Kim Shook

Village Idiot - lovely meals and welcome! Hope to see a lot more from you! Mr. Kim's fantasy football draft party was Wednesday night and I catered it for the third year in a row. The menu included: chili dog casserole: When they used to go to a restaurant, it was at a local place that has the best chili dogs in town, so this was an homage - not nearly as good at Melito's, but enjoyed by everyone, it seemed. Vegetables and dips: The dips were a bleu cheese & caramelized shallot and Bloody Mary Dip. Mr. Kim requested the veg, but I think he was the only one that indulged - the dips were very popular on chips, though! Caramelized almonds & Cashews and spicy oyster crackers: the nuts were sensational - just gobbled up! The oyster crackers are just those ubiquitous 1980's snack that are so out of style, but we like them and I thought that if I spiced them up they might seem a little 'new'. I left out the lemon pepper and dill from the original recipe and added chili powder and cayenne. Very nice. Chicken sate: Mini reubens: These were very good and popular, but I think that next time instead of mixing all the topping stuff together, I will mix the dressing, corned beef and sauerkraut and then sprinkle the cheese on top. I think that the cheese would have more impact that way. They were good with a little splot of deli mustard! Salsa canapes: I've made these a lot and they are always scarfed up. The cheese is cojito and that's some chopped, sauteed chorizo on top The dessert buffet: Big, chewy molassas spice cookies w/ Sugar Babies, Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch cereal treats and ice cream sandwiches made with toasted and smoked marshmallow ice cream and those Nabisco chocolate wafers, rolled in graham crackers and served with hot fudge. For the test run of these ice cream sandwiches, I made the cooky sheets for the sandwich and it worked great - this time they just fell to pieces and I was out of time, so I just got the wafers. The gentlemen didn't seem to mind and these disappeared - the were the only dessert item that I had to replenish! close up of the sandwiches: Sorry about some of the pictures being so crappy! Some of them were taking in my dining room which has terrible lighting: no flash - yellow, flash - white out! I somehow missed getting pictures of them, but we also had Marlene's onion rings and corn on the cob. The rings were fantastic, as always, Marlene! I cooked them the night before and reheated in the oven and they were still the best I've ever made and better than most I've ever had out! Mr. Kim and I had to really control ourselves the night before as they came out of the fryer!

Positive Vibe is a good idea that seems to be meeting it's multiple goals - providing jobs and training to folks with disabilities and serving quality food. I'd like to support that (I wouldn't if the food sucked - I'm not that altruistic), so we'll be stopping by. I don't know southside very well. Richmond is like that - everyone tends to stay on their side of the river, except for work. But I know that there are supposed to be some really good, authentic central and south american restaurants there. I can't vouch for any since I am, after all, a northsider , but some research should turn up a number of them! You can't insult me about that crappy statue - it's embarrassing that such a deserving person is commemorated with that piece of junk. When we drive by it, we always yell, "Arthur, stop beating those children and give them back their book!" clickety and the rest of your blog entry cracked me up. I love Richmond and the South, but I still have a strong sense of humor and irony (you'll find most reasonably intelligent Southerners do ). You are one sick puppy, though (Wayne Williams??? )

Dinner last night was that eye of round roast: a little overcooked - that was a tiny little sucker. Along with Marlene's crispy smashed potatoes, roasted asparagus and Marlene's yorkies: All covered with gravy! (I probably should have taken the picture pre-gravy!)

Hey, Jerry! I read this the day that you posted it and have been trying to find time to post a response. I'm glad you had fun in Richmond! I've never been to Frank's Pizzeria. It sounds like a pizza that Mr. Kim would like - I prefer a more conservative hand with the cheese than it sounds like they have! I have heard so much about Positive Vibe and haven't had a chance to go yet - I'm glad to get your review and we'll bump it up the 'must go' list. Sticky rice sounds amazing, too! I cannot do rice since the surgery and have a very tender mouth as far as spice goes - do you think that I would find something to eat there? The Cheesecake Bistro report is hilarious! Never eaten there, but we have eaten at the Cheesecake Factory. How do you have 'cheesecake' in your NAME and not know how to make a freakin' cheesecake!!!??? And is it too much to ask that it be thawed before serving? We like Full Kee a lot, but haven't been there for dim sum yet. Sounds like we need to go. RE: your list of restaurants you are thinking of going to. I've been to Croaker's Spot and Mama Zu - both very good. You should also try the Black Sheep (new) and Cafe Rustica. Of course Millie's is always great. Kuba-Kuba is fun and delicious. Karsen's in Carytown is wonderful. If you were to map all these places you would be able to see that my preference skews to the Fan and Carytown and downtown. I actually live in Glen Allen, but we mostly eat down there! And I hardly know southside at all. RE: One North Belmont. I'll look up our 'review' that is in my kitchen journal and PM it to you. Mr. Kim wrote it and he was kinda ticked off at the time, so I'm not sure it's fair to post it here. FWIW, we are the only people I've ever heard of that didn't adore the place. But just down the street is a truly special and wonderful butcher shop - Belmont Butchery. Make sure to tell your girlfriend to go see Tonya there - it is the real deal and a type of place that I haven't seen in years! Mr. Kim and I would love to meet y'all for a drink/meal next time you are in town, if you have the time.

David - thank you! I'll look for it. Megan - I brined the shrimp in a salt/water solution for about 30 minutes. The scampi part was just slivers of garlic, lightly toasted in clarified butter with parsley and lots of pepper added in at the last minute.

RAHiggins - love the turkey hash! I never think to do that with my leftover turkey, but it's a wonderful idea! Shelby - BLTs !! We never have gotten any good local tomatoes this year, so I think that I'm just going to Costco and buy those good camparis from Canada and have BLTs and cream of tomato soup next week - we have a delivery of Benton's bacon due soon! MiFi - that lobster sandwich looks wonderful and I am checking into flights to NS as I type this ! Daniel - amazing dinner! TOMA (the other Miss A) is a gem! I especially want one of those chalupitas! David - I am amazed at that fish! I am going to look for something similar in our Asian grocery store. Was the word "Silverbarb" printed on the packaging? Prawn - all that gorgeous pork! I am not sure if my favorite is the char siu (maybe my favorite Asian dish ever) or the lovely crackly piece on top of the chop! Dinner last night was salad, scampi on angel hair and broccoli w/ cheese sauce. The broccoli was that crappy frozen stuff, but it was in the freezer and I needed a quick veg - but as I look at the picture, it strikes me that with that side, the dish might qualify for the Gallery of Regrettable Foods thread:

I'm sure that it would taste great, but you are right, the consistancy might suffer. Maybe if you used Whip It?

judiu - that's because there is no recipe . We had some leftover baked potatoes from the other night. I just scooped the flesh (that's not the right word, but I can't think of what I mean right now) out, added a couple of microwaved peeled Yukon golds and dumped in cream cheese, sour cream, grated cheddar, salt, pepper and heavy cream. I crammed it all in a little casserole dish and nuked it for a few minutes. Every single thing that I used was leftover from cooking done this weekend or last week. We always have leftovers when I make baked potatoes (Jessica and I should share a potato, but never do), so a couple of days later, it's potato casserole with whatever I have in the house. Sometimes it's just freezer Swiss cheese and Parmesan (there is always Swiss and Parm in my freezer), canned cream and dried herbs. But it's best when I happen to have some cream cheese, sour cream and cheddar!

Shelby - Here's a link to the spinach salad. David - the wings and the bbq tri-tip are both things I would really like to make! I've printed out both of your descriptions to help me. (BTW, thank you for doing that! I notice that you usually do give general directions when you post a meal and it's really helpful. It gives us pointers and lets us know what level of expertise we'll need.) I'll have to go for a prowl at our Asian grocery store. Sunday dinner: eye of round roast, green beans, cheese potato casserole, biscuits. That roast is the one that someone posted about awhile back. You slice the eye of round in half lengthwise and heavily salt it and let sit. You then roast it at a very low temp and let sit in the oven awhile, then tented with foil for awhile longer. It's a CI recipe and we were so pleased with it. When I started hearing about this roast a month or so ago, I was very suspicious! I have never had any success with eye of round. My sister used to make roast beef with it and it was always, in a word, horrible. Dry, tough and tasteless and not at all helped with the Bisto that she made to go with it. She loved it because it was so 'wonderfully lean', but I hated it. This is very, very different. Mr. Kim says that he could eat it every week. I made a little pan sauce with some red wine, Better Than Bouillion beef, Worcestershire and steak sauce.

We celebrated Mr. Kim's birthday yesterday with friends and family. It ended up being a sort of late lunch. I served cheese and crackers: stilton w/ mango, 3 year cheddar, aged goat w/ rosemary and Brie and fruit I also served Crunchy Milk-Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cake and banana pudding, posted HERE.

Desserts for our family celebration of Mr. Kim's birthday this weekend: This is the Nancy Olson cake introduced to eG by DesertCulinary that I just made for Father's day. But Mr. Kim liked it so much that he requested it again for his birthday! Incredible, again. I also made banana pudding from a Paula Deen recipe. It is absolutely delicious - fluffy, light - always a favorite. It has two of my least favorite 'dessert' ingredients in it: Cool Whip and instant pudding, but it turns out great. Inexplicable:

That recipe is my 'go-to' for a loaf of very good, dependable bread. And 'white' is a bit deceiving. This is not Wonder Bread! It has good flavor and a great crumb. Just follow the directions exactly . I am absolutely not a baker, but have never had a failure with this bread. Good luck and let us know how it turns out! ←

Shelby - are you the cutie pie with the spoon on your nose in your avatar? David - the pork roast is so succulent looking! I buy the best I can get, but mine never looks like that! lhollers - lovely meal and congrats on figuring out the impenetrable imagegullet! That flank steak is just perfectly cooked! Bruce - those wings look sweet and sticky and delicious - just the way I like them! For Mr. Kim's birthday dinner last night, he requested steak, baked potato and salad (what can I say, he's a man !). The salad was spinach and apple salad with hot bacon/red onion dressing: A wonderful rib eye from the Butchery, baked potato, Hanover tomatoes, asiago bread and the shrimp from "Flavors of Morocco" that suzilightning made and described here a while ago: The shrimp was really good and easy! Dessert was purchased pastries: We are having friends and family over on Sunday to celebrate and I'll be making his real birthday dessert then. I will be having a real cooking orgy this weekend. I'm looking forward to it. I'll be making the desserts for Mr. Kim's birthday celebration on Sunday and doing some cooking ahead for his fantasy football draft that I'm catering: chili dog cassserole, ice cream sandwiches with Tri2Cook's toasted marshmallow ice cream and Sugar Baby cookies. Can't wait!

That recipe is my 'go-to' for a loaf of very good, dependable bread. And 'white' is a bit deceiving. This is not Wonder Bread! It has good flavor and a great crumb. Just follow the directions exactly . I am absolutely not a baker, but have never had a failure with this bread. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

I adore pot roast and have tried lots and lots of different recipes. Italian Pot Roast is still our favorite after years and years! It is from "Simple Fare" by Ronald Johnson. I usually double the liquid ingredients and serve it with egg noodles so that we can make soup with the leftovers. I'm not sure if I make it more for the pot roast or for the soup !

I think that this is one of those community cookbook type recipes that come back around again and again. The tunnel cake recipe had the frosting intact through the middle of the cake. These recipes have the frosting mixed into the batter. My mom was introduced to it by her new neighbor when she moved to NC. I've tasted a couple of them and I actually liked them very much. Very moist. But then I don't mind a good, doctored up cake mix. So YMMV !

It's cream cheese and monterey jack. Very versatile as you can use any kind of jelly you like. We've done it with a apricot/jalepeno jelly and Marlene has had good results with garlic/wine jelly. Here's the recipe on my webpage.

Here, finally is a picture of the cake that I made for work on Monday: It's a daiquiri poundcake that I've made for years, but haven't done in awhile. I seemed to have a poundcake hex the last few times that I made one, but this one turned out perfectly. It's a really old recipe. A friend of my mother's made it years ago - I 'collected' it long before I could legally buy the rum for it! I brought a camera to work so that I could get a picture of a slice, but when I went back to get a piece, it was gone - nothing but a corner left. It tasted great, though, and I had to print off the recipe for a few people. It's already been requested for future birthday celebrations!

Tupac - gorgeous souffle! I love Idiazabal cheese and think it must make a wonderful souffle! Made this for a potluck lunch that we had at work on Monday: It's Marlene's red pepper jelly cheesecake. Always one of the most popular things I make. It always disappears before anything else.

Actually a great idea and I'll mention it to Mr. Kim. Thanks for the good wishes - will be thinking of you farther south on game day!

Lan4Dawg - fantastic menu. I am no where near that far along with my planning. This - "sea food Sloppy Little Joe’s Spread over Yellow Corn Bread" - sounds especially good! Virginia's first game is vs. USC Trojans on 8/30. Game time is 12:30, my least favorite time for tailgating. We always visit with some folks who have a spot right at the stadium and so have to leave our tailgate at least 1 1/2 hours before the game starts. Breakfast tailgating is really one meal I'd just as soon purchase somewhere and eat car-side with the Post. If Mr. Kim insists on true tailgating, I'll probably make Scotch eggs with my new deep fryer (we'll eat those cold) and serve with some fruit salad and sweet rolls. We can't do our tailgating after the game for this one because we are hitting the road immediately to head down to NC for the rest of the weekend.

Sugar Plum - Here is the recipe. I've made it for years - some friend of my mom's used to make it and it's always popular. Lovely madeleines, btw! DesertCulinary - thanks for the slicing advice. I don't have one of those big cutters, but I'll try again with the hot knife. I found the brownies on epicurious. Thank you! Your picture is even prettier than the professional one!

DesertCulinary - ok - you are my go-to PB & chocolate combo dessert muse now! It is my favorite flavor combination ever. To paraphrase my momma, if God made anything better than chocolate and peanut butter, He kept it for himself. I, too, would love the recipe for the brownies (or, at least the peanut butter layer). Also - how do you get such perfect edges? I've tried all the tricks with no luck! Would you share your method? And that lovely, flowy chocolate on top! Just beautiful. mark - the pot de creme was extremely light, but not fluffy. It was almost weightless on your tongue and then you got a burst of chocolate. Really intense. thecoffeesnob - welcome! Cupcakes are my favorite! Banana cake and chocolate frosting! Why didn't I ever think of that? I always put chocolate chips in my banana bread, but the cupcake idea never occured to me! Great idea! Later tonight I'll post a picture of a daquiri pound cake that I made for work. I wanted to get a shot of the inside so I brought my camera to work with me. But it was gone before lunch was over and I could get back in to take the shot. It was really good - probably the best result I've ever had with a pound cake - very popular, too!

I was about to write a joke-- something along the lines of, "NO! Just EAT IT!!!" But Rachel, I'm a little choked up inside! What a lovely sentiment you've written here. Keep on keepin' on. (Er, is that the expression?) ← Me too, Mark. Except, Miss Rachel, you misspoke. You do have another gift, an art. Your gift for language is immense and even if we cannot share in your table art, we can, though your generosity, share in this other art!

Dr. J - lovely meal - never too many pictures for me! I'm like a 4 year old 'reader', the more illustrations, the better! Ihollers - welcome! Can't wait to see all of your imput! SD?? Wow - I'd love to visit there sometime! I hope that someone who is more technical minded than I has PM'd you with instructions, but if not, PM me and I'll try to help - I am computer illiterate, but I'll be glad to help! Dinner last night: Moroccan Lemon Chicken Tagine, couscous, tomatoes, roasted asparagus and salad The chicken was done in the pressure cooker. Mr. Kim loved this. I liked it, but thought that next time, I should use chicken thighs rather than breasts. I love the pressure cooker, though. It was nice to have a meal like this ready in 30 minutes.