Kim Shook

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.

I can never figure out why people care what I do. It's one thing if I am snapping away like Richard Avedon and causing bridal reception blindness with my flash. But I take one discreet shot of each plate, maybe a couple of my companions and never, ever use a flash. My picture taking would never draw attention. So why would anyone care? I get pleasure from looking at those pictures later. I am an inverdant memory keeper - I love keeping a record of the things that are special in my life - photos, matchbooks, letters, etc. I enjoy this. I have not a clue why that would annoy anyone else. Excuse my sentimentality, but I picture a frail old lady looking back over the special times in her life with the assistance of these pictures that some seem to hold in such contempt. I have this same thought when someone seems to care what I eat. Why does my friend care that I like oysters and she doesn't? Or that I don't like her favorite restaurant? Or that I like catsup on my scrambled eggs, for God's sake??? What does it take away from you when I am different from you? It's hard to express tone in a forum like this, I don't mean to rant, I am truly perplexed.

Shelby - your eggs have just been perfect! I am now planning on poached eggs for breakfast this weekend! Sunday breakfast this weekend: scrambled eggs, Benton's bacon, potatoes & raisin toast w/ mayhaw jelly

Thanks so much, everyone! The are on their way tomorrow morning and are leaning towards the Strip district location based on what y'all recommended!

Last night was salmon cakes, corn, roasted asparagus, tots and salad: Nothing special, but very satisfying on a hot summer night - and we weren't so full that we couldn't go on a 3 mile post-prandial walk!

Magus - I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. Don't get discouraged - you did the right thing and you have a great plan and a great product - you'll get it all back again and more. Keep in touch! You have friends here that are interested in you and your success!

I just got the CI American Classics 2008 issue. Out of 25 recipes, I've picked 18 that I want to try! That's a record for me - most other publications have a few I might like to try, maybe one or two that I actually will. Last week I tried their fish and chips and they were wonderful. The fish batter was perfect. BTW - has anyone heard about this little brouhaha? I like the magazine a lot, but, golly they take themselves seriously!

Mr. Kim and his friend are coming to P'burgh for the Steeler's game this Friday. They want to eat at Primanti Brothers, but not the one at the stadium. They are staying at the airport. I noticed online that most of the locations are open very late - so they could eat before or after the game depending on what time they get to P'burgh. They are looking for which location that would be between the airport (where their hotel is) and the stadium. Thanks for the help!!

Susan, I am enjoying my vicarious vacation very much, thank you! I'll have a slice of pie and then I'm going swimming !

← I'm so glad you liked them! It's one of my favorite cupcakes. I make them a lot after Christmas - we always forget whether we have chocolate or not for fudge when we are out shopping and see the bars on special. We always end up with extra bars to use up!

For dessert last night, I made pots de creme: I had never made this before and had no idea how easy it was! I got the recipe from Pioneer Woman. This is a no cook recipe - everything done in the blender. I'm not a coffee fan, so I used skim milk as the hot liquid. So good! I'll be making this recipe over and over again!

Shelby - the pimento cheese looks perfect. It's one of my favorites - especially homemade. With a sleeve of saltines, it's a perfect solitary midnight snack! adey - lovely meal! The crab dish with the blossoms was especially appealing! And the Homeric Merv is a darling ! Last night the in-laws came over. I made fried shrimp, fries, corn, slaw, 'panini'd' baguettes slices and assorted pickles and marinated vegetables: (Otherwise known as a beige plate ) I love my new toys ! And for dessert, I made pots de creme:

Prawn – I cannot bear hot foods, but that chicken would tempt me! It’s gorgeous! And that ham . I am a fool for all ham, but that one is just exactly what ham should look like! I have been wanting to make the Scallops w/ Miso-Mustard Cream Sauce that nakji made awhile ago – I even went out and got the miso a couple of weeks ago. But our wonderful seafood shop hasn’t had any scallops come in that they wanted to offer for awhile. Today, finally, success. They had large, dry scallops when we called this morning and we raced down to pick them up! They were gorgeous! Here they are after cooking: Here they are plated with the sauce and some couscous that I cooked w/ toasted almonds, saffron, onion and golden raisins: The scallops were just fantastic! Thank you so much, nakji for introducing it! The sauce was really tasty, but subtle and didn’t in any way overpower the sweetness of the scallops. I served it with marinated cucumbers and sliced tomatoes with goat cheese and olive oil:

I've tried the mint and the raspberry almond. The mint was quite nice, but the raspberry was filled with fake raspberry flavoring <ick>. The dark chocolate in all M&M's brings up a problem with me - I have always thought that dark chocolate melts more slowly than milk chocolate. That's fine with a piece of chocolate - you just let it melt in your mouth - nothing wrong with that. But when something has that hard shell coating, it's awkward - you chew a little then you have shards of coating and chocolate both in your mouth to let melt. I know I'm making chocolate eating more complicated that it needs to be. And then you add the further complication of an almond and it just doesn't work for me ! I'll just stick with the milk chocolate M&M's!

That looks great, Shelby! We aren't getting good tomatoes this year - not even out at the farm ! I love your cheery cherry plates!

I searched, but didn't find this. I have a bunch of oil that I deep fried fish and chips in. The directions for the fryer say that I can strain and save the oil for a few uses. Two questions: 1). Since I cooked fish in it, is it worth saving? 2). If so, how fine a strain do I need to do. Is a fine mesh strainer good enough, or do I need to put it through something like a coffee filter? It's trying to go through a filter right now and it's going e x t r e m e l y s l o w l y. Ta!

Ditto...plus those nasty little brocolli bites <very guilty pleasure>.