The Slapdash Cook

I am fan of a cooking show called Good Food, which is aired on the local NPR affiliate. Two months ago, they asked listeners for cooking questions, and for some reason, my question was selected for airing! So last Saturday’s Good Food includes me asking a question about good dishes to make if you have to cook ahead and then travel. The questions were answered not only by Evan Kleiman, a local chef and busy superwoman, but also some folks from Venice Cooking School. The Good Food blog has some of the other questions.

BTW, they told me to make a casserole without any liquid ingredients and bag it for airplane travel, then sneak out for the tomato sauce or whatever to finish it. For car travel, they recommended soup because it gets better with age. Having made borscht and lentil soup in the past week (hey, it rained), I can certainly testify to #2. However, J. has recently received a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, so I’ve ceded him the kitchen space for a white and am enjoying being his audience.

Somewhat ironically, when I asked that question, I was thinking about Thanksgiving. In the event, I decided to just make myself the kitchen slave for my hostess, who is a very good cook in her own right. However, the hostess was on a diet, so I ended up without my favorite Thanksgiving food — PIE. Thus, I had to make myself a mini-pie when I got home.