Category: Summer

Episode 368: Vegan Mexican, Quick Pasta Sauce, Summer Food Memories

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

In today’s episode, Joy talks about how to veganize Mexican favorites and shares some resources. Marisa’s got an amazing family-friendly pasta sauce hack (recipe below) and now that’s September, we talk summer food memories.

Yield: Serves 6

Chicken Broccoli Pasta

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 12 ounces pasta
  • 1 large head broccoli, cut into florets
  • 1 1/2 pounds chicken breast, cut into small pieces
  • Fresh lemon juice, as needed

Instructions

    Put a large pot of water on to boil.

    Place a large, nonstick skillet on the stove over medium-high heat.

    Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, onion, and garlic to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a cup of water to the pan, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for another 5 minutes or so, until the onions and garlic are soft.

    Scrape the softened onions and garlic into a blender along with any remaining liquid. Puree. If it’s not moving nicely, add a splash more water. Taste and adjust seasoning.

    Return to the stove and salt the water in the large pot. Add the pasta and stir. When it is three minutes away from being done, add the broccoli.

    While the pasta and broccoli cook, put the remaining oil in the nonstick skillet. Set the heat back to medium-high and once the oil shimmers, add the chicken. Season with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through.

    Drain the pasta and broccoli and return it to the pot (make sure to reserve some of the cooking liquid). Add the chicken and the garlic and onion puree. Stir to combine. Add a splash of cooking liquid if it is too thick. Taste and adjust with salt and lemon juice, as needed. Serve immediately.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Want to help us keep the lights on? Become a member via our Patreon page. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.

Episode 277: Cauliflower Cakes, French Bread Pizza, and Veal

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

What’s the deal with veal?

This week, in the food news segment, we’re talking about a disturbing article from Metro UK about the cruel realities of cashew production.

In this week’s What’s For Dinner segment, we’re talking about cauliflower cakes, a recipe I got from the cookbook Vegetables Illustrated, but you can also find it here.

In our How Do You Make That segment, we revisit a childhood / 90s favorite: French bread pizza. LA area listeners, here’s that French bread pizza pop-up I mentioned. Also, the Smitten Kitchen recipe for “Pizza Beans.”

When was the last time you ate veal? If you’re like most Americans, it’s probably been a while if you ever eat it at all. What about cheese? Do you eat cheese? Because veal is a cheese making byproduct and what I learned reporting this article may make you consider buying some from your favorite cheesemaker.

Philly area listeners: Get your veal from Sue Miller at Birchrunville Farm. Find her at the Headhouse, Phoenixville, or Bryn Marr farmers markets.

And finally, in What We’re Love, it’s fresh ricotta. Yum. Marisa’s favorite is from Claudio’s.

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.

149: Plant-based Burgers, Meal Kits, and Hot Weather Cooking

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

A plate of farro, kale, pork chop, and fig compote.
One of the Blue Apron meals that Marisa’s husband Scott made the week they tried it.

This week, we kick things off with a conversation about plant-based burgers that are designed and engineered to mimic meat. Joy had an opportunity to taste one of these burgers recently and didn’t find that it measured up.

Next, we chatted about the meal kit trend and our perspectives on them. Do you subscribe to one? What do you think?

Recommended recipe! In this new occasional segment, we tell you about a new-to-us recipe that we think is worth making. First one up is this marinated celery recipe that Joy has made several times lately.

After that, we shared our methods for keeping cool in the kitchen when the weather gets steamy. Suggestions include. cooking early in the day, heading outside, using your slow cooker, batch cooking, and relying more on ready-made proteins that you can buy at the grocery store and then assemble into a meal.

And finally, in our At The Market section, we dished on summer squash. Make sure to try Marisa’s zucchini butter and zucchini pickles!

Episode 103: No Cook Meals, Carbs and Your Health, Madame Fromage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Our guest, Tenaya Darlington aka Madame Fromage
Our guest, Tenaya Darlington aka Madame Fromage

First up in episode three, we talked over a recent Washington Post story about the common (and controversial) practice of working in coffee shops. (Do you have opinions? We’d love to hear them in the comments here.)

Marisa explained that she enjoys working at Nook and Good Karma Cafe and shares her tips on being courteous about it. Joy can’t get much writing or editing done in cafes, but she does have a lot of meetings at Chhaya. Share your favorite spots with good coffee and strong wifi in the comments.

Next we tackled no cook meals. Listen for all the great tips, but a couple recipes we mentioned were this one for Chilled Cucumber and Avocado Soup and this one for Veggie Nori Rolls.

With several recent studies on the topic of carbs and health in the news, we shared our approaches to eating the starchy stuff. It turns out we both love one particular low carb recipe–Green Chicken from Nom Nom Paleo.

This conversation may have backfired: just talking about it made us hungry for our favorite breads (from High Street on Market) and pasta (from Zeppoli restaurant).

Our interview this week features Tenaya Darlington, whose blog Madame Fromage is a cheese-lover’s dream. If you enjoy what she had to say us, buy her first book, Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese, and pre-order her second, The Modern Cocktailer.

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 102: Entree Salads, Immersion Blenders, and Joe Beddia

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 2.40.50 PM
Photo courtesy of Joe Beddia’s instagram, @pizzacamp

Onward to our second episode! Here are some of the things we talked over:

The LA Times published a story about recipes (Is Recipe Testing a Vanishing Art?), which piqued our interest given that we both develop recipes professionally. For the most tested and trustworthy recipes, Joy suggests investing in a Cook’s Illustrated membership, while Marisa likes Smitten Kitchen–especially for the blondies.

We recorded this one in the middle of a heat wave, and no-cook dinners were on both our minds. We swapped tips on entree salads. Here’s more about that shredded salad Marisa mentioned. And here are a few more salad tips (plus a vinaigrette recipe) from Joy.

Here’s the recipe (and video) that helped Joy master making mayonnaise with an immersion blender. (Public service announcement: Always unplug before even thinking about touching those blades!)

We talked to Joe Beddia about how he is feeling in the wake of his Pizzeria Beddia being named best pizza shop in America by Bon Appetit magazine. You will definitely want to hear his tips on making pizza at home.

Marisa sang the praises of local cantaloupes, and here’s her recipe for the jam she described.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review.

Episode 101: Turkey Burgers, Dry July, and Peggy Paul Casella on Homemade Pizza

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

turkey burger plate

Welcome to the first episode of Local Mouthful, a podcast devoted to the food life in Philadelphia and beyond. Here’s what we talked about in this inaugural episode.

Local pizza shop Pizzeria Beddia being named the best pizza in America by Bon Appetit.

Turkey burgers and our love of this dinnertime staple.

Joy’s endeavors to have a “Dry July.”

We had a chat with local food blogger and freelance cookbook editor Peggy Paul Casella, about her blog Thursday Night Pizza.

Finally, we dished about to do with the corn we’re seeing at our area farmers markets.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe!