I believe it was Anton Gusteau, the fictional chef hallucination from Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille, who said "Anyone can cook." Here on Meet and Potatoes, we take that to heart, visiting newsmakers in their kitchens to discover what they like to eat when they're not making headlines. Our first celebrichef: the mayor of our bucolic little hamlet, Bill Welch. Now you might already know that Bill Welch is the mayor of State College. But did you also know that he makes a mean vegetarian chili? Find out how.

The recipe:

2 tablespoons (2 turns around the pan) olive or vegetable oil
1 medium yellow skinned onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large green pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 cup pale beer or vegetable stock/broth
1 (32- ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 (14-ounce) can black beans
1 (14-ounce) can dark red kidney beans
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cayenne hot pepper sauce, several drops
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup spicy vegetarian refried beans
Toppings:
8 ounces (2 cups shredded) spicy monterey jack or smoked cheddar
Chopped scallions, whites and greens
Diced fresh seeded plum tomato
Blue and red corn tortilla chips or black bean tortilla chips, for dipping

Over moderate heat, add oil to a deep pot and combine onion, peppers, and garlic. Saute for 3 to 5 minutes to soften vegetables. Deglaze pan with beer or broth, add tomatoes, black beans, red kidney beans, and stirring to combine.
Season chili with cumin, chili powder, hot sauce, and salt. Thicken chili by stirring in refried beans. Simmer over low heat about 5 to 10 minutes longer, then serve up bowls of chili and top with shredded cheese, scallions, and tomatoes. Place bowls on charger plates piled with assorted tortilla chips.
Recipe courtesy food.com

Café Laura, the student-run restaurant located in the Mateer Building (which is next to Park Ave. where it is intersected by Burrowes St.), opened for lunch Tuesday. Lunch is an à la carte affair, served from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, with a menu that changes daily.

Mia Tate (senior -- Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management) and Maegan Wells (senior -- Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management) manned the Panini Grill, a new addition to the lunch menu this semester. Both said their first day went well, though they have suggestions for increasing the counter space at the panini station. Tate called the experience "the first step to the next step;" the next step being the Café Laura theme dinners, which begin Oct. 13. Check out the menu.

In honor of the 55-13 asswhipping the Nittany Lions put on Syracuse this Saturday, I did a little orange crushing of my own, whipping up a batch of Orange Bars and trying (and failing, miserably) with Creamy Orange Bon Bons. The Orange Bars recipe called for blood oranges, but there was already so much carnage on the field, I substituted navel oranges instead. Also, that's all the supermarket had.

If you've ever eaten lemon squares, you'll recognize the end product.

The first step was to mix dough for the crust. The recipe instucts you to "toss all the ingredients into your stand mixer or food processor," as if you have a choice about which you'd like to use. I have neither, and opted for a whisk. The recipe also tells you to mix until "combined and crumbly." My dough wasn't crumbly, but still worked.

The dough is kind of heavy and difficult to spread, so I used my hands to cover the pan. Later, I poured the orange filling on top, which illustrated how uneven this crust would be post-oven. As with the crumbliness, it wasn't a big deal, and was easily fixed by moving some of the filling mixture around. Really need to trim those sideburns.

While the crust was in the oven, I set to work on dessert #2, the bon bons. I had to buy a melon baller to make these, taking me one step further on the path from my youth to adulthood. In spite of the simplicity promised by the three-step recipe, the bon bons proved tricky. Either the melon baller wasn't up to the task, or I simply wasn't baller enough for it. You can see for yourself. Only one of these attempts looks like it should. The rest, especially the problem child in the lower left, are not cooperating. We'll come back to these later. And by the way ladies, that ringed hand in this shot is the photographer's; I'm still single.

The orange bar filling called for eggs, orange juice, sugar and flour, but no oranges. In an effort to sex up the recipe, I chopped up some oranges and added them to the mix. It was a good addition, giving the final product more texture and flavor.

When the crust is finished baking, pour the mixture on top, jiggle it around a bit to even everything out and put it back in the oven for about a half hour.

Back to the bon bons. I probably deviated too much from this recipe, which may be why it didn't turn out so well. For example, the recipe tells you to roll the ice cream balls in powdered orange drink. It didn't sound that good, and I already had a bunch of oranges, so I decided to mix crushed oranges with ice cream instead. Bad call -- this mixture didn't freeze well, and trying to use the melon baller on it was even tougher than before. Even with the straight ice cream, the recipe was difficult to pull off. The next step asks you to drizzle chocolate on top of the ice cream balls, and try as I might, I only ended up with a gloopy mess. Facing down a glob of hardened chocolate with melting ice cream underneath, I abandoned ship. Perhaps the bon bons would have been salvagable if I had more patience and kept them in the freezer longer, but to me it just seemed like trying to rescue these would have been like putting bacon on an Alaskan governor -- it would accomplish nothing.

This looks like an egg casserole.

The ugliness of the orange bars when they came out of the oven was disheartening, but help was just a flour sifter away. Using the sifter, I spread a light coat of powdered sugar on the bars, rendering them more delicious-looking.

Given the drinking scene in this town, it's no surpirse that the bars were a success. The bon bons lived up to their fancy name and proved difficult to pull off. But for a simple dessert recipe with fruit, the orange bars are a touchdown.

Orange Bars

Crust:

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

A pinch of salt

Toss all the ingredients into your stand mixer or food processor. Mix until combined and crumbly. Press lightly into 9 x 13-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes and cool slightly.

Filling:

4 beaten eggs

2/3 cup blood orange juice

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 C flour stirred together

Optional powdered sugar for dusting.

In the bowl of your standing mixer, blend the eggs and sugar together until smooth. Add the orange juice and again blend until smooth. Add the flour, mix on low-medium until incorporated. Pour the filling into the warm crust. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, or until the center of the bars no longer jiggles.

Cool to room temperature, or refrigerate if you like your citrus bars chilled. Gently dust with powdered sugar when about to serve.

Courtesy of quirkycupcake.com

Creamy Orange Bon Bons

Note: I deviated from this, but here's the original recipe.

1 quart vanilla ice cream

1/2 cup powdered orange drink

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate , in chunks

With a small ice cream scoop or melon baller, scoop balls of vanilla ice cream onto a cold cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. Place in the freezer to reset the ice cream balls to firm.

Put the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave at medium until liquid, about 1 1/2 minutes. Stop and stir every 30 seconds until melted, be careful not to burn it.

Spread the orange drink powder onto a large plate. Roll the ice cream balls in the powder and return them to the cookie sheet. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the ice cream balls. Return to the freezer until ready to serve.

Courtesy of foodnetwork.com

Inferno Brick Oven & Bar has its first day of business tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 18, opening its bar to the public at 8 p.m. Lunch and dinner service starts Friday, Sept. 19. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are sponsored by Smirnoff, Ciroc Vodka and Bacardi, respectively, and there will be tastings and giveaways.

Jennifer Zangrilli Hoag (director of operations for Dante's Inc., which owns Inferno, among other restaurants) said the new eatery will serve individual gourmet pizzas, a variety of merende (which she described as Italian-style tapas) and dessert. It will also have a full-service bar and about 60 Italian wines.

"I would describe it as polished casual. We want it to be a casual place with an upscale, city vibe," Zangrilli Hoag said.

Check next Thursday's Venues for a full story.

After learning that student Michelle Christensen (graduate-mechanical engineering) won a mushroom soup cook-off, I had to taste the winning recipe. Here it is.

French Mushroom Soup Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for toasting the bread


• 1 1/2 pounds assorted fresh mushrooms such as Portabella, Crimini, Oyster, and Shiitake, sliced


• salt


• 2 sprigs thyme


• 1 cloves garlic, finely chopped


• 1 shallot, finely chopped


• 2 tablespoons flour


• 4 cups low sodium beef broth


• 1/4 cup dry red wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon


• pepper


• 1 baguette, sliced to 3/4 inch


• 5 ounces Gruyere cheese, finely shredded

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and salt, roasting 10-12 minutes until a majority of moisture cooks off, turning as needed to prevent burning.

2. Add thyme, garlic, and shallot and cook an additional 5 minutes. Sprinkle flour over the mushroom mixture and stir to thoroughly coat. Pour the beef broth and wine over the mixture and simmer approximately 25-30 minutes, until liquid reduces by half, then season with additional salt and pepper as desired.

3. Lightly brush the bread with olive oil and toast under a broiler or in a pan over medium heat. Pour the mushroom soup mixture into individual ramekins and top with a slice of toast. Divide the cheese over the four bowls and melt with a small blow torch or under a broiler. Garnish with an additional mushroom.

Courtesy of Michelle Christensen

Insomnia Cookies, 421 E. Beaver Ave., Suite G2, added two new flavors to its repertoire tonight: s'mores-flavored cookies and snickerdoodles.
Earlier tonight, assistant manager Stephen Place said he hadn't tried the new cookies, but planned to dig in soon.
Place said the snickerdoodle (one for $1) is similar to the chain's sugar cookie, but is coated with brown sugar before baking. When the dough goes in the oven, the brown sugar on top bakes into the cookie. The s'mores cookie (a deluxe cookie, so one costs $2.25) is made with chocolate cookie dough and has graham cracker pieces and marshmallows mixed into the cookie.
Customers can visit insomniacookies.com to order.

Rita's Water Ice has a new cream ice flavor: Pumpkin Pie, which will be available for a limited time, according to ritas.com.

The flavor is available at the State College Rita's, 119 E. Beaver Ave. The pumpkin-flavored ice looks like it has little bits of pumpkin mixed in.

The taste is believable, but the cream ice is a little too clotty going down for my taste. Pumpkin lovers might want to give the flavor a try, but for me, keep pumpkin in pies (well, not really, but at least out of water ice).