Hello there,
Another post from Barrie's kitchen. This is a great, easy recipe and because you're replacing raw eggs with pasteurized egg product, everyone can eat it from kids to pregnant women.
Easy Chocolate Mousse:
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. butter/margarine
6 oz unsweetened choc, melted and cooled
1 t. vanilla
3/4 c. refrigerated egg product (like egg beaters)
coarsely chopped dark chocolate as garnish
In a medium mixing bowl, beat sugar and butter (or margarine) w/ electric mixer on medium for 4 min or until fluffy. Stir in melted and cooled chocolate and vanilla. Gradually add egg product, beating at low speed until combined then beat on medium to high, scraping sides of bowl about 1 min or until light and fluffy. Transfer filling into serving bowl or individual cups, bowls, teacups, ramekins, etc. Sprinkle chopped chocolate on top. Cover and chill 4-24 hrs.
One note- although I generally like using alternative margarine, such as Earth Balance, when I cook to make my dishes healthier, this recipe does not work with those. You'll just get soup- delicious chocolate soup, but soup nonetheless. If this does happen, just buy some strawberries and serve them together as if this was the plan all along...
Enjoy!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Negotiations
Hey Ladies,
so I, just like Liz, am a corporate tool. I wasn't always a corporate tool, until about a year ago I worked in the non-profit world. Museums, historic sites, foundations, collections, that was my passion. Still is, but I'm taking a detour. Going from the NFP world to a corporate job, I basically applied to anything that interested me, and hoped for a response.
I was offered a job, one that I wanted, but wasn't desperate for, but at a salary I found unacceptable. And here's the most important part, I wanted the job, but it wasn't my only option. You can only negotiate if you are really, truly willing to walk out the door. If you really want the job and have no other options, and you aren't willing to take the risk, you don't have any leverage.
I was given my offer letter, and it said, you will make $xxx a year. I thanked the interviewer and asked for a day to think about it. I looked at that number, and calculated in my head what I was giving up to take this job. You will negotiate from a MUCH stronger position if you can quanitfy what you are giving up and what that is worth to you. For instance, here was some of my accounting:
-No educational reimbursement: $1500/year
-No transitchek: $500/year
-Pay 20% of my healthcare: $840/year
-No Flexible Spending Account: $1000
-No longer able to tutor, due to increased hours: $1000/year
= Approx $5k
Other examples of things to add in are: moving expenses, the expense of getting to/from work, classes required to get up to speed, vacation days gained/lost, really anything you can think of.
I called back the next day, with a script I had written out and practiced, and said,
Hello Boss,
thank you so much for your offer, I would really love to work with you, but after thinking about it, I cannot accept the job at this current rate. I am giving up a lot of things to take this position, such as (name them) to take this job, and they are worth $5k to me, and I was wondering if you could stretch to that amount. I really hope that we can work this out, as this job sounds like a good fit for me, and somewhere I can see myself really growing and staying there for the long haul (etc, etc).
He said he'd see what he could do, talked to his supervisor, and called me back offering me half of what I'd wanted. This is standard, you rarely get everything you asked for. And, had I been smarter, I would have asked for more vacation days instead.
One thing to keep in mind is your industry, and the particular employer. If you're interviewing at a large company you should see if you can deduce their typical starting salary (good place to look is "thevault.com") and use that as a marker. Some places have a set starting salary, some places don't, that is a good thing to figure out before trying to negotiate. The more information you have about what you can realistically expect, the better position you will be in. By negotiating, you show them how much you think that you're worth, and you can start on day one feeling like you are a valued member of the team.
Questions?
so I, just like Liz, am a corporate tool. I wasn't always a corporate tool, until about a year ago I worked in the non-profit world. Museums, historic sites, foundations, collections, that was my passion. Still is, but I'm taking a detour. Going from the NFP world to a corporate job, I basically applied to anything that interested me, and hoped for a response.
I was offered a job, one that I wanted, but wasn't desperate for, but at a salary I found unacceptable. And here's the most important part, I wanted the job, but it wasn't my only option. You can only negotiate if you are really, truly willing to walk out the door. If you really want the job and have no other options, and you aren't willing to take the risk, you don't have any leverage.
I was given my offer letter, and it said, you will make $xxx a year. I thanked the interviewer and asked for a day to think about it. I looked at that number, and calculated in my head what I was giving up to take this job. You will negotiate from a MUCH stronger position if you can quanitfy what you are giving up and what that is worth to you. For instance, here was some of my accounting:
-No educational reimbursement: $1500/year
-No transitchek: $500/year
-Pay 20% of my healthcare: $840/year
-No Flexible Spending Account: $1000
-No longer able to tutor, due to increased hours: $1000/year
= Approx $5k
Other examples of things to add in are: moving expenses, the expense of getting to/from work, classes required to get up to speed, vacation days gained/lost, really anything you can think of.
I called back the next day, with a script I had written out and practiced, and said,
Hello Boss,
thank you so much for your offer, I would really love to work with you, but after thinking about it, I cannot accept the job at this current rate. I am giving up a lot of things to take this position, such as (name them) to take this job, and they are worth $5k to me, and I was wondering if you could stretch to that amount. I really hope that we can work this out, as this job sounds like a good fit for me, and somewhere I can see myself really growing and staying there for the long haul (etc, etc).
He said he'd see what he could do, talked to his supervisor, and called me back offering me half of what I'd wanted. This is standard, you rarely get everything you asked for. And, had I been smarter, I would have asked for more vacation days instead.
One thing to keep in mind is your industry, and the particular employer. If you're interviewing at a large company you should see if you can deduce their typical starting salary (good place to look is "thevault.com") and use that as a marker. Some places have a set starting salary, some places don't, that is a good thing to figure out before trying to negotiate. The more information you have about what you can realistically expect, the better position you will be in. By negotiating, you show them how much you think that you're worth, and you can start on day one feeling like you are a valued member of the team.
Questions?
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
What's Cookin' Good Lookin'?
Besides for reading the random and not so random blogs I stumble across during my many self-imposed breaks at work, one of my favorite ways to pass the time between 9 and 5 is planning menus. Whether for a quiet weeknight dinner with Jon or the kind of Friday night meal that requires both leaves placed into my grandmother’s art deco dining room table, I comb the internet for yummy things to make and serve. I also like to pester my mom occasionally with emails requesting recipes of favorite dishes and general kitchen tips. I love learning how to cook and bake new things. Although my sister teasingly calls me Mrs. FancyPants and my husband is constantly boggled by the amount of time and effort I put into creating a Shabbos meal, I get such pleasure from impressing myself with what I’m capable of- especially when others enjoy the fruits of my labor. So in the spirit of pooling our collective resources, here are a bunch of things I’ve learned in the past six or so years that I’ve been on my own. I’ve picked them up from family, friends, food magazines, and of course my favorite plump friend, the Barefoot Contessa.
-Your menus should be built around the following building blocks- protein, vegetable, and starch. You should have at least one of each. This in an Evelyn basic and a non-negotiable in my house. Sorry, potatoes don’t count as a vegetable.
- Don’t cook things that contain ingredients that aren’t in season. Amazingly, we live in an area where you can get ingredients year-round, but they won’t taste or look as nice, plus they are way more expensive. Why bother making a dish comprised mostly of strawberries in the middle of winter? It’s a waste of time and money.
-On a similar note, if you get to the supermarket and the ingredients you need don’t look good, don’t buy them. Just save yourself the headache and make something else.
-Think about what your different dishes will look like on the plate- a colorful menu will look most appealing. This is Evelyn rule number 2.
- Do your best not to apologize for anything you serve (I know that this is a hard one for me.) Even though you know that you forgot to add raisins or it doesn’t look anything like the picture in the cookbook, no one else will. That is, of course, unless you draw attention to it.
- Not everything has to be hard- for someone who works full time and is often up late on Thursday nights cooking, I recommend making only one or two difficult things at a time. Everything else should be simple or something you make often enough that its familiarity makes it easy. Why be stressed out or exhausted when you have guests over? You should get to enjoy your company.
-Presentation is important. It makes the simplest dishes seem impressive and makes all food look delicious- even gasp! store-bought products. Often it’s as easy as chopping fresh herbs or sprinkling croutons into soup.
- Keep in mind guests’ distinct food tastes. This is not to say that you need to cater to picky eaters (one of my biggest adult pet peeves)- it just means that there should be enough variation so that there’s something for everyone. It's a good rule in general. Not every dish should contain soy sauce or cinnamon or meat. This obviously does not apply to food allergies.
- The internet is a great resource- foodnetwork.com and epicurious.com are terrific. Reading user reviews and searching by ingredients are just a couple of the user-friendly features.
- Don’t be afraid to try new things- how else will you learn how to make them or expand your palette?! Friends and family are the best people to test them on and learning is all part of the process.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Young Ones versus Old Guns
Feeling old and farty...
I know I'm 24, and the left side of my brain knows I'm 24, and hence both not old and still young...but the other part of my brain, the part that stood in a college bar on Saturday night wearing a wedding band, feels really old and farty and really not young at all.
I walked out of my building this morning holding an extra bag and the doorman said "Mrs. Yunger, that's too heavy for you, let me get that", then I headed up the block passing PS 1whatever on my block only to hear the school guard say to me "new Mom's go this way" (OK so maybe I wasn't wearing the most flattering shirt, but "new moms?!?"), only to jump on the subway and bump into someone I haven't seen in so long I can’t remember if I know her from elementary school or camp, and then end the morning commute at my breakfast stop where 2 guys leaped up and said "hi Yessie, the usual?". I walked into my office relegated to accepting old and farty, but as fate would have it (and make for the perfect ending for my first blog) my “relegating” was interrupted by the 95 year old coworker who walked in and announced that today was her 96th birthday. She is not a volunteer, but a paid employee, with heaps of great grandchildren who rides the
At that point both sides of my brain rallied and reminded each other how young I still am, how wonderfully exciting youth is, and how "old and farty" is as many years away as this 96 year old woman is from 24.
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