my new Vitamix – slaw: I love this texture for BBQ slaw! And it took much less than a minute – including slicing the cabbage to place in the Vitamix container. I liked the BBQ very much – I would have liked a bit more smokiness and I used Short Sugar’s sauce (a BBQ joint in Reidsville, NC). The beef was great – almost like pit beef – though I do wish they’d sliced it thinner. Mr. Kim didn’t care much for the beef and just thought that the pork was ok (he’s become such a smoker snob ). Breakfast for dinner with my MIL’s wonderful yeast rolls: And including some gorgeous peaches that my in laws brought us: Twenty minute throw-together dinner: Kielbasa, yellow squash and onions, sweet potatoes and tomatoes. Served with corn and marinated cucumbers: The tomatoes were not very good. We got them at a farm stand out in the country, but they were no better than the ones we’ve been getting at another stand. We have not had one good tomato yet this year. The corn was great, though. My mom and I were up in northern VA for Friday and Saturday. Mr. Kim made dinner for us Saturday night: Shrimp chowder. Perfect! Mr. Kim’s brother is visiting from California. We had him and Jessica over for dinner last night. Fried chicken, Sour cream potatoes, gravy, slaw, butter beans, marinated cucumbers and Ruhlman’s yeast rolls: Dessert was lemon chess pie w/ CI’s vodka pie pastry: