Kim Shook

Ilana, thank you so much for a wonderful week. I appreciate you and your family for sharing your week with us! I'll be lurking on the candy threads and drooling over your lovely chocs!

Here you go! That will link you directly to the recipe. Its a recipe on my online webpage. The link under my signature here will link you to the table of contents of the webpage. Hope you like it - it was so good and stayed moist through 2 reheatings!

Percyn - thanks for the bacon salt info. We will put that stuff on our next amazon order! This morning I woke up thinking about MiFi's baked eggs. My version: eggs, butter, cream, 3 year old cheddar, a little leftover Jambon Serrano. So, so good! Thanks for the inspiration, MiFi!

MiFi - those baked eggs look so incredibly good. I am going to try that soon!! Shelby - your bagels are beautiful. Breakfast this morning was manchego omlets, Neuske's pepper bacon, home fries, homemade brioche toast and ET bagels (not homemade!):

I will try that. We love bleu and have it around all the time. The Regale was fantastic. Really fragrant. The ladies liked it more than the gentlemen did. I make a chocolate truffle loaf dessert that it will be crazy with! I love tetrazzini and yours looks perfect. I need to have that soon!

I got them at The Fresh Market - since I work there I know that they just get them from the basic organic source that all the good stores order from - nothing out of the ordinary. They are always good and moist, though. I got them already seeded to save time and effort and I think I might as well have gotten them with the seeds still in them. It was such a fiddly job cutting the cheese in little bitty strips to stick in the hole !! I think I would have been better off seeding them myself and having a big slit in the side of each date to stuff with cheese!

Pierogi - I have been drooling over your dinners lately - I would hate to have to choose between the braised pork and roasted apple dish and your wonderful brisket and creamed spinach! Your breads have been great, too! Congratulations on your successes!!! MiFi - oooooh! I <heart> your pupu!!! And those cheeses make me feel slightly faint . Bruce - "Returning from basketball practice, elder son complained that “his shirt smelled like dinner.” " - this cracked me up. And I've got to have some scallops soon! BTW - I bought the dreaded cabbage Thursday and I think I'll be making it this weekend. Wish me luck and I'll let everyone know if a miracle happened and I actually end up liking <shudder> cabbage <shudder> ! Ce'nedra - your 'fat little buddy' is delicious looking! To say thank you to Mr. Kim for taking such good care of me when I was sick last week I made his favorite - spaghetti and meatballs. He could eat this twice a week for dinner and a few more times for lunch and I don't make it very often (no excitement ). It was good, though - sometimes I have a tendency to forget how good basic food is and want to do only the fun stuff. He chose long fusilli as the pasta - we liked that: Last night was the first time I really out and out cooked in a long time. It was fun !!! We had some friends over for dinner - they are the kind that don't mind experiementation, so they knew that they could end up eating take out pizza for dinner - but it all turned out really well. We started with Jambon Serrano Ham, Marcona Almonds, Hot Dates stuffed w/ Manchego and Crusty Bread. I got a lot of advice on the Wine board (especially from Katie Loeb) on my pairings and ended up serving Amontillado sherry with this course: It was all very good. Everyone just loved the dates, but I think I'll try something 'meltier' and more assertive next time for the cheese - any one have any ideas? Main course was Grilled Leg of Lamb w/ Feta & Herb Salsa, Couscous w/ Pine Nuts, Roast Green Beans w/ Shallots & Filberts and a Butter Lettuce salad w/ Marinated Red Onions & Vinaigrette: The lamb was just perfect. And the method of cooking was really easy, but one I hadn't thought of before. You take a boned leg of lamb, smear it up with the tasty stuff (herbs, oil, garlic) and then grill it flat. You don't roll it and tie it back up into a roast. It takes like 20 minutes total to grill it and you end up with maximum outer crunch and a good assortment of rare to med well cooked meat since it is so uneven in size! It's fantastic! The salsa was amazing. We were spreading it on everything in sight! As Katie suggested with the mains we served Montecillo Crianza Rioja 2003 - everyone thought this was the perfect pairing: Dessert was Mini Strawberry Shakes w/ Strawberry Mascarpone Paninis, Belgian chocolates (another Katie suggestion - to make her wine suggestion really sing - it worked ) and to drink, Banfi Rosa Regale.

We were just up there and really enjoyed Eamon's Fish and chips - not a big crowd place, though - only a couple of tables big enough for 6.

I didn't forget you said that - I got a lovely little box of Belgian chocolates! Dinner is tomorrow, so I'll report back on Saturday. Thanks, again! The scary wine lady at my store approved of all my purchases and was obviously surprised by me ! She knows I am a ninny.

Last weekend in Roslyn we drove by Tom Sarris' - the fixtures were for sale. I know it wasn't all that great - especially the last few years, but I was sad. As a kid, I spent lots of dinners there with my Father. I'll miss knowing its there, even if I wouldn't have ever gone again.

Shelby - maybe try cutting up some roasted frozen artichoke hearts and adding some parmesan cheese, smear it on some baked/roasted chicken and bake for a few minutes. I have known this cheesy, gloopy mess to reform serious cooked spinach haters. ← That's a good idea! Oddly, he loves fresh spinach and CANNED spinach! Isn't that weird?? ← I have a brother in law like that. Honestly do not get the canned love! Makes me heave to think of that stuff !

Shelby - maybe try cutting up some roasted frozen artichoke hearts and adding some parmesan cheese, smear it on some baked/roasted chicken and bake for a few minutes. I have known this cheesy, gloopy mess to reform serious cooked spinach haters.

So, where'dya eat?

Thanks so much everyone! I think I've got this straight now. I got the Amontillado sherry which I will serve with the apps. I got the Crianza Rioja which I'll serve with the lamb and I got the Banfi Rosa Regale which I'll serve with dessert. Thank you so much. I am a wine ninny and now I can serve my (your) pairings with some confidence!

Ilana - it is 2am here. I have to be at work at 7:30am. I am giving a dinner party Friday night and haven't done anything tonight that I needed to do. I have no business sitting here on the internet. And yet I am sitting here! I am simply swamped by the beauty of your country, your food, your voice! Every single blogger gives us a gift of some kind. Your gift seems to be the ability to make me feel really present in your life! Thank you so much for blogging this week. I am just loving it so much. But my boss is going to want to have words with you ! And your kitties make me want to carry them to the nearest sunny spot for a cat draped nap!

just double checking - I'm supposed to serve the sherry with the lamb? But not with the apps? Any ideas on the apps? ta!!!!!

Thanks so much - I will look for those tonight!

I am serving an appetizer assortment comprised of serrano ham, heated dates stuffed w/ manchego and marcona almonds. This will be prior to a main of leg of lamb served with either a Cabernet Sauvignon or a French Syrah. What kind of wine would you serve with the appetizer? Or would you not serve wine? Something else? I appreciate the help. I am not even a neophyte yet, so I need it ! Ok, while I'm asking, dessert will be mini strawberry and vanilla cream shakes w/ strawberry and mascarpone panini. Something bubbly with those? Proseco maybe? Thanks!

Ted - lovely tilapia - will you make that for me sometime? Chris - the next time that your wife leaves town, can I come eat at your house? Shelby - beautiful venison pie! Bruce - that hot chocolate. I think I maybe fainted a little when I saw that ! Dinner last night was a lettuce, apple and toasted walnut salad with a fresh cranberry vinaigrette - really good: And a goat cheese and fig stuffed chicken breast with a marsala sauce. Someone here posted a link to the recipe awhile ago and I'm thinking that it was Anna_N - I have had it in my 'to try' file for ages and just did it - it tasted great and was much easier that I thought it would be! Anyway - if it was you, Anna or whoever - a belated thanks for posting! Served with eG roasted cauliflower and roasted garlic bread (it was orange cauliflower, btw): a not terribly good picture of a cross section of the chicken: Next time I will be bolder making the pocket and make it bigger!

Good, God, David! I just fell off my chair. That is one of the best looking things I've ever seen! Now, I need a slice shot please!!

We ate at Cashion's during our most recent weekend in Washington. We had a great meal and experience! You can read about it here.

Good place to ask this, I hope! How do you pronounce jamon? Ta!

I don't know why, but the shrimp just really appealed to me that night. I had been eating nothing but soup and crackers and pretzels since Monday and the slight spiciness of the shrimp just really worked for me - plus, I only managed to eat 2 of them. I chewed on that bread for an hour, though - it tasted good, but hurt to chew! The fish and chips are lovely. I, too, would have been tortured by the fries - I know I couldn't have handled anything fried yet this week! Today, I managed to stay on my feet for longer than any other day this week - I've been doing about 5 minutes every hour and a half before becoming seriously winded, but since having a breathing treatment a couple of days ago, I am doing better. Managing about 15 minutes per hour. I put together a very simple dinner - creamy chicken enchiladas (recipe sent to me by my mom - very good, too), canned black beans with chilis and cumin and chips: with blood oranges and grapes for dessert (somehow I didn't get to the brownies with chocolate chips I planned to make earlier today ):

Amrita - I, too, think that your quiches look lovely! MiFi - your roast pork is so moist looking! I love roast pork! percyn - bacon salt ! Where did you get that? I may be getting back to you on those gorgeous scallops. I have something coming up where I am making scallops for a crowd and want them to look like that!! I'm hoping that someone here will tell me that of course I can pre sear them and finish them in the oven last minute ! Marcia - hope hubby feels better soon - the soup and grilled cheese are perfect and would have been very welcome here this week! suzi - what a coincidence, our favorite pot roast is also called Italian Pot Roast! Not the same recipe - mine is a Ronald Johnson recipe. I always make a double recipe to have enough for soup, but never thought to do a shepherd's pie with it. (I know, all you English people - technically w/ beef it's cottage pie - but I grew up calling it all shepherd's pie thanks to my ENGLISH dad, Ted Fairhead ). I am going to try that!! I am sick with pneumonia, so haven't cooked at all this week. On Valentine's day, we booted our reservations and Mr. Kim provided this at my request: Steamed jumbo shrimp, crusty bread, salad and some good olives we brought home from our weekend trip to Washington. He did good! It was all very good and satisfying to my soup and cracker eating tummy!

Time for our trip report. I had asked on this board for some advice on where to eat for our special weekend and wanted to report back on what we did. Thanks to everyone for the advice. We had a great time and ate some good food! Our wedding anniversary is March 20th and Mr. Kim is a big Barry Manilow fan (I am not). I decided that since he was in concert at the Verizon Center on Saturday, we could make a weekend out of it and have an early anniversary celebration. Mr. Kim’s best friend (another Barry guy) and his wife had their anniversary in January and so we decided to make it a foursome. Mr. Kim and I went up a day early so that we could have dinner with a dear friend that I went to high school with. We went up Friday night, 2/8 and stayed through Sunday afternoon. We had a really good time even though I started feeling bad on Saturday afternoon – came home and went to the doctor on Monday – I have pneumonia and have been on the couch in a semi coma since then. I am doing this report for a few minutes every hour and then collapsing again. So forgive if this is a bit disjointed! And I apologize in advance for the mostly crappy pictures. I haven't gotten the hang of the restaurant setting yet, I guess! Since we had a few minutes after checking into our hotel (Hyatt – Crystal City) before the shuttle for the Metro came, we just went to their bar for a drink. We had an utterly fantastic bartender – Serena or Sabrina and she made the best Cosmopolitan I have ever had. This ended up being a Cosmo weekend – it was the only drink I ordered all weekend and while all were good – hers were the best. Friday we met a good friend at Cashion’s Eat Place. Thanks,busboy, for the recommendation. It is a lovely place and we were treated so well. The service person really took charge of us (in a nice way) and made us feel so welcome – like we were really guests in her place (I know its supposed to work like that, but it doesn’t always in real life). Sorry for my sketchy info here, we hadn’t seen our friend in so long that we were just talking up a storm and I had to kind of put this together after the fact and didn’t think to ask for a menu – actually, I forgot to ask for a menu anywhere we went this weekend. I’m lucky I remembered to take pictures during this meal. Mr. Kim and our friend had to keep reminding me. I forget to take even one picture of us with our friend . I didn’t think of this until the next day – too late. I guess that is the mark of really enjoying a good visit – having too much fun to remember to commemorate it ! I had the Jambon (aside – how do you pronounce Jambon?) Serrano w/ hot cheese-stuffed dates. This ham was fantastic. I think I actually preferred it to any proscuitto that I’ve ever had. And the cheese-stuffed dates were perfect – I just wish I remembered what kind of cheese they used! I also had the Chicory and baby green salad w/ pomegranate seeds and... some other stuff (sorry). Very good. I also had a Cosmo – ok, but no Serena! Mr. Kim had the baby beet salad w/ baby greens, crème fraiche and white anchovies. He liked this a lot. His main was the pepper rubbed Bison rib-eye with a spicy sauce and Brussels sprouts au gratin. He said the bison was really good – very rich tasting and complex. The Brussels sprouts were the revelation of the evening. I will be trying to make this soon. They were probably the most delicious thing we ate all night (and everything else was great). Sliced thin, still slightly firm, nutty, rich cheese. MMMM. Our friend had the sablefish. He enjoyed it very much. I didn’t taste, as I was getting very full, but it looked perfectly cooked. We shared the Valrhona chocolate cake with ‘wet’ walnuts and Demera sugar ice cream. The cake was slightly warm and intensely chocolaty with out being truly dark. I am not a fan of wet nuts at all, but was glad to see that they resisted the call to ‘black out’ the cake with a fudge sauce or chocolate ice cream. The slightly brown sugar flavor of the ice cream went so well with the walnuts and cake. Our friend lives in the area (I am very envious of that – I was never made to live in the ‘burbs – I’ve always gravitated to cities ) and has eaten at Cashion’s fairly often over the years. He says he has never been disappointed in a meal there. We weren’t either. A really good meal and a perfect place to have a real visit with an old friend that we hadn’t seen in too long. We never felt rushed on a Friday night, either! Then we went back to the hotel for another Cosmo before bedtime ! On Saturday, we just had the complementary breakfast at the hotel. It was surprisingly good. The breads were out of the ordinary as far as quality went, there were some nice soft cheeses on offer and the bacon and pork were outstanding – the bacon was so porky that it tasted more like fatback than restaurant bacon . Lunch was at Mario’s on Wilson Blvd. in Arlington. I have been eating this stuff since before I was born – my mom used to have Mario’s cravings when she was pregnant with me! We had the usual – A ham, steak and cheese sub with pizza sauce, “slaw” (really just shredded cabbage) and mayo, fries (crinkle cut frozen – no ‘Whiz this time) and a cheese slice. The pizza and fries are crap, really – I grew up eating them so I guess it is a sentimental sense memory for me. But the subs are fantastic. The steak is actually shaved rib eye, the ham is good quality and the cheese is provolone. We stopped by the Arlington Whole Foods (we aren’t getting one until later this year) for some treats and gifts: cookies, chocolates, cheeses for my little punk, Organic cheese popcorn, etc. When we got back to the hotel, our friends who were coming from Richmond had arrived. We all went down to the bar for a drink (Cosmo #4, if you are keeping count – maybe I don’t have pneumonia – maybe I’m just seriously hung over – we gastric bypass patients are really sensitive to alcohol ). Then to Brasserie Beck for dinner. Beautiful place with a fantastic wait staff. Our server, Melanie, was perfect – attentive, friendly, concerned without being too present or fawning. I had the country pate with a pickled assortment – including onions, cornichons, etc. – very rough and rustic and delicious – I really wanted to finish this!! I ended with the salad frisee with lardoons, a poached egg and sherry vinaigrette. Perfect version. The egg just gooshed all over the salad, making my vinaigrette almost creamy. That probably sounds icky, but it wasn’t – it was perfect! Um…and I had another Cosmo. Mr. Kim had the leek and potato soup. Very good. The leeks were very assertive without tasting ‘strong’. I don’t know how it happens, but I often find that with leek and potato soup the dullest component (potato) seems to over shadow the liveliest (leek) – not this one. It was great and green tasting! He also had the braised lamb shanks with white beans - incredibly tender lamb, and the beans were so good - really silky and creamy! Mike and I shared an order of frites with mayo trio – curry, sun dried tomato and roasted garlic – very good! One of our friends had a salad and the Shrimp Croquettes. She liked the salad fine, but not the shrimp. The sauce was overwhelmingly hot – no warning on the menu at all. And she didn’t care for the texture of the shrimp. I tasted them and thought that they were very good. Just a real essence of shrimp taste. They were similar to the texture of shrimp toast – a little spongy. But with no fillers at all, so I don’t know what other kind of texture you would expect. Shrimp is spongy – not flakey like crab and I think that she was expecting a crab cake kind of thing. Our server was wonderful about it and offered to replace it with something else very quickly and apologized profusely and, of course, it was taken off the bill. I really believe that our friend was just in one of her moods that night and wasn’t going to like anything. She was totally grossed out by my meal. And said so (she didn’t taste it, just looked). Our other friend had the grilled beef steak with Cognac Sauce and potatoes – the menu said frites, but these were different – almost an au gratin with crispy cheese on top. Really good – he was still talking about his meal the next morning. Then we went to the concert – very, very fun. As I said, I am not a huge fan, but he is such a showman that it really doesn’t matter, you have a good time. And I don’t care how cool you think you are, I defy anyone who grew up in the 70’s to sit at a Barry Manilow concert and not know the words to every freaking song he does!! Only food note here was that we all agreed that we wished that Verizon Center had concession people who came down into the stands during concerts - the soft serve that the ladies in front of us were getting up to get looked pretty good, but we were too lazy to get up. After the concert we went back to the hotel for drinks. Ah..yep, I had another Cosmo ! Sunday morning Mr. Kim and I had an early breakfast at the hotel again and then all four of us went to Vermilion in Alexandria for brunch. This was a big success with everyone. Thanks to monavano for the recommendation. I had the Greek yogurt with fresh and dried fruits, granola and honey. So good – everyone loved this – even the ones who aren’t usually yogurt fans! I also had the crispy VA oysters with shaved celery and gala apple slaw and tangy dressing. The oysters were sweet and lightly crusted, but the slaw was truly wonderful. This is another thing that I am going to try to duplicate at home – we all loved this, too! (I didn’t have a Cosmo ). Mr. Kim had the hanger steak with porcini dusted fries baby greens and house made steak sauce. These were all good, though I couldn’t taste the porcini on the fries. Our friends had the eggs and latkes (great version) and the butternut squash soup drizzled with balsamic and sprinkled with toasted pumpkin seeds. They brought a basket of lovely, moist mini muffins to the table. They were carrot, coconut and raisin. We wandered around Old Town with our friends for a little while showing them the Torpedo Factory, some dog goody store – I should have taken pictures here – the goodies looked like fine pastries! The wife hadn’t ever been to Old Town and wanted to see some of it. They went back to Richmond early afternoon and Mr. Kim and I wandered a little more. We stopped at Scoops on King Street for a frozen custard which felt so good to my increasingly sore throat and head. Please notice the lovely frozen custard and ignore the puffy faced, fuzzy haired, needs-a-dye-job, sick-but-apparently-not-too-sick-for-ice-cream broad ! We also stopped at a fairly new candy store around the corner from Ramsey House called Candie’s Candy. Mostly wrapped bulk penny candy type stuff. Primarily salt water taffy. Not great and too expensive (I grew up on Dolle's Salt Water Taffy from Ocean City and Pony Tails from Chincoteague so I guess I’m spoiled) – still, we bought too much. I think we were hungry. And it was so windy and cold – we were glad just to get in the warmth! We had an early dinner at Eamon’s on King Street. We shared fish and chips. The fish is cod and was delicious. Looking back, the theme of the weekend seemed to be Cosmos and potatoes. We had them with almost every meal! And these chips were the best potatoes that we had all weekend. Thick, crisp outside and fluffy inside. Just perfect! Mr. Kim had a Club Rock Shandy to drink (tasty and non-alcoholic – I was feeling really awful by then and we knew that he was driving home) and I had a Ballygowan – Irish water (meh – tasted like water). We also got a bag of Jelly Babies Well, that’s it - we meandered on home, thanks to Mr. Kim. I was a zombie by the time we got onto the Beltway! Thanks so much to everyone for all your help! We had a great time!