When Mardi and Bob Burden were first married, they lived off a rice-and-mushroom-soup concoction bearing the rather unattractive name of Swamp Rice. "Bob was a starving artist, and I was teaching myself to cook, without a stove!" Mardi recalled via e-mail. "We lived in his art studio, and I cooked with a kettle popcorn popper and electric skillet." They couldn't afford a microwave, let alone a range.
More than 30 years later, Mardi Burden owns Cuisine Classique cooking school in Oro Valley. Microwaves are commonplace — and cheap.
But many of the more than 5,000 students who today begin descending on the University of Arizona residence halls will be inexperienced chefs, cobbling together makeshift cooking arrangements from a range of small appliances to supplement the official on-campus dining programs.
Thousands more will be setting up housekeeping in off-campus houses and apartments where kitchen facilities may range from primitive to nonexistent.
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"It's one of those things that we recognize — that some people, due to either dietary concerns or financial concerns, like to prepare their own stuff," said Patrick Call, director of residential education at the UA. Call himself developed a wicked recipe for rice-cooker jambalaya when he was a resident adviser on campus. "We . . . give people the opportunity to prepare their food on a daily basis."
The university puts small refrigerators in every room, has communal kitchens in each hall, keeps cookware available for loan, and sometimes offers freshman cooking classes. Two Tucson cooking schools also offer instruction for the novice cook with limited equipment.
"I think (students) are very lacking in the sanitation part," said Marilyn Davison, who has taught the dorm cooking class at Culinary Concepts for about five years. "They just don't realize just how important it is to wash that cutting board after you are finished cutting up whatever it is you are cutting. But then there's the basic cooking part, too."
Even for the novice, living in a dorm doesn't mean you have to go hungry — or rely totally on pizza deliveries. For a relatively small amount of money, and with a little imagination, you can stock up on emergency supplies and quick meals that don't require a complete kitchen or forbidden appliances.
You can make pizza in an electric skillet, boil pasta in a wok, even create quesadillas with a clothes iron. Here's a beginner's guide to dormitory and starving-student cooking.
Allowed appliances
The following are allowed at University of Arizona residence halls.
• Microwaves
• Crockpots
• Rice cookers
• Coffee and espresso makers
• Electric tea kettles.
• Electric woks.
• Electric skillets.
• Popcorn poppers.
• Forbidden appliances include the wildly popular George Foreman grills, as well as anything with an open heating element: toasters, toaster ovens, hot plates.
Swamp Rice and Variations
Makes 2 generous servings
* 2 cups cooked rice
* 1 can mushroom soup
* 1 cup milk
* 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* Salt and pepper
Cook rice in rice cooker according to your appliance's instructions.
Add mushroom soup, milk and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine thoroughly.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat for about 15 minutes, or until warm.
Serve with hot sauce.
Variations: Mexican Swamp Rice. Replace the mushroom soup, milk and Worcestershire sauce with 1 3-ounce can diced green chiles, 1 15-ouncecan Mexican tomato sauce and 1/2 cup grated longhorn cheese.
Italian Swamp Rice. Replace the mushroom soup, milk and Worcestershire sauce with 2 8-ounce cans tomato sauce, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese and 1teaspoon dried oregano. Instead of hot sauce, add red pepper flakes to taste.
Add 1/2 pound browned ground beef to any of the above.
Mardi Burden, Cuisine Classique
Easy Chili Con Carne
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 1/2 medium-size yellow onion, peeled and diced
* 1/2 medium-size green pepper
* 1/2 pound ground beef
* 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
* 1-8 ounce can tomato sauce
* 1/4 teaspoon cumin
* 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 2 teaspoons chili powder
* 1/2 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 can (15 ounces) pinto or kidney beans, drained (or you can use both).
Heat the oil in the bottom of the rice cooker for about 1 minute. Add the onion, green pepper, beef and garlic.
Cook, stirring frequently for 7 or 8 minutes, or until the onion is soft and the beef has browned.
Add the tomato sauce, cumin, cayenne pepper, chili powder, oregano, salt and the canned beans.
Put the lid on the rice cooker, and simmer for about 15 minutes.
Serve with rice-cooker cornbread and a green salad.
Mardi Burden, Cuisine Classique
Red Beans and Rice
Makes 2 generous servings
* 2 slices bacon, diced
* 1/2 yellow onion, peeled and diced
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1 can kidney beans
* 1 cup cooked rice
* 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
* Pinch of sugar
* Hot sauce to taste
Sauté bacon in bottom of rice cooker for about 5 minutes. Add diced onion and sauté until onion is soft.
Stir in the minced garlic, and cook for 1 minute. Add the kidney beans and their juice and the cooked rice.
Add the seasoning salt and sugar. With a large spoon, combine everything thoroughly.
Place lid on rice cooker and heat for 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve with hot sauce.
Mardi Burden, Cuisine Classique
Buttermilk Cornbread
Enough to fill two small pie plates
* 4 tablespoons butter
* 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 1 cup cornmeal
* 1 cup buttermilk
* 2 eggs
To make the cornbread:
Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave and set aside to cool.
In a medium-size bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.
Stir in the cornmeal.
In a separate bowl, beat the buttermilk and eggs together with a fork, until mixed. Add the melted butter, then pour the buttermilk mixture into the cornmeal and flour mixture. Stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened.
Spread the batter into 2 aluminum pie plates, or 2 6-inch cake plates.
Cover the pans tightly with foil.
Prepare your rice cooker:
Add water to the rice cooker, insert steamer rack and place 1 of the pans of cornbread in the middle of the steamer insert.
Close the lid and turn the steamer on with enough water to steam for 20 minutes (about 1 cup, but check your rice cooker's instructions).
When the 20 minutes are up, carefully remove the cornbread from the rice cooker, using potholders. There could be some leftover steam, so be careful not to burn yourself.
Insert a toothpick in the center of your cornbread. If it comes out clean, your cornbread is ready to eat. If not, add more water to your rice cooker, re-cover the cornbread with the foil, and place back into the steamer for another 5-10 minutes.
Cornbread will not brown, but it will be tasty!
Mardi Burden, Cuisine Classique
Bread Pudding
Serves 2
* 1/4 cup raisins
* 4 slices day-old white bread (French bread or croissants are excellent. Even good old white bread will work. It just needs to be a couple days past its prime, so it will not be too soggy.)
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1 cup milk or half-and-half
* 1/4 cup white sugar or brown sugar, or a mixture of both
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 eggs
Optional ingredients:
* 1/2 apple, diced
* 1/4 cup of nuts, such as walnuts or pecans.
Prepare the bread pudding:
Place the raisins in 1 cup of hot water and let them soak for 5 minutes. Grease two 4 3/4-inch aluminum pot-pie plates.
Trim the crusts from the bread and cut or tear into bite-size pieces. Place in the greased pie plates and dot with the butter. Drain the raisins and sprinkle them over the bread.
Heat the milk and sugar in the microwave until steaming (about 1-2 minutes). Remove from the microwave and add the vanilla. Set aside.
In a medium-size bowl, beat the eggs lightly with a fork, then gradually stir the hot milk into the eggs. Add the diced apple and nuts if you are using them.
Pour the mixture over the bread slices. Cover the pans tightly with foil.
Prepare your rice cooker:
Add water to the rice cooker, insert steamer rack and place 1 of the pans of bread pudding in the middle of the steamer insert.
Close the lid, and turn the steamer on with enough water to steam for 25 minutes (check rice cooker instructions for correct amount).
When the 25 minutes are up, carefully remove the bread pudding from the rice cooker, using potholders. There could be some leftover steam, so be careful not to burn yourself.
Insert a toothpick in the center of your bread pudding. If toothpick comes out clean, bread pudding is ready to eat. If not, add more water to your rice cooker, re-cover the bread pudding with the foil, and return to the steamer for another 5-10 minutes.
Remove the foil and serve, preferably with vanilla ice cream.
Mardi Burden, Cuisine Classique
The student pantry
• Canned or dried instant soups.
• Canned tuna.
• Canned chicken.
• Evaporated milk.
• Peanut butter.
• Canned beans (can range from black beans to pork and beans).
• Macaroni and cheese in a box.
• Spaghetti sauce.
• Instant oatmeal or other hot cereal.
• Couscous.
• Instant cocoa mix.
• Coffee and/or tea.
• Dried fruits.
• Popcorn.
• Small bag of sugar or other sweetener, such as honey.
• Nonstick cooking spray, such as Pam.
• Peppercorns.
• Salt.
• Baking soda (for cooking, deodorizing and smothering small fires).
• Something to hold it all, such as a plastic under-the-bed tote.