Oregon | The Dinner Special podcast

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

March 2, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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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.

077: Laicie Heeley: How Everything Always Comes Back to Food

September 16, 2015 by Gabriel 2 Comments

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A Thousand Threads

On her blog, A Thousand Threads, Laicie writes about more than just food and recipes. She shares a lot about herself, from her wedding, travels and everyday adventures, she really puts herself out there for her readers.

I am so happy to have Laicie Heeley of A Thousand Threads here on the show today.

On Her Blog:

I actually started my blog because I had a day job that was fulfilling, but not entirely. I was writing, but I was writing about a lot of technical subjects and didn’t have the chance to write about the more creative things or do the more creative things that I enjoy doing. And so, around the time…my husband and I had been together for probably around five years at that point. When he proposed to me, I decided that it was an excuse to write about something on the Internet.

I started writing about the process of planning our wedding and of our lives at the time. It evolved in that way, eventually, to really be a representation of our lives together, and ultimately that all came back to food, because, for us, it does totally come back to food, with everything.

The relationships that I’ve built on the Internet, because I’ve been open and been willing to have those conversations with people and go back and forth, I’ve made so many good friends. It’s really been a great experience, so I’m glad that I wasn’t overthinking it at first and it allowed me to open up and keep it that way.

When I was putting it out there on the Internet and there weren’t any faces to go along with it, there weren’t any reactions. And honestly, the people that I found on the Internet, when they did appear, were so supportive and so great that it was really a good experience for me from the beginning, that I was able to make those friends, who I almost felt more open with, in many ways.

On Her Interest in Cooking:

I’m a 4-H kid from way back in the day. I grew up in Oregon, and I was in 4-H, I rode horses, that was the biggest part of my 4-H. But from the time I was very young, I actually did the cooking side as well and competed in the cooking contests in front of a judge, and it was all a very fun thing for me. It was always made fun for me, I think, particularly by my mom, who was really always interested in cooking, especially in baking. And she makes these incredibly amazing desserts that are just nuts.

She taught me how to make those things, and she taught me and brought me through that whole process of, the terrifying process of cooking in front of a judge when you’re 12 years old. It is crazy but it’s awesome, and I think it really fostered my love of cooking. I had a family of cooks, my grandmother was constantly baking pies.

And in Oregon, we all had big gardens. The fruit that my grandmother always baked the pies with always came from her garden, that was something that was crazy, that you just don’t experience that as much over here, quite as much as I did there and growing up. And it made me love food very much, having all those people around me who also loved food.

Some places have 4-H, some places have FFA, it’s a country kid thing. Some kids raise cows, and then they sell them at the auction at the county fair. It’s a thing that essentially all leads to the county fair, which is where you exhibit your work that you work on throughout the year. It’s kind of like Girl Scouts, but with a very country lean to it.

On Her Cooking Influences:

I think that my mom is hands down my greatest cooking influence. My love for baking, in particular, is completely shaped by my mother. And also my love for gathering people, I think, was shaped by my mother. Just a week ago, she had this huge event at her house for all of the women from her graduating class from high school. I don’t even know if I could track down the people from my graduating class from high school.

I’m really impressed by her. She had all the women from her graduating class over and had this beautiful, beautiful brunch party out on her patio and cooked everything and made this huge spread of desserts. My mom’s cheesecake is the craziest cheesecake that you’ve ever had.

Chocolate éclairs are something that she had always made and always brought. She was always this amazing home cook, but also one who never shied away from something that was tougher, like a chocolate éclair. She would make these fantastic cakes for my birthdays and just things that were just amazing. And I always really respected that, and still do.

On Working With Her Husband on the Blog:

We manage it quite well, actually. We both are really busy all the time, we have a lot going on. I have a nine year old stepson as well, and so we have all these things happening. And I think that ultimately, the blog and our various projects, because we’re both so passionate about them, they bring us back together in this way that we’re creating something together.

There’s nothing like creating, being able to create something with your spouse and really be excited about the outcome of it and just geek out over whatever this thing is. We both cook for the blog as well, and we shoot things back and forth.

He’ll have an idea, and I’ll add to it, and it’ll go back and forth and become this thing that’s really incredible. Even with the photography, I’ll style it, and then he’ll take the picture, and then I do the editing. So we have this very collaborative relationship that goes back and forth, and it makes us stronger in every way.

On Being Oregonian at Heart:

It’s not hard for me to live on the East Coast, but I’m certainly sad not to live on the West Coast still. I grew up in Oregon, I truly think that it’s the most beautiful place in the world. My parents are there, I love it there, I love the people, I love the food. The food scene in Portland, it’s always been amazing, but over the last 10 years, it’s really gone crazy. I go back there, and I just feel so completely close to home. I grew up on the coast, near the ocean, and there’s things about that that I miss. The East Coast is very different, it’s got a very different ethos, it’s got a very different approach to food.

But also, I’ve learned a lot, I actually live just outside of D.C., in the country, and one thing that I love about that is that we visit a lot of farms in the area, constantly. We get our eggs from the farm, we get our milk from the farm, we get everything that we can as locally as possible. And that’s really, really a cool aspect of this particular part of the area, that I didn’t necessarily have in my coastal town in Oregon, that I really appreciate here.

On the Difference in Food Culture Between Washington, DC and Oregon:

I was a vegetarian for many years, and that will make the difference very stark for you if you go from the West Coast to the East Coast, in general. It’s much harder to find good vegetarian food on the East Coast than it is on the West, because there’s a real love for meat here. And I respect that too, because I’m no longer a vegetarian, and there’s a reason, because it’s delicious. That’s one really big thing.

It used to be more so that there was a real love for local food that was easier to find on the West Coast than it is on the East Coast. I think a lot’s changed in the last few years, definitely, the restaurants have changed completely in the way that they approach things, and everyone is starting to appreciate that sort of thing more. And that’s really refreshing, that changes a lot. It’s amazing how much food can impact your love of living in a place, because it’s so much a part of your daily life. I really missed that when I first moved here about 10 years ago. Now, I would say it’s very different.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I watch whatever’s on the Cooking Channel. Obviously, I watch Anthony Bourdain, anything that he does. I watch him on CNN now, because I love his travel show and what he does. I also love Ina Garten, she’s amazing. The things that she does, it’s really wonderful.

Mind of a Chef will always be the most amazing…Netflix, just binge on Mind of a Chef, I could do it over and over and over because it’s so awesome.

I’ve had a lot of really amazing food inspiration on Netflix, Jiro Dreams of Sushi and all the good ones that are on there that are just incredible.

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

There’s so many great people making good food. I love all the big ones, I love Joy the Baker, I love Not Without Salt. I love Smitten Kitchen, she’s just incredible. I don’t even know how she does it, but every single recipe that she makes on Smitten Kitchen is just out of this world good..

I feel like there are always awesome ones that I’m discovering too, like Lady and Pups is really a cool one that does some awesome things. And I love My Name Is Yeh and all awesome newer people as well. Not totally new but just doing crazy, amazing things. I’m blown away by the blogosphere and all the great cooking being done.

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

On Pinterest and Instagram, I’m on there all the time. My friend A Daily Something is really awesome. Her children are the cutest. What she does on her Instagram blows me away. And so many great photographers, like With Hearts, who really are so inspiring and also are often in the Pacific Northwest and remind me of home and are so incredible.

On Pinterest, there are so many people who are awesome as well, and so prolific. Local Milk, obviously, I follow her on Instagram, she’s amazing on Instagram. But she’s also really prolific on Pinterest and has this awesome Pinterest account that is constantly making me discover new, awesome things that are really, really cool.

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

I love picking up vintage things, I love bringing vintage things home, and you don’t always use them. Sometimes, they just sit around and they’re props or whatever they might be, and I’ve stolen every little weird vintage thermometer and various things from my grandma’s kitchen and have them in my drawers.

But one that we have is a juicer that we use constantly, which is actually vintage. Every time I use it, I think it’s gonna fall apart because it’s so old. But it’s also so effective and fantastic, and it really just has a handle, and you can squeeze down the handle, and juice. It’s a very, very good vintage juicer that we probably don’t need in our kitchen, but I like having it.

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

Corn. I love it if it’s made a certain way. I eat a lot of foods, I’m really pretty open to almost…put anchovies on something, I’m totally fine. I like all olives and things. I taunt my husband with olives because he hates olives, and I love them. But I never really liked corn, which is a pretty basic food that I think that growing up, I just never had it cooked in a way that I really liked it.

As I’ve grown up, I have found that the fresher the corn the better. And there are definitely awesome things that you can do to corn, like chili lime seasoning or things that are really good that make it a much more awesome dish. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I love it now, but I like it a lot more than I did when I was younger.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Sugar Rush is a fairly new cookbook that I’m so impressed by, because the level of detail in the cooking and in the breaking down the processes that make for a good pastry kitchen are really broken down in a way that’s just so awesome. Also, I’ve always had my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and the ones that I’ve had sitting around forever that my mom got me when I first moved out of the house and will always be on my shelf. Those are some that I return to the most often, because they’re really those staples that you have in the kitchen, and they have these recipes that you can take, and you can run with them as far as you wanna run with them and make them crazy. And that’s something I always love doing.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

The song or album right now that makes me want to do all of the things and get up and jump around is Shakey Graves’s new album, who is pretty awesome, and every song on there is really good. We saw him last year in this tiny little venue. We love going up to Newport Folk Fest in Newport, Rhode Island, and he was there and really knocked our socks off. So lately, when I’m in the kitchen, that’s what’s been playing on my speakers.

On Keeping Posted with Laicie:

I’m on Instagram a lot, @laicie, and I’m on Pinterest a lot also, on Twitter and definitely the blog, of course.

066: Andrea Bemis: Farming and Preparing Fresh Meals

August 10, 2015 by Gabriel 4 Comments

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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.

047: Kylie Antolini: Baking and Eating in Portland, Oregon

June 10, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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The Baking Bird

Kylie started her blog in 2008 when she was experimenting with vegetarian and veganism, and through her journey, discovered her love of baking.

Apart from showcasing her baked goods on The Baking Bird, she also shares her favorite places and adventures around where she currently lives, the lively food city of Portland, Oregon.

I am so happy to have Kylie Antolini of The Baking Bird joining me here on the show today.

On Finding Her Passion for Baking:

When I was at home and I was a teenager, my parents were meat eaters. I just became vegetarian because it interested me. I thought it was a healthier lifestyle and I had to fend for myself. So I first started out with getting cookbooks. Maybe you’re familiar with them: How It All Vegan! and The Garden of Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard. They were my main inspiration.

I first started making some of their savory recipes. And then I decided to experiment with some of their dessert recipes. I just really love the idea that you can bake awesome stuff without using traditional ingredients like butter and eggs, and you get similar results.

I love the process of experimenting like with flax egg replacer or applesauce and bananas. So that was really the thing that caught on to me, and I really just enjoyed experimenting. I felt like a scientist in the kitchen. And to this day, I don’t bake vegan really anymore but one of my favorite vegan baking hacks is putting apple cider vinegar and non-dairy milk and making a buttermilk with it because it curdles the milk, which is awesome because I don’t like going to buy buttermilk because it usually goes to waste. I only use like a cup of it. That’s one of my favorite things that I’ve carried into my regular baking style now.

That was how I found my passion for baking. I just really enjoyed it and I combined my love for photography and started taking picture of things I made and thought, “Oh, I started a blog.”

On No Longer Being Vegetarian:

To be honest, it wasn’t really by choice. I had gotten into running quite a bit around the time that I became a vegetarian, and my body just couldn’t keep up with the nutrition I was getting.

Unfortunately, there were some signs that showed up here and there. My doctor encouraged me to start eating meat. I also suffered from a lot anxiety and insomnia and I noticed the correlation from eating to vegetarian and running too much. So it took a lot of convincing and my parents were really adamant about it. They’re just trying to get me meat all the time, and I was like, “Uh!” But I ended up feeling a lot better once I did and I started sleeping a lot better. My anxiety really went down. So that was really basically it. I wanted to keep being vegetarian but it just wasn’t best for my life.

On Her Interest in Food:

I know that after I was going to being vegetarian, I really got an interest in collecting a lot of cookbooks. I became really obsessed with food because when you have to start combining certain ingredients to have the right nutrition, the right balance, you really have to look at a lot of different resources. So I became obsessed about collecting lots of cookbooks and reading recipes. That was what really got me into cooking.

And my mom was always a really avid cook when I was younger. She kept all the vintage Bon Appétit magazines and was really into that. And my grandmother on my dad’s side is also a great baker. And so I would bake with her.

She’d always have a homemade pie or something for dessert when we come over to eat. I guess they were my inspiration and I grew up in a family that really loved food, so that had a big part of it.

On the First Thing She Baked:

Well, I remember the first thing that I bragged about. It was this vegan chocolate peanut butter pie with bananas, and no-bake. It was so easy and so delicious. I think it was actually from La Dolce Vegan, the cookbook from Sarah Kramer.

Fabulous recipe but terrible photos if you go back and look in the blog. It’s the very first one but it’s delicious.

On Things Not Going as Planned in the Kitchen:

I can think of one or two instances. But fortunately, it doesn’t happen very often which is great. That’s why I think baking is more of my thing than cooking.

I was trying to make a vegan chocolate cake. I turned the pan upside down and it just completely disintegrated and crumbled into pieces. I was like, “Okay.” I think I baked two things that day and they both didn’t turn out. I was like, “This is just not my day.”

Sometimes you have the baking energy and sometimes you don’t. There’s just something in the air and it makes your work shatter. But for the most part, I’m pretty lucky.

It always depends on your oven too. I had to get used to my oven in my apartment. It runs a little bit warmer. So I found over the years that it’s best to play it safe and subtract a little bit of time from your baking time and check it so it’s not too done.

On The Food Culture in Portland, Oregon:

Portland is crazy with food. There are so many people here that love food and have a passion for it. It was the number one reason I actually decided to move here. Because when I first visited, I spent a week here and had a list of places I wanted to go. I was just amazed with how people love food here and get such a wide variety.

You can go to a specific shop just for cupcakes or just for pie. I think the food culture is very experimental and it’s very inspiring. Sometimes it can get a little predictable.

There’s a lot of repeat comfort food here. A lot of pork belly, I see that left and right. So people really love that kind of Southern style. I see that quite a bit. But it makes sense when it’s overcast a lot of the time and it’s raining. So people really enjoy that kind of food here.

There are a lot of donut places. I’m sure you’ve heard of Voodoo Doughnut.

I will drive by and the line can be an hour long. It’s pretty nuts. But there have been a few places that have popped up that you can get donuts now. Pip’s Doughnuts is really amazing if you’ve ever had a chance to check them out. And my personal favorite is Coco Donuts.

On Special Places to Eat in Portland:

I would have to say as far as dinner places, my favorite, favorite place is Tasty ‘N Sons. They’re at North Williams and they’ve opened another location Downtown.

And I really have been loving Ox. I went there for my birthday. I had a fabulous birthday meal.

LucLac has an amazing happy hour. You can get like a huge variety of different small plates for just $15. They make amazing cocktails too. So they are really awesome. Sweedeedee is my favorite brunch place that can get really crazy busy though. A lot of people have caught on that it’s amazing.

For really good vegetarian/ vegan food, Harlow is wonderful too. They make great smoothies.

Levant is also really nice. They have Mediterranean food and they just started doing a brunch. And Scott Snyder who’s the owner, he’s actually from Santa Cruz where I’m from. So we have some ties to that in some ways. He’s really great. His food is awesome.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Well, I don’t have a television, so I think that makes me the odd one out. But I did just finished watching the last season of Top Chef.

Two of the chefs on the show were from Portland and that was all over the Portland news. I had to watch it.

I actually had an opportunity to photograph Doug Adams who was on the show, one of my freelance jobs for the Portland Mercury. So that was really awesome. I got to meet him in person and that’s made me more interested in watching the show.

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

I definitely have a lot of favorite bloggers I follow on Pinterest and Instagram or what-not. My three favorites of late would be Half Baked Harvest. Perhaps you’re familiar with her. And my latest obsession, Twigg Studios. I think she’s from England or Australia. I forgot. Anyway, I contacted her because I just fell in love with her photography and wanted her to know that her stuff is amazing. So definitely check her out. Her photos for just her recipes are genius.

I also recently discovered Broma Bakery and I really like her recipes.

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

I would say Instagram, I really love following Izy of Top with Cinnamon. Her recipes and photos are amazing. I really love Call me Cupcake. She is lately @linda_lomelino. She is amazing too. And then also, the Twigg Studios gal with her blog.

As far as Pinterest, I don’t really always know who I’m following.

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

I wish I could say I had some really cool hand-me-down spoon from a great grandmother or something.

I would say my most treasured item, because I use it so frequently, two metal mixing bowls, my small and large. I bought them a few years ago when I started making macaroons. The recipe I was going off of said that it was best to have metal bowls just for keeping the coolness and protecting it from too much heat. And I love them.

I just use them for everything, so I couldn’t bake without them.

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

Cardamom did not sit well with me at all. But now, I love it. I want to put cardamom in every single thing I bake. A lot of recipes on the blog have cardamom in them. I almost have to stop myself because people are going to get tired of using cardamom now. It’s really weird. I don’t know what it was. I don’t know if it was becoming vegetarian and experimenting with spices, but I love cardamom and also ginger. I used to hate ginger and I use it all the time now.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I think my number one favorite go-to resource book is The Flavor Bible. It’s pretty awesome.

If I want to tweak a recipe or I have an idea, I can go to that and it will list a bunch of ingredients that go really well with it. It’s pretty spot on.

They also recently released a Vegetarian Flavor Bible. I haven’t looked at it. But Flavor Bible is amazing.

I also really love the Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book because they have just the basic pie and cake recipes that you can make your own. They’ve been tested by the best of the best bakers and scientists. And that’s what they do all day long. So that’s a really great resource to have too.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I love music so much and I always try to put on a record when I bake. It’s really tough. I would have to say Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A.

On Keeping Posted with Kylie:

I think I’m most active on Instagram, The Baking Bird, and Pinterest. I’m also on it quite a bit. Yeah, Instagram and my blog.