Kim Shook

@Duvel – that is a lovely potato pancake – just how I like them to look. Would you share your recipe? This morning: Finally did some hard cooked eggs (I’ve been missing them), pineapple, bacon, and toasted pita bread. Not hard to tell which egg is from my SIL’s free range chickens, huh?

@Anna N – thank you for the recipe. It sounds wonderful. Like something that all three of us would like. @weinoo – yes to Cantler’s. My parents lived in Edgewater (just outside of Annapolis) when I was in college and it was a favorite. I loved crab stuffed shrimp back then! Still do, but not many places do it anymore. @Captain – your Toad in the Hole looks gorgeous. Our stores have recently started carrying tallow, so I can try that again soon. @gfweb – your twice bakes look great. Wish I had a couple of those to go with our dinner tonight. @patti – Happy Anniversary to you and your husband! Your dinner looked fantastic. And like you, I’m not a huge fan of bread pudding, but that chocolate version is speaking to me. @Shelby– @rotuts likes the reds and oranges. I’m the one who detests all manner of bell peppers, no matter the color or size. I find that one tiny piece will pollute an entire dish 😁. Also – I need both chicken strips and scallops SOON, thanks to your meals! Your peonies are gorgeous – one of my very favorites. I love how you used “our” dish – putting salt in one of the sections is smart! @Paul Bacino – your beautiful soft shells have made me intensely envious. I always try to make it to at least one restaurant to have a sandwich during the season, but I’ve never cooked my own. My mother’s best friends family owned a seafood restaurant in Washington DC in the 1950s and we spent many weekends at their house on the Chesapeake Bay. I remember being a little girl and sitting in the kitchen watching her father prepare meals. I was fascinated with everything, but I confess that the soft shells freaked me out a little. He assured me that cutting their eyes off killed them instantly, but I was bothered a bit. Not enough to refrain from eating my share, however 😉! @cteavin – those potatoes are just astonishing! Would you be willing to describe how they are done? Dinner on Wednesday was Beefy Noodles (from IP beef leftovers) and corn: On Thursday we had our first dinner party in over a year. Our former next door neighbors came over so we could celebrate one of their birthdays. Started with cheeses, crackers, olives, and Dorie’s Sweet & Spicy Cocktail Nuts (peanuts this time and not-so-spicy): Kalamatas, castelvetranos, Gouda, Cheddar, and lemon & honey Wensleydale. The birthday girl requested shrimp burgers: A cooled down version of a corn dip a friend makes: I served tortilla chips with this, but it really served as a corn salad. One of our friends made a Napa and spinach salad: There was a ginger-sesame dressing and almonds and fried rice noodles to go on top. I also did @Marlene’s Crispy Smashed Potatoes, but somehow missed getting a picture of them. On Friday since Mr. Kim was off work, we drove up to Fredericksburg to do some antiquing and stopped on the way home at a favorite place in Ashland for dinner. Mr. Kim had the Trackside burger – Cheddar, bacon, caramelized onions, and sautéed mushrooms and potato salad: Truly great burger, but the potato salad was basically cold mashed potatoes with some pickle relish and onions. I’m not a fan of potato salad (I don’t really care for cold potatoes unless they are raw), but Mr. Kim is and he wasn’t crazy about it. I had a cup of the chili and a chicken salad sandwich: I love their chili. It is one of the only places where I order it. I find most places make it too spicy or else they load it with bell peppers. Really good chicken salad – I brought half of this home. Night before last was short cut veal Parm: Frozen veal patties and fixed up Rao’s sauce with angel hair pasta and Brussels sprouts. Served with salad and garlic toast:

I really like Dave’s bread. Mr. Kim balked at the price and I stopped buying it. He almost never does that, so I just let him have his way this time 😉. I know a lot of folks – even American folks – find supermarket bread in the US very sweet. I’ve never noticed it especially. Or maybe I like it. Not sure. I don’t have the most sophisticated palate. I can say that I normally don’t care for whole wheat bread, which I find bitter, so maybe I’m reacting positively to the sweet flavor in some supermarket breads without realizing it. Mr. Kim was off on Friday, so we drove up to Fredericksburg. We had lunch at the 2400 Diner: I had the Gyro Platter: Fries, meat, salad, pita, and tzatziki. So good. And tons of meat slices. Mr. Kim had the Greek omelet and fruit: Feta, olives, tomatoes, onions: Yesterday drove up to Northern VA to pick up a couple of bookshelves from a store and stopped for lunch on the way back at the well-known and beloved Allman’s BBQ in Fredericksburg: It was fine. Not outstanding. The leftovers will taste better with some Short Sugar’s (NC) sauce 😁.

Bacon Jam is terrific. And that recipe looks really good. I use @kayb's recipe. My niece recently tried Sonic's version and called me to say that I needed to go up there and teach them what Bacon Jam is supposed to taste like. 😄

We had our first dinner party in over a year Thursday night. I made a dessert that I haven’t made in years. It is an old (maybe 1980s or 90s Epicurious or Bon Appetit) recipe called Chocolate Mousse Pie. I tried out my St. Honore pastry tip for the first time. Whipped cream: Not bad, considering how fussy piping whipped cream can be. Decorated: Slice: Not a great job on getting the crust even, but it tasted very good.

I love all kinds of cornbread - sweet, unsweet, scratch, and box. Jiffy is actually my go-to. I like the slight sweetness and the texture of it. I can't make a better batch of that sort, so I don't try anymore.

Welcome to eGullet, @Sayd! I'm very much looking forward to your contributions!

You are a slashing expert! Excellent!

I don't actually know. I almost never go to CFA - I prefer Popeyes. I've always assumed it's some kind of sweet and sour thing. Does anyone know???

We thought of that and didn't put the thermometer in the oven until after it said it was preheated. It immediately registered around 375F.

The funny thing is that they have started selling the sauces in bottles in stores - at least local to me. They are loaded with the stuff. Maybe they caused their own shortage.

That's so funny that someone "showcased" it. I really like this one a lot, but I'm 99.9% sure that I found it at Dollar General! @kayb - I'd love to see that platter! Maybe in the "Fun Stuff" thread?

Generally, I put a little bowl of radishes or carrot curls (remember them😄?) in the middle. Got in a hurry this time and forgot.

@kayb – the oysters have me drooling. One of the things I’ve always regretted missing on our NOLA trip was those Acme oysters. @weinoo – I also saw that Japanese fried chicken on ATK. I’ve saved the recipe and, seeing yours, I know I need to dig it out of the pile! @Duvel – I love seeing your son dig into all the different foods that you serve. It reminds me of my now 37-year-old daughter when we used to take her to our favorite Chinese restaurant. She was only about a year and a half old when we started going. She loved it all! The cooks got to know her and would send out little dishes of mystery food and crowd around the kitchen door window to watch her eat it. One waiter said that when their kids would come eat at the restaurant they would always want hamburgers or chicken nuggets, so they loved seeing my little blonde-haired baby eating their food! @liamsaunt – those dinner rolls are just lovely. I can almost taste and smell them! @dcarch – what an absolutely gorgeous lamb chop platter that was. @Tropicalsenior – I agree with you – I prefer to make my hard cooked eggs in the IP. For some reason, they turn out more consistent and easier to peel that way. We drove up to MD to pick crabs on Saturday for an early Mother’s Day treat for me. Our usual place was out of blue crabs (they said they still had snow crab Seriously? If you are in MD and call yourself a “Crab House” and you are out of blue crabs, you need to close your doors for the day). We ended up on Cobb Island at a place that we’d never been but turned out to have much better food than the other place. Fantastic she crab soup: It didn’t just taste like cream soup with crabmeat. Every bite tasted of crab. Good, oniony hush puppies: I think these might be food service pups, but they were still good. Crabs and shrimp: Good quality and perfectly cooked. Last night: IP beef and gravy, Duchess potatoes (purchased), and long cooked green beans.

We had Mr. Kim’s mom to brunch for Mother’s Day. Table: We started with Quick Tomato Consommé: Jessica’s deviled eggs: Mini croissant and Ina Garten’s Shrimp salad: Cucumber/pumpernickel sandwiches and Ham & Swiss on Raisin bread with Dijon and Fig jam: The raisin bread ones are grilled. Jessica made them. Mr. Kim did a Bibb lettuce salad with feta and spiced pecans and my dad’s paprika dressing: We had two baking failures trying to make dessert, so we just ended up buying a babka in the store and topping it with macerated strawberries and whipped cream: Served with my homemade limoncello: Still a bit “hot” for me, but tasty.

We drove up to MD to pick crabs on Saturday and stopped on our way out of town at a favorite bakery. Croissant: Coffee cake muffin: Lemon macaron with blueberry buttercream: Pretty much the size of Jessica’s palm. Really good and tangy. Brown butter banana nut muffin: On Monday we went to a local deli for our first restaurant breakfast in over a year (the three of us are fully vaccinated): So great to be out and the food was as good as ever. Yesterday’s breakfast was all leftovers from Monday and Mother’s Day brunch: This morning:

I was planning on making eclairs for Mother’s Day. This is how they turned out: They all turned out flat like this. I had two baking sheets of them. On one they were a little too close together and didn’t puff up as much as they should have. The other sheet puffed up beautifully, but when I opened the oven and turned off the heat, they all went flat. The recipe that I used was Pichet Ong's Pate Choux. Obviously, eclairs were off the menu. Mr. Kim suggested making a pound cake and just macerating some strawberries. He baked the Michael Ruhlman Ratio pound cake which I’ve made before. This was the result of that bake: It was horrible. Mr. Kim tested the oven temperature yesterday with his BBQ thermometer. When the oven was preheated to 375F it fluctuated between 360F and 388F. From my reading, this shouldn’t cause a problem. So, I don’t know where the problem is. Me? My oven? I have confidence in both recipes, so I’m guessing the problem is a bit closer to home. Any ideas? Thank you!

Well, in spite of having a good, tried and true recipe and doing my best, my choux was a massive fail. This was how the eclairs turned out after cooling: I wouldn't have the slightest idea what was wrong - whether it was my method, my oven, etc., but we had another baking fail right after that, so I'm going to post a request for ideas. I'll keep track of the recipe and try again later. So discouraging!

Look, look @CantCookStillTry! More enamelware that you tempted me into getting! 😄 I fell in love with your baking dish and put this set on my Amazon Wishlist and Jessica gave it to me for Mother's Day.

I had that exact same thing happen to me. I've never had it happen with the refrigerated Pillsbury one, so I'm sticking with those or with frozen ones. I just wish that they made the frozen ones the same size as a standard pie pan, so I could successfully pretend I'd made the crust. 🙃 Bought these for the first time this weekend: They are delicious. Dehydrated, but still soft and moist. And a nice, citrus punch.

We just discovered these new cookies: They are maybe the best store bought cooky we’ve ever had. They are like Pecan Sandies, if Pecan Sandies were made with butter. They reminded us of cookies that I make called Dream cookies, but were more airy.

I made it a few times and then just let the starter "die". I didn't know you could freeze it and take a break (thanks so much for that information, @Maison Rustique!) and it is more like cake than bread and we got tired of having it all the time.

I agree that it would be smarter (not to mention KINDER) of the mining company to feed their employees well. Isolated from their families, they are well on their way to feeling low and left out of their normal lives. Institutional food just makes that worse. Low quality food in this instance screams, "we don't care what you want/like, we know you don't have any choice, so eat it or starve". It would piss me off for sure.

I have received and then made Amish Friendship bread starter and enjoyed it very much. Here's a recipe for the starter and here's one for the bread. Friendship Bread is named that because you make enough to give away three portions of the fermented batter and then the starter and keep one for yourself. I never had any luck finding someone who would take either the batter or the starter. Everyone I asked was horrified at the idea of leaving something out that long. 🙄

She does. She's revised them in the last couple of years and I don't have that recipe. I've asked her for it and as soon as she gives it to me, I'll pass it on!