Local Mouthful

154: Bluefish, Aprons, Iced Coffee

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We read an interesting and disturbing story in the New York Post which was basically highlights from the excellent book, Real Food, Fake Food. Be warned though if you do read it you may never enjoy sushi again.

We extoll the virtues of a favorite local and strong-tasting fish, bluefish.

For two women who spend so much time in the kitchen, we both have trouble wearing an apron to protect our clothes from spatters, but Marisa recently discovered an apron she wants to wear all the time.

We talk about the pleasures of ice coffee, at home and from shops around Philly.

And at the market this week, we are grabbing all the corn.

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153: Tonnato Sauce, Summertime Spirits, and Pies

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Marisa's blueberry peach pie — Marisa’s blueberry peach pie

Does the Cut Change the Flavor? NPR was interested in how slicing and dicing affects a food’s flavor and so are we.

We talked about tonnato sauce, that wonderful chilled Italian tuna sauce. And here’s the recipe:

Tonnato sauce (Adapted from Joy of Cooking)

Makes 2 cups

One 6-ounce can tuna packed in oil, drained
1 cup mayonnaise (homemade preferred!)
5 anchovy fillets, chopped
3 tablespoons drained capers
3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
Black pepper to taste

Put everything in the blender or food processor and puree until smooth.

Do you switch up what spirits you drink in the summer? We do.

Summer pies! Marisa recently tried and loved this unusual pie dough recipe.

And finally, it’s time for peaches. We especially like those grown at Three Springs Fruit Farm.

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152: What’s NOT for dinner, Tiny Tools, Cooking for Love

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The tiny spatulas Joy didn't know she couldn't live without — The tiny spatulas Joy didn’t know she couldn’t live without

We are suckers for click bait slide shows, like this one from Good Housekeeping that listed the food fad of the year going all the way back to the 70s. We were especially interested in the foods that were faddish the years we were born.

Instead of our usual segment dedicated to what we’ve been cooking lately, we talked about this things we most cooking the most during the summer, when pots of soups are simply unthinkable.

Recently a pair of tiny spatulas changed Joy’s kitchen life quite unexpectedly. So we used it as an excuse to go over all our favorite small but mighty tools.

As recipe developers, we are often cooking for money. We explore how that differs from the reason we got into this line of work in the first place: Cooking for love.

In our At the Market segment, we talked about the good old Italian eggplant.

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151: DNC Dining, Going without the Grocery Store, Tomatoes

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Next week, the democratic national convention will descend on Philadelphia. And all the media outlets want to tell visitors where to eat. We talked over The Washington Post’s picks.

In our What’s for Dinner segment we talked about the merits of a classic Italian pairing, pasta and legumes. Joy is a fan of this recipe.

We went out of our usual subject area a bit to discuss the intersection of food and beauty. It isn’t a very far jump from scrutinizing food labels for artificial ingredients to looking at what’s in your shampoos and lotions, too. This discussion was inspired by one of Joy’s new favorite podcasts, Fat Mascara, which is all about beauty products and not about food at all.

We talk a lot about meal planning, but sometimes we don’t make it to the grocery store. What happens then? We share strategies for living off your pantry, fridge, and freezer supplies.

Tomatoes are starting to pop up at our farmers’ markets, and it’s one of the best things about this time of year.

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150: Google’s 2016 Trend Report

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Screen Shot 2016-07-12 at 10.13.36 AM — The Google Food Trend Report notes people like to “travel through taste”

Leave it to Google to create a comprehensive report on food trends. The tech leader pulled the top searches that have to do with food between January 2014 and February 2016 to get these results.

Joy and Marisa take a deep dive into this treasure trove of data and ponder what it all means for food lovers and trend setters.

Listen to the episode, check out the report, and then tell us what you think of these trends in comments here. We’d love your 2 cents.

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

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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!

148: Fourth of July Cooking

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Happy almost Holiday Weekend, everyone!

This episode is dedicated to all things Fourth of July–grilling, picnics, classic sides, refreshing sips, and patriotic cakes.

We also address food safety, which is always important when combining mayo and the hot sun!

Stay cool out there.

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147: Lunch Special!

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Today we present the second in a series of three special episodes dedicated to mealtimes. You may remember the Breakfast Special.

Today? It’s the Lunch Special. We cover, among other things:

Other cultures’ lunch traditions versus ours in the USA
Lunch at work versus lunch at home
Lunches from when we were kids and for kids
#notasaddesklunch #never
Packing lunch for our husbands
Our current favorite lunches
Going out to lunch
Weekend lunches

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146: Zoodles, Summer Getaways, Jennifer McGruther

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New food website alert: Extra Crispy

Do you zoodle? (Make “noodles” out of zucchini.) Joy is a big fan.

We catch each other up on our first summer getaways of the season.

Marisa chats with Nourished Kitchen author, Jennifer McGruther

Plus, we share ideas for sour cherry season!

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Episode 145: The Fast Casual Kitchen, Pudding, Organized Recipes

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The Wall Street Journal asked, “Can a Pan Add Iron to Your Diet?” And we were all ears for the answer.

You may have noticed that so-called “Fast Casual” restaurants are taking over the world … but can you bring the ideas behind them into your home kitchen? We think so. We’ll tell you how.

This week we sing the praises of an often overlooked dessert classic–pudding.

How do you organize your recipes, both the ones you already love and the ones you want to make? We have some strategies we discuss here.

We’re finally breaking into local cucumber season at the farmers’ market. We’ll tell you how we love to use 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.