Kim Shook

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.

We both used the canned - her for the falafel and me for the hummus. I've gone to the trouble of using the dried, but haven't found them any better. Actually, I think the dried can be extremely old and I find that they just don't hydrate as well as I'd like. Having said that, I'd like to try Rancho Gordo's.

Jessica wanted to try to make falafel and wanted me to make tzatziki and hummus. She’d never made falafel (neither had I) and I hadn’t made tzatziki or hummus in a long time, so it was a bit of an experiment. She was really triumphant! With only minimal advice from me, she produced some really delicious falafel. Before frying: Frying in the electric skillet (which I love using – I’m ready to sell/give away my electric deep fryer): Finished: They were truly fantastic – crisp on the outside and creamy in the middle, with great chickpea flavor. Ingredients were chickpeas, onion, parsley, cilantro, garlic, cayenne, cumin, baking powder, and flour. She also added about 1 lemon’s worth of zest. I stopped by one of our Middle Eastern/Mediterranean markets to pick up some pita and tabbouleh (I never bother making tabbouleh – we have some great markets here that sell excellent stuff) and also picked up a cheese borek: Tabbouleh, hummus, tahini sauce, and tzatziki: Raw veggies:

I go years hardly posting on the Breakfast topic and lately I'm following my own posts! This morning: Pears and a Lidl croissant.

Wow. I'm betting a LOT of those were sold for NYE parties!

This has been sitting on my kitchen sink for at least 7 years: It was originally a large (10-inches tall), pretty hand soap dispenser I found at Marshall's or TJ Maxx. I do a lot of hand washing of dishes and I hate the look of a bottle of detergent sitting on the counter, so I started filling it with dishwashing liquid once it was empty. The pump is finally starting to get a little wonky, but I still prefer this to a big plastic bottle (though I should, of course, have soaked off the label long ago!).

Bless you for taking such good care of Aspen! I'm planning to do my wings tomorrow - they'll be brined for a few hours and then done with @Norm Matthews' method as I mentioned above. I got two packets of these: So, about 3 lb. And they were $4.49/lb. They had whole wings for 20 cents less per lb., but I figured it was worth 60 cents to not have to cut them up. They are equal amounts of flats and drumettes. I prefer the flats and Mr. Kim and Jessica like either, so they will suit us.

Sausage links, Lidl croissant, and tragically mishandled eggs: That happened mid-air!

After a dental appointment and most of the day running errands, dinner was cheese toast in front of Antiques Roadshow UK: I love my Firestick! 😊

Hi, @Lesley65! Welcome to eG! I'm so glad you found us. This is a great community and I"m looking forward to your contributions. I'm in the US and always am excited to see members from other countries.

I couldn't find the toffee ones, but I got a packet of the Ultimate Chocolate ones. They are great, but I'm not sure that they are very different from the dark chocolate ones.

I'm planning on making @Norm Matthews Korean-style wings, unless you were planning to, @Norm Matthews? They are perfect for us because the spiciness is optional. Mr. Kim and Jessica can blitz their tastebuds as much as they need to to impress one another and I can omit the spice and actually TASTE the wings and sauce from my first bite to my last.

@RWood – what kind of pan did you use for that pizza? Because the edge looks fantastic. @chefmd – you are killing me with those gorgeous scallops and the rockfish. I’m so ready for some rockfish! @liamsaunt and @Margaret Pilgrim – I haven’t made katsu in forever! I need to put that on the list. @Shelby – your braised leeks are truly gorgeous! And I can’t imagine anything more perfect to go with pot roast! Thanks for posting the directions. @Paul Bacino – the coating on your pork cutlets is perfect. I like the cornflake/panko mixture idea! @Honkman – I love the look of that fennel salad. How is it dressed? @Captain – those might be the best looking yorkies I’ve ever seen! Bravo!!! @Ann_T - that is my favorite meal of all time. I was smart and made extra turkey gravy this year to freezer. So, when we have a roast chicken, I can indulge in an open faced sandwich like yours! I even made extra bread dressing mixture and froze that, too. Saturday, we got Popeye’s as I’d been craving fried chicken (to be honest, when am I not?) and didn’t feel like cooking it (to be honest, when DO I?). The beans were mine, but the rest was Popeye’s: A fast-food fried chicken dinner creates a dilemma, at least in our experience. We have both Popeye’s and Bojangles close by. And in order to get a really great chicken dinner, you really have to go to both. For chicken, it’s Popeye’s always. Bojangles is always slightly soggy and they only offer spicy. Popeye’s is always crisp – even after a night in the fridge and they offer mild and spicy. But for sides and biscuits, you really need to go to Bojangles. Popeye’s sides are pitiful – instant mashed potatoes, stodgy rice and beans – nothing green unless you count grocery store level slaw and, worst of all – no dirty rice. And their biscuits are flat, sad looking things. Bojangles has excellent pintos and fantastic dirty rice (I buy it and serve it to company when I make BBQ shrimp) and their biscuits are light and fluffy and buttery. This concludes my TED Talk😝.

@blue_dolphin – I would give my next 6 meals for a soft-shell sandwich! And, as always, your poached egg is perfection! On Saturday, I made use of some the dozen soft cooked eggs I accidentally made in the IP. Gently reheated in the microwave and buttered, they were actually quite good. Post church lunch at a favorite soul food place. Jessica got the chicken sandwich and fries: Mr. Kim got the salmon cake special with cabbage, a salad, and cornbread: These were delicious – I’m pretty sure they were made from fresh salmon, not canned. I got the seafood dinner: Whiting, crabcake, shrimp, mac and cheese, candied yams, and cornbread. Cleanest whiting I've ever had and not loaded with bones. Everything was as good as it always is. We have gone back to not eating in most restaurants – we either eat in the car or take it home. But they have a side seating area that was completely empty, so we felt comfortable eating there. Everyone – staff and folks waiting to pick up their food – was wearing their masks.

@blue_dolphin - Jessica is happy to have inspired someone! I think I first saw @Shelby and @Anna N topping those hash brown patties with eggs. Genius! Now there are always some in my freezer! This morning: Leftover Popeye’s biscuits and deli ham.

I would like to try both of those! Thanks for bringing to my attention! As always, I'm suspicious of what manufacturers call "toffee". Like "caramel" it is almost always wrong. This thread makes me think of Toliver so much and miss him.

@blue_dolphin- your poached eggs are killing me! How utterly perfect. This morning: These were actually left over from dinner the other night. I love having extra pancakes/waffles/French toast in the freezer or fridge.

I don't know about other places, but I'm familiar with a couple of the owners of places he's been to in my area and apparently much of what you see (including family discord) is wildly exaggerated.

Hi, @happysoup! Welcome to eGullet. I've been near, but not in Wales and I'd love to come sometime. We do have another Welsh member - @sheepish, who last visited a year ago, but perhaps can be lured back by a fellow Welsh person! I'm looking forward to your posts (if you can make photos of Wales fit into the food theme, even better 😉).

Mr. Kim says he got it from the Vitamix website. I get the SL annual every year (😉) and I don't think I've ever cooked a SL recipe that wasn't good. I adore smoked oysters and I haven't had one since the damn pandemic started. Mr. Kim and Jessica hate even the smell of them and I try not to eat them when they are in the house. I don't think I've been alone since February 2020! LOL But my mom and @Ted Fairhead loved them and Santa always put them in our stockings. We attended a wedding rehearsal dinner some years ago where we brought shame upon our family over smoked oysters. They had buffet tables with, among other things, punch bowls of smoked oysters. The three of us hung around one of the punch bowls for an inordinate amount of time. Mr. Kim finally had to threaten to have us removed. It was heaven while it lasted, though! 😂

My Christmas haul: The "Yes you can" is a battery operated can opener (arthritic hands) that zips off the entire top of the can. The stick thing is designed to get the last little bit from the bottom around the blades of the Vitamix. I am hoping that it will ease my disgruntlement at the fact that the bottom doesn't screw off like in other blenders. From my stocking: Santa overdid it a bit on the candy element because he was constrained to just stocking gifts this year as we are were are planning a trip in November for just the two of us. This may or may not happen now.

Because some days you just need cream of tomato and grilled cheese: Straight from the red and white can with milk instead of water and grocery store deli American on white bread. Unapologetically delicious.