Blog - What Gets You Cooking

episode 23 – Learn about the food supply chain system with Erica from Let’s Talk Food, a series of online events

In today’s episode I’m interviewing Erica Du, the co-founder of Let’s Talk Food.
She’ll share with us how she started this series of online events inviting food experts to help you demystify the food supply chain system, with Eli Kariv last May.

Started from their shared passion of food and the environment, they have hosted 6 events discussing fast-casual restaurants food supply chain, turning food waste into food products, the intersection of food and racial justice, food in times of crises and offered an introduction to spices and a recipe using very little known grains from a NY chef.

Here is a link to their next event (on Tuesday!)

You can contact the team of Let’s Talk Food on their new webpage
Follow them on Facebook or Instagram

episode 22- re-run on Mindful Eating in honor of Mental Health Day

I am re-running episode 1 on mindful eating in honor of Mental Health Day this weekend, Oct. 10.

In this episode, Alexandra Rossi, a certified mindfulness instructor, is sharing her perspective on Mindful Eating and gives you plenty of ideas to try it, alone or with the family.

episode 21- Mindful cooking conversation with Ada from Marmalade+Kindness

Today I’m interviewing Ada (Adamantia Velonis) from Marmalade + Kindness in London, an accredited mindfulness teacher and a management consultant by day.

She’s going to share her story with us and how she created Marmalade + Kindness, her online cooking journal she launched to inspire and encourage people to find moments of mindfulness and creativity through cooking. On that journal, she’s sharing tried and tested recipes, featuring organic, seasonal produce and she aims to inspire you to develop a daily cooking habit. Her recipes encourage you to develop your intuition as a cook – to use all your senses, and adapt recipes to your tastes and those you cook for I feel completely aligned with her philosophy of ‘mindful cooking’ that is quite unique and I love that all recipes incorporate wellness tips at the bottom under the ‘practice makes progress’ section.

Connect with Marmalade+Kindness on Instagram @marmaladeandkindess or Twitter @Marm_Kindness

I’ll talk to you in 2 weeks ! In the meantime, have fun in your kitchen!

Easy Madeleines recipe

As promised, here is my favorite homemade snack recipe of the week: Madeleines! (from Benoît Molin – translated and adapted from french, from France Info website)

Ingredients (for 16 madeleines):

2 eggs

1/2 cup of flour

1 Tbsp. of baking powder

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of butter (a little less than a stick) + some for the shapes

a pinch of salt

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 410 degrees F (210 degrees C).

Butter and flour 16 (3 inch) madeleine molds; set aside.

Melt butter and let it cool to room temperature.

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with sugar, flour and salt until you get a homogenous dough.

Add melted butter and continue to mix.

Pour 1 Tbsp. in each mold

Put in the oven for 4 minutes and reduce heat to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for 4 more minutes.

Take out of mold immediately

Let me know how it goes if/when you try it!

Favorite recipe of the week #1

As promised, here is our family favorite recipe of the week:

Pasta bolognese (our way):

Every week, I ask the kids what is the one recipe they want to see on the menu for the coming week, and without a doubt they’re both asking for pasta bolognese!

So here is our quick and easy version of it:

Ingredients (for a family of 4 with 2 adults and 2 kids):

1/2 lb of ground beef (and / or ground pork, you can even uncase a couple of sausages if you’d like)
2 Tbsp. of olive oil
1 can of tomatoes (whole or diced)
1 medium sized onion
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp. of sugar

Instructions:

PASTAS:

– put 4l of water to boil in a large pot + add a pinch of salt

– add your spaghetti (or favorite type of pastas) when it comes to a boil and cook for 10 minutes (or as instructed on your pasta packaging)

– strain and pour a fillet of olive oil on top so pastas won’t stick

BOLOGNESE sauce:

– mince your garlic
– chop your onion
– heat a pan with 1 large tbsp of olive oil in it
– sauté garlic and onion for 5-10 minutes
– either remove or add your meat in the mix to brown it
– when the meat is cooked, add in your tomatoes (crush them with a wooden spoon or fork if they are whole)
+ I like to add a tsp. of sugar to make sure it isn’t too acidic! (grandma’s tip!)

Let me know how it goes if/when you try it!

Episode 20 – Summer favorites

Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 20 of what gets you Cooking!

If you’re wondering, what we are going to cook in the next season.

If you want to get inspired by the different produce / colors / smells / and good memories… listen to this episode!

Today I wanted to share a super simple episode about my favorite summer produce and recipes:
I feel very lucky to be in a region (the Bay Area) where I get access to a lot of food variety and extra lucky that a lot of the produce is the same as what I had as a kid in the South of France.

My 5 summer favorites are all fruits:

Cherries, because I remember picking them in my grandfather’s orchard or at friends’,
and
Peaches and apricots that I used to get in boxes from my grandma’s orchards
Watermelon
Tomatoes

For the lucky locals, I want to share where I found the best tomatoes I had tasted in years:

Pie Ranch – in Pescadero (close to Santa Cruz): they have some by the case and that’s what we use to freeze or can at the end of summer. I LOVE their products + I LOVE the project around it: I first heard it from a non profit consultant who was helping them fundraising and they are amazing! Pie Ranch’s founding partners shared a vision “to create a regenerative farming and food system education center to build community; provide a space for healing our relationships with ourselves, each other and the earth; steward the land and the environment; sequester carbon through climate friendly farming techniques; empower young people; train new farmers; make healthy food accessible to Bay Area communities; leverage privilege to address systemic racism and oppression; and build strategic partnerships”.
Mariquita Farm – in Watsonville (close to Santa Cruz too) does a drop off in SF in the East Bay, in the Peninsula and in Santa Cruz and cities around. Their promise is this: “We promise you fresh, organically grown vegetables and fruits. We promise you good recipes and an interesting newsletter that will inform you about the production of your food. We promise you fair prices and a commitment to quality. And we promise we will do our best to make you happy.”

Those 2 places are really my favorites for tomatoes + I love the project they have around growing food + I (as a lot of others) am a fan of Andi’s newsletter!

—

RECIPES: (I’ll add to the website)

Cherry custard Clafouti
Roasted peaches and goat cheese / almonds balls salad
Tomatoes and watermelon salad: I first heard of at a farmer’s market in NC. (I have to admit, I wasn’t convinced on paper but fell in love with it as soon as I tried it.)

I’ll talk to you in 2 weeks !
In the meantime, have fun in your kitchen!

Episode 19 – Grandmas Project, sharing grandmas’ recipes and stories around the world

Today in episode 19, Jonas Pariente is sharing his perspective on food and telling us about his project: “Grandmas Project”, a collaborative web-series sharing the recipes and stories of grandmas around the world, filmed by their grandchildren.

It all started in 2013 when Jonas realized he could tell more than his family’s story. Not only could he share his grandmothers’ food, recipes and cultures, but also those of dozens others who shared his love of food and cultural heritage. Capturing the diversity of the cultures and the unity of families, around food, is universal. So the Grandmas project was born.

I hope you enjoy the episode and I’ll leave you with Jonas’s and his grandma’s words of wisdom: “cooking takes time” and “the more I cook, the happier I get!”

Click here to learn more about his story.

Watch the first 12 videos on the website.

Follow them on facebook – twitter – instagram

And support them if you want more!

Episode 18 – How mothers inspire

Mothers’ day is right around the corner so I wanted to talk about the inspiration our mothers and grandmothers can have on us, and us on our children.
Today I wanted to share a few thoughts on what cooking brings to children, having them around in the kitchen…

Links to what chefs are sharing about their mothers and their passion:

Episode 17

Today I want to talk to you about how cooking can help your mental health.

We’ve already seen that eating healthy helps nourish your body but cooking is also good for your mind. There is more and more research being done saying that cooking is as beneficial as meditation. And there is also therapy cooking, or culinary therapy (also referred to as Culinary Art Therapy).

Of course in these times on confinement, our mental health is more important and probably more at risk than usual, but I believe it’s also about self care, no matter when.

Talking to my friends and family for these past few months, I’ve seen this topic of how people cook and why they enjoy it so much coming back at me. Most of them told me they enjoy cooking because it relaxes them. Some of them cook a wide variety of meals, some like to stick to their favorites, and some follow the recipe of the moment. But what they all have in common is that they love to be able to focus and let go of their thoughts. And they are giving their love to the people they’re feeding through these home cooked meals.

Wether you know it or not, cooking is a great activity to focus and to express your creativity. And both are tremendously beneficial to your life balance.

Starting this week, I’ll share with you my family’s favorite recipe of the week.

Stay tuned and HAVE FUN in your kitchen!

Episode 16

Today, I’m sharing my perspective on the book “French Kids Eat Everything” by Karen Le Billon.
On this Valentine’s day I wanted to bring a lot of compassion to all parents, and especially to those who have so-called “picky eaters”.
In her book, Karen Le Billon presents 10 rules around food and children that she put together after her year living in France.
I’m giving you my take on it, as a woman brought up in France, who became a mom in the US.
Happy listening!

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