Kim Shook

This is possibly more a job I resent than one I hate. The rule in our house is that the cook doesn't clean up. Being the cook most often, I try to be thoughtful and clean as I go so the task is a little less onerous. But when it is someone else's job, I inevitably come into the kitchen the next morning to dirty/smeary/crumby counters and stove top. I've made it clear that counter/stove top wiping is part of the clean up, but it doesn't seem to make much difference. Another thing along the same lines is that almost ALL pots and pans get soaked overnight - even non-stick. 😡 So, doing the early morning wipe down and pot scrub is my most hated chore, I guess. 😉

I agree completely. I do the little kosher dills and slice them lengthwise to go with Mr. Kim's BBQ:

I’m sitting here yearning to partake in the buffet that is the last couple of weeks of the eG dinner thread! What incredible food and lovely settings. Hope everyone had wonderful holidays and that the New Year will bring us happiness and health! @mgaretz – I’d love to be tucking into your lovely looking pot roast tonight. @Norm Matthews – your beautiful ham dinner is another one I wish I were getting ready to eat tonight. I can just taste that gorgeous ham and those corn muffins! @Shelby – I’m sorry to hear you’ve been sick. I hope you’re feeling much better now. As always, you cook better sick than I do well. @Steve Irby – I’ve made that exact Galatoire’s Shrimp Remoulade. It is the best we’ve ever had. Gorgeous meal. Back on the 16th, I got a start on my turkey stock for Xmas gravy – before roasting: After: Stock: 12 quarts! We went out to look at Xmas lights that evening and ended up somewhere Mr. Kim and I hadn’t ever been – a sandwich place in an old urban neighborhood called Chiocca’s for dinner. Jessica had the Grilled Portobello Mushroom sandwich: Prosciutto, provolone, sweet hot peppers, portobello, and pesto on an onion roll. Mr. Kim had the Lucca: Salami, prosciutto, provolone, sweet hot peppers and Italian dressing. I had the Sailor (a Richmond VA specialty): Pastrami, Swiss, and knockwurst on rye. On the 18th, I made and froze the turkey gravy: About 4 quarts. Dinner that night was hot dogs – I made the whole package. They were about the only things I offered my family to eat until the 24th: Kirkland dogs, fried in butter and brushed with BBQ sauce. Served with fixed up baked beans and Kroger brand tots: I prefer the store brand to the national brand in tots. They are flatter rather than barrel shaped and much crisper on the outside. Jessica provided dinner last Monday. She did (frozen) dumplings/gyoza/etc. (no pictures) and chicken leg quarters marinated in a sauce made of oyster sauce, soy, dark soy, garlic, ginger, honey, and white pepper and then oven roasted: Delicious! The marinade flavors really got deep into the chicken. On Wednesday I boned and rolled a turkey breast for Xmas Eve: Rubbed with a dry brine of salt, herbes de Provence, za’atar, and pepper. I’ll be rubbing it with a butter, thyme, and lemon zest mixture on the 24th and doing it in the IP. It's based on a Geoffrey Zakarian recipe. On the 23rd I started the dressing – torn bread, onions, celery, sage, pepper, poultry seasoning and parsley: This will sit out overnight, and the oysters and stock will go in just before it goes in the oven. I remember many years ago when I first started making the oyster dressing, Momma would come over to smell the dressing at this point. Her nose could just tell what was missing or what needed bumping up. Xmas Eve Dinner – starting with the relishes: @Shelby’s cucumbers, Bebo’s (my dad’s mom) Fruit Salad, and Cranberry-Orange Sauce: The turkey: I put it under the broiler when it came out of the IP. It was very juicy and tender. Mr. Kim thought it was the best I’d ever made. I missed getting a picture of the platter. I also missed getting a picture of the dressing, but both of them are on the plate that I did get a picture of. Gravy: @Marlene’s Broccoli Gratin w/ Streusel: Sweet potatoes done in the slow cooker with marshmallows: Ahem...You’ll notice the slight scorch marks on the paperboard plate. Our dishwasher broke down a few days ago and we can’t get a service call until 1/4. So, I was trying to spare the manual dishwasher (Mr. Kim) and used disposable where I could. Since the sweet potatoes were done in the slow cooker, I couldn’t put the marshmallows on them until I got a serving out and I just used the torch to blacken them a bit. I tried to be careful, but…🙄😊 Sister Schubert rolls: I keep having these good intentions of making yeast rolls before the meal and freezing them, which I know works quite well. And we all know that good intentions pave the road to frozen commercial rolls! My dinner plate without gravy: And with: My extra plate: Christmas day - this looks like the dog’s dinner, but it’s the real reason I make turkey, gravy, and dressing every year: My BIL and MIL came over for a yard visit and to drop off some of his chicken tortilla soup. We were supposed to be at her house on the 26th for a family gathering, but we were unfortunately all exposed to COVID on the 23rd and now we’re all quarantining. The soup: So good. He’s been making this since he moved to Arizona 25 years ago and it’s only gotten better!

I'm not sure since they get smooshed down. I think there is more peanut butter in a peanut butter cup than caramel in a Rolo. But it wouldn't hurt to try. 😁

Thank you, ma'am! Here's the "recipe" for them and this is the kind of pretzels I use - I think I get the Snyder's brand. I've also used the smaller twists when I couldn't find the waffles.

The crumpets were from Wegman's (I haven't attempted yet) but here's the curd recipe. It's very simple to make.

More of the same year to year from me. Folks who've been around for a long time will find my post vaguely familiar😁! Made lemon curd to take to some friends. He’s British and loves homemade curd. This is just a standard recipe, but it turns out creamy rather than gelatinous like the jarred ones tend to: The recipe made one large jar and one small one, so we got to keep the little one for ourselves. My peanut butter cookies: Lemon chess tarts: Cinnamon pecans: Peanut brittle: Sponge: Those silly Rolos, pretzel, and pecan things: And two kinds of fudge – Reeses Cup fudge and my Aunt San’s creamy chocolate: I tried adding some of that peanut powder to the peanut butter layer this year and found that it really improved the texture and maybe even the flavor. It was firmer – not squishy like it tends to be when it sits out of even a few minutes. Not all of our traditional things got made this year. I just got overwhelmed with things and some things just didn’t happen – @Darienne’s toffee, sugar cookies (though Jessica wants to do some of them anyway – even late), iced almonds, and mincemeat tarts will have to wait until next year.

Last Monday Jessica surprised us with tamales that she bought from a home kitchen in Southside Richmond: They were pork and delicious. The masa was tender and flavorful. They were not spicy at all, which I appreciated. Boxing day lunch: Classic – white bread, Dukes, turkey, lettuce and heavy S&P.

@blue_dolphin– I love Wolferman’s! My mom’s best friend used to give them to everyone for Xmas and then I found them at a local grocery store. When that store sold out to a national chain, they didn’t carry them. I haven’t had one since and need to place an order! Christmas Eve breakfast was a crumpet and some lemon curd that I made: Christmas day was our usual meal that everyone has seen over and over – my MIL’s “Candy Cane” sweet roll (which Jessica helped make this year – well, maybe personally observed would be a better description🙄😞 Bebo’s (my paternal grandmother) Fruit Salad: Mini quiche Lorraine and John T’s sausage rolls: ET bagels and smoked salmon cream cheese: Boxing day breakfast: Crumpets and some surprisingly good Kroger strawberry preserves that had WHOLE strawberries in it. This morning was Christmas morning leftovers:

I always buy the bagged 3 count romaine hearts. I wonder if these are included. I don't have a bag right now.

Welcome to eG, @michallen! Looking forward to hearing more from you! What kinds of foods do you enjoy cooking or are you interested in?

How could I forget the CSO (plus the spare in the attic), the Anova, and the IP?

Hello, @kchandler! Welcome to eG from my favorite part of the world! I grew up with English stepsisters and stepdad and they imbued me with a love for your country! I've only visited once (2011), but am dying to go back when we can! I'm so looking forward to your input!!

Quick drop in visit to respond: IP and CSO. May add more later, but it won't be a roasting pan😝.

Hi, @Barb Bowers! Welcome to eG! I'm looking forward to your contributions!

I love looking at all different pasta shapes and, in the past, I've purchased a lot, too. But I've discovered that since I really don't care for pasta that isn't tender all the way through (not an al dente person), many shapes are just not going to be good to me. I tend to stay with the smaller tube-shaped ones and with the stick ones - macaroni, all the spaghettis and the flat sticks, too. Anything that has a fold is a hard pass for me.

Yesterday: English muffin w/ sage sausage. It is 12:35 and I am apparently not eating breakfast today and time for lunch doesn't look promising either. 😁

@kayb – you are truly my heroine. I could no more entertain this week than I could fly to the moon. I’ve let folks know that with Jessica and her cats and her STUFF here, we weren’t really set up for guests, but that we’d love to meet them somewhere for dinner or lunch or brunch (after Christmas). I had friends who lived in NYC and did all their entertaining in restaurants! @mgaretz – those latkes look great and you just reminded me that I have some in the freezer, too! @liamsaunt – your stuffed chicken looks delicious! When you say herbed cheese, is it a soft one like Boursin? Dinner last night was spaghetti with a meat sauce made from fixed up Victoria marinara: Served with salad and leftover Sister Schubert rolls:

Last night was pork schnitzel with mustard-cream pan sauce, braised red cabbage, and broccoli: The schnitzel was an Aldi short cut - it comes frozen and breaded, but raw. It's a seasonal product for some reason, but we like it a lot. It takes longer to do the pan sauce than it does to cook the patties, so it's great for a busy night. The cabbage was also supposed to be a short cut. I sent Mr. Kim to the store with "red cabbage" on the list - intending him apparently to read my mind and get a jar of it. Instead, I got a whole head of red cabbage and ended up doing it from scratch, since I had all of the ingredients.

What looks like a huge and untimely recall of ham and other pork products in the US: https://news.yahoo.com/ham-more-pork-products-being-215000524.html

Today: A ham and Havarti sandwich with a bowl of college-style ramen. One of my (many) guilty pleasures. Eaten as is with no additions except that I use all of the "flavor" packet like the heathen I am.

What is that on the upper left? The one with the leggy things?

I belong to an Aldi FB group and, believe me, these folks can really be loonies.

I'm sitting here looking at a my annual box of them. My mother loved them and they were always her "Santa gift", so when I saw them this year, I had to buy them. I found mine at a candy store that sells everything from nostalgia candy to high end chocolates and stuff from all over the world. But I'm pretty sure I've seen them at other stores, too.

@blue_dolphin - To me, a perfectly poached egg atop a perfectly toasted piece of toast is just the classic and ideal breakfast. Yesterday: ET bagel and sage sausage.