Kim Shook

I do this. I started a couple of years ago. I keep a list of menus that I serve to company and also holidays. I also put in special meals in local restaurants and meals eaten on trips. If I have matchbook covers/business cards from the place, I put those in, too. Its a nice little scrapbook kind of thing. My current one is small (5 x 7 inches, probably), but my next one is going to be bigger, so that I can get more on one page and I usually print out my menu for special occasion dinners on nice paper, so I'll be able to put those in there, too.

Must preface my answer by saying that I can't eat much chocolate at all since I have had a gastric bypass and any more than a couple of bites of it will make me ill. I am also drawn mostly to milk chocolate when I am simply eating it. It's kind of hard to educate your palate when you can only take a bite or two ! That being said - my favorite eating chocolate is English Dairy Milk. I love the creamy gentleness of the flavor. I hate any waxiness whatsoever in chocolate and I find many other milk chocolates to have that waxiness.

These are great. I made them for the first time last year and they were gone before Christmas and I had to make again. They are one of the most popular things I make - everyone loves them! Go figure!

Make a simple sauce by roasting, skinning and chopping jalapenos and then heating them in some heavy cream. Make thin, crispy corn cakes, put the crabcake on top, top with the cream (open face crab sammich!). Serve with fresh succotash and a microgreen salad with a really tangy lemon based dressing. Wow. I am hungry now!

Oh, well. I have a new, revised menu. Can't figure out why, but daughter made some requests to change the food. Here's the new menu: Crab Meltaways Sliders Mini Tacos Tortilla Chips with Guacamole, Salsa & Queso Dip Liptauer Cheese Spread with Pumpernickel Cocktail Bread Red Pepper Jelly Cheesecake with Crackers Crudités Bleu Cheese & Caramelized Shallot Dip Caesar Dip Asian Style Dip Skewered Fruit Cinnamon Pecans Assorted Cupcakes Still should be good, and I am making the sliders,guac and Queso dip (not buying from Costco), but I was really looking forward to see what I could do with those Deconstructed Spring Rolls . Some other time, I guess. No chance of complaints of 'too fancy' now ! Crab meltaways & mini tacos - sob.

I am the exact opposit of almost everyone I know. My mom is a great cook, but she made sort of 'upscale' (for the 60's & 70's - when I grew up) food. Pastas with light sauces, roasted meats, sautes, salad with every dinner, fish, etc. Love all of that still, but what did I grow up to adore??? Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, long cooked greens and green beans, corn bread, casseroles, meat loaf, pot roast. Momma only made pot roast after she tasted mine !

More importantly, what will we serve them on/in?!? ←

Nope, couldn't do it. I am a natural born blabber and a terrible liar. I am the kind of person who confesses to using store bought mayonnaisse! I always assume that everything I eat in everyone else's house is from scratch, though and have embarrassed a few people by asking for their recipe !

I have never, ever had a better sandwich than at Short Sugar's in Reidsville, NC. Short Sugar's I taste bbq everywhere that it is available and everytime I go to Short Sugar's, I am afraid it won't be good anymore. But it is always better than anywhere else I have ever had it. And the sauce is truly unique and amazing. Not eastern or western. Thin and dark and present without being overwhelming. I buy it a gallon at a time when I go and seal it in mason jars to put over the inferior bbq we have available in Richmond.

Pass the coffee and light my cigarette. I, too, am here for the TA (tablewareaholic anonymous) meeting. I have filled my kitchen cabinets, china cabinet, TWO sideboards, hall coat closet and part of one attic with tableware, appliances, linens, etc. When I went to NYC this summer, my friend took me to one of those stores that sells old china from train, hotels, clubs, etc. and I nearly lost my mind. The only thing that held me back was that I was traveling back to VA on the train. I have talked of nothing else since then but going back with the station wagon to make a haul (Mr. Kim is terrified). If we ever win the lottery, my home o' dreams will come with the biggest, coolest butler's pantry anyone has ever seen AND it will be have to hold TWICE as much as I currently have because I don't see any end in sight for my acquisitiveness !

Yay! I am so glad to see so many people here that find teaching manners to children to be important! I have seen on so many other sites discussions about manners where people decided that it was snobby or something to adhere to 'someone elses rules'. But, of course, these same people were the first to criticize their fellow Americans for not observing other cultures 'rules' when outside of the US. I have never understood that. Why is etiquette important only when it is 'foreign'?? I don't think that teaching manners is an either/or thing. I have a 22 year old daughter who has beautiful manners (encompassing all that implies) and is tolerant and kind and thoughtful. I can't imagine teaching/modeling one without the other. It's kind of like the old works/faith argument. I believe one is incomplete without the other.

Well, with your imput (thanks, again!) and daughter's final word here's the menu: Apple Cider-Glazed Pork Tenderloin on Buttermilk Chive Biscuits Iconoclastic Deconstructed Spring Rolls Liptauer Cheese Spread w/ pumpernickel cocktail bread Red pepper jelly cheesecake w/ crackers Roasted mini potatoes w/ béarnaise Crudités - Radishes, carrots, bell peppers. fennel, belgian endive, snow peas Bleu cheese & caramelized shallot dip Caesar dip Asian Style Dip Skewered Fruit Spiced pecans Orange Marmalade Cake The invitations go out today. Wish y'all could come. The food won't really be appreciated (except by daughter and Mr. Kim) and will elicit 'so fancy' comments . This is really another topic, but everyone wonders why I 'bother' to go to so much trouble. I try to explain that its my hobby and I enjoy the effort, just like they do golfing or gardening or sewing, but they really don't see the point. sigh. Thank you so much, everyone!

Katie, you may have to get really specific with people. Say "don't you have grandma's recipe for ___? I would love it if you would send that for the cookbook." Also, when possible - especially with the older folks - hands on works better than letters. On a visit a while ago, I sat down with my grandmother and went through her recipes, including ones she had from my great grandmother (her mother in law), a ledgendary Southern cook - even as a tiny little girl I can remember eating things at her house that I wouldn't eat anywhere else. I know that my grandmother would have NEVER gotten around to copying all those recipes and mailing them to me, but I was able to talk to her and make my own copies.

Thank you all. I am going to take your advice and add crudites and dip and maybe some skewered fruit, too. Daughter 86'd the Hoisin Chicken Wontons ( - that's my favorite), but loves the idea of everything else.

To chime in again, I agree that the binder w/ the plastic protector sleeves are a good idea - like someone else said, you can add to it in years to come. This would be a wonderful way to welcome new members to the family - by adding their special recipes to the cookbook and sending copies to everyone. Lots of people do scrapbooks like this and they can be really pretty. This is what I do with my recipes - the ones from my webpage? I print each one out as I add it and put it in a binder in a plastic sleeve. I used the kind of binder that has a clear plastic sleeve in the front and made covers and spine labels with cool food clip art that I found online.

I emailed that kid about his pan - haven't heard back yet. I really want one of those pans ! Thanks for the link!

Katie - this is a great idea and I love everyone's suggestions. Good luck with this - I tried to do the same thing for my sister-in-law (Mr. Kim's sister) when she got married. No luck at all. I begged and nagged to no avail. Discovered years later that most of my in laws 'famous' recipes were in fact 'back of the box' type things and they were embarassed to admit it !

My daughter is turning 22 later this month. We have been to a few utter crap 'heavy hors deourve' type parties and my daughter is requesting a 'show 'em how its done' party for her birthday. I wanted to get some imput on my menu in progress: Apple Cider-Glazed Pork Tenderloin on Buttermilk Chive Biscuits Hoisin Chix Wontons w/ Wasabi Slaw Liptauer Cheese Spread w/ pumpernickel cocktail bread Goat cheese w/ honey & crostini Red pepper jelly cheesecake w/ crackers Roasted mini potatoes w/ béarnaise (thanks, azureus!) some kind of citrusy cake Too many cheesy things? What am I missing? Which should I toss? Something green? I do want finger food, if possible. Thanks!

I had such good luck with asking for advice from egulleteers for Chewy Peanut butter cookies and Chew Chocolate Chip cookies before Christmas, that I thought I'd ask again. I am wild about chewy brownies (I am seeing a pattern here). So much so that I have considered cooking them in tube pans so that I have nothing but edge pieces ! Anyway, I looked at the brownie threadand I am giving browniebakers recipe a try. They sound like what I want. Here's my question. I heard on another board that the larger the pan, the chewier the brownies. So, if instead of using a 8x8 pan, I use a 9x9 pan (or larger), I will get super chewy brownies. Does this make sense to the bakers here?? Thanks!

After all of this angst, wouldn't you know the little sucker just peeled right off with no residue whatsoever! Not a wasted endavor, though. I will use y'all's hints to get the gunk off the original piece !

OK, the trashy menu is all set. As predicted, the Knorr Spinach dip and Crab Meltaways will make an appearance. I forgot about the meatballs (in the obligatory bbq sauce and apricot preserves), artichoke dip and the pigs in a blanket that I was specifically requested to make. I spent the afternoon rolling up a gazillion of those little cocktail weinies - I did use puff pastry instead of whomp biscuits - do I get any credit for that?? My additions will be raw veg (to soak up some grease) and this really good yogurt cheese dip I make with labne, herbs, olives and cukes. Probably won't be touched . I am sounding snooty, but I will actually enjoy that trashy stuff, too. Happy New Year, everyone!

I just put that baking stone on my wishlist for NEXT year !

I have two different systems depending on if I have made the recipe or not. The first thing I do when I get a magazine or cookbook is to make a list of all the recipes that I might want to try and tape or staple it inside the front cover (recipes that I have torn out of magazines or printed from the web go in file folders divided by type of food in a file drawer). With recipes that I have actually tried and want to keep, I put on my webpage here: Kim's Cookbook It's a good site and very easy to use. I print out each recipe and keep it in binders so that I don't have to print it out everytime I want to cook it. I also keep things like my Christmas menus, shopping lists for Christmas foods, general canning information, etc. there. I really like that I can give people who ask for recipes the link and its there for them. I also like the feeling that I am keeping a record of my tried and true recipes for my daughter and any future generations - I know that I love having recipes from my older relatives - especially the ones who have passed.

Let us know if you like the wonder cup. My dad and I both got them in the past and decided that they were more trouble than they were worth.

We have finally, after having a big freezer (as well as the one in the fridge) and a computer for many years, realized that we can 'combine' the two. We did a freezer inventory and put everything on a spread sheet. Now, when we go shopping or take stuff out of either freezer we either add or subtract from the list. It's not perfect, because we sometimes forget, but it is a LOT better.