136 replies to this topic

[designchick88]

You should feel proud of yourself for being so frugal in regards to food costs...but I've always operated under "use it or lose it" budgets and I know how stressful it can be when you feel pressured to spend your money or face up to seeing it go bye-bye.

Could you do a series of fancy dinners for the girls towards the end of the semester and go whole-hog on ingredients? Maybe serve some very fresh seafood, steaks, etc. Maybe the girls could come up with some events worthy of fancy meals, or depending on the number of graduating seniors, they could have a series of dinners honoring two or three seniors at a time.

Or is your house allowed to give pledges gifts when they complete the pledge period? Maybe you could put together some nice food gift baskets for them.

[Pan]

What about some expensive mushrooms, such as morels? I'm guessing the young women won't go crazy for foie gras.

But seriously, you can get some really high-quality conserves imported from France, some really good imported cheese -- but that all depends on what the women you serve want. Have you asked them for suggestions or some items they might consider more high-end?

[bilrus]

I'm guessing that as college students, high end or expensive isn't what they are looking for. They'd probably be more interested in brand name foods - Captain Crunch instead of SWEET CORN CRISPS or Starbucks Coffee instead of COFFEE.

[snowangel]

More for you to ponder...

I wonder if the extra you have in your budget isn't because you buy the chickens and make the stock? OK, so it seems more expensive, but you get so much more with the chickens. Stock, and chicken. Me thinks it would be more expensive to buy stock and chicken meat?

International night. You mentioned this is a favorite. Do you think you have introduced them to new things? Or merely provided a diversion?

I'm loving your blog, and am more and more appreciative of the fact that I only cook for 5.

[whatsup1]

I want you to know how much I love reading your blog. If I didn't have my dream job already, I would want a job like yours.

[Malawry]

After leaving home and going to the gym, I realized I forgot a key ingredient for today’s lunch. The special today is roast beef sandwiches with horseradish mayo. I had some prepared horseradish at home that I planned to bring in, but I forgot it. So I had to leave the gym a little early and head to Shopper’s Food Warehouse, the nearest supermarket to ZTA. I normally detest Shopper’s—it’s the area’s big budget-style supermarket chain, and the customer service and product quality reflect the low costs. But this particular Shopper’s is actually quite nice, and it’s jumbo-sized with tons of services like an olive bar, in-house baked goods and a pharmacy. While I was there, I picked up some bananas and some skewers. The Sysco bananas arrive green and don’t stop at yellow as they fade to black, and the bananas I picked up at Costco on Sunday were long gone by the time I left work yesterday. The skewers were for tonight—I don’t know what kind of arrangements they have made for tonight’s fondue party, but I am sure the sorority doesn’t have fondue forks. They used skewers instead of fondue forks the last time they did a fondue party, but I can’t count on them to remember to get skewers on their own. So I bought some while I was out.

There’s a Starbucks in the same shopping center as the Shopper’s Food Warehouse, so I stopped by and picked up a pathetic cup of over-roasted decaf coffee. I oughta know better, but that place sings some kind of siren song or something and I find myself stopping in.

I got to work right at 10am—the latest I appear there, except for Fridays. My boss set out dinner for the girls last night several hours after I departed, and then at the end of the night she broke down the salad bar for me. She put the tongs, ladles, and a couple of empty canisters in the sink and loaded everything else into the fridge. So I had to set up my three-part sink first thing and wash those dishes before I could get the salad bar going. I think I had the salad bar completely set up at 10:45am. At that time, I defrosted more chicken stock to make extra chicken noodle soup, started baking some previously-made cookie dough off for tonight, and set up my mise-en-place (MEP) for the short-order service.

I like to make my cookies pretty small. That way, you can eat more of them.





Here’s the mise I require for the standard short-order menu. This is in addition to any mise for specials:
Diced onion. Diced red bell pepper. Sliced mushrooms. Shredded cheddar. Shredded mozzarella. Pizza sauce. Sliced pepperoni. Breads: white, wheat, burger buns, dog buns. Sliced cheeses: American, provolone, Swiss. I set out the following items for self-service: Salsa. Sour cream. Sliced pickles. Mayonnaise. Big leaves of lettuce. Sliced tomato. Artfully-arranged sliced deli meats. Boboli shells, cooked chicken breasts, Boca burgers, Gardenburgers, and the vegetarian “chicken” stay in the freezer. I repack the hot dogs into Ziploc bags of 10 and keep one in the fridge at a time, the rest in the freezer. Eggs are also kept in the fridge.

Because today is such a busy day, today’s lunch special is of the “condiment for an existing item” variety (roast beef sandwiches with horseradish mayo). The mayo is simply prepared horseradish and black pepper stirred into prepared mayo. Takes me 5 seconds to prep.

I started writing the above at 11:30am. In between writing, I served the following to girls:
Two chicken breast sandwiches, a chicken breast on a plate without bread, a hot dog without the bun, two fried eggs with American, a vegetarian “chicken” sandwich, a horseradish-beef sandwich on toasted wheat, a grilled chicken wrap with lettuce and tomato, a single bowl of chicken-noodle soup. I took the Bobolis off the menu today because I need to be able to use my ovens for cookies and starting tonight’s dinner—one girl already came by and left dissatisfied because she couldn’t have pizza. (She came back later for a hot dog.)

1:45pm:
What a busy afternoon. I started making my late plates when I wrapped up what I wrote above, but I didn’t have time to finish them until almost 1:15pm. About 15 girls came downstairs for lunch right at the same time, and another 7 or so came down just as I was putting out those 15 orders. I told one ruefully, “When it rains, it pours.” Meanwhile, my Sysco driver Wayne showed up with this week’s order, so I was checking quality and trying to put the cold stuff away in between making all those lunch orders. Whenever Wayne shows up, I start wondering what the hell I was thinking ordering all this stuff and where on earth I’m going to stow it. Somehow, I always manage to make space somewhere. I put out a lot of things for the girls like fresh fruit as soon as it comes in, partly to spare myself from having to fit it in the fridge.





Can you believe I fit all that in my fridge?

I got all the cookies done (Wayne swiped a sugar cookie) and wrapped up all the late plates. Finally, 1:30 rolled around and I was able to break down my lunch stuff. I immediately began assembling the eggplant parmigiana for tonight while I cooked food for my own lunch—I normally take a break around 1:45pm.

I said something earlier about “mailing it in” sometimes. Today is definitely one of those days. I have a fraternity coming by for dinner at 5:30 tonight, which means all the girls (including pledges and others who don’t live in the house) plus about 25 boys. I am preparing food for 110 or so, but expect closer to 80 people tonight. When that many people come over, I have to compromise some on food quality. So I buy prebreaded eggplant and precooked, prebreaded chicken breasts. It’s the only way!

I did make dessert from scratch at least: assorted cookies. When I am cooking for this many people I know at least a week in advance, and I can start work well in advance of the day they come over. I prepare dessert twice a week for the girls. So last week, I made enormous batches of sugar cookies and then chocolate-chip cookies another time. I baked off enough for that night each time, and then I froze the rest of the dough. Last Friday, I set up my mise-en-place for oatmeal cookies (measured everything out into baggies), and then on Sunday I made the dough and baked them off. (I also baked off half of the reserved chocolate chip cookie dough on Sunday.) Today I pulled out the rest of the chocolate-chip dough and the sugar cookie dough and baked those off. I finished getting dessert together around 1pm. There’s a big basket, spray-painted silver, that I like to line with napkins and fill with cookies when I do a big assortment like this. (I also use the basket for breakfast breads, or regular breads if I do a lunch sandwich buffet for some reason.) It gives a sense of plentitude, I think.



After dinner, at 7pm, I am providing chocolate fondue with various dippers. I bought a lot of fruit, plus some pound cake, pretzels and marshmallows. I made the fondue mix yesterday, so I only have to melt it down and set up trays of dippers. Hopefully that will be fairly simple…

I am done eating lunch now (it’s 2pm). I prepared a Hebrew National hot dog with lots of kraut, some Swiss cheese and a little bit of homemade 1000 Island dressing—sort of a Reuben dog. Later I’ll take another short break and eat a small salad. But for now, I really have to get back to work. My mental list of jobs to complete will just dog me until I hack it down to manageable size, so breaks aren’t that relaxing right now. (Which is why this was a short one.)

(5:45pm) I must have been smoking crack when I suggested I’d have time to take a break and eat a salad. No such luck. At this point the fraternity is here, all the boys have food, and about half the girls have food too. (When they have boys over, they usually let the boys get their food first. This typically results in half the boys rejoining the queue to chat up girls and get more food.) I set up a buffet line for dinner since it seemed the fastest way to serve 100 kids.

Tonight’s menu, for posterity:
Chicken or eggplant parmigiana
Linguine with red sauce
Garlic bread
Green beans
Assorted cookies: sugar/chocolate chip/oatmeal

After my too-brief break this afternoon, I got cracking on dinner. I set up 4 disposable hotel pans with layered chicken, sauce and cheese and tossed them in the oven. I put a huge pot of water on the stove and started the hour-long process of getting it to come to the boil. Then I started putting garlic butter in between the pre-cut slices of Italian bread I got from Ottenberg’s yesterday. I make the world’s simplest garlic butter: I just buzz cloves of garlic in the Cuisinart with Kosher salt, and then I add room-temp butter and run the machine for 5 or 6 minutes. Voila, garlic butter!

While I was making more butter for the garlic bread, the carpenter for Fraternity Row came by. I’d never met him before, but he said he’d heard of me. He replaced my door handle with one that includes a deadbolt. His name is Frank. Nice guy. Says his wife loves garlic bread.



(The rest of this, I’m writing from home at 8pmish.)

After I had all the bread ready, I cooked a bunch of frozen green beans in my now-boiling water (to which I’d added a hefty shot of Kosher salt). I use frozen green beans mostly because I can’t stand trimming beans, and because haricots verts are not sold by Sysco (and those are the only beans I think are worthwhile fresh). Then I dumped the water, rinsed and refilled the pot, and put it back on the stove to come back to a boil. This second pot of water was used for boiling the linguine; the pasta sauce just came from a can and was heated in a pot on the stove.

While I waited for the pasta water to boil, I assembled the trays of dippers for the fondue tonight. I cut up some pineapple and cantaloupe, sliced pound cake from Costco into chunks, and arranged pretzels and marshmallows on four trays.

Around this time, Stewart came by to drop off a check for me. Stewart is the chef for the sorority next door, and he’s become a good friend of mine. I called him to ask about the check earlier, and when I said hi he responded, “Hey! What’s for dinner?” We’re always asking each other what we’re cooking, to glean menu ideas and compare notes. I told him my brief tale of woe: fraternity over for dinner, fondue party, head up my ass so far I haven’t seen anything but poop for hours. (It really wasn’t all that bad in retrospect, but my back is sore and it was a loooong day.)



I mentioned a gourmet food supplier earlier. When I was asked to do this fondue party, I balked because I didn’t have enough chocolate to make the fondue. I don’t order enough from the gourmet food supplier (Gourmeco) to get an order sent free, so I place orders with them twice a year and drive out to pick my goodies up. They’re all the way out in Sterling, VA (near Dulles Airport), and they keep regular business hours, so I can only go there when I’m not working for the day—during a break, in other words. Sysco only sells bar chocolate, and it has their label on it, which doesn’t bode well IMO. So I buy Noel chocolate in pistole form (64% dark) from Gourmeco at the start of the semester and use it for brownies, chocolate sauce, and whatever other needs I have. Fondue uses a buttload of chocolate when you’re making it for 60 people though, and I only had about 3lbs of chocolate left. So I had to place a special order, and bite the bullet and pay $25 for delivery. Ouch! I didn’t really need anything besides the chocolate, but I picked up a couple of goodies which I’ll use later this week, and Stewart ordered some treats for his girls too. (This is why Stewart needed to give me a check.) I could have bought block chocolate and chopped it, but the very thought exhausts me. I hate chopping chocolate, I will go way out of my way to get pistoles so I won’t have to deal with it.

Anyway, seeing Stewart always cheers me up. He called my fondue dippers “pretty.” When I asked if I could take his picture he wanted to pose with a pineapple. He’s such a great guy—I really value his friendship.

By the time Stewart went back to his kitchen, I was so busy I wasn’t thinking much. Cooking can get rather rhythmic after a while. It’s meditative—I just know what needs to happen when, and I don’t have to think about it. Chicken parm came out of the oven, and eggplant parm and garlic bread went in. I moved a table close to the kitchen and set it up for buffet service. The cookies got arranged in their basket. Extra lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber got cut up and the salad bar was refreshed. Pasta was boiled, sauce was heated, and they were combined. I changed into a jacket (I normally wear a t-shirt, chef pants and a bistro apron at work, but I keep clean chef jackets around for “formal wear.”) I rolled the bus cart where dirty dishes are deposited into my kitchen because I planned to serve on paper (I don’t have enough dishes for 80 people), so the cart was an unnecessary eyesore. I finished setting everything out at 5:20 and started washing dishes. The boys appeared at 5:30 sharp.

Some of the guys seemed really interested in who I was, what my kitchen was like, and what I did there. They apparently don’t have a kitchen in their house, and there’s no big meal service. Some of them pay to use the catering company that used to run my house’s food service, and the rest of them eat out all the time. One guy told me that they had sinks like mine, but “they’re always full of shit.” (I told him I’d freak out if that was my sink. “Who took a dump in my sink?”) Another thanked me for the green beans and the salad bar: “Wow, like I never eat vegetables!” They were enthusiastic about the food, especially the cookies, and some asked if they could come eat with me again. (I told them to be nice to the sisters and we’d see.)





There was plenty of food—enough that the guys took some extra chicken parm back to their house with them. While they ate, I warmed up the fondue in a bain-marie. The sisters purchased two $9 mini-crockpots from Target to use for fondue tonight, so I unpacked them and washed them out. Then I made the late plates from dinner, broke down the salad bar, and slowly packed and put away everything from dinner. I washed all my dishes and scrubbed down the salad bar. I set a small pot of water to boil on the stove and used the hot water to fill the empty crockpots. Then I dumped out the hot water, wiped the interiors dry, and filled the pots with hot fondue. I pulled out all the trays of dippers and sent girls upstairs with all the fondue goodies. And then I finished cleaning things up and happily locked my new deadbolt on the way out.



Right now I’m feeling really glad I went to bed at 8:30pm last night. Phew!

Edited to add photos.

[jgarner53]

Wow. I can't imaginen preparing food for 34, much less for 80.

As others have said, this brings back college memories for me. The first two years, I lived in the dorm and ate the cafeteria food. The last two, I lived in my sorority house. We were a small house (8-10 residents) and our kitchen was no more than a standard (OK, quasi-pathetic) residential kitchen, and we did all our own cooking. We had designated shelves in the fridge and pantry, though many of us relied on frozen meals much of the time. Once a week, we did have our chapter meeting and volunteers would cook dinner, at the most for 35 to 40 of us, at the least, about 20.

So to hear about your setup (and your girls' setup) sounds like living in the lap of luxury by comparison!

[Malawry]

I'm curious about your observations of the appetites and eating behavior of the girls in general, since eating disorders manifest big-time in college-aged women. Do you see any of the girls struggling with this issue? Is there a heightened awareness or sensitivity regarding a girl's chronic meal skipping or bingeing and/or purging in an intimate environment like that?

Thanks for the compliments, Verjuice. I don't really see many of the girls struggling with eating disorders. Some of them do struggle with their weight, but they seem to have a healthy approach to weight management. They often go to the gym together in groups of two or three, and they ask my advice on eating healthily. I don't see a lot of neurosis, but I suspect the girls I don't see so often have more problems in their approach to food. These sisters are generally proud of being down-to-earth though. I once overheard one saying something about it being weird that several of them served on some eating disorders task force, yet none of them seem to have an eating disorder. It could be hard to hide anorexia or bulimia, considering that everybody has at least one roommate except for the president--the way to do it would be to stay away from the house. The bathrooms are shared, except for a single bathroom in the basement and another on the ground level. I've never heard anybody yarking in the basement bathroom.

You mentioned one of your ovens doesn't work properly and that the university provides maintenance to the kitchen. Can you not get them to get it functioning?

No meat slicer? You have excess budget, can you purchase equipment with it?

Cleaning the grease trap... Pledge chore?

Han Ah Reum... Does yours have one of those rice cake making machines? They are really good, thought you might like to suppliment the girls' chips with some bags of that.

Boboli - Do they come frozen? They can be stored at room temperature for quite a while if not. I don't see why you need to have them taking up room in your freezer, since you must go through them at a brisk rate. A case a month, more?

Back to equipment purchases... Do the girls have access to a microwave and or toaster oven when you aren't there? You could make the Boboli pizzas a "do it yourself" item, like the salad bar. Speaking of the salad bar... Fruit salad, carrot and celery sticks. The croutons don't need to be in the chilled section, do they?

Back to excess budget... Perhaps a luxury ingredient dinner once a month, like lobster, crab, or rack of lamb?

Ovens: I've tried calling them about it. It's apparently not a huge priority to get it fixed.

I cannot purchase major equipment like a meat slicer with the food budget. If I could, we'd have two more residential-style fridges, one for the girls and one for me. They do have access to a toaster oven and a microwave. Bobolis are just better if I make them on the pizza stone, and it's usually not a problem to use one oven for that during lunch. (Today was the only day I've taken them off the menu since I added them in January.) Boboli shells come frozen and say "KEEP FROZEN" on the box, so I'm following directions.

I have been adding more luxe foods to their diet in recent weeks, as you shall see later this week. But it's still a far cry from eating up the budget. Frankly they'd rather eat chicken most of the time!

Trader Joe's nuts and dried fruits are great quality at a great price.  Which TJ do you go to?

I love TJ's too, and buy a lot there for home use. I usually go to the one in Rockville, and go eat lunch at A&J (dim sum) while I'm in the neighborhood. There's one opening in Silver Spring soon, though, and once that opens I'll have a lot less reason to hit the Rockville Pike.

You should feel proud of yourself for being so frugal in regards to food costs...but I've always operated under "use it or lose it" budgets and I know how stressful it can be when you feel pressured to spend your money or face up to seeing it go bye-bye.

Could you do a series of fancy dinners for the girls towards the end of the semester and go whole-hog on ingredients? Maybe serve some very fresh seafood, steaks, etc. Maybe the girls could come up with some events worthy of fancy meals, or depending on the number of graduating seniors, they could have a series of dinners honoring two or three seniors at a time.

Or is your house allowed to give pledges gifts when they complete the pledge period? Maybe you could put together some nice food gift baskets for them.

I do feel proud of myself, Designchick. And it's not a total loss if I don't spend all the money. But I'd like to spend more of it. These are some fabulous ideas, and I will see if I can do anything with them.

What about some expensive mushrooms, such as morels? I'm guessing the young women won't go crazy for foie gras.

But seriously, you can get some really high-quality conserves imported from France, some really good imported cheese -- but that all depends on what the women you serve want. Have you asked them for suggestions or some items they might consider more high-end?

They don't really care for luxury ingredients. Honestly. Their suggestions are along the lines of "more fruit," which I'm trying to do for them. They rarely even ask for steak.

I'm guessing that as college students, high end or expensive isn't what they are looking for.  They'd probably be more interested in brand name foods - Captain Crunch instead of SWEET CORN CRISPS or Starbucks Coffee instead of COFFEE.

Most of the prepared foods they get are brand-name, including all their cereals and snackies. I think they prefer that, and I don't mind doing it for them.

More for you to ponder...

I wonder if the extra you have in your budget isn't because you buy the chickens and make the stock?  OK, so it seems more expensive, but you get so much more with the chickens.  Stock, and chicken.  Me thinks it would be more expensive to buy stock and chicken meat?

International night.  You mentioned this is a favorite.  Do you think you have introduced them to new things?  Or merely provided a diversion?

I don't understand your first question, Snowangel. I don't know if it's more or less expensive to buy stock and chicken meat. (It's probably cheaper if you factor in my labor.) I am a frugal person by nature--I detest food waste, and try to make the most out of every purchase. Chickens for stock seems like a no-brainer.

I have indeed introduced the girls to many new foods, some of which have become favorites that they request often. Yes, ethnic meals are a diversion from the ordinary for me, but most of the girls are genuinely curious eaters and willing to sample something different. Some things they ask for include tomato beurre blanc, pan-fried tilapia, pad thai, coconut-chickpea curry, yogurt-marinated charred chicken, pierogies, choucroute. They also love my real mashed potatoes, and they still ask about the fried chicken I made one time last semester. (I promised to make it again, after Spring Break and preferably after Lent is over so everybody can enjoy it.)

[Marmish]

So I had to place a special order, and bite the bullet and pay $25 for delivery. Ouch!

Repeat after me: It's ok to spend money. It's ok to spend money. It's ok to spend money.

Seriously, I know how you feel. I hate spending the boss's money without thinking I got the absolute best price. I find your blog really interesting. Thanks for sharing your week.

[Monica Bhide]

What an awesome blog. I need to go to the top and read all this. You are one amazing lady. Are you going to share the recipe for your scones that you made for me.. they were awesome

[JennyUptown]

A couple of people have commented how it's too bad the girls can't use the kitchen, but lack of interest is probably also a pretty big factor.

Ditto what Lexy said. I lived in the dorms for one year (the grossest little kitchen with just a dirty, dirty microwave, a sink and cabinets we weren't allowed to store stuff in). Then a sorority for one, an apartment for one and a nice, normal house for senior year.

I really had zero interest in cooking for the first three years; my final year was much more civilized, however one of my four roommates in the house did 60% of the cooking--fortunately she was generous!

But while I did live in the sorority house, our eating was way below the level of Malawry's efforts, I'm certain. Our chef Don was more concerned with saying gross, suggestive stuff to the women of the house than with planning interesting and/or nutritious meals. I can still picture him in all of his creepiness. That mustache...

Also, if I had to guess, I'd say 10% of the live-ins were affected by eating disorders (so not fun).

[Luckylies]

What about some expensive mushrooms, such as morels? I'm guessing the young women won't go crazy for foie gras.

But seriously, you can get some really high-quality conserves imported from France, some really good imported cheese -- but that all depends on what the women you serve want. Have you asked them for suggestions or some items they might consider more high-end?

BAH! wrong attitude! this is why we always get served stinkin' grilled cheese! (no offense to yummy grilled cheese, but young women, like everybody else in the universe like to be exposed to GOOD THINGS. new, old, funny looking, non name brand, please don't underestimate us for being young or women. sometimes we surprise.

I'm guessing that as college students, high end or expensive isn't what they are looking for.  They'd probably be more interested in brand name foods - Captain Crunch instead of SWEET CORN CRISPS or Starbucks Coffee instead of COFFEE.

I think considering your lucky budget and you obvious food skills, perhaps you take it upon yourself Malawry, to gently expand the bounderies and horizons for you less fortunate sisters and raise the bar for "college" food. you seem to do quite a bit by scratch and the food sounds lovely, really quite nice, but i think the girls would really surprise you (and others) if given the chance to try new stuff. bring on the morels, oysters, truffles, micro greens etc! perhaps it flops and they eat hotdogs for the rest of the semester...but just imagine the girl who orders carpaccio for lunch...

[Pan]

So I had to place a special order, and bite the bullet and pay $25 for delivery. Ouch!

Repeat after me: It's ok to spend money. It's ok to spend money. It's ok to spend money.[...]

Besides, remind yourself how far you are under budget.

[Malawry]

In addition to being extremely averse to food waste, I am averse to spending money just for the sake of spending money. So yeah, the $25 delivery charge from Gourmeco bugged me. But the only way around it was to order much much more than I needed. So I bit the bullet. I'm not flogging myself about it or anything, don't worry. Sometimes I am frugal to a fault though--I finally allowed myself to buy a fine-mesh chinois this semester because I was so sick of cloudy stocks. I should have bought that ages ago!

You know, all these high-end food concepts are amazing ideas. There are two major problems with them:

1. It's very hard for me to source these things. I basically have to go buy them myself on my own uncompensated time, and get reimbursed. I just don't have hundreds of dollars laying about for oysters and microgreens to float the sorority on a regular basis.

2. These girls want simple foods for the most part. They're busy studying, participating in extracurricular activities, organizing stuff for the sorority. They don't want to be confronted with the truly outrageous at dinnertime, they just want a satisfying meal. They'll stretch out some, sure, but I don't think foie and truffles would fly very well. When you cook for others, you always have to consider your audience after all. They didn't hire me to run a fine-dining operation.

[JennyUptown]

PS GREAT blog. I love it - it's taking me back to my own college days, obviously.

[Cleo]

I'm really enjoying your blog! These girls are very lucky to have you. I lived in my sorority house for my junion year of college and this is reminding of things that I haven't thought about in 15 or so years.

We had a similar situation---39 people living in the house and a cook for lunch and dinner each day. Breakfast was cereal, etc. (Cracklin' Oat Bran was the rage at the time!)

The entire sorority (about 150 girls) was entitled to eat lunch each day at the house, although obviously not everyone showed up every day. Dinner was for people who lived in the house, or if you wanted to eat dinner there and you didn't live in, you could sign up and your parents were billed for it. The whole chapter ate there on Monday nights before the weekly meeting.

We had a surly cook named Alice. I don't remember the food being particularly good or bad, but we always had a salad bar and baked potatoes were very popular at lunch. In fact, a popular concoction was baked potatoes topped with cottage cheese, crunchy noodle-type things and ranch dressing. Sounds totally disgusting now!

We also had a couple of guys (students) who worked at the house during meals to wash dishes. Do you have any help from anyone else?

[Abra]

Holy cow, Rochelle, just reading about your day was exhausting! That's really a lot of work in one day, alone.

Here's an idea to spend your food budget - how about going organic, or moving toward that? It would give you lots of opportunities for education with the students, if they want any, and you'd get to work with cleaner products.

[Malawry]

We also had a couple of guys (students) who worked at the house during meals to wash dishes.  Do you have any help from anyone else?

Not really. I put everything away when it comes in, I wash the dishes, I scrub my stove and my griddle and my grease trap and my vent hood filters. There is a housekeeping service for the girls, and they take out my trash and sweep and mop my floor daily. Which is a big help--they didn't back during my first semester, and it made it hard for me to leave on time.

Holy cow, Rochelle, just reading about your day was exhausting!  That's really a lot of work in one day, alone. 

Here's an idea to spend your food budget - how about going organic, or moving toward that?  It would give you lots of opportunities for education with the students, if they want any, and you'd get to work with cleaner products.

I've never run two events in a single day before, so yeah, it was a big deal for me too. One of my girls saw me about 4:45pm and asked if I was excited about tonight yet. I asked, "Does abject terror count as excitement?" But I wasn't terrified really--not even that anxious. I knew what I was doing and had laid my ducks out so they were simple to pick off.

Organics are wonderful, and I eat a lot of organic food at home. Sysco does not carry much organic food, so I'd run into the problem of self-sourcing, money and time if I made them a priority. However, when the farmer's markets start to get going here, I do try to buy some produce for them there. Most farmers cut me a deal for buying two flats of strawberries or couple cases of asparagus. I can do a lot more in the early fall--we had a lot of BLTs with organic heirloom tomatoes, organic pepper-and-onion fajitas, etc when I started back. Then I started getting a bunch of organic apples and pears when they came in.

One of my girls is the daughter of an apple farmer, actually. So she brings me his apples sometimes, after she goes home for the weekend. They're FABULOUS. He finally came down and had lunch with her a few weeks ago, and I went and cornered him and told him how much I appreciated the apples he sends. We talked a little shop about apples and cooking, and he told me a little about farming them. What a nice guy! That night, after he'd gone back home, his daughter came and told me he was really impressed with me and appreciative that I came over to talk to him. I told her to tell him he's welcome to come by anytime--though I imagine his days of leisure are pretty much over again for the season at this point.

[JPW]

Having sampled some of Malawry's girls' leftovers, I can say from experience that they are very lucky indeed.

She was nice enough to bring some over when we brought Peanut home from the hospital. Pecan encrusted chicken breast, corn bread, and beans and ham, if memory serves me right.

[SethG]

I knew what I was doing and had laid my ducks out so they were simple to pick off.

Mmmmmmm, duck. Ever serve the girls duck?

You could saute the breasts medium rare, slice diagonally and serve with salad. Confit the legs and a month later serve them with the same salad!

Yes, I'm kidding.

[Gastro888]

I still haven't given up the idea of coming over and helping you prep one of these days, if you would have me.  

You know I would happily have you over anytime.

I just wanted to offer my services as well.

That is all.

Me too, Malawry!

Hey, since I graduated from Maryland does that mean I get special treatment?

Just kidding.

[bloviatrix]

Some of the guys seemed really interested in who I was, what my kitchen was like, and what I did there..... Another thanked me for the green beans and the salad bar: “Wow, like I never eat vegetables!” They were enthusiastic about the food, especially the cookies, and some asked if they could come eat with me again. (I told them to be nice to the sisters and we’d see.)

There was plenty of food—enough that the guys took some extra chicken parm back to their house with them.

Sounds like you have a couple of admirers.

[hjshorter]

Mmmmmmm, duck.  Ever serve the girls duck?

You could saute the breasts medium rare, slice diagonally and serve with salad.  Confit the legs and a month later serve them with the same salad!

Yes, I'm kidding.

Rochelle's confit... Those would be some lucky girls.

Are the girls ordinarily allowed to bring guests to dinner? What are the rules?

And could you talk a little about your menu planning? Do you take requests, and how often? How far in advance do you plan? You said that you post the menu weekly but do you plan a month at a time?

[alacarte]

Rochelle, this is a great blog. I belonged to sorority in college (back in the stone age) at a large state school that did not allow fraternity/sorority houses, and therefore NO CHEF. We lived on pizza and buffalo chicken wings. I wish we'd had a chef like you!

I've noticed you don't talk about alcohol, which I recall to be a primary food group on the Greek circuit. Do you double as a bartender?

[Malawry]

Today has been even busier than yesterday was, if you can believe it. It’s now 3:15pm and I only just now had a few minutes to start blogging today.

I had one of those mornings where I barely manage to get it all done in time. Mornings are tough in general, because I only arrive 90 minutes before the beginning of lunch service—and I have a lot to accomplish in that time. It didn’t help that I set the menu I set today. The most labor-intensive soup I make is a broccoli-cheddar soup. It’s also one of the most popular. I only put it on the menu two or three times a semester because it takes so much work. And of course, I put it on the menu today. I started it off as soon as I arrived at work this morning, by making a pale brown roux. I then added whole milk to make a béchamel-type sauce. I ran and set up my cutting board, quickly hacked up a large onion and a cleaned bunch of celery, and sweated those veggies off. When the béchamel was complete, I turned it off. I added 2 quarts of water to the sweated veggies and added a bunch of broccoli florets and plenty of salt. Once the broccoli was tender, I pureed the veggie mixture, and then I added the béchamel. (The blender inner-cap—the clear thing you can remove to feed items into the blender while it runs without removing the lid—fell into the soup while the blender was running. Dammit! I had to strain and discard the batch in the blender at the time, because part of the inner cap shattered and the shards were too tiny to pick out on my own. I added a little bit of instant mashed potato to thicken the soup up a little since I lost some of the solids to this little accident. Cook’s secret.) Then I had to wait for the soup to cool enough to add the cheddar—I monitored its progress with a thermometer. (I pulled half the soup out and chilled it immediately. This soup does not reheat well after the cheese is added—it has a strong tendency to split.) At 11:30, when lunch started, it was still too hot to add the cheddar, so I added a little ice to speed up the progress. Finally I worked in some shredded cheddar, stirring constantly to incorporate it.





(It was still too hot to add the cheese when I took that last image. I thought ya'll would appreciate the "Action shot" though. )



It's hard to tell (except for the excess cheese on the spatula handle, that is), but the cheese is in there now.

In between all this, I cranked my oven, threw in the chicken wings for today’s lunch special, and started working on the salad bar. Eventually the wings crisped up, and I added just enough of Sysco’s finest BBQ sauce to lightly glaze them. They went onto the steam table. And then I started lunch service. Today was very popular for grilled cheese on whole wheat for some reason. I think I made 8 of those, half or so with tomato inside. The wings were moderately popular—two boyfriends of sisters were here for lunch, and both of them made a significant dent in the wing supply. Everybody snarfed the celery sticks I cut up to go with the wings. I also set out some red grapes, which vanished in short order. They love their fruit here.

(8pm)
I had very little time for writing today, as you can undoubtedly see. I only got in the few paragraphs above because Jacqueline was cleaning my floor. Jacqueline works for Launchcoast, a contracting cleaning service that cleans several houses on Fraternity Row. We used Launchcoast when I started, but then we hired a dedicated housekeeper at the beginning of this academic year. She quit around mid-semester, and her replacement only lasted two weeks. So we went back to Launchcoast. Jacqueline is the third person Launchcoast has sent to clean our house so far. I’ve learned to be super-nice to any cleaning person, but not to get too attached to them since they may change quickly.

Jacqueline is super-nice, but she speaks only about four words of English. My Spanish is only marginally better than that, but we usually converse in Spanish so I can practice. I usually enjoy working out my Spanish muscles like this, but today I just didn’t have the mental capacity. When I was eating my lunch, she came by to talk to me and asked me a question I couldn’t understand. I normally would have worked around it (possibly referring to my Spanish-English dictionary), but I just didn’t have the energy today. I told her in my halting Spanish that “tengo mucho trabajo, y mi cabeza no trabaja normalmente ahora.” (I have a lot of work to do, and my head isn’t working normally today.) She seemed to understand and let me eat in peace. Later, when she wanted to clean my floor, she came prepared with two notes: one asked, “Are you happy?” And the other read, “Can I sweep your floor?” I don’t think I realized it until right then, but Jacqueline is awesome!



So lunch service was somewhat ordinary. During lunch, I made tomorrow night’s dessert: tiramisu. I’ve not made tiramisu since I finished culinary school, but I had bought some mascarpone and ladyfingers from Gourmeco that I needed to use up so this seemed appropriate. It was fun to assemble, and I tasted the components so I could verify their yumminess.





I ate some of the chicken wings and a mess of celery quickly for lunch, and then got back to work. I cut up some tofu, skewered it and put it in a marinade I’d made Sunday, and then I did the same thing with some chicken breasts. I’m very proud of my ability to handle tofu appealingly, and it makes me happy if the girls eat it. (Not many of them do!) I used to buy tofu from Sysco and freeze it as soon as it arrived, since freezing helps firm up the texture. This trick only works with the fresh, water-packed type of tofu. Then Sysco stopped carrying water-pack tofu and started stocking aseptically packaged tofu instead. The aseptic stuff doesn’t freeze well, so now I have to buy my tofu at the store and bring it in.





I started cutting and stir-frying vegetables for dinner—I’d have the next veggie prepped at the same moment the last vegetable finished cooking. When I make a vegetable stir-fry at work, I stir-fry each vegetable separately with oil and salt, and then I make a sauce and pour it over all the veggies at the end. Tonight’s stir-fry included Shanghai cabbage, snow peas, broccoli, shiitake mushrooms, and a gingery sauce with mirin and sesame oil.









Stewart called me around midday. He said, “Hi, it’s me. What are you doing?”
(long pause)
Me: “I want to say something witty, but I can’t come up with anything. I’m working. Why?”
S: “Nevermind.”
Me: “No, really. What’s up?”
S: “I have some extra hamburger buns and wondered if you wanted them for anything. Sometimes I use them for bread pudding or something, you know?”
Me: “I get 2doz fresh ones from Ottenberg’s every Monday so I’m good for now, and I only make bread pudding once a semester or so.”
S: “Me too. But if you want some…”
Me: “Thanks.”
An hour later, I had at least a dozen witty retorts for “What are you doing?” My favorite one is, “Wanking.” Since I work alone, my kitchen humor has dulled somewhat. When I was in school or working at a restaurant, I had my repartee honed razor-sharp. Oh well.

And then I started the MEP for tonight’s entrée. I lined every ingredient up in the order in which I added it to the pan, and I spent about an hour standing over the stove keeping two pans working. I fired up my griddle and cooked off the skewered tofu and then the chicken. And then I made the sauce for the tofu and chicken at the very last minute, because I just hadn’t had time until then.





So here was tonight’s menu:
Chicken or tofu satays with peanut sauce
Shrimp or vegetarian pad thai
Stir-fried vegetables

I had initially planned this Thai-style menu for last Thursday as a regular ethnic night. But then it snowed Thursday, and I ended up ordering the girls dinner and coming home early. So I rescheduled Thai Night for Monday, since I already had all the ingredients. But then it snowed again Monday, so I made the casseroles for them instead. I couldn’t do Thai Night last night with all the boys coming over. So I ended up doing it tonight. As it was, my bean sprouts turned, and I ended up just not using them rather than going to the supermarket YET AGAIN to buy more. I had planned jumbo-lump crab cakes for tonight’s dinner initially, and I had to push that menu off to next week. (There I go buying luxury foods and eating up the budget, sorta.)

It turned out that there was a new member meeting tonight, so all 15 of the new pledges came for dinner. Fortunately I had enough food for everybody. I served on foam plates because I hadn’t had time to clean up any of my dinner prep dishes before dinner service. On a good night, I finish making everything for dinner by 4:15 or so, and I have an hour to clean up and maybe prep for tomorrow before dinner service begins. This has been an unusual week on many levels, but I like to challenge myself every so often so it’s not a big deal. Nobody complained about not getting their dinner on a ceramic plate.



At least I was able to leave work right on time today, and hit the gym for a game of racquetball with my spouse before coming home. It feels good to sit down.

Edited to add photos.

[Malawry]

Mmmmmmm, duck.  Ever serve the girls duck?

I have thought about it, actually. Sysco's duck legs are surprisingly cheap. I asked about them on a whim once and was so surprised at the low cost that I called Stewart and told him about it. He later bought and prepared a case for his girls. But I forgot about it. Maybe I'll see about doing it sometime right after Spring Break. I can afford IQF or cryopak breasts, I'm sure.

Hey, since I graduated from Maryland does that mean I get special treatment? 

Sure, you can put away my Sysco order when it comes. Special job for special grads!

Are the girls ordinarily allowed to bring guests to dinner?  What are the rules?

And could you talk a little about your menu planning?  Do you take requests, and how often?  How far in advance do you plan?  You said that you post the menu weekly but do you plan a month at a time?

Girls are technically allowed to bring one guest to one meal one time a week. (This is only those who live in the house--if you live outside the house, presumably it's tough noogies.) In reality, some people bring their boyfriends by twice a week, while others never ever bring anybody over for food. It equals out. I can talk to my boss about it if somebody abuses the policy. The two girls who most often bring their boyfriends over go eat in their boyfriends' houses at least once a week, so it doesn't bother me. (Plus, they're nice guys, which helps. One of them usually sticks around to chat with me for a couple of minutes after he places his order.)

Menu planning: I plan to address this more in tomorrow's blog, because I do it every week and I usually start it around Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

I've noticed you don't talk about alcohol, which I recall to be a primary food group on the Greek circuit. Do you double as a bartender?

I wish I did--I bet some of my girls would be fun to drink with! But there's a strict no-alcohol policy in the house. I doubt it's followed, but it's definitely not flaunted. They mostly party at the fraternity houses or at the cheap bars near campus. I'm not supposed to have alcohol AT ALL at the house for cooking or anything. That doesn't mean I don't bring it (I did make tiramisu today, remember), but I keep it on the DL when I have it around and I don't submit for reimbursement when I use it.

The catering service that used to have my house's food service was interviewed by the campus newspaper once. When the article came out, it ran with a photo of the company president deglazing a pan with bourbon at ZTA's house. He knew they weren't supposed to have alcohol in the house, so why he let this photo be taken I'm not sure, but apparently it led to all kinds of drama with the ZTA advisors. It may have been why they didn't renew his contract. I don't know the whole story.

[therese]

Very cool blog, Malawry---reading it's giving me a very serious case of deja vu.

No sororities in my past, but as an undergrad I lived in a "French House" for a year. We had to cook dinner (in teams of two) for our housemates. A head count of 20 per dinner, with a whopping budget of $1.50 per person (so $35 a meal), with which we were expected to produce meal that included (in addition to the entree and sides if appropriate) bread, green salad, dessert, and wine. And in a remarkably tiny kitchen, come to think of it.

Great home ec experience, that's for sure.

[fauxtarga]

This blog is probably the best advertisement I can think of for a fraternity/sorority. The care and effort you put into making food for the sorority members is admirable. Food like this could defintely make college more bearable - but then again in my freshman year of college I lived a block or two away from Babbo and Blue Hill, so it wasn't too bad.

[Malawry]

I am really enjoying everybody else's food-and-college memories, BTW. Keep them coming!

Fauxtarga: The restaurant selection by the sorority is somewhat lacking. There's Lupo's, which is all right and is where most peoples' parents take them out for a steak or a decent plate of Italian food. There's Marathon Deli, which has great gyros. Next door to Marathon is a new Kosher Israeli-type deli, with falafel and spit-grilled meats. The independent Bagel Place actually has some of the best bagels in the metropolitan area. And then there are chains: Potbelly, Applebee's, Chipotle, Noodes & Co, California Tortilla, Boston Market, the sandwich bar at Wawa. There's a few little independents and bars masquerading as restaurants, but that's about it. It's not hard to convince the girls to eat with me most of time.

[jackal10]

No alcohol? What kind of education is this?
What do the girls do when they want to impress their friends with their cooking, or hold a dinner party? I seem to remember that was an important part of my student life, at least at grad student level.