Kim Shook

Inspired by the new toast thread, I finally made Johnnybird's toast dope. Ohhhhh, mannnnn! That is some good stuff. When Mr. Kim came in the door tonight, I didn't even let him take off his coat before I made him a piece of toast w/ dope. We loves us some dope now!!!

I want the ingredient list up front and on top of the recipe in full. That is why I don't use The Joy of Cooking much. The ingredients are buried in the directions and when I try a Joy recipe, I inevitably miss some ingredient and get 'lost'.

OOOOOOhh, yeahhhhhh.

Really? I think the saltiness of the melted butter goes nicely with a sweet jelly/jam. SB (especially a nice homemade wild strawberry jam ) ← But, Steve, I use sweet butter. So no saltiness. But I do like the sweet/salty thing.

Fantastic blog, Megan. Count me as another 'wanna be in NYC' enjoying a vicarious visit! And to be lucky enough to have a meal prepared by Daniel - and for Daniel and Alicia to be lucky enough to have Miss Megan as a guest - well if that doesn't send all of egullet rushing to NYC to find apartments, I don't know what will!!

I'll echo The French Laundry, Bouchon and anything by the Sterns. I also love Camille Glenn's Heritage of Southern Cooking and Ronald Johnson's Simple Fare.

Dianne - that looks wonderful! What kind of sausage is that? Kim

Butter or peanut butter or jelly/jam. Never, ever butter and jelly/jam.

Gorgeous!!! I especially love the idea of the sesame tuile!!

Some random photos from some baking I did before I had surgery. An Italian Cream Cake that someone ordered for Christmas - it was the first one that I ever made and they were thrilled with it. Dessert table for Jessica's 23rd birthday celebration. I took a Wilton class - this is my 'final exam' - looked ok, nasty tasting frosting! Chocolate Cake w/ Abigail Johnson Dodge's Fudgy Frosting - by request of the birthday girl - really, really intense and good. As usual, I forgot to get a shot of a slice or 'bite'! Pink Lemonade Cupcakes w/ Buttercream frosting and candied lemon peel. Really, really good. I loved the muted pink I got from using real buttercream!

I cooked, I cooked!!! Well, just a little - and with a lot of help from Mr. Kim. I had carpal tunnel surgery 1/29 and got the soft cast off a couple of days ago. Very sore and achy, but I couldn't wait to get back in the kitchen. You guys have had me DROOLING for the past couple of weeks and I am so glad to have been able to put dinner on the table tonight - such as it was... Grilled pastrami, swiss cheese and slaw on rye sandwiches, cole slaw and white trash cheese fries (OreIda's 'n' Whiz) !

Rachel, dear, you write exactly as I wish I could and exactly what I like to read.

I remember being so impressed with that cake that I drove to the library to copy the recipe out of the magazine only to get home and find that I already owned that very issue (think I have too many food magazine subscriptions?).

Little Tavern Hot Shoppes – ‘Teen Twists’ and hot fudge cake Topps Drive In – the Sirloiner was a fantastic burger, but I was a kid and usually got a shrimp boat – fries and fried shrimp – it came in a little plastic boat that you could take home. There must have been 10-15 of these on the side of our tub at any given time Peoples Drug lunch counters – fries and gravy almost every day after school

susan and anyone else regarding the sore, chapped, dry hands: (sorry about the lower case, but i am recovering from carpal tunnel surgery and typing is hard!). between all the cooking i do and working at the store with counting money and paperwork and washing all the time, my hands were in horrible shape - cracked and red and rough (i had to put on hand cream before i could put on stockings and sometimes i would be counting money and notice blood on it from my fingers!). i finally went to my dr. about it and he put in on a program that in one week completely fixed the problem. He prescribed triamcinolon cream - this is a steriod cream and therefore, can't be used a lot - just while you have actively open fissures. For regular days, he recommended Kerodex 51 cream. The most important part of the program is wearing latex (or non-latex) gloves for EVERYTHING. I wear them all day long at the store and whenever i am cooking/cleaning/crafting at home. this was really hard to get used to - but i perservered and am used to them now - i hardly notice them at all. this really, really solved my problem and i tried everything else in the past - including bag balm (pretty good) and neosporin and overnight cotton gloves. edited to say - wonderful blog - i have thoroughly enjoyed the vicarious soup noshing!

Excellent Chicken Noodle Soup This is my most successful chicken soup recipe ever. This was delicious – rich, tasty, chicken-y and a great mouth feel. It is another one of those recipes that is VERY inexact. Mostly a set of directions. You do it by taste, but really it’s very, very easy! The best way to make this is to begin the day before you want to serve it. Make the stock and the chicken the first day and then just put the soup together the day of the meal. Whole chicken(s), cut up Carrots Onions Celery Poultry seasoning Salt & pepper Tomato paste Olive oil Chicken broth “Better Than Bouillon” chicken flavor, optional Carrots, sliced and cooked Kluski egg noodles, cooked Parsley Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the chicken back, neck, wings and gizzards into a roasting pan with the roughly chopped vegetables. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Make a slurry of tomato paste and olive oil and drizzle over the chicken and vegetables. Toss to coat. Roast until the ingredients are browned, tossing occasionally (this took about 45 minutes). Put everything into a stock pot. Deglaze the roasting pan with broth and add the liquid to the pot. Add enough broth to cover the ingredient by at least two inches. Set on very low heat. Bring the contents of the pot to a simmer VERY, VERY slowly. Skim off the impurities as they rise to the top. Keep the stock at a VERY gentle simmer for three hours, adding broth, if necessary, to keep the liquid level above the solids. When done, cool, strain out the solids and defat (defatting is MUCH easier if you just refrigerate it after straining and use it the next day). Using this stock, simmer the rest of the chicken pieces until done. Cool the pieces, remove meat and cut into bite sized pieces. Let the stock cool enough so that you can defat again (one of those large glass fat separators is invaluable at this point!). Taste the stock at this point and adjust the seasonings. I added some of the “Better Than Bouillon” at this point – it is really good stuff and enriches the stock without adding a chemical or salty taste like bouillon does. Add the chicken pieces, cooked carrots, parsley and noodles to the stock. Heat and serve! Keywords: Soup, Chicken ( RG1936 )

Here's my recipe: clickety Sometimes I get a few clumps of sugar, but it is still really good.

Shaloop has the best recipe for a Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake I have ever tasted. clickety

Funny. From most of the above posts, I think the food of the 80's was a lot better than the music or the fashion!

Word.

I am looking to make a plain cheesecake (I am using Dailey's "Lindy's Cheesecake" recipe for the filling) with that (I think) baked on sour cream topping layer. Someone ordered it from me and I cannot find instructions on any recipe for doing it this way! Can someone help me, please?? I need to get this cake made and in the freezer before next Monday (I am having hand surgery and won't be able to bake for awhile). Thanks so much!

Yep, grew up eating them and still like them a lot. I haven't made them in a while, though - time to try some. Mr. Kim's mom always served them with a sauce made from cream of celery soup ! We really do need a yakking smilie.

This year, when I put out my nuts for Christmas, I discovered that my old standby nutcracker had sprung a spring and wouldn't work anymore. I made do with a crab leg cracker, but would like to replace the nutcracker before next year. So, is there any reason not to buy the same nutcracker? I have always used the same kind - don't think I've bought more than 2 in the past 25 years and I think my mother has had the same one forever. And they are so cheap! But does anyone have one that is just so fantastic that I just must have it? Ta!

Scott and everyone else - thanks for your help. I was able to fix the problem and the syrup is fine. It was in a plastic pitcher and so I crunched it up with a butter knife, put it back in a saucepan, added some more bourbon and some dark corn syrup and slowly brought it to a boil. It is nice and bourbon-y and syrupy now! I really appreciate it - I really don't like doing things over and over again and you saved me some much needed gift wrapping time. Kim

I love the work by Lisa Caballero. Don't know that I will never have the money or the kitchen to host one of them. And anyway, I don't think that I could choose my favorite among them.