Kim Shook

Bruce – I love the looks of the shrimp in the tomato cream sauce (and, of course the forbidden – to me – rice). Shelby – ok, I’ll ‘fess up. Those pierogies are frozen. Mrs. Somebody's. I just cook them like frozen potstickers (yeah, I use them, too ) – plunk in a pan with a little water and oil, cover and cook until soft and then uncover, turn up the heat to evaporate the water and brown (sometimes I add a little butter at that point). But I did caramelize my onions for-EVER! robirdstx – we did manage to get out of the neighborhood to go to work on Monday. I’ve lived here on and off since 1978 and I’ve never seen this much snow here. Since I am a snow freak, I am actually jealous of Washington DC ! Last Sunday, we went out for a little while to do some shopping, but didn’t stay out long. I spent the day making soup: My mother’s vegetable soup and beef vegetable. Most of the beef went next door to thank the neighbor who dug us out of what the plow dumped in front of our driveway (before we even got up!) We didn’t go anywhere for game watching, so I made us a treat: two little lobsters. I tried out two versions of lobster rolls – cold w/ mayo and celery and hot with just butter. We preferred the cold, but I’m thinking that if we’d been able to get REALLY good lobsters, we’d have liked the hot better. Our ‘feast’: Lobster rolls, various chips and dips and trashy old meatballs w/ BBQ sauce and apricot preserves. Last night’s dinner was some of the vegetable soup with some Parmesan shavings: And a lovely little bread, egg and cheese concoction called Grilled Swiss Toast (or “Šveitsi võileivad”) that Pille posted some time ago: This is basically just bread, hard boiled eggs and cheese baked in the oven until the cheese melts. Delicious and perfect with the soup.

Prawn – your gravlax is gorgeous! Can I have some directions, please? ThisRedHead – oatmeal cookies are a perfect breakfast (and the only way oatmeal passes my lips). Breakfast last Sunday: I think that you can figure this out. The bacon is just regular bacon. There is Benton’s in the shed freezer, but no one wanted to venture out into this: to retrieve it!

Dakki – sorry your cheesecake wasn’t perfect, but I LIKE your attitude ! I don’t think that overmixing is your problem, either. I can’t figure what would cause lumpiness, though. Did it TASTE good? If so, you have a little problem, not a big one, after all ! jenc – your cookies are adorable! What is the texture and flavor like? I am totally ignorant of Asian sweets. I made a chocolate/chocolate cake for a work birthday: Sometimes just a plain old chocolate cake with chocolate frosting is really, really good!

Shelby – Hi! I missed you! Both of those dishes look wonderful. I wish I had access to wild goose (cleaned and all, I mean). Blether – beautiful ravioli and what an intriguing sounding filling. And the chicken pie is just fantastic looking. robirdstx – gorgeous pizza! That would be a great meal for today, if I could get out of the house to get tomatoes and cheese! kayb – what a great idea for the meatloaf! The topping is my favorite part, too. I’ll have to try that. Mark – that soup is absolutely beautiful and I’m really impressed with the wontons. Dinner last night: Quick pickle of cukes and radishes with rice wine vinegar and Splenda Kielbasa glazed w/ honey mustard and apricot preserves, pierogies w/ caramelized onions and sauerkraut. I made a loaf of wonderful banana bread yesterday, so that was dessert.

Good Lord! One year later and I'm the only person to post on this thread! This snowy day just seemed to call for this for lunch: Brunswick stew (not homemade, but a local brand that is really good) and grilled cheese. Mr. Kim’s has American, Swiss, Dijon and pepper relish.

Dakki – can’t wait to see the cheesecake. Cheesecakes are probably my favorite dessert, both to eat and to cook. They are so rewarding and the possibilities are endless. In between blizzards, we finally managed to celebrate Jessica’s 26th birthday Wednesday night. She requested cupcakes – PBJ and Pink Lemonade. The PBJ’s (yellow cake) all filled with grape jelly and ready for the PB frosting: Finished and close up: Inside view: The Pink Lemonade cupcakes: Close up: That’s a little bit of candied lemon peel on top. I used the leftover pink lemonade concentrate to candy it, so it turned out pink instead of yellow. Inside view: The PBJ’s were, in one way a disappointment. The frosting is delicious and the concept is great. They are from a Tyler Florence recipe and the first time that I made them, the cupcakes were pretty good. But the last couple of times, they were horrible – very dense and heavy. Luckily, I realized it in time to run to the store and get a box of yellow cake mix. I really need to do another yellow cake recipe tests. I wasn’t happy with any of the recipes that I tried last time I did an experiment. My ideal cupcake would the exact texture of a cake mix cake, but with the flavor of a homemade cake. Oh, well – that’s for another time! Everyone liked these and they sure made a nice show:

I love the word 'gourmet' when I read it in one of my old bound issues of Gourmet or when I read it in an old book. It's a word that, to me, is evocative of another time. But I HATE being called a gourmet by well-intentioned friends. 'Foodie' makes my skin crawl. I think that we DO need a designation, but I have no idea what that would be. I refuse to use "I'm into food". I usually just say that I am interested in cooking and food. That's a little unwieldy, but at least it doesn't sound pretentious.

I ended up going with the Wm. Sonoma grilling book, but I will need a father's day gift in June, so I'll be ordering the Big Green Egg book, too. Thanks so much for the help, folks!

We really liked Molyvos. The stand out thing for us was the lamb and pork sausage. Really good.

Well here I am stuck at home with a virus, not to mention snow and getting ready for company Thursday night and Super Bowl prep. My dad's birthday is Friday and I can't get out to look for something. I was thinking a really nice grilling book. He grills a lot and has both a gas grill and an Egg and he's pretty good. So nothing too basic. BUT he's not the most adventuresome eater, so nothing too exotic, either. Can anyone recommend something that I could order and have sent? Thanks so much!

Thank you! It is my go-to bread when I want something simple and uncomplicated. This time I just brushed it with an egg wash and added poppy and sesame seeds. Here's the recipe.

Richard – just gorgeous. I wish I had someone like you to make me such goodies! Jmahl – beautiful pound cake! The texture looks great and I love the crown – mine never crown like that! This weekend I made a lovely banana bread from a recipe that I got from a friend at another site: This is really fantastic banana bread – moist and fragrant. Mr. Kim took it to work with him yesterday and it just vanished! Everyone loved it. I almost always have bananas and pecans in the freezer, so I’ll be making this one often.

I have to agree with you here, Janet. Someone once gave me a mint that had the flavor of violets - tasted like the bottom of an old lady's purse <shudder>. He was very offended at my comparison .

Here's what my onion keeper looks like. At least it didn't set Santa back too much!

I am a very adventuresome eater and will try almost anything - for lunch or dinner. But at breakfast, I am a total southern American - eggs, pork, potatoes and bread for me please.

OUCH! I love my onion-shaped onion keeper. I not only have the onion-shaped onion keeper, but the lemon-shaped lemon keeper, too . I don't know that they work any better than a ziplock bag, but they are cute and immediately identifiable.

robirdstx – beautiful bread! Peter – love the look of the potatoes and gooey cheese. I want to do that soon. percyn – I want all the specifics of that short rib, sweet potato soufflé, cornbread dish. That looks and sounds so amazing. We have a foot of snow, so I can’t go shopping tomorrow, but I want that very, very soon!! This is what it looked like at my house today: gorgeous, lovely, isolating SNOW! We had notice that this would happen, so I went shopping on the way home yesterday. Today I cooked ! CI American white bread Slice: I also made Bourdain’s boeuf bourguignon: Dinner was an iceberg wedge salad w/ bleu cheese dressing and bacon: and the bourguignon w/ some roasted red potatoes: A perfect warming, comforting winter meal.

percyn - love the look of that pancake breakfast! Last weekend – Mr. Kim’s breakfast: Gruyere and chive omelet, Benton’s bacon and navel orange slices Mine: A little of Mr. Kim’s omelet on an English muffin with Benton’s bacon

I assume that this is the correct thread for this? Good Lord. The commercial is hilarious - people just demolishing eggs all over their counters and stoves. This is something that NO ONE would buy for themselves, but that someone would buy for a cook thinking (or NOT thinking) "what a cool tool"!

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! Lior, I didn't make the chocolate squares - they were Ghirardelli white chocoate squares. Very convenient! ejw - gorgeous chocolate! I love the idea of including the pop rocks. I have some pop rocks that I'm planning to top some cookies with and was wondering how they will work on top of frosting. I'm guessing that if they work in chocolate, they will work on frosting.

robirdstx - gorgeous pizza! Jeff - love that fried stuff! Your catfish is really beautiful. powerplantop - everything looks wonderful, but I am mesmerized by that perfectly fried egg! Last night I made fennel soup gratin. It was so wonderful and warming. Mr. Kim came in from a late meeting after 10 o'clock and said that it was the perfect meal for that time of night. The caramelized onions and fennel: Is there anything prettier? The soup: Finished with bread cubes and melted Gruyere:

I love this thread and the pictures of all the wonderful glassware! I have some glasses similar to Katie’s that I just love: I have 4 of each and found them at a local flea market. I think that I paid about $2/stem for them.

For my SIL’s graduation party, I made cake and fruit tarts. The cake was three layers – two of the CI German chocolate and one of plain white cake w/ vanilla bean: Not the flattest cake ever. The frosting was my Fudgy Chocolate Buttercream – a combination of a fudge frosting and a buttercream. I think that it’s the perfect mixture of deep chocolate flavor and a good consistency for piping: The decorations: I made little mortar boards with mini white Reeses cups, white chocolate squares, Twizzler pull-off tassels and M&Ms all stuck together with melted candy coating. They were really cute, but I’d like to find something better for the tassels and I wish I’d had time to get colored candy coating. The decorated cake and a close up: Inside: I was really pleased with the cake. The flavor was good, everyone really seemed to love it. My decorating skills are amateur and the evenness of the layers of cake and frosting isn’t great, but it was cute and it was GOOD and I’m happy with that. The fruit tarts were so easy. I was very lucky to find this recipe, because when she requested fruit tarts, I was envisioning those little pastry tarts, brushed with chocolate, filled with custard, topped with sliced fruit and glazed with jelly. I only got the request on Tuesday, so I had no time and was freaking out a little about being able to do them properly and on time. So when the recipe I used turned up on a search, I was so happy! They start with a shortbread crust: You fill them with a mixture of cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice and lemon zest: And top with whatever fruit you like: I chose blackberries and blueberries. Crispy, creamy, tart, sweet. These were wonderful!

percyn – lovely omelet! Bruce – that chorizo omelet is just gorgeous – what a perfect color you got on it! Blether – that is my favorite breakfast, too. Great looking bacon! Breakfast yesterday: Rib eye strips w/ mushrooms, eggs & ET bagels

I share so many of these - casseroles, junk food, Beef and Cheddars. My most embarrassing one is that I adore Underwood Deviled Ham - on white bread with tons of Duke's mayo. But the shameful thing is that in spite of this - I make fun of my husband and daughter for liking Domino's and Pizza Hut . How I dare, I don't know.