MelissaH

Love it, and look forward to more pictures when you use it some more! MelissaH

We have half a turkey, part of our freezer cleanout, thawing. It should be ready tomorrow, when the snow comes back. Would it be wrong to make turkey and dumplings with it? MelissaH

We definitely need to go through ours. It strikes me that this might not be a bad time of year to go through the freezer, as if we discover that we need a little extra short-term storage space, we might be able to find it in the walk-out. Wish I could find veal bones here. They don't seem to exist anywhere. MelissaH

Make that +4 on the pressure cooker. I don't think there's any other way to be sure you'll break down the connective tissue in the timespan you have. MelissaH

You're welcome. If you haven't done so already, you might also try toasting the oats first. I usually stir them around in a non-stick frying pan until they're starting to pop a little, smell toasty, and you see a bit of steam coming off. This usually takes me about the same amount of time as it takes the water to boil. Then carefully add to the hot water, stir, put the lid on, and go to bed. MelissaH

Dinner went over very well. The first comment from most of the girls: "It's not pasta and chicken!" That's apparently most of the repertoire of the one residence hall dining hall that's open during break, for both lunch and dinner. The entire team minus the one player who's taking an intersession course and the one who's running with the Olympic torch for a few weeks still, both head and assistant coaches, and an advisor who frequently travels with the team and is a friend of ours too, came over. That's a total of 28 people. The team had an afternoon practice, but after that, probably half a dozen of the more kitchen-inclined headed over immediately afterward and helped prep, which was an immense help. *We found 6-inch tortillas, and bought 11 packages of 8 tortillas each. We heated 8 of those packages, and had one lonely tortilla left. *We wound up with probably half a dozen servings of pork left over, from what we cooked. They're vacuum-sealed and waiting in the walk-out until we get around to them. *We made two rice cookers full. We probably could have gotten away with just one rice cooker of rice, but it was getting down to almost nothing by the time people were slowing down. *I made a double batch of =Mark's BBQ sauce. One batch would not have been enough. *Casey made a huge batch of mole. Lots left over, but there's not a whole lot more work involved in making a big batch than making a small batch, so we always make a big batch. *We probably would have been fine with just two pounds of black beans, but the leftovers will freeze just fine, or go into black bean soup, or can get made into refried black beans, or other dishes, so again I don't mind having them around. *We now know that most of the team adores mangos. We'd had a couple left over from another event, so we showed the earlycomers how to deal with them, and put a bowlful of cubes out on the table with everything else. They were the first thing to vanish. *Ditto on the guac. We bought pre-made stuff, but doctored it up with fresh avocado and cilantro. It went fast, too. *We ran through about a pound of shredded cheese, maybe a little more. We have lots left over, because we'd gotten 4 pounds. I think we might need to make a point of acquiring a bag of chips, so we can have chips, refried black beans, and cheese for dinner one of these nights. *We went through nearly an entire squirt bottle of low-fat sour cream, which we thinned with a touch of cream for easier squirting. It's great for easy application and portion control. *We only needed about a head of lettuce. Lots left over for salads this week. *I made a batch of Rick Bayless's quick pickled red onion. Those who liked them, loved them. *Lots of cole slaw left over. Had I known how well the mangos would go, I might have skipped this in favor of more mango. *Carrots are a more popular vegetable with sour cream/salsa/cilantro dip than either celery or red pepper. *I got apples (Braeburn) and pears (Bosc) from the orchard store up the hill, and we totally spaced putting them out. I do have a baggie of crumble topping in the freezer, so I'll probably bake up a small crumble for us tonight. The rest will go down in the walk-in. *Some of the choc chip cookies and brownies went, but the big hit of the desserts was the rice krispy treats, especially the batch I made with a higher proportion of marshmallow goop. I'll probably freeze most of the rest of the cookies and brownies. Some will go to the kind folks who sharpen my skates, when I see them on Sunday night. Some I may send into the office. And some will sit there for a while, chilling out. *Washing and drying dishes, and packaging up leftovers, goes really quickly when you have a dozen volunteers helping! All in all, it was a great evening, if a somewhat tiring day for us. We'd be happy to feed the team again next year, if the timing works out for everyone. And judging from the responses we got, they'd be thrilled with a repeat of this year's menu. MelissaH

Marge, Nope, I've only ever done a single batch at a time. I'm usually only making it for me, and a single batch is enough for a while. MelissaH

Yep, the yield is about right, and about what we figured on. We had three pieces, each 6-7 lbs, with bone and skin. We also rendered out a lot of lard...some of which will get used to fry up mole paste later today. MelissaH

The pig is cooked. (It made it into the oven before I started the brownie batter.) We started with about 21 lbs of raw pork shoulder (that's about 9.5 kg) on the bone, which we slow-roasted. After cooking, we have about 4 kg of shredded meat, which works out to be about 130 g per serving for 30 servings. (That's a little more than 1/4 lb cooked weight per serving, for those of you who prefer stupid American units.) Rice krispy treats are made but not yet cut. Second batch of brownies will get baked tonight, cooled overnight, and cut in the morning; one batch is a 9 by 13 inch pan. (We ate some of the first batch just after I baked them, so we'll actually wind up with more like 1.5 batches of brownies. I cut the first batch into 2-inch squares, but I think I'll cut those in half or possibly even in quarters before serving them tomorrow. On the savory side, 4 lbs of dried black beans have been sorted and are now soaking. Dip will get put together tonight also. Still need to get out to buy cabbage and apples and onions. And the rest we'll finish up tomorrow. (And there's a fire in the woodstove downstairs. The floor down there is cold!) MelissaH

Marge, Yes, fully cooked. I use the salt because I find without it, the oatmeal tastes flat, even if you use good-quality stuff and toast it first. But a little salt might also help keep nasties away during the overnight rest. I use it mainly because it tastes so much better. MelissaH

I'm going to put in another plug for the overnight method: boil 4 cups of water with a pinch of salt. Take off the heat, stir in 1 cup steel-cut oats, put the lid on the pot, and let it sit overnight. In the morning, heat what you want to eat (either in the pot on the stove, or in the microwave). Store what you don't eat in the fridge and heat and eat over the next few days. No special equipment required. MelissaH

I, unfortunately, am not going to be able to make it this year. MelissaH

It's the day before. Here's where we are: *We shopped yesterday. *I'm about to start the second batch of brownies; I already have the first batch waiting in the freezer along with all the balls of cookie dough. *The brownies need to get in and out of the oven this morning, so the oven will be available for the pork all afternoon. *We still need to get cabbage for cole slaw, apples to go with dessert, and onions because we only have two left in the house. *Grapes aren't gonna happen, at $4/lb this week. *This afternoon, we'll be sorting dried beans and then getting them in to soak. *We're serving water to drink. When the team asked what they could bring, we said that if they wanted anything to drink other than water, bring that. (Water was the only option at a team dinner this weekend, so we don't feel bad in offering only water.) *We may carbonate a keg of water, so seltzer will also be available. *We had a tough time finding good limes, but once we're done with prep, we'll see if we have enough limes left to make at least a little bit of syrup for limonatas. Now, time to start chopping chocolate for those brownies! MelissaH

Our supermarket ads change on Sundays, so we won't know for sure till the weekend what fruit will be feasible. I do know that apples from the orchard store are always a good and reasonable option; should I go that route, I'd just make sure I choose a mix of varieties that will combine nicely into a pie, or crisp, or even applesauce if they don't get eaten as is. Good point about the serving spoon size. I know we have plenty of pots big enough to hold 4 lbs of beans while they cook. This time of the year, we have both the "walk-in" (garage) and the "walk-out" (deck) refrigerators in service, so there won't be a problem storing the cooked beans overnight either. One rice-cooker cup is 3/4 of a standard cup, so that means 10 rice cooker cups would work out to be 7.5 standard cups, which is about 37.5 ounces, which is about 2 1/3 pounds, which would make about 7 3/4 cups cooked. We'll need to run through three full rice-cooker loads (to make about 23 1/2 cups of cooked rice), each of which takes about 40 minutes. That should be no problem if we start in the morning, or even early in the afternoon. As long as we get the first two loads done before people start eating and have the third well underway, we should be good on the rice front. Unfortunately, we don't have much room for a small bookshelf near the door. But I may try putting one of our plastic shelving units in the space behind where the door opens. If I can find something small enough, it won't get in the way of the door opening. But I think we'll wind up stacking the shoes on the stairs, which were NOT just redone. Or we'll set up a shelving unit downstairs in the laundry room. Coats will go on the guest bed, which will be covered with a blanket we don't really care about. They're unlikely to be wet, because we're unlikely to get rain this time of year. What's far more likely is lake-effect snow (Fulton, NY, which has been on several national news programs lately, is the next town south of us). Lake-effect snow is usually fluffy and powdery, so that you can just shake yourself and it all flies off of you. We have some chairs, and lots of floor space and cushions that can be leaned against walls. Nothing like a picnic in January. I'm looking forward to it. They're a nice batch of young women, and we're glad to be able to make their lives a little easier. (We enjoy and support the men's hockey team also, but they have far more external support and a much larger fan base than the women do.) My big concern is that they'll like what we feed them, word will spread, and they'll want us to do it again next year! MelissaH edited for minor clarifications

We have a 10-cup rice cooker. I was planning to use that, and just do plain white rice, nothing special. That way, if there's anything left over, it'll be more flexible than something seasoned. We're definitely planning to cook the beans ahead of time. Worst-case scenario, they'll be cooking overnight in the crockpot or in the oven. That's part of my concern about trying to figure out how many pounds of dry beans we'll need! Nope, we're on for beverages also. We'll talk to the captains to find out what sort of thing the team likes. I'm hoping for a bunch of water drinkers, as that will make our lives easier. Definitely no alcohol, as that's out according to the university. We're contemplating making a big batch of limonada, especially since we'll have help squeezing the limes. The team plays a couple of games this weekend. We feed them on Wednesday, when presumably they'll have a practice. And they have a couple of games the following weekend. So it'll be a post-practice, relax-a-little sort of meal. We're between semesters, so the choices of food are limited, particularly for the majority of the team living in the campus residence halls. That's part of the reason for us doing this team meal during next week. MelissaH

My biggest microwave-safe bowl is an 8-cup measuring cup. I have both plastic and glass. Will this be big enough? Any bigger wouldn't fit in my microwave anyway. Adding a tad of cayenne gives a nice nip to the RC treats! While brown butter and cayenne might be nice, I'm staying away from anything that's even remotely weird or different for this crowd. We're probably already going to be stretching their culinary horizons, in some cases, and this is meant to be an enjoyable and relaxing meal, not a challenging one. Maybe next time. MelissaH

I always do. I make sure I skewer all six sides of the loaves as well. MelissaH

Heather, Thanks for your input---that's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. Got a favorite dip recipe you'd care to share? We tend to keep low-fat mayo on hand. Do we need to go more extreme than that for the coleslaw dressing? How much dry rice and beans would you cook? That's the sort of thing I'm having trouble getting my head wrapped around at the moment. I'm hoping we can actually find 8-inch tortillas; the larger ones are far more prevalent in the stores here. I know corn tortillas are lower in fat than flour tortillas, but without making a special trip I'd have to make them myself, which means a whole afternoon doing nothing but. Flour tortillas, though, I can buy. We can easily get apples around here, as we live in one of NY's prime apple-growing regions and have a great orchard store just up the road. Bananas are evil, though, so we'll find an alternative to these if we want another fruit. It may depend on what's on sale and looks good when we shop. Everyone loves RK treats; I just prefer them freshly prepared and there's going to be enough going on that day that I'll have to carve out stove and pot space for them. But I'm known as a baker, so I'm inclined to make a batch of some kind of cookies (possibly my oatmeal-choc chip, which I make tiny) or cake (which can get thinly sliced). I'd like to make sure there's something with chocolate. MelissaH

Unless something changed over the holidays, we have no vegetarians, kosher requirements, or halal requirements either. So we're clear on that front. MelissaH

My husband and I have volunteered to serve a meal to our university's women's hockey team next week. We'll have 24 college athletes, plus a couple of coaches and possibly a handful of other adults, plus the two of us. We've already been warned that the team eats a lot! Right now, it doesn't look like we'll have any worries about food allergies or intense dislikes, although this is not an adventurous-eating crowd. For our menu, we've settled on tortillas with stuff to go inside---some might say "tacos" but we won't be doing a traditional taco spread. We plan to slow-roast some pork shoulders and then pull them (for a variety of reasons, I won't have time to smoke them, so the oven will have to suffice). We'll do that the day before, and then reheat the meat the day of. We'll have =Mark's bbq sauce and probably also a tomatillo/pumpkin seed sauce, assuming we can find tomatillos. Shredded cheese, lettuce, salsa, sour cream. Pickled onions. Cole slaw. A pot of rice and a pot of black beans. And flour tortillas. Cookies for dessert: I'm thinking I'll make and freeze a batch of dough each day this week, which can get quickly baked the day of the meal: a couple of batches of choc chip and a couple of batches of something without chocolate such as a dough that can get easily turned into jam thumbprints (or a couple of batches of rice krispy treats); maybe a batch or two of brownies also if I have the time. We can easily have veggie-and-dip trays, for early arrivers or those at the end of the line who have to wait to eat. And we'll have help with day-of prep, as a few of the team members like to cook and have volunteered to come early. At this point, my biggest concern (apart from finding space for everyone to put their wet shoes) is making sure we have enough food on hand. We'll be setting things up as a build-your-own buffet, if that enters into the equation. That said, what are your best guesses on the amount of stuff we'll need to buy/make/have? We're trying to minimize the number of choices available, because past experience tells us that when you have more choices, people tend to eat more because they need to try some of everything. We figured that between the pork and the rice and beans, there would be enough protein choices that we didn't need another hunk of a different beast; do you believe our thinking is correct? (If we did, we'd probably go for turkey breast, or maybe chicken if it turned out to be less expensive when we shop.) Any thoughts on other things we're missing? Would it be wrong not to have chips? How many cups of rice and pounds of dried beans should I plan on cooking? MelissaH

Sorry about that, Kerry! MelissaH

We have some precious stash in our freezer. But a recent trip to Wegman's (a "little" Wegman's, no less) had some Wegman's brand puff pastry in the freezer section. I read the ingredients, and it seems to be all-butter. I hope it's here to stay and not just a seasonal thing. MelissaH

Cart wipes at the entryway of the big supermarkets. Bags at the meat section of both. But only Wegman's has hand sanitizer at the meat section. MelissaH

nxtasy, Yes, TH. My big question now is how buttery the buttercrust is. Do I replace all the oil, or just part of it, with butter? (Or, put another way, how much butter do you get for $0.75?) MelissaH

*bump* Early in the new year, my husband and I will be making our version of Chicago-style pizza for a transplanted Chicagoan friend. We asked him which place is his favorite, and he said Lou Malnati's. Unfortunately, neither my husband nor I has ever had the pleasure of a Malnati's pizza, so we're aiming for an unknown. (We've always gravitated towards Edwardo's spinach pie, but in ten years of trying still haven't figured the filling out quite right. We've also eaten at Due and Giordano's.) So, Chicagoans, I'm asking for a little advice before I start to experiment this week in preparation for the big day. We've worked out a crust recipe that we're happy with over the years. Our recipe uses both salad oil (I usually use corn oil) and olive oil, in about a 2:1 ratio. If I wanted to try a butter crust variation, would I sub butter for the salad oil, the olive oil, or both? As far as crust thickness: I understand Malnati's crust runs thinner (relatively speaking, of course not as thin as what we see here in upstate NY); that's fine because that's what we prefer as well. Does the rim of the crust also run thin? And then there's the tomato issue. According to a previous post, we should use plain tomatoes, with a sprinkle of oregano (dried?) and parm. If this information is correct, there's no way on earth that this recipe can be correct. We usually use a can of crushed tomatoes and a can of diced tomatoes, dump both into a sieve to drip-drain well, mix the two together, and use that as our tomato component. How chunky is Malnati's tomato, and how much tomato is there? How strong is the oregano? (Come to think of it, maybe a little dried oregano would help to further absorb any liquid, and thus help avoid soggy crust.) And then there's the construction issue. We usually duplicate what we remember eating: get the crust in the pan, then put down a layer of slices (not shreds) of mozzarella, then whatever toppings we're using, then the tomato, and finally a sprinkle of parm. This is another reason why the Food Network recipe referenced above gives me doubt: it says to "Add the tomato sauce and all of the toppings," which to me implies that the stuff goes on top of the tomato, whereas I'm used to seeing the tomato on top of the stuff. I'm presuming that crust-cheese-stuff-tomatoes would be correct for a Malnati's pie. Any other advice for us? Next time we're in Chicago, you can guess where we'll be going for our pizza fix! MelissaH