Happy Hour

By Maureen C. Petrosky

It’s here! The happiest hour of winter; that time between five and six p.m. when those of us who call the northeast home get daylight back for one more precious hour. I’m not disheartened that last week the groundhog saw his shadow and skittered back to his hole, warning us to hunker down for six more weeks of winter. It’s light out past four- thirty, and that means we’re at least half way through. That is reason to toast.

Since plenty of us don’t work a 9 to 5, we find our very own happy hours. I’m sure for stay- at -home moms and dads that precious hour when all the little ones are finally down for the night is happy hour in their house. Maybe in yours it kicks off at 9 p.m. when your husband finally gets in from the day’s commute, or perhaps your cocktail time only comes once a week on Friday night when you can finally celebrate the week’s end. This week mine is that one hour when the sunlight lingers just a little longer.

This Week’s Pick: Charles Krug 2006 Yountville- Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon, $27
It’s a red wine that when you sip you can’t help but say, “now that is good”. It’s a medium to full- bodied Cab with finesse. It’s layered with aromas of black cherry coffee and sweet clove. It goes down smooth and is perfect for toasting the end of a long day.

Reexamining the World’s Oldest Profession

By Brianne Harrison

Mrs. Warren’s Profession, currently onstage at Princeton’s Berlind Theater, is a play of surprises both for the audience and the characters. The characters, particularly Mrs. Warren’s cold, unsentimental, highly educated daughter, Vivie and her layabout suitor, Frank, are shocked to learn that Mrs. Warren’s fortune has been made through prostitution, a subject rarely onstage now, and one that was particularly taboo back when the play was written, in 1893.

That a play like this should have been written in the last gasp of the straitlaced Victorian era is one surprise for the audience. That it should be sympathetic to Mrs. Warren’s choice of profession, the plight of women at that time, and written by a man are three more. That man is George Bernard Shaw, one of the preeminent playwrites of his time.

Shaw is perhaps best known to today’s audiences for Pygmalion, which inspired My Fair Lady. With Mrs. Warren, Shaw takes one of the ideas developed in Pygmalion a bit further: it’s hard for a Victorian woman on her own. Even with her education and polish, Eliza Doolittle’s only real option is working in a flower shop—barely a step above peddling nosegays in Covent Garden. The young Mrs. Warren faced a similar problem. Women’s work at that time was low-paid, menial, and often dangerous (the character gives a vivid description of a sister who dies working in a lead factory). So, she used what she had to get by: a pretty face, which she eventually parlayed into a profitable franchise.

This play is not only about “the profession” (which is never mentioned by name), but also about the relationships between mother and daughter and the struggles women faced to achieve economic stability and be viewed by men as equals (a subject that many of us can connect with even today). Vivie, who stomps around and acts like a bratty teenager who naturally thinks she knows more than her mother throughout most of the first two acts, is a woman ahead of her time. Cambridge-educated, she has no use for romance and even comes across as quite masculine, with her hand-crushing handshake, love of mathematics (a pursuit which was essentially reserved for men at that time), and rejection of marriage and family life. Despite this, the men in the play view her as a child who needs protection. Her mother doesn’t fare much better, in their estimation. But these women clearly don’t need protecting—they’ve done just fine on their own. No fainting Angels of the Household here.

The play has its problems for sure (including a mixed-message ending) but it, like Vivie, was ahead of its time and deserves some notice because of that. Prostitution is still a subject that raises eyebrows and invokes stereotypes, but what Shaw understood was that for some women, it wasn’t a bad job at all. It’s certainly nothing to be ashamed of—it’s not a sin, it’s business. A profession, like any other.

Top Chef Tips

By Pat Tanner

In a recent e-letter from The Frog & The Peach in New Brunswick, executive chef Bruce Lefebvre offered this advice: “Bake cookies at 300 degrees despite what the recipe says, so that the center is cooked but the outside does not get too dark.” That prompted me to query other chefs for rules they flout. Mark Valenza, chef-owner of Za, a small, eclectic BYOB in Pennington, took my request in a slightly different direction, much to my delight, offering these top ten tips:

* SALT ALL FRIED FOOD Remember: like the potato chip, all fried foods are simply grease-and-salt delivery devices. Don’t ever serve me grease without my salt.

* IF YOU’VE NEVER MADE IT BEFORE try it out on the very young or the very old first. They’ll tell you the truth.

* WINE If it’s over ten years old, chances are you own a very expensive bottle of vinegar. Please don’t make your friends and family drink it. Admit its shortcomings and move on to the next bottle.

* VEGETABLES are marvelous, colorful, unique taste treats. Stop overcooking them.

* IF YOU’RE A RACHAEL RAY FAN C’mon, you already know how to eat cheap. Check out some old Julia Child shows and learn how to dine well.

* COOKING CLOTHES Get yourself a chef’s jacket; it will save your good sweater from grease stains and instill culinary confidence. No cute slogans printed on your jacket like “Kiss the Chef,” or “Grill Guy” - that will defeat the purpose.

* WHEN IN DOUBT add bacon.

* BONES Leave them in! Why do so many of us have an aversion to bones? We all know what we are eating, don’t we? Use bones; bones make food taste better.
* IF YOU HAVE VEGETARIAN OR VEGAN FRIENDS Serve them crudités. If they still insult the food you slaved over and like to eat, remember: it’s just that they’re hungry.

* DINING OUT Always dine at chef-owned BYOBs. The food is always better and you can save a lot of coin on wine and alcohol. Okay, so that was a little self-serving.

Eating Out Without Breaking the Bank

By Millicent K. Brody

Maybe its’ been a while since you’ve been out to dinner with friends. Secretly, you’re craving a meal in a restaurant, but your budget and wallet are screaming, “NOT YET!”

“Well, why not?” says I. You can do it! Change your dining patterns. Instead of going to dinner, meet for breakfast.

Most neighborhood diners offer daily breakfast specials. If that doesn’t work, head over to Mama’s Caboose in Berkeley Heights for a hunk of Kim’s delicious sour cream coffee cake with apricots and a cup of illy coffee. Or stop by Culinary Creations in Hillsborough for one of Andrew Pantano’s breakfast specials. Visit your local bagel place. Grab a table, order a bagel with lox and a smear of cream cheese with tomato and onion, and a cup of coffee. Livingston Bagel in Livingston offers all you’d ever want to eat for breakfast. You take your place on a queue, place your order, and pay for exactly what is on your tray. That way, YOU are in control of YOUR bill.

Dinner options could easily begin with drinks and hors ‘d'oeuvres at your house. Then on to a restaurant where you may order several appetizers, dessert, and coffee. Or, you could easily share a couple of appetizers, an entree, an order of pasta, one dessert, and coffee. Or simply, go out for dessert and coffee. If you’re wandering around Westfield, stop in at the Chocolate Bar. Not only will you love a cup of Neil’s Belgian hot chocolate and a dish of his house-made gelato, you’re sure to enjoy the art of dining out.

TIPS
$$$$: Consider asking for separate checks. Although this practice is not exactly in vogue today, it's certainly acceptable.

The Art of Loveless Cooking

By Judy Garfield


I am a loveless cook.

NJL has taken a bold step allowing me to write a cooking column. To paraphrase the late Peg Bracken, who wrote the I HateTo Cook Book, “Some people like to cook. This column is not for them.”

Peg Bracken called herself a humorist. I consider myself more of a gloomerist. I suppose this is why I dislike cooking so much. Always anticipating the horrible things that can go awry with every recipe. And so much work. Ugh. The worst part? People expect you to do this EVERY DAY. So, since I like to eat pretty much everything and hate to cook pretty much anything, I try to get my husband S. to cook. One thing we loveless cooks instinctively do is find a significant other who likes to cook. And I did.

S. is a fabulous cook, and he really enjoys the process. But there are some dishes that cry out for a disinterested, dispassionate person like myself. Southern fried chicken is one of my favorites. My mother, who is from Portsmouth, VA, made this dish a lot
before we were aware of annoying words like cholesterol and plaque. It’s easy to make and delicious, and once in a while a nice treat.

Loveless Fried Chicken
1 chicken cut up
2 cups flour
salt, pepper, paprika to taste
brown paper lunch bags
vegetable oil

Combine flour and seasonings in a plastic bag. Shake chicken in bag till well coated. Heat enough oil in cast iron skillet to almost cover chicken. Use tongs to drop in chicken and brown evenly. Remove and drain on brown paper bags covered with paper towels.

Note: Cast iron pan is essential! lodgemfg.com

We like to eat it at room temperature. You could throw in some healthy side dishes, but stay away from anything too complicated. S. is always surprised I can make something so tasty. I told him less is best. Too much love can kill a good piece of fried chicken.