Family Food for Moms Podcast I Inspiration for Family Cooking and Dining I How to Enjoy Special Meals Together

The next chef we’re going to be talking about is Christina Tosi, the well-known pastry chef. I'm sure you've seen her on MasterChef or MasterChef Junior. She's amazing! She's known for starting Momofuku Milk Bar, and she’s so creative when it comes to baking. We love her compost cookies and her birthday cake recipe - it's the one we use all the time. The way she layers flavors and adds so much interest to food is inspiring. So, let's talk about what we can learn from Christina Tosi about baking and delicious food.  I won't have an episode out this Wednesday as we're hosting my Mom's 80th party, but I'll be back to two episodes again next week.

 Today we're going to be continuing our series on what we can learn from famous chefs, present or past. This time, we're going to be talking about Julia Child. She was a famous chef, a cookbook author, and a television personality. I'm sure you've seen those funny old video clips of her on the little TV screen with the round center from the sixties. She was one of the first women to host her own cooking show on television.  She gave people lots of tips, and she did lessons on how to prepare French food very simply and easily. Have you seen the movie Julie and Julia? It's about a young girl learning to cook from Julia's recipe. Julia Child left a legacy of more than just recipes. She's taught people how to approach cooking and eating with a huge amount of joy, confidence, and curiosity. She loved food, she loved to eat, and she was so enthusiastic about it. She was very good at teaching you how to make things simple, and how to just go for it with your cooking.

We’re doing a series on what we can learn from chefs about cooking. We’ll learn some tips and things they teach that will really help us to build and improve our own cooking. Today, we're going to be talking about Jamie Oliver, a British chef. He's a good one for helping a normal mom at home. He doesn’t do so much restaurant cooking; more home cooking, and he does it so well. He and his family, his kids, are all very approachable. He makes lots of comfort food. There might be some things in this episode that are similar to what Gordon Ramsey teaches or does, but that's good, right? Enforce the best habits. So, here we go. 

Today, I thought it'd be fun to talk about some tips from Gordon Ramsey about cooking. These are things that he advises, some of which I've tried, and others not yet. I find it really interesting to look at professional chefs, or at chefs like Jamie Oliver who aim to help ordinary people like you and I to be able to cook better, to make things easier and healthier, and et cetera. I'm going to do a brief series, and talk about tips from some other chefs as well, but for today it'll be Gordon Ramsey. We’ll talk about the important things that he says or that he teaches online in various places, whether it be on Masterchef, in his home cooking videos, et cetera. 

Today we're gonna be talking about food on vacation - if you go away on a holiday. We recently went to the beach for a few days and it was amazing. I'm gonna talk a little bit about what meals we did and general ideas of what to cook and eat on a vacation!

(There won't be an episode on Wednesday this week, but I'll be back next Monday!!) I'm soo excited about the Downton Abbey movie coming up on the 12th of September!! ..so I thought this would be a good time to make this episode. We're going to talk about what we can learn from Downton Abbey again - from the show itself, and things that are significant when it comes to food, dining, and even cooking. There are so many things that inspire me when I look at the way they ate and what they ate, although it required having a full-time cook or two. We can't really replicate that part, but there are a lot of principles that are inspiring, and that we can apply to our daily lives and our families.   

 Today we’re going to talk about some fun ideas for a food-themed evening with family or friends. Food-related fun that you can have with your kids. We'll chat about evenings involving food in a fun way for your younger kids, for your older teens; or for your family to do together. So, let's dive right in. 

Today we're going to talk about more simple meals for if you're learning to cook, just starting to cook, or if you just need something quick for dinner. Last time, we talked about using potatoes and pasta as the base of meals.  In this episode, we’re going to talk about rice and a few other ways to start your cooking with some easy meals!

Today I’m going to talk about two easy meal options that have variety for when you're just starting out cooking, or for when life is crazy and you want something very easy to do. I’ll talk about a way to plan things around potatoes and pasta so that you've got a good variety, and different ways to enhance the toppings, to add sauces, et cetera, to go with those. Start off with easy meals when you're learning to cook. If your son or daughter is going to leave home soon, this is a good way for them to learn to cook. So, let's get started. 

Let's talk about pesto. Is your favorite green pesto or red pesto, and what do you like to have it on? Pizza, caprese salad - what are your favorite ways to use it? I'm going to talk about the origins of pesto, and then about some of the ways you can use it, and how to make it. I often buy pesto from the grocery store, and sometimes I make it. Both ways can be delicious, and there's so many different ways you can use it.  Pesto is traditionally Italian, and its roots are in ancient Rome. It’s best known today in the form pesto alla Genovese, which is made from basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and olive oil. The concept of pesto can be traced back to ancient Roman times. Back then, there was a sauce called moretum, which was made by crushing herbs with garlic, some kind of cheese, salt, olive oil, and vinegar. In a similar way to modern pesto, it was prepared with a pestle and mortar. The word pesto comes from the Italian verb pestare, meaning “to pound” or “to crush” with the pestle and mortar. The classic form of pesto, Genovese, comes from Genoa in Northwestern Italy. It’s from around the 19th century. The key ingredient, of course, is the Genovese basil that grows abundantly in that region. It loves the Mediterranean climate. The traditional recipe includes fresh basil leaves with garlic, traditionally pine nuts, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and lots of olive oil.

Today we're going to talk about eggs, or rather about if you don't like eggs, and what's a good thing to have for breakfast in that case - what's a good way to use eggs, so that they don't taste too “eggy”? Here are creative ways of using them so that you still get the protein and the benefits like choline from eggs, but you don't have to just have scrambled or fried eggs. Maybe those are things that you don't enjoy. I seem to go through phases. Sometimes I don't mind eggs for breakfast, and other times I really can't stomach them, though I still enjoy the sides like grilled tomato, mushrooms, zucchini, and avocado. All those things are great, but it's hard for me to have eggs with them. So, let's talk about some ways to use eggs in your breakfast even if you don't like them. We want to try to incorporate them into dishes where their flavor is a little masked, or complimented by other ingredients.

Today we’re going to talk more about what we can learn from previous generations about cooking, nutritious eating, and how to make healthy meals for our families. In the past, we've talked about things like cooking from scratch, cooking at home with fresh ingredients, and using local foods and seasonal produce.  We've talked about eating all the parts, nose to tail, and about some traditional cooking methods like slow cooking, et cetera. We've talked about eating as a family, and how that connection is so good and so healthy. We've talked about being balanced, and not going along with all the trends or diets. We've talked about recipes that have been passed down from our grandparents, and their simpler, healthier way of life in general. Today, I want to talk about some of the less obvious things that we can learn from previous generations about cooking and nutrition. This is not just what they ate, but how they thought about food, and how they made it healthier. We’ll talk about their habits; things that were second nature to them, and how they would be really helpful to us. It's been a while since I've done a ten point episode. Some of you like that. I don't easily stick to points - I tend to have a brain that goes in all directions, but I thought for this one we'll do ten points to hopefully make it easier to remember. 

 Today we're going to talk about a particular theme for a date night in our family. With our five children, we love to have times where we eat together and have special meals, and we also love to have a date night every week for my hubby and I. The kids know about it; they have their own special meal beforehand, and then they're upstairs early. We like to go out for it when we can - usually we do that on one night out of four. We also like to have date nights at home when we can because somehow there's something different and special that you get out of those date nights, something that’s different to when you go out.  Today I want to talk about having your own personal black and white ball for a date night - a black and white themed date night. Let me tell you some of the details of what this could entail. I'm bringing out a date night recipe book later this year, and this will be one of the date themes in it. 

Today I want to talk about having a celebration brunch. It's great for summertime, and you can even do brunch in the winter. We’ll be talking about a fun festive brunch with your family or your extended family, your friends, or just anybody that you want to do something a little special with. I'm going to mention some food ideas and then a couple of different themes with a few food-related activities that you can add to it to make it extra special.  Having brunch is fun because it doesn't have to be as early as breakfast, and you get to eat foods that are a mix between breakfast and lunch, ones that you may not normally eat. You don't really need lunch either afterwards, and you can make it a little special with a few extra things.

That delectable flaky butter-filled pastry! Today we’re going to be talking about puff pastry. Puff pastry is that flaky light, airy pastry which is made by folding and rolling dough with lots of layers. The butter is folded in, and then it’s folded in half again and rolled with a rolling pin. It's a real crowd pleaser because it's delicious and it's so easy to use for quick appetizers and elegant desserts. It's very distinctive as far as pastry goes because of its light, flaky texture. You get croissant roll pastry, and you get philo pastry, but puff pastry is the best kind to buy because it's so delicious. It's good to buy all butter puff pastry, which is much healthier than the margarine kind. So, today I'm going to tell you the history of puff pastry, and then give you some ideas of what you can cook with it. It’s very easy to use, and a great way to make something fast!  

Today we’re going to talk about how to get re-inspired; how to get a new passion for cooking. Hopefully, at some point you've had a passion for cooking, or you’ve felt inspired about making food for your family. Today, I want to talk about what to do if you've lost that passion a little bit; if you’re just feeling tired or if it's been a crazy season and you're a little overwhelmed. Having less mental energy to focus on cooking and planning food makes it harder, so hopefully this will give you some ideas of how to renew that passion, how to get excited again, or how to try something new in the area of cooking in your family. 

It can be such an amazing experience to go to a restaurant. We recently went out for a date night meal. We don't often have our date night out - usually we have it at home; we get takeout or we make something ourselves, and we do it slowly and relaxed. But every now and then, it's so great to go to a restaurant, and when we do, we want to go to a fancy one, not just an ordinary one. That's what we did. It was at this big, beautiful hotel. From the moment you walked in, the decor was just gorgeous. There was a dark theme - I'll put some photos in the blog post if you want to see.  There was such beautiful decor. There were these tall, green, leafy plants and the chairs were luxurious - really comfortable to sit in. There was dim lighting, but it was bright in places with very elegant hanging lights. There were just really beautiful and luxurious decorations, and the people were so polite and friendly. You could feel that they were there to make your experience special in the way they greeted you, and the way they seated you.  Soon after we were seated, they asked us if we had any dietary restrictions and we said, yes, my husband's gluten-free. Then they said, okay, great, and they went away. You know how sometimes they bring a roll or a piece of bread. This time, it was a step above anything else I’ve ever seen. They brought this cute little dark ceramic cup with a little handle, about espresso cup size, and in that was a little bit of carrot and ginger soup. It had a gorgeous flavor. The ginger wasn’t strong; it was just right...

Today I want to talk a bit about lunches, and look at Europeans, especially the people in places like France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and what their approach is to lunch meals. Then we’ll think about the United States and how they do things differently.  We’ll also think about our health. I've been thinking a lot about what can contribute to poor health, to aging, and to metabolic syndrome, and one of the biggest things is stress and eating too fast. I've been aware of that, so my husband and I are trying to eat more slowly, especially him - he's prone to rush because he's so focused on the work he has to do.  We’re blessed that most of the time, we can sit down as a family and eat together, because my husband works from home most days and our kids are homeschooled, although my oldest will be starting work soon, so we'll see how that goes. Most of us sit down for the meal at lunchtime, and we try to eat as a family, but it's still quite rushed because there's lots to do before and after - lunch is in the middle of all our things.  It's interesting to think about because I think that a much healthier approach to eating is the way the Europeans do it. I think it's important to take time out for our meals and to really enjoy them. It’s good to let ourselves eat a good variety of food, to be aware of what we are eating, and to have good conversation and fellowship with others while we are eating. Then we can have good digestion, and we can take the nutrients in and absorb them.  It's not just the food; it's all about how we feel after the meal. We should be feeling satisfied, feeling energized, and feeling like we've had good conversation and connection with somebody. Those things are all linked, and they all contribute to our wellbeing. So, what do they do in places like France and Germany, et cetera?

Today we're going to be talking about salads. Salads are fascinating, and they're quite versatile. We all have our favorites. I'm going to tell you a little about the history of salads, and then we’ll talk about the main types of them, and then about some unusual ones.  So, salads stretch back many, many years. They've changed a lot through various cultures and food trends. In ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and Rome, there were already early forms of salads, which were simple mixes of raw vegetables like lettuce, onions, and cucumbers. They would be dressed with vinegar, oil, or even fermented fish sauces.  The word salad comes from the Latin “salata”, meaning salted, because Romans often ate raw greens dressed in brine or other salty dressings. I find this very interesting because doing that's supposed to help a lot with digestion. The French will often add a green salad, like plain greens in some olive oil with some salt, in between courses to help with digestion. They had it right back then. 

Today we’re going to be talking about picnics and picnic food. It's such fun to eat outdoors if we're prepared and organized in advance. One of the great things about it is that it's easier to clean up. There's fewer dishes, and it somehow helps you to let go of things a bit. As busy moms, we've always got so much going through our brains, and so many little things that need doing at any given moment, and I really find that sitting in my camping chair outside and eating out there helps me to just let go. This is partly because all the preparation is in advance, and then you can just sit and enjoy it, but also the surroundings help. Being outside and being relaxed with each other and with your family is a great thing.  So, we're going to talk about how to be prepared for picnics, and then about some ideas for what you can eat outdoors.