Kim Shook

MexChef – that is some first post! Everything looks amazing! I am especially jealous of those big, thick cookies. I am a cooky freak and yours are exactly what I want mine to look like, but almost never do! Welcome! MiFi – what a gorgeous pizza! Dinner tonight was country ribs with Marlene’s BBQ sauce, Marlene’s Crispy, Cheesy potatoes, slaw, corn on the cob and corn muffins: The sauce and the potatoes are wonderful and the recipes can be found at her website.

I use my grandma's technique which is somewhat similar (but less time-consuming) to flaky pastry. Mix quickly then turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, pat into a flat square, fold in half and half again then flatten to desired thickness (3/4 inch for me) and cut with a VERY sharp cutter. ← Andie - that's kind of the method that my friend recommends - I think that I overmixed a bit and need to use a lighter hand. 3/4 inch sounds better to me than 1/2 inch, which is what I patted out to. I'll do that next time.

Percyn – we saw the corned beef package at the store yesterday and almost bought it, but there was so much that I thought I’d better save that project until we have some company. I’ll ask for advice when that time comes! We are both craving corned beef hash. Breakfast this morning was fried eggs, Benton’s bacon. hash browns, and biscuits – these biscuits were from the NYT cookbook, with some variations from an online friend : As you can see, I need a little practice – my friend’s were so lovely and high, mine were a little squat, but tasted really good. It’s amazing to me that I manage to make some fairly complicated mains and desserts quite well, but am consistently challenged by something like biscuits or cookies – they both tend to come out flat. I don’t know why, but it must have something to do with my technique. I know my baking powder is good.

I don't know anything about the magazine, but thanks for the link - looks like some really interesting recipes - the salty chocolate cake sounds like something that Randi made, I think!

LaCookrasha – everything looks lovely, but that fried chicken is just perfect! Dinner tonight was mostly leftovers from Super Bowl: Brats, onions, peppers, kraut and hot dog buns and some fresh broccoli. It was even better tonight!

My daughter is doing some writing and asked me if bringing food to the home when someone in the family has passed on is a "Southern" thing. I really didn't know since I've never really lived anywhere else, but offered to pass the question on to the experts! So - what is the tradition in your area?

Thank you, dear! You've been in my thoughts! Nice to 'see' you!

Percyn - lovely Benedicts - both of them! Flotch - you got a nice roll on those buns! Perfectly done! Breakfast on Sunday: Sausage and cheese frittata sandwiches on onion rolls.

Last Friday we celebrated our daughter's 25th birthday. She requested fondue instead of cake and ice cream, so I did Toblerone fondue and caramel with assorted dippers: apples, pears, strawberries, bananas thin mints, angelfood & poundcake, dried fruit, meringue cookies, coconut macaroons and some lovely marshmallows from Whole Foods Mr. Kim's plate.

Percyn - the short ribs look very appetizing to ME! And I love the snowy scene, too! I miss winter weather - Virginia might as well be deep south for all the snow we get ! David - your noodles and prawns just look so delicious and beautiful! Tri2Cook - can't you grow you some collards? They are cold weather plants. And really easy to grow, too! SaladFingers - I agree with everyone else - your roulade is lovely and so is your china! Rob - gorgeous meal - start to finish! Our contribution to our friends' Super Bowl party: Brats with all the fixings, and: Randi's big, yummy Symphony brownies.

Thanks, y'all! Paul, thank you especially for the tips. Maybe a couple of cakes before I try to knead bread! I have some cupcake ideas that my daughter wants me to try and that should be nice and gentle!

This arrived today from amazon: That's a KitchenAid 600 series 6 qt. in Nickel Pearl. A (rather extravagant) "just because" gift from Mr. Shook . He says that he's doing his part to stimulate the economy ! Jessica is thrilled because it means she gets the old 5 qt. (if she EVER moves out). I am thrilled and can't wait to break it in!

Who chose the color scheme - or NON color scheme - for this show? Why is everything black or grey - including the judges' clothing? It looks like a prison show. It's dark and dreary and why would anyone think that I'd want to watch a food show that's dreary?? Also - the ads remind me of those Gatorade ads with the colored sweat/tears. And then they show the same color stuff raining down on some black surface - are we watching raining sweat at that moment??? Bleah!

So what are YOU eating for Super Bowl Sunday, Steverino? I'm thinking braised crow for us!

Christine - It could be worse for both of us - we could live in Detroit ! Here's the recipe. We have only used ground chuck in the past, but have been wanting to try 1/2" cubed stew meat.

Football dinner last night (yay Steelers - that's for Mr. Kim - I'm a Redskin fan and therefore permanently dead in post-season): Mr. Kim made his chili - really good. I did corn muffins and we had leftover slaw and macaroni salad from the Saturday.

I just realized that we also prefer canned saurkraut to refrigerated because it has a stronger flavor. I know that a lot of people rinse it, but we like the kick.

percyn – Mr. Kim is drooling again over your corned beef hash. I’m glad I didn’t show it to him before OUR breakfast or he would have turned his nose up at my omelet ! And your biscuit is perfect! I am impressed. Our breakfast this morning: Brie and chive omelets w/ fig preserves, cheddar and chive potato pancakes, sausage, fried apples and Sister Shubert rolls w/ the Tiptree Little Scarlet strawberry preserves that Santa put in my stocking for Xmas – fantastic preserves!

Dr J – lovely duck! The vanilla sounds perfect with it. I’ve had something similar and you are right – a very small amount of vanilla is wonderful with duck. Dinner last night: fried chicken and mashed potatoes w/ gravy, slaw, purchased macaroni salad (from wmart – it was pretty good), Sister Shubert rolls, corn on the cob.

If I can't get fresh, I almost always go for frozen vegetables. Canned tomatoes and beans (black, pinto, navy, etc.) are fine. My one exception to frozen green vegetables is green beans. I am a devotee of southern, long cooked green beans. I get fresh when they are good, but canned works much better than frozen for this. I detest crunchy green beans. They must have every bit of resistance cooked out and a good bit of pork cooked in . Frozen green bean never, ever get tender and have a squeekiness that bothers me.

Tela - I'm so sorry that I didn't notice your post earlier!! I love the idea of hosting a nice relaxing NY day meal. I hope yours went great and that you have a happy and healthy 2009! For the future, I don't have a recipe for hoppin' john, but I have a great one for brunswick stew, though it's more a set of directions than an actual recipe . It's one of our favorites. My new years day dinner is here. I have a niece named Tela - is that your real name or just your eG moniker? Her's is pronounced more like 'tee-la'. Happy New Year!

Amen. ← Yup! I love wavy chips! It's hard to find the truly wavy ones - they've almost all gone over to ridges! Can I bring my fritos to the CA dip party - I like to switch off between the potato and the corn!

scubadoo97 – that is some gorgeous smoking!!! I’d love to taste and smell it! Dinner tonight was just perfect for the wintry weather that they were having in Pittsburgh (the football game that we were watching while eating), maybe a little less perfect for the warmer Richmond weather: Navy Bean Soup Corn fritters and slaw. I have to thank Rachel for inspiring this meal. She had basically the same meal last week! Dessert will be a taste test of THREE DIFFERENT yellow cakes that I made today. I am determined to find a go-to yellow cake recipe, so we are testing them here tonight and I’ll take them to work tomorrow for more testing. Results and pictures tomorrow in the desserts thread.

Michael - the icing in this recipe is a PB buttercream. Really good!

heidih – the new slow cookers always do that funny smell thing – it’s fine! lcdm – will you please let us know what things you do with the pressure cooker? I got mine awhile ago and haven’t done as much with it as I thought I would. K8memphis – those cupcake wrappers are the cutest things I have ever seen! I want all of them . What lucky kids!! BigDan – how nice about the knives! Amazing gift! And they got an incredible price – the 7 piece set is almost $350 at FN! Anna N – Wow – what an incredible haul! I’d have to take a leave of absence from work just to go over them. I can’t imagine a better way of spending the cold winter than in a comfortable chair, in front of a fire reading cookbooks and planning wonderful meals! Someone gave you a rich gift! Andiesenji – I used to get gifts like that from a family member – everything he gave was for someone at least 3 sizes smaller. I got a very nice bunch of stuff: Apron, cookbooks including: Cooking in Oz (I am a Wizard of Oz freak), The Complete Book of Greek Cooking, The Elements of Cooking and two self-published cookbooks from a friend whose family and office participated (I am in both of them) and assorted cool utensils including a skimmer – now I need to get to work filling those empty freezers with stock! More cookbooks and a silpat. Two Le Crueset bakers from my dad, a Giant Cupcake Pan, Foodie Fight Trivia game (wish I could get y’all over for a night of that), onion and lemon savers, lettuce knife, 10X sprinkler, cherrywood smoke in a cup (pretty cool, actually), new butter dish (my favorite kind – it holds ½ lb. of butter) and, just so I’m sure to go to hell for the holidays a Holy Toast Miracle Bread Stamper – you press it on a piece of bread and when you toast it, the holy Mother appears (Mr. Kim is a current Episcopalian, former RC who delights in all manner of blasphemy) – it goes perfectly with the Jesus griddle he gave me last year – it brands the face of Jesus in the meat/pancakes/etc. that you place on the griddle.