Heinz Ketchup Cookies

A few weekends ago, Darden's PepsiCo Forum was filled with little creatures, superheroes, and Halloween cupcakes. This past weekend, first-year MBA students donned aprons, sombreros, and football jerseys and face paint — in the spirit of marketing.

This particular annual holiday was the Brand Challenge, a chance for student teams to pair up with companies looking for ideas for their brands. Part of the project includes "market research" from the Darden community.

For a $5 entry on Brand Challenge day, each taster got lots of product samples and seemingly endless clipboards of surveys. I tasted a half-dozen pasta sauces for their "homemade" quality, felt three kinds of paper towel to rate the quality, and tried earnestly to guess what flavor the red fruity roll-up/strip/gooey thingie was.

"Can red be a flavor?" another tester asked.

My favorite sample of the night? The peanut butter cookies ... made with Heinz Ketchup. Seriously. I couldn't taste the ketchup, but the cookies themselves were soft, peanut buttery, and tasty. Mmmm.

(Photo courtesy of friend Jinna)



Here's the recipe:

1-1/2	cups flour
1/2	teaspoon baking soda
1/2	teaspoon salt
3/4	cup chunky or creamy peanut butter
1/2	cup softened butter or margarine
1/2	cup granulated sugar
1/2	cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4	cup Heinz Tomato Ketchup
1	egg

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Cream together peanut butter, butter or margarine, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add Ketchup and egg; beat until well mixed.
4. Thoroughly blend flour mixture into peanut butter mixture.
5. Drop by Tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. With fork dipped in flour, press cookie flat, making impressions in two directions.
6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

Swarupa's Dal Makhani

I wrote recently about a delicious Indian dinner I shared with friends, all cooked by my lovely Learning Team friend Swarupa.



By request, here is the recipe for one of the dishes! (Shown above)

This recipe is a slight deviation from the real traditional Indian Dal Makhani.

Ingredients (Serves 4 people)

• Dal – Black lentils (can be easily found in Indian store or Kruger’s) – 1 cup
• Chopped tomatoes – 1 large
• Chopped onion – 1 medium
• Chopped green chilli – 3 (you can forgo them)
• Cumin seeds – 1 tablespoon
• Garam Masala – 1 tablespoon
• Turmeric powder (yellow) – ¼ tablespoon
• Salt to taste
• Heavy cream – ¼ pint.
• Red Kidney beans – ½ can
• Grated ginger – ½ inch piece
• Chopped cilantro – few twigs to garnish.
• You can also add ½ -1 tablespoon of red crushed pepper to make it spicy – but it is optional.
• Oil – 3-4 tablespoons.

Procedure

1. Pressure cook lentils for 2 whistles – if you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can soak the lentils for 4-5 hours and cook in a pot with 3 cups of water for 30 mins. Remove from flame as soon as the lentils are soft and edible.
2. Put oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds. Let them splutter.
3. Add chopped onions, green chillies and grated ginger.
4. Once the onions turn golden, add turmeric powder and stir.
5. Add tomatoes.
6. Once the tomatoes are cooked, add garam masala and salt.
7. Add ½ a can of red kidney (or pinto) beans.
8. Add the cooked lentils to the pan
9. Let all these simmer for 10 minutes on medium flame
10. Add ¼ pint of fresh cream 2-3 minutes before you are about to turn off the flame (shouldn’t leave the fresh cream to cook for long as it may curdle)
11. Add chopped cilantro.

Beautiful E-Conference Cup

Today was the finale of the E-Conference, a two-day entrepreneurship event at Darden. The afternoon featured the UVA Cup.

Round 1 of this entreprenurial competition was held earlier this fall at six different schools across University of Virginia. Each held its own concept competition; students wrote up a two-page paper about their business concept. Each school's finalists presented a 10-minute PowerPoint explanation. And each school named one winner.

Today, those six winners presented their concepts to the judges. The prize for first place? $20,000 — and an incredible cup. Congratulations to the engineers at the School of Engineering & Applied Science! They did a fantastic job.(Read the press release and watch a slide show.)

I was a bit astonished by the cash. No strings attached. The university takes nothing. It's all in the spirit of making ideas come to life.

But let's talk about the actual UVA Cup. I was blown away by this.

(Photos courtesy of Dan Addison/UVA Office of Public Affairs)


The disc in the middle is suspended by magnets, a technological feat that apparently tapped into UVA's maglev expertise. This trophy will be displayed at the winning school, and the school will get to keep the disc, even after the trophy moves on the following year.



The base is brass. Just stunning.


And the spiral has a quote engraved on it by (who else?) Thomas Jefferson:

"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."

Perfect.

Hot bluegrass at The Southern

The Infamous Stringdusters, a stellar all-guy band bluegrass from Nashville, came into town Thursday night. Sara Watkins, the lovely singer and fiddler from the former trio Nickel Creek, shared the bill with them. Together, they sold out The Southern.

This music venue is in the basement-level of First Street, on the downtown mall. Take the brick ramp down to the door, then the steps down to the lobby-bar area, then through the door to the dimly lit concert room. It's a great place to see music (just avoid the two monolithic pillars).

Check out The Southern's schedule.

Thursday night was one of those concerts where the whole audience feels like part of the show. When Sara sang in her soft, gorgeous voice, the entire hall was still. No one wanted to move.

Sara Watkins

When the Infamous guys got on stage and started jamming, one with his fingers flashing until another one joined in, and then a third, the energy kept building. Their thumming and strumming and insanely fast bango-rolling crescendoed until everything suddenly came together in a wonderfully loud and energetic culmination of the song. You could tell by their beaming grins that they knew this was a fantastic concert, too. Love it.

The Infamous Stringdusters

If you haven't checked out music in Cville yet, and you now live here, too, you should do it. Any night of the week, there are a half-dozen live music acts. On a Friday or Saturday, more like 12-15.

Sources of music listings
(Please let me know if you know of others!)
The Hook's music page (tonight's concerts on the right sidebar)
Cville's music page (ongoing calendar)
UVA concerts (symphonies, ensembles, jazz, etc.)
Nailgun (cool central Va. blog)

One last reason why I love the Infamous Stringdusters (other than their amazing musicianship, spirit, and overall awesomeness):

Their debut album is titled ...

"Fork in the Road."

Fork In The Road - The Infamou...

Quotable E-Conference

Conference season has descended upon Darden. This weekend plays host to the Finance Conference, the Brand Challenge, the Case Challenge, and — my favorite — the E-Conference.

Today's agenda included two fantastic panels of entrepreneurs (and I'm not always a fan of panels, but these guys were really intriguing), an alumni/student reception, and a dinner.

I scribbled down some of my favorite comments from the panels. I'm sorry to say my reporting skills are pretty shabby these days — I don't recall who said what — but the sentiments should be right-on.

Sprinkling of advice and insight from Day 1 of the E-Conference:

Being an entrepreneur is all about selling.

If people don't return your phone call, you don't have a company.

At some point, it stops being work — it's who you are.

One of the coolest things about owning your own company is building the culture.

The audience asked terrific questions. Here are a few, paraphrased:

Thomas Jefferson has a pretty famous tombstone that lists what he wanted to be remembered for. What would you want on yours? (Follow-up suggestion: Write your obit.)

How do you teach entrepreneurship to kids? Can you? Why don't we?

Have you been fired — or almost fired? Did you leave before you were let go?

I was puzzled by that last question, but the questioner was onto something. A few of the panelists talked about how they left jobs, sensing it was a toxic place and bad stuff was coming down the pipe. The questioner's point seemed to be that entrepreneurship often catches fire when a person is, for one reason or another, intensely motivated.

Tomorrow: more sessions and the UVA Cup, a competition of business concepts from all around the university!

What's for dinner? Indian!

I've been missing dinner parties. Back in Norfolk, they were a regular staple of life. Olga would throw backyard potlucks. Marty and Kelly would host Scrabble night finished off with bread pudding. I'd make crepes (lemon? chocolate? Nutella?) for brunch.

But I'm still getting into the rhythm here. It's only been a few months. I need to buy a sofa. I need to hang pictures on the wall. I need to relearn how to cook on an electronic stove. Sigh.

So I was thrilled when a classmate invited a few of us girls over for dinner. The theme: learning to cook Indian food. The chef: my lovely learning team member Swarupa. The food: spectacular.

It was seriously the best Indian food I've ever had.

Even the rice was amazing. Can't you just smell this?


The lentil dish below, cooked with fresh cream, is Dal Makhani.


These oven kabobs included paneer (Indian cottage cheese) and veggies for Paneer Tikka Masala.


And I think this one was Dum-Aloo, or curry with small potatoes. (Anyone know? :)


Somehow, we were all so enchanted by the blur that is Swarupa cooking, that we didn't actual learn to cook Indian! This despite quite a few wonderful Indian friends hanging out with us.

So I'm promising myself: In two years, I will leave Charlottesville knowing how to create a cash flow statement, how to calculate net present value, and how to cook Indian food.

Tavola: Italy in Cville

An out-of-town guest has her own gravitational force. Books shut. Cases tiptoe away. The neglected Honda starts cheerily revving its engine. After all, I know she didn't come hours on a train to watch me try to grasp the IS-LM model. (I am trying. Really, really hard.)

No, Carol came to see Charlottesville. And I couldn't wait to show her — and do some exploring myself.

On the list was Tavola, an Italian restaurant in the Belmont neighborhood. One of my professors (a foodie himself) had recommended it. I thought that would be perfect for Carol. (Note: Tavola is on the special-occasion end of a student budget.) When we were in Italy this summer, we both swooned each time a plate of fresh pasta was set in front of us.

Tavola was no disappointment.



This is what I ordered: a rich pork ragu with pappardelle (those thick ribbons of pasta). I picked it because the pasta in this dish is housemade — and it tasted like it. That extra bit of chewiness and flouriness create a layer of freshness you can't get in a box.


Carol ordered this lovely penne dish with diced squash and other veggie trinkets. After her first bite, she said something to the effect of: "I think I never realized that I love squash!"

The restaurant itself is charming. Intimate, with a bustling bar and an open kitchen (the last bar stool gets a kitchen-table seat, essentially), Tavola has a nice neighborhood feel. Despite all the fancy words on the menu, it's not pretentious or intimidating.

They don't take reservations, so be prepared to wait if you come at prime time. We were debating whether to agree to an hour and a half wait when two seats came open at the bar. Score!

Next time, we'll have to save room for dessert. This time, I took Carol to Splendora on the downtown mall, a gelateria that makes its own gelato. My favorite is salty caramel. She ordered apple cider and dulce de leche. I mean, seriously.

One regret lingers: I wish I had kept track of the times Carol said, in astonishment: "I really thought Charlottesville was in the middle of nowhere!"

Tavola
826 Hinton Avenue
Charlottesville, VA

Afton Mountain Vineyards

Virginia is home to more than 100 wineries. In my life so far, I've been to ... ummm ... 6?

There is much tasting to do.

Last weekend, a friend and I zipped down I-64 to Afton Mountain Vineyards. Fall was waning here; the leaves were nearly gone. But the weather was still gorgeous.



Afton is less than an hour from Charlottesville. We just glanced at a map, closed our eyes, and pointed. I had been to Horton (informal and fun; enormous tasting selection) and Veritas (lovely lodge-like wine-tasting room; expansive lawn perfect for picnicking) most recently. Afton promised somewhere new.


The tasting room, shown above, is down a few miles of windy country roads. Inside, the bar is near the usual row of souvenirs (T-shirts with sayings like, "I love a good corkscrew"; picnic wine totes; cheese; etc.) and a handful of tables. It's nice and cozy. Windows at one end overlook the wine processing equipment in the next room.

For a $5 tasting fee (each), we could try:

• Tête de Cuvée Brut Sparkling Wine 2005
• Unwooded Chardonnay 2008
• Barrel Select Charonnay 2007
• Gewurztraminer 2008
• Sangiovese 2008
• Cabernet Franc 2008
• Cabernet Sauvignon 2008
• Petit Verdot
• Mountain Red (this is all verbatim from the tasting sheet)
• Riesling
• Mountain White
• Mountain Rose
  

Yes, that's a killer long list, but not out of character for Virginia. When I visited California and Oregon wineries this summer, I think the sampling was less than half that length.

The wine itself ... well, no sip had me doing cartwheels. The barrel Chardonnay was incredibly buttery. My friend Carol appreciated the Riesling.I liked the Gewurztraminer best. It had a dry, slightly spicy tang I dug. And when I found out our tastings were free with a purchase ($19 bottle becomes $9 — in my mind), I bought one to take home.

Where to next? Any suggestions?

Sherando Lake

The Hike of The Week is brought to you by the Darden Outdoors Club.

I got invited by a friend who is a member to come along on a trip to Sherando Lake, and now I'm thinking I should join. (I was trying to rationalize not joining a million of the intriguing clubs, as time and money is limited — but who can successfully rationalize not having fun??)

Sherando Lake is about 45 minutes west of Cville, that same gorgeous drive on I-64 with sweeping landscape views and pull-offs designed to give drivers a safe chance to gawk.


The lake is ringed with picnic tables. This past Saturday was quiet: just a few small groups of hikers and a couple of families were wandering in the woods. I can't wait to go back in the spring with a cooler stuffed with drinks and yummy food and hang out.




The lake even has a slim strip of beach. I can only imagine it in the summer, filled with laughter and kids running around.


The trail was a little tricky to navigate — and see — as leaves covered the path and hid the many rocks.


One of my favorite sculptors: Mother Nature.



If you follow one of the shortest trails up, you reach an overlook. And this view. I can only imagine how stunning it was two weeks ago, in the height of autumn.

Fall may be fading, but apparently it's just the beginning of trout season! I love the idea of fishing for my supper. Now if I can just find someone to show me how ...


Directions to Sherando Lake

From Cville head west of I-64. Take exit 96 south on state route 624. (If you hit I-81, you've gone too far.)

Stay on 624 as it turns into state route 664.

Keep your eyes peeled for a big National Park sign on your right for Sherando Lake. It'll be about 9 or so miles after you leave I-64.

Art, plus UVA on the ice

If you don't like music, sports, food, or the outdoors, you'll be pretty bored in Charlottesville.

Then again, you might be bored anywhere.

Friday night was First Friday for art around Charlottesville. Galleries stay open late and offer a nice spread of snacks (cheese, cracker, veggies, cookies) and wine — maybe even a musician or two. All for free. Every month.

A friend and I met up at McGuffey Art Center, a huge art co-op. Art gawkers and studiers were holding cups of wine were chatting and animatedly nodding their heads. Artists hung out in their studios, talking with visitors or working on pieces. Glass, printmaking, painting, you name it.

I really liked the giant portraits of children making faces by Cat Thrasher, a new photography show called "Child Face." Click here to see one of my favorites, an impish wide-eyed look from a small girl. This and other current exhibits run only until Nov. 22.

First Friday is definitely worth, in my book, a repeat visit.

But this weekend also included the Virginia Film Festival.

And, randomly, hockey:



The UVA team plays at an ice rink anchored at the end of the downtown mall. On Friday, they played Virginia Tech, our friendly archrivals from down the road.

If you need an escape from studying, few activities produce better adrenaline rushes than sports. I love the energy of hockey, how quickly your blood gets flowing even in the chilly room. "GO! GO! GO!," you find yourself yelling. (A good stress reliever, too, come to think of it...) And watching the puck fly across the ice (well, if you can see past the irksome pillers) is simply hynoptizing.

Check out the rest of this year's schedule. (Students are free; normal folks are $5.)

Climbing Little Calf Summit

Another fall weekend, another exploration of the woods.

This time, the weather was moody. The sky was overcast, and we drove through clouds, up Skyline Drive, in search of a path in the woods to a spectacular overview.

Well. That we didn't find. But the Halloween spook factor was perfect.

(Photos courtesy of Julie, a friend and fellow woods explorer.)



At the top of our very short hike (another quickie perfect for FY Darden students), we reached ... the summit! A glorious view of ... fog!

I do like the name of the top of the hill. Little Calf Mountain, we have conquered you!



Directions
Take I-64 west from Charlottesville to Skyline Drive. Head north just a few miles.

Look for a parking lot on your right, with a fence and a nifty "gate" that is more like a V entrance, so you couldn't ride a bike straight through it.

Go through the nifty gate, and follow the path through a pasture upward into the woods.

When you reach a fork in the trail, go left.

We were told by fellow hikers that the right/straight-ahead path leads to Maine. (This path is part of the Appalachian Trail). And yes, we were tempted!

P.S. The hike to the "top" is very short, under a mile.

My favorite meal in Cville (so far)

I'll keep this short and sweet.

Where: Continental Divide, a cozy, hidden bar on Main Street. From the road, you only see a neon green sign that says: "Get in here!"

Do it.

Then, order the tuna tostada. "It's freakin' amazing," a classmate told me, when I was scrutinizing the menu.

"Really?" I said, skeptically. "What else is good?"

"I don't know. That's the only thing I order."

That wasn't a joke.

Tuna, rare. Luscious goat cheese. Smooth black been puree. Crispy, slightly salty tortilla. Fantastic.

And around 10 bucks.