She has a magical way with many foods, especially vegetables

By Theresa Curry

Correspondent

At work, LaVerne Andrews oversees the production of food that's pretty predictable: wraps and salads, gyros, chicken tenders, hamburgers. She's a supervisor in the food court at Old Dominion University, monitoring a section of the huge dining area devoted to meals for students and teachers.

When she returns to her Norfolk kitchen, it's a different story. The Oakdale Farms resident loves to experiment with intense flavor, combining pumpkin with root vegetables for a brighter-tasting pie, simmering pots of fragrant vegetable stew, piling garlic-tossed portabella mushrooms on a roll for a new twist on a Philly cheese steak. "I cook everything," Andrews said, "but I guess you could say my specialty is vegetables."

That's not to say she doesn't have an innovative way with meat. For Christmas dinner, she served an Italian roast chicken seasoned with bay leaf, lemon and thyme. And when she can find a nice piece of goat meat, she'll marinate it with wine and garlic and roast it in the oven for a flavorful main course. She might make a big pot of oxtails and rice for a warming winter dish.

She credits her father, John Henry Young, with her passion for food and her approach to life. Young was a New Jersey letter carrier who counted the hours until he could return to his kitchen and produce imaginative meals for his family. "He cooked everything," Andrews said. "Pheasant, goat, lamb, roast beef marinated in garlic and coffee. Everything he made was wonderful."

Of course, she said, the ethnic ingredients for her father's meals were close at hand when the family lived in East Orange. "Even as a child, I could see everything was available in the markets and groceries. I've never found goat meat here, but I see it all over when I go back. And in New Jersey, I can get a huge pack of oxtails for what I pay for a couple here."

With her father's encouragement, Andrews gained confidence in the kitchen. "I think the first thing I tried was stuffed shells. After a while, I would bake a chicken with vegetables for supper." She moved to Norfolk - where she had lived until she was 11 - after graduating from business school. After marriage and divorce, cooking was something to fall back on. "Of course, making everything from scratch costs a lot less," she said. "It also gives you something creative to do that doesn't cost any extra money.

"Our family gatherings revolved around food, and they still do, even though our children are grown."

She remembers the table at the home of her sister, the late Rosa Lee Hunt. "Food was end to end. There would always be a lot of salads, a lot of vegetables." The family had a holiday tradition. Instead of stuffing a turkey, they'd bake stuffing in muffin tins with cranberries for a brown crust and a soft, moist middle, the tart cranberries a perfect contrast to the dense, bland stuffing. When her children come home, "The first thing they ask is, 'Mom, what did you cook?' " Andrews said. Often, the answer will be in the air: the fragrance of the vanilla-laced pie, the smell of eggplant and garlic, or the lemon chicken roasting in the oven.

For a quick meal, Andrews will stir-fry vegetables and toss them with pasta and dressing, or combine several vegetables, like okra, corn and tomatoes for a Cajun-style succotash. She likes to use both fresh and canned tomatoes in her tomato-based dishes. "I don't want to see any vegetables in packages, though. I need to be able to look them over before I buy

them." She shops at Farm Fresh and the Asian markets in Virginia Beach.

Andrews makes her own flavored oils for cooking and marinating, combining vegetable oils with crushed garlic, chiles or fresh herbs. "I'll try anything. I learned that from my father. He told us we could do anything we set our minds to do."

Theresa Curry, flavor@pilotonline.com