Joy Manning, Author at Local Mouthful

Episode 116: Rice, Food Swaps, and Leanne Brown

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LeanneBrown_highres_credit Jordan Matter — Leanne Brown, author of Good and Cheap

Recently, the food world learned that Mark Bittman, longtime scribe for the New York Times, was leaving journalism to join a tech start up, and now we know what it is. He’s now with vegan meal kit service, Purple Carrot. Joy and Marisa discuss.

Few simple foods are more vexing to cook than rice for whatever reason. Recently, Marisa tried a new Tiger rice cooker that takes all the guess work out of that job. Joy covets the Instapot, which is a rice cooker/slow cooker/pressure cooker in one. What do you think? Should she get one?

Have you ever been to a food swap? That’s a community event when home cooking fanatics get together to trade some of their stash of good eats for some of yours. Marisa co-organizes one in the Philly area, but if you are interested you can probably find one close to where you are. Find yours (or start one) here.

This episode features an interview with Leanne Brown, whose food-stamp-themed cookbook Good and Cheap has really struck a chord with people in all income brackets. We talked to her at the Philadelphia Free Library’s amazing Culinary Literacy Center.

Finally, we sang the praises of our favorite winter greens.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.

Episode 115: All About Thanksgiving

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In advance of every home cook’s favorite holiday, we talked over every aspect of Thanksgiving.

We started, naturally, with planning and strategy–how far out do we start thinking it through? What do we do in advance? What are the key Thanksgiving organization tools?

Appetizers or no appetizers? Should we start with soup? That is the question. One of Joy’s favorite holiday recipes is these Sausage Potato Puffs.

We talked turkey: Both Joy and Marisa ordered their birds via Fair Food Farmstand. (Philly listeners can still pre-order their very own by clicking here.) We also address brining methods (wet or dry?) and whether to roast the turkey whole. One of us stuffs the turkey with stuffing; one of us does not.

We review all the sides we must have–some from childhood, some we’ve adopted later in our lives. Marisa is especially fond of these vanilla mashed sweet potatoes from the blog 101 Cookbooks. Joy swears by the Cook’s Illustrated Classic Bread Stuffing for a Crowd.

Gravy. Like everyone, we love gravy. Joy makes Mark Bittman’s Make Ahead Turkey Gravy every year.

Check out Marisa’s astounding canned cranberry fake out recipe for the people in your lives who can’t kick the can.

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Episode 114: Apples, Sauces, and Erica Strauss

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In today’s show we kicked off with some apple talk, covering our favorite apple varieties. We also discussed using apples in salad as well as cooking and baking with this fall fruit, too.

We shared our strategies for when kitchen inspiration fails us–which it often does.

Here’s that meatloaf recipe Joy mentioned and a link to the wonderful cookbook Mastering Sauces by Susan Voland that Marisa has been enjoying.

Here’s the “Yummy Sauce” Alana Chernila that Marisa mentioned.

This episode’s interview was with writer Erica Strauss of the blog Northwest Edible Life and book The Hands-On Home.

And finally, we talked about the virtues of eggs for dinner.

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Episode 113: Travel Special!

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An amazing double cheeseburger with a heap of homemade pickles from Pullman in Iowa City

In this special episode we set aside our usual format to talk about three recent travel destinations.

Last month, we visited the annual Natural Products Expo East together. Marisa had been before, but it was Joy’s first time to this enormous industry-only trade show. You’ll need to listen to the episode for our specific favorite items there, but here are some of the broad trends we saw there and dissect in this episode:

Meat sticks
Gluten free everything (We found one pasta we loved!)
Paleo baked goods (Should these even exist?)
Broccoli leaves/greens
Fermented things
Coffee kombucha
Camel milk (Yes, we tasted it.)
Crickets (Just one of us tasted it.)
Sea snacks
Bone broths (Really good ones!)
Jack fruit as meat substitutes

During her recent visit to Pittsburgh, Marisa fell in love with the Beans & Greens at Legends of the North Shore. She liked it so much that when she returned, she scoured the internet to find the recipe for this surprising dish. Here’s the recipe Marisa found.

She also enjoyed Max’s Allegheny Tavern and Pamela’s Diner, both for breakfast.

In Iowa City, Joy love the double cheese burger at Pullman’s Bar & Diner and her rye old fashioned at Clinton Street Social Club. Another highlight was Devotay‘s crispy poached egg.

Joy had an unplanned layover in the Atlanta airport, but enjoying a midday meal at One Flew South (highly recommended: the lentil soup) made the mishap all better.

Remember: We’re going to record our Thanksgiving episode soon so send us your questions ASAP. The comment section right here is a good place to leave them.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.

Episode 112: Tacos, Olive Oil, and Tea with Alexis Siemons

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Something we read: is cabbage the new kale? Smoked, fermented, slow cooked, braised, stuffed and salad-ified. We don’t think cabbage was ever out of the limelight in our kitchens.

Tacos are a many splendored thing, and we talked all aspects of the classic: fillings, shells, salads, toppings. Sometimes we make them at home and sometimes we go out to eat them.

The first installment in our new series on cooking fats is dedicated to: Olive oil! Marisa went to a tasting seminar this year and lays down some serious know-how about how to taste and choose the extra-virgin kind. Joy tells you her favorite fancy finishing oil.

Rainbow chard–it’s the vegetable Joy loves but cannot remember how to pronounce! We talk about the key to loving this nutrition powerhouse and all the ways we like to cook chard.

An finally, our echo-y interview with Alexis Siemons. You should go and check out her blog. Do you have a special tea lover in your life? Consider ordering Alexis’ beautiful With Tea journal. It comes wrapped in a vintage handkerchief.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.

Episode 111: Pumpkin Spice, Nonstick Cookware, Making Dinner with Molly Watson

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Food writer and cookbook author, Molly Watson

It’s October now, and pumpkins are on our brains (and our tables) this episode.

Starbucks added real pumpkin puree to its pumpkin spice lattes. We discuss. Did you know there’s such a thing as pumpkin spice Oreos?

Fall = potluck season. We talk about our past potluck experience (Marisa’s, extensive; Joy’s less so), favorite dishes, and the unspoken rules and regs of the potluck table.

Nonstick cookware. Yes or no? We are both users of teflon, though our feelings are indeed mixed. To get Marisa’s specific brand recommendation, well, you’ll need to listen to the show 🙂

Marisa visited food writer and cookbook author Molly Watson in San Francisco and the pair talked about her time in the Sunset test kitchen, solving the “dinner problem” with Munchery, and her story about home cooking that will appear in this year’s Best Food Writing. We love her latest book Greens & Grains.

At her farmer’s market, Marisa is scooping up all the heirloom type pumpkins while Joy cooks with pumpkin out of the can. Here’s that Ruth Reichl pumpkin recipe we talk about.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.

Episode 110: Vegetable Soups, Kitchen Towels, Carolyn Alburger

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CarolynAlburger — Today’s guest: Carolyn Alburger, Eater.com’s cities editor

Did you know there’s a nifty, new Thermapen? And it costs a hefty $99? Russ Parsons sung its praises in the LA Times and it made us want to talk about all the kitchen thermometers we’ve ever used.

Soup’s on! Fall is here and we both love to make it. In today’s show, we talk all about our favorite vegetable soups, sneaky vegan subs for dairy, and all the good garnishes.

Kitchen towels are another theme we tackled today. It was a surprisingly animated and opinionated conversation!

For our interview, we talked to Carolyn Alburger, Eater.com’s cities editor. She dished with us on food trends across the country and told us about Eater’s “Future Week.” You should follow her on twitter.

We wrapped the show up with some talk about mushrooms–exotic ones, to be precise.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.

Episode 109: Winter Squash, Slow Cookers, and ReAnimator Coffee

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Finally, there’s a fall feeling in the air here in Philadelphia, and today’s episode covers some seasonally appropriate topics. But first, we chat about the fact that recalls on organic food seem to be up, according to this story in the New York Times.

At last, we are ready for some wonderful winter squash!!! We’ve got ideas for hubbard, red kuri, acorn, butternut and our very favorite: delicata. Look how many delicatas Joy bought this Sunday:

We also dusted off our slow cookers, the perfect appliance for many cool-weather classics, like stews. But we use them (Marisa owns four!) for all kinds of things, especially beans, whole chickens, sweet potatoes, chicken thighs, steel cut oats, caramelized onions. We love it all.

Mark Capriotti co-owner of ReAnimator Coffee, tells us all about his business and explains “relationship coffee.”

Finally, Marisa unraveled the alluring mystery of Italian Prune Plums.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.

Episode 108: Whole Grains, Oysters, and Crave Philly

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Hope Cohen with her book — Hope Cohen with her cookbook. Scroll down to find out how to win a copy!

Today, we shared our views on this somewhat controversial Q&A with Alton Brown New York Times magazine.

And, to clarify something: Joy said “Kenji” had been nipping at Alton Brown’s heels, without explaining who Kenji is. She meant Kenji Alt-Lopez, the brains behind Serious Eats genius series The Food Lab and the forthcoming book by the same name.

Here’s that fantastic recipe from Eating Well magazine for Barley & Wild Rice Pilaf. (Try it. You’ll like it.)

If you are in Philadelphia, check out the millet muffin at Metropolitan Bakery. (Both of us just love it.) Live someplace else? You could try out this recipe inspired by the muffin.

Also for those of us living in or visiting Philly: go eat raw oysters at Oyster House. We discovered our new oyster crush there, Sweet Amalias, at a recent event.

By the way, what’s your interest in a Local Mouthful oyster club? Tell us in the comments and if enough of you want to eat oysters with us we just may try to set something up.

Our guest today was Hope Cohen, the host of the new two-minute video series, Crave Philly. Check out the first episode, during which Hope will take you inside Spread Bagelry, a Montreal style bakery in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. Follow Hope on twitter and instagram @icravephilly.

We also talked about Hope’s book, Fast, Fresh and Simple. And she gave us a copy to give to one of you! (Thanks, Hope!) Win the book by signing up for our newsletter (see the box in the left sidebar).

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.

106: Homemade Pizza, Packing Lunch, Brine Street Picklery

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Thanks for joining us for today’s episode so soon after the long Labor Day weekend!

On this week’s show we reacted to the recent New York Times article, My Dinner with Longevity Expert Dan Buettner.

We returned to an already familiar topic for us: Pizza. Specifically, we discuss how to make homemade pizza easy and convenient. Joy explains her “Pizza System” and Marisa tells you how to use pizza night to clean out the crisper and eat more vegetables.

As promised, here’s Joy’s pizza dough recipe taped to her KitchenAid.

Marisa strongly recommends this free online class from Craftsy, Perfect Pizza at Home with Peter Reinhart.

While we were discussing the art and craft of the packed lunch, whether for school or for work, Marisa mentioned one of her favorite ingredients from childhood: Toby’s Tofu Paté.

It’s not available on the East Coast, but Joy found a delicious looking recipe for a homemade version, and she’s going to test it out soon to see if she likes it, too.

Our guest is PJ Hopkins, of Brine Street Picklery. (If you like things spicy, try their Hoagie Relish.)

In our At the Market segment, we discussed buying local, pastured pork from Philadelphia Cow (and Pig) Share. Joy bought a quarter pig after reading Pig Tales by Barry Estabrook.

It’s a book you might like, too.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.