Kim Shook

RE: The egg refrigeration. Eh - different cultures do things differently. I’ve seen dead fish lying out in the sun for hours in some countries. In the US and many other countries, a traditional birthday celebration must include cake – other countries have other traditions. And the minute I start feeling guilty for not being willing to eat bugs and worms and unusual animal parts, I remember that I need to leave something for the animal food and I don’t feel bad. @MaryIsobel – I love granola and that version sounds really good. Jessica and I went up to the DC area on Friday to make some family visits and to tour the Mormon Temple which, due to some construction work, is currently unconsecrated and open for tours to the general public. On Saturday morning we stopped for breakfast near our hotel at Tyson’s Bagel Market: I had a pumpernickel bagel with some really excellent smoked salmon cream cheese: This is the bagel I grew up eating at Terlitzky’s delicatessen in Alexandria. And it was every bit as good. Jessica had an ET with scallion cream cheese: The place is Korean-run and Jessica is anxious to go back to try their bulgogi burrito, bibimbap, and kimchi! Mr. Kim was in Ayden, NC at a BBQ event and they gave all the judges two huge sweet rolls from Gwendy’s Goodies – one was just an iced cinnamon rolls and the other was a pecan roll. Breakfast for me this morning was one quarter of the cinnamon rolls (not a huge fan of nuts in baked goods) and some bacon:

@liuzhou - how fantastic! I love smoked fish! I could not think where was an appropriate place to put this post, so I chose here. After all, much of this will provide eG-friendly snacks in the near future! On Friday, Jessica and I traveled to Northern VA for a couple of days to visit family and do a little sightseeing. On Saturday we visited my sister, her husband and my new (4/28) niece. Friday had been my sister’s birthday and she’s been a bit housebound since the baby was born, so I wanted to bring something indulgent to the house. I did some research and very close to them was an HMart (Asian market) with a really good sounding French bakery and patisserie inside the store – Paris Baguette. We’d never been to an HMart and were overwhelmed and impressed and incredibly jealous. Jessica picked out a bunch of snacky things to try out on a FB video: I got a delicious peach and the best apricot I can remember having in many, many years. They have a really cool food court, too. We were there so early that only the bakery was open, but the signs and examples we saw made us wish we had more time. These next two are various types of corn-dogs: Unfortunately, I neglected to get a picture of the box of goodies we took to Ashley’s, but this is something that Jessica got and took home: It is called a crabmeat croquette and it is crisp and flaky and filled with crabmeat: The bakery selection was truly remarkable and I cannot wait to go back.

Gorgeous food and views. My best friend of almost 50 years is in the process of moving to their retirement home in Orleans. All these photos and restaurant reports are making me more and more excited to visit!

@gfweb - I would eat arancini any time of the day or night! This morning was slider buns with sausage patties: Jessica and I are headed up to Northern VA tomorrow for a couple of days and Mr. Kim is going to NC for a BBQ judging event Saturday. So, while supplies are getting low I don't really want to shop before we go out of town. Not a bad breakfast. Not a clue what Mr. Kim and Jessica ate!

Good GOD. What utter idiots. And the fact that they didn't inform restaurants???????? Someone needs to be fired. A LOT of someones.

@weinoo – I loved seeing that David Downie Roman cookbook. I have it somewhere in the stacks. He’s a friend of mine (mostly FB – I met him through a mutual friend and met him once in person at a local book signing). When I told him about the post of his book on eG, he told me a really cool story: “Alfredo was my grandfather's orderly (aide de camp) in World War One? My grandfather was a great gourmet who at one time owned a restaurant in Rome... before the War and Fascism... he taught Alfred to cook for him and he ate very well throughout WW One. Alfredo went on to become rich and famous. My mother and her family would dine like kings at Alfredo's in the early days... When I told the story to Alfredo's grandson maybe 25 years ago he burst into tears and hugged me. I showed him a photo of my grandfather and his grandfather on the front, in the Alpine troops.” @Shelby – I love those little cat dishes, too, and put them on my Amazon wishlist the minute I saw them. I have been periodically mentioning that fact to Mr. Kim and keep watching for an Amazon box to come to the door. Everything looks so good. I love breakfast for dinner and that fruit salad is calling out to me! @Tropicalsenior – your salad plates looked fantastic. As does the char siu! Thanks for linking to the recipes for the pork and the buns. I’d really like to try making both of them. @mgaretz – congratulations on the retirement! Thursday was sliders, potatoes, and salad. Salad: Sometimes I just want a classic iceberg lettuce salad with 1000 Island dressing. These were good, but I realized as I bit into one that I forgot the Worcestershire sauce. And CSO “Fried” Potato Wedges: These were especially good. Very similar to @Ann_T’s CSO “Fries”, but made with new potatoes instead of russets. Friday was breakfast for dinner. Sister Schubert Sausage Pinwheel rolls and scrambled eggs: Served with applesauce and orange wedges: The rolls were a little odd. They smelled great (and I think this brand of frozen rolls is very good to start out with), but the sausage was all flavor and no substance – you could taste a “sausage-y” flavor, and see the pinwheel, but there was no discernable sausage presence. Really weird. Last night was spaghetti w/ meat sauce, salad, and bolillos rolls: Just fixed up, extra meaty Victoria White Linen jarred sauce. Dill pickle salad kit: This is pretty good. Radishes, shredded cauliflower, cabbage, croutons and too much kale.

Here you go. And Here is the recipe for the PB cookies, if anyone would like that.

Lunch on Thursday was my leftovers from Chinese on Thursday night: Lemon shrimp (sauce on the side) and fried rice. Brunch after church at our favorite deli. Mr. Kim’s “healthy” Adkins meal: 3 eggs and double bacon. My “unhealthy” meal: 3 eggs (I ate 2) 2 pieces of bacon, fried potatoes and a bagel, which I ate half of. Today’s lunch was the leftovers from yesterday: An ET bagel, cream cheese, and a couple of slices of bacon.

@blue_dolphin – your breakfast sandwiches are so luscious looking! And you’re right – sometimes you just gotta have a BLT. @Anna N – so great to see you posting here. When I saw your Kiev, I went straight to my online freezer list to see if I had any and I DO!!! That will figure into a meal soon! @heidih – I agree about the lengthwise slice on the snow peas. I love them done like that in salads and pancit and other noodle dishes. Friday: Two slices of @Shelby’s bread – one got the full tomato and Duke’s treatment and the other just got a load of butter! I made some of Ina Garten’s Cherry and Almond granola for Yogurt/Granola parfaits for a breakfast meeting of the ladies of our church on Saturday: This morning I had a little parfait with some Golden Syrup (out of honey and I don’t go to Costco on the weekend, if I can help it). Also, a slice of @Shelby’s bread toasted:

On Friday, I made some cookies for our churches’ Saturday afternoon Ice Cream Social. Our family’s favorite Dream Cookies: They look like nothing special, but are the best buttery, crisp cookies I’ve ever made. My mom and I discovered these in a grocery store cookbook series by Women’s Day magazine many years ago. I’ve probably been making these cookies for well over 50 years. PB: Rice Krispy and Fruity Pebbles Treats:

I had the problem, too, the first couple of times that I tried to make bread in the CSO. The first time, I really think that I had neglected to put the rack all the way on the bottom slot. Not sure what the trick was this time - I didn't even have to cover with foil this time. I might possibly be this recipe? The other times that I had bad luck, I think I was using the ATK recipe.

I made @Shelby's White Bread Loaves yesterday: You can see that I got part of the bottom a little charred on the loaf on the right. I did the second rise and the baking in the CSO and while I was very satisfied with the results, I thought the sides were a little pale. So, I took the loaves out of the pans and put them back in the CSO for a few minutes. I should have protected the bottoms because I got a few places a bit overdone. A little scraping and they were fine. Good crumb and great toast:

@KennethT - It's a great recipe and incredibly easy. I'm NOT a bread baker, but have had success with this one.

@weinoo - would the square pan hold 4 sandwiches made with standard sized bread? I'm definitely in the market for a stovetop model. I made sliders last night on my electric griddle: Mr. Kim washed the cooking plates, but didn't pick up the electrical part. When I picked it up this morning, I saw this: That whole darker area upper left is a grease slick. And this was under the cutting board: It's obviously run in between the counter and the stove, so we'll be pulling the stove out and cleaning this weekend. Apparently the grease channels overflowed before the grease had a chance to reach the little slide-in grease cup, which was NOT full when I pulled it last night. Sigh. Off to Bed, Bath, and Beyond this weekend, I guess. 😠

I made @Shelby's White Bread Loaves yesterday. I did the second rise and the baking in the CSO - Steam at 100F for about 25 minutes and then baked on the Bread setting at 350F for 25-30 minutes. I made sure this time to lower the rack to the lowest level and kept an eye on the tops of the loaves towards the end of baking. They turned out beautifully: And, once again, I confirmed that the CSO is just invaluable for heating leftovers. Night before last we got Chinese and I got Shrimp with Lemon sauce. I always get the sauce on the side since I never can finish all of the shrimp. These were the leftover shrimp that I had for lunch yesterday: Before the CSO, my only real way of eating shrimp with this kind of coating was to pull the coating off and eat the shrimp cold. But I used the Bake/Steam setting at 325F for about 6 minutes and they were perfect. The crust was perfectly crisp and the shrimp was tender. I also had good luck with using the table that @Okanagancook put together (thank you!!!) to make some potato wedges for dinner last night. I cut some larger thin skinned white potatoes into wedges and cooked them according to the directions for fingerlings - Bake/Steam (my favorite setting) at 400F for 40 minutes and they turned out so good: I use this thing every day for toast and heating things up quickly, but some days the way I use it makes me realize all over again what a great machine this is. And wonder why in God's name it was discontinued. And thankful that I have a brand new one waiting in the wings! 😁

I love boiled peanuts and got a good laugh when trendy restaurants started serving boiled edamame as an upscale bar snack to people who would have turned up their noses at the idea of boiled peanuts.

I got a wonderful book from a friend. It is called Household Discoveries and Mrs. Curtis’s Cookbook. My friend is in her 80s and it belonged to her grandmother. It is in bad shape, but still such a treasure and a thoughtful gift. It seems to be half “helpful hints” about running a house in the early 1900s and half cookbook. In good shape, copies of this are selling for $70 to over $100 online. I love that this one is like this: It means it has been perused and consulted extensively over the past 100+ years. Ann (my friend) has decided that, since I love it, I am the proper recipient of “old stuff” that isn’t appreciated by her daughter. She’s given me lovely old china plates that were beautifully painted by her grandmother for my plate wall and an 1891 copy of “The Everyday Cookbook”, similarly worn. Reading the two introductions it becomes obvious that this publication (from a company called “The Success Company” – still a going concern, with offices in NYC) was similar to what I remember about “Hints from Heloise”. My grandmother had a few of the Heloise books (bought with the futile hope that they would help her become an organized housekeeper – I take after that grandmother😁) and I remember reading them. Some chapters and illustrations in the “hints” section of the book: And then, the recipes: Honestly, I found more recipes I’d eat in this book than many of the ones in my 1960s books 😁! And did you notice that a couple of them call for McIlhenny's tabasco? A couple of lovely color illustrations: Almost as fascinating to me were all the little bits of paper that were scattered throughout the pages – handwritten recipes, newspaper clippings, etc. This one is dated December 14, 1920: This one was on the back of a blank telegraph form: Sammy making Victory Bread 😁: Recipes and an ad on the back: Reminded me of the Rough Linen Apron folks have talked about on the Apron thread. A handwritten recipe for Oatmeal Bread: This one is from The Delineator, January 1916: I especially love the ad on the side recommending Grape Nuts for “elderly people”. Lots of bad teeth in the elderly in those days. How in the world are they eating Grape Nuts? Even a Temperance leaflet: 😂 People never seem to stop messing in other peoples' business, do they? 🙄 This book is going to be living on the table next to my computer for the next little while. One hour perusal isn’t near enough. I’ll be dipping into this often!

Mr. Kim surprised me with a couple of things off my Amazon wishlist: The pans are 8x4-inch and I love those crisp, sharp edges! He's been after me to make some of @Shelby's white bread and this was his final push 😁. I use those custard cups a lot and was down to only 3 through breakage.

This morning: @heidih - you'll notice that I remembered to spread the mayonnaise on the toast rather than the tomatoes this time! 😄

@Shelby – gorgeous turkey! And the Hot Browns look perfect. I haven’t made them for years! And that PIE ❤️!!! @Tropicalsenior – Hugs to you for your thoughtful gesture and I’m sorry for the loss of your sweet neighbor. On Friday Mr. Kim got a free sundae from Yelp at Ruby Scoops, a new and really different ice cream place in the city. There seems to be a bit of a Renaissance going on in that neighborhood, but interestingly, it isn’t old style gentrification. Lots of places are owned by neighborhood folks and there is a real presence of African American business owners. The owner of Ruby Scoops was the winner of Food Network’s “Clash of the Cones”. Our sundaes turned out to be dinner: Mr. Kim and Jessica both got the Hot Honey Cornbread ice cream with miso salted caramel sauce, cone pieces, and whipped cream. I had vanilla bean with the miso caramel, hot fudge, and whipped cream. They have all sorts of incredible sounding flavors and offer a “flight” – six scoops of ice creams/sorbets in a half dozen egg carton. We will be going back. We spent Mother’s Day north of us in DC and Old Town Alexandria – my old hometowns. Dinner was at what is probably my favorite restaurant over all. I’ve been eating there since the early 1970s and love the food and the people so much. It’s called Taverna Cretekou and is on King St. in Alexandria. We shared an order of saganaki, of course: Flames halfway to the ceiling, gooey and hot! Every bit as good as it was when I had my first taste many years ago. Mr. Kim and Jessica also shared the mushrooms sautéed with garlic and herbs: Mr. Kim got an American-Greek salad: The usual cucumber, tomato, onions, olives, anchovy plus greens and the best dolmades I’ve ever had. They use lovely, tender grape leaves and the rice is cool but not icy and crunchy! Mr. Kim’s main was Chicken (Kotopoulo) Kalamata – chicken medallions with a tomato/olive/red wine/fresh basil sauce: Jessica had one of the specials: Salmon with a white wine, lemon, and caper sauce. I had another special – the braised lamb shank with the same sauce as Jessica’s: I have to say that is NOT an attractive dish. As delicious as everything was and always has been, I think the cooks need a little training on that particular sauce. I suspect that it was a cornstarch-thickened sauce and I admit to having a prejudice against cornstarch used like that, but even if you are going to use cornstarch, you need to use it correctly. The sauce was lumpy, which leads me to think that it was added to the hot liquid. And it had a gelatinous quality that wasn’t nice to look at. But the meal was wonderful and the people as nice as always! Dinner last night was beans and (rather than on) toast: Because I wanted more beans than would fit on the toast 😁.

LOL! People who never order dessert because they are always too full and ADORE zeppole 😂. I guess because it was a brunch menu it was put under the "Starters" section of the menu? With the accompaniments and the sauces, it wasn't too far from French toast or waffles, really.

We actually have two and feel very lucky for that. They are just like the Woolworth and People's and Drug Fair lunch counters of my childhood. Except the food is much, much better! And not in any "gourmet" way - just good basic sandwiches, salads, and specials. You can get breakfast all the time they are open (until 2 or 3, I think), they make their own soups and the specials are things like Liver and Onions, meatloaf, and hot turkey sandwiches. I hope they last as long as I do!

Thanks so much for sharing with us! And dear Lord above - that last shrimp and grits and that steak. I think I should go with Mr. Kim - we could order both and share!!!

@heidih – I will remember that Colman’s mustard tip. I love a pinch of that in lots of things, but somehow never thought of it with egg salad. I think it sounds perfect! @KennethT – Hope you are feeling better. The soup sounds like the very thing to help! @blue_dolphin – lovely pasta. It reminds me of the pasta I use for lasagna soup. I need to make that soon! Mr. Kim’s brother is in town from AZ for a few days. Since we were planning to be in Washington DC on Sunday and wouldn’t see their mom for Mother’s Day we met him and their mom for lunch on Saturday at Pinky’s. It’s a good place with lots of interesting options we’ve taken guests to. We started with Zeppole for the table. This one was hazelnut-chocolate sauce, citrus, and roasted hazelnuts: This one was fresh berries and honey-peppercorn ricotta: Mr. Kim and Jessica had the Prosciutto Panino - prosciutto di parma, jamon serrano, smoked speck, roasted red peppers, red onion, red wine vinaigrette, shredded romaine, Manchego, roasted garlic aioli, on a baguette. My MIL had the Veggie Muffuletta Panino - Fresh basil, grilled zucchini, dill Havarti, fennel, roasted red peppers, red onion, pickled radish, lemon dill vinaigrette, shredded romaine, roasted garlic aioli: My BIL had the Mushroom and Goat Cheese sandwich - grilled shiitake mushroom, fennel, grilled radicchio, charred spring onion vinaigrette, herbed goat cheese, Calabrian chile, arugula. On a grilled baguette: I had the Croque Madame: Prosciutto di Parma, iberico ham, asiago-Manchego cream, pancetta, sunny up eggs on grilled crostini. For Mother’s Day, Mr. Kim and Jessica took me off to DC for the day. We started at the National Cathedral. It is finally open and we got to look around before their 11:15 service. We also made a quick loop around the Bishop’s Garden (it was really chilly and windy). Lunch was at 2Amys – a Neapolitan pizza place I’ve wanted to go to for years. I had a fantastic experience, but I don’t think Mr. Kim and Jessica were wild for the pizza. He was raised on Chef Boy-Ar-Dee pizza kits and spent those important formative pizza years (teenager years) eating Pizza Hut pizza. And during Jessica’s learning years we lived in decidedly non-pizza places – Charlottesville VA, Batesville IN, Roanoke VA and now Richmond VA. But, bless them, they put up with it for Mother’s Day. We shared a beautiful salad of Little Gem lettuce with hard boiled eggs, croutons, and anchovy dressing: I had the pizza Margherita: Jessica and Mr. Kim got Prosciutto, arugula, and onions: I had a dental appointment this morning and got lunch afterwards at our favorite pharmacy fountain. Oyster sandwich and some of the best fries in Richmond: As always, unexpectedly good.