Kim Shook

Well, apparently great minds think alike because last night the leftover orzo from dinner the previous night and the cooler temperatures inspired chicken-orzo soup: Augmented by various bits and pieces of cheese and fruit from last night’s afters. I used some duck stock that I had in the freezer and found the soup just a bit too unctuous. It needed lots of salt and lemon juice to spark it up. Does duck stock not pair well with chicken? It’s not something that I usually have on hand and this is the first time I’ve ever used it for chicken soup.

Thank you for the good wishes about my grandmother. She is 88 years old just amazes everyone. Her doctor is thrilled with how she went through the surgery and how she is already beginning her recovery. I’ll be going down there every couple of weeks for the foreseeable future. chefmd – beautiful wedge salad – one of my favorites! Bruce – that bread sitting behind your scampi looks fantastic – local bakery? You? Mrs. C.? dcarch – thank you, but I am QUITE sure that you could make a fabulous quiche. Mr. Kim is hanging over my shoulder gazing with lust at your beautiful sashimi! Shane – I have the recipe for the ABT’s tucked away from last football season to make for Mr. Kim – thanks for the reminder! I make those tortilla stacks, but it never occurred to me to grill them. I am definitely trying that! Elise – glad to see you posting. Everything looks lovely, of course, but my can’t-wait-for-Fall self is dying for those gorgeous Brussels sprouts! Stash – those scalloped tomatoes look and sound so wonderful! And the roasted potatoes look perfect. TheCulinaryLibrary - I have had fondant potatoes one in my life - last year on our trip to England and I've never forgotten them. Fabulous! My MIL is having her kitchen completely redone (I’m GREEN!), so we had her over for dinner last night. I did Garlic Shrimp, salad, roasted asparagus and orzo: Really nice vinaigrette with orange muscat vinegar. And fruit and cheese for afters: Including some really good figs that I candied/dried myself (with some very welcome and needed advice from the folks here at eG):

Thank so much for all the help, everyone! The combination of boiling in a sugar syrup and a LONG time in the dehydrator (stopping and 'squishing' often for just the right feel) resulted in these: They turned out delicious and moist and chewy and all I wanted. They were big, fat figs and so good. I served them for afters at dinner last night with some Stilton and Brie and they were heavenly. Wish I had about 100 more!

Shane – those lamb chops…I think that I can smell the gorgeous aroma from here. It’s 1:30am and I’m wondering where I can get grilled lamb! I may be getting ready to disappear again. Don’t know if anyone remembers, but a couple of years ago, I was MIA for a long period when my grandmother had a stroke. Well, the same grandmother has had a really bad fall - surgery and at LEAST 3 months in a rehab facility, so my mom and I are heading down there. I’m not sure how much I’ll be there over the next few months, but I didn’t want to just vanish! I thought I’d post some meals from the last few days. Dinner the other night was a salad and some baked spaghetti that a friend brought to us: Then another night we had our favorite - breakfast for dinner. Benton’s country ham slices: With eggs, biscuits and fries: No pictures of today’s meal – just leftovers tonight because I was working on tailgate food all day. Game is at noon tomorrow, so it will be breakfast. Apple cider sweet rolls: Really good, but the filling was a real PITA – very, very wet. Still really good though, especially since the cream cheese icing includes apple cider that has been reduced to a syrup. Ham and Gruyere quiche: I used the Thomas Keller pâte brisée – easy and delicious! I also made a fruit salad. I had a bunch of finally ripe nectarines that needed to be used, so I made a pie using the CI vodka crust recipe: The pastry is a dream to work with – it all goes together in the food processor and rolls out very nicely. AND there is plenty of it to make the crust. Flakey, tender…all the good stuff! I'll check in when I can!

Thanks, Elizabeth. They are in there now and still seem pretty fat and moist - I'll check them regularly!

Duh. Nevermind, Elizabeth! I just realized that my large toaster oven has a dehydrator function. How long do you think it should take?

Any substitutes for a dehydrator, Elizabeth? I don't have one.

I’m wondering if anyone has any experience in making candied figs. A lovely friend gifted me with some fresh figs and some that she had candied herself. These are hers: They are VERY chewy and dry/sticky, if that makes sense. We loved them so much that I decided to do the same with the fresh ones. These are mine: I used this recipe. Mine are NOT chewy – they are pretty much as plump as when they started and very soft – good, but not what I wanted. My friend is traveling now, so I can’t ask her. What I’m wondering is if there is any way to fix them at this point? Or do I just have some really thick preserves? Thanks!

Shelby – I’m very impressed that you made your own naan! I actually LIKE naan (unfortunately it is the ONLY Indian food that I’ve ever tasted that I liked ). robirdstx – your salads always look so wonderful. dcarch – your short ribs look fantastic – I am so ready for fall food. But, those tomatoes make me wish for endless summer – just incredible. Dinner tonight: Chicken and waffles, mac and cheese and baked beans. Everything but the waffles were leftovers . The chicken is mine from the fantasy football draft party and the beans and mac and cheese are my mother’s and a friend’s from yesterday’s cook out. Great dinner!

Darienne - thank you! It was certainly enjoyed by everyone at the cookout! Some friends gave me some bounty from their garden including a LOT of raspberries. They were very ripe, so I needed to use them quickly, so I made these ‘hand pies’ from the Pepperidge Farm website: Such a ridiculous recipe. I am a fairly experienced home baker and in reading the recipe could see some problems with it. And even though I tried to make adjustments, mine all ‘blew out’. They taste good, but how could they not? Home grown berries, cream cheese, white chocolate and puff pastry. But their proportions were all off and resulted in overstuffed pies. They tell you to roll out to 12x12-inches and cut twelve 3-inch circles. That is TIGHT cutting – no room for a hair of error. Then they tell you to mix the cream cheese and sugar and white chocolate chips and ‘spread’ them on the rounds of pastry. Right. Chocolate chips spread SO well. I decided to pipe the cream cheese and sugar mixture and top with the chips, which worked ok. But, as you can see, they were still over-full and blew! I can imagine some poor completely inexperienced baker having a nervous breakdown over these things. I still had another 6 oz. of berries (my friend was VERY generous), so I decided to make things really easy on myself and make one big one with another package of puff pastry: Turned out MUCH better!

Darienne’s Margarita Pie that I made to take to a cook out yesterday: Creamy, tangy, refreshing goodness! Thanks, Darienne!

Bruce – great idea for an omelet! Mr. Kim would love that. I never think of omelets when I have leftover steak. Breakfast this morning: Swiss cheese omelet and an ET bagel w/ cream cheese and olives.

keychris – my recipe is from Dorie’s Baking: From My Home to Yours, but she attributes the recipe to Pierre Hermé. Your cake and little mushrooms are gorgeous! I think that the little ones are the best I’ve ever seen. Lovely work!

Ruth - those are just stunning! Gianduja is simply heaven on earth, but you have made it gorgeous, too! judiu - I know, I know! But the marshmallow creme was so gloppy that it softened the brownie and made it fall on the floor. Five second rule doesn't apply with sticky stuff, so I lost out on some brownie goodness! Darienne - thanks for the PM help! The pie is in the freezer and I can't wait to try it tomorrow! Meeting some friends tomorrow - they are driving through town on their way west (snowbirds on the way to Texas) who are bringing me some figgy goodness. I'm sending them on their way with some World Peace cookies: These are just astonishingly good cookies. How is God's name is anyone supposed to go back to a normal existence after eating these things?

Stash – the minestra looks gorgeous – so bright and clear! Yesterday’s lunch was fried green tomatoes and corn chowder: That’s paprika oil on top of the chowder – a nice addition. Mr. Kim’s fantasy football draft party was last night. Mr. Kim smoked some pork butt for BBQ and I provided the rest. Snacky stuff included Quick Party Nuts, Combos and M&M’s: One of Mr. Kim’s favorites, these are just pecans and almonds with chili powder, lime zest, cumin and cayenne. We offered BBQ pork: Fabulous, as always. Heating it up in a slow cooker kind of obliterates the smoke ring, but it started out with a nice ring and was SO tender and porky and moist. With sauce (thick and thin), buns and slaw: For the folks that didn’t eat pork, I did Tex-Mex Chicken Crunchies (stupid name): They are just chicken tenders dipped in enchilada sauce and then crushed taco-flavored Doritos before frying. Served with flatbread, salsa and pickled red onions to make wraps. The pickled red onions MADE these wraps. They were such a great addition – both to texture and flavor. Smoky beans: Ruhlman’s Mac & cheese: The only mac & cheese that Mr. Kim actually requests. It turned out very well, I thought and I heard the ‘old’ guys telling the couple of new guys that they were really in for a treat. Nice.

Breakfast yesterday: ET bagel with bacon and cream cheese. All I made was the bacon .

deensiebat – great looking S’mores pie! I can almost taste that burnt marshmallow flavor (one of my favorite tastes – I even made toasted marshmallow ice cream one time). Last night was Mr. Kim’s fantasy football draft night. I’ve put the meal on the Today I Cooked thread. Dessert was Candy Apple Cupcakes: Applesauce-spice cupcakes with caramel topping. Tin Roof Sundae Bars: Brownies topped with marshmallow crème, peanuts and chocolate. I make these a lot, but they were WAY too goopy this time.

dcarch – ooooh, soft shells! I haven’t had nearly enough of them this summer! Gorgeous! chefmd – your duck looks absolutely perfectly cooked! Andrew – beautiful plate of food! Can I enquire about the caramelized tomato jam? I am intrigued. Shane – I am drooling over the piglet. I didn’t realize at first that it was boned and thought you’d cooked a pig-dachshund mix ! David – beautiful oysters! Great combining the hominy with the oysters. Dinner tonight: Fried shrimp, fries, baked spinach with feta and Hanover tomatoes. Mr. Kim also had some roasted asparagus: The spinach tasted good, but was awfully dry: Maybe next time I’ll cover while baking and add an extra egg.

Anna – great idea using the twice-cooked baked potato as a base for an egg. We always have leftovers when I do twice-cooked potatoes and I never thought to do that! Breakfast on Sunday: Only interesting because it was a new scrambled egg method. I noticed on the Yahoo story scroll something called “Perfect Scrambled Eggs” by America’s Test Kitchen’s Bridget Lancaster and decided to give them a try. Nothing radical, but she does start them at medium-high heat and then lowers the heat when the eggs have set. I’ve always gone low and really, really slow. My eggs are always good, but these were definitely better – moist and fluffy and a LOT faster. Served with a squirt of Kim-Kim sauce – a locally made Korean hot sauce.

PastaMeshugana – beautiful soup! I’m really craving corn soup lately and that looks so delicious! Soba – the olive and onion mixture looks so good! Is it served cold/room temp? I have such a hard time finding cippolinis – they are some of my favorite onions to cook with so when I see them I grab them. Bruce – please tell Mrs. C that her gazpacho is gorgeous!! Robirdstx – that salad looks great. Funny – a week or so ago I saw “shrimp and chicken salad” on a menu and was perplexed. Did they mean cooked shrimp and chicken chunks on a green salad (like yours, which I like the looks of) or mixed chicken and shrimp in a mayo-based salad (which sounds kind of gross to me). Never did find out because I ordered something different. I like yours, though! Dinner last night: Pork tenderloin with mustard-cream sauce, Marlene’s crispy smashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts and red cabbage. The pork was a recipe from epicurious.com. Very easy – just browned the pork and then roasted. The sauce is made very quickly while the pork is roasting with shallots, wine, chicken broth, Dijon and cream. It gave a lot of good flavor to sometimes bland pork tenderloin. The cabbage is an old favorite from “The New Basics Cookbook”.

I'm fainting here. Not only are your creations beautiful and inspiring, but those gorgeous tomatoes. We have had ONE great tomato this summer and THAT was from a friend's garden in Indiana. Pooh! No one here is giving any away and the farmer's markets don't have very good ones either. I guess it's the lack of rain in the Spring? Truly lovely, my friend!

Nickrey – love the meat pie – one of my very favorite foods! mm – beautiful lobster dish! Jmahl – what gorgeous corn soup! We had some in Florida recently and I’m dying to try it myself. A couple of recent dinners - breakfast for dinner: Deep fried bacon and the last of the ham from our Pittsburgh trip: Some cathead biscuits: These were good, though not terribly ‘biscuity’. They were from a CI recipe and were amazingly easy and fast. I liked them a lot and will make them again, but they were really TOO tender – they wouldn’t have held up to a sausage patty or ham. Plated with eggs and potatoes: Another meal was Dianne’s garlic shrimp: With tomatoes, corn and green beans: We had friends and family over for dessert Saturday night to celebrate Mr. Kim’s birthday, so our quick-before-they-get-here meal was chili-cheese dogs, baked beans and grilled corn: No one needs to know what kind of ‘cheese’ that is on the dog . Last night - Grilled ham slice, tomatoes, butter beans and biscuits (leftover from breakfast out):

Darienne - I'll go ahead and third the request for the pie recipe - it sounds fabulous and perfect for a last blast of summer dessert. Hope dog weekend went well! Tikidoc - thank you! I'll go get some boxes soon - I'l usually in Short Pump 2 or 3 times a week. I will also respond to your email soon - need to look at our calendars! Saturday night we had friends and family over to celebrate Mr. Kim’s birthday. He chose La Bete Noire (The Black Beast) – an astoundingly rich flourless chocolate cake: Served with vanilla bean ice cream. I also had the Smoked Almond and Tahini cookies that I made a few days ago: And Chai Crunch: A chai spiced version of Chex Mix. Addicting stuff.

Your Yankee grandma knew what she was doing. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without pimento cheese-stuffed celery (and I LOVE the idea of pecans with it).

Here you go, my dear: http://www.recipecir...er_Chewies.html - I think you'll like them! It's getting harder and harder to find Sugar Babies. I'm thinking of ordering a few cases and putting them in the freezer just in case!