Kim Shook

Thank you to everyone who responded. I think this is one of those things that I'm going to have to get out and get my hands on in a store. I know I don't want cast iron or anything heavy (been there, done that - plus I have arthritis in my hands and things are seeming heavier and heavier as time goes by). But I don't want flimsy either. I like that square one that you showed, @weinoo. Maybe same brand, but rectangular (I know I like the larger one - when I use my electric one, I use the entire surface).

When they arrive (😁), make sure to read the directions. I nearly broke my first one trying to use it incorrectly (I thought it was supposed to come apart).

Wow. Mind completely blown. Never would have occurred to me.

Not people food, but this was the canned cat food section at Food Lion - an otherwise fairly well-stocked location: Poor kitties ☹️.

One of the few things I prefer as a leftover (sorry my bowl is such a mess - it was the preparation and eating container):

I can't remember who recommended these Gripstic things: but I'm besotted with them. We are big (pun intended) chip/snack people. We just went through our giant 64-quart tub of chip bags and tossed all the stale ones - and we still have at least a dozen in-use bags left. These sticks are so much better than the chip clips I've been using. They've passed the ultimate test - I'm tempted to buy a set for everyone for Xmas this year! 😄

Bumping this topic up hoping that someone in the intervening 15 years has some more advice for me. I've decided I'd like to try a stove top griddle. I have an electric one, which I do like, but storage is non-existent and it is, by necessity, in the attic. Which means that when I want to use it, I have to bother Mr. Kim to go up there and get it - grumbling and cursing when he inevitably hits his head on the ceiling. I mainly use the one I have for pancakes, French toast, grilled sandwiches, etc. I once had a cast iron griddle with the ridges, which I didn't like at all. So, I know I don't want one of those. I really think I want a one-sided, non-stick pan. I'm seeing them on Amazon for anywhere from $16 to $220!! Any advice would be welcome and thanks in advance!

@liamsaunt – your sole meuniere is truly delicious looking. Jessica has determined that we should eat fish on Fridays during Lent (we are Episcopalians, not Roman Catholic🤷‍♀️) and I would love to know how to duplicate that, if you would be so kind! @Ann_T – that peppercorn sauce is gorgeous. I’d want a whole lot of your fantastic bread to soak that up! Made a pot of marinara yesterday afternoon. Ended up with 3 quarts of it. It will be making multiple appearances this week. Tonight, I put it on some veal patties we had in the freezer to make an approximation of veal parm. Served with rigatoni and green beans dressed with oil and vinegar: That’s a slice of mozz on the veal. Jessica is not a fan of the veal patties, so I used some mini meatballs I had in the freezer on hers: Old school pasta dish called for old school garlic bread. I used one of those big, fluffy grocery store “Italian” loaves with “garlic spread”: It was truly a 1970s mom Italian dinner! 😁

This is such great news. Having traveled with you towards this through your posts at eG, I know how deserved this is. If i ever feel safe traveling again, I want to make it out to MO and eat at Bulrush!

Having access to Campari tomatoes in February seems like some kind of miracle to me:

@Shelby – we love that broccoli casserole, and I haven’t made it in a while. Jess has a hard time with rice sometimes, so I’ll try to make it with orzo soon! @Duvel – dear Lord, that short rib meat! Such delicious glistening! I just finished lunch and I want some of that right now. Cheeseburgers on the grill last night with pan fried potatoes and salad for dinner last night: It was the first time I haven’t cooked burgers in an iron skillet in a really long time. They were ok, but Mr. Kim slightly overcooked them. But, hey, I burnt the onions by starting them at the same time as the potatoes, so we all make mistakes🤷‍♀️ 😄!

Thank you! And that makes perfect sense to me because it's exactly what I do with fatback that is used in green beans or greens. I render it to get all the flavorful fat out and then boil the hell out of it to infuse the cooking water with the flavor before cooking the vegetables. I also like slices of fatback floured and deep fried (a very country thing that I grew up on during my summers at my grandparents farm) - wonder how that would work with guanciale? 😄

Ham and scrambled egg English muffin:

This doesn't look like bacon to me. 😄

I confess that every piece of guanciale I've ever seen seems to be almost all fat. Same with most restaurant pork belly. Just doesn't appeal to me. If it is just for flavoring, I'd try it. But if I'm supposed to eat it? No thanks. Today's "what I settled for" lunch: What I wanted was a tomato and cheese on white bread sandwich. We were out of white bread. So I got out the recently purchased 12-grain loaf, best by date: today. Which was green 😠. So I was left with a hamburger bun. It was fine. Not quite right, though.

If anyone wants to make a muffuletta and doesn't want to order a whole sandwich, if you have a Jason's Deli near you, they once were nice enough to sell me their muffuletta loaves. They are not as good as Central Groc., but they are very good. You can't just buy a round loaf somewhere - they are too tough and all of your sandwich innards just squeeze out. Jason's are tender enough that you can bite through cleanly.

I'm thinking that this is going to be the kind of thread that goes on forever with people adding to it as they think of additional things! My favorite kind of thread! I did think of another thing. My mother's maternal family is Italian-American for the most part and by and large terrible cooks (my mom was the first generation of good cooks). But one thing that they all did was to dress the whole salad (sometimes just different lettuces, sometimes with additional veggies) in the bowl, adding one ingredient at a time. Meaning that they didn't mix the dressing up in another container and then add it to the greens. The one thing all these awful cooks made that was wonderful was salad. I've never gotten the hang of it, but for them it was automatic. My mom could still dress a salad when dementia had claimed so much of her.

@Norm Matthews – thank you! I think I’ll be making Salisbury Steak soon! @Ann_T – I think that hot sandwiches with gravy, whether turkey, pork or beef, are my favorite meals of all. I deliberately made extra gravy last time and have it in the fridge. I think it’s time to bake some good bread and get a rotisserie chicken! @liamsaunt – lucky niece! Those are the most beautiful, fluffy looking rolls! Friday night I needed some comfort food (extended family issues), so along with a pile of Fritos and some California onion dip, this was dinner:

Those look interesting. I love super crisp potato skin. And that website is amazing. Looks like a great place for folks who like to play with and have fun with food! Thanks for sharing.

I "rest" cornbread batter for a few minutes before putting in the hot skillet. My grandmother always did. @Ted Fairhead always put a touch of malt vinegar on his beans on toast, so I do, too.

They aren't local. The company is Canadian and if you go to their website, they list a lot of stores that I think are Canadian. But they also list Whole Foods. I know Kroger has them and supposedly Publix does, too (neither of which is in your area, I know). This morning: Summer sausage, English muffin, and a mandarin orange.

They are called Baguette Bagels and are made by ACE bakery. They can be a little pale sometimes, but the flavor and texture are great and I can get them at Kroger rather than having to get to the bagel place before they close.

This morning: Sausage, egg, and cheese on an ET bagel.

@Norm Matthews – I’m a Southern girl so soup can cooking doesn’t bother me in the least😄! I’d actually love to know your process for that gravy, if you don’t mind sharing. @Duvel – you are killing me with the khachapuri. I’ve just sent a message to the best bakery in town to ask if they ever make it. Last night we were trying to go to a Pho place that Jessica had heard good things about, but they were closed. So, since we were in the neighborhood, we went to a Chinese restaurant called Full Kee for the first time in more than 20 years. Not sure why we ever stopped coming – it has been one of the most lauded Chinese restaurants in Richmond for years. I’m guessing that when we moved across town, our old favorite was so close that it just became “our place”. Crab Rangoon, an egg roll, and hot and sour soup: Greaseless and crisp – and they actually had discernable crab! Very good. As perfectly grease-free and crispy as the Rangoons, but not my holy grail of the egg rolls of my youth - the old-school Chinese American ones with tiny shrimp, juliennes of roast pork and very dark, crisp cabbage. This is kind of our litmus test for Chinese restaurants. If it is good and white-peppery with the right amount of vegetables, we feel like we can trust the other things on the menu. Maybe a flawed test, but it’s worked for us thus far. Mr. Kim had the Beef Peking style: Probably not as spicy as he was hoping, because it was fine for me. Very flavorful and incredibly tender. He said the mushrooms and broccoli were perfect (meaning the broccoli was crunchy🤢😄). I had the Roast Pork w/ Snow Peas: Really tasty sauce and meltingly tender pork. And nicely crisp veggies. Weirdo me hates crunchy broccoli, but loves crisp/tender carrots, snow peas, and bamboo shoots! Jessica had the Shrimp and Fried Bean Curd w/ Golden Mushroom Casserole: Pretty sure that this was not what she was expecting. There was a lot of bean curd, and the sauce was very light, so it didn’t really have a chance to soak up much flavor. There was also a lot of cabbage, which is also not strongly flavored. The shrimp, however, was perfectly cooked and delicious.

@btbyrd – your teppanyaki looks excellent. I would much rather have yours than a restaurant’s. @Norm Matthews– Salisbury steak is an old favorite for me. I also confess to liking it done with cubed steak. Your gravy looks so dark and rich! Now I’m craving that! @Ann_T – One of my favorite meals! Between your turkey meal and Norm’s Salisbury steak, I’m craving GRAVY😁! Jessica was pet sitting during the Super Bowl, so we had our football feast Tuesday night while watching a movie. Chippy dip: Crudites: With the bell peppers properly segregated 😄 . Jessica’s Surimi casserole w/ wonton wrap chips and some Asian salad: She cut up the surimi smaller for this so that we could eat it like a dip. “Totchos”: Made with tots, cheese, Mr. Kim’s BBQ, and BBQ sauce. Hot Swiss and bacon dip: Chex mix: Last night was leftovers. Mr. Kim’s: Steak reheated in the CSO on bake/steam with bearnaise, Ukrops’ (local prepared food store – used to be a beloved grocery store) Duchess potatoes, and corn. Mine: Jessica’s surimi casserole w/ wonton chips.