Podcast

CF126: John Besh and “My Family Table”

December 21, 2011 By Jeff Young 1 Comment

Today we are going to talk about Chef John Besh and his most recent cookbook: My Family Table. I’m going to admit this right up front. I love this cookbook. And I think you are going to love it too. It’s unlike so many of the cookbooks on the market. This one was written so that it would actually be used by real people in real kitchens. People who want to cook real food for those they love. Of course, it helps that John Besh is a Louisiana boy too. And that he’s Catholic. And a dad and husband. And just an all-around great guy. This episode is going to be fun!

It is Advent and Sarah Reinhard hosts Mary in the Kitchen and considers why changing her attitude is better than surviving this season.

All this and more right here, at the Catholic Foodie, where food meets faith!

As we start this episode I want to thank our sponsor, DivineOffice.org. And I have some news to share with you about DivineOffice.org. You know, I am just amazed at all the great work that the folks over at Divine Office Catholic Ministry are doing. The DivineOffice app is amazing! The Bible App, which they released a few months back, now includes the New American Bible in its lineup. And, now… now they have done it again. Another fantastic Catholic app. This time it’s the Catholic Encyclopedia, conveniently called the Catholicpedia. It’s available in the iTunes Store for both the iPhone and the iPad.

What does it do? Read the full summary at iTunes.

Again, a huge thank you to DivineOffice.org for sponsoring the Catholic Foodie AND for developing all these great Catholic apps, particularly this latest app, the Catholicpedia.

Congratulations to the new SQPN affiliates!

And we have even more good news today. The Catholic Foodie is proud to be an affiliate of SQPN, the Star Quest Production Network over at SQPN.com. And, recently, four new podcasts have joined SQPN as affiliates:

The Catholic Laboratory, produced by Ian Maxfield
iPilgrimPodcast, produced by Deborah Schaben, also co-hosted by Sandy Garayzar and Steve Nelson.
Just a Catholic Dad, produced by Sean McCarney
Catholic Vitamins, produced by Deacon Tom and Dee Fox.

Congratulations to the new affiliates!

And speaking of SQPN, they are currently in the middle of their annual giving campaign. You can find out more about it at SQPN.com. I also want to share with you the press release that explained what the giving campaign is all about. This is important now. It is very important to support those organizations who are committed to producing quality Catholic content online, and SQPN is ahead of the pack in that department. Here’s what was said over at SQPN.com: SQPN ANNOUNCES NEW AFFILIATES!

I encourage to support SQPN in any way you can. You can learn more about how you can support them at SQPN.com.

Chef John Besh & My Family Table

See Chef John Besh’s My Family Table on CatholicFoodie.com.

Recipe: Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes

You’ll have to listen to the episode to get the recipe.

Mary in the Kitchen

Thank you very much, Sarah Reinhard.

Wow! I’m amazed at how similar I am to Sarah. I could have presented that Mary in the Kitchen as my own! Life is so funny sometimes.

Yes, Advent is almost over and Christmas is almost here. I don’t know about you, but me and my family have been blessed this Advent by a little book written by someone you know. That’s right… Sarah Reinhard. It’s called Welcome Baby Jesus, and it has been such a treat. I know Advent is almost over, so if you don’t have the book, don’t worry. There’s always next year. And the good news is that she has a Lent book and an Easter book too! You’ll find links to those books in the show notes for this episode at CatholicFoodie.com.

Thank you very much, Sarah for producing Mary in the Kitchen each episode of the Catholic Foodie. It is a blessing for me personally and, I know, for all those who listen. You can find more of Sarah’s work over at SnoringScholar.com.

I also want thank L’Angelus for allowing us to use their Ave Maria in the show. You can find them at CajunRecords.com.

Merry Christmas!

This brings us to the end of the show, folks. And almost to the end of Advent.

I am looking for voice feedback. I want to hear from you. How does food meet faith in your life? Especially in the Christmas season? You can call in your voice feedback by dialing 985-635-4974, that’s 985-635-4974. You can call that number day or night. Just leave a message, and I’ll be able to play that on the show.

I look forward to seeing you again next week. Until then you might want to check out the Catholic Foodie on Facebook at facebook.com/catholicfoodie. Follow me on Twitter at Twitter.com/catholicfoodie. And don’t forget to check out the Catholic Foodie website at http://catholicfoodie.com.

Until next time… Merry Christmas and… Bon appetite!

To leave feedback for the Catholic Foodie, call 985-635-4974 and leave a message. You can also leave feedback for me at jeff@catholicfoodie.com.

Download episode 126 here or listen to it below:

If you like what you see and hear at the Catholic Foodie, please consider leaving a tip!

$2, $5, $10, or any amount… Your tip is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Get new episodes of the Catholic Foodie by subscribing for free via iTunes or in another podcatcher. Find me also at SQPN.com.

You can also find me at:

the Catholic Foodie on Facebook

the Catholic Foodie on Twitter

And over at http://jeffyoung.me

Filed Under: Blog, Podcast Tagged With: Cajun, Creole, john besh, Louisiana, my family table, New Orleans, seafood

Mary In The Kitchen: Thanksgiving 2011

November 24, 2011 By Sarah Reinhard Leave a Comment

Non-foodies everywhere are quaking in their boots, and while the audience in the kitchen today might be made up primarily of those who savor the challenge ahead with a string of major holidays, let me be the one to call for some sanity.

In my world, hosting a major family gathering usually guarantees that my heart rate and stress level will soar while my family’s appreciation of those things will plummet.

Is it worth it?

Well, really, yes. I guess it is. And one of the things that reminds me not to take myself so seriously is Mary herself.

She is surely the patron for the disheveled hostess. Picture her in Bethlehem, only a few hours post-partum when a crew of scraggly shepherds and probably half the town show up.

It wasn’t a family dinner, but I wouldn’t be surprised if somehow she found a way to offer what she had with not only generosity, but a cheerful smile as well.

There’s a lot for me to learn from that.

This Thanksgiving and throughout this holiday entertaining season, I’m going to picture Mary at the Nativity whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed or overburdened.

When all I hear are complaints and demands, I’m going to think about the chorus of angels and the shepherds’ response to them–they ran to see Jesus, of course! And so should I!

May your gratitude grow as you cling to Mary this week and always, and you follow her to her Son.

To leave feedback for the Catholic Foodie, call 985-635-4974 and leave a message. You can also leave feedback for me at jeff@catholicfoodie.com.

Download episode 125 here or listen to it below:

If you like what you see and hear at the Catholic Foodie, please consider leaving a tip!

$2, $5, $10, or any amount… Your tip is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Get new episodes of the Catholic Foodie by subscribing for free via iTunes or in another podcatcher. Find me also at SQPN.com.

You can also find me at:

the Catholic Foodie on Facebook

the Catholic Foodie on Twitter

And over at http://jeffyoung.me

***Image courtesy of Martin Beek on Flickr.com.***

Filed Under: Blog, Mary in the Kitchen, Podcast Tagged With: celebrations, family, family meals, gatherings, holidays, hospitality, hosting, Mary, meals, Nativity, Thanksgiving

CF124 – Alton Brown, This Bisque’s For You

November 12, 2011 By Jeff Young

Welcome, Folks, to the Catholic Foodie, Where food meets faith! I’m your host Jeff Young and I have lots of goodies for you today. The family and I had the opportunity to meet two chefs two weeks ago: Chef John Besh and Alton Brown, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

We have a question about skim milk… specifically, what makes it skim and how is it different than regular milk?

And I have a recipe for you. Two actually. We’ll talk about shrimp stock and shrimp bisque.

Sarah Reinhard joins us today. And in her Mary in the Kitchen segment we have food and faith thanks to the rosary on her kitchen windowsill.

All this, and more, right here at the Catholic Foodie…. Where food meets faith!

This episode of the Catholic Foodie is brought to you by DivineOffice.org. You will find all things Liturgy of the Hours at DivineOffice.org. Of course, the Liturgy of the Hours is the official prayer of the Church, and it is prayed several times a day by priests, religious, and laity all around the world. It is a treasure-trove of grace, and a rich education in prayer. If you have never prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, I encourage you to give it a try. And DivineOffice.org makes it very easy to do so. You will find the Hours available there in text format, and also in audio. You can subscribe to the podcast version, or download the iPhone or iPad app. There’s even an app for your iMac or Macbook. And now there are apps for your Android and Nokia. But the most important thing you will find at DivineOffice.org is a living community of prayer. So, come join us in prayer. At DivineOffice.org.

Chef John Besh and Alton Brown

Alton Brown. I learned how to pronounce his name three years ago when he came to New Orleans to promote his Feasting on Asphalt cookbook. It was in the Fall of 2008, right about the time I launched the Catholic Foodie, as a matter of fact. So, some of my first blog posts and podcast episodes were about Alton Brown and Good Eats (you can check out episode 2 of the Catholic Foodie for proof!).

Anyway, several weeks ago we found out that Alton Brown would be back in New Orleans on October 19^th for a book signing. This time he is promoting his final Good Eats cookbook, Good Eats 3: The Latter Years. We didn’t want to miss the opportunity to meet him again, so Char and I took the kids to New Orleans on the 19^th.

In order to make this happen, the girls had to skip gymnastics practice. Normally, they never want to miss. But, they uttered not one complaint about it, because they were going to meet Alton Brown. Char and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity that this trip to New Orleans would provide to treat the kids to a late lunch at one of our favorite new New Orleans restaurants: Chef John Besh’s Lüke. Char and I first discovered Lüke when we were at the Lebanese convention in July. I talked about our experience on episode 117 (Super Simple Summer Salads).

Chef John Besh calls Lüke ”his homage to the grand old Franco-German brasseries that once reigned in New Orleans.” Aesthetically, it has an old-world feel. There are lots of brass fixtures, polished wood panels and aged-looking ceiling fans. Lüke feels like a well-worn Parisian restaurant. It’s casual, yet elegant. Seafood is a main feature of the establishment, but not in the typical Cajun fashion that is associated with New Orleans. The dishes at Lüke are more “casual” French, Creole and German brasserie fare. But, don’t be fooled by the term casual. In this case it does not mean cheap or dressed down. Here’s an example of what I mean: One of the favorite items of many guests is the French Fries. They are unlike any fries you’ll ever have. Rumor has it they are fried in duck fat. And they are out of this world. They come to the table perfectly salted and sitting in a paper-lined silver cup. Delectable.

I know it’s hard to believe, but our kids are little foodies. They eat pretty much anything. And since we get so excited about meeting chefs and getting cookbooks signed, I guess you can say that our whole family is just a bunch of foodie geeks. Anyway, we really wanted to share that restaurant with the kids. It was a splurge, but it was a celebration we just wanted to have.

The book signing didn’t start till 6:00 PM, so we planned on a late lunch at Lüke around 3:00. We were a few minutes late, but that was alright.

As is customary, Char and I had already studied the menu online and we pretty much knew what we were going to order. There were a few appetizers that we couldn’t make up our mind on, but we figured we would just order whatever we were in the mood for once we got there. We didn’t know they were going to throw a monkey wrench into our plans by informing us that we were just in time for happy hour. Raw oysters, typically $14.00 a dozen, were on sale for $6.00 a dozen. I should have gotten two because the kids devoured them. I think I only got one oyster. Unfortunately I only ordered one dozen (but took note of when happy hour is!). Char really wanted to order the Terrine of Slow Cooked Foie Gras.

So, here we are at 3:00 in the afternoon, a table of 5 (with three of us ages 9, 10, and 12) at one of the nicest restaurants in the CBD, eating raw oysters and foie gras (and I was sipping on a Mint Julep), and the main door opens and who walks in? Chef John Besh and his business partner Octavio Mantilla. We must have stood out… a family of five having lunch at 3 something in the afternoon on a Wednesday, because as he walked through the restaurant (apparently on his way to a meeting) he stopped by our table to chat. Very gracious. We had a delightful (though short) conversation. Of course, Christopher wanted to detain him as long as possible (he was explaining that we were coming to HIS restaurant before going to see Alton Brown so that Alton could sign HIS cookbook). It was all slightly confusing, but precious nonetheless.

And that was it. He went to his meeting and we continued with lunch. I ordered an additional appetizer: a bowl of Seafood Gumbo so that we could all have a taste. Char ordered the special of the day, Ragout d’agneau provencal, which was braised lamb, ricotta gnocchi, Covey Rise vegetables and olives. She loved it. Believe it or not, I ordered the Lüke Burger. It was topped with Allen Benton’s bacon, caramelized onions, tomatoes, Emmenthaler Swiss cheese and served with their famous house-made fries. Christopher ordered the Cochon De Lait pressed sandwich, and the girls ordered one, too, to split. The Cochon De Lait pressed sandwich is pulled pork, Chisesi ham (which is a local ham), caramelized onions, and cherry mustard. Again, served with those famous house-made fries. At the end of the meal, we were stuffed and we were happy.

We left and drove down St. Charles Avenue to Octavia Street. The book signing was at Octavia Books again. To our great delight we found the perfect parking spot and we were early. We were late three years ago and we missed his talk before the signing started. But not this year.

It was so delightful. We were already close to the front of the line, but when Alton arrived he invited all the kids and their families to come up real close. It was a school night, he said. He wanted families to go first so that they could go home and get to bed at a decent hour. It was such a delight to listen to him talk about food and New Orleans. Like John Besh, he too was very gracious. He had had lunch at a very nice restaurant in the Warehouse district called Cochon. As you can imagine, that restaurant specializes in pork. He said they had ordered about 20 dishes that they passed around the table. I don’t know how many “they” were. But he said he felt like he had eaten 4 pigs. He also noted that he had been saving up for days for his trip to New Orleans. The day before, the only thing he had to eat was a bowl of oatmeal and a can of sardines (he really likes sardines). I found it very interesting to hear him comment that there are only 3 food meccas in the United States: New York, New Orleans, and Las Vegas. Someone in the crowd asked him what he thought about the food truck revolution that’s sweeping the nation. He said he loved it. He said it is really needed in places like Atlanta and L.A. He said we really don’t need it here in New Orleans. “It’s hard to have a bad meal in New Orleans,” he said. “Y’all are saturated with good restaurants and good food,” he said. But, food trucks in New Orleans will still do well because we love good food down here. I loved hearing that.

Good Eats 3

I have all the Good Eats cookbooks, and I can tell you that they are awesome. Fun and solid. Christmas is coming up. If you want to get a copy of any of his cookbooks for yourself, or give away as gifts, please you my Amazon.com affiliate links over at CatholicFoodie.com. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it really helps me with the work I do here at the Catholic Foodie.

I really wanted to record his question and answer session, but felt awkward doing so, especially since we were up front and I didn’t want to block the view of people behind me. But, luckily, some folks at Googleplex videoed the hour-long presentation he made to them just a few days before he came to New Orleans. I took the time to go through that presentation and pull some clips that I thought you would enjoy. You will find those clips on the podcast episode (CF124).

Here are some of the topics he talked about:

His recently published cookbook, Good Eats 3.
Is there life after Good Eats? If so, what is it?
How is his health, weight, and sweet tooth?
What is his “go to” recipe?
What was the last meal you cooked before coming here?

Make sure you listen to the episode to hear his responses.

And if you want to see the whole presentation that Alton Brown did at Googleplex, you can check it out on YouTube.

You may be wondering why I chose to title this episode “Alton Brown, This Bisque’s for You.” Perhaps I was being a bit silly. But, obviously, I wanted to share our experience of meeting him again with you. Also, the two other segments of this episode are related: the question of skim milk and bisque. Bisques are often cream-based. So, let’s move on to our next segment about skim milk.

Skim Milk: What makes it skim?

Sister Maria Francina wrote in a few weeks ago asking the following question: “What do they do to milk to make it SKIM? I hear how it is not good for us. Please inform me. Thank you.”

Sister, I won’t be able to go into great depth today to answer your question. There’s not enough time for that. But I do want to give you a condensed answer.

If you take milk after first comes out of the cow, and you place it a large glass jar and wait, you will notice after a short while that it starts to separate. The fat rises to the top. In the old days, folks used to skim that fat off (they could use it to make butter or cream). That’s where the name “Skim Milk” comes from.

Today they don’t skim milk that way. Rather they use more technologically advance tools to separate out the fat from the milk. Interestingly, milk manufacturers then add back some fat to make your different types of milk (1%, Skim, Whole).

There’s a lot of talk today about milk. The processes used to make skim milk today removes virtually all of the flavor and nutritional value of the milk. Whole milk has been demonized because it is fatty… Never mind the fact that it actually contains good fat. Still, whole milk is not nearly as nutritionally valuable as is raw milk. But, raw milk has been even more demonized than whole milk. It is illegal to sell raw milk in almost all of the United States. The fear, of course, is salmonella and other dangerous bacteria. But what we are not told, is that the salmonella is not from the cow (this is very similar to what I talked about last episode with eggs and chickens). No, it’s a result of our modern means of mass production of food and the necessary travel time and conditions that foods go through before they get into our cupboards and fridges.

Perhaps milk is a topic that we can come back to in a future episode.

Thank you very much, Sr. Maria Francina, for the question!

If You have a question for the Catholic Foodie, you can always call the listener feedback line at 985-635-4974, or send me an email at jeff@catholicfoodie.com.

Shrimp Stock and Shrimp Bisque

Here are links to the recipes mentioned in the show:

Mary in the Kitchen

On this episode, Sarah Reinhard shares a bit of food and faith inspiration with us, thanks to the rosary on her kitchen windowsill.

A special thank-you to L’Angelus for allowing us to play their Ave Maria on the show. You can find L’Angelus at CajunRecords.com.

You can find more of Sarah’s work, including her recently published Advent book, Welcome Baby Jesus over at SnoringScholar.com.

And now, over at CatholicFoodie.com you can find all of Sarah’s Mary in the Kitchen segments in print format. Just go to CatholicFoodie.com. There’s a Mary in the Kitchen spot right there on the homepage. Or you can go to CatholicFoodie.com/mik

Remember, I am looking for voice feedback. I want to hear from you. How does food meet faith in your life? You can call in your voice feedback by dialing 985-635-4974, that’s 985-635-4974. You can call that number day or night. Just leave a message, and I’ll be able to play that on the show. Or you can email me at jeff@catholicfoodie.com.

Don’t forget to sign up for the Catholic Foodie newsletter so that you can have culinary inspiration delivered right to your inbox. You can sign up over at CatholicFoodie.com/newsletter. Do it today!

Until next time… Bon appetit!

To leave feedback for the Catholic Foodie, call 985-635-4974 and leave a message. You can also leave feedback for me at jeff@catholicfoodie.com.

Download episode 124 here or listen to it below:

CF123 – Goodbye Good Eats

September 23, 2011 By Jeff Young 1 Comment

The Show Notes for episode 123: Goodbye Good Eats

Welcome, Folks, to the Catholic Foodie, Where food meets faith! I’m your host Jeff Young and today we are saying goodbye to one of my favorite food shows: Alton Brown’s Good Eats on Food Network. Well, it’s sort of a goodbye. This goodbye may be a bit early, since three hour-long episodes are coming out this season. But, back in May, Alton did announce that he is capping the series at episode 249, which he recorded a little over a week ago.

We’ll dig into Alton’s Egg-Files to discover the best way to fry an egg, and we’ll discover the secret to perfectly scramble an egg.

It’s tomato season, and Sarah Reinhard brings us a Mary in the Kitchen segment that will share the feeling of late summer and early fall canning in Ohio.

We have all this, and more, right here at the Catholic Foodie…. Where food meets faith!

JeffYoung.me

This episode of the Catholic Foodie is brought to you by… Me! : That’s right. If you have been a listener for a while, then you know that a little over a year ago I left a career in education to go out on my own as a WordPress Consultant & Developer. I also create content for websites.

If you need help with your WordPress site, or if you want to learn about the benefits of WordPress as a content management system (and the advantages of WordPress over other platforms), I am here to help. You can reach me via email at jeff@jeffyoung.me or visit my professional site at www.jeffyoung.me.

GOODBYE GOOD EATS

It’s the end of an era, folks.

Food Network began airing Good Eats back in July of 1999. That was 12 years ago. Since then, Alton Brown has produced 249 episodes over 14 seasons.

Two pilot episodes were produced in 1997, and first aired on Chicago, IL PBS affiliate WTTW in 1998. The two episodes were about steak and potatoes. The episode titles were: Steak Your Claim and This Spud’s For You. The show was picked up by Food Network in late 1998.

Here’s an early review of the pilot episodes by Steve Johnson, a Tribune Television critic. It was published on July 17, 1998:

“Good Eats: This PBS series attempts to be a cooking show inspired more by MTV than Julia Child. Mostly it succeeds, as writer-host Alton Brown dares vacate the kitchen to actually visit spots where cows are raised, meat thermometers are sold, etc. The spiky, energetic camera work is first rate, the episodes are shot on luxurious film, and Brown’s writing and on-camera presence are sharp enough to hold up to the aggressive production. Friday’s episode, the second of only two that WTTW-Ch. 11 is airing, looks at how to cook a steak. But assuming, wisely, that most of us don’t know beans about beef, it first shows us where the cuts come from and how to shop for them, and only then explains how to actually treat the meat. A short course: pepper, kosher salt, peanut oil, sear in cast-iron skillet, then bake in extra-hot oven. I hope I’m remembering it right because I plan to try it soon, but, of course, as with any attempt to practice the culinary arts, your results may vary. This lively, well-made and refreshingly different show deserves a place at a televison table overcrowded with cookie-cutter cooking programs.”

Obviously, the show did get its place at that table. And, it could be argued, that Good Eats changed the whole menu (or, rather, changed the game) for all those cookie-cutter coooking shows.

So, what makes Good Eats such a great cooking show?

It quirky, it’s different. Heck, sometimes it’s really hard to categorize it as a cooking show. As a matter of fact, just last week, Alton Brown was interviewed on NPR, and this was his response when asked how he classifies Good Eats: [Play clip - HOW DO YOU CLASSIFY THE SHOW?]

Ultimately, I think THAT is why Good Eats is so popular: It’s fun! It’s quirky, it’s different. It brings two tastes together that (surprisingly) taste great: food and science. Which, incidentally, I find quite amusing, since that is what I have done with food and faith at the Catholic Foodie.

Two great tastes that taste great together. Now, I have to tell you, I’ve never been a science guy. Never cared for it, was never interested in it at school. Science was always one of my most challenging subjects. In retrospect, I can see that it was challenging not so much because it was difficult. Rather, I just wasn’t interested. I struggled with science all through high school. And I had what I thought was a great excuse: Science just wasn’t my forte. I was gifted with the magic of words and philosophy, not pitre dishes and microbes. But all of my excuses came crashing down a few years later in college. I did not want to take any sciences. But, they had these core courses that were required no matter which major you chose. So, I was stuck. I put it off as long as I could, then finally signed up for a biology class. It was a night class. 3 hours. Pure torture. I don’t know how I made it. It must have been all the prayer and fasting. I was terrified as the mid-term exam approached. But, guess what. I passed it. Not only did I pass it, but I had one of the top scores. I was so excited! I thought, “hey, I can do this!” My next thought was, “darn, now I can’t use my old excuses.”

Even after college, I never developed an interest in science. Not really. So, if you had tried to sell me on Good Eats from a science angle, I would have told you to get lost. But the crazy thing is, I love the show. I absolutely love the show. I wish full episodes were available on Netflix or Hulu, but they’re not. Bummer.

And I love the show because it’s fun. I find the science fascinating. You know why? Because Alton is not just teaching, he’s entertaining. In that NPR interview from last week, Alton was asked about this… about how he manages to bring so much information into each episode… it’s like science class, but fun. Here’s what he had to say: [Play clip - GOT TO ENTERTAIN]

He went on to comment a bit further on this. And I want to play this clip too, because it reminds so much of how we convey the faith. If we treat evangelization and catechesis as just a class, we are really doing everybody a disservice. And we failing to really communicate the message of the gospel in a way that inspires and changes lives. Listen to this: [Play clip - ENTERTAIN, DON'T PREACH]

One of the things that I love about the show is the way Alton plays with words. He takes elements of pop culture and puts a punny foodie spin on them. I’ve already mentioned Steak Your Claim and This Spud’s For You, but here are some other titles that have always made me chuckle:

The Egg Files (which, by the way, we will be returning to in a moment)
Churn Baby Churn (Burn Baby Burn… Disco Inferno)
The Dough Also Rises (from the Sun Also Rises – Hemmingway)
For Whom the Cheese Melts (For Whom The Bell Tolls – Hemmingway again)
Citizen Cane
Ear Apparent
Fry Hard
A Grind is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Pork Fiction
Mussel Bound
What’s Up, Duck?
Grill Seekers
Mission: Poachable
Crepe Expectations
Squid Pro Quo

The list goes on and on. There’s 249 of them!

A couple of the titles I just shared have to do with eggs (like the Egg Files intro I played earlier in the show). And those egg episodes demonstrate the genius that is Alton Brown and Good Eats. I mean, it’s the incredible, edible egg. Anybody can cook an egg, right? Well, I guess so. But, I’m going to tell you a little secret. I learned a few lessons about eggs the other day from Alton. And those little lessons make all the difference in the world.

I want to let Alton tell you some of those secrets himself. In October 2009, right around the time they released the first Good Eats cookbook (which covered the early years), Alton appeared on the CBS Early Show to teach Harry Smith how to cook the perfect egg. Let’s listen to their conversation. [Play clip - INCREDIBLE EGGS]

I tell you what. Alton’s method works. We’ve been making eggs over easy for breakfast every morning this past week. And his tips have made all the difference. In the clip you heard him mention that it’s important to have a hot plate. He has mentioned in other places that he never puts hot food on a cold plate. There are a few ways that you can heat your plates before putting hot food on them. One way is to soak them in hot water. Another is to stack them in the oven on a very low temperature (just make sure they are oven-safe). And the way that I have been heating my plate up when I cook eggs, is to set it on a burner on the stove at a very low temperature for just a few minutes. It’s amazing how different the eating experience is when your hot food is placed on a hot plate.

Here’s another secret I have learned recently from Alton about eggs. This one is about salmonella, and I got from his first Good Eats cookbook.

SHELL EGGS AND SALMONELLA

People used to eat raw egg applications all the time: eggs sunny side up, Caesar salad, hollandaise sauce, chocolate chip cookie dough. But about twenty years ago the government, via the USDA and CDC, started telling us that shell eggs can be infected by Salmonella Enteritidis (SE), which can make healthy people mighty sick and sick people dead. The fact that this happened rather suddenly is some evidence that this is not an egg problem or even a chicken problem as much as it is a production problem that stems exclusively from the fact that we’ve decided to treat the chicken like machine parts that just so happen to have pulses. Instead of forcing agri-business to clean up its collective act, the USDA (which was formed, by the way, to promote the agriculture industry, not protect us from things like salmonella) tells us that in order to safely consume eggs we must cook them to 160 F, which pretty much ruins them as far as I’m concerned.

Well, you know what I say? I say I’m not going to marginalize the world’s best ingredient just so the poultry industry can play it loose and we can have eggs that are cheaper than they ought to be. Find a local farmer who keeps a few chickens roaming around the yard and buy his eggs. Oh, sure, they’ll be all shapes and sizes and colors and they’ll cost twice or even three times as much as grocery-store eggs, but guess what: They’ll taste great and you won’t have to worry. Better yet, get your own chickens. Most municipalities in this country allow the average homeowner to keep a few cluckers around the yard. And heck, when one stops laying: stew!

I did not know this about salmonella until just the other day. But, I am happy to say, that we have been buying our eggs from local farmers for months now. We have been eating brown eggs from free-range chickens for years. But several months ago we discovered that we could get our eggs locally from a farmer, and we actually save $1 per dozen. So, good deal. And these eggs taste so much better.

There are tons and tons of tips in Alton’s cookbooks. The first two Good Eats cookbooks are already out (Good Eats: The Early Years and Good Eats 2: The Middle Years). They were published in 2009 and 2010. His third and final Good Eats cookbook, Good Eats 3: The Later Years is scheduled to be released this month, on September 27^th. If you plan on buying any of his cookbooks, I would ask that you kindly use my Amazon affiliate link (above). It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but when you order by clicking on my affiliate link, Amazon.com throws a little money my way. It’s a very easy way for you to help support the work I do here at the Catholic Foodie. Thank you so much!

Now, if you are saddened that Good Eats is coming to an end, I’m right there with you. But, there is some good news. There are three more hour-long episodes coming out this year. The final episode will be the Thankgiving show. And, with the release of the new cookbook, Alton will be traveling on a book tour. I am very happy to tell you that he is returning to New Orleans as part of the tour. He will be at Octavia Books on October 19^th. And, guess what… We will be there! Again! Back in 2008, Char and I took the kids to meet Alton when he was on tour with his Feasting on Asphalt cookbook. It was great to meet him and to get a picture with him. We look forward to a similar experience next month.

And what about Alton after Good Eats? What now? Well, in that NPR interview he had this to say… [Play clip - I'M JUST EVOLVING]

Mary in the Kitchen

It’s tomato season, and Sarah Reinhard brings us a Mary in the Kitchen segment that will share the feeling of late summer and early fall canning in Ohio. To view the full text of this week’s Mary in the Kitchen, click here.

Thank you so much, Sarah! That was Sarah Reinhard, folks! You can find more of Sarah’s work, including her recently published Advent book, Welcome Baby Jesus over at SnoringScholar.com.

And now, over at CatholicFoodie.com you can find all of Sarah’s Mary in the Kitchen segments in print format. Just go to CatholicFoodie.com. There’s a Mary in the Kitchen spot right there on the homepage. Or you can go to CatholicFoodie.com/mik

A big thank you to L’Angelus for allowing us to use their Ave Maria in the show. You can find L’Angelus at CajunRecords.com.

Feedback & New Catholic Foodie Site

This brings us to the end of the show, folks. I certainly hope you have enjoyed it.

I have a few quick tidbits for you before with close the show:

First of all, I am looking for voice feedback from… Well, from you! I want to hear from you. How does food meet faith in your life? You can call in your voice feedback by dialing 985-635-4974, that’s 985-635-4974. You can call that number day or night. Just leave a message, and I’ll be able to play that on the show.

Also, the NEW Catholic Foodie site is now live! And I think it looks great! That’s not just my opinion though. I have received tons of compliments from folks. So, thank you all so much! If you haven’t alreayd, please do go check it out. CatholicFoodie.com.

I was also flattered the other day when I learned that CatholicFoodie.com had been chosen as the Website of the Day by CathNews.com in Australia. Awesome! A big shout out to all my Aussie friends! Good-on-ya! And thank you, CathNews.com!

And, Finally, a Little Wine…

And finally, I want to let you in on a little secret. I am working on a wine buying guide.

Have you ever been in the grocery or the wine store and stood there looking at all the bottles feeling, well, feeling a bit awkward? There are so many different kinds of wines, and so much that goes into the wine-making process, how are you supposed to know which one to buy? Well, I have known that feeling. And what I am putting together will help you! I know this because I have had so many people ask my advice when it comes to buying wine. I am so excited about this new wine buying guide that I have set up this link where you can go to sign up for more information. If you want to be one of the first to know when this guide is finally released, sign up over at CatholicFoodie.com/buyingwine. Do it today.

Until next time… Bon appetit!

To leave feedback for the Catholic Foodie, call 985-635-4974 and leave a message. You can also leave feedback for me at jeff@catholicfoodie.com.

Download episode 123 here or listen to it below:

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Podcast Tagged With: Alton Brown, cooking tips, eggs, Food Network, Good Eats, Mary in the Kitchen, Sarah Reinhard

CF122 – Mama’s Silver Moon Cafe

September 5, 2011 By Jeff Young 2 Comments

SHOW NOTES FOR CF122:

This is Jeff Young, the Catholic Foodie at CatholicFoodie.com and you are listening to episode 122 of the Catholic Foodie: Mama’s Silver Moon Cafe.

Welcome, Folks, to the Catholic Foodie, Where food meets faith! I’m your host Jeff Young and today we take a stroll down memory lane. Char and I have been doing some good ole country cooking lately, and last night our Chicken Etouffee led us to reflect on the Smothered Chicken we used to eat at Mama’s Silver Moon Cafe in Baton Rouge. Wow! What a place! A place full of warmth and love and goodness… all on the table. Wow!

I’ve got some recipes for you today too. Spinach pizza crust, and another excellent pizza crust from my friend Cathy LeBlanc of CatholicMomintheCountry.blogspot.com. I’ll also share our recipe for Crawfish (or chicken) Etouffee with you too.

In this week’s Mary in the Kitchen, Sarah Reinhard shares a reflection on the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

We have all this, and more, right here at the Catholic Foodie…. Where food meets faith!

This episode of the Catholic Foodie is brought to you by Write | Design | Media at www.jeffyoung.me:

IF YOUR BUSINESS OR ORGANIZATION IS LOOKING TO GET ONLINE FOR THE FIRST TIME… OR IF YOU’RE ALREADY ONLINE BUT NEED TO BOOST YOUR BOTTOM LINE, THEN GIVE JEFF YOUNG A CALL TODAY AT 504-722-8422. YOU WILL ALSO FIND HIM ONLINE AT WWW.JEFFYOUNG.ME. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Podcast

CF121 – Hurricane Food

August 30, 2011 By Jeff Young Leave a Comment

Show Notes for Episode 121

This is Jeff Young, the Catholic Foodie at CatholicFoodie.com and you are listening to episode 121 of the Catholic Foodie: Hurricane Food.

Welcome, Folks, to the Catholic Foodie, Where food meets faith! I’m your host Jeff Young and today is August 30, 2011. Yesterday marked the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and just a few days ago, Hurricane Irene barreled up the eastern seaboard. Since Hurricane Season does not come to an end until November 30^th I thought it might be appropriate to talk about hurricane food today, especially in light of a tweet I received the other day from Fred Kiesche. I’ll you more about that in a bit.

My friend Marcelle Bienvenu wrote a great article about Katrina and a cook. I’ll tell you about that. And about two recipes too: Oysters Lafitte and Shrimp and Grits.

And what do a fussy baby, a beautiful sunrise, and Mary have in common? They are all tied to this week’s Mary in the Kitchen with Sarah Reinhard.

All this and more right here, at the Catholic Foodie, where food meets faith!

DivineOffice.org

As we start this episode I want to thank our sponsor, DivineOffice.org. You will find all things Liturgy of the Hours at DivineOffice.org. Of course, the Liturgy of the Hours is the official prayer of the Church, and it is prayed several times a day by priests, religious, and laity all around the world. It is a treasure-trove of grace, and a rich education in prayer. If you have never prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, I encourage you to give it a try. And DivineOffice.org makes it very easy to do so. You will find the Hours available there in text format, and also in audio. You can subscribe to the podcast version, or download the iPhone or iPad app. There’s even an app for your iMac or Macbook. And now there are apps for your Android and Nokia. But the most important thing you will find at DivineOffice.org is a living community of prayer. So, come join us in prayer. At DivineOffice.org.

Hurricane Food

Just last week, as it became apparent that Hurricane Irene was planning to travel up the east coast, Fred Kiesche, sent me a message on Twitter asking if I had any food advice. He was looking for a good recipe to keep his mind off of Irene’s impending visit. Unfortunately, I did not answer Fred right away. I was in the midst of my own preparations for a big event in our parish, and I didn’t notice the tweet until later. Sorry about that, Fred. I hope all is well with you and yours now that Irene is gone.

But, I have to say that Fred’s question has stuck with me. And since we do still have another three months of hurricane season, it might be a good idea to think about food in a hurricane.

When we talk about food in a hurricane, we are really talking about three phases: preparing for, surviving during, and enduring the aftermath.

Truthfully, these phases are not mutually exclusive. There is some bleeding over the lines here. Still, let’s start by talking about preparing for a hurricane.

Hurricanes bring power outages. You could be without power for a few hours, or even a few days. Or, as we saw with Katrina, you could be without power for weeks. So you have to keep that in mind as you prepare for a hurricane. What are you going to do with food you already have on hand, perhaps in the fridge or freezer, and what kinds of food are you going to purchase to ride out the hurricane?

You know, Louisiana is known as the Sportsman’s Paradise. I have friends who have hundreds of dollars worth of meat or fish in their freezers. Whether it’s deer, or grass fed beef, or bass, speckled trout, or flounder or catfish, you want to protect your food assets. If you really do have a stockpile of meat or seafood in your freezers, then you really want to consider getting a generator. Or inviting the neighborhood over to eat before the storm.

I remember for Katrina that my father-in-law was particularly concerned about his wine cellar. He has quite an investment in that cellar. Normally, it is climate-controlled. But, you can’t do that without power. Fearing that he would lose power during Katrina, he purchased a generator ahead of time. In the end, that generator saved him tons of money. It saved his investment, because they ended up without power for over a week. Now, that means NO air-conditioning. In August. In South Louisiana. You talk about hot! It’s unbearable. Especially for a delicate, well-aged Cabernet, Bordeaux, or 1961 Chateau Latour.

When Katrina hit, we evacuated to Baton Rouge. In retrospect, we did not evacuate far enough away. But we were with family, and that made it better. Actually, several families were together. And I remember eating pretty well for the first several days. Anticipating the loss of power for an extended period, lots of folks who evacuated packed their freezers into ice chests. Ice chests work for only so long, so we kept dipping into those chests and pulling out steaks and roasts, catfish and bass. I have to tell you, it was some good eatin’. Thank God for propane grills and burners. You have to be careful though. If you cook more than you eat, then it has to go back into an ice chest… unless, of course, you have a generator.

But, besides what’s already in your freezer, what do you need to buy when preparing for a hurricane?

Bottled water, flashlights, and batteries immediately come to my mind. Ice for ice chests. Filling up the gas tanks before the gas stations run out. Cash from the ATM. Those are some of the first things I think about when a hurricane is approaching the Gulf coast. Oh, and then there’s the required rations of beer and other adult beverages. You know, there’s a reason why South Louisiana is known for throwing hurricane parties.

But, aside from all of that, what about the food?

I recommend stocking up on food that will keep. Not junk, but food that you won’t have to worry about refrigerating. Canned tuna comes to mind. Crackers, because they keep longer than bread. You could probably stock an ice chest with a few days worth of meat, if you are evacuating to a place where you will be able to cook. Or even if you are staying put at home and riding out the storm. There’s nothing wrong with stocking up your ice chests, as long as you have enough ice on hand. Don’t forget paper plates. Washing dishes by hand in the dark is not fun.

Here is some practical information on food safety from About.com that I found to be very helpful. You will find a link to this information in the show notes over at CatholicFoodie.com.

Hurricanes and Food Safety at About.com.

Marcelle Bienvenu

My friend Marcelle Bienvenu who is a food writer, journalist, and cookbook writer just published an article last week in the Times-Picayune, New Orleans’ local newspaper, about a determined cook who is hand-copying her recipes that she recovered after Hurricane Katrina. I found this story fascinating and I want to share it with you.

Read the article here: Determined cook is hand-copying her recipes recovered after Katrina.

Michele Montalbano shares a few of her recipes with Marcelle for this article. Two of them really caught my eye: Oysters Lafitte and Shrimp and Grits.

I also want to mention that I had Marcelle Bienvenu on the show here at the Catholic Foodie a couple of years ago… back in July of 2009. It was episode 30, entitled “Give Me That Louisiana Cookin.’”

In addition to that episode, I also reviewed a cookbook that Marcelle co-edited with Judy Walker of the Times-Picayune. The cookbook is called Cooking Up a Storm. And it was a labor of love. After Katrina, Louisianians who were displaced, all over the country, and who lost their cookbooks and recipes, were missing their Louisiana cuisine big time. They started to write to the Times-Picayune from all over asking if the newspaper could send them this recipe or that. That sparked a new initiative at the paper… a new column called “Re-building New Orleans One Recipe at a Time.” That project eventually yielded a cookbook: Cooking Up a Storm. I did a video review of that cookbook back in July of 2009. You’ll find a link to it in the show notes over at CatholicFoodie.com.

Mary in the Kitchen

Thank you so much, Sarah! That was Sarah Reinhard, folks! You can find more of Sarah’s work, including her recently published Advent book, Welcome Baby Jesus over at SnoringScholar.com. A big thank you to L’Angelus for allowing us to use their Ave Maria in the show. You can find L’Angelus at CajunRecords.com.

This brings us to the end of the show, folks. I certainly hope you have enjoyed it.

I am looking for voice feedback from… Well, from you! I want to hear from you. How does food meet faith in your life? You can call in your voice feedback by dialing 985-635-4974, that’s 985-635-4974. You can call that number day or night. Just leave a message, and I’ll be able to play that on the show.

I look forward to seeing you again next week. Until then you might want to check out the Catholic Foodie on Facebook at facebook.com/catholicfoodie. Follow me on Twitter at Twitter.com/catholicfoodie. And don’t forget to check out the new Catholic Foodie website at http://catholicfoodie.com.

Until next time… Bon appetit!

To leave feedback for the Catholic Foodie, call 985-635-4974 and leave a message. You can also leave feedback for me at jeff@catholicfoodie.com.

Download episode 121 here or listen to it below:

CF120 – What Would Jesus Eat?

August 22, 2011 By Jeff Young Leave a Comment

SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 120

This is Jeff Young, the Catholic Foodie at CatholicFoodie.com and you are listening to episode 120 of the Catholic Foodie: What Would Jesus Eat?

Welcome, Folks, to the Catholic Foodie, Where food meets faith! I’m your host Jeff Young and today we are going to ask the question: What would Jesus eat? Have you ever been curious about the typical diet back when Jesus walked the earth? I have! And today we’ll discover what it was like back then.

In our discussion today, I am certain that we will find that bread was a very important part of Jesus’s diet. And with that in mind, I want to share a recipe with you today for Whole Wheat bread.

Sarah Reinhard finds Mary in bacon grease and reflects on the intimacy of her kitchen in this week’s Mary in the Kitchen.

All this and more right here, at the Catholic Foodie, where food meets faith!

DivineOffice.org

As we start this episode I want to thank our sponsor, DivineOffice.org. You will find all things Liturgy of the Hours at DivineOffice.org. Of course, the Liturgy of the Hours is the official prayer of the Church, and it is prayed several times a day by priests, religious, and laity all around the world. It is a treasure-trove of grace, and a rich education in prayer. If you have never prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, I encourage you to give it a try. And DivineOffice.org makes it very easy to do so. You will find the Hours available there in text format, and also in audio. You can subscribe to the podcast version, or download the iPhone or iPad app. There’s even an app for your iMac or Macbook. But the most important thing you will find at DivineOffice.org is a living community of prayer. So, come join us in prayer. At DivineOffice.org.

Voice Feedback

Voice feedback from Joe Sales.

Joe, thank you so much for calling in! I agree, there is something very special about gathering around the table to share a meal with loved ones. I’m sure that sociologists would explain that humans developed this way of eating meals over the millennia for reasons of convenience and security. However, I think meals are God-designed. I believe it is quite easy to see God behind the idea of meals just by looking at the role that food plays in the bible. Even with just a casual reading of both the Old and New Testaments, it is evident that meals were always communal in nature. Only on rare occasions do we find anyone in the bible eating alone (like Elijah in the desert… enjoying the bread that the ravens brought him). Even then, Elijah did not really eat alone, he ate with the birds! So meals are certainly God’s idea. And, personally, I believe that we all need to do a bit more lingering at the table when we dine. Hmmmm… That might be a good topic for another episode of the Catholic Foodie.

Again, Joe Sales, thank you so much for the call! Folks, you can find Joe on Facebook by searching for Joe Sales Media.

If you would like to leave voice feedback like Joe just did, all you have to do is call 985-635-4974 and leave a message. 985-635-4974. It’s super simple, and I would LOVE to hear from you! Please do give me a call and let me know where food meets faith in your life. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Podcast Tagged With: ancient Israel, bacon, bread, diet, food, history, Jesus, Mary in the Kitchen, meals, mediterranean, whole wheat

CF119 – The Help

August 15, 2011 By Jeff Young Leave a Comment

Welcome, folks, to the Catholic Foodie, where food meets faith! I’m your host Jeff Young and today we are talking about The Help. Have you heard of it? It’s a new movie that just came out last Wednesday, August 10th, and it is absolutely amazing. I took Char to see that movie the other night, and – I have to tell you – I cried like a baby. But, please, let’s just keep that between me and you. Okay? I want to tell you more about The Help in this episode, and we will talk about food in the movie, particularly the fried chicken. Sarah Reinhard returns today to inspire us with her Mary in the Kitchen segment, and we’ll also talk about tomorrow’s Marian feast day: The Assumption.

All this, and more, right here at the Catholic Foodie, where food meets faith!

[Divine Office]

As we begin this episode I want to thank our sponsor, DivineOffice.org. And I also want to congratulate the fine folks over there because just this past week they celebrated their 5th anniversary as a ministry. That is awesome! So, congratulations, DivineOffice! You know, you will find all things Liturgy of the Hours at DivineOffice.org. Of course, the Liturgy of the Hours is the official prayer of the Church, and it is prayed several times a day by priests, religious, and laity all around the world. It is a treasure-trove of grace, and a rich education in prayer. If you have never prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, I encourage you to give it a try. And DivineOffice.org makes it very easy to do so. You will find the Hours available there in text format, and also in audio. You can subscribe to the podcast version, or download the iPhone or iPad app. And now there are apps for your Android or Nokia. There’s even an app for your iMac or Macbook. And, I want to remind you of the new Bible app that is available for your Apple desktop or laptop. It’s available in the Mac App store. I am currently using the Bible app to do research for my book project, and it is making my job so easy. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can find out more about it at DivineOffice.org. So, the Liturgy of the Hours… several elegant feature-rich apps designed to help you grow in your faith…. Yes, you will find that at DivineOffice.org. But the most important thing you will find there is a living community of prayer. So, come join us in prayer. At DivineOffice.org.

[Bumper - Gumbo Bumper]

That quote just now was from one of my favorite movies… Disney’s The Princess and the Frog. I loved that movie. You know why? Because it got it right. So many movies have been made about the South, and so few get it right. I’m talking about the culture. The language. The food. The music. The joie de vivre, joy of life down here. But Disney’s The Princess and the Frog got it right. It’s set in New Orleans, and I’m telling you, I recognize some of the places, and I can just about recognize some of the faces. The characters are so real. But, we’re not talking about The Princess and the Frog today. No sir-ree. We’re talking about another movie set in the south. One that just hit theaters last week, August 10th to be exact. The Help. Here’s the trailer… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Podcast Tagged With: chicken, fried chicken, Mary in the Kitchen, Mexico, movies, Sarah Reinhard, The Help

CF118 – Shrimp… The Fruit of the Sea

July 29, 2011 By Jeff Young 1 Comment

This is Jeff Young the Catholic Foodie at CatholicFoodie.com, and you’re listening to episode 118 of The Catholic Foodie: Shrimp… It’s the Fruit of the Sea.

Welcome, folks, to the Catholic Foodie, where food meets faith. I’m your host Jeff Young, and today I am coming to you from Perdido Key, FL. So it’s no wonder that we will be talking shrimp today. I’m telling you, there ain’t nothing like some good boiled shrimp! It’s like Bubba says on Forrest Gump… Shrimp is the fruit of the sea.

And we stopped at our favorite place the other evening to sip on a cold beer and eat some steaming hot Ruby Reds. I’ll tell you all about it this episode. Also on the menu today…. We’ll talk about the different kinds of shrimp, particularly the difference between regular Gulf shrimp and Ruby Reds. I also want to talk Bloody Marys with you. As a matter of fact, I want to tell you about my 3 favorite Bloody Mary mixes.

We might even get to chat a bit about Spotify and Google+… Oh! And I just have to tell you about a Catholic Foodie contest to win an invite to Spotify.

We have all this, and more, right here at the Catholic Foodie… Where food meets faith!

[Divine Office]

As we begin this episode I want to thank our sponsor, DivineOffice.org. You will find all things Liturgy of the Hours at DivineOffice.org. Of course, the Liturgy of the Hours is the official prayer of the Church, and it is prayed several times a day by priests, religious, and laity all around the world. It is a treasure-trove of grace, and a rich education in prayer. If you have never prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, I encourage you to give it a try. And DivineOffice.org makes it very easy to do so. You will find the Hours available there in text format, and also in audio. You can subscribe to the podcast version, or download the iPhone or iPad app. And now there are apps for your Android or Nokia. There’s even an app for your iMac or Macbook. But the most important thing you will find at DivineOffice.org is a living community of prayer. So, come join us in prayer. At DivineOffice.org.

[Bumper - Bubba: Shrimp is the fruit of the sea - At the Beach]

The FunVee, I love that! And we are having fun this week. How can we not? We’re at the beach! You know, we come down to Perdido Key a couple of times a year. And we just love it here. We have a tradition that we keep on our way down to Perdido. We usually stop by a restaurant called the Gulf Shores Steamer. Now, if you’re not familiar with Perdido Key, let me tell you about it. It’s just on the Florida-side of the Florida-Alabama border. On the coast. You may have heard of a pretty famous beach-side bar (a dive, actually) called the Flora-Bama. The Flora-Bama basically sits on the border between the two states (though it’s actually in Alabama… Gulf Shores, Alabama). So, you have Gulf Shores on one side of the state line, and Perdido Key on the other. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Podcast Tagged With: beach, Bloody Marys, Florida, Google+, Louisiana, Royal Reds, Ruby Reds, seafood, Shrimp, Spotify

CF117 – Super Simple Summer Salads

July 18, 2011 By Jeff Young Leave a Comment

Show Notes for CF117

This is Jeff Young the Catholic Foodie at CatholicFoodie.com, and you’re listening to episode 117 of The Catholic Foodie: Super Simple Summer Salads.

Welcome, folks, to the Catholic Foodie, where food meets faith. I’m your host Jeff Young, and today we are talking salads… Summer salads.

I don’t know about you, but summer around here means two things: heat and busyness. It is HOT. Temps around here have been in the 90s with about 1000% humidity. And that means we’re sorta reluctant to run the oven and even the stove. At least not unless we have to. And with fresh veggies coming out of our garden or the farmers market, Summer is the perfect time to enjoy cool, crisp, refreshing salads.

And since, for some strange reason, we always seem to be busier in the summer than we are the rest of the year, simple salads become a staple in our home. And today, I want to share some super simple salad ideas with you.

Sarah Reinhard joins us and in today’s episode she finds “Mary in the Kitchen” along with some homemade noodles and the love of our Savior.

You’ll find all this and more, right here, at the Catholic Foodie… where food meets faith!

DivineOffice.org

Cruise & Lebanese Convention

Well, folks, I’m bringing you this episode of the Catholic Foodie right on the heels of an incredibly fun week. Last Saturday – a week ago – Char and I rounded up the kids and met her parents & her brother and his family & several cousins in New Orleans, where we boarded a Carnival Cruise ship: the Triumph. That was my first cruise (and my kids)… and we had so much fun. We cruised down the mighty Mississippi and entered the Gulf of Mexico. We made two ports of call: Progreso, Mexico and Cozumel. There is so much I can say about the experience, and – to be honest – I think I’m still trying to process the whole thing. I’ll probably share more with you about it in a future episode, but for now all I will say is that it was certainly a celebration of life and love and all things good. Especially family.

And speaking of family… You might recall that Char’s family is Lebanese. She and I have talked about that fact (especially about some of the food and traditions) on several episodes of the Catholic Foodie. Well… we got off the boat on Thursday, drove home for the day, and then drove back to New Orleans on Friday for the Lebanese Convention. Yep. A Lebanese Convention. I shared a convention with you way back on episode 9 in February of 2009. That episode was titled Marhaba, Habibi. But, basically, here’s the scoop…. There was a massive exodus of Lebanese from Lebanon in the early 1900s when war broke out. So, there are lots of Lebanese in the states. In order to preserve their heritage, they have formed cultural clubs. These clubs are organized into regional federations. And twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter, the regional federations will hold a convention. Whenever the conventions are close to us (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, even Houston), we’ll go. It is tons of fun. It’s like a massive family reunion. Sometimes there is Lebanese food, but not always. But there is always a Lebanese band. And I love Arabic music. Extremely festive. Lots of dancing. It is a sight to behold. So, because of the convention, we were able to extend our vacation from 6 days to 10 days. But, now I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation. Have you ever felt like that?

Well, today, in honor of the Lebanese convention, I’m going to share with you our “recipe” for Tabouli a little later in the show. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Podcast Tagged With: Carnival, Chef John Besh, cruise, Lebanese, Mexico, podcast, salad, summer, tabouleh, tabouli

Congratulations to the new SQPN affiliates!

Congratulations to the new affiliates!

Chef John Besh & My Family Table

Recipe: Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes

Mary in the Kitchen

Merry Christmas!

Chef John Besh and Alton Brown

Good Eats 3

Skim Milk: What makes it skim?

Shrimp Stock and Shrimp Bisque

Mary in the Kitchen

The Show Notes for episode 123: Goodbye Good Eats

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GOODBYE GOOD EATS

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Feedback & New Catholic Foodie Site

And, Finally, a Little Wine…

SHOW NOTES FOR CF122:

Show Notes for Episode 121

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Hurricane Food

Marcelle Bienvenu

Mary in the Kitchen

SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 120

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Show Notes for CF117

Cruise & Lebanese Convention

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