227 replies to this topic

[Anna N]

It's great to see you blogging again and congratulations on the "developing culinary student".

[Malawry]

Where is the Wegmans you referred to?

Sterling, VA (near Dulles Airport). My husband has a choir that rehearses near there every Sunday night, so I go with him periodically and shop at Wegman's. It's a wonderful shopping experience...I really love going there.

The Trader Joe's I visited was in Centreville, VA, about 12 miles from said Wegman's. I'd forgotten that TJ's in Virginia carry beer and wine...the Maryland stores don't due to the liquor laws...and I stocked up on cheap bottles for cooking. Someday, I will be able to DRINK wine again. Sigh.

[Malawry]

I'm hungry, and I'm thinking it's about time to head out for my class. I'm considering stopping by Costco and eating a hot dog for my early dinner. As I confessed in this Costco snack-bar thread, I am deeply in love with the Hebrew National kosher hot dog and often buy one from the food court when I am in or near a Costco. For $1.58 including tax and beverage, it's got to be one of the cheapest meals going.

I'll likely be back tomorrow with plenty of photos and whatnot for your perusal. It may not be until around lunchtime, but that depends on how I sleep tonight. (Usually I'm so exhausted after my Tuesday classes that I have trouble sleeping through the night afterwards, if that makes sense.)

[Chris Amirault]

Rochelle, congrats on the coming addition to the fam! While I see that there's a sizable mashed potatoes contingent here, I know that artichoke season is nearly upon us, and many people I know haven't a clue about how easy it is to prepare them. I'm a big fan of the toothpick stool: after trimming and lemon-juicing the cut parts, stick three toothpicks into the base and you've got a handy steaming stand, with the tough stem down but not immersed in the water.

[Jason Perlow]

So Rochelle, are you guys going to free-base the 85 percent Val?

[Pan]

I immediately said "Yeah!" when I saw who was blogging this week!

One question occurs to me: Are there any strange regulations at the community college, like a requirement for a written final exam? When I was in undergraduate school at SUNY at Purchase, they had to give a written final exam even for Yoga! (Musical instrument lessons didn't require any written tests, though, and neither did Sight Singing/Dictation.) And how's the paperwork?

[Lori in PA]

Where is the Wegmans you referred to?

Sterling, VA (near Dulles Airport). My husband has a choir that rehearses near there every Sunday night, so I go with him periodically and shop at Wegman's. It's a wonderful shopping experience...I really love going there.

The Trader Joe's I visited was in Centreville, VA, about 12 miles from said Wegman's. I'd forgotten that TJ's in Virginia carry beer and wine...the Maryland stores don't due to the liquor laws...and I stocked up on cheap bottles for cooking. Someday, I will be able to DRINK wine again. Sigh.

Wow -- thanks! My dh just started working in downtown DC (we live in south central PA) and is driving to Shady Grove every day below Frederick and then taking the metro downtown. I don't suppose there's a metro station within walking distance of either Wegmans or Trader Joes? You see, I live in a tiny town of 1100 souls and all the other towns around us are tiny, too. Makes ingredient procurement challenging on a budget...

I understand about the too tired to sleep well when pregnant thing. I was casually discussing it with my childless (and apparently clueless) dentist when I was a few weeks away from birthing my third child. He patted my arm and reassured me and said, "Oh well, after you have the baby you'll be sleeping much better." Um, no. Cheer up, though. That baby is 10 now and I've been sleeping pretty well for several years.

[jm chen]

I don't suppose there's a metro station within walking distance of either Wegmans or Trader Joes?

The Trader Joe's in Bethesda is within walking distance of the Bethesda Metro station, though it is not exactly close to the station. Maybe a 10 minute walk? Bethesda is just a few stops from Shady Grove on the same line, so maybe you can talk him into stopping there periodically...

[CaliPoutine]

So, I need everybody's help here. I need to finish my next column for the Journal-News by Monday (though I'd rather finish it Friday if possible). I've suggested mashed potatoes as a subject because one of the midwives in the practice I visit lobbied for them, but I'm open to other ideas. I've only been writing the columns for a few months now. So far I've covered candied almonds, waffles and braised short ribs. I'm planning to do asparagus next month (which may be a little early still, but what the hell, I adore asparagus). I was thinking a starchy side dish would be a good one to hit this time around. I don't want to do anything too complicated...the column is called "Cooking 101" and is supposed to be about basic foods that you can accomplish well in a home kitchen using the supplies available in your usual Food Lion/Wal-Mart type supermarket. Ideas? I need to commit to something by tomorrow afternoon.

How about Mac N Cheese? There are so many variations, baked, stovetop, with crumbs, with add ins, etc, etc.

[helenjp]

Great to see you blogging!

[Kouign Aman]

CaliPoutine beat me to it! Great ways with Mac 'n Cheese.

Although ... I have a fondness for mashed potatoes. They make great baby food, especially after said baby has gone from the pick-it-up-in-my-fingers stage to the Yes-I-Can-Eat-With-A-Spoon-All-By-Myself stage (no darlin', you cant. but you can try....). They also made great mom-to-be food when the baby-to-be put her darling little foot across key digestive organs during the last couple months.

Plus (is this foodie sacrilege? ) they freeze well in "plops" on a cookie sheet. They nuke warm fast, and make great fast meals. Your midwives might photocopy your column and hand it to every new client.

And the opportunities for debate beyond the add-ins (horseradish, yum): creamy or chunky? Thin or thick? With or without the peels (no peels, pleeeeeeeease!) etc etc etc.... I've talked myself into hoping you'll do the mashed spud column!

[suzilightning]

congratulations on the work and the addition to the family, rochelle.

i was thinking along the same lines a cali with - at least here- the return of coldish weather of mac and cheese or stew of some sort.

i'm assuming that you are aiming your column at beginning/moderately skilled cooks and will probably go with more farmer's market/ seasonal foods as it gets warmer.

pot pies?

roast chicken?

casseroles - stuffed shells, lasagna

in the warmer weather maybe something with the ubiquitous squash - as johnnyd will tell you don't leave your car unlocked.

meatballs? sweet and sour, danish, for gravy?

some easy soups?

i'm trying to think of the things i have been working with my sil on since THANK GOD at age 35 she has indicated an interest in cooking....

[judiu]

I have returned to eating old-fashioned breakfast foods since I got pregnant, including things like oatmeal and waffles. Sometimes I have supplies leftover from classes or catering that I need to get rid of; today’s breakfast kills the remaining 1.5 cups of buttermilk hanging on from a class 2 weeks ago. I made Mark Bittman’s “Easy Overnight Waffles,” a favorite recipe that I covered in a recent column I wrote about waffles. They’re easy if you can remember to stir up the mixture the night before you want to eat them, which I managed somehow.

The batter fluffs up a great deal overnight from the yeast action. This is with the egg yolks tossed in, before I stirred the batter.



After I stirred in the yolks, you can see how significantly the batter deflated.



My husband bought me this super-fancy waffle iron as a first anniversary gift back in 2002. It came from Williams-Sonoma and it has a cool art deco look to it...it's made by VillaWare. My favorite feature is that it has something called "Waffle-Tone™" which makes a sound like a wounded bird when your waffles are ready. You can see some completed waffles in the background.



I am currently eating two squares of waffle with a ramekin of warmed Vermont maple syrup that I picked up on our December vacation to the snowy state. I don't like to pour the syrup over my waffles because they get soggy that way, so I break off bites with my fork (or my fingers  ) and dunk them in the syrup en route to my mouth. I'm drinking some cranberry-raspberry juice alongside.

Whew! That's a lot of quote; sorry! I was wondering if the maple syrup didn't make the cran-rasp juice taste terribly acid? I know that as a kid, when I drank milk with waffles in syrup, the milk would always taste sour compared to the syrup. That's why I always had to have a dribble of coffee in the milk...
Congratulations, by the way! Has "terrible tummy" been a problem for you? Sure hope not!

[vogelap]

Good to see you back, Malawry!

Your column was one of the first that got me into eGullet. Man, that seems like a long time ago! Since then, I've finished my own culinary schooling (though I take classes whenever they fit into my schedule!) and have been volunteering at a local French restaurant (Jean-Robert at Pigall's, Cincinnati's only 4-star restaurant) for over a year now.

Congrats on the pregnancy!

[emilyr]

So, I need everybody's help here. I need to finish my next column for the Journal-News by Monday (though I'd rather finish it Friday if possible). I've suggested mashed potatoes as a subject because one of the midwives in the practice I visit lobbied for them, but I'm open to other ideas. I've only been writing the columns for a few months now. So far I've covered candied almonds, waffles and braised short ribs. I'm planning to do asparagus next month (which may be a little early still, but what the hell, I adore asparagus). I was thinking a starchy side dish would be a good one to hit this time around. I don't want to do anything too complicated...the column is called "Cooking 101" and is supposed to be about basic foods that you can accomplish well in a home kitchen using the supplies available in your usual Food Lion/Wal-Mart type supermarket. Ideas? I need to commit to something by tomorrow afternoon.

Risotto?

[helenjp]

I'm all for mash, and second the recommendation to take a look at Chufi's Dutch cooking thread.

Eating rice with most meals makes me long to serve mash in silver dishes, to the sound of harps and trumpets!

* Mash with swedes or spring turnips, mash with sharp spring tastes like watercress, mash with apples...
* Mash rolled up in slices of beef
* Mash piled onto pork medallions, or firm fish pieces and grilled, with or without cheese or other topping

Congratulations on your anticipated baby. You won't have any trouble knowing whether he or she is musical...musical kids start to sing and hum tunes before they can talk. Unfortunately they don't come with an inborn desire to practice scales or learn the names of chord inversions...

[Rebecca263]

Rochelle! Yay! Kiddle says "Yay!", too! We have used a few of the ideas from your blogs; we love your taste buds. I was going to suggest roasted cauliflower, just because we've been addicted to it this winter. Let me just add this, raising a person is the most fun, most fascinating and most rewarding thing you may ever do. Our best wishes to you on becoming a family. Blog on, and, um, keep some crackers and seltzer handy?

[Malawry]

Thanks, everybody, for your comments and suggestions.

My editor likes the mashers idea, so I'm going with that. They're coming Friday at 11am to snap the story, so I have a few days to think it through and review Chufi's thread as suggested.

I am back from my class, which went well...this is the third one I've taught in this particular space to this demographic and I think I finally nailed everything tonight. I took some pictures of things and will post them with more detail in the morning. I did end up going to Costco and having a hot dog for dinner. I'm hungry again now...I barely eat anything when I'm teaching because I spend most of my time yapping my trap instead.

[Marmish]

Malawry,

Did the courses you are teaching exist and the college needed someone to teach them, or were you able to suggest courses that you wanted teach?

[ruthcooks]

Great to see you blogging again, Rochelle. I thought teaching cooking classes was the most fun of anything I've ever done in the food business.

Are you referring to the baby as "he" because you know it's a boy, or just being generic?

I have a recipe for what James Beard called "Disgustingly Rich Potatoes" with butter, heavy cream and Gruyere. The potatoes are first baked, then mashed with a fork--good if you wanted to do a taste test on boiling vs. baking the potatoes first.

[jamiemaw]

Potatoes are a superior binding agent for butter: they should ooze it from every molecule. I have this on good account.

Congratulations on all of your new adventures,

Jamie

[MarketStEl]

Rochelle! Yay! Kiddle says "Yay!", too! We have used a few of the ideas from your blogs; we love your taste buds. I was going to suggest roasted cauliflower, just because we've been addicted to it this winter. Let me just add this, raising a person is the most  fun, most fascinating and most rewarding thing you may ever do. Our best wishes to you on becoming a family. Blog on, and, um, keep some crackers and seltzer handy?  

Wow.

Waded through Malawry's blog when I should be asleep and found your reference to this.

Tonight I roasted cauliflower for the first time, mainly because I wanted to get out of the steamed-veggie rut. I had bought some Meyer lemons at Iovine's in the RTM on Saturday--one of those "Oh, yeah, I've heard of those, so I think I'll buy some, now what do I do with them?" purchases--and squeezed the juice of half of one over the purple cauliflower.

Then I put it in a 375F oven and pulled it out after about 10 minutes.

I don't think I roasted them long enough, but they did turn an interesting pinkish-red color where I had drizzled the lemon juice over them. They tasted pretty good too, and the remaining lemon half gave the kitchen a nice smell. (Edited to add: Photos in the "Dinner!" thread in Cooking Any Day Now.)

As for our budding culinary educator: You go, girl!

Edited by MarketStEl, 15 February 2006 - 12:09 AM.

[mizducky]

Mashed potatoes is good food.

Dunno if this is appropriate to your column, but the swankiest mashed potato add-ins I ever saw were part of a mashed potato bar at a catered party. Among the many tasty mix-ins with which you could decorate your martini glassful of taters was caviar.

If you have any room in this column, you could also maybe mention things to make with leftover mashed potatoes. Shepherd's pie is always nice. Or croquettes.

Gee, you could do a whole column of its own on making good gravies for mashed potatoes. Maybe a follow-up?

[Chufi]

Congratulations on the new family member!

I very much enjoyed your previous blog, and I'm looking forward to this one. Your life really has changed since then!

About mash: some people mentioned the Dutch mashes in the Dutch Cooking thread. Dutch mash (stamppot) is basically a mash with so many other ingredients (cooked or raw vegetables, mostly) stirred in, that the side dish becomes a main dish.
Here are some links to ones in the thread, just so you don't have to read thorugh all 13 pages of it (although you're welcome to do that anytime you're bored, ofcourse )

hutspot, with carrots, onions and parsnips

Hete Bliksem, 'hot lightning', equal amounts of potatoes and apple

with raw curly endive

with hardboiled eggs and vinegar

with curly kale

Two other favorites of mine: turnip tops; and raw spinach.

[Malawry]

Rochelle, congrats on the coming addition to the fam! While I see that there's a sizable mashed potatoes contingent here, I know that artichoke season is nearly upon us, and many people I know haven't a clue about how easy it is to prepare them. I'm a big fan of the toothpick stool: after trimming and lemon-juicing the cut parts, stick three toothpicks into the base and you've got a handy steaming stand, with the tough stem down but not immersed in the water.

That's a neat trick, Chris, and one I hadn't heard of before. However, if I'm gonna do asparagus next month, I don't really want to do artichokes right now. Next time they're on sale, though, I'm gonna give this a try. I buy fresh artichokes once every 6-8 weeks when they look good and aren't expensive and steam them. I can put away 2 or 3 of them myself as dinner (I mean as the whole dinner), with homemade mayo or melted butter or both as options.

[Malawry]

So Rochelle, are you guys going to free-base the 85 percent Val?

Some people in the class didn't want to try it at all! I told them the last two were in the 80s percentage-wise and there were a couple of ladies who declined to sample them as a result. Then there was one person who asked if there was any more she could have, she liked it so much! Heh. At least I didn't spring the 99% Scharffen Berger on them...

[Malawry]

One question occurs to me: Are there any strange regulations at the community college, like a requirement for a written final exam? When I was in undergraduate school at SUNY at Purchase, they had to give a written final exam even for Yoga! (Musical instrument lessons didn't require any written tests, though, and neither did Sight Singing/Dictation.) And how's the paperwork?

No, there are no exams in any of my cooking classes. Some of the continuing education classes do have exams, especially those that serve as certification for other things (truck driving, medical stuff, etc). There actually are food-safe handler certification courses in the continuing ed catalogue which of course also require a test.

The paperwork is not that bad. I applied for the job with FCC back in August of last year; they had a course in the professional program that they put on their job site that I wanted to teach. It turned out that enrollment was such that they didn't offer that class, and besides I think they wanted somebody they knew a little better or who already had experience teaching in a professional program if they'd been able to move ahead with it. Chef Lang, head of the culinary program, did ask me if I wanted to teach food safety, but I just can't get interested in the subject so I declined her offer. Then she asked if I'd be willing to teach some continuing ed/recreational classes, and I leapt at that opportunity. I had to apply online, interview, and then fill out the usual employment paperwork. At each class I teach I have to sign a contract (there's a contract for each class since each class is a one-off), and I have to fill out a form from the lady who teaches in the classroom where I work during the school day that basically says yes, I cleaned up after myself. Students are expected to evaluate teachers at the end of each class, and my work gets evaluated mostly based on their evaluations. I submit receipts, including the house-account slip from Weis, along with all the other stuff at the end of each class. That's all the papers that get pushed normally.

Paperwork is very similar for Jefferson County, except they are a lot less formal about these things. I didn't ever apply, though I did fill out employment paperwork and sign a contract. I called and asked if they were hiring late last summer and they practically leapt at me and said, "YES! We'll call you in a few months when we're working on the catalogue." And that was it until December, when they called me and asked me to write a proposed 6-class series schedule--and turn it in the very next day. I started this thread at that time.

I did fish around with other institutions and programs for cooking class work, but these were the only two so far that panned out.

[Malawry]

Wow -- thanks!  My dh just started working in downtown DC (we live in south central PA) and is driving to Shady Grove every day below Frederick and then taking the metro downtown.  I don't suppose there's a metro station within walking distance of either Wegmans or Trader Joes?  You see, I live in a tiny town of 1100 souls and all the other towns around us are tiny, too.  Makes ingredient procurement challenging on a budget...

I understand about the too tired to sleep well when pregnant thing.  I was casually discussing it with my childless (and apparently clueless) dentist when I was a few weeks away from birthing my third child.  He patted my arm and reassured me and said, "Oh well, after you have the baby you'll be sleeping much better."  Um, no.  Cheer up, though.  That baby is 10 now and I've been sleeping pretty well for several years. 

I think jm chen is right that Bethesda may be the best bet for you to walk to a Trader Joe's from a Metro. The Rockville Trader Joe's is also about a 10-minute walk from a Metro, this time I think it's the Twinbrook station that's closest. Walking along Rockville Pike is even more unpleasant than walking down Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, though. Both of these stations are along the route your husband takes to work daily, so at least they aren't a total schlep.

As for Wegman's, sorry, there are 2 in Northern Virginia that are nowhere near Metro, and now there's one in Hunt Valley, MD which I think is on the other side of Baltimore. No Weggies in Montgomery County--Safeway and Giant helped to ensure that with a bill they helped push through the county council a few months ago that prevents super-sized "big box" stores from moving in. (The bill was also aimed at Wal*Mart, FWIW.)

Your spouse is fairly close to the Kentlands (Gaithersburg) Whole Foods when he parks his car in Shady Grove, but that doesn't help on the budget end of things. He is also not too far from the Gaithersburg Trader Joe's, which is in a strip center around the back of Gaithersburg's mall (Lake Forest?).

Thanks for the sleep support. Boy am I tired these days...

[Malawry]

i'm assuming that you are aiming your column at beginning/moderately skilled cooks and will probably go with more farmer's market/ seasonal foods as it gets warmer.

Yes, that's exactly right. I like to shop for and eat seasonal foods when they start coming in, and will be devoting more time to them in warm-weather columns. And the column is very much geared towards people who aren't as confident in the kitchen as your standard eG member.

[Malawry]

Whew! That's a lot of quote; sorry! I was wondering if the maple syrup didn't make the cran-rasp juice taste terribly acid? I know that as a kid, when I drank milk with waffles in syrup, the milk would always taste sour compared to the syrup. That's why I always had to have a dribble of coffee in the milk...
Congratulations, by the way! Has "terrible tummy" been a problem for you? Sure hope not!

I hadn't noticed the syrup playing off the juice like that. But right now I am very into cran-rasp juice and will drink it with just about anything. Pregnancy does weird things to the taste buds.

I suffered a lot of nausea in the early phases of my pregnancy, like many women do. I was able to work past it during Varmint's Pig Pickin over Labor Day weekend, but that was pretty much the only foodie weekend--and the only time I ate a lot of food--during the entire first trimester plus the first month of the second trimester. Things fortunately improved after that and I've had fairly normal weight gain and a decent appetite. I do suffer from heartburn, to the extent that I take another antacid before the last one can wear off usually--it's a constant companion. I don't eat too much at a single sitting if I can help it because the baby is pushing up on my stomach and if I'm full, it's very uncomfortable. I am carrying very high for some reason.