Kim Shook

Marlene - your meat pies are gorgeous! Doddie - your bibimbap looks delicious! Makes me wish I could eat rice (I haven't been able to eat rice since having a gastric bypass a few years ago - and I miss it!) Bella - Here's a link to the recipe for the salmon: Clickity! Bruce - those shrimp are scrumptious looking! eskay - now I want falafel! No one in my house likes it, so I never bother, but I should! Thanks for the idea! We went out for American Chinese tonight. Hot and Sour Soup and Sweet and Sour Shrimp. One of my (many) guilty pleasures is sticky, sweet ersatz Chinese sauces Kim

I have tons of cookbooks without pictures. And I use them. That said, I am an absolute child about pictures in books. I truly believe that all books should have pictures. I hate when travel narratives don't have photos or even maps. That said, I hate, hate, hate bad illustrations. I have had whole series of books ruined for me because of publishers who won't pay for decent illustrators/photographers. I do realize that I sound like a brat here. Kim

Ok, here's the last of the meals to catch me up. Who knows how long it will be before I cook more - I am working lots of nights and going out of town next week. Anyway - I had my first try at grilling fish. It was a recipe from Cook's Illustrated and I was sure that I was going to end up with salmon slivers on my plate and chunks stuck to the grill, but it worked really well and tasted fantastic. Grilled Glazed Salmon: I served it with a green salad with Feta & Tomato and a cream chive dressing: Plated with grilled ciabatta and sweet corn: I visited a wonderful, new butcher shop in Richmond called the Belmont Butchery and purchased some incredibly thick pork chops from Gryffon's Aerie farm in Gordonsville, VA: They were so thick that I just roasted them and served them with a Tangerine Marmalade sauce - really delicious meat - so incredibly tender and flavorful. With the chops, I made roasted cauliflower w/ onions and fennel - a really nice twist on the official eGullet sidedish : I also finally tried the Jacques Pépin Gnocchi Parisienne recipe. What an easy and fantastic dish! I am so glad I tried this one! Simmering: Ready for the oven: Done: Plated:

A few hours later, I am taking a well deserved break. Here are a few more past meals: I was inspired by Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to visit our (rather limited) farmer's market. The book is about eating as locally and seasonally as possible. I am now making an effort to bring more local and organic foods into our meals. At the market, I found: Pork chops from Faith Farm in Green Bay, VA. This pork is pasture raised and actually had pork flavor: White Japanese turnips: Which I used in a green salad (no picture). They were very mild and sweet. I cooked the greens with a little side meat - they took almost no time and tasted wonderful - even greens-hating daughter liked them! Garlic Scapes - which I had never even seen: I used these to make a very good, but VERY strong pesto that I served with two different breads that I found; Bread for the People Asiago Baguette and Metro Bakery's regular loaf: The asiago is at the top. Pesto: Finished meal: I fried the pork chop (something that I haven't done in years, considering how dry most pork is nowadays) and also served sliced Hanover tomatoes. I have two more meals to post when I have earned another break! Kim

Everything looks so good! I am too hot and tired to cook recently, but I am so inspired when I look at this thread! Pille - your beetroot and potato pie is just lovely! Shelby - everything looks delicious and the plate that your salmon crackers are on is gorgeous - do you remember where it came from? Prawncrackers - I was scrolling through this thread last night and when I passed your crab linguini, my daughter made me stop and read what was in it. I think we may be having that next week ! MiFi - that chowder - ! Any chance of getting a recipe? Wendy - that entire spread looks scrumptious! My very favorite way to eat - small tastes of lots of different things. And those grilled oysters in your next post look delectable! Ted - the chicken is beautiful. Will you show me how you got the pastry to look so pretty when I'm there next week, please? saucée - the chicken with polenta sounds fantastic. I love polenta with gooey stuff! I have finally uploaded some pictures from when I was without computer (I had a hard time - I couldn't remember the whole process ). Here are a couple and I will post more later: Fried Green Tomatoes w/ Shrimp Remoulade Sauce: Corn Waffles w/ Pulled Pork and Succotash: BBQ Beef Sandwiches w/ Cabbage-Raisin Slaw and Cold Dressed Greenbeans: I also took the makings for Bahn Mi to a friend's house for dinner. They were received with deep suspicion by everyone except myself and Mr. Kim . My hosts 'fixed them up' by heating the meat in the microwave and setting out cheese and ketchup and mayo to add to my veggies and condiments ! I ended up with LOTS of leftover vegetables, so I made eggrolls: The mixture before rolling: Lots of rolls: The final product: They were pretty good and I made enough to stock the freezer, so we are having more of them tonight! It's my day off, so I have lots of chores - I'll give myself a break later and post some more pictures! Kim

Kent, I am so glad to see you blogging. I have never been to Texas, so this is another gift from eGullet for my armchair traveling! I'd love to see some more pictures of your neighborhood. Kim

Gustatory or even gustative would be the adjectives to use. Tut-tut; all that expensive education! Ted ← For those who don't know, Ted is my dad - and one of the sources of payment for that expensive education ! kim

Sweetie, you are hanging with the wrong people ! I positively worship chefs. I get actually starry eyed when I meet one. Surround yourself with people who respect what you do, so that when you have to be with the others you have a better inner monologue! Kim

Jessica - very excited to see your blog. I would like to see more pictures of your store. I wish I had known about it when we were in NY a few months ago - I'd have loved to have seen it and met you! Next time. I am really looking forward to this week - I always do when the blogger lives somewhere that I dream about living and NYC is one of those places. Now, if only Susan could find someone in rural England, I would have my own personal trifecta (you, Dave in France and England - the three places I would sell my soul to live in)! I think that Greek yogurt w/ honey is the official eGullet breakfast ! Kim

Hello, all! I am rather intermittently surfing again. The child is home (and graduated from college and employed – oh, joy!) and I am using her computer when I can, but I don’t want to junk up her computer with my pictures so I’ll post them when we get our computer back. But I am getting caught up on this thread so I thought I’d pass on some comments! Percy – your burgers on 6/9 are the very quintessence of ‘burger’ Shal – happy birthday! And, as always, an invitation to any gustorial (is that a word?) gathering given by you would be the most look forward to occasion that I can imagine!! “Potato Flavoured Butter” cracked me right up . Bueno: your carbonara reminds me that I want to do this soon. What a great comfort food! Shaya – Happy birthday to you, too! Both of your gnocchi dishes looked fantastic! I especially liked the “nekkid” ones ! I also loved the veal on 6/28 – the chop looked especially delicious. Ann - I am so sorry to hear about Stetson. My parents have shelties and they are just some of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever met. We had to have our baby girl (14 year old kitty), Banshee put to sleep last month. It has been hard to come back from it. Doddie – that pork pot pie looked luscious! Bella – that proscuitto/mozzarella thing sounds fantastic. I do a similar thing with proscuitto and goat cheese to top a salad. These are then sautéed. I do mine ahead of time and then microwave them slightly to warm just before serving. It helps with that pesky last minute serving problem ! Tarelki – that shrimp/artichoke dish looks completely swoony. I’d love to have the recipe, if you wouldn’t mind pm’ing me! Bruce – so sorry to hear about your dog. It has been a bad summer for egullet pets, Ann, you and me all in the past month. Wendy – we almost never have cocktails – especially at home (no reason really – weight, diabetes, gastric bypass and general laziness ), so I always have my vicarious cocktail time with you. It makes me feel very glamourous . Lucylou – BF’s lasagna looks fantastic and I am definitely making port brownies. LittleLea – your duck breast and pears is just gorgeous! Welcome – that is quite a debut! David – your bouillabaisse is fantastic looking. I would have loved a crack at just the juice and some of that bread to sop it up with ! Chufi – those egg stuffed meatballs are marvels!!! Marlene – good grief! Everything that you posted on 7/4 looked wonderful! It is hot as the hinges of hell here in VA and I am craving beef stroganoff ! Bleu cheese deviled eggs are just genius! I have missed egullet more than I would have thought this past month. I have been cooking, but somehow by not sharing the results with everyone of you, something was missing from the experience. I hope that I can get my computer up and running soon and can get my pictures organized so I can do a big monster photo post! Kim

I am so glad that I was able to 'get back' to egullet in time to respond to your blog. I have enjoyed this so much. If I never realize my dream of travel, I will have had a lovely taste of rural France thanks to you, Dave. I have taken lovely walks with you and Rupert. I have eaten your glorious apricot tart. I have smelled heavenly cheeses - both subtle and stinky! I have gone along on your road trips and seen incomparable views! Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us, Dave. And for enriching my life! Kim

Hi, everyone! I have been sans computer for almost a month now and the stupid public library blocks egullet ! And the stupid computer guy won't be getting the stupid mother board from the stupid Dell people until July 9th . I am at my daughter's apt. helping her pack for moving back home after graduation and thought I would sit down for a second and say hello. Since this is where all my favorite cooks congregate, I thought this was the proper place ! Just wanted to say hello, that I miss everyone and can't wait to have a few days to sit and catch up on all of your wonderful meals and also, to post the meals that I have been cooking! I was so sad to hear about fifi and I did take the time to read the responses on the thread about her. It is so amazing to me how well we get to know one another in this 'anonymous' medium. Best to everyone, Kim

Yay!!!!! Megan's back <happy dance ensues>!!!! You and your cukes were seriously missed here - now if we can just get Daniel and Ling (and some others I can't think of at this exact moment) to do some posting! Gorgeous meal, btw! Kim

I don't have a thing to offer, but I have been reading the posts here lately and drooling. I have to let you all know how wonderful everything looks! GTO - I love your little trifles! What a great idea. I'm going to steal that ! Joe - your chocolate squares look like the love child of a brownie and a chocolate sheet cake ! Beautiful and seductive!! Mark - I see what you mean about the goopiness of the pie filling, but the cake itself looks wonderful - nice, tight crumb. Could you possibly PM me the recipe - it looks like something that I would like for my lemon/coconut experiments ! Bruce - good God! Those strawberries are fantastic looking! I really, really hope that the local strawberries will be good this year! Becca - your tart is gorgeous! I am so envious of your skills! Chufi - oooooh! I think I need to make a mess soon ! Thank you all for sharing your wonderful skills! I am so grateful for the folks here! Kim

OOOOhh! Could you explain more for me (I am not terribly knowledgable ). This sound intriguing!! What is gelatin water? Just a mix of gelatin and water? In what proportions? I like the sound of this!!

tracey - your glisteny skirt steak made Mr. Kim and I drool! Ann - the pavlova is gorgeous and, as usual, your roast makes me want to run straight to the butcher shop! Rocky - the medianoches OMG! That looks so amazingly good! The crust is just absolutely perfect. I want one! What all is in yours - and how does medianoches differ from a Cuban sandwich? David - I love shrimp toast and yours is so pretty. I love the concentrated scatter of sesame seeds. lucylou - when we went to Florida in April, our friend, Stephanie, made these meatballs. I agree with you - they rocked! OK, now after looking at the last couple of days, all I can think about is strawberries and shrimp ! Mr. Kim made dinner last night. It was great! He did a Spinach and Citrus Salad: And Giada's Chicken Parmesan: You know, every Giada recipe we have ever tried has been really good. There is an idea for a thread, maybe - TV recipes that work and that DON'T ! Kim

I love the look of decorated cookies, but personally I think that they are all lacking in flavor compared with the type that you could put in the pretty bags. I make these Dream Cookies a lot and they are the best cooky in my repetoire - tender, buttery and rich. Everyone who has ever tasted them has loved them. And they couldn't be simpler. I'd go with the pretty bags. Let us know how it works out! Kim

Idiot savant? ← Ding, ding, ding! I think we have a winner! This was the grandmother that, when asked for a cooky, would offer me a Metrical (60's version of SlimFast) cooky - gack.

I actually do try to do this. I keep a kind of food journal with meals I serve including guests, menus, photos and how things went as far as the food - I almost always try out new recipes on guests and beg them to be honest - I figure the worst that can happen is we have to order pizza ! Also in the journal is a record of meals eaten in restaurants - again with menus, photos and critiques. Only special or travel meals - I don't bother noting an after work stop at Cracker Barrel (one of my many guilty pleasures )! Kim

Congratulations, Daniel! I enjoy your writing here at egullet so much - I'm thrilled that I can read you elsewhere, too! I also just added your book to my wishlist! Kim

My personal opinion is that anyone who puts bell pepper in a crabcake doesn't understand the nature of crab meat. Kim

Chicken Nut Puffs are great for tea. You can jazz them up with some curry powder and serve with chutney. They freeze great, can be served room temperature and are very Southern and 'ladies-who-lunch-ish'! Another thing that I have made is Firecracker Sandwiches. These do not dry out and are easy to make ahead of time. You can cut each one in half so that you have nice small little finger food and press parsley into the ends to make it 'nicer'. The version with country ham is especially good. Hope this helps! Kim

Rocky - that summertime meal looks fantastic. Can't wait for good tomatoes so we can do some caprese! kbjesq - please, please do join in! I am the most ordinary cook in the world - I have a huge interest in food and love to cook, but I am anything but fancy and I finally got up the nerve and am now addicted to photographing my food and posting here! It is so interesting to me to see how people all over the world eat (make sure to read the blogs - they are amazing) on an everyday basis. Bruce - - ok, ok, no Mexican anytime soon - but I do have some leftover chorizo - can I freeze it until the ban is lifted? Wendy - this is so odd - I just last night bookmarked the Jacques Pepin recipe for Gnocchi Parisienne in some magazine (F&W?) to make soon. How were they - as easy as promised? Last nights dinner was another easy one: An odd throw together salad of Napa cabbage, my Dad's Caesar dressing and a topping of toasted ramen noodles, sesame seeds and almonds (all leftovers): A really simple marinara on some cavatelli that a friends mom sent us from Philly -it is Napoletano's Pasta out of Springfield PA: Garlic toast (Texas Toast brand - a guilty pleasure) and these wierd little things that Mr. Kim loved and I didn't. They were also from the friends mom in Philly. They were stuffed olives - homemade. They were huge green olives stuffed with a mixture of finely ground chicken, pork and beef - breaded. I fried them in hot oil to serve. The meat mixture was just a mush, but what I objected to was the extreme saltiness (and this is from someone who grew up sipping olive brine as a treat - another guilty pleasure, I guess ). I am sure that they were labor intensive and very fiddly to make. Anyone else know about these things? I am guessing they are Italian-American based on the lady who made them: Kim

Bruce - your flour tortillas with papas y chorizo look amazingly good, and that's saying something considering how Mexican-fatigued I am ! lucylou - that steak dinner almost sent us back out to go to a steakhouse when we saw it tonight! Wow. I am not even a huge steak eater, but the combination of that wonderful looking meat, the amazing onion and the perfect baked potato almost got us! rw - everything looked wonderful, but I really, really want to try making butter poached lobster. I think that is the most wonderful and appropriate preparation for lobster that I have ever heard of! DanielM - is that just prettily shaved cheese on top of your pasta? If so, what did you use to shave it with? Shaya - what did the red apricots taste like? I haven't had a truly good apricot in years! Thanks to all for your kind comments! Poor Mr. Kim did not have to eat tacos tonight! Breakfast for dinner, nothing too exciting - but it was good: Ham & Cheese Omelette (don't tell Mr. Kim, but I used leftover Mexican cheese ) and hash browns: Toasted Coconut Waffles w/ Raspberry Syrup and Whipped Cream: Kim

Everyone please say goodbye to Mrs. Kim. If I have to eat ONE MORE TACO this week, you're going to be reading about us in the newspapers. - Mr. Kim