DiscoverDishing with Stephanie's Dish
Dishing with Stephanie's Dish
Claim Ownership

Dishing with Stephanie's Dish

Author: Stephanie Hansen - @StephaniesDish

Subscribed: 142Played: 5,648
Share

Description

Host of Emmy award winning TV show “Taste Buds,” Author of "True North Cabin Cookbook," blogger, radio host, podcaster, and contributor on Fox 9’s The Jason Show.
68 Episodes
Reverse
Dan Pashman has accomplished many things. Podcast host of the food podcast “The Sporkful,” pasta shape creator of Cascatelli that Time magazine named the best invention of the year. Now, he is going on the road with the Cascatelli story and his new cookbook, “Anything’s Pastable.” Thank you for reading Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it.As a companion to the cookbook, he is hosting a live podcast he has deemed Mission: ImPASTAble, which tells the inside story of the cookbook's making. From the highs and lows of recipe testing to a research trip across Italy to the agonizing decisions over the design of the cover, by the end, you’ll never look at a cookbook the same way again. Join Dan Pashman in conversation with local James Beard Award winner and restauranteur Ann Kim at The Amsterdam Bar on 3/24 at 6:30 pm. Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
Tim started a podcast called Niver Niver Land, where he talks with other restaurant owners and compares notes on the state of the state, amongst rising food and labor costs.We caught up with Tim Niver to get his thoughts on the state of the state after reading a New York Times article in which 30 top chefs shared their opinions on the current restaurant scene (the article is unlocked here).Thank you for reading Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter. This post is public, so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
Snack Media Group

Snack Media Group

2024-02-1635:48

Did you see this video from Billy’s Sushi pop up on your Instagram feed around Valentines Day? I did. And I knew it was the work of my “Dishing With Stephanies Dish” latest podcast guest, Hector Cortes, CEO of Snack Media Group.It was really fun connecting with Hector a few weeks back to talk about social media trends and how video content creators are changing the media landscape for small businesses in the age of TikTok and Reels. Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Did you see this employment video from Deans Home Services that featured some of the most recognizable Twin Cities small business founders? It’s unlike any recruitment video you have seen before.Here is his Hector’s latest video that explains one of the strategies his content creators are utilizing to help Twin Cities businesses get a leg up in the world of social media.Listen to the Podcast and hear more about how social media is changing the way we consume marketing messages and what curious content creators are doing to stand out in a crowded field. I loved hearing Hector’s point of view and think their team is doing some really fun social media marketing for some of my favorite local businesses. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
Heirloom Collaborative

Heirloom Collaborative

2024-01-2616:11

In this episode of "Makers of Minnesota," host Stephanie interviews guest Rachel Ingber, founder of heirloomcollab.com. Rachel specializes in helping individuals preserve their family recipes and heirlooms by creating personalized cookbooks. She discusses her journey of creating a cookbook for her husband's grandmother and how the positive reception from family and friends inspired her to turn this into a business. Rachel explains the process of collecting recipes from clients, collaborating on book design and content, and the option of including photographs. The episode delves into the emotional aspect of preserving family traditions and the practicalities of pricing and logistics in creating these heirloom cookbooks. Additionally, Rachel shares insights into her own passion for food, photography, and family, making the episode a heartwarming exploration of the importance of culinary traditions.EPISODE TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:Stephanie [00:00:16]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's dish, the podcast where we talk to people about food, that work in food, that love food. And I'm here today with Rachel Ingber, and she is the founder of a company called heirloomcollab.com. And I'm super excited to talk to her because what she helps you do is she helps you put your family Peas, your heirlooms, your treasured grandma Jane's pie recipe into a format that You can use it either for just having this like a word document situation or she'll help you actually put it into a book. Rachel, this is so needed and so excited to talk to you because I feel like this is such a lovely thing that you can offer people. How did you get started?Rachel [00:01:06]:Yeah. I'm excited to talk to you as well. I actually started, By creating a cookbook for our family, I created, in 2019, a cookbook honoring, my husband's grandmother's recipes. She had, was about to turn 100. I gave it to her for her 1 100th birthday, and she was super renowned in the family for her cooking and baking. And, originally, I just wanted the recipes for myself, and so I started collecting them over the years and, had this idea of, like, taking pictures of each item and making it look like a real cookbook. And so after I had finished that book for her, The whole family wanted a copy, and I think we ended up having over a 100 family and friends, request to get a copy of the book. And she ended up passing away later, that following year, but it became this Really amazing tribute to her and so nice and lovely that we were able to cook her food whenever we missed her and have her cookbook sitting out with her picture on it.Rachel [00:02:12]:So Yes. The idea of starting to do it for other people and their families as well kind of spurred as this COVID, side hustle project, just to kind of to pass it forward.Stephanie [00:02:28]:What was one of the recipes in your grandma's cookbook that stands out to you that you love?Rachel [00:02:34]:Yeah. My favorite recipe, oh, it's Probably a tie. Her apple crisp, I make for, probably almost all of our family holiday gatherings, And my father-in-law even request it for his birthday these days. And then her chocolate chip cookies. Like, it's just Such a classic amazing cookie, and those are probably the go to. When we're missing her, we make her cookies, and they're just the greatest.Stephanie [00:03:03]:So people did how do they give you these recipes? Like, do they put them in a word document and then send them your way? Or, Like, what this is such a I write cookbooks, so it's such a challenging process. I'm I'm curious how you take, Like these heirlooms, and you condense them and get them into a form where these people can use them in a book.Rachel [00:03:24]:Yeah. So when I meet with a client. We have a consultation, and, it's actually quite simple. They can create a Google Drive for them to share their recipes with me, And it could be anything from something already typed up in Word if they keep track of that, or sometimes it's them just photographing their handwritten index cards. Especially a lot of my older clients aren't, like, savvy to retype them. So they'll drop those over me, and then I will type them all up for them and, collaborate with them on, you know, what sections they want, how many of the recipes they wanna include, Which ones they would like to be photographed? I do all the photography as well. And together, we collaborate to make that cookbook.Stephanie [00:04:08]:So last year, how many books do you think you made?Rachel [00:04:12]:I think last year, I made probably around 10 throughout the year. And I previously, we've been work doing this part time. As I said, it started with a side hustle, and then In late fall, just decided to sorta do this a little bit more full time. So hoping to ramp up even more business this year.Stephanie [00:04:32]:How have you figured out how many books you think you can do in a year? Because just the I I'm working on a book right now, and just the idea of writing 10 cookbooks, I'm like, oh, that's so much work.Rachel [00:04:44]:You know, I haven't had to put a number on it. So far, I haven't needed to turn anybody away. I've been really fortunate to be able to squeeze things in and make time, but, I think I'm fortunate in that A lot of the hard part is done because the clients are the ones that are supplying the recipe and supplying the the stories and the introduction that goes along. I know in New York, Cookbook is so beautifully written that must have, been such a labor of love to write out those stories and be really thoughtful. And, so I'm lucky that that that part of the work is on the client for me.Stephanie [00:05:20]:So when you It it seems like I just looked at your kinda pricing on your website, and I'm sure this varies depending on the complexity of the project. But, You know, like, you can get it looks like a pretty good sized book with some good family recipes, like, for under $5,000 all in with Pictures and everything. I mean, when you think about that to have it in your family and an heirloom like that, it's that's a that feels really reasonable to me.Rachel [00:05:49]:Yeah. I mean, it is a lot of work. Like I said, I go through and I edit every recipe. I try to translate it so that it's, so that future generations will be able to easily make it. Things won't need to be memorized. And then for all the items that are photographed, For folks that are local, they have the option. They can either make or cook the dish, and I'll come over and photograph them in a few different sessions, or I can do it all. And I that is what I do for, clients of mine that aren't local.Rachel [00:06:19]:So, The actual cooking of the dishes and the styling and taking shots of it, that can end up taking a lot of work. So, that's kind of what makes the price, the way it is. It is it's certainly not a cheap, inexpensive gift, but it's something that I have a lot of clients that Go in with, like, their siblings and give it together as as a, gift for their parents' birthday or anniversary.Stephanie [00:06:45]:Yeah.Rachel [00:06:46]:And it typically works out well that way. But, yeah, as you mentioned, it's, something that their whole family will be able to pass down and be able to share those with future generations, and order more cookbooks whenever they want. You can have unlimited number of copies of it.Stephanie [00:07:03]:Do you find that People more often than not make the recipe and have you photograph it, or do they want you to make it?Rachel [00:07:11]:Honestly, it's about 5050, of folks that want that control and wanna be able to make it the way that they make it, And that works out just fine. It's sometimes it's nice that I can even if I'm coming to their house or kitchen to photograph, it's in their dishes. So it's Set up the way that they always would serve it. Whereas when I'm the one doing it, I get to take a little bit more creative license, and make it You know, style it beautifully, and, it it turns out beautiful either way. But, it's about 5050 in what a client wants. And then we're separate toStephanie [00:07:46]:Do you have to warehouse, like, dishes and different things for styling purposes?Rachel [00:07:52]:I do. Yes. I have, like a little mini prop studio in my house, and then I also have, like, backboards, and stuff that I travel with. So when I go to a client's home, it's not necessarily even taken in their kitchen. I find the place with the best light in their house, And I set up, you know, a fake wooden table or, different countertops, and take photos that way.Stephanie [00:08:18]:Yeah. It's people don't think about, like, all of the weird styling that has to happen for these books. When you are doing, like, a lot of our grandma's recipes have ingredients that people don't really have anymore, like one of the ones that comes to mind is olio. I don't know if you've ever come across any recipes with Olio, which is basically just like a Crisco or a lard. But do you just make substitutions on those then or try to modernize Sam?Rachel [00:08:46]:So I always ask. That's part of the collaboration, process, but I will ask the client, do you want me to say margarine or butter or Crisco, or do you want me to use the initial, original terminology? Same with, like I see a lot of, like, number 10 cans or whatever that of canned vegetables. So we always discuss that up front, and if they want it to be true to how it was originally written or modernize so that anyone can follow it in the future.Stephanie [00:09:15]:Has this set a fire in you to write your own book?Rachel [00:09:20]:I haven't really thought about doing that, yet. I I love cooking. I love cookbooks. I've been experimenting a lot with gluten free lately. My son, about a year and a half ago, was diagnosed with celiac disease. So That's been something I've been doing personally a lot is converting all of my favorite recipes to be gluten free for him. And so that's kind of been fun, but I haven't had
Crooked Water Spirits

Crooked Water Spirits

2024-01-1924:32

Welcome to another episode of "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish." On February 6, at The Lexington in St Paul, we are hosting a Makers of Minnesota 4-course paired cocktail dinner featuring Crooked Water Spirits founded by Heather Manley. This woman-owned, Minnesota-made spirits company is bringing luxury spirits to our bars and tables and, in the case of the “Manleys Old Fashioned”, our Sun Country flights!Episode Transcript Follows:Stephanie [00:00:15]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to the podcast. I'm excited to have you here with me today. I am talking with I call her my friend Heather. I call her my friend Heather on all the things. My friend Heather Manley, who is originally crossed my path as a spicemaker and has Heather dirty goodness spices, which I'm still crazy about. And then, she took her progression into her professional life with on demand group. And from there, decided, hey. I'm not busy enough.2 companies, why not have a third? And started Crooked Water Spirits. And Crooked Water Spirits is women owned and is currently being produced in, Minnesota. So it's Minnesota maker. Minnesota. And You just have really let me Heather, welcome to the program. I I feel, like, so proud of you.Heather Manley [00:01:11]:Aw. Thank you.Stephanie [00:01:12]:Yeah. You just you, like, from the time I met you, have this maker spirit, this entrepreneurial spirit, And you let no grass grow. Like, when you wanna do something, you just do it, and I admire that so much. Where did you get that energy from?Heather Manley [00:01:31]:You know, I don't know. I think it's like a it's a work ethic, and, I'll tell you in college, I didn't know it was Funny to have 10 w twos a year. I didn't know that was funny. I didn't have a work ethic in college. I I I wanted to go party, work to party, Go party. Work again.Stephanie [00:01:48]:Yeah.Heather Manley [00:01:49]:And then the second I graduated, I think my parents my my my mom and my dad, they own their own business. An entrepreneurial grandfather, and, I saw how hard they work. I know I wanted their life for better. And the like, literally, the month I graduated, it was like a switch. And and then I just I wanted to work. I love to work. And, and all of a sudden, I didn't wanna sit still, and I just wanted to build. And and people build a lot faster and a lot better than I do, but I do it at my capacity and how I can do it and the pace I can do it, and, and I love it.Stephanie [00:02:26]:When you started in food and the food world, liquor world, what was it about that industry in particular that appealed to you?Heather Manley [00:02:36]:Well, my passions are family food and booze. I've said that since I was in college. So the the tech company is family. The Heather's Dirty Goodness is food and Crooked Waters is booze. And at some point, I'll love to make a wine because I wanna drink really nice wine at cost. But, like, I'm driven by all that. So and it's a very, sometimes, shallow life because I'm very easily pleased with, like, stunning food And amazing cocktails and, always the conversation has to be better than all of that, and it's like the perfect It's the perfect day for me. It literally fills my bucket.Heather Manley [00:03:11]:So from travel to how I spend my time to the businesses I started, they all surround that, and they're all definitely in varying levels of success, but all passion, which makes it all fun.Stephanie [00:03:24]:I love that you're unapologetic about saying that Because when you talk about, you know, like, someone said called it my hobby life. And I was like, yeah. I guess it is my hobby life, but it's also like my work life, my life life, like my everything life. It's what makes me get out of bed every morning is thinking about What I'm gonna eat that day or some cool new cheese that I know that someone's preparing or, The wine that I get to have later on because I'm going to a multi course dinner, like, it's not shallow. It's fun. It's not.Heather Manley [00:04:00]:It is. It's and it you know what? And we're curious. We're just curious in different areas than other people. Like, I love going to a grocery store. Literally, I will not go with my SO with Rhett because he will be like, we're on a time line. You said you needed 10 things. Why are you looking at this? This is not on the list. So I'm like, This is something new, and I'm very excited about it, and it's like affordable splurges.Heather Manley [00:04:22]:But I I was chatting with somebody again, And he really shared that, like, his work was a means to an end, and priority was family and, and some hobbies. And I'm like, I to me, it's like, Jesus. That's really hard when, like, 10 hours of your day and no doubt the weekends And your whole of what you're building and doing, if if it's not based on something you love or it's not a means to end, it is a job. That sucks. So I feel very lucky that I get to choose what I wanted. We all get the choice. I'm I feel very lucky that I've made that choice, and that I know what I love.Stephanie [00:05:02]:So let us because I can see, like, looking and thinking, oh, spices. Yeah. I've got these blends. Like, I can do that. I can buy bulk spices and but you, like, took that a lot further with Crooked Water and creating your own spirit company. And, I mean, how did you figure out what you were even supposed to do to get that started?Heather Manley [00:05:25]:Let's be clear, there's no money in spices. So we all know that. No one's ever I mean, it's just it's more expensive the higher quality, Less salt, the high the more expensive. People aren't used to spending that, and it's okay. You just gotta call it. I know I know what it is, And that was kind of my 1st POC, b to c, business to consumer, proof of concept. I learned a lot in that whole journey. So it wasn't even that failure in a lot of air areas brought a lot of wealth of knowledge on how to do it better.Heather Manley [00:05:56]:With booze, I mean, I still don't know what I'm doing. I just got off my the call with Johnson Brothers with Emery. And I'm like, what? I go, this doesn't exist, but what do you think of this? And he's like, I have no idea. And I'm like, yeah. I don't even know if I can legally do this, but let's maybe explore. Right? And it's and it's the curiosity That I think is a differentiator. Our ability to have the pallet in house. We don't outsource anything.Heather Manley [00:06:21]:Also makes it really Feasible to do something like this and the creative in house. So, you know, Rhett and I, knowing each other since art school, we Can make these beautiful labels. I I know how to, get corks made out of Germany that are fire branded and our investment back into the brand because we don't take any profits out of the brand. We still, in year, oh my god, 8? I mean, or 10? 10. We still reinvest every effing sent back into the company because I'm more excited to see how that money can make it grow than I am about putting it in my pocket. But it's also like I I know how to cook. And when you know how to cook, you know how to put flavors together. You work with people who are willing to also be curious or take chances or Give you the time to, create and innovate.Heather Manley [00:07:11]:And I started with just cold calling 10 distilleries and ended up with, At the end of the day now, 2 in Minnesota, but people that were willing to give me an opportunity to leverage their talent, leverage their infrastructure, Use my recipes, and it's just kind of evolved from there. But you don't need to know what you're doing. I mean, what's the worst? That you have a shitty liqueur that you give to all your friends for a year? I mean, it's True. Still alcohol at the end of the day. It doesn't suck.Stephanie [00:07:39]:True. But nobody else would think about it like that except for you, which makes me laugh. Because you're like, yeah. Like, everybody thinks like this. I'm like, no. No. They don't. Okay.Stephanie [00:07:49]:Take us through the 1st Crooked Water flavor all the way to where you're at today. So,Heather Manley [00:07:59]:when ODG when I came into it, it was broke. It well, not broke, but it Ten people. Right? Like, I think even after 4 months in the tech business, we were in the red, and that's where Sean and I said, okay. Let's strategize. What what are we doing? Where are we going? And in saying that, we needed to rebrand, knowing Rhett. We we weren't even dating that. Well, no. We weren't dating then.Heather Manley [00:08:20]:And I asked them to rebrand, but we had really no money for marketing or design services and all the iterations that need to happen in rebranding. So I paid them in a very high end scotch, And I had a really beautiful collection overdoing 2 to 3 bottles a month for a year. I realized, After, hearing about Gamel Ode and their beautiful De La Aquavit, it helped me understand the beaut like, the beauty of craft of micro versus macro. And when I sat and thought, what could I bring to market that nobody's doing? I looked up, and all of my favorite scotches and I drink I drank a lot of scotch in college, which is hilarious, hence the, you know, 10 w twos a year. And I realized that all my favorite scotches were Task finished, and nobody was doing that that I could find, in the country for Sherry and only 1 company for Port. So that's how I decided to come up with Kings Point In Lost Lake, I found a broker out of Colorado to find me a stunning $700 casks. I interviewed a dozen people, ended up at Yahara. We executed that.Heather Manley [00:09:23]:Sold out in, like, 3 days or or like and it was very small amount of bourbon. But it's sold out. We're I think we're the 1st to formally launch in the States, and from there, it was like, oh, s**t. This could be Business. I didn't really think about it. I was just having fun, and how stupid. Like, I didn't realize how liquor stores would be pissed off that I didn't have any more product for them because they made room to put my you on there. I
Welcome to another episode of "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish." On January 31, 2023, at The Lexington in St Paul, we are hosting a Makers of Minnesota Dry Dinner featuring Dry Wit, a Non-alcoholic wine alternative founded by Megan Dayton and Peder Schweigert. Today, we're diving into the world of innovative nonalcoholic beverages with our guests Megan Dayton and Peder Scheigert. We'll explore the rising trend of nonalcoholic options, especially DryWit, a nonalcoholic wine, and its impact on the food and beverage scene. We'll hear Megan's journey from her personal need to quit drinking to creating this beverage and Peder's insights on embracing nonalcoholic options first at Marvel Bar. We'll also discuss the challenges and successes of introducing nonalcoholic beverages in a market where NA alcohol consumption is evolving. Get ready to uncover the unique flavors, trends, and potential for expansion in the nonalcoholic beverage space with Dry Wit. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:Stephanie [00:00:15]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to the podcast. We are talking with 2 powerful women today in the cheese world. We're talking with Jessica Sennett from Cheese Grotto and our friend Alise Sjostrom from Redhead Creamery. Alise fromRed Head Creamery has been on the program before. Jessica, this is your first time. Welcome.Jessica [00:00:35]:AliseYes. Thank you. Thank you for having us.Stephanie [00:00:38]:Okay. You guys are in collaboration. And tell us a little bit about your meeting and how this collaboration started.Jessica [00:00:46]:Oh, yeah. So so, yeah, it's probably the the fastest, collaboration known to man in terms of, us both Being on the same page, which which was awesome. I yeah. So cheese grotto a Little bit about what we do. You know, we we do have our cheese grotto, which is the namesake of the company. It's a humidor for storing and serving Cheese and we make them in the Catskills in New York as well as in, Ohio. There's, the bricks That humidify. These cheese grottoes are made in Ohio.Jessica [00:01:24]:And, essentially, they act as a humidor for prolonging the shelf's life of cheese. And we started, selling and partnering up with American Artisan Cheesemakers about 5 years ago. And once the pandemic hit, it really helped, you know, Bloom Art subscription programStephanie [00:01:47]:Sure.Jessica [00:01:48]:As well as virtual tastings and gift boxes. And we focus on American artisans Because, you know, we really love to, to support what's going on regionally because there's, like, so many amazing cheeses now that are being made. And, you know, Redhead Creamery and Elise has, just all have been wonderful, partner in our Different cheese programs for a few years now and believed in us when we were first getting started on the cheese side as well. And so, you know, this year, we have been collaborating more, with different makers to create some unique, limited, edition products. And her her little Lucy Brie is is incredible. It's this Taller format breeze style that has a very unique way that it ripens. And so you get really nice varied texture both, like, A little bit of a denser center when it's a little bit younger and then, like, a beautiful cream line right underneath, the rind. And so I reached out to her about Potentially doing a holiday version of, the little Lucy Brie.Jessica [00:03:00]:And Yeah. Immediately, we were like, how about herbs? Because herbs are, like, such a huge part of, you know, the, holiday time and just Bringing a brightness and herbaceous quality to a lot of our foods, and also baked brie is a huge thing, this time of the year. And a lot of times, there's a lot of toppings of, of, of herbs that go into different baked Brie recipes. So, so, yeah, we we just went back and forth, very quickly via email and, decided that, Herbes de Provence, that would be a great thing to to feature. A nice varied eclectic mix that really represents the holiday season. And, and Elise did some testing with it. And, yeah, I'd love to hear more about like, so on Elise's side, I know that she, Tried a couple different test batches of the cheese, but first, we put the herbs on the rind, and then eventually it ended up being Infused into the pace, which is, like, beautifully balanced, though. I'd love to hear about how she got to that too.Stephanie [00:04:09]:Yeah. I would too because it was so, like, Natural. Like, when I had it, I was like, oh, yeah. Of course. I can't believe this hasn't that she hasn't done this before Because, Elise, you're so, like, revolutionary, I think, just in making cheese and the way that you view your Marketing of cheese, and little Lucy has been such a fan favorite for so long. So, yeah, I am curious how, like, All of a sudden, like, why hadn't we thought of this before?Alise [00:04:40]:Yeah. So I think the day that we were, collaborate collaborating back and forth. I was actually on a fall vacation with my husband up in Door County, And he was also working, and I had to I just sat at my desk for a little bit, and that's what we did all day is decide what we were doing with this herb brie, but I we've played with our little Lucy brie a little bit and didn't really go farther with it. We've tried a, Chipotle line in the middle or played with ash because it's just the cool thing to do. Yep. And I knew that herb would taste good. And so When we kind of brainstorm back and forth, I knew I had some on hand in our shop that I could play with immediately. And so That was a big reason why I recommended it right away so that we could act quickly.Alise [00:05:31]:And, yeah, it was really fun. So we Did 3 or 4 different varieties, to see what tasted best, and if they got heated up, which melted best. Some of them, We tried to do the the line in the middle of the wheel with herbs, and we smothered the mold after the cheese had ripened. We smothered that with herbs, and then the infused version, actually is the easiest for making it also. And I'm always trying to go for that because I hate when I create something and then everyone hates that we have to keep making it because it goes well. So we actually, put the herb dry herbs in with the curds and whey and then, mold you You know, pour the curd in the mold that way, and it all just evenly distributes within. We let it soak for a little bit just to Infuse that flavor a little bit, but, it's awesomely pretty simple on our end, and we are really excited about the results of it, and I'm always excited to do something fun and collaborate with other people, especially Jessica because we have, like, a fun relationship, and it's been cool to see where this goes.Stephanie [00:06:48]:So, Jessica, in addition to the storing of the cheese in your very, Scientifically beautiful wood grotto for the countertop. When you think about, like, a cheese subscription, Who do you think is the ideal candidate for it?Jessica [00:07:06]:No. It's a it's a great question. We we have a couple Subscriptions that we do on our website. So we have one that is more curated, monthly pairings. So you can opt to choose with pairings or without, and we we have a theme each month that we decide on, That helps us kind of curate and highlight specific styles of cheese from different makers. And then, you know, we find some really great pairing to kinda bring that to life. So, actually, the the herbs that we see is part of our December, holiday themed box, Which makes sense because we're also including a baked Brie recipe with that, so that you can, you know, Create a very, one of a kind, I would say, type of baked brie, than maybe what you have experienced before. It's a very It it looks like a popover almost.Jessica [00:08:02]:It's very, beautiful, but because it's a little bit on the taller side. So, You know, for the monthly, I would say, you know and really, like, with both of our subscriptions, we have a quarterly one as well. It's really about, My my my main thought about the best person, for signing up for a subscription is someone who is interested in in learning more and pursuing more, in the world of artisan cheese and exposing themselves to different styles of cheese that they might not have, necessarily opted for, on their own or maybe couldn't find in their local grocery store. And that's really what we're looking for is To curate, you know, unique, you know, palatable, but also diverse styles of cheeses from different makers so that you can get a really full spectrum of what, yeah, American and artisan cheese has to offer. I mean, we're we're in the thousands of different Cheeses, it's time now that you can explore, so there's definitely not, like, a cap in terms of how many cheeses you could try. So that's really, you know, somebody who's who's curious, who's, enthusiastic, but wants to get a little bit deeper into it. That's that's what what I'd recommend.Alise [00:09:19]:I love it.Jessica [00:09:21]:Yeah. And we the other one we have is a quarterly subscription, which we actually have done with Elise in the past as well. It's, meet the maker. So we did a session. We do 4 4 shipments per year where we actually Sit down live with the cheese maker, and they get to do a deep dive into 4 cheeses from 1 maker. So that's got a really cool immersive element on that as well. So even with the quarterly, I would say the, really just to kind of elevate and and and enhance your own understanding of cheese, it really is a great opportunity to do that and, pursue it a little bit more like a hobby.Stephanie [00:09:58]:Elise, I have a confession, and it's gonna make you laugh. So I do like to make a brie. Yeah. I like to make it on croute. Right? I like to wrap it in puff pastry, but I always would buy Cheap Brie because I felt so bad using, like, your delicious product in something Kinda so pedestrian, but I feel like this is giving me, like, a new opportunity to explore it. Because do you heat up your own Brie? I felt like that was almost like a sacrilege.Alise [00:10:34]:Well, here's what now you'll laugh at me because Sometimes in the rare occasion that I'm home alone, I'll be like, well, not making dinner for anybody, but I'll have random cheese in my fridge. And so I microwaved a brie and put jam all over it, and I was like, why didn't I think of this a long time ago? I could just microwave it. But so I like, more often than not, I eat it plain like, I don't cook it, but, Yeah. It's you know what? You do you.Stephanie [00:11:05]:Yeah. And there's, like, something about holiday time. You know, I do a ton of entertaining, and Just a brie warmed up with either preserves on it or uncrut and wrapped up is Really elegant, lovely, a nice way to serve cheese that's a little bit different that maybe people wouldn't do themselves that feels fancier.Alise [00:11:28]:Yes. Absolutely.Stephanie [00:11:30]:So alright. I feel like this has opened new doors for me. And I always do I am a person that has a holiday cheese vibe. So I
Welcome to another episode of the “Dishing With Stephanie’s Dish Podcast” Podcast! In this episode, we dive into the culinary scene of Duluth with special guests Greg Conley, Ned Netzel, and Nick Peloquin, authors of the cookbook "Smoke on the Waterfront" from Northern Waters Smokehaus. The hosts discuss the ins and outs of creating the cookbook, the significance of preserving food in the northern climate, and the upcoming expansion of the Northern Waters Smokehaus Along the way, they share their favorite restaurants and products in Duluth, celebrating the vibrant food and beverage culture of the city. Tune in to learn more about the art of smoking, preserving, and creating delectable dishes in the northern waters of Minnesota.Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.EPISODE TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:Stephanie Hansen [00:00:15]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to with Stephanie's dish, the podcast where we talk to cookbook authors and people in the food space that we just wanna spend more time with and get their stories. There is a restaurant in Duluth that is a sandwich counter, I guess, would be the best way to call it. And When you go to Duluth, people that I know actually will, like, beeline through the city, Navigate 35 just to get sandwiches at this place. I have been a fan for a long time, it is the Northern Waters Smokehaus, and they finally came out with a cookbook, Smoke on the Waterfront. And it's funny because I got this book In the summertime, I got an early advanced reader's copy, and I was so glad to get it in the summertime Because it's kind of seasonal, and it goes, like, by the seasons, and I happen to catch it right at the end of the summertime When it was pickling season, and you guys had some great recipes for canning and pickling things. So we have a group of folks with us today. We have Greg Connelly. We have Ned Netsell, and we have Nick Pellequin.Stephanie Hansen [00:01:33]:We are delighted to have you guys. I've never had 3 Authors, chefs, all in the same space talking about 1 cookbook. So imagine the talent that's in here.Greg Conley [00:01:45]:It's probably not a good idea, but we're doing it anyway.Stephanie Hansen [00:01:49]:Okay. And you didn't the funny part about this, and I don't mean to minimize it, it is, And you didn't start the restaurant?Nick Peloquin [00:01:55]:No. Correct.Greg Conley [00:01:56]:No. None of us started the restaurant. The guy that started the restaurant's name is Eric Gert. And he and his wife luckily handed off the project to us with his blessing and said, you know, I'm here as a resource for you. But, ultimately, our other collaborator, Mary Tennis. And these guys are great writers. And so, I think we all felt pretty honored that He just let us kinda take the reins and, go for it. So that's what we did.Stephanie Hansen [00:02:24]:What's cool about this cookbook to me Is it has a real sense of place. So you're located in Duluth and you're cooking from ingredients of the north, which appeal to me. But, also, it it doesn't feel like it's multivoiced even though I know it is. Like, it feels like you guys all have the Same intellect and the same voice and the same passion with which you're doing things. So it would be hard for me to tell, like, oh, this So and so's recipe or this is so and so's style, that's kinda cool. Like, you guys are all really aligned in this book.Ned Netzel [00:03:02]:Yeah. I think that came from us really writing it together. You know, like, maybe, initial parts of the process of compiling the recipes and, you know, reducing the size To the flow of it. You know? We we all, like, respected what everybody brought to the table and also, like, what they lacked. You know, kind of filling in the gaps. So, you know, an intro to a book or to a recipe might have been. Somebody wrote down what they thought made sense, and then we refined it together and talked about, What is really the story of this? Then we ask questions like, how how does it relate to, you know, the active food preservation? Or how does it relate to the city of Duluth or the region or in order to regionally sourcing things. It was all all very collaborative throughout.Ned Netzel [00:03:42]:So that that probably blends a little bit to it. And, moments where somebody really is Writing from their voice are actually directly called outGreg Conley [00:03:48]:in the book too. Greg's got some some moments in there.Stephanie Hansen [00:03:51]:Looking on another cookbook, and I've written one, and it's not easy. Did you, like, okay. You're gonna do the intro. You're gonna do the chapters. You're gonna pick the recipes. You're gonna write the intro to your recipes. Did you have all that work delineated, or did you have, like, meetings? How did this all flow?Nick Peloquin [00:04:09]:So we would meet weekly, just Us together, and and we we definitely parsed out some of the writing tasks, but it was really kinda all over the place as to, like, He's doing a recipe. He's doing an intro. And then we would come together and test together. And then sitting down and finalizing it was all together. So it was like a weekly meeting that we would all get together and and and review everything we had all written individually.Stephanie Hansen [00:04:34]:Other there's a lot of recipes in here. I keep thinking about, like, Thanksgiving time. Giving time. And you've got kind of a lot of things that would be on a Thanksgiving table, like the green bean casserole and the mashed potatoes, But you've also got, like, the the riettes. And then at the very end is sort of where you get into the sandwich sitch, Which is sort of what you guys are known for. So I was curious that it was very at the end, some of your, like, greatest hits.Greg Conley [00:05:04]:Yeah. You know, in our mind, sandwiches are not something you usually have a recipe for. Although, you know, we're pretty precise. Like, we're not like Some other places where you can come in and say, here's what I want on my sandwich. And, you know, they they do it. We don't do that. I mean, we'll put whatever you want on there Within reason, but we carefully craft those sandwiches. And so but I think that, you know, overall, it's like, we're kind of telling you how to do the recipes that lead to that Sandwich.Greg Conley [00:05:33]:You know? We're not trying to tell you, yeah, make this exact sandwich out of your smoked salmon. You know? You can do that if you wanna Do what we well, exactly what we're doing. But also it's like, use your own flourish. Use this for whatever you and here's a suggestion on how to use it, but use it however you want to. Yeah.Nick Peloquin [00:05:50]:And we kinda we kinda debated where to put that section to for a while. Yeah. It was kinda like, should it go in the middle and kinda be like this fold out highlight piece? Or, like, it make sense at the end or beginning or so it we went back and forth to where where that should live because it it is, like, a major part of what we do.Stephanie Hansen [00:06:09]:I feel like I should personally thank you specifically for the pork rillette recipe.Nick Peloquin [00:06:15]:Which one?Stephanie Hansen [00:06:16]:The well, the one that's your basic, and then I know you use it in the, the ricotta ravioli. The not so spicy is probably the one I'll start with. And you add more than 1. Riette is something that, like, you see it on a charcuterie board. And just speaking for, like, Maybe nonchefy people, like, you're kinda like, oh, I don't know. There's a little fat there, but then it looks like there's this Potted meat, which could be good, but I don't know. But once you, like, get turned on to that, it's like crack. Right? You just love it so much.Stephanie Hansen [00:06:55]:And I never felt like I could ever cook it, and I totally feel like I can do this recipe, and I'm gonna do it for Christmastime.Nick Peloquin [00:07:04]:Nice. Yeah. It's perfect. Like, gifting.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:07]:Yeah. And it, like, stays forever.Nick Peloquin [00:07:09]:I'm I wouldn't say forever. But yeah. We lead legally, we can't. It seems a lot more intimidating than it actually is. You know? It's it's almost more similar to a braise. You know? It's it's like a comb keying technique. Right? So it's just Meat, salt, and fat for a long time. You know? And and so it seems like it there's a big skill gap there, but it's it's It's very approachable.Nick Peloquin [00:07:33]:You know?Stephanie Hansen [00:07:33]:I loved it. One other recipe that made it in the book that's, like, a 6 pager that I had In my book, and then I took it out because I felt like I was posing and I wasn't the right person to put that in my book, And you guys were, was this whole, like, sourdough concept. Oh. Tell me about yeah. So tell me about why you felt like You wanted to devote time in your cookbook to sourdough when so many people have, like, written bread books and all of that.Greg Conley [00:08:05]:Yeah. Absolutely. And there are I think I even say in the Recipe that there are so many more comprehensive, probably better versions, than than my version of bread. But I think the whole idea of Putting that in there was initially, when we started writing the book, we had the idea of Calling it preservation because so many of the things that we're doing are not only, preserving food, well, you know, so it doesn't spoil or so it will last longer, or preserving yourself through the long winter months. So a breadwinner recipe seemed like kind of, Something that would round out the recipes that we already had, you know, because we do make sandwiches too.Stephanie Hansen [00:08:47]:Yep.Greg Conley [00:08:47]:It's like, oh, I guess we should tell people if we really wanna be holistic, Let's tell them how to make bread too.Nick Peloquin [00:08:53]:So I'm gonna eat it on. Right.Greg Conley [00:08:54]:So I think that was really the the impetus for that.
Tim Mulligan

Tim Mulligan

2023-10-2717:06

Welcome to another episode of Makers of Minnesota! In today's episode, our host, Stephanie, sits down with the talented Tim Mulligan, author of the book "A Perfect Ten Party Edition." Tim's book is filled with 70 recipes that are perfect for hosting parties and making them a breeze. From delicious drinks and great recipes to fun games, Tim's cookbook is a must-have for anyone who loves entertaining. Join us as Stephanie and Tim discuss his inspiration for writing the book, his love for Palm Springs parties, and some of the most requested recipes from his collection. Prepare for a fun and informative episode that will inspire you to throw unforgettable parties. Let's dive in!FULL TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:Stephanie [00:00:15]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to dishing with Stephanie's dish, the podcast where we talk to people in the food space many times Cookbook authors, and today, we have Tim Mulligan with us, and he is the author of a book called A Perfect ten Party edition. There's 70 recipes for making hosting parties a breeze. Tim, you look really fun.Tim Mulligan [00:00:38]:Well, thank you. I try try. Thanks.Stephanie [00:00:42]:Absolutely. No. You have, like, this whole book full of Fun party ideas, drinks, great recipes, suggestions. You even got some games. I just really thought this cookbook was a gas.Tim Mulligan [00:00:56]:Good. I'm glad.Stephanie [00:00:58]:Where are you from?Tim Mulligan [00:01:00]:I I live in Palm Springs, California. I I I work during the day in LA, so I'm kinda I'm pretty all over much all over Southern California, new bit. My home base is Palm Springs.Stephanie [00:01:09]:Okay. That's pretty awesome because Palm Springs has a lot of great parties.Tim Mulligan [00:01:13]:I I hope so. I I like to throw I like to throw a lot of them. So yeah.Stephanie [00:01:17]:Do you live in one of those cool Palm Spring houses in the movie district?Tim Mulligan [00:01:21]:It's close. It's, you know, I I love you know, we all have pools and, you know, live live live the life here. So, yes, definitely.Stephanie [00:01:29]:Yeah. All the beautiful houses and in case you don't know, I think my favorite story about Palm Springs and maybe you can confirm or deny is that The reason that so many celebrities lived there was because they were exactly, like, a 120 miles or whatever the distance was outside of Los Angeles, And the newspapers that paid their stipends for their entertaining didn't go as far as Palm Springs. So all the movie stars figured that out, and they could live a life without the pap paparazzi in Palm Springs.Tim Mulligan [00:02:04]:Yeah. I heard that. And they I mean, because you mentioned the radius in the distance, it wasn't too far that it was still within their contract. And so it just became like a a a a refuge and hideaway for the for the Hollywood set.Stephanie [00:02:15]:Yes.Tim Mulligan [00:02:15]:And it's you know, it still feels like it's timeless. It still still feels like the fifties, sixties here. You know? So it's it's it's understandable why it was so appealing. You know?Stephanie [00:02:24]:What was your history in terms of why you wanted to write a book, not only with just recipes, but kinda organized by themes and parties?Tim Mulligan [00:02:34]:Yeah. I mean, I've been, I've been cooking for years, not professionally trained. I did start my To my my working world career in hospitality, managing restaurants, bars, waiting tables, and and, And taking many courses and certifications over the years, I've never been a trained chef. I really am a a home cook. But, you know, during I I would say and and I worked during the day. I'm a I'm a lawyer. I'm a human resources officer, and I have been doing that for decades. But during it was COVID, you know, unfortunately, it was such a such a bad I am bit but, you know, if anything good came out of it, for me, it was the the the quarantining process and being, you know, Stuck in this house, I tried to use this as a positive way and say, what have I always wanted to do? You know? And cross off my bucket list.Tim Mulligan [00:03:19]:And for me, there's 2 things really. 1 was to write a Play. I love plays. So I spent the 1st year 2020 knocking out a play. I did it. That play got published. It's going to New York in April. That was an amazing thing.Stephanie [00:03:31]:That's so excellent.Tim Mulligan [00:03:32]:Yeah. Yeah. And then the second thing was I wanted to write a cookbook. You know, I, I really, I I've been I've been cooking forever like I said. I wanted to share with the world My favorite recipes that I've curated over the years. I'm a collector. I'm a curator. Some of these are recipes I've had since I was a kid.Tim Mulligan [00:03:48]:Others I've, you know, collected along the way. And these are recipes that I have made, countless numbers of times over the years, over the decades. I've tweaked the recipes. I've made them work for me, And I I really thought it'd be great to share that with the world and also write write a cookbook that was for, people like me who are busy, you know, who are who work maybe work all day or raise a family. I I had 2 kids. And, and and so that was the idea behind the cookbook. So I've I've that was my 1st cookbook. So that came out in 2020, 2 last year, and it was called a perfect ten.Tim Mulligan [00:04:20]:And to answer your question, I I'm an organized person. I like top 10 lists. So I decided that, you know, a good way to share my recipes was just to list them. And and so I wanted to write a book that so if you get if you are told You're going to a dinner at someone's house or enter they say you say, what can you bring? And they tell you, bring a, salad or bring a side dish or bring a dessert, a big entree, and then you kinda freak out to get, oh my god. What am I gonna make? I wanted to just provide a a a playbook. You can pull it out, and And so there's 7 meal periods. Everything from breakfast to salads to vegetable sides to entrees to dinners, Desserts that and it's my 10 kind of favorite easy go to recipes that I have, you know, are trying and tested and true in in my world. And that was the idea behind the 1st cookbook.Tim Mulligan [00:05:07]:And so that came out last year, and it just the response was really great. And I started a blog. I started blogging every week recipes and cooking, and And next thing you knew, I someone who had never even touched Instagram, now I have 18,000 followers, you know, so I I thought, well, I better write another one, you know, while I Well, I can. So as a follow-up, I I wanted to share another passion of mine, which is organizing, hosting, and throwing amazing parties. I've been doing that as long as I can remember. So I kept I kept the the perfect 10 idea going, and it's and I did instead of 7 milk periods, I did 7 types of parties. So I spent this year throwing these parties and and taking pictures and documenting and creating playbooks for what games could I throw at each party. And then I did a top ten list of everything from drinks to food to desserts, a couple of each for each type of party that you so if you're throwing any sort of party, you can pull this book out.Tim Mulligan [00:06:01]:You can make the whole recipe, the whole menu, all 10 of them. You can pick and choose. It's kind of a choose your own adventure for throwing a a party of any size.Stephanie [00:06:09]:I really liked the way that you organized it. It felt very, natural. And When you looked at each party, you know, there was kind of drinks for that party, apps for that party, mains for that party, sides for that party, and All of your recipes I think why this book probably did appeal to me right away is it felt like I'm a home cook too, and I also wrote a cookbook. And it felt kinda like the same philosophy of why I did it and why I wanted to do it. I'm a cabin entertainer, so I wrote a book about being at the cabin.Tim Mulligan [00:06:42]:Fun. Yeah.Stephanie [00:06:43]:And, you know, always being at the cabin's a party, and so it's somewhat similar. I really, appreciated too that your parties were kind of different. So a pool party is something that is probably something that they do a lot in Palm Springs. We don't see as much of that here. I like that you had an award show party because I think those are super fun. What are some of your, like, most requested recipes in this book that people are just loving?Tim Mulligan [00:07:11]:Well, a great question. I'd say for me, you know, I I do live in Palm Springs, so I'm pretty lucky with the weather. And so, I really chose and when it came down to what kind of parties to highlight, you know, there's there's, you know, unlimited types of parties. I thought about the parties I like to go to and that I throw. So living in Palm Springs, I think I've, I really kinda perfected the the outdoor brunch, you know, the, the pool party, happy hour. So things where I can kinda grab people outside of the weather, and we would in if we have to. But so I think that, For the recipes that people that people have been responding to, I think, you know, the thing about a party, you you'd appreciate this, I think, of writing a party Cookbook, a party menu is a lot different than a dinner, you know, a sit down meal because you have to have things that you can Eat while standing Yes. Better, you know, grab and go, their handhelds.Tim Mulligan [00:08:05]:And so it was pretty kinda challenging to say, okay, what are things that I could, yeah, there's 1 sit down. I did a holiday Traditional sit down dinner as well. The restaurant. Things you can, you know, grab and go from a table and talk and eat. And And so I did a lot of self serve stations. Those are really popular, I think, and those are people really like those. My mac and cheese station.Stephanie [00:08:23]:Oh, yeah.Tim Mulligan [00:08:24]:I've been doing that for years. I mean, I've been doing that for my staff. I've been doing it for families. I mean, you could throw a mac and make us make your own mac
Welcome to another episode of Makers of Minnesota! In today's episode, we have a special guest, Mathew Batt, the author of "The Last Supper Club, A Waiters Requiem." We dive into his book, which showcases his experience working at a renowned restaurant that unfortunately closed its doors. Stephanie, our host, chats with Mathew about his background, his time in the restaurant industry, and the memorable characters he encountered along the way.Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
Amy Theilen

Amy Theilen

2023-09-3030:55

Welcome back to another exciting episode of "Makers of Minnesota"! In today's episode, the incredible Amy Theilen joins us to discuss her latest book, "Company: The Radically Casual Art of Cooking for Others." Amy takes us on a journey through her writing process, sharing how the book evolved during the pandemic and the mixed emotions she experienced. Amy reveals her secrets to creating a relaxed and enjoyable gathering with delicious recipes and menu ideas. Plus, we'll explore the unexpected twists and turns of Amy's career, from fine dining line cook to making a name for herself in the culinary world on TV and becoming the author we know today. Get ready to be inspired, entertained, and hungry as we delve into the fascinating world of Amy Theilen on this "Makers of Minnesota" episode!Preview the book here and join her on October 7 at the Minneapolis Farmers Market and October 9 at Cooks of Crocus Hill. Thank you for reading Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
Today we have a special guest joining us, Teena Anderson - the Anoka Grilling Queen from Anoka Meats! Teena owns Anoka Meat and Sausage, a full-time grill located outside her butcher shop. But her journey to becoming the Grilling Queen was not always on the menu. Teena reinvented herself after leaving the corporate world and living in a diner for 20 years. Now, she's a thriving entrepreneur in the culinary world. Today, we'll dive into Teena's fascinating story - from starting a small salad business to taking over Anoka Meat and Sausage. Plus, we'll explore her love for cooking, her passion for specialty ingredients. Get ready to fire up the grill and join us as we uncover the secrets of the Anoka Grilling Queen on this episode of Makers of Minnesota!Here is the recipe for Teena's Cowboy Beans from her BlogIngredients* 4 pound cooked ground hamburger 85/15* 1 lb bacon or ends & pieces, loosely chopped* 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained* 1 (15 ounce) can butter beans, drained* 1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans* 1 (15 ounce) can garbaonzo or black bean beans, drained* 1 (15 ounce can) great northern beans* 1 (15 ounce can) navy beans* 2 (28 ounce) can pork and beans, drained* 1 large onion, chopped* 1 Tablespoon minced garlic* 3 cup dark brown sugar + to taste* 2/3 cup ketchup* 1/2 cup vinegar* 1/2 cup dijon* 1 Tbsp Kosher Salt* 1 Tbsp Pepper* Optional: diced green pepperDirections* Heat a saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir bacon, onion, and garlic until bacon is browned, about 10 minutes. Pour off excess fat.* Brown hamburger with the salt and pepper until done. Combine the browned hamburger with bacon & onions in an electric toaster or large crock pot.* Whisk together the brown sugar, ketchup and dijon then pour mixture over the hamburger.* Make this in a large crockpot by adding all the ingredients together and cook on high for 1 hours, then turning to low until ready to eat.* The electric roaster heats a little faster, so once all ingredients are combined, turn heat to 250-300 and warm to a bubble for 1/2 hour or so just to ensure all ingredients are hot and everything is thoroughly cooked.* Cool and reheat the next day or serve right away.Thank you for reading Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
On this episode of “Dishing with Stephanie’s Dish,” Stephanie interviews Trent Pheifer, blogger and aspiring home chef from, “Store Bought Is Fine” who found inspiration from celebrity chef Ina Garten. From cooking their way through Ina's recipes to meeting her in person at a Paris restaurant, Trent shares his love for her simple and flavorful recipes, including a unique dish featuring roasted grapes and sausage. The episode also dives into content creation challenges and finding a balance between creating enjoyable content and striving for perfection. Listen to Trent’s inspirational journey of self-discovery in the culinary world through the books and recipes of Ina Garten. Follow @Storeboughtisfine on Instagram.Make the Sausage and Grapes recipe from Ina Garten like Trent did here.Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Here is the Episode Transcript:Stephanie [00:00:16]:Hello, everybody. Welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast where we talk to cookbook authors, people obsessed with food. And today we are talking to Trent Pfeiffer, and he is an Instagram influencer, I think we dare to say, and also a recipe cook and a man who is on a mission. Store bought is fine. It's his handle on instagram. And Trent, you are cooking all of the dishes from Ina Garten's Cookbook and her shows.Trent [00:00:47]:I am. It's been quite a journey. I think I've been doing it about seven years now.Stephanie [00:00:53]:Okay. You are my jam. I just want to hear all about how this started.Trent [00:01:02]:Yeah, so it was one of those things where I didn't know how to cook at all. I was around 30. I was dating someone at the time. I was kind of getting in the kitchen. Wasn't doing a lot of great cooking in the kitchen. And it was about this time that I read Julia Child's my Life in France. And at the same time, my roommates and I were binge watching The Barefoot Contessa. Not making any of the dishes, just binge watching. It's an aspirational lifestyle. I think it's great entertainment. When I started getting into cooking, I was making all of these recipes from online sources, from Ina, and the online source ones kept failing for me. And I don't think it was the recipe, the online recipe developers or anything. It's that I didn't have the basic skills in the kitchen. And the one person whose recipes had always kind of worked out for me, even though I didn't have the skills, were Ina's. So I thought maybe I would take a page from Julia and Julia and just cook my way through all of Aina's garden's recipes and in the process, hopefully get my cooking education.Stephanie [00:02:12]:I couldn't love this more because that trajectory of finding Julia Child through her memoir, her biographies, and then kind of going into cooking after that was sort of how it happened for me.Trent [00:02:27]:Oh, I love that.Stephanie [00:02:29]:I wasn't a great cook, and I'm a home cook, and I felt like Julia made things feel so accessible. So I went back and started to watch some of the shows, and then I stumbled along. Food Network twelve years ago, I think around that time, I in a garden show, The Barefoot Contessa, and I, too, was like I was trying to cook specifically, like, these beautiful Martha Stewart magazine recipes never worked out. I always was disappointed, and Ina's 100% always worked. And what's unique is the things she and Julia have in common is I think the two of them have tested more recipes in their books than anybody else. Oh, yeah.Trent [00:03:12]:And I think that's the secret to their success is Ina always watches somebody else make her recipes and then incorporates that feedback into the recipes. I think there are very few recipe developers or chefs that I will host a dinner party never having made the dish and know that it's going to be phenomenal for my guests. And Ina is that person where I'm like, I've never made this, but it'll be fine.Stephanie [00:03:43]:And you just have a huge level of confidence that she's tested it, so you know it's going to be good. And even her simple recipes and how she approaches food, too, really speaks to me because it's not, like, simple, but it's always elegant, just in its perfection and its simplicity. But it has just enough things and not too many things.Trent [00:04:09]:Yeah, and I think that she's just distilled it in a way that with simple ingredients, you can make these great things. I think one of the biggest lessons I ever learned was roast, eating vegetables. She has a lot of roasted vegetables where it's just salt, pepper, maybe squeeze of lemon juice. But how phenomenal that on itself can be. I grew up with boiled Brussels sprout and a lot of veggies that didn't have a lot of flavor. And I think that Ina has perfected that, making it as simple as possible. Some of them are complicated, making them as simple as possible, but still making them, like, showstoppers or something that your friends are going to after eating over at your place.Stephanie [00:04:56]:Where did you grow up?Trent [00:04:58]:I grew up in Ohio, so kind.Stephanie [00:05:01]:Of I'm from the Midwest, obviously. Minnesota.Trent [00:05:04]:You seem a little Midwest bound.Stephanie [00:05:05]:Where do you live now?Trent [00:05:07]:I'm in New York City. I've been here about 14 years now.Stephanie [00:05:11]:And what is your day job? Life. And do you do this all the time?Trent [00:05:15]:No, this is not my full time job. I actually work for the Advertising Council, which is a national nonprofit that does public service communication efforts to move the needle on some of our most pressing issues. A lot of people know us.Stephanie [00:05:34]:I'm in advertising.Trent [00:05:36]:Amazing.Stephanie [00:05:37]:We play your ads on my radio station all the time.Trent [00:05:41]:I love that. I love that. Yeah. So I'm on the fundraising team. We oversee our board of directors and our fundraising for the organization. So that's my day job. So this is just my side leg project, just my passion project. I really thought this would be something that I would do for a couple of months and then move on to the next thing, but I really found my passion and love for food throughout this project. So it's a balancing act, working a full time job and cooking as much as I do.Stephanie [00:06:14]:How much do you cook?Trent [00:06:17]:At a minimum, four recipes a week. That doesn't seem like much, but yes, it does. Well, if you're really thinking about okay, well, there are seven days in a week. How many, like, going out to eat, like, how many meals, lunch, dinner. So I try to do four and then two to three evenings during the week.Stephanie [00:06:40]:Okay. So what attracted me to your Instagram was an article that I saw that said ina Garten's biggest fan, his ten favorite recipes. Was that intentional, or did they just pick this up from you? Or how did this all come together?Trent [00:07:01]:Yeah, no, they reached out maybe a couple of months ago, and they were like, so I'm pitching this story. It's going to be Aina Garden's biggest fan. Spend all day, every day talking about Ina. It is near impossible to pick a top ten. I mean, she has nearly 1300 recipes between her books and show, but sometimes I just have to be like, you know what? This is my top ten for the day. It might change tomorrow. There might have a craving that changes something. Sometimes I forget that I made a recipe, and I'm like, oh, yeah, that's one of my favorite. It's not in the top ten, but next year could be a different list.Stephanie [00:07:36]:So you had, I think, two of my top ten. You had the coconut cake, which I won a competition on the local television station, competing against the host with basically an adaption of her recipe.Trent [00:07:50]:I love that.Stephanie [00:07:51]:And then you also mentioned, I think the roast chicken. Perfect roast chicken, because everybody needs that. I think the roasted carrots with the goat cheese might have made your list or it made my list.Trent [00:08:07]:I've been doing a bunch of top ten lists and ranking lists, and the carrots with goat cheese, I think is on my favorite salad list.Stephanie [00:08:16]:Is there a recipe that when you made it, you didn't think you'd love it, and then you loved it like you got surprised by it?Trent [00:08:25]:There's one that I always go to, and it is her sausage and grapes. It was probably the first year, maybe early in the second year of the project, and I looked at this recipe, and I'm like, roasted grapes. What's? I don't know, sweet, savory, but, like, sausage with cooked grapes, it just didn't appeal to me at all. I was like, you know what? Let me give it a try. And I absolutely loved it. It was that sweet, savory pairing. I feel like the roasting of the grapes concentrates their flavor, making it, like, almost like a wine that goes with the sausage and the balsamic vinegar that's in there. It's just such a fabulous dish. And I know that it's a great one because every time I mention this as one of those dishes, everyone's like, eh, that doesn't sound great. And then they're like, I tried it. It is phenomenal. It's just one of the, I think, hidden treasures in Ina's repertoire of recipes.Stephanie [00:09:30]:I love it. Now, as someone who's a creator, do you have anxiety about getting the perfect picture, or are you on the video train? You have a couple of videos, but are you feeling pressure to do more?Trent [00:09:43]:Yeah, I live by anxiety. I feel like that's what propels me in everyday living. So there's a lot of anxiety that goes with it, and I think what's happening? Well, I know what's happening is the algorithm, Instagram, Facebook, they're all trying to be TikTok and so they're pushing everyone toward video content. I enjoy doing some videos, but because this isn't my full time job so what I did is I was like, you know what? They're pushing us towa
On this episode of Dishing with Stephanies Dish”, I chat with guest Tracey Medeiros to discuss her cookbook, "The Vermont Farm To Table Cookbook." Tracey talks about the inspiration behind the book and her passion for community-driven cookbooks. She emphasizes the importance of building a relationship with recipe contributors and provides tips for utilizing excess produce. The conversation then turns to the impact of supporting local farmers and the farm-to-table movement, with Tracey sharing two recipes from her cookbook. The episode closes with discussing the importance of educating the next generation and supporting local farmers to strengthen the community.Vermont is known for its maple syrup, goat cheese, and farm-to-table spirit. The recipes and stories of ‘The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook” bring a little piece of that Vermont spirit into your home kitchen. After 10 years, author Tracey Medeiros has revised and fully updated this cookbook to highlight the dedication of Vermont’s farmers. Readers can indulge in the comforting seasonal recipes and farm-fresh flavors this beautiful state offers while experimenting with their garden produce, CSA, or Farmer’s market finds, regardless of geography.Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Here is the Burrata Salad Tracey talked about from the ‘The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook” IngredientsBasil PestoMakes 1 3/4 cups 2 tightly packed cups of fresh basil leaves3 tablespoons raw pine nuts1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (about 2 ounces)3 medium garlic cloves, coarsely chopped 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil Salad  8 ounces baby spinach, preferably local2 medium strawberries, hulled, and sliced2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil1 teaspoon lemon zest2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste  2 (2-ounce) balls fresh burrata cheese, cut in half, preferably Maplebrook Farm1/2 cup shelled pistachios, salted and roasted 1 to 2 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar, or to taste Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste Instructions* To make the basil pesto: Place the basil and pine nuts into the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times.* Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano, garlic, salt, and pepper, then pulse several times more. While the processor is running, slowly add the olive oil in a steady stream until well blended and fairly smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. * To make the salad: In a large bowl, toss together the spinach and strawberries. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon zest and juice, salt, and pepper until well combined. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper to taste.* Drizzle over the salad, tossing until well coated.* To assemble: Smear the basil pesto onto a platter. Place the salad in the center of a platter. Place the burrata on top.* Scatter the pistachios on and around the salad. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar on top and around the salad. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve at once.Here is a transcript of our interview.Stephanie [00:00:15]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast where we talk to fellow cookbook authors, food lovers, and anyone interested in the food space in the same obsessive way that I am. And Tracy Madeiros is actually, like, right in line with all my obsessions. She is the author of The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook. And Tracy, you are having your 10th anniversary with this amazing book. How exciting, ten years later, to get, like, a rerelease.Tracey Medeiros [00:00:46]:I was so happy when I received the call asking if I would be interested in revising the first edition, and I said yes.Stephanie [00:00:58]:When you think about your original writing of the cookbook, tell me about that process and why you decided to write it.Tracey Medeiros [00:01:05]:Sure. Well, I was writing a column for the Essex Reporter in Colchester Sun, and I just felt the dedication and the energy from these folks wanting to be in that column. And I thought, why not? Why don't I write another Vermont cookbook? So I asked my editor at the newspaper her thoughts on me turning my column into a book. And years prior, the publishing house, that Countryman Press, had approached me, and they asked me if I ever write another cookbook again, please let them know. So I called the gentleman up who had approached me about writing a book for them, and I said, hey, I'm thinking about turning my column into a book. What are your thoughts? And he said, I love the idea. And I sent him some sample recipes and some profile examples, and he gave me a contract. And that's how the first edition came about.Stephanie [00:02:18]:How many recipes were in the original cookbook?Tracey Medeiros [00:02:21]:The original cookbook had 150 recipes.Stephanie [00:02:25]:Okay. And I had a cookbook that had 170. So about the same amount. How long did it take you to put it all together?Tracey Medeiros [00:02:33]:It takes me, I just work nonstop. The second I get a contract, I just run Stephanie, and it's just all consuming, and it's my life. And I would say about a year. I have that same yeah. So you're like me. You just okay, I get the contract. Because it's a little daunting when you get that contract. It's exciting, but it's daunting because you have that pressure to produce and because you have so many people involved, and people have lives, and they're busy, and farmers are extremely busy. You just have to work nonstop. So I would say about a year.Stephanie [00:03:21]:Your cookbook. The Vermont farm to table cookbook reminds me in some respects. So two things. One, I think Vermont and Minnesota are familiar climate wise. There is a rural aspect to Vermont, but also then you kind of have this liberal city in Burlington. So I feel like my daughter went to college there. So I feel like I have some a bit of a touchstone with Vermont. But when I relooked at all of your recipes in this latest 10th edition, I really got that vibe that I got ten years ago or twelve years ago when I kind of fell in love with cooking as an adult in this farm to table movement. Like buying these really cool ingredients at farmers markets and then seeing what I could turn into them.Tracey Medeiros [00:04:16]:Vermont has always been ahead of the curve food wise. And I just find that the people in this realm are just so inspiring. And like you said, and I hope when readers open this book, they will just feel the love and the dedication. These contributors are just so dedicated, so passionate, and it's just such hard work and they're just so inspiring. And they really do this for community wellness, because being a farmer, it's not a lucrative business.Stephanie [00:04:55]:Right, like writing cookbooks.Tracey Medeiros [00:04:57]:Yeah, exactly. You have to have a love and a passion for it. And these folks really do. And I'm just so fortunate that they trust me with their profiles and their recipes. And I always make sure to send the materials back and I tell them, anything you want me to add or omit or edit, please do. Because my books are really a community cookbook and I want them to also, when I feel their love, I want them to feel my love back to them, my thank you for doing what they do. And like, you obviously you love doing cookbooks and you love food. You have to just love these folks because they help you and inspire you to do what you do and do it well. And I always want them to feel my appreciation, and I'm just so grateful for them over the last all these years doing what I've done.Stephanie [00:06:09]:I think the reason your cookbook really appeals to me too, is because I think I'm a good cook. But I am a home cook and I am always attracted to newspaper columns about recipes because I feel like you have an aesthetic and a point of view that is like you're imagining me standing in my regular kitchen like I don't have all the special supplies. And I felt like when I was reading the cookbook too, that it was super approachable and like food that everyday people can cook. And I know that sounds silly, but a lot of cookbooks, they're more aspirational and beautiful. Yours is like, I can do the things. I can make the Vermont Cheddar soup, I can make these salad dressings.Tracey Medeiros [00:06:56]:Well. That's what's so important to me when I do any of my cookbooks. Exactly what you have stated, Stephanie, that I want someone who doesn't cook that often but wants to cook at home once in a while. So, for instance, I have this wonderful Lebanese salad in there. And I think also when you're trying to educate and the importance of the whole farm to table movement and the reason why you should support your local farmer and the importance you want to have that net as wide as possible, you want to educate and entertain as many people as possible so that movement continues to grow and flourish. And that's why too, when I create these books, they're a recipe book, they're also with the profiles, they're interesting reads. So maybe someone might not try a certain recipe, but they're still learning about that farm and also a travel guide too to entice people to come to this state, but say you can't come to this state, you're still learning about our state.Stephanie [00:08:22]:Yeah, I did feel that because I felt like those farm stories, when you read about a goat cheese farmer, for instance, I might not have access to that person specific goat cheese, but it brings me back to a local goat cheese provider in Minnesota that I know has the same aesthetic or works, that same belief system. And it reminds me like, oh, I need to revisit so and so's farm.Tracey Medeiros [00:08:50]:Exactly. And that is my goal. Too you're walking through the farmers market and you tell yourself, oh, I saw this
Judith Tschann, Author

Judith Tschann, Author

2023-05-1923:24

Stephanie [00:00:16]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast where we talk to people that have written unique, amazing, and in this case, super fun books about food. I'm here with Judith Chishon, and she is a friend of a friend sister, which is fun to talk with her, too. Susie Mindrum is her sister, who's a good friend of our families and has been so kind to me and my stepmom. So it's fun to talk with you, Judith. She reached out and said, Would you ever want to talk to my sister? She has this funny book called “Romaine Wasn't Built in a Day”.Judith [00:00:53]:Sister in law.Stephanie [00:00:54]:Okay. Sister in law. It's amazing.Judith [00:00:58]:Yeah.Stephanie [00:00:59]:So do we call you? Is it an entomologist? The person who studies the nature of words?Judith [00:01:08]:Yeah. Etymologist no, n otherwise people might think it pertains to bugs.Stephanie [00:01:16]:Yes, that's right. So etymology is the derivative of words.Judith [00:01:22]:Yeah, right.Stephanie [00:01:24]:How did you think of putting this book together? Because why don't you describe it in your own words? Okay.Judith [00:01:31]:A somewhat short answer as to how it came about. I specialized in Old English and Middle English in graduate school, and as a professor, I had the great good fortune to teach history of the language, which, of course, included many discussions about the immense vocabulary of English and where all those words came from. And over the course of many, many years, I had amassed a huge pile of notes about interesting word histories. And then when the Pandemic hit, I put them all together into a book.Stephanie [00:02:17]:Isn't it amazing how many books were spawned by the pandemic?Judith [00:02:22]:Yes, really, it is.Stephanie [00:02:26]:And do you have a personal love of food or why this focus specifically on food words?Judith [00:02:33]:Yeah. Well, that's a good question. Yes. I love food. I am very interested in the history of food. I taught a course once long ago on food and literature, and often even in other courses, talked about the role that literature, that food played in a book. But the first love, I guess, was words. Even as a kid, I mean, all kids love to play with words, rhyming and punning and doing Dr. Susan kinds of things. And if I can indulge in one anecdote that's popping into my head right now about a love of language, even as a kid, I don't know how old I was maybe seven, eight, something like that. We were sitting around the table at my grandmother and grandfather's house, and he was holding forth with an anecdote, the punchline to, which was in Norwegian. And everybody burst out laughing, probably including me, though I didn't understand what he had said. I had a few words of Norwegian, that was it. But it really stands out in my head that a kind of moment of paying attention to the medium, perhaps, rather than the message that it was funny for everybody, maybe because literally what he said, but also because he said it in another language. We call that code switching now, and I wouldn't have articulated the whole business the way I am now, but it was a fun moment of awareness of I'm going to call it the ludic quality of language meaning the playfulness and all the things that we can do with language. Like tell jokes.Stephanie [00:04:39]:Yeah. And the lyricism of it. Right.Judith [00:04:42]:Yes. And I was a dictionary reader even at a young age. I don't know why exactly.Stephanie [00:04:50]:It makes me laugh that you just said that, like we're all dictionary readers. You read the dictionary as a young kid.Judith [00:04:58]:Yeah. I remember looking up words and making marks in the book. And I love the word pugnacious. Who knows why?Stephanie [00:05:09]:Right.Judith [00:05:10]:And naughty words were sometimes in there. Although I admit I was using a very old punk and wagon's dictionary, which did not have very many naughty words. Yeah. I've just always really loved digging around in the dictionary.Stephanie [00:05:28]:Have you by chance read and I think the book is called The Book of Words. It's about the writing of the dictionary from the female perspective.Judith [00:05:39]:Well, I've read a number of books like that. Is it the one by Corey Stamford? Word by word?Stephanie [00:05:48]:Maybe. Oh, I just read it, and I'm sorry that I don't know the name of the author. I will try and find it.Judith [00:05:57]:Okay. I've got it sitting here in this big pile of books.Stephanie [00:06:03]:Yeah. It was basically just this idea of how the dictionary came to be and how they chronicled and cataloged the words. And it was fiction.Judith [00:06:15]:It was fiction.Stephanie [00:06:17]:It was but I think it was based in historical fiction, and it was just something go ahead.Judith [00:06:25]:No, that sounds fantastic.Stephanie [00:06:27]:Yeah. It was just something I had never really thought about. Here's the name of it. It is called lost words. I'm going to find it. Sorry. I just think you would really like it. And it was absolutely very beautifully written. The Dictionary of Lost Words is what it was called. And it was written by a woman named Pip Williams. K. Okay. Pip Williams. And the idea was they sort of chronicled this historical fiction of the creating of the dictionary. But also what was unique about the book was this idea that women had their own language and women of the aristocracy, their language was different than women that were working in the homes or were working in the markets and were lower caste women, as it were. So she became enamored with chronicling and cataloging the words that women use that didn't make it into the original dictionaries.Judith [00:07:35]:Interesting. Well, I definitely want to read it. And she was talking about English, or was she talking worldwide?Stephanie [00:07:43]:It was in England, and it was the Oxford Dictionary compilation.Judith [00:07:49]:Okay, so it's a story about The OED.Stephanie [00:07:51]:Correct.Judith [00:07:53]:Okay. Yes.Stephanie [00:07:54]:I think you'd like it.Judith [00:07:55]:Yeah, I read the Madman story about the OED, but I haven't read this one specifically. Do you know if she has a lot of food words?Stephanie [00:08:06]:There is some, but it's not a lot that I could pick up because I think I would have recalled that. And when we were talking about preparing for this book, you were talking about the funny. We talked about rhubarb in particular because I'm obsessed with rhubarb. What is the origination of the word rhubarb?Judith [00:08:27]:It comes from a Greek word that means, well, the vegetable. But it means barbarous, too. So it's a foreign thing. That word foreign. And barbarous is in there. That's the barb part of rhubarb, which seems to me kind of fun and funny.Stephanie [00:08:47]:Yeah.Judith [00:08:49]:So I'm curious about your obsession with it. Food so often, of course, has emotional associations. And my association with rhubarb is a very positive one. Not only because my husband likes to make rhubarb pie and I love rhubarb pie, but it makes me think of my grandmother and her backyard in Northfield, Minnesota and a big rhubarb patch and the admonition that we should not ever even think about eating those leaves.Stephanie [00:09:26]:Yeah. Because they're poisonous.Judith [00:09:27]:Poisonous. And you'll die. But in spite of that, I mean, that only made it all more thrilling.Stephanie [00:09:34]:I think what I am fascinated by with rhubarb is that it's sort of this ugly looking weed in a lot of respects, and then it's not. If you just pull a stalk and eat it without a ton of sugar, it's not awesome. And then when you cut the leaves off and you boil that down or you cook it in a pastry and you add sugar, you make something completely transformative out of what is, in a lot of sense, zoeed I think that's what appeals to me, yes.Judith [00:10:03]:Well, wow. That is the magic, the transformation, right. That we can eat that stuff, but then it has to be cooked. Yeah. And when I think of rhubarb, I think of recipes that promise this transformation. I just love recipes, though I am not a recipe writer. I mean, I'm certainly not a cookbook writer. So I'm full of admiration for anybody who has written books with lots of recipes in them and all that that entails. But I just love the idea that you can have a list of rules and ingredients that promise transformation and something tasty and wonderful. And I think of it, too, in another way that's maybe kind of odd. I think of recipe cards that I have in my little old recipe card thingy holder, and I think of the handwriting that's on them. So in some cases, it's my mother's very neat handwriting. The Palmer method, that was not long ago. And in other cases, it's my grandmother's handwriting, the one who had rhubarb in the backyard. And hers tended to be shorter. I mean, she wouldn't give well, this doesn't account for the length of the recipe, but she wouldn't give a precise number for the oven setting. She would say hot oven or the precise measurement of, I don't know, flour is just scant. And somehow I liked that, that they were kind of abbreviated because she assumed you knew what to do.Stephanie [00:11:52]:Yeah. That's so funny, because in a lot of the recipes that my grandma left behind when I was writing a cookbook, trying to decipher what scamped was or what simmer, and just thinking about okay, like, a gas oven operates different than an electric oven. And so much of cooking can be intuitive. And I'm pretty good about intuiting, but I try to write it for my sister, who, if you don't say, ten minutes at 425 and test it with a toothpick, and if there's crumbs on there, keep going. She just has no idea. She has no intuition at all when it comes to cooking.Judith [00:12:34]:Yeah, well, I'm a little bit more in that category.Stephanie [00:12:38]:Yeah. And you have to spell it all out when we talk about some of the words in your book. What are some of your three to
Stephanie [00:00:12]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's dish. We talk to people that have written cookbooks or books or food adjacent things because I can't get enough about talking about food, and and today we have a great guest. She is julie joe sieverson. She is the author of Oldest Twin Cities a Guide to Historic Treasures. And I had read about this book, and I thought, oh, that's cool. I wonder if she has stuff in there about restaurants and breweries, because we have so much history in the Twin Cities. And indeed she does. Welcome to the program.Julie [00:00:47]:Thank you for having me here. This will be fun.Stephanie [00:00:50]:Yes, it will be fun. So how did you decide? Are you like a born and bred twin Citian, and how did you decide to undertake this project?Julie [00:00:59]:Yes, I'm a fourth generation Minnesotan, and I've lived in the Twin Cities most of my life. I first wrote a book called Secret Twin Cities a Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure, and that came out in 2020, arrived March, mid March, right when the cities were shutting down. So good timing on my part. I shoved them all in the corner for a couple of weeks because I thought, who's going to want to buy a travel guide right now?Stephanie [00:01:24]:Right?Julie [00:01:25]:It turned out okay for secret Twin cities. They had a lot of social distancing ideas in it, coincidentally. But anyway, all this Twin Cities evolved from that book. About a year later, the publisher asked if I'd like to write another one. And I really wanted to do one of more of a historic nature because I just think with COVID and the really tough year that the Twin Cities had in 2020, including the murder of George Floyd and the Civil uprising and businesses shutting down, burned down. I just felt like I needed a reason to fall back in love with the Twin Cities. And I was feeling a loss of community and a loss of connection. And for me to feel connected to the region I live in is very important to me. I need to feel part of the fabric. And so I just stopped focusing on enduring places in our midst and places that hung in there and have endured and have reopened, providing us continuity, kind of a comfort that was good for my soul to focus my energy there. So that's why I kind of went in this direction.Stephanie [00:02:43]:Well, and one of the selections in the book is the Oldest Best Bar, which is our friend Tony Zacardi, who bought it from our friend Lisa Hammer. I knew Lisa and Keith, and they had shepherded the bar, and then they sold it to Tony Zacardi. And it's from 1906.Julie [00:03:03]:Apparently.Stephanie [00:03:04]:It's an institution on Cedar Avenue. And you talk about sort of that pandemic and that coming back to life. Tony is a good example of someone that really he had just bought the bar and all of a sudden it has to close, and they're trying to hang on. And a lot of these bars and restaurants and distilleries really were in tough shape. So I was so glad that when we came out of the pandemic that Palmers has come out of it. And tell me a little bit about the history of Palmers in particular.Julie [00:03:40]:Yeah. And Tony really was he was really propelled into the national spotlight during that time. Yes.Stephanie [00:03:48]:He was an African American man who.Julie [00:03:51]:Owns this in the heart of he spray painted black owned business in hopes to protect his business, to deflect potential looters. And he was really a spokesperson and a comfort, I think, for the twin stage community during that time. We needed absolutely.Stephanie [00:04:10]:And the music community, too, because Palmer has had such a history in steeped in music.Julie [00:04:16]:Yeah. What a gem this place is. It's so unique, with an Islamic mosque on one end and then that iconic Mustachioed man against it on the other one. And as I write in the book, you rarely leave this place without a story to tell. Kind of rough edge place. Maybe not everybody's going to feel comfortable there, but you're very welcome there, no matter who you are. And you'll be invited to play a game of Scrabble or get into a conversation, unless you're a jerk. Because if you're a jerk, you're going to get plastered on a poster note on the back wall, and you're not going to be welcome there at all.Stephanie [00:05:00]:That's funny.Julie [00:05:02]:Yeah.Stephanie [00:05:02]:Another institution that is in downtown Minneapolis specifically, and I didn't realize that they had had a fire in 1989, but this was Glicks, the oldest downtown bar.Julie [00:05:20]:Yeah. Lots lots of damage. It seems like most of these places have endured fires over the years. Yeah.Stephanie [00:05:30]:You can imagine that. Yep.Julie [00:05:32]:Yeah, they they really came back from that. In fact, there was a moose in there. They have these animal heads mounted all throughout the restaurant. And the moose in the back room had been stolen from during a fraternity party there. And I think this group, whoever had stolen it, felt so bad because of fire that Reopening day, they anonymously returned it, leaning it against the front door. Welcome, everybody back. But yeah, my daughter was just there the other day. She's like I'm a glicks. I'm like, do you know that's in my book? No, I didn't even know that.Stephanie [00:06:05]:I had no idea either. Now, the Monte Carlo has been near and dear to my heart for some time, and my mom and dad got divorced, and my dad moved downtown. And that was really like, wow. Because we were suburban girls. And the first weekend my dad had us, he took us into this CD alley, and he went through this back door that had this weird sign above it and brought us in. And I thought he was bringing us into a pool hall. And I was like, oh, my gosh, my dad has really tipped over here, and it turned out to be the Loveliest bar inside. It was actually the Monte Carlo, and he was kind of a regular there. What's the historic nature of the Monte Carlo?Julie [00:06:47]:Yeah. Well, yeah, the hum of the neon sign is going to remain a constant in the North Loop Bar. It's really exquisite in there with this mirrored wall behind the bar. One's kind of an elegance to it, to it all. But the whole North Loop area, the warehouse district is where the Milky Way candy bars and cream of pasta and pop up toaster were invented. This was a real industrial place. The neighborhood has more than 60 buildings that are over a century old. A lot of them have been repurposed. Some of them. A few of them are rehearsal spaces for the Minnesota Opera, and a lot of them are faded. Business signs are repurposed. You see the old signs, ghost signs, sort of. But the Monte Carlo Bar and Grill have stood the test of time. It used to be mostly only for men, but then when it changed ownership, mr. Rimsick, who owns a number of places in the Twin Cities, he kind of turned it into a destination for all the patty, is a great happening place. Now, Beijing style wings, they're really famous for.Stephanie [00:08:06]:Yeah, the dry rubbed wings are my favorite. Yeah, a kind of funny one that I didn't expect would reach me and grab me, but it did. So I work on the Stone Arch Bridge festival and I curate a culinary market that happens underneath the Hennepin Avenue Bridge. And underneath that bridge, we have 38 ten x ten booths of vendors that produce Minnesota made food products. And as I was looking through your book, it's the oldest bridge relic at First Bridge Park, which is where I am during these two days of the festival from 1855. Underneath that bridge, there's these giant anchors, and I sit on those anchors. That's my chair during the two days of the festival. So I didn't realize they were so old.Julie [00:08:56]:Well, yeah, those don't date back to the very first bridge to cross the Mississippi River anywhere. Right there at St. Anthony Falls. I mean, prior to that bridge back in 1855, people were crossing over the falls to get to the other side. That first bridge didn't last real long, and then they created another one and another one. So anyway, these archaeological excavations revealed anchors from the original bridges, and so now they are under the Hennepin Bridge. Now you can see and sit on them if you want. There's plaque. So cool. Really interesting history at that park. Yeah. Right down from Melrose Park.Stephanie [00:09:42]:The oldest island venue in 1893 is the Nicolette Island Inn, which is still operating as a hotel, as a restaurant. It is a beautiful, gorgeous spot. If you ever just want to pop in for a drink or they have delicious food, too. Yeah, that's a great spot. And I didn't realize that David Shea was kind of responsible for bringing that back. He's designed so many restaurants in the Twin Cities.Julie [00:10:08]:Yeah. I didn't realize he was connected to that either until I started research. Talented guy. Yeah. That place I learned a lot about. I didn't really know a lot about that fire that had kind of spread through Nicholas Island and all northeast Minneapolis. A very ravishing fire, and only one of two structures, industrial structures, on the island to survive it. A fire started by some boys smoking. And so, again, these places that have endured. And at one point, it was a men's shelter, salvation army men's shelter. So I really and, you know, I can't help but continue then to learn about and read about Nicholette Island.Stephanie [00:10:52]:Right.Julie [00:10:53]:So many storied history there. Couple donkeys, Pearl and she. But I really focused on that island and my secret Twin Cities.Stephanie [00:11:01]:Who would have known that the oldest bowling alley was the Bryant Lake Bowl?Julie [00:11:08]:Yeah, I mean, that's a legendary spot in the Lin Lake neighborhood, and that's really evolved over the years. It used to be a Ford garage, and apparently it's haunted by a mechanic who was crushed by a car there. But at the heart of it is the eight lane bowling alley. Old school. But around it now is a r
Stephanie [00:00:15]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast where we talk to people that are cookbook writers obsessed with food or otherwise food at Sent. And I'm very excited to talk to someone today. Her name is Tamar Adler and she has written this book called The Everlasting Meal Cookbook leftovers a to Z. And I first read about it, I think, in maybe the New York Times. And then I got a copy of the book, and you guys, people that know me know I'm obsessed with my freezer. I'm obsessed with Mason jars. I'm constantly repurposing things. I'm like an old housewife from the 1920s. I can't throw a thing away. And this book is like the guide to how to make sense of all this chaos, of all these leftovers and these little dribs and drabs that you have. I just am so impressed with you. Thank you for coming on the show.Tamar [00:01:13]:Oh, my gosh, I'm so happy that I'm talking to a soul sister and saving.Stephanie [00:01:18]:So how did you have you been like this since you were a little kid and finally just wrote this? I mean, it's a tome.Tamar [00:01:26]:And I wanted it to be longer. My publisher cut me off at some point. I haven't been like this. I mean, I've always liked saving things, and I've always been sort of into things that had age to them or stories. But I think that this actually came from being a professional cook, because I think, contrary to what a lot of people think would be true, professional cooks are amazing at using all of everything and both what is done. In restaurants and certainly what's done for diners but also what's done to serve the staff of a restaurant is always a version of either thinking ahead, so cooking something partway and then finishing the cooking or making sure that you're cooking something in a way that lets you use it over the course of days or making sure to eke all of the flavor out of anything that you have. So it was being a professional cook that kind of helped me realize that I could if I could put down on paper what so many of us already knew but from years of professional cooking, then I could kind of hand some of it off to home cooks.Stephanie [00:02:50]:Yeah. During the pandemic, many people sort of rediscovered cooking and certainly their pantry and maybe things that their mom did or dad that they hadn't thought about, that now all of a sudden you're at home and you can't run to the grocery store every day unless you're going to have the survival gauntlet. Because it was kind of a grim time. So we went back to some of this. Like an example in here, you talk about moldy cheese. Well, my mom just cut the mold off the cheese, and we just kept going. She never missed a beat with it. But you take it further in zest and different. Any ingredient that you have, you can literally look up in this book, you guys, and she tells you what to do with it.Tamar [00:03:42]:I mean, my theory was, if you have it, why not use it? And I think remembering the pandemic is a really sort of smart point of orientation for how to use this book and also how I wrote it, because that was a time during which all of our outlooks was, if I have something, I'm going to use it, because the stakes of going out to get a new thing are just too high. And so the stakes feel different now, and they are different, but they're still stakes, right? It still takes a lot out of every person to go to the supermarket. I find it takes a lot of energy, and it takes, like, personal energy and planning and gas for the car and the standing and the line, like, the whole thing. Plus, it costs money. So it's like, if you have it, why not use it? And that is what I was trying to help people do in this book.Stephanie [00:04:41]:And I'll just like an example that I talked about on this podcast a while ago that I overcooked quinoa for a TV segment I was doing, and I had all of this quinoa, and I froze it in these little cubes right in the freezer. And I've been making bowls, and I've still got all these cubes left, and I looked it up in your book, and I can make a savory tart with the quinoa crust. I would have never thought of that.Tamar [00:05:05]:Oh, yeah, that's great.Stephanie [00:05:07]:Yeah. And then obviously a quinoa salad, but you talk about making it crunchy by adding all of these other elements to it, and it just like I looked up quinoa, and I was like, who would have thought to make a crust with that? That's how useful your book is. And it is called the Everlasting Meal Cookbook. I just want to make sure I repeat it. When you thought about organizing the book so that somebody like me who's got a cup of white beans left, and what do I do with that? Or right now, I'm awash in ham from Easter and trying to get creative ways to eat ham other than a ham sandwich and pea soup, because I've already done those. How did you think about how to organize things?Tamar [00:05:50]:Okay, before I answer the organization question, I just want to shout out to Emma McDowell, who is the person from whom I got the quinoa crust recipe, just because I just don't want to take credit. I thought so brilliant, and I definitely got the idea from her. And she, I think, has a book out, and she has recipes on the Internet all the time, and she's super great. But I at first wanted to organize the whole book alphabetically. I thought that would be easiest. So just A to Z and you would look up quinoa under Q and beans under B probably, although then it's like or do you look them up under cannellini and ham under H? But I did that for the first draft. Maybe two drafts of the book were just purely alphabetical with no other organizing principles. And I had a friend who always reads my draft who said that it made for some really inflicitous neighbors. He didn't like reading the word anchovy next to apple peel. He felt like it just made him want to close the book up and just not worry about either the anchovies or the peels. Yeah, nothing. He was like, at first I sort of booked, and I was like, but the whole point is that it's like a reference book. And then I calmed down a little bit, and I thought, that's true. And that maybe a new it's also not. You do kind of want there to be a category that you're searching in, because that is often how we use reference books, too. And so I decided to create larger leftovers categories, which it still can be, I think, confusing to somebody because we're so used to searching any culinary text by what we want to make, not by what we have. And I have had to remind people, if you look up a roast beef sandwich, I am not giving you a recipe for a roast beef sandwich. I'm telling you what to do with the soggy half of roast beef sandwich you have left.Stephanie [00:08:06]:Yes.Tamar [00:08:09]:But creating those larger categories is how I ended up organizing it. So the first chapter is vegetables, and it's leftover vegetables. The second is fruits and nuts, and it's overripe underripe, et cetera. And leftovers of all, there's leftover bread, leftover rice and grain. I mean, rice and beans. Leftover stuffed dough's was kind of a hard category to come up with, but it kind of made sense to me. There's leftover drinks, leftover sweets. Oh, leftover snacks. So stuff like the dust at the bottom of a pretzel bag or cheetos.Stephanie [00:08:48]:Which that dust is amazing. If you're like going to bread something or put a little sprinkle on a little pile of soup that you're eating.Tamar [00:08:59]:It'S like extra good salt.Stephanie [00:09:00]:Yes, extra good spicy salt. And even like, I make Caesar salads all the time, and I like to use real anchovies in the dressing. How did I not think about using the anchovy oil? And I've just been throwing that away.Tamar [00:09:16]:I'm glad that you now have ideas for it.Stephanie [00:09:19]:Yeah, it's such an obvious one, like, oh, yeah, this is that delicious flavored oil. Why aren't you doing something with it? And also something I discovered during the pandemic is brine from pickle juice.Tamar [00:09:33]:Oh, yeah.Stephanie [00:09:34]:I was just not salvaging my brine, and now I'm hoarding it.Tamar [00:09:39]:Yeah, because if you're going to do a whole chicken or a bunch of pork chops, you actually need kind of a good amount right. You need to be saving the pickle juice from two jars because you need a lot.Stephanie [00:09:54]:And frying chicken and brightening the chicken before you fry it in. That pickle juice is a secret of many chefs. Was there something that you did not know what to do with it like pistachio shells. Let's use that as an example.Tamar [00:10:16]:Well, we have always used those for fire starters. Those are pretty good for starting, like a wood stove or a fireplace. No, that was okay. But there were a bunch I didn't I mean, cherry stems, a lot of them I had to look up and then do some experimenting with, and I hadn't known that one could use.Stephanie [00:10:40]:What do you do with a cherry stem?Tamar [00:10:43]:You make tea. And it's supposed to be really good for you. Yeah.Stephanie [00:10:47]:See, this is, like, the joy of the discovery of this book I've been reading. It like a Bible in bed at night, like, hoarding, ten pages at a time. I've never been so excited about a book before. I'm in love with it now. Where do you go from here? You mentioned that your publisher cut you off. Could you do a whole other?Tamar [00:11:14]:I don't know if I have enough for a whole other, but I'm still collecting the ones that aren't in there. So I wonder if they would ever let me do, like, a five if I could break up the letters so that each one could be a little bit shorter, like A through E or something like that. A bunch of volumes. That would be one thing. Another is I could just, at some point in the future, reissue it with everything that got left out. I don't know. Anything that seems outdated. I don't know.Stephanie [00:11:45]:When you go out to eat, like, you have a recipe or an idea for leftover French fries that I'm assuming you'r
With over thirty-five years of combined experience, homesteaders Stephanie Thurow (@minnesotafromscratch) and Michelle Bruhn (@Forksinthedirt) have taught thousands of people across the globe how to garden, preserve food, tend backyard chickens, cook from scratch, and care for their families with natural homemade alternatives. Their homesteading knowledge and instruction can be found in one place with Small-Scale Homesteading.In this sustainable guide, learn how to grow your own food, tap maple trees to make gallons of homemade syrup, successfully raise a small flock of laying hens, and more. Other topics include:* The benefits of small-scale homesteading and its local impacts* Soil health and composting* Keeping chickens* Planning a vegetable garden using annuals and perennials* DIY recipes and projects for the home and garden * Seed saving and planting tips* Handmade candles, soaps, lotions, and cleaning solutions * Companion and succession planting* How to extend your growing season* Explanation of approved food preservation methods and supplied needed* Maple sugaring* And so much more!  This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
Ryan McEnaney is the Marketing and Communications manager for Baileys Nurseries and its consumer brands: Endless Summer® Hydrangeas, First Editions® Plants, and the Easy Elegance® Rose Collection. Ryan just published his first book called, "Field Guide to Outside Style: Design and Plant Your Perfect Outdoor Space."  We catch up with Ryan and discuss how to plan your outdoor living space.Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
In Cassoulet Confessions, Sylvie travels across the Atlantic from her home in New York to the origin of cassoulet – the Occitanie region of Southern France. There she immerses herself in all things cassoulet: the quintessential historic meat and bean stew. From her first spoonful of cassoulet, Sylvie Bigar is transported back to her dramatic childhood in Geneva Switzerland. Not only did she discover the deeper meaning of her ancestral French Cuisine but she found the family stew that saved her soul. Sylvie takes us on a journey of Cassoulet with words and recipes.Morgan Baum, from the gallery and pottery studio of Clay Coyote in Hutchinson, Minnesota, partnered with Sylvie to make her the perfect cassole. Listen to the Makers of Minnesota Podcast episode about her cookery from season 4 here. Together they will share their story at Alliance Francais with a conversation moderated Panel discussion with Sylvie Bigar, Vincent Francoual, and Morgan Baum.Moderator Lynne Rossetto KasperCassoulet tasting- made by Chef Raymond Espuche!Ticket price: $60 - price includes entrance fee, Sylvie Bigar’s book, and cassoulet tasting Tickets are $60 and can be had by calling 612-332-0436 or here Monday, February 27thStephanie’s Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.*Contains Affiliate links This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
loading
Comments (3)

Ken CT

Thanks for sharing.Introduce this year’s most popular magical short video app Likee video. Super Star zubair ansari also on Likee. https://likee.com

Mar 10th
Reply

Ken CT

Thanks for sharing.Introduce this year’s most popular magical short video app Likee video. Super Star zubair ansari also on Likee. Have a look here. https://likee.com

Mar 10th
Reply

Ken CT

Thanks for sharing.Introduce this year’s most popular magical short video app Likee video. Super Star zubair ansari also on Likee. Have a look here.https://likee.com

Mar 10th
Reply
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store