Alabama Shakes | The Dinner Special podcast

123: Meghan McMorrow: Cooking Up a Sense of Accomplishment

May 18, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Fox and Briar

Meghan is a passionate, self-taught home cook who recently moved from Portland, Oregon, to the Seattle area and spent most of her childhood in Alaska. While she tries adopting adult skills like meal planning and healthy eating, she balances the boredom by being creative in the kitchen mixing new drinks and discovering new places.

I am so psyched to have Meghan of Fox and Briar joining me here today.

(*All photos below are Meghan’s.)

On Growing Up in Alaska:

It’s a really unique place. It’s not like anywhere else. And I think that now that I’m an adult, I appreciate how beautiful and how different it is. But it’s awesome to have so much nature and empty space around you. But also, it can be a little bit isolated sometimes, because you have to pretty much fly to get out of Alaska. That’s sort of the dual-sided thing about living in Alaska.

On What Got Her to Start Cooking:

I think it’s been really a process and a journey over the years. When I went to college, I started cooking more. And at the time, the Internet was very different than it is now. I would go on the Internet on forums and find recipes and try them out. It kind of blew my mind. Every time I tried something new, like I can make my own teriyaki sauce, it’s not in a jar, or whatever. It kind of just surprised me and gave me the sense of accomplishment.

I can’t think of a specific time where it really changed for me. It’s always been evolving over the years.

On Teaching Herself How to Cook:

I just would get an idea of something I wanted to try. I’m the kind of person that sort of ruminates on things for a really long time before I try them. So I might have had an idea floating around in my head like, “I should really figure out how to do this.” And then finally one day, I’m at the store, and I’ll see the ingredient, and I’ll just buy it. So that’s usually what would happen. It would just strike me to learn, and then I would do it.

On a Dish That is Special to Her:

It’s a roasted chicken. When I moved to Portland, I was very, very poor. Sometimes I only had $20 to buy my groceries for the week. And so at that time, I had never ever made a whole chicken before. I knew that it was a budget-friendly thing. So one day, I found a really good sale on chickens, and I was like, “Okay, I’m going to do this.”

I roasted the chicken with the vegetables on the bottom. I felt like the coolest person. I was like, “I can’t believe I did that. That is so amazing.” It tastes incredible, and it’s inexpensive. And it’s also impressive. You can serve it to guests, and they’ll think that you’re really cool and on top of things. And then after that, I started roasting chickens often all the time. It’s something I do every few weeks. It depends on the weather. I think it’s something everyone should know how to do if you eat meat.

I have the recipe on my blog. It’s really not hard. I think I adopted it from Ina Garten and her recipe. It’s just incredible. It meant a lot to me because of the extensive accomplishment I got from it and because of the time in my life. It sort of represented me becoming an adult I guess. Also, it’s so good. It tastes delicious.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t have cable, so I don’t watch a ton of TV. But my husband and I do watch America’s Test Kitchen together and Cook’s Country.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

Well, I already mentioned The Kitchn. I think that was just the number one. Food52 is really good too. There are a couple blogs I really like, Alexandra’s Kitchen or Alexandra Cooks. Her stuff is always great. Those are the ones I really rely on.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

I love Snapchat. It’s weird. I didn’t think I was going to like it, but I really do. And I love following Liz from The Lemon Bowl on Snapchat. Her snaps are always really entertaining and fun to watch. On Instagram, there’s so much cool stuff on Instagram. TheFeedFeed is really good. There’s one called Paper Apron. She’s a food stylist. And her photos are just awesome. I love her photos. So she’s on Instagram Paper Apron.

Facebook, I don’t really follow a ton of people.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

I would have to say my KitchenAid, because it was my grandmother’s KitchenAid. And it’s almost as old as me. I think I was a baby when she bought it. And then when she passed away, my mom got it. And then when my mom moved across the country, she gave it to me. So I have it now. It’s like 30 years old, and it still works. Amazing.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

I used to be super picky. I used to hate so many things. And I’m still kind of picky, but I’ve really come around. I would say, weirdly, mushrooms. I used to hate mushrooms. I’d pick them out of everything. And now, I cook with them pretty often. I don’t know if I would go so far as saying I love them, but I like them a lot.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I used to have a lot of cookbooks, and I don’t have very many anymore. But one cookbook that had a big influence on me especially when I was in my early 20s and I was really learning how to cook was the Everyday Food Cookbook. I think it was called Fast and Fresh or something like that. It was arranged by season. And all the recipes are pretty simple, not a ton of ingredients. I learned a lot from that cookbook. I still have it. So that’s one that had a big influence on me.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I always have music on in my house pretty much every minute of the day. I really listen to a lot of Pandora. I will listen to Alabama Shakes or The Black Keys or something like that.

On Keeping Posted with Meghan:

I’m on all social, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

107: Alexandra Lawrence: How Music and Food Come Together

January 27, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Keys to the Cucina

Alexe is from a large Italian family where food is the center of everything. She’s been a food lover all her life and plans for meals way too far in advance. Alexe is a musician, and on her blog, she integrates music and food because she believes they’re the most important elements to entertaining.

I’m so excited to have Alexandra Lawrence of Keys to the Cucina joining me here today.

(*All photos below are Alexe’s.)

On the Role of Food in Her Family:

“A big role” is definitely an understatement. My immediate family, we grew up in Northern Virginia, and my extended family’s in New Jersey. They’re a little louder and crazier. My mother grew up full Italian, and food was the center of everything that we did.

We ate dinner, my sisters and I, every night. My mom cooked every night except Saturday. She and my dad went on dates every Saturday, but it really was just the main thing that brought us all together at the end of the day. We could chat and catch up with each other. She also made breakfast every morning too, so we ended, began, ended our day with her food.

On Her Curiosity Around Cooking:

I have a lot of memories of my sister Brooke. She’s 14 months older than me, so we’re really close but I have memories of her playing out in the cul-de-sac while I was in at around five or four helping my mom get dinner together. So dad was probably around eight or nine. She would let me snap the green beans, the ends off the green beans, and then I graduated to other things like stirring the risotto and helping season the tomato sauce. It was a very gradual process, but it’s always been in my heart for sure.

I think it was just about getting food day to day with four kids, going in four different directions. Things were definitely hectic so she was helm of that, and I would say in my teenage years, I helped out a little more. I also lived at home through college, so that’s when I really was able to take the reins from her a little bit and actually make things for my mom and dad. That gave me a really good taste of how to prepare things on my own and make full complete meals.

On Her Blog:

It started when I got my first full-time job out of school. I was working at a start-up here in D.C. I was also living on my own for the first time, so I really was in control of my kitchen and what I was making every single day, which was something that I never really had experienced. But my colleagues would tease me. I’d go heat up my lunch. I’d have a full plate of a proper starch and vegetable and a meat, and it looked like I just prepared it. They would joke and also ask, “How did you do that? You love to cook. I didn’t know that.”

So that sparked an interest and made me realize a lot of people don’t know how to really cook healthy balanced meals. Some of them, they didn’t grow up with a mom like me cooking every single night of the week. So that was in 2011, and I got a new job in 2013, and I wasn’t feeling very inspired. I would come home at night and watch the Food Network. I also started to read a lot more food blogs during that time period as well, and I realized I have something to share.

So I worked on it for about two months before I posted my first recipe. I went back and forth with the name. I always knew I wanted to fuse music and cooking, so basically it started out of feeling uninspired at the day job.

On How to Make Cooking Fun:

I try to experiment with different spices. I have a subscription to Hatchery, it’s a monthly box subscription that comes, and it’s artisanal ingredients from people who make seasonings to rubs, to barbecue sauces. So that opens my eyes to ingredients that I never had cooked with before.

I love doing that. I think changing up the spices, changing up the vegetables. Sometimes, I get in a rut with every week at the store getting green beans and broccoli and kale, but I started to buy cauliflower a couple of weeks ago, so I was doing a lot with that. I made a soup. I roasted it. I just think making small tweaks can change things drastically.

On Her Music:

I mainly write on the piano, so that definitely lends itself to more ballad-y, maybe blues-y. I also experiment a little bit with the guitar, and my voice is more soulful than you would think. And I love soul and Motown music. So that’s my style, catchy melodies. I love doing it. It’s a great creative outlet.

I grew up on Elton John and Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen, a lot of classic rock. When I’m writing though, I definitely get influenced by women singer-songwriters. People as old as Carole King to newer people like Sara Bareilles, really anything. I’m getting really into the indie scene now. Spotify really suggests under the radar artists, and I really will listen to anything, and as long as it’s got grit and soul, then I’m in.

On Music and Food:

I definitely think that they complement each other. For me, the ultimate relaxation is coming home—when I’m not too frazzled—coming home from work, I put on music right away, and I usually opt for something a little more mellow and that matches my relaxed state that I get in in the kitchen.

When it comes to entertaining, we actually just had a dinner party for 10 people here, Saturday night. I let my husband make the playlist. He’s really into music as well. But I definitely think you have to know your audience, like who’s coming over, what you’re serving, what the mood is going to be like. We did more of electronic, indie tracks during the dinner party.

Knowing your audience, I think, helps me determine what kind of music. I know when my parents come over, they hate weird electronic or hip hop or rap, so I definitely don’t play that. So I think that’s the best tip. Know who you’re going to be entertaining.

I love listening to Van Morrison, The Eagles, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I like the old stuff, and then I’ll put on Pandora sometimes and let it shuffle through like Alabama Shakes and John Legend and those kind of artists.

On Choosing Between Music and Cooking:

At this point in my life, cooking is playing a bigger role. All through middle school and high school and college, I was really pursuing music very strongly. I made a couple of CDs. I was writing all the time, and I had a ball with it. Everybody knows the music industry is very cutthroat and very difficult. And I wasn’t sure if I had the guts to go full-fledged into it and sacrifice a lot of the things that I loved about my life. Not to say that you can’t have both, but there’s definitely a level of sacrifice I wasn’t sure I was willing to make.

So at this point, I would choose cooking, and the food blog has really opened up my eyes to all the opportunities that are out there. As far as I see it, they’re endless. Especially this day and age, my mom is always like, “You guys have so many opportunities at your fingertips these days.” So I felt a lot of momentum. With the blog, I’ve gotten to do great partnerships with brands. So I feel the results from it much quicker than I ever did with my music.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I love anything with Bobby Flay. I’m obsessed with Chopped, and I love Giada at Home.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

Okay, so there’s one called Feastly, the website is eatfeastly.com and basically, it brings together home cooks like myself. You can post meals and sell basically a seat at your house for people to buy and come experience a dinner with you.

So if you’re looking to experience D.C. in a different way instead of going out to restaurants, come to my home, and I’ll prepare a fresh cooked meal for a much cheaper rate than you would pay going out to a fancy restaurant. So I love that.

I actually hosted my first meal back in the winter. I’m trying to get ramped up again because I think that’ll help grow a local following here in D.C. versus the blog I’d see as more national stuff. But actually bringing people into my home and feeding them live and seeing their reactions, I think that’s where all the magic happens.

I also follow this website. He’s an entrepreneur guy named Gary Vaynerchuk.

He’s crazy, and I love his no-bs attitude, and he’s very motivating. So he helps me if I’m feeling like I’m in a rut, just to keep pushing and gives great tips on how to become the ultimate entrepreneur.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

I would say definitely somebody on Instagram since I spend a lot of my time there. I would say there’s this handle called, A Daily Something. It’s actually a blogger based in Northern Virginia so not too far from here in D.C., and she’d post basically little glimpses of life, and that always makes me feel warm and cozy and happy.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

It’s like a silver pot that was my great Aunt Connie’s that my mom used to make her sauce in, and she passed it down to me.

A lot of good food was made in that pot.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

I never really cooked a lot of Indian food, so it’s curry. It always smelled weird to me, but I love it now in Thai food and in Indian food.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Anything with Ina Garten. She has a great one I think it’s 10 or 12 years old. It’s called Make it Ahead, and she just has such a clean simple way of showing you how to entertain and make delicious meals that can feed a lot of people, which is something that I love to do.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I would say Tumbleweed Connection by Elton John. Most people my age don’t know it, but it reminds me of my dad and my family and feeling warm and cozy, which are some of the feelings that cooking conjures up for me.

On Keeping Posted with Alexe:

I would say Instagram. I post on that pretty consistently, so my handle is @keystothecucina.

014: Karen Chan: Tasty Global Cuisines for Eaters Wanting To Try New Flavours

March 18, 2015 by Gabriel 2 Comments

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HonestlyYUM

Karen has been globetrotting the world and documenting her food adventures since 2009, and today she’s the food editor and co-founder of HonestlyYum, where she helps to create an experience that inspires readers to try seasonal recipes, delightful drinks, culinary adventures, and festive DIYs.

I am so pumped to have Karen Chan of Honestly Yum here on the show today.

On What First Drew Her To Start a Blog:

My first blog was Globetrotter Diaries and to be honest, it was really just one day sitting around and kind of thinking I need a creative outlet. I love food. I love travel. I love food culture and I love exploring other peoples’ foods so it really just came out of, “Well, this is a creative outlet and so let me just start a blog for fun,” basically exploring different cultures and different foods.

On Her Global Curiosity Around Food:

I’m Chinese and so I grew up eating all kinds of food. I think at a young age my parents really prepped my palate for different flavors and different types of cuisines. I grew up in LA so it’s just a melting pot of all kinds of ethnic foods.

Anything you want you can get it, so obviously really great Chinese food, Japanese food, Korean food, even Pakistani food. One of my favorite restaurants is a Pakistani restaurant. So I’ve always, always had this love of just exploring different types of cuisines.

Not only that but I’ve also been lucky enough to travel a lot, so even just the traveling, like nearly half my plan of traveling is always, “What am I going to eat there?” So that definitely shaped my curiosity for that.

Mexico and Singapore – two very different places, but if I had to pick one I might say Mexico and Oaxaca in particular. Oaxacan cuisine because that was just… I think if you were a foodie it is the ultimate. Getting to explore all the markets and there are so many interesting ingredients, but that is the ultimate for me. My culinary heart lives in Mexico.

I live in California and so naturally there’s a big Mexican cuisine influence in California. I’ve gone myself to Mexico many times and I’m just such a fan of the culture.

On Starting HonestlyYUM:

The reason I ended up stopping Globetrotter Diaries is because I went back to school. I went to Graduate School. I went to Law School actually, and so when I had started Globetrotter Diaries, I was already on that process to going back to school. It was really for fun for me and I just knew I wouldn’t be able to have the time to keep up with it.

So once I was in school, kind of doing that, my sister, she runs HonestlyWTF, which is a fashion and lifestyle blog and she said, “You know, we really want to add a new dimension to the HonestlyWTF family. We really want to do food and entertaining and cocktails and you’ve done Globetrotter Diaries, and I really want you to come on board.” I thought it’s a lot more feasible given my busy schedule at school because I have two other people I get to work with.

It’s not all resting on my shoulders. So I thought, yeah, this is something I can do with other people who are super talented and super driven. So that’s kind of what made me do the switch. It was not planned, I guess, but it was just an opportunity that I couldn’t say no to.

On Creating an Experience Rather Than Only Featuring Recipes:

I would say it’s sort of all of our ideas, but probably primarily Erica because she’s just so creative when it comes to entertaining ideas. I mean all of us are entertainers. I love having friends over and so naturally you just kind of want to have an experience for your guests. I don’t really know where that comes from other than just we really love to create.

Part of it, too, is that it’s just so fun to do these tablescapes and parties. They’re faux parties because they’re only attended by us and our cameras, but it’s just so fun to kind of go over the top because there are very few times in the year where you do. It’s maybe Thanksgiving, maybe Christmas, and maybe a special occasion, but other than that you just, when you have a dinner party, you’re not going to be calling a florist.

This is a chance to just kind of go all out, over the top and have fun with it. I think Erica and I, especially, both really love that aspect of entertaining. It’s really creating an atmosphere and a theme, and what is the whole experience going to feel like, too.

On Her Passion for Food and Cooking:

It’s so funny because my mom always looks at my sister and I and laughs and thinks, “I don’t know where they get it from,” because my mom is not a cook.

I did not grow up in a household where I started cooking cinnamon rolls with my mom from a very young age. She cooked but she didn’t enjoy it. It was just sort of like I come home, I cook for my kids, done. And so she’s just like, “I don’t know where you guys get it from,” and we both are obsessed with food, we’re both obsessed with cooking.

I would say my interest peaked or just started to kind of form in college and probably in high school, cooking for myself a snack or whatever. But my aunt, my father’s sister, she is a huge foodie and she’s actually my aunt who is in Singapore.

That’s probably why I love Singaporean food so much. She would take me to all the hawker stalls and try everything and it’s just so good. But she is a huge foodie and so I think she helped inspire me. She’s a great cook so she would always be the one, when I was younger, to kind of be like, “Oh, here’s your recipe. Try it.” I think it’s strange. Maybe it skipped a generation. I don’t know.

She’s always been on the other side of the globe but she follows the blog and obviously sees. We see what we cook in our respective countries over Facebook and social media and emails and stuff.

On Expanding a Non-Adventurous Eater’s Food Horizons Via a New Cuisine:

I would say Vietnamese food. I think it still starts to incorporate some interesting flavors that you might not expect like, for example, lemongrass or fish sauce, which of course, if you just smell it you’re just like, “Whoah.” It’s kind of repulsive smelling but it adds a subtle flavor that when people are eating it in food, they wouldn’t be like, “Oh, there’s fish sauce in here,” and so that might help them think, “Well, if I want to make this at home, I could actually use this ingredient that I normally would never touch.”

I just think generally the flavors in Vietnamese food are very clean, light. There’s nothing incredibly aggressive about it but it’s so satisfying and it just hits a spot. I’m like a huge fan of Vietnamese, huge, huge, huge.

And even the basil’s different. I’m sure a lot of people are used to the sweet Italian basil versus the Thai basil, which has a very different flavor.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I actually watch Top Chef a lot. That’s one of my favorites.

What are some food blogs or websites that we have to know about?

One of my favorites is, I would say lately because of the New Year and because we’re trying to be healthy, it would be Green Kitchen Stories. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it but their photography is just gorgeous and such wholesome healthy cooking.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter that make you happy?

I actually have recently discovered that all of the U.S. National Parks have their own Instagram accounts, for example, Yellowstone National Park.

It makes me so happy because it is, like the photography is just gorgeous, and they really post quite often and they’ll post these beautiful photos of the landscape and the Grand Teton Mountains and animals. I didn’t know that the U.S. Government was doing this and I just discovered a slew of Instagram accounts and I just follow them all.

When I’m sitting at my desk in the office and I’m just looking at how gorgeous some of these places are, it helps me escape and it just makes me very happy.

What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

Okay, a good, good flake sea salt like Maldon.

I would say Maldon sea salt because I use that for everything. It makes such a huge, huge difference in your cooking. I know it sounds kind of strange like salt is salt. I have kosher salt and I use that, for example, if you’re salting a pot of pasta water. I’m not going to use a big handful of Maldon salt in it, but it really does change subtly the flavor of your cooking. I would recommend that for everyone to get.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

This is hard. One ingredient, I would say eggs, couldn’t live without eggs. I love eggs.

I eat, sometimes, eggs for dinner. That’s how much I love them. They’re amazing in every form.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I would say anything by Nigel Slater because I just love his recipes. I mean, Jamie Oliver in the same kind of thread is like, they’re not precise, and with cooking especially, I mean with baking it’s a different story. But with cooking I think not having to literally measure out tablespoons of certain things, I think for beginners, yes, it’s probably necessary at that point, but being able to not be confined by those restrictions or those directions is good.

I know Jamie Oliver does like a glug of this and a dash of that and same with Nigel Slater. It’s sort of very loosely-based recipes. I think that’s a great way to start developing your own cooking skills because it helps you think outside the box. Like, “Okay, I’m going to rely on my own tasting.”

And cooking is so much about tasting as you go and really seeing what works and what doesn’t and experimenting. That helps you develop your own talent to be able to rely on your own judgment when it comes to measuring things, and how much to put of this, and how much to put of that, and why did we add this, and what does this contribute. I just really love Nigel Slater cookbooks.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I would say the band, Alabama Shakes, makes me want to cook because they are just so upbeat and live. I saw them live and I love them. It’s really fun music and that makes me want to cook because I just want to have fun.

Keep Posted on Karen:

Instagram and Pinterest (and HonestlyYUM.com).