Kim Shook

We really need a "WOW" emoji.

Welcome to eG, @Dave R! You sound like you will fit in perfectly here. We have lots of avid bakers. I'm looking forward to your posts! I've never been to Colorado, so maybe something about what you find locally.

It depends on what I want the chicken for. If it's for roasting, I like a 4 lb., which I can usually find at Kroger or Wegmans or Publix. They aren't the regular whole chickens, so they are usually more expensive. If I want to cut one up for frying, I prefer 2.5-3 lb., which, oddly, is much harder to find. A local pharmacy/drug store/candy store/cafe/kosher dry goods purveyor/etc. used to have a little deli/frozen food section and sold these perfect little chickens - no Dolly Parton breasts and Kardashian thighs. Unfortunately, they've rented out that section and no longer sell the chickens.

The CSO, if you have one, on Bake/Steam is good for this.

@Ann_T – that roast beef dinner is utterly gorgeous and perfect. @Shelby – I have one of those big canisters of Stove Top and I still don’t think of having it as often as I should. Every time we have dressing, I say, “why don’t I make this more often?”. And still I make it like twice a year. @mgaretz – I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your dad. And to have to deal with all that attendant stress on top of grieving. Hope that lovely, classic steak dinner was a comfort. @weinoo – lovely looking shrimp and grits. It’s been way too long since I’ve cooked that. We’re having shrimp tonight, but Jessica has specifically requested shrimp burgers. Last night was my very favorite leftovers – hot chicken and dressing sandwiches w/ gravy. With a side of dressing 😁:

Welcome, Evan! I was just about to send you to the same discussions that @Alex has. Great information. Looking forward to getting to know you.

This morning:

I've had good luck with freezing it. You just have to double wrap it.

Not @heidih, but yes it is. Here's the recipe I make every Christmas.

For our anniversary, Jessica gave us a lovely gift. I collect mostly green Depression glass, but have a few prized pieces of pink. I am a huge fan of the combination of pastel green and pink and she actually found glasses with both colors. They are Weston Watermelon glasses with etching from the 1930s. Also a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc Bubbles:

@weinoo – I forgot to say that your pancakes have the three of us craving them now. And a happy belated birthday to SE! @Ann_T – your bread toasted and buttered with sliced tomatoes on top strikes me as the absolute pinnacle of breakfasts. @blue_dolphin – that is a gorgeous piece of grouper! This morning:

@Shelby – I just looked and I haven’t made lasagna soup since May 2020😳(is it weird that I can dig up that information?). I’ve just put it on my menus document. @Tropicalsenior – your broccoli salad sounds great. Never thought about adding what amounts to Waldorf salad ingredients. I’m going to try that next time! @Ann_T – your Swedish meatballs are the best-looking ones I’ve ever seen. I’ve printed out the recipe and hope to make it soon. And I have to say that if I were lucky enough to get a piece of that pizza, I would gladly pull all the mushrooms off and dig in😁. That crust is incredible. I’ve always been the person at the table saying, “Are you not going to eat your crust?”. 😄 Friday was salad and sandwiches. Jessica asked for the Momofuko dressing which I’d basically forgotten about: I’m really glad she did. It is so good! Just tuna salad sandwiches as our main course. Mr. Kim’s with asparagus and (purchased) potato salad: Mine on toast with cheese and chips: Sunday in Lent is considered “little Easter”, so we were able to get restaurant food and decided on pizza – All the meats from a local place: Feta and sausage with half jalapeno: On Monday, I tried out a new recipe from Taste of Home: Tex-Mex Shredded Beef Sandwiches. It was supposed to be done in a slow cooker, but I decided to adjust the recipe for the IP and it worked very well: It was incredibly easy and tasted very good. It was just a chuck roast, chili seasoning, and BBQ sauce. Sandwich, crappy purchased macaroni salad, slaw, and chippy dip: For dinner last night I tried a recipe from Cook’s Country for Skillet Roasted Chicken and Stuffing (really dressing since it isn’t IN the chicken). The whole thing cooks in the oven in a large skillet. Sautéed and seasoned onions and celery on the bottom, herb-butter brushed chicken on top of that and bread cubes around the chicken and into the oven: Out of the oven: Carved: The recipe wasn’t without problems, but the chicken was gorgeous. With Costco chickens being so cheap and good, I probably hadn’t roasted a chicken in years, but this reminded us of how good a home-roasted chicken could actually be. The problems I mentioned were all with the “stuffing” (dressing): It was truly delicious – no problem with that. The issues were with the amount and the texture. There would have been barely enough dressing for the 3 of us, much less any leftovers to go with the half chicken that I ended up putting away for later meals. Luckily, I had a couple of cups of bread/vegetables/seasoning mix in the freezer that I popped in the microwave and added to the pan. The texture problem could have been operator error. I might have cut the bread cubes too large because they were pretty hard even after the “steaming” step - you take the chicken out of the skillet and tent it and let the dressing sit, covered for 10 minutes. Some of the cubes were just still too hard. Pretty sure I can fix that with more careful cutting and adding a little more chicken broth. It is such a good recipe and such an easy method that it is worth reworking a bit to perfect it. The really unforgivable thing is that a recipe for roast chicken and dressing doesn’t call for or provide for gravy/sauce🙄. Luckily, I realized this as I was putting the chicken in the oven. I went completely rogue and dump a combination of canned turkey gravy, white wine, Better than Bouillon, and chicken Bisto into a saucepan and simmered it for the hour that the chicken was in the oven😄. Not too bad. Plated with butter beans: I confess I was too lazy to go out for Brussels sprouts. They would have been perfect, though.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and beat with an electric mixer at low speed, until the mixture looks sandy. Add the milk/oil and vanilla, all at once. Mix at low speed for 30 seconds, then increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds. Scrape the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl. With the mixer running at low speed, add 1 egg. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds. Repeat this procedure with the second egg. Continue adding the eggs, scraping after each addition, until all 4 are added. After the last egg is added, scrape the bowl once more, then beat at medium-high speed for 30 more seconds. Thanks for posting this! If it's not too late, I'd love to see a picture of the inside of the cake - perhaps a close up of the crumb?

You can't copy and paste, though. I just tried to do it with @kayb's pate recipe and it blacked it out.

I haven't had one in years, but I used to love them. Often at airports they were the best thing on offer. But I haven't traveled by air or frequented malls in the last 2 years, so I don't know if they are still as good. I need to have one, though, because I think they are the best "fast food" ones and even better than most bakeries.

I find that cats do, on the whole.

How sad. Thank you so much for posting the link to his obituary, @Dave the Cook. What a remarkable man he was and what a wonderful life he led. I'm grateful that he shared part of it here at eG with us.

In my area (Richmond VA) wraps are different from tortillas. Toufayan sells what it calls "wraps" in packages like this. They are thinner than pita, but thicker than lavash.

Someone here (can't remember who) was talking about using pancake mix to coat something for frying. Good way to use it up, I thought. Thanks! I'll try that next time.

I searched for years for a fluffy and high rising pancake. Finally found a recipe that works for me. Thick and Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes. Hope they are what you're looking for.

I have this problem with Cooks Illustrated. Sometimes I can get around it by doing a general Google search for the recipe if I know the name (usually from one of the TV shows). A lot of people who have blogs will make the recipes and post them. Might help.

This morning:

So far I've just sprayed them really well with Pam and soaked them as soon as they were empty and I've had no problems. I've certainly cooked some sticky stuff in them, including mac and cheese and corn casserole: and I've had no problems. @CantCookStillTry may have more advice than me.