Kim Shook

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.

Kim, love the plates! Candy canes for dinner, whee! Is the recipe for your lasagna in "The Book"? I sorta looked, but didn't see it right off. ← Here is the source of this recipe. Except this time, I REALLY cheated and used Friday's artichoke and spinach dip from the frozen food section and refrigerated Alfredo sauce. I just mixed up the chopped chicken and thawed dip and layer it with the egg roll wrappers and Alfredo sauce (totally eyeballed) and topped it with some Parm before baking.

What Lilija said. I wish that you could post the menus ahead of time - great idea- but with having to budget like you do (another thing that no one there seems to appreciate), you have to grab bargains when you can. You'd end up changing the menu at the last moment and pissing them off even more. We all have had the experience of cooking for people who don't really appreciate what we serve them, but at least with most of us, we are cooking for those who love us otherwise and appreciate US if not our food. Your situation is more difficult because you are cooking for virtual strangers. Vent all you want - I don't hear any whining. I hear frustration and a desire to please people AND do a good job. An almost impossible task, it seems, with these folks. I sometimes wonder if someone who is really 'into' food is even the right person to cook institutional food. We've talked before on other threads about how awful that kind of food can be and wondering why it can't be better, but I don't know if the people who actually eat it care very often. I know that when Mr. Kim's grandparents went into assisted living, everyone in the family talked about how great the food was. It.was.not. It was bland, overcooked, glop. Somewhere on eG, it was mentioned that all of us should arrange to go to the same old folks home - THAT would be some good institutional food !

lapin d’or – your biscuits/scones are lovely! Can we count on finding them on menus when we come to England in 2010, or are they a specialty of yours? Marcia – as soon as I saw that picture, I turned around and pulled my issue of Food and Wine out of the stack of mail that was sitting on the table behind me. I’ll be making that one soon! I hope you are going to be posting more often – I missed you! This was Jessica’s welcome home from Ireland dinner on Monday: Spinach and romaine salad w/ roasted pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries and chow mein noodles and red wine vinaigrette Chicken and artichoke/spinach dip lasagna made w/ egg roll wrappers and Alfredo sauce and crusty 4 cheese bread. This lasagna is a total cheat dish that I came up with one night when I was shopping for dinner at something like 7pm. I wanted something gooey and rich and warm and FAST. I just use poached chicken breast and artichoke and spinach dip from the freezer section. The first time I did it, I just thinned out the dip with some refrigerated Alfredo sauce and dumped it on top of the chicken and we all liked it a lot and thought it would make good lasagna. It did.

Well, it tasted good if you only licked off the icing, so I guess you're right ! Not bad, just blah.

Jerry, Meredith, Mr. Kim and I had a mini eG gathering last night at The Black Sheep in Richmond: That’s me, Jerry and Meredith. We had a great time and it was phenomenal to meet people who share our ‘obsession’, but who also had a life to talk about! Mr. Kim had the chicken and dumplings: Jerry had the CSS Virginia – fried chicken livers served in a toasted French baguette with shredded cabbage, green onions, granny smith apple & remoulade sauce: Meredith had the USS Lafayette – artichoke hearts, spiced shrimp & green olive tapenade tossed with chopped romaine, tomatoes, sherry vinaigrette; loaded on a toasted French baguette: I chose two appetizers: Shrimp Remoulade – boiled shrimp & chopped romaine smothered in remoulade sauce Cornbread con Pollo – grilled chili cornbread topped with chicken simmered in a savory dark male sauce and finished with crème fraiche Also on the table were deviled eggs (I never go without getting those) and bread and butter pickled vegetables. Meredith and Jerry shared a piece of peanut butter pie (a great version) and Mr. Kim and I had the still-warm pineapple upside down cake with fresh pineapples and cherries. Dinner was really, really good – those of you who are in the area and haven’t tried The Black Sheep really should go. Wonderful relaxed atmosphere and good food that is interesting and approachable at the same time – a great place for mixed gatherings (you and your ‘normal’ friends/family).

cmflick – wow! I am so impressed with your chocolates! Nice job! scratch – I had to look up Alfajores – they sound wonderful and your challah is gorgeous! emmalish – your snowflakes look exactly like I want mine to look, but I think that my dough is too soft – do you know of a sugar cooky recipe that will hold the shape like the gingerbread does? mostlylana – here are some threads about taking food pictures: One Two Three Four Five Rob – your apple tart looks and sounds perfect! Cake I made for my MIL’s birthday today: Pretty cake, huh? Utterly tasteless – the cake, that is – the icing was Cake Love ICBM and delicious, as always. I committed the cardinal sin of using a recipe for serving that I hadn’t made before. It looked good and had a decent crumb, but it was dry and tough and tasteless . I guess I need to spend some time testing the recipes in the yellow cake thread.

Nancy – that bowl of noodles and cheese looks so warming and delicious. Comfort food, indeed! Percyn – I loved all the food from India and had to smile at the simple smokies and fried egg breakfast! Breakfast this morning: Gouda and something else (the label came off) omelet (I have to use up all that NYE cheese), bacon and homefries/hashbrowns (I never remember the difference). The potatoes were really good and very easy. I just microwaved some Yukon golds, chopped them up and cooked them in the bacon grease w/ some onions. I usually do it with leftover potatoes, but didn’t have any this morning and had an urge for them.

This show was just rerun on FN yesterday and I have a pomegranate and was wondering if it really worked! How serendipitous! Thanks, Klary!

Is that stilton with peaches or mangoes in the middle? ← Mango. We love all this stuff and have heard rumors of stilton w/ pear, but haven't found it yet.

Two in a row for me?? Where is everyone? This was dinner last night: Just leftovers from our NYE dinner – cheeses, crackers, nuts, fruit, some little frozen puff pastry thingies and crab meltaways. These are the puff pastries and the crab meltaways. After the last two weeks, I needed a quiet night. Last night was it. I set all that out in about 10 minutes and then we nibbled on that all evening. I did nothing but eat and sit on couch and read. It was lovely.

Percyn – thank you so much. I am woefully ignorant of any type of Indian food and wish I had someone like you to go to restaurants with to help guide me. I was just reading an article in a local paper about how there is an explosion of Indian restaurants in Richmond, so now is the time. I enjoyed the videos, too. I hope that those bumpy rides didn’t occur when you were feeling low! I had to laugh at the American mayonnaise bus sign. Hope you are feeling better and will be rested soon from your trip!

As promised, pictures of New Year’s dinner: Scalloped tomatoes – to us, the only palatable form of ‘stewed tomatoes’. Ham, collards, black eyed peas, sweet potatoes, scalloped tomatoes & corn muffins.