Farm | The Dinner Special podcast

125: Posie Harwood: A Career Cultivated from Growing Up on a Farm

June 1, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

600 Acres

Posie grew up on a farm that is just over 600 acres where here family had access to the freshest of milk, eggs, and harvests from their well-attended garden. On her blog, 600 Acres, is where she shares some of her memories as well as the new things she is cooking and trying in places far from her home. Posie had worked as a food writer and editor for Tasting Table, Food52, King Arthur Flour and she contributes to Sift Magazine.

I am so pumped to have Posie Harwood of 600 Acres here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Posie’s.)

On Growing Up on a 600 Acre Farm:

I look back and I think how lucky I was because we grew up drinking raw milk and my mom made everything from scratch. We didn’t have chips or any of that stuff. But I never felt like, “Oh man, I feel so deprived.”

When I got older and people started talking about organic food and all that kind of stuff, to me, I always thought, “What else is there?” That’s what I’d always known. Now I realize how lucky that is. Some people have to learn that or seek it out. So, it was a really cool experience. I think it is responsible for what I ended up doing.

On Her Interest in Cooking:

My mom, she cooked every night and we always had family dinner, but she is an incredible baker. She always made bread for scratch. Just watching her, I learned a lot of the things I’d love to make and cook and bake. And I also think I just watched her have that natural rhythm in a household and picked up on that.

I never went to culinary school. I didn’t start working in food until a little while after college. So, I just always knew that was what I wanted to do. And not even what I wanted to do. I just felt like, “What else is there?” That is just in me. I feel I don’t have a choice. I have to.

On Leaving the Farm:

I’d spend a decent amount of time in spaces away from home. And then, going to college. I went to college in New Jersey actually and then I moved to Manhattan. I think New York took a lot of getting used to for me. I am really not a city person. I love New York. I think it is an amazing place to live and there is lots of food.

But I have always missed open space and fresh air. I know I won’t stay in New York forever. That’s always been a hard thing to just get used to. It is a pro and a con. It is an exciting, huge place. But sometimes I want to speak to no one for the next four hours, but you can’t when you are in New York. It is an adjustment. It is always a little bit of a balance. Now I work for a company in Vermont. So, fortunately, I get to spend a lot of time up there, which is a really nice balance.

On a Dish That’s Special to Her:

I guess I would have to say baking is my one main love. I feel like the first thing that ever really made me excited about food was baking bread. As I said, my mom, we never had store bought bread. She makes everything from scratch. My favorite thing is just white sandwich bread that she makes. It is the most delicious.

When it would come out of the oven we had all my sisters waiting just like rabid animals and she would cut off the loaf, the heel, and give it to one of us and we spread it with butter, which we always would have because we had cows. And she would churn it. So it was this really bright yellow Jersey cow butter and she packed it in these little ramekins. So, she would take a big swipe and put it on the bread and eat that.

That is the ultimate, that is the best thing. Now, every time when I bake bread, which is a lot, I am always making just that white sandwich bread loaf. And I am like, “Ah, this is heaven.” The thing is it is so easy to make. I think a lot of people are intimidated by yeast bread, which I feel like it is the kind of thing if you make yourself do once, it is totally magical and you realize, “Oh, okay, that is actually easier than so many recipes cooking- wise.” I mean, what are there? There’s like three, four ingredients. It just is all a matter of touch and just getting used to what it feels like, bread dough, and how it should feel.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Top Chef. I’m obsessed with Top Chef. And The Great British Baking Show. Also obsessed.

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

I love Smitten Kitchen. I love Food52, former employee, I have to say that. I also love The King Arthur Blog where I work now because it is incredibly informative, super good step-by-step baking. If you ever want to learn how to bake, or frost a cake, or make sourdough, check it out.

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

I love following Molly Yeh.

Funny, playful, great flavors, love her farm life snap shots.

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

Treasured item probably my stand mixer, I guess I have to say. It is bright red and I love it, and it does so much for me.

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

Mushrooms. I used to hate mushrooms and now I eat them all the time. I eat scrambled eggs and mushrooms twice a week for dinner.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Definitely the Joy of Cooking. That is a huge one. Always referencing it. And probably, I have the Cook’s Illustrated Best Baking Cook Book. That is another go to with everything I bake.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I really like cooking to reggae music. I listen to Bob Marley a lot when I cook because it just makes me want to dance around.

On Keeping Posted with Posie:

Definitely my blog, which is 600acres.com and Instagram. I am always Instagraming twice a day. So you can always check out what I am doing in my kitchen there.

112: Sasha Swerdloff: Learning to Love Mornings and Hosting Brunch

March 2, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

TENDING the TABLE

Sasha grew up on a farm in Oregon, and has always had a deep interest in food. With her cooking, she enjoys following the seasons and revels in the creativity, precision, tranquility and bustle required in the kitchen. Sasha is inspired by the food of the world and the simple things such as cooking from scratch.

I’m so happy to have Sasha Swerdloff of TENDING the TABLE, joining me here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Sasha’s.)

On Growing Up on a Farm in Oregon:

I grew up watching my mom garden all the time and helping her in the garden. So from that I developed this really deep love for where our food comes from and the whole process. And she also did a lot of preserving and canning. So we spent a lot of time in the kitchen together making jam and canning peaches and things like that. That was always really special for me. I always wanted to help in the kitchen too. She tells the story about how I stuck my finger in the food processor trying to– we were grating carrots or something and I was pushing the carrots down into the food processor and like shredded my finger because I was just so eager to help. So that sort of paints a picture of what I was like as a kid in the kitchen.

We also spent a lot of time walking around in the woods on our property and identifying plants and learning to forage and things like that. It was pretty magical and pretty special.

I grew up vegetarian. I didn’t have my first hamburger until I was 18 and I was abroad in Peru, before starting college. I went out to a bar one night and had a hamburger and that was my big rebellion. Actually my second semester at college I moved off campus into a house where we were able to cook all our own food because I just missed that so much. It’s always really been important to me.

On Learning How to Cook:

Just practice. I taught myself. We ate out a lot actually, too. Our property is pretty close to Portland and so we would go into Portland and eat out a fair amount. I always loved trying new things. I think that’s really shaped my learning around cooking. Just tasting new flavors and new combinations and then wanting to try that and experiment at home. That’s a big part of how I learned and it’s just through experimentation.

On Her Cooking Influences:

Mostly her (mom). My dad is a big cook also. But they’re separated so I didn’t see him that often growing up. I definitely when I did visit, he was always cooking dinner, he was always the one in the kitchen. And he, I think, taught me about proficiency in the kitchen and being efficient and knife skills and all of that. He was the person who taught me those things.

My mom and I still can together a fair amount actually, when I go to visit. So we just–over the holidays, we made a really yummy pear ginger preserve that we gave away as gifts to people. And I will help her can peaches still in the summer or freeze blackberries. She goes and picks blackberries around the property and we freeze those. We still do all those things together.

On Learning to Love Mornings:

I feel like I’m the most efficient and productive in the morning. So I think that’s part of it. I like getting up and starting the day and feeling productive. I have a yoga practice. So that’s a big part of it. I have a morning routine. I get up and I do my practice. I like starting the day that way. I think that shapes the rest of my morning so that I do my yoga and then I sit down and I have some tea, and eat a solid meal before I charge into the day. Otherwise, I just don’t like how I feel.

I think just taking the time first thing in the morning to pause and just make sure that you’re taking care of yourself, and what you need to start the day off right, is really important.

We have the same thing a lot. And it’s usually toast with some sort of veggies, usually like sauteed kale or spinach and an egg. It’s simple but I feel like it’s really good and the eggs are from our chickens. We have some chickens in here Seattle. So really good eggs and good bread and some greens. I’m happy with that.

On the Food Culture in Vermont:

There’s a really, really wonderful food culture there actually. Vermont is a big farming state, there’s a lot of dairy farms so there’s lots of really good cheese. There’s also just a lot of emphasis on local farmers and organic growing. There’s a really great community around food. So people really care about where their food comes from. There’s a lot of farmers’ markets. People know their farmers. There are farm stands everywhere. You can just drive down the road and stop and go into some little shack and pick up a bunch of veggies and eggs and meat. It’s really, really wonderful that community support around food and everyone caring about the land and their food.

There’s a lot sugaring, maple syrup sugaring in Vermont. One thing a friend in college taught us about, he’s from Vermont, was sugar on snow. So they just pour maple syrup on the snow in the winter and eat it. I always love that.

The other thing that we learned about recently was maple soda. So people will take the sap from the maple trees without even boiling it down into syrup and then you just mix it with soda water. And it’s got this really lovely flavor.

On Her Blog:

We moved to Seattle and I thought I was going to teach yoga. I’m an ayurvedic consultant also. So I tried that for a little while and realized that I really enjoyed practicing yoga more than teaching it. And I was floundering trying to figure out what my purpose was and what I wanted to do. My husband said, “Why don’t you just take some classes? Find some workshops or some classes that sound interesting and just try them.” So I took a workshop here with Ashley Rodriguez. She has a blog called, Not Without Salt. And the next day I started my blog.

It sort of just clicked for me that, “Oh, this is the perfect fit for me and all the things that I love to do. I can stay at home, I’m a little bit of a homebody, I can cook, I can photograph and tap into that creative side of myself and I can write about it.”

On Brunch at The Table:

I host benefit brunches every couple of months. Sustainability is really important to me. And I think people’s food choices are a really important way to impact the planet and the environment. And so I’ve started hosting these brunches. And I invite–it’s usually 18 people. And all the funds raised go to a nonprofit that’s doing some kind of work in sustainable agriculture or local food. We just have a nice meal. I source all the ingredients, I try to source them locally. I feel like it’s a nice way to expose people to the idea of sustainability and local food, without hitting them over the heads with it. They can enjoy a nice meal and learn a little bit about what’s going on.

It’s pretty time consuming. And I do it in my house, which is a little crazy.

Mostly because renting a space just cuts into the amount of money we can donate. So I have a table set up in our yoga room and two tables in the living room and I have to move furniture. I plan the menu which takes a fair amount of time but it’s the kind of thing where I’m just thinking about it all day long, like as I’m in the car or going grocery shopping. I end up e-mailing sponsors to try to get people to donate. So that takes a fair amount of time and then I spend a lot of time also planning the table setting and what it’s going to look like, because I want it to be beautiful. So that’s a big part of it as well.

Anybody can come, it started out with just friends and people we knew because I didn’t really have a network to tap into. But it’s grown and now I can publicize it on social media and people who are in my area will sign up. I usually partner with someone else to help out. So they often publicize also and tap into their network. So it’s really fun to meet new people. The last couple– a bunch of people have shown up at my door who I’ve never met before. It’s like, “Who are you? How did you hear about this?” It’s really fun to feel like I’m meeting new people and spreading the word about the issues that are important to me.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

None. I do not watch any cooking shows.

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

Some of my favorites, I really love Dolly and Oatmeal, she’s based out of Brooklyn. And Cannelle et Vanille, she’s based here in Seattle, her photography is really inspiring. So there’s a couple.

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

My friend Jessie Snyder of Faring Well makes me happy. She is always talking about happy dances and always has cute photos with silly faces. So that make me happy.

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

We had handmade pitchers made for our wedding as party favors. A friend who’s a potter made all these beautiful white ceramic pitchers. One of those are on the top shelf in the kitchen.

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

Apparently I used to hate avocados and now they’re my favorite thing in the world.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

The new one that I just got that I love is Gjelina. It’s in LA, a restaurant there. And the photography in that one just blew my mind. It’s just a visual feast which I loved.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I don’t even listen to music when I cook.

I’m too much in my head thinking about flavors and recipes.

On Keeping Posted with Sasha:

I’m on Instagram and Pinterest and Facebook and Twitter and all those good things. But mostly Instagram. And then just following the blog, I post on there about once a week. So you can follow along there to see recipes and find out what’s going on.

066: Andrea Bemis: Farming and Preparing Fresh Meals

August 10, 2015 by Gabriel 4 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Dishing Up the Dirt

Andrea and her husband are the proud owners of a six-acre organic vegetable farm called Tumbleweed Farm in Oregon. Her blog Dishing Up the Dirt is a way for her to document the meals made with the produce they’re growing and to inspire us to prepare fresh meals for ourselves and loved ones.

I am so happy to have Andrea Bemis of Dishing Up the Dirt here on the show today.

(*All images below are Andrea’s.)

On What Drew Her to Farming:

My husband grew up on a organic farm back East in Massachusetts. I did not have desires to work on a farm growing up so it happened organically. About six years ago, we decided to quit our day jobs. We were just working pay check to pay check, not doing anything that we felt was very important and decided to roll up our sleeves and go work on this organic farm back East in Massachusetts. And dove right in, head first, which was awful and great at the same time.

I did not realize how much work went into producing food and I didn’t grow up cooking or eating the types of vegetables that we grow. And now, it’s gone full circle and I absolutely love it. We’re going through a heat wave right now so I don’t love it but it’s gone full circle. I’m really proud of what we do.

I had this vision that it would be really romantic and it would be slow paced and we’d just pluck vegetables from the ground and it would be really lovely and it’s not. It’s go, go, go but it doesn’t matter if it’s 90 degrees out or 20 degrees out. Things need to get done. So that was an eye-opener.

On Their Farm:

The one thing that is different is it does not rain in Oregon in the summer which is ironic because Oregon is such a rainy state, but from June until October, we have to irrigate like crazy. Back East, almost every afternoon, we got a rain shower which is great. But aside from that, growing-wise, we can grow pretty much the same vegetables as we did back there. Our seasons are a little bit shorter here because in Parkdale, Oregon, we’ve got a little bit of elevation.

It’s a little different everyday but I guess I could start out with this morning which started at 5:00 a.m. running out with the toothbrush still in my mouth to yell at a couple of deer that were eating our strawberries. We’re on deer patrol all the time. The days typically start around 5:00, have coffee and go over a list of what needs to get done.

Tomorrow is the CSA day so today we’re prepping, trying to stay up with irrigation, planting, weeding. We do succession planting so we’re always planting all the time for 20-something days, so we’ll be planting.

We continue to plant but tomorrow is our big day, we harvest starting at 4:00 in the morning because we take our crop up to Portland. So Tuesdays are always a really long day. It depends on the day. We’re just at the farm if we don’t have restaurant deliveries or CSA deliveries. Then we try and stay on top of farm chores and keeping things happy and healthy and a lot of irrigating and weeding.

When you’re away from the farm, it’s scary because you’re away and anything can happen and so you have to make up for the hours that you’re gone when you’re back.

On What They Grow on Their Farm:

We do a combination of 50 different varieties of vegetables. We do all the really common and uncommon spring vegetables. We do basically anything that we know is going to do well and that we know people are going to be pumped to receive. So we don’t grow anything too crazy but we grow things that we know we can sell easily, and people want, and that they’re going to do well for us.

We’ll always grow kale. It does really well. It’s a pretty easy crop to grow. If there’s a really hot trendy food out there we might try a small little plot of it. But for the most part, we keep to the same vegetables year to year unless we have a huge crop failure and some things don’t seem like they’re going to ever work for us, then we won’t grow that. We stick to pretty much the same vegetables year in and year out.

On Growing Produce for Beginners:

My first piece of advice is to grow things that you would want to eat. I have friends who end up growing a bunch of bok choy. And they’re like, “I don’t know what to do with this. I don’t even think I like it.” I’m like, “Well, okay.” I would say pick a few things that you like to eat so if you want to have a lot of salads, lettuce is pretty simple.

My folks have done this. Letting things sit for too long. Things can turn bad pretty quickly especially in the heat. So even if something didn’t totally size up, I would grab it. I think people sometimes will let things go too long. Pay attention and think of the farm as your baby. I don’t know what people’s situation is but it’s like if something looks like maybe it needs water. If you already watered and it’s wet, don’t water again. You can over water, you can underwater. So pay close attention to your garden.

Crop rotation is pretty important just because each crop takes different nutrients from the soil so it’s good to move things around. But it’s not the end of the world. We typically have a map of our farm. We try and rotate things on a 5-year rotation. That’s ideal.

And diseases can spread a little more easily if you’re planting the same place over and over.

On a Resource for Those Wanting to Learn More:

My favorite book for beginner farmers or gardeners is The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman. We still reference that. It’s an easy read but it’s also informative and I recommend that to anyone that’s trying to grow vegetables for the first time.

On Writing Her Blog:

Our CSA, we have a 50-member CSA and 90% of these people are members because of the blog. We don’t know them but the blog, it’s turned into like a job.

I want people to be pumped with their vegetables. Even if they’re not supporting us personally I want to inspire people to go to their local farmers market and cook up vegetables that really are in season because I’m a big supporter of small farmers. I think that they are making a big difference and it’s really hard to make a living. So if more and more people support farmers then the world would be a better place.

The cooking and the recipes can be challenging at times if the day has been super busy but I typically come in about an hour before my husband does to cook something, take a few photos, and depending on what it is, I’ll either keep it warm somewhere and go back and finish evening chores, or get a salad or something. We’ll eat it a little bit later.

I’ve been doing this for five years. We’ve nailed this system. And then at night, I’ll just do a little blog post, they’re pretty simple, not too crazy. I don’t know why people are really surprised that I just create the time for it, it actually is a nice little break from the fields.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t watch any right now.

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

I like reading Naturally Ella. She’s got some really beautiful photos and great recipes and they’re really simple too. I think her goal is pretty quick, easy, no fuss recipes.

I like My New Roots a lot. Her recipes definitely take a little more time but I think the photography is great.

Cookie and Kate is another good one that I like.

They’re all vegetarian food blogs but they’re pretty inspiring.

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

Instagram is the only one that I really use and I follow a lot of farms on Instagram but as far as food ones go, Dolly and Oatmeal. She’s got some really great photos. There’s a local girl and her blog is Local Haven and she’s got beautiful food photos.

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

A bottle opener. That and maybe my immersion blender. I use my immersion blender every single day for making sauces.

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

Maybe mustard. I love mustard and I used to hate it.

I think it was too many bad hot dogs when I was a kid with mustard on. Now I love mustard.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I’m not reading a ton of cookbooks right now. But I subscribe to Food & Wine Magazine and Bon Appétit and it’s like Christmas every month for me. I get really inspired by both those magazines. And Real Simple magazine too so those are my go-tos and it’s nice to have subscriptions to them because they’re a highlight to the month.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

For me, when I’m cooking, it’s more like a wind down time so it’s nothing too crazy. I guess right now I’ve got the Gillian Welch station on my computer and she’s just nice and mellow.

On Keeping Posted with Andrea:

Well, DishingUpTheDirt.com. I post there three times a week. And then otherwise, I’m on Instagram, that’s my only social media that I’m on quite a bit, I love it.

046: Valentina Solfrini: Olive Oil and Italian Countryside Living

June 8, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Hortus Cuisine

On her blog, Valentina writes as she explores a more natural form of cooking and food, which is always real and locally harvested. She focuses on unprocessed ingredients from her farm and makes simple traditional Italian meals with a creative, modern twist.

Hortus Cuisine was recognized in the 2014 Saveur Food Blog Awards for Best New Blog Editor’s Choice.

I am so thrilled to have Valentina Solfrini of Hortus Cuisine joining me here on the show today.

On Where She Currently Lives, Writes and Cooks:

I am placed in between two regions in Italy, one is called Marche and the other one is called Romagna, and I’m right on the border.

So each region in Italy is very different but it’s really nice because I get the best of every world. I’m right at the seaside, and I have the woods next to me, and the hills, and the countryside. So I have a little bit of everything and it’s really a great place to live in, in my opinion.

On Moving to New York City:

I wanted to really explore the world and I felt like New York City had it all condensed in one place.

So especially back then, we don’t really have much internationality, so to speak. I really wanted to explore the Asian world and the Mexican world. I wanted to know what everything was all about. I had the chance to do this trip to New York and I fell in love with it.

It was amazing.

I knew that there was a lot that I couldn’t impossibly know about other cultures, about the world and everything, but it was so much and it felt so overwhelming but in a very good way. Every time I went out the door and I walked into the street, everything seemed just so huge and I loved it.

On What Drew Her Back to Countryside Living:

Life here is quieter. The pace is much slower especially compared to New York where everybody is super-fast. Everything here is quite laid back. Nothing is really a big deal for Italians.

So sometimes we help my grandparents tend the garden, the vegetable garden or when winter comes, we go to collect the wood for the fireplace.

I have a desk job but our life really revolves around this little moment when you have to plant a seed or collect some vegetables, or me to go forage for wild herbs and stuff like that. It’s all very, very close to nature.

On Her Interest in Food and Cooking:

Food was one of those things that fell into the realm of the things that I took for granted because it’s something that always happen in my house.

My mom and my grandmother, they were always cooking, always. I’m lucky because I was in one of those families where women can stay at home and take care of us and the kids, and they’d be cooking, making pasta or baking something or anything.

I pretty much always learned to appreciate good food. We never really had anything processed or we didn’t buy snacks or anything even as kids because we felt that we didn’t need them. We never liked candy or anything just because my mom made amazing sweets at home.

I love to look at my mom doing stuff. I wouldn’t always do something but I would always stay there and look or sometimes would maybe shape the cookies or shape the pasta.

I would help or sometimes I would eat when she was cooking or lick the bowls. I was always there watching and eventually it grew on me.

When I went to New York, I was surprised that nobody was cooking. It was, “Are you serious? What, you go and buy salad that’s already been cut?”

On What Natural Cooking Means to Her:

To me, natural cooking means cooking with ingredients that have not been processed too much. Sometimes, if you learn to read the labels, you’ll see that some foods have really unnecessary ingredients.

If you buy a jar of mayonnaise, you’ll find that it has preservatives and maybe food coloring or even sugar.

So to me, natural cooking is cooking with a list of ingredients that doesn’t have a list of ingredients.

On Her Blog:

So that was a very interesting process because when I got back from New York, I realized that I had absorbed so much of other cultures that I was starting to forget about my own.

I realized that Italian cooking is actually quite healthy by itself. It has always been full of legumes and vegetables and there were so many recipes that are Italian and perfectly vegetarian, so I thought it would be interesting to rediscover my own culture with natural food. And I thought of combining those two things and it worked wonders.

I started the blog as a way to explore my own country. I realized that I didn’t understand Italy because I was feeling so good in New York and I didn’t really feel Italian. And then in the process, I rediscovered cooking and I really started to learn about the foods that we used have as kids and to really, really fall in love with it.

On Olive Oil:

Once the olives are at a good ripeness point in November, it’s usually November, you lay huge nets below the trees and you have little rakes and you rake through the branches and the olives fall out. Then you collect those huge nets of olives and these olives are cleaned.

You separate leaves from the olives and this is quite important because if your leaves get into the olives, then the olive oil taste like grass, and that happens a lot. So you have to be careful with that process.

And then we take it to the mill. I call it a mill. It’s just basically this huge stone, you have two grinding stones, pretty much like flour, and that’s why it’s called cold pressed extra virgin olive oil. The very first layer of fat that you get out of this cold pressing, grinding between two stones, then the olive oil just filters out and you get this bright green beautiful thing but it’s actually murky. It’s not as clear.

Olive oil actually gets that golden and that clear when it’s about four or five months old. When it’s super fresh, it’s bright green and quite cloudy. And that’s it, that’s virgin olive oil.

Then you have other kinds of olive oil that are lesser quality. You can obtain by pressing what is left by pressing extra virgin olive oil.

And then you have another press which is regular olive oil.

What I’ve always seen in Italy was extra virgin olive oil. It might be very bad quality extra virgin olive oil, with olives they are not Italian that come from other countries, but we only cook with extra virgin olive oil essentially.

You have great quality extra virgin oil and you have so so quality extra virgin oil and you use the so so for cooking, for stir fries and for stuff like that, and the best quality for dressing.

That’s my experience at least.

I think that the best olive oil, it has to be quite a strong character. It’s really difficult to tell maybe by the color or the smell because it really depends on the kind of olive or on how old the olive oil is.

But usually the green sort of cloudy olive oil is really the best and it’s actually quite difficult to plant and sell because that’s going to be very expensive.

I saw that some supermarkets or some stores had a little sampler with bread that you could try, and at the end of the day, if it’s virgin olive oil, you should just taste it and see if you like it.

You can tell olive oil from extra virgin olive oil because regular olive oil is much clearer and it has a more pale color. So that’s how you tell.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I love to watch Jamie Oliver. Just whatever he does, he puts such passion in it that I just love watching his enthusiasm.

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

There are so many. I love Green Kitchen Stories. They got me inspired to actually start a blog. They were probably the first bloggers that I started to follow seriously.

And then there is another one that’s called In The Making By Belen, which is a healthy food blog. She is a yoga teacher who shares vegetarian recipes. They are really awesome.

And then there is Beth Kirby from Local Milk. She is like pure aesthetics. I love her blog so much.

And then Skye McAlpine’s blog From My Dining Table. She talks about Venice in such a beautiful way.

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

I follow definitely Beth Kirby, again, on Pinterest. She has a well-organized Pinterest account. It’s so so beautiful.

And then I love to follow Japanese photographers on Instagram. I’m not sure about the names right now but just a bunch of Japanese people. I really love the bright style that they have.

My favorites to follow on Facebook are probably everybody who has something to do with healthy food and Mimi Thorisson from Manger, the French blog. She is amazing. She really has quite the sense for aesthetics as well.

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

My Vitamix. It’s unusual for Italy because actually when I bought it, it wasn’t available here and I had to buy it from Germany but I love it so much.

It’s probably the best spent money of my entire life. I use it every day, two times per day. I love it.

Some ingredients are really hard to find in Italy, so I have to make my own like almond milk.

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

That has to be sesame oil or sesame in general.

I wasn’t into sesame probably because it’s not that known in Italian cooking. It’s not an ingredient that we use. But then I started to experiment with Asian cooking and Middle Eastern cooking and, of course, sesame is there.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Actually, the cookbooks I cook from are those old cookbooks made from the 50s or from the 70s that have those very nice recipes that I love to reinterpret in a healthier way.

And then I have my favorite cookbook to look at is probably Isa Does It. It’s a vegan cookbook that is so so full of fun ideas. I don’t think it’s always healthy but it’s amazing.

I also love to read the Julia Child’s cookbook because it’s amazing. Just so well done. It’s my kind of cookbook.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I don’t have a song in particular. I guess all French or Italian songs get me in the mood. There are a bunch of French songs that really getting me in the mood for cooking.

Old French songs, maybe like Edith Piaf. You know these people but maybe the happier kind of songs. Not the super romantic French songs.

On Keeping Posted on Valentina:

You can follow me on Facebook at Hortus Cuisine, Pinterest, then I’m on Instagram, and I love receiving comments of all kinds. I look forward to hearing from people who write in on my blog.