(Don’t) Leave the Cooking to the Professionals

Mitchell Feldman  

Don’t use the fact that you live in a dorm where there is an infinite supply of prepared food as an excuse to abandon cooking. The dining halls provide us with plenty of ingredients to make our own yummy (or not so yummy) dishes. Here are some ideas of foods to prepare to keep your chef skills up to par. (*Many of these dishes can be made in the Markley dining hall at the make-your-own pizza station).

BLT Pizza - Fold over the edges of the pizza dough. Fill the dough with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and a light portion of mayonnaise. Bake.
   Rating: 11/10, according to the guy who made it.

Strawberry Pie - Take pizza dough and fill with the strawberry yogurt topping. Cut up another dough into strips and criss cross them over the pie. Bake.
   Rating: ?/10, as I am afraid of fruit and did not try it. It does look pretty though.

Cookie Pie - Mix chocolate chip cookies with milk or ice cream in a bowl. Fill a pizza dough with the mixture. It will look disgusting. Consider doing this in private. Then bake it.
   Rating: 3/10. It tastes like wet cookies.

Pizza Burrito - Cover a pizza dough with chicken, rice, cheese, sour cream, etc. Roll. Bake. Make sure to keep the dough very thin.
   Rating: 8/10. The dough actually works well as a tortilla.

Nachos - Put chips in a pan. Cover with cheese. Bake. Apply sour cream and salsa.
   Rating: 2/10. The cheese turned harder than you ever want cheese to be.

Calzone - Make a pizza. Roll it. Fold edges.
   Rating: 8/10. It tastes like pizza.

Pudding Pie - Mix together pudding and whipped cream. Fill with cocoa crispies and pieces of cookie. Bake a pizza dough alone, folding up edges. Fill the baked crust with the mixture. Refrigerate.
   Rating: 7/10. I thought it tasted good but no one would try it. Turns out pudding is scary.

Tricks

• When eating Greek food, take feta cheese from the salad bar
• To take ice cream on the go without a cone, put it in between two cookies. Maybe bring a napkin out too
• Mix ice cream and root beer to make a root beer float
• Actually, just mix all the desserts

Food On the Run

Emily Kastl  

How does the idea of consuming large amounts of food and then running a few miles right after sound—fun? Then you might be interested in taking part in a growing trend that combines food and exercise.

In fact, you don’t have to go any further than Ann Arbor to find an event. Each year on April Fool’s Day a 5k walk/run takes place in Gallup Park. But it isn’t your average 5k—along the way there are two Twinkie stations where runners can stop for a snack. Though it isn’t required to eat anything, those who do automatically get 2 minutes shaved off their final time.

If Twinkies aren’t your thing then you might be more interested in the Doughman Challenge. Featured on an episode of Man v. Food, this is a team event in Durham, North Carolina that involves eating entire meals before completing one leg of the race, which may include biking, swimming, or running. As if that isn’t enough, dessert is waiting for contestants before they can cross the finish line.

I’m not sure where this trend originated, but it seems like a fun pairing of 2 seemingly opposite things: food and physical activity. Maybe it’s a nice way to justify eating a hamburger chased with a donut--you’re just going to run it off…immediately.

To see the full list of races, check out the Food Network