White on Rice Couple | The Dinner Special podcast

136: Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack: Passing On the Flavours of Mexico

August 17, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Muy Bueno

On her blog, Muy Bueno, Yvette shares her family stories and takes her readers on a journey through old-world northern Mexican cuisine, traditional south of the border home-style dishes, and Latin fusion recipes. Muy Bueno was a finalist in the Saveur Blog Awards in 2012 and 2014, and Yvette has published two cookbooks: Muy Bueno: Three Generations of Authentic Mexican Flavor and Latin Twist: Traditional and Modern Cocktails.

I am so thrilled to have Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack of Muy Bueno joining me here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Yvette’s.)

On The Role Food Played in Her Home:

I grew up in El Paso, Texas, which so many people think, “Oh, you have Tex-Mex food,” but if you’ve ever been to El Paso, it’s pretty much Mexico. Our home is literally a mile away from the Juarez Mexico border. My grandmother came from Chihuahua, Mexico, when she was 10 years old. She’s passed away. She passed away when she was 98 years old, but my mom was a single parent and we lived next door to my grandma. So it was basically my mom and my grandma who raised me, and it was food all the time. It was either see my mom in the kitchen all the time or my grandma in the kitchen. And that was why I named “Muy Bueno” what it is because my grandma would always be in the kitchen, and just anytime any visitors would come, she would always say, “Siéntate a comer, esta muy bueno,” which means, “Sit down, come and eat, it’s very good.” And so every time I thought about my grandma and trying to come up with a blog name, that name just kept coming to me.

My grandma was just always in the kitchen and I was always in there with her. I just loved to sit there and watch her make homemade flour tortillas. And I just couldn’t wait to get home from school and just sit there and just listen to her stories. She would just tell me, you know, growing up in the ranch in Chihuahua, Mexico, and during the Mexican revolution, and crossing over to Texas with her family when she was only 10 years old, and just how scary it was. And the things that she experienced, I just found it fascinating. I could just hear her stories over and over and over again. I just loved sitting there and just watching her cook. And that was what I fell in love with.

Although, growing up, what’s so funny is seeing her in the kitchen, my mom always in the kitchen, that was where I did not want to be. I just felt like they were under appreciated and just always there. But as I became a mom, I realized that’s just your gift to your family. And that’s your showing your love to your family, and that’s when I fell in love with cooking, once I had my own children. But in my teens and college, I was like anti the kitchen, anti-cooking.

On Rediscovering the Kitchen:

Everybody would tease me, my family would, especially my brother. He’s seven years older than me and he still teases me, thinking, “Oh, you still don’t cook. You just play one on the Internet.” Because he would be the biggest one. My grandma, too, would say I’m never gonna find a man because I didn’t like the kitchen. It was just like a running family joke. But it’s not that I didn’t know how to cook. I just chose not to cook. My love in the kitchen was when I would entertain. I would love to have friends and family over, and that’s when I would get creative and have fun, when I knew I could cook for a crowd.

It was until I had children, I was like, “Okay, now I kinda have to cook.” So that’s when I started calling my mom and asking, “Okay, How do I make some of these recipes?” She never had it written down. I never bothered to write them down. I would just make them as she was telling me over the phone. And so that’s how I would learn some of the traditional dishes that I grew up with.

Still to this day, when I make a dish that my grandma would make often, I just seriously feel her. I just know that she’s watching me and guiding me in the kitchen. So it’s really cool.

On Her Cookbook, Muy Bueno: Three Generations of Authentic Mexican Flavor:

That was really challenging when we tried to come up with our tagline or subheading. It’s like authentic could be very misleading, I guess. People could be very judgmental when it comes to any type of cuisine, whether it’s authentic or not authentic. Everybody’s definition of authenticity is very different. And when it comes to cooking, it depends on what region. I just came back from Oaxaca, Mexico, and there were so many dishes and ingredients that I have never heard of. So my chicken mole is completely different than a mole that’s made in Oaxaca, Mexico. That’s why we named it “authentic flavor.” We’re not claiming that it’s authentic Mexican, but that it’s authentic to us, and it’s the flavor of Mexico that we know and love.

I just posted a recipe not too long ago of this very authentic traditional dish called chiles en nogada. And it’s not a dish that we necessarily grew up with, but I researched it enough and learned how to make it to share it with my fans. And there’ll always be somebody who’s like, “No, this is not authentic, because an authentic chiles en nogada, you have to peel the walnuts.” And it’s like, sometimes, I skip steps to try and make it easy for the everyday cook. Who has a time to be peeling walnuts?

So just little things like that, I try to make dishes that are authentic in flavor, but are easier to make and maybe adding a spin where it’s a healthier dish or just making it more simple, but keeping those traditional and authentic flavors in there.

On Co-Writing a Second Cookbook, Latin Twist: Traditional & Modern Cocktails:

It was funny because you never know who you’re gonna meet. That’s what I love about blogging is it’s opened up so many new relationships that sitting in my old job in a cubicle, I would have never had the opportunity to meet. And Vianney is another Latina blogger who is from Texas. So we automatically had that connection, and I followed her blog, she followed my blog. And one event, we went with Nestle to go to California and be a part of a tamalada.

And that evening, we were both flying out and had a long delay at the LA airport. We’re like, “Let’s get some cocktails.” And so we started with one cocktail, and another cocktail. She has a great section in her blog that’s called Margarita Love. And so I kept telling her, “Vianney, you need to write a margarita cookbook, you know, margarita cocktail book.” She’s like, “Yeah, that’s my goal. I wanna do that.” I was like, “Well, let me know if you need help, and I can design it for you, or I can talk to the publisher that I worked with and see if they might be interested.” And she was like, “Okay, okay.”

And so then, after I was on the plane and we parted ways, I was thinking, “I need to do something with her. I don’t wanna steal her thunder with a margarita book, because I would love for her to still do that on her own, but we need to team up together and write a cocktail book, not only just of margaritas, and not only just of Mexican cocktails, but cocktails of Latin America and Spain. And so that’s how the idea started. I approached her saying, “How about we team up together and we write a cocktail book together and share both of our loves of these fun cocktails that usually end up being Latin-inspired.”

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I love anything with Giada or Rick Bayless or Pati Jinich. It’s not so much of the show, but more about who’s cooking and who captivates my attention.

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

I would say White on Rice Couple. I’ve just always loved their photography style and just their whole life in general. They have this gorgeous garden and these orchards. It just looks fabulous. I also love Matt Bites, Matt Armendariz. I just love that he’s a Latino. He seems like he would be a fun friend. I love his photography and his styling. He works with his partner who has an amazing eye for food styling. And just together, they do some magic. For me, it’s all about visuals and photography, and capturing the story with it. And so those blogs have always kept my interest.

I also love Foodiecrush. She has an amazing, a completely different sense of style, where I think it’s more modern and clean, and she also has a background in graphic design. So I love her clean space when it comes to styling food.

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

I follow a lot of yogis on Instagram. I just love yoga girl, and she just always has some inspirational messages. It’s just neat to see all these amazing yoga poses that she does in the middle of nowhere, or like super tropical, exotic amazing spaces. But I just love that she always has positive messages or inspiring quotes, always to her photos.

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

That’s an easy one. It’s my grandmother’s rolling pin. After she passed away, my mom asked me what it was that I would love from my grandma, and I just wanted that rolling pin that she would make flour tortillas with every day. And so come to find out she had two rolling pins, and my sister asked for one too. So we each got a rolling pin. I think it’s kind of like a baton, like your turn. It’s time to continue that legacy and those traditions of food with your family.

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

I would say nopales, which are cactus petals. It’s not even so much that I didn’t love it. It’s just we didn’t really grow up eating them very often. When I saw them, it was more in a jar and they just looked slimy and they just didn’t appeal to me. And so it was not, until recently, where it’s like you can honestly get them fresh. I put them in a smoothie every morning or mix some scrambled eggs or just in a fresh salad, it’s just such a fun ingredient that I think it’s underrated and it needs to be used more often.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I love Rick Bayless. I love Pati Jinich. I also love Marcela Valladolid. Anything Mexican, I just love to, not only read the recipes, but read their history or learn how they make the recipes. It’s just interesting, because you can have a tres leches cake in all the books, and they’ll all be completely different. I love seeing the variety of the same Mexican dish and how it’s made by different Mexican chefs.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I would say any old Mexican music. There’s Paloma Blanca, which is a white dove. And there’s another one called De Colores. So they’re just two old Mexican songs, and it’s like I’m flooded back with feelings of my grandma, racing to go pump up the volume and sing. Now I sing those songs and turn up the volume for those songs, and just know that grandma is there watching me cook, singing with me.

On Keeping Posted with Yvette:

I think Instagram’s definitely my new love. That’s where I post the latest and greatest, also on Facebook. I’m not on Snapchat yet. I do have an account, but I haven’t caught on to the Snapchat wagon, which I’m sure I will soon. But yeah, for now, definitely Instagram on Muy Bueno Cooking. And on Facebook, it’s under Muy Bueno Cookbook.

087: Nick Evans: Learning to Love Your Leftovers

October 21, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Macheesmo

Nick has a ton of fun cooking. He’s self-taught and loves experimenting with all kinds of food. On his blog, he’s shared over a thousand recipes since 2008, and he wants to teach us home cooks to be more confident in the kitchen. In 2014, he published his first full cook book called Love Your Leftovers and you might have seen him on TV. He was a featured home cook on NBC’s Food Fighters.

I’m so excited to have Nick Evans of Macheesmo joining me here on the show today.

(*All images below are Nick’s.)

On Learning How to Cook:

Well, I would say, three or four years of doing Macheesmo, I put myself through an informal cooking school. I would look up recipes that had really technical aspects to them and then just practice and practice and practice them in my home until I felt really comfortable with that method, comfortable enough that I could write about it, at least, in a funny way if not a successful way. So I put myself through a little bit of a culinary school, I would say. Not the culinary school aspect where I know how to run a kitchen like a professional restaurant, but a culinary aspect in a technical way, at least, so knowing how to make sauces and knowing how to do stuff like that. I feel pretty comfortable with some of that stuff. It’s mostly just practice, a lot of failure.

On Some Good Resources for Learning to Cook:

I think if you don’t subscribe to it, America’s Test Kitchen, and I do some work with them also so it’s a little bit self-promotional, but they are an amazing resource and the recipes are some of what I think to be the most clearly written recipes. They’re very well tested, they’re very well written and almost without a doubt fail safe. And they have a lot of really basic stuff too.

Another place I’d look if I’m looking up a technique that I don’t know how to do is just YouTube. YouTube can be a nightmare. You have to be careful with it, but what I always try to do is if I’m looking up a technique, I will watch three or four videos on it, because there’s going to be a million. Try to pick up the similarities that the chefs are doing and that’s probably going to be right. And then if there are any weird outlier parts, maybe just be like, “I don’t know about that.” But YouTube is a great resource because a lot of cooking techniques are very visual, I think. It helps to actually see somebody do it, which is funny, because I don’t have a lot of videos on my website actually, I just do mostly photos and try to write it in a way that makes sense. I went through a phase where I watched a lot of YouTube videos on various techniques.

On Keeping Motivated to Learn:

My biggest thing, which I still do to this day, is I think it’s so important to go to different stores. Because you can look up all kinds of stuff on the Internet and I sometimes struggle with that because it seems overwhelming. But instead of going to your normal grocery store, go to a different one. Go to an Asian grocery store. Go to a Latin grocery store. And it can be a little bit intimidating and you’ll be out of your comfort zone, but at the same time, you’re going to find things that are different and you’re going to be inspired by, “Oh, there’s a totally different kind of produce there that’s not in my normal grocery store. Oh, there’s a different brand of this, maybe that tastes a little bit different.”

I’ll just pick up a few things that look interesting, then I’ll go back home and look up ways to use those things. So I start with the store and what I can actually find, and then I try to get inspired based on that instead of just trying to tackle the Internet or something and find something that looks appealing, because then it’s always a struggle. If you find some recipe and it has this weird ingredient and you go, “I can’t find that,” and so you just give up. So instead I start with what I can find, then maybe try a new place and then go the other direction and try to find something good to make with it.

On His Cookbook, Love Your Leftovers:

I came up with the idea a long time ago actually and just had a hard time wrapping my head around the best way to present it. But essentially I was getting a lot of feedback from readers and people that I talk to that they felt like they had to start from scratch every day. So like, “Oh it’s Tuesday, I have to get up, I have to chop all this stuff, I have to do all this stuff. Okay, now it’s Wednesday, I have to cook all from scratch.” So the idea is that instead of cooking from scratch, you cook like foundational meals when you have time, so big batches of things, and then those will store well and you can use those as jumping off points for other meals.

So leftovers is such a non-sexy word and it doesn’t get a lot of respect in America, but even great chefs will tell you that in really big restaurants, they’re taking stuff they cooked before and transforming it into something totally new and making it a special or using it in a different way.

The idea of the book was to take that into the home kitchen and it’s how I actually cook and how I actually feed my family, and so I thought it would be helpful to write a book around that. So that’s what it is. It’s fun. People e-mail me all the time like on Amazon reviews and stuff and say that it’s totally changed the way they think about how to cook, because it’s a little bit different of a method but I think the results are pretty awesome.

On Appearing on NBC’s Food Fighters:

It was very random. I saw something on a Facebook group that I’m a part of and they said, “Hey, this new show.” At the time, the show didn’t have a name or anything, but a production team was just looking for good home cooks. And so I just applied. I just sent in an e-mail and it was a very long process. They later told me that they got about 10,000 applications and they whittled that down to, I think, eight home cooks. So it was like a four-month process basically of interviews. We had to do in-person cooking. It was a big deal.

And now they’re on Season 2 of the show actually, and so I’m sure that that audition process is even more intense than the one I went through, because I was in Season 1, but yeah, it was super fun. It was a crazy experience. My family got to fly to LA and do the whole LA thing for a little bit, so that was fun. And I got to meet some awesome chefs. They’re all really cool and really down to earth, very fun, and I earned some money, so hey.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Well, I watch Food Fighters since I was on it and I watch Chopped a lot. I think Chopped is probably the hardest of any cooking show. I can’t imagine doing it. I think it would be really challenging but also that’s why it’s awesome to watch. Those are the two I watch most regularly.

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

There’s a new one that I’m reading recently called the The Beeroness. You’ve got to check her out. She’s awesome. Every recipe has beer in it and I’m a big beer drinker, and she takes beautiful photos.

My friend Nik, who I met last year, he runs a blog called A Brown Table, and he takes, I think, some of the most stunning food photos on the Internet right now. They’re very dark. It’s actually a look I’ve never been able to get down when I photograph stuff. They’re very dark but they all look so delicious. I just want to eat everything that he makes because it looks so great. So check out A Brown Table.

And then my other friend Dan. I like to read guy food blogs, because there are not a lot of them and I feel like there’s a guy food blogger community that needs some love. So Dan from The Food in My Beard, he just makes weird stuff. He’s just a weirdo dude, but he is a great cook and always funny and his food is like out of this world crazy and delicious, so check that out.

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

I don’t do Snapchat yet. People keep asking me that and I’m like I don’t understand it. I haven’t wrapped my head around it yet. I always tend to be a late adaptor to these things so I will probably get to it in a year when there’s some other cool thing that I should be learning but I’m not on Snapchat yet.

Instagram, I really like following Local Milk. Her name is Beth and she just has these beautiful photos which I think is what makes Instagram awesome, it’s photos, so I just follow people that take great photos, or my wife who posts only photos of our child. She’s a little creepy.

On Pinterest, honestly my Pinterest account is such a cluster of just… It’s thousands of pins because I follow every food blogger, so I don’t have a specific person really that I like.

But on Facebook, well, actually they’re on Pinterest too, but I really like Todd and Dianne. They write a blog called White on Rice Couple and they take really great photos. I’ve taken some of their photography lessons and they’re super helpful, very friendly people, and they are just an inspiration in the food photography world and also in the food blogging world. And they post really cool videos on Facebook, so if you’re a Facebook fan, their page is awesome because they shoot these beautiful, quick, little 30-second or 1-minute videos that are really beautiful. I always have to go cook something right away after I watch them.

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

Okay, so this is weird. It’s not actually anything I use to cook, but it’s something that appeases my son while I cook. I have an eight-month old baby and one of my friends got us… At the time I was like, “Well, that’s stupid,” but it’s like a net stuck to a ring that they can hold and you can put food in the net, and then they can chew on it and you don’t have to worry about it choking them or something. So I will stuff this net thing full of fruit like water melon, pineapple, and he’ll just chew and suck on it for like 30 minutes and I can do whatever I need to do. So that net, it must have cost like five bucks, but I’ve used it $200 worth of times already, so I love the net thing. I don’t know what it’s called. I can’t Google kid net thing. Don’t Google kid net thing. I don’t know what to Google, but it’s like a kid feeder net thing. It’s my favorite thing in the kitchen right now.

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

I think this is may be a common one for food bloggers but I used to hate beets. The only reason why is because my idea of a beet was a canned beet that was really soggy and bright maroon-red color and would stain everything. It was only later that I was like, “Oh, wait, you can get fresh beets that aren’t canned? Well, those are delicious,” so now I really love beets but I still don’t eat the canned kind.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Well, there’s one, well, Love Your Leftovers obviously but the one book that I’ve used, I probably got it close to when I started Macheesmo. I’ve had it for six or seven years I would say. It’s called The Flavor Bible and I still use it every single week to help just with my recipes. Basically it lists every food in the world and then it has complimentary foods with it, so you can look up apples, then it’ll say blue cheese, red wine, whatever goes to your list. And there’ll be a huge list so you can literally come up with recipes just by looking up these flavors and seeing what pairs well with them, so I use it all the time. My copy is beat to hell but I love that book.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

It depends if my wife is in the kitchen or not. If Betsy’s there, she really likes classic rock so we’ll listen to like Van Morrison, she’s a huge Van Morrison fan, and I just noticed they re-released one of his, like the essential Van Morrison or something and it’s awesome. So we’ll listen to that. If she’s not there, I like to listen to rap music when I cook, so like right now, I’ve been listening to the Fetty Wap album which is… I don’t know what to say about it. I just love it. I think he’s awesome and I love listening to rap music. And it gets me pumped up and I like to cook to it.

On Keeping Posted with Nick:

Well, as you might imagine, Macheesmo.com is my blog. I’m on every social media platform except Snapchat, and it’s all slash macheesmo. So Facebook, whatever, it’s all just slash macheesmo, you’ll find me. So whatever platform you like.

080: Jennifer Yu: Choosing Food, Photography, and Colorado

September 28, 2015 by Gabriel 2 Comments

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Use Real Butter

In her past life, Jen was a NASA programmer, and today she is a freelance nature, food, portrait, and event photographer living and enjoying the outdoors in the Colorado Rockies. Her blog Use Real Butter is more of a directive for life and less about her cooking and baking though food is an integral part of her blog and her life.

I am so pumped to have Jennifer Yu of Use Real Butter joining me today.

(*All images below are Jen’s.)

On Blogging:

The first time I started blogging in 2004, I just began a LiveJournal blog, and it seemed that I had about a handful of friends who had LiveJournal blogs. So we just blogged personal stuff and commented on each other’s blog. It was, a dozen people at most, and it was very informal. It’s pretty private, and we were just goofing around. And the reason I started was because my sister had passed away in a car accident just earlier that year, and so I felt it was a good space for me to just get my feelings out and try and work it out in words. It was a little bit of therapy for me to get through that difficult period. And then I noticed over time, I started posting a lot of photos of my food. And so I would put dinner pictures on there, or if we went out to eat for a snack, I’d have a shaved ice on there.

After a while, I noticed there was a group called the Daring Bakers, which now is a huge, huge group. They’re the Daring Bakers and the Daring Cooks, and I think they comprise the Daring Kitchen now. But back then, they were 80 strong when I joined. It was just 80 people, and they would have a recipe designated to make for the next month, and everyone would make it and blog it on a given day. And we went around supporting one another and seeing how everybody had a different interpretation of the recipe as well as just a really nice community of people who liked to bake, people who enjoyed cooking, people who wanted to expand their skill. That’s why I decided to break off Use Real Butter because I wanted to be a part of that group, but I didn’t want all my baggage in with the recipes.

At the start, because the blog was a personal blog, it was all personal. All of my baggage was in there, and as I became more public, I think I’ve reined in what I’m sharing. It seems like I share a lot now, but actually, I don’t. I don’t share that much compared to what I used to. And it’s mostly because the more reach the blog has achieved, the more I am holding back because you get some odd readers who, I mean, there are some people, most of them are really well-intentioned and they just want to be your friend and they want to get to know you, and then others are a little less so. And so I withdrew a little bit to protect, not only myself, but also the people that I care about. But still, a lot of my friends know, like, “Oh, if you have dinner with Jen or if you go out to lunch with Jen, you’re going to show up on the Internet.”

On Her Passion for Food and Cooking:

I think since I was a little kid, I really enjoyed it. It’s odd but I like washing fruit and cutting it up. I used to try and sell it out of my bedroom to my family members as they pass by in the hall, which was kind of odd because if you think about it, my parents bought the fruit and then they’d have to buy it again from me. But I guess I added that extra service of cleaning and cutting fruit.

My grandmother lived with us from pretty much when I was an infant until about when I was nine years old. And she is my mother’s mother, and she cooked so many wonderful things. She was a fantastic cook. Both my parents are fantastic cooks. So when we got together to cook Sunday dinner, I was always there watching. And it was like this big family affair, and they would make Chinese dumplings. And it was just kind of a regular thing every Sunday, and I really enjoyed it. And I think that had a big influence on me.

When I was growing up, I would cook very simple things, and I would experiment with baking because nobody in my family baked. So I can’t tell you how many batches of meringues I have tanked, how many cookies have come out rock hard. But I learned all that when I was little, and in my parent’s kitchen. Then when I went away to college, there were nights when our dorm didn’t provide food or food plans. It was on the weekends, they didn’t provide meals. And so the undergraduates were left to fend for themselves, and I thought, “Oh, I’m going to make X, Y, and Z that mom and dad made at home.”

I could never remember what it was that went into the recipes. I didn’t have recipes, so I just called them up and said, “Mom, how do you make this?” And you know Chinese parents, actually, I think anyone beyond a certain generation, they don’t do recipes. They are just, like, off the top of their head, “Oh, a little bit of soy sauce.” “How much is a little bit?” “I don’t know, you know, a little bit.” And that’s how I got my feet wet with Chinese cooking, and then it became my way of connecting back to my family and my cultural heritage, which I rejected for a long time as a little kid.

On Blogs She’s Followed Since the Beginning:

I think Smitten Kitchen, Deb Perelman’s blog, was one of my early favorites, and it’s still one of my favorites because her recipes are just really solid and reliable. I guess I feel that I like her taste as well. I think that makes a big difference. There are some bloggers, they have gorgeous blogs or whatever, but their style of food is just not my style. So yeah, Deb of Smitten Kitchen. White on Rice Couple, that’s Todd and Diane. We started out around the same time, and we were blog buddies. And then we met in person, and we’ve been good friends ever since. They have a great blog. I love their recipes, but even more, they’re very dear friends of mine.

On Things Not Going as Planned:

Things don’t go as planned, that happens a lot. That happens more than most people would probably think. But do I wish that I were back in science? No, I don’t. I really don’t. That’s something I was happy to move on from. My husband, he remained in science. He’s in astrophysics. And I really felt that we didn’t both need to be in academia. So it’s kind of a nice balance, I think, to have us doing different things. I keep track of what’s going on in his career, and he will sometimes ask me, “Well, there’s a graduate student. This is what the student wants to do. How should I advise?” And I’ll give my take on it, especially if it’s a female student because I think it’s good for male faculty to be more sensitive to female students, and he’s particularly good about that.

But yeah, I don’t miss it at all. I actually like what I do, and I think that’s good because it’s what I chose. It would be terrible if you say, “I choose to do this,” and then you’re like, “This sucks.” So I chose to do this. I’m really happy with it. I think I like managing my time. I work more hours as a freelancer than I did working nine to five in a science desk job. But it’s worth it to me. I like the freedom.

On the Food Culture in Colorado:

It’s a pretty hip scene, I’d say. I think when we moved to Boulder, the first thing we noticed was kind of the sticker shock. Food is a little more expensive in Boulder than it is in where we were, which was Pasadena. Food in LA is, it’s so inexpensive, and it’s so, so good. But Boulder is a little different. The food is really excellent. But you’re going to pay a little more than you would at, let’s say, in San Francisco or in LA. That said, there’s definitely a dedication to local, seasonal farm food, local farmers. They have a lot of great restaurants that focus on, I’d say, modern cuisine, farm-to-table cuisine with European and some Asian fusion influences. That said, their Chinese food in general isn’t that great. They have lots of sushi bars, which is terrific, and there’s quite a bit of Vietnamese in the Denver area. But yeah, other than that, I’m missing a lot of the Asian that I used to get in LA.

Because I couldn’t get it elsewhere, I had to learn to make it myself. My grandmother, when she was alive, she was in San Jose, and so I would go out to visit her several times a year. And every time, we went out to visit, she would take us out to some Chinese restaurant that she had found. It just opened, or it’s been open for a while just down the street. And the food is just fantastic, and we would always get the latest and greatest from the Bay Area Chinese cuisine. I’d come home and think, “Oh, I’m craving this, but there is nowhere for me to get it.” And so I’d have to figure out how to make it myself or look up the recipe.

I don’t think there’s a signature dish (of Colorado’s) that off the top of my head comes to mind, but Colorado lamb in general is phenomenal. I was not a huge fan of lamb before I came to Colorado, and I felt that it tasted a little too, I don’t know if “game-y” is the word, but that’s what comes to mind. It was just the flavor was a little too strong for me. But when I tried Colorado lamb, it is sublime. Really, it’s a mellower flavor, but it’s fantastic. And a lot of the, like I said, Boulder restaurants are dedicated to sourcing their food locally, and so you get Colorado ranchers providing their lamb and it’s fantastic.

And actually, Diane Cu had a similar experience when she and Todd came out. We were doing a workshop together in Boulder, and I took them to dinner at Frasca. One of the courses was lamb, and so she immediately was like, “I don’t like lamb,” so she picked up all of her lamb and put it on Todd’s plate. And he tasted it, and he said, “No, no, it’s really good. You’ve got to taste it.” So she took a taste, and she picked up the lamb that she had put on his plate and put it back on her plate. And that’s how I feel about Colorado lamb. It’s that good.

Also, Colorado peaches (from the Western Slope) are the bomb. And I forage a lot in the mountains in the summertime – mostly porcini, chanterelles, and huckleberries.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

We don’t get television. So I don’t watch TV, which is probably why I can actually do things in my life because I don’t spend a lot of time watching TV.

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

Well, I would say Smitten Kitchen certainly is one of them. Leite’s Culinaria, David Leite’s blog, is fantastic. Simply Recipes by Elise Bauer and crew, that is one of my go-tos. When I have any question about a recipe that I just need to know off the top of my head, I’ll search for her blog first. And then David Lebovitz because he’s awesome, and he’s hilarious at the same time.

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

I don’t do Pinterest just because it’s a matter of time management. I just cannot get into Pinterest, and on Instagram, I have to say one of my favorite people to follow is Food Pornographer, my friend Kelly Cline. She’s a food photographer and food stylist in the Pacific Northwest. And everything she posts is absolutely stunning and creative and beautiful, and it just makes you want to eat and to cook and just get in there and experiment.

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

I don’t actually know what kind of odd things I have. I guess the only one is the dowels that I use for rolling dumplings. Most of the rolling pins you find in stores are the French style, the tapered ones, or they have the handles on them, but the simple Chinese dowel is just a straight cylinder. And that’s what I use for rolling dumpling skins, and it works best for me.

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

Cilantro. Cilantro, when I was little, my parents put it in everything, and I was like, “Mom, you’re ruining this dish.” They put it in the soup, and I am like, “I can’t eat the soup now,” or whatever. And now I love it. I put it in guacamole. I put it in my pho. I put it in Chinese dishes. It’s great.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I would have to say the one that I reference the most is probably The Baking Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. And there’s this old Chinese cookbook that’s my mom’s, it was like a godmother put together in the 1960s or something. It’s this tiny little thing, and I don’t think it’s widely published. But we have a copy of it, and it’s just these traditional Chinese recipes, home-style Chinese recipes. And I’ve blogged a few of them, but I go to that one quite often.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Okay. I thought about this, and I was like, I don’t think there are any songs or albums that make me want to cook, but when I cook, I like to have music on. The White Stripes are one of my favorite bands, and so any of their albums or anything by Jack White gets me pretty pumped and happy in the kitchen.

On Keeping Posted with Jen:

If you want to follow what’s going on with the dog, follow me on Instagram. Otherwise, I would say the blog itself is probably the best. I’m just getting really bad about keeping up with social media these days because I think I’ve realized that I’d rather spend my time living my life than just constantly writing about it.

053: Abby Thompson: Veganism and Vegan Baking

June 24, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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The Frosted Vegan

On The Frosted Vegan Abby showcases recipes that show that even if you’re eating a plant-based diet, you can still enjoy delicious desserts, and that it doesn’t have to be a hassle.

I am so pumped to have Abby Thompson of The Frosted Vegan here on the show today.

(*All images below are Abby’s.)

On Growing Up in a Home Where Food Was Enjoyed and Shared:

It was obviously awesome and delicious. In our house my mom was either making brownies on the weekend or my dad was making cookies after school, stuff like that. It just became a part of how I grew up, and when I moved away and started on my own that kind of fell off because mom and dad weren’t making them for me.

I loved baking, but I didn’t keep up with it. And especially when I turned vegan it became a little bit harder. I didn’t know if I would be able to keep up with all the baking and stuff like that. So, I just integrated it into my life and realized it was something that was part of my childhood and part of who I was.

It shaped how I looked at food, and treats were always an everyday thing. For some people they didn’t grow up with that, but for me it was just always something that was there.

On Being in the Kitchen:

This is kind of a weird story to remember, like baking and cooking, but I remember in middle school I did not make show choir. And I was so sad, but I was like, “I just need to make a pie.” So, I made a pie and I remember from then on it was like baking kind of solves everything. It feels awesome, I do it, and then I get a slice of pie at the end. So, it was great! It just started evolving from that.

I discovered in high school, you know, boys really like when you bring them cookies, or everyone is your friend if you bring them cakes! So, when I figured that out and I enjoyed it at the same time, it just started, like I said, becoming part of my everyday life.

I’ve always had a huge sweet tooth, and for some reason cooking doesn’t come easily to me. I have to have a recipe, I’m not just improvising dinner or anything like that. When I do it turns out not so great, so my fiance prefers I don’t improvise. But, it’s always been baking, I can kind of make up a muffin recipe and it’s no problem. I know that’s a little bit harder because baking is a little more scientific and exact, but for me it has just always come naturally. I can feel when it’s right, when it’s going to come out okay. It doesn’t always work, but most of the time it works.

On Veganism:

A vegan diet generally means you’re not consuming any animal products. So, not only no meat, no fish, no dairy, so cheese, eggs, that kind of thing are out.

You can go from one extreme to the other.

Some people just stop at cheese and eggs. Others avoid all gelatin because gelatin has animal-dried products. Fish sauces and a lot of Thai dishes, stuff like that. Then, it expands into a vegan lifestyle so some people choose not to consume leather goods or have anything with animal-dried products. It’s a sliding scale of what extreme you want to go to. And then, on the other side of it, I kind of try to also approach it with a plant-based diet, so that’s also avoiding excessive oils, super-fatty products.

Some of the vegan products out there are not necessarily healthy, they’re vegan, doesn’t mean they’re healthy. So, it really depends on what extreme you’re on or what part of the scale you’re on. It means something different for everyone.

On Becoming Vegan:

I went vegan about three years ago.

I always grew up in a household where cheese is on everything, we had chicken, fish, all that kind of stuff. But, I had never been a huge meat eater, I never really liked it.

I was starting to slowly phase out the meat in my diet just because it didn’t really matter to me. Then, my dad actually went cold turkey vegan about three years ago. He watched Forks Over Knives, which is a documentary, and he just decided that he wanted to make a change. He wasn’t really feeling great, wanted to feel a lot better, and eat a lot better. Nothing had ever really stuck for him. So, he did that and then I was still living at home at the time so it was kind of a natural thing to follow along with it.

When I moved away from home I just kept following it because I realized I felt a lot better. My body just felt better when I didn’t eat certain foods, and I’ve just slowly gone more vegan over the years.

The meat part wasn’t as hard, but the dairy is hard. A lot of stuff like grilled cheese or things with cheese in them, you have to figure out what works if you want to use vegan cheese or cheese at all, stuff like that. I’m still figuring it out.

I’m sure it will be a lifelong journey to figure out what works and what tastes the best, to me. That’s what I like about it though because it doesn’t feel very stagnant. I’m always finding something new. It’s awesome what people are doing with vegan food now.

On Baking Vegan and Her Blog:

I originally started it because when I moved away my dad was still wanting to make all the baked goods that I grew up making, but he didn’t want to necessarily include all the vegan butters, or oils, and extra stuff like that. He wasn’t really sure how to approach it, so I wanted to start figuring it out, not only for him but myself, too.

It just progressed from wanting to share those recipes and figuring out, “Hey, maybe other people are looking for these, so I’ll just start a blog!” I kind of just had to figure out what egg replacements work, or what kind of oil replacements, or can I get rid of the oil? Stuff like that.

It’s really relearning because up until I went vegan, I was making croissants from scratch, and things with a lot of eggs in them, and I loved it, but then trying to relearn what’s going to work in place of those things was a challenge.

On the Biggest Misconception of Baking Vegan:

I think the biggest one is that it’s going to be gross. I know some of the commercially made vegan, baked goods I’ve had have not been great. They’ve come out dry, or too oily, or it’s just not the same.

I really want to make it so that if you give someone a cookie and they eat it, they’re not like, “Oh, is this vegan? I can tell.” I want it to be, “Oh, this a cookie and it’s great. I had no idea.” So, I think it’s fighting that misconception that things are automatically going to be disgusting because they’re vegan.

Coconut oil, more people are becoming familiar with it, but that’s a big one that I use a lot, especially in place of butter or different oils. I know it’s more of an up and coming ingredient, but I use that quite a bit.

Ground flax seed, I had never used until I started baking vegan and that, when you combine it with water and let it sit for a little bit, it becomes sort of a gel and makes a really good egg substitute in a lot of things.

Those are two of the main ones that I hadn’t really heard of. I try avoid using weird things or things that are hard to find because I know not everyone lives super close to Whole Foods or anything like that. So, those are my two main ones that I use quite a bit.

Then, just using high quality flours or agave nectar and stuff like that just helps substitute for some of those common ingredients.

One of the first food blogs that I followed that helped a lot was, Oh She Glows. She’s really well known, she has everything from cooking to baking. She goes more in-depth into some of the things when she makes vegan baked goods and it has helped quite a bit.

Dairyfreebaking.com. Dairy free might still include a few eggs, but more milk substitute, stuff like that, she goes into that. I’ve had her site come up a lot when I’ve looked for different things.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t watch a ton of cooking shows, but when she’s on, Giada De Laurentiis. I watch her, I think she’s pretty inspiring.

Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, usually late at night it makes me really hungry so my fiance and I watch that quite a bit on a weekend night. Alton Brown shows when they were on, and I think those are the main ones.

I like Chopped too. It makes me think, “I can do anything in the kitchen!”

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

The First Mess, Laura writes that one and she’s awesome and totally inspiring. Vegan food that just, if you have it, again, you wouldn’t really know it’s vegan. She has an awesome writing style and I absolutely love it. I love her.

Cookie and Kate, she does amazing stuff with seasonal produce, and whenever I get my produce of the week, I know that she always has something that I can do anything with.

Cake Over Steak, Sara is awesome, I know she’s been on your podcast. And I love that she’s doing something different with using illustrations. I know she’s starting to do photography, but she does illustration and they’re awesome and amazing, so I love her things as well.

Then, let’s do one more, Joy the Baker, oh my gosh. She’s one of the first blogs I ever read. I would love to be the Joy the Baker of vegan baking.

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

Floating Kitchen, Liz over at Floating Kitchen, she lives on the east coast and she posts really awesome pictures. She lives by the beach and takes her dogs on walks and stuff like that. When it’s snowing here or really crappy, it’s cool to see her pictures of that.

Laura, again, of The First Mess, she does a lot of gardening and I love when she posts pictures of pulling radishes, or carrots, or anything like that. I think her dad does weekly deliveries to her, berries and things that he grows. So, I love seeing those things because it’s really cool. I think those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

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

My most treasured one at the moment is my Vitamix blender. I just got it about six months ago, and I use it almost every day, all the time. I’ve always wanted one so I’m glad I finally sprung for it.

Then another one is, it’s a measuring cup, which sounds weird, but it’s a tin measuring cup that my grandmother passed down to me. She grew up baking with it, I think it was her grandmother’s, and it’s really cool to use it. It’s super functional, and I love using it because I know it’s been passed down through baking generations in our family.

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

Tomatoes. I use to not eat tomatoes in anything. I hated them. I hated chunks of them in anything, and I still wouldn’t like, eat one whole like some people do. But I’ve discovered that really good tomatoes, like fresh, summer tomatoes are amazing, and I love it now!

Then spinach too, I used to hate spinach. I grew my own spinach a couple years ago, and I loved it. So, I think the freshness really makes a difference.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

The Bountiful cookbook which is by the White on Rice Couple, Todd and Diane, is awesome. Again, really focused on seasonal produce. They grow a lot of their own stuff, and it’s made it so much better because I’ll get something from the grocery store and think, “I don’t really know what to do with this. I’m going to look at this cookbook.” They have something amazing, very accessible, very easy, love their cookbook.

I have a baking cookbook from Williams Sonoma that I got several years ago that doesn’t have any vegan baking recipes in it, but it’s a super solid foundation for if I need a good jumping off point for a cake recipe or anything like that. I know that it’s going to be reliable, and even if I tinker with it with all my weird vegan stuff, it will probably come out or make a good foundation.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

So, I’m a big fan of Pandora and I’ve really been into the song Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars. I think that song makes me say, “Okay, I can do this. Let’s get some cooking done. I am ready to go.”

On Keeping Posted with Abby:

I would say probably Instagram and Facebook. Those are the two biggest ones I am probably most active on.