Kim Shook

I bookmarked your site, JJ! I want to go back when I have more time and read. I think I have found a new favorite. Love food writing, love humor - perfect fit! alacarte, thanks for showing this to us!

Yes, but back in the 70s, they and Ponderosa were big. And if you're stuck on Route 17 in Paramus, they're one of the few choices available. ← OMG, Ponderosa! I had forgotten about them! In fact, that is my embarrassing restaurant experience. I actually worked for one of them for about 2 weeks while I was in high school. (They wouldn't give me homecoming night off, so I got my dad to call and quit for me - I am still a coward). Anyway, I was walking through a swinging door from the back carrying a huge tray full of single serving glass cups of pudding and jello w/ little dabs of whipping topping on them. I was carrying it on my hip and got wedged in the door. The door was the one behind the cash register where I was in sight of the forty-freakin-kabillion people in line waiting to pay. The tray tilted slightly and the little dishes started slowly, one-by-one sliding down the incline and crashing to the floor. I couldn't move without dropping the entire tray and all of my co-workers just stood looking at me in horror. I was the shy, easily intimidated, fat girl - and I wanted to die right there. Then, of course, the scumbag nazi assistant manager made me bend my fat ass in my tight little rayon skirt over in full view of everyone and clean the whole mess up. NOW, I can laugh!

I vote keep 'em. I wouldn't have them in my home, but that's not their purpose. I think they are great for what your intention is!

I can't vouch for the recipe, but it is an Elinor Klivans recipe. I am making it on Friday for a dinner party (White Russian Cupcakes for the grown-ups and these for the kids). Here is a link to the recipe.

Quick question. I have a cupcake recipe that calls for using melted semi-sweet chocolate as a dip for a mound of creamy filling that is piled on top of the cupcake (think of those dipped cones at Dairy Queen). Can I use a bar of good dark chocolate instead of the semi sweet? What % is semi sweet anyway? How 'dark' is it? Thanks!

Gooooooood God! Drool! I have promised myself that when the dry cool days come I am going to start the marshmallow experiments.

I never had the opportunity to meet Matt, but I am familiar with him through his posts. I loved reading his words. Thoughtful, funny, uncompromising. He was almost exactly my daughter's age. My heart aches for everyone that lost him. Much too early.

Alinka, I am so glad to see that you are blogging! I love reading your posts on the dinner thread and your photos are just inspiring! Can't wait to enjoy a (vicarious) week in Moscow! Congratulations on you coming blessing!

I also have that attachment and have never used it. Actually, I don't know why I wanted it, since I prefer sausage patties to links. ← Me too! Me too! [waving hand in the air]. Mr. Kim gets smart whenever he sees that attachment in the closet, "MMM, that was good sausage. Oh, that's right - you never used it, did you?"

Zee, which one of the three cakes that Patrick did on that thread is the one that you worked from? They all look good! And yours was beautiful, too!

Wow - I will be making this one soon! Thank you so much for posting that. One question, though. When you say that it will make 4 eight inch layers, do you mean to fill 4 8" pans with batter or to make 2 8" pans and split them? Thanks again!!!

Here you go: Strawberry Pretzel Salad. Ok, I finished the cake. Here's the odd thing. Almost NO flavor in this thing. I chose the Black Velvet cake. It is as dark as an Oreo cooky. I made the cake as instructed and I went ahead and used the shortening and butter (I didn't have any margarine) in the frosting. The texture of everything is very good. But I just tasted a scrap of cake (from trimming) with a good blob of frosting and it was just blah. I didn't expect this thing to be as good as scratch, but I certainly expected it to be at least as good as Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker and it was not! But not to waste anything, I decided that I could practice my frosting skills and it is really beautiful. I used my new cake icer tip to put a zig zag edge on the cake and used a big fat star tip to put stars all around the bottom and all over the top. So I'm gonna call it my Paris cake - pretty, but tasteless !

Good, God, Daniel. Between you and Shal, it's like the Iron Man here at egullet ! I have no ideas - I am hobby cook extraordinaire - impressing the folks who can't/don't cook at all, but I love watching you guys go at it - so I hope you will keep us apprised and give us some of your wonderful photos, too!

they don't tell you what is in just the frosting, but the ingredient list for the cake and frosting: sugar, enriched wheat flour bleached, cocoa processed w/ alkali, partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening, with bht and citric acid, dry egg whites, leavening, dry egg yolk, food starch-modified, propylene glycol, mono and diesters, dextrose, mono and diglycerides, natural and aftificial flavor, salt, nonfat milk solids, sorbitan monostearate, caramel color, soy lecithin, cellulose gum, polysorbate 60, xanthan gum, propylene glycol, corn syrup, glycerine, polysorbate 80.

I am trying out a new (to me) cake & frosting mix. It is called Mam Papaul's and was pretty expensive. The company is a Louisiana company. I wanted to see if it was truly any better than other cake mixes. I am planning on making this tomorrow. When I read the directions tonight, I noticed that it called for 1 c. milk, 1 1/2 sticks margarine and 1/2 c. shortening. I'd really rather not. The directions call for cooking the milk and frosting mix, cooling it and then adding the margarine and shortening and whipping for 10 minutes. Do you think that I can just use all butter. I don't own any margarine and the idea of putting shortening in a frosting just skeeves me out.

Shal, Happy Birthday. Let me join everyone else and say how astounded I am at your accomplishment! The food looks wonderful! Congratulations.

Teresa, try this recipe. It sounds like just what you described and I can personally vouch for it - it was the most popular dessert at Thanksgiving, elbowing out pumpkin cheesecake and pecan pie! I truly tastes like coconut, rather than just being a cream pie with some coconut on top! Let us know the results!

My husband gave me a Sandra Lee cookbook for my birthday as a goof. I love the man. The book is spectacularly awful. I am having a ball reading it late at night in bed - poor Mr. Kim, I sock him awake and read him some new atrocity every 5 minutes. He is an angel.

When I use the words that people seem to object to, it is usually just laziness or bad writing skills. I use 'cukes' to avoid spelling out 'cucumbers' (plus, it is easier to type) - I never use it when I am actually talking. Also - I am not a very good or inventive writer. On my webpage, I try to write a description of every recipe that I put on. So I tend to repeat myself - or use words like: yummy (but never yummo - I do have some standards ), amazing, incredible. As far as "foodie" goes, I am torn. I never know what word to use. "Gourmet" is goofy. "Foodie" sounds frivolous. "Chowhound" is taken and a bit butch for me . "Serious about food and cooking" is pretentious and a bit long winded. I usually tell people when it comes up that I am really 'into' food . I think that I usually sound self depricating and slightly ashamed and I know I shouldn't - I wouldn't sound like that if my hobby was golf or quilting or gardening - so why food? I know people who take European tours to view gardens or architecture, why do I feel foolish because I want to tour to go to restaurants or markets? Oops , different topic, I guess. Sorry - I got carried away!

So that's where I got it!! I have always spelled individual ones "cooky" and many of them "cookies". I am pretty sure I had that book as a child - hard to tell exactly as I accidentally set a fire (I was having a dinner party for my stuffed animals and needed candlelight ) and burned up every single toy, book, game and piece of clothing I owned at age 8 . I love old children's books and have begun a new offshoot of recipe books. Maggie - wonderful, evocative writing - as always!

Grub, I have a special Word document called 'quotations' - just funny/interesting stuff that I come across during my day. You figure prominently in that file!

This is fantastic. You know my fellow egulleteers are an accomplished bunch. I go to a lot of different food boards, but when I refer someone that I know is serious about food or when I have an important question, egullet is my destination. Let us know what you decide and keep us up to date on developments!

So sorry about the trouble - and glad none of you got in the middle of it! Good luck and enjoy everything. The menu looks incredible!!! Can't wait to hear the breakdown and see the photos!

Thanks, Melissa! I really thought that that would be the answer. I love those freakin' cookies. I am an utter snob about 'store boughten' cookies, but those things are crack to me. I almost never buy them unless we are having overnight guests (you have to have something a little nibbly for guests, right ) - those and the Pepperridge Farm gingerbread men were our everyday cookies when I was growing up and I've never recovered !

I made this cheesecake recipe (sorry if it takes a long time to load - it was slow today, the screen said 'done' on the bottom left, but it still took a minute to pop up). It is everything that my note says it is. Wonderful, rich, intensely strawberry-y ! But I would like to improve the crust. It was overly moist and soft almost cake-like. I would like something crisper. Is that possible with such a moist cheesecake? Would it help to use shortbread cooky crumbs instead?