Episode 144: Intentional Leftovers, Picnics, and Cookbook Club Changes

A dish of leftover roasted cauliflower with yogurt and toasted cashews.
Repurposed cauliflower leftovers.

For our food news segment, we talked about this piece that ran in the LA Times recently, about recipe testing, test kitchens, and all those recipes floating out there on the internet.

We talked about the art of intentional leftovers. This can be as simple as a pot of soup designed to last a couple of nights, or those nights when you cook some elements that will get transformed in future meals.

With summer nearly here, we shared our picnic tips and confessed that we fantasize about picnicking more often than we actually picnic.

At the start of the year we launched a Cookbook Club and after nearly six months in, we’ve discovered that one book a month is too much for us. From here on out, we’re going to feature one book every two months. This leaves us with just three books left for 2016, which will be My Kitchen in Rome (summer), Vegetable Literacy (fall), Choosing Sides (holidays).

Finally, we talked about strawberries (which are finally in season) and shared some of our favorite things to do with the sweet berries.

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 142: Quesadillas, The Silver Palate Cookbook, Camille Storch

Camille Storch, our guest and author of the blog Wayward Spark
Camille Storch, our guest and author of the blog Wayward Spark

Our news item of the day? The sugar shortage.

In our “What’s for Dinner?” segment we talk about an unrated old reliable: Quesadillas.

We discuss our latest Cookbook Club pick, The Silver Palate Cookbook.

Marisa interviews one of our favorite people, bloggers, and honey purveyors, Camille Storch author of the blog Wayward Spark.

And final we talk about the charms and challenges of a seasonal darling–the fava bean.

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 134: Lentils, Marisa’s New Book, Freeze Smarter

Marisa’s new book is here!

How many people on this list of food influencers are you familiar with? They were mostly new to us. Thanks, Bon Appetite.

We love lentils! We talk about 2016’s designation as the “year of the pulses.” We love cooking with dried beans of all kinds, but especially lentils because of their quick cooking, no soaking convenience. Here’s that lentils-and-sausage story (with recipes) Marisa mentioned.

Marisa’s new book, the third in a trilogy on contemporary canning, Naturally Sweet Food in Jars, is now out! This collection focuses on sweetening your preserves with natural sweeteners–not white sugar. Marisa shares her favorite recipes and other inside info about the new book.

Getting the most out of your freezer. Joy and Marisa talk freezer tips, tricks, and best practices.

At the market this week (and in Joy’s case, every week) we’re buying buttermilk. And we tell you all the different ways we use it up.

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 131: Cooking for Ourselves, Edible Philly Preview, New Persian Kitchen

NPK

Did you know there could be wood pulp AKA cellulose in your cheese, even if it isn’t on the ingredients list? Bloomberg News tested a bunch of brands and found some pretty disturbing things.

What do Joy and Marisa cook when we are cooking for ourselves–notably when our husbands are away? We tell you in this segment.

Philly area listeners: Are you excited about the about-to-drop spring issue of Edible Philly? Joy and Marisa talk about some of the issue highlights.

We get into out February Local Mouthful Cookbook Club pick: The New Persian Kitchen. We talk over the recipes we made and what we liked best about the book. Were cooking along with us? Share your experience in the comments here.

At the market: We’re buying whole wedges of hard Italian cheeses. No wood pulp for us!

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 127: Frittatas, Beloved Cookware, and Our New Cookbook Club Pick

Marisa enameledcastiron
Marisa’s tower of cookware

Some restaurants are eliminated tipping. We talk about whether we think this is a good thing or a bad one. We also talk about our own tipping habits and why we have them.

We sing the praises of the frittata, the Italian omelette that is so good at absorbing all your leftovers and get dinner on the table fast.

Our favorite cookware includes pots and pan both cheap and expensive, including Le Creuset, Lodge cast iron, Rachael Ray, and Sitram. We talk about the specific features we look for when shopping. Marisa confesses to a cookware problem.

We’re excited to unveil our new cookbook club pick for February: The New Persian Kitchen by Louisa Shafia. Joy suggests you start with the date shake recipe.

We’ve schedule our first cookbook club pot luck event. Mark your calendar for March 20 watch/listen for details.

At the market, we’re buying full fat, plain organic yogurt. We tell you why.

Episode 123: Winter Salads, Using Your Leftovers, Cookbook Club

101EasyAsianRecipes

First we talked about a controversial recent study that suggested a vegetarian diet is worse for the environment than a meaty one. We are suspicious.

Winter salads–Joy and Marisa love salads all year long. Here’s the warm winter bread salad recipe Joy mentions.

Leftovers are a vexation for some people, but Joy and Marisa know what to do with them. They share their favorite tips to kick your food waste to the curb. One of the best: Make Marisa’s rye crepes and hide those leftovers inside them.

We proudly introduced the Local Mouthful Cookbook Club, and we hope you’ll become a member simply by picking up each month’s chosen book and join our conversation about the book and the recipes. First up: 101 Easy Asian Recipes by Peter Meehan and the Editors of Lucky Peach. We’re going to try to organize a cookbook pot luck as part of the club, so stay tuned for details.

Our seasonal ingredient crush of the moment is pomegranate. Marisa tells us how to pick a good one.

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 122: Year End Special!

happy new year!

In this extended special episode, Joy and Marisa review all their favorite food things from 2015, including restaurants, recipes, cookbooks, gadgets, blogs and websites, podcasts, and more.

We want you to listen to the episode, so we are not making a list of everything here, although Joy did say she’d provide a link to the Nom Nom Paleo Cracklin’ Chicken recipe, so here you go. If you want more information about anything we talked out, say so in the comments here and we will help you out 🙂

We hope you have an auspicious and delicious New Year! Happy 2016.

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 121: Cooking Resolutions, Food on TV, and chef Sara May

SaraMay
Chef and author Sara May

 

In today’s episode, we marveled at this New York Times story about the trend toward “micro kitchens.”

We shared food and cooking resolutions–Joy and Marisa have both made them. Have you made any for 2016? If so, tell us in the comments here.

Are we in the Golden Age of food on TV? We think so. We talk about shows including Master of None, The Great British Baking Show, and Top Chef.

We talk with Sara May, Philadelphia chef and the co-author of Barkday Cakes, a forthcoming cookbook about treats for your dog.

We are really loving cooking with cold weather vegetables. This week our darling is the gnarly celery root.

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 117: Vegetarian Dinners, Homemade Food Gifts, and Annelies Zijderveld

Annelies-hires-1-stephanie-shih
Annelies Zijderveld, author of Steeped

We talk about the pressure to reinvent Thanksgiving. People like what they like.

Joy talks about how she has snapped out of her weeknight cooking slump. It’s vegetarian dinners. Two recipes in particular have floated her boat. Specifically Shredded Tofu and Shiitake Stir Fry and Trini Chana and Aloo. Marisa hearts Martha Rose Shulman for vegetarian recipe inspiration.

Marisa describes the adorable homemade food gift her father gives annually. (You will definitely want to steal this idea.) She also describes how to make homemade kahlua. Want more ideas? Check out Food Gift Love by Maggie Battista.

Annelies Zijderveld fills us in on cooking with tea and her terrific cookbook, Steeped.

We wrap up with a conversation about local cranberries.

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 116: Rice, Food Swaps, and Leanne Brown

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.