Not A Single Fork Not A Single Fork

It's Friday again (we love Fridays) and there's just something about it being Friday including, a new podcast episode and, oh yeah, the weekend!In today's episode, we take another one of those list-y type articles that everyone loves. This time we're speaking to all you home cooks out there. Like we aren't always talking to you guys!Anywho...today's topic is 18 Things That Chefs Think You Should Know How To Cook. I love a challenge and we're taking on this dare with almost every podcast now. Debunking, demystifying and generally, throwing shade on all the "shoulds" out there. So, although I do agree with some of these dishes. A lot of them made us say "what?" and why would you need to know how to cook that?No spoilers but a couple of the weird ones...black bean dip and filetto di pomodoro. On that second one, they could have just said tomato sauce but technically, it's just the meaty part of the tomato.In any event, here they are...the 18 things you "should" know how to cook and our many opinions about that.Thanks for listening. Please rate and review wherever you listen to us.See you next Friday.

It's all about St. Patrick's Day today because well, it's St. Patrick's Day!So get out your green beer and your best Irish jig and join us in today's episode. We have a great Irish pub here called Kilkenny's and it puts on a true celebration to honor the day. Natalia shares her participation in that and then we get into 11 Things You Didn't Know About St. Patrick's Day (thanks again, Buzzfeed!). Did you know there were no snakes in Ireland so he couldn't have driven them out? I didn't get a chance to share that the snakes symbolized the Protestant Irish by the way (of which I are one).Anywho...we get into a discussion of Irish food and drink and Natalia starts wondering who I really am. You'll have to listen for that one, no spoilers here. Colcannon, seared salmon and Irish butter are topping our lists of delicious food to eat.Finally, we try to figure out why leprechauns are associated with the day. Turns out they're drunks who sneak into your basement. Who knew?Those topics and so much more in this week's episode. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

The temperature for eating chicken is non-negotiable. Anything under 165 degrees is flat out dangerous. So begins this episode of Not A Single Fork. Yes, we actually had someone in one of our classes try to convince me as well as his cooking partner that 140 to 145 is the best temperature for chicken. No spoilers here but you get the idea so listen on to hear the whole story.We then review the 21 dishes that home cooks would rather eat in a restaurant. In other words, they don't want to make them at home. We do concur on a number of them like sushi. I just don't want to learn how to make sushi. I would much rather eat it out because and I may be going out on a limb here but I want a chef who has been trained in sushi to make it. Other things, yes, they could be messy or challenging but still worth making at home.I also surprise Natalia with a number of things i have made in my past lives. Surprised to the point of her asking me..."who are you?"It's a fun episode and I hope you enjoy it.Listen on to be part of the fun!

We love food but we also love WINE! So, we thought we'd mix things up a bit by talking about wine in today's episode.We never do boring wine. I mean, you've heard about our wine classes, right? The last thing our favorite Somm, Joe Breaux, is...is boring, predictable or stuffy. Nope. Our last class was titled The Art of Subtlety and he is none of that (at least not right now) but we tasted some fun and not so fun wines. They're always great choices but our mantra is "drink what you like" and you are entitled to your opinion. You don't have to always be looking to Robert Parker or the Wine Spectator for ratings. You might agree with them but then again you might not.Then move into "bargain" wines even in these days of inflation. But bargain to one person may not be a bargain to another...it's like one person's trash is another one's treasure or pick your poison or, well, I'll stop with the sayings now.Finally, we talk about food pairings with wine or actually we went the other way around. We started with a wine and we talked about what food would go with it. I actually took a sommelier certification class a number of years ago. Yes, I am a certified sommelier. I discovered two things during that class. One, I like to taste wine but I like to drink it a lot more. And, you can't be told, really, how to pair wine and food. There are general "rules" but they're really rules of thumb and I don't take them seriously. The good news is the days of red with meat and white with fish are over. If you like to drink red with fish, go for it!Thanks for listening and we'll be here next week with more.

When I was younger, I never understood what "you can't go home again" meant. But now that I'm so much older, it makes so much sense. Not just in the whole philosophical realm but in everyday experiences.For instance, once you make a recipe from scratch like pasta or even a cake, it's hard to eat the boxed or super processed variety.Pasta is top of mind for us these days because we are working on a specialty pasta program. It will be unveiled (again) this summer. We were a little too ambitious with our first go-round so we're reeling it in. Stay tuned for the new and improved specialty pasta classes.'To that end, we're still talking pasta. Dan Pashman who has the podcast, The Sporkful @thesporkful. He is crazy about pasta kinda like we are but he went so far as to create a brand new pasta shape called Cascatelli which means "waterfall" in Italian. He and Sfoglini (the pasta company that makes cascatelli) have joined forces again to create two new pasta shapes...at least, they're new to the US. Speaking of "you can't go home again", some people still love Olive Garden but then if your boyfriend makes fresh pasta all the time, well, you know what I'm going to say. All this and so much more in this week's episode. Listen right here or on your favorite podcast place. Thanks for listening!

Is Mardi Gras on your mind? Ours, too! This episode is our take on Mardi Gras, lucky food and even the entire Lenten season.So Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, Shrove Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Bunny...they're all on the agenda. Did you dye Easter eggs as a kid? Do you still dye eggs? Do you eat the eggs? With eggs as expensive as they are right now (looks like the price is dropping slightly, fingers crossed), Natalia is pushing for plastic eggs for hiding. She also shares her unusual Serbian tradition of egg smashing at Easter breakfast. That was a new one on me.We talk Easter family customs past and what we do now.Finally. tonight our wine tasting class returns and we consider bringing our favorite, Somm, Joe Breaux, back to the podcast. Why? He is in quite a different life place than he was in during the last interview so it could be interesting. Let us know if you want the gory details.Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week with some new pasta shapes now available. Think forkability, sauceability and toothsinkability just to coin a few more words.