Kim Shook

Peter – thrilled to see you blogging!! I have cousins who retired to New Horton NB and was an Anne of Green Gables girl, so I am dying to visit your part of the world. I loved the cake topper (we are BIG Wallace & Gromit fans here, too).

Bottled salad dressing. Check. (sometimes I make my own, other times I don’t) Melamine plates. Almost every meal I ate as a child summering in NC was eaten off these. At the homes of phenomenal cooks. Only little teeny serrated plastic handled knives. Nothing over 5". My grandmother cut every single thing holding it in her hand using a paring knife. Again, a phenomenal cook. Instant coffee. Check. I don’t drink coffee and Mr. Kim doesn’t always want to make a pot in the morning. Reconstituted lemon juice. Check. (again, sometimes I use fresh, other times I don’t) Wow. I must be some lousy cook.

percyn – gorgeous burgers! Of course, I especially like the ‘Spanglish burger’! kayb – Love that BBQ plate! Can you tell me about the potato salad? It looks really different. And that cream cheese pie is beautiful! Dinner tonight was some easy chicken enchiladas made creamy with cream cheese and canned enchilada sauce: Plated with black beans and corn and rice with salsa:

Blether – I just realized I had never thanked you for the Konbu ponzu explanation ! We had already left for our trip when you posted your response and I don’t think I’ve been back to this thread since! Anyway, thank you – sounds like a wonderful ingredient! robirdstx – I love reading about eG’ers meeting in real life and sharing what we are all about! We have some decent food trucks in Richmond, but nothing on that scale! Soba – gorgeous! Please tell me that just out of the shot was some crusty bread to sop up all that loveliness with! Or is that too ‘carbi’ for you ? Since today is mostly devoted to blogging, lunch was just a snack spread out on the island: Fruit and cheese – good peaches from the farm stand, goats milk Gouda and Seaside Cheddar from WF.

Soba – beautiful tomato salad and I really like the idea of serving it atop toast. Kinda like a breakfast panzanella. robirdstx – sounds like a GREAT breakfast and I love chicken and avocado together. Breakfast this morning was a little freezer-organizing produced bit of serendipity: Some of my MIL’s Hot Cross Buns from Easter. They were still delicious and tender.

I am so much enjoying your blog. My BIL lives in AZ and spends lots of time in San Diego and just raves about everything there. He's not much into food (he seems to live on oddly colored smoothies), so I'm thrilled to get THAT aspect of the area! Everything you are making and buying looks incredible and please tell your husband that he's a wonderful photographer. Happy Anniversary!

Christine – Hey! Nice to ‘see’ you! Thanks for the compliment – it was a really good dinner and made me wonder why I don’t do main course salads more often. RRO – gorgeous bacon and that risotto sounds fantastic. I’ll have to nose around our Little Asia section of town and see if I can find some Chinese bacon. And the combination of jambon and fish? Genius! Dcarch – I actually made those little picks myself. Just beads and turkey skewers. Beautiful steak – you can actually SEE how tender it is. Kayb – lovely pie – it’s breakfast time, but I’d love a slice right now. Dejah – the lamb moussaka sounds delicious and I’m so jealous of the beautiful color you got on the top. Mine never gets that gorgeous browning. Bruce – the pulled pork looks stellar! Dinner last night started with a little shrimp cocktail: And salad (sigh): Steak with bleu cheese and port sauce, yellow squash and crusty bread with artichoke/spinach dip: The bread: This is one of my favorite things to do. The topping is just a basic artichoke or artichoke/spinach dip spread – you spread it on the bread and then broil it. It is a little more substantial than regular garlic bread and works well as a party snack, too. We also had some gorgeous corn that we got at the farm stand in the afternoon, shucked right before cooking and briefly cooked: Garrison Keillor made us do it. We were listening to A Prairie Home Companion while running errands and he started talking about those 5 or 10 ears of piping hot, just picked sweet corn, slathered with butter and salted that he was going to eat for dinner. We didn’t even need to discuss it – we just drove to the farm stand! Almost everything was stuff that was in the fridge. We are trying to finish up as much refrigerator stuff as possible in the next couple of days to prepare for a new addition to our family. I am very excited!

RRO – Except for the mushrooms, that sounds incredible to me! Is it served hot or cold? I dreamed this up for breakfast this morning: Breakfast bruschetta – toasted French bread slices, tomato jam and bacon. This is a keeper – definitely worth doing again and again. Served with poached eggs: Probably a little overdone for some folks, but perfect for us.

percyn – yay! Then my instincts were right! Last night we had my in-laws over for dinner and to look at the last of the trip pictures (we only got through England last time). Since it was a week night and really HOT, I wanted something easy, that I didn’t have to heat the kitchen up for and that I could mainly prep the night before. I decided on chef salads. We hadn’t had that in forever and everyone likes it around here. Basic salad – lettuce greens, scallions, tomatoes, cukes, carrots and radishes: American cheese, ham, Swiss cheese, salami and eggs: The pickle-y stuff – sweet and dill pickles, green and black olives and peperoncini: Topped with a choice of Marlene’s bleu cheese or my dad’s paprika dressing. I also served crackers and crusty bread. Dessert was just nectarines and blueberries (you do NOT want to know what that sugar free abomination is on top – I picked it up on the way home – I was just too tired to whip cream! ). Served with some cookies (the same kind, which, oddly enough turned up in one of our Paris pictures!):

Oh, Laurie, that BBQ looks excellent! Maybe we'll have to make a detour next time we come to NC! And those fries are excellent. I don't think I've ever been to a BBQ place that has anything other than frozen.

Soba - It must be rainbow trout season! Dianne on CK just had it, too. I love it and haven't ever cooked it. Panaderia Canadiense - thanks for the explanation. 120 degrees in the summer ? Goodness, I start cranking the air conditioner at 77! I don't think I'd cook at ALL if I had to deal with those temperatures! That tilapia is gorgeous and makes me want to delve into the leaves thread! Emily - you DID tell me about reheating - Mr. Kim tested that the next day for lunch and said they were still great. Paul - great looking pizza! I'm committed to chef salads tonight, but I'm craving pizza now. percyn - I know that is a very upscale meal, but something about that quail makes me wish I could pick it up and eat it with my bare hands. It just looks so GOOD! robirdstx - grilled onions on the fajita look so good. Actually, I could do without that (great looking) chicken, if I could have a big pile of the onions ! RRO - That's just amazingly beautiful and tender looking beef. Wow. Ben - That dressing is the one in this recipe Mr. Kim cooked last night while I did prep for tonight (we're having my in-laws over for dinner and picture viewing). He made bacon cheeseburgers and we also had sliced tomatoes and marinated cucumbers. He wouldn't let me take a picture because he said it was too 'ordinary'. I told him there was nothing ordinary about a bacon cheeseburger.

Panaderia Canadiense – I’m confused – I was wondering about your weather, so I looked at weather.com and saw that the temperature there was 68 degrees. That doesn’t sound like winter to me. Am I wrong about where you are? Well, no matter. Whatever the weather, that soup and bread look fantastic! robirdstx – I just finished dinner and I really, really want a Po Boy. kayb - Here's the link to the recipe on my webpage. They were so good – I really appreciate Emily linking to the original recipe. They will definitely go into our summer rotation! And I have one of those meat-focused 50-somethings that robirdstx mentions, too ! Tonight we started with some nibbles: Yodeling Goat Gouda (really, really good) and everything flatbread Lamb chops, leftover fried green tomatoes, sweet potato slices brûlée and green beans. Everything but the beans is the same color .

Oh, yeah! Nabs and a tab - the 'diet' lunch of my teen years! We actually took a box of Nabs to England with us on our trip last month. Just in case!

Panaderia Canadiense - that chicken and gravy meal is gorgeous! As hot as it is here, I'd love it for dinner tonight! robirdstx - uncooperative cheese makes for GOOD enchiladas ! And I LOVE the look of that pizza crust - exactly how I like it! percyn - I love those tomatoes and rarely find them here. And that teriyaki salmon is just incredibly gorgeous! kayb - I agree with Heidi - the pork looks like a sidedish with all those gorgeous vegetables! Dinner last night started with a salad: I tried a new recipe - the shrimp cakes that Emily made. We really, really liked these a lot. The cakes are served with a sauce that includes sour cream, lime juice and Thai chile garlic sauce - too hot for me, but Mr. Kim LOVED it! Jess and I made do with some cocktail sauce: served with yellow squash and onions and first of the season fried green tomatoes . Marinated cukes and leftover ham and cheese biscuits from breakfast: BITE: So good!!

Hi, Laurie - I'm very excited about your blog! I grew up spending every summer of my life at my grandparents' farm in Reidsville (just west of Greensboro) and still visit my grandmother there and my mom and stepdad live in New Bern, so I come close to you often. Can't wait to see pictures and hear stories!

Never use butter - I honestly can't taste the difference without it and don't need the extra calories (I also don't butter toast if I'm going to use jam). Real maple syrup. Toast dope, if I have some.

You.are.killing.me.

Well, it depends - did he lean over within an inch of the food, wave his hands in the air like a big, giant TOOL and sniff so hard the the food lifted off the plate? Sounds like NOT. I do sniff, but find that a discreet inhale of my fork when I lift the first bite to my mouth is sufficient.

OK, now you're just taunting me, aren't you. Sheesh.

percyn – nice ‘pizza’ – I will have to remember the naan trick! For breakfast this morning, I took a shortcut and made Bisquick ham and cheese biscuits: They were actually pretty good and lighter than the from-scratch ones that I made the other night for my strawberry shortcake ! Scrambled eggs, biscuits and we finished up the last of the gacky turkey bacon. I lie, actually – we didn’t finish it - after breakfast, we tossed the rest of it. It is really awful.

Ben – I think that I could have made a meal of a double portion of the Hors d'oeuvres assortment at Paris 1906 – just gorgeous! And it’s funny that turtle is such a polarized ingredient – you’ll find it only at truly high-end restaurants or divine dumps near the shore!

kayb – I am loving the idea of confit with polenta – what a great combination! Since I was taken up with the end of the week chores and writing (I’ve made a start blogging our trip – you can click on the ‘What Fresh Hell is This’ link under my name at the bottom of the post to get to it, if you like), dinner last night was a very modest affair. We started with some pre-dinner nibbles: Everything flatbread and dirty martini dip. Yummy dip, but SPICY! Salad and corn: Kielbasa with apricot jam/Dijon dipping sauce, leftover quinoa salad and some decent tomatoes that Mr. Kim got at the farmstand:

dcarch – THUNK. That was me fainting dead away at the utter gorgeousness of that Jello! We haven’t seen gelatin art like that at eG since the days of Rachel Perlow’s rainbow Jello dish! I know how you made it, but where did you get the mold??? robirdstx – lovely gooey cheesy enchiladas!!!

Genkinaonna - thank you, ma'am! The biscuits were good - I just need to be more gentle with them! The noodles have sour cream, cottage cheese and Parmesan. Combined with the egg noodles they are a silky, cheesy, slippy good dish! The recipe is here. Your shrimp sounded fantastic. I am not a fan of tomato sauce on shrimp, but LOVE it with tomatoes (odd, I know). Soba - I LOVE Nathalie Dupree! I remember watching her on TV pre-Food Network. She's wonderful. And with the quality of fruits that you are able to get you really should make some biscuits. Seeing your beautiful gnocchi, it's obvious that you don't have my heavy hands - I'm sure you'd make beautiful biscuits. And, again, I have to comment on your gorgeous chicken - beautiful texture and perfect doneness! RRO - thank you! The crust on those quesadillas is just perfect - wish mine looked like that (and I make them fairly often - no excuses).

We had our niece and her husband over tonight for dinner. We had the perfect summer meal (well, except for tomatoes) – BBQ Shrimp: This recipe always comes through for me – easy, delicious, with lots of good sauce to sop up! Quinoa salad: This was the first time I’ve made this and it was wonderful. I love that you make it ahead of time (a really great side for a work night meal) and really liked the texture – I sometimes have a problem with couscous clumping, but the quinoa grains stayed separate and fluffy. Salad and corn: And strawberry shortcake: The biscuit recipe for the shortcake was a new one for me, too. The flavor was fantastic – sweet, with just a hint of lemon. But, as usual, they suffered from heavy biscuit syndrome. I just don’t have a light hand with biscuit dough. Probably because I don’t make them often enough. The recipe is a keeper, though.