Kim Shook

@Shelby – I bet I know some others who would love your creamed peas and potatoes: @racheld and @caroled. I’m not a pea eater, so not me. But – I can’t remember if you ever do string beans and new potatoes? That’s one of my very favorite vegetable combinations! @btbyrd – what a gorgeous meal. I would know how to begin to curate such a lovely spread and I wouldn’t have a single soul to share it with, but how I’d love to be invited to such a meal. Dinner last night was some IP kale, slaw, potato salad made by our 4th of July hosts and Sloppy Joes:

Yesterday was the first day that almost everyone in Mr. Kim’s agency was expected to work from the office instead of remotely. In honor of that, and without really thinking about it, he took 2 dozen Krispy Kremes in. Predictably, many people were leery of shared food, and he brought back 18 doughnuts out of 24. I’ll probably freeze most to make bread pudding sometime, but it made for a great first breakfast this morning: Second breakfast:

I'm lucky enough to have both an Aldi and a Lidl within a mile of each other near me. What one doesn't have, the other one often will. Lidl has a very nice bakery (baked from frozen, I'm sure, but good) where you can choose individual rolls/loaves/pastries. I don't buy commercial sliced bread from Lidl anymore since I had 3 loaves in a row mold after a couple of days. If I only had Aldi, I'm sure I would not be as satisfied.

I've probably mentioned it somewhere at eG before, but I LOVE raw potatoes. I won't just bite into one like an apple (I have some sense), but if I'm slicing them for scalloped potatoes or for fries, I can't resist a few. I especially love them when they're cold and have been soaking in ice water. My mom was a working single mom and I was a latchkey kid for a few years and she would slice potatoes for fries the night before and soak them in water in the fridge to save time the next day. I often would eat my portion raw, cold, and crisp as an after-school snack! I've tried jicama, but it doesn't quite match potatoes.

Sautéed side meat, 2 cups water, trimmed kale. Four minutes and natural release: Perfect kale (according to Mr. Kim).

😄 I don't know what it is about this potato salad that makes it not only acceptable, but delicious to me. Everything is cut very small - the potatoes the size of one of my fingernails, the sweet pickles and egg are minced fine. No raw onion - just onion powder. Not a ton of mustard (which is odd because I love heavy mustard in egg salad). One of the reasons that I'm not a big fan of potato salad (I don't hate it) is that I don't care for cold potatoes (unless they are raw, which is a whole 'nother topic). No celery, but a little celery seed (or salt - hard to tell). This family doesn't really season things - they don't even offer salt and pepper - so no pepper (which I load up on when I get some home). Here's a picture: And it's not just me and the family liking it - Mr. Kim loves it and Jessica has loved it since she was a toddler and ate NO other potato salad.

Mine pops all over the place. I feel like I need to be behind a protective barrier. I love the crusty version I get in restaurants, but I find I usually have to settle for "hot".

6/12/2022 Day 3 Jacksonville FL Our hosts also made brunch on Day 3: This was a Baked Cherry Cheesecake French Toast. It was gorgeous – they even made their own cherry pie filling. Dinner that night was at Azurea, a gorgeous restaurant at a really lovely beachfront hotel in Atlantic Beach FL. I wish I’d gotten more pictures, but this is the entrance to the restaurant: Our cocktails (mine is pictured twice): Dirty martini and an Il Pero – Grey Goose ‘La Poire’ pear-infused vodka, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, shaved pear, and Parmesan. The pear one was mine – absolutely delectable. The Parm was weird, though. My drink again and an Aperol Spritz. Mr. Kim had a Makers on the rocks. The bread service was excellent. Good bread and fantastic butter. You know butter is good when everyone at the table exclaims over it: We got two appetizers for the table – this is the Pear & Prosciutto Flatbread with garlic cream sauce, Brie, arugula, and a pomegranate reduction: The second was a citrus, strawberry and burrata salad with navel orange carpels, mesclun greens, heirloom cherry tomatoes, Marcona almonds, Genovese basil emulsion and a white balsamic reduction: This was sublime! I would eat this very, very often if I lived there. Once again, we got four mains, but shared. There were two of these: Florida snapper with cider braised collards and a smoked ham hock, roasted tomato & fennel nage. This was seared scallops, cauliflower rice, Granny Smith apple chow chow, with a carrot-ginger emulsion, Nueske bacon lardons and a beurre Noisette: This was what I ordered, and it contained the one off note in the entire meal, which admittedly bothered no one but me: A seafood Cobb salad with cornmeal-crusted calamari, pan-seared Diver scallops & shrimp, Romaine, eggs, tomato, avocado, applewood-smoked bacon, pickled red onion, Florida Hearts of Palm, and Maytag Bleu cheese dressing. It was so good – each element was perfectly prepared and with that gorgeous dressing it was a glorious blend of ingredients. The “off” thing? The fried calamari. It would have been much better if they had grilled it. The fried breading, while quite good just didn’t go with the rest of the preparation. But I quibble. It was truly one of the best meals we’ve had in years. And, to top it off perfectly, we wandered out the door onto the walkway and out to the beach. We weren’t dressed to do anything but gaze, so gaze we did. Neither of us had seen the ocean in SO long. Do we look replete and happy?

@Duvel – I’d have added a few cucumbers, but that Greek-ish salad with just feta and tomatoes looks good to me! @Shelby – I passed on the tomato praise to Mr. Kim (and he appreciated it), but I may have spoken too soon. I was just outside and walked by them and there is definitely something going on with them. One of the plants has some leaves that are browning and withering from the bottom up. When I Googled those symptoms, it mentioned the most likely thing is blight and leaf spot. I have to go carefully mentioning it to him because he’s very easily discouraged – especially after last year’s sad output. He’s planted peppers that are doing nothing. Ah, well, time for big boy britches. I really, really want that steamer pot. Every single thing looks fantastic (I LOVE steamed clams) and the Cheddar Bay biscuits were a great idea. Yay on the brisket success, too! Glad you found a way that you really enjoy it. Mr. Kim considers it a challenge and isn’t completely happy with his efforts so far. @Norm Matthews – Charlie has a good eye! Nice balance of patterns and colors. Friday night dinner was the trashiest thing I make – Tamale Pie! Canned tamales, canned chili, and shredded cheese. I think I invented it in the early years of our marriage when we were broke, and we still like it. Tamales: Cheese: Then a layer of chili and another sprinkling of cheese and bake until molten: Served with tortilla chips (saltines are good, too) and fruit salad: I had a bag of chicken tenders in the freezer and wanted to do something with them. So, Saturday night I found a recipe online for Greek chicken marinade. It was very good – Mr. Kim and Jessica repeatedly told me to save the recipe. Mr. Kim grilled it after a 24-hour marinade. It was so good on the tenderloins that I would love to try it on boneless thighs. Also got some beautiful heirloom tomatoes at the produce stand: Dinner was so delayed (I was out helping Jessica pill a cat that she's taking care of) that I didn't peel my tomato. I could hear the creaking of my grandmother spinning in her grave and her "tut-tuts" at my shiftlessness 😁. Served with couscous, rolls, and a salad: Sunday’s dinner was Sloppy Joe sliders, string beans, and yellow squash: Served with watermelon and some fantastic corn from the produce stand: You know, I fantasize about hosting Sunday afternoon family suppers like my grandmother used to make. And it never seems to happen. Instead, we go out to brunch after church and then come home and fall into a stupor. We don’t come out of that until it’s too late to do anything about dinner other than a quick sandwich or something like that. Sigh.

@RWood – that’s my perfect breakfast – a little sweet and a little savoury! @blue_dolphin – I never think to flavor my yogurt with anything but honey. I need to try maple. This morning was a grilled sausage and egg sandwich. Sausage: Egg: I didn’t want it to be too drippy and I got it slightly overdone. I was going for jammy. Grilled: With a wonderful peach: The peach was a nice surprise. The skin was a bit loose and wrinkly and I thought it was going to be dry. It turned out to be perfect ripe and tasty.

Queso: Mr. Kim's BBQ and my slaw: It was a good time. Our host is Mr. Kim's best friend since high school and was his best man. His brother and two of his sisters and various "kids" (all actual adults now) were there. All of our kids grew up together - the older ones babysitting the younger ones. We are considered family and we haven't seen everyone in a long time, of course. The other food included hot dogs and hamburgers, fruit salad, broccoli, the incomparable family potato salad (secret recipe and the only kind I actually like) and some terrible corn that my grandmother would have called "cow corn" - tough and tasteless and rendered worse by being boiled for about 20 minutes.

Welcome to eGullet, @Suthnautr! Looking forward to your contributions.

Not feeling terribly patriotic this year, but we are going to friends for an outside celebration. He's got a new grill so hamburgers and hot dogs. Mr. Kim was asked to make BBQ, so I made some slaw and sauce. Also requested was "my" queso! These girls have been eating it since they were toddlers and in spite of being 20-somethings now and having much expanded palates, they still love the neon orange, Velveeta and ground beef/sausage, and salsa dip.

Miller and Rhoads Tea Room certainly did. And Mr. Kim remembers Breakfast with Santa at Christmas time.

I would 100% buy one of those to serve shrimp salad out of! Mr. Kim recently sent me this link: The Lost Glamour of the Department-Store Restaurant I remember these places so well: Garfinkles, Lord & Taylor, Woodward & Lothrop, and the Miller & Rhoads Tea Room in Richmond VA. Even as a little girl, I loved the elegant, intensely feminine feeling of those places. The dainty sandwiches, airy popovers and tiny tea muffin baskets, beef bouillon in demitasse cups. An American version of Afternoon Tea for this little Anglophile.

Speaking of Caesar salads, this is my favorite version. It’s a Geoffrey Zakarian recipe and calls for white anchovies. SO good. @Shelby – thanks for the additional information on the pork. Sounds like Mr. Kim and I need to do a collaboration! One more question - do you remember how many pounds it was? @Duvel – I’m in love with that sandwich. I’m convinced now that Germany has the best bread in the world. @Tropicalsenior – your bizarre pizza may look messy, but it also looks and sounds delicious! Dinner Wednesday night was not an unmixed success: The corn was very good – especially for June corn that’s done what I’m sure is a world tour. The bay scallops tasted quite good – mild and sweet – but were soggy by the time I served them. They were the last thing cooked – and still very hot when we ate them. But the coating was soft, not crisp. Any ideas why that would be? They were dredged in a mixture of Wondra and Old Bay. Was it maybe just because frozen scallops are so wet? I did dry them well, but…??? And I have to say that I’ve decided to pretty much give up on fresh beans. They all claim to be “string-free” and when they are raw, they ARE. If you try to string them when raw you get nothing. But cooked is another story. These were better than most – they were at least edible (I’ve had whole pots that I had to toss because they were like trying to eat a mouthful of dental floss), but still not what I like. That’s sad because fresh beans, done the way I cook them, are the best taste and texture to me. Ah well, I’ll just have to be happy with canned. Frozen beans are beyond the pale. Served with sourdough bread and marinated cucumbers (mine aren’t ready yet, these were left over from our friends’ party last weekend): Last night’s dinner was another mixed bag: Salmon with tzatziki, yellow squash & onions, corn on the cob, and salad: (Each salad had one cherry tomato from Mr. Kim's garden 😁). The squash was apparently very good. Mr. Kim gobbled his up and Jessica asked for a bite and then a serving (first time ever). The corn was good. Salad – as usual. The salmon tasted fine, and the tzatziki was really good with it. I’m so glad that Paul Bacino reminded me of it! It was the cooking of the fish that was so odd. I used an ATK recipe that called for heating the oven to 500F with the baking sheet in it on the lowest rack. Then you lower the heat to 275F and put the fish on the sheet and roast for 9-12 minutes. At that point the fish should be 125F. And nicely browned on the top from the high heat at which it starts. As you can see from the pallid fish, the nicely browned never happened. And it took 20 minutes for the fish to be done to 125F. I don’t have a thermometer in the oven just now, but I have had one in there recently and it was fine. No clue. I was going to do it in the CSO, but it doesn’t bake at 500F, so I did it in the regular oven. I think if I try this again, I’ll heat the CSO on BROIL at 500F and then follow the rest of the directions. I’m hoping that that will give me the browning and correct the timing.

@rotuts recommended this sausage to me: It was a bit of a job to find it, but I finally tracked it down at Wegman’s. I was looking forward to it because my mother always used Jones link sausages which I haven’t had for years. It was the one pork item that she didn’t cook to death and I remembered really liking it. @rotuts said that it was less fatty than Jimmy Dean and it really is. I loved the flavor, but will have to adjust my cooking when I use this stuff. It turned out drier than it should have been. I’m guessing that I overcooked it. Next time I’ll try a hotter iron skillet instead of my usual non-stick and see if that helps. I certainly tastes good, though! Served yesterday with buttered IP hard-cooked eggs and an English muffin: Today: The same sausage with fig syrup and an English muffin with not very appetizing looking, but good tasting fig spread.

@Okanagancook – I don’t think you’re being picky at all. I try to be very understanding nowadays about staffing issues and how they affect our dining experiences. And I don’t think it is too much to expect at least a checkback by someone on the staff to see if things are ok. As far as fries go, I don’t think I’ve had a hot French fry at a restaurant in a couple of years – whether it was a sit down place or a drive thru. Wednesday: Tavern ham, Fiorucci salami, and American cheese on multi-grain with pickly stuff and Doritos.

I love a natural casing dog, but we usually have Kirkland or Nathan's in the freezer. On a non-casing dog I do a spiral cut and cook in butter until almost, but not quite, burnt. Maybe I'm unconsciously trying to recreate a casing?

I've talked to her daughter, Honor, and she is thrilled that eG folks may be posting. She says she will share all the videos and messages with Maggie and that she knows she will be so happy to see them.

I think it was definitely "No Reservations" - look at what I found on Instagram.

Thank you to everyone who commented and I’m sorry to take so long to continue. Life tends to intervene in my plans! @lindag – Bourdain did do a piece on Sweatman’s on an episode of “No Reservations”. I can’t find the video anywhere. @Shelby & @BetD – I’ve only ever seen the BBQ hash once before – it was at a BBQ buffet restaurant in NC (sadly, neither of us can remember exactly where it was). I’m betting that the rice was also on that buffet and those “in the know” put them together. It tasted to us like a pork-forward Brunswick stew. Since Mr. Kim is a “smoker” I usually have a pound or so hanging around, so that when I make Brunswick stew I put in a good amount of pork with the chicken. The recipes I’m seeing include potatoes, mustard, onions, and vinegar. Some have tomatoes/tomato sauce and some don’t. Everything is minced very fine. 6/11/2022 Day 2 Jacksonville FL Our hosts made brunch: These were croissants filled with eggs, cheese, and bacon and then baked. Dinner was at Orsay. It is an elegant, but relaxed place with a menu that appeals so much to me. Their website states: “We are a French bistro incarnated in the American South and our menus feature a mix of traditional Parisian bistro classics, alongside dishes that feature French technique with southern influences.” Along with what we ordered, so much of what is featured is really classic – a raw bar, smoked fish, Croque Madam, Mussels Frite, roast duck with green lentils, foie gras, escargot – it was truly hard to choose. All four of us started with Dirty Martinis: We thought it was the perfect start to the meal. We shared a Caesar and a shrimp cocktail: Little Gem lettuce, salt cured lemon & egg yolk, shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, fried capers, Boquerone-caper crouton, and Caesar dressing. Poached wild caught local shrimp, cocktail sauce, and fresh grated horseradish. Large, perfectly cooked shrimp. We ostensibly ordered 4 different meals, but we shared them all. I love sharing restaurant meals with people like that! Bouillabaisse: Assorted fish, wild caught local shrimp, sea scallop, calamari, mussels, Pernod, and saffron tomato broth. Cassoulet: Duck leg confit, fresh field peas, great northern beans, caramelized pearl onions, roasted grape tomatoes, English peas, boudin blanc, fresh lamb bacon, sherry vinaigrette, and fried sage. Beef Stroganoff: Red wine braised beef short rib, creme fraiche, leeks, roasted mushrooms, and pappardelle. Other than the mushrooms (which were large and easily avoided) this was one of the best tasting beef dishes I've ever had. I've always done/had stroganoff with quick-seared beef and this was truly a revelation. Lamb ragu over tagliatelle: I don’t know when I’ve had such a classic meal. I remember going to restaurants like this when I was a little girl, but nothing lately to match this. All it was lacking was the table side Caesar construction.

I don't have an email address for her, but we're friends on FB, so if you want you can send it to me and I'll post it on her page.

They have them through Amazon - free shipping with Prime, if you have it.

My potatoes were perfect! Thank you, rotuts!