Kim Shook

@patti – great looking soup! And I’m with your husband – pot roast is one of my favorite foods! Made some kale for Mr. Kim. Soaking: Kale supporting players: Frank’s, GOOD (Benton’s) bacon grease, and whatever oniony things are in the vegetable bin – this time it was half a large shallot and a couple of tired scallions. Done and stinkin’ up my kitchen: 😉 Dinner on Tuesday was a recipe we saw on The Kitchen by Sunny Anderson: The kebabs and rice were her recipes. I added the stir-fried snow peas. The kebabs are pork tenderloin cubes marinated in soy, pineapple juice, brown sugar, garlic, and ginger and the rice is baked pineapple rice. The pork was great. The rice less so, but I think that was my fault. It was overly sweet and gummy. Instead of using water, as instructed, I used the leftover pineapple juice from the pork marinade. Next time, I’ll use water and see if that helps. I also think I probably cooked it too long. I did it in the CSO and sometimes the timing is different than in the regular oven. I did rinse the rice, but maybe I need to do it more than I did. Last night Mr. Kim picked up meatball subs and slices and I made salads:

I'd be her son, but he's a vegetarian and I can't imagine eating Ann's cooking and NOT having her meat dishes! 😁 Yesterday: Sage sausage and scrambled egg on toast. Today: Grapes, ham, and purchased waffle.

Looks like you're a lefty like me. Luckily, we tend to be more ambidextrous than right-handers. That helps in the kitchen, I find. I just get help with "wet jobs" if my hand issues involve a bandage. But if it's pain/soreness that is the problem, I try to plan around it. I have arthritis in my wrists and fingers, so I have "coping" gadgets (the ones i used to make fun of 😉) - jar opener, mini-chopper, etc. and I'm getting ready to start researching electric can openers.

I KNOW! I was surreptitiously moving them aside when I encountered a "loose" one! LOLOLOLOL

Yep! That would be me. What I said on FB: Thanks to a gift from my dear, dear friend and a legacy from my adored Grandma Jean, I am the proud possessor of a LARGE set of Franciscan Desert Rose dinnerware. I ate every meal of my life from this pattern when I was in NC at my grandparents' farm - meaning every summer from age 5 to 15 plus other holiday and weekend visits. I have always loved them and wanted to be the one to set the table with them. Grandma Jean remembered and even put them in her will for me. My friend somehow remembered all this and when he was paring down his kitchen, he set these aside for me and had them brought over. Aren't they lovely? I even have soup plates (I have an obsessive love for soup plates and use them for everything)! Nice to see someone shares my love for this pattern, @patti @scamhi– the texture of your hanger steak looks so great. @patti – arancini is one of my favorite things on Earth! Did you make them or order them? If made, would you share the recipe, please? @Shelby – can’t do the wings hot, but other than that detail, I really want fries, salad, and wings tonight! Jessica made that TikTok pasta on Sunday: It was very good – all three of us liked it. Served with a salad. We have a plethora of cheeses – all three of us had independently overindulged at the Murray’s cheese counter and Jessica’s Easter basket had even more in it. So, we did a cheese dinner: Cheddar, gorgonzola dolce, fromager d Affinois, goat cheese, aged Gouda, rosemary & olive oil asiago, and balsamic Bellavitano. Fiorucci salami, mild sopressata (which I was thrilled to find at Publix – no one ever seems to have the mild. Now, if I could just find mild capicola), crackers, and a sliced baguette: @CantCookStillTry – do you see my enameled bread bowl? You started me on a beginning addiction. I’ve got more pieces on my Amazon wishlist! Mixed greens and arugula salad with blueberries and candied pecans: Jessica’s Honey-Poppyseed and Creamy Caesar dressings on the side. Jessica set out the accompaniments: Tres elegant 😄! I promise you she wasn't raised like that.

@patti – sausage, potatoes, and onions seem like the perfect combination. Looks so good. @BonVivant – I have to comment on your china. It is just exquisite. Yesterday, the freezer provided lunch: Crab meltaways.

Truly lovely meals, y’all! I have to single out @Ann_T, since she made my very favorite breakfast in the world. Eggs Benedict was my mother’s favorite, too, and I was raised on a bastardized version – English muffins, ham slice, OM eggs (I don’t know that Momma ever poached an egg in her life) and packaged hollandaise. It was also our restaurant breakfast of choice when available. I had my second vaxx shot on the 7th and really haven’t cooked much since. I’m ok, just incredibly fatigued. Sunday: Easter ham, TJ’s cheese spiral, and my SIL’s chicken’s eggs (broke one yolk). Today: Purchased waffle, Benton’s bacon, sage sausage, and more SIL’s chicken’s eggs. This last batch of eggs are breaking their yolks on me. It is happening when I crack the eggs. It is as if the yolk is actually sticking to the inside of the shell on some of the eggs. Tastes fine but interferes with the gooey consistency I like.

Wow! What a great thing to get a share of.

Well, I've been looking since January and finally found it at Publix: I quite liked it. The ice cream had that light but creamy quality that seems to be a characteristic of ice cream novelties. Really fast melting. I'm hoping that they also make a chocolate one and that Publix will stock that, too.

Mr. Kim loves PB pretzels, so we always have some on hand. The Costco ones are pretty good, but, to our taste, the Trader Joe's ones are excellent. You know how you can shake the Costco (and other brands) nuggets and hear the little PB pellet shift back and forth? The PB inside the TJ's ones are a sticky blob rather than a firm pellet. That all sounds a little repellant, I know, but PB should be sticky and blobby, I think 😄. So, if you have a TJ's near you, you might want to give them a try.

That makes sense. I usually do them in a pan, too, @CantCookStillTry. Unless they have a large griddle, deep frying is the fastest, easiest way to get a lot done.

I had to laugh at the eyeballs, too! I think the schnitzel and beef ribs actually look really good. Yes on plates. Can he take/can you mail him a stack of sturdy paper ones? And that was quite a dollop of guac. I'm guessing a bag of tortilla chips would have been welcome.

I have not made this in years and when I did, I'm pretty sure I used a mix. But Cook's Country (the ATK folks) tested it and came up with a recipe and it's available on Serious Eats. You might get some help there.

Different day, same breakfast:

Last night: More Easter ham and egg. On toast with mayo/Gulden's.

Those and tiny grape tomatoes are the only grocery store tomatoes we buy.

Thank you, ma'am! The magic of the mandoline.

@liamsaunt– I would do a LOT to have a scallop and a lobster roll. We have two lobster tails in the freezer and Tom Leonard’s has them for $4.99 this week. I’m putting them on the shopping list! I’ll at least have the lobster rolls😁! @patti– I’m “liking” all of your crawfish posts (especially that incredible looking bread), but I know it would probably be too spicy for me. If I ever want to eat crawfish, I think I’d have to order and cook my own. Maybe with Old Bay – if I go easy on it, I can manage that level of cayenne. @kayb – delicious looking Easter dinner! We served a lot of the same things. Like I told you, I wish I’d thought of mac n cheese. When Jessica and I looked at your post on FB we both thought that your corn casserole was pineapple casserole (like hers)! @Shelby – Wow! A slew of great looking meals. I am really craving some smoked turkey. Your ham is truly drool-worthy. And your grandma’s deviled egg plate is adorable, but is it hard to get the eggs out? Also, this is for you: 😄 @Dejah – I hope you are feeling better. Back pain is a difficult thing to live with. My mom lived for years with it and I know it’s not easy. @David Ross – beautiful potatoes. I love having leftover potato casseroles. @Ann_T– as always, lots of love for that chicken dinner. For me, the logical next meal would be open faced hot chicken sandwiches with gravy! Our Easter dinner - Ham w/ Maple/Pineapple sauce: This looks a little dry but wasn’t at ALL! This was delicious on the ham but extremely sweet. I think next time I’ll add a squeeze of lemon juice or something. Jessica’s Watergate salad & Pineapple casserole: The pineapple was really, really sweet. I said to Mr. Kim that this is the kind of thing Europeans mean when they say American food is too sweet. But, especially in the Southern states, this kind of dish IS traditionally served with a celebratory meal. Growing up spending summers in NC all holiday meals and Sunday post-church dinners came accompanied by things like spiced apples and crab apples, “congealed salads” and Cool-whip “salads”. They were served with the meal, not as a dessert. Jessica’s Deviled eggs, along with all the relish/crudité items: She and my MIL make the best deviled eggs in our family. Jessica’s Roasted asparagus Caesar: She and Mr. Kim thought this was the best asparagus dish they’d ever had. Creamy Dijon Garlic Potatoes Dauphinoise: Small pleasures, but I love it when a potato dish lines up like this: Jessica’s salad & dressing: The salad was various baby greens, arugula, mango, blackberries, blueberries, and candied pecans. The dressing is one that she developed with honey, lemon juice and zest, oil, poppy seeds, and paprika – among other stuff. It was amazing. Jessica’s liptauer cheese and cocktail loaf pumpernickel bread: A family tradition. I learned to make it in college. I fell in love with it at the deli around the corner from my apartment, but couldn’t afford it very often, so I started making my own. Jessica has always loved it. Sweet potato rolls: These go so perfectly with ham. My coconut cake was a disaster (chronicled in the Sweets thread). Luckily on Saturday Mr. Kim and I went to the Ukrops Food Market for the first time since it opened. I’ve talked about it before, but Ukrops was a local and successful family owned supermarket that was open from 1937-2010. It closed business, but never really went away. It still produced it’s most popular prepared things and sold them through the grocery stores in the area. Even Publix and Wegmans, which only opened in Richmond in the last few years, stock the Ukrops products. In December of last year Ukrops finally opened their much talked about food hall. They have their bakery, prepared savoury foods, fried chicken, pizza, panini – all their most popular stuff - on hand. There is usually a line for the chicken/panini orders and when they first opened, you had to go early in the day and get a ticket with a time to pick up your chicken. Things have calmed down some and it was fine on Saturday. We got a package of Coconut cream tarts: So, dessert wasn’t all chocolate bunnies and jellybeans! 😁

@CantCookStillTry – oh, dear! That sausage sandwich! I am so in love with that. And you got it exactly how I’d order it, too. When we make them, that’s what I aim for and mine never look like that. After seeing @Margaret Pilgrim's and @Duvel's Eggs Benedicts, I find myself needing that. I’ve added it to my menu document. I think I’ll be making that for a breakfast for dinner soon. Easter Brunch was kind of retro. We had spinach and artichoke heart dip: It was TJ’s spinach dip that I added some chopped marinated artichoke hearts to. Served with that mini pumpernickel loaf bread that I thought was the height of elegance when I was a little girl. Momma would have it for cocktail parties and I would love making tiny little sandwiches cut on the diagonal the next day. Crock pot Little Smokies with apricot preserves and BBQ sauce: Another common 1960s/70s cocktail party dish that my mother made. Fruit salad: Mango, pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries with lime juice. TJ’s Five cheese and filo spiral: Needed more cheese, but the flavor was nice. The buffet: My plate: Yesterday: Panettone French toast, ham (surprise!), and Easter eggs. This morning: All leftovers – fruit salad, hot cross buns (cross melted off and a touch over toasted), ham, and Easter eggs. I saw a meme that said something like Don’t ask what’s for dinner. It’s ham. When that runs out, jellybeans, I guess.

Love them. The perfect combination of peanuts and caramel. Even the fact that it's "mockolate" doesn't really bother me. Though, how wonderful would they be with real chocolate. Now that we have Wawa, I can have them whenever I like. They even have mini-packs by the check out.

I know that wafer cookies are old people cookies, but we are old people now😁. Seriously, we found some surprisingly good wafer cookies at our neighborhood Asian market: The wafers are cocoa and the cream is coconut flavored. And these I found at Publix. They are from Northern Ireland: They’re like mini cupcakes, dipped in raspberry jam and coconut: They are really good. The cake texture is excellent.

I apologize for the bold typeface, but I can't seem to get rid of it. @jimb0 – your hot cross buns are beautiful and sound delicious. @Kerry Beal – that bread looks fantastic. I’ve always had (and seen in stores/bakeries in the US) the cross done with a thick glaze after baking. But when I look at British ones the cross looks like yours – piped on before cooking so that it bakes into the crust. Sometimes the entire bun is glazed after baking. I like how your cross becomes part of the bun. @AAQuesada – that table is just exquisite and so Spring/Easter looking! As expected, my coconut cake was a big disappointment. As mentioned above, I definitely overbeat it. It looked pretty on the outside: But the texture was horrible and tough: This was a recipe I’ve made plenty of times before and it’s been really good, so at least I know it’s not the recipe. The frosting was, as always, delicious when it was freshly made. It is a cream cheese and butter icing, which I am normally not a fan of since it needs to be refrigerated and I don’t care for cold cake. I should either frost the cake last minute (which I hate doing) or use a frosting that can stay out. I am happy to say that the addition of the Fiori de Sicilia was lovely. I used 1/2 t. in the cake and the frosting and it was just right.

Well, with your special CSO, you could probably have gotten the whole ham in there 😁.

@Shelby that is a gorgeous ham and the end result looks worth all the trouble. I've never done that in my life and if Mr. Kim sees your post, I may be trying it. Thanks for documenting it.

Wow. And they warn you about letting it get on plastic which is can erode. Sounds dangerous. Smells heavenly. Like some extract femme fatale 😁.