eG Foodblog: Malawry - Expecting a future culinary student

[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?  

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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 February 15, 2006 by MarketStEl (log)

[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.

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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?

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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?

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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. 

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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.

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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!

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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.

[Malawry]

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?

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When I accepted Chef Lang's offer to teach some continuing ed cooking classes, she gave me a list of classes that had been previously taught and asked if any of them looked good. (It was only a list of class titles.) I chose a few and then proposed a few of my own: how to give a dinner party and the tapas party were two of those. She really liked my ideas, so we went with them. For the classes I proposed I had to fill out a "class proposal" form that mostly explained what I wanted to teach and what I thought it would cost from a materials standpoint to cover the subject. Previously taught classes already had accepted proposals, so I just had to say "I'll teach this" and pick a date and the rest was taken care of.

[Malawry]

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

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I was wondering when somebody would pick up on this and ask about it!

Given my experience from my early 20s as a gender activist (and my undergraduate degree in women's studies), I would be personally ashamed to attach a male pronoun to a baby whose sex was unknown. (People do it all the time, but I'm very careful about these things.) We definitevely found out in December that I am carrying a boy, but I had a hunch beforehand that this was the case. We were referring to him as "Baby Jones" (Jones is my husband's last name, and the name we're giving any children), sort of like "Baby Jesus"--you know, "Baby Jones cries when you buy margarine instead of butter" type of thing. But since we know his sex, we've been referring to him by the name we've chosen.

That name? Colin Elijah Jones.

I had another ultrasound last week and got a snap of his boy bits from the technician, just to be absolutely sure. Boy, will this be an embarrassment to him when he brings home a date in high school...*cackle*

[Malawry]

So, I'm awake after only about 5 hours of sleep, and feeling somewhat bleary as a result. I may try to go back to bed in a little while. I find I have no trouble falling asleep, but when I wake up to use the bathroom (which I always do at least once each night) I frequently have difficulty falling back asleep. I've started giving myself a time limit of 1 hour...if I am still awake an hour later, I get up and do something productive for a while, and then when I feel really sleepy I go back to bed.

I was feeling peckish, so I ate a small ganache-topped brownie from last night's class when I got up. I also popped some chicken breasts into a bowl of water to defrost for my husband's lunch--I normally would have made his lunch for today before I left for my class yesterday, but due to the blood moving from my brain to my uterus I forgot. I'm going to either turn them into chicken parm or just saute them and add them to a big salad along with some bacon, cheese and other low-carb friends for his lunch. He's awake too now, so I can cook without waking him but, but his presence means I can't download last night's photos until later today.

I have a somewhat busy day ahead today, but you'll have to wait and watch it unfold as it happens.

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Congratulations -- on all of it. What a year you'll have! Very exciting stuff. I'm looking forward to reading about it.

[jackal10]

When I accepted Chef Lang's offer to teach

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I wonder if we are by chance related?

[Malawry]

When I accepted Chef Lang's offer to teach

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I wonder if we are by chance related?

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Her first name is Rhonda. She resides in Frederick, MD. You tell me.

[jackal10]

Not on my tree, that I know of. My branch of the Lang family camw from the village of Durmenach in Alsace. Its possible some emigrated to the US, but we have no record of them.

[Malawry]

I just made a lunch for my spouse: a salad and some chicken breasts with some kind of marsala sauce I found in the fridge, along with a chunk of cheddar cheese that he can either eat as a snack or as part of his mid-day meal. I pack lunches for him daily, plus I either pack or bring him dinner Monday nights when he has an evening rehearsal. (Plus of course I feed him when he's home, too!) I have a hard time being creative, especially since I usually only want to make something quick for him and he's doing the low-carb thing. I try to keep easy things that he likes such as lunch meats, assorted sausages and cheeses on hand for him...he'll heat those or throw some chicken wings in the oven if I'm teaching or otherwise unable to feed him. I was planning to give him the last of the meatballs I made on Monday morning for lunch, but he ate them for both breakfast and dinner yesterday so there aren't any left. He always eats a salad and some cheese for part of his lunches. If I get really stuck for time and energy he ends up with a big chef salad topped with whatever's around.

I'm gonna try to go back to sleep now. Wish me luck, I have to get up and moving for the day by 10am. Sigh.

[MelissaH]

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.

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I've done this walk, when I was in DC for a conference last August. It wasn't a bad walk, but as Rochelle says, Rockville Pike isn't a pleasant road if you're on foot, unless you like sucking exhaust. It's a much easier walk if you leave the Metro station on the proper side.

Rochelle, nice to see you blogging again.

MelissaH

[Dana]

What a beautiful name you've picked for your son!!! My son's name is Colin Mark.

He's a smart, responsible young man (who eats anything), and I'm sure his fine name helped him grow to mature adulthood!!

Seriously, when we did the low-carb thing, we ate a lot of eggs. Does your spouse do eggs?? Deviled, egg salad, chicken or ham salad and omelets were very popular at our house.

[Malawry]

What a beautiful name you've picked for your son!!! My son's name is Colin Mark.

He's a smart, responsible young man (who eats anything), and I'm sure his fine name helped him grow to mature adulthood!!  

Seriously, when we did the low-carb thing, we ate a lot of eggs. Does your spouse do eggs?? Deviled, egg salad, chicken or ham salad and omelets were very popular at our house.

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Funny how all the parents of kids named Colin are coming out of the woodwork to support our name choice. We'd picked out our girl name first: Caileen Ruth. So when we couldn't come up with a boy name, we went with the male version of Caileen. "Elijah" because I wanted a very Jewish-sounding name somewhere in there to reflect our Jewish family (Jones is not a very Jewish last name after all), and because we both like Elijah--it's a powerful and mystical name. The prophet Elijah is supposed to be present at all kinds of important events in a person's life, including the bris (ritual circumcision).

As for eggs--we are sick and tired of them, alas. I had a major surplus of eggage recently and did a bunch of baking to get them moved into the freezer. I figure between all the people who will be visiting when the baby is born and the bris ceremony, there will be plenty of opportunities to eat cakeys this spring. (Hopefully, it won't all happen during Passover!) I do make chicken and turkey salads every now and then, but I don't usually put eggs in them. I always put them in my tuna salad, but even though I CRAVE tuna I don't let myself have it more than once a month 'cause I'm concerned about mercury. I can occasionally hard-boil some eggs and toss them on salads or make a little egg salad, but we both tire of that quickly.

[Malawry]

I'm back to life now, after a 2-hour nap, and ready to rejoin the world. A good thing, because I need to make it to the Jefferson County Schools administrative offices, to a store, and back to the offices by noon. I'm taking off and will snap some photos along the way.

[Genny]

Malawry:

This is going to be a super blog! Congrats on your business and the business of growing your family!

For the mash potatoes (we love them!) for garlic mash I just toss some peeled cloves of garlic into with the potatoes to boil, the flavor is fresh and not too pungeant. How about twice baked potatoes? That is a form of mash . For Thanksgiving I had extra guests and didn't have enough potatoes or yams so I boiled the potatoes and steamed the yams and mashed them together...they were incredible with a bit of milk, butter & nutmeg. Also, we had a "martini bar" with the mashed potatoes served in martini glasses (get it?) with various toppings available: cheese, scallions, bacon, sr cream, fried onions, etc.

Do you have any catering gigs this week?

(Now I have to catch up on your previous blogs!)

[kayswv]

Malawry

Enjoying your blog.

Although we now live in Jefferson Co WA, we moved from Charles Town three years ago after operating the Carriage Inn for six years. The renters in our house in Spring Valley leave this month and we will be selling as soon as it is refurbished.

kayswv

[Malawry]

Do you have any catering gigs this week? 

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I have no catering gigs lined up right now, period. I haven't really been working to get them because they take so much out of me physically and I'm starting to wind down pre-baby. I do have a friend who has talked to me about doing some stuff for her daughter's baptism, but it's scheduled for April 15 so I told her I could only do something like pastry and cakes that can be frozen...nothing a-la-minute, no service staff, nothing else. She's thinking about it.

I will be looking for catering gigs starting in late July/early August, when I plan to return to work on a part-time basis. I'm really only part-time right now as it is, but both FCC and Jefferson County are after me to do much more teaching starting next fall. (Actually, both wanted me this spring/summer, but I had to say no!)

Catering and private classes are far more lucrative than the FCC and Jefferson County gigs, though they both require a lot more legwork on my part. I did cater a few parties and run a private class last month.