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 120: Frozen Vegetables, Cooking for Comfort, Chinatown

FrozenVegFortheWin

Has indie coffee been swallowed up by corporate coffee? According to this recent story in the LA Times it sure has.

Frozen vegetables. Joy shares her favorite (unexpected) frozen vegetables. You will need to listen to this episode to learn the surprising frozen vegetable even restaurant chefs rely on.

We talk about the kinds of food we cook when we need to be comforted or when we need to care for others.

We compare notes on our favorite places (and must-have menu items) in Philadelphia’s Chinatown.

And finally, we talk about the brightest spot of the darkest season of the year: Citrus fruits. Marisa discloses her source for Meyer lemons: The Lemon Ladies.

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 119: Casseroles, Edible Gifts, Holiday Drinks

Marisa’s Tomato Jam from Three Springs Fruit Farm is just one suggestion from this episode’s gift guide. Photo courtesy of Albert Yee.

Chris Kimball is out at Cook’s Illustrated and Dana Cowin has moved on from Food & Wine. We try to make sense of these seismic shifts in food media.

We also talk over the topic of classic casseroles. You don’t actually need a can of condensed soup to make one!

Here are our picks for our favorite store-bought edible holiday gifts:

We also chat about our favorite festive holiday drinks.

Marisa schools Joy about Fromage Blanc.

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.

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

Molly Watson
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 108: Whole Grains, Oysters, and Crave Philly

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.