Kim Shook

I found some fun stuff at a local antique/junk store yesterday. They had lots of the Time/Life “The Good Cook” series. I got Hors d’Oeuvre and Snacks and Sandwiches for $3 each and Bittman Takes on America’s Chefs for $4: I’m planning to go back every week and get a couple more of the T/L series each time. Hope they last! I also found a pyrex insert for the hammered aluminum decorative server that I found at the Farmer’s Market this spring. $4: These were my favorite finds, though: I got 4 of each – they didn’t have 8 of either one. But I don’t mind mixing – actually, I guess mixing styles is my style . They are wafer thin, etched with lovely designs and have a musical ‘ting’ when touched together. The glass on the bottom is the prettiest. The picture doesn't show off the design - little star shapes and the round depressions - the edges of the cut glass are sharp and crisp. I am imagining them filled with mousse, pot du crème, strawberries and cream. They were $16 for all eight. I have no idea where I’m going to put them, but I love them and will find somewhere.

Abra - thanks for the recommendation and the link. We all adore toffee in our family! So far, I am making little cheese/appetizer picks from turkey lacer needles and beads. Hope they turn out well. I'll post pics if they do.

David - oh.my.goodness!!!! That salad with the big crouton and the melted cheese??? Wow - that looks amazing! I am very jealous of the whole huckleberry thing! And those meals that you posted yesterday seemed to reflect some yearning to be further south . Chicken pie is in my near future - that looked wonderful. Daniel - that ribeye looked so good, but I missed an 'inside' view! My dad loves his egg! Also, it's 10:55am and I want one of those speck pizzas for lunch! And I loved the expression of perplexed disgruntlement on the one that missed her (his?) bones because the humans got them instead - "Meat iz urs, bonz iz MINE" . Pille - that pumpkin loaf looks sooooo good! petite tête de chou - that pizza made Mr. Kim gasp out loud! Gorgeous! MiFi - I'll add a slice of tart with some of Daniel's pizza to my lunch order! Not cooking much lately - we are still eating out of the freezer and what everyone has so generously sent to us. But last night I needed to COOK something. To chop and season and...just make something. I tried out a recipe I'd found for the pressure cooker. It was Pork Loin Chops w/ Red Cabbage & Apples from a book called The Best Pressure Cooker Recipes by Cinda Chavich. Someone on another site recommended Lorna Sass as someone who tests her recipes, so I got one of her books from the library and will start experimenting with those. Both of the Chavich recipes that I've tried have been less than successful - which, I admit, may be my fault, rather than the fault of the recipes! The BBQ chicken I tried scorched really badly and the advice I was given was that there was probably too much sugar and not enough liquid called for. This recipe was a little bland. The sauce that is made from reducing the cooking liquid was good, but the cabbage was a little blah. Next time, I'll add some of the ingredients that are in the braised red cabbage recipe that I use and that we love so much - thyme, red wine, brown sugar (just a touch).

Percyn – that corned beef is gorgeous! What did you do with it? I’d love to see a slice. Ilana – that omelet sandwich sounds great. I often do similar things with leftovers from weekend breakfasts for quick weekday breakfasts. You’re right, they are better hot, but not bad at all room temperature. Well, I’ve hardly cooked a thing since Mr. Kim had his surgery, but I did make breakfast this morning. Eggs Benedict with biscuits and Benton’s bacon instead of English muffins and Canadian bacon. Also hash browns: Mr. Kim is doing much better, but feeling worse in some ways – itchy, sore, reactivating nerves, less narcotics. So he’s better, but tired, bored, and miserable. And as Mr. I’ll Handle It, he feels guilty and weird having to accept help.

I tend to cook "to the crowd" - roasted beef or pork for non-adventuresome MIL, all out for anything goes MIL, experiments for friends who are close enough to say that it didn't work and not mind breakfast for dinner in that case. That said, here are some links for dishes that I've served over and over again to raves and requests for recipes. They are particularly suited to the cooler weather, too. James Beard's Pastitsio is a huge, satisfying and delicious casserole. Braised Lamb Shanks w/ Caramelized Onions Grilled Leg of Lamb w/ Feta-Herb Salsa is unusual, impressive and really easy to make. Short Ribs w/ Caramelized Onions and Hoisin Chicken w/ Marsala, Figs & Goat Cheese Hope these are of some help! Let us know what you do and how it went!

This is reminding me of something, but since I probably wouldn't have read a book on wine, maybe it was a magazine article? Food and Wine or Wine Spectator, perhaps?

Just finished this last night. I have to agree with the two of you on both her strengths and weaknesses. Like Fatguy, I really agreed with her conclusions about 'authenticity'. I also liked her apparent appreciation for ethnic-American styles of cooking and how it is really a separate food from what people actually eat in the countries that have inspired them - different, but often very good, so good that they count as comfort food for Americans, especially those living abroad where that style isn't available.

My grandmother's recipe for pear preserves works just fine with unripe pears as long as they still taste ok.

I adore my Nesco and wouldn't part with it for anything. I haven't cooked a turkey or ham any other way since I've had it (10 years, or so). Giant amount of stew, chili, soup, etc. Warming rolls for a large crowd. As a warm server for bbq. In mild and dry weather, I've even put it outside to cook and that really frees up the kitchen space. If someone made me choose between that and my food processor, the food processor would be out the door (but please don't make me choose between my KA and my Nesco! ).

Randi - you can make angel food cake in a loaf pan, too. You just use 2 loaf pans in place of a 10" tube pan. Easy to portion, too! Thinking of you a lot these days and hoping things are going better for you.

I hope the surgery went well! Your pasta looks soooooooo good. ← Thank you, Shelby! The surgery went really well and he's already out of ICU - feeling very groggy and sore, but improving. On topic - his dinner last night was turkey, gravy, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce and vanilla wafers. Ever single thing tasted exactly the same. I'm glad that I made him the pasta. He was talking last night about how good it was and how glad he was that we had a freezer full of it!

Bruce - while you're PM'ing the recipe for the crab soup recipe to Dejah.... ??? Mr. Kim's surgery is tomorrow so he got to pick dinner: pappardelle with meatsauce, salad and garlic Asiago bread. Then Jessica took him out to Krispie Kreme for doughnuts!

MMMM, how I wish I could take you up on that offer! I'm not a heart eater, but fried livers are one of my very favorite foods. Here's my recipe for the soup, if you like.

Alexus - gorgeous dumplings - I'd love that recipe! Shelby - I want some of them Ducknuggets!!! And liver, too. No one at my house eats liver, so I never get any ! percyn - that is one awesome chicken! Was that skin as good as it looked? Bruce - crab soup . My favorite thing in the entire world!! Ce'nedra - that crab dish looks wonderful. We'd love that! I made my chicken soup this weekend. We ate some and froze some. I realized that I developed the recipe with a lot of help from folks here a couple of years ago and I don't think I've ever shown it. I start out with the scraps (wings, backbone, neck and giblets) from a chicken, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, celery, carrots and onion. I make a slurry of tomato paste and olive oil and toss with the other stuff and roast. Here's everything before roasting: and after roasting: Then I simmer all that junk in low salt chicken stock to make a good, chickeny stock: I strain and defat the stock and add the chicken pieces and simmer until tender, cut up the chicken, add some cooked carrots and kluski: It really is good soup - I've tasted better, but never homemade.

Some lovely breakfasts, everyone! Leftovers in omelets (a popular idea, it seems) is genius! Shelby - what's German breakfast sausage like? And where do you get it. Fantastic looking hashbrowns, BTW! Rachel - that grilled cheese breakfast sounds exactly like what a weekend breakfast should be! Bruce - more lovely rice <sigh>! RAHiggins - Wow. That vegetable frittata is a thing of beauty! Soba - your little potatoes and omelet look lovely - and I don't even like mushrooms ! Sunday breakfast: gruyere and chive omelets, Benton's bacon and MIL's hot cross buns (from the freezer - they were still so good!)

I have a couple. Bomo's Chuckwagon Stewhas been my go-to beef stew for at least 20 years. It was my grandmother's stew and the only thing that she cooked well! It only has 1/4 c. of flour and that's used to dredge the meat before browning. Also, have you thought about doing beef bourguignon? That recipe is very good and can even be done in a slow cooker. I've always done it in my large le crueset, but I was originally given the recipe as a slow cooker dish. Hope these help!

Shelby – that is some gorgeous chicken, girl!! Since next week is Mr. Kim’s surgery and we’ll be inundated with friends and family, we decided to have a family night last night. Just Mr. Kim, Jessica and me. Pizza and Bob Hope in “The Lemon Drop Kid” on the DVD player. I purchased the crusts which were ordinary, but this was kind of spur of the moment, so I had to improvise. We had just a regular pepperoni pizza and a shrimp pizza with fresh mozzarella: the sauce for the shrimp pizza was ricotta and a nice pesto sauce that one of Mr. Kim’s coworkers made.

I'm curious too. They were tender without being cakelike, the struesel topping is part of the muffin and doesn't crumble off. The lemon taste is a gentle and almost elusive. Not too awfully sweet, but not one of those sawdusty healthy specimins either. Just wondering what you hated about them.

Merstar - yep, those are them! Really lemony and good - I love the combination of lemon and blueberry!

Thanks, all! I used a little sugar and chicken stock like you suggested. I changed out the chicken stock a couple of times and it worked fine, but I boiled all the sidemeat flavor out too! So I cut another piece of sidemeat, stuck it in the microwave to get it going and boiled it with the beans for awhile and they tasted fine. Thank you for your help, folks!

I made my green beans like I normally do - salt pork, pepper, a little crushed red pepper, a little hot sauce - boiled like hell for an hour and then simmered for a few more. They are hot as fire. Mr. Kim loves them, but I won't be able to manage them. Is there anyway to reverse the heat? Can I boil them in more plain water (my poor firey pot likker)? Will that help? Or do I just get to have frozen butter beans tonight while Mr. Kim makes mmmmmmmm sounds over the green beans ?

AlexusF - that is one gorgeous chicken! Ditto on the souffle. BTW - I'm pretty sure that meat-stuff is canned corned beef - the only canned meat that is actually pretty good. Especially sliced, fried and cuddled up to some eggs for breakfast. I had a very busy Sunday morning. I made three meals for this week. Mr. Kim has some surgery coming up next week. He will be recuperating for at least a month and we are going to be very busy this week trying to get things done that he'll be unable to do, so I thought that if I had some meals 'in the bag' it would make things easier. I had a huge package of kielbasa from Costco and used it two ways. The first was this: It's a white bean and kielbasa casserole. One of those things that is much, much better than the sum of it's parts. Tangy, sweet - really, really good! The other is this old family standby: My mom's family has been eating some version of this for years. My great aunt San used to make it with cabbage, ham and potatoes all steamed up in a giant stock pot. My version was potatoes, kielbasa and green beans. All we'll need is some cornbread and we'll be set. I also made this very simple, soothing and very good beef noodle casserole: Easy, but not one can of Cream of....soup was involved!

I made these CI blueberry muffins this weekend: Absolutely delicious! We all loved them and my MIL says that these are going to be her go-to muffins in the future!

I understand why it is done and it doesn't bother me to look at it - like when I'm looking at the menu to see what I might like to order that night or to convince someone we need to go to a specific restaurant over another one ! But I like to put the meals that we've enjoyed in my journal/scrapbook and it's wonderful to be able to cut and paste and print it out - rather than having to type it out or print the entire document. Silly, but there it is.

Thank you so much for the advice. I went ahead and cooked it a couple of hours ahead of time and then warmed up the slices as recommended by Marlene and JField. I wasn't happy with my results: clickety but it didn't have anything to do with this issue. I think that I just saturated the thing with butter and maybe next time I'll use more layers of phyllo.