Kim Shook

Actually, I cheated and made the bread pudding with doughnuts from a grocery store bakery. I've made it with chocolate covered doughnuts and cinnamon buns, too. A young friend of ours used to work at Starbucks and would bring us bags of leftover pastries every couple of nights and I ended up with a freezer full of them. I was desperate to use them up and googled and came up with this recipe!

Please, I need the recipe for this amazing looking creation. ← Here you go! Enjoy!

I’ve been spending most of my weekends lately going to Reidsville NC to visit my grandmother who is in a rehab center working to recover from a stroke. Most of my childhood summers were spent in Reidsville with my grandparents on their farm. So many of my food memories, tastes and lessons were learned there. Either in my grandmother’s (or others’) kitchen, in the cafes that my grandfather took me for ‘dinner’ (lunch to Yankees) and at church suppers. Granddaddy had 80 acres and 30-some head of cattle, so we ate LOTS of beef. One of his friends had a huge vegetable farm and pigs. His tenants cooked exotic things like fried fatback and hog jowls and took me to tent revivals (slightly alarming to my Episcopal soul) where the food afterwards was always delicious, warm and always slightly damp from being covered with foil in the summer humidity. I remember my grandfather taking me along to the Tire company where he did business (along with a poker game) and, while he was busy I’d visit with the men in the factory, who would always buy me a Co’cola and a Tom’s peanut bar. There is one pear tree left in my granddaddy’s orchard. Where there used to be almost two dozen assorted apple and pear trees. Snugged up next was a cow pasture where gathered the whole 30-some of them, chewing and drooling, their eyes entreating us to toss them the apple cores they loved so dearly. In spite of Granddaddy’s threats of switchings to come if I overfed them, I always obliged with a few. And never got the switch, either. Granddaddy was a tough talker, but soft inside. Those apples were tiny and puckeringly tart – cooking apples, I suppose. They dried out the inside of your mouth like you’d been eating alum. Mostly, Grandma Jean cooked with them. But small, sour apples are still my favorites. The pears were small, too. Crunchy, with no pear-y juiciness. But they made the most divine pear preserves. Granddaddy is gone now. Grandma Jean’s recovery from a stroke and return to home is questionable. The old log house and the huge, sheltering tree are gone and where there were cows and a barn and an old tobacco shed are new houses and a road (!!!). But the pear tree is there and Granddaddy’s shop still gives off a wispy scent of machine oil, hay and cigar smoke. When I was there a couple of weekends ago, I dragged a step ladder out to the pear tree and picked all I could reach. I thought we’d eat what we could at home. But a couple of nights ago, I was driven to make some of Grandma Jean’s preserves. I had no business making preserves! I needed to do laundry and clean at least one bathroom. Or go to bed early. But I needed to make those preserves…I needed to TASTE those preserves. So I peeled and cut up the pears: I finally found a use for the useless (to me) Y peeler – it is wonderful for peeling extremely hard pears with very stubborn peels! Added lemon juice and sugar and let them sit overnight: Last night when I got home from work, I boiled them down and put them in jars, not forgetting to add the lemon slice that Grandma Jean always adds. Sometimes, when I make them, I add a slice of ginger, but not this time; this time I want HER preserves, not my version. There weren’t a lot of pears. There was only enough for two jars: One for me and one for Momma. I may never have these exact preserves again – it is a very old, gnarled tree – and who knows what will happen to it by next year. But for now, I have that jar and these preserves: And they taste like sunshine and autumn and my grandparents and my childhood. All in one spoonful! Does anyone else have a similar story? I'd love to hear it!

It looks like I haven’t posted about a meal since July! I’ve been spending a LOT of time on the road lately dealing with family health problems and so haven’t been cooking much at all. Monday nights are for unpacking and going to bed early and Thursday nights are spent doing laundry and packing. So Tuesday and Wednesday nights have been mostly take-out, frozen pizza, quick sandwiches or breakfast – i.e. nothing worth noting or taking pictures of, certainly. But I have been sneaking peeks at eG all the while and longing for the days when I am home more! Just a few comments to catch up! percyn – that patty melt with the egg is fantastic – I have to try that SOON! And your smorgasbord is my very favorite kind of meal! Shelby – your tomatoes are gorgeous. I haven’t had any that looked like that in YEARS! Not from a farm stand, garden or market! Wow. menuinprogress – love the taquitos – I’ve never made my own and I don’t know why! Now I want to try soon! monavano – your corn soup is lovely, but I was totally captivated by the idea of putting a ham croquette on top! Thanks for posting the Catalina dressing recipe. I can’t wait to try it. Alinka – I would have asked for both a slice of the gorgeous fruit tart AND a cupcake! lesliec – your ‘Christmas’ dinner sounded delicious and intriguiging! I wish I could have seen pictures! Prawn – I would trade all of my next week’s meals for one plate of your Fritto Misto Di Mare! Amazing! Bruce – that’s the best looking BLT I’ve seen all summer! The one occasion that I have cooked for recently was Mr. Kim’s family reunion last weekend. I made a fresh salsa with a lot of help from an online friend. It consisted of grilled corn and jalapenos, black beans, tomatoes, roasted tomato sauce and roasted garlic and all the usual add-ins: red onion, cilantro, lime juice, etc. The corn and jalapenos: The roasted tomatoes and garlic: Finished: It was delicious (and made a TON of salsa – we still have some left) and very popular. I also made the much maligned, but delectable Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding: It is trashy, fragrant, utter delicious doughnut goodness . I’ve noticed that the folks at all the food boards who express horror at the idea of this dish are never the ones who’ve tasted it. All I can say is that 20 minutes after I put it in the oven, everyone in the house starts to congregate in the kitchen, sniffing and wondering when it will be done! Tonight is Mr. Kim’s birthday and we are off to his favorite German restaurant (it’s 90 degrees here today – do Germans even eat German food when it’s that hot?), the Bavarian Chef in Madison, VA. I am planning on ordering the snail fritters and begging bites of everyone else’s entrees! :lol:

Dale is an asshead. And where was Lo during all that? He was her sous chef, so she needed to bat him down for all that crap. I was really sorry to see that the children got into this one - I knew when I saw them walk in the door that 'drama' was about to ensue. Glad to see CJ, Richard and Fabio, but the rest need to be pinched by the head and dropped into a bottomless chasm! I'd be happy with any of the last three to win - but I think Keller is the one to beat.

Back to Washington this coming weekend for the Paul McCartney concert. We're looking for somewhere (preferably in Old Town) for brunch. Vermillion was wonderful and I'd be perfectly happy going back there, but wondered if there was any place else that I should try?

Well, this was somewhat better: The ham was still bland, but it was improved by crusty, toasted English muffins, over-medium eggs (it was almost 10, I couldn’t be bothered poaching) and rich hollandaise. The potatoes, however, were NOT good. My father (ordinarily a good cook) recommended them – they are frozen roasted potatoes. He and my step-mom love them. Us? Not so much. My step-dad (Ted Fairhead) has been in the hospital, so I’m leaving tomorrow afternoon to go to NC to visit him and my mother. If I cook, I’ll post when I get home. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

petit cochon – WOW! That is just gorgeous! What a summer picture! Alinka – Let me say again that I’m so glad to see you and your cooking. That cake is a thing of beauty! The Cake Bible is on my wish list, so I especially loved that. The crumb is perfect and I love the little confectioner’s sugar design on top. What is THIS???? A colorized picture from WWII?? An old picture of my grandmother’s from the 1950’s? An entry from The Gallery of Regrettable Food ?? Nope, none of those. This was dinner at the Shook’s last night. This was last minute, stop at the little grocery store on the way home, grab a couple of things and put it together with fridge stuff dinner. Grilled ham and (canned) pineapple slices marinated in gyoza/ginger sauce, BOXED macaroni and cheese, marinated cucumbers and sauerkraut. The ham was some slices that I’d bought to make a quiche and forgotten when I made bacon quiche instead. The store had NO fresh pineapples (what is up with that??), the sauerkraut was leftover from hot dogs the other night and my daughter loves Kraft mac and cheese. What can I say. It all tasted pretty much how it looked – tired, boring and bland. <sigh> Since I have about 9 billion of those ham slices left, they will figure in tonight’s dinner, too. But I’m going to try something a little more interesting. More later!

We watched two in a row, because we missed last week. In the first show, we were rooting for Besh. Always loved him and admired his cooking, attitude and his work in NOLA after Katrina. Plus he's a MARINE (daughter and I love uniforms)!! He screwed up the eggs, but I don't honestly think he'd have won even if they had worked - Lo's eggs were just MUCH more interesting. I'm glad that Michael Chiarello won last night, but I just loved Moonen! His food looked fantastic and his spirit was wonderful. I agree that if he'd just thrown those delicious sounding shrimp corndogs on some plates (they looked done in the fry basket), he would have won. Jeez, folks, GET IT ON THE PLATE! Let the judges bitch and moan all they want about missing sides, messy edges, but let them taste your food. I have to admit that I always found Chiarello a little smarmy on his FoodTV show, but last night I thought he was genuine and charming. I am still loving the camaraderie of this show as compared to Top Chef. Just so much more professional.

percyn – Like Toliver, I’m intrigued by the surf and turf burger – let’s hear more. HappyLab – gorgeous paella! Last night we finished up the rest of the bouillabaisse from the night before. I also made a quiche by the CI method with bacon and cheddar: I just love this quiche. It is so creamy and fluffy. And because it’s so incredibly easy, I can make it on a work night.

Your timing is amazing. The PBS series "America's Test Kitchen" episode that aired this weekend in my area featured this recipe. It seems like it shouldn't work but it does. ← We do this a lot now. It's really good and if you have some great beef stock, you can make gravy to go with it. Last night I made the CI Best Quiche Lorraine with bacon and cheddar instead of Gruyère: Such a great, easy, custardy quiche.

My daughter's birthday gift to me is lunch at my choice of restaurants followed by seeing the movie. I can't wait. I loved the book and the project. I think Streep has nailed Julia and I hope that her bawdiness has made it into the movie.

6ppc – what a gorgeous roast! Perfect! Lindsey – the lamb dinner sounds great. Let’s hear more from you! menuinprogress – your gazpacho is gorgeous – I especially love those glisteny, rosy tomatoes! Dr. J – those are awfully good pictures for a phone! And everything looks delicious! mgaretz – I love that you tested the testers! I was lecturing my daughter at the grocery store tonight about NOT shucking the corn until just before cooking it (while everyone around me was shucking it before they bought it – I was quietly lecturing, NOT being a boor ) and thought, “How do I know that for sure? I just accept what I’ve been told” and I wondered if it really makes a discernable difference with supermarket corn. Next time I buy corn, I’ll get twice as much and shuck half at the store and half just before cooking and then I’ll really know. Good job! Tonight I did something called Twenty-Minute Bouillabaisse from The American Diabetes Association cookbook. I don’t know how authentic it was, never having made bouillabaisse before, but it was really good. And FAST! Start to finish is really was only a little more than 20 minutes. I could do this on a work night, easy. I used cod, shrimp and canned clams. I got the shrimp at Whole Foods and they were wonderful – sweet, clean and fresh tasting. They were already peeled and deveined and smelled like nothing but the ocean. Very nice. We also had corn and a nice crusty sourdough baguette to sop up the soup.

I've always known Tuna fish to be tuna from a can and Tuna to be the fresh fish. I have no idea why I think that. ← Me too. Grew up with it called that - not gonna change now.

Breakfast this morning was soft boiled eggs – still don’t have the timing right – I did 4 min. 45 seconds and the whites were still a bit snotty. Next time I’ll do 5 minutes at a true simmer (I used my temperature gun this time – a good idea, I think). I also did sausage links and another recipe that Andie sent me: extra rich bread pudding for mock French toast. It’s a really good and smart solution to being able to have French toast on a weekday morning. A day ahead you make what is basically a bread pudding in a loaf pan. The next morning, you slice and just grill or pan fry it in butter and you have instant French toast. The loaf of bread pudding: Plated:

Everyone really should try making the andiesenji’s cake – it was so good start to finish – Mr. Kim finished it up last night and a week later, it was delicious. chocoera – those cakes are adorable and I loved the idea of the little one! dystopiandreamgirl – Goodness! You did it again! What an amazing cake. Just exquisite. For dessert at the 4th of July celebration that we attended, I made an absolutely delicious lemon-poppy seed cake filled with strawberries, jam and frosted with a white chocolate whipped cream: The cake was a pain to frost – as the whipped cream got warm, it slumped and ran off the cake. I wondered as I was doing it if it wouldn’t be better to just make a white chocolate buttercream, but the whipped cream was perfect. Next time, I’ll chill the cake and the whipped cream before trying to frost the cake.

Our 4th of July dinner and fireworks was spent with some old friends. They did burgers, dogs, baked beans and slaw. I contributed a shrimp, crab and artichoke dip, macaroni and cheese and a wonderful new cake. The dip: The mac and cheese: Lemon poppy seed/strawberry cake w/ white chocolate whipped cream:

Alinka!!! HI! Gorgeous borscht and perfect ribs! Dinner tonight was teriyaki pork, pineapple and onion skewers, Tangier Island corn pudding, tomatoes and marinated cucumbers:

Klary - I couldn't ever say pick one over the other - I was born and raised in Washington, and have spent some time in Baltimore and very little in Philly. I want so much to spend more in Philly - the things that I've read here at eG and other places have really interested me. One thing to consider (which may or may not be a real consideration for you) is that lots and lots of the sights and museums in DC are FREE. That said, what ever city you end up in, you MUST come to Richmond !

Last night – another VERY basic dinner: Sloppy Joes, yellow squash and onions, marinated cucumbers, baked beans, tomatoes and andiesenji’s cake for dessert: I’m sorry for the quality of the picture. It looked fine on the camera!

Thanks, Kim. Here is the recipe from the Chronicle a couple of years ago: CLICK. ← Thanks for linking that, tupac. It is the one I printed out. Of course, I had no idea where it had gotten to, so I appreciate this!

Hmmm. I have a recipe for that sandwich somewhere. I think it was from a newspaper article. It intrigued me, but not nearly as much as you have, tupac - beautiful essay.

Here I am with a couple of blurry pictures! We had a wonderful visit and an, as usual, amazing meal! We really always love this place. Mr. Kim’s starter was the scungili insalada. We get this every single time we go here. Like always it was tender and sweet and the sauce/dressing perfect. Jerry and Meredith shared the white bean, arugula and squid salad and I had some amazingly good oysters – among the best I’ve ever tasted. No pictures of our starters – we were talking so much that I forgot to take pictures until our mains – evidence of good company, no ? For dinner, Meredith had penne with…um…crap, Meredith, chime in here please – ricotta, red sauce, what else??? It was good, I know that: Jerry had the aforementioned lamb sausage, polenta and beans: Mr. Kim had a wonderful flat iron steak, unbelievably tender and juicy and delicious: in the foreground of the picture is what’s left of the dressing of the scungili insalada – we wouldn’t let them take it away and kept asking for more bread (the incomparable Billy Bread – a Richmond treasure) to sop it up! I had the spaghetti with puttanesca sauce: pungent with melty, lovely anchovies and really GOOD olives! I wonder how many folks noticed Jerry’s almost throwaway line: “my wife is moving to Kansas City” – yep, they’re married, folks! Newlyweds – got married last week in Savannah! Congratulations, Meredith and Jerry!!

That looks amazing. I'm probably one of the few people around who likes fruitcake and I love the idea of a chocolate fruitcake. Definitely on my list of things to make. I take it from the recipe that this is a cake of English origin. Is that true? ← andiesenji will have to answer that, but she says that the origins of the recipe are found in a family journal from 1690, so that is likely!

dystopiandreamgirl - I'm a little late with it, but your 'droopy' cake is just amazing! I cannot imagine ever being able to create something like that! Truly awesome! Marmish - lovely fruit tart - probably my favorite summer dessert! Rob - your latest efforts are fantastic! I especially want to taste the peanut butter one (my favorite flavor ever). cmflick - no need to apologize for your lovely marshmallows - they look wonderful. hansjoakim - I like the looks of your turnover and the apple points is just lovely! Yesterday I made andiesenji's Fruited Cocoa Cake. It's an extremely old family recipe - you should go to the recipe to read the history - it's fascinating. It was very good; not a fruitcake, but very moist and deeply flavored. You can use almost any dried fruit in it she says, but I had cranberries, raisins and figs, so that’s what I used: