Kim Shook

@CookBot – that is an absolutely beautiful babka. I love them, but haven’t ever attempted my own. Made a Chocolate Cream Dessert for a church luncheon last Sunday: A cookie crust and a chocolate, marshmallow, and whipped cream filling. This is one of those mysterious things that is perfectly good, but that people go inexplicably crazy over. I made it back in March and thought it was good, but everyone I served it to loved it. Same this time.

Oh, those gooey runny egg yolks that everyone is showing off look SO good. I’m adjusting to some new meds, so I know that my tummy couldn’t take them, but I really want them. @blue_dolphin – I really love the tea towel. I’m going to be digging through my recipes to try to find something in my grandmother’s handwriting to do this with. We recently had a ladies’ breakfast meeting at church, and I made this blueberry breakfast cake to take: A good friend made this for us one morning when we stayed with them in Florida and I’ve loved it ever since. It goes together very easily and holds very well for a few days. I was afraid I’d messed it up this time because it felt really heavy and didn’t brown very much, but it was perfect inside. Jessica and I both felt that some demerara sugar rather than white sugar on top would have looked better. With one thing and another, I haven’t posted much lately, so here are a few recent breakfasts: English muffins, scrambled eggs, and canned corned beef – one of many guilty pleasures! Freezer biscuits – one with honey and butter and the other with ham and blackberry jam. Freezer waffles and some ham leftover from making the macaroni salad this past weekend. Today: Buttered sourdough bagel and ham.

I have a bunch of them. My MIL heard me talking about a set I'd seen at an antiques mall and how they inspired such warm memories of parties given by my mom's best friend's parents in their Tiki-inspired basement party room. She got them for me the next Christmas!

Unfortunately lots of the algae is in the little skinny section of the bottom and the scrubber wouldn't go there. Too bad because it's a great little item! Mr. Kim came home and is saving the day. He's ordering a replacement tank. My hero!

I am currently soaking with hot water and liquid dish detergent. I cannot imagine how I would be able to get a brush to these areas.

Hi and welcome to eG, @ChefandBeeVT! I'm looking forward to your input!

Thanks so much for doing this, Shelby! I SO look forward to it. I used to use something similar to those hashbrowns all the time. Don’t know why I stopped. They ARE good – and I don’t care for any of the other varieties of the dried boxed potatoes. I like with those you soak them in the carton – the ones that I used to buy you had to soak them in a bowl. Have you ever tried dumping in some dried onions before soaking? That’s nice. You make everything – the food, the welcome, etc. so wonderful. Your friend must think he’s died and gone to heaven.

Nowadays I aim for between 7 and 8. I grew up with two different times - home during the school year dinner was about 7 and summers at my grandparents' NC farm supper was about 6:30. The NC time was late by Southern small town standards, I'd guess, but my grandmother worked full time and didn't get home until around 5:30. And she cooked everything from scratch and never asked me or my grandfather for help. Mr. Kim grew up with dinner at 5-5:30 and I discovered that when we first got married he thought that the reason I was serving dinner so "late" was that I was just a disorganized new cook. When he was informed that I was planning for 7pm, he was appalled. 😁

I took some pictures so that it would be clear what I was dealing with. These two are pictures of the algae on the bottom of the tank (I bumped up the color saturation so it could be seen better: This is a smear on a paper towel from my finger where I managed to just barely reach the growth: Jessica decided to take matters into her own hands and not wait for me while I was out this morning and she's already soaked it with boiling water and boiling water and white vinegar. These pictures after these "treatments".

Question: I have something that looks like mold or algae in the water tank. What's the best way to deal with this?

A favorite local place (sadly closed now) used to have what they called a DelMarVA Pizza on their menu - shrimp and crab (no lobster). We ordered it often. But it was a white sauce pizza, not tomato sauce - I do not care at all for the combination of seafood and tomatoes. It was cooked very carefully and the shellfish was still tender and sweet and not overcooked and dry. No matter what kind of sauce you use, overcooking is something that you would have to really be careful about. People will buy it once out of curiosity, but won't spend the money again if it is dry.

They DO! They still make Sociables, too - along with Rye Finn Crisp my crackers of choice for Cheddar and Port Wine spread!

Still not 100%, so I went full childhood comfort mode for lunch today: Lipton noodle soup and Chicken in a Biskit crackers.

Another great use for the wonderful Bake/Steam setting. I had a 3 day old croissant this morning. Pretty unyielding, but not completely hard. 325F for 7 minutes on Bake/Steam and it was perfect. Not quite as flaky as a fresh one judging from the fewer shards on my plate after eating, but quite good!

This morning:

This! It's my only complaint about my stove-side Unicorn Magnum mill - the mess of pepper on the counter. Even with the little plate thingy underneath it gets scattered.

See @ElsieD's post just above for the link.

That's it!

@Captain - ooooh! I love those pikelets so much. You were so generous and shared your recipe. I need to make them again soon. This is ridiculous. And embarrassing. But really, really sinfully good. I tried the internet hack for whomp cinnamon rolls where you add a mixture of brown sugar and heavy cream to the pan of rolls before you cook them. Rolls just out of the CSO: Iced: SO good. Gooey and rich. I think that maybe I should have flipped the rolls over when I took them out of the pan because on the plate there was lots of seepage of what amounted to a thin caramel sauce. If I’d have flipped it, I think that would have seeped back into the rolls.

Welcome to eG, @Ralf Pi! I'm looking forward to hearing more from you! Feel free to ask questions - we're a pretty friendly bunch.

Yep! That's the peppermill I have.

@Norm Matthews – I love the look of your kebabs. It reminds me of my childhood. Kebabs were one of my mom’s go-to company meals. She would always make one for me with just the meat! I also love the sprouts as a side dish! @weinoo – Sorry your hand is still hurting. I’ve had a couple of hand surgeries and it really surprised me how long it took for those to heal! Pizza looks great, though. I’d love to be able to grab a slice like that here in Richmond. @gfweb – prayers for everyone affected at your house and your guests’. @Shelby – sorry, I’ve been MIA with this cold/whatever and I missed your question. Yes, we froze a lot of the BBQ. A couple of Jessica’s friends really came through for us when our refrigerator broke down. One lent us a dorm fridge and another one GAVE us another one. So they both got some of the BBQ. As did some other folks. But we have a LOT of it left. Poor you!!! I’m so sorry for the injury! It sounds awful. Hope you are healing well. I can’t believe that you have a guest coming, too! I’ve said it before – you are my hero!!! Am still feeling the effects of a upper respiratory infection that started last Friday. Tested negative for COVID, thank goodness, but I’ve been pretty miserable. Last Friday night was this starting to not feel great dinner: Whitefish salad, sourdough ET bagel, and college student ramen. On Saturday, I was too out of it to cook, but still hungry. We got dinner at Yen Ching, our neighborhood place. Hot & Sour and Wonton soups: Mr. Kim’s orange beef: My Five Taste shrimp with water chestnuts: My first time trying this, and it was tasty. Though, I’d have loved a few more vegetables – maybe some snow peas and bean sprouts. On the way home, more comfort food: 😁 Sunday was a very un-Sunday-ish supper! Dogs, Sloppy Joes, and some Mrs. Fearnow’s Brunswick stew (local brand): The stew tasted weird to me (meds maybe?), so I ended up with the oh-so-healthy dinner of two fatty meats on white buns 🙄. Monday was something I’d been planning for a few days but was too sick to cook. Kielbasa, kraut, pierogies, and some good, crusty bread: Tonight: Next door neighbor’s ribs, Mr. Kim’s BBQ, Jessica’s quick pickles, corn, slaw, and Patti’s oven fries. With cornbread: Close up of Jessica’s pickles: Really good – crisp and just the perfect amount of dill and sharpness.

I ended up with a week-long (so far) upper respiratory infection starting last Friday. Tested negative for COVID, thank goodness. This was my not feeling terrible, but not feeling great, either brunch on Saturday: Scrambled eggs, sausage gravy and biscuits, and one more biscuit with strawberry jam for comfort 😉.

Always salt and pepper shakers on the table. My mother's Italian maternal family loved strong flavors (not hot/spicy) salty, sour, fermented, and strong vegetables - cabbage, greens, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, etc. A favorite post-dinner palate cleanser was taking the spent lemon wedge out of their ice tea and salting it before eating the flesh. I still offer salt and pepper at the dinner table - Maldon salt (because I love a flakey salt to finish a dish) in a pretty dish and a decent looking pepper grinder. I never saw a pepper grinder in my family's homes.

After being exhorted for years to salt my pasta water until it was "as salty as the sea", I realized that that was too salty for us and have finally pulled back. It's bizarre that at age 63, I'm finally starting to make the rules for my own kitchen. It's funny though - I'm much more likely to find a dish over-salted when it has come from a chef-run kitchen than from a cook-run kitchen (a cafe, diner or deli, for instance).