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One of the most difficult challenges for me as a cook is preparing a meal with multiple dishes and ensuring that everything finishes at the right time. It's frustrating to spend hours in the kitchen, only to have the mashed potatoes finished 45 minutes before your roast comes out of the oven. 

Typically when I'm doing a large meal like Thanksgiving, I plan out the timing in advance. I start with when I want to serve dinner and work backward. For example, if dinner is at 7:00 then the chicken needs to come out of the oven at 6:45 so it has 15 minutes to rest. This means I need to put it in the oven at 5:15 because it roasts for 90 minutes. If the chicken needs to go into the oven at 5:15, I need to start browning it at 5:00. 

When I'm doing a large meal, I'll schedule out the big things that take a long time, then look at the pockets of time I can prep other dishes. The only trouble I run into is remembering to start everything at its scheduled time. Enter the iPhone. 
Using the calendar feature, I set myself "appointments" with an alarm at the times that I needed to perform various tasks in the kitchen. For example, at 5:15 my phone told me to "put chicken in oven" and at 6:15 I set another reminder to "remove lid from chicken." My only complaint is that the alarm can't be set to go off at the exact time of an appointment - the closest you can get is 5 minutes before. I got around this by setting the appointments for 5 minutes after, then setting the alarm to ring 5 minutes before. Another work-around would be to set all the appointments at the correct time the next day, and then set the alarm for 1 day before. 
It takes a bit of effort to plan everything out and set your phone to alert you, but I think you'll find that the resulting organization is more than worth the effort. You'll be able to get your entire dinner on the table at the same time, and you won't forget to start the rice! 
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Once again, my dad George: 

The worst ‘milkshake’ I ever had was in Berlin in 1973.  We were desperate for a taste of home so we stopped at a Wimpy’s Burger.  This was before there was a McDonald’s on every block and the Wimpy’s looked reassuringly franchised.  (Wimpy?  Remember Popeye?  Wimpy was his fat sidekick who would obsequiesly snivel, “I’d gladly pay you Tuesday, for a hamburger today.”  Anyone under 50 may have to Wiki that.)  Anyway, somebody thought that would be a good basis for a burger restaurant and franchised it.  And the burgers might have been OK, I don’t really remember.  What I do remember is that the milk shake came out in a glass.  And it was milk, shaken.  We tasted it again.  It was just milk with bubbles that could only have come from vigorous shaking.  All we could visualize was the night staff standing in the back, poring over a German-English dictionary, shrugging, and shaking some milk for all they were worth.   

Let’s be honest, I steal most of my recipes.  I think we all do.  How many people actually make up something new?  Not many, I’d guess.  (Of course, there was my highly original Pickled Beet Whipped Cream, which, contrary to the scornful derision of my family, wasn’t that bad.) 

Aunt Joyce, a master cook herself, once told me that there were no secrets.  Everything was in a cookbook somewhere.  I mean, with 6 billion people on the planet eating two or three meals a day, that’s a lot of food and people talk.  

But every so often I think I come up with something myself.  Now, this may be a nice bit of self-delusion.  There’s a phenomenon where you get a great idea and a month later read about somebody else with the same idea. Except they market it and make a million bucks.  Did they read your mind?  No.  We’re all subject to roughly the same pool of information.  The same stimulus.  The same events.  The same background knowledge.  That the same ideas would occur to two or more people isn’t strange, it’s almost inevitable. 

Then there’s the Forgetfulness Phenomenon.  You learn something, time passes, you forget that you learned it and it occurs to you seeming like an original idea.  This may have happened when I discovered

The World’s Best Chocolate Malt

It happened at a resort my parents owned back in the 70s.  We were making malts but  they always seemed to lack a dimension.  Fullness?  Richness?   Some were OK but most were disappointments. 

Working  in the resort we had a commercial kitchen and lots of supplies.   At some point I decided to add marshmallow cream to a shake, filled it with chocolate and malt powder, and the gates to heaven opened. 

Really, I mean, this is the malt that your friends will do a double take for.  It’s rich, it’s sweet, it’s creamy/chocolaty/malty . . . it’s really, really good.  It’s so good that we can’t have it at my house.  Once you start making and eating these things, well . . . you gain weight.  It’s the same thing with triple-chocolate cake (cake mix, instant pudding, chips, and yogurt in a bundt pan.)  Good?  Hell, yes.  But just how fat do you want me?  

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Anyway, here’s what you do:

Ingredients:
  8 oz milk
  Big scoop of marshmallow cream  (1/2 cup?  ¾?  You be the judge)
  Malt powder, 2 huge spoonfuls (1/4 cup? 1/3? Again . . .)
  Chocolate syrup (I judge by the color)
  Vanilla Ice cream  (better have two quarts on hand)

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Set up your blender.  Pour in the milk.  Drop in the huge scoop of marshmallow cream and blend immediately.  (Put on the lid first, or you’ll be wearing a portion of this but don’t delay)  The cream should dissolve in the milk but if it gets too cold there may be problems.
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While the blender is still running drop in the malt powder and squeeze in the chocolate syrup.  

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Then start scooping in the ice cream.  Keep at it until the blender A) is full, or B) chokes and won’t take any more. 

Pour into huge glasses and serve with a strong straw.  

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If you’re the sort that likes to keep guests mystified, you can do this in the kitchen and when, amazed, they ask how you did it, you can simply reply, “Ahh, it’s just ice cream in milk.” 

It’s OK, not all secrets are meant to be shared.  

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Fattet Hummos 05/19/2009
 
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This recipe was meant to be my entry for Thursday Night Smackdown's Cheap-Ass Monday: May. Then I didn't update for 2 weeks. Oops. 

For more information about the cost breakdown, please see this post. 

I first encountered this dish when I was taking a Middle Eastern cooking class. It’s incredibly easy to make. There are a few different parts, but each is simple and well within the capabilities of even the most recipe-dependent, can’t-boil-water dunce in the kitchen.

Adapted from Chef Shannon Herman. 
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You will need:
2 cans garbanzo beans
4 cups chicken broth (use homemade if you have it)
1 head garlic plus 4 cloves
2 bay leaves
2 cups greek-style yogurt
bunch mint leaves
¼ cup pine nuts
½ cup feta cheese
2 pita or flat breads

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Method:

Drain and rinse the garbanzo beans. Peel the head of garlic and cut off the bottom of each clove. Put the beans, garlic, chicken broth, and bay leaves into a large pot and cook uncovered over low heat (simmer – do not boil) for 1-2 hours, until the beans are soft when squished but continue to hold their shape when left alone. 
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Mince 4 cloves of garlic and the mint. Reserve 1-2 tablespoons of mint, then mix the minced garlic, mint, and yogurt with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. Set mixture aside. 
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In a small skillet, toast the pine nuts until they are slightly browned and smell really good. Remove from heat and set aside. 

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Set up 4 bowls. Tear the pitas into bite-size pieces and divide between the bowls. Using a spatula, spread ¼ of the yogurt mixture over the pita in each bowl. 
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Ladle the garbanzo beans, broth, and garlic over the pita and yogurt. 
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Sprinkle each bowl with pine nuts, then crumble the feta and divide equally between bowls. Garnish with reserved mint and serve immediately. 
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Back From Hiatus 05/19/2009
 

It's been a busy time here at the HotDish HQ - we've had relatives visiting and large-scale cooking and cleaning projects going on, and my motivation to update has been low. I'm feeling more on top of everything, now, though, and posting will resume shortly. A preview of things to come: delicious, easy and cheap fattet hommus, the best milkshake in the world, new kitchen organization, and curried split pea soup. Let's cook! 

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I compared the cost of ingredients for my fattet hummos recipe at Safeway and Whole Foods. While some ingredients were slightly cheaper at Safeway, the high prices on “premium” items raise the overall tab to over 130% of the overall cost at Whole Foods.

The total cost at Safeway for 4 servings is $16.21, or $4.05/serving. This is more than 130% more than the cost at Whole Foods of $12.07 for 4 and $3.02 per serving. You can save some money by making the chicken broth yourself – it will taste a lot better than packaged broth and save you a few dollars to boot. If you make your own chicken broth, it brings the total cost down to $10.07 for 4 servings and $2.52/serving.

The biggest savings, though, is buying the dairy at Whole Foods instead of Safeway. The feta at Safeway costs twice as much and the yogurt costs three times as much – buying those two ingredients alone at Whole Foods will save you $5.00 over 4 servings.


Once again, Safeway proves to be more expensive than Whole Foods.

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