Episode 52: Foodie Chat

We know so many of you out there are foodies like us so we wanted to dedicate a whole episode to all things currently in our heads about food. Recipes we love, kitchen gear we are into and pet peeves about cooking etc. We weren't sure we had much to say, but it turns out once we get going, we have a lot of food stuff to talk about!

So let’s get you folks some links and recipes!

Here’s the link to the Wusthof Chef’s Knife Gabby mentions.

The World’s Best Veggie Sipping Broth Recipe (via an Insta friend @beknewell)

• 4 carrots

• 2 celery stalks

• 2 cups of shiitake mushrooms (chopped)

• 1 bunch of parsley (chopped)

• 2 inches of ginger (chopped, don’t need to peel)

• 1 head of garlic cut down the middle

• 8 cups of filtered water

• salt and pepper

  Instructions

Bring everything to a boil and then turn down the heat and let it simmer for about an hour. Strain out the stock and squeeze in fresh lemon (in my opinion the lemonier the better!) and drink! Or include in any cooking but I like to drink it like tea or broth.

Gabby’s Mom’s Potatoes n’ Butter Recipe

• Peel and quarter about six decent size Russet potatoes

• Throw everything into a pressure cooker (instant pot works, or just slow cook in a regular pot on the stove top)

• Cover with about an inch of water and bring to boil

• If you’re cooking in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot it should take about 15 minutes

• Once done, potatoes should be very, very well done. Kind of mealy and falling apart.

• Toss in about half a cup of golden butter and stir it in

• Season with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with dill (if that’s your jam!)

Link to Mel’s Pampered Chef garlic press

The ULTIMATE Swiss stainless steeler peeler from the Topsfield Fair (only $5!)

Half Baked Harvest One Skillet Greek Meatballs and Lemon Butter Orzo

Semla Bun Recipe (Food52)

Ashlyn Sailsbury Instagram account

Let us know if you make any of the above!

>>> Click here to read the computer generated transcript (note that the transcript isn't perfect)

Mel: Welcome back to the Making an effort podcast, the podcast where you get to drop in on a conversation with two friends, discussing all the things they make in a effort with. And some of the things they don't. Hi Gabby.

Gabby: Hello, Mel. Okay.

Mel: So today, um, we thought that we would spend a little bit of time talking about food.

Gabby: Um,

Mel: mainly because this is mostly what we talk about in real life.

Gabby: that's true. That's true.

Mel: We, we have to say that Gabby has felt, but I left out of that conversation of late because she's got big kitchen renovation going on.

Gabby: Um, But maybe can I check, can I interject with a story? so like a few weeks ago, I was even last week on Marco polo. Mel was like, okay guys. So like, I just have had my kitchen like reorganized, and I'm just gonna give you like a wee tour. And she's like pulling out all these like drawers and like. Spice cabinets all organized in her kid, like your fridge. And I was, I, I got on afterwards. I was like, I'm not gonna lie. I feel a bit triggered by that. because I've just been living in this like gaping hole. Really? Really? No, it actually wasn't. It was not insensitive.

Mel: It was like,

Gabby: I was like, Oh, my gosh, what I would do to be in that kitchen, it's like stocked and organized and clean and ready to just, I know, ready for action.

Mel: well, it was because like we have, we have a cleaner that comes every other week. Um, she's like, you know, part of the family. Um, and she just, she L her like, favorite thing to do you is reorganize my cupboards. Like she loves to reorganize my cupboards. Um, . And so she spent like together, the two of us like spent half a day, like. Do you know, like decanting things yeah. Into things, which is a way bit wonky. I know this , you know, like what's wrong with the glass jar of cinnamon that the cinnamon came in, why just made, so why does it need to go in another one? Um,

Gabby: yeah,

Mel: but like consolidating is what I mean. Mm-hmm we did a lot of consolidating, you know, like putting, putting all of the three different bags of porridge that were open into the one container like that kind of stuff. So I was just especially proud of it because there was a lot of stuff that was actually I had date or I was in denial about whether I was going to use

Gabby: it or not. And yeah,

Mel: Brenda forced me to. Get organized. So I was just feeling really like pride of how much cupboard space I'd freed up

Gabby: actually, as you should have been. I mean, on any normal given day of my life, that would be like my ultimate content is like just a kitchen tour of someone else's kitchen and looking all clean and. Organized and beautiful. And like that.

Mel: Do you? I remember like one of our first ever Marco polos was me showing you like my spice drawer. Yeah. I do. I do remember that. And then I think I said something like, I don't know if you give a shit about this or not, but. And then just to think that like, I mean, you give the most shits about

Gabby: stuff like that. You really do. Oh. But yeah, I really do. I would watch a channel that was just people giving me like kitchen tours. Like, you know, when the influencers are like to, oh my gosh, grocery hall, I'm like, Where's my coffee. I'm sitting down. This is like, it's like the news, like, this is how invested I am. Its kinda content. Love it. Like people are always like, oh, I hate when insulin. I'm like, no, give me all that content, like I wanna know about your avocado toast. I wanna know about what you had for lunch. Yes. I wanna know what your spice cabinet looks like. I wanna know it all.

Mel: for sure. It's just especially the kitchen space. Yeah. Like I am obsessed, obsessed. Mm-hmm I love like architectural digest, um, like home tours. I'm always just like, please get to the kitchen just to the kitchen. Yeah. Um, I don't know if you saw the one of Gweneth Paltrow's house

Gabby: recently. Yeah. Oh yeah. I sure kitchen is so dreamy. Oh, actually, I'm gonna unreal. I recently watched two that I loved and I felt like I needed to text someone about them, but I didn't know. Why didn't you text me? I don't know. I just, I just didn't and Kristen danced her home. I feel like we're not talking enough about her house. In general as a population of people agree, like beautiful. It is so considered her kitchen is like, oh my gosh, I feel, I felt like transported to. From LA or wherever to, you know, Italy and then also Vanessa Hutchins. Yes. I love that

Mel: house. Right, right.

Gabby: Loved that host. Yeah. Mm-hmm so I, well, I'll link both those in the show notes. If you're looking for like a good. INPO moment. The both of those kitchens and those homes are really beautiful. If you haven't seen them.

Mel: I loved Kirsten DUNS house. Mm-hmm like, just generally loved the whole thing, but her kitchen in particular is like really moody, like really quite dark, like loads of like. I like brown tiles, like are like

Gabby: reddish. Yeah. Yeah. Tiles. Oh,

Mel: so nice. It's so beautiful. And then Vanessa Hudgins her like outside bit I thought was absolutely. Yes. Ah, amazing. I love, oh, stunning. I love an outside bit.

Gabby: Yeah.

Mel: Oh man. Yeah. I watched Shonda RHS. Uh, recently, have

Gabby: you seen her? No, I haven't actually.

Mel: For like New York apartment. Oh, I'm sure it's insane on architectural digest. Insane and not totally not what I would've expected. Huh. Really like high society as like, like Bridgeton, like a Bridgeton. Down to nawe type style. Oh, like really ornate and like loads of like patterned wallpaper and like opulent, opulent, cartons and stuff like that. I wouldn't, I don't know why. I just didn't expect that she was into that kind of style. Mm-hmm

Gabby: um,

Mel: but it is really cool and she is some amazing like, oh, I'm and artwork and stuff. Anyway, that's a real segue to say that we just, we love a

Gabby: kitchen we love a kitchen. And I'll we do, maybe a future episode would be, could be fun, would be kind of doing like a little. Uh, like a podcast about my kitchen redesign. I don't know if that would be fun for people. Yeah, but maybe it would, maybe it would just like why we picked the things we picked and why we chose to remodel versus moving and all of that stuff. We could do something like that. Anyway. Absolutely. We're getting off track food. food.

Mel: Okay. So we have no big direction for this, but we felt like what we could do was do some chat about either some like recipes that were loving at the minute or some, I always love like a, a little tip or hack around food. Yeah. Or like I also thought it might be fun to talk about some foodie pet paves as well.

Gabby: okay. Yeah. Uh, I've tried you, you texted me about that before this episode, and I really tried to think of. Things that annoyed me, but maybe once you share yours, um, my thoughts will be jogged on that topic. Okay. Cause it's really hard for me to think of things I'm annoyed with when it comes to food in general. Okay. okay. you're so devoted is so devoted. okay.

Mel: So what, what, I mean, this isn't food related, but more like operational, I guess. Okay. So. like appliances that have lots of tiny parts.

Gabby: Oh yeah. Okay. Mm-hmm

Mel: so like that are really, really, like, I just think good appliance design should involve considering the wash and up process as well. Right?

Gabby: Mm-hmm

Mel: mm-hmm that's there are, there are lots of really, really good appliances, but there are not a lot of good appliances that don't. Require intricate cleaning. Hmm. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. And that, and I feel like that that kinda spawns from being an exciting event, mm-hmm to, oh, just, should I really pull this supply inside because I'm gonna have to clean it. And then that can really hamper what recipes you decide to go for because you can't be bothered. Um, and so that, that is a pet peeve of mine. Is that not enough appliances have that. Thought

Gabby: three. Is there an appliance you're thinking of right now that you're like would only pull it out if I absolutely had to,

Mel: like, for me, I like a hand blander.

Gabby: Mm-hmm yeah.

Mel: So a hand blander. I find it really, really hard to claim like you need a toothbrush to get under those blades. Mm-hmm yeah. To clean them. That's true. Like I would sooner, and I know it's so handy because you just stick it into your pot of so, or used whatever, but like, and then also I'm just like, come out. Is it okay if I run this thing under the top? Cuz it's still like, there's, there's a plug attached to it and I just think. If he could have just made it so that this one bit comes off, that would've been better. Maybe it's just mine. Maybe there are loads that do come off into pieces, like a couple of pieces that can be my

Gabby: BL blade. Doesn't my hand BBL blade. Wow. Say that three times with my hand blade blade blade, my hand BL blade. Uh, it does not come off, so I don't think it's just you mm-hmm um, But I do agree. I find that one really annoying because you also it's so sharp. So you have like the potential of like, I might die. absolutely.

Mel: I could bleed out dear

Gabby: and random. Yeah, exactly. But I always feel like, and I have cut myself on it before, which is why I think many, I feel really, um, Really strongly about that one. Uh, yeah. Mm-hmm no, I get that. I get that mm-hmm . That is actually part of my kitchen design is I like cuz our old kitchen. had these really deep, um, hard to access cupboards, where we would keep all of these different appliances for things, and you'd have to like Rumage through and take things out and pull stuff out and then put the other stuff back. And it was so annoying. So this part of our design for our new kitchen is like every, everything pulls out, like all the, which I know is not novel. Like people have this, we just haven't updated our kitchen since the sixties. Um, and we also have like a couple, like in our big pantry, that unit, that we're building, we have a few shelves where like, uh, Uh, um, appliances can live per perennially, you know? Um, so you don't have to like put them away. So like your toasters, your blenders, but they're not out on the counter, but they still are like accessible and they'll have a little plugin inside the duh, the pantry, which I'm very excited about.

Mel: I'm excited for you for that. That's a dream not having to. Like, yeah, not how we have such a small kitchen that our like, bag appliances, so like slow cooker, the food processor, all that stuff lives in the basement store room, which is fine. Yeah. And I've, and I'm just waiting on a delivery from, uh, ninja. Kitchen for my new air fryer. Hello, I'm joining the air fryer family folks. any hot tips. Send them my way. Cause I don't know what I'm doing with this thing. Um, but it will also live in the, in the basement, in the store room, which is a bit of a BIC, but I don't like having things out in the counter.

Gabby: No. I, I don't even as a max self proclaimed maximalist, um, however, Yeah, there's a few that just live out there because I use them every single dinner time and they do look, they don't look nice or breakfast thing. That's the thing single, single. And you're just like, Ugh, well, this is the trade off, but uh, okay. The air fryer, I actually do have recipes that I can talk to you about right now. Do you have an air fryer? You have an air fryer? Oh yes. We use it all the time. Mostly to like heat up. I mean, I'm gonna be honest chicken nugget to heat up chicken nugget, French fries for Danny. Yeah. And it, he loves it. He's like such a texture child. Like he loves crunchy textures. So, yes. Um, it's kind of, you know, the dream is getting that crunch. We're not microwaving it and it's all soggy. Um, and you don't have to like spend, you know, 20 minutes preheating, an oven or a girl. Oh, so good. It's nice. But, um, apart from that, a couple of things that have been surprisingly good are, um, bacon, like doing bacon, uh, like just putting it on little tin, foil sheets. Yeah. And crisp being up bacon really fast is so nice. Like how

Mel: fast are we talking here? Uh, like five minutes. What. Yeah. I mean, it depends on

Gabby: how crispy you like it,

Mel: but yeah, you could just keep going my life about to change you think?

Gabby: Yeah. I do think it is much change. Um, and it's that doesn't have to splatter and you don't have to like stand over the thing and you know, or like Chris and I have. Like when, when we first got it, we were really, and before it became really Danny's domain mm-hmm because that's the thing is like, you can't have too many things. You're trying to air fry at once for dinner time. Um, but we would do, you know, like chicken wings, even like, I would like, you know, coat some wings and like, you know, like an egg wash and flour and. , you know, coat them in a little bit of oil throw 'em in and they get really nice and crispy, not like Kentucky fried chicken, but like, I don't know. Do you guys do like, you know, like bar food kind of wings? Yeah. And so we would have in America. Yeah. Um,

Mel: I know what you mean. Yeah. I'm just excited that we, because the reason I've got it is because we have, uh, for the caravan basically, mm-hmm because. At the car, we have a gas oven and it is just awful. It is so terrible. It just takes forever to cook anything and the flames at the back. And so you have like, it just burns everything at the back mm-hmm and anything, it just takes forever. So I was like, okay. Let's and I'd seen a couple of our neighbors up there. Mm-hmm

Gabby: had some air fryer

Mel: air fryers on the go and I was like, right, let's do this. Um, and then just the more that I looked at it, I was like, do you know what this is actually. Super handy. And this I've bought one that has like the two oh yeah, yeah. Drawers mm-hmm and it has this function on it where, like I say, I was cooking sausages in one and like mm-hmm , you

Gabby: know, I don't

Mel: know, like sweet potato fries in the other. Yep. and one took 20 minutes and one took 15. You could like set it. So then the one doesn't go on until five minutes into the other cooking and finish at the same time. So like, I was just like sold. I love again like that.

Gabby: Oh, that that's Chris'. I mean, if we were to ever get a different one, we probably would do one with two. Units as well, because you do just find yourself, like once you kind of get in the habit of using it, you use it for everything. Like, I love it for like, oh, like a roasted broccoli, but without roasting it for 45 minutes, you know?

Mel: Oh, and how long would that take then? I don't know, like 12.

Gabby: 12 minutes, like maybe 20, if you wanted them like really extra crispy or like the little burnt crispy bits, maybe 20 minutes. But again, it's like you go from zero, like the full thing from like there's no preheat, there's just toss it in. This

Mel: is what I love. Do you preheat your oven legit? Gabby: Uh, I usually do. Yeah, I do.

Mel: I'm not, if it says pre hate, I'm like, whatever, Gabby: I don't have time to pre hate I'm in the UK. I don't want I'm in the UK. Cuz you guys have like, like your, your ovens are intense.

Mel: cause they're so slow.

Gabby: No they're is, I was so powerful. Like every time I've cooked in the UK, it's like. And now it's on. And it's like, you know, like SHA Shara, me shack, and a Bendigo and things are getting cooked. And like my old oven, it was just some crappy. Yeah, my old range was like some crappy, I don't know, bottom of the line, home Depot situation that took forever to heat up and get to temp mm-hmm so I was like, I'm not ruining my food.

Mel: yeah. Fair enough. Well, I just, if it says like preheat to 200, I'm like, okay, I've put it on to hundred and I'm putting these chicken fingers in mm-hmm and I'm just gonna give it an extra 10 minutes. Because I'm not wait, I'm not waiting. So whatever mm-hmm um, sometimes if I forget about it, then I will breathe it, but that's only cuz I've forgotten it. Yeah. Another thing that I thought was that came to me about like, not pet paves, but just oil is.

Gabby: knives. wow. Like even them sharp,

Mel: keeping them sharp.

Gabby: Gabby. Yeah. Yeah. That's

Mel: it. That is it. I'm like mm-hmm, , it's frustrating. And I'm like, I get, you know, I get to a certain point and I'm mm-hmm oh, hang on my DD. Driver's here. One sec. Awesome.

Gabby: I can pause,

Mel: Billy. Are you there? Hello? I am. Hello? You can just every that's. Okay. Just leave it at the door. That's grand. Just leave it at the door. That's grand. No, it's right. I'll I'll come down now. I'm just on a week. Call I'll come down now and get it. Thank you so much. Say ya. Bye.

Gabby: Okay, Ben, I actually forbid you to cut this out cause it was like the most quaint Irish ex thing ever. It's like, you know the name of your delivery guy? D yeah. He just had like popped him on the phone. There was like, All right, Billy and he's just like, all right, love . I'm like bill. Yeah, please do not cut that out.

Mel: Gosh, this is the kind of, this is the kind of relationships that you need to keep sweet is your D P delivery guy. Amen to that. You and I both know this because they have the par to lock your parcel up with some sort of that's right. Like that's right place for, so that's my air fryer guys. That's it. That's it at the door. That's it. That's it there. Um, and that was me talking to Billy through the ring doorbell, which has also ran evolutionized my life recently. Um, anyway, uh, where

Gabby: were we?

Mel: What were you talking

Gabby: about? It? Uh, Toughs. What about knives? That's it? Yeah. Most. Okay. Do you sharpen

Mel: your knives all

Gabby: the time? Uh, no, no, don't a struggle through an onion. no, I don't. I have a really, so one of the early presents I asked for in our marriage for Christmas, I was like, honestly, I. Don't and this, especially at the time, cuz it was like we were beyond broke. And I just remember I had spent the first year of our marriage doing exactly that like really being like dreading every time a recipe called for sweet potatoes, cuz it was like gonna take me an hour to cut it up. um, and so I remember being like all I want, like I just want like a really, really nice knife, like. Yeah, a chef's knife, like whatever we can do to make that happen for Christmas, like let's just do it. And so we did, we got a w off knife, um, and I know. Like I, I did, when I, the heart of my promise, part of my speech and presentation to Chris, when I asked for it was like, I will take care of it. I will sharpen it. I will, I will love it. Like my, my first born and I have loved it. Like my first born, I will say, but the other stuff has kind of like fall by the wayside because it doesn't really need as regular sharpening as yeah, of course the other knives do. And. So, yeah, like I'll just say that, like, I do have one really, really nice knife that I use for everything in the house. And, um, I, yeah, I just wash it in between like chops if I need to. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Um, so I do recommend. I do recommend investing in, in one of those, if you ever get the chance or putting it on your Christmas list

Mel: yeah, that's a good idea. I actually, I actually would love a really good knife. I have a couple and they do, but they do need sharpened probably like once a week, I feel like, oh, wow. Okay. That's so, because they're probably pretty crap, but it's amazing when you don't sharpen it. And then you're just struggling through an onion man.

Gabby: I, I it's those kinds of functionality, things that suck the joy out of cooking a little bit, a hundred percent. Like if you're like, I emotionally I'm gonna be like cutting an onion is already tough enough as it is. I don't need to be like, having like extra time on this onion. Like, just enjoy like. You know, a bit of depth of flavor. That's crazy.

Mel: Totally. And I know, I know people who don't even bother cutting an onion, they are like frozen, chopped onion people. Sure. Till they die. But we have a very unreliable freezer at the minute. So there's not a whole lot of frozen stuff happening in this house. Um, yeah. Other things like, uh, Uh, keeping an oven clean. Like I, my mother-in-law just absolutely Beres me about the state of my oven. It's disgusting. Mean

Gabby: here's a thing. Was she cleaning her oven when she was, you know, your stage of life every week. I reckon she'd say yes, I think she would too. I was actually, why am I even bringing this up? I already know Iris was like on, on top of it. 1% she, yeah,

Mel: she has, she has bought me like one of those liners, you know, for the bubble, uh, Uhhuh and I use that for sure. And that has kept the bottom of my oven. Nice and clean. Okay.

Gabby: She would hate to say mine.

Mel: the sides of my oven, man. They are rank they're like. Yeah, splattered and gross. Um, but you know, and I know there's probably some sort of like amazing solution that I can use, but it's just takes, it takes a lot of. It takes a lot of elbow grace and it takes

Gabby: a lot of time who has

Mel: time. Yeah. Yeah. Being Nast. Yeah. I wanna be that person. I just don't know if I am.

Gabby: I would say like, I don't, I don't ever clean my oven, but that's because, well, back in the old days, when we had a kitchen, I, we would have cleaners come one, like, and they would come twice a month. And usually like once, maybe once every other month. Oh, we would do like a deep clean of the kitchen and they would always put that on their deep clean list. And so mm-hmm, , I really haven't bit cleaned my oven.

Mel: long time. I bet you'll keep this beautiful new range. Nice and clean.

Gabby: No, I'll be like every week. Yes.

Mel: Let's not use it. Just look at it.

Gabby: yeah, basically. Mm-hmm basically, um, the

Mel: only other thing that I had on like a pet pay list was. Cric .

Gabby: Yeah, that gets everywhere. Doesn't it? Crick,

Mel: man? I I've never like I, all of our countertops are this material called Daton and it is like the most durable unpenetrable stand resistant, blah, blah, blah, blah. But seeum.

Gabby: it's like, then none of that means anything.

Mel: Crick does not give a shit about your D

Gabby: oh my gosh.

Mel: I can't remember what it was. I had made, it was must have been a courier or something. And for some reason, it like, so we have like, yeah, we have, we have these like coverage drawers that like have a, just like a lip of the EPO rather than handles. And. For some reason, like a bunch of tumor got in the, like groove of the lip that pulls the drawer out. And I didn't see it for a couple of days cuz it's quite, it's hard to see. And I was like, what? The flip is this? And tried getting it out. It took me two days,

Gabby: like

Mel: every strong chemical I could muster. So I did like. Big. I started off with the old bacon soda and vinegar, and then I started, then I was like, scrubbing it with, and you didn't wanna like scrub off the actual paperwork either. Mm-hmm so then I was using, I do, you know what I ended up using. Hmm. Neil varnish remover stop. I'm serious. It

Gabby: works. And it worked amazing

Mel: eventually, like eventually it worked, but it was like, Stand yellow for days. So, wow. That does my head and I'm super careful with Ric and I like, oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. Oh

Gabby: man. I haven't cooked with actual Ric in a long time. Like it's always like the powder

Mel: oh, that's what, that's what I'm using. That's what I'm talking about. Like drag. Oh, right.

Gabby: I mean like the, like the, yeah, yeah,

Mel: yeah. The dried powder Ric.

Gabby: Oh, I was just presuming you were like talking about like Ric root, which is like, even worse than the powder. Oh, is it? Don't get, I, if don't bring that into your house, unless you have to I've. Like occasionally I'll make like this, like, um, veggie sipping broth with like, which I could even, I mean, it's so good if you ever want just like health and a cup. It's like, so I need

Mel: that lesson to me. I need that.

Gabby: Yeah. I can, it's got a lot of veggie in it for are. Sure. But it is so good. Um, but they calls for like, You know, like a thumb of like actual tumor root. And that's the only time I bring it in the house and I'm like, I have like one red plastic cutting board that I'm like, this is the only place you can live. oh, is on this cutting board. And I'm like, totally careful. And I still get orange fingers just from like picking it up and putting it into the pot. Yeah. Yeah. It's in intense

Mel: mm-hmm yeah. Herbs in general. I was even thinking, oh, I don't know about you and maybe it's just the quality, but dried green herbs in general. I feel I'm gonna say this and it's gonna sound controversial. Don't really make a difference.

Gabby: I, I do not agree with that at all. I'm sorry. I'm so ,

Mel: as in, as in it could be SGE it could be Oregon. It could be time. It could be basil. It could, you know, dried and it wouldn't make a button, a difference to the taste I fail.

Gabby: Um, I'm really I'm can't say, okay. There are certain herbs where it makes a huge difference for me.

Mel: Can I get a for Marie?

Gabby: Yes. I find that a very, I like basil too, man. Do you? Yes. Like think about like a margarita pizza. No. You could swap a,

Mel: a, a basil for an or, and, and you wouldn't really notice a whole lot of difference.

Gabby: I feel, I think it would still taste good. I think it would still be like a, like a totally sensible substitution, but I mean, when it comes from to fresh from like fresh basil for versus like dried basal, there's a huge difference

Mel: well that's yeah. Oh, I'm not Vietnam that oh, right, right, right. Right. What I'm saying is

Gabby: all the dried green herbs. Mm-hmm they can all they're all interchange for each other. Totally. Yes. Sorry. I thought you meant like fresh herbs to dried herbs. Oh no. Basal the BAS all dried to fresh. No, and I was like, no, no, no, no. no. As in you could make a

Mel: spaghetti bona, right. And you could throw in term. Ora. And it would taste the same if you put in basil and Hmm.

Gabby: Like whatever parsley. Yeah. Yeah. I have definitely like when I've been out of stuff for a marinara have just thrown green stuff in . Yeah. Like see what

Mel: happens. yeah. Like part of me just wants to stop by a, in the individual named. Her dried herbs and just by the mixed herbs, because yeah, it feels like it's all the same to me. And maybe that's totally

Gabby: NCE or whatever. yes,

Mel: totally. Um, it just doesn't feel like it makes a massive difference, but I, I mean, always a fresh herb over. A dried for me, if I can, Hey everyone. We wanted to take a quick break in this episode and let you know that we have a Patreon pH now, uh, you know, we love, love, love during this podcast each week and connect them with you. And our PON pH is a way for you to get to hang out with us. Um, and for us all to be together even more and help us cover the cost of running the podcast. So we can keep our sponsored ads to a minimum. Uh, it's just $5 or four points a month to access it. And we have some really exciting plans for spending more time with you guys there this year. So when you become an patron. You'll get access to our monthly making and effort magazine, where we're gonna be sharing all of our best recommendations for food and books and TV and music and what we're wearing and all that good stuff. Uh, you'll get a patron only extra video podcast from us each month and an invitation to join us for our annual. Making an effort, virtual cocktail party, where we get to hang out together and meet each other more. So if you wanna join the making an effort gang, you can find a link to our patron in the show notes, or you can go to www.patreon.com/making an effort podcast. Can't wait to see you inside. Yes, always, always

Gabby: a fresh herb. Yes. Or the herb as you call it, herb herb herbs. Uh, I, I do love, I do love herbs. Um, it's like gonna be about 50% of my, my garden veggies in the backyard this year is just it's. So what's your,

Mel: your top three? Give me your top three

Gabby: fresh basil basil for sure. Uh, Cilantro and Dale probably mm-hmm

Mel: who would call that coriander.

Gabby: Coriander. Okay. Yeah, I know. Right. Cilantro? Yeah, I think so. Um, yes, I think so. Cilantro is like the one that's always in Mexican food yeah. Yeah.

Mel: Um, and di interesting. I've come. I've

Gabby: had, I've been on a journey with di I was like a really, I grew up with it in like SBE cooking a lot because SBE cooking is very influenced by Russian cooking mm-hmm , which uses a ton of di. And so I think it was just one of the was herbs that like was in everything growing up and I liked it, but then I got to be an adult and I was like, I'm done with di I wanna try other stuff. . Wow. Um, and so I, I really went off it for a while, but recently, you know, it was, as I made a dish that we used to make all the time in new Pakistan, um, growing up. It was so simple, usually like, cuz in news, Pakistan, we didn't have gr at least at the time and the city that we were living in at the time, I'm sure if you're in different cities and especially now in 2020s, it's very different than it was to the nineties. mm-hmm mm-hmm but at the time, if you wanted to get. Food for your house. You literally went to the bizarre, every Sunday, you packed up as much as you could carry home. And then you used that for the week and there was no restock, no refills other than bread. So there, every neighborhood had like a little bakery and you had go and you'd pick up your non for the day or, you know, every other day. And that would be the height of it. It like, or maybe your neighbor would bring over some, some milk for you from their cow or like a few eggs or whatever. But like, other than that, Everything you're going to eat that week is from the bizarre. So you get to like your Friday or whatever, and the pantry's really running low. And my mom had five kids, so she . So this was like a classic in her house. It's just a big out of water. Peel cut up potatoes mm-hmm and she would, she had a little pressure cooker, so she would just pressure cook the potatoes. Um, so they get really crumbly, like not, they're like more than boiled. They like almost kind of like fall apart. Mm-hmm like, you know, like when you get like an Irish stew and the potatoes are kind of like, they get mealy and they like fallen apart, like kind of that texture. And she would put a huge, like, I mean, like maybe a cup of butter, like yellow, like. Grass fed, cuz that's all you had butter on top and you just like watch it kind of like pool and dissolve in the water. And then she would top up like a ton of di salt, pepper. And that would be like lunch for. Three days a week, that was like our Mac and cheese, you know, like, okay. Yeah. Like, you know, what you would do for like your kids, you know, like that was our Mac and cheese. Um, yeah. And I still loved it. And so I actually like maybe a year or so ago was like really craving that. Um, so I made it chopped up the dill and I was like, I flip and love deal. This is so good. . Mm. So now it's like, in everything I'm gonna grow up for the first time this year. I'll see how that goes under a grown, grown deal in my backyard. Um, but I'm very excited cuz it's just one of those. I feel like it's one of those herbs, like if a recipe calls for it, there is no substitute. No,

Mel: it's a very distinct, I feel like that's not a di is not a taste that we

Gabby: grew up with here at all. Yeah. Yeah. I only ever really

Mel: experienced still when. I moved to Canada and it was like D pickles on the side of your burger or Del pickles in your burger or D pickle chips. Mm-hmm um, it just wasn't Dell was not a, a flavor at all. That was recognizable to me as a child at all. Mm-hmm so mm-hmm, it strong still? Yeah. It's still something that I'm trying to figure out if I like or not. I don't mind it whenever it's in a salad or. mm-hmm, some sort of veggie recipe or whatever, but it's not something that I've really actually ever cooked with. I don't

Gabby: think that's a very polarizing flavor. Like I do think di and cilantro, you know, you get the people who either can't stand it. Like if it's in something they know about it. Yeah. Or,

Mel: you know, what about the people who taste, uh, cilantro or cor Ander as we call it? Mm-hmm and they test it soy. Have you ever heard

Gabby: this? Yeah, apparently it's like a genetic thing. Like

Mel: it's like, you're I understand that. And sometimes I feel, well, it might be like psychosomatic for me. Sometimes. I feel like that is true that I do test that.

Gabby: I know I don't, I mean, I do, I, I kind of get it, but I also kind of feel here's the thing I do get that, but I also feel like real Mexican food without it. doesn't make sense to me cuz it's just so in everything like yeah, I agree. It's, it's kind of like having Indian food without, you know, like turmeric or poppy, like human, like yeah. It's one of those flavor profiles that like makes it, makes the food . So that's kind of where, where I get really like. You know, hung up on that. Mm-hmm

Mel: it needs to be in there actually a good tip for keeping your fresh herbs fresh is mm-hmm to like, just like you would floors, like to trim the ends of them and stick them in a low pot of water and put them in the fridge. Cuz if you keep them in like a packet. they're for sure. Gonna die early, but if you get them out and give the ends of them a little, like the stems, little trim and put them in a pop 'em in a little jar of water, they'll keep fresh

Gabby: for longer. They really will like sometimes forever it feels like, yeah. Yeah. Like especi, especially like spring onions. Like those will keep for weeks if you do that. Oh, absolutely.

Mel: Mm-hmm really well, um, kind of. Some must haves. Like I think something, two things that I feel I would be really annoyed if I lost or mm-hmm that broke a really good garlic press. Okay. I have like a pamper chef, one that I got like probably 12 years ago. that is so good. Hmm. So, so good. A garlic breast and then also a really good

Gabby: PAER. Yeah. Yeah. Like a good

Mel: sharp mm-hmm PAER have you ever seen a Northern Irish woman? PAing pods

Gabby: with a, a knife with a we knife. Yeah.

Mel: Shes so bad. Like these women should be surgeons. They should. like, I remember watching DSL joy. Like I watched my grandmother's pale buds. Every time I was at her house, I feel like she was pale buds. Um, but I remember watching Dave's auntie Jo Palin buds one time and it was just like, she didn't even have to lick mm-hmm it was just like the way she was doing it was, oh my gosh. So like, um, mesmerizing, but, but also they take half the bud, but

Gabby: some, yeah, they do mm-hmm don't

Mel: they mm-hmm and that's one thing that I'm grateful for a PAER for, because yeah. You're getting you're keeping your spot intact.

Gabby: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I have a, I have a really lovely peeler from my sister's mother-in-law. Mm. She . It was like maybe in our first year of marriage, we were up in Boston area where they live, uh, for a wedding. And so we, we went over a state with them and they're like here, our like harvest festival fair. In our, like, they live in this little town, just like 40 minutes of, uh, Boston. So it's like this, you know, just gorgeous little Massachusetts town. They're like, we have a harvest festival, like very Gilmore girly. Why don't you come with us tonight? Mm-hmm cause it was like the night before the wedding we're like, obviously we wanna go and there was like kill BAA and apple pie and it was so good. And it was, the leaves were crunchy. Oh, it was. Beautiful, but there's this stall there where this like woman imports these stainless steel peelers, I think from like Germany or Switzerland every year. And like every year she sells out and Marta, my , my sister's mother-in-law like has gotten to the point where like she places order with her. For the, the next year for people that who want like replacements or like she's become like a dealer yeah.

Mel: You gonna need to get me on de Marta's list.

Gabby: I will, I will. Okay, thanks. Um, the Topsfield, uh, harvest festival, um, and she gave me a heal from there and I swear. Is that amazing treat, that thing, like so poorly, like I throw it in the dishwasher. I let it sit on the counter for days. You don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. It is never rusted. It is so sharp. It does the job. It's so great. Um, and you're gonna have to find out the brand aren't you? Yeah, I'll find it out and I'll see if I can put it up on our show notes and I'll see if I can get you a special Marta delivery. Mm-hmm from the top field

Mel: fair bag time.

Gabby: That would be amazing. But no, I agree. I agree. Those are some, those are some good ones. I would say peeler in a really good knife. those are my two cannot live without,

Mel: for sure. Totally, totally. Um, well,

Gabby: before we wrap up this episode, which has been, honestly, so enjoyable relief that we, I just really needed this. Um, but uh, I wanna hear about like a recipe or like a meal you've had, that's really stuck out to you. In recent times or just like yeah. A recipe that you wanted, you would pass on to a friend.

Mel: Okay. So I recently met, you know, I've been on a halfback harvest kick. You have, I'm just going through all for rasp space. There's I'm they're so good. So I made a Turkey, meatball and lemon orzo pasta. So it's like, oh, it's just delicious. So you make the meat bowls and you don't have to make it with Turkey. You can make it with beef, you can make it with whatever pork. Um, and I think I made it with beef and you make the, make the meatballs, which is pretty easy. You kind of fry those off and then you add shall and butter and like slices of lemon to your skillet. So order to your, like, um, Cast iron, which is usually like, it's, it's supposed to be a one pot thing and it is a one pot thing. Mm-hmm and you kind of like, let the lemon get like grilled and brown on the, on the skillet or the, uh, cast iron. Then you take that off and then you like brown the, or so dry almost like you would Aristo rice. . Hmm. And then you add your stock, but it's kind of to like, get the Oro into the like buttery laminate flavor. And then there's a whole bunch of stuff like that. You kind of put into it as well, like with the stock and cook the Oro and then you make this little wet whipped feta, um, thing. Mm-hmm so it's like some Fata, some, um, Greek yogurt and olive oil. And you kind of blitz that all up or just like mash it with a fork. So it's like smooth, smoother. And then what I did was like smear that all around the edges of a bowl. Mm-hmm . Got Fata all around the edges of a bowl. And then your orzo your laminate orzo pasta, and then your meatballs on top. And it was really delicious.

Gabby: My gosh. Oh, sounds so, so, so, so good. Okay. What about you?

Mel: I mean, it feels, I meant to ask you

Gabby: let, went to Chick-fil-A who literally no. Okay. So what I'm gonna do for this is I'm gonna share, uh, something I've been wanting to make. And this is probably gonna be one of the first things I make in my kitchen. And actually the name of it escapes me. It's a Danish kind of cream puff pastry thing. So like mm-hmm, , it's almost like this little bun. Or not. I mean, data's just like Scandinavian, so you they'd have it in Sweden, Norway, and like kind of every Scandinavian country has its own iteration of it. Okay. Uh, but it's, it's like a little bun or like a little round, you know, roll and you. You cut out a hole in the top, you fill the ins and you kind of, you take out the, some of the fluffiness of the, of the pastry, um, and you put in an almond paste. And then on top of that, you do like a whipped cream and you put the little hat back on top of the paste tree. And I. So there's a, an influencer. I follow she's actually an American girl called Ashlyn sales sales brewer. I'll put her in, in the show notes. I might be butchering her Instagram handle, but she does this thing. She lives in Copenhagen with her family. You would actually love her milk cuz she and her husband are like big time minimalist, you know, uh, Like they've got orange, burnt orange clothing for all their kids. and she, yeah, she's really funny too. Uh, I'll definitely be linking her in the show notes. She's a great follow if you're looking for someone new to follow on Instagram, but she does this thing every Friday where she goes to the Danish BA or bakeries and she gets different pastries. Try. mm-hmm and she'll try them on her Instagram stories. And I'm like, literally, like my mouth is watering right now, just even talking about it. And it is, if you, if you enjoy food on the level that we enjoy food, uh, you'll enjoy these Instagram stories. You'll want to probably move to Copenhagen as a result as I do. But, um, the, one of the ones and she gets this like maybe every other week sh because it's just such a classic and I wanna make that them at home. I I'm like at the point now where I'm like, there's nowhere in the us. I can get this. I am gonna need to be my own source of pastry. Yeah. Scandinavian, pastry. baking.

Mel: Okay. I'm on her profile and I see,

Gabby: okay. Yeah. Is it this thing? Yes. What is it? What is she calling?

Mel: She is not calling it anything. And let's say, hang on.

Gabby: I'm sure there's someone listening to this being like, it's a, and like they're screaming at me right now.

Mel: I know a hundred percent. What are we talking about? What is it called? Come on Ashlyn. Ashlyn am that she

Gabby: has so many highlights. Like if you go into her highlights, she will show you all the pastries she eats and I'm like, I just want it all. I want it all. I'm so jealous. Like, uh, just Americans. I mean, we, we do all write, but there's, here's the thing. People are always like, baking's not the same in America. And I would say, I know plenty of incredible bakers. I think, I think that's different between Europe and the UK in the us is that mm-hmm . Good baking is not as hard to come by in the UK and in Europe as it is to in the states. So like, if there's a good bakery in the states, it's gonna be like maybe one in the city or like one of two in the city and they will sell out by noon and there'll be like a, and it's. It's worth it. I'm not saying it's not worth it, but it's just, it's such an ordeal to get, like, even my, like my friends who own a, uh, an incredible artisan donut company, like it's weekends only, you know, which I get, cuz it's like a labor of love. And so it makes a lot of sense. Yeah. But I think in the UK and in Europe, it just seems to be, you can get really good pastries all day, every day. Yeah. And it's your access is just there.

Mel: it is true. Oh my goodness. Unbelievable. So is it called, uh, span, dire or something like that? No, it's not

Gabby: called that. I'm sorry. I'm like, I I'm gonna find it for the show notes and I really will. I really, really well. Yeah. But yes. You found the pay picture of

Mel: the thing I see. Yeah, I see the picture. Okay. Yeah. And her profile is

Gabby: Emla. That's what it's called. Okay. I kept saying Sam LA Simla and for this Christmas, I did do a, um, I did another, uh, Scandinavian pastry. I did, um, a we, what are they called? Like saffron buns. And those were delicious too. Mm-hmm

Mel: age. We would just call us a cream bun. Like this is just looks like a cream bun to us. All right. Yeah. Is it pastry or is it like a bread dough? It looks like a

Gabby: bread. Do it's like a bread dough. Cause you like, I've watched people make it on YouTube and they U they kind rip out some of the bread. It's like a sweet bread dough and you like a Bri ache type. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you put the. The almond Pastin and oh, so good. Okay. Now that I've really

Mel: in my mice. Yep. Yep. Mm-hmm

Gabby: thanks for coming on this food journey with us. oh, yes.

Mel: Um, yeah, we appreciate it. Okay. We'll see you next time guys. See you next time. Bye. Bye.

Gabby: Thank you so, so much for listening to this week's episode of the making an effort podcast, it feels like such an honor to get to connect with you all every week like this. And we just wanna say a

Mel: massive thanks. You

Gabby: can always get in touch with us. At our email address, which is hello@makinganeffortpodcast.com or you can get in touch with us individually on our Instagram accounts and our DMS. You can get in touch with

Mel: Mel Mel Wiggins, or you can get in touch with

Gabby: me at G blue Allen. And if you're feeling really generous today, we would be so grateful if you took the time to like, and subscribe and maybe even leave a review and maybe even share this episode with your friends on your. Social media.

Mel: Um, those kinds of things go such a long way for podcasters

Gabby: like us. And, uh, it would be such an honor to receive that from you. So thank you. And we will talk to you Mel: next week. Bye.