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Lazy Day with Cake Over Steak, HonestlyYUM, and Sugarlaws

March 28, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Sara Cornelius of Cake Over Steak, Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM, and Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast share their favorite cookbooks, food blogs, and music they enjoy.

Sara Cornelius of Cake Over Steak, Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM, and Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast share their favorite cookbooks, food blogs, and music they enjoy.

I always get super excited to do these lazy day posts. They give me a chance to check out all the cool stuff that my food hero guests are into. And it’s always such an awesome mix because they all have different views on food.

Sara from Cake Over Steak is a super talented artist and looks at food in that same way. Karen is a globetrotter and loves to entertain, and HonestlyYUM is a reflection of that, and Katy of Sugarlaws is a mom, lawyer and writer, so the way she cooks has to fit into her busy life.

Below are some fun things they love and shared on podcast.

Sara Cornelius, Cake Over Steak

Sara Cornelius of Cake Over Steak on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted on her.

Sara is really passionate about art and we chat about that, but one thing we talked about was her passion and love of a certain food. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone with such a passion for it. Find out what it is HERE.

You can also find out what Sara would have for her World Ending, Last Meal HERE. (A hint, it includes the food that she’s super passionate about.)

A Food Show She Enjoys:Mad Hungry
Some Food Blogs or Websites We Have to Know About:Food52
Cookie and Kate
Love and Lemons
Minimalist Baker
Instagrams to Follow:Momma's Gone City
Bev Cooks
Cookbooks that Make Her Life Better:Smitten Kitchen cookbook
Keys to the Kitchen
Fast, Fresh and Green
An Album that Makes Her Want to Cook:Dean Martin's Greatest Hits

Karen Chan, HonestlyYUM

Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her passion for cooking.

Karen has such a cool global view on food and it was super awesome to talk with her about different cultures and their food. If you’re not an adventurous eater, check out what Karen thinks would be a good gateway cuisine to try HERE.

For her last meal, Karen talks about a delicious dish that actually my wife made me when we were first dating. When put into the hands of someone who knows how to make it, it can’t be beat. Find out what it is HERE.

A Food Show She Watches: Top Chef
A Food Blog we Have to Know About: Green Kitchen Stories
An Instagram Account to Follow:Yellowstone National Park
Cookbooks that Make Her Life Better:Nigel Slater (Anything!)
A Band That Makes Her Want to Cook:Alabama Shakes

Katy Atlas, Sugarlaws

Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast talking about a dish that's good for parents.

I can really relate to Katy’s view on food and cooking at the moment, especially with a baby in our home. It’s really not about doing anything too fancy, but just having something that’s healthy and uncomplicated. If you want to limit your time spent in the kitchen, listen to Katy’s episode HERE.

Katy’s last meal is an eclectic mix of very simple things, well, and also champagne, but why not? The world is ending afterall! Find out what she’d have for her last meal HERE.

Food Shows She Enjoys:Martha Stewart
Some Food Blogs and Websites We Have to Know About:Bon Appetit
Cooking Light
Cupcakes and Cashmere
A Few Cookbooks That Make Her Life Better:Martha Stewart
The Art of Simple Food
Musical Artists That Make Her Want to Cook:Bob Dylan
Crosby, Stills and Nash
The Beatles

That’s it! Another week of awesome conversations with food heroes.

I’m so lucky to be doing this.

If you haven’t already, please check out the iTunes page and subscribe to the podcast HERE to catch all the episodes. It’s FREE! If you enjoy the show, it’d be super cool if you would rate and review it on iTunes.

Have an incredible lazy day. You deserve it!

Gabriel

Filed Under: Lazy Day Tagged With: Cake Over Steak, HonestlyYUM, Karen Chan, Katy Atlas, Sara Cornelius, Sugarlaws

015: Katy Atlas: How Cooking Doesn’t Have To Be Complicated

March 20, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast talking about a dish that's good for parents.
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Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast on how cooking doesn

Sugarlaws

On Sugarlaws Katy shares health and beauty tips, very personal stories including her new adventures in motherhood and of course FOOD. Katy has also penned a series of incredibly well-received novels called, Moving Neutral.

I am so delighted to have Katy Atlas from Sugarlaws joining me on the show today.

On Starting Her Blog:

Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast talking about starting her blog.

This is a thing that I’ve never really talked about on my blog, but I actually had a personal blog in college.

So actually before Sugarlaws was born I had a live journal for about three years in college. And then I gave it up when I started law school because I had this idea that I was going to be this very serious lawyer, and very serious lawyers don’t blog and certainly don’t write about things that they do on the Internet.

I found that I just missed it so much. I just kind of missed having that outlet. I missed sharing with people that way. I missed getting to know people through blogging. And so when I was a year out of law school I started Sugarlaws. In a lot of ways I think it was kind of a natural outgrowth.

I love to write. I’ve always kind of been a writer. I think it’s something that I was born with. And so it felt very natural. Again, I think it was also a way not even just to write but to communicate and to connect with people.

When I first started Sugarlaws it was exclusively recipes. It was because I was learning how to cook. I was sort of on my own for the first time.

In law school I hadn’t really cooked very much and I was starting my first job and I wanted to learn this skill. I found that I was taking pictures of these recipes, that I would make them and email them around to my friends and my family. I just thought, like, “Okay, well, why not put them on the Internet?”

I originally thought it would sort of be my own little cookbook that I could come back to and have all these recipes and figure out what I liked about them and what I didn’t, and what I tried and what I wanted to try. Then suddenly people started reading it. That kind of shocked me at first.

It’s like, “Who are you? You’re not my mom, what’s going on?” It was really my cooking adventures for the first year and a half. Then eventually as I felt like I’d mastered a lot of cooking skills I expanded it to add fashion and beauty and lifestyle. And now again I’ve kind of expanded it to write about parenting a little bit.

On Her Connection with Her Readers:

Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her connection with her audience.

One of the things that I always think is really cool is I’ll get emails from readers a lot and there’ll be people who say, “I’ve followed you since those early days when you were taking a photo with your little point and shoot,” because I didn’t even have an iPhone back then.

And they looked terrible but they kind of, I feel like, I really feel like those are my friends. Those people that I know now or have known me for six years, seven years now. I think what keeps people coming back is the human being behind it. Lots of blogs have beautiful pictures and that is something that obviously the blogging world is just amazing at creating, but what makes blogging different from magazines and other places where you can see these beautiful images, are that you kind of get to know the human behind them.

I think that really has been, if there’s anything I think that makes my blog popular, it’s that people sort of feel like they know me.

On Her Epic Holiday Fail:

Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her epic holiday fail.

Yes. So last Christmas we . . . well so I have a very big kind of extended family.

We had my parents in town and my sister and then my husband’s parents and his brother and his brother’s wife and their son. And I was responsible for cooking Christmas dinner.

I did all the things in preparation, like I had my recipes ready, I had a schedule of what needed to go in when. It all was going okay until everything got ready. At that moment had I been a really on-the-ball hostess I would have said, “Sit down at the table right now.”

But instead, people were talking and that was fun and so I just sort of gently hinted that people should go to the table. It took like an hour to get everyone to the table, at which point all of our food was burnt.

There was nothing to eat.

Usually I take pictures of everything. I take pictures of my shoes practically every day. But I couldn’t take any pictures of these burnt potatoes because I was so mortified by them.

It was just one of those moments where I was so excited to cook this Holiday dinner and I really felt like I could rise to the challenge. And then I just burned everything.

I think in some ways I actually kind of love it as a story now. At the time I was really disappointed in myself. I couldn’t talk about it for a while. My whole family had to pretend I’d done an okay job, that it wasn’t really that bad. Then they threw everything in the trash after we were done.

So it was just a total epic failure.

But you know I think probably everyone in their life is going to have one of those stories. You know one of those Holiday dinners that just didn’t quite go the way you planned. Those are probably going to be the ones that you remember even more than the ones that go perfectly.

On Cooking:

Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast talking about cooking.

I started Sugarlaws when I started getting into cooking. Everybody gets through life making a couple of dishes pretty well so that they can eat. I had a few of those. But really when I started to get fascinated with cooking and with all the techniques and kind of learning about it, not sort of seeing it as a task that has to get done every day, and more seeing it as sort of a creative outlet, and something that I could learn how to do and a skill that I could pick up, that’s really when I started enjoying cooking.

That’s when I started going to the farmers’ market and going to different food blogs and picking out recipes and thinking about what techniques I wanted to master. I took a bunch of cooking classes. It was really a long learning experience that is well documented on Sugarlaws. I kind of went from here are some cookies with four ingredients to all of a sudden I’m piping my own eclairs and rendering duck fat.

Now it’s funny because cooking is still obviously a huge part of our lives but now what I gravitate towards more are easier recipes that can be healthy and manageable for our family. We’ve obviously got a lot on our hands with an eight-month-old and both my husband and I work. So now it’s kind of taken its own little turn but I still really enjoy it.

On Cooking as a Parent:

Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast talking about cooking as a parent.

I cook very differently because we used to order out and go out. We could certainly go out on a much more frequent basis and now we don’t.

Now it tends to be a lot more meals that I prepare at home. I find two things. One, is that I have to be a lot more organized about it. It can’t be like, “Oh, I bought two things for a recipe and then I’m missing the other four ingredients,” because then we have no dinner. So that doesn’t work very well. And then also I really strive for recipes that can just be our staples, something that isn’t necessarily learning a new technique all the time but is just like, I know how to make this. I know it will be good.

I love our slow cooker. It’s the lifesaver for a new parent.

Because nothing burns. I definitely kind of experiment still with recipes. I’ll work one into the rotation and see if it works and make it a few times. Then, if it sticks around, then it becomes sort of part of our repertoire and one of the staples. But it definitely has changed a lot.

I definitely gravitate towards healthy but easy and low maintenance, and something that is not going to burn.

On a Dish that’s Good for Parents:

Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast talking about a dish that

I have two that are kind of go-to’s a lot, and they’re both slow cooker recipes. I just find that those are just life savers. One of them is barbecue chicken. I’m so obsessed with the recipe that I literally have it going downstairs in our slow cooker for dinner tonight.

It’s the easiest, the recipe’s on the Sugarlaws website but it’s so easy. It’s chicken breasts, barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Italian dressing and just leave it in the slow cooker for six or eight hours. And then shred it with two forks and put it on a wholewheat bun, and you have a really delicious, incredibly easy dinner that takes, active time, five minutes.

Then I also have a Southwestern stew that’s one of our favorites. It uses black beans and corn and chopped onions. And then a lot of the time I just kind of throw in some taco seasoning. These are really low maintenance recipes but I swear I really do like to cook and can do the fancy stuff too but lately with a baby…

On Her Book Series called Moving Neutral:

Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her books Moving Neutral.

I was an English major in college. I’ve always loved to write, loved to read. I read all the time.

I started reading a ton of young adult books and just love them, love the stories, love the pace of them, love that you could pick them up and sort of fall into these characters’ lives. I just found them really, really enjoyable.

After a while I started getting these characters in my head and, you know, it just kind of felt really natural to try to put . . . well I want to say pen to paper but obviously it was fingers to keyboard. And try to tell the story.

I love writing and I think writing fiction is one of the most fun, enjoyable, hair pulling, intense activities that you can challenge yourself to. The discipline that it takes to write a book is just something that I’m glad that I challenged myself to do because I really learned a lot from it.

I would encourage anyone to take that story that they have sitting around in their head and those characters that they think about every once in a while and try to tell their story. I’m so proud of that as an accomplishment.

It is one of the things that I am probably most proud of at least before our child arrived. I loved it.

I think there’s something to be said for sort of staying in your niche, but I always felt like I write about fashion, I write about food, I write about beauty, but foremost I’m a writer.

Not so much foremost, I am a fashionista or a beauty expert or even a cook, I’m really kind of first and foremost a writer.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I love Martha Stewart so I watch her show a lot. I have a lot of her cookbooks. I think she’s just totally terrific.

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

I rely on the big ones like Bon Appetit. Cooking Light actually I think has really good recipes. And then a lot of Joy the Baker, I love her blog. Smitten Kitchen obviously is a huge one that I think probably you already know about, I love her blog. Cupcakes and Cashmere is kind of fashion and food but she always has great recipes.

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

So on Instagram in particular I follow a lot of my friends. I follow a lot of bloggers too.

The nice thing about the blogging community is that the ones that I follow that make me the happiest tend to be the people that I actually kind of know in real life, and have gotten to know through various projects.

They feel like my friends in addition to obviously they’re creators of really, really beautiful content. So I always really like it when I know the person and have some connection to them.

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

Maldon sea salt is the biggest one. You never think of it but it actually makes such a huge difference in your recipes. You don’t want to be pouring table salt on to everything.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

Cheese. Like probably parmesan cheese. My husband is always like . . . I’m like, “Let’s just put some parmesan cheese in there” and he’s like, “It doesn’t go in everything.” But I disagree, it pretty much goes in everything.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Back to Martha Stewart. I have a bunch of Martha Stewart cookbooks that I really, really like. I just find that those recipes are kind of foolproof. They really, really work. They always turn out great.

I also have The Art of Simple Food, which I think is kind of, almost less of a cookbook, and more of just kind of a cooking perspective on which I really, really like.

And then I do a lot online. I love my cookbooks and when I have a Saturday I love browsing through them. But I also, when I’m looking for a recipe, I also look a lot online.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I love the 60s and the music of the 60s. So I put on Bob Dylan or Crosby, Stills and Nash or the Beatles. Those are just the songs that sort of speak to my soul, and those are always kind of the immediate go-to songs.

Keep Posted on Katy:

Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted on her.

My blog is Sugarlaws.com and pretty much across the board on social media I’m just @Sugarlaws. So that’s Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. So it’s easy.

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    Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, Crosby, Cupcakes and Cashmere, Joy the Baker, Katy Atlas, Lifestyle Blog, Lifestyle Blogger, Martha Stewart, Mom, Moving Neutral, Parent, slow cooker, Stills and Nash, Sugarlaws, The Art of Simple Food

    Has Cooking Become a Chore? 28 Food Heroes Share Ideas on How to Make Cooking Fun Again

    February 24, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

    The Dinner Special podcast 28 Food Heroes Share Ideas on How To Make Cooking Fun Again

    The Dinner Special podcast 28 Food Heroes Share Ideas on How To Make Cooking Fun Again

    I know exactly what I’m making for dinner, each and every night.

    Why is this a bad thing?

    Well, it’s not necessarily, but I’ve found that, for me, cooking has become more of a chore than something that’s fun and enjoyable.

    Especially after a long day, the last thing I want to do is have to think about what to make for dinner.

    Sure, I could:

    • search online for new recipes to try
    • or find inspiration in new food blogs to follow

    but most of the time, I just stick with the tried and true.

    The funny thing is, I love food and I love to cook.

    And yet, every Sunday, when I go to the grocery store, I pick up the same ingredients because on Mondays, it’s pasta, Tuesdays, pork and potatoes, Wednesdays, stir-fry with rice… and the weeks just pass by.

    I totally get that the routine is boring, but it’s so easy. I know exactly how long it will take to make and how it will taste.

    But, I want to break out of this cooking rut.

    I want to have fun in the kitchen again. I want to get excited about making dinner. Maybe not every night, maybe not even once a week, but every now and then, I want to try new herbs, spices and ingredients, and be an inspired home cook!

    This is one of the reasons I started The Dinner Special podcast.

    Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I chat with my food hero guests about their fondest food memories, favorite things inside and out of the kitchen, and a dish that is special to them.

    I also ask them questions like, “For those of us where cooking has become a chore, how can we make it more fun.” Things that I truly want to get some answers and ideas on.

    From time to time, I’ll put together all their answers into a post like this. I hope this makes it easy for you to turn to.

    If you have any burning questions you’d like answered, please send them to me at: thedinnerspecial [at] gmail [dot] com.

    You’re a huge part of The Dinner Special and I’m sure lots of people have the same questions they want answered.

    (Sorry for getting sidetracked.)

    When I asked my food hero guests, “For those of us where cooking has become a chore, how can we make it more fun,”

    Here’s What 28 of Them Had to Say:

    Marisa McClellan of Food in Jars:

    Marisa McClellan of Food in Jars on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    For people who think it’s a chore, I simply say try something easy.

    Learn to scramble eggs really well.

    I don’t think everybody has to love cooking, but we all have to eat.

    I think the best advice I can say to someone is just to keep it simple. Your first meal doesn’t have to be a five-course extravaganza. Like I said, learn to make really good scrambled eggs, or pancakes, or French toast, and that will take you far.

    Amy Kritzer of What Jew Wanna Eat:

    Amy Kritzer of What Jew Wanna Eat on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    I think you have to start with some good music, pour yourself a glass of wine, make it like a whole experience.

    Then, start with something easy that is impossible to mess up and I think that will build your confidence and it’ll make it more fun for you.

    I’m not opposed to people who take things that are pre-made and tweaking them a little bit.

    If you bought some pre-made chicken to add to your matzo ball soup, instead of cooking your chicken, that’s fine.

    Whatever makes you happy and makes it work.

    Jordan Reid of Ramshackle Glam:

    Jordan Reid of Ramshackle Glam on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    I think just finding your basic technique.

    Like, with a slow cooker, it’s just meat and some liquid and vegetables. And so it’s like, once you get that basic thing down, you can have fun and you can say like, “Oh, I have some sriracha in my fridge. Let me throw that in. Let me try it with soy sauce on the side, let me try it with red wine instead of…”

    I tried Dr. Pepper in a pot roast and it was really good.

    And so I think that’s how you can have fun. Stick to the basics that you know in terms of technique and then you can improvise from there.

    Chef Tony Singh of The Incredible Spice Men:

    Get somebody to help you, because lots of people are time pressured and it is a chore if you’ve got a million and one things to do.

    If you can get your children involved, it’s a great family experience and you’re teaching them life skills. Get somebody to peel the onions or peel the carrots or stand there and start to wash up for you.

    Get people involved and that makes it much, much better.

    The Incredible Spice Men on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    Chef Cyrus Todiwala of The Incredible Spice Men:

    What I always tell people in my classes is, when they look at a recipe, let’s say they look at a recipe in our book and they find something which looks very daunting, I always tell them to read the recipe first as if they’re reading a novel.

    Then, shut the book and put it away and come back to it in a couple of hours. The recipe will automatically fall into place and will not look as dangerous.

    The most important thing is unclutter your mind. Just de-clutter it and become creative.

    Just become creative because all you will end up doing is creating something new.

    Elena Rosemond-Hoerr of Biscuits & Such:

    Elena Rosemond-Hoerr of Biscuits and Such on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    I think, especially during the weekdays, we totally get into a rut.

    One of the things that I like to do is try and dabble with new ingredients or new cuisines.

    So dabbling in things outside of your comfort zone is a good way to sort of bring the fun back into the kitchen.

    And starting really small.

    Trying to make something that you love to eat out, but that you hadn’t even thought that you could make at home, like a burrito bowl and then go from there.

    Jodi Moreno of What’s Cooking Good Looking:

    I think involving people always makes it more fun.

    If I don’t want to sit at home by myself, I’ll just invite a bunch of friends over, casually set the table, give them a job to do and this way we’re not going out to eat ’cause in New York that’s very easy to do.

    So, I think involving people, and if you have a spouse or children, that makes it even easier. My husband likes to cook too so the two of us will do it together and I think we kind of motivate each other to cook at home more often.

    Eva Kosmas Flores of Adventures in Cooking:

    Eva Kosmas Flores of Adventures in Cooking on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    Try to think of ways to make it more attuned to your personal taste. So, if you’re trying to just make something from a cookbook, know that you don’t always have to follow it to a T.

    You can always change it up and add something else that you really like.

    If you’re okay about onions but you love leeks, you can totally swap those two out. The same goes with most vegetables. If you hate cooked carrots, but you love brussel sprouts, switch those up, because roasted brussel sprouts get all caramelized and delicious.

    My main thing would be, don’t be afraid to change it up and make it more in tune with what you actually like to eat.

    It’ll be a lot more interesting to you if it’s something that you enjoy, rather than if you’re just almost following guidelines. That’s a lot more boring.

    Courtney Chun of Fork to Belly:

    Courtney Chun of Fork to Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    It’s just about doing recipes that really inspire you, and that you really enjoy.

    Before I started the blog, I would try to make healthy dishes. It would get repetitive. I’m making the same chicken breast, the same salmon with broccoli, and brown rice in it. It’s not like I didn’t enjoy what I was making but the process gets repetitive. It’s just not really fun.

    I started doing cakes or making Japanese dishes because I really enjoy Japanese food. That just really helped to push me along and make me really enjoy what I was doing.

    I think just with anything, you need to find what you love to do.

    Megan Voigt of Hint of Vanilla:

    Megan Voigt of Hint of Vanilla on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    One of the things that I do whenever I bake or cook, or just when I’m in the kitchen ever, is I put on some music, and I kinda dance a little bit. I’m a terrible dancer, and I’m a terrible singer, but I will actually dance and sing as I’m cooking.

    It’s something that you see in movies and you’re like, “Oh, that’s so cheesy.” But you know what? I do it, and I really enjoy it.

    It’s just injecting a little bit of fun.

    Have a recipe that you’re comfortable with, that you know is pretty good for a weekday dinner, so you’re not stressed. Then, on the weekends, you can kind of do a bit more research and try something that you’ve never tried before and maybe do something that has a little bit more time and effort put into it.

    Jonathan Melendez of The Candid Appetite:

    Jonathan Melendez of The Candid Appetite on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    I would say turn on music while you’re cooking. That’s like the one thing I always do as I cook, always.

    Right before I start cooking, I will turn on music, I’ll have it on shuffle, and I’ll just listen to music the whole way. And then it feels like you don’t even think about it anymore, because you’re listening to these songs that you really enjoy, and you are in the kitchen.

    And it doesn’t become a chore anymore, because there is something there to distract you.

    Cristina Sciarra of The Roaming Kitchen:

    Cristina Sciarra of The Roaming Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    I think the best thing is just to make it to the market, pick something that looks good to you and go home and search (for example) broccoli recipes. The websites I really rely on, if you type things into Food52, you will have great results with a recipe that will work for you.

    Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM:

    Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    I would always say start by making sure you have just the basic correct tools, and I think at the very minimum you just need a really good knife. A really good or really sharp knife, because if you’ve got to sit and cut an onion with a crappy knife, I wouldn’t even want to do that.

    You just need the basics and you need really good basics.

    For example, a really good pot. Like a very good cast iron pot, for example, or for me I use a mortar and pestle all the time. Especially if you’re going to be doing a lot of ethnic cooking, those are just so handy to have.

    But aside from that, music. I almost always listen to music when I cook. It lets you settle into it more and kind of focus on the chopping. It’s a little meditative because you just kind of zone out there listening to music.

    A glass of wine doesn’t hurt. I always have a glass of wine and some music playing and just have fun with it.

    Start with manageable things, have equipment and tools that are good and that will help you. I always say, seriously, a good knife goes a really long way and alcohol…

    Skye McAlpine of From My Dining Table:

    Skye McAlpine of From My Dining Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    In my mind, what makes cooking a chore is the mess.

    I love cooking. If there are times when I don’t feel like cooking, it’s pretty much always because I cannot face cleaning up the kitchen.

    So, I would say, maybe try and choose dishes where you use fewer saucepans, just to get you started.

    Maybe dishes that don’t require a whole load of equipment. And clean up as you go along, because it’s really easy to wash up as you go along. But if you leave it all until the end, that sort of sets the trap.

    The other thing about cooking is it’s all kind of confidence and practice. The more you do it, the more you are going to enjoy doing it. Go out and buy a really inspiring cookbook full of easy dishes that don’t require lots of washing up and just jump in the deep-end.

    And also, I genuinely believe that cooking for people rather than just cooking for yourself or yourself plus one is so much more fun.

    Nicole Dula of Dula Notes:

    Nicole Dula of Dula Notes on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    My best advice for that is like what we were talking about before, to kind of put a piece of yourself in it because it becomes more personal and it’s more rewarding in the end.

    So if you like, say quinoa, just try to experiment with different things you can put on like a quick sauté of vegetables or vegetables and meat, put it over your favorite grain and just experiment with flavors until you find a dish that’s super easy to make, super adaptable, no matter what’s in your fridge.

    Just have a stand out dish that you can make at the drop of a hat whenever you’re hungry, and then it will just make you feel better about yourself.

    Cindy Ensley of Hungry Girl Por Vida:

    Cindy Ensley of Hungry Girl Por Vida on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    Some days you just have to get dinner on the table, so it’s more about what recipes you have in your arsenal. But if you can throw something new in there every week, maybe, or even every couple of weeks, I think that makes it fun.

    Or use a new ingredient. A couple of years ago, my husband and I weren’t really big fans of fennel, so we started implementing it into our meals and now we love it.

    So I think that trying a new ingredient or trying a new recipe, but not going overboard and trying to do it every night of the week. I think that gets daunting.

    There are lots of different ways you can use ingredients and just trying them out a couple of different ways, I think, is also key.

    Phi Tran of Princess Tofu:

    I think you should do it with someone who loves to cook.

    I like cooking with other people. I think if you cook with somebody who likes to share their food and also their skills, it’ll make it more fun.

    It’s nice to do it with someone else every once in a while. And if it gets charred then you have someone else to share pizza with.

    Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet:

    Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    Wine or maybe a cocktail or something. Put on some fun music, pour yourself a drink, and just try to relax and make it a treat for yourself.

    Also having someone to cook for, I think, is really important. So invite someone over who super loves food and is really fun and encouraging.

    Ileana Morales of A Little Saffron:

    Ileana Morales of A Little Saffron on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    Try not to overthink it. It doesn’t have to be fancy.

    Our weeknight meals tend to be pretty simple. I use canned chick peas all the time and I just do that with some sautéed kale and some bacon. That’s it, that’s dinner. So I would say, don’t overthink it and don’t be so hard on yourself.

    I like to think of a recipe like a guideline, because if you’re out of something, it’s fine, it’s usually not essential. Just work with what you have.

    Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws:

    To make it more fun, two things.

    Don’t do it by yourself if you can avoid it.

    Lots of people think they always have to go out for dinner with friends but actually staying in and cooking is a fun activity to do with friends too. My husband will always keep me company. He’s not a great cook but he’ll help out and hand me cans and do little things to keep me company while I go.

    Put on some music.

    Cooking is sort of a wonderful activity because it’s a great way to just kind of be really active and engaged with it. Your mind isn’t wandering as much as our thoughts tend to wander. You can just focus on it and sort of enjoy the experience of it even if it’s not your favorite thing and can be a tough thing to find time to do everyday.

    We just focus on being present and try to have company for it.

    Renee Byrd of Will Frolic for Food:

    Renee Byrd of Will Frolic for Food on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    Trying new things is always fun.

    For me personally, I like trying new spices, new herbs or trying something that’s a little bit weird or that’s a little bit strange.

    I like to play with herbs in sweet things, like muffins, “I don’t really like muffins, muffins are boring,” put something in it that’s different, that has a new texture, that has a new flavor. Like cocoa nibs have the crunchy bitter thing going on and then you have sweet orange zest that is really aromatic.

    These things are very fun for me. I don’t know if it’s fun for everybody. That’s sort of how I have fun in the kitchen.

    Half of my time, I feel, is spent in the process of the mediation of chopping and looking out of my window and experiencing what I’m doing.

    I really am very tactile so I love to touch things and have it in my hands. That’s really pleasurable for me and being able to create something that in my mind is artful out of that is so much fun.

    Meike Peters of Eat in My Kitchen:

    Meike Peters of Eat in My Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    It’s like with everything else, you have to go through this time where you fail, where it’s not always fun, and where the results can be quite frustrating.

    You just have to stick to it and cook and cook and cook.

    What I like to do is because we always cook in the evenings, just open a bottle of red wine, have some cheese, some nibbles, and put on some nice music.

    Because for me, what I love about food is, it doesn’t start when it’s on the table and when I eat, it starts already in the kitchen. I create a nice atmosphere in the kitchen and that definitely helps.

    One shouldn’t take everything so seriously. If it doesn’t work out it doesn’t work out, and you try it again.

    Phoebe Lapine of Feed Me Phoebe:

    Phoebe Lapine of Feed Me Phoebe on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    I really think that this strategy, cook on Sunday or Saturday, whichever afternoon you have free, and eat all week long, is a nice way to do it.

    You’re not rushed, and once you have those building blocks in your fridge, then ten to 15 minutes of cooking becomes less burdensome on a weeknight.

    I feel like dedicating your afternoon that way is a nice time to grab a buddy or your loved one to tag team and divide and conquer.

    Emily Hilliard of Nothing in the House:

    One of the things that has been nice for me is getting a CSA or farm share.

    That’s really nice because I’m not necessarily someone who can go to the store and have an idea. But, when I have a set framework of like onions, broccoli and potatoes, I think that adds a limiting factor, so you don’t have to start from scratch.

    Another thing I like, I really like cooking with other people. That’s always been present in my life with family and just having friends over and cooking together.

    I also like having music or the radio on while I cook.

    Kristan Raines of The Broken Bread:

    Kristan Raines of The Broken Bread on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    I would say just to not worry about a thing and to enjoy the process. I think whether you’re baking or you’re cooking, the process can be the most reviving thing in the world.

    My favorite thing is to just make it communal, grabbing whatever’s in the fridge and not worry if it’s going to come out great.

    For me it’s turning on the music, and if it’s dinner time having a little glass of wine, and taking it slow and making it more of an adventure than a chore.

    That shift in your perspective can aid you in like – “Okay, work day’s over, we can make food and enjoy the food because it’s nourishing and fun to do together”.

    Becky Rosenthal of Vintage Mixer:

    Becky Rosenthal of Vintage Mixer on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    Turn on some music, keep it relaxed. Don’t try anything too difficult at first, and cook things you know you’ll enjoy.

    If you’re trying something new, maybe just have a back up in the fridge just in case it doesn’t turn out.

    But, don’t be too hard on yourself and just stick to the things you know you’ll enjoy.

    Chef Adrian Richardson:

    Chef Adrian Richardson on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    I suppose if you can teach people some simple dishes they can do, and how to make the dishes they’re already cooking even more enjoyable with things like seasoning and herbs and switching things around, I think this can be monumental.

    Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef:

    Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to make cooking more fun if home cooking feels like a chore.

    I think a lot of people think cooking is no fun because they secretly don’t think they’re good at it.

    I’m as lazy as the next person, I will take a short cut if it’s offered to me, I never make my own pasta.

    There are many many really simple recipes out there that if you make them three times, you’ve memorized them by heart, but if you make them, you’re eating really good food.

    That’s what I try to instil in my blog and that’s what I would tell someone who says “I hate to cook”, I’d say, “you know what, I bet you don’t, you just think you’re not good at it, and that’s why you don’t like it.” But actually, if you had some successes in the kitchen, you’d start to like it.

    Awesome tips and advice.

    Thanks food heroes!

    I hope you enjoyed this post. I was actually thinking of only including ten or so responses to keep it short and sweet, but I honestly feel like we can get something from each food heroes’ thoughts.

    Whether it’s a tip, some advice, or simply knowing that they get stuck in cooking ruts too, I find it encouraging and inspiring to hear their thoughts. I hope you do too!

    Let’s get excited about cooking again!

    Check out The Dinner Special podcast here and subscribe to get food and cooking inspiration every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

    How do you keep it fun in the kitchen with a busy schedule?

    I’d love to hear your thoughts!

    Let me know in the comments below.

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    Let’s do this together!

    Gabriel

    Filed Under: Cooking Tagged With: A Little Saffron, Adventures in Cooking, Alanna Taylor-Tobin, Amy Kritzer, Becky Rosenthal, Biscuits and Such, Chef Adrian Richardson, Chef Cyrus Todiwala, Chef Tony Singh, chore, Cindy Ensley, cooking, cooking rut, Courtney Chun, Cristina Sciarra, Dula Notes, Eat in My Kitchen, Elena Rosemond-Hoerr, Emily Hilliard, Eva Kosmas Flores, Feed Me Phoebe, Food in Jars, Food52, Fork to Belly, From My Dining Table, fun, Hint of Vanilla, HonestlyYUM, Hungry Girl Por Vida, ideas, Ileana Morales, inspiration, Jodi Moreno, Jonathan Melendez, Jordan Reid, Karen Chan, Katy Atlas, Kristan Raines, Luisa Weiss, Marisa McClellan, Megan Voigt, Meike Peters, Nicole Dula, Nothing in the Houe, Phi Tran, Phoebe Lapine, Princess Tofu, Ramshackle Glam, Renee Byrd, routine, Skye McAlpine, Sugarlaws, The Bojon Gourmet, The Broken Bread, The Candid Appetite, The Incredible Spice Men, The Roaming Kitchen, The Wednesday Chef, Vintage Mixer, What Jew Wanna Eat, What's Cooking Good Looking, Will Frolic for Food

    Hello! I'm Gabriel Soh, home cook, food enthusiast and your host of The Dinner Special podcast.
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