Kim Shook

They had pickling cucumbers yesterday at the farm stand we go to to buy tomatoes all summer. So I knew cucumber time had come! Marinated cucumbers are a staple in our house all summer long. You start with just these: Sliced cucumbers, vinegar, onions, pepper and sugar (in our case Splenda) Layer the vegetables with plenty of sugar and pepper: Then cover everything with vinegar and put in the fridge: I’ll taste these every day for a week and adjust the sugar and pepper – you never add enough at the beginning. Slowly they “pickle” and turn into a sweet, sour crunchy addition to a nice dinner plate of corn, tomatoes and some meat (meat and threes, indeed!). Every week or so I’ll add another sliced cucumber and maybe some onion, and finally at the end of the summer, we’ll eat the last one and sigh for the loss of them on the plate, but by then our appetites will be running to stews and braises and casseroles! These cucumbers, along with tomatoes, corn, crab and grilled meat and fish just mean summer to me.

Grilled pineapple and mangos are fantastic! And if you do both and chop and mix them with some grilled jalapenos and lime juice, you have a wonderful salsa!

It depends. At a restaurant, if the weather is good, I much prefer being outside. I love the ambiance and besides, you can usually smoke ! But, at home, eating outside means schlepping all that crap out and back in and I hate that part!

I agree with everything Smithy said (why has it become so hard to find freestones, BTW?) plus I'd add that if you are grilling peach (or nectarine) halves, don't bother to peel them. I think they look nicer and the skin keeps them from being too terribly slippery when you are trying to manuver them!

Rob, I bought this at Michael's. I could never have made those otherwise! You just draw it firmly across the top and 'wiggle' it back and forth.

Steve, I'm embarrassed to say that the dressing is a bottle of Kraft Zesty Italian . The recipe is here. Of course, knowing what it is, you could certainly us a good home made vinaigrette in it. Note that I roast the jalapenos - it's because I can't take the heat, but even people who like hot stuff like that change.

Mr. Kim's Father's day breakfast: Buckwheat pancakes, Benton's bacon and scrambled eggs w/ cheese

Thanks, Daniel! Here's the recipe for the peanuts. They have hot sauce and jalapenos on them and you can adjust the heat by using whatever kind of hot sauce you like. I use the big, super crunchy VA peanuts and that really makes them sing! The NOLA trip is amazing looking. I am going to show it to Mr. Kim tonight. That is one place we haven't ever been and really want to. It's definitely on our 'wish list'!

David - both your prawn dinners looked wonderful. When summer time comes I could live on seafood, salad, corn and tomatoes and be happy! Both those dishes would make me very, very happy! Dr. J - your monkfish is just lovely. I really have to try that soon! Prawn - what a gorgeous Father's day spread. I'm not a dad, but I want that!! Megan - I keep coming back to that frittata. I sure wish that was waiting for me when I get home tonight!! Daniel - love all the sausages! We were in a Russian deli last week and decided that we wanted to purchase one each of all the different sausages and have a party with sausages, beer and toothpicks as the only utensils! Only two dinners from me, but lots of pictures! Hope it's not too many. Friday night I used up that lovely merguez sausage in some marinara on whole wheat penne. I also served a salad: Father's day was a big feast. The apps included Texas Caviar w/ Pita chips: These wonderful little canapes with fresh salsa, cojito cheese, mayo and chorizo in little filo cups: Flaming hot peanuts: Cheesy Artichoke dip: For dinner Mr. Kim request BBQ, sausages and sides. I had to do oven roasted BBQ because of Stupid Grill, but it turned out really well: The sausages were brats and these cute little veal and pork sausages we got at the European deli called Parowki Dla Dzieci: We cut the brats in half and served small buns so that people could have some of each if they wanted to, but the other sausages were already tiny. That's 18 of the little suckers on a half sheet pan! So cute. Sides included mustard slaw: My sister-in-law's Caprese: My other sister-in-law's tossed salad with grapefruit, kiwi and strawberries and a really good sweet and sour dressing: My MIL's famous deviled eggs (she swears they aren't any different than anyone else's, but they do taste better): Pickled cabbage and Half Sours from the European Deli and my Grandmother's pickled pickles that I posted about before: Swiss potato kugel - a new recipe I was trying out (meh): Dessert was Angel Food cake with Caramel Apple Sauce, Lucky Charms Treats (they were silly, but everyone loved them - kids and adults), peanut butter cookies and a phenomenal Crunchy Milk Chocolate-Peanut Butter Layer cake that I heard about from DesertCulinary here at eG and that everyone just raved over. It is one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth:

I am so impressed with all these gorgeous butts!!! Mr. Kim requested BBQ for Father's day, but had to settle for kitchen butt rather than yard butt. He's the one who bought the insane grill (it is divided in two and you can't really do indirect cooking on it), so he had to deal with oven roasting. Here is my much more humble butt: It tasted really good and was very moist and porky. In VA BBQ is chopped, not pulled, so I chopped it up some after that picture.

I don't know which recipe you're referring to. Here's the link to the recipe on my webpage: clickity It is simply buttercream. 2 eggs, 2 yolks, beaten to light, drizzle in 1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar in 1/2 cup water - cooked to 240F. Beat until it cools down, add 1 lb room temperature butter then about 6 ounces of melted and cooled chocolate. ← Thanks, Kerry. I'll be giving that a try!

Verjuice - I loved your napoleans! Years ago, I used to do the same thing with deep fried wonton wrappers and strawberries and you just reminded me how good that was! Rob - the chocolate apricot tart is gorgeous! The apricots and the chocolate just glisten - I love when desserts do that!!! And the balloon cakes are perfect and adorable and sound delicious, unlike most cakes that are that cute! CanadianBakin' - my jaw dropped over every single item in your June 8th post! I know that it all tastes wonderful! What kind of icing is that on the Oreo cake? I love the smoothness. And the assorted sized dragees on the orange cake are just starry looking. The Stampin' Up Cake is so adorable that it made me laugh out loud when I saw it. And the adorable little minis made me want to sit right down with a cup of tea and indulge in baby talk with my favorite little girls! Such wonderful work. Thanks for sharing them. Kerry - I agree with Mark - chocolate is always appropriate! I'll ask you the same question I asked CanadianBakin' - what kind of icing is that? I really like the looks of that light colored chocolate! Mark - oooooh! That beautiful, pristine cake! I would like to make a pig of myself on that for lunch today and not touch my low fat cheese, crackers and banana ! I can almost taste it! Some Father's Day desserts: Don't know why the picture is so yellow . These are my very best peanut butter cookies and some Lucky Charms Treats. Very silly, but good. I made them for the kids, but they were a hit with the grown ups, too. We all set around and had a 'Treats epiphany' about all the different cereals you could make treats with! Thanks to DesertCulinary who introduced us to this cake somewhere here at eG, I served this, too: This cake is truly amazing! So incredibly good!!! That filling is made of a thin meringue, chopped peanuts, peanut butter, chocolate and RICE KRISPIES!! Everyone at the party loved it and was really impressed. But it is so much easier to make than it looks or 'reads'. Thanks, again, DesertCulinary!!!

This reminds of the the Evil In Law Fudge (the fudge is evil, not the in laws). Mr. Kim's family makes this (awful, bitter, dry) fudge that apparently only they can make work. I've tried to make it for years and ended up cracking the code for Tootsie Rolls and making really bad ganache, but almost never that damn fudge. And everytime I ask for help I hear, "I don't know why you have trouble with it, it's so EASY!"

Shelby - it is so good! When I've had it, it's been made with lamb, but supposedly you can also make it with beef. Really flavorful. It should be spicy and I've had it from not-too to right-much. It's usually got paprika, harissa, garlic and cayenne. This was on the not-too level (which is good for me) and very, very good. We are planning to finish it up tonight on pasta with some marinara and spinach.

Would that be liptauer??? I am so in the mood for some of this food. What a great trip!

If Ted Fairhead sees this thread, he'll probably have more to contribute, but I remember his mum bringing English bacon and one time a Christmas pudding.

I was rooting for Richard and think that he is possibly the true 'best chef', maybe even in the history of the show, but Stephanie probably should have won last night and that's ok with me (FWIW). What I loved was how such a class act like Richard managed to make it to the finale - good guys don't necessarily finish last. I loved his sense of play and the importance he attached to the integrity of the food. I would eat his food any time!

Klary - that quiche is just gorgeous - I love a deep, custardy quiche. And the light in your home is so inviting! And ooooooooh - the pasta with purslane, bacon, poached egg. What an utterly beautiful and delicious looking dish! What is the taste of purslane like? I've never had it that I know of. Daniel - the soft shell meal rang my bell! Growing up going to the eastern shore most weekends, I have really missed good soft shells! Shelby - that does it, we're having salmon cakes soon! Those are perfect!!! Megan - so glad to see you posting!! That chicken salad is just the best hot weather food there is! Jeff - my scallops want to look like your scallops when they grow up ! MiFi - your crumble and ice cream look so good! I just love seeing the little flecks of vanilla. And to think, when I was a little girl I called vanilla "plain ice cream"! jeremyn - I have the exact same problem with polenta. But it still tastes good, so I am resigned to it! We find the Costco steaks to be very good - much better than the ones we get at a regular grocery store. Not as good as the ones we get at our butcher (see below), but good and so much more affordable - that steak I am posting below was $35 - we can afford Costco steaks much more often! Dinner last night was rib eye steak and merguez from our wonderful butcher shop. We also had roast asparagus, Campari tomatoes, garlic toast and salad: It was a little overcooked, as you can see - although it was better in the center of the steak - we took it off the grill at 120 degrees, so I guess we'll shoot for 115 next time: The steak and sausage were wonderful. We really notice a difference in the meat from the butcher shop. The steak was also enormous! Our dinner plates are oversized and it almost didn't fit! We had enough for both of us to have dinner, plus Mr. Kim is eating the remainder for lunch today!

What a nice surprise!! A travel/food blog! Can't wait to see the rest!

Randi - you did a fantastic job! You have a lot of proud people here at eG! I, too, want the sex bread recipe. (Did anyone else go to the auto link for the sex-bread recipe in the above post? I think it's hilarious that is links to The Old Fashioned Bread Recipes book - good, old fashioned sex bread )

Randi, congratulations! Like others have said, I am so glad that you were able to cook for people who deserve you!!! Everything looked absolutely delicious – the standouts for me were the gorgeous fruit salad and the bbq. I am stealing the idea of cucumbers on tunafish! That’s a great idea. And I love that ‘Nana pudding – it is our favorite version! Enjoy your well deserved trip to FL!!

Yep. That's why I owned up to cheating right away . Peter, I would absolutely buy them aleady made, if they existed! They don't taste like any sweet pickle I've ever had, though - much crunchier and less 'candied'. The pow of garlic and vinegar ensures that they are not overly sweet.

We just call these Grandma Jean's pickles because my grandmother was the first person I saw make them - about 10 years ago. I've been making them ever since, but I've discovered that lots of people make these. I've seen these pickles in Taste of Home Magazine, regional cookbooks, etc. They are absolutely cheating, but so good. You start with a big jar of kosher dills that you drain and slice: You put them back in the jar and top with 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 4 T. of vinegar: Nasty looking, huh: But after a week in the fridge, flipping them over every day or so, they will be sweet/briny/garlic-y and lovely. Does anyone else do these or some other kitchen cheat that works so well?

OMG - the disgusting, revolting Coke Zero commercials with the tongues and eyeball??? They are on youtube if you haven't seen them - just search Coke Zero tongue. The tongues are very realistic and have these nasty little elephant-like feet. They are so horrible that when I was describing them to my co-workers, I literally got a cold chill. And the one where the finger has the eyeball pull it's finger and then farts <shiver>. Creepiest commercials ever!

Sorry, Bella! Marlene is our own Marlene - of eG and cookskorner.com, which is where you'll find her recipe for the Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops. Marlene is my meat guru here! Everything that I've ever made from her has been fantastic - not just meats, either!