Kim Shook

Monday night we started with some Crab Delights (mini crab cakes) leftover from a takeout lunch on Saturday: Rotisserie chicken, green beans & potatoes, yellow squash, dressing, and gravy: It was a Sam’s chicken, bought expressly for the purpose of having hot open-faced chicken sandwiches with gravy like Ann_T did. We had the legs Monday and will have the sandwiches tonight. I did the squash a little differently this time. I was watching some cooking show, and someone mentioned that they scoop out the seeds in summer squash to stop them from being watery when they are cooked. It seemed to work – Mr. Kim liked these a lot. I did a smart thing with the dressing, I think. I made too much of the base dressing mix at Thanksgiving and instead of just going ahead and cooking the extra and then throwing it out a few days later, I froze it. The base was bread, sauteed onions and celery, and seasonings. So, all I had to do was thaw it, add a little stock and butter and bake it. It was SO much better than StoveTop. Perhaps worth a little project – making up packets of the base and freezing them. Last night was white people taco night: Crunchy shells, ground beef, rice, and beans. And all the white people accompaniments including iceberg lettuce and mild salsa: 😁😁

Lunch yesterday: Bologna rolls, chips, and a mandarin orange congealed salad from a local store.

We bought a pannetone before Christmas. This week, I made some French toast with it: I sliced it and set it out overnight: Instead of my usual cinnamon sugar, I used some of the sweet spice mix that my BIL made with his own citrus zest: Sunday: The last of the egg “muffins” I made and a freezer gift: sausage rolls from Christmas breakfast. This morning:

Wow! I confess at first glance, I thought this was a woven straw mat: LOL

@weinoo – that is honestly the first sheet pan meal that has appealed to me. @Shelby – I forgot to say – Happy Birthday to Ronnie! @Paul Bacino – braciole is a favorite of ours, but I’ve never prepped the meat like you have. We used to get it brought to us from a Philly butcher shop once in a while. Not lately, though. You make it look fairly simple. I should give it a try. Friday dinner was IP brisket and gravy. Browned brisket: Finished: Served with IP green beans & potatoes, noodles, and toasted sourdough: Saturday night I took the leftover brisket, gravy, and noodles from the night before and made soup with the addition of some peas and beef stock. Shredded brisket: With some thinned gravy: Served with some toasted sourdough bread from the freezer:

@robirdstx – Your nachos remind me of @Shelby’s French fries – not enough. 😄 Sunday lunch after making and delivering lunches to some city homeless shelters was at a fairly new soul food place that we’ve eaten at one other time called Ms. Girliees Kitchen. I forgot I’d gotten the Crab Delights before and got them again: They are delicious, but I wish I’d remembered because I really want to try their shrimp stuffed hushpuppies! They were out of meatloaf last time, so I got it this time: It was delicious, and like Frank (the owner) promised me – no peppers or mushrooms! Served with wonderful mac and cheese, cornbread, and yams: I didn’t even eat half of this on Sunday and heated up the rest on Bake/Steam in the CSO today for lunch it was excellent. Good soul/country food should always make good leftovers. Mr. Kim got the steak and cheese with house made mayo, grilled onions, and their special sauce:

@Ann_T – I showed Mr. Kim the picture of your bacon baguette that you posted on FB. I believe he should be in North Dakota by now. 😁 Breakfast yesterday: The last of the egg “muffins” I made and a freezer gift: sausage rolls from Christmas breakfast.

Now, there's an idea!

I confess to not being the best housekeeper. My surfaces are cleaned, but floors? Not so much. I used to joke that I knew it was time to mop the floor when the animals started to get stuck to it. 😄 Not that bad, but all my hard floors tend to be a little gritty a LOT of the time. Consequently, I wear shoes ALL the time. I have been accused of being like the princess and the pea and if I step on something gritty barefoot, I have to sit down and make sure every speck is brushed off. That would truly interfere with my life, so shoes it is. Also, I'm diabetic and have some numbness - I don't notice small cuts/abrasions.

Refreezing puff pastry works very well. I've done it for years with my sausage rolls. I thaw it to make the rolls and refreeze before baking. I take them out of the freezer and thaw and bake. I think it would work perfectly for this.

@Shelby – lasagna!!! I have seriously been craving it for over a year. Am I lazy, or what? @liamsaunt – thank you for the batter recipe. I’ll be making that soon. Your chicken parm looks fantastic. Between your pasta and @Shelby’s I’m really in the mood for Italian. Last night we picked up dinner at Mezeh, a Mid-Atlantic (mostly VA and MD) chain of Mediterranean restaurants. Mr. Kim had a free bowl from Yelp: Arugula, brown basmati rice, chicken shawarma, cilantro hummus, Lebanese tabbouli, crumbled feta and tzatziki. The flavor of this was very good. I didn’t care for how tiny the chicken was chopped – I missed the feel of having an actual piece of chicken. Mr. Kim liked it a lot. It came with some fairly ordinary pita. I got a falafel wrap: Mixed greens, falafel, crumbled feta, and tzatziki. This was excellent. We will definitely go back sometime. What we had was very, very good. They have an odd practice that may send us to another favorite Mediterranean grill more often than this place. They have this long list of delicious sounding toppings and sauces: Turkish salad, different kinds of hummus and salads, yogurt sauces, tahini, etc. But they don’t sell any of these ala carte – as dips or side dishes. Mr. Kim asked and she said no. That’s really too bad – the other place sells everything both ala carte and as combinations.

@blue_dolphin - I just love the look of your drop scones! Thanks for that link – I’m hoping to try both the sweet and the savoury. Yesterday: Eggs on hashbrown patties and Edwards country ham. Today: Same as Wednesday.

That is utterly insane. In the US Amazon has TWELVE 9-oz. bags for $29.82!

I wasn't really clear on the concept. I've seen a couple and found them a little low energy. I don't need Emeril-size or Guy Fieri-size energy, but the ladies I saw were a little sleepy. I do like a strong personality.

Is anyone familiar with One Note or Copy Me That? Any opinions? Thanks!

@liamsaunt – Your fish and chips are gorgeous! Would you please share your recipe for the batter for your fish? @Shelby – I always love your big sandwiches. That one is making me hungry in the middle of the night. @Captain and other pork belly aficionados – I’ve only ever eaten pork belly as bacon or pancetta. When I see thick chunks of pork belly in pictures, there often seems to be a thick layer of fat on the top. Do you eat this layer of fat or is it there for flavor and it is cut off when you eat it? I don’t think I could get it down if you are supposed to eat it. @patti – the dogs wouldn’t care for me. I’ve never NOT been hungry for the meat. And that meat and gravy look fantastic. Sunday dinner was fairly good pizza from a nearby place. Sunday dinner😳🙄. Pathetic. I am definitely losing my GRITS card. Some vegetables: All the meats: It’s good. But this is what you get when you ask for extra well done: I guess it’s just that their ovens don’t get hot enough. Monday was SV extra thick pork chops, butterbeans, potatoes, and peaches: The pork was rubbed with Penzey’s BBQ seasoning before being vacuumed and the sauce was caramelized onions, commercial BBQ sauce, and cooking juices from the bag. The peaches were picked this summer by my in laws and frozen by me. Served with cornbread:

Thank you! I might have. Were they small? I often can't manage big sandwiches, so I try smaller ones (like the small Big Mac or slider-types) when available.

@blue_dolphin – is that TJ shrimp burger as good as it looks? I may need to look for that. Shrimp burgers are a favorite here. @BeeZee – Mr. Kim has been eating the lentil soup I made last Friday for lunches all week. I’m betting our recipes are very similar. The one that I made can be vegetarian (veg stock instead of chicken) and also uses tomato paste. Have you ever tried freezing it? It seems like it would freeze well and make a quick meal. So much good stuff. I’m not much of a lunch eater. Or maybe I am, but I eat mostly breakfast stuff as my first meal of the day and that’s at lunch time. Whatever! I enjoy looking at your pictures and reading your descriptions so much even if I don’t contribute much. Or if my contribution is, as below and often, something prepared that I bought. Lunch was all nostalgia on Monday. I found Stouffer’s Welsh Rarebit at Kroger. We had some sourdough: It was as good as ever. I don’t remember the last time I saw this in the store. They may be pushing their old product lines – I saw spinach souffle, too. If my father lived close, I’d get him a few boxes! They were a big favorite of his. No luck on finding their creamed chicken which was my stepmom’s favorite – I don’t think they make it anymore.

@Ann_T – as I’ve said before, I think that open faced hot chicken or beef sandwiches with gravy are my favorite thing in the world to eat. Yours looks so extremely good that I’m thinking of making some gravy and getting a chicken at Costco (they do a better job than I can and cost less than a raw chicken in most stores)! @Margaret Pilgrim – I liked the look of @weinoo’s crepes, too. You mentioned that you can hold the batter in the fridge for days. Do you know if that is also true of English pancake batter (which is very similar)? That would be really helpful, if so! Back in June of last year, I posted a picture of some of @Sunny Simmons Steincamp's Breakfast Platter Muffins (which are basically crustless quiche). @robirdstx mentioned that she made something similar and showed a picture of them. I thought that hers looked much nicer than mine. The only thing that we thought would have made the difference was the pan. I used a regular metal muffin tin, and she used a silicone pan. So, I put the pan on my wishlist. Jessica gave it to me for Christmas and I tried it out on Monday: They turned out pretty well. They were definitely more tender than the ones I’ve made in the metal pans. They were a little odd looking due, I think, to the fact that I used red onions. I also used bacon instead of sausage and the bacon ended up floating to the top of the “muffins”. I think sausage distributed itself better. I used half Gruyere and half Cheddar and that was good. I also “built” them differently. I always find that when you mix everything together for an egg casserole or quiche, things just don’t disburse evenly. So, I put the cheese, bacon, onions in the bottom of each cup, grind in some pepper and then pour in the whisked eggs. It works better for me. I also want to try a little ricotta next time to see if that doesn’t make them more tender. Yesterday: Those damn eggs! 😠 Today: ET bagel w/ cream cheese, clementine, and those egg thingys. I really hate how those red onions make these look. I never buy them because, at least around here, they are so hot and sharp that I can barely cut them up. I always hear TV cooks talk about how sweet they are and I wonder where they get theirs. This little bag of them (from Jessica’s imperfect produce box) wasn’t too bad, though. They just look wrong on the eggs. Tasted good, though – steamed at 300F in the CSO to reheat.

A favorite!

I adore ham and am always sorry when I don't make one for large gatherings. Neither of us mind the eternity that is us and a ham. I feel like a complete idiot. I always cut all the meat off the bone and save the bone and scraps in a bag in the freezer to put in a pot of beans. And sometimes I end up tossing it months later because it is such a PITA getting all of the fatty bits out of the beans after it has cooked. Why the heck has it never occurred to me to make HAM STOCK????? I make beef, turkey, chicken, pork and even corn stock. Why not ham? Sigh. Live and learn. Thank you, @kayb!

Tried these the other day. Must say that I'm not a fan of the Double Stuf Oreos - they are just too sweet for me. I love the cooky part - I've been known to peel off the creme and just eat the cookies. But Mr. Kim likes the "Stuf". We both agreed that this was indistinguishable from a Double Stuf cooky. There is no detectable brownie flavor or texture. Don't bother.

The mention of "salad oil" reminds me of my mom years ago searching every grocery store she went into looking for "salad oil". She would not believe that it was the same thing as vegetable oil and swore it tasted different. 😁

I have some little souffle cups that I think will work. I was thinking a muffin tin, but it might be awkward for three of us to try to eat out of one muffin tin! 😁

I'm actually thinking about the New Orleans version of grilled oysters. Butter, garlic, herbs, Romano. I found this recipe online. I figure I'll pare down some of the ingredients - can't believe I'll need a pound of butter and 20 cloves of garlic for a pint of oysters. Mr. Kim has said that he can chargrill them on his smoker.