Kim Shook

Thanks so much! She's there now and I am sending her a link to this thread!

Dr J – I think steak with ponzu sounds delicious – and the sweet potato experiment looks gorgeous! menuinprogress - just lovely, lovely food – words just fail me! Shelby – wow! It all looks good and that prime rib is just cooked to perfection! My New Year’s day dinner is in process. The collards and the black eyed peas are in the ‘boiling like hell’ phase and the pork is simply leftover ham that I’ll pan fry. Pictures tomorrow, probably. Mr. Kim is out having a beer with an online friend who is in town and Jessica is in PARIS (she left the 26th to go to Ireland to visit a friend who was transferred there – they flew over on the 30th to spend NYE in Paris), so I am indulging myself with a lunch that they complain about – sardines packed in mustard and oil and saltines w/ butter. They hate the smell so much that I usually only have them when I’m alone. No pictures – they aren’t very lovely to look at !

I would have liked to have made a round of everyone's parties to sample all this wonderful stuff. And Tracey, I would have made it to your house NO MATTER WHAT ! Our NYE was spent our traditional way – we go to some friends and play cards and eat trashy stuff – artichoke dip, Knorr spinach dip, crab Meltaways, etc. I contributed a cheese tray w/ nuts and fruit, those meatballs (crockpot w/ apricot preserves and bbq sauce) at the request of the young people at the party and some surprisingly good Costco frozen all-butter puff pastry things stuffed with yummies like caramelized onion and gruyere, sautéed onion, sage and gorgonzola, four cheese and roasted garlic and artichoke w/ herb and garlic cream cheese. They were awfully good and very attractive – I’ll be buying them again. We started the tradition when all our kids were small and it was easier than getting a babysitter on NYE, and now that the youngest is 14, we find we quite like it and don’t see any reason to change. Dessert was leftover goodies from Christmas - very much more appreciated last night than after a huge Christmas dinner!

I will be soon - like tonight! And it'll be called Marlene's Cream Roasted Potatoes! Truly a magic recipe - you douse them in cream and they absorb it and become crisp. I need Alton B to explain that one to me, I think!

Prawn - that is one gorgeous ham!!! And the poultry is intriguing, too! sickchangeup - how did you like the lobster? And was it fully cooked? If so, I think one of the reasons that mine was overcooked was that when mine looked like yours, I assumed it wasn't fully cooked and cooked it more - I was expecting that snowy white meat that you get when you steam it. Sunday night dinner: CI Eye of round roast, Brussels sprouts and Marlene's amazing cream roasted potatoes w/ and w/out gravy!

Oh, thank goodness, a BLOG! And a travel one. And from PERCYN !!! What wonderful riches. I opened this blog this morning like it was a delayed Christmas gift and it surely was! Thank you so much for sharing these wonderful sights and the incredible food. I am just pouring over each photo and description and wondering if any of our local restaurants would be able to serve anything similar if I take a list of the dishes in to them! Those prawns in the market look amazing and I was very interested in what you had to say about the freshness of all the meats. Nice to see you enjoying your morning eggs, breakfast man !

That dinner sounds pretty dern good, even sans meat! I’m incredibly flattered at your request for a Christmas dinner report, Christine . I basically give the same dinner every Christmas Eve and thought that duplicate pictures from last year would be pointless, so if you go to this post, you can see pictures from last year’s meal. Nothing was really different. I’ve posted all the desserts on the “Your daily sweets” thread on the Pasty & Desserts board.

DanM – I really like the idea of pumpkin whoopie pies! isomer – I had the same experience with those cookies. The cool look really interested me, but that flavor was…a little blah. dystopiandreamgirl – what absolutely gorgeous cakes! I am so impressed! I’ve posted some of these, but this was the dessert spread for our Christmas Eve dinner: this was a gingerbread layer cake with a cranberry-orange filling and an orange cream cheese frosting. A really good Paula Deen recipe. the little tarts next to the cake were Ted Fairhead’s wonderful mince tarts.

Bumping in hope for more answers, they are currently waiting on a flight to London in Philadelphia, having missed the connection to Dublin .

Prawn – I did poach the lobsters – didn’t actually expose them to cooking temp until the butter poaching – just the covering with hot water method. I think maybe my butter poaching was just a little too hot and too long. Dr J – thank you! The pork is one of those things that I can make on a weeknight and it’s comforting and doesn’t taste like fast food. As a matter of fact, I was doing some freezer stocking for Christmas that night and dinner was made in the middle of that mess ! One last post in the quiet that I’ve stolen this morning before the craze begins. My mom and dad arrived yesterday to spend Christmas week and for dinner I did corn muffins and oyster stew:

I finished the Christmas baking this weekend. Decorated sugar cookies aren't the tastiest cookies in the world and I'm not very adept at decorating them, but they are a tradition in our house: I was pleased with how these turned out, though: These are for the train-crazy little guy next door. I hope that he can figure out that they are train cars! I really need to practice my piping! You can't tell, but these are tiny - about 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" - really hard to do: The last of the Christmas candy, too: Chocolate covered sponge candy: and chocolate covered peanut brittle:

My daughter and a couple of her friends are coming the day after Christmas to Limerick to visit a friend who lives there. He has a car and they will be staying a just over a week with a side trip to Paris for New Year's Eve. They will be doing lots of wandering. Can anyone recommend any good restaurants, pubs, food shops within a 1 - 2 hour drive from Limerick? Sorry for the short notice, but they are 25 going on 12! I am terrified ! Thanks so much, everyone!

Prawn - gorgeous bellies! I know if I could cook something like that I'd have some belly converts at my table ! Dinner last night was pork tenderloin rubbed w/ Penzey's French four spice and topped w/ a pan sauce of mustard, white wine and cream, orzo cooked w/ chicken broth, onion and garlic, Brussels sprouts and croissant:

Katie - that glue is Elmer's Craft Bond - I got it at Michael's craft store

Rob – that “entrement” looks incredibly delicious and amazing – how did it taste, you didn’t say? One thing though, the little squinchy thing at the bottom right looks a little like a scorpion to me. Well, considering where you live… Robin – I want to try that cake. Coconut is probably my favorite flavor in the world. I try every coconut cake I see! Where’s the recipe – I couldn’t find it in the recipes. Something I put together tonight: Ok, I didn’t make all this candy – I just bought it, but thought it was cute and I’ll cover it with plastic until Christmas Eve and then let the kids have at it. So it will get eaten – not just a decoration!

Mifi - I think I'm repeating myself here - I believe that I said almost this same thing to percyn awhile back, but while that whole meal you posted on 12/2, was wonderful looking, what really stopped me in my tracks was the turkey, stuffing, gravy open faced sandwich - my favorite meal of the holiday season! legourmet - just a lovely, lovely meal start to finish! Dr J - gorgeous meal and, as a country girl, my favorite was the biscuits and gravy - talk about kicking it up a knotch! I am in danger of shorting out my keyboard with all of the salivating going on here. How I want some of the real, gorgeous and delicious food that I'm seeing here. Those are some gorgeous steaks that y'all are serving lately! As I said in another post, I have basically been so busy that I've just been pulling random stuff out of the freezer, heating up and making a salad. Either that or eating out. But I need more freezer space, so I'm trying to cook rather than buy. We had chili for dinner the other night. Some kind neighbor bought it from a local supermarket's deli section when Mr. Kim was recovering. Basically tasted like Wendy's. Then last night I warmed up some delicious (but not photogenic) baked spaghetti that someone else had brought us. I do, have something to share, though: Caesar salad, butter poached lobster tail, filet w/ bearnaise and horseradish cream and Asiago bread This was our tree trimming dinner. We usually do a big fondue production - beef fondue with all the sauces, crudites with dips and then chocolate fondue with all kinds of dippers (last year I did Toblerone fondue). But I have been so exhausted this year doing everything on my own (Mr. Kim is forbidden to lift anything heavy for another 3-4 months), that I asked them if it would be acceptable to break with tradition for one year and do something lovely, but easy instead. The lobster was a bit of a disappointment, which is all my fault. I bought lobster tails that were just a little skunky when I got them home - not spoiled, but just past their prime. And I think that I overcooked them a little bit. I should have just gotten live ones, but was being lazy. I have heard how incredibly wonderful the butter poaching is, but they were not any better than steamed (which is pretty dern good).

moosnsqrl and Katie - thank you so much for your compliments! I got the idea from a Taste of Home magazine and really liked how they turned out. Katie - when I get home, I'll find the glue and tell you the name - can't remember it right off the bat. baroness - I did NOT know that about the beads! Thank you for the info - I'm afraid that it's too late to 'test' them, but I'll do it next time I use them for a food project and I'll warn everyone to be careful with temperature extremes. Jerry - that's a very cool gift idea! PM me soon to let me know your plans re: Richmond!

Jaymes - I am going to make the caramel corn and caramel and coconut covered marshmallows to give as gifts for Christmas eve - how far ahead do you think I can make the corn?

I want to do butter poached lobster tails for our tree decorating dinner on Friday. I know someone here has made them, but can't find the directions if I copied them at the time and can't find a post about them. Directions or a link to a recipe would be great. Thanks!

Ce'nedra – the Shook house was salivating over those dumplings! They are beautiful and look so good! If I had a family friend who could make those, I’d ask for a lesson! Percyn – no Thanksgiving shots from me, we ate at my MIL’s and my only contribution was sweet potato soufflé (don’t get excited, it’s just a name – no true soufflé-ing went on) and Jessica made a delicious apple gallette. My in laws think I’m totally odd for taking pictures, so I don’t bother with their meals . Your dinner looked wonderful start to finish, but I admit, my favorite part would have been that open faced sandwich at the end and I’d have had that at about midnight Thurday, if I’d remembered to pack up some gravy when I did our leftover packages ! PopsicleToze – I am just awestruck by that gorgeous cake! The crumb looks absolutely perfect. What an impressive first effort, too! Which SL was that in? I get the annual every year and I want to find that recipe! Lonnj – I’ll just ditto Kathy! Wonderful food and your potstickers are works of art. Keep ‘em coming! Here’s my contribution: Well, it’s not dinner yet, but it will be on December 24th! I started my gravy. This is the roasted veg and turkey wings. They looked so pretty and there was no one here to admire them, so I thought I’d show my online buddies, who will appreciate the sight. They are all simmering away in broth at this moment to be strained later. Then, as soon as they are cool enough, I’ll pick the meat from the wings and defat the stock and start a long, slow, dark roux. This probably won’t go into the freezer until tomorrow night. I should have started yesterday, but the day got away from me.

dystopiandreamgirl – Mr. Kim and I were just in awe at your cookies and tarts. Those are some of the most lovely things I’ve ever seen on this board (and that’s saying something). I am just in awe. Randi – I am really intrigued by that cake! I checked and my library doesn’t have that book, so I added it to my Amazon list ! That frosting has a really interesting looking texture! Something I tried out a few days ago: Marshmallow Caramel Puffs They are Trader Joe marshmallows (making marshmallows it one of my yet-to-attempt projects) dipped in caramel, then in toasted coconut. My caramel needs work, but these were still really good. A very fast and easy confection.

Yep - I always make my hard candy anytime from late November and it's fine. Just store airtight.

Percyn – sometimes I see a dish on eG that makes me think, other times I see one that makes me immediately hungry, no matter when I last ate. Occasionally, I see one dish that does both! That poached egg and brioche dish was one of the occasionals! Awesome! Dr J – beautiful pasta – especially for a first time. I am envious! Suzi – I, too, miss kitty footprints this time of year. My boys loved the tree and the oyster stuffing and stalked the turkey and Banshee (my little girl kitty) liked carrying off all the rubber bands from around the wrapping paper. I’ve been filling the Christmas freezer and dinners have been ordered out, eggs, cheese and crackers, etc. but I finally cooked a dinner: mostly leftovers – Panini made with bagels from the freezer, ham, American and Swiss and some chicken soup from when Mr. Kim was recuperating. I don’t care what you make them with, Panini are good!

Have you ever tried using something like Riesen's Chocolate Covered Caramels instead of Rolo's? I hate Rolo's, but I love Riesen's and other similar chocolate covered caramels. Think it would work OK, or would the caramel be too hard? ← I think they'd work just fine! I love Riesen's and might just try them. But we love Rolo's passionately and just never thought to use anything else !

Joe - those are so cute!!! I am so stealing that idea next year!!