ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 16, 1996 TAG: 9601160029
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Beth Macy
SOURCE: BETH MACY
Every phone conversation I had last week started out with, ``How are you braving the snow?''
Followed quickly by: ``More importantly, whatcha cooking?''
My friend Sue convinced me there was more to cabin-fever cooking than nourishment when she described making six servings of tapioca pudding - using up all the milk within a six-block radius. And she lives alone.
``The mix was old, and it didn't congeal, but I had to have it,'' she said.
It's five days into the snowstorm as I write this, and so far I've made a veritable cookbook's index of foods: homemade pizzas, three batches of French bread, eggplant Parmesan, chicken pot pie, mashed potatoes, wheat bread, two batches of scones, a tomato-cheese pie. . . .
Nary a vegetable reared its head, unless it was drowning in one of my two major food groups: cheese or gravy.
Need more proof that snowstorms bring out the comfort-food cooking in all of us? It's in the pudding. . . and the pot roast. . . and the Swiss-Parmesan-herb bread.
Teacher Cindy Metz, on a snow-week furlough from the Roanoke County Career Center, had made so many loaves of bread last week that she answered her telephone in a literal huff.
``I'm riding my Healthrider,'' she said in between breaths. ``My bread machine is resting - for the moment.''
Metz spent the week dreaming up new things to eat and creative ways to get out of shoveling snow. ``I talked my neighbor into shoveling my car out by offering him a loaf of bread.''
Is it our hibernating nature that drives us to eat like mad when we're stuck in the house, or do we do it out of simple boredom? I needed an expert opinion.
``For a lot of moms, we don't usually have this much time to cook - because we're so busy running errands and taking kids here and there,'' said Mindy Burgin, who made a pot roast during her snow vacation from Virginia Western Community College, where she teaches psychology.
``The snow gives you an out: You have time to make the fun things you don't normally have time to make.''
Kate Khalilian, a preschool teacher and mother of two, had created this cornucopia of comfort foods as of late last week: two cobblers, multiple batches of cinnamon rolls, animal-shaped pancakes (she specializes in elephants), black bean soup, an almost infinite supply of popcorn, cornbread and home-made play dough (more on edible play dough later).
Khalilian, for the record, has the eating excuse of being in her fifth month of pregnancy - lucky dog.
During a six-hour game of Monopoly one day, her family ate two plates of cinnamon rolls, many bowls of popcorn - then followed up the grueling match with a huge Iranian meal cooked by her husband, Kamran. ``We played for so long that I actually owned hotels,'' she said.
``I like this weather because you get into all the stuff in the way-back of your cupboard. You tell yourself, `I don't need to go to the store. Why, I've got some stale flour right here.' ''
Laurie Beck, a graduate student still on break from Virginia Tech, had her snowed-in food regimen down to metronome precision: ``You shovel for 10 minutes, then realize you're panting, which makes you think about all the calories you've just burned off. So you think, `I need to eat!'''
Beck sauteed and stirred her way through the recent issue of Bon Appetit magazine last week, making black-bean vegetable chili, minestrone soup and a risotto recipe that originated in a restaurant in Italy.
``We started out with gourmet meals, but last night we were down to tuna fish and soup,'' she said. ``Now we're out of milk.''
Even Cappy Johnson, co-owner of Brother's Bakery downtown, was taking a busman's holiday - staying home to bake cornbread and biscuits, among many other foods.
``I've had the neighbor kids over constantly, so there's always a steady supply of hot chocolate and popcorn,'' she said. Between those standbys, she'd also made chicken-fried steak, nachos, pot roast, beans and rice, and barbecued potatoes.
Normally, she and her husband Richard bring home food from their restaurant for dinner. ``But I've really enjoyed making everything myself this week. It makes you feel nurturing; it makes you feel like a good mom.''
The Johnsons have even managed to eat a sit-down supper together with their three sons every night - something their busy schedules don't normally allow.
``We get to spend hours around the table, the kids talking about their sledding accidents and scaring me to death,'' she said. ``Sometimes I think I should be out there watching them instead of cooking!'' |n n| Here's Khalilian's recipe for edible play dough, in case you find yourselves stranded again with a house full of energized kids and few ideas left for feeding them:
Combine one 18-ounce jar of peanut butter with 6 tablespoons honey. Add nonfat dry milk (or use milk and flour combined) until the dough is the right consistency. Optional: Add carob or cocoa for a chocolate flavor.
``After they've had all this sugar, then you've gotta wrap 'em up and kick 'em out the door,'' she advises.
Beth Macy's column runs in Tuesday and Thursday Extra. Her phone number is 981-3435 or (800) 346-1234, ext. 435.
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Robert Lunsford. color.by CNB