Kim Shook

This morning:

Thought that y'all might like to look at these Trader Joe "hacks". Make sure to check the comments for additional ideas.

If you have access to Costco and they have these, I can recommend them. Virginia peanuts are fantastic and this is an excellent price.

My take is that it tames the heat a bit and, of course, butter tastes great.

Big hugs to you all. One of the best ways I've found to memorialize loved ones is with food. I try to call recipes by the names of the people who made them or gave them to me. Among the 1700+ recipes on my webpage are many eponymous ones from family and friends, including many, many from eG, including @andiesenji, @Ann_T, @C. sapidus, @Darienne, @David Ross, @deensiebat, @Dejah, @Domestic Goddess, @Fat Guy, @gfweb, @Jaymes, @Chufi, @Marlene, @mgaretz, @Norm Matthews, @patti, @suzilightning and, of course, you, @Shelby. Among others - I'm sure I've missed some. Some of these folks are still active, some aren't and some are gone completely, but when I come across a recipe or make something, I remember them. It is a good moment!

I make something similar to this (no meat) as a side dish to either brunch or a ham dinner and it is always the first thing gone on the table.

I really like the flavor of Buffalo wings, but any commercially available wings are too hot for me - even the "mild". So, I make my own and allow folks to add more hot sauce as needed. Our house hot sauce is Frank's. As a day to day sauce, it is both flavorful and hot enough for Mr. Kim and doesn't blow my head off used with a light hand. When I make "Buffalo" Wings, my sauce ratio is 3/4 cup butter to 1/3 cup Frank's. I also add 1 T. soy, 2 T. honey, and 1 T. lemon juice. The wings are given a buttermilk soak, then dredged in a mixture of flour, salt, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne (just a pinch), and black pepper - then fried. And a good, homemade bleu cheese dressing is a MUST!

@Shelby – going back to say Ronnie’s birthday week steak dinner could be Mr. Kim’s, too. A steak is almost always his choice. Mine is always crab of some kind. And I could make a full meal off that gorgeous potato. I’ve probably asked this before, but are the green beans your own that you can? They look canned (my much preferred over frozen). They also look Greek/middle eastern with the tomatoes. The goose looks incredible, too! And I would very much like a slice of that cake! @shain – that loaf is lovely! @chefmd– your lump crab and cream dish is simple perfection. Honestly, unimprovable. I, too, am now craving lasagna. 😁 Dinner last Friday was my contribution to the Wings Cook-off. My offering was @Norm Matthews’ Korean-style wings: Served with salad and fries: Napa cabbage, hearts of palm, toasted almonds, fried rice noodles with ginger dressing. Mr. Kim’s and Jessica’s with red bell peppers. I didn’t cook a lick on Saturday. We had lunch out and ordered a pizza and a salad for dinner. We augmented it with some really good bread we got at a little neighborhood grocery near where we had lunch. This ciabatta was from Antbear bakery a local place. The grocery has a list up of all the local bakeries in the area that deliver to them and the schedule of which days they get what. Great idea! I wish that we lived closer. We lost power Sunday night, so dinner ended up being corn nuts from nuts.com and some pretzels😉. Monday night dinner was slow cooker carnitas with black beans and all the fixings – beef: Jessica found this recipe and suggested it. I would have never thought of doing this, but I’m really glad she did. It was incredibly easy and very good. This only thing was we all agreed that the spices the spices (chili powder, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder) could all have been doubled. Tortillas: Pickled shallots, cheese, Napa, and salsa: More salsa, sour cream, and guacamole: Yellow bell peppers: When am I going to learn that I can’t take pictures in my dining room🙄? Black beans w/ salsa and taco seasoning: Plated – without beef: With beef:

As I said before, I decided to do @Norm Matthews’s Korean-style wings. These are perfect for us, because the spiciness can be adjusted at the table according to everyone’s personal palate. I’ve served them to a wide array of palates and had return “customers” of every type. I decided to brine them first and I’m glad that I did – wings can be easy to overcook and can get tough and dry. Mine were juicy and tender – even rewarmed the next day. The mize for coating the wings: It’s a bit unusual. You mix the garlic, ginger, onion, S&P, and egg and toss the wings in it. Then you add the flour/cornstarch mix and toss again. Lots of cragginess: Frying: I really do like using my electric skillet to fry in, but it takes forever to recover for the second batch! Mize for the glaze which is drizzled on the finished wings: Finished wings: I didn’t drench the wings in the glaze, so they were very crisp. I offered hot sauce but both Mr. Kim and Jess found them flavorful enough that they didn’t want it. I hadn’t made these for a long time (and the last time I did the recipe with boneless thighs), so they were very welcome.

@Ann_T – those donuts are wonderful looking. I’m also madly in love with your coffee cup/bowl! Looking for a little advice here. When we were out at lunch on Saturday, we ordered a slice of their lemon chess pie to take home. It was wonderful and just exactly the texture I would like in my lemon chess tarts. I’ve added pictures of both and am hoping that someone will have help for me. This is the texture of the purchased pie: And this is the texture of my tarts: I hope you can see the difference. Mine is less smooth and collapsed, even though I filled the tart shell completely. Thanks so much!

Jessica went to a school in Salem, VA for a couple of years that served their own yeast rolls served with those little pats of butter on paper squares. I used to volunteer in the cafeteria during grandparents' week and the cafeteria manager would call a break mid-morning when the first batch would come out of the ovens and we'd all sit down and have our fill. Glorious! Saturday lunch at a local café after delivering the shelter lunches. I had the French dip: Mr. Kim had the Gorgonzola and A-1 burger: Sunday lunch: Leftover wings from the wing cook-off done in the CSO on bake/steam at 350F. They would have been slightly more crisp on convection, but I was afraid they would also have been drier and tougher. They were great still. Also some good ciabatta we got at a little market just down the street from the café the day before.

Monday was leftovers from our deli breakfast on Sunday: Today: ET bagel with smoked salmon cream cheese and ET seasoning and sage sausage.

In the South, a set of silverware is incomplete without matching iced tea spoons! 😁

Well, I couldn't taste the pepper (that's to the good, I think), but I'm glad I brined. It is hard to tell when wings are done (especially with this particular recipe), so they sometimes get a little overdone. My wings were juicy and tender - even reheated. I think I'll just leave out the pepper next time. Thanks for all the advice!

Not @Smithy, but I'm pretty sure it refers to hot dogs and such things. At least that's what I mean when I use the term.

How are these different from iced tea spoons?

Ok, I admit it...I judge:

Leftovers that I actually LIKE: Jessica's falafel (perfectly reheated on 350F bake/steam in the CSO), pita, tzatziki, and hummus.

Well, thank you to everyone! We'll see. I've dumped the wings into the brine. I'm not waiting 24 hours and from what you've said, the pepper shouldn't be terribly overpowering. I get your point about the skin, @gfweb, but I feel like I might as well be eating tofu if my chicken is skinless 😉. Plus, the wings will be fried, so they'll need the protection.

Here I go again, lapping myself! Two day old Lidl croissant, butter, grated dark chocolate - all toasted up in the CSO:

Bumping up to ask a for some advice. I'm planning on brining some wings today to participate in the wing cook off tonight. I've settled on and have put together this brine. I should have asked before I put the brine together, I guess, but does that seem like a lot of pepper? Six cups of water, 3 lb. of wings, and a total of 4 T. pepper between the white and the black? The recipe also calls for refrigerating the brine overnight before using. I confess I didn't notice that and am planning to disregard that, but I've never seen that direction before. Thanks, all!

We've got a double whammy here in Central VA this weekend. The pandemic and snow in the forecast. Richmond absolutely panics at the mention of snow. We were out shopping last night for supplies to do our churches monthly lunches we make for 3 homeless shelters in the city. We make 100 lunches consisting of bologna sandwiches w/ packets of mustard, pretzels, Little Debbie oatmeal cakes, a banana, and soda/juice. The church has tax-exempt accounts at Sam's and Walmart. Sam's had NO lunchmeat whatsoever. They haven't had packets of condiments in months. Walmart didn't have any all beef bologna (we don't use pork products), so we had to buy packets of turkey. They didn't have the Walmart brand bread we usually get, but we were able to get Sunbeam - we had to clear them out of their last loaf. There were NO Little Debbie products at all, so we bought Walmart brand cupcakes. This is normally a group project, but Mr. Kim and I did it alone for a few months before the vaccines came out. With the expected surge, we've gone back to just the two of us. I make and pack the sandwiches, he packs the lunch bags and we deliver them. We have the option of doing PBJ sandwiches, but I'm not going to be spreading 100 sandwiches worth of peanut butter and jelly by myself!

Shelby – Happy Birthday to Ronnie! Simple dinner last night: Ham and Swiss sandwich and sides. Yams and mac n cheese were leftover from our lunch out on Sunday.