Kim Shook

blue_dolphin – thank you! No zucchini this week, at least! Again, I’m envious of what you got – I guess it’s a grass is greener thing! I am tucking away your idea for what to do with the beets – Mr. Kim would LOVE that addition to salads. Oh, God it’s Thursday again: Cabbage, blueberries, yellow squash, sweet potatoes, dill, kohlrabi and fennel. The cabbage will be a batch of braised sweet and sour cabbage, the yellow squash will probably be more sautéed squash and onions for Mr. Kim, I’ll roast and freeze the sweet potatoes to go in the freezer with the other pound that is waiting in there for me to make ravioli, fennel will be a yummy shaved fennel salad on top of some fish that I have yet to buy. Don’t know a thing about kohlrabi and we both detest dill. (sigh)

Beth – I have not tried the Death by Chocolate zucchini cake, but I just found a recipe online and bookmarked it. I know that we will be overrun with zucchini this summer and I am already sick of fritters and the muffins! Thanks! Your key lime tarts are great – one of our favorites. I had to laugh at your last sentence – my MIL always insists on dyeing her key lime pies that neon green! I don’t and EVERY SINGLE TIME that I’ve served one in the last 30 years she has mentioned it ! RWood – odd. Sounds like what I call ‘Agenda Cooking’ – using an ingredient for no real reason – just to be able to say that it is in the finished dish . I made a cake yesterday that I’ve made before and it gave me some trouble. It’s called Black and White Celebration cake – white cake layers with ganache between, iced with white buttercream and decorated with ganache and chocolate curls. As you can see, everything didn’t quite turn out: My ganache ‘broke’, I guess: I did some research today and found that there are ways that I could have fixed it – unfortunately, I’d already decorated the cake. I also put it on the cake when it was too warm and it threatened to slide down the side. A quick trip to the fridge fixed that. I have never been very successful at doing chocolate curls. The Pioneer Woman has a method that sounds easy and hers certainly looked beautiful – it involves melting 3 oz. chocolate and 1 tablespoon of shortening and spreading it thinly on the back of a baking sheet. Once it gets to the right temperature, you are supposed to be able to make curls with a small sharp edged spatula. All I got, trying over and over at different temperatures was either shards or sheets and some had bits of scraped off metal imbedded in them!! I ended up re-melting the non-metallic chocolate, spreading it on a Silpat and cutting out discs. I did some research this morning and what I’ve found suggests that you need to use molding chocolate to make good curls. Is this true? My cake top with the big ganache shoulders and dots reminds me of those mushrooms from the Mario Bros. video game: It all tasted great, though!

It is amazingly easy to make actually. It takes 5 or 6 days but most of that is brining and drying out time. actual hands on time was less than 30 mins. I followed this recipe out of the The Art of Living According to Joe Beef. http://www.epicuriou...al-Bacon-368929 Thanks so much, Ashen! I've bookmarked the recipe to try.

Roberta – I actually found some wonderful white peaches at the grocery store this week. We’ve had at least one a day since I found them – I’ve been back TWICE for them. blue_dolphin – very nice haul. Now I have CSA-envy! Except for the inescapable zucchini. I would actually eat most of what is in your stuff. (Not a big vegetable person). I wish they had fruit CSA's! This week’s CSA box: Mushrooms, red leaf lettuce, mustard greens, English peas, broccoli, zucchini and tomatoes. We got these on Thursday and so far I’ve used some of the mushrooms, lettuce, mustard greens and both of the tomatoes.

Ashen – that is some truly gorgeous peameal bacon. I am dying to try that stuff. Stash – tomato salad looks fantastic. Mr. Kim’s breakfast on Sunday was a mushroom and Jarlsberg omelet and sausage: Breakfast today – Mr. Kim’s: Mine was hash browns and a Spanglish sandwich minus the cheese:

Shane – the burgers had to be fantastic, but those twice baked potatoes are making me swoon! Elise – the leek and goat cheese combination sounds wonderful – I love melty, hot goat cheese. Patrick – that is some version of pork and beans ! They both look really good. And your Stracciatelle is lovely. I think that Soba made some recently and got me craving it. mm – your asparagus is just gorgeous. I don’t even like asparagus, but that is one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen. I made my husband and daughter come look at that picture! Saturday night was brisket dinner! Mr. Kim had the week off last week and felt like smoking a brisket. I was only able to get the little fat-less piece from Kroger, so it turned out a bit dry, but it tasted fantastic: The meal also included salad, zucchini fritters, slaw and a mustard green and quinoa dish: This was the mustard green and quinoa dish. It was outstanding in its awfulness. I hated it, my mother hated it, my dad hated it. Only Mr. Kim thought it was ok – but he didn’t like the leftovers at ALL. It was basically a stir fry with mustard green, prepared quinoa, toasted walnuts, chopped figs, garlic, spring onions and white wine vinegar. Even considering the fact that I don’t love vegetables, it shouldn’t have been as bad as it was. I think that maybe mustard greens are too bitter and strong to cook for such a short amount of time. Plus you’ll notice that there is a mysterious absence of pork in the recipe. It could only have helped. Sandwich: Dessert was some surprisingly early and delicious cherries and white peaches with Biscoff cookies:

Dukes here. But I'm not all that discerning - I'm quite sure that I couldn't pick out a particular brand in a blind taste test. I like Miracle Whip, too - with certain things.

Kay – love the idea of serving tamales with breakfast – I never thought of it, but they really make the perfect breakfast food. percyn – what a perfectly cooked pancake! That is exactly how I want mine to look. And that monkey bread looks truly amazing. Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns and zucchini muffins

Everything looks and sounds wonderful! Wish we were closer to you! Like Kerry, I'm finding the idea of a short rib bread pudding really intriguing! Keep us up to date on your progress – this is so much fun to watch happen!

mm- the contrast of the white fish and the green whatever it is!! Gorgeous! Scotty – that may be one of the most stylish looking dishes you’ve ever shown here. Bravo!!! And, man, I’d love to taste that ‘soil’. Marie-Ora – I’ll return the compliment and say that that pasta dish sounds like MY kind of supper. I also need to say that I could get LOST in your website ! As a word lover and Anglophile, I was in love in about 20 seconds. It’s already bookmarked. I loved that you had Cirencester, because we stayed near there last May and I researched before we went to make sure we were saying it right. Got hung up on Bibury and Avebury, though! Tri2Cook – I’m trying out that same scone recipe soon, too! I like the idea of a savoury scone. Norm – spatchcocked chicken always looks a little awkward. It’s the ‘knock-kneed’ stance, I think. But it is SO good. And yours looks delicious. I love the idea of a poblano-lime aioli. Poblanos are one of the few peppers I can tolerate. I got a lot more done today than I thought I would. Mr. Kim has the week off and we are painting our family room. We got the second coat of paint on today (using one coat paint and primer paint – third and last coat tomorrow ) and I actually served dinner. I even made some muffins! We got zucchini in our CSA box last week and neither of us likes it very much, so I did muffins and Michael Ruhlman's ‘Ratio’ fritters. Dinner: Salad Very boring looking and horribly named chicken dish – “Man-Pleasing Chicken” (ugh) that was amazingly good. Just chicken, Dijon mustard, maple syrup and rice wine vinegar. All tossed together and baked at 450 until done. It is much, much better than it should be with just those ingredients. You are supposed to add fresh chopped rosemary at the end, but mine had gone fuzzy, so we did without and it was still delicious. Chicken was served with Cheddar gougères, zucchini fritters and squash: The fritter looks enormous, but it is just the perspective. Dessert was a muffin:

Curls – those cinnamon buns are perfect. I want to make some soon! RWood – what did the quinoa add to the cupcakes – texture, taste? The CSA box this week contained zucchini – something that neither of us really cares for. So in the spirit of lemonade out of lemons, I made some zucchini muffins: The recipe was from Smitten Kitchen. They were pretty good. Nice texture and with raisins and walnuts, you could hardly taste the zucchini . Next time, I’ll add some lemon zest, I think.

Thanks, Hassouni! We actually have one near us. We might even try it this week since Mr. Kim is home all week painting!

Kay – gorgeous eggs – wish I could get mine like that consistently. Xilimmns – both the French toasts are lovely. Bruce – question re: eating the burger/tortilla thing. Do you knife and fork it? Or do you somehow pick it up and eat it like a sandwich. Weird question, I know, but I’m trying to help add protein to Mr. Kim’s breakfasts and remove carbs, so something like that on a tortilla might be a good way to go. Mr. Kim’s breakfast this morning: Sliced fruit, sausage rolls and fried eggs. The eggs are another attempt at cooking Xilimmns’ eggs (cooked without turning and covering for the last bit), but I just couldn’t seem to get the hang of them. By the time the whites are set, the yolks are hard and if I pull them when the yolks are still shaky, the whites are snotty. Sigh. Will keep trying. I went for scrambled: These, on the other hand, turned out perfectly – set, but still nicely moist.

If you mean regular pizza - like Domino's, Pizza Hut, etc. I think that you are out of luck. I actually prefer frozen pizza to those places. It's a shame, but that's my opinion.

Bruce – I’ve already got chicken thawed, but now I want burgers for dinner tonight. Those look really good. Dinner last night was really just a snack: Bleu cheese and honey on a crusty baguette with fruit. We went to a Lebanese food festival yesterday afternoon and stuffed ourselves, so this was all we wanted. Mr. Kim has the week off and we are painting our family room, so my cooking with be a bit sketchy, at best, this week.

Glad to get a little extra from you two!

Your optimism is one of the things I like best about you!

I think those Sesame Ginger Rice Krispie treats are a Milk Bar recipe. At least that's who deensiebat attributed them to. She made them awhile back and I made them for Valentine's Day. They did end up softer than a regular Treat, but still very good. They are better a couple of days after you make them.

:laugh: Actually, it wasn't far from frozen when I ate it again for breakfast this morning! It didn't even get a ride in the microwave - I ate a slice straight from the fridge!

cable guy dinner by ozisforme, on Flickr Good God.

Mr. Kim’s dinner: Eggs on ham and yellow squash with red onions. I wasn’t hungry and ended up with frozen pizza at 11pm!

Keep in mind that I was in Paris a year ago, but Forest (a eG'er) recommended cave a l’os a moelle to us and we loved it. The address is: 181 Rue Lourmel 75015 and she reminded us not to confuse it with l'os a moelle across the street. You'll need reservations. Very relaxed place, food is served 'family style' - if you don't have a full table, they will fill you up with others. We met a delightful couple from Canada - the four of us seemed to be the only non-French folks there.

Kay - if they send them again (which is very likely), I promise I'll try that recipe. I've heard that the depth to which you peel can affect the flavor/bitterness. Have you ever heard anything like that?

Roberta – peaches !!! Oh, I hope the stone fruits are as good this year as they were last year! Our CSA basket this week: Snow peas, lettuce, sweet potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini and a sweet baguette made with raisins, walnuts and cinnamon. The lettuce is huge (I doubt that we can finish it before it goes bad), the sweet potatoes are destined for ravioli, the zucchini for Ruhlman’s zucchini fritters. The bread was very good. I used it for a sandwich last night and toasted it for breakfast this morning.

Scotty – gorgeous soup! My chicken noodle is delicious, but looks nowhere near that lovely. Yours is beautiful and delicious looking! Elise – I printed out that chicken recipe as soon as I saw it on the blog. It looks fantastic and I can’t wait to try it. dcarch – lovely meal! I love wild rice soup and I think it would be so great with the added texture of the puffed rice. Mr. Kim wanted a big salad for dinner last night: I had a ham and provolone sandwich on some really good raisin and walnut bread that we got with our CSA basket this week and fried potatoes: