Kim Shook

Teddy – absolutely GORGEOUS burgers. I could eat one right now (2 hours from dinner) Dinner tonight was a weeknight, eat from the pantry/fridge/freezer special. Nothing exciting, but very good: Salad (of course) Crab and cocktail sauce Beef stick w/ mustard and shrachi Assorted pickles Mini croissants Watermelon and mandarin oranges

Have you tried this one? http://www.cheftalk.com/forum/thread/45372/finally-that-perfect-homemade-yellow-cake Wow - that sounds perfect. I'm printing this out and will try it as soon as I can! Thank you so much, oli! Just amazingly gorgeous! I am in awe!

Blether - the salmon cakes sound fantastic! Salmon cakes from fresh salmon is one of those things that I've never done and keep meaning to.

The is only for me personally - I know that this is a popular combination, but I don't care for fish/shellfish with a tomato sauce (except for cocktail sauce). I agree on the yogurt and chocolate. I'll add that I don't usually care for chocolate cheesecake, either. Something about the tangy taste of cheesecake or yogurt just doesn't go with chocolate to me.

Bruce – I wouldn’t dare, but I did find out that leftover in French is: n'ayant pas été mange kayb – thanks for the help. I’ve printed it out and will try your method next time I do French toast. Sunday breakfast: strawberry and banana smoothies Grilled bacon, egg and Swiss sandwiches and cantaloupe:

Bella and kayb - thanks for the interest in the pot roast. The recipe is here. I really need to revise it, because I do some things differently now. I usually bake it at 300 degrees rather than cook on top of the stove and I almost always double everything except the meat so that I have lots of sauce for making the soup. dcarch – love the look of the figgy pig dish. I really enjoy them together. Borgstrom – that is some seriously beautiful and delicious looking food! Welcome! Made a batch of Rachel’s chicken salad this weekend to have for lunches this week: It’s is my favorite version of chicken salad. Sunday night dinner: Easy chicken parm on angel hair pasta, roasted broccoli and onion rolls. The rolls and the sauce were purchased. Mr. Kim really liked the broccoli, but I didn’t care for it much. By the time the stalks were tender the tops were overdone. I found it really dry. But I did like the flavor of garlic, olive oil and toasted panko on the broccoli. Last night’s dinner: Smothered cube steak and onions, mashed potatoes, butterbeans and onion rolls

dhardy - thanks for the link and by the way, I think that yours looked better than theirs. I love all the Halloween stuff and that gorgeous toffee! Somewhere here, someone asked for a recipe for a cake with the texture of a cake mix cake. I have looked and looked and can NOT find the thread – I refer to it as ‘the cake mixes thread’ in my notes and the post I refer to is dated 9/7/2010. Anyway, someone else offered a recipe for making your own cake mix that you can then freeze or refrigerate and add ingredients and bake off later. The first time I tried it the results were NOT good – the butter that you added at baking time just wouldn’t incorporate. So this time, I decided to try oil instead of butter. Got a little better texture, but still I couldn’t call this cake a success. It has a very coarse crumb – very bready and sodden. The flavor was ok, but I wouldn’t serve this cake. Frosted: slice: So I’m still looking for a go-to recipe for yellow cake. I want the flavor of homemade with the texture of a cake mix.

I'm with Kerry. This is what I thought before I even opened the thread and really read the question. I remember my mother cramming a piece of toasted cheese into my hand as I was leaving the house in the morning - it was almost the breakfast thing that my tummy could take as a child.

percyn – lovely Saucisse de Canard al'Armagnac! kayb – I’d love some French toast pointers. Yours looks exactly like I like mine! Simple breakfast this morning:

djyee – you just inspired me! That chicken salad looks great! We are starting the pre-holiday culling the freezers season and I have 2 bags of chicken breasts in the freezer. I’m making some chicken salad tomorrow. Dinner last night was pot roast soup and biscuits: Just leftover pot roast, sauce and noodles – I add peas and thin it down with beef stock. We love this soup so much that I’d make pot roast just to have the soup!

percyn – that is one gorgeous scallop and I really love the idea of pumpkin and walnut risotto! Bruce – love the look of that fried rice! Last night: Ronald Johnson’s Italian pot roast (our favorite), Brussels sprouts, egg noodles Honey-Butter biscuits (just a fix up of some frozen biscuits)

I gasped with delight when I saw you here, Rachel - in fact, I startled Mr. Kim! Thank you - we did a lot of finger sneaks when my BIL wasn't looking (he's a germophobe) and I barely managed to get a slice to take home for Jessica. So it went down well! dhardy123 - any chance of you giving out that recipe? Both Nutella and rice bars are favorites around here and my family would adore me forever if I made these!

You're very welcome, Kim. These are so delicious - forget breakfast - I eat them for dessert! They're really in between a muffin and a cupcake. I often omit the chocolate chips inside, and frost with some melted semi-sweet chocolate. One tip: Use the weight measurements instead of the volume measurements - I tried them both ways as an experiment (for the volume, I did spoon and sweep), and the ones I did by weight came out lighter, fluffier, and more moist. Either way, they're great, but the ones by weight are superior. Oh, also, their timing is off. It takes much less baking time than indicated, around 18 minutes. Thank you! I've added your notes to my copy. Can't wait to try these. They sound like they would be good for a brunch - muffin for those who want bread and cake for those who want dessert - all in one thing!

Darienne – thank you so much for such sweet words! It’s not totally unselfish, though. It’s what I love doing and the thanks and praise ain’t bad, either ! merstar – oooh! Thanks for posting the link to those muffins. They look wonderful. I’ve printed it out and it’s going in my ‘to try’ file!

I know that I say this a lot, but I am just astounded by the beauty and creativity that I see on this thread. My humble offerings include a chocolate angel food cake that I made for a coworker's birthday: PB & J cupcakes for my niece's wedding rehearsal dinner: And a coconut cake that I did for my FIL’s birthday on Friday:

I haven't made Keller's yet (haven't got the ring), but I've seen other folks' examples of it and that looks right to me. A local restaurant makes a perfect one that is probably 2 1/2 inches tall. I really like a high,light, custardy filling and crisp, flaky crust. This place makes their crust fairly thick - 1/2 cm or so and while the bottom gets a little less crisp, the sides and the 'frill' is fantastic. Wish I could recreate it at home.

A couple of recent meals: Salad w/ fried spinach wrap strips: Fried shrimp (coated in cornmeal and taco seasoning) w/ mango-habenero salsa and a side of black beans, corn and salsa: We are trying to work through the freezer and pantry before I start all the holiday cooking – most of that was leftovers (not to mention beige ). Tonight: Panko crab cakes on corn cakes w/ remoulade, fried potatoes and creamed corn. This actually counted as leftovers, too. I did crab stuffed mushrooms for my niece’s wedding this weekend and bought too much crab. Those are another story – my lovely stuffed mushrooms came out of the oven tender and crisp topped. The kitchen helpers then put them into a steam pan to serve and they ended up soggy and flabby .

Somewhere, sometime Michael Ruhlman said, "Many argue that breakfast is their favorite meal and of course it's 'the most important meal of the day' (who came up with this slogan? I do fine on coffee and Crest)" - substitute diet Mtn. Dew for the coffee and add a Marlboro Light and this is me.

Christine – I cannot tell you how that touched me. I am on my way up to Cleveland right now to give you a big ole HUG! It gladdens my heart to see you here! And I’m not English (well, maybe WAY back), but my stepdad is and I LOVE beans on toast. Pierogi – I have printed out the fig cake recipe and can’t wait to try it. Pam – your pear tart is gorgeous! Is that raw sugar on top of the pears? dDcarch – and a really good knife? Rico – so glad that you liked the wings! I haven’t done them for a while and think they are worth a re-visit! We were in Northern VA this weekend visiting family and friends. The night before we left we had some things in the fridge that needed to be eaten. So this was dinner: Sloppy Joes, the last of the fresh stuff from the CSA – beans and tomatoes Last night I discovered that we somehow had 2 1/2 dozen eggs! Swiss cheese omelet with mango/habanero salsa, sausage, fried potatoes and flat bread And for dessert: mini angel food cakes w/ some wonderful peaches that my dad brought us from Georgia

What fantastic meals I have enjoyed vicariously here lately! dDcarch – that blueberry lime jello was just incredible. And how’d you cut the pineapple so thin in the beef dish? deadstroke – love the crab ravioli. I am not a pasta maker, but I believe that I could do something similar with wonton skins (my go-to cheat for fresh pasta). Soba – beautiful, beautiful food, as ALWAYS! kayb – I am stealing your idea of cooking meatloaf in a pie dish. Bruce – I’m very impressed with your mid-reno cooking. If I were renovating, my family would be lucky to get grilled cheese sandwiches. I am also now craving Scottyboy’s fig cake and djyee’s cobbler! A few recent meals: salad Braised lamb shoulder chop with salsa. It was supposed to be braised with tomatoes, but I didn’t have any and didn’t feel like going out, so I used some salsa. It was excellent! Some semi-mashed potatoes on the side. This was a lovely surprise – I made it one night and life conspired to delay eating until two days later. It was still moist and tender and delicious. Nice thing to know. Some semi-mashed potatoes on the side. I cooked dinner for my parents last weekend: The ubiquitous salad follows me everyWHERE!! Napa and Romaine w/ oranges, almonds and bleu cheese dressed with a tomato/balsamic dressing. Chicken saltimbocca w/ egg noodles. The chicken recipe was from a funky old giveaway recipe booklet from 1973 that my mother had. It was pretty good, but a little fiddly. You sandwiched the ham between beaten chicken breast pieces and then pinned it all around with toothpicks. Would have been easier to just roll it, I thought. And being from 1973, it was a tad bland. I was really on autopilot or I’d have jazzed it up with some sage. We are going out of town AGAIN this weekend, so I was trying to get all the little weekend chores done ahead of time (plus the ones left over from last weekend), so I threw together Maggie’s shrimp and corn saute: We just love this and I anticipate it getting a LOT of play in the Shook house. Served with roasted beets with goat cheese and onion flat bread and hummous. Mr. Kim LOVED the beets. I thought they tasted like goat cheese flavored dirt (not a big fan of beets). The beets were tiny little ones from our latest CSA box. We’ve had to cancel our CSA – I’m away so much that we are just not using the food, even getting it only every two weeks.

kayb – lovely looking brunch and that is one gorgeous quiche! Breakfast this morning: Scrambled eggs with jalapenos, sausage gravy and (frozen) biscuits. It was 70 degrees here last night, so I’m pushing for FALL!!!

Oh, Teakettle - that is just the greatest idea EVER!!!

Pilori – beautiful meal! Even the carrots look good and I don’t care for cooked carrots. kayb – Oh, I am so envious! I think that we had the best food I’ve ever eaten on our NOLA trip. We were so stuffed the night that we were supposed to go to Acme for the chargrilled oysters, that we wimped out and ended up sharing a Lucky Dog at midnight and we never got back to Acme. David – that creamed corn looks stupendous! Do not look at my creamed corn below. It was a combination of frozen niblets and a tube of frozen creamed corn that I am addicted to. deadstroke – gorgeous tempura – I can HEAR the shattering crispness. Prawn – as usual, everything on your post looks and sounds amazing. We have a new, big screen computer and it is making that short rib completely irresistible looking. Made dinner at my mom and Ted’s last weekend: Maggie’s Shrimp and Corn w/ Basil. This is just so good. Five ingredients. Amazing. Served with fried squash and onions: I have cooked precisely one night this week. Sunday night we got home to find that Jessica had made a delicious saffron scented spaghetti carbonara. We had that Sunday and Monday. Tuesday we ordered pizza and I made a salad. Wednesday night we had leftover pizza and a stir fry of yellow squash, peppers, onions and sriracha. Last night, I had errands to run after work and was out until 10pm. I grabbed a Chick-Fil-A and I have no idea what Mr. Kim and Jessica ate. Tonight they are in Charlottesville for a VA football game and I’ll probably scramble some eggs. But I did cook Thursday. Some shrimp that Jake made recently have been in my mind. I didn’t have all of her ingredients, so I riffed with what I had. We started with the inevitable salad: this is Mr. Kim’s – some red jalapenos from our CSA box on top. The marinade ended up being OJ, lime juice, garlic, olive oil, Penzey’s Mural of Flavor, ginger, shallot, ground ancho chilis and fish sauce. It turned out really good. Served with creamed corn and marinated cucumbers.

We are planning a trip to NVA in a couple of weekends are are hoping to go to my sister's for breakfast on the Sunday. I'd like to find something besides WF where I can get some really good breakfast pastries to take to contribute. I know that every time I go home I spot a dozen bakeries that look interesting, but I can't remember one now! Thanks for the help!

You're messing with all of us. I have never seen bacon curled up like that, like flower petals or a bowl. Fabulous presentation. So tell us how... (Kim, love the cannelloni.) OK. I will tell you. But promise you will not tell Kim. :-) Basically I like eating bacon. Lots of bacon. Obviously bacon fat can be an issue. I developed different ways to make bacon so that most of the fat can be drianed off and the bacon strips would be uniformly crispy. The straight bacons were baked stretched out, away from the fat, and the curved ones were baked on a curved surface so that all the fat would drain off. The bacon strips were never fried in the fat. dcarch I heard, I heard!!! Still amazed!