Kim Shook

Not me, but Jessica made a batch of Gooey Butter Bars as a thank you to a friend who loaned their keyboard to her. She sang "The Rose" at my mother's memorial service and wanted to be accompanied by that rather than a big organ. The bars are delicious, but incredibly rich:

I need to find a really good magnifying glass that I can take in my pocketbook with me. I have two useless ones - a plastic one that fits with my credit cards (nothing ever comes into focus and it's scratched) and one that is rounded on one side and flat on the other that inexplicably turns everything upside down. 🤨

I know what you mean. I get a little misty when I go back and read them. Both the bloggers and the folks commenting. So many gone.

I go back to these a lot! Some of the best food writing is found right here at eG.

Thank you so much, @jayhay! I come back here often and read my report, just to remember. I always say that I was in England once, for 12 days in 2011 and I've been homesick for it ever since. I've never felt so "at home" anywhere else I've ever been. We long to go back and hope that someday, before we're too old (or broke) to travel, we will. Meantime, we have youtube favorite channels to watch and all of our photos on a digital frame that captivate us.

I did theatre all through high school and college. I've never recovered from that - right/left - stage right/stage left! LOL

@Ann_T – I know you don’t love them, but you certainly are a pro at cooking scallops. Great sear! AND I’m dying to make some pate now. You are quite inspiring. @KennethT – my whole family is in love with those soy sauce dishes. I found a set at Amazon and put them on my wishlist! @Shelby – I have been craving spaghetti for weeks. It is our next restaurant outing since I don’t feel like making sauce right now. I also love your lilacs. I am garden growing challenged, and everything I plant dies, but some good friends who are whizzes brought me a little knee-high dwarf lilac that does well. I don’t get enough blooms on it to feel like I can get a bouquet cut off. Yours are lovely! Saturday was the day of my mother’s memorial service. A dear friend from high school was able to come down from DC for it and took us to dinner at Rappahannock, a local fish-forward place. I had two appetizers – roasted oysters with Benton’s bacon and benito flakes: And octopus with fingerling potatoes: Our friend had the scallops with maybe fried zucchini and some sort of puree: Mr. Kim had the mahi-mahi on pureed potatoes w/ broccolini:

I believe I go back and forth between “tuna fish sandwiches” and “tuna salad sandwiches”. VA and NC girl. (And your tuna salad looks excellent, @weinoo, and has me craving some). @Raamo – I love the look of your caramelized onions. They are what I was trying for when I recently made mujadara. Could you explain your method a bit, please? Sunday’s post-church brunch at my favorite Richmond diner. Mr. Kim had the corned beef hash and eggs: And I had the breakfast “Garbage Plate”: Hash browns, scrambled eggs, cheese, sausage gravy, and bacon. It tasted better than it looked! Today: Saturday was the memorial service for my mother. She passed in May of 2020 and I finally felt comfortable inviting people to travel and gather in a large group. One of my church friends handled all of the food and drink for us, bless her. The above sandwiches were turkey and cheese. There were also some ham and cheese ones. They are the sandwiches that are built on a sheet of rolls, brushed with butter, sprinkled with ET seasoning and then baked until hot and melty. I make the ham and cheese often and wasn’t sure about the turkey ones, but they were very good.

Yesterday:

Bringing this thread up for a couple of things. My birthday is coming up in July and I've requested a Staunton weekend - with Réunion, Wright's Dairy-Rite, The Shack, and @Jim D.'s Santiago Chocolates on the itinerary. I've dropped the information in Mr. Kim's ear and I'm hoping he'll take it from there. The other thing is to show a box of lovely looking cookies that Mr. Kim brought home the other night - some still warm: They are from a chain called "Crumbl Cookies" that just opened a location near us. They were, by and large, pretty ordinary. That's a huge box - big enough to hold almost a dozen Krispie Kremes - so, the cookies are large. From top left they are: snickerdoodle, Boston Creme, sugar frosted, milk chocolate chip, salted caramel, and red velvet. They were mostly just ok. We aren't red velvet cake fans, but the cooky was the best one. It tasted like warm chocolate cake. I wish these bakeries would realize that chewy doesn't mean underbaked.

I think this is something that most of us are going to have to face at one time. I remember the adjustments that older family members had to make - sitting down at the kitchen table to do prep, using a smaller knife because it was more comfortable in arthritic hands, etc. Even changes in taste and interest. One of my grandmothers never lost her interest in good food, but lost the ability to cook. Her caretakers were lovely ladies, but terrible cooks, so they picked up take-out a lot. My mom, on the other hand, lost interest in anything but sweets (she never had much of a sweet tooth before) and her dementia caused her to not recognize some of her formerly favorite foods. It is hard to tell how it will go for any of us.

Hi, @Teronms, and welcome to eG! Lots of folks here to share your interests! Looking forward to your comments and contributions.

@rotuts - I'm a big fan of chewy-crisp oatmeal cookies with dark chocolate covered dried cranberries (these are mine since no one I know makes them). Actually, I'm a fan of most oatmeal cookies - they are probably my favorite. The best store-bought ones I've found are the fresh-baked ones at Lidl, though finding them there can be hit-or-miss. I'd probably like those and will look for them next time I'm there. When I was in Trader Joe's on Friday, I was looking for the green onion pancakes. An employee asked if he could help me and when he heard what I was looking for, he said that they had none in stock but he'd look on the computer and see if some were due in. He told me to continue my shopping and he's catch up to me. When he found me again, he said that they were due into the local distribution center on the 26th (today) and should be in the store by the 28th. He said to give them a call to make sure they were there and that they would set aside some for me. Nice service. Hope they appear, as promised.

These arrived yesterday: I am a huge halva fan and Mr. Kim decided to treat me!

I was back in Trader Joe's on Friday and the freezer cases were pretty well stocked again. Must have been a short-term issue.

Thank you! Looks like my kind of cookbook. I'm a total cake girl. Just ordered the book for $3.98 from abebooks.com!

We are starting to hear of some food pantries having to close because their landlords are chasing them out with rent hikes.

Honestly this is probably one of those "my mom, my grandma, and my greatgrandma always did it that way" things 😁! Putting it on the toast would make more sense. And I seem to remember doing that sometime in the past. It's really just when I'm on automatic. And in the morning, I always am!

As long as there are decent tomatoes in the house, I’ll be tempted to have this for breakfast:

@Tropicalsenior – what a beautiful, festive, and delicious looking meal. I’d LOVE it if someone made me such a wonderful birthday dinner! @Ann_T – from one favorite meal of mine to another – lamb shanks are so great and so hard to find here. Tonight was supposed to start with this very nice-looking salad: But I forgot to serve it. Sigh. We had kielbasa, asparagus (well, Mr. Kim did – I have some green beans), and leftover Gratin Dauphinois from Easter: I thought that the asparagus looked extremely dry and overdone, but Mr. Kim swore it was fine. Served with leftover rolls:

Sorry! Busy day! I think most recipes are pretty much the same, but this is the one that Jessica uses.

Breakfast this morning was a sandwich I fell in love with years ago in a convenience store in England, of all places: Hard-cooked egg and good ham on white bread. Their sandwich also had egg mayonnaise (salad for those in the US). I haven't made any of that yet, but I find that a good smear of mayo and mustard provides a similar flavor profile and moistness. With a little bowl of Watergate salad: A wonderful use of leftovers for someone who normally eschews them. 😁

I was a bit tired of ham by the time lunch rolled around yesterday, so I dug a little deeper in the fridge and came up with the last spoonsful of sausage gravy: Hooray for frozen biscuits! 😁

Thank you. I put this in my notes on my recipe and will try this next time.

So much delicious dessertedness! @RWood - I am just blown away by your artistry! Thank you so much for posting that bunny! @Matthew.Taylor - I think that is the most delicious looking Lady Baltimore cake I've ever seen. Would you share the recipe? @blue_dolphin - what perfect looking icing! And I love strawberry above all other berries. Jessica and I made chocolate dipped stuff for after Saturday’s Easter Vigil champagne toast at our church. Strawberries: Marshmallows: And pretzel rods: The child has absolutely no interest in even trying to temper the chocolate🙄. But it tasted good.