Dishing with Stephanie's Dish Stephanie Hansen - @StephaniesDish

Stephanie [00:00:16]:
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast where we talk to people that have written unique, amazing, and in this case, super fun books about food. I'm here with Judith Chishon, and she is a friend of a friend sister, which is fun to talk with her, too. Susie Mindrum is her sister, who's a good friend of our families and has been so kind to me and my stepmom. So it's fun to talk with you, Judith. She reached out and said, Would you ever want to talk to my sister? She has this funny book called “Romaine Wasn't Built in a Day”.
Judith [00:00:53]:
Sister in law.
Stephanie [00:00:54]:
Okay. Sister in law. It's amazing.
Judith [00:00:58]:
Yeah.
Stephanie [00:00:59]:
So do we call you? Is it an entomologist? The person who studies the nature of words?
Judith [00:01:08]:
Yeah. Etymologist no, n otherwise people might think it pertains to bugs.
Stephanie [00:01:16]:
Yes, that's right. So etymology is the derivative of words.
Judith [00:01:22]:
Yeah, right.
Stephanie [00:01:24]:
How did you think of putting this book together? Because why don't you describe it in your own words? Okay.
Judith [00:01:31]:
A somewhat short answer as to how it came about. I specialized in Old English and Middle English in graduate school, and as a professor, I had the great good fortune to teach history of the language, which, of course, included many discussions about the immense vocabulary of English and where all those words came from. And over the course of many, many years, I had amassed a huge pile of notes about interesting word histories. And then when the Pandemic hit, I put them all together into a book.
Stephanie [00:02:17]:
Isn't it amazing how many books were spawned by the pandemic?
Judith [00:02:22]:
Yes, really, it is.
Stephanie [00:02:26]:
And do you have a personal love of food or why this focus specifically on food words?
Judith [00:02:33]:
Yeah. Well, that's a good question. Yes. I love food. I am very interested in the history of food. I taught a course once long ago on food and literature, and often even in other courses, talked about the role that literature, that food played in a book. But the first love, I guess, was words. Even as a kid, I mean, all kids love to play with words, rhyming and punning and doing Dr. Susan kinds of things. And if I can indulge in one anecdote that's popping into my head right now about a love of language, even as a kid, I don't know how old I was maybe seven, eight, something like that. We were sitting around the table at my grandmother and grandfather's house, and he was holding forth with an anecdote, the punchline to, which was in Norwegian. And everybody burst out laughing, probably including me, though I didn't understand what he had said. I had a few words of Norwegian, that was it. But it really stands out in my head that a kind of moment of paying attention to the medium, perhaps, rather than the message that it was funny for everybody, maybe because literally what he said, but also because he said it in another language. We call that code switching now, and I wouldn't have articulated the whole business the way I am now, but it was a fun moment of awareness of I'm going to call it the ludic quality of language meaning the playfulness and all the things that we can do with language. Like tell jokes.
Stephanie [00:04:39]:
Yeah. And the lyricism of it. Right.
Judith [00:04:42]:
Yes. And I was a dictionary reader even at a young age. I don't know why exactly.
Stephanie [00:04:50]:
It makes me laugh that you just said that, like we're all dictionary readers. You read the dictionary as a young kid.
Judith [00:04:58]:
Yeah. I remember looking up words and making marks in the book. And I love the word pugnacious. Who knows why?
Stephanie [00:05:09]:
Right.
Judith [00:05:10]:
And naughty words were sometimes in there. Although I admit I was using a very old punk and wagon's dictionary, which did not have very many naughty words. Yeah. I've j

Stephanie [00:00:12]:
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's dish. We talk to people that have written cookbooks or books or food adjacent things because I can't get enough about talking about food, and and today we have a great guest. She is julie joe sieverson. She is the author of Oldest Twin Cities a Guide to Historic Treasures. And I had read about this book, and I thought, oh, that's cool. I wonder if she has stuff in there about restaurants and breweries, because we have so much history in the Twin Cities. And indeed she does. Welcome to the program.
Julie [00:00:47]:
Thank you for having me here. This will be fun.
Stephanie [00:00:50]:
Yes, it will be fun. So how did you decide? Are you like a born and bred twin Citian, and how did you decide to undertake this project?
Julie [00:00:59]:
Yes, I'm a fourth generation Minnesotan, and I've lived in the Twin Cities most of my life. I first wrote a book called Secret Twin Cities a Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure, and that came out in 2020, arrived March, mid March, right when the cities were shutting down. So good timing on my part. I shoved them all in the corner for a couple of weeks because I thought, who's going to want to buy a travel guide right now?
Stephanie [00:01:24]:
Right?
Julie [00:01:25]:
It turned out okay for secret Twin cities. They had a lot of social distancing ideas in it, coincidentally. But anyway, all this Twin Cities evolved from that book. About a year later, the publisher asked if I'd like to write another one. And I really wanted to do one of more of a historic nature because I just think with COVID and the really tough year that the Twin Cities had in 2020, including the murder of George Floyd and the Civil uprising and businesses shutting down, burned down. I just felt like I needed a reason to fall back in love with the Twin Cities. And I was feeling a loss of community and a loss of connection. And for me to feel connected to the region I live in is very important to me. I need to feel part of the fabric. And so I just stopped focusing on enduring places in our midst and places that hung in there and have endured and have reopened, providing us continuity, kind of a comfort that was good for my soul to focus my energy there. So that's why I kind of went in this direction.
Stephanie [00:02:43]:
Well, and one of the selections in the book is the Oldest Best Bar, which is our friend Tony Zacardi, who bought it from our friend Lisa Hammer. I knew Lisa and Keith, and they had shepherded the bar, and then they sold it to Tony Zacardi. And it's from 1906.
Julie [00:03:03]:
Apparently.
Stephanie [00:03:04]:
It's an institution on Cedar Avenue. And you talk about sort of that pandemic and that coming back to life. Tony is a good example of someone that really he had just bought the bar and all of a sudden it has to close, and they're trying to hang on. And a lot of these bars and restaurants and distilleries really were in tough shape. So I was so glad that when we came out of the pandemic that Palmers has come out of it. And tell me a little bit about the history of Palmers in particular.
Julie [00:03:40]:
Yeah. And Tony really was he was really propelled into the national spotlight during that time. Yes.
Stephanie [00:03:48]:
He was an African American man who.
Julie [00:03:51]:
Owns this in the heart of he spray painted black owned business in hopes to protect his business, to deflect potential looters. And he was really a spokesperson and a comfort, I think, for the twin stage community during that time. We needed absolutely.
Stephanie [00:04:10]:
And the music community, too, because Palmer has had such a history in steeped in music.
Julie [00:04:16]:
Yeah. What a gem this place is. It's so unique, with an Islamic mosque on one end and then that iconic Mustachioed man against it on the other one. And as I write in the book, you rarely leave this place without a story to tell. Kind of rough edge place. Maybe

Stephanie [00:00:15]:
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast where we talk to people that are cookbook writers obsessed with food or otherwise food at Sent. And I'm very excited to talk to someone today. Her name is Tamar Adler and she has written this book called The Everlasting Meal Cookbook leftovers a to Z. And I first read about it, I think, in maybe the New York Times. And then I got a copy of the book, and you guys, people that know me know I'm obsessed with my freezer. I'm obsessed with Mason jars. I'm constantly repurposing things. I'm like an old housewife from the 1920s. I can't throw a thing away. And this book is like the guide to how to make sense of all this chaos, of all these leftovers and these little dribs and drabs that you have. I just am so impressed with you. Thank you for coming on the show.
Tamar [00:01:13]:
Oh, my gosh, I'm so happy that I'm talking to a soul sister and saving.
Stephanie [00:01:18]:
So how did you have you been like this since you were a little kid and finally just wrote this? I mean, it's a tome.
Tamar [00:01:26]:
And I wanted it to be longer. My publisher cut me off at some point. I haven't been like this. I mean, I've always liked saving things, and I've always been sort of into things that had age to them or stories. But I think that this actually came from being a professional cook, because I think, contrary to what a lot of people think would be true, professional cooks are amazing at using all of everything and both what is done. In restaurants and certainly what's done for diners but also what's done to serve the staff of a restaurant is always a version of either thinking ahead, so cooking something partway and then finishing the cooking or making sure that you're cooking something in a way that lets you use it over the course of days or making sure to eke all of the flavor out of anything that you have. So it was being a professional cook that kind of helped me realize that I could if I could put down on paper what so many of us already knew but from years of professional cooking, then I could kind of hand some of it off to home cooks.
Stephanie [00:02:50]:
Yeah. During the pandemic, many people sort of rediscovered cooking and certainly their pantry and maybe things that their mom did or dad that they hadn't thought about, that now all of a sudden you're at home and you can't run to the grocery store every day unless you're going to have the survival gauntlet. Because it was kind of a grim time. So we went back to some of this. Like an example in here, you talk about moldy cheese. Well, my mom just cut the mold off the cheese, and we just kept going. She never missed a beat with it. But you take it further in zest and different. Any ingredient that you have, you can literally look up in this book, you guys, and she tells you what to do with it.
Tamar [00:03:42]:
I mean, my theory was, if you have it, why not use it? And I think remembering the pandemic is a really sort of smart point of orientation for how to use this book and also how I wrote it, because that was a time during which all of our outlooks was, if I have something, I'm going to use it, because the stakes of going out to get a new thing are just too high. And so the stakes feel different now, and they are different, but they're still stakes, right? It still takes a lot out of every person to go to the supermarket. I find it takes a lot of energy, and it takes, like, personal energy and planning and gas for the car and the standing and the line, like, the whole thing. Plus, it costs money. So it's like, if you have it, why not use it? And that is what I was trying to help people do in this book.
Stephanie [00:04:41]:
And I'll just like an example that I talked about on this podcast a while ago that I overcooked quinoa for a TV segment I was doing, and I had all of this quinoa, and I froze it in these little cubes right in the freezer. And I've been making bowls, and I've s

With over thirty-five years of combined experience, homesteaders Stephanie Thurow (@minnesotafromscratch) and Michelle Bruhn (@Forksinthedirt) have taught thousands of people across the globe how to garden, preserve food, tend backyard chickens, cook from scratch, and care for their families with natural homemade alternatives. Their homesteading knowledge and instruction can be found in one place with Small-Scale Homesteading.
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Ryan McEnaney is the Marketing and Communications manager for Baileys Nurseries and its consumer brands: Endless Summer® Hydrangeas, First Editions® Plants, and the Easy Elegance® Rose Collection. Ryan just published his first book called, "Field Guide to Outside Style: Design and Plant Your Perfect Outdoor Space."  We catch up with Ryan and discuss how to plan your outdoor living space.
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This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe

In Cassoulet Confessions, Sylvie travels across the Atlantic from her home in New York to the origin of cassoulet – the Occitanie region of Southern France. There she immerses herself in all things cassoulet: the quintessential historic meat and bean stew. From her first spoonful of cassoulet, Sylvie Bigar is transported back to her dramatic childhood in Geneva Switzerland. Not only did she discover the deeper meaning of her ancestral French Cuisine but she found the family stew that saved her soul. Sylvie takes us on a journey of Cassoulet with words and recipes.
Morgan Baum, from the gallery and pottery studio of Clay Coyote in Hutchinson, Minnesota, partnered with Sylvie to make her the perfect cassole. Listen to the Makers of Minnesota Podcast episode about her cookery from season 4 here.
Together they will share their story at Alliance Francais with a conversation moderated Panel discussion with Sylvie Bigar, Vincent Francoual, and Morgan Baum.Moderator Lynne Rossetto KasperCassoulet tasting- made by Chef Raymond Espuche!
Ticket price: $60 - price includes entrance fee, Sylvie Bigar’s book, and cassoulet tasting Tickets are $60 and can be had by calling 612-332-0436 or here Monday, February 27th
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