Kim Shook

Welcome back!!!! I am so glad to see this thread and will be following it religously! I was wondering when you were due back and am so thrilled that you had a good time and are home safe and sound. Can't wait to enjoy the trip vicariously with you! Kim

I thought of another one. I use my potato masher to mash up eggs for egg salad. That was a tip from someone online (maybe here) when I was looking to make like-the-deli egg salad.

Kerry - your biscuits look amazing - I am drooling gini - I expressed deep love for your challah on the dinner thread. Today I decided to cook two brownie recipes. Both are done. We'll taste them after dinner with a tall glass of milk (2% in honor of real brownies ). The rest will go to Mr. Kim's office for a vote. I already know that I like A, because they are chewier (it's all about the chewiness with me for brownies).

I can vouch for this recipe. It is delicious and easy. Here are pictures:

A package of that stuff lives in my knife drawer. That stuff is wonderful.

There is brownie recipe testing going on Chez Shook today. Slicing brownies is always a challenge, I think. It just suddenly occurred to me to try my pizza cutter. It worked wonderfully!! No sticking, no big chunks of top crust coming off. Great idea! Anyone else have any multi taskers that you use that might help the rest of us? Kim

Zoe, Mr. Kim's family tradition for decorating the Xmas tree includes fondue. Beef before and chocolate after - so I did this every December before my daughter and I had our gastric bypasses. The best meat is sirloin, I think. The sauces that we always serve are: Bearnaise Horseradish Cream BBQ Teriyaki Steak Sauce (sometimes I just serve a GOOD purchased one, sometimes I make my own) MIL always served catsup and bottled duck sauce, which just gives me the willies to think about ! I think that I might add a chimichurri sauce, if I were going to do it again. Kim

Sally, let me be the first to say welcome! I completely sympathize with your cake experience. Some days you are just not meant to bake - the chemistry is off or something! Glad it turned out good anyway! Kim

John, I am so enjoying this blog! I have rarely been able to go to NY, but love it with a great passion and cram in experiences when I do go. I also armchair travel to there a lot! My NY lust is building with your blog - thank you so much!!

I think it sounds delicious and fun, but I have had mixed results with caramel apples over the years. Most problematical was having the caramel slide off the apple and end up in a giant goop on the bottom of the apple. Also, small apples are important when doing them at home - large ones tend to fall right off the sticks. Anyone else with actual advice instead of just dire warnings??

I make Gingerbread Waffles. These are very tasty and very different from any other waffle I've ever made.

Yup, the ubiquitous chicken breast. And just try to change it! When I was involved in planning events for my daughter’s choir when she was in HS, I suggested changing the menus from rubber chicken or the annual spaghetti dinner. No way were they going to change it. I realized that: a). they didn’t care that much about the taste of the food and/or b). they actually liked it. Went to NYC with this same group and we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, Medieval Times, some big, loud, lousy bbq place near Times Sq. and saw "Beauty and the Beast". Luckily, the child and I snuck off during 'free day' and got to do some cool stuff and eat great food w/ a friend who lives there. Those who stayed behind thought we had wasted our day, because we had missed out on Rockefeller Center and shopping. You caint larn some folks .

And what is up with that creepy cover 'art'???

Yep, it is. I haven't been to ONE of these places . Silly (because I know their wonderfulness is arguable), but that actually bothers me a little.

Kerry, wonderful blog. My armchair traveling is going very well! Any chance on you sharing your cake and icing recipe with us? I have been having chocolate cake issues lately .

Actually that note regarding not refrigerating is something that I put on the recipe just a little bit ago - that is my webpage of recipes that I keep. I just assumed that that was the problem, but wanted to check with the people who are better at this kind of stuff than me !

Well, crap. I decided to do the recipe from Abby Dodge's book The Weekend Baker - went out and checked the book out of the library. Got home. I didn't have sweetened condensed milk . So I decided to do lapasterie's recipe. No shortening . What I did have was boxes of Baker's unsweetened chocolate (crap chocolate, I know, but it was on deep discount at work - we aren't going to carry it anymore - and it's what my in laws like in their crappy fudge ). Anyway, I made the recipe on their box: Baker's Chocolate Frosting. Tasted fine, spread fine. So I want to know what I did wrong. I decorated the cake and put it in the refrigerator. Today - even after it sat out all day, the frosting was much too stiff and dry. It had, like, solidified. Is it the recipe - or the refrigeration - or the fact that I used melted chocolate and not cocoa??? I was pissed at myself, because I was trying to convert canned frosting eaters - and I don't think that it worked.

The first time I made Mr. Kim spaghetti, he asked for Parm. cheese. I said I had forgotten to buy cheese. He said, "don't you keep a can in the fridge all the time?" I said, "Oh, you mean Kraft? I have something that tastes the same as it." I went to the kitchen and got a grater and a cardboard cereal box and grated it directly over his spaghetti. He thanked me. Ate ALL of his meal and never, ever requested Kraft parm. again. How could I not marry a man who put up with such a bitch as that?

Funny, snarky little off topic re: Full Kee. At the store where I work, I was talking with this guy who was being very critical and snide about Richmond restaurants (with cause, I know) and mentioned that he was a former chef who just cooked all of his own foods because he couldn't get what he had been used to in San Francisco here. I mentioned Full Kee and he just rolled his eyes and said that it might be ok for Richmond, but not for someone from the Pacific NW. Yadayadayada. This guy was buying lots of 'gourmet' items and wine. Monsieur Horsesass' marsala of choice? Paul Masson .

10x is just "PC talk" for powdered sugar.....we tend to shorten names whenever possible. Sorta "baker's shorthand" if you will..... If you've ever had frostin' outta the can, you know ganache ain't it. There's kind of a gooey sugary fudgy thing going on that isn't going on in ganache. When you whip ganache, it's more of a "moussy" texture than a ooey gooey fudgy texture. In the future, if you ever want to "translate" recipes, from grams to ounces, or vice versa.... this is a good tool here. ← That is a very cool site! Thank you for the link. I have bookmarked it! Kim

The recipes are: Ginger Cupcakes w/ Ginger Frosting Chocolate Bar Cupcakes Spiced Latte Cupcakes Mounds Cupcakes And the assorted ones are: Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcakes Lemon Cream Cupcakes w/ Coconut Jelly Filled Cupcakes w/ Peanut Butter Frosting Peanut Butter Chip Cupcakes w/ Chocolate Ganache

Thank you so much, lapasterie! Kim

RE: lapasterie's recipe - can anyone translate? It sounds good! RE: ganache - maybe if I were to chill and then whip it, it might give me the fluffy, gooey-ness I am looking for RE: Cooks Illustrated - I always check it out of the library. It is on my wish list, but no one has gotten it for me yet - I could check it out tomorrow Thank you! Any other ideas? Kim

Ok, I want a good, old fashioned gooey, fudgy frosting (not a new fangled icing/buttercream ) recipe. I want the look and feel of a canned frosting, I guess, only with really good chocolate flavor. I don't like the blandness that I always think cream cheese adds, but I want that thickness. Is this possible or am I just trying to recreate a childhood memory with adult tastebuds and doomed to disappointment? Kim

Well, good God! Just imagine that you are seeing that little emoticon that is slamming it's head against a table. Chefpeon, that is remarkably beautiful. I really want to be able to do this stuff. Everytime I see something like that I am just so in awe! Kim