Kim Shook

My great grandmother, Ma, was one of those legendary family cooks. Every family has one, I think. Every person who ever ate at her house raves about her cooking. She passed when I was only about 10 years old, but I do remember eating vegetables that I never touched before or since and loving them. My grandmother has an old Steno pad full of recipes that she convinced Ma to sit down and write out. Over the years, I’ve copied a lot of them out. Some worked and some didn’t – as a matter of fact the folks here helped to decipher an apple cake recipe for me a couple of years ago. The most recent one that I’ve copied is for Date Roll. I had to Google that – I don’t think I’ve ever had it, but the older members of the family remember it fondly. I’d love some help with this one. Here’s the recipe, as written: 2 c. sugar 1/2 c. milk Butter – size of an egg 1/2 box dates 1 c. nuts Mix sugar, milk and butter and bring to a boil. Add dates. Stir until it will form a soft ball. Add nuts and beat until it thickens. Pour over wet cloth and roll. That’s it. Now here are my questions: 2 T. butter? How many dates would you think and I assume that I’m to chop them? What kind of nuts would work best (again – I assume I’m to chop them)? “Form a soft ball” – does this mean to cook to 235 degrees or something else? Do I add the nuts over the heat or off? “Pour over wet cloth” ?????????? Refrigerate? I assume sliced. I’ve Googled some recipes, but I’m just not sure if current recipes are the same as one that was made probably 50 years ago or more. Thanks so much!

Jerry - I'm sure that's true, but like you said even bad is pretty good and if I see it, I'll be trying it . Jess - hey, neighbor! Will do! Nice to find another Richmond eG'er! Deena - I forgot to say how gorgeous your cupcake is! Are those toasted coconut flakes? mmmmm

Jerry – what a great experience! The odd thing is that I KNOW I’ve seen that bread. Here, in Richmond, I mean. Now where the heck would that have been? I made some Buttermilk Spice Muffins yesterday for Mr. Kim to take to work: The recipe is from Mimi's Cafe. This is the muffin that we always get when we go.

RRO – fabulous roast pig! How fantastic it would be to be able to find something like that here! Rico – love the giant meatball. That’s how I like them. Paul – gorgeous sear on those scallops. Bruce – the soup looks delicious and sounds like something that I’d really like. Scotty – nice roommate! I’ve always wondered about crab served that way in that sort of ‘high end’ dish. There is no other way to eat it but to get into it with your hands and that never seemed to go with the elegance of the dish. I know that you ate this at home, but do you find it awkward to ‘go at’ a dish with your hands when you are served this at a restaurant? Stash – those grapes sound fantastic. That is something that I need to try. Elise – what beautiful tomatoes! I can almost taste a mouthful of that bread and tomatoes and cheese! Dinner last night: Pot roast sandwiches on Cheddar-chive biscuits and the last (thank God) of the broccoli and cauliflower au gratin. I do like this pot roast recipe, but the sauce needs to be defatted. It was really noticeable in the sandwiches.

Thanks, Andie, that is a good tip!

Patrick – I’m quite sure that I’ve never seen fresh turmeric! That is amazing. Jmahl – gorgeous lamb! Mr. Kim is planning on smoking some for Easter, but I’m not sure that I can wait that long! Dinner tonight: Pot Roast w/ caramelized onion gravy from Eating Well magazine. This was a slow cooker recipe and turned out very well – tender and very flavorful from the balsamic vinegar, onions and coffee. It needed a bit of salt and perhaps some herbiness. I’ll work on that for leftovers tomorrow! We also had buttered egg noodles, leftover cauliflower and broccoli gratin and Cheddar and chive biscuits: These were great and we had 4 left, so I’m thinking pot roast sandwiches tomorrow!

I guess it is just my area, but I've almost completely stopped buying yellow onions. They are bitter and sharp and it's been getting progressively worse every year. I use sweet onions almost exclusively. My dad in Sarasota says that he has the same problem.

As long as you keep them dry and cool, they should store just fine for a couple of weeks. Or you could caramalize the whole bunch in a slow cooker and freeze them - 5 lbs. onions, a stick of butter and 8 hours in a slow cooker and you have 4 cups of caramalized onions. A VERY good thing!

Katie - those deviled egg holders are wonderful! I use mine for all kinds of things as well as eggs. I wish I could find another one of those! I found these two Good Housekeeping Booklets from 1958 at a big antique mart in Richmond yesterday: P1100396 by ozisforme, on Flickr P1100395 by ozisforme, on Flickr They were $2 a piece and are delightful! I was really glad to add them to my collection. The ghostly emanation on the Who’s Who Cooks one is not a camera flaw, but the flames from the rotisserie meat. I haven’t heard of most of the ‘Famous People’ and wonder if the average person in 1958 had either. Did people really used to know who the Syrian delegate to the UN was? The other book is hilarious in the fact that while there are 14 pages of French recipes, there is exactly ONE Mexican recipe. I’m looking forward to going through these!

That is an wonderful idea, Andie! Now I'm thinking that bacon jam served on the side would be great, too!

Mr. Kim’s breakfast this morning: A very messy ham and Cheddar omelet with jalapenos and Shiracha.

Dinner last night was leftovers from a spaghetti dinner that we had the night before at a local restaurant. There was an enormous amount leftover, so I added some cheese and sauce and made baked spaghetti: This is a perfect example of the ridiculous portions served at restaurants. We both ate as much as we could the first night (admittedly, with me, that wasn’t very much) and the leftovers still filled a 2-quart casserole. We could have easily fed 6, possibly 8, people with that. Guess what’s for dinner tonight ? There was also some of our starter left over. It was a baked feta, tomato and basil dish which I just served with some crusty bread:

Fantastic kitchen, Scotty! And I don't think that meal is over the top at ALL. For you. For me, on the other hand....well, I'd faint just thinking about getting all that stuff cooked. I can't WAIT to see the results!

Harry – I love Swedish meatballs and yours are the second ones I’ve heard mentioned recently. Usually after a couple of mentions, I am compelled to make something that I haven’t had in a while. I think meatballs need to go on the ‘to-do’ list soon! threestars – I had to Google Pork Sisig. It sounds wonderful. How is it served? I mean, what sides – bread? Tuesday night, I did the Bon Appetit fried chicken recipe from February issue: I liked it a lot and so did everyone else, but I’m not sure that it is any better than my usual recipe – Shelly’s Fried Chicken. We also had a broccoli and cauliflower gratin: Mashed potatoes and gravy: Green beans: And Sister Schubert rolls: One of the best parts of not working is making real meals in the middle of the week and not having to wait until the weekend to cram everything in. I know that other folks manage to make special meals on work nights, but I've never been good at it!

Bruce – I do cheater red rice a LOT – always with salsa and taco seasoning, though. Next time I’m going to try the enchilada sauce instead – that’s a great idea. Patrick – those beans and rice look fantastic! Dinner last night was Italian Wedding soup from our CSA soup swap this weekend: This lady really did it right – everything was balanced, the meatballs were very tender and the stock was so flavorful!

We almost never eat at KFC anymore. I used to like the chicken, too, but our local grocery stores make MUCH better chicken than our KFC and we are lucky enough to have a small cafe that serves great fried chicken. I remember loving their slaw, too. I even used to stop and buy just a tub of slaw to go with dinner if I didn't feel like making my own. The last couple of times that I did it, I was disappointed - they've changed the recipe and it is not at all like it used to be.

Probably shouldn't do orange with the blue - those are UVA colors and might keep the Carolina folks away ! Seriously, though, I really like the idea of Carolina blue and white stripes - very fresh and modern, but still homey. Good luck! Will this be just weekdays, or weekends too?

By the way, I'll let you and everyone in on a secret. Labne is VERY easy to make at home. Just line a sieve with a coffee filter or cheesecloth, put some yogurt in it, place it over a pot, and let it drain overnight. Voila! When you buy it, it often has cream and other stuff in it to make it extra thick and creamy. Homemade labne is rather different (and healthier, I think!) I do this when I have time, but for a quick fix our local Lebanese owned deli has fine labne.

RRO – gorgeous squid! I thought at first they were lobster tails. percyn – what is the coating on your oysters? It looks almost nubby? Great sandwiches! And dammit! You know that your lobster rolls always make me faint . Stash – thanks for the stew pictures! That is some great looking stew! Where were the pictures taken? Saturday our new CSA had a soup swap. Everyone had to make soup and bring a pot of it for tasting and 2 one-quart containers to swap. Mr. Kim and I made the Escarole & Bean soup with Italian Sausage: It was absolutely delicious and ended up being fairly popular. There were a lot of good soups at the swap and I’ll be glad to get the recipes. My favorites were a sweet potato and caramelized red onion that could have subbed for a dessert soup, a great posole and one of the two Italian Wedding soups that were brought. One poor lady did something that I think we’ve all done. When you make a soup with pasta ahead of time and forget how the pasta will suck up all the available liquid? Her soup was like a porridge of giant meatballs and eency-weency little pasta stars – no liquid at all! That happens to me almost every time I make vegetable soup with vermicelli! I put the pasta in and think, “well, that can’t be enough” and add more. Then, when I go to heat it up the next day, I have to add TONS more stock! I think that a CSA attracts a lot of vegetarians (logically), and the sausage in our soup kept them away, so we brought home almost half of what we took. There were no leftovers of the vegetarian soups. My sister and niece were visiting this weekend from NOVA and Hampton, so we had dinner with them and my parents. I made a big salad and a casserole: This was just the rice dish that I’d made for Valentine’s day with cranberries, almond and orange juice. I thought it would make a great casserole with chicken. It was ok. Nothing really wrong with it, just not terribly interesting. It makes a great side dish, but not a main. Odd, that. At the soup swap, they were serving Flour Garden Bakery baguettes and had some leftovers, so we took one and had that, too. Dessert was just a mix fix-up: I had a pound cake mix in the pantry from Christmas time. I usually bake a couple of pumpkin pound cakes to add to the dessert trays I give out, but never got around to it this year. So I added some lemon zest and juice to the batter and topped it with a lemon 10X glaze.

percyn – your pork hash looks delicious! Xilimmns – I love the idea of serving eggs over crispy polenta (or grits). I must try that sometime! Kay – bacon, tomato and mayo is the best part of a BLT, anyway (I can always dispense with the lettuce)! That looks divine! We had company this weekend – a sister and a niece. On Sunday, my parents came over for breakfast. Scrambled eggs. Everyone is always bizarrely amazed at how long I take to scramble eggs. Then they remark on how moist and fluffy they are! Benton’s bacon. And a new take on Lois’ Best Coffee Cake: This recipe is from Maggie. Now my go-to recipe for coffee cake – whether I’m serving it or gifting it, I have made it numerous times and it never fails. I’ve tried various toppings and additions (tiny wild blueberries and lemon zest were wonderful) and left it plain and either way, it is easy and elegant and special. This time, I decided to use up some peaches I had in the freezer. The night before, I roasted the peaches with some brown sugar until they were tender and gooey and pink and then refrigerated them. I topped the batter with them and baked. I think a hint of almond extract would have been perfect, but Momma is averse to almond flavor, so I left it out this time.

Yes . These were just the white ones. I can't imagine what you would do with them. But they were somehow irresistable at the store.

OMG, recipe, recipe! Here you go, ma'am. This was a recipe that Maggie's mother used to make and that Maggie wrote about in her wonderful eG essay Swans and Streusel.

What a fantastic blog, Chris! I am so looking forward to this week. Like Andie, I adore Lebanese food. In Richmond, where I live, all the best ‘Greek’ restaurants are owned and run by Lebanese folks. I had a Lebanese friend who once quizzed me on my favorite ‘Greek’ restaurants here and delighted in letting me know that they were all Lebanese owned! We have a wonderful Lebanese food festival here in the spring run by the Maronite Catholic church, and it is our favorite food festival in the area! I really loved your breakfast – once I found a place that sold labne, I was in heaven! Best stuff on earth!

We bought a bag of those enormous marshmallows, just because they were hilarious, and the other night, I roasted one. I had to eat it in layers (I like them burned BLACK) and the final layer was a gooshy, gooey, delicous mess. One filled me right up. And this weekend reminded me that Lois' Best Coffee Cake takes about 45 minutes from idea to hot coffee cake slathered with butter to crunching down through a buttery, sugary, cinammony cracked top!

How about last time ? What's Brunswick stew ? Thank you, sir! Here's a link to a description of Brunswick stew. Pay no attention to the bogus claims that it was invented by Georgians. It is a Virginia creation.