Guys.

Please see nutritional information for gooey buns. 1400 calories per bun.

Just say no to gooey buns.

Drole, you have inspired me!

I try

Busy-ness has kept me from updating a couple of questions asked on this thread. But now that the semester is nearly in the can at the fine institution of higher learning where I toil, I can update you.

I was asked what I was doing for Christmas dinner for the girls. This year we did a Hanukkah dinner. After consulting with one of our 6 or 7 jewish girls, the menu was Matzah Ball Soup (someone else told me that it is really a passover dish, but it was requested) Beef Brisket cooked in Apple Cider with Dried Fruit, Potato Latkes, Random vegetables, Yeast Rolls, and Jelly Donuts. I also made an Apple and Craisin Strudel as another dessert. The meal went over well and was genuinely appreciated by the jewish girls as they tend to get lost in the shuffle sometimes.

So the girls must vacate by 6:30 tomorrow night and I am looking forward to a 3 1/2 week hiatus. But still I am looking for new ideas. If you see something please pass it on.

Merry Christmas

Chef,
We have missed you and I really want someone to make me some Latkes sometime.

BTW...have you ever done Apple Fritters for a meal? Sometimes I treat friends to Canadian Bacon with an Apricot Sauce (Preserves and Brandy), then fry up a batch of Apple Fritters with Vermont Maple Syrup on the side. It's heavenly!

When we were kids, we died for my mom to make Blintzes for dinner. She made up the crepes, filled them and put them in a baking dish, and did a sour cream topping. This would satisfy both your Vegetarians and Jewish Girls (and probably the rest of the house)

Excellent !!!! comment. My husband may like it, tho --I may just try this for a casual dinner. I lived in my house for two years. The dishes that I remember best were Cheese Grits (as a side dish, I'm from the north & they were great) and Chicken Divan, which I now want to recreate. Also, a great dessert can make a boring meal memorable. All can be forgiven if the dessert is wonderful. :)

Now that the girls are gone and I have time off, I am definitely turning my thinking to new ideas for next semester. For the past two years upon returning from break I have been informed its diet time. You know, the need to look good in a bikini for spring break take precedence. However, when I have tried to get real diet conscious about my menus, someone has come up and told me "Feed me, I'm hungry and not on a diet". So blintzes and fritters sound good to me.

I've got a great new food chair who is real interested in being active in her role. My previous food chair was great, but not as active as she could have been. We are excited about having a planning meeting to put together a calendar of special meals for the spring.

And Barino, if you are looking for a great dessert, look back through this thread for the Peanut Butter Bars. OMG!

Last week was the neighborhood Progressive Dinner. I had the dessert round. Would you believe I had PB Bars left over (to the jubilation of my co-workers)?

The first to go was the cheesecake, which I do make a no fail, everyone loves version. Mine has a topping of whipped cream and sour cream. Guaranteed to clog the arterties. The next item to go was the Rich Pecan Coffee Cake (I can't show up for Christmas without it). Also gone were the Majoul Dates and Turkish Apricots.

It was a lot of fun, and this weekend, I can sleep! Chef, let me know if you need any more help. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.

Chef - It can be difficult to juggle the girls who are concerned with calorie and fat content with those who are more concerned with taste and don't want a diet menu.

I would recommend considering both points of view. Maybe you could serve lighter lunches and full-flavor dinner. Or, the main dish could generally be healthier, but your sides could be varied. If you make grilled chicken breasts, you could have one side of steamed carrots and the other of creamed spinach.

Thai Basil Chicken is relatively easy to make and is a nice variation and adds a touch of exotic to the menu
I also had a really nice recipe for Thai Peanut Chicken Curry (though I'm sure tofu would work nicely as well) that I can get for you if you want, it's from a cookbook.

My mom does a really nice, simple pasta with semi-cooked chopped tomatoes over angelhair pasta - basically you only partially cook the tomatoes, then put them over the pasta IMMEDIATELY after draining so that the heat cooks them the rest of the way. Pour olive oil on top, add a little salt and pepper, and voila.

What about shish kebabs done with tofu/meat?

There's also kao suey, a Thai/Burmese soup that's done at 'stations,' if that makes sense. It's a coconut-based soup to which you add noodles, garlic, cilantro, basil, chilli, meat, etc. The girls can start off with the basic broth and then add what they like. It's tasty and filling. I'm explaining this badly, but you can get a better idea here: http://rasbhara.blogspot.com/2005/12...khao-suey.html.

The soup you are talking about sounds alot to me like pho, the vietnamese soup filled with noodles and different meats which you garnish with lime, chilis, sprouts, and sauces. I do a take off on pho for lunch making the soup stock from chicken instead of beef. I provide bowls filled with either rice or wheat noodles that the girls can garnish as they choose using chicken, tofu, basil, mint, cilantro, carrot, mushroom, lime, sprouts before covering with the fragrant stock. It goes over very well.

I have also done a Vietnamese Table Salad. Butter lettuce leaves are the wrapper and I provide Lemongrass grilled chicken, rice vermicelli, cucumber, carrots, fresh pineapple, mint, cilantro, basil and a fish sauce based dipping sauce. They load the ingredients of their choice into the lettuce and roll it up to eat. I serve it with fried rice.

I also tried a new recipe this past week, a Tomato-Coconut Chicken. It was simply sauteed chicken breast with peppers and scallions sauteed along. Coconut Milk, chicken stock, and diced tomatoes were added and simmered down with red pepper flakes. The resulting dish was served with rice and was delicious. For the vegetarians I fried Panko breaded tofu and made a companion sauce following the same recipe but without the chicken stock. Also a hit.

I wish our cook was so accomodating! The ladies you cook for are so lucky!

Chef, it's similar to pho but more like a tom yum soup meets pho, if that makes any sense. I looooove pho, good call! If your girls are a fan of Asian-fusion cuisine, Nina Simmonds does great cookbooks with very easy, unfussy recipes that are Asian in origin that can be put into wraps, salads, etc. Her stuff is great, my mom has adapted many of her recipes to the home with great success (i.e. healthy beef stir fry with carrots and broccoli stems, etc).