Kim Shook

I almost posted, "where are the asparagus?" then realized, they're WHITE, dummy! Just beautiful meals, Klary - as usual!!

Thanks so much. Would you use a le Crueset or Club Aluminum? (neither one is nonstick, if that matters).

I am making a basic caramel sauce to serve over Angel Food cake on Father's Day: 2 c. sugar, 1/4 c. water and 1/2 c. heavy cream. I want twice as much as it makes. Can I double this in one pot or should I make it 2 separate times? Ta very much!

Soba - thanks for the recipe. I'll probably be trying it next week. Unfortunately, Mr. Kim inadvertantly killed all our scallops . With the recent Top Chef frozen scallops debacle I'm almost afraid to admit that I had a freezer full of frozen scallops - they were dry scallops on special at the Fresh Market and with my 20% discount on top, I just couldn't resist. So I had probably 80 large, lovely scallops in the freezer that we have out in the shed. Mr. Kim accidentally switched off the power to the freezer and we didn't discover it until way too late. So I have the miso paste, but no scallops. Bruce - your butt is beautiful ! Mr. Kim has requested bbq for father's day, but since we have the dumbest grill in existance , I will be doing it in the oven. I will try to eradicate the memory of your butt from my memory so that I don't unfairly compare my own butt to it! And I'd love to have your recipe for crab gratin - anything that tastes just like crabcakes sounds good to me! Rob - the bison steak is just gorgeous. I really like the flavor of bison a lot. RAHiggins1 - loving the southern food! Smothered pork chops!!! Monavano - I think that I missed garlic scape season this year . Last year I made pesto with it and gave everyone in my family bad breath and indigestion, but, oh, it was sooooo worth it ! Bridgestone - that porterhouse is exactly what a steak should look like! And I love the bearnaise - I personally find steak naked without it. Dr J. - I actually saw your duck breast last night and that beautiful thing is just haunting me. The scoring is just so perfect and the color and moistness of the breast is lovely - nice job! Tupac - I want that sandwich for lunch. Like Betty, I really like the idea of coleslaw on a fried chicken sandwich, but I never would have thought of it! How was it? Dinner from a couple of nights ago - salad, Marlene's balsamic glazed pork chops, sauteed yellow squash and onions and roasted cauliflower: The pork chops were fantastic. We have been getting some really good, local pork at the Belmont Butchery and Marlene's recipe was perfect. The porkiness really comes through when you use such good pork. This is a perfect weeknight recipe and I'll be putting this on rotation!!

Soba! That gorgeous fresh stuff!!! I am just so envious of your being near that market. We went down to our so-called farmers market the other day and there were literally 4 vendors there. Union Square Greenmarket is one of my favorite places in NYC. My very best friend in the world used to take me there when I visited him - even though he said he only cooked when he got paid for it! Morgan loved me, so he loved watching me enthuse over the produce! I have been enjoying seeing your lovely greens and poached eggs like everyone else. I do mine just like you do and they are one of our favorite things. I hope you'll give us some neighborhood pictures to help me get my NYC fix!!

Ask Marlene - she makes these and they were beautiful. You might want to PM her in case she doesn't see your post.

Yay!!!!! I haven't read a word yet and I'm already doing the happy dance!!! I was thrilled when I saw that it was NYC (my spiritual home ), but I was beyond thrilled when I was it was you ! Have a wonderful week and take care of yourself so your cold doesn't bounce back on you! I'm going back to dive in now!!

My Lord, where to start. I am just in awe ! You folks inspire and scare me at the same time !! Brigid Mary - those cinnamon rolls are gorgeous. I can almost smell them! Rob - loved the little banana boats! And that's a much nicer name than Sandra Lee used for hers - she called them her 'banana purses'. That always sounded like a nasty euphemism to me . Your for sale stuff??? Spot on! I love the wrapped effect - I think it makes everything look special - and who doesn't love unwrapping stuff? I think your prices are fantastic for the evident quality. Lisa2k - your little green macarons are so pretty! I love the flavor ideas and the ones with the poppy seeds on top look like mini turkey burgers ! And the Oreo cooky cake is spectacular!!! I would love a slice of that! dystopiandreamgirl - please let me join the admiration society for that lovely charlotte! It is an old fashioned, sentimental, sweet dessert - I mean that with all the very best connotations of those words. I think I would cry a little if someone set that down in front of me and doubt that it could possibly be meant for me!! Just lovely ! DesertCulinary - I love cupcakes above all other desserts and yours were adorable. The chocolate gave our house a big giggle! Mr. Kim says it looks sooooo much better than the 'real thing'! Verjuice - the kitty cracked us up! We used to have one who would sit on an empty dining room chair and reach up with only his paw and try to snag stuff on the theory, we supposed that if he couldn't see us, we couldn't see him! Renka - I am just astonished at what you accomplished! Everything looks so wonderful and delicious! I'd like to have one of each! I love the black sesame seeds in the tuiles! I LOVE black sesame! I made these Oreo cooky muffins for work: Everyone at work seemed to like them (I have a cold and my tastebuds are a bit dead, so I can' really tell). Jessica thought they were a bit bland. I thought they'd make great cupcakes with maybe a poundcake batter? Does poundcake batter work for cupcakes?

Can anyone recommend a brand of miso paste that I might be able to find at my local (Richmond, VA) Asian grocery? I want to make Nakji’s scallops!! Soba – your poached eggs always look just perfect!! Nice job. monavano – that salad is just lovely. I adore strawberries in salads! Peter – Mr. Kim noticed that Thai beef salad over my shoulder and said how good it looked – he almost never does that! Tonight’s scaled back dinner was simply broiled lamb chops, rubbed first with Penzey’s lamb spice mix and topped with lavender jelly, roasted asparagus, salad and my daughter’s fried corn w/ bacon. Unfortunately, Mr. Kim and I have raging sinus infections and I can’t taste or smell anything at all (not even Vick’s !!). Mr. Kim said it was very good:

Yes, please!!! Mr. Kim especially will love the miso sauce! Thank you!

Thank you! I just deglazed the pan with some lemon juice and added some whole grain mustard. Mr. Kim and Baby Bear thought it was a little strong with the scallops, but I liked it. I might try something citrusy next time - I have a huge amount of scallops in the freezer (big sale at our store).

Verjuice - Mr. Kim is just fascinated with those egg yolks. When we lived in the country he wouldn't let me explore raising chickens, but if he'd seen those eggs back then, I think I'd have had a giant flock ! Bruce - you continue to torment me with rice Sunday breakfast was a lot of shortcuts on my part. I found some packaged waffles in the deli section of the store - not frozen ones. Kind of expensive, so I probably won't buy them often, but they were really good. I over-toasted them a bit - ended up with Melba waffle toasts , but really tasty! The potatoes were just frozen hash browns that I added some onion to. The directions say not to stir, but I rebelled and stirred like crazy and ended up with nice, crispy potato bits (I wonder how come you're not supposed to stir them?). The bacon was Neuske's which we used to just love, but since we've been eating that Benton's we are finding the Neuske's a bit bland . We are going to be eating less bacon in the future, so I think we'll just continue to order the Benton's - if we can only have 2 slices, they better be the best! The eggs were from the farmer's market. Local and from free range chickens. Nice - rich, dark yolks. Lots of eggy flavor:

Gorgeous food, y'all! I am sitting here waiting for the drug rep to deliver our crap lunch and wishing I was at the eG Cafe - good food and company ! MiFi - I have to single out that beautiful bleu cheese burger - right up our alley!! And as soon as I saw the pork I googled 'pineapple ketchup' with no results. Would you mind posting the recipe, please!! As I mentioned before, I am really simplifying my cooking - for both health and time reasons. So my meals haven't been much worth posting lately. But I did cook some scallops and grilled asparagus that were good. I served it with some mesclun that I was not at all happy with. I got it at the farmer's market. It seemed like it was made up mostly of dandelion and some big, tough, bitter leaves that looked just like large broadleaf - it was all lacey with bug munching, too (not pictured):

I think the right person went home, based on just that episode, but I can't wait for Lisa to GO! And Spike managed to ooze out of responsibility by doing FOH and, to be fair, seemed to do a very good job of it. But he didn't fool Bourdain one bit. Did you see the look he gave Spike right at the end of B's comments?

OK - I went to your blog and OMG, that Carrot Cake cheesecake is STUCK IN MY HEAD. I really want to make that. I must come up with an excuse to make it soon! Might make a good Father's day dessert.

Maggie - I agree with you completely about It's All American Food! Everything I've ever made from it has been successful. I love the "classic" recipes - they are recipes I remember from my childhood - both at restaurants and homes, but they aren't studiedly 'retro' - just good food.

If it's the letter I am thinking of, it was hilarious, too! I think that might help a letter of complaint stand out and get a response.

Lisa - applause, applause, applause!!! Just beautiful lasagna! I almost never make it because it's a PITA and it's hard to find thin pasta sheets (I hate fat sheets) and I don't make my own pasta (one of my life list of things to do when I retire), but you've inspired me! Maybe I'll find some thin pasta sheets at the fresh pasta store and do that soon! One question: no ricotta? or was it in the bechamel?

Rachel, that is just the way that I love my dogs - blackened and crispy. Our friends joke that my designated hot dogs go on the grill with the hamburgers instead of later with the other dogs !

Like Daniel mentions in the dinner thread, we are making some changes in our eating/cooking habits so Mother’s day was my last blast, so to speak. I cooked what I liked. Everyone asked why I was cooking on Mother’s day and I said that it was my treat to myself! I cooked a lot ahead and then spent most of the day in the kitchen with lots of help from my mom and Mr. Kim. It was fun and exhausting and we’ve got plenty of leftovers to finish before we start the new habits . I did both brunch and dinner. Ted Fairhead and my mom are up and my dad and his wife were on their way back to FL from Northern VA. Mr. Kim’s parents are here in Richmond, so we had a houseful. I love the sounds of a full house! I had a few crazy moments (I always do – one Christmas I sent all the children back to school with some new vocabulary words!), but I had a lot of help! Before the invasion: I served shrimp salad and mini croissants: Breakfast Strudel: Sausage & Grits Casserole: Benton’s Bacon: Fruit Salad: With Momma and Ted’s Taz policing the buffet! Dessert: That’s coconut cupcakes with lemon curd filling and a purchased fruit tart. Dinner was much simpler. Predinner nibbles included fried haloumi cheese w/ pita and some really good olives I found: For dinner I served James Beard’s pastitsio and French bread: I don’t have a picture of the salad – I did one of our favorites. It is the one of the simplest and also one of the most delicious salads that I make. It’s just really crunchy, fresh iceberg with a dressing made of equal parts light cream, sugar and white vinegar. Everyone always loves it, but it’s one of those things that you don’t tell people the ingredients until they’ve tasted it! Everything turned out really well. But best of all, we all set around and talked and laughed and told stories. I served brunch at 1pm and we were still around the table at 3. Dinner was at 7 and the last one left after 11. I call that a success – no matter what the food tasted like! I hope all the mom’s at eG had a wonderful day, filled with what makes you happy!

Some amazing food folks! Bruce – the chicken with chilies looks so great. I’m sure it would be too hot for me, but the color is so gorgeous! Maybe I could make it and tone down the heat a bit! Susan – I love the idea of Buffalo duck wings – the chicken flavor tends to get lost in the intense flavor of the sauce, so duck is a great idea! And the fries look perfect! Ted Fairhead and my mom are up here for a Mother’s day visit. Friday night’s dinner will look familiar: It is the pasta and Sunday gravy that I served to my friend a couple a weeks ago. I had some of the sauce left over in the freezer and just served it with some bread and salad. It was even better leftover! I forgot to take pictures of Saturday night’s dinner, which is a good thing, because no one but Mr. Kim and I liked it . It was a chicken cordon bleu casserole. I’d made it before and we really like it, but no one else did! I served it with braised cabbage and roasted baby potatoes – everyone liked them !

Rob, will you please let me know if this works? I make a wonderful roasted strawberry cheesecake that I've enrobed in white chocolate, but it's a mess and doesn't look very pretty: I tarted it up with white jimmies, chocolate shards (I still can't make nice curls) and strawberries to cover up my ugly white chocolate coating!

I made a version of Brigid Mary’s Kit Kat cake. I, like Brigid, made it for a friend’s birthday celebration and it was a great success! I used the CI recipe for German chocolate cake for the cake and CakeLove chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream for the filling and frosting (I put chopped Kit Kat bars in the filling, too, like Brigid). Thanks so much for posting that cake, Brigid – this was a fun cake to make and to serve – everyone was impressed:

Today I made the CI German chocolate cake. I frosted it with Italian Meringue Buttercream, not the regular frosting. The cake was just a perfect chocolate cake - great crumb, intense chocolate flavor. Everyone loved it: My go-to sandwich bread is CI's American Sandwich bread. I've never had it not turn out perfectly - and I am not an expert baker: I don't think that I've ever had a CI recipe 'fail' me. Usually I make slight adjustments, but not enough to fundamentally change the basic recipe.

Uh-oh... I never went to Reidsville! You'll have to tell me what I missed out on! ← Reidsville has Short Sugar's which has been around forever. It's being run by the son-in-law of the original owners and the bbq itself isn't as good as it once was. But the sauce is truly amazing - nothing I have ever tasted anywhere comes close. If they ever close, I might swear off NC bbq for life ! I bring both bbq and sauce home when I visit and once I run out of bbq, the sauce is so good that it makes even ordinary local bbq something special. You can see a plate of the bbq that I served last night here!