1. What is a genius item to bring to the in office potluck?
I had a coworker who would also bring a couple of dozen of basic McDonald’s hamburgers and cheese burgers and hands-full of ketchup and mustard packets.
2. What was your mom’s quick supper shortcut when time/money were an issue?
She kept a can of La Choy chicken chow mein – the two step can with the chow mein in one can and the dry noodles in a second can taped together.
3. What’s the best food hack you have learned.
I had a professor in college and his wife was a registerered nutrionist and she was pretty picky about food and sugar. She didn’t like to give her kids orange juice but instead would keep a tube off frozen orange juice concentrate in the door of her freezer and then simply scoop out a spoonful of the frozen juice and stir it into a glass or water. I always thought that was quite genius as it limited the sugar and was still really refreshing.
4. What’s a food/cooking hack you learned from a television show or a movie?
From “The Sopranos” Joey Pantaloon’s character always added some sour cream to his scrambled eggs. It works. It’s genius and makes them extra creamy and fluffy.
5. Did you ever buy a kitchen gadget from those late night infomercials?
I bought a set of non stick pans from Mirro that were nearly indestructible. I used for decades until the nonstick finally started to fail.
1) I am a sucker for easy crockpot potluck dishes. I do a Chciken and dumplings that is pretty much all dumped in and then an hour before you put some biscuit dough pieces submerged and comes out super yummy.
2) Tuna helper – simple box of mac and cheese, can of tuna and some frozen peas. Pretty healthy and tastes yummy. I still make it once in a while today.
3) Chicken pot pie or any pie for that matter, just use 2 frozen crusts and put one on the top, cooks to look just like you made it yourself.
4) No hacks from a show. Lots of things I wanna try to make, but no hacks.
5) I have not.
1. A Slip ‘n Slide. What’s more fun than that?
2. The make your own burrito bar. Browned ground beef, tortillas and a bunch of crap salvaged from the fridge. “Have at it kids!”
3. Salt and pepper are fundamentally different. Salt *transforms* flavor while pepper *changes* flavor. Most people think the two are inextricably married.
4. The salt/fat/acid/heat quadrumvirate. With those four elements, you can salvage almost any dish. (AND today I learned the word “quadrumvirate.” Always be learnin’)
5. No. Although an NYT article convinced me that I needed my very own arepa maker. I have yet to make anything terribly edible with it.