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077: Laicie Heeley: How Everything Always Comes Back to Food

September 16, 2015 by Gabriel 2 Comments

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A Thousand Threads

On her blog, A Thousand Threads, Laicie writes about more than just food and recipes. She shares a lot about herself, from her wedding, travels and everyday adventures, she really puts herself out there for her readers.

I am so happy to have Laicie Heeley of A Thousand Threads here on the show today.

On Her Blog:

I actually started my blog because I had a day job that was fulfilling, but not entirely. I was writing, but I was writing about a lot of technical subjects and didn’t have the chance to write about the more creative things or do the more creative things that I enjoy doing. And so, around the time…my husband and I had been together for probably around five years at that point. When he proposed to me, I decided that it was an excuse to write about something on the Internet.

I started writing about the process of planning our wedding and of our lives at the time. It evolved in that way, eventually, to really be a representation of our lives together, and ultimately that all came back to food, because, for us, it does totally come back to food, with everything.

The relationships that I’ve built on the Internet, because I’ve been open and been willing to have those conversations with people and go back and forth, I’ve made so many good friends. It’s really been a great experience, so I’m glad that I wasn’t overthinking it at first and it allowed me to open up and keep it that way.

When I was putting it out there on the Internet and there weren’t any faces to go along with it, there weren’t any reactions. And honestly, the people that I found on the Internet, when they did appear, were so supportive and so great that it was really a good experience for me from the beginning, that I was able to make those friends, who I almost felt more open with, in many ways.

On Her Interest in Cooking:

I’m a 4-H kid from way back in the day. I grew up in Oregon, and I was in 4-H, I rode horses, that was the biggest part of my 4-H. But from the time I was very young, I actually did the cooking side as well and competed in the cooking contests in front of a judge, and it was all a very fun thing for me. It was always made fun for me, I think, particularly by my mom, who was really always interested in cooking, especially in baking. And she makes these incredibly amazing desserts that are just nuts.

She taught me how to make those things, and she taught me and brought me through that whole process of, the terrifying process of cooking in front of a judge when you’re 12 years old. It is crazy but it’s awesome, and I think it really fostered my love of cooking. I had a family of cooks, my grandmother was constantly baking pies.

And in Oregon, we all had big gardens. The fruit that my grandmother always baked the pies with always came from her garden, that was something that was crazy, that you just don’t experience that as much over here, quite as much as I did there and growing up. And it made me love food very much, having all those people around me who also loved food.

Some places have 4-H, some places have FFA, it’s a country kid thing. Some kids raise cows, and then they sell them at the auction at the county fair. It’s a thing that essentially all leads to the county fair, which is where you exhibit your work that you work on throughout the year. It’s kind of like Girl Scouts, but with a very country lean to it.

On Her Cooking Influences:

I think that my mom is hands down my greatest cooking influence. My love for baking, in particular, is completely shaped by my mother. And also my love for gathering people, I think, was shaped by my mother. Just a week ago, she had this huge event at her house for all of the women from her graduating class from high school. I don’t even know if I could track down the people from my graduating class from high school.

I’m really impressed by her. She had all the women from her graduating class over and had this beautiful, beautiful brunch party out on her patio and cooked everything and made this huge spread of desserts. My mom’s cheesecake is the craziest cheesecake that you’ve ever had.

Chocolate éclairs are something that she had always made and always brought. She was always this amazing home cook, but also one who never shied away from something that was tougher, like a chocolate éclair. She would make these fantastic cakes for my birthdays and just things that were just amazing. And I always really respected that, and still do.

On Working With Her Husband on the Blog:

We manage it quite well, actually. We both are really busy all the time, we have a lot going on. I have a nine year old stepson as well, and so we have all these things happening. And I think that ultimately, the blog and our various projects, because we’re both so passionate about them, they bring us back together in this way that we’re creating something together.

There’s nothing like creating, being able to create something with your spouse and really be excited about the outcome of it and just geek out over whatever this thing is. We both cook for the blog as well, and we shoot things back and forth.

He’ll have an idea, and I’ll add to it, and it’ll go back and forth and become this thing that’s really incredible. Even with the photography, I’ll style it, and then he’ll take the picture, and then I do the editing. So we have this very collaborative relationship that goes back and forth, and it makes us stronger in every way.

On Being Oregonian at Heart:

It’s not hard for me to live on the East Coast, but I’m certainly sad not to live on the West Coast still. I grew up in Oregon, I truly think that it’s the most beautiful place in the world. My parents are there, I love it there, I love the people, I love the food. The food scene in Portland, it’s always been amazing, but over the last 10 years, it’s really gone crazy. I go back there, and I just feel so completely close to home. I grew up on the coast, near the ocean, and there’s things about that that I miss. The East Coast is very different, it’s got a very different ethos, it’s got a very different approach to food.

But also, I’ve learned a lot, I actually live just outside of D.C., in the country, and one thing that I love about that is that we visit a lot of farms in the area, constantly. We get our eggs from the farm, we get our milk from the farm, we get everything that we can as locally as possible. And that’s really, really a cool aspect of this particular part of the area, that I didn’t necessarily have in my coastal town in Oregon, that I really appreciate here.

On the Difference in Food Culture Between Washington, DC and Oregon:

I was a vegetarian for many years, and that will make the difference very stark for you if you go from the West Coast to the East Coast, in general. It’s much harder to find good vegetarian food on the East Coast than it is on the West, because there’s a real love for meat here. And I respect that too, because I’m no longer a vegetarian, and there’s a reason, because it’s delicious. That’s one really big thing.

It used to be more so that there was a real love for local food that was easier to find on the West Coast than it is on the East Coast. I think a lot’s changed in the last few years, definitely, the restaurants have changed completely in the way that they approach things, and everyone is starting to appreciate that sort of thing more. And that’s really refreshing, that changes a lot. It’s amazing how much food can impact your love of living in a place, because it’s so much a part of your daily life. I really missed that when I first moved here about 10 years ago. Now, I would say it’s very different.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I watch whatever’s on the Cooking Channel. Obviously, I watch Anthony Bourdain, anything that he does. I watch him on CNN now, because I love his travel show and what he does. I also love Ina Garten, she’s amazing. The things that she does, it’s really wonderful.

Mind of a Chef will always be the most amazing…Netflix, just binge on Mind of a Chef, I could do it over and over and over because it’s so awesome.

I’ve had a lot of really amazing food inspiration on Netflix, Jiro Dreams of Sushi and all the good ones that are on there that are just incredible.

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

There’s so many great people making good food. I love all the big ones, I love Joy the Baker, I love Not Without Salt. I love Smitten Kitchen, she’s just incredible. I don’t even know how she does it, but every single recipe that she makes on Smitten Kitchen is just out of this world good..

I feel like there are always awesome ones that I’m discovering too, like Lady and Pups is really a cool one that does some awesome things. And I love My Name Is Yeh and all awesome newer people as well. Not totally new but just doing crazy, amazing things. I’m blown away by the blogosphere and all the great cooking being done.

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

On Pinterest and Instagram, I’m on there all the time. My friend A Daily Something is really awesome. Her children are the cutest. What she does on her Instagram blows me away. And so many great photographers, like With Hearts, who really are so inspiring and also are often in the Pacific Northwest and remind me of home and are so incredible.

On Pinterest, there are so many people who are awesome as well, and so prolific. Local Milk, obviously, I follow her on Instagram, she’s amazing on Instagram. But she’s also really prolific on Pinterest and has this awesome Pinterest account that is constantly making me discover new, awesome things that are really, really cool.

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

I love picking up vintage things, I love bringing vintage things home, and you don’t always use them. Sometimes, they just sit around and they’re props or whatever they might be, and I’ve stolen every little weird vintage thermometer and various things from my grandma’s kitchen and have them in my drawers.

But one that we have is a juicer that we use constantly, which is actually vintage. Every time I use it, I think it’s gonna fall apart because it’s so old. But it’s also so effective and fantastic, and it really just has a handle, and you can squeeze down the handle, and juice. It’s a very, very good vintage juicer that we probably don’t need in our kitchen, but I like having it.

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

Corn. I love it if it’s made a certain way. I eat a lot of foods, I’m really pretty open to almost…put anchovies on something, I’m totally fine. I like all olives and things. I taunt my husband with olives because he hates olives, and I love them. But I never really liked corn, which is a pretty basic food that I think that growing up, I just never had it cooked in a way that I really liked it.

As I’ve grown up, I have found that the fresher the corn the better. And there are definitely awesome things that you can do to corn, like chili lime seasoning or things that are really good that make it a much more awesome dish. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I love it now, but I like it a lot more than I did when I was younger.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Sugar Rush is a fairly new cookbook that I’m so impressed by, because the level of detail in the cooking and in the breaking down the processes that make for a good pastry kitchen are really broken down in a way that’s just so awesome. Also, I’ve always had my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and the ones that I’ve had sitting around forever that my mom got me when I first moved out of the house and will always be on my shelf. Those are some that I return to the most often, because they’re really those staples that you have in the kitchen, and they have these recipes that you can take, and you can run with them as far as you wanna run with them and make them crazy. And that’s something I always love doing.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

The song or album right now that makes me want to do all of the things and get up and jump around is Shakey Graves’s new album, who is pretty awesome, and every song on there is really good. We saw him last year in this tiny little venue. We love going up to Newport Folk Fest in Newport, Rhode Island, and he was there and really knocked our socks off. So lately, when I’m in the kitchen, that’s what’s been playing on my speakers.

On Keeping Posted with Laicie:

I’m on Instagram a lot, @laicie, and I’m on Pinterest a lot also, on Twitter and definitely the blog, of course.

060: Dinner Was Delicious: Chicago and Its Food

July 20, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Dinner Was Delicious

Based in Chicago, Lucy and Rachel share recipes, photographs and love food enough not to take it too seriously. They’ve been destroying kitchens together since 2011.

I am so happy to have Lucy and Rachel of Dinner Was Delicious joining me here on the show today.

(*All images below belong to Dinner Was Delicious.)

On How They Met:

Rachel: Lucy and I both worked at this really weird tech start-up in Chicago. Chicago has this awesome tech scene.

Lucy: We were lucky to have this job.

Rachel: And it was great, but it wasn’t super creatively fulfilling. So we just bonded together over our shared love of food and gossip of the weird architecture in the office space.

Lucy: We found each other in the midst of a strange company. For our Parks and Rec enthusiasts, we describe it as Entertainment 720. We just talked about what we wanted to do and became good friends outside of work.

On What Made Them Want to Collaborate with Each Other:

Lucy: Rachel was baking a lot. My job was already creative because I was a graphic designer. And Rachel was doing operations and needed a creative outlet and would bring us the most incredible desserts. I started with cupcakes and pies and all kinds of really incredible desserts, and I was always like, “If you ever want to collaborate, we should be documenting these. These are beautiful. Have you written down the recipes? What’s next? Let’s do something with this.”

Rachel: So Lucy was doing her photography business, and I was baking more and more and then started actually baking as a little side project, just for some extra cash. I baked for a wedding that was for one of our mutual friend’s siblings, and Lucy was shooting photography for it too. So I was doing a bunch of cupcakes, and Lucy was like, “Well, I’ll come over, and I’ll take pictures of the cupcakes. It was super fun and we decided, “Well, let’s do it.”

Lucy: It was kind of intimidating to think about getting it started, but really, we just put a Tumblr theme up. I made a logo in five minutes that wasn’t really the logo that we wanted, but we just needed to start and it just started there.

On Their Interest in Food and Cooking:

Lucy: We like to eat. I really like to eat. I became interested in food after I moved to Chicago, and I became interested in food out of the realization that I don’t know how to cook for myself. I moved into my own apartment five years ago, and so it’s just all on me. I couldn’t rely on my roommate to have dinner ready for me anymore. And Rachel had all this knowledge, basics that I didn’t know, and so that was really helpful to just be cooking with her. And then eating in Chicago, you are exposed to all kinds of different things that I became interested and curious about that.

Rachel: I’ve always cooked. My mother, bless her heart, she’s an awesome nurse. Briefly in the late ’90s, she was a super kick-ass body piercer. But she can’t cook to save her life, and she’ll say it as much as I will. So if I wanted to eat when I was a kid, I had to figure out how to make it myself. I cooked a lot with my grandma, a little bit with my grandpa too, and just figured out how to cook, always super-passionate about it.

Love cooking for people. Another part of why we started collaborating was Lucy wasn’t as proficient in the kitchen, so it was like, “Well, come over. I’ll show you how to fry an egg.”

Lucy: At the time, I was still a graphic designer, and I didn’t know how I wanted to shoot food. It was kind of a way to learn that and experiment with different techniques.

On Not Taking Food Too Seriously:

Rachel: So I think some people, many people who are really passionate about food start getting a little self-inflated about it. They lose the fun and the spontaneity of food and letting it be just what it is: something delicious to nourish you and share with people that you love. I think that we work really hard to keep the important things in mind: sustainability, seasonality, nutrient density, all of these things that we think about. But we let our love of food really shine through to be what it is, which is food. You eat it with people you love, and we’re giving food the space to be enjoyable, rather than something that’s stricter.

On a Kitchen Disaster:

Rachel: One happened last night. We’re in Lucy’s photography studio, and we were supposed to make Cheeze-Its, and I just . . . They just did not work. So even if you’re someone who’s proficient in the kitchen, screw-ups happen. Your recipe doesn’t always work out as planned. When you’re testing stuff and flying by the seat of your pants and maybe didn’t set your timer, sometimes things can get burned.

Lucy: There’s a lot of burning. Not a lot, but that’s my biggest.

Rachel: One of my favorite memories with us, though, was the day that we made the fried chicken at my place, and you brought the bone-in chicken. And this was way, way, way early on, like before I had any butchery experience, but I love taking carving on the meat now. I was still super squeamish. And so we were going to make a fried chicken dinner, and Lucy brought the chicken and it was bone-in because bone-in chicken is more delicious. But it was a whole chicken. I had to figure out, how do I take this bird apart?

Lucy: I was there for moral support, and it took a lot to go down.

Rachel: It took a lot of bourbon. This was four or five years ago now.

On the Food Culture in Chicago:

Lucy: People are really interested about food here, and there’s everything available. I don’t even know where to start. It’s overwhelming.

Rachel: People, when they think about Chicago food culture, they’re going to think first about deep-dish pizza.

Lucy: Yeah, that’s true.

Rachel: And people might not realize that it’s actually one of the most prominent culinary capitals in the U.S. We have Alinea. We’ve got Next. We’ve got Publican. We’ve got all sorts of really wonderful, creative restaurants. We’ve got a lot of ramen going on right now too.

It’s more than just meat and potatoes. It’s people who really care about interesting food. It’s not just white people with Western stuff.

Lucy: Yeah, food from all different cultures. The neighborhoods are so diverse that you can have food from all over the world and have it done well.

On a Dish That Captures What Chicago is About:

Rachel: That’s a really hard question.

Lucy: Because Chicago isn’t one thing food-wise for me. Hot dog, I guess.

Rachel: Because it’s got everything.

Lucy: It’s got everything on it. And we’re so particular about how we have our hot dogs. This is the least original answer I could give you.

Rachel: No, I love it.

Lucy: But it is the Chicago style, no ketchup and . . .

Rachel: You’ve got the mustard, which has lots of Asian and Germanic influences. You’ve got this beautiful pickle that’s like a fermented pickle. It’s not a brine pickle. So it has a long fermentation process rather than the vinegar. So lots of different cultural influences there. It’s everything on a bun and like, “Ugh!”

On a Food That Locals Love that Visitors May Not Know About:

Lucy: So there’s this one dish called a “mother-in-law.” It’s a hot dog and a tamale covered in chili in a bun with a bunch of cheese, and there’s also the Chicago original rainbow cone. It’s this huge stack of ice cream. It’s got orange sherbet, pistachio, this really special cherry ice cream, chocolate, everything all on one cone, and it’s so, so essential Chicago summer. In your cut-off jeans, you’ve got to get an original rainbow cone.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Lucy: I love Anthony Bourdain.

Rachel: I love The Taste, though. Anthony’s on there, but Nigella, come on, give me a break. She’s perfect.

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

Rachel: Wit & Vinegar. Billy Green is the best human on the Internet. Love him so much. I’m super into I am a Food Blog.

Lucy: Yeah, I am a Food Blog is great. I always go to Smitten Kitchen. She’s great, solid recipes. She’s been around for so long, she has such a great library of recipes.

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

Rachel: I’m a grandmother on the Internet.

Lucy: That’s true.

Rachel: I follow lots of cat Instagrams, so I just get cat pictures in my feed throughout the day.

Lucy: Our friend Jana has an account called Bike a Bee that I follow on Instagram and Twitter and she’s hilarious and also shares all this cool information about plants. And she’s a beekeeper, and so she shares her process about beekeeping and selling honey, which is really cool.

Rachel: Speaking of Jana, there’s another, based in Philadelphia. There’s a restaurant and butchery space and education space about meat and sustainable meat called Kensington Quarters. It’s awesome. It’s not for vegans. If you’re squeamish about meat, you’re not going to love it. But they post the most beautiful, educational pictures about meat. They’re super great people I connect to.

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

Rachel: My KitchenAid mixer. I know that’s super cliché, but it has lived so many lives. It came into my life in the most . . . I was in a not super great relationship, and all that I wanted – and this was eight years ago, all that I wanted was a KitchenAid mixer because I had just started baking, and I was really passionate about it. And all that I wanted for my birthday was a KitchenAid mixer. But I was 22, 23.

Nobody has KitchenAid money at 22, 23. So I asked the guy that I was dating at the time, not a super great relationship, to talk to my friends and be like, “Everybody pitches in 10 or 15 bucks to get the KitchenAid.” And he did it, and I got my KitchenAid. And it was the best ever, and lived through a bug infestation.

It lived through 17 moves now, just going all over the place. It’s gotten me through everywhere. I love it more than everything. It barely works. It’s got this big nick on the top of it from one of my more urgent moves. My apartment flooded, and it was horrible. And I just grabbed the mixer and ran. Yeah, I love my mixer more than anything.

Lucy: I don’t know. My kitchen is kind of tiny. I don’t have any sentimental passed-on pieces yet.

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

Lucy: Pickles.

Rachel: Yeah, pickles? You didn’t like pickles?

Lucy: I didn’t like pickles. I wasted so much of my life not liking pickles.

Rachel: Weird. For a long, long time, I was really not into food. I didn’t eat asparagus until I was 25.

Lucy: Or things that were cute.

Rachel: I wouldn’t eat lamb.

Lucy: Rabbits.

Rachel: I still don’t eat rabbit. It makes me sad. I know, I’m an idiot. I didn’t have cauliflower until I was 27 and, oh my gosh, I love it now. If there’s anything that anyone is ever afraid of eating food-wise, you could be skipping your favorite food, the most delicious food you’ve ever eaten. Just eat all the things you’re afraid of. Everything is good if you cook it right.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Lucy: What to Cook and How to Cook it.

Rachel: That’s such a good one. I just got Edward Lee’s Smoke and Pickles, and it is one of the most beautifully written cookbooks I’ve ever seen. The recipes are amazing. They’re flawlessly tested. The photography is beautiful. And his prose, he has chapters in between with actually prose in it. It’s so wonderful and smart and touching.

Lucy: And What Katie Ate books are beautiful, so I look at that for inspiration sometimes for photography. It’s gorgeous, lots of good party recipes.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Rachel: Everything. Music makes me hungry.

Lucy: Yeah, it depends on what mood I’m in. I’ll put on an old album, like Tom Petty and The Rolling Stones, or I’ll blast Robyn if it’s winter or summer.

Rachel: If I’m making pie, I want to listen to The Secret Sisters, for sure. If I’m eating my feelings, I want to listen to Neko Case’s latest album and just cry into my soup or whatever comfort food I’m cooking. But if it’s just like general, just hanging out in the kitchen, you can’t go wrong with Robyn. She’s the queen. She’s flawless.

On Keeping Posted with Rachel and Lucy:

Lucy: DinnerWasDelicious.com, so that is where you should keep going. And then follow us on Instagram @effingdelicious, and we’re also @effingdelicious on Twitter as well.

059: Samantha Ferraro: How Her Diverse Background Influences Her Food

July 15, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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The Little Ferraro Kitchen

Samantha has a very diverse background. She’s a Brooklyn native, lived in Hawaii for 10 years, is a current California resident, she’s Jewish, and one of her favorite cuisines is Italian. All of this influences the foods she enjoys and shares on her blog, The Little Ferraro Kitchen.

I’m so thrilled to have Samantha Ferraro of The Little Ferraro Kitchen here on the show today.

(*All images below are Samantha’s.)

On How Her Family Background Influenced the Foods She Enjoys:

I grew up as a Jewish girl in Brooklyn, which is very common, but the funny thing about me is I come from a Jewish background that has both Sephardic and Ashkenazi backgrounds, and there’s a difference just in culture.

So my father’s side is Ashkenazi, which means they come from Eastern Europe, so a lot of the foods that I grew up with on my father’s side was like, matzo ball soup, briskets, really kind of stick to your ribs foods, comfort foods. And then my mom is part Turkish, and actually the ancestry comes from Spain, during the Spanish Inquisition they went from Spain to Turkey. So, a lot of the foods I grew up with on my mom’s side was maybe stuffed grape leaves, lots of things with saffron, and olive oil, and lemons. I grew up with something called fasolia, which is a green bean and tomato stew, so a lot of those foods I grew up with, so I kind of incorporate everything as an adult now.

On How Where She’s Lived has Influenced the Foods She Enjoys:

You have this Jewish girl from a big city, and then my mom and I decide, “Oh, let’s move to Hawaii, why not?” So when I was 14, we moved to Hawaii, not knowing anything, and I still had a thick Brooklyn accent. Nobody really knew probably what brisket was. But we just did it, and we embraced it, and what I learned living in Hawaii is the simplicity of food, the beautiful fruits and vegetables, and farmers thanking you with a bag of lettuce, or growing their own avocados. It’s just such a beautiful place, and the Aloha spirit is so true and alive. It’s just so honest, and it’s just such a beautiful place. I’m so happy that I lived there and experienced it.

(Today) I’m a five hour flight from New York and a five hour flight from Hawaii, so I have the best of both worlds, because California is kind of, you know, I live in a small beach town but if I want to go to a big city, I can have that, too. There’s a lot of people that I actually went to high school with in Hawaii that now live in California, and vice versa. People from here move to Hawaii, so, I’m so blessed to be able to go to both places and have an excuse, like, “Oh, I have family in Hawaii,” or, “I have family in New York.”

I live in Southern California, and we have such an awesome food mecca. When I moved here, I had never gone into a Mexican mercado before, a Mexican market. And when I moved here, you know, it was just so amazing that there’s such a huge Mexican culture here. And there’s different Asian markets here. There’s Vietnamese and Thai and Japanese. There’s a Jewish area in LA that I can go to if I really want good challah bread. It’s just such an awesome area. I went to Little Saigon, which is just 10 minutes away from me. I just live in a really cool area.

On a Food that Surprised Her:

I would have to say, living in Hawaii, I didn’t think I would try a lot of things that I did in Hawaii. For example, taro root, or poi, is this really, like, pounded until it’s kind of like gelatinous, kinda, and it doesn’t taste very good, but when paired with a salty lomi salmon, or pork, it’s actually delicious. And there are also some similarities, so, for example, lomi salmon you would find at a luau in Hawaii, which is diced up, cured salmon with tomatoes, which is very similar to a bagel and lox, like that cured salmon. So I saw some similarities there, but I mean, honestly, just the fruits that are grown there are just, nothing like it. Nothing like a mango from Hawaii.

On Foods That She Misses:

I miss New York bagels. When my cousin actually moved here, from New York to here, and I see him often, and whenever he goes back to visit my aunt and uncle, I’m like, “Can you please bring back bagels?” I mean, if you’ve ever had a New York bagel, there’s nothing like it, and they say that it’s because of the water, you know, that East Coast New York water. That’s the excuse. Nothing like it, so he always brings back bagels.

Another thing from Hawaii that I love is something called lilikoi, which is passionfruit. Lilikoi is the Hawaiian name for it, and it grows just everywhere. My mom has a lilikoi tree, and one time my mom sent me a box of lilikoi. She just took this mailing box and stuffed it. It must have been like 10 pounds of lilikoi. And you can’t ship things from Hawaii to . . . like you just can’t do it, it’s agriculture, you can’t do it. And one time it came through and I was like, “Oh my gosh! This is awesome!” The next time it came through, I got an empty box with a nasty letter from Agriculture saying, “Don’t do that!” Such a gorgeous flavor, it really is.

On Her Passion for Cooking:

You know, to be honest, I knew I liked food when I was little. My mom cooked, my grandmother cooked, but I was never mature enough to really ask them about it, or, you know, be mature enough to learn from it. So, it wasn’t until I got older and I was experiencing foods and traveling that really inspired me, and I just wanted a challenge. I love challenging myself in the kitchen. I’ll jump in and make a ramen dish that I’ve never made before, or a soufflé I’ve never done. I think it’s so fun to do that.

My mom cooked all the time when I was little, now she asks me recipe questions. But now that I’m older, I realize that I wish I took notes from my grandmother on my father’s side, I really do. For example, I remember her making a Jewish cookie called rugelach, and I remember it vividly when I was little. You know, she passed away since, but now that I’m older I make my own rugelach, and I think about her, like, “Oh, you know, this is what she would do.” So I think memories inspire me.

On Starting Her Blog:

I was going through a transition, I was changing majors in college, I was kind of confused, I didn’t really know what to do. But my outlet was cooking, that was what my outlet was. I loved it, I mean, it was a stress reliever for me, it was exciting, it was challenging, it was beautiful.

So, I was reading blogs, and I thought, “I can do that!” So, I kinda did. I’m spontaneous, so I said, “Oh, why not?” I just jumped in, and I said, “Oh, let’s see how long this goes.” I was enjoying the challenge, and I was enjoying learning, so I was learning, too, and it was fun, so I just kept doing it. Three years later, here I am.

On Her Culinary Bucket List:

I have a bucket list on my blog that I need to update. I’ve actually crossed off a few that I haven’t put on the blog yet. But, to be honest, the cuisine I’m least familiar with is Asian cuisine, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai. I’m least familiar with that and that is something I would love to learn.

I have the Momofuku cookbook, and I really want to do his ramen broth. I think that it’s a 48 hour broth and you reduce and add, and I just think that’s so awesome. I really, really want to do that.

I made pad thai once, and that came out horrible. So, I want to do that. It’s just a simple dish, but the flavor combination of that sour and sweet, it’s gorgeous. I really want to conquer that.

Cannolis, I’ve done cannolis once. It was okay. I want to give it another shot. Again, here I am, all different cultures.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I’ve been watching a lot of Anthony Bourdain shows, like No Reservations. He has a few of them that are very similar to each other, love him.

I like some of Gordon Ramsay’s shows, like Master Chef, it’s fun and kind of creative what they do.

I love Ina Garten’s show, Barefoot Contessa. It’s really simple and clean, and to the point, I really like that.

And sometimes I watch Julia Child on YouTube.

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

So, well you’ve already talked to Amy. I love her blog What Jew Wanna Eat. She’s awesome, she does all these creative, fun Jewish recipes. Rainbow challah, like what? She has fun with it, and she’s fearless and I respect that.

I think she mentioned another one that I read, one of the first blogs was, she’s formerly known as the Shiksa in the Kitchen, but her name is Tori Avey. She’s really fascinating because she’s a convert to Judaism, and she loves history, so she does a lot of Jewish history and Jewish food, and that’s really fascinating.

One of the first blogs I also read was called Pass the Sushi. She is really interesting, she’s really creative, she designed my blog, and she’s a gorgeous photographer, food and outside of food.

I have a personal friend as well, it’s called Pineapple and Coconut, and her and I have a Hawaii connection. She loves all things Hawaii, so she does a lot of Hawaiian food, Kalua pig, or pineapple this, or coconut that.

Another good resource is called Just One Cookbook. She does a lot of Japanese food, and one time when I was going to a Japanese store, I was messaging her like, “Oh, should I get this?” She’s helped, guiding me, and she’s just awesome, just a wonderful resource for Japanese food.

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

I love dogs, so on Instagram I follow The Dogist, ’cause dogs make me happy and it’s all dog pictures and I love that, it’s awesome.

I follow WhatJewWannaEat on Instagram, ’cause I love her bagel lox photos, it makes me hungry.

TrumericandSaffron has an Instagram and a Facebook, and I think she’s a really great resource for Middle Eastern food, Persian food.

Can I do a YouTube one? I just started watching, it’s called Sweets and Beyond. And she does a lot of Puerto Rican food, which is fabulous, ’cause I’m not too familiar with that food, so I started watching her and that’s really cool.

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

I don’t know if it’s unusual to other people, or maybe not to me, but I have anchovies. Is that unusual? I always have anchovies on hand. When I was trying to learn about Korean food, a friend of mine gave me, I don’t know what it’s called but it’s like that red pepper that makes kimchi. (Gochugaru)

It’s a powder, and I guess you add it to your seasonings and it makes it spicy and red, and it’s a gorgeous color.

I have kind of random ingredients. Fish sauce, different kinds of fish sauces.

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

I would have to say anchovies again. It was horrible, but now, I don’t eat it by itself, but I’ll add it to things, like to sauces.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Well, like I said, The Art of French Cooking, that has just opened my mind, my taste buds, everything. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s old school, it’s to the point, it’s well written. That one is wonderful.

I also just recently got a cookbook called Jerusalem, which has become a very popular cookbook. But just gorgeous, inspiring Middle Eastern flavors, bright flavors, and just gorgeous photography. Those are probably two of my favorite books.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I’m very diverse with my music tastes, I’ll listen to like Rolling Stones, or Bob Marley, or like Beastie Boys. I was in a Beastie Boys, Run DMC mood. Some kind of like hip-hop, like, get you going.

On Keeping Posted with Samantha:

I’m on Facebook as the Little Ferraro Kitchen, and I absolutely love Instagram, as FerraroKitchen. You can find some behind the scenes, some things I put on the blog, other things I’m eating that I want to share.

040: Sherrie Castellano: Wellness Through Plant-Based Eating

May 25, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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With Food and Love is a seasonally inspired vegetarian and naturally gluten-free food blog. Sherrie is a certified health coach and is training to be a plant-based chef. She also has an online three-week veggie-powered program called 21 Days to Lean and Green.

I am so thrilled to have Sherrie Castellano of With Food and Love here on the show today.

(*All photos are Sherrie’s.)

On How Food Played a Role in Her Health and Wellness:

I guess I’ll start when I went to get my undergrad degree. I studied sociology and women’s studies. I was a typical grad. When I was done, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was really into myself and just living young and not worrying about too many things.

So I moved out west and I lived in Denver, Colorado for about five years. Through the time that I spent there, I didn’t always feel my best. I probably partied too much and made some bad decisions along the way but I also didn’t treat my body very well with food. I was on a very high, refined, super-processed junk-y diet and energy drinks and all of that. Through that, I was not feeling very good. I was struggling a lot with digestive issues.

Towards the end of my stay in Denver, I started teaching special education. I worked at a school that was mostly specialized in helping children with autism and on autism spectrum. Through that experience, I realized that most of these kids were on specialized diets. That was something that was new to me. This was before the whole gluten-free explosion.

When my physician suggested that I go on a gluten-free elimination diet, and I did, I felt a little bit better. But I was still not eating really healthy foods. I was eating gluten-free alternative foods; gluten-free breads and pastas and processed crap. I was really just switching crap for crap.

It did seem to do something or at least it ignited a spark inside of me that I started realizing that what you’re putting in your body really does make a difference.

Shortly after I first went gluten-free, I moved to Philadelphia with my then boyfriend who’s now my husband. The road trip across country, I went back to eating gluten just because it was really convenient. We were eating fast food and I was still not feeling great. So then when I got to Philly, I probably went maybe a week or two and something happened where I was really indulging and I got really ill. So I knew at that point, I needed to make a life-lasting decision.

Around that time, I started also really getting into food documentaries. Forks Over Knives came out shortly after that. I also had a good friend that was just finishing school at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York. She introduced me to that.

I guess it was all these little pieces of the puzzle that finally came together. When I enrolled in nutrition school, I started my blog as a way to document my journey.

On Basic Ways to Start Eating Healthier:

I think the first thing for someone that’s really new to this is that it doesn’t have to be complicated. I think that there’s just so much information out there right now that it just oversaturates everyone’s mind.

You don’t know where to start and should you be paleo or vegan or whatever. Everyone is just so different. I think what’s most important is finding what works for you, eating real food, mostly plants, mostly vegetables, and work your way from there.

I’ve always really loved veggies so I don’t think that I’ve ever had to struggle at that. I feel lucky for that. Well, there are two things. You could just really start getting out of your comfort zone and go to farmer’s markets and trying new foods that you never had before.

Really, when in doubt, just roast vegetables with some olive oil and some sea salt and it’s amazing. So really, just step out of your comfort zone and push yourself in that direction. Or something you could do whether you love it or you hate the idea of it, but by drinking a smoothie in particular, a green smoothie every day. That’s a really great vessel to pack the nutrients in. You can put flax seeds and hemp seeds and chia seeds and all these healthy omega-3 and then also leafy vegetables.

On the Biggest Misconception of Having a Healthier Diet:

Something I hear a lot from clients or from potential clients who contact me and who might be apprehensive about signing up for my program or have more question is that it’s more difficult and more time-consuming.

That might be true. But I think the bottom line is you make time for the things that are important to you. So if you want to eat better, then you’ll make time for it. If you’re really not into it or ready for it, then you won’t and you’ll just keep finding excuses.

On What a Plant-Based Diet Means:

I think it’s just a nicer way to say vegan. I think that plant-based is just that. It’s mostly plants, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, basically a vegan diet. I think that vegan can be a little alienating to most, and I think it has a little bit of a negative stigma so I think plant-based is a nicer way of saying that.

But overall, plant-based eating, so I don’t eat 100% plant-based. Realistically, I shoot for 90%, but sometimes it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, maybe, it’s more 80 or 70 depending on what I’m doing at that time in my life. So I think eating plant-based or striving to eat plant-based is eating mostly plants or all plants and minimizing your animal consumption.

I think it’s not as hard as most people think. As far as protein goes, there are plenty of options that you can choose that are plant-based. My favorites are any kind of bean or lentil.

In the beginning of the week, usually on Sundays, I do a food prep power hour too. I prepare a big batch of lentils that I’ll have all week. I’ll be able to throw dinner together easily because I have that cooking out of the way.

Healthy plant-based proteins are really key to feeling nourished and full, I guess. As far as dairy is concerned, that’s a touchy subject. But I don’t think really as adults, we need it in our diets. That, you can do without if you want to.

There are some concerns of eating strictly plant-based like getting enough vitamin B12. I actually had a vitamin B12 deficiency not too long ago. It was during a really stressful time of my life when I was moving to St. Louis. Your body depletes B vitamins, I guess, more easily when you’re stressed and worried. So I didn’t realize what was going on. Through maybe my diet and my lifestyle at that time, I was more susceptible to becoming deficient in B12.

You can only get that in animal products. So if you’re a strict vegan, that’s something to be aware of and that you would want to supplement.

On Some Resources to get Trusted Information on Health and Wellness Through Plant-Based Foods:

There’s so much information online. Some of my favorites or a good place to start maybe would be forksoverknives.com which is a complement to the documentary. Kris Carr is a great source of knowledge. I like her a lot. I like what she’s doing for the plant-based community. There are so many vegan blogs. On my website actually, I have a links page and the vegan ones are marked. That would be a good place to start.

On Her 3-Week Online Program, 21 Days to Lean and Green:

Lean and Green is the program I launched after graduating from nutrition school.

I was originally coaching mostly in person one-on-one. But I found that through the community of my blog and the community I had already built, I was meeting a lot of people more virtually than anything. The really cool thing about Lean and Green is that you can be a client and live anywhere in the world. I’ve had clients anywhere from South America or Germany or Sweden. That’s been a really cool thing for me that I’ve been able to connect with all of these people on this common ground of health and wellness.

The other thing is that a lot of my clients come to me for totally different reasons. Some people will come because they want to go gluten-free and I have personal experience doing that. That will be maybe their motivation. But others might come because they’re overweight and they want to shed some pounds, and this is a good way to kick-start that. So it really depends on why you’re coming to me in the first place.

The program is three weeks and it’s plant empowered so everything that you eat is plant-based. So lots of legumes and beans, seeds, veggies, smoothies, soups. I don’t really focus too much on counting calories and that thing. It’s mostly just counting nutrients and nobody goes hungry.

It’s not a juice cleanse. It’s really gentle on your body. The other bonus of the program is that through the program, I open up this confidential Facebook group. Anyone that’s in that month’s program can be a part of that. That provides a sense of community and accountability that you’re going through this thing with other people and you’re not alone. That’s another aspect of it.

For about the last year, I’ve been doing it about once a month. I have some new spring and summer projects coming up soon so I might take a break for the next few months. But yeah, my goal is to launch one every month. And so far, I’ve done that.

The program itself is structured in the way that I have all of their learning resources and information already put together. Each week, they get sent a packet of information. It’s accumulative so it builds on itself. But also, since they’re all coming to me for different reasons, I work with them individually so they’ll each get a 45-minute Skype session or phone call. During that time, we personalize what their meal plan generally will look like and what they’ll eat. If they have any dietary restrictions, we work around those.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t watch a lot, but really I love Top Chef.

I love anything also that Anthony Bourdain does. I have a crush on him. My husband and I watch a lot of No Reservations reruns.

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

There are so many food blogs that are so great. Some of my favorites right now are The First Mess. Laura’s Blog is fantastic; really great photography and sense of style.

My Darling Lemon Thyme, Dolly and Oatmeal. There’s a new blog, I think, called Sobremesa. Yeah, that’s it. I think I’m pronouncing it the right way. A girl named Amy writes it. She’s got some really fabulous photography. She’s great.

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

Most of the people I follow on Instagram are food-related. I keep it pretty simple. I don’t follow a ton of people. I follow one of my friends. Her name is Kristen and her handle is @happysleepyfolks. She is super inspirational and has a new little baby. She’s always posting super precious little moments. I really enjoy her feed. Also, Ruthie Lindsey which is the same thing. It’s not food-related but her story is incredible. She’s just also very inspirational and posts beautiful pictures.

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

Maybe this garlic press that I found in Italy that’s this vintage piece. My husband worked really hard to clean it out and make sure it’s good to use. That’s probably my most treasured.

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

I don’t really love mushrooms. I’ve slowly been trying to teach myself to eat them but I don’t think there’s anything that I used to not like and now do. I’m working on the mushroom thing. I feel like it’s something adults like and that I should be eating.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I like The Vegetarian Flavor Bible, which is new to me in the last few months. It’s amazing. It breaks down all different kinds of flavor combinations and what goes with what. It’s a great tool and resource for everyone, but definitely vegetarians.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

The Barr Brothers are my favorite band. Their latest album Sleeping Operator, that one.

Keep Posted with Sherrie:

I like Instagram the best. That’s my most fun.

003: Jordan Reid: The Best Cooking Tool That’s Ever Happened To Parents

February 20, 2015 by Gabriel

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Ramshackle Glam

I am so happy to have Jordan Reid of Ramshackle Glam here on the show today.

On Ramshackle Glam, Jordan shares her very personal journey as a mother while also covering fashion, beauty, and entertaining tips. Her website has been featured in Time Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and The New York Observer.

Jordan has also authored a book called Ramshackle Glam: The New Mom’s Haphazard Guide To (Almost) Having It All.

On Studying Neuroscience at Harvard to Starting Her Blog:

I grew up in New York City and I was an actress when I was a teenager. I went to Harvard and I studied neuroscience thinking, “Oh, it’d be so wonderful to be a doctor, and make my parents extremely proud.” And then I was like, “I think I’m going to go be an actress again.”

They were as happy about that as you can imagine.

But then after a few years in Los Angeles, I realized what I really loved to do was sort of a mish-mosh of various things. I love entertaining and cooking and writing and photography and fashion and beauty.

I loved all of these things and I couldn’t figure out the best way to get to do all of them all at once. People told me it was impossible and I just never felt that it was.

Then sort of on a whim I started writing a blog. I had never read a blog in my life, ever. I had to ask a friend how to hyperlink. I didn’t know how to set one up.

It just took off very quickly and it’s been really exciting to get to explore all these different interests through this one channel.

On Being a Writer:

I said I wanted to be a writer when I was three years old. That was always what I wanted to do and I always wrote. I just never had a channel to express it because you write for yourself. But now a days, with blogs, you can get your words out.

It’s just such an unbelievable gift.

And with regards to writing about food, my aunt is actually a cookbook editor. She got me interested in reading Jamie Oliver cookbooks way back in the day and I would read them like novels, sitting down and cover to cover reading them.

That’s what really got me interested – that food isn’t just… it’s not just what you make. It’s the story behind it that’s always the best part.

On Cooking for Her Aunt Who’s a Cookbook Editor:

I am so scared to cook for my aunt because she’s a professional honestly.

And my thing is all about… I just don’t have the patience for fussing around in the kitchen. I wish I did and I wish I had all day to sit there and hand chop garlic. I just don’t care.

I want it to taste good, but mostly I want it to taste good now. So my aunt would be horrified to know that when I made that salad, I totally didn’t have a fresh lemon so I just grabbed the lemon squeeze-y bottle.

I actually had her edit my book, the section on recipes, and I was super nervous but she was very kind. She was gentle with me.

But no, I haven’t cooked for her but I’m going to make her Matzo ball soup the next time I see her.

On Cooking as a Parent:

I grew up in New York City and I lived in New York City for the first couple of years of my son’s life. Now we’re in Westchester.

We certainly could order in every night. It’s not like we have a dearth of restaurants around here. But for me, cooking is a joy and a passion that I have adapted to make space for in my life.

I don’t have the time or the ability or energy frankly to do it the way I guess I would like to. I’ve just had to find short cuts to make sure that I can cook in a way that makes sense.

The slow cooker is the best thing that has ever happened to parents.

Because my son, he’s three, and he loves to cook with me. I think it’s so important when you have kids, especially if you are a cook, to get them in the kitchen immediately. They’re going to want to be in there if they see you in there.

They’re going to want to touch, and they’re going to want to know about it. If you don’t teach them those skills really, really early, it’s a dangerous place. But, if you teach them, don’t touch this, do touch this, this is what you can do, the kitchen becomes a really special place for families to bond.

That said, when my son was young I was like, “Get out of the kitchen! Get out of the kitchen!” He was just a whirlwind when he was just learning to walk. That’s when the slow cooker came in handy because you are just like, throw it in and you leave. Your kitchen cooks dinner for you and you don’t even have to think about it. I love it so much.

On Cooking Fish:

My husband, he’s like, “I hate fish.” And I was like, “I will change you to the dark side.” Because fish is so healthy and it’s actually so easy.

I was totally intimidated for a long time until I discovered this method. And it is actually the only way I cook fish on a day to day basis because it’s that easy.

You just take a piece of aluminum foil, throw in your fish, throw in some white wine and butter and a little lemon juice, and crinkle it up on top. 20 minutes, done.

And it looks so impressive.

If you have guests over you’re like, “Here is my foil packet of fish.” And they’re like, “Wow, you spent all day slaving.”

It’s like 20 minutes.

On Her Book, Ramshackle Glam: The New Mom’s Guide To (Almost) Having It All

It’s basically a style memoir so it’s really just stories of my experience of my first couple of years with my son. It’s sort of through the lens of style and by style I mean fashion, beauty, entertaining, food, home decor, all of that.

It’s about how I was always someone who really cared about things like making a really nice dinner, entertaining friends or wearing an outfit that made me feel lovely or whatever. And then once I had a child, I started thinking, do these things have any place in my life anymore?

I found that they absolutely do.

You just have to be more flexible. Just a little bit more flexible about how you eat that dinner. You might eat it balanced on your knee while balancing food over the head of your child but you can still eat it.

I just eat like a wolf. And I have to tell my husband, “I am so sorry. I am just such a disgusting dinner companion.” Because I am so used to shoveling food in as quickly as I can to get back to whatever crisis has developed.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Anthony Bourdain… anything… anything, the grosser the better.

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

My friend, Alejandra Ramos writes a website called Always Order Dessert that I really love and it’s my current go-to for baking because I can’t bake.

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

I mostly follow my friends actually because I feel like Twitter can sound like a huge ballroom full of people just sort of screaming and no one listening.

I like to follow people who I know personally.

On Pinterest I follow Cup of Jo. I really like her pins. I think it’s really beautiful.

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

I would say a slow cooker.

Everyone needs to have a slow cooker. It’s an amazing tool that once you get the hang of it, it will just revolutionize your life.

I think people used to view it as the lazy person’s alternative to making a real meal.

If you look at more old school recipes they were very creamy. It was like throwing a cup of mushroom soup, and it was just heavy rich meals, were what you used to make with it.

Now people have rediscovered it. And so now there are so many lighter alternatives to those more traditional meals that you made. But I think it’s having a comeback.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

Garlic powder. Isn’t that classy? I can’t live without it. I love it.

Because you know what? The thing about garlic is it’s such a pain to mince. I’m either going to chop off my fingers or your fingers smell like garlic for two weeks. And they do sell those garlic mincers but those are annoying to clean out.

You know what makes your life easier? Garlic powder.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I have the full collection of Jamie Oliver cookbooks but his first one is my favorite. I think he sounds just so fresh. He’s just got such a fun, original, sweet voice.

I also really like Mario Batali’s books. I find them difficult but that’s okay once in a while. They’re more fun for me to read and look at than to actually do.

Honestly, the recipes I actually make, I get off the Internet.

The cookbooks are for reading and for enjoying and for inspiration more than anything else.

Keep Posted on Jordan:

Instagram. I am @ramshackleglam. Ramshackleglam.com.

On Her Blog:

On Her Interest in Cooking:

On Her Cooking Influences:

On Working With Her Husband on the Blog:

On Being Oregonian at Heart:

On the Difference in Food Culture Between Washington, DC and Oregon:

The Pressure Cooker:

On Keeping Posted with Laicie:

On How They Met:

On What Made Them Want to Collaborate with Each Other:

On Their Interest in Food and Cooking:

On Not Taking Food Too Seriously:

On a Kitchen Disaster:

On the Food Culture in Chicago:

On a Dish That Captures What Chicago is About:

On a Food That Locals Love that Visitors May Not Know About:

The Pressure Cooker:

On Keeping Posted with Rachel and Lucy:

On How Her Family Background Influenced the Foods She Enjoys:

On How Where She’s Lived has Influenced the Foods She Enjoys:

On a Food that Surprised Her:

On Foods That She Misses:

On Her Passion for Cooking:

On Starting Her Blog:

On Her Culinary Bucket List:

The Pressure Cooker:

On Keeping Posted with Samantha:

On How Food Played a Role in Her Health and Wellness:

On Basic Ways to Start Eating Healthier:

On the Biggest Misconception of Having a Healthier Diet:

On What a Plant-Based Diet Means:

On Some Resources to get Trusted Information on Health and Wellness Through Plant-Based Foods:

On Her 3-Week Online Program, 21 Days to Lean and Green:

The Pressure Cooker:

Keep Posted with Sherrie:

On Studying Neuroscience at Harvard to Starting Her Blog:

On Being a Writer:

On Cooking for Her Aunt Who’s a Cookbook Editor:

On Cooking as a Parent:

On Cooking Fish:

On Her Book, Ramshackle Glam: The New Mom’s Guide To (Almost) Having It All

The Pressure Cooker:

Keep Posted on Jordan:

Have Jordan’s Special Dinner Dish Recipe Sent To You Now: