Mustard

I suffer from leg cramps. Recently while attending a basketball game, I had to leave my seat and try to walk off a severe cramp. A security guard, seeing that I was grimacing in pain, approached me to see if I needed first aid. When I said it was leg cramps, he took me to the concession stand and suggested I try yellow mustard. He said it was an old-time remedy his grandmother used. I ate the mustard. By the time I walked to the end of the concession stand, and to the surprise of all who were watching me eat plain mustard, my leg cramp was gone.

When Ilan Hall, winner of Bravo's Top Chef 2, was challenged to come up with an amuse bouche in half an hour, he made a deviled egg. But not just any deviled egg. Instead of the standard mayonnaise and mustard, its center held a mixture of fig paste, egg yolks, chili-lime corn nuts and pear nectar, topped with fried salami. That's inspiration for those less-than-top-chefs among us who soon will be staring at lots of lovingly decorated Easter eggs - and wondering how to consume them. Fortunately, plenty of recipes make use of humdrum hard-boiled eggs.

If ever meat was made for grilling, it's fresh pork tenderloin, or chops cut from the loin. The sweet, rosy flesh accepts a wide range of marinades, bastes and accompaniments, and the natural marbling keeps the meat moist even during direct-heat grilling, with or without the grill lid closed.Good grilling doesn't get much easier than this first recipe: An herbed mustard baste provides a tart counterpoint to the sweet succulence of loin pork chops. In the second recipe, the marinade doubles as a baste for the meat as it grills.

WASHINGTON -- A landscape of manicured trees, bushes and Asian ornaments sits on a plateau above the South Korean Embassy in the capital's posh Spring Valley neighborhood.Red, white and blue tape clinging to trees marks off several sections. The tape does not signify the school colors of nearby American University. Rather, it indicates where the Army Corps of Engineers began digging this week for chemical weapons thought to have been buried decades ago.The Army is hunting for a site where poisonous weapons were tested and then discarded at the American University Experiment Station during World War I. Many residents say they are worried, particularly about elevated levels of arsenic in the soil.

When a good friend called to say she would be in town to visit her son, who attends college nearby, I invited her to stay with us. I planned meals for the entire weekend, but as it turned out, her offspring, unenthusiastic about his dorm food, had his heart set on dining out in several area restaurants. His mother willingly complied, but it meant that my husband and I were able to share only one meal -- Sunday lunch -- with her.Our friend indulged in all manner of ethnic foods, including Italian, Mexican and French, during her brief visit with her son, but mentioned that what she longed for most was meat and potatoes.

MY FAVORITE WAY to cook onions has been to burn them over a hot fire on the barbecue grill. I have become very good at this. As the onions blacken, they sweeten. But, recently, I widened my repertoire and tried a new onion-cooking technique. I sliced them with a distinctive cut, cooked them on the grill and topped them off with a sauce made with tarragon and mustard.For me, the hardest part about cooking onions has been remembering to put them on the grill in time. It takes about 45 minutes to cook a whole onion.

The steel tubes lie in stacks, strapped to railroad tracks by cables. Their innocuous appearance offers no hint of their poisonous contents.Behind barbed wire, and heavily guarded by soldiers and technology, the 1,817 containers at Aberdeen Proving Ground hold more than 1,500 tons of mustard agent, a banned chemical weapon and carcinogen that blisters the skin, eyes and lungs.Churned out at the Harford County base during two world wars, the mustard agent has sat for years as the government and citizens wrangled over how best to dispose of the toxic chemical.

This week's menusEach day of the week offers a menu aimed at a different aspect of meal planning. There's a family meal, a kids' menu aimed at younger tastes, a heat-and-eat meal that recycles leftovers, a budget meal that employs a cost- cutting strategy, a meatless or "less meat" dish for people who may not be strict vegetarians but are trying to cut down on meat, an express meal that requires little or no preparation, and an entertaining menu that's quick.Sunday/FamilyThe...

Community activists impatient for disposal of chemical weapons stored at Aberdeen Proving Ground are angry about a budget fight between the Army and Congress that could delay the project at least seven months."

My mother used cornmeal often when she cooked. She baked round loaves of corn bread as well as slim corn-bread sticks. She dusted egg-dipped eggplant strips and sliced okra with cornmeal before frying these vegetables. And, for the holidays, she always made corn bread dressing.I follow her Southern tradition and find countless uses for cornmeal in my kitchen. Recently, I bought fresh rainbow trout and coated the fillets with cornmeal and flour before pan-frying them. The fish with their crispy, golden cornmeal crust were so appealing that I've decided to serve them again, this time for company.

When you eat steamed crabs are you a dipper, a swiper or a sauce-maker? A dipper removes the crab meat from the shell then drops it in a bowl of liquid, usually apple-cider vinegar or melted butter. A swiper rubs the crab meat quickly over the bits of seasoning clinging to the shell. A sauce-maker combines ingredients, usually mustard, mayonnaise and ketchup, then drags the crab meat through this creation. There is also another option: None of the above. That is, just eating the crab meat as soon as it pops out of the shell.

Here are the 10 delicious preparations of soft-shell crabs in alphabetical order that appeared on my blog at baltimoresun.com/diningatlarge. They are not always on the menu; check before you go. 1 Asian, French and Baltimore-inspired crab cake and tempura soft crab finished with wasabi cream at Alizee in Tuscany/Canterbury. 2 Dusted with flour and Old Bay rub (contains a little brown sugar) and sauteed, finished with basil aioli at Annabel Lee Tavern in Canton. 3 Lightly tempura fried or sauteed with a Creole mustard drizzle at Catonsville Gourmet in Catonsville.

I foolishly picked up a plastic honey bear that was in a pot of boiling water, and the honey squirted out all over the palm of my hand. Immediately, I ran it under cold water, and then I ran to get your book because I knew there was something I could put on burns that was natural: mustard. I had mustard in the fridge, and I poured it all over the palm of my hand. It still burned like the devil, but I left it on while I read more. I put more mustard on, wrapped gauze bandage around it and left it on for a while until the pain subsided.

I covered the story when Ben Roethlisberger was injured in a motorcycle crash. His football career and perhaps his long-term health seemed in serious jeopardy. And so, outside Mercy Hospital, on a street overlooking the Monongahela, a small gathering did what comes naturally to Steelers fans. They tailgated, cooking hot dogs on a grill. A few fans calmly held vigil into the night. I remember looking at the lighter fluid and the bottle of French's mustard and thinking this was the most surreal thing I'd ever experienced.

Lately on the Read Street blog, we've been ranting about annoying phrases that clutter our speech and writing. The discussion was sparked by a recent Oxford University research project on the 10 Most Annoying Phrases, a list culled from books, papers, magazines, broadcast, the Internet and other sources. Researchers fingered the inane business phrase "at the end of the day," noted the oxymoron "fairly unique," and highlighted redundancies such as "I personally" and "at this moment in time."

For years, William Abraham Beery Jr. owned the venerable Burke's Cafe in downtown Baltimore, home base of the gently fried 3-inch-wide golden onion ring and of club sandwiches so long they "would stretch from here to the Hillendale Golf course and back," a restaurant critic once observed. Mr. Beery, the amiable proprietor who was as well-known as the dishes his restaurant served up to hungry Baltimoreans for decades, died of heart failure Tuesday at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 91. In 1947, Mr. Beery became partner with the owner of Burke's Cafe on Light Street, which had been established in 1934 and had earned a reputation of being a tough waterfront watering hole where fisticuffs were as common as the shots of Pikesville Rye and tall drafts of chilled Arrow Beer that traveled across its bar. "The story goes that Fred Sheaffer went out to Pimlico one day and put some money on a horse.

Had dinner recently with Brooks Robinson. Eddie Murray showed, too. Robinson was just what you'd expect: unassuming, complementary, easy to get along with. The same for Murray: reliable, intense, making a statement from beginning to end. Each handled the menu with aplomb: Esskay Orioles chicken dogs for old No. 5, and Esskay Orioles beef dogs for Eddie. A handful of Herr's Old Bay potato chips on the side, a Berger cookie or two to wrap things up, and we had a Baltimore meal fit for Edna Turnblad, with the fat content to match.

When Mark Henry retired as executive chef of the Oregon Grille in Cockeysville a few months ago, it felt something like the end of an era for those who follow the local dining scene. That's impressive considering that for the past 11 years he's headed the kitchen of a restaurant best known for its steaks, chops and traditional Maryland seafood. Henry, who opened the Oregon Grille and, before that, was known for his imaginative cuisine at places like the Milton Inn, worked with his successor, Stefan Sabo, for continuity's sake; but that doesn't mean there won't be changes now that someone else is in charge.

Neighbor Ride opens new house Members of the community are invited to join Neighbor Ride's board of directors, volunteers and staff in an open house to celebrate the organization's recent move to new quarters at 8950 Route 108, Suite 115, Columbia. The open house will be held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. May 2 at the new location. A volunteer-based nonprofit organization dedicated to decreasing isolation and improving the quality of life for older Howard County residents, Neighbor Ride provides reasonably priced, reliable supplemental transportation for health care appointments; volunteering; religious, cultural and social activities; and other personal needs for people 60 and older.

Light Cheddar-and-Ale Fondue Makes 3 cups (about 12 servings) 15 1/2 -ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained (such as Great Northern, navy or cannellini) 12-ounce bottle dark ale or other beer 1 cup grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese 1 cup grated reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese 1 teaspoon dry mustard 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste In a food processor, combine the beans and 1/4 cup of the ale. Puree, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed, until very smooth, about 4 minutes.