Two Red Bowls | The Dinner Special podcast

130: Christina Loucas: Preserving Cypriot Recipes

July 6, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Afrodite’s Kitchen

A Canadian Cypriot, Christina was an international arbitration lawyer for six years in London before moving to Cyprus. On her blog, she shares Cypriot recipes that she learned from her aunts while adding a modern touch sometimes to traditional Cypriot recipes. Christina writes and photographs for Taste Magazine in Cyprus.

I am so psyched to have Christina Loucas of Afrodite’s Kitchen joining me on the show today.

(*All photos below are Christina’s.)

On Moving to Cyprus:

I left Canada when I was 18, and then I moved to England to study and work, and I was there for about 12 years in total. And towards the end, I knew that I didn’t want to live there forever. So I knew I wanted to make a change, I just didn’t really know what that change would be. And my parents are Cypriot, and I made Cypriot friends in London, and to be perfectly honest I was missing the sun because London was really gray. I was over that. So I thought I might go to Cyprus just to see how life was over there. I always knew it was an option. And so I went over there, I got a job as a lawyer, I started working there, and in the back of my head, I always wanted to try and write a cookbook and preserve all of these old traditional recipes that my family would make. I could see that at some stage the younger generation was just going to completely forget them and nobody is going to know how to make these things any more.

So it came to the point I was just like, “Okay, I’m gonna try and pursue this,” and it coincided with a big health scare that I had over there, which just fueled the fire even more. So I was like, “Okay, I know that life is short and I should really just go after what I want to do.” And when I was recovering from an operation, I just started doing the blog and started following my aunts around and taking pictures of what they were doing and taking food photography courses, and that’s how the blog developed.

On the Food Culture in Cyprus:

It’s such an important part of everyone’s lives. I think people come together over food. Families gather together because of food. There’s still a big emphasis on eating a big lunch as opposed to a dinner. So people will probably come together at one family member’s house for lunch, and you’ll have a big spread for lunch. And then you might have something really light for dinner, unless it’s a special occasion.

There are a lot of fruits and vegetables over there, and it’s really common place so everybody will have a lemon tree and everybody will have relatives that have olive trees and everybody has someone who will give them freshly made olive oil. There are all these things that as a Canadian, I am just in awe. I think it’s so incredible. And in Cyprus, it’s just something that they have that is pretty normal over there. So I think people enjoy eating well, and it’s not particularly complicated food. It’s just your homemade mother’s or grandmother’s recipes, but the ingredients that they have access to, I think, are pretty incredible.

On What a Typical Cypriot Meal Looks Like:

There has to be vegetables. Whether it’s salad or something that was gathered in the fields and boiled with lemon, there’s always something green on the table. Usually there is a plate of olives just as a snack, and it really depends. It’s sort of if you just have a quick lunch, it’s usually greens or vegetables, and if you’re having a big family gathering, there’s always meat involved. And what’s interesting is that Cypriots are more… you think Cyprus because it’s an island is going to be a lot of seafood, emphasis on seafood, but there is not. Because traditionally everybody who’s gathered around the coastline they were going more inland to protect themselves from invasions, and as a result, there’s a big emphasis on meat.

So when you have a traditional Cypriot meal, there’s a lot of vegetables. When my parents were growing up, they didn’t have meat all the time. It was just what they gathered, and a lot of beans, and that sort of fair. But if you have a big traditional meal with family members, there’s always like pastitsio, and there’s souvla, which is their version of a barbecue over there. And then it depends on the season as well. Things will vary seasonally because in the wintertime it’s still warm compared to the rest of the world. It’ll be about 16 degrees, but it feels so cold because all the buildings are designed to keep out the heat. So when you take a look at what people eat in the wintertime it’s like stews and soups and then that totally gets pushed to the side in the summertime and it’s just a lot of vegetables, fruits, and lighter things.

On Some Good Resources on Cypriot Food:

There are a lot of old books that you can find. There’s one book in particular that every Cypriot household has. It’s this blue book and it has every traditional recipe I can think of in it. Well, not all of them actually, there are a few that are missing. The style that it’s written, it all refer to cups, but I don’t know if it’s a Cypriot cup or if it’s a cup that we use over in North America, but it’s just something that everybody has. So when you’re looking for traditional recipes, that’s a good place to start. And then there are a few Cypriot books that have been written over the years that touch on Cypriot food. So you have to leaf through a bunch if you’re looking for a particular recipe. But most recipes in Cyprus have been handed down from grandparents. So they haven’t really been recorded that much.

There was a recent book that was published maybe a year ago and it was great. It was the first time I’ve seen a book on Cypriot food for a really long time, and the pictures are beautiful, and that was I think published by a German publisher. But yeah, that’s the most recent one that I would say.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I watch Anna Olson.

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

On Instagram I like Food Stories in Germany. And I love Two Red Bowls, Cynthia. There are so many out there, like Valentina from Italy, Hortus Cuisine, huge fan.

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

Lots of people. They are so many to name. Dalia’s Kitchen, I love her story, just where she goes, and then I feel like she’s a beautiful person when it comes to her photographs. And Marianne Jacobsen, again, just beautiful photographs, and I love the story that she tells.

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

Probably orange blossom water that was homemade by my great aunt over 10 years ago.

She made it, and then she’s since passed away, and it doesn’t go off as long as you keep the screw on top. And so it still is really beautiful and fragrant and it’s gorgeous. And I love using it in recipes that call for orange blossom water. So it’s a really personal touch.

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

Probably the soup in Cyprus called trahana, which is like this fermented wheat yogurt soup, and I used to hate it. It was disgusting, it stunk. The soup itself looks like vomit. It’s hideous. And as you grow up, I don’t know what it is, this has happened to a lot of people I know, you just start to enjoy it. It’s really soothing, you make it in the winter months, you add a little bit of halloumi.

If you let the tarhana, which is the dried fermented wheat soak in water during the day, when you come home at night and you put it on the stove, it only takes like 20 or 30 minutes, and you just add water. Yeah, that recipe is on my blog as well, so if anybody’s interested in that, but it’s an acquired taste.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Tessa Kiros, she’s written this beautiful book about Greek cooking, and when I open it up I always feel like I’m in Greece. I think it’s called Food From Many Greek Kitchens, but it is one of the first cookbooks that I fell in love with. The photography is beautiful, the way she writes is really gorgeous. So I would say that’s one of my favorites.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I love Stevie Wonder. So anything by Stevie Wonder just relaxes me. I like to listen to music when I cook, and he’s always a favorite of mine. So, I’d say anything by Stevie Wonder.

On Keeping Posted with Christina:

I would say Instagram at the moment. I haven’t actually started using Snapchat yet, although I have a profile there, but I’m mostly active on Instagram. It’s probably the best way to keep up with what that’s going on.

120: Katie Wahlman: Finding A Creative Outlet In Baking

April 27, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Butterlust

Katie’s blog, Butterlust, allows her to combine her love of food with the need for a creative outlet. She is open and honest about everything she makes on her blog and believes that she could quite possibly be the messiest cook on the planet.

I am so thrilled to have Katie Wahlman of Butterlust with me here on the show.

On a Dish That’s Special to Her:

I would go back to that zucchini bread recipe that I was talking about because it is my grandma’s recipe and my mom grew up eating it and then I grew up eating it. Even my mom, who, like I said, isn’t a big cook, isn’t a home baker, isn’t a home cook, it’s one of those things that even neighbors growing up and my best friend’s moms and everybody would get so excited when my mom would bring over a loaf of zucchini bread.

It really is the first baking memory from scratch that I have. You have to grate all the zucchini – that would be my job. Then my mom would let me pour in the oil and do all the stirring. It doesn’t require a mixer. It’s a really simple quick bread. But it does have a lot of memories attached to it for me as well.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t have cable. My boyfriend and I recently cut the cord and we don’t have a cable service, so I don’t watch a ton of food TV, but I do watch a couple food shows on Netflix. The Great British Baking Show is on Netflix now, and I’m still on season 1, but it’s absolutely adorable and I’m kind of obsessed with it. Everybody is so happy and supportive of one another, and they make really amazing things and you learn so much from it.

Sometimes while my boyfriend and I cook dinner, we watch Chopped reruns. It’s kind of an inspiration while we’re trying to make something out of what’s in the refrigerator. So we’ll do that. And my favorite thing that I rave about to anybody who will listen, is Chef’s Table on Netflix. The six-part series documentary is about some of the best chefs in the world. The cinematography is just so stunning. I’ve probably watched each of the episodes three to four times; I love it.

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

I follow like 200-plus blogs. There are so many inspiring bloggers out there. A couple of my go-to’s that I will check every once in a while if I’m in need of inspiration or just want to see what these girls are up to, I love Hummingbird High, Michelle Lopez.

Two Red Bowls, which is Cynthia. She makes these amazing beautiful dishes. And then My Name is Yeh. She’s Molly Yeh of North Dakota. She makes the most fun, just happy type of desserts, so she’s really an inspiration too.

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

Some of my favorite Instagramers are probably @ladyandpups. Her stuff is absolutely beautiful. Again, a lot of Asian inspired food but her photography is just really stunning. Beth Kirby of @local_milk. She’s kind of just exploded in the last few years. I can’t even understand how she can take such beautiful photos. They’re just absolutely stunning. And then I guess probably Eva Kosmas Flores from Adventures In Cooking, who I know that you’ve also had on the podcast. Her stuff’s beautiful as well. I love how moody and Pacific Northwestern it is. The lighting is just absolutely stunning.

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

Does a couch count? I feel like my living room and kitchen are just basically like one big room. I don’t really have anything super unusual. I would say my most treasured items would be I have this antique teal-blue Pyrex bowl that belonged to my great-aunt Aggie who lived to be 102. So I have that, and I’m like, “Don’t touch it.” My boyfriend tries to use it to cook in and I’m like, “Don’t! If you break it, I’ll die.” Probably also my KitchenAid mixer. As a baker, your KitchenAid mixer is your best friend.

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

This doesn’t necessarily apply to baking as much, but I used to hate, despise broccoli, and now I love it. I eat it everyday. It’s my favorite vegetable.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Well, like I said, I don’t have a lot of room for cookbooks. My collection is pretty slim currently, but the, Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan is probably my favorite baking staple.

I also have this cookbook called, Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson. She apparently found a box of old vintage recipes in the attic of a bakery that she bought or something like that, and tweaked them to make them a little bit more modern and created this vintage cakes book out of it, which kind of goes with the scheme of me really loving these simple, really rustic skillet cakes. A lot of the stuff in there is along those lines, and everything I’ve made from it has been totally spot on. So I actually really love that one too. I’ve been baking from it a lot lately.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Probably anything shamelessly poppy. I have a wide variety of likes when it comes to music, but when I’m baking, I want to dance around and have a good time in the kitchen. So, probably Taylor Swift’s, 1989. I think when that album came out, for the next three months, that was the only thing I listened to while I baked. I find myself listening to a lot of Hall & Oates and old pop music which is a lot of fun. So yeah, anything that I can dance around to and have fun with.

On Keeping Posted with Katie:

I’m probably the most active on Instagram, so my Instagram handle is @butterlustkatie.

115: Lilian: Inspiration from Old-School Food and Philosophy

March 23, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Chinese Grandma

Lilian is not a Chinese grandma. Rather she’s a mother of four who believes in old-school food and philosophy inspired by her Chinese grandmas. Her heart is in home cooking, which she describes as uncomplicated, healthful, and satisfying food you can live on, and thinks food should be fresh, comforting, and nourishing. Apart from her food, Lilian shares personal stories about being an adult and discoveries that inspire her. Her blog, Chinese Grandma, was a finalist in the 2014 SAVEUR Best Food Blog Award for Best Family Cooking Blog.

I’m so excited to have Lilian of Chinese Grandma here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Lilian’s.)

On Starting Her Blog:

The funny thing is, well, I have four kids and when I started the blog five years ago, almost six years ago, my fourth child was nine months old or something like that. And it was a little crazy, of course, and we were living in Ohio, which was a temporary thing. And I’m from California, and all the kids were born here. I need some space that’s just mine, and I really wanted to write and I kept thinking, “I’m going to write a book someday.” And then I thought, “I have four kids, who am I kidding? I’m never going to have time to write a book.” I just want to do something that’s doable. And I thought, “If I can just get this thing started, I can keep up with it.”

We were going home to California for the summer, and I’d gotten this email from Stanford’s Continuing Education Program. And they have this great writing program. I’ve taken a class or two in the past. So they had this class on blogging, and the goal by end is to launch your blog. And we were going to be home for seven weeks, and it was a six-week course right in that slot. And I thought, “Okay, sign me up.” And I got it going that summer, and that was the beginning of it. And it’s been great.

On Sharing Her Personal Stories on Chinese Grandma:

I do share some really personal things. When my dad died, I wrote about it. And I write about getting older a lot. I write about parenting, because I just feel like being a new parent is so nerve-wracking. This is why the first kid is always the experimental child. You never feel like you know what you’re doing. And then the other kids have more relaxed parents, because you’ve been around, and you’re more of a veteran. I just feel like I really have always felt that if we can share our stories, that life gets easier for all of us, and I think that for the blog, it’s about the food and the stuff I’ve tried that I know works and I can count on.

The life stuff and the family stuff, I don’t write about stuff when I’m in it, but then afterwards, when I’ve had time to reflect, I think, “Okay I learned something from that.” And I want to share it. When you’re young, you always feel anxious and nervous about what’s ahead, and also just always striving. And then older people, like our grandmas, they have this sense of peace. I just feel like I’m a little of that now. So what I’ve learned now, I’m going to try and share with other people.

On Learning How to Cook:

My mom is an amazing cook. Chinese food is, of course, her focus. She came from China. And that is always a little intimidating to me. My mom, she makes amazing pot stickers, because she’s from northern China. And she and my dad were a great team. My dad would roll the dough, and my mom would make the filling. I would try to make them, really bad ones. You could always tell which ones were mine, but that kind of stuff was fun. But to me, my mom is just so great. Everything she did was very time consuming and intricate.

And I learned from messing around by myself. I’d check out other cookbooks in the library. And then I’ve learned from friends too. I had this friend from Italy when I was in college, and when I went to Italy to visit and just saw that whole food world, that was amazing too, and just the simplicity of it really appealed to me. Whereas I love to make things my mom makes, but it always pales, because my mom is this very seasoned pro. I think everyone with their grandmas knows, they don’t write down recipes. And when you replicate it, it’s never quite the same, even though I have tried to capture some of that in recipes on the blog.

But as a Californian, growing up here, and the whole produce thing, I really go for simple. And I really go for great ingredients, and not doing so much to it, and just enjoying the perfection of nature in a way.

On Her Idea of Chinese Grandma Cooking:

It’s funny, because my dad’s mom lived with us. She was a very independent person. She always cooked on her own, cooked her own food, she didn’t eat with us. She wanted to do her thing. She grew stuff. And I have no idea what she cooked, actually, because she had a little kitchen that’s set up back in her room behind the garage, and she did her thing. So I guess my idea of Chinese grandma cooking really does come from my mom, and I think her dumplings are the main thing. It’s about to be Chinese New Year. She’s going to make them. She puts little treasures inside. It tells your fortune for the year. And those are incredible. To me, that’s just the ultimate food from my childhood.

On Wisdom From Her Chinese Grandmas:

They are Depression era grandparents. They are just so super resourceful. They never needed anything, and they just got by. And I think that anti-materialism is so ingrained in me. It’s my dad too. He was an engineer, and he was like MacGyver. You need something? He’s going to make it out of whatever scraps he has. And I think that is, especially in this modern age, and I have indulgences that I love too, but to know that you don’t really need any of it, I just think it’s so powerful.

Also, to know that you are creative, and you can make something, and you can fashion something, whether it’s dinner out of the random scraps in your fridge, or fixing something that’s broken. I just think that to know that we have that creative power, that industriousness and that resourcefulness, that to me, is really a fundamental part of not just who I am, but I hope to pass that on to my kids. Because I think to know that you can be independent and make stuff happen is great.

On Being a Parent to Four Children and How it Changed the Way She Cooks:

Yes, my kids actually now, my oldest is 14, and my next oldest is 12, and even my 7-year-old, they love food and they’re open to all kinds of stuff. But for years, I had a lot of white food, plain pasta, stuff for the kids. And so I would make stuff for us, but then you’d have these dumbed-down version for my picky ones. I feel like we all have our right to our preferences. And taste buds do change. All of us who are adults know that.

I think I’m not into forcing anybody to do anything. I do try to appeal to their better nature. So they’ve always been great fruit eaters and a little mixed on the vegetables. But I feel like as long as you’re getting natural, good, fresh food, I’m not going to stress if you aren’t eating broccoli. It’s okay. But one thing is the kids do like food simple, and I do try and keep it simple. And sometimes we eat pancakes for dinner.

You can’t be the parent following a kid around with a spoon, and making deals for one more bite, the kid doesn’t have a good relationship to food. You need to let them make their choices.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I actually don’t watch any, because I’m not a TV person. So I totally don’t watch any, although my kids did love to watch Barefoot Contessa, that was on quite a bit. I actually bought my first kid, when he was like your kid’s age, maybe a little older, but I bought him the series of Barefoot Contessa, because he loved it so much. It was next to Sesame Street.

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

Well, either ones of people that are just so amazing that everybody knows like Smitten Kitchen and David Lebovitz. And also the ones of people that I have met, like when I went to the SAVEUR event a couple of years ago, Molly Yeh from My Name is Yeh, she’s amazing, and Cynthia from Two Red Bowls. Her photography is so, so great. Josh from Culinary Bro-Down is really the funniest person on earth. I love him, even though…Actually, we’re talking about, he’s this UCLA kid and I’m this mom of four. So its Chinese Grandma, and he’s like, “Oh, so you’re a grandma?” And I said, “No, Josh. I’m not a grandma.” I tried not to make him feel bad, but, of course, I felt pretty ancient. But he is hilarious, and I love him, so all kinds of great people. Naz Deravian who writes Bottom of the Pot who was on your show, and Emma who was also on, My Darling Lemon Thyme. When you know the people, it’s also even more fun to see their work and read their work.

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

Yes, gosh, Cynthia is amazing, her photography from Two Red Bowls. Valentina, who was also on your show from Hortus Natural Cuisine, her photography is gorgeous. I do love seeing people’s photography even though it makes me feel a little bad about my own. But of course, Instagram is all about the joy in photography, so I love that.

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

My brother and sister-in-law had given me this Jiffy Pop, and it’s got the little crank handle. And it’s genius. With the air popper, you have to melt the butter and put all that on, and it never gets distributed evenly. With the Jiffy Pop, because you pop the popcorn in oil, you really don’t need to add anything, except salt.

I also love it because I make kettle corn, and if you use a regular pot, it is prone to scorching, because the sugar scorches the bottom. But if you use the Jiffy Pop, and you’re stirring, it doesn’t scorch, and you get this perfect kettle corn, and that’s so awesome to make in three seconds at home. My kids love it.

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

Anchovies. I don’t even know if I even ate anchovies as a kid, but you’re always scared of them on pizza. But as an adult, I love anchovies. And if I can get Caesar salad with anchovies, I love it. Anchovies are awesome. I like to sneak them in my pasta sauce when nobody is looking. I love them.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Okay, The River Café, they’ve got two books. I think they are called it, Italian Easy and Italian Two Easy. But Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers started this restaurant in London decades ago. It’s like Chez Panisse here. So many people, Jamie Oliver, I think worked at The River Café and all kinds of people have come out of it, just like all kinds of amazing chefs have come out of the Chez Panisse kitchen here. And it’s Ruth Roger and Rose Gray, neither of them were trained chefs, but they had a passion for ingredients and technique. They were hyper intense, but they have these cookbooks that are so accessible.

They have recipes that are mozzarella, arugula, balsamic, and figs. And that’s the recipe. It’s just put these flavors together. It’s going to be awesome. And I just think that those cookbooks, like Barefoot Contessa, I love her. I love her because she was a caterer. And I don’t tend to love the chef cookbooks, because they’re not geared toward the home cook. I love the people that are all about accessibility with food. Barefoot Contessa, she had a catering operation, and all this stuff is tried and true. It always works. I love the stuff that I can count on.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I have this play list on my iPod, and depending on what mood I’m in when I’m cooking, and also who’s around, so I’ve got a chill mix which is awesome. I like to grove out when I’m cooking, because it’s very meditative. And then I’ve got a dance mix, because I love to dance. And if I’m feeling a little like I want to really rock out in the kitchen. And then if no one’s around, which is rare, I listen to Missy Elliott. That’s awesome. I love that.

On Keeping Posted with Lilian:

I’m on Facebook, so I put all my posts there. And Instagram, I am not great, but I’m on it. And Twitter, I don’t tweet a ton. But anyway, I love keeping up with people through all these sources.

108: Emily Stoffel: How Cooking Changes with Parenthood

February 3, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

The Pig & Quill

Emily started The Pig & Quill in 2012, and most recipes on her blog are heavy on the plants and low on refined sugars and starches though she is a firm believer in moderation. She is also a new mom.

I am so happy to have Emily Stoffel of The Pig & Quill joining me here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Emily’s.)

On Cooking as a New Parent:

It’s definitely driven a little bit more by convenience. I used to just cook whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and now, a lot of what we are doing in the house is meals, particularly dinners, where you can prep a lot of things in advance a little bit here and there throughout the day. I can prep a little bit during the first nap. I can prep a little bit during the second nap. And then by the time she goes to sleep, and we’re having dinner at night, there’s very little that’s required to bring it together, and we can still eat at a reasonable hour.

A lot of that is relying on things like a slow cooker, or, I use my rice cooker for everything. I’m cooking a lot of things in the broiler. I didn’t used to do that a bunch, but it’s such a fast way to cook protein. So that’s changed my game a little.

And my husband’s a great sport about the fact that we eat the same three or four meals in rotation, which we did not used to do. It used to be something different every night. We just have go-to’s that we know we can pull off in a moment’s notice. So there’s a lot of that, but still trying to keep things interesting.

I wasn’t such a really big proponent of the slow cooker actually before I had Lana. I know a lot of people are super hardcore slow cooker fans. I guess I just didn’t really give it a chance. I thought, “Oh, it’s for everything. Let it go…Whatever. I can do the same thing on my stove,” but it is really nice to be able to start something in the morning and then be able to leave the house and run errands or whatever and come back. I use my rice cooker for oatmeal which makes breakfast a no-brainer. So one of us can get up in the morning and start the oatmeal.

When we first had Lana, when she was a newborn, one of us would sneak out of bed before she would wake up in the morning, because she sleeps in our room, and put out all the oatmeal toppings and the ingredients and everything and set it. And then by the time she was up, it was ready to go. So we wouldn’t have to worry about making breakfast for ourselves. So yeah, I use that. I even hard-boil eggs in my rice cooker.

It’s pretty incredible. If you have a steamer insert, you just throw the eggs on top while you cook the rice. The time the rice is done, your eggs are done, and it’s perfect. If you want soft-boiled eggs, you can do it when you cook your white rice. And if you want hardboiled eggs, you do it when you cook your brown rice.

On Putting a Meal Together Quickly:

I mentioned that I like to use the broiler a lot. So I marinate a protein throughout the day. And then I can just pop it in the broiler when Lana’s napping or goes down for the night. And it usually just takes ten minutes to cook a protein that way.

I have a couple recipes on my blog. One is the shoyu chicken, and that’s super easy. It’s just chicken thighs that you marinate, and broil, and serve it with white rice or whatever side you want. And then the other one is a pumpkin curry which takes a little bit longer to do, but again, it’s something where I can do different elements throughout the day. And then it’s topped with a crispy, spice crusted tofu, and that is done completely under the broiler.

And even if you just look at the recipe for the tofu element, we put that tofu on salads. Sometimes, I just have it in a bowl with roasted veggies. So even if you’re not into curry or you’re not doing the pumpkin curry part of it, the tofu is super clutch. We do that all the time.

On How to Make Cooking Fun:

This is a cop out, but when we had Lana at first, we did a lot of the grocery meal delivery kits that are popular right now. I know that there’s Sun Basket, and there’s HelloFresh. And I know a lot of different ones that folks do. Some are organic, some are not. And that’s something that I probably never would have considered doing before I had kids. But it’s fun because they have the instructions written out so clearly step-by-step with those meal kits that it’s super easy for two people to tag team a recipe. You can just say, “Here’s where I started,” or “I left off at this step.”

Unlike some recipes, traditional recipes, including the ones that I write, a lot of times, the items that you have to prepare are called out in a different color or something like that, so you can see exactly what you need to do to this fruit or to this vegetable before it goes to the cooking stage. And you can break up the responsibilities that way.

We found those actually really helpful because it was a fast way to still be cooking together in the kitchen, something that was homemade. But A, you don’t have to go to the grocery store and B, just the way that the recipe is written, it’s really easy to do it on your own. But if you’re moving around the kitchen with multiple folks or something like that, it’s easy to make that come together.

The other thing that’s fun is we don’t go out a lot for dinner anymore. So when we’re feeling not super inspired, we’ll invite people over to just have hors d’ oeuvres here or something like that. And that’s a good way to get engaged about cooking again. You don’t feel like, “Oh my gosh, I’m just making dinner for myself to get by.” You feel like you’re entertaining which is a refreshing way to feel when you don’t get a lot of fun evening time. So that’s something that’s invigorated my time in the kitchen.

On Her Food Heroes:

Well, aside from my family, so my mom first and foremost, I learned so much from her just growing up in the kitchen, and her dad like I mentioned, just having exposure to that at a young age, and my dad as well.

In terms of people that inspired me, I guess if you think about the Nigella’s or Ina Garten, those types of folks even before Food Network was anywhere near where it is today, those were the types of folks where I just really admire. They’re cooking super un-fussy food that’s just delicious. It just tastes good. They don’t necessarily have a hook or a theme. They just make food that’s accessible and super tasty. And they deliver it in such a seductive and enticing way without really trying.

And I know that now, they’re these big brands, and they’ve got marketing up the wahoo. But back in the day of Yan Can Cook or The Frugal Gourmet, I used to watch those folks on PBS, and those were just people that cooked food that they knew they would enjoy. There wasn’t really any big spin to it.

Those are the types of folks that I think I learned the most from, just seeing their passion and seeing how that can translate into something that’s educational and entertaining. I also had a really unabashed girl crush on Giada when I was in college to the point where I would have dreams that we were best friends hanging out in Santa Monica. It was super creepy.

On Her Blog:

I had sat down with one of my good friends, and we were doing this life mapping of everything that we wanted to do in the next several years. And I told her that starting a blog was something that I really wanted to do, and I started The Pig & Quill without doing a lot of research, without coming up with a big plan for a brand or an image or even an idea of how the site would look.

It was just like I told her, “This is what I want to do.” We brainstormed a bunch of names. I bought the domain name, and then I sat on it for six months. And then it was bugging me that I had spent $13 to register this domain name and hadn’t done anything with it.

So Labor Day weekend of 2012, we actually stayed home that weekend, it was a stay-cation, and I was like, “Okay, this is the weekend that I’m going to start the blog,” and I launched it without a lot of research or anything. The images were awful, but it was exactly what I wanted it to be. It was just me talking about the food that I liked but also talking about how food fit into my life and adding a personal storyline to each post.

So yeah, it wasn’t really like, “Oh my gosh. I have this vision that I’m going to be a food blogger.” It was just something that I did spontaneously, and I’ve had to learn the ropes as I’ve gone along. Fortunately, there’s a ton of inspiration out there these days to help me grow, but it’s a crazy space, food blogging, because there’s so much opportunity and so many different angles and approaches that you can take with your blog. And I went into it with, like I said, with a really unclear vision. I was just like, “I’m going to get this up today.” And hindsight being 20-20, I would have mapped out my look and my voice a little more before I started, but finding my way has been part of the fun.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I watch Master Chef Jr. When I’m over at my in-laws or my mom’s house, I watch Chopped. That’s always fun. Sometimes, we pause it and say what we would do with the ingredients if we were given the basket. I don’t watch a lot food TV anymore these days.

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

Oh, wow. There are a lot. I really love i am a food blog. Everything that Stephanie makes I want to eat it immediately. Two Red Bowls, the photography is ridiculous, Fix Feast Flair, Kale & Caramel. I’ve only been reading Kale & Caramel in the last, probably, six months, but her voice is…I feel like I just want to be friends with Lily in real life. She cracks me up, and she does a really good job of doing what I really like doing in food blogs, which is pairing a little bit more of personal anecdotes with recipes. She does a lot of that.

Bev Cooks was one of the first food blogs that I read back in the day. She is hilarious. And she has two kiddos. They’re twins, and they’re the most adorable people ever. Her Instagram is just ridiculous. Wit & Vinegar, Billy’s really funny. I think his aesthetic is really different from anything that anyone else is doing.

I really like reading Dessert for Two because Christina’s got a little one that is Lana’s age. So it’s been fun reading her blog and seeing her daughter at the same stage that Lana’s at. We were pregnant at the same time. We’re not BFF’s or anything, but I stalked her throughout our pregnancies, and that was really fun.

Chocolate and Marrow, I really like Chocolate and Marrow. Brooke just does crazy, creative stuff, really, really delicious things, really indulgent and just beautiful stuff.

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

Snapchat, I just haven’t really gotten into yet. I would say of those things, I probably use Instagram the most. Violet Tinder, she’s really great. She has just a super rainbow-hued, really fun Instagram. And she does a lot of candy-colored things and water colors, and everything is just super poppy, neon bright. Miss New Foodie is really funny. She has some pretty funny captions for all of her indulgent eats.

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

The thing that’s most treasured in my current kitchen is not even mine because I rent, but it’s our stove. We have a vintage Wedgewood stove in this kitchen that’s incredible. It’s really petite. The oven portion is really petite, but it heats up super-fast and evenly. It’s got a legit broiler which I mentioned earlier that really gets the job done.

In terms of an appliance, I have a garlic press, the same garlic press that I mentioned earlier where I think it’s called the Garlic Twist. It’s like this big piece of acrylic. And rather than crushing garlic through it, you put the garlic in, and you twist it. And because it’s one piece of plastic, it rinses out super easily. I use it probably every day. It’s not like the garlic presses where there’s all the little holes that you have to get all the stuff out of.

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

I don’t really love mustard or I didn’t really love mustard, particularly yellow mustard, but I didn’t really use any mustard. And now, maybe because my husband is a huge mustard aficionado, I’ve come around on mustard. I actually really like hot horseradish-y mustards more so than a yellow mustard. But I used to really not be a fan of yellow mustard. I can at least tolerate it now.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I’m an awful baker, so I have to rely on cookbooks for baking or at least for measurements that I can gain inspiration from, so The Williams-Sonoma baking cookbook is really great. It’s got tons of cool recipes. But it’s also just good for if I need a jumping off point for an idea that I have.

I mentioned i am a food blog earlier, and her book Easy Gourmet is great. I’ve given it to a bunch of people because it’s just exactly what it says, easy gourmet. It’s really accessible. Anything by America’s Test Kitchen is good for the same reason as the Williams-Sonoma baking book. You just know that everything is really thoroughly tested, and it’s a good jumping off point. I still have a subscription to Bon Appétit and Gourmet. I know that that’s not a book, but those are good for keeping me aware of food trends and things like that.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Well, I always have this vision that if I ever quit my day job and I got to just spend all day cooking in my kitchen, that I would do it listening to Carole King or Adele on the record player. So I guess I’d say both of those ladies. Then for something maybe a little more poppy, I’ll dance in the kitchen to Britney Spears or Nelly Furtado, early 2000’s Nelly Furtado. The Who, it’s really fun.

On Keeping Posted with Emily:

I’m probably the most active on Instagram, and that is @thepigandquill or Facebook, and then Pinterest. I love Pinterest.

090: Lily Diamond: Playing with Food for Beauty and Nourishment

November 4, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Kale & Caramel

On Kale & Caramel, Lily has fun with local, seasonal produce and plays with different flavor combinations in the kitchen while creating body and beauty products that are pure enough to eat. She believes diet is a personal matter and highly recommends eating, cooking, and mixing with our own two hands.

I am so excited to have Lily Diamond of Kale & Caramel joining me on the show today.

(*All images below are Lily’s.)

On Growing Up in Maui:

Growing up on Maui, first of all, I just feel incredibly lucky that I had that background and was able to be immersed in so much natural beauty, and to have such a strong connection to the land instilled in me from a really young age. Both my parents spent a lot of time in the gardens that we had surrounding our house. And my mom was an aromatherapist and an herbologist, and so I learned about working with plants from her. And that informed the way that I approach both self care, definitely, in terms of mixing up crazy potions that I would slather all over myself, but also in the kitchen and really thinking about food, not just one-dimensionally in terms of flavor, but really on a much broader level, hence the tagline “food for all five senses”.

For me there is so much richness in experiencing the other qualities of food, the way that it feels, its scent, all of these things that make it a really multi-dimensional experience to work with in the kitchen and to play with, whether you’re nourishing inside or outside of your body.

I think having that deep immersion in gardening and growing our own food made it really easy for me to want to explore different ingredients. And a lot of that just was very basic. The fruits and vegetables that we grew, not basic now that I’m living here on the mainland in California. Their ingredients are harder to get, and I don’t have the luxury of walking outside and having three different kinds of passion fruit to choose from or being able to pick my own pomegranate. But having a culinary vocabulary in that way really informed, I think, how I eat and how I cook now.

On Foraging:

I lived in San Francisco prior to living here, and there is actually a really cool foraging movement growing, definitely, in California. I think, around the nation of urban dwellers who are aware that even potentially within the confines of their city limits, there are oasis that contain a lot of natural life that can be foraged and eaten. I definitely don’t recommend doing any of that on your own, scrounging up things that you think look edible, totally a bad idea. But if you can go with somebody who really knows how to identify plants.

Something that I did was when I lived in San Francisco, I didn’t have a car, and so when I moved down here, I still was into walking around everywhere and exploring my neighborhood, and I really quickly discovered this walled-in secret garden. I would peer through the fence and try and figure out what was going on there. And for a few weeks. I then finally saw a sign, and looked it up online, and ended up just showing up at a community service day for this community garden that is just a few blocks from me.

And it’s huge. It has, I think, over 150 individual plots and then several acres of avocado orchards. And the avocado trees, some of them are over a hundred years old. And it’s just an incredibly special place. So right away I went in and I was like, “Can I help? I would love to just be able to work here and spend some time here.” And they said, “Sure.” And I’ve since developed a really close relationship with them.

So many people who live in L.A. don’t know that this place exists. It’s in the middle of the city, but it’s just kind of hidden, and you do have to look, and you have to explore and I think, be willing to go off the beaten track and just have your eyes open for plant life. I don’t think that’s something that most people do. Most people aren’t really walking around and going like, “I wonder where the next rosemary plant is that I will see.”

But once you have it on your radar, you start noticing like, “Oh my gosh, there’s lavender growing at the end of my block,” or, “There’s a fig tree two blocks from me that is growing over the street and all of those figs are just dropping on the ground.” And that’s technically public property. Just little things that you can attune to that will make it easier to feel like you’re in less of a desert.

On Her Curiosity Around Cooking:

I think I was about 11. I saw an advertisement for a Quaker Oats recipe contest. And I promptly decided that I should make up a recipe and enter it, and so I did. I still remember I can see the printed page, and I remember the font that I used. And I remember what they were called, and I remember what they were. I think that I should try to recreate them now. I called them “Mini Blueberry Munchies”. And they were basically blueberry hand pies, but they had an oat crumble. Instead of being as a topping, it was baked in. So I’m not sure how that would work out now. That was the first time that I really remember making a recipe, was when I was really young.

Even before then, I would go outside, because my mom started a business making body caring spa products actually around the same age when I was around 11. And I spent a lot of time from very young, watching her put together ingredients and use different plants and scents and all different aspects of food to create really beautiful dishes, and also body products. But I would go outside. I remember just running around the yard when I was young, and I would decide I was going to make lipstick or something. And I would go, and I would pick the pink flowers and different things, and mash them all together, and then put it on myself, and go show my mom.

That mentality, just playing with food, has always been really present for me. And I think what that does for me now is informs a joy in the process of cooking that, yes, I am concerned with the final outcome, but it’s also really fun for me to take my time and play with the ingredients, which is lovely for me and means that sometimes I take a long time to make things.

On Creating Beauty Products Pure Enough to Eat:

So I think on a really basic way, if you go into my bathroom, you’ll see on my sink, there’s a jar of honey, which is not usually something that you see in people’s bathrooms. And people would always…they’d come out, they’d say, “Can I use your restroom?” And I’d say, “Sure.” And they’d come out and they would say, “Why do you have a jar of honey sitting on your sink?” And it was a tip that was given to me by an esthetician, maybe five or more years ago, who said, “We use so many harsh ingredients, and we spend so much money on really complex products. And really, for most of our lives, we don’t need those products. What we need is to help preserve and care for and on a super basic level, clean our skin. That’s it.”

And one really easy way to do that is with honey. Honey is a natural preservative. If you think about it Egyptians used to preserve mummies in honey. And it also is antibacterial. It’s a really good cleanser, and if you get raw honey, it has a little bit of a grain to it. And so it’s actually a tad exfoliating, which is super nice.

I also make my own face oil as a moisturizer. It just really started as for me saying, “Our skin is our bodies’ largest organ, what we put on our skin goes directly into our body, and people spend so much money on products to try to deal with their skin issues, whatever they may be. And a lot of them have really harsh chemicals or ingredients in them that aren’t doing them any favors at all. For me, I love being able to say, “Well, my face cleanser cost me $6 at Whole Foods to get a jar of really nice raw, wild flower, wild crafted or wild whatever honey that will last me a month.”

And the face oil that I use, I make from either sweet almond oil or sometimes add apricot kernel oil. These are all ingredients that you can get super easily at a co-op or Whole Foods or a household store. And I add a few different essential oils depending on the level of dryness or moisture that I have in my skin that season, and that’s it. And that gets to be my routine. And it’s so simple, and it feels so good, and it’s really pure.

I sat next to this super sweet high school senior on my way back home on an airplane, and she was going to Maui with her family. I think it was for some holiday vacation. And we were talking about Kale & Caramel and these different products, and she ended up telling me she had a bunch of challenges, acne and red bumps on her skin. I’m not an esthetician or a dermatologist, I would never presume to prescribe anything to anyone. But I just shared with her what I did, and I said, “You could try it and see.” And we had such a nice conversation.

We ended up exchanging information, and a couple of months later, she wrote to me and said, “I’m sorry this email is so long overdue, but I just wanted to let you know that the red bumps that I have on my skin are completely gone. I’ve never seen results like what happened with using the honey and sweet almond oil.” It’s just so simple. But I think as a culture, we’ve been trained to want the thing that’s most expensive and most complex, and yet the ingredients to really care for ourselves and for our skin are close to the earth. That’s what’s also going to keep us feeling the healthiest and the most radiant, I think. Because it’s what’s naturally occurring.

On Good Resources for Learning More About Food for Beauty:

The first thing that comes to mind is actually my mother wrote a book called The Complete Book of Flowers. It’s sort of an encyclopedia of flowers. And it is possibly not available on Amazon right now. But it’s always worth taking a look. That’s called The Complete Book of Flowers. I haven’t found any singular go-to book in that regard, but I may be working on something that could help you in that dimension.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I actually don’t have a TV. I’ve watched some MasterChef Junior. I’ve watched some of those with a friend’s kid, but that’s it.

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

Some of my favorite food blogs right now that I go to as just regular sources of inspiration, I would say, are probably, Fix Feast Flair, With Food and Love, Will Frolic For Food, and The First Mess. Those are just some that are off the top of my head. Two Red Bowls, I love. My Name Is Yeh, also. There are so many. I’m really just constantly astounded by the amount of inspiration that is out there and the level of beauty is so extraordinary.

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

This is someone that comes to mind right away whose blog I just absolutely adore is Dash and Bella, Phyllis Grant. She’s an incredible writer and as a food writer, I think, is doing really exciting things. Instagram, definitely, I’m Laura Miller. She just does hilarious things with fruits and veggies posing with them, putting them on herself in weird ways, which obviously I like doing as well.

Oh, I follow Beyonce, clearly, and some other fashion accounts. I really love fashion, and some travel magazines, Trotter and Cereal Mag. And I think, oh, The Feed Feed is also an incredible aggregate of a lot of what’s happening on Instagram and just in the food sphere today. It’s, I think, a great way to keep up to date. And anything else? The people who I mentioned previously in terms of their blogs, I love following as well. Vegetarian Ventures, Shelly is an amazing photographer. So those are a few that come to mind.

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

I’m going to have to say it’s a weird answer, because it’s so utilitarian, but my Vitamix, it’s so multipurpose, and I use it so often. Most days, I definitely use it at least once and often more than once. And so, I think, for me I would have to go with the Vitamix. Not sentimental, but practical.

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

Cilantro. I couldn’t stand cilantro, which I know is something that is common for a lot of people. I really disliked it when I was growing up. I don’t know when it was that that shifted, but it definitely became something that for me, I use it for so many types of cuisine, and I think it adds an incredible dimension of flavor. So I love it now.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Definitely, Ottolenghi’s Plenty and Plenty More. There’s so much complexity and depth in those recipes, that I’m always astounded when I explore it. There’s a cookbook called The Balanced Plate by Renee Loux, who’s a vegan chef, but she has a lot of great recipes that are super easy. There’s a vegan cupcake recipe that she has that I used to make. I just alter it to become a coffee cake. It has a really nice streusel on top. You would never know that it’s vegan. I don’t like cooking vegan recipes where you’re making a lot of substitutions and using silken tofu, and flax eggs, and complex things. I love vegan recipes where the ingredients just all stand for themselves. That cookbook really does that, which is lovely.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I do listen to a lot of Beyonce while I’m cooking, it’s true. I would say that I alternate between listening to really fun, upbeat music like Beyonce and listening to podcasts. That’s something that, for me, I live alone and being able to have that human element in the kitchen with me if I don’t have someone else over visiting, is really nice to be able to keep my brain engaged in that way, even as I’m using the rest of my body.

On Keeping Posted with Lily:

Instagram, any social platform, really, I’m everywhere @KaleandCaramel, so you can hit me up on any of those social media platforms.

086: Samantha Seneviratne: Cooking Up A Career in Baking and Food

October 19, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Love Comma Cake

Sam has been a food editor at Good Housekeeping, Fine Cooking, and Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food. Today, she’s a freelance recipe developer and food stylist and recently released her first cookbook called The New Sugar and Spice: A Recipe for Bolder Baking. She was also a Finalist in the 2015 Saveur Blog Awards for Best Baking and Desserts Blog.

I’m so psyched to have Samantha Seneviratne of Love Comma Cake here on the show today.

On Baking and Sweet Things:

I think I knew I was going to be a baker from when I was a really little kid. I told my family that I was going to be a baker and a librarian when I was five. I always loved dough and sugar and butter. I always loved working with those things. So as soon as I knew that people needed jobs to keep afloat, I realized that dough was probably the way I should go. So I think it’s in my blood.

I went to culinary school and I studied both savory and sweet, and I worked as a food editor at different food magazines. So in doing that, I pretty much have to do both sweet and savory, and these days I do some styling and recipe development both sweet and savory. I do both. I love doing the baked goods. That’s what I really want to do all the time.

On Finding Her Career in Food:

Well, it took me a long time to figure how I was going to do it. I went to college. I went to a liberal arts college, and I studied Latin American studies, and Spanish Literature, and then I got a job after school in public television, and then worked for a different non-profit. I had a bunch of other things that I was directing my life towards. Then, all of a sudden, I just realized what I really loved to do is cook, and that I should just go to culinary school and make it happen. But it took me a while to figure out how to do it because I’m not really a restaurant chef. I have great respect for restaurant chefs but that’s not what I do, and I knew that wouldn’t be my path. So it took me awhile to figure out exactly how I was going to make a living cooking. And magazine test kitchens were the place for me for awhile and that worked out well.

I had a friend who worked at the magazine, and she played on a soccer team with an editor at Gourmet magazine. So I told her I was interested in food and she said, “Well, why don’t you meet this guy. He’s a food editor at Gourmet.” And he took me on a tour of the gourmet test kitchen and showed me what he did, and I thought, “That looks like a good job. That looks like exactly where I should be.” So after that visit with him, I went to culinary school and that’s what I did.

On Her Food Heroes and What She’d Make for Them:

I mean the baking heroes like Dorie Greenspan and David Lebovitz, and there are so many, Rose Levy Beranbaum. There are so many baking stars, so many classics.

I’m really into fried dough. Lately, I’ve been really making donuts and just this morning we made apple fritters and funnel cake. I think fried dough is what I’m really feeling these days. It’s not good for you, but it’s fun to make.

The thing is the difference when you fry it and then eat it right out of the oil, toss it in sugar and then eat it. It’s a whole other ball game. It’s so much more delicious than anything you can ever buy because it’s a timing thing. So I’d probably make some fried dough of some kind.

On Her Blog:

I wanted to get more of an online presence that was just me. I was working at different magazines, and I love working in magazine test kitchens because you’re really part of a team, and you’re all creating this food in this vision and under this brand name.

I wanted to have a body of work that was mine, and that I could contribute to and that was 100% my voice. Just exactly what I wanted to make whenever I wanted to make it and so that’s what I did.

I just was craving a place where I can have complete control over everything I did. So that means any whim that I had I just was able to do it.

On Simple Rules of Thumb for Baking for Greater Success:

I think people are more scared of baking than they need to be. There’s a little more flexibility than people think there is. Things could vary slightly depending on how warm your butter is or something like that, but your disasters are rare, right? So measuring flour is important, temperatures are important. I think measuring flour is number one. Once you’ve learned how to measure flour, things are going to improve greatly, or get a scale, also, a really good way to go.

(On baking with cold eggs.) You can totally warm them up. There are little tricks like you can keep your eggs in some warm water and that’ll heat them up. Or you can even if you crack them into a bowl and then let them warm up that way. That also works. You can warm up your butter by pounding it with a rolling pin or sometimes I even microwave it on a low 20% power, 50% power, you can warm your butter up. Which a lot of people don’t recommend because it’s easy to go from cold butter to melted butter and then you’re kind of screwed. But you can do it. It works. But I think measuring flour is number one.

On Her Cookbook, The New Sugar and Spice:

It was a long process. I probably started a proposal for that book four years ago. It took me a long time to write the proposal. I wrote a proposal for a book I wasn’t that happy with, and then I scrapped it and then wrote a new proposal, and it took a long time to get the proposal in good shape. And then I shopped around with agents. Then she helped me work on the proposal and then we pitched the book. It’s a long process, but I always had the dream of writing cookbook. So just finding the book that felt right and it took me a long time to get there, and I think I did. I like it.

It’s basically a baking book and I use spices and the chapters of the books are all organized by spice. The general idea of the book is that I try to use a little less sugar. I don’t like overly sweet desserts, and I think that it’s easy to fall to that trap. I think sugar can be a crutch. So I try to develop recipes that were a little bit less sweet and used spices to amp up the flavor in a more complex and interesting way. That’s not to say they are low sugar or diet or anything like that, but they seem to me to be a little less sweet and a little more interesting.

I also wrote a lot of history. I got into researching the history of certain spices and how that related a little bit to my family history because my parents are from Sri Lanka. I started digging into the history of cinnamon, I realized that my great grandmother grew clove trees in her yard, and my great grandfather grew vanilla beans. And I learned that my family’s history was intertwined with spices in that fun way, so I wrote a lot about that.

I had fun writing the intros that were all about spice history and my family history and having really personal head notes about my parents, and my brother, and things like that. That felt unique, and fun, and special to me because, as a food editor for a magazine, you don’t ever get to just write about yourself or write about why you like something. You don’t get that opportunity very often and so I took it in the book.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t have cable television so I don’t watch anyone.

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

I have a lot of food blogs that I love. It’s going to be hard to list them. I love Brooklyn Supper, and I love Two Red Bowls. And I love The Fauxmartha. Those are three right now I’ll tell you that I love.

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

The only thing I do out of all those things is Instagram. So I would say, I think David Lebovitz is really funny and his Instagram account makes me laugh.

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

I have a little dowel that I got at a hardware store. I had them cut it down so it’s like a four-inch dowel. I don’t know what they’re for when you buy them at the hardware store, but I use it to roll out little pastries, and I love it. It’s the most useful tool in the world and it was a dollar.

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

I’m into anise seeds now and I didn’t think I was into it before. Actually the book, writing that book, I have a couple of recipes for anise seeds in a biscotti and in a pear tart, and I think they’re both delicious. I’ve really come around on anise seed.

I hate liquorice like so many people, but I didn’t realize that if you use anise seeds sparingly and if you pair it with something delicious, it can work in combination with other things. I just hadn’t figured that out yet, but I like it.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Regan Daley’s In the Sweet Kitchen is one of my all-time favorite books in the whole world. I think that book is super smart. There’s a lot of information at the beginning. It’s a baking companion, and there are glossaries and flavor pairing charts and things like that, that make baking really easy and inspire you to do good things. And then the second half of the book is all these wonderful recipes. I think that book is genius. That book makes my life better.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Oh my gosh, anything. I just like Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and all those guys. That kind of music, I love it.

On Keeping Posted with Sam:

Instagram probably. You can find me at @samanthaseneviratne, and you can follow me there or you can sign up to receive all updates on my blog Love Comma Cake.

081: Liren Baker: Passing Along Meaningful Foods

September 30, 2015 by Gabriel 2 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Kitchen Confidante

Liren is a mother of two and has lived in major food cities including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and now, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her blog, Kitchen Confidante, gives her the opportunity to express her creativity through photography, and of course, her recipes and the stories behind them.

I am so happy to have Liren Baker of Kitchen Confidante here on the show today.

(*All images below are Liren’s.)

On Her Blog:

I think that leading up to 2010, there were so many cooking experiences, from that first scrambled egg that you make when you’re like six or seven, leading up to it, and you just learn so much along the way, and there’s so many experiences that shape you as a person and as a cook. I was just constantly collecting and archiving recipes. I have this big binder of stuff. And I just felt like, you know what, when I started the blog, I was revisiting some of those, and also just taking all the life lessons that I had learned along the way, and started implementing it more into my cooking.

From concept through fruition, it could be anything. Sometimes, the inspiration comes from my family, and they say, “Hey, I’m really craving this thing that I tried.” Like for example, there was a salad my husband tried when he was traveling, and he was like “It was so good. Do you think you can make that?” And so I’ll think about it and that would start the ball rolling. You know, you start shopping for ingredients, see if it’s in season, if it will work with the time of year. And, like many bloggers, you just start testing the recipes and that can take a while. Then you photograph them, writing the content, and then, finally posting it on the blog. It doesn’t just stop there because you push it out there and share it with everybody, and hopefully, share it again later, maybe a year or two down the line.

On What’s Most Natural and Most Challenging about Blogging:

The most challenging thing about blogging, honestly, is not stopping. I think it’s hard. When you’re so passionate about something, you just really nerd out and that’s all you do. And then as it evolves and if it becomes, you know, a business, you don’t really take a break. And I think so for me, the challenge has always been, “Okay, I need to take a break.” Like I’m going to cook for the sake of cooking, and not necessarily feel like I have to photograph this, and spend the weekend enjoying my time with my family and enjoying the food, instead of worrying, “Oh my gosh, did I get the shot? Oh I need to set it up, nobody touch the food.” For me, that’s the biggest challenge.

The part that comes most naturally, I think it has to be the writing. I just write from the heart. I don’t necessarily stress over what I’m going to say. If it’s not flowing, I don’t stress about it. I table it. And I try not to put any pressure on myself there. But for me, I feel like that’s the smoothest part.

On Posts that Don’t Get As Much Love as Expected:

I think you can never predict what is going to be interesting or some people would call it viral. There are some dishes that I’ll put out there that I’m like “Okay, no one’s gonna care at all. Even if I like it, no one’s really going to care about it. I’m going to put it up there anyway,” and it just goes nuts. And that always surprises me. There are some things like there are certain cakes, for example, that I grew up eating, and I might expect that it’s going to do okay, and it just kinda flops.

I think that happens a lot in the beginning. You put all these amazing recipes out there that you’ve been dying to share and you don’t necessarily have the readership yet. So, I think lately, I’ve been kinda revisiting those old ones and putting them out again, redoing them and resharing them, and I’ve been surprised by a few of those too. So you just never know.

On Learning How to Cook:

I should start by saying my mom was not a good cook. She hated cooking. Baking was her thing, and she loved to bake. Every Saturday, we would bake together, or I would think I was baking with her, but she would bake and I would watch. And cooking, she hated. So, I really actually didn’t learn how to cook until later on. I was around 18 when she died. She had cancer, and so it was really just you learn out of necessity. I have a younger brother and sister and they’re eight and nine years apart. I’m older. And so, I felt this responsibility for my family to feed them, and as well as my dad. He wasn’t really that much of a cook either.

I spent that summer that she passed away trailing my aunts, because she spent that summer with us. And she would just cook for us because she knew that she needed to nourish us. So I just would pepper her with questions, and I knew I needed to write this down. So, it was my aunt who taught me how to cook. And a lot of the recipes that are of Filipino roots come from her. Because in my mind, she was the best cook on my mom’s side.

I was able to relive a lot of those family recipes slowly but surely. And so it was partially because I needed to feed my family, and also, because I wanted to finally learn. I think I realized around that time that, “Wow, you know what? I love this. Cooking is not so bad. Mom, what are you talking about?” And I was actually pretty good at it. So, that’s kind of how it all started for me.

On How Being a Parent Affects How She Cooks:

I will admit that I probably ate more junk food before I had kids. And when I say junk food, I mean like I would indulge in fast food once in a while, and now I really feel like I haven’t been to… Well, okay, Shake Shack doesn’t count or In-N-Out. But you know, I can’t tell you the last time I had fast food. So that also reflects in how I cook and I try to make it more wholesome. That said, what I feel is most important to them is to just pass along a lot of the foods that I grew up eating, so that hasn’t changed. I just think that maybe my approach to it has changed. Like maybe I’ll remove the skin off the chicken. I try to make it more healthy.

Growing up, my aunts were great cooks, and my cousins, all were pretty handy in the kitchen, and I didn’t feel like I was. But I will say that my kids like to experiment. So my son, we made pasta the other day, and he was just… I think it was more of the machine. He wanted to pass it through the roller. And so, once in awhile they do, but I’m kind of hoping that they’ll cook a little more with me.

On How Busy Parents Can Make Cooking Fun Again:

I think to make it fun, you actually have to plan. That sounds terrible, because I think spontaneity is more fun. But when you have your day-to-day and you know that you have a limited amount of time to cook and get everybody fed and everybody’s getting hungry, you really do have to plan.

I know it’s very easy to fall into a rut. I fall into ruts all the time going food shopping. So when that happens, I tell my husband “Can you please go food shopping?” Because he will go and buy all the interesting things, and it’s almost like having a Chopped basket. So, something like that, just as simple as like, “Okay, pick a different protein that you normally wouldn’t try.” And then make it simple by doing easy marinades and doing a lot of the prep work in advance if you can. Don’t overwhelm yourself making long drawn-out recipes. Keep it simple.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

We don’t watch a lot of TV, but we do you watch Top Chef and does Tony Bourdain’s No Reservations count?

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

I was going to say A Thought for Food with Brian Samuels, but I think he’s been on your show so everyone knows about him now, right?

I feel like so many of the blogs out there are popular. So, Two Red Bowls is another one. I like her. I feel like she’s under the radar and Hummingbird High.

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

On YouTube, I used to follow HappySlip. Have you ever heard of her? She’s a Filipino American comedienne. She used to do little skits. She’s kind of tapered off because she started a family. But once in a while she’ll still post things on there. I think she’s hilarious because she captures all of those stereotypes so well.

On Instagram, I follow way too many people. My feed is just crazy and a lot of food bloggers. But I think the ones that surprised me the most are people who are really into food don’t necessarily have food blogs that I know of, because it’s not on their profiles, but beurrenoisette is one of them. There’s abisfarmhousekitchen. She’s up in Sonoma. She’s got a winery with her husband and I love seeing what she’s doing in the kitchen. She’s very adventurous. It’s exciting to see what other people are cooking who don’t necessarily have blogs. I find the engagement on Instagram is really fascinating there.

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

Other than that ratty old binder with my mom’s handwriting, I went through a phase where I was collecting vintage cake stands, like vintage pressed glass from the 1800s. So, I have a few of those, and it’s really weird. I just find them super precious and we’ve moved many times and I still can’t get rid of them. I don’t use them all the time except for special occasions like Thanksgiving. But yeah, it would be my binder and then those cake stands.

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

Oh, that’s easy. Cilantro. Growing up, I was like, “This is gross.” I would pick them out of the noodles and throw them away. Now, I’m just like eating it raw. I have to have cilantro in the house all the time, and I put it on almost too many things actually.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

There are some cookbooks that are surprises to me. I reviewed a cookbook last year called The Greenmarket Cookbook. That was a really nice surprise. There were so many stories behind all the farmers who sell their goods at Greenmarket. I loved reading the recipes that all the chefs back east would do with the food that they got at Greenmarket, that was a nice surprise.

I like cookbooks that surprise me. The other one was The Union Square Cafe Cookbook. My daughter bought it. She was doing a camp one summer and she went into the library. They were selling old books, and she’s like, “Oh mommy, I got you a present.” And I’m like “Oh, thanks!” It turned out to be an amazing cookbook. So, those things make me happy, when it’s a book that I just did not expect to wow me.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Jack Johnson, Making banana pancakes. When that’s on, it’s instant happy and I want to make pancakes. It’s great on a Saturday morning.

On Keeping Posted with Liren:

Well obviously, there’s my blog, kitchenconfidante.com. Instagram is probably one of the easiest, but pretty much on any social media, I’m kitchconfidante. I have to shorten it, there’s not enough characters. But Instagram’s probably the best way to find me.

064: Katrín Björk: Redefining the Term Housewife

August 3, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Modern Wifestyle

Katrín is originally from Iceland and has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, since 2002. Her blog Modern Wifestyle is filled with recipes from family style dinners to decadent desserts, but she also wants to focus on reinventing the word “housewife” to recognize that housewives come in all forms and shapes and to bring positivity to the art of being a home maker.

I am so happy to have Katrín Björk, of Modern Wifestyle joining me here today.

(*All images below are Katrín’s.)

On Her Definition of “Housewife”:

Housewife is someone who likes to take care of her family, her house, her home. Someone who likes to build up a life. It doesn’t necessarily mean only cooking and it definitely doesn’t mean someone telling you to cook or telling you to be in the kitchen. And for me to kind of . . . reinventing is a big word, but there’s a lot of negativity linked to the word housewife. I am proud to say that I am a housewife, but I’m also a photographer and I work full-time. And you can be both.

The world is changing and to me, to be a housewife, I’m also focused on to not be the type of a housewife my grandmother was. My grandmother, she worked a little bit but mainly she was taking care of the children, she was cooking, she was cleaning, and she didn’t necessarily like it. Now she’s living by herself after my grandpa passed and she doesn’t cook anymore. She eats take out and has her children to bring food and stuff like that, which I think is great but I also think it’s really sad that she now, at the age of 84, is realizing that you don’t have to cook and you don’t have to like it.

Here in Denmark where I live, Copenhagen, let’s just say that Danish men are really well-raised by their mothers. They all make bread. When I moved here from Iceland I was like, “What is going on?” It was like in a different world, you know, they all bake, they all vacuum and had really nice homes. It was so different and that was really inspiring to me.

On Taking Pride in Being a Homemaker:

Food has never been as popular as right now. Everybody’s cooking. Everybody has opinion on food now and people eat out a lot and I think there’s definitely a food revolution going on. I think the homemaker is within that as well. And then people are interested in cooking and then you get interested in throwing dinner parties. Then all these hostess-type of roles are coming back, which I think is great.

I see it as a hobby. I’m really interested in design, I’m really interested in architecture, and so I see it as a hobby. To create a beautiful space to live in, to create beautiful food for my family. It’s a hobby.

On Her Passion for Photography and Food:

Photography is my profession. That’s what I do for a living, that’s what I study, that’s my number one passion. And then as I said, food and homemaking is my hobby. So my blog is created around the images and it’s just a plus that I can cook and I can style.

Not always but a lot of the time, I do start with an idea of an image or a shape or a form and then I start thinking what type of food would fit into that, what type of food would fit with this table cloth that I really want to use.

When I started the blog I was doing photography and then I started blogging about food. Now it’s all kind of melted together and I’m basically only doing food photography now. I do a little lifestyle – big word – in between, but it’s mainly food and food photography that I do. I get a lot of jobs through the blog. If I create a recipe of pictures for a magazine I would put that in the blog later. So it’s changing a lot.

In the beginning it was all about starting fresh and I didn’t have any clients and I wasn’t really doing food photography. I was learning by doing. So it’s changing a lot now. But from an idea to a finished product, like a finished blog post or a finished article, it can vary. It can be a day. I can wake up in the morning and be like,” Yes, I want to cook a whole fish today,” and then I’ll just go out and get it and cook it and style and then photograph it and boom! It’s there. But other times I’ll go for days and think about, “What do I want to do? Should I do waffles or should I do pancakes? What is better?”

I have read a lot of cookbooks. I’m not a chef, I’m not a baker, I’m not a pastry chef, and I don’t pretend to be. I’m a home cook. So I’ve read a lot of books with technique and then I just practice, and then I figure it out. Now after so many years I’ve nailed down the basic techniques. It’s working out. But I test a lot. My recipes are definitely tested, I promise you that. Because you never know. But often, if I’m watching a cooking show on TV and they’re making something, I’ll go the next day and use what they did and do something similar. And often it turns out to be completely different.

On the Food Culture in Iceland:

The food culture in Iceland is . . . it’s a little old fashioned. They’re getting there definitely, and more and more beautiful restaurants are opening and serving delicious food. Iceland is a country with amazing products and produce. They have the best lamb in the world, they have fresh fish. They have it all, but they’re still preparing it in the old fashioned way.

Luckily I have a lot of readers from Iceland that I can inspire with either Danish food and they’re American inspired too. But yeah, I mean traditionally Icelandic food is pretty gross. I’m pretty sure you would not want to taste that. We’re talking fermented everything. A lot of fermented fish and not really delicious. But they’re definitely getting there.

What I think is most special about Icelandic food is that all lambs are born in late April and May. And then they’re let go freely up to the mountains where they just go. They eat berries and plants and then the farmers will go up to the mountains in September on horses and gather them around again, bring them down from the mountain and then they’re slaughtered right away. So our lamb is super fresh, really young, and spiced from the inside.

On How Danes Approach Food:

Danes are really into food and Danes have a great word that means cozy but it also means gather. It means basically everything that’s good. And they do that a lot with family. So they come together, they eat together for the holidays, every single day. And it doesn’t matter how old you are. If you’re 50 years old, you will still go to your mother’s house and have a feast with your whole family. It’s really impressive. They’re very family-oriented and big feast, big gatherings, they’re all for that.

Danes really love a dish that they call smørrebrød which is an open-faced sandwich that comes with various toppings. And they have rules about what they pair together and what goes on top and such. And these open sandwiches you can get almost everywhere. You can both go to traditional restaurants, both around the cities and in the countrysides, at bed and breakfasts and hotels. And then also in Copenhagen they are doing their modern take on this sandwich.

I think that is definitely something that people visiting Denmark and Copenhagen should try, because they’re delicious. They can have everything on them. Everything from pickled herring with apples, fried fish fillet with remoulade sauce on top and a little lemon and it’s delicious. It definitely contains mayonnaise, butter, and all these delicious things, so it’s not healthy but it’s definitely delicious.

You will definitely have ice cold beer with it, and probably a shot of Danish snaps. They have this snaps that taste a little bit like Caraway seeds. It’s super strong but yummy and kind of cleanses your palate, in between mayonnaise and butter.

This is it. It’s one piece of bread with either a thick layer of mayo or butter and then toppings on top. These can be super tall and they can fill out a whole plate with this one piece of bread. My husband and I will have smørrebrød for dinner on a lazy day. It’s like having a sandwich, just in a little fancier way.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I watch, religiously, MasterChef Australia. Not U.S., not Canada, not UK, Australia. It is amazing!

I think there are five shows, five episodes per week, and it’s all about the food. It’s not about the drama. They’re all super supportive with each other, and they’re cooking amazing food, and there’s a lot of focus on the food and focus on techniques.

I’ll watch an episode of that and then I’m out in my kitchen and trying it.

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

I’m going to say Two Red Bowls. Beautiful, I mean beautiful photography, amazing styling and delicious recipes. And I’m going to say My Name is Yeh, which is equally as amazing. Always with Butter. Chasing Delicious. Yeah, those four.

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

Oh, I follow everybody on Pinterest. I love Pinterest. But I also love Instagram, definitely. On Instagram I follow Nik Sharma. He is so talented and his images are great. So I follow him on Instagram and I’m really inspired by what he’s doing. I follow Molly Yeh from My name is Yeh. And I follow Ashley Marti from the Local Haven. She’s really good. She does a lot of cocktails, which is right up my alley.

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

You know when you open a bottle of wine and then you maybe just have a glass, and then you have to have an extra cork to put in it? Because if you pull out the cork, they don’t always fit in again? I have this cork from my grandfather that has this huge golden horse head on top. I mean it’s so weird and strange and so not in style with my Scandinavian home, but I think that is the greatest thing I have in my kitchen right now.

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

Cheese. I know, it’s so weird. I didn’t eat cheese as a kid. I wouldn’t touch it. I hated it. And when I grew up, it was embarrassing. It was embarrassing to go to parties, go to people’s houses, and be like, “Oh, I don’t eat cheese.” And being the type picking cheese off a pizza. I mean it was so weird. So I made an effort. I just said to myself, “This is a no go. You have to learn how to eat cheese.” So I did.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Definitely The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, definitely. I mean I’ve read it from one end to another, because it’s basic, but it’s so great, and it teaches you a lot. And then everything by Jamie Oliver. Huge fan of Jamie Oliver.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I listen to a lot of jazz when I cook. Nothing special in particular, just a playlist of jazz. Just go on, Spotify, and just jazz. And then just pick a random playlist and play it.

It sets a good mood you know? It’s different.

If I’m cooking for the blog and working, I might listen to something more upbeat-y and if I’m cooking for a dinner party, it’s definitely slow jazz, because then I’m also having wine, for sure.

On Keeping Posted with Katrín:

Instagram for sure. If you’re interested in more than just food, if you’re interested in more of the homemaking aspect of me, Pinterest, definitely.