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133: Danielle: Gardening and Feasting from the Seasons

July 27, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Danielle of Rooting the Sun on The Dinner Special podcast talking about gardening and feasting from the seasons.

Rooting The Sun

Danielle is always dreaming up ways to feast from the season and celebrate the garden. A Virginian turned Californian turned Midwesterner, her blog, Rooting The Sun, is where Danielle shares her approach to cooking, food, and gardening.

I am so happy to have Danielle of Rooting The Sun on the show today.

(*All photos below are Danielle’s.)

On Discovering Her Passion for Gardening and Growing Food:

Danielle Majeika of Rooting the Sun on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her passion for growing food.

I started growing food about four years ago. My mother had always experimented with vegetable gardens. One year, I actually just thought to myself, “Man, I really love eggplants — and I still do — but wouldn’t it be cool to just do it myself?” So I did. I just got my hands dirty. And that year, the deer ate all of it. We did not get any eggplant.

But that was pretty much the beginning. From there, the gardens have gotten bigger and bigger. I’ve been in and out of some commercial gardening aspects here and there. But mostly we do personal cultivation on a large scale. I just call it the yard farm.

Gardening has really helped me define food in a light I feel really treasured to be able to see it in. We’ve been able to use it as a definition of the seasons, where food at its peak always tastes the freshest. So it’s great to incorporate what we have into what we eat. We’re not doing it for survival, but it’s been a great and delicious learning experience.

On Crops That are Easier for Beginners:

Danielle Majeika of Rooting the Sun on The Dinner Special podcast talking about crops that are easier to grow for beginners.

I would definitely say that if you like to eat salad, then go ahead and grow it. Leaf lettuce is super easy to grow, and you can benefit from that all season long. Also, I think zucchini comes to mind. Once you get a zucchini plant started, it doesn’t stop. It’s a plant that your neighbors will benefit from, too. Also, radishes, tomatoes, and herbs, they’re all good choices as well.

On Crops Beginners May Want to Avoid:

If you’re just beginning, I would probably stay away from both artichokes and asparagus. Artichokes are not impossible. We’ve actually done them a few different seasons in a couple of different places, but they have a very specific growing need that can be hard to fulfill depending on where you are. And then asparagus as well, if you’ve been nomadic like I have, then it can take up to three years to yield a crop. So you have to stay put to get asparagus. It’s a waiting game, but once they get started, you’ll be able to benefit from it for years.

On Gardening for City Dwellers:

Danielle Majeika of Rooting the Sun on The Dinner Special podcast talking about crops that are good to grow for city dwellers.

This is really good, because currently, our setup is an urban area. And it always feels really amazing to exchange conversation with our neighbors, just to actually reiterate that you really don’t need a lot of space to be able to grow your own food. Even in a large city, you could potentially do a garden completely in containers, and get really good results. And almost anything can be cultivated in a pot. But standouts are probably tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, peas. And you can even do root crops like carrots. I’ve done beets before. It was kind of crazy, but it worked.

On Some Resources for Gardening and Growing Your Own Food:

Danielle Majeika of Rooting the Sun on The Dinner Special podcast talking about some good resources for growing your own food.

As far as books go, there is definitely a wealth of very informed literature, like bible-esque books on gardening and vegetable gardening. I thrifted a book entitled, Crockett’s Victory Garden recently. It’s from the 1970s. I think he was actually a PBS show. But he goes month by month in his book as far as what vegetables to do each month of the year. I really like books that are laid out like that. As far as online, I really like Gayla’s blog You Grow Girl. She has an amazing source of knowledge on her website. And I also like Andrea’s blog Dishing Up the Dirt. She is a huge inspiration.

The Pressure Cooker:

Danielle Majeika of Rooting the Sun on The Dinner Special podcast answering The Pressure Cooker.

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t really watch many cooking shows, but I’ve been watching a lot of Jacques Pepin on PBS.

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

For food blogs, I really love Orangette, I love The Yellow House, I love Lottie + Doof, 101 Cookbooks, Kale & Caramel, Chocolate + Marrow, Will Frolic for Food. Of those, they’re all very awesome for reading as well. It’s really hard to pick because I love everyone so much, but I really adore the recipes on With Food + Love and Heartbeet Kitchen as well.

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

On Instagram, I love following Brooklyn Supper. Her food is really great. I love Dolly and Oatmeal. I also love Sasha from Tending the Table, she has the prettiest photography.

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

I’ll probably go with treasured and that would be a spice rack that I gained from my grandmother. I love it because it makes me think of her cooking but also because I love spices. I think they’re everything.

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

Onions, which is actually, I think, a story of revenge because I use them every day and constantly. And I think that I might actually be more allergic to them than most people. I’m timed out for, like, at least 20 minutes after I’ve cut onions.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

As far as a few cookbooks, I love Local Flavors by Deborah Madison. I think it has really awesome seasonal recipes and she uses vegetables in a really unique way. I also love The Art of Simple Food I and II, by Alice Waters.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I don’t think I have a particular song or album in mind, but recently, I have a really big soft spot for Steely Dan. And pretty much every other kind of music and song in the universe. I really love music.

On Keeping Posted with Danielle:

Danielle Majeika of Rooting the Sun on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.

I think that the best way would probably be Instagram. I use that social media platform the most out of all of them.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: 101 Cookbooks, Alice Waters, Brooklyn Supper, Chocolate and Marrow, Crockett's Victory Garden, Crops, Danielle Majeika, Deborah Madison, Dishing Up the Dirt, Dolly and Oatmeal, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Gardening, Growing Food, Heartbeet Kitchen, Instagram, Jacques Pepin, Kale & Caramel, Lottie + Doof, Orangette, PBS, Rooting The Sun, Steely Dan, Tending the Table, The Yellow House, Will Frolic for Food, With Food and Love, You Grow Girl

111: Amanda Paa: How a Gluten Allergy Inspired Her

February 24, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Amanda Paa of Heartbeet Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted with her.
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Amanda Paa of Heartbeet Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how a gluten allergy inspired her.

Heartbeet Kitchen

On her blog, Amanda shares food stories and recipes with the hope to inspire us to realize that the best meals are those made with fresh seasonal and simple ingredients. She believes that food doesn’t have to be fancy nor does it require expensive equipment. Amanda is also the author of Smitten with Squash, her cookbook with 80 original recipes on the squash family.

I am so excited to have Amanda Paa of Heartbeet Kitchen with me on the show today.

(*All photos below are Amanda’s.)

On Learning How to Cook:

Amanda Paa of Heartbeet Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about learning how to cook.

There were some things that I just watched Grandma do, like my Grandma made the best loaves of bread. I never rolled them out with her, or kneaded, or anything like that. But I always ate what came from it and it was always the same and it was always so good. I could smell the yeast coming from her oven and things like that. So I think it was definitely a little bit of both. Some watching, some helping. With my other Grandma, she makes lefse every year, which is a Norwegian specialty, and I did help her, from rolling the balls to then putting it on the hot iron to getting it real thin, all of those little things, I did do with her.

It wasn’t really until about six years ago, I was living in Wisconsin and I moved back to Minnesota because I did grow up here. But moving into the Twin Cities, there were so many more farmers markets, so much more of a farm to table movement and just interesting food. I had never really taken the time to learn about or experience and so, I had this thing where I’d go to the market and every time, I would pick a new fruit or a new vegetable or even a cut of meat that I had never cooked with before. And I said, “We’re going to experiment. There is no judgment here. Just let the creativity flow,” and that is really kind of how my blog started too. It really forged this passion for telling the real story behind real food and real food recipes and it never gets boring. Because there is always something new to learn.

On Her Food Heroes:

Amanda Paa of Heartbeet Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her food heroes.

There is so much inspiration that we are so fortunate to have because of the Internet. Years ago, it was just cookbooks which I still am inspired by today. But there is so much content out there and beautiful work being done all across the world. It’s eye opening every single day, and so when I think of my own cooking and who has inspired it a lot, I think of some of my favorite blogs like Lindsey of Dolly and Oatmeal, and Sherrie from With Food and Love, and Sarah Kieffer from The Vanilla Bean Blog.The way she is with baking and her precision and her beauty, you can’t look at it and not be inspired.

And then I think, even just typical sites like The Kitchn and Food52 have, whether it’s new ways of doing things or new ingredients that they are coming up with ideas for, and just the way that they look at food really inspires me.

I also have to say too, like even traditional people, I mean, I think Martha Stewart is phenomenal and she has gone through how many decades and not only evolved with but kept her brand. I only wish that I could throw a dinner party like her. Every little touch she does is really something special. And she takes the time to do it. I think that that’s part of what I love too and the change in me is that, cooking is an experience and I wrote about this on my blog. It’s much more than just for your health or for just putting it on the table. It evokes emotion, it can change mood, it can bring conversation. It’s just a beautiful thing.

On How Her Gluten Allergy Impacted Her Cooking:

Amanda Paa of Heartbeet Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how her gluten allergy impacted her cooking.

So I have had quite a few autoimmune issues since I was young and still kind of battle it. But we finally figured out that one of the main stressors and causes was an intolerance to gluten. It was causing severe headaches and rashes and different things like shingles that I got when I was in eighth grade. I mean just very odd things, and finally, one doctor suggested that I stop eating gluten and it was basically like a miracle. Within three weeks, I was much, much better.

And at first, it was daunting. It was like, “What? You’re telling me I have to give up all of these foods that I love and I have to kind of relearn how to cook? How am I going to eat out?” All that type of stuff. And I can say today, that I would not probably be here sitting and talking to you if that had not happened, because what it did was inspire me to say, “Okay, here is what I can have. Let’s embrace this,” and what happened was it opened my eyes to all these new foods that I had never tasted or nothing that I grew up with, whether it be gluten-free grains like millet and sorghum, or teaching myself how to make flat bread that’s made from chickpea flour known as socca.

And to really too start to look at different cultures because, a lot of other cultures don’t use as much wheat or they use it in different ways, and so there are a lot of cultural things too that really were like, “Wow, this is good. I’ve been missing this for all these years?” And what I also started to realize was that most real food, that’s grown from the ground, plants, lean proteins and meats that are grown in a humane way, fruits, nuts, seeds, all those things are naturally gluten-free anyways.

It’s most of the processed food where the problem comes in. It made me feel good to get that burst of energy in the kitchen. And I wanted to share that with other people. Because as I was going along, I was meeting all these farmers or these artisans that were doing this really cool stuff that it didn’t matter if you were gluten-free or not. It was just really good stuff.

On Some Good Sources for Learning How to Cook with a Gluten Allergy:

Amanda Paa of Heartbeet Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about some good resources for learning more about gluten free cooking.

It’s funny you ask that, because I had someone message me the other day. Their friend had just found that she was gluten-free. She was like, “Where do they start? How did that work?” And my first resource and still someone that I truly love and really think is such a benefit for the gluten-free community is Shauna from Gluten Free Girl, and her and her husband started a blog before gluten-free had really even been talked about. He was a chef and I read her book which was called, Gluten-Free Girl. It was more of almost a documentary but then also education on her whole transition, and it made me feel so much better. Like, “Okay, my world is not coming to an end. A, I feel so much better and now there is this whole new world of food that I get to explore,” and that was super, super helpful for me.

The other one, I don’t know if she blogs anymore. But her site is still very active. But Gluten-Free Goddess. There are so many beginner, basic recipes that will make you feel less intimidated, and that was really powerful for me too.

On Her Book, Smitten with Squash:

Smitten with Squash was published in July of last year. I was approached by the publisher who, they kind of do these, one book a year basically on a Midwestern fruit or vegetables that you love or that you’re very passionate about and the growing of it and history, because it is a historical publisher that publishes the cookbook. It’s the Minnesota Historical Society Press. They contacted me and were like, “You know, give us a few of your ideas, write a proposal around it. We’ve got a few others in mind.”

And I had always liked squash but what was interesting to me about squash, a couple of things is that, living here in Minnesota, our growing season is rather short. And squash, the family of squash between winter squash and summer squash, you can eat locally almost all year round here. Because summer squash is so abundant and then winter squash, you can store it for up to six months, and that will last you almost until summer squash is starting to arrive again. I thought that that was really neat because I do try to base my recipes off seasonal eating, because I feel like that’s when food tastes the best and you can become creative with what looks good at the market and things like that.

The other part that was really cool to me was that squash really is a part of every culture in one way or another and there aren’t very many foods that are like that. And so I just started formulating this idea about doing my whole book on squash and they accepted the idea.

There is 80 original recipes. There are about 40 summer squash recipes and then 40 winter squash recipes. And you’ll see everything from sweets to appetizers to pickles to main dishes, vegetarian to Paleo to kind of everything in there because it is so versatile.

The other real passion behind it is, you know how there are those foods that you had when you were young and you think like, “Oh my gosh, I do not like this because, this is probably the only way you can make it or this is the way I always see it served and I can’t stand this.” And when people talk about it, they are like, “Oh, yeah, well my mom made it, acorn squash. She baked it in a pan with some water and then when it came out she put butter and brown sugar on it. It’s just not good.” And I wanted to change that. I wanted to give people new ideas for what to do with summer squash in stuff like brownies or cake or things like that.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Chopped.

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

Well, the ones that I mentioned before. So The Vanilla Bean Blog, Dolly and Oatmeal, With Food and Love, Sara from Cake Over Steak has such an interesting food blog that has beautiful recipes but she also illustrates her recipes, and I know she’s been on your show, and she is fantastic.

If you’re looking for a wonderful vegan site, Abby from The Frosted Vegan has just a great way with words and she is one of those people that makes things very easy to understand. I love too, if you’ve never glanced over the blog, Green Kitchen Stories, just beautiful photography and wonderful, nourishing, healthy food that never loses flavor and is exactly what I love to do, which is cooking seasonally.

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

Well, on Instagram, I love following The Fauxmartha. She has her little girl that she posts pictures of, but her food scenes are just so incredible and simple yet they just make me want to start cooking. That is something that is obviously what we all aspire to do. Another friend, her blog, it’s called Sunshine and Sea Salt. And she is just a real good friend and is an amazing recipe developer as well, but her words that she writes on Instagram are almost like sometimes blog posts. They are just beautiful. Oh, Ladycakes too is a really fun one to follow along with, and I love following her. Those are a few of my biggest inspirations.

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

My most treasured, the one that I use the most that like, if you could only keep three things from your kitchen, would be my Le Creuset dutch oven because they are just workhorses. They do everything that you could ever want, and then I used to think it was strange that my mom gave me my grandma’s silverware and now, I love it and I use it in so many of my photographs, and it really means a lot to me when I see it. And then, thirdly, are some of my thrift finds that I find while I’m out. One of those is this real old baker’s scale. You’ll see it in a couple of my posts and on my Instagram but they just don’t make things like that anymore.

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

Ricotta cheese. I used to not like the texture. I only really had it in lasagna and I prefer cottage cheese over it in lasagna and that’s what formulated this dislike. Now, I think it is so great whether that’s baked with lemon and olive oil and herbs for an easy appetizer, or on salads. My favorite thing too is to put it into desserts where typically, you might use yogurt or something like that. It creates such a soft texture and moist, rich, just kind of like cake and it’s really a fabulous ingredient. But I thought I hated it. Now, I love it.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy is, I mean, that should definitely be in your kitchen because it’s all about cooking with families of plants and how they all go together. It’s just really simple but interesting recipes and I use that as not only a reference guide but something every week in my kitchen.

Another one that I think you just should have it is Joy of Cooking, because every single technique or question you ever had about food is in there. There are also vintage recipes and modern new ways of doing things which I think is really cool.

One of my newest cookbooks that I use a lot and that I love is Sheet Pan Suppers and it’s all different recipes and it’s not just suppers but things that you can make on a sheet pan and have so little clean up. Very little clean up, like a sheet pan is just another workhorse too. And it creates delicious meals.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I wouldn’t say it’s any particular album or anything, but 50s and 60s music, some of those classic kind of blues but like, pop hits too. They’re all so upbeat and all have such a happy tone. They don’t make you think too hard and that’s kind of what I always have on in my kitchen.

On Keeping Posted with Amanda:

Amanda Paa of Heartbeet Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted with her.

I am on Facebook and Instagram as heartbeetkitchen and beet is spelled like the vegetable, just for my blog too. And I am also on Pinterest and I am also on Twitter.

Snapchat: heartbeetkitchn

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Amanda Paa, Cake Over Steak, Chopped, Deborah Madison, Dolly and Oatmeal, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food52, Gluten-Free, Gluten-Free Girl, Gluten-Free Goddess, Green Kitchen Stories, Heartbeet Kitchen, Joy of Cooking, Martha Stewart, Minnesota, Minnesota Historical Society Press, Oh Ladycakes, Sheet Pan Suppers, Smitten with Squash, Sunshine and Sea Salt, The Fauxmartha, The Frosted Vegan, The Kitchn, The Vanilla Bean Blog, Vegetable Literacy, With Food and Love

057: Grace Rusch: Finding a Diet That’s Right for You

July 8, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Grace Rusch of The Sunday Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.
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Grace Rusch of The Sunday Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about finding a diet that is right for you.

The Sunday Table

Grace is a self-taught cook and a holistic nutrition consultant. She feels that our diets should be personalized, with a balance between food that makes us feel good and food that is healthy. On her blog, Grace features seasonal, organic, and whole-food ingredients, and she follows a mainly gluten-free, dairy-free, plant-based diet.

I am so happy to have Grace Rusch of The Sunday Table here on the show today.

(*All images below are Grace’s.)

On Starting Her Blog:

Grace Rusch of The Sunday Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about starting her food blog.

I’d say it was just a matter of wanting to continually be inspired by new recipes or new ingredients. It helps me keep things interesting and that way I’m looking at new cookbooks, new recipes online and trying different ingredients.

I’m always inspired by seasonal ingredients, as well. So, the blog is really just a vehicle for me to constantly come up with new things for dinner and for breakfast. That way food’s not boring.

On Her Interest in Food and Cooking:

Grace Rusch of The Sunday Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her interest in food and cooking.

I’ve had a long-time interest in food and cooking.

I started cooking at a young age, just helping my mom in the kitchen. So, it probably stems from that good foundation that she built and instilled in me. And then, I got a lot more into it in college and high school.  I really started to get into nutrition and thinking about how the food we eat affects how we feel and our bodies. So, that really is what, kind of, jump-started my interest in cooking. Through that, I’ve discovered how food actually made me feel. And through that, I found out I was gluten and dairy intolerant. So, it’s just been a journey.

When I moved to California, this “California fresh” fare was really inspiring to me. I come from the Midwest; I’m from Minnesota. And not that we didn’t eat healthy growing up, but it wasn’t quite the same cuisine. So, in college in California, I really started to use fresh produce and make that the foundation of my meal. Since that was something that was relatively new to me, it really inspired me to find new recipes.

Finding food blogs was also an inspiration to me, as a source for new recipes.

What else inspires me is just the food that makes me feel good. I try to eat food that’s healthy, but also tastes delicious. I definitely wouldn’t say I only eat for nutrition. Sure, that’s my basis, but it also has to taste good, because I also really enjoy eating.

What pushes me further is the fact that I have some dietary restrictions. And so, I have to constantly be creative and be adapting recipes to make it something that I can eat that’s not going to hurt my stomach.

On Experimenting in the Kitchen:

Grace Rusch of The Sunday Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about experimenting in the kitchen.

I’d say I’m a creative or curious cook. I just throw things together. I don’t have too many total flops, but that’s because I love adapting recipes that I know work. Or, I just throw things together that are super simple, like oatmeal or an egg bake. There’s a lot of really simple foundations that you can build on to make something healthy and delicious. I’ve definitely had major flops, though. Especially in baking. There’s trial and error, for sure.

I think if you find recipes that you like, just try swapping out an ingredient. Like, having that curiosity. If you switch vegetables in a dish, that’s a pretty safe swap. Just start experimenting. If you add additional spices, that’s a pretty easy way to explore. Baking it’s a little harder. But for cooking, it should be fun and it should be kind of an experiment.

Just having the curiosity of “What happens if I add these spices?”, or you switch up the vegetable or you switch up the meat. Don’t feel like you have to have exactly what’s in the recipe, unless that’s exactly what you want to eat.

I think I look a lot to the online community. There’s so many people doing really amazing things. So, I’m continually inspired by other food bloggers. I have a lot of cookbooks and I cook from a lot of them here and there, but I don’t have one in particular that really inspires me.

On Some Good Resources for Learning to Cook:

Grace Rusch of The Sunday Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about some resources for learning how to cook

I am a 100 percent self-taught cook in the sense that I never really looked up the science behind cooking or baking. I think you learn that over time. So, I don’t think that I went to one resource. 101 Cookbooks, Heidi Swanson was definitely a first food blog that I found. Sara Forte from Sprouted Kitchen was another one.

On Being a Holistic Nutrition Consultant:

Grace Rusch of The Sunday Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about being a holistic consultant.

I had considered, in college, going to school for nutrition but decided to go to school for business, but I found this holistic nutrition school in Berkeley, California which is where I live now. And so, I kind of made it my plan: “Alright, I’m already in California. After I graduate I’m going to move to Berkeley and do this program.” It took me a few years, but eventually, I signed up to do the holistic nutrition program. It really just stemmed from curiosity of how food affects our bodies and how you heal yourself from the inside out, through food.

I think it’s pretty baffling to me that people don’t have the connection between what you eat and how your body feels. So, for me, it was really just to get that information. I’m a total food science nerd, so I love learning about how what we eat affects our body and then how that affects how you feel. It really is a holistic approach how that affects the rest of your life.

There’s definitely a balance between healthy and food that makes you happy. It’s easy to go too far one way or the other, and finding a balance is really a personal preference. It’s different for everyone. For me, I definitely feel better when I eat a lot of vegetables, but I also love sweets. So, oats with maple syrup is one thing; that, even to me, is enough.

Sometimes I really want dark chocolate and I’m not going to deny myself that. So, it’s definitely different for everyone. That’s my overall philosophy: every single person has a different diet that’s right for them, and food should make you happy. It should be something that you look forward to eating, but it also should be nutrient-rich. It should be something that’s not going to eventually, down the road, make you sick.

I think that is the first question you get asked and it’s the hardest question to answer; is “What should I eat?”. Because it is so individualized. It is fun to navigate that path with people; to help them understand foods they like and foods they don’t like.

If you really hate peas, then there’s no reason to eat them. If you really hate beets…I personally hate beets. It’s really hard for me to want to cook them and eat them. Just because it’s healthy, doesn’t mean you have to eat it. You should definitely find things that you want to be eating that are also healthy.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t watch any. I have a television, I rarely use it.

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

Ones that I frequently visit and actually cook from are: Sprouted Kitchen, it’s one of my favorites.

Cookie and Kate, that’s a really good one, I’ve cooked a lot of delicious things from her site.

A Couple Cooks, they have a lot of really good recipes.

Dolly and Oatmeal, she’s also gluten and dairy free, so I always love her recipes.

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

I’d say Instagram’s probably my favorite platform, just because I love to look at photography. I actually follow a lot of photographers and travel or portrait photographers on Instagram. I follow the food blog world, too, but those are the pictures that make me happiest. It’s just seeing other parts of the world and little snippits. If you’ve had a rough day and you’re feeling uninspired, it’s so nice to see these beautiful nature landscapes.

One that comes to the top of my head is Jeff Marsh. He’s a Seattle photographer, both portrait and outdoor nature photos. Beautiful, beautiful photos. Aubrie Pick, she is a local San Francisco food photographer; just amazing stuff. Oh, I recently met a photographer from Vancouver Island, Kelly Brown; she’s a wedding photographer and lifestyle. Really beautiful stuff.

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

I don’t think I have anything too unusual, but I have to admit, my most treasured thing right now is my Vitamix. I use it every day.

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

Probably, snap peas. I really like them and can eat them raw now. And bell peppers. I kind of have a love hate relationship with them. I’m learning to like green beans; still not my favorite.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Recently, I’ve been returning to Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison; I love that one. The new Sprouted Kitchen cookbook just came out, that’s a really great one and her previous cookbook is excellent. I’ve also been cooking a lot lately from Vibrant Food, which is Kimberly Hasselbrink’s cookbook.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I love music. I went to school for music business, so music is a big part of my life. I couldn’t just pick one, but I always go to Motown or old soul or funk music in the kitchen. It’s just fun, upbeat, and inspires you. Right now, I’ve been listening a lot to Brandi Carlile’s new album, The Firewatcher’s Daughter; that’s a great one. So, a big mix.

On Keeping Posted with Grace:

Grace Rusch of The Sunday Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.

Instagram is my preferred platform. But I have a Facebook page, I’m on Twitter, I’m on Pinterest, and of course the blog.

 

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: 101 Cookbooks, A Couple Cooks, Aubrie Pick, Brandi Carlile, Cookie and Kate, Dairy-Free, Deborah Madison, Dolly and Oatmeal, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Gluten-Free, Grace Rusch, Heidi Swanson, Holistic Consultant, holistic nutrition, Jeff Marsh, Kelly Brown, Kimberly Hasselbrink, Plant-based Diet, Sara Forte, Sprouted Kitchen, The Firewatcher's Daughter, The Sunday Table, Vegetable Literacy, Vibrant Food, Vitamix, Whole foods

022: Alanna Taylor-Tobin: How to Build a Meal Around Vegetables First

April 6, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted on her.
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Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast on How to Build a Meal Around Vegetables First

The Bojon Gourmet

Alanna is a self-proclaimed recovering pastry chef, and on her blog, she shares her amazing food photography and recipes, many of which are vegetarian or gluten-free.

I am so delighted to have Alanna Taylor-Tobin of the Bojon Gourmet here on the show today.

On Being a Recovering Pastry Chef:

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about being a recovering pastry chef.

Well, it’s a little bit tongue in cheek, but I worked as a pastry chef for several years here in San Francisco, and two and a half years ago, I left my job to work on my blog full-time.

I don’t know if you’ve worked in restaurants? But they’re kind of crazy. When I left I just felt like, “I’m so relieved that I’m not working in restaurants anymore.”

It was just hectic and kind of a challenging place to work.

On Moving from Pastry to Cooking Savory Foods:

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about moving from pastries to cooking savoury foods.

I’ve always loved cooking. I’ve always loved making anything I possibly can in the kitchen, including cocktails and savory foods also.

The reason I became a pastry chef is because I’m really squeamish and I don’t like touching raw meat and having to handle it. My very first job in the food industry was as a pantry cook at a restaurant. And I hated having to cut up big slabs of bloody fish and meat and stuff. So then when I went to work in a bakery I was like, “Oh, this is great! I get to do all of the food making, but I don’t have to touch all the yucky meat and seafood and stuff.”

That was actually the main reason why I went to pastry school and became a pastry chef.

But I’ve always loved cooking. I just cook mostly vegetarian at home because of the squeamish factor. I tried to make a balance of sweet and savory recipes on my blog and I tried to alternate recipes, but it is a little bit challenging sometimes because I get stuck in dessert mode.

I have to tell myself to think about like, “Okay, we need to have something substantial to eat.” So sometimes I have to just force myself to just go for something savory just so we’re not inundated with sugar all the time.

On Her Passion for Food and Cooking:

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her passion for food and cooking.

My whole family is a very food-oriented family, and nobody actually works professionally in food. They’re all psychologists actually. My whole family are psychologists but they all really love food and as a kid my favorite times were going out to restaurants with my parents. Or, my mom would always have the Bon Appetit subscription. She always had a great cookbook collection.

I have an older brother and I think I was about nine and he was dating a woman who was a pastry chef. And that was the first time that I was like, “Oh my God! That’s a thing? You can just get paid to make desserts for a living forever? That’s so cool! I want to do that!” So I kind of had it in my head from a very early age that I wanted to be a pastry chef.

My parents are divorced and my mom lives in L.A. My dad lives in Oregon. And usually when they come visit we tend to take them out to restaurants because we live in San Francisco and it’s just an incredible restaurant culture here. But we do potlucks and stuff.

The only holiday that I really enjoy is Thanksgiving because we always do a big potluck at my brother’s house in Berkeley and I get to make as many pies as I want. That’s my very favorite thing.

On Vegetarian and Gluten-Free Cooking:

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about vegetarian and gluten-free cooking.

My sister has known that she is allergic to gluten for 20 years I think now. She was gluten-free before it was cool. I think that kind of runs in my family. For the last ten or so years I’ve been experimenting with less gluten and just more whole grains and stuff.

I grew up not eating a ton of meat. I didn’t have a super meat-centric family and my mom’s always been really interested in health and nutrition.

When I first moved out of the house, I just ate Kraft mac and cheese for every meal because I was like, “Yeah!”

That got old really fast.

So I just started cooking more and one of the first cookbooks I owned was by Deborah Madison who’s mostly vegetarian. She’s founded Greens, the vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco. Just her whole aesthetic really inspired me.

When I moved in with my partner, he had been vegetarian for many years. It was just sort of natural to cook vegetarian. He’s not vegetarian anymore but he still eats mostly that way as do I.

As for the vegan, it’s not really a huge concern for me. I do have friends who are vegan. Or who are lactose intolerant and such. It’s kind of nice to have those recipes in my repertoire so I don’t have to be like, “Oh my God! A vegan’s coming for dinner. What do I do?”

That kind of mindset, of the meat is where you start from, is just kind of backwards from how I think. Even when I go to restaurants, I always look at the side dish, even if I get a meat entree, it’s because it has these awesome potatoes or the greens or something like that. I tend to start more from the vegetable aspect of it and sort of build a meal from there.

I tend to look at what’s in season. Or, “Oh, I’m craving sweet potatoes.” So then I’ll make a dish around that, like enchiladas.

I don’t think so much in terms of I need protein. I’m going to substitute this out for the protein or something.

I do eat a ton of cheese. I just love cheese. It’s my very favorite thing in the whole world. I probably eat more cheese because I’m needing the protein.

I guess I would say if you’re looking for a protein substitute, well, dairy obviously, but you can’t do that if you’re a vegan. Mushrooms are a really good source of protein, beans and nuts and all that kind of stuff. I don’t tend to think like that.

I tend more to start with the vegetable or the grain.

On Turning Down a Cookbook Offer… Twice:

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about turning down a cookbook offer twice.

I had really mixed feelings about whether I should talk about it at all in a public way. It seems like cookbooks are kind of the equivalent of having a baby where you’re not allowed to tell anybody in the first few months until really you’re sure it’s going to happen.

I was nervous about talking about it. But I just felt like, I was personally so confused and lost having to try to figure out whether this was a good offer or not. I just wanted to put the information out there to help other people because I know publishers are reaching out to tons of bloggers now.

We don’t always know how the publishing world works and whether what we’re being offered is good or not. And we have to stick together, you know?

So I put that information out there and I was just shocked at all of the great responses that I got. From people saying, “Good job. Good job for turning that down.” And then there were also a few people who said, “Hey, I work in publishing and that wasn’t a bad deal.” That was a good perspective to hear also because I tried to make it really clear that my whole point was that I just didn’t know.

I wasn’t saying this was a crappy deal and I turned it down. I was saying I didn’t know if this was a good deal or not, and I need to explore that some more. So it was kind of good to hear both sides of that from commenters.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

When I was in college I loved watching, The Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver. And I loved watching Iron Chef when it was all in, was it Japanese, I think?

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

Oh my gosh! I follow 200 blogs or something like that on Bloglovin‘.

There are so many fabulous blogs out there. It is so hard to choose, but I’ve recently become friends with a few bloggers. I’ve been more actively following their blogs.

One of them is Snixy Kitchen and Sarah Menanix is the author and her photos are just gorgeous. She’s got this beautiful light in her space, and she’s a really adventurous cook and baker. So she’ll just make anything. She just posted these gluten-free scallion pancakes and they’re just insanely good. So I highly recommend checking out her site.

And then another one is The Pancake Princess, and Erica is the author and her styling and attention to detail is just amazing. I love her photographs and recipes so much.

Another blog I really love is Circa Happy by Pang, and she’s Thai. Her recipes have a lot of Thai influence, and she’s only been doing food photography for less than a year and they’re totally professional caliber photographs. They’re just absolutely stunning.

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

I mostly use Pinterest as a personal way to collect recipes, but I do check Instagram constantly. I love Instagram so much. A friend of mine, Ana, and her blog is Fluxi On Tour. She takes the most beautiful Instagram photos. They’re all on her iPhone and a lot of them are landscapes and cityscapes. She’s a travel and food writer, and she just blows me away with the caliber of her iPhone photography. I don’t know how she does it but they’re just incredible. So I always love seeing her posts on Instagram.

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

I would say maybe a variety of cooking oils, like olive oil and a neutral oil like sunflower or grape seed.

I’ve been really using a lot of ghee lately. It’s nice because you can keep it at room temperature even though it’s derived from butter, and it has a really high smoke point. So it’s really great for making popcorn or anything that you need really high heat for, and you want that kind of warm flavor like pancakes. You don’t get the butter burning in the pan because it’s got such a high smoke point. And it just adds this delicious warm richness to anything that you make.

I usually purchase it. A good friend of mine actually gave me a big jar of homemade ghee for a holiday gift.

I was just like, “Wow! This is the best gift ever!”

Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

I’d have to say, well, chocolate is really obvious, but for a savory ingredient? Maldon Salt is just my favorite finishing salt. It’s such a small and simple thing, but it can just make any dish, even sweet things, it just adds this crunchy amazingness that makes people go, “Wow! This is awesome!” And it can be the most basic thing but it has this delicious flaky, crunchy salt on top.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Oh boy, cookbooks. Well, one that I just have in my head because I used it the other day is The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. And it’s all ice creams and it’s kind of like the ice cream bible. It was the first ice cream book that was a very natural and fun and really thorough way with ice creams.

I’m a huge Deborah Madison fan so I love her book on soups. I use that one a lot. And she has one called Local Flavors that’s all about farmers market cooking, and it’s not one of her better known books. But I’ve probably made a third of the recipes in that book and every one is just fabulous! They’re really unique and they’re simple and they’re just super good. It’s things that I would never think of to cook. I feel like I owe a lot of my aesthetic to Deborah Madison.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I would have to say Lovely Day by Bill Withers is just one of the most fun upbeat songs that I’ve ever heard.

Keep Posted on Alanna:

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted on her.

I would say Instagram is probably a good way to keep in touch with me. And my handle is The_Bojon_Gourmet. (BojonGourmet.com)

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    Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Alanna Taylor-Tobin, Bill Withers, Bon Appetit, Circa Happy, David Lebovitz, Deborah Madison, Fluxi On Tour, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Gluten-Free, Greens, Iron Chef, Jamie Oliver, Local Flavors, Lovely Day, Pastry Chef, Sarah Menanix, Snixy Kitchen, The Bojon Gourmet, The Naked Chef, The Pancake Princess, The Perfect Scoop, Vegetables, Vegetarian

    Hello! I'm Gabriel Soh, home cook, food enthusiast and your host of The Dinner Special podcast.
    Everything here on The Dinner Special is an experiment, just like with cooking. Thank you for listening and being part of the adventure.

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