Kim Shook

I'm just awestruck!

My steak knives are useless - even sharpened they just tear the meat up. They are, I assume, Laguiole knock-offs. We have some grocery store junkers that work better and stay sharp better than the pretty ones. I am wanting to put a set on my wishlist and I know I don't want someone to spend a ton on them. My most recent knife purchase was a very reasonably priced Victorinox fileting knife which I am loving to use. I was hoping someone would have some experience with the steak knives and be able to steer me towards a good set - or, at least, away from a bad set. Amazon has a wide range of prices on the Victorinox and I'm a bit lost. Thank you!!!

I like both Lidl and Aldi (I think that the quality various Aldi's can be widely different). I like the Lidl bakery very much and agree with you that the produce is much more dependable than the produce at Aldi. I use the chocolate for cooking (I like the bars chopped for cookies better than "chips"). The cheese/deli section (pre-sliced and wrapped meats) is excellent, I think. The closer you get to the holidays, the more you'll see wonderful seasonal items.

@Tropicalsenior – you asked if it was possible they felt they couldn’t reciprocate. I don’t think so. We trade visits (before Covid) and often when they come here, she will make one meal (she makes the best meatloaf I’ve ever tasted, and I am meatloaf-challenged). She’s a wonderful cook and pretty much everything she’s ever made us I’ve gotten her recipe and served it to people and credited her. @Duvel – thank you so much for the Maultaschen directions. I am lucky to have a pasta shop near me and can get pasta sheets there. Those pizzas you made for your parents visit were incredible looking. Nice that you didn’t take a picture of the fungus one and spared me having to look at that😄. Every other one was delightful looking. @Norm Matthews – I share your frustration about finding good, meaty ham hocks. I used to get them from any grocery store and the amount of meat that came off them when they were cooked with beans made a serving of “ham” for each person. Now I’m lucky to get a couple of shreds. I may have to check the actual butcher shop. On Friday I made a giant amount of baked spaghetti for one of Jessica’s friends. There are 5 of them in the family and all of them, including an infant, have RSV. This is my largest metal bowl: It was enough for three (one for us) 13x9-inch casseroles full. We still haven’t started on ours. Saturday was French dip sandwiches (thanks for the inspiration, @Duvel) with pintos and boiled potatoes: And a salad:

@gfweb – gorgeous chicken sandwich! @liuzhou – your liver and onion dish looks so good! It’s been way too long since I’ve had liver. Our after-church brunch at the Pickel [sic] Barrel. It’s basically a favorite meat and threes place with a particular Richmond twist – like many of these Southern-style cafes in the area, they also serve pretty darn good deli sandwiches. Jessica had the Sailor, onion rings, mac n cheese, and spoonbread: Mr. Kim’s was a club and fries: I had the hot turkey sandwich, fries, green beans, and spoonbread (not shown): Sunday, we went and got our flu shots and I had an unexpectedly bad reaction. I’ve never had any reaction at all before. This was basically all I could manage yesterday:

Part of the BBQ that Mr. Kim smoked for our churches' Youth Group fundraiser: It ended up being 80 quarter pound servings. Mr. Kim, Jessica, and I spent Saturday night portioning the servings into sandwich bags (they bought 4 liquid oz. plastic cups with lids and could not figure out why we didn't use those 😳). Thankfully, someone else did the slaw, rolls, and baked beans and the kids packed it all up.

This morning:

I've heard often of how much Australians love barefooting - this is the first time seeing it. 😁

Welcome to eGullet, @MassWineGuy! I'm glad you found us and am looking forward to your contributions.

You say, "too much fruit". But I honestly think it looks perfect. That is exactly what I'd like my raisin toast to look like before it gets slathered with peanut butter and blueberry jam!

Is this just plain pasta???

This was at our closest Food Lion: This is part of the packaged deli/Lunchables section. I don't buy much from here (I don't think I've ever purchased a Lunchable), but noticed it as I walked by. Kroger is notorious for bad stocking. Not sure why they will have whole sections bare in multiple stores and Food Lion, Publix, and Walmart look fine. This is the first time I've seen this much empty space at Food Lion in months.

I belong to an Aldi group on FB and I've never seen anyone mention making bagels. They use the stuff for all kinds of things - as a seasoning. I don't make my own bagels (yet 😁), but I use it to amp up commercial Everything bagels. I also make appetizers with cream cheese rolled up in puff pastry (or even Crescent roll dough) and use the mix in the cream cheese and on top of the dough.

@Duvel – I think you missed a question that I asked back a bit. I was very interested in the Maultaschen that you posted on October 2 and I asked if you had a recipe that you liked. You didn’t respond, but then on your latest post you made it😁! Can I please have your recipe? @mgaretz – I'm glad to see that it looks like you are feeling better now. That meatloaf looked fabulous – what a great crust. But if you have to eat soft food, you make great looking tuna and egg salads! @liuzhou – I’m sorry to hear about your wrist. A lot of trouble for someone living alone! Hope it heals quickly and cleanly! @RWood – caramelized onions, Gorgonzola, pear and arugula is probably my favorite pizza ever. I was introduced to it (with the addition of hazelnuts) by California Pizza Kitchen many years ago and it was my go-to pizza there until they discontinued it. I need to try making pizza again so I can make my own. Thanks for stirring a wonderful memory! @Shelby – oh, dear. Those tomatoes. We are not getting those lovelies right now. Even if I go to the farmer’s market and get the heirlooms. I would seriously have whole meals of those if I could get them. I always have to laugh at the people who don’t get the peeled tomatoes. My Tennessee farm raised grandmother would have thought I’d turned into the most shiftless, lazy girl in the world if I stopped peeling tomatoes😄. And I cook every meal with her over my shoulder gently, but firmly, guiding me❤️. @Ann_T – I’m now craving a turkey dinner. Time to start haunting the grocery stores for turkey necks so I can make my stock/gravy. Can you please give me a link to your dressing? It looks perfect. @Dante – “chopped cheese sandwich”? I’m intrigued. Can you elaborate, please? Sorry for the long post. I have been MIA preparing for house guests, working with Jessica to get her apartment move out ready and having said house guests. We had some Florida friends here to stay from last Wednesday until Monday morning. During their last visit in July, we took them to Beauvine, a fantastic burger place. They asked if we minded going again! Nice to know they really liked it! We started with pickled vegetables and onion rings: My burger: The burgers are great, but look basically alike, so no more pictures. On Thursday our friends’ niece and nephew came through town so they had dinner with them. Mr. Kim, Jessica and I went to Jessica’s favorite Thai place, Chadar Thai. We shared shrimp tempura: Thai dumplings: Crying Tiger: I had the Shrimp-Pineapple fried rice: Mr. Kim had the Red Curry: Jessica had the Massamun curry: We had a lovely dinner out at Shagbark, one of our top 3 favorite Richmond restaurants on Friday. Bread service: From the top: corn muffins w/ ancho chile, whole grain with olives and walnuts, and yeast rolls with Old Bay. Appetizers included Crispy Chesapeake Bay CHICKEN-FRIED OYSTERS buttermilk johnny cake / grilled Swiss chard / Tasso ham / Tabasco butter: Edwards Surryano Ham-Wrapped BLACK MISSION FIGS Meadow Creek Grayson / griddled brioche / frisée / roasted peppers / hazelnut / concord grape glacé: Maybe the most unsettling dish in Richmond. It seriously looked like a plate of testicles. Really delicious, though. Beet and arugula salad: One of our friends had the Up-South SHRIMP & Anson Mills Carolina Gold GRITS andouille sausage / aged white cheddar / heirloom tomatoes / Hanover okra crispy potato gaufrette / blackened tomato sauce: The other had the Cast Iron-Seared DUCK BREAST * Wehani rice / amFOG shiitake mushrooms / oven-cured tomatoes / roasted fennel orange gastrique: I had the Patio Thyme-Roasted ICELANDIC COD FILET Manakintowne Farms leeks / Florida rock shrimp / sweet corn baby spinach / parmesan risotto / champagne-citrus butter: Mr. Kim had the Pan-Seared ATLANTIC SALMON sweet and spicy tomato marmalade / baby spinach / Silver King corn and bacon succotash herbed potato cake / lemon beurre blanc: For dessert we had sticky toffee puddings (brown sugar toffee sauce / bourbon gelato / oat streusel) and pistachio crème brulee (roasted figs / cardamon & mascarpone mousse): (Bad pictures – it was getting very dark, and we were sitting outside). Everything was incredible. On Saturday Jessica made dinner – fish/shrimp tacos with all the fixings: It was just frozen fish and shrimp. The fish is from Costco and surprisingly good (even Mr. Kim the former fishsticks on Friday RC kid likes them). The shrimp was so bad that I’ve written a complaint to the company. Napa with Jessica’s white sauce, limes, cotija, pickled shallots, and toasted dried ramen noodles: Jessica’s white sauce (Tangy Southwest Slaw Sauce), sour cream, and cilantro: Napa, cilantro, and tomato salad with Jessica’s Honey-Lime Salad dressing: Jessica’s street corn: Flautas made with Mr. Kim’s BBQ, pimento cheese, and pickled shallots: Our table: Sunday’s dinner was the picanha cook-off between Mr. Kim and me. He smoked his and I SV’d mine. His: Mine: 129F for 4 hours, then seared in an iron skillet. It was a draw. No one had a preference. They were both excellent and something we’ll do again. I made horseradish sauce to go with mine, which was great, but I wish I’d done some beef gravy, too. Served with Jessica’s street corn, Marlene’s Crispy Smashed Potatoes, IP pintos, and a crusty baguette: Plate: We ended up with a LOT of leftover food from our friend’s visit. We noticed an odd thing last time they were here. They acted really funny about my cooking. Everything that I did they deemed “too much” or “too fancy”. They’ve never done that before. As a matter of fact, they are folks that I’ve always enjoyed cooking for because they love food like we do, and we’ve always enjoyed talking food and eating together. Last time they objected to everything from the dishes I wanted to use (too fancy) to putting sauces in bowls for the table (unnecessary) to the number of vegetables in the Beef Chow Fun (too much). So, this time I very much limited food prep done while they were here. Before they got here, I did bacon, sausage, and IP eggs. I made tuna salad and olive and cream cheese spread and had rolls, breads, cheeses, cold cuts, chips, and fruits on hand. We had planned a couple of lunches out together (we got them to pick from a list) and let them know all of that prepared stuff was available and also offered it at the appropriate times. Jess cooked one dinner and Mr. Kim and I shared responsibilities for the other dinner and that seemed not to bother them too much. The SV was pretty much hands off, as were the IP pintos and the potatoes were mostly prepared ahead of time. It WAS disappointing and kind of exhausting trying to figure out what would bother them and what wouldn’t – especially since this is such a new attitude.

Reading the article leaves very little room for doubt.

Here's the recipe in case they change the one on the box. I'm sorry to hear about the pumpkin muffin mix. My mom and I used to buy that and use it as a base for all kinds of pumpkin loaves.

There is another couple that does a lot of cooking. Their "BBQ" is the crockpot variety, so I think that explains why no one understands what a job doing proper smoking is. Mr. Kim does take comfort in the fact that he was the one asked to do the fundraiser. 😉

@robirdstx – those shrimp are gorgeous. I don’t even know where to get shrimp like that in Richmond! And as good at those shrimp look, that burger inspired me to ask Mr. Kim if we could go out for burgers tonight. I love a griddled, smashed burger. @BonVivant – your figs were swoon-worthy. @Duvel – lovely looking bagels. One of my retirement projects was going to be bagels. @Panaderia Canadiense was even kind enough to send me thorough directions. That was back in 2012🙄. Then they were going to be my pandemic project. I’m still buy them and hoping I’ll get around to it someday. If I do, I hope mine look just like yours. Lunch last Thursday was olive and cream cheese spread on pumpernickel: With leftover onion rings from dinner out the night before (CSO did a fantastic job with those leftovers): Out of town guest visiting. We curated a list of restaurants and sent a list to them to pick from. On Friday we went to lunch at a new to us place called Pinky’s which is in a formerly industrial and newly hip neighborhood called Scott’s Addition. We shared their Salumi Board with prosciutto di parma, jamon serrano, smoked speck, manchego, asiago, chile whole grain mustard, seasonal jam, grilled crostini, cornichons, served charcuterie style: My friends shared the Char-Grilled Chicken sandwich with Edwards’ country ham, pickled Fresno chile, herbed goat cheese, arugula, chile whole grain mustard, grilled Pinky's baguette: I got the Pinky’s Classic Meatballs - Beef, pork, and lamb with fresh basil, San Marzano tomato sauce, Parmigiano-Reggiano, shaved garlic, arugula: We liked everything! On Saturday our friends picked another new to us place called Little Nickel. A cute little place with a Tiki/SE Asian vibe. We all shared Salt and pepper calamari and Lumpia: Our friends shared the Royal Siam Salad – romaine, napa, oranges, avocado, cilantro, basil, peanuts, crispy shallots, and a chili-lime vinaigrette: I had the Filet ‘O Nickel – crispy cod, cabbage, and caper tartar sauce: Jessica had the Coconut shrimp roll – coconut shrimp, miso-honey mustard, cucumber-daikon jalapeno slaw, and sweet chili: I missed getting a picture of Mr. Kim’s salad – the Romano – romaine, radicchio, crispy chickpeas, grated egg, pecorino, smoke paprika breadcrumbs, tahini-lemon Caesar dressing. Everything was well made and very good. I had a hard time choosing, though. Most everything was either spicy or had bell peppers. I thought I’d done well with the fish sandwich, but the “cabbage” turned out to be a cabbage and red pepper slaw and either the batter or the tartar sauce was very spicy. It is really getting harder and harder to find non-spicy foods in the newer, smaller restaurants. Our friends left Monday morning. This was my lying on the couch all day recovering from company lunch😉: Chips, dip, and a tuna salad pocket!

@rotuts - thank you. I was feeling the same way, but don't know how to fix other peoples' pictures. LOL We had house guests and I made these to have around: They are called Macaroon Brownie Cupcakes and I got the recipe from the back of the Ghiradrdelli brownie box. I confess to always using that mix. They make better brownies than I ever have, so why would I NOT? 😁 They are very, very good. Especially warm:

Mr. Kim's leaning tower of butt: 😁 Can I bitch a bit? He was asked to make BBQ for our church youth group fundraiser. They usually do a spaghetti dinner, but it needs to be take out this year and he's made BBQ for different fundraisers over the years and has gotten a good response. The cut off for ordering was Sunday. We checked and got a count. He is mostly working from home right now, so on Monday he got up at 4AM and started smoking all that meat up there (about 40 lbs.). He ran back and forth all day from the smoker to his computer/phone - regulating temperatures and attending Zoom meetings. He finally gets them all picked apart after work, puts the meat in bags and places them in the freezer for dividing up Sunday morning for handing out the meals. LAST NIGHT he is informed that "they" (not really sure who "they" are) have accepted another TWENTY orders for meals. Without checking with Mr. Kim. So, he's got another work day where he's going to have to do the same thing (he's a state budget director and this is budget season). I know that they have no idea what is involved in smoking and therefore don't understand that the time involved in smoking one butt is the same amount as smoking FIVE. But it still pisses me off that no one bothered to ask before accepting orders past the cut off. 😠

@Ann_T– that ham is just amazing. I’m assuming that it looks like it looks due to combination of being a wonderful ham and being in your magic kitchen! And next to your lovely bread and those perfect eggs…I just can’t find the words. @blue_dolphin – I believe that I would love those cookies! We had out of town friends staying from last Wednesday through Monday morning. The first breakfast was, by request, the exact same breakfast we gave them when they arrived for a visit back in July. Our favorite local doughnut shop makes these giant and delicious things: Apple fritter and strawberry filled doughnut (banana for comparison😁). On Sunday we went to a favorite local diner for brunch. I had the Hangover – 2 eggs over corned beef hash with a side of biscuits and gravy: One friend had a corned beef, onion, and green pepper omelet and hash browns: The other had the Country Eggs Benedict – biscuit with sausage, poached eggs, and sausage gravy and home fries: Mr. Kim had chili and a side salad: Jessica had biscuits and gravy and a side of bacon (no picture). Our friends left before breakfast on Monday. This was mine: Lidl croissant, Benton’s bacon, sage sausage, and OM eggs. Yesterday: Croissant, IP egg, sage sausage, bacon, and hashbrowns leftover from the weekend heated up in the CSO. Also, bananas with Golden Syrup: This morning: Pears aren’t really good yet – luckily, I like crunchy pears as long as they are sweet.

Thanks to everyone for your help! Mr. Kim's co-worker never responded to my questions or offer to lend @JAZ's cookbooks, so I'm guessing that she just wanted to bitch about her SO's beans 😁. I, on the other hand, used the IP to make delectable pintos and ham hocks this weekend for our house guests: Mr. Kim had some with his lunch today and said that I needn't make pintos any other way again.

I was raised to bite sandwiches and biscuits, of course. But for rolls or sliced bread served with a meal, the rule was to pull off a bite sized piece, butter (or not) and place it in my mouth. Pretty sure Miss Manners agrees with me.

Welcome to eGullet, @Jade S! We have a lot of wonderful, helpful folks here and I'm looking forward to your contributions.