Interview: Nick and Corinne

Today I'm featuring an interview with Corinne and Nick, two of my college classmates who were married in 2007. Their wedding photographer (who is also my photographer) told me their wedding was one of the most tender he's ever attended. I remember he called me afterward and said it was the first time he'd been moved to tears at a wedding.

I'd imagine that's because these two have such big, honest hearts. They're in their second year of serving in Satpaev, Kazakhstan for the Peace Corps. I thought it would be interesting to hear more about what it's like cooking abroad as newlyweds. Talk about challenges! You can read more about their Peace Corps adventures here.

1. Newly Domesticated: What were your diets like when you were newlyweds stateside? How did that change?

Corinne: Our diets in America were crazy. Our meals were based on our schedules. I was always in my car so my diet consisted of a lot of trail mix and dried cereal. Usually I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast or a baggie of dried cereal on the way to school at 6:25 AM. Then, for lunch: sometimes peanut butter and jelly [because it was super easy to prepare at 5:45A] and some trail mix. My coworkers joked that I ate like a squirrel, not funny. My recipe collection consisted of various hamburger helper recipes, frozen pizza of course, chicken seared in Italian dressing, and that was pretty much the extent.

Nick: Trying to work 2+ jobs on top of finishing a master's degree (Corinne) and theoretically preparing for graduate applications (me) left us with time for mostly high-fructose corn syrup. I would cook more often than Corinne but I rarely had time to go beyond basic frozen veggies, a boneless chicken breast, and some sort of starch. Our diet was pretty bad but not because we actually enjoyed what we were eating. I, personally, just viewed it as a temporary sacrifice.

2. What was the first challenge you faced when shopping for food abroad?

Corinne: First challenge?! First time in the supermarket: "OMG. WHAT IS THAT? A SHEEP'S HEAD? O.M.G."

So, I guess the first challenge is just the fact that there isn't a Food Lion or Harris Teeter or Trader Joe's within walking distance. It was a huge difference to have to ask for everything over a counter. You can't just walk around, browse and pick things out, you have to know what you want and how to say it, in Russian. So, in general, language would be the first challenge. Buying meat is also very difficult. Nick and I have been eating A LOT of soy meat and it is way better then looking at all the dead animals hanging in the bazaar.

Nick: All the problems really hit you at once. 1) No hamburgers. 2) No one understands you. 3) You don't understand them either. 4) The money looks like it might have been used in a steam punk film and is more or less indecipherable not to mention 8 different sizes. 5) People are much more interested in enjoying the foreigner's crazy charades than trying to ascertain the nuance of the "EGGS COME FROM CHICKENS WHICH FLAP THEIR WINGS LIKE THIS AND THIS IS HOW THEY LAY EGGS I WANT EGGS" motions. 6) Supermarkets are, if available, usually way too expensive for Peace Corps Volunteers which makes the first five problems inescapable (at least for the first few months).

Nick's efforts toward soy burgers with onions. I bet Nick will DIE when he gets some Five Guys.

3. What food would you kill for that you just can't buy there?

Corinne: I can only choose one? Can I choose a meal instead? :) For a meal that I would kill for that you just can't get here would be Chicken Brian from Carrabbas: the boneless, fatless chicken breast, the goat cheese, ooooh the goat cheese, the seasoning, the side of a vegetable, a green vegetable, perfectly seasoned. Kill. for. it. I. would.

Nick: This changes every day. The only constant, really, was my favorite food: a serious, backyard-grilled hamburger. I craved hamburgers daily for almost a year. Now the cravings are more casual. Once in a while I'll just think, "oh man, remember blueberries?" or I'll be surfin' the ol' internet and suddenly, "CORINNE! GREAT NEWS. GATORADE IS STILL AROUND!"

4. What local delicacy do you love?

Corinne: The only thing I've ever bought with any kind of frequency has been a pastry that is kind of scone textured with "tvorak" which is kind of like cottage cheese on the inside. It sounds really strange, but last year I would eat two of them for dinner and it was awesome. They can be eaten for dessert, dinner, breakfast, really, anytime.

Nick: Food here is a lot like the heat in Florida: you don't ever get used to it, you just learn to live with it.

Kazakhstan was basically controlled by nomads until Nikita Khrushchev's Virgin Lands campaign really changed the social makeup of the country. So, not surprisingly, the traditional foods here are those produced by a culture concerned with raw energy and long "shelf-life," as it were. Flavor: not a concern.

I will tell you that monti, a type of dumpling filled with meat and/or pumpkin, are usually very tasty when homemade and can be served with a little broth, ketchup, mayo, or just plain. I skip the mayo.

Corinne's homemade cherry pie, made from ingredients bought in Satpaev.

5. What was your proudest cooking achievement, here and/or there?

Corinne: My proudest cooking achievement has been preparing 7 dinner parties for both volunteers from Peace Corps and locals here in Satpaev and Zhezkazgan [our neighboring city]. I prepared Thanksgiving dinner, TURKEY AND ALL, my first time, while here in Kazakhstan. That night I prepared a turkey, peanut butter cookies, pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, and homemade stuffing. Not only did the fix volunteers and two locals totally LOVE the food, but the Americans said it might have been the BEST pumpkin pie they had EVER HAD. IN THEIR WHOLE LIVES. Awesome.

Nick: There isn't a proudest moment that comes to mind for me; Corinne has had most of those. Anytime I made something that our host mom also enjoyed was pretty special, though. I've made burgers here, especially now that we live alone. They're hit and miss. Ground beef here is a different, ahem, beast.

6. How do you guys divide the kitchen duty?

Corinne: Haha. Divide the kitchen duty. That sounds awesome. Nick is awesome in the kitchen. We try to do the dishes as we work on dinner and Nick is great, if I'm cooking dinner, he is usually doing the dishes as we go, unless dinner is not as intensive. Usually we have the rule that if YOU made the dinner, YOU DON'T have to do the dishes.

I take care of most of the grocery shopping. I usually buy groceries every other day on my way home from school because we don't have a car so I can only carry groceries for about three to four days. The walk from our grocery store to our apartment is about 20 minutes and when it is negative 40 degrees it is LONG.

Nick: Corinne cooks, more or less. There are exceptions but she's the one who's really found joy in making things from scratch and spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

I'd rather spend my free time obsessing over the intelligence of ravens (WHICH IS TOTALLY NUTS! by the way) and foraging the interwebs for that magic graduate school with a fellowship called "The Nick Huber Attends For Free And We Give Him Health Benefits, a Car, and a House Award." So next time someone tells you that "you can find ANYTHING on the internet!!!!" make sure you challenge them with that one. And report back to me.

7. What was your biggest cooking failure, here and/or there?

Corinne: I've had two really bad cooking failures here. One, Nick and I had a dinner party with our counterparts, the people who asked Peace Corps to send them volunteers, and the first batch of Sloppy Joe Turnovers turned out GREAT, but then I made another batch and forgot about them because we were playing a board game and they were SO BURNT. bleh. My second failure was a banana bread mistake. I was trying to make banana bars and it turned into banana lava and spilt over the sides of pan and onto the bottom of the oven.

Nick: Here in KZ, I've made hamburger buns from scratch twice. The second time, they were great. The first time I misread a measurement and they suddenly became dense bricks of flour with a salt content so high they created a moisture vacuum in your mouth. Really, really awful but also sickly fascinating.

8. What's the first thing you're going to eat when you arrive back in the states?

Corinne: The first thing I want to eat is anything prepared by my mom. I miss her so much and there is something about the way she prepared things that just makes my heart and tummy happy, like only a mother can. First Mommy meal request: Nachos. ;)

Nick: The first thing I see. If that's a family member, so be it.

Nick and Corinne at the opening of their Resource Center last week.

9. Tell a little bit about your work in Kazakhstan. What is the best thing about the country and its people?

Corinne: I am a teacher of English in Kazakhstan. My bachelor's is in Music Education and my master's is in Teaching so I find ways to incorporate music into a lot of my lessons. Typically I teach children about 19 hours a week and then have a variety of clubs: English Club [young kids], Music Club, Girls' Club, Aerobics Club, Running Club, Theater Club and I attend Nick's club for teachers.

I am also planning a girls' leadership camp for the end of June [second annual]. We attend a variety of conferences and camps throughout Kazakhstan and just have a lot of fun learning new things.

The best thing about this country is the people. At first I was really intimidated because they are all very serious looking on the street, but once you get them into their own homes and into their comfort zone, they are the sweetest most hospitable people in the world. When they DO smile they light up the world.

When I first met the other Peace Corps Volunteers I was like, wow, this is a very interesting mix of people. A lot of people are here for their careers. This is a stepping stone in their future of working for the government or for NGOs.

I am the exact opposite. I am just here to be here. To have the experience. To help. I remember telling a volunteer last year, "I'm just here for the kids," and she said, "that will fade, you should find another reason." And I am so happy to say, it hasn't faded and everyday I love these kids more and more and this has been an awesome experience so far.

Nick: I teach 9th-11th grade English at a gymnasium (something like a school for gifted and talented, but seriously only something like that). I've done a lot of other things but that's really my core. The other constant has been a Colloquial English Club for adults which runs once a week. We've watched everything from It's A Wonderful Life to Beetle Juice to episodes of The Office.

We just opened a resource center in the town library here. The center consists of 1500+ books and magazines from the States which is pretty special. Most of the English texts they have here aren't authentic - they're translated from Russian or Kazakh or (innocently) corrupted in some way. The best thing about Kazakhstan is its people. There are so many hospitable, warm families here it sort of puts America to shame (in that one specific way). The world could use a lot more people like our host families we've lived with and the folks we see and work with every day here.

Interview: Pat and Carmel

Today I have a really fun interview about adjusting to another person's cooking style from newlyweds Pat Jarrett and Carmel Clavin. Pat is a photojournalist at The News Leader in Staunton, Va., while Carmel is a henna artist and belly dance instructor. They met, if I remember correctly, at Chipotle in high school and both attended Kent State University. They were married in a Baha'i ceremony in February and since then, have been sharing the kitchen.

Newly Domesticated: How did you learn to cook?

Carmel: I watched my mother who never had a system of measurement, which continues to make baking difficult. I also watched a lot of "Top Chef."
Pat: My mom never EVER let me in the kitchen. I think because she didn't want me to make it dirty. I learned how to cook living on my own in college and not wanting to eat Ramen, so I read recipes and tried to make food I wanted to eat. This led to a lot of yams and avocado dishes. . .  

ND: What are your favorite dishes to cook?

Carmel: Middle Eastern food, like Moroccan, Persian — because they use a lot of fresh herbs that are easily found. I can substitute easily and I can just let it sit and cook.

Pat: I live and die by my "low and slow" philosophy, and I find myself cooking a lot of Indian-style dishes and Mexican.  Again, I cook what I like to eat, so I'm all over the place. 

ND: What are your favorite ingredients?

Carmel: Cilantro, saffron (when I can afford it, which is never because heroin is cheaper) butter and chicken.
Pat: Yams, avocado, beans and cinnamon. 

ND: What was the biggest adjustment to sharing the kitchen with another cook?

Carmel: Dishes. When you go into cook you have this dilemma of cooking, or adding to the pile. 
Pat: Different palates. I find that Carmel's tastes don't always mesh with mine. She likes a lot of dill (which I could never eat again and be happy about it) and Carmel doesn't always see eye-to-eye with my taste buds. 

ND: Describe your diet before marriage. After?

Carmel: I cook more now because I have more time and incentive to feed another person if I'm making a lot of food. I don't feel like I'm wasting food.

Pat: Less fried chicken. 

ND: What has been your biggest cooking failure?

One time we tried to marinate chicken breasts in a balsamic dressing — not the same thing as straight balsamic vinegar, which pickles chicken. We know. 

ND: What was your biggest cooking triumph?

Every year we throw a pot-luck Thanksgiving party for all our friends with a different food theme. So far we've done Tex-Mex giving, Thai giving, Crockpots giving, Steaks giving and this year was Crusts giving. Memorable dishes include the mashed potato burritos, coconut-turkey curry, and the 40-plus people that brought crock pots to that party. Good times all around.

ND: What's your favorite secret ingredient that makes everything better?

Cinnamon makes everything better — both of us agree on that. Just a dab will do ya! 

ND: If you had a Food Network show, what would it be called?

"Put it in your mouth" or "I want that in my mouth." 

ND: What's your signature dish?

Carmel: A toss-up — Palinhcintas (crepes) and Khoresh

Pat: Fried Chicken wings with Pat's secret sauce 

ND: What would someone be surprised to find in your kitchen?

Frozen waffles 

Interview: Amanda of Is This Thing On? v.2

Amanda assembling her strawberry cupcakes, with real strawberries inside.

If you're just joining us, this is part 2 of my interview with Amanda of Is This Thing On?. You can find part one here.

Newly Domesticated: When did you really get into baking? Why?

Amanda: I really got into baking last summer. I made a batch or two of cupcakes with Kate of Domestic Empress in summer 2007, and I guess that piqued my interest in the whole cupcake world. But… I stuck to the box mixes for about a year after that and only made cupcakes for parties and actual events. 

My cupcake “A-Ha moment” came in summer 2008. I was taking a course taught by a professor who encouraged, really demanded, that we bring some sort of snack to each class meeting. For some insane reason, I ended up making three batches of cupcakes in a period of six days. I think those cupcakes all involved box mixes in some way, but they went over really well. That’s when I became addicted. Since that then-uncharacteristic burst, I’ve made cupcakes, or some other really ambitious baked good, about once a week.  

ND: How do you come up with new cupcake ideas? What is the creative cooking process?

A: I get most of my cupcake ideas and recipes from the blogs I read. Cookbooks also provide really great jumping points. Following recipes to the letter is fun, but I like messing with them too. I mean, what cupcake won’t taste better with a bit of white chocolate ganache between the cake and icing?

Usually I start with a theme or an occasion and then try to choose flavors and decorations from there. The Hokie Hi-Hat cupcakes are a perfect example of this: a friend decided on his PhD program so I started with one of his favorite cakes and went from there. Other times I start with a flavor that I just want to bake. Like right now, I really want to bake a chai cupcake that I found on my cupcake calendar. Sadly, I’ve been moving that recipe back for months because it just doesn’t really fit. One day… 

Slicing up onions for orange chicken with vegetables.

ND: Biggest cooking blunder?

A: A few weeks ago I dropped an entire batch of lemon cake batter on the floor. It was so disappointing that I lost all words. I knew I should be crying or cursing or something, but I just couldn’t believe that it actually happened. I stared at it, took a bunch of pictures and then started all over again.

Flavor-wise, I completely failed on the dry run for Christmas party egg nog cupcakes. I didn’t have rum in the house, so I used bourbon. And I ended up eating four of the six cupcakes that weekend since I was just making them to test the recipe before the party. Something about the combination of bourbon and overwhelming sweetness has completely turned me off and I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to drink bourbon again. However … the rum version was a big hit at the party.

When it comes to the savory, I usually slightly mess up each thing I cook. I’m the girl who burns rice to the pan and forgets about the chicken in the oven. Cooking isn’t as exact as baking, so I think there are more opportunities for me to totally fail. I take advantage of those opportunities more often than I’d like.  

Amanda's biggest cooking triumph: Deer Tracks Cheesecake.

ND: Biggest cooking triumph?

A: Hmm… that’s tough. I’d probably say that the dishes I made for Daring Bakers challenges have been my biggest triumphs. Each month, the Daring Bakers send out a challenge recipe for the members to make, bake, and blog. I joined the DBs in February, so I’ve only completed two challenges so far (lasagna & cheesecake). The lasagna was okay and my taste-testers loved it; I, on the other hand, did not. The cheesecake was so ridiculously good, though, that I would have to say that was my biggest kitchen triumph. I was really scared going into the challenge, but I was really impressed with the results. I made a chocolate, espresso, heath cheesecake after the flavors in Gifford’s Maine Deer Tracks ice cream. I might still be in love with that cheesecake.

Amanda's homemade pasta, laid out to dry.

ND: Favorite cookbook or recipe you'd like to share?

A: I highly recommend "Cupcakes by the Cake Mix Doctor" by Anne Byrn. Each recipe starts with a box mix and results in amazing cupcakes. No one has to know. If you want to try out some of Byrn’s recipes before you invest in the book, I have a tag dedicated to the Cake Mix Doctor on my blog.  

ND: What is something you want to try, but intimidates you?

A: Oh… I would love be able to make pastries, the fancy, light, airy pastries that the pros are so good at. I’ve always just assumed that I would fail miserably and end up with wet, flat, nasty dough, so I’ve never tried. Each time the Daring Bakers put up a challenge I get equal parts nervous and excited that it will be some fancy shmancy pastry. Hopefully next month!

Interview: Amanda of Is This Thing On? v.1

As some or most of you know, I am by trade a journalist and so my curiosity never dies. That said, I wanted to introduce my interview series with other people about their experiences in that most noble endeavor: cooking.

Today's interview is with Amanda of Is This Thing On?. I met Amanda in college; she has now just completed her master's degree in English from the University of Maine and moved back to the Bad News, so hopefully she'll be coming to teach me how to bake. She specializes in cupcakes and I would like to announce that she has graciously agreed to make my wedding cupcakes! Anyway, the interview is pretty long, so I am splitting it into two parts.

Amanda's Hokie Hi-Hat cupcakes: meringue dipped in candy melts to create "the DQ effect."

Newly Domesticated: Why does baking appeal to you?

Amanda: I love baking because it allows me to check out of my busy, complicated grad school life and focus on manageable steps that I know (or hope) I can handle. Baking and blogging about it makes me feel good at something. Cupcakes are the perfect baked good because I can be creative with flavors and decorations without a huge amount of risk; since I’m still following basic recipes, I’m not as on-my-own as I am when cooking. 

ND: What are your earliest memories of cooking?

A: Cooking was always my sister’s thing. She had the Easy Bake Oven and the dreams of culinary school, and I didn’t really want to be involved in the kitchen. I remember one particular time in middle school when my aunt was trying to teach me how to make a pie. I was adamant about not being a pie making person, and I think — again — I just shoved my sister in the direction of the kitchen and got away with it. I used to think I just wasn’t a good cook, but I realized that wasn’t really true in college when I started cooking for myself. 

ND: Are you self-taught or were you educated?

A: I was all ready to say self-taught, but I think it’s more accurate to say that I’m blog-educated. My mom taught me some of the basics about cake and icing, but since I didn’t really start baking until I lived alone, I’ve learned the most from food bloggers. I have a tab on my iGoogle homepage for cupcakes and one for cooking, and I check them about half a dozen times a day. It’s a little bit out of control, but I just can’t get enough! Some of my favorites are How to Eat a Cupcake, Pioneer Woman and Cupcake Project. 

Outside of my foodie blogs, I have quite a growing collection of cookbooks. Over the past year, I’ve started reading them like novels. Old cookbooks are the best. Even if I don’t make any of the recipes, I really enjoy reading the ingredients and instructions. I laughed at myself the other night when I realized I was reading a cookbook in bed before going to sleep. So, even though I’ve not taken a course on baking or cooking, I guess I’ve been getting an education from a number of sources.  

Amanda's Maple Bacon, Fauxtress and Blueberry Ricotta cupcakes. Amazing, no?

ND: What do you like best about cupcakes?

A: I love the size and portability of cupcakes. Since I take most of my baking projects to other people, they have to be easily moved, stored, and eaten. I used to just drop them off in the English Dept. with a post-it note advertising their flavor(s), and that would be impossible with a messy cake that had to be cut and plated and blah, blah, blah.

Cupcakes are also really forgiving. In each batch, I have between 12 and 30-some chances to make a really cute cupcake. I can make 15 really awkwardly decorated cupcakes, photograph the 3 successful cupcakes and no one has to know that I practiced on most of them.

And let’s be honest, things are just cuter when they’re small.

And people are less likely to refuse a cupcake because they are “being good.” It still happens, but not nearly as often as when I bring other sweets. Okay… I’ll stop listing the cupcake pros now.