Winston DeLattiboudere was in front of bright lights and cameras again on Monday, but a group interview with local media members paled in comparison to his March appearance on the NBC game show “Password.”

The Gophers assistant football coach was partnered with late-night host Jimmy Fallon versus Jimmy Kimmel and another guest player, with Keke Palmer as host.

DeLattiboudere, a former Gophers defensive lineman, had played the word-association game at home with friends, but after advancing through a few rounds of video auditions, he got a little star struck when filming across from the comedians and in front of a studio audience in Los Angeles.

“I’m looking at them like, ‘OK, don’t mess up, don’t mess up, don’t mess up,’ ” DeLattiboudere shared Monday from the Gophers’ Larson Football Performance Center.

DeLattiboudere and Fallon lost, but they did provide some comic relief. In one online promo, Fallon says “bread” in a supposed French accept, looking for the word “baguette.” But Winston appeared to get hung up on the impression and answers “Dracula.”

In the edited cut-up, Kimmel turns to his female parter and says, “I think we are going to be OK.”

“It was an awesome experience overall, but I wish I would have came home with the win,” DeLattiboudere said. “That’s what I’ll say: I’m competitive by nature.”

DeLattiboudere’s wife, Shelby, saw a social media plug asking if people wanted to be on TV. She commented, “of course.”

Someone with NBC direct messaged her asking if she knew any coaches; she didn’t have to look far.

“All of a sudden she tells me I need you to be on this Zoom,” DeLattiboudere said. “OK. I will be on this Zoom and you are going to be playing ‘Password’ against these people.

“I thought it was a scam — whole entire time. … But my wife is asking me to do it. I don’t want to argue with her right now, so I’m just going to keep on going. The first round (audition) turned to the second round turned to the third round.”

Then he got the call to be on the TV show, but he was instructed to keep it quiet. “The one person I did have to tell was coach (P.J.) Fleck, but he kept that secret for me,” DeLattiboudere said. “He held it down.”

DeLattiboudere, 26, has climbed the coaching ranks since playing for the U from 2015-19. After stops at Charlotte, Oregon and Akron, He was hired as the U’s defensive line coach in January 2023. The Baltimore native has been named to best young coaches’ lists, and in January, he was promoted to Gophers’ assistant head coach.

“Coach Fleck called me into the office; we had a very long discussion and conversation,” DeLattiboudere said of his offseason promotion.. “Right before I walked out, after he let me know the good news, he was like, ‘Look at you. You were just running around out there in pads, now you are the assistant head coach.’ … It was a really cool mentor-mentee, kind of like a father-son moment.”

Related Articles

Gophers add California quarterback Jackson Kollock to 2025 recruiting class

Gophers snag Badgers football commitment in Wisconsin defensive lineman Torin Pettaway

Gophers season ends in NIT second-round loss to Indiana State

Gophers defense simplifying scheme to play faster

Charley Walters: Futures of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell hinge on picking right quarterback

Minnesota lawmakers are working through a number of modifications to the law Gov. Tim Walz signed last year legalizing recreational marijuana in the state.

There are dozens of mostly technical changes in the works at the Capitol. But there’s a hardy debate over the process for giving social equity applicants a leg up in getting cannabis business licenses.

The bill legalizing the use of marijuana for Minnesotans 21 and older created a new state agency tasked with licensing businesses and overseeing a legal market. It gives higher priority to social equity applicants — those that were disproportionately held back by the prior criminalization of marijuana due to their race, community or other attributes.

The law also mandated the expungement of misdemeanor marijuana offenses, and that’s starting to happen.

Native American tribes currently have the ability to sell marijuana, and some are well down that path. But other than in the sovereign nations, DFL lawmakers are trying not to change their tune on when people will be able to walk into dispensaries.

Licenses

Charlene Briner, interim director of the Office of Cannabis Management, told a Senate panel last week that her office anticipates firming up the rules in early 2025. She said the office would try to start to issue contingent licenses for various parts of the growing and selling sooner. A preapproval window could begin this summer.

“However, I want to be very explicit: those early licenses do not allow people who are awarded those licenses to touch the plant because we do have a health and safety and consumer safety concern,” Briner told the Senate State and Local Government and Veterans Committee. “So, we wouldn’t want people operating without rules enforced to make sure that we have those protections.”

Bills lawmakers are advancing would forego a point system to score applicants. Instead, Minnesota would enter qualified applicants into a random lottery to decide who gets business licenses. That change could shield the process from litigation that’s occurred in other places and slowed the retail ramp-up.

DFL lawmakers remain optimistic, at least publicly, that the introduction of a retail market will go smoothly.

Rep. Nolan West. (Courtesy of the candidate)

But Rep. Nolan West of Blaine — one of just five Republicans who voted for the bill last year — said DFL lawmakers’ “obsession about social equity” is taking up all the bandwidth.

“Because [the] black market is the whole problem with prohibition. It makes it more dangerous,” he said. “People are using it anyway, let’s get them in a safe and regulated market. [That] should be the No. 1 priority, but it’s not.”

He calls the timeline of an early 2025 launch to sales “laughable” because so much still needs to happen.

New ideas

There are still new ideas coming up.

Last week, Sen. Susan Pha, DFL-Brooklyn Park, introduced legislation to designate two seats on the Cannabis Advisory Council for people ages 18 to 25. She had a youth-led advocacy group with her that said young people need to be part of the conversation.

Sen. Susan Pha (Courtesy of the candidate)

Pha said there are states that legalized cannabis years ago that are still adding improvements to their laws.

“I really see these as adding to improve the current policy that we passed last year, which was absolutely great,” Pha said. “But we know there are gaps and we know there’s things we still have to add to it.”

One part of the law passed last year that seems to be moving ahead quicker than expected is the expungement of more than 60,000 misdemeanor records as early as next month. The judicial branch has until May 13 to object to any of those expungements.

A separate board is already at work examining more-serious, marijuana-related convictions that could be wiped from records after review.

Related Articles

For ‘public safety crisis’ of copper wire theft, MN legislators proposing licenses for sellers

Corrections officials, inmates say MN prison conditions a matter of public safety

Letters: ‘Little money to work with’? What the heck?

MN Legislature may pass gun bills on straw purchases, safe storage, reporting stolen weapons this session

Letters: Speed up energy permitting in Minnesota

In 2003, food journalist Marian Burros’ cookbook, “Cooking for Comfort” (Simon & Schuster) landed on my desk in the OC Register’s newsroom. It was hard to meet my deadlines because it seemed that everyone who passed my desk examined the cover and stopped to chat about it.

The cover art, a generous bowl of macaroni and cheese, crunchy-crusted brown on top and oozing cheese below, made well-fed adults feel like hungry children.

More than two decades have passed, but I still have the book and I use Burros’ recipe for macaroni and cheese. Comfort food, more than ever, seems irresistible.

Macaroni and Cheese

Yield: 4 main-dish or 6 side-dish servings

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup diced yellow onion

2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cups low-fat milk; see cook’s notes

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

12 ounces extra-sharp aged white cheddar cheese, grated, divided use

Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce

8 ounces cavatappi or other corkscrew-style pasta, or macaroni

2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Cook’s notes: I use 2 percent milk, which means the milkfat is 2 percent of the total weight of the milk. Whole milk or 1 percent milk works, too.

The finished casserole (through Step 4) can be covered and refrigerated before baking. To cook, let it sit at room temperature 30 minutes, then bake, uncovered, as directed.

DIRECTIONS

1. Place oven rack in bottom third of oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In large saucepan on low heat, melt butter. Add onion and cook until soft but not browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and cook, stirring, about 1 minute; do not brown. Remove from heat and whisk in milk until thoroughly blended. Return to medium heat and cook, stirring, until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and stir in mustard, 10 ounces grated cheddar cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and hot sauce.

3. Cook pasta according to package directions until cooked al dente (cooked until pasta offers slight resistance when bitten). Drain, but do not rinse. Immediately stir into prepared cheese sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

4. Spoon into 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Top with remaining 2 ounces grated cheddar cheese and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

5. Bake about 30 minutes or until mixture is hot, bubbling throughout and golden on top.

Source: “Cooking for Comfort” by Marian Burros

Award-winning food writer Cathy Thomas has written three cookbooks, including “50 Best Plants on the Planet.” Follow her at @CathyThomas Cooks.com.

Related Articles

Quick Fix: Moroccan Burgers with Cucumber Slices and Tomatoes

A creamy, dreamy soup to make in the Instant Pot

Quick Fix: Hearty bean and veggie medley

Three festive main dishes for any spring party

Five weeknight dishes: The rice bowl you need for dinner and more

Diane’s Place, a new bistro from pastry chef extraordinaire Diane Moua, opened on April 6 in the Food Building in Northeast Minneapolis — and we got a sneak peek at the restaurant and attached event space.

Moua earned her reputation — and five James Beard Award nominations — for her excellent desserts at spots like Spoon and Stable and Bellecour Bakery, but the menu at Diane’s Place leans into savory dishes inspired by her Hmong background.

Diane’s Place will be open daily for breakfast and lunch, from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Moua plans to add dinner service eventually, too.

Diane’s Place, a new Hmong bistro, opened on April 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

As for the most important part — the food — well, it’s great.

Menu highlights include a Hmong sausage with sticky rice, a sweet pork bowl with a marinated egg and pickled mustard greens, pan-fried bean thread noodles and several dishes that utilize ingredients from other Food Building producers including Baker’s Field Flour and Bread, Alemar Cheese and Lowry Hill Provisions.

During a pre-opening preview, Moua showed off her eye for detail and carefully balanced flavors. Just take the sticky rice, which was pitch-perfect; seasoned with a little sweetness and a little acidity to bring out its natural nuttiness. The vegetable egg rolls, with mushrooms and mustard greens, were spot-on — not drippy, not dry — as were those bean thread noodles with a similar flavor profile.

Macarons made with pandan, an aromatic Southeast Asian plant, were served at a sneak preview of Diane’s Place, a new Hmong restaurant in Minneapolis, on April 4, 2024. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

The desserts are stellar, too, none too sweet nor heavy-handed. It’s unclear as of yet which desserts will be served regularly, but if the Thai tea cream puffs and pandan macarons at the preview were any indication, she does a brilliant job at showcasing Southeast Asian flavors via classical French pastry techniques.

And there’s a reason she’s known since the beginning of the planning process that she’d serve her chewy, ping-pong-ball-sized fried sesame balls, inspired by her mom’s recipe.

The space is transformed — simplified and brightened — from its previous life as Kieran’s Kitchen and Market (named after Irish whiskey maven Kieran Folliard, who created the Food Building). On the walls of Diane’s Place hang Hmong textiles and clothing from Moua’s childhood.

A Hmong textile hangs on the wall of Diane’s Place, a new restaurant in Northeast Minneapolis. The restaurant includes personal touches from chef Diane Moua’s background, the menu utilizes produce from Hmong farms including the one run by her parents in Wisconsin. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

The restaurant is getting much-deserved attention: Bon Appetit named it one of the eight must-visit new restaurants around the country this winter, as did the Pioneer Press food team.

Diane’s Place accepts reservations and walk-ins, though as of now, weekend reservations are fully booked through the end of the month. So consider stopping by for a weekday meal!

Diane’s Place: 117 14th Ave. NE, Minneapolis; 612-489-8012; dianesplacemn.com

Related Articles

Alary’s Bar in downtown St. Paul to reopen with new owner

Ora by Nixta and chefs Ann Ahmed and Christina Nguyen nominated for James Beard awards

At new St. Paul Andiamo, fresh, comforting Italian is on the menu

Do you want fries with that? Krispy Kreme doughnuts are coming to McDonald’s

Ooey, gooey, delicious: Six of the best hot cheese dishes on Twin Cities restaurant menus