My favorite recipes

Shandra Bohn and James Nichols are a busy cooking couple. They are the ultimate foodies, subscribing to seven food and cooking magazines and watching the Food Channel as much as possible. They are pleased to be sharing their ideas and talent with two sororities at the University of Idaho. Shandra works for Kappa Delta, and her husband cooks for Delta Delta Delta. They live in Palouse, so the commute is usually easy.

Shandra’s family taught her to cook at an early age. Her mother, Tina Ochs, and grandmother, Helen Callison Ochs, were both adventurous cooks, and they passed on that heritage. Early memories for Shandra include marvelous feasts of foreign food. Helen Ochs enjoyed trying and perfecting new recipes. Shandra was born in Whitman County, and her father, Richard Bohn, is an artist now living in the Spokane Valley. She is a Rogers High School graduate and self-taught cook.

She began working in restaurants after she returned from her first husband’s four-plus years of military duty in Germany where she enjoyed the local foods. While working at a pasta shop in the Eastside Marketplace in Moscow where she made fresh pastas and sauces to go, she was hired to cook on campus by the Eastside Marketplace director, a Kappa Delta alum.

James grew up in Missoula and began working as a dishwasher at Clark Fork Station as a teenager. He advanced to prep cook, sous chef and then chef in Missoula restaurants. Deciding to fill in the gaps, he enrolled in Western Culinary Institute in Portland. His extensive background really paid off, especially since only 13 students of the original 50 graduated.

Working at a number of restaurants eventually led him to Moscow and the University Inn and the Hilltop. Managing and also cooking resulted in 80-hour weeks, and then he had to keep the books. He originally worked for Phi Kappa Tau at WSU and then crossed the border.

Although both Shandra and James cook for sororities, each house has a little different personality. Both enjoy introducing new and different foods, and they find that many of them haven’t been very curious. They’ve found many 18-year olds who have been raised by working moms haven’t experienced many home-cooked meals. Instead, they know fast food and carryout.

Fifteen years ago it was a challenge getting college women to try humus. Now it’s a mainstream thing, and they can make their own humus with interesting variations. Both of the chefs realize that collegians eat their cooking three meals a day during the school year, so they value input and aim to please as well as educate the students’ food tastes. It is very different than restaurant cooking, where there is a set number of menu choices, and the ordering and cooking are well organized.

Cooking for a house requires a huge array of menus and careful ordering. They need a balance of dishes for “carnivores” and vegetable lovers, and they vary menus in accordance with the seasons and weather.

To foster an interest and appreciation of foreign foods, Shandra serves a formal dinner monthly, and the rule is that you have to try everything unless you are allergic. The students have bought into this, and she prepares something exotic each month. Many are surprised to find unfamiliar foods taste good.

James tries to meet individual likes and dislikes by making some build-to-order foods. If he’s making pizza, each woman walks through a line and chooses the sauce and toppings to put on her ten-inch pizza, which is popped into the oven. Each woman walks down the line to retrieve her own pizza to order. James uses this system to make wraps and Mongolian barbecue, letting the students personalize their food. He cooks omelets to order on a regular basis. Both chefs have a salad bar so that young women get plenty of fruits and vegetables.

James and Shandra value the friendships they make with the women they cook for. Often several food-curious freshmen are the leaders in getting their sorority sisters to try new foods. As those women advance in years through the house, they are a positive influence on others. Some students just like to be close to the kitchen, and some of them enjoy friendships with adults. Visiting grads who come back to see them are a huge pleasure of their jobs.

A fringe benefit of being married to another chef on campus is that you have a ready substitute in case you need to be off. When James had hand surgery, Shandra was extra busy cooking for two sororities. When Shandra’s child was getting married out of state, James cooked for her house.

Job satisfaction is found in introducing students to food and sharing their passion for cooking.

Recipes:

White Chocolate and Raspberry Tiramisu

I was taught to always read a recipe first, so you see where you are going. Then set up all your ingredients, mixing bowls, necessary utensils. This way you can have everything on hand without having to search for it.

OK, here we go....First off you need to make this a day ahead so that it will set or it will just fall apart when you cut it. This is for a 9 by 13 pan. Sorry, this is as small as I can make it.

Ingredients:

2 packages of lady fingers, also called Italian sponge fingers. Usually they are found in the cookie section of the grocery store. (I usually find mine on the bottom shelf.)

2 bars of Ghiradelli white chocolate bars

3 cups of raspberries

2-8 ounce packages of room temperature (very important) cream cheese

1 pint of heavy whipping cream (It has to be heavy.)

1 fresh lemon

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup of flavored Torani syrup (Your choice—I use raspberry, almond, or vanilla)

In a food processor, whip up the cream cheese until extra smooth, no lumps. Then grate the zest off of the whole lemon, then juice the lemon. DO NOT JUICE FIRST!!! Juicing first then zesting can create a mess. Add zest, all of lemon juice, vanilla extract, and sugar to the cream cheese and blend again until smooth. Put this aside for a bit.

Grate or chop the chocolate and put aside. Lay saran wrap inside bottom of 9 x 13 pan. You most likely will need two strips side by side and extra long, too. Make sure that the saran wrap lays in the bottom of pan nice and flat with extra hanging over the sides. You will need that later.

Lay 72 cookies (ladyfingers) for three layers, 2 side by side rows of 12, on a cookie sheet with the sugared side down.

Whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks, which is to say that when you pull the beaters out of the bowl there should be nice mountain peaks not soggy hills. But also DON’T OVERBEAT; you could end up with butter.

Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture. Folding is like flipping over a pancake but in slow motion over and over. Scraping cream cheese mixture up from the bottom and folding over, until cream cheese and whipped cream are all blended.

Now it’s time to build—I never said this was simple. First, brush all of the cookies with the flavored syrup while they are setting on the cookie sheet. Next sprinkle a nice layer of white chocolate in the bottom of the 9 x 13 pan. Remember this will become the top, so make it look good. Now lay 2 rows of 12 each of the cookies sugared side down in the chocolate.

Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups of the raspberries on the cookie layer, divide the cream cheese mixture in half and use the first half now, and sprinkle more white chocolate on top. Now repeat this layer with the cookies, raspberries, and the cream filling and chocolate. The last layer is just cookies.

Now you have to take all those extra long edges of saran wrap and fold over the Tiramisu top and press down lightly. Sometimes I put something heavy on top to weight down and compress the Tiramisu. Refrigerate overnight. To serve, fold down the saran wrap, lay a cookie sheet or nice flat plate on top of Tiramisu and flip over so Tiramisu comes out of pan onto cookie sheet and finish unwrapping Tiramisu. Now make your cuts! Eat and enjoy!

Mushroom-Artichoke Bake

Serves 4

1 8-ounce package whole small mushrooms, washed, patted dry, and cut in half

4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

3 sprigs of fresh thyme, de-stemmed

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup sherry

1 16-ounce can of quartered artichokes, not marinated, drained

1 1/2 cup shredded cheese—any of these are good—Swiss, Provolone, Havarti, Monterey Jack, Muenster

1/4 cup bacon, diced and cooked, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Saute the mushrooms and garlic in the butter. When they are softened, add the thyme, artichokes, sherry, and optional bacon. Add salt/pepper to taste. Put in bake-able casserole dish and top with cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes until bubbly. Enjoy with crackers or bread.

Spicy Cajun Crab

1 2-3 pound whole Dungeness crab, cleaned and broken into 4 sections

1/2 cup butter

4 cloves garlic, rough chopped

3 green onions, sliced

1 teaspoon dry thyme leaves

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 lemons, 1 halved and juiced, 1 quartered, seeded and set aside

1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning

2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

2 bay leaves

1/2 cup white wine

1 teaspoon dry oregano leaves

1/3 cup fresh parsley, rough chopped

Saute the garlic and onion in butter until softened. Add thyme, Worcestershire, Old Bay, lemon juice, black pepper, smoked paprika, bay leaves, white wine and oregano; mix together until smooth. Now add in the crab, spooning sauce over the crab. Cover with lid and warm for 5-7 minutes just till the crab is warm. Eat with crusty bread for dipping.