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119: Alexa Arnold: Seasonal Food and The People Who Produce It

April 20, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Alex Arnold of The Best Bite of the Plum on The Dinner Special podcast talking about seasonal food and the people who produce it.
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Alexa Arnold of The Best Bite of the Plum on The Dinner Special podcast talking about being driven by seasonal food and the people who produce it.

The Best Bite of the Plum

Her blog, The Best Bite of the Plum, is where she celebrates the experience of eating, preparing, and sharing sustainable, seasonal meals.

Alexa is driven by her passion for food and the people who produce it, and can usually be found promoting healthy school food and farm to school efforts around the country, and browsing cookbooks and farmers’ markets for inspiration.

I am so excited to have Alexa Arnold of The Best Bite of the Plum joining me on the show today.

(*All photos below are Alexa’s.)

On Working in the Good Food Movement:

Alex Arnold of The Best Bite of the Plum on The Dinner Special podcast talking about working with FoodCorps.

I’m really fortunate that my mom packed my lunch most days going to school, but there were a lot of kids who didn’t have that opportunity. Kids eat sometimes most of their daily calories in school. So the good food movement is trying to ensure that the food is healthy and nourishing.

On the Shift to Eating More Local:

Alex Arnold of The Best Bite of the Plum on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the shift to eating more local.

I think so many people now understand the benefits of eating local and shortening the transportation between the food to their plates, keeping money in the local economy, and eating food when it’s at peak season. I think a lot of people are totally on board with that.

On Cooking What’s Local and Seasonal:

Alex Arnold of The Best Bite of the Plum on The Dinner Special podcast talking about cooking seasonal and local.

It’s okay to not be perfect and cook seasonally every time. Maybe you were just desperate for the tomatoes because it’s been a really long time. They’re not going to taste as good from the farmers’ market, but it’s okay to not be so strict about your values in terms of just only buying local.

On a Dish That’s Special to Her:

Alex Arnold of The Best Bite of the Plum on The Dinner Special podcast talking about a dish that is special to her.

There’s a dish that’s on my blog, and it’s a Concorde Grape Focaccia. I’ve already talked a lot about tomatoes, but the thing that actually was a spark for me at a farmers market was the first time I had a locally grown grape. I’m not even sure what variety of grape it was. It was maybe a Concorde. But I took a bite of it in front of the farmer and was literally blown away by the taste. I was like, “Oh my gosh. If this is a grape, what have I been eating my whole life?”

Grape season is in September, October or maybe late August, but it’s my absolute favorite season. And so this dish is really special to me because it’s the epitome of things that inspired me. And the thought of putting grapes in bread was also really wacky to me at first. I was like, “That doesn’t make any sense.” But it’s awesome.

Alex Arnold of The Best Bite of the Plum on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her grape focaccia.

And traditionally, in Italy, during grape harvest season in September, they make this focaccia. The other wacky thing about it is, they often leave the seeds in the grapes. So, once it cooks and once it bakes, the seeds get a little softer and it’s this little crunch that at first can be shocking when you’re a person who doesn’t like seeds in your grapes, but then it’s kind of addicting and awesome.

That’s a dish that’s pretty special to me. It’s my favorite thing to make. I have a lot of frozen grape focaccia in my freezer because I made so much during grape season.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Well, I’m going to fail this question because I don’t really watch any, but I’ve been hearing amazing things about the Netflix series called Chef’s Table. I think that’s what it’s called. So that’s on my list to watch, so I’ll report back.

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

I think the one food blog that has really inspired me in a lot of ways is the blog, Happy Yolks. I’ve been following her for a really long time. I don’t know if she’s actually really blogging much anymore. Her writing is so beautiful and honest and vulnerable. And a lot of blogs that I go to, I go to also for the writing, not just for the recipes. And I think she just does such a beautiful job of pairing those.

I also follow Brooklyn Supper. I love her recipes because they’re simple, they’re seasonal. She’s based in Appalachia, I think, in Virginia. I’ve spent a lot of time in Appalachia and I know that there are a lot of people who are eager and hungry for really simple seasonal recipes with food that’s been grown there for a long time.

I’ll also mention my friend Katherine’s blog called Cook with What You Have. She’s based in Portland, Oregon. The name is perfect. She is the epitome of everything I want to be in a cook, which is a person who saves the scraps and the little bits and pieces and makes something really cool and beautiful out of them. And she also has a business where she teaches these awesome cooking classes about just that.

Those are some of my favorite blogs, among so many others.

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

I follow so many food bloggers on Instagram. That’s probably the main social media mode that I use. I love Baker Hands. She is this incredible baker who is also this incredible artist. And she makes this flower art on top of her loaves of bread. It’s amazing. It’s so beautiful. Dolly and Oatmeal, There She Cooks, Local Haven, The Roaming Kitchen, so many others. So many people that are doing just amazing things with food that are constantly inspiring me.

A lot of people that you’ve interviewed. I was looking through your list and was like, “Oh my gosh. I follow so many of these guys. They’re awesome.”

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

I live in New York City, and I have a very small kitchen. So I try to be very intentional with the kinds of tools that I keep in my kitchen. So I’m going to go with treasured, the most treasured item is probably my grandmother’s silver. She gave it to my husband and I as a gift for our wedding.

It’s a really lovely story about how she got this silver. My grandmother’s from rural eastern Kentucky, in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. She moved to Lexington, to the big city, and ended up working at the Capitol Building in Frankfurt, Kentucky. She was the secretary in the building.

And she had made it. She had really left her rural roots for the city, and one of the things she bought with her first paycheck was this beautiful set of silverware that she went home and gave to her mother. And so she gave that to me for my wedding. It’s my most prized possession that I own. It’s amazing. I use it in all of my posts on my blog, too.

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

There are a lot of things. I feel like I’m constantly teaching myself to like new foods that I didn’t like before. But the thing that I will say that I really love now, is pickles. I despised pickles. I hated pickles. I was like a person who, you order a sandwich at a restaurant and a pickle touched your sandwich and you’re like, “Oh my God. I can’t eat that part of the sandwich.”

But then somehow, I just started really loving pickles and started making a lot of pickles myself. Probably prompted by a lot of those farmers at that market who were like, “This is what you have to do to save this produce.” Now I’m totally obsessed with pickles.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I think the Ottolenghi cookbooks, Plenty More and Jerusalem, they are so creative and difficult in some ways. So those really push me because I think a lot of the cooking I generally do for myself on a daily basis is something that’s just really simple. So cooking something out of all of those cookbooks always feels like a challenge to me and an accomplishment once I’ve made it.

I’d say those cookbooks are some of my favorites. I’ll also mention The Joy of Cooking, which my mother made pancakes from almost every weekend, growing up. So The Joy of Cooking has a special place in my heart.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

My husband is the total music guy in our relationship, so I’m often all over the cooking and over in the kitchen, and he’s at the computer or at our record player, putting some tunes on. So I let him DJ most of the time. But I’m also really obsessed with Robyn and with Sia. Things that make me wanna dance and that I know all the words to make me super excited. So I’ll pick those.

On Keeping Posted with Alexa:

Alex Arnold of The Best Bite of the Plum on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.

I probably post the most to Instagram. And then I’m on Facebook too but I use that a little less frequently. So yeah, I would say Instagram and just on my blog are probably the best ways to reach me.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Alexa Arnold, Baker Hands, Brooklyn Supper, Chef's Table, Concorde Grape Focaccia, Cook with What You Have, Dolly and Oatmeal, Farmer's Market, Farmers, Food Blog, Food Blogger, FoodCorps, Happy Yolks, Jerusalem, Local Haven, Plenty More, Robyn, Seasonal Food, Sia, The Best Bite of the Plum, The Joy of Cooking, The Roaming Kitchen, There She Cooks, Yotam Ottolenghi

006: Nicole Dula: How A Community Supported Agriculture Share Can Inspire

February 27, 2015 by Gabriel

Nicole Dula of Dula Notes on The Dinner Special podcast talking about Detroit, Michigan.
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Nicole Dula of Dula Notes on The Dinner Special podcast on How A Community Supported Agriculture Share Can Inspire

Dula Notes

On Dula Notes, Nicole shares her love of fresh, seasonal produce, her recipes, and an insider’s view on her home state of Michigan.

I am so happy to have Nicole Dula from Dula Notes here on the show today.

On Blogging:

Nicole Dula of Dula Notes on The Dinner Special podcast talking about food blogging.

Consistency is so important if you want to have an audience.

I try to do at least one post a week and so far I’ve been doing really good at sticking to that even on vacations and stuff. I try to have a couple ready. So it’s been fun.

I’m still passionate about food, and trying new things, which I think keeps motivating me. But everything that I do for the blog is a habit.

Because I have a full time job, so I have to sneak it in where I can.

I do my photography usually on Saturday mornings when I have good natural light. So it does have to be pretty regimented how I sneak it into my life. That part is a little bit habitual but there’s definitely still passion behind it.

On Detroit:

Nicole Dula of Dula Notes on The Dinner Special podcast talking about Detroit, Michigan.

There’s so much creativity going on right now that anything you want to try is going on right now, and that’s why it’s so exciting.

There are breweries down there where you can just get a pizza. Part of that Hither and Tither feature I talked about La Feria, which is tapas, authentic Spanish tapas. There’s a new ramen place which is excellent. There’s a little French cafe.

It’s just anything you want, you can have right now, and it’s so exciting. It’s just super creative and just really exciting right now.

Detroit just came out of bankruptcy actually a lot sooner than everyone thought. And I really feel like the food culture and all the creativity and the food business has really helped with bringing Detroit back.

I’m not a native Detroiter so I’m sure there are some hole in the wall places that are primo, but as a tourist, or even for myself, I love to go to Midtown, because it’s really bubbling up. That’s where La Feria is.

Corktown is really cool. You can have BBQ, there’s a new place that just opened, it’s called Gold Cash Gold and it used to be a building that sold gold and he turned it into a restaurant. I haven’t been yet, but the inside is gorgeous.

So Corktown’s really fun, it’s a really old neighborhood and it’s super cool. So I guess I would say start in Corktown.

On Community Supported Agriculture and Produce:

Nicole Dula of Dula Notes on The Dinner Special podcast talking about Community Supported Agriculture.

A CSA is where you basically partner with a local farmer and you and whoever else is supporting that farm, ahead of the season, you purchase your CSA. It usually comes in half shares or full shares depending on how many people are eating from it.

My husband and I get a half share. So you pay ahead of time for the whole season, and then the farmer takes your money and uses it to plant things for the season. Then once your CSA starts, it depends.

I’ve been a part of a couple different CSAs.

One I picked up at somebody’s house, so sometimes members will have the shares there on their back porch and that’s where you pick up your share.

My current share I pick up on Saturday mornings at the farmer’s market.

So I believe it starts in June and then it ends in early October. Every week I have a box and they send me an email a couple days ahead of time telling me what’s going to be in my box, which is helpful because then I can kind of have some grocery trips around it to see like, “Okay, I’m getting cabbage or I’m getting this.”

And it’s very inspiring because sometimes they’re things I would never pick up at the grocery store. So when I see them in my box I’m like, “Wow, I get to try this!” And then I’ll think of another recipe I tried with a different squash, and I’m like, “Maybe I can try it with this.”

So it’s really inspiring and then the food is so fresh. It’s the best produce you’ll ever have because it’s what’s in season. It was picked usually the day before or that morning so it’s really a wonderful thing.

Produce always inspires me.

I’m pretty good about what’s seasonal, but I don’t know some of that hyper seasonal stuff, like ramps. I don’t know exactly when it’s coming, but when I see it in a CSA box or I see it at the grocery store, I’m like, “Oh, it’s ramp season, now I’ve got to get some of that.” So it’s the produce that’s kind of my jumping off point, and then I look for recipes around that.

On Cooking:

Nicole Dula of Dula Notes on The Dinner Special podcast talking about cooking.

Well I didn’t really start cooking until I got married. I helped my mom a little bit and my grandmother used to have a lot of dinner parties, so I used to see that a lot. I used to love the whole dance in the kitchen that they did and the end result.

I didn’t really experiment much until I got married because I was going to school and I just didn’t have a lot of time for experimenting. So it just kind of came with practice.

As soon as I started cooking and getting the basics, then, I felt more comfortable playing around with things and saying, “Well this tasted really good with this, I bet this will taste good.” I kind of go with my gut and try to let that lead the way, and it’s worked out well so far.

And it’s trial and error.

It’s so disappointing when you buy all the ingredients and you put all the time into it and then you taste it and you’re like, “Oh, man.” It’s the worst. But it’s those great dishes, especially when you put your own spin on something, it’s so rewarding when you’re like, “I did that.”

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I love PBS cooking shows, so Cook’s Country, America’s Test Kitchen, Lidia Bastianich, those are like my shows.

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

My favorite food bloggers right now, my friend, she’s in Michigan, she’s not far from Detroit, her blog is Take a Megabite.

She has a wonderful eye for design, wonderful baked goods, she’s a doll. We have ramen together, she’s like the best brunch buddy you’ll ever have. We do brunch appetizers and then we have brunch.

My other favorites are Hungry Girl por Vida. She was in Michigan for a time. She’s living in Portland now, beautiful photography, beautiful recipes, My Name is Yeh, Molly, she’s phenomenal, creative, love her writing, so funny.

Then my other favorite is Bon Appétempt, Amelia Morris. She does these wonderful videos. Just hilarious, her videos are, every time I see one I crack up.

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

Well back to my friend Take a Megabite, her on Instagram, it’s like a ray of sunshine, so I definitely follow her on Instagram.

I follow so many people on Pinterest it’s insane. I definitely have curated my Pinterest sites so I’m seeing exactly the kind of stuff I want to see. Like Kate from Wit & Delight, she has beautiful things.

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

I think grey sea salt. I love the minerality to it. It has a nice flavor whether you sprinkle it onto a dessert or you add it into your food. I really love it.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without.

I know this is going to sound kind of lame, but maybe pepper. I love pepper on everything.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Well, it’s kind of funny, this probably makes me a bad blogger, or maybe it makes me a really good blogger. I’m not a big cookbook person. I’m more of a blog person.

But I do have a few cookbooks I do like. I do like Donna Hay’s cookbooks, they’re gorgeous, I have one that’s so beautiful and pretty and it’s really inspiring for food photography. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t cooked anything out of it. But it’s just the most beautiful thing. And, I also like Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks, I have made things out of his cookbooks that are delicious, and his books are beautiful too.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

You know what I find really fun is Huey Lewis and the News.

Like “Power of Love” and all those great ones.

Sometimes at night when you come home and you maybe don’t feel like cooking so much, you put that on and it just gives you an extra boost to get cooking.

Keep Posted on Nicole:

Nicole Dula of Dula Notes on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep in touch.

If you go to my blog, dulanotes.com, I have a little connect area, so I’ve linked to my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and you can just click there and find me.

I’m very active on Pinterest, love Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. So you can keep up with me. I take a lot of food pictures, so if you like food, I’m your girl.

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    Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Amelia Morris, America's Test Kitchen, Bon Appétempt, Community Supported Agriculture, Cook's Country, Corktown, CSA, Detroit, Donna Hay, Dula Notes, Farmer's Market, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Gold Cash Gold, Hither and Tither, Huey Lewis and the News, Hungry Girl Por Vida, Jamie Oliver, La Feria, Lidia Bastianich, Michigan, My Name is Yeh, Nicole Dula, PBS, Produce, Take a Megabite, Wit & Delight

    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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