Kim Shook

I am ashamed to admit (HERE of all places) that it was canned fluffy white frosting! I was asked to make it the night before and worked all day that day and just didn't have time for anything else.

I was so busy last night (out of town guest coming by to visit our daughter, end of the week chores, etc.) that I had no business EATING much less cooking , but I NEEDED to cook (y’all know what I mean) so I made some fries: with some cool black Mediterranean sea salt that I found. And tried out a new recipe for hush puppies that a friend sent me: Much, much better than last time! These were lighter, much more flavorful and just better all around!

schneich - those petits fours are gorgeous! The blueberry one just speaks to me. I adore the tiny little sugar sprinkle across the top! Rob - your mousse is just incredibly lovely. I love the little yolkish dollop of puree on top and the sprayed on white chocolate effect. How I wish that we had something even approaching the quality of what you do! Um...er...ah...down here at a WHOLE 'nother level , I made this coconut cake last night for a party that my MIL is giving:

All I know is, about half the time that I try to make this damn fudge, I end up with Tootsie Rolls. I actually like Tootsie Rolls a lot better than the fudge !

Growing up in VA and NC, I've always had macaroni and cheese as a side dish. Just to show how ingrained this is, when I used to inspect day care homes and vet menus for the USDA, no matter how many times I reminded them, every month someone would have a meal disqualified because they counted mac n cheese as a 'vegetable'!

Thanks, Shelby! That meal looks wonderful - I'm very jealous of your mad pasta skills. What really grabbed me was the brussels sprouts! They look amazing! Could you post a recipe?? I want them!!

Nate - Here's the recipe for the tartar sauce and I will trade any amount of fish to you for a soft shell - my VERY favorite way to eat crabs! And that salad is pretty gorgeous, too. Crabs and strawberries - add a couple of ears of Silver Queen corn and you have the perfect summer supper!

Kim, check out this topic on Hush Puppies. I do know that Malawry, who posted, is well-known among folks from a Pig Pickin' for her hush puppies! ← Thanks, Susan! I am trying again tonight and will look at that thread!

Here I haven't cooked in ages and I'm following myself tonight!! Dinner tonight was fish and chips, corn pudding, slaw and hush puppies. I made key lime mayonnaise: So that I could make this: Tartar sauce – I just played with it - worchestershire pepper, tarragon, parsley, grated onion, dijon, sweet relish, dill pickles, salt. It was really good! Fish: I used my regular CI recipe, but subbed rice flour for AP and it was so incredibly crispy. I'm a convert! Chips: Corn pudding and slaw: Hush puppies: These were so disappointing! Unbelievably dry. I like a really moist, oniony hush puppy. Does anyone have a good recipe??

Ann – that steak is just amazing looking and the photography is just as good! I am sitting here still full from lamb burgers that we had out tonight, not to mention a couple of cookies and I want just ONE BITE of that steak! Bruce – I’ll take one fork swirl of the spaghetti with my bite of Ann’s steak!! Dinner last night was salad, hamburgers w/ pimento cheese, roasted potatoes and Silver Queen corn (I found this frozen at The Fresh Market – it was the best frozen corn I’ve ever had and better than lots of ‘fresh’ corn I’ve had):

Has anyone read The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister? I just finished it and found it lovely. This is how I want to eat and cook and LIVE. I cannot imagine reading this book without becoming ravenous!

Bruce – the fish in coconut milk looks so lovely and silky! Soba – the gnocchi is fantastic looking! I’ve never made traditional gnocchi – only the Jacques Pépin Gnocchi Parisienne, but I’d really like to try Ricotta! Ann – gorgeous prawns <sigh> I finally have a chance to post my Mother’s Day dinner. It was mostly a salad/sandwich meal with desserts. A friend contributed her wonderful quiches – one was ham and the other sausage: Rachel’s “Paminna” Cheese: Rachel’s Chicken Salad: My new standard for chicken salad – it really is the best I’ve ever tasted. Egg Salad: Oddly enough, this seemed to be everyone’s favorite thing on the table. I have to thank eG for that, I think! When I was searching for ways to fix my wet, watery egg salad I got a LOT of help here! Cold Cuts & Cheese: Arranged beautifully by my daughter. eG’s Doddie’s Ham and Crab Salad: This has been a favorite of ours for awhile now. Doddie makes it with surimi, which I like quite well. It’s not really crabmeat and I don’t expect it to taste like crab, but it’s a nice, firm, mild fish that I like in a lot of things. But Americans are funny about it, so I made this one with blue crab. It was delicious and very popular. Assorted breads and Petit Croissants: My mother’s vegetable soup: This usually has shredded cabbage and some kind of pasta in it, but some people (especially KIDS) are funny about cabbage and we have a niece who has to have gluten free now so I left those out. Missed them, too. Apple/Manchego Salad w/ Marcona almonds: Chinese Salad with ramen noodle/sesame/almond crunchies: Rachel’s son’s Sweet Piggies: I showed these on the thread about my trip to Rachel’s and they disappeared, just like at Rachel’s . Dessert table: The same friend who makes the quiches also makes a famous and awesome almond pound cake. That’s the cake on the right. Jumbo Cupcakes: Martha Stewart’s Gluten Free Chocolate w/ 7 Minute Frosting: this was very good – a tiny bit tougher than regular cake, but the flavor was wonderful – our niece was very happy and took home all the leftovers!! Coconut: not my regular – I did a shortcut with a mix, but it was very good. White Cake w/ Pink Fluffy Frosting and Polka Dots: the polka dots were sour fruit slice candies, rolled out and punched out into circles – really a cute cake The combination of using my new 600 KA mixer and the jumbo cupcake pan caused 2 of the cakes to fall slightly – they tasted fine, but I need a little more practice with both.

Have you tried Kim Shook's coobook? Some GREAT stuff here: http://www.recipecircus.com/cgi-bin/recipe...login=KimberlynI second the motion. The Hot Bacon and Swiss Cheese dip is absolutely fantastic with broccoli and cauliflower florets. I also made baby tomato "roses" on the tiny wooden fork type picks which went like wildfire with that dip. I have one of the tiny 2-cup crockpots and I think I refilled it at least half a dozen times - 30 people. And, I had a lot of other dips and things but this got the most action.That recipe looks wonderful, but no suggestions as to which potential dippers are best. Does this work equally well with chips, crackers, etc., as it does with veggies?I found people mopping the stuff out of the little containers with chunks of bread after they had been removed from the table.I think it will work with just about anything. Give it a try. Made this last night for a small get-together. It really is delicious, but it's also very heavy and rich, so I wouldn't plan on serving it as an opener for a heavy meal. We had some Ritz Crackers handy, as they were called for in the recipe, and served the dip with that, but also, some toasted baguette slices. Our crowd thought that the plainer bread allowed the flavor of the swiss cheese to come through better than the Ritz. I can really see, though, how it would be superb with broccoli or cauliflower florets. I'm definitely taking this dip the next time I go to a gathering where I'm supposed to bring an appetizer. Thanks Kim, and everyone. ← Well, thank you all! I'm honored! Judging from the ingredients, I think that this is probably one of those Jr. League/community cookbook recipes. It is simple, but really, really satisfying.

Thank you all so much! I think she'll have lots of ideas to choose from now and shouldn't have any trouble filling the box up!

If someone were to send you a 'goody box' of food items from the US, what would you like to have included? My daughter has an online friend in Australia who is sending her a box of Oz goods and wants to reciprocate. I thought of Virginia peanuts and barbeque sauce, but am really at a loss. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

I'll be glad to share! Here are three of my favorites: Aunt San's Fudge This is just a classic creamy milk chocolate fudge (I've also made it with dark chocolate, too). It's the one that my great aunt started making as a young girl - she hated that WWI interrupted her fudge making - all the Hershey bars were gone! Apparently fudge making was an important part of a young ladies social life in those days! Chefette's Fudge Our own chefette sent me this recipe when I was lamenting the cruddy fudge that I was trying to make according to Shook family tradition. It is wonderful - rich and dark and complex, but not bitter at all (that was the lamentable part of the Shook fudge ). Cherry-Almond Dark Chocolate Fudge Let me know if you like these at all! They are VERY American, I understand . ← So Kim - do you have a recipe for the type that Mr Kim likes that is less sweet? That's what I'm always in search of. ← Well,sorta . If you read all my notes and the update, I haven't really mastered it yet. If you try and have success, PLEASE let me know. I find this stuff so frustrating that I have given up. Everyone in Mr. Kim's family just tosses it off with no trouble - I'm convinced they are hiding something from me !

I'll be glad to share! Here are three of my favorites: Aunt San's Fudge This is just a classic creamy milk chocolate fudge (I've also made it with dark chocolate, too). It's the one that my great aunt started making as a young girl - she hated that WWI interrupted her fudge making - all the Hershey bars were gone! Apparently fudge making was an important part of a young ladies social life in those days! Chefette's Fudge Our own chefette sent me this recipe when I was lamenting the cruddy fudge that I was trying to make according to Shook family tradition. It is wonderful - rich and dark and complex, but not bitter at all (that was the lamentable part of the Shook fudge ). Cherry-Almond Dark Chocolate Fudge Let me know if you like these at all! They are VERY American, I understand .

They weren't, but the ones I brought in today for Nurse's Week are - I think if I made any other brownies for my office they would throw me out the door!

Ann - those scallops are calling to me and mmmmmmmm Souvlaki! Robert - that sous vide experiment was fascinating! I wish someone would do that for me. I haven't gotten up the whatever-I-need to try doing it, but I admit I'm interested! Soba - that may be the loveliest soup I've ever seen. I just love all the great close-up pictures that some of you are showing - I gotta get that lens for my camera! I catered an event for Mr. Kim's office Monday. They got lunch as a reward for participating in a Food Bank donation drive. So this is what I cooked on Sunday: BBQ Chicken sandwiches. This is a DOZEN chickens , picked and shredded and sauced up with a couple of different commercial sauces and a special thin vinegar based NC sauce that I buy by the gallon at Short Sugars in Reidsville NC when I get there. My hands are still sore! We just bought roasted chickens at Costco. Smoky Beans. This picture was taken before they cooked down for 4 hours. Three different kinds of beans, onions, bacon, those little smoked sausages and a sauce made with ketchup, garlic, brown sugar and English mustard. Mustard slaw. 5 heads of cabbage, shredded - thank goodness for food processors! The sauce is a basic mayo sauce, thinned with vinegar so that it can be used as a side or on the BBQ, with a touch of mustard. Brownies. 4 pans. I just used the Ghirardelli mix. I wasn't about to make them from scratch - too much going on last weekend and it is the best mix I've ever found. I think you can guess what we had for dinner on Monday - can I say how little I was interested in chicken for dinner? Last night was a bucket of popcorn and a Mt. Dew (heaven) at the Springsteen concert in Charlottesville.

Thank you for the kind words about the 'cupcake' - I'm planning on making a trio for Mother's day dinner. I don't have a thing to contribute today (I made mix brownies for a party at Mr. Kim's office on Monday ), but I HAVE to comment. This thread and the Dinner thread are what I show people who are curious about where I spend my time online (those and the late and greatly lamented blogs, of course ). What you folks accomplish here just drops jaws and then shuts mouths! hansjoakim - both of those cakes are just stunning and I am so jealous of how perfect those strawberries look! Ann - my MIL made us a rhubarb pie just recently and it was wonderful. I hadn't ever had a JUST rhubarb pie, always rhubarb and strawberry and I was surprised at how much I liked it. Ilana - fudge is a dividing line in this country. Some folks like it soft and creamy (me), others like it a little dry and not-too-sweet (Mr. Kim) - we say we have a mixed marriage. I can give you recipes for the creamy kind, but seeing your lovely confections, I'm not sure they would be your 'cup of tea' - they really are just unsophisticated sweet goo. And I have never had any success with the other kind. dystopiandreamgirl - I just have no words - Ilana took them all! Just achingly lovely work. What an immense amount of love you put in your work - and thank you so much for the introduction to Goldsworthy - your desserts certainly share the serenity that is seen in his work. Pilori - the truffles looks scrumptious! DeliciouslyLekker - beautiful cake and wonderful photography!

menuinprogress – both the egg and shrimp dishes look fantastic! I finally recovered enough from our trip last weekend to cook on Wednesday night. It was half clean out the fridge and half run by the store on the way home from work. just some bits of cheese from the fridge with the end of the olives and a slice baguette. Scampi, pasta, salad and garlic bread:

Last week we had a wonderful trip. I got to redeem a Christmas gift from Mr. Kim – a trip for a long weekend to stay at a lovely B&B and, much more importantly, to visit our own racheld! To see her (much more wonderfully written) description of our weekend see her blog. We got to her house on Friday mid-morning and she served up a Rachel-ish smorgasbord: chicken salad, egg salad, PAMMINA CHEESE, hummus, pastries from Caro’s bakery, bacon, yogurt and fruit parfaits and ice tea, of course – Things in Dishes, indeed! All set out and served on a lovely flowered linen and pink dish set table in her yard. Dinner that night was at Hollyhock Hill: This was a truly classic, family place. It is an old house that has been a restaurant since 1928. Lots of families, older folks and children, everyone digging in to crisp fried chicken, real potatoes and REAL gravy. The serving ladies are all in long blue jumpers and they even serve what they call a party luncheon – you can just see it full of ladies in hats with little veils. They start you off with what used to be called relishes: Celery, carrots, radishes, pickled beets, cottage cheese and iceberg with their own sweet and sour dressing. For dinner, we all chose (what else?) fried chicken: That came with mashed potatoes, slow cooked green beans, corn and the aforementioned fabulous gravy: Also fluffy biscuits with some good old Indiana apple butter. Chris, Rachel’s husband, says that Indiana is the northern-most southern state and it’s really true. We noticed the same thing when we lived there – some of the best fried chicken we ever had was in Indiana. Dessert was also a classic – something that I remember from ‘nice’ restaurants I went to with my family: ice cream with toppings. Scoops of creamy, rich vanilla ice cream in those little footed metal cups with a twirly server of three sauces to share: chocolate sauce, caramel and a truly nostalgic Kelly green mint sauce – the same sauce that I remember on my oh-so-sophisticated crème de menthe parfaits at the Fisherman’s Inn in Kent Narrow’s, MD on our way to Ocean City. We talked so much that I missed a lot of pictures and I’m sorry because the dessert would have been a nostalgic snapshot. Our B&B was the Garden Retreat in New Palestine, IN. Just a wonderful, restful and serene place. Breakfast on Saturday started with fruit and muffins: And finished with some of the best French toast and sausage I’ve ever tasted: The French toast was really perfect – crusty and crunch and cinnamon-y outside and soft and almost creamy inside! Saturday was really ‘girl time’. The fellows went off to do man-stuff (including a gun show where Chris got me some wonderful kitchen things – a perfectly sized all-purpose knife, a fantastic vegetable peeler, a chopper and a flexible cutting board – all from Rada Cutlery – a company I hadn’t heard of, but Rachel and Chris use a lot of their products and I know why – I haven’t used another knife since I got home). Rachel and I got to do what I’d been dreaming about since I noticed her posts here: we talked, ate, talked, cooked and talked some more. I know that lots of eG folks will be jealous of me and you should be; never have I felt so welcomed and known. And well taken care of: Rachel even remembered that my drink of choice is Kroger’s version of Diet Mountain Dew – flat, because of the gastric bypass and made sure that I had all I could want – how gracious is that? Girl’s lunch: More delectable Things in Dishes: an amazing chicken salad (it’s on the menu for Mother’s Day), hot artichoke dip, deviled eggs, Pammina cheese, ‘cheater’ pickles, little pickled peppers and mozz balls and that dish at the top? Rachel called it ‘Redneck Gazpacho’, Caro called it by the more elegant moniker “BLT soup”, I think– fresh tomatoes, bacon, Saltines (!) and mayo, I think. It was delicious! A real punch of tomato flavor, with a hint of smoky baconness – the crackers seem to completely disappear and serve to thicken the ‘soup’! Me ‘helping’ to cook: And using the same kind of peeler that Chris got for me (Maggie, Rachel wants you to pay special attention to this picture). Dinner was at Fogo de Chao. It’s is a Brazilian churrascaria steakhouse. Mr. Kim and I have not ever been to one and it is amazing. For those that don’t know about them, this is a bustling, lively place for the true carnivore and also, surprisingly for folks who lean more towards a balanced omnivore-ism! The ‘salad bar’ (this is a serious understatement) consists of a boggling assortment of salads, vegetables, breads, cheeses, cured meats and fish: The steakhouse portion of the meal comes to the table on huge skewers carved by lovely, friendly young men: filet, sirloin, garlicky linguica, chicken, beef and pork ribs, rib eye, lamb chops and leg of lamb – all moist, hot, delicious and cut to your order. I didn’t take pictures of it, because I never had anymore than one piece on my plate at a time and it looked a little forlorn. But it was all wonderful and Mr. Kim and I kept thinking of family and friends who would love this place. Two of the best things of the entire night were kind of casual toss offs - they are set on every table without any of the flourishes that the other items are given: fried polenta and cheese gougieres - addicting and perfect. If I could have these two things and the 'salad', I'd be a happy girl, even without a bite of the delicious meat. For dessert we shared crème brulee and an amazingly good chocolate mousse cake that I will be trying to replicate: We wandered downtown Indianapolis (how I miss an ‘alive’ city) and then drifted back to our B&B, where in spite of Things in Dishes, endless roasted meat, salad, chocolate mousse cake and a gastric bypass, we still managed to eat the huge, chewy pecan chocolate chip cookies that our hostess left out for us. Breakfast at the B&B on Sunday started again with some nice fruit: It was nothing fancy – just tangerines, red grapes and apples dusted with 10X (without my glasses, I thought at first that it was topped with cottage cheese and thought “How very mid-western!”), but it was a really nice combination and one I wouldn’t have thought of. There was also a delicious and beautifully turned herb omelet stuffed with spinach and goat cheese, bacon and toast: Dinner (lunch to you Yankees ) at Rachel’s was an amazing, delicious spread. She and Chris graciously included us in a real family meal. Caro was there and a son and daughter-in-law and one precious, dainty, endlessly diverting granddaughter! Quiche: A gorgeous cheese plate that Caro did: Stilton w/ lemon peel, bleu, Morbier, Brie and Emmentaler with all the attendant dibs and dabs. Chris’ beautiful grilled ham: The best ham we’ve ever tasted – bar NONE. (Sitting on the gorgeous stove that we first saw in Rachel’s Thanksgiving blog – it is even more awesome in person.) Part of the spread: Ham, cake, Pink Salad, ‘Redneck Gazpacho’, ‘my’ asparagus (with Rachel’s excellent blender hollandaise), the quiche and Rachel’s son’s astounding contribution – honey drenched pigs in a blanket. This is one of those ‘greater than the sum of its parts’ things. Just regular pigs in a blanket covered with a honey, butter, brown sugar sauce and baked. OMG! Gooey, sweet/savory goodness. This is baked in a LARGE Pyrex dish and there were 7 adults and a BABY there and these disappeared ! We ate some remarkable food this weekend. But that was the least of it. As with the other times that I’ve made a personal connection with someone from eGullet, I was so grateful and amazed at the generosity and open hearts that we encountered in Indiana. I ‘met’ Rachel here at eGullet and it’s proper that I document our meeting, our cooking and our eating here.

Bella S.F. - Here's a link to the recipe for the Korean beef. Sorry that I didn't see this before - we've been out of town (visiting Racheld!!! I'll report about that somewhere more appropriate as soon as I wake up!). Soba - that cod and salad is just beautiful and very spring-like! nickrey - the ravioli is beautiful and what a perfect combination of flavors! tupac - gorgeous fennel. I love it so much and never seem to cook for folks that do, too!

A giant cupcake that I made for a friend to give to her cupcake-crazy gentleman friend: The coffee cup is for scale. It was, by request, German chocolate. Adorable and came out of the pan very easily, as I was afraid that it would not. I can't wait to try it out in a yellow or white cake with pastel frosting and some cute decorations.

Ann - how much I've missed you and your delicious looking meals and the remarkable light that you get up there! Those carnitas and tortillas are just amazing looking! That's exactly what I want for lunch. Think there's any chance that Taco Bell has them ? Dinner Tuesday night Korean BBQ beef done with skirt steak, ramen noodles and a salad – and the last of the Easter egg deviled eggs: This recipe was recommended by percyn. He did it with skirt steak, too. We really, really liked this a lot. I had it again last night as a sandwich on a grilled sourdough bun with some cilantro and rice vinegar (talk about mixing your cultures, huh?). Thank you so much, percyn!