Podcast appearances and mentions of Stephanie Hansen

I had a real fun time chatting with Beth La Manach, whose new cookbook, “Entertaining 101” just released. Beth's YouTube channel is wildy entertaining and she is also on Substack so you can follow her Entertaining with Beth Now since Beth makes it so easy lets all get to Entertianing!EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Stephanie Hansen:Hello, everybody. Welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish. I'm Stephanie Hansen and I like to talk to people obsessed with food. In particular, I enjoy cookbook authors and today I'm with Beth Lamonic and she is the author of a cookbook that just the title alone, I feel like holy cats. That's so intimidating. It is called entertaining one zero one. Beth, that just makes you, like, right on the level of Martha Stewart in my brain. Were you nervous about calling it one zero one?Beth Le Manach:No. Because the way that I'm thinking about the title is it's really targeted towards beginners or veterans who just need it to be easier and quicker. And I think everybody loves a one zero one entry point because they know it's not gonna be intimidating. It's gonna be accessible.Stephanie Hansen:Well, you are not a one zero one in your chops. You have over 662,000 followers on YouTube. They were like, oh, she has a a YouTube channel. And I went to look. I was like, holy cats. Tell me the name of your YouTube channel because I forgot to write it down. Recipes for entertaining. Was that what it was called?Beth Le Manach:No. It's called Entertaining with Beth.Stephanie Hansen:Got it. Okay. So you also are very fascinating, but I'm gonna get to that part in just a second. Take me through, like, your journey of, like, the how you started the YouTube and how we are that you're just is this your first book?Beth Le Manach:Yes. It isn't my first book. I know. I've been in a long time. I know exactly. Yeah. So it's kind of a long story, but I'll give you the highlights. I started my YouTube channel because I was by trade a producer for television, lifestyle television, and I got my start with the Scripps network.Beth Le Manach:So Food Network, HGTV, Fine Living, I was producing a bunch of content for them. I saw everything going online, digital. So I was like, I wanna produce digital content for the web. I got a job at a company that had a huge order for YouTube. So this was right around 2011 when YouTube started getting grants to media companies to produce quality content so they could get the advertisers to actually advertise against it. Because up into that point, it was a lot of, you know, skate board tricks and cat videos and stuff like that. Yeah. And so since I had come up with all of this kind of lifestyle content, my boss was like, okay. Create a YouTube channel that women will love. And I was a new mom. I had two small kids, and I was into all this lifestyle content, but I knew nothing about YouTube. So I had to really learn what it was, and little by little, we started to just create content. That was food content, fashion, beauty, all the things that I thought, like, women would be interested in.And then one day, my boss came to me and said, you know what? We are, like, really behind on the hours here that we have to deliver. We gotta pep this up a bit. What do you got? And I was like, I think we should do, like, entertaining shows, like, thirty minute shows, like what we used to do for TV. Like, let's do the perfect dinner party. He's like he was like, well, who are we gonna get to do that? And I was like, me. I love to cook, and I have a lot of recipes. And at the time, I just bought a house, and I was like, you know, come to my house. You don't have to pay me.You're already paying me, and let's knock off a few of these episodes. So we did about 16 of them, and then my boss was like, you know, this is really resonating with people. Like and and it really hit me at that point that I thought, how is this new information for people? Because I had grown up with Martha Stewart and Ina Garten, and I just thought that everybody was watching this. But people at the time on YouTube were just getting into, like, all the beauty gurus, and those girls were now aging up and sort of, like, having their first apartment and getting married. And they weren't suddenly gonna go offline and go look at magazines and books. They were staying online.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah.Beth Le Manach:And I think that's where it really resonated. And so long story short, I did that until I started to do it full time, and now the channel is mine, and I just do it full time.Stephanie Hansen:It explains lots of things. One, how prescient of you to see this digital age coming. So very smart.Beth Le Manach:Yeah.Stephanie Hansen:Two, I always talk about first mover advantage. And whenever there's a new platform or something, I always make sure that I log on. I save my handle. Even if I don't know if I'm gonna use it or do anything with it, I I believe that being the first in a space or in in a being a handful of first in a space is part of what gets you that first mover advantage. So note to self people because there's gonna be a lot of social enterprises that are coming in our future. And then also, like, sometimes the keeping it simple is the best. Like, you just assume that everybody knows how to, you know, make a delicious apparel spritz, but necessarily they don't. So that what you can offer in your most authentic way is, valuable.And that's, I guess, why you did this as your first book because you seem like you really are taking and packaging a lot of this in a way that feels authentic to you, and that's what people want.Beth Le Manach:I think they do. I mean and I think that's what YouTube has really taught me is that there are thousands of chicken Parmesan recipes on YouTube, but people will still ask me, but we want your recipe. Not because my recipe is gonna be better than anybody else's recipe because there's only a couple of ways around making a chicken parm, but because they want my point of view. And I think that that's what makes YouTube so human, and that's why they called it YouTube because it is about you and how you how I prepare chicken parmesan recipe could be different than how you prepare it. And the things that we're gonna highlight could be different based on our own lived experience, and I think that's what makes it really human and really fun.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. Your show is also very beautiful. I just started doing a TV show, with Fox here locally, and lighting is so important. And my own YouTube is horribly lit and embarrassing. Yours is incredible.Like, do you have my normal lights set up?Beth Le Manach:No. My gosh. You know what my light setup is now? No lights. The light setup is no lights because I went round and round, and I have, you know, a lot of different experience. Like, I started with the big crew of seven people people that would come, and then I would go back, like, after COVID, and there was no people. And then I had to learn it all myself, and then I moved to France, and I was like, I can't carry all this stuff with me. I have gone back and forth on the lighting, and I always go back to the fact that, like, natural lighting for food is just the best lighting, and then just adjust the camera settings. Like, you're much better off doing that and know which angles of the kitchen give you the best softest light because that you can always reproduce the camera, but you can't always reproduce the exact temperature and light. And, like, that just was making me crazy. So I just decided to finish the lights.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. That is really the tip. Yes. I like it. You mentioned this move to France, and I I you have through the course of your channel and through the course career here. Also, you had a like, it sounded like a rental in France that you made into a full time home.Beth Le Manach:Yes. Exactly. So my husband is French, and we had been coming to France every year or so when we were married. And then we took a break when we had kids, and then we started to bring the kids when they were, like, five and two.Stephanie Hansen:So you and your husband moved to France, and he's French. Yes. So he's like your Jeffrey.Beth Le Manach:Yeah. You could say that. Yeah. He, he he definitely, has inspired me a lot, I think, with the French lifestyle and French cooking. And we would come to France every summer just to vacation, and then we thought, okay. Let's stop renting all these houses. Let's buy a house and then become the renter like, become the person renting. That was a better investment for us.Beth Le Manach:And then, I don't know, we just he got to a point in his life where he was like, I see all my friends retiring in France. That's where I wanna be. And I think that's the blessing and the curse of marrying a foreigner. At one point, they're gonna wanna go back, and you just have to be ready for that. So I was always ready for it because I've always loved France, and I just thought, like, that's a fun experience. Yeah. Let's go do that.Stephanie Hansen:Do you read David Leibovitz's blog?Beth Le Manach:Yes. I do. I love him. Yeah. He's great.Stephanie Hansen:I've learned so much. I have, relatives that are from Montreal, which is not France, but they've spent time in France. And Yeah. He just talks a lot about the difficulties of living in France and being an American transplant living in France.Are there things that you have found that you're just like, oh, I just wish I could get this or something that you're craving to miss?Beth Le Manach:Prepared broths and stocks. Like, you know, when you go in The States, you go to the grocery store and you see, like, a million organic chicken broth, beef broth, like, in every brand that takes up practically a whole file. Here, you cannot get that. You can get the cubes where you're making it, but it's like you're wasting a whole cube for two cups of broth, and you may not need the two cups of broth. Like, I love those little one cup ones that we can get in those days. That, we cannot get here. And I I don't know why. A lot of me thinks, like, it just takes up too much space on the shelves, and maybe the little cubes are better, but I do miss that.Stephanie Hansen:Do you have that better than bouillon product?Beth Le Manach:We don't have that. I have not seen that. Uh-uh. Like, there's a lot of different kinds of these little broth cubes too, and I've been trying all of them. Some of them are horrible, and some of them are okay, but there's nothing like the Swanson's chicken broth. Like, I really kinda miss that. I love that. And Land O'Lakes spread the butter.Beth Le Manach:Land O'Lakes butter. Even though we have a million wonderful butters here in France for baking, nothing is quite like the Land O'Lakes salted butter in my opinion.Stephanie Hansen:I live in Minnesota, the home of Land O'Lakes, so that makes me real happy. Alright. So entertaining one zero one is about simple, easy ways to start your entertaining life, whether it be like a signature cocktail for mom's brunch or an egg bake for Christmas or, just a simple, like, Friday night dinner party. What are some of your favorite entry points for entertaining?Beth Le Manach:Yeah. Well, I think brunch. I think brunch is the beginners, like, home run because there's no fancy roasts that you have to learn how to carve. It's pretty inexpensive because you're not serving a ton of wines and cocktails. It's fairly cheap too because of what you're making. It's eggs and bread and fruit. And it's easy because you can, like, prep in the morning, and then people come at, like, eleven. And it doesn't take the whole night.Beth Le Manach:Like, it's not gonna go on for hours and hours. Like, people usually leave around two or three. I just think it's a great entry point for people. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, once you get into the holidays, like the Thanksgiving and the Christmas, you wanna get a few brunches under your belt, maybe a few dinners. I always say start with four, then have six, but don't ever start having 10 guests, which is what Thanksgiving is. So don't start there. Yep.Beth Le Manach:Because people usually get themselves so stressed out for entertaining because I think they don't start at the right entry point. And then they never wanna do it again because it was a big mess and, you know, it was so stressful because I think they didn't work their way up to it. You know what I mean?Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. I never thought about that, but that's really a clever way to think about it. I also think too choosing, like, the main dish and then building from there is helpful. Like Yes. I I don't know why I was afraid to cook salmon for forever, but, but, really, roasting a whole side of salmon is a great dish for entertaining.Beth Le Manach:Super easy, beautiful, super delicious. Yeah. I I think that people feel like they get sort of stressed out at all of the organization, like, the the timing of it. Because most people don't have, like, restaurant cook experience where everything is timed. So my philosophy is always, like, one or two things, two max that's, like, active cooking, The rest, assembly and the rest, premade. So, like, if you balance out the portfolio of dishes so that they're not all active cooking, it's just gonna make your life so much easier.Stephanie Hansen:And so Don't you think too, like, what I always discover with entertaining is people are just so delighted to come, to be invited to something. We don't do this enough.Beth Le Manach:We don't do it enough because I think people are afraid of how it's gonna go because maybe they had one or two bad experiences or because, you know, for better or for worse, I'm probably contributing to this, but there is so much food media out there between the blogs and the Instagram and the Pinterest and television and books that, like, it can get very overwhelming. What do you serve and, you know, where do you begin? That I really wanted to create, like, here are the hundred and one recipes that, like, everybody should just know how to make. Like, it's just should be part of your repertoire. Like, get the basics down first and get the ones that you crave. So, like, of course, everybody wants to know how to make a turkey at Thanksgiving or a key lime pie at Easter or barbecue chicken in the summer. Like, these are the things we are all sort of craving perennially. And if you can get those right, then you go to, like, one zero two, which is, you know, the more sophisticated flight files and that kind of thing.Stephanie Hansen:Second book, are you already thinking about it?Beth Le Manach:Oh my gosh. No. Because I'm still recovering from the first book. You know, you're a good book author. I had no idea how all consuming it is. In a good way. Of it taken. It was a definite two year project, you know, between the testing, the writing, the photography, like, all of it.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. What part did you love, and what part did you hate?Beth Le Manach:I really love the testing. You know? Like, really taking the time to test each recipe and getting excited about being able to share it, thinking of all of my subscribers that I've had over the years and thinking, oh, this person's gonna love this, and, oh, that person is really this is really gonna help that person. I love that. I love the writing. I didn't think I would love that as much, but I really love that, the stories and the tips and the kind of bringing the recipe to life. As much as I love the results of the photo shoot, that was probably the most exhausting, I think. And to have to then remake all a hundred and one recipes again. And, you know, at that point, it's not just me in the kitchen.It's a whole team of people and making sure, like, oh, that's not supposed to look like that or, like, oh, that crust shouldn't be like you know? And, like, that I found very taxing. But it was great to see all the photos at the end of the shoot. Like, oh, wow. We did all that.Stephanie Hansen:Did you have to cut some recipes, and was that hard to do?Beth Le Manach:We didn't I would cut them in the testing. We didn't we we basically shot everything that we planned, so that was great. But there were recipes that I just kept thinking, this is good, but it's too complicated, or this is not delivering on my motto of, like, minimum effort, maximum impact. This is, like, maximum effort from maximum impact, but, like, I didn't wanna go there. I wanted to keep it really easy and accessible for people. So those were the recipes that usually got the pitch.Stephanie Hansen:Was it harder? When did you move to France, and was this in the middle?Beth Le Manach:Yeah. It was. Of course. That was the craziest thing about it. We did the photo shoot in May, and we moved in June. So as soon as the, like, photo team left at the May, we were like, okay. Let's wrap it up. And we started to just put things in boxes and because I couldn't, like, take the whole house apart because I needed all the props, and I needed a certain amount of furniture and dishes and thing, you know, that I couldn't take.Beth Le Manach:So yeah. Stephanie Hansen:did you move all that stuff? Do you still have it? Because people don't realize, like, when you're styling photos, you know, you need all this stuff that you have.Beth Le Manach:You you need all this stuff, and I had a ton of props as we all do. You know, anybody that's in this business has a ton props. And I used them all for the cookbook, but I could not take them all with me to France. It's just it was gonna be too expensive. And I was actually afraid that some of them would break anyway, so I gave them to a lot of the, prop master who was working on the cookbook. Like, she took a a bunch. Everybody on the shoot took some, and we had a fully furnished house here in France that we were renting. So and, of course, every time I come, I would hit a flea market and buy more stuff.So, like, I just had no more rooms for any more stuff, so I just had to, you know, give away.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. That's it's kinda liberating and kinda freeing, though, in and of itself.Beth Le Manach:It is. It is.Stephanie Hansen:Who do you look up to for entertaining?Beth Le Manach:Oh, you know, all the greats. I love Martha Stewart. I love Ina Garten. I'm trying to think, like, if I there's a couple of substackers that I really love. There's a woman, little Chavita is the name of her substack. I let do you know her? Do you follow her substack? I think yeah. I just I love her sort of effortless elegance. I love things that don't feel overly fussy or feel overly staged.Beth Le Manach:Yeah. There's a lot of Instagrammers too that you just see that you're like, oh, yeah. I love that. I don't know. Yeah. I think and my parents, like, I love the way that they entertain, and I've always, like, looked up to their sort of style of entertaining.Stephanie Hansen:You mentioned, chicken parm experience, and I just happen to have read a whole thing about an influencer that apparently grabbed some very similar recipes from, some recipe writers and then repackaged them and put them in her book in Australia that's been, like, a multimillion bestseller. And I always worry and wonder about that because it's very hard to make a recipe your own for something like a chicken farm. And I really cooking very basic and presenting very basic recipes that people have been doing for forever and short of, like, saying, you know, I got inspiration or I adapted from. I do wonder if we're getting into this place where the Internet is just full of 6,000 chicken parmesan recipes that are all the same.Beth Le Manach:Yeah. I mean, I think what really, sets them apart though is the way you go about it. Like, I can remember a copyright lawyer telling me, like, you can't actually copyright the ingredients, but you can copyright the method. And I think, you know, for anybody who cooks a lot, there is a method that you go about making the recipe that's based on your experience, like the do's and more importantly the don'ts. Like, don't do that because you're gonna have a salvee chicken parm. Make sure you do this because it'll crisp up more. So, like, in my chicken parmesan video on YouTube, I labeled it a little bit different. I think it's something like the six tips to a great chicken parm, and that's just based on my experience.Like, fry it in a cast iron pan, presalt the chicken so that it's nice and juicy. Once it comes out of the pan, put it on a cooling rack with a, you know, something like a cookie rack so that it doesn't get all soggy. Add a little Parmesan tea. Like so I think that people make very classic recipes their own by adding their own personality and their own little tips and tricks that they've learned along the way to guarantee success. So I feel like, you know, even in the age of AI and everybody's like, oh, you know what? They're only gonna get these recipes from AI. It's like, yeah. But you're not gonna get that human experience of, like, here's what I did that doesn't work. Here's what I've done that works really well.So I think that's kind of our, you know, competitive edge, I guess, against the robots.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. And the superpower that maybe will separate, finally, the weed from the chaff as it were. Because if we are all then making similarly the same thing, it is how we're doing it and also how we're performing the content because, like, people get interested in you as a human and you as how you do things, and they wanna follow you and your point of view and think you're funny or whatever your superpower is.Beth Le Manach:Exactly. And that's why I think video is so powerful because that doesn't always come across on the printed page or with a photograph. But when you are on video and you're spending time, like, building this audience on YouTube, it is a way to connect in a more human way with people. And that also, when they search chicken parm and they see three or four results come up, if they already know you because they've watched your video, they you do feel like a friend to them, and they want your point of view. So I think, you know, it was worth all those years and years of uploads because it does help you, like, ingratiate yourself a little bit more to the audience. You know?Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. And, also, I think if you just this is a weird thing to say, but I've been thinking about this a lot because I have a speech later today, and and I wasn't sure what I was gonna speak about. And my husband's like, oh, are you gonna talk about women in business? I was like, no. I think I'm gonna talk about my regs to not riches story, which is, like, people have all these different experiences. Right? And you're always comparing yourself to other people or trying to measure up or trying to get as many likes or follows or comments. And really what I always keep coming back to is that people just want authentic, friendly, nice people in their kitchen to spend time with them.Beth Le Manach:I think so. A %. Especially if it's something that they're a little unsure about, they want the reassurance that, like, it's going to be okay. Like, yeah, we're gonna do it together. You know? Like, I think that that's very reassuring for people.Stephanie Hansen:One of the, recipes that I happen to see on your YouTube really just, like, blew my mind, and I think it's based on your French experiences about almond croissants.Beth Le Manach:Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's from the book.Great. It is in the book. Yeah.Stephanie Hansen:I'm obsessed with almond croissants, and what you did was you took day old croissants and then made, like, a beautiful almond filling, and voila, almond croissants. It's it never occurred to me that that would be a way that you could do that without, you know, like, laminating dough and I mean doing all the hard work.Beth Le Manach:Yeah. Well, I laughed out loud because I didn't realize, and my husband shared this with me when we were sort of newly married, that almond or croissants were made because that was a way that the bakeries could use up the day old croissants that didn't sell because very few things go to waste in France, especially foods. Then it, like, made perfect sense. Like, oh, of course. So if they're doing that, like, we could be doing that. Yeah. Absolutely. Have, like, the yeah.We just don't have the day old croissants, but, like, you can do it with fresh if you just split them open and let them dry out while you make the filling, and it's just as good.Stephanie Hansen:So you have an event that's coming up at Cooks At Crocus Hill, June Eighth, 4 PM. As we record this, there's only a few tickets left. So by the time it actually airs, you probably won't have the privilege of getting tickets unless you decide to do another night. Is that a possibility?Beth Le Manach:We don't know because I have to leave the next day for my next tour. So this is the thing that I yeah. I'm learning about the book tours is you have to be quick about it because it is expensive to go to all these cities.Stephanie Hansen:Yes. And how many citiesBeth Le Manach:are you going to on your tour? I'm going to seven.Stephanie Hansen:Okay. Okay. That is gonna be great. Yeah. So we are speaking with Beth Lamonic, and she is the author of entertaining one zero one. And you can find her book, recipes every host should know how to make. I thought that was a great subtitle too, by the way. Very clear. Everybody knew exactly what they were gonna be getting from your book. Do you have a Substack too, or how do you want people to follow it?Beth Le Manach:Yes. I do. I have a Substack. That would be great. People can follow me there. It's called entertaining with Beth.Stephanie Hansen:And how are you enjoying that as a platform?Beth Le Manach:I love it. I mean, this is the funny thing is, like, writing the cookbook did introduce me to this, like, other way to create, which is writing. And I think it came at the perfect time because we moved to France around the same time that I was doing more on Substack. So I share the recipes there, which are free. But then if people wanna be part of my paid community, once a month, I do an essay about what it's like living in France. I'm kind of the good, bad, and the ugly, you know, because there is so much material that happens, and that's just been a really fun exercise to share that, just in the written page. And and sometimes I include little videos in it too. So It's been It's always fun too, Stephanie Hansen:I think, as creators to have other outlets and more outlets. Yeah. And, you know, I I know people find this hard to believe, but with the exception of, like, in any industry, the top 10% of us are cobbling this together. Right? You're at the end of the year, when you're doing your taxes, you have 52 tiny pots of money that you add up together. Right. And Substat is another tiny pot, but is giving a lot of joy to a lot of people and allowing them to flex in unique and creative ways.Beth Le Manach:It is. It absolutely is. And and I think too because if you stay with, like, kinda one medium, like, I've been doing video for so many years, thirteen years video, it gets really tiring, and you start to get a little fatigued by it all. So it kinda jump starts your creativity again to be like, oh, now I'm gonna write some things, and now I'm gonna and then it sort of helps the video because you look at it with fresher eyes.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. I love it. Well, Beth, it's been a delight to speak with you. Thanks for being on the podcast today. Good luck with the tour. Beth Le Manach: thanks for having me.Stephanie Hansen:Yes. Are you on presale right now?Beth Le Manach:Yes. We're on presale, and then it goes on sale, for real on June 3.Stephanie Hansen:Okay. So we're gonna launch this podcast, I believe, right before the launch. If you can presale, because you guys that listen know presales are super important to cookbook authors, all of those sales that they've generated up on the presale count towards the first day sales, which hopefully, if all things go great, launches them on bestseller list. Right? That's what we're all trying to do. Beth, I think you've got a great shot at it because your book, looks great. I've watched a bunch of your videos, and I'm just glad that you're getting a chance to come to Saint Paul, Minnesota. Cooks Of Crocusil is a great spot. You're gonna have a blast.Beth Le Manach:Yes. I hope so. It looks amazing.Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.Stephanie Hansen:Enjoy your travels. Hopefully, we'll speak again sometime. Sounds goodStephanie Hansen:Thanks, Stephanie. Bye. 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

I had a real fun time chatting with Beth La Manach, whose new cookbook, “Entertaining 101” just released. Beth's YouTube channel is wildy entertaining and she is also on Substack so you can follow her Entertaining with Beth Now since Beth makes it so easy lets all get to Entertianing!EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Stephanie Hansen:Hello, everybody. Welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish. I'm Stephanie Hansen and I like to talk to people obsessed with food. In particular, I enjoy cookbook authors and today I'm with Beth Lamonic and she is the author of a cookbook that just the title alone, I feel like holy cats. That's so intimidating. It is called entertaining one zero one. Beth, that just makes you, like, right on the level of Martha Stewart in my brain. Were you nervous about calling it one zero one?Beth Le Manach:No. Because the way that I'm thinking about the title is it's really targeted towards beginners or veterans who just need it to be easier and quicker. And I think everybody loves a one zero one entry point because they know it's not gonna be intimidating. It's gonna be accessible.Stephanie Hansen:Well, you are not a one zero one in your chops. You have over 662,000 followers on YouTube. They were like, oh, she has a a YouTube channel. And I went to look. I was like, holy cats. Tell me the name of your YouTube channel because I forgot to write it down. Recipes for entertaining. Was that what it was called?Beth Le Manach:No. It's called Entertaining with Beth.Stephanie Hansen:Got it. Okay. So you also are very fascinating, but I'm gonna get to that part in just a second. Take me through, like, your journey of, like, the how you started the YouTube and how we are that you're just is this your first book?Beth Le Manach:Yes. It isn't my first book. I know. I've been in a long time. I know exactly. Yeah. So it's kind of a long story, but I'll give you the highlights. I started my YouTube channel because I was by trade a producer for television, lifestyle television, and I got my start with the Scripps network.Beth Le Manach:So Food Network, HGTV, Fine Living, I was producing a bunch of content for them. I saw everything going online, digital. So I was like, I wanna produce digital content for the web. I got a job at a company that had a huge order for YouTube. So this was right around 2011 when YouTube started getting grants to media companies to produce quality content so they could get the advertisers to actually advertise against it. Because up into that point, it was a lot of, you know, skate board tricks and cat videos and stuff like that. Yeah. And so since I had come up with all of this kind of lifestyle content, my boss was like, okay. Create a YouTube channel that women will love. And I was a new mom. I had two small kids, and I was into all this lifestyle content, but I knew nothing about YouTube. So I had to really learn what it was, and little by little, we started to just create content. That was food content, fashion, beauty, all the things that I thought, like, women would be interested in.And then one day, my boss came to me and said, you know what? We are, like, really behind on the hours here that we have to deliver. We gotta pep this up a bit. What do you got? And I was like, I think we should do, like, entertaining shows, like, thirty minute shows, like what we used to do for TV. Like, let's do the perfect dinner party. He's like he was like, well, who are we gonna get to do that? And I was like, me. I love to cook, and I have a lot of recipes. And at the time, I just bought a house, and I was like, you know, come to my house. You don't have to pay me.You're already paying me, and let's knock off a few of these episodes. So we did about 16 of them, and then my boss was like, you know, this is really resonating with people. Like and and it really hit me at that point that I thought, how is this new information for people? Because I had grown up with Martha Stewart and Ina Garten, and I just thought that everybody was watching this. But people at the time on YouTube were just getting into, like, all the beauty gurus, and those girls were now aging up and sort of, like, having their first apartment and getting married. And they weren't suddenly gonna go offline and go look at magazines and books. They were staying online.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah.Beth Le Manach:And I think that's where it really resonated. And so long story short, I did that until I started to do it full time, and now the channel is mine, and I just do it full time.Stephanie Hansen:It explains lots of things. One, how prescient of you to see this digital age coming. So very smart.Beth Le Manach:Yeah.Stephanie Hansen:Two, I always talk about first mover advantage. And whenever there's a new platform or something, I always make sure that I log on. I save my handle. Even if I don't know if I'm gonna use it or do anything with it, I I believe that being the first in a space or in in a being a handful of first in a space is part of what gets you that first mover advantage. So note to self people because there's gonna be a lot of social enterprises that are coming in our future. And then also, like, sometimes the keeping it simple is the best. Like, you just assume that everybody knows how to, you know, make a delicious apparel spritz, but necessarily they don't. So that what you can offer in your most authentic way is, valuable.And that's, I guess, why you did this as your first book because you seem like you really are taking and packaging a lot of this in a way that feels authentic to you, and that's what people want.Beth Le Manach:I think they do. I mean and I think that's what YouTube has really taught me is that there are thousands of chicken Parmesan recipes on YouTube, but people will still ask me, but we want your recipe. Not because my recipe is gonna be better than anybody else's recipe because there's only a couple of ways around making a chicken parm, but because they want my point of view. And I think that that's what makes YouTube so human, and that's why they called it YouTube because it is about you and how you how I prepare chicken parmesan recipe could be different than how you prepare it. And the things that we're gonna highlight could be different based on our own lived experience, and I think that's what makes it really human and really fun.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. Your show is also very beautiful. I just started doing a TV show, with Fox here locally, and lighting is so important. And my own YouTube is horribly lit and embarrassing. Yours is incredible.Like, do you have my normal lights set up?Beth Le Manach:No. My gosh. You know what my light setup is now? No lights. The light setup is no lights because I went round and round, and I have, you know, a lot of different experience. Like, I started with the big crew of seven people people that would come, and then I would go back, like, after COVID, and there was no people. And then I had to learn it all myself, and then I moved to France, and I was like, I can't carry all this stuff with me. I have gone back and forth on the lighting, and I always go back to the fact that, like, natural lighting for food is just the best lighting, and then just adjust the camera settings. Like, you're much better off doing that and know which angles of the kitchen give you the best softest light because that you can always reproduce the camera, but you can't always reproduce the exact temperature and light. And, like, that just was making me crazy. So I just decided to finish the lights.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. That is really the tip. Yes. I like it. You mentioned this move to France, and I I you have through the course of your channel and through the course career here. Also, you had a like, it sounded like a rental in France that you made into a full time home.Beth Le Manach:Yes. Exactly. So my husband is French, and we had been coming to France every year or so when we were married. And then we took a break when we had kids, and then we started to bring the kids when they were, like, five and two.Stephanie Hansen:So you and your husband moved to France, and he's French. Yes. So he's like your Jeffrey.Beth Le Manach:Yeah. You could say that. Yeah. He, he he definitely, has inspired me a lot, I think, with the French lifestyle and French cooking. And we would come to France every summer just to vacation, and then we thought, okay. Let's stop renting all these houses. Let's buy a house and then become the renter like, become the person renting. That was a better investment for us.Beth Le Manach:And then, I don't know, we just he got to a point in his life where he was like, I see all my friends retiring in France. That's where I wanna be. And I think that's the blessing and the curse of marrying a foreigner. At one point, they're gonna wanna go back, and you just have to be ready for that. So I was always ready for it because I've always loved France, and I just thought, like, that's a fun experience. Yeah. Let's go do that.Stephanie Hansen:Do you read David Leibovitz's blog?Beth Le Manach:Yes. I do. I love him. Yeah. He's great.Stephanie Hansen:I've learned so much. I have, relatives that are from Montreal, which is not France, but they've spent time in France. And Yeah. He just talks a lot about the difficulties of living in France and being an American transplant living in France.Are there things that you have found that you're just like, oh, I just wish I could get this or something that you're craving to miss?Beth Le Manach:Prepared broths and stocks. Like, you know, when you go in The States, you go to the grocery store and you see, like, a million organic chicken broth, beef broth, like, in every brand that takes up practically a whole file. Here, you cannot get that. You can get the cubes where you're making it, but it's like you're wasting a whole cube for two cups of broth, and you may not need the two cups of broth. Like, I love those little one cup ones that we can get in those days. That, we cannot get here. And I I don't know why. A lot of me thinks, like, it just takes up too much space on the shelves, and maybe the little cubes are better, but I do miss that.Stephanie Hansen:Do you have that better than bouillon product?Beth Le Manach:We don't have that. I have not seen that. Uh-uh. Like, there's a lot of different kinds of these little broth cubes too, and I've been trying all of them. Some of them are horrible, and some of them are okay, but there's nothing like the Swanson's chicken broth. Like, I really kinda miss that. I love that. And Land O'Lakes spread the butter.Beth Le Manach:Land O'Lakes butter. Even though we have a million wonderful butters here in France for baking, nothing is quite like the Land O'Lakes salted butter in my opinion.Stephanie Hansen:I live in Minnesota, the home of Land O'Lakes, so that makes me real happy. Alright. So entertaining one zero one is about simple, easy ways to start your entertaining life, whether it be like a signature cocktail for mom's brunch or an egg bake for Christmas or, just a simple, like, Friday night dinner party. What are some of your favorite entry points for entertaining?Beth Le Manach:Yeah. Well, I think brunch. I think brunch is the beginners, like, home run because there's no fancy roasts that you have to learn how to carve. It's pretty inexpensive because you're not serving a ton of wines and cocktails. It's fairly cheap too because of what you're making. It's eggs and bread and fruit. And it's easy because you can, like, prep in the morning, and then people come at, like, eleven. And it doesn't take the whole night.Beth Le Manach:Like, it's not gonna go on for hours and hours. Like, people usually leave around two or three. I just think it's a great entry point for people. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, once you get into the holidays, like the Thanksgiving and the Christmas, you wanna get a few brunches under your belt, maybe a few dinners. I always say start with four, then have six, but don't ever start having 10 guests, which is what Thanksgiving is. So don't start there. Yep.Beth Le Manach:Because people usually get themselves so stressed out for entertaining because I think they don't start at the right entry point. And then they never wanna do it again because it was a big mess and, you know, it was so stressful because I think they didn't work their way up to it. You know what I mean?Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. I never thought about that, but that's really a clever way to think about it. I also think too choosing, like, the main dish and then building from there is helpful. Like Yes. I I don't know why I was afraid to cook salmon for forever, but, but, really, roasting a whole side of salmon is a great dish for entertaining.Beth Le Manach:Super easy, beautiful, super delicious. Yeah. I I think that people feel like they get sort of stressed out at all of the organization, like, the the timing of it. Because most people don't have, like, restaurant cook experience where everything is timed. So my philosophy is always, like, one or two things, two max that's, like, active cooking, The rest, assembly and the rest, premade. So, like, if you balance out the portfolio of dishes so that they're not all active cooking, it's just gonna make your life so much easier.Stephanie Hansen:And so Don't you think too, like, what I always discover with entertaining is people are just so delighted to come, to be invited to something. We don't do this enough.Beth Le Manach:We don't do it enough because I think people are afraid of how it's gonna go because maybe they had one or two bad experiences or because, you know, for better or for worse, I'm probably contributing to this, but there is so much food media out there between the blogs and the Instagram and the Pinterest and television and books that, like, it can get very overwhelming. What do you serve and, you know, where do you begin? That I really wanted to create, like, here are the hundred and one recipes that, like, everybody should just know how to make. Like, it's just should be part of your repertoire. Like, get the basics down first and get the ones that you crave. So, like, of course, everybody wants to know how to make a turkey at Thanksgiving or a key lime pie at Easter or barbecue chicken in the summer. Like, these are the things we are all sort of craving perennially. And if you can get those right, then you go to, like, one zero two, which is, you know, the more sophisticated flight files and that kind of thing.Stephanie Hansen:Second book, are you already thinking about it?Beth Le Manach:Oh my gosh. No. Because I'm still recovering from the first book. You know, you're a good book author. I had no idea how all consuming it is. In a good way. Of it taken. It was a definite two year project, you know, between the testing, the writing, the photography, like, all of it.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. What part did you love, and what part did you hate?Beth Le Manach:I really love the testing. You know? Like, really taking the time to test each recipe and getting excited about being able to share it, thinking of all of my subscribers that I've had over the years and thinking, oh, this person's gonna love this, and, oh, that person is really this is really gonna help that person. I love that. I love the writing. I didn't think I would love that as much, but I really love that, the stories and the tips and the kind of bringing the recipe to life. As much as I love the results of the photo shoot, that was probably the most exhausting, I think. And to have to then remake all a hundred and one recipes again. And, you know, at that point, it's not just me in the kitchen.It's a whole team of people and making sure, like, oh, that's not supposed to look like that or, like, oh, that crust shouldn't be like you know? And, like, that I found very taxing. But it was great to see all the photos at the end of the shoot. Like, oh, wow. We did all that.Stephanie Hansen:Did you have to cut some recipes, and was that hard to do?Beth Le Manach:We didn't I would cut them in the testing. We didn't we we basically shot everything that we planned, so that was great. But there were recipes that I just kept thinking, this is good, but it's too complicated, or this is not delivering on my motto of, like, minimum effort, maximum impact. This is, like, maximum effort from maximum impact, but, like, I didn't wanna go there. I wanted to keep it really easy and accessible for people. So those were the recipes that usually got the pitch.Stephanie Hansen:Was it harder? When did you move to France, and was this in the middle?Beth Le Manach:Yeah. It was. Of course. That was the craziest thing about it. We did the photo shoot in May, and we moved in June. So as soon as the, like, photo team left at the May, we were like, okay. Let's wrap it up. And we started to just put things in boxes and because I couldn't, like, take the whole house apart because I needed all the props, and I needed a certain amount of furniture and dishes and thing, you know, that I couldn't take.Beth Le Manach:So yeah. Stephanie Hansen:did you move all that stuff? Do you still have it? Because people don't realize, like, when you're styling photos, you know, you need all this stuff that you have.Beth Le Manach:You you need all this stuff, and I had a ton of props as we all do. You know, anybody that's in this business has a ton props. And I used them all for the cookbook, but I could not take them all with me to France. It's just it was gonna be too expensive. And I was actually afraid that some of them would break anyway, so I gave them to a lot of the, prop master who was working on the cookbook. Like, she took a a bunch. Everybody on the shoot took some, and we had a fully furnished house here in France that we were renting. So and, of course, every time I come, I would hit a flea market and buy more stuff.So, like, I just had no more rooms for any more stuff, so I just had to, you know, give away.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. That's it's kinda liberating and kinda freeing, though, in and of itself.Beth Le Manach:It is. It is.Stephanie Hansen:Who do you look up to for entertaining?Beth Le Manach:Oh, you know, all the greats. I love Martha Stewart. I love Ina Garten. I'm trying to think, like, if I there's a couple of substackers that I really love. There's a woman, little Chavita is the name of her substack. I let do you know her? Do you follow her substack? I think yeah. I just I love her sort of effortless elegance. I love things that don't feel overly fussy or feel overly staged.Beth Le Manach:Yeah. There's a lot of Instagrammers too that you just see that you're like, oh, yeah. I love that. I don't know. Yeah. I think and my parents, like, I love the way that they entertain, and I've always, like, looked up to their sort of style of entertaining.Stephanie Hansen:You mentioned, chicken parm experience, and I just happen to have read a whole thing about an influencer that apparently grabbed some very similar recipes from, some recipe writers and then repackaged them and put them in her book in Australia that's been, like, a multimillion bestseller. And I always worry and wonder about that because it's very hard to make a recipe your own for something like a chicken farm. And I really cooking very basic and presenting very basic recipes that people have been doing for forever and short of, like, saying, you know, I got inspiration or I adapted from. I do wonder if we're getting into this place where the Internet is just full of 6,000 chicken parmesan recipes that are all the same.Beth Le Manach:Yeah. I mean, I think what really, sets them apart though is the way you go about it. Like, I can remember a copyright lawyer telling me, like, you can't actually copyright the ingredients, but you can copyright the method. And I think, you know, for anybody who cooks a lot, there is a method that you go about making the recipe that's based on your experience, like the do's and more importantly the don'ts. Like, don't do that because you're gonna have a salvee chicken parm. Make sure you do this because it'll crisp up more. So, like, in my chicken parmesan video on YouTube, I labeled it a little bit different. I think it's something like the six tips to a great chicken parm, and that's just based on my experience.Like, fry it in a cast iron pan, presalt the chicken so that it's nice and juicy. Once it comes out of the pan, put it on a cooling rack with a, you know, something like a cookie rack so that it doesn't get all soggy. Add a little Parmesan tea. Like so I think that people make very classic recipes their own by adding their own personality and their own little tips and tricks that they've learned along the way to guarantee success. So I feel like, you know, even in the age of AI and everybody's like, oh, you know what? They're only gonna get these recipes from AI. It's like, yeah. But you're not gonna get that human experience of, like, here's what I did that doesn't work. Here's what I've done that works really well.So I think that's kind of our, you know, competitive edge, I guess, against the robots.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. And the superpower that maybe will separate, finally, the weed from the chaff as it were. Because if we are all then making similarly the same thing, it is how we're doing it and also how we're performing the content because, like, people get interested in you as a human and you as how you do things, and they wanna follow you and your point of view and think you're funny or whatever your superpower is.Beth Le Manach:Exactly. And that's why I think video is so powerful because that doesn't always come across on the printed page or with a photograph. But when you are on video and you're spending time, like, building this audience on YouTube, it is a way to connect in a more human way with people. And that also, when they search chicken parm and they see three or four results come up, if they already know you because they've watched your video, they you do feel like a friend to them, and they want your point of view. So I think, you know, it was worth all those years and years of uploads because it does help you, like, ingratiate yourself a little bit more to the audience. You know?Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. And, also, I think if you just this is a weird thing to say, but I've been thinking about this a lot because I have a speech later today, and and I wasn't sure what I was gonna speak about. And my husband's like, oh, are you gonna talk about women in business? I was like, no. I think I'm gonna talk about my regs to not riches story, which is, like, people have all these different experiences. Right? And you're always comparing yourself to other people or trying to measure up or trying to get as many likes or follows or comments. And really what I always keep coming back to is that people just want authentic, friendly, nice people in their kitchen to spend time with them.Beth Le Manach:I think so. A %. Especially if it's something that they're a little unsure about, they want the reassurance that, like, it's going to be okay. Like, yeah, we're gonna do it together. You know? Like, I think that that's very reassuring for people.Stephanie Hansen:One of the, recipes that I happen to see on your YouTube really just, like, blew my mind, and I think it's based on your French experiences about almond croissants.Beth Le Manach:Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's from the book.Great. It is in the book. Yeah.Stephanie Hansen:I'm obsessed with almond croissants, and what you did was you took day old croissants and then made, like, a beautiful almond filling, and voila, almond croissants. It's it never occurred to me that that would be a way that you could do that without, you know, like, laminating dough and I mean doing all the hard work.Beth Le Manach:Yeah. Well, I laughed out loud because I didn't realize, and my husband shared this with me when we were sort of newly married, that almond or croissants were made because that was a way that the bakeries could use up the day old croissants that didn't sell because very few things go to waste in France, especially foods. Then it, like, made perfect sense. Like, oh, of course. So if they're doing that, like, we could be doing that. Yeah. Absolutely. Have, like, the yeah.We just don't have the day old croissants, but, like, you can do it with fresh if you just split them open and let them dry out while you make the filling, and it's just as good.Stephanie Hansen:So you have an event that's coming up at Cooks At Crocus Hill, June Eighth, 4 PM. As we record this, there's only a few tickets left. So by the time it actually airs, you probably won't have the privilege of getting tickets unless you decide to do another night. Is that a possibility?Beth Le Manach:We don't know because I have to leave the next day for my next tour. So this is the thing that I yeah. I'm learning about the book tours is you have to be quick about it because it is expensive to go to all these cities.Stephanie Hansen:Yes. And how many citiesBeth Le Manach:are you going to on your tour? I'm going to seven.Stephanie Hansen:Okay. Okay. That is gonna be great. Yeah. So we are speaking with Beth Lamonic, and she is the author of entertaining one zero one. And you can find her book, recipes every host should know how to make. I thought that was a great subtitle too, by the way. Very clear. Everybody knew exactly what they were gonna be getting from your book. Do you have a Substack too, or how do you want people to follow it?Beth Le Manach:Yes. I do. I have a Substack. That would be great. People can follow me there. It's called entertaining with Beth.Stephanie Hansen:And how are you enjoying that as a platform?Beth Le Manach:I love it. I mean, this is the funny thing is, like, writing the cookbook did introduce me to this, like, other way to create, which is writing. And I think it came at the perfect time because we moved to France around the same time that I was doing more on Substack. So I share the recipes there, which are free. But then if people wanna be part of my paid community, once a month, I do an essay about what it's like living in France. I'm kind of the good, bad, and the ugly, you know, because there is so much material that happens, and that's just been a really fun exercise to share that, just in the written page. And and sometimes I include little videos in it too. So It's been It's always fun too, Stephanie Hansen:I think, as creators to have other outlets and more outlets. Yeah. And, you know, I I know people find this hard to believe, but with the exception of, like, in any industry, the top 10% of us are cobbling this together. Right? You're at the end of the year, when you're doing your taxes, you have 52 tiny pots of money that you add up together. Right. And Substat is another tiny pot, but is giving a lot of joy to a lot of people and allowing them to flex in unique and creative ways.Beth Le Manach:It is. It absolutely is. And and I think too because if you stay with, like, kinda one medium, like, I've been doing video for so many years, thirteen years video, it gets really tiring, and you start to get a little fatigued by it all. So it kinda jump starts your creativity again to be like, oh, now I'm gonna write some things, and now I'm gonna and then it sort of helps the video because you look at it with fresher eyes.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. I love it. Well, Beth, it's been a delight to speak with you. Thanks for being on the podcast today. Good luck with the tour. Beth Le Manach: thanks for having me.Stephanie Hansen:Yes. Are you on presale right now?Beth Le Manach:Yes. We're on presale, and then it goes on sale, for real on June 3.Stephanie Hansen:Okay. So we're gonna launch this podcast, I believe, right before the launch. If you can presale, because you guys that listen know presales are super important to cookbook authors, all of those sales that they've generated up on the presale count towards the first day sales, which hopefully, if all things go great, launches them on bestseller list. Right? That's what we're all trying to do. Beth, I think you've got a great shot at it because your book, looks great. I've watched a bunch of your videos, and I'm just glad that you're getting a chance to come to Saint Paul, Minnesota. Cooks Of Crocusil is a great spot. You're gonna have a blast.Beth Le Manach:Yes. I hope so. It looks amazing.Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.Stephanie Hansen:Enjoy your travels. Hopefully, we'll speak again sometime. Sounds goodStephanie Hansen:Thanks, Stephanie. Bye. 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

Welcome to another episode of "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish," the podcast for everyone obsessed with food, cookbooks, and the stories they tell. Today, host Stephanie Hansen sits down with Jenna Helwig —a true powerhouse in the cookbook world. You may know Jenna as the creator of the Cookbookery Collective newsletter but she's also the food director at Real Simple magazine and a prolific cookbook author herself. In this conversation, Stephanie and Jenna dive into their mutual love for cookbooks, discuss the enduring charm of print in a digital world, and explore the evolving landscape of cookbook publishing, from celebrity chefs to everyday cooks and influencers.Jenna shares insights from her career, talks about the resurgence and diversity of cookbooks, and lets us in on what it's like to balance her editorial roles at Real Simple and her Substack. They chat about memorable cookbooks from childhood, the pressure (and freedom) of home cooking, and the unique joys of discovering new recipes and makers. Whether you're a cookbook collector, home cook, or just love a good food story, this episode is packed with inspiration, nostalgia, and plenty of practical wisdom. So grab your favorite cookbook, get comfy, and join us for a delicious discussion!FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:Stephanie Hansen:Hello, everybody, and welcome to @DishingwithStephaniesDish, the podcast where we talk to people that are obsessed with food, cookbooks, and all things in the food space. And today, I'm speaking with Jenna Helwig, and I kinda came across her mostly on Substack, which I think maybe will make her be surprised. I found her as the creator of the cookbookery collective cookbook newsletter, and I was like, hey. You're into cookbooks. I'm into cookbooks. Let's talk about cookbooks. And we got the call set up, and then she said, oh, and by the way, I am the food director of Real Simple magazine. And I was like, oh, just that small detail that I literally did not even know about you.I'm so embarrassed. Welcome to the program.Jenna Helwig:Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. And I'm thrilled that you found me through the substack because that's a newish thing for me, and I love that, you know, people are reading it.Stephanie Hansen:Yes. And I was so like, I'm just obsessed with cookbooks, and I am a cookbook writer. I'm on my second book that's coming up, and I read a lot about trying to get published and different points of view of cookbooks. And we have quite a few good cookbook authors that hail from the Midwest in the Twin Cities here. And you had, I think, done an interview with my friend Zoe from Zoey Bakes, which probably is how I found out about you.Jenna Helwig:That is probably right. Yes. Zoey. Also, I think of Amy Theilan. I know she's not right there, but she's, you know, in the vicinity. Right? So yeah. For sure. And Pinch of Yum, aren't they based in Minneapolis? So yeah.Jenna Helwig:They are. A good a good food thing going.Stephanie Hansen:Yes. And the Food Dolls just published their book. They have, like, 8,000,000 followers.Jenna Helwig:Amazing. I guess I've been through that interview. Yeah. And who is that?Stephanie Hansen:Sarah Kiefer, do you know her?Jenna Helwig:Oh, yes. Of course. Her cookies, baked goods. Yeah.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. We are all from, the Twin Cities, and most of them have, like, specialty angles. Like, I am just a home cook, so that's sort of my point of view on the Midwest. But it has been a really great market to be in. And one of the things that I started a radio show about seventeen years ago, so we've talked a lot of these people along the way. And right when we started the radio show, you know, Facebook and Instagram were launching, and it's been such an interesting trajectory to see cookbook authors in particular. And, like, everyone's like, oh, print is dead. Like, magazines are dead.Publications are dead. And yet, you know, cookbooks are, in some respects, doing better than ever.Jenna Helwig:Yeah. I agree. I feel like they are thriving. I also feel like, you know, at least for me personally, and I do notice this though with a lot of other people that we are on our screens all the time, and we're kinda tired of it. So whether it's a cookbook or even a print magazine, like, there's just something so lovely about turning pages, just, like, shutting out everything else. No other notifications are popping up on your screen. So print is very special.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. And it feels like you can have, like, personal one on one time with it because you can set your phone down and really immerse yourself in the story.Jenna Helwig:Yes. Exactly. We all need more of that.Stephanie Hansen:I think so. My food magazines too, you mentioned that you're the food director of Real Simple, and you guys are having your twenty fifth anniversary. Yes. And I literally before you sent me that text, I was, like, reading it. And I'm a subscriber, so I'm gonna hold up my copy here. Because I really I love food print too. I worked in the newspaper business, and I'm kind of a tactile print person also. And you had a really cool feature this month about what's the best takeaway you've ever gotten from Real Simple because you guys are in your 25th birthday. So I thought I'd ask you what your best takeaway is.Jenna Helwig:Oh my gosh. That's such a hard question. Alright. I I'm sure it's going to be food related, and I'm kinda gonna cheat and pick something from that month. I worked with Molly Ye on the beautiful birthday cake that's on the cover. And, you know, one of the things she did that I feel like I've used in other in other applications, but never for frosting, was she used instead of food coloring, freeze dried raspberry powder to make the beautiful pink frosting. And I just hadn't done that before, and it was so easy and such a kind of natural way to make something look so lovely.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. That's funny because, yeah, and the cake, it's a it's a lemon poppy seed cake, and then it has like a a raspberry pink frosting on the outside and then raspberry jam on the inside. It really it also gives you a little bit of that raspberry flavor in the frosting, but it's not like super wet like it would be if you used real raspberries or also, like, super overly sweet if you used just jam.Jenna Helwig:You know what? That is exactly right because it lends that little bit of tartness to it too, and so it's just such a nicely balanced frosting.Stephanie Hansen:So you are a cookbook writer yourself.Jenna Helwig:Mhmm.Stephanie Hansen:I'm forgetting the name of your books. It's Minute Dinners or Dinner andJenna Helwig:“Bare Minimum Dinners.” The most Bare minimum. Yes. “Bare Minimum Dinners”. Stephanie Hansen:I'm all for that. And you've had, a number of cookbooks, I think. Aren't you? Like, you've had a few more of that too.Jenna Helwig:Yes. So I've written five books. Three of them were more in the, like, family baby toddler space. I used to be the food editor at Parents Magazine. Sure. And so that was really how I kind of got into cookbook writing. I started with real baby food and then wrote one called baby led feeding. And I will say that is by far my best selling cookbook.Jenna Helwig:You know, it's still something we actually did a reissue a couple of years ago, so I did an updated version. It's still something that parents are finding, and that just makes me so happy.Stephanie Hansen:My neighbor who just had a baby, she's gonna be two, was obsessed with that book because I just she knows I write cookbooks, and I film a TV show in my house too. So I'm always bringing them food. And when she first had the baby, she showed it to me, and she was like, have you ever heard of this book?Jenna Helwig:And it was yours. Oh my gosh. That's amazing. Well, that's so great. I'm I that's a really hard time of life as I you know, just, like, trying to figure out no one really tells you how to feed your baby, which is strange. And so I think anything that I could do to make it just less stressful, that was always my goal with those books.Stephanie Hansen:And I think that there's so much to be said about just getting dinner on the table. Like, it's almost a political act these days just to, like, be working, be taking care of your mental health, be worrying about your social time with your kids, your family, your family, aging parents, and then all of a sudden every day someone is supposed to, like, be putting all these elaborate meals on the table, like, sometimes just even surviving a day without the food, and then you have this whole other stressor on top of it.Jenna Helwig:I could not agree more. I mean, which is why I thought of bare minimum dinners. Like, it's this idea, and we do this also in real simple. You know, it's very similar. They're like I call fussy the f word. I'm like, nothing fussy, you know, especially when we're talking about recipes in the magazine. Skip the garnish. Like, you know, there's you're not putting on a show for anyone.You know? Just do what you can. That's really you know? But is it better or good is better than perfect. Done is better than perfect. Just get it done.Stephanie Hansen:And some people, like, because they feel like they're trying to live up to something in a Instagram photo, it prevents them from having a dinner party or, making food for a neighbor because maybe it's, like, not good enough. You know, just the sheer act of eating and providing food for your family, whoever your family looks like, or even just for yourself, you are gonna eat better. You're gonna have more control over what you eat. I have eaten at a million restaurants in my life, and I just find that I always feel so much better when I'm cooking at home.Jenna Helwig:I agree. I love to go out to eat. However, then if if I do that too much, I'm like, okay. I just need to reset at home. And, you know, I've also noticed that in some cookbooks, there has been this trend towards the food not being overly styled or the author doing that themselves and thinking about, like, Julia Tershen with her last book. You know, she photographed that herself, and the food looks great, but also real.Like, you could do it. And, also the book Chinese Enough that I just featured in Cookbookery Collective. You know, those recipes just don't feel like nitpicked to death. You know? They're just very naturalStephanie Hansen:looking. I feel like we might see more of that. I photographed my own book, but it was simply out of necessity because I didn't have $20 to pay someone. So I said to the publisher, well, if my Instagram's okay, I'm gonna do, like, similar to that. Is that okay? And they were like, sure. Oh, great. As we look at cookbooks as a genre, things have changed a lot because it used to be that you were a professional chef or you were a restaurant chef and you were writing about your restaurant or you were a small group of people that were super experienced in cooking, and maybe you had, you know, 10 books that you were writing in the different genres. You did vegetarian and gluten free and then dairy free.Now, like, the cookbook space is really kind of being taken up by regular people or influencers in a lot of respects. Does that, open the door for more excitement or is it sometimes do you worry that maybe the books aren't as good? Oh,Jenna Helwig:Oh, that's a tough question. I think that anything that gets people cooking is good. So I am you know, if the it is someone without a lot of cooking experience who has a book, but it still excites people to get into the kitchen, fantastic. So that's really my main goal. I do think, you know, where I am in my life, like, I really wanna learn something new from a cookbook. So that's what I personally am looking for, but there are cooks of all different, you know, ability levels and experience levels. So I think that having a variety of cookbooks that can reach everyone where they are is probably the answer.Stephanie Hansen:There is so much diversity too in cookbooks now. Like, the no offense to the old beautiful Asian cookbooks that you would get, but, you know, you didn't really feel like you could make a lot of the things out of there because maybe you didn't have the ingredients or you weren't familiar with technique. The the more recent diversity in cookbooks, it feels like you can actually make some of these things.Jenna Helwig:Well, I think that's right. Some of the things do feel more accessible. And, also, we just have access to so many more ingredients now, which is amazing. Just even at, like, regular grocery stores. My parents live in Colorado and, like, in the suburbs, and I was, you know, just driving by where I used to live. And there was an H Mart, you know, which I like, my jaw just, like, fell on the floor. There's no H Mart there when I was growing up. So the fact that I could have had access to all of those ingredients, and now the people who live in Broomfield, Colorado do is a miracle.Stephanie Hansen:That's so funny because I'm actually reading crying in H Mart right now for my book club, and it's just a delightful memoir about a woman who's experiencing the loss of her mother through the Korean cooking and heritage that she had growing up, and it's really a delightful book. It's so good. When you are thinking of what you wanna write about for your substack, because I'm in some ways, I'm surprised that you still find this topic and this genre interesting after having worked at Real Simple for five years because I've I it's almost like feels like is it too much of the food, but it it really is steeped in you. And how do you pick, like, what you wanna feature on your Substack versus what would maybe be a potential something in the magazine down the road, or is it just all the love and all of the same?Jenna Helwig:So I for real simple, you know, obviously, I get to kind of put a lot of myself into there and, you know, kind of direct that coverage, you know, pitch what I think we should cover. But I'm always doing that through the lens of our audience. You know? What and I she's usually a she. You know? What does she want? How much time does she have? What's gonna make make her life easier? So I really hyper focus on that. And a lot of it does kind of mirror my life because I am, you know, kind of similar to the real simple reader, but that's primary. I feel like with the substack, I can just do whatever I want. It's really, like, the books and the authors that speak to the me the most. It's nice to kind of have that, you know, freedom even if it's something that maybe we wouldn't cover in the magazine or might be a little more obscure.Jenna Helwig:You know? It's just fun to be able to follow my passions and my interest. And I do love food, and I really love cookbooks. So it's it's funny that I spend even extra time with them, but it really makes me so happy.Stephanie Hansen:I am hoping that in substack's evolution that we get more information about who our readers are. Because when you're, like, at a magazine, you know, you have a deep dive in your target market and the radio show, they know exactly who your p ones are. In Substack, you have followers, but you don't exactly know that much about them except basically where they come from.Jenna Helwig:That is such a good point, and I'm sure you also know so much more about this than me. I'm still I'm such a newbie. I've been a Substack subscriber for a long time. But now I just, you know, launched this, you know, like, over a month just over a month ago, and so I'm still figuring out all the analytics and everything. But I agree that that would be super helpful just to know more. Like and I'm I've also been thinking, and maybe you've done this. Like, have you done surveys of your audience, your subscribers? Yeah. And, also, like, people don't love to fill them all out. Jenna Helwig:I love surveys.Stephanie Hansen:See, I do too, but that's probably because we're, like, the publishing types. Right? So I did a survey, and it kind of mirrored what I thought from an age perspective, but I didn't get much more details than that. K. So I think if I was gonna give Substack advice, and maybe they'll ask me someday. Who knows? Mhmm. That it would be to help us understand who those markets are more because it does help you frame who you're writing for. As you look at the the newsletter, are you going to continue to speak to authors? Will you ever do recipes on your own like you've been in that space? Jenna Helwig:So I don't think I will do recipes on my own. I feel like, you know, when I have ideas for, new dishes or new, you know, like, stories. I kind of direct those to Real Simple. And I've done a lot you know, I've done all those cookbooks. So I sort of feel like the world maybe doesn't need more recipes from me. You know? I'm I'm very interested in what other people have to say. I think that I love doing these author interviews or just the interviews with other people in the cookbook community. Like, recently interviewed the woman who started Instagram's oldest cookbook club.And so she was fascinating. Oh, great. Yes. And there was such a good response to that. I'm interested in talking to people in cookbook publishing. So just really kind of anyone in that community. I I think there might be room later for more, like, reported stories.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah.Jenna Helwig:You know? That so not interviews, but, like, on a certain topic, like book design or titles or spines. I don't know. But, but I I don't think it's gonna be recipes for me. We'll see.Stephanie Hansen:It is interesting. You asked, the woman with the cookbook collection how she organized her collection, and she said by, type of food or genre. But then there's other people that I know that organize it by color.Jenna Helwig:I do that.Stephanie Hansen:Okay. And and it looks so cool. Like, when you have a huge collection, it just it looks so cool on the shelves. But I was like, oh, that would be so hard because unless you remember the color of the cookbook, how could you find it?Jenna Helwig:Yeah. You know, I will say so I live in Brooklyn, New York in a not huge apartment. So I first of all, everything has to look as tidy as possible, and color colors help with that. And I really only have room for about 250 books as opposed to, like, Deborah was saying, she has 2,000 Yeah.Stephanie Hansen:It was crazy. Thousand.Jenna Helwig:So jealous. But so somehow in my mind, I know what the color is. I don't know how to say it, but IStephanie Hansen:don't know how to catalog it. Purple one.Jenna Helwig:Yeah. So if I had more, maybe that wouldn't work.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. Well and you okay. So you live in Brooklyn. That is such an amazing food community. Yes. And you just have so many great makers. And I do find a lot of good makers in Real Simple, like people making new artisanal products, and I had a podcast about that for a long time. That is really like, when you feel like you've discovered something that someone turns you onto and it's great, That's, like, one of my favorite discoveries about being involved in the food business, and I feel that way about cookbooks too.Jenna Helwig:Absolutely. And I think that when it comes to Real Simple, that's really one of the things that people come to us for. They trust our recommendations, you know, and things that we've discovered. And I feel like that is especially true with our holiday gift guide Yes. Which, you know, is, like, pages and pages every year. We spend months on it, you know, finding things, testing things. And believe it or not, I'm gonna be starting that again soon. But, yes, I I think that that it's such a privilege to be finding these new things and sharing them, and I think we really do get good feedback from them.Stephanie Hansen:Do you get to travel a lot around the country? OrJenna Helwig:Yeah. I mean, you know, there are certainly trips that I am taking for like, I went out to Expo West recently. Do you know that? It's a big, huge, like, food trade show in Anaheim and, went and met with a bunch of different brands, saw what was going on, what was new. So I try to take as many opportunities for travel as possible. I really love to just be out and about.Stephanie Hansen:Did you run across, at that show two gals? They have a product called Maza Chutney.Jenna Helwig:Okay. I was literally just talking to someone about this today. In fact, I was I sent a photo to my executive editor because, yes, I did meet them, and then I was at the Cherry Bomb Jubilee Yes.Stephanie Hansen:And they sampled there.Jenna Helwig:Days ago. Yes. And they sampled there, and I actually got a couple bottles. I was like, can I take that? And they let me. And so I was just I made some eggs for lunch today, and I put the cilantro chutney on top. It was so good. And I was, yeah, just telling one of my colleagues about it. So funny.Stephanie Hansen:I produce culinary markets in the Twin Cities, and they were one of the first makers that I met when I started doing this. And I was just like, oh, those those girls are onto something, and it's a family business. Their story is so great.Jenna Helwig:The branding is amazing Yep. And the food tastes great. Are they from there?Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. From the Twin Cities. Wow. They've just developed to, like a lentil spread. That's a like a hummus, but with lentils and also super flavorful and delicious. So watch for that because that's a brand new product line that they just are launching. But, yeah, weird coincidence, but Oh, funny. Yeah.Great product. When you can you can you remember your actual first cookbook that you got?Jenna Helwig:Oh, okay. So I don't I know it was a Betty Crocker, like, cooking or baking for kids book. I am not I think it was baking. I actually was trying to find the cover recently, just, like, Google search, and I couldn't. But I think that's what it was. Do you have one?Stephanie Hansen:Well, I mean, I have a few vintage.Jenna Helwig:I kinda select Yeah. It wasn't that one because it was for kids book, but I love that. It was like baking for kids or something.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. And then did it have, did it have, like, wiener roll ups in it?Jenna Helwig:Oh my god. Maybe. The thing I remember the most were little English muffin pizzas or something like that. I remember my brother and I making those over and over.Stephanie Hansen:It I think it also had these, like, clown cupcakes.Jenna Helwig:That also sounds familiar. And maybe like cat cupcakes?Stephanie Hansen:Yes. Oh, so funny. Every year, we do a cookbook swap, and it's a super fun event. And people come and bring books that they no longer want or use, and we kinda sort them loosely in this huge room. And then we say go, and everybody, like, runs in. And however many books you bought or brought, you get to roughly take the same amount out, but you don't have to. But it's been fascinating, the books that people bring. And, I mean, I there's, like, a New York Times 1973 edition that has this recipe in it that's only in that book that's for a lamb ragu.Stephanie Hansen:And every year, I see that book come by, and I, like, pick the woman who's probably, like, twenty, twenty four. And I like press this book into her hands and I'm like, you need to have this book and you need to make the recipe on page one twenty one. And it's like three times it's happened and then they'll email me and they're like, I would have never found that recipe without you. It's such a great fun event.Jenna Helwig:That sounds wonderful. I love that idea.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. It is really fun, and we get a lot of, like, boxes of people's recipe cards that were, like, someone's grandma's. And my radio partner and I always sort of move that stuff to the side, And then we keep it for a year and, like, go through it and look at it, and then we bring it back the next year. We've been doing this for, like, ten years. So it's been so fun to see what, like, really are in people's collections and what they get rid of. And, I mean, how many peanut butter blossom recipes there are in the world.Jenna Helwig:You know what? The world needs more peanut butter blossoms. Delicious.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. Always delicious and always tasty. Well, it has been super fun to chat with you. I want people to follow your Substack. It is the Cookbookery Collective Cookbook newsletter, and we are with Jenna Helwig. And I'm just really appreciative for your time today. Congratulations on your twenty fifth anniversary with Real Simple. That's fun too.Jenna Helwig:Thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure to talk to you.Stephanie Hansen:Yes. Absolutely. Thanks, Jenna. Mhmm. Bye bye.Jenna Helwig:Bye.Stephanie's Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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

Welcome to another episode of "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish," the podcast for everyone obsessed with food, cookbooks, and the stories they tell. Today, host Stephanie Hansen sits down with Jenna Helwig —a true powerhouse in the cookbook world. You may know Jenna as the creator of the Cookbookery Collective newsletter but she's also the food director at Real Simple magazine and a prolific cookbook author herself. In this conversation, Stephanie and Jenna dive into their mutual love for cookbooks, discuss the enduring charm of print in a digital world, and explore the evolving landscape of cookbook publishing, from celebrity chefs to everyday cooks and influencers.Jenna shares insights from her career, talks about the resurgence and diversity of cookbooks, and lets us in on what it's like to balance her editorial roles at Real Simple and her Substack. They chat about memorable cookbooks from childhood, the pressure (and freedom) of home cooking, and the unique joys of discovering new recipes and makers. Whether you're a cookbook collector, home cook, or just love a good food story, this episode is packed with inspiration, nostalgia, and plenty of practical wisdom. So grab your favorite cookbook, get comfy, and join us for a delicious discussion!FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:Stephanie Hansen:Hello, everybody, and welcome to @DishingwithStephaniesDish, the podcast where we talk to people that are obsessed with food, cookbooks, and all things in the food space. And today, I'm speaking with Jenna Helwig, and I kinda came across her mostly on Substack, which I think maybe will make her be surprised. I found her as the creator of the cookbookery collective cookbook newsletter, and I was like, hey. You're into cookbooks. I'm into cookbooks. Let's talk about cookbooks. And we got the call set up, and then she said, oh, and by the way, I am the food director of Real Simple magazine. And I was like, oh, just that small detail that I literally did not even know about you.I'm so embarrassed. Welcome to the program.Jenna Helwig:Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. And I'm thrilled that you found me through the substack because that's a newish thing for me, and I love that, you know, people are reading it.Stephanie Hansen:Yes. And I was so like, I'm just obsessed with cookbooks, and I am a cookbook writer. I'm on my second book that's coming up, and I read a lot about trying to get published and different points of view of cookbooks. And we have quite a few good cookbook authors that hail from the Midwest in the Twin Cities here. And you had, I think, done an interview with my friend Zoe from Zoey Bakes, which probably is how I found out about you.Jenna Helwig:That is probably right. Yes. Zoey. Also, I think of Amy Theilan. I know she's not right there, but she's, you know, in the vicinity. Right? So yeah. For sure. And Pinch of Yum, aren't they based in Minneapolis? So yeah.Jenna Helwig:They are. A good a good food thing going.Stephanie Hansen:Yes. And the Food Dolls just published their book. They have, like, 8,000,000 followers.Jenna Helwig:Amazing. I guess I've been through that interview. Yeah. And who is that?Stephanie Hansen:Sarah Kiefer, do you know her?Jenna Helwig:Oh, yes. Of course. Her cookies, baked goods. Yeah.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. We are all from, the Twin Cities, and most of them have, like, specialty angles. Like, I am just a home cook, so that's sort of my point of view on the Midwest. But it has been a really great market to be in. And one of the things that I started a radio show about seventeen years ago, so we've talked a lot of these people along the way. And right when we started the radio show, you know, Facebook and Instagram were launching, and it's been such an interesting trajectory to see cookbook authors in particular. And, like, everyone's like, oh, print is dead. Like, magazines are dead.Publications are dead. And yet, you know, cookbooks are, in some respects, doing better than ever.Jenna Helwig:Yeah. I agree. I feel like they are thriving. I also feel like, you know, at least for me personally, and I do notice this though with a lot of other people that we are on our screens all the time, and we're kinda tired of it. So whether it's a cookbook or even a print magazine, like, there's just something so lovely about turning pages, just, like, shutting out everything else. No other notifications are popping up on your screen. So print is very special.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. And it feels like you can have, like, personal one on one time with it because you can set your phone down and really immerse yourself in the story.Jenna Helwig:Yes. Exactly. We all need more of that.Stephanie Hansen:I think so. My food magazines too, you mentioned that you're the food director of Real Simple, and you guys are having your twenty fifth anniversary. Yes. And I literally before you sent me that text, I was, like, reading it. And I'm a subscriber, so I'm gonna hold up my copy here. Because I really I love food print too. I worked in the newspaper business, and I'm kind of a tactile print person also. And you had a really cool feature this month about what's the best takeaway you've ever gotten from Real Simple because you guys are in your 25th birthday. So I thought I'd ask you what your best takeaway is.Jenna Helwig:Oh my gosh. That's such a hard question. Alright. I I'm sure it's going to be food related, and I'm kinda gonna cheat and pick something from that month. I worked with Molly Ye on the beautiful birthday cake that's on the cover. And, you know, one of the things she did that I feel like I've used in other in other applications, but never for frosting, was she used instead of food coloring, freeze dried raspberry powder to make the beautiful pink frosting. And I just hadn't done that before, and it was so easy and such a kind of natural way to make something look so lovely.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. That's funny because, yeah, and the cake, it's a it's a lemon poppy seed cake, and then it has like a a raspberry pink frosting on the outside and then raspberry jam on the inside. It really it also gives you a little bit of that raspberry flavor in the frosting, but it's not like super wet like it would be if you used real raspberries or also, like, super overly sweet if you used just jam.Jenna Helwig:You know what? That is exactly right because it lends that little bit of tartness to it too, and so it's just such a nicely balanced frosting.Stephanie Hansen:So you are a cookbook writer yourself.Jenna Helwig:Mhmm.Stephanie Hansen:I'm forgetting the name of your books. It's Minute Dinners or Dinner andJenna Helwig:“Bare Minimum Dinners.” The most Bare minimum. Yes. “Bare Minimum Dinners”. Stephanie Hansen:I'm all for that. And you've had, a number of cookbooks, I think. Aren't you? Like, you've had a few more of that too.Jenna Helwig:Yes. So I've written five books. Three of them were more in the, like, family baby toddler space. I used to be the food editor at Parents Magazine. Sure. And so that was really how I kind of got into cookbook writing. I started with real baby food and then wrote one called baby led feeding. And I will say that is by far my best selling cookbook.Jenna Helwig:You know, it's still something we actually did a reissue a couple of years ago, so I did an updated version. It's still something that parents are finding, and that just makes me so happy.Stephanie Hansen:My neighbor who just had a baby, she's gonna be two, was obsessed with that book because I just she knows I write cookbooks, and I film a TV show in my house too. So I'm always bringing them food. And when she first had the baby, she showed it to me, and she was like, have you ever heard of this book?Jenna Helwig:And it was yours. Oh my gosh. That's amazing. Well, that's so great. I'm I that's a really hard time of life as I you know, just, like, trying to figure out no one really tells you how to feed your baby, which is strange. And so I think anything that I could do to make it just less stressful, that was always my goal with those books.Stephanie Hansen:And I think that there's so much to be said about just getting dinner on the table. Like, it's almost a political act these days just to, like, be working, be taking care of your mental health, be worrying about your social time with your kids, your family, your family, aging parents, and then all of a sudden every day someone is supposed to, like, be putting all these elaborate meals on the table, like, sometimes just even surviving a day without the food, and then you have this whole other stressor on top of it.Jenna Helwig:I could not agree more. I mean, which is why I thought of bare minimum dinners. Like, it's this idea, and we do this also in real simple. You know, it's very similar. They're like I call fussy the f word. I'm like, nothing fussy, you know, especially when we're talking about recipes in the magazine. Skip the garnish. Like, you know, there's you're not putting on a show for anyone.You know? Just do what you can. That's really you know? But is it better or good is better than perfect. Done is better than perfect. Just get it done.Stephanie Hansen:And some people, like, because they feel like they're trying to live up to something in a Instagram photo, it prevents them from having a dinner party or, making food for a neighbor because maybe it's, like, not good enough. You know, just the sheer act of eating and providing food for your family, whoever your family looks like, or even just for yourself, you are gonna eat better. You're gonna have more control over what you eat. I have eaten at a million restaurants in my life, and I just find that I always feel so much better when I'm cooking at home.Jenna Helwig:I agree. I love to go out to eat. However, then if if I do that too much, I'm like, okay. I just need to reset at home. And, you know, I've also noticed that in some cookbooks, there has been this trend towards the food not being overly styled or the author doing that themselves and thinking about, like, Julia Tershen with her last book. You know, she photographed that herself, and the food looks great, but also real.Like, you could do it. And, also the book Chinese Enough that I just featured in Cookbookery Collective. You know, those recipes just don't feel like nitpicked to death. You know? They're just very naturalStephanie Hansen:looking. I feel like we might see more of that. I photographed my own book, but it was simply out of necessity because I didn't have $20 to pay someone. So I said to the publisher, well, if my Instagram's okay, I'm gonna do, like, similar to that. Is that okay? And they were like, sure. Oh, great. As we look at cookbooks as a genre, things have changed a lot because it used to be that you were a professional chef or you were a restaurant chef and you were writing about your restaurant or you were a small group of people that were super experienced in cooking, and maybe you had, you know, 10 books that you were writing in the different genres. You did vegetarian and gluten free and then dairy free.Now, like, the cookbook space is really kind of being taken up by regular people or influencers in a lot of respects. Does that, open the door for more excitement or is it sometimes do you worry that maybe the books aren't as good? Oh,Jenna Helwig:Oh, that's a tough question. I think that anything that gets people cooking is good. So I am you know, if the it is someone without a lot of cooking experience who has a book, but it still excites people to get into the kitchen, fantastic. So that's really my main goal. I do think, you know, where I am in my life, like, I really wanna learn something new from a cookbook. So that's what I personally am looking for, but there are cooks of all different, you know, ability levels and experience levels. So I think that having a variety of cookbooks that can reach everyone where they are is probably the answer.Stephanie Hansen:There is so much diversity too in cookbooks now. Like, the no offense to the old beautiful Asian cookbooks that you would get, but, you know, you didn't really feel like you could make a lot of the things out of there because maybe you didn't have the ingredients or you weren't familiar with technique. The the more recent diversity in cookbooks, it feels like you can actually make some of these things.Jenna Helwig:Well, I think that's right. Some of the things do feel more accessible. And, also, we just have access to so many more ingredients now, which is amazing. Just even at, like, regular grocery stores. My parents live in Colorado and, like, in the suburbs, and I was, you know, just driving by where I used to live. And there was an H Mart, you know, which I like, my jaw just, like, fell on the floor. There's no H Mart there when I was growing up. So the fact that I could have had access to all of those ingredients, and now the people who live in Broomfield, Colorado do is a miracle.Stephanie Hansen:That's so funny because I'm actually reading crying in H Mart right now for my book club, and it's just a delightful memoir about a woman who's experiencing the loss of her mother through the Korean cooking and heritage that she had growing up, and it's really a delightful book. It's so good. When you are thinking of what you wanna write about for your substack, because I'm in some ways, I'm surprised that you still find this topic and this genre interesting after having worked at Real Simple for five years because I've I it's almost like feels like is it too much of the food, but it it really is steeped in you. And how do you pick, like, what you wanna feature on your Substack versus what would maybe be a potential something in the magazine down the road, or is it just all the love and all of the same?Jenna Helwig:So I for real simple, you know, obviously, I get to kind of put a lot of myself into there and, you know, kind of direct that coverage, you know, pitch what I think we should cover. But I'm always doing that through the lens of our audience. You know? What and I she's usually a she. You know? What does she want? How much time does she have? What's gonna make make her life easier? So I really hyper focus on that. And a lot of it does kind of mirror my life because I am, you know, kind of similar to the real simple reader, but that's primary. I feel like with the substack, I can just do whatever I want. It's really, like, the books and the authors that speak to the me the most. It's nice to kind of have that, you know, freedom even if it's something that maybe we wouldn't cover in the magazine or might be a little more obscure.Jenna Helwig:You know? It's just fun to be able to follow my passions and my interest. And I do love food, and I really love cookbooks. So it's it's funny that I spend even extra time with them, but it really makes me so happy.Stephanie Hansen:I am hoping that in substack's evolution that we get more information about who our readers are. Because when you're, like, at a magazine, you know, you have a deep dive in your target market and the radio show, they know exactly who your p ones are. In Substack, you have followers, but you don't exactly know that much about them except basically where they come from.Jenna Helwig:That is such a good point, and I'm sure you also know so much more about this than me. I'm still I'm such a newbie. I've been a Substack subscriber for a long time. But now I just, you know, launched this, you know, like, over a month just over a month ago, and so I'm still figuring out all the analytics and everything. But I agree that that would be super helpful just to know more. Like and I'm I've also been thinking, and maybe you've done this. Like, have you done surveys of your audience, your subscribers? Yeah. And, also, like, people don't love to fill them all out. Jenna Helwig:I love surveys.Stephanie Hansen:See, I do too, but that's probably because we're, like, the publishing types. Right? So I did a survey, and it kind of mirrored what I thought from an age perspective, but I didn't get much more details than that. K. So I think if I was gonna give Substack advice, and maybe they'll ask me someday. Who knows? Mhmm. That it would be to help us understand who those markets are more because it does help you frame who you're writing for. As you look at the the newsletter, are you going to continue to speak to authors? Will you ever do recipes on your own like you've been in that space? Jenna Helwig:So I don't think I will do recipes on my own. I feel like, you know, when I have ideas for, new dishes or new, you know, like, stories. I kind of direct those to Real Simple. And I've done a lot you know, I've done all those cookbooks. So I sort of feel like the world maybe doesn't need more recipes from me. You know? I'm I'm very interested in what other people have to say. I think that I love doing these author interviews or just the interviews with other people in the cookbook community. Like, recently interviewed the woman who started Instagram's oldest cookbook club.And so she was fascinating. Oh, great. Yes. And there was such a good response to that. I'm interested in talking to people in cookbook publishing. So just really kind of anyone in that community. I I think there might be room later for more, like, reported stories.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah.Jenna Helwig:You know? That so not interviews, but, like, on a certain topic, like book design or titles or spines. I don't know. But, but I I don't think it's gonna be recipes for me. We'll see.Stephanie Hansen:It is interesting. You asked, the woman with the cookbook collection how she organized her collection, and she said by, type of food or genre. But then there's other people that I know that organize it by color.Jenna Helwig:I do that.Stephanie Hansen:Okay. And and it looks so cool. Like, when you have a huge collection, it just it looks so cool on the shelves. But I was like, oh, that would be so hard because unless you remember the color of the cookbook, how could you find it?Jenna Helwig:Yeah. You know, I will say so I live in Brooklyn, New York in a not huge apartment. So I first of all, everything has to look as tidy as possible, and color colors help with that. And I really only have room for about 250 books as opposed to, like, Deborah was saying, she has 2,000 Yeah.Stephanie Hansen:It was crazy. Thousand.Jenna Helwig:So jealous. But so somehow in my mind, I know what the color is. I don't know how to say it, but IStephanie Hansen:don't know how to catalog it. Purple one.Jenna Helwig:Yeah. So if I had more, maybe that wouldn't work.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. Well and you okay. So you live in Brooklyn. That is such an amazing food community. Yes. And you just have so many great makers. And I do find a lot of good makers in Real Simple, like people making new artisanal products, and I had a podcast about that for a long time. That is really like, when you feel like you've discovered something that someone turns you onto and it's great, That's, like, one of my favorite discoveries about being involved in the food business, and I feel that way about cookbooks too.Jenna Helwig:Absolutely. And I think that when it comes to Real Simple, that's really one of the things that people come to us for. They trust our recommendations, you know, and things that we've discovered. And I feel like that is especially true with our holiday gift guide Yes. Which, you know, is, like, pages and pages every year. We spend months on it, you know, finding things, testing things. And believe it or not, I'm gonna be starting that again soon. But, yes, I I think that that it's such a privilege to be finding these new things and sharing them, and I think we really do get good feedback from them.Stephanie Hansen:Do you get to travel a lot around the country? OrJenna Helwig:Yeah. I mean, you know, there are certainly trips that I am taking for like, I went out to Expo West recently. Do you know that? It's a big, huge, like, food trade show in Anaheim and, went and met with a bunch of different brands, saw what was going on, what was new. So I try to take as many opportunities for travel as possible. I really love to just be out and about.Stephanie Hansen:Did you run across, at that show two gals? They have a product called Maza Chutney.Jenna Helwig:Okay. I was literally just talking to someone about this today. In fact, I was I sent a photo to my executive editor because, yes, I did meet them, and then I was at the Cherry Bomb Jubilee Yes.Stephanie Hansen:And they sampled there.Jenna Helwig:Days ago. Yes. And they sampled there, and I actually got a couple bottles. I was like, can I take that? And they let me. And so I was just I made some eggs for lunch today, and I put the cilantro chutney on top. It was so good. And I was, yeah, just telling one of my colleagues about it. So funny.Stephanie Hansen:I produce culinary markets in the Twin Cities, and they were one of the first makers that I met when I started doing this. And I was just like, oh, those those girls are onto something, and it's a family business. Their story is so great.Jenna Helwig:The branding is amazing Yep. And the food tastes great. Are they from there?Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. From the Twin Cities. Wow. They've just developed to, like a lentil spread. That's a like a hummus, but with lentils and also super flavorful and delicious. So watch for that because that's a brand new product line that they just are launching. But, yeah, weird coincidence, but Oh, funny. Yeah.Great product. When you can you can you remember your actual first cookbook that you got?Jenna Helwig:Oh, okay. So I don't I know it was a Betty Crocker, like, cooking or baking for kids book. I am not I think it was baking. I actually was trying to find the cover recently, just, like, Google search, and I couldn't. But I think that's what it was. Do you have one?Stephanie Hansen:Well, I mean, I have a few vintage.Jenna Helwig:I kinda select Yeah. It wasn't that one because it was for kids book, but I love that. It was like baking for kids or something.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. And then did it have, did it have, like, wiener roll ups in it?Jenna Helwig:Oh my god. Maybe. The thing I remember the most were little English muffin pizzas or something like that. I remember my brother and I making those over and over.Stephanie Hansen:It I think it also had these, like, clown cupcakes.Jenna Helwig:That also sounds familiar. And maybe like cat cupcakes?Stephanie Hansen:Yes. Oh, so funny. Every year, we do a cookbook swap, and it's a super fun event. And people come and bring books that they no longer want or use, and we kinda sort them loosely in this huge room. And then we say go, and everybody, like, runs in. And however many books you bought or brought, you get to roughly take the same amount out, but you don't have to. But it's been fascinating, the books that people bring. And, I mean, I there's, like, a New York Times 1973 edition that has this recipe in it that's only in that book that's for a lamb ragu.Stephanie Hansen:And every year, I see that book come by, and I, like, pick the woman who's probably, like, twenty, twenty four. And I like press this book into her hands and I'm like, you need to have this book and you need to make the recipe on page one twenty one. And it's like three times it's happened and then they'll email me and they're like, I would have never found that recipe without you. It's such a great fun event.Jenna Helwig:That sounds wonderful. I love that idea.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. It is really fun, and we get a lot of, like, boxes of people's recipe cards that were, like, someone's grandma's. And my radio partner and I always sort of move that stuff to the side, And then we keep it for a year and, like, go through it and look at it, and then we bring it back the next year. We've been doing this for, like, ten years. So it's been so fun to see what, like, really are in people's collections and what they get rid of. And, I mean, how many peanut butter blossom recipes there are in the world.Jenna Helwig:You know what? The world needs more peanut butter blossoms. Delicious.Stephanie Hansen:Yeah. Always delicious and always tasty. Well, it has been super fun to chat with you. I want people to follow your Substack. It is the Cookbookery Collective Cookbook newsletter, and we are with Jenna Helwig. And I'm just really appreciative for your time today. Congratulations on your twenty fifth anniversary with Real Simple. That's fun too.Jenna Helwig:Thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure to talk to you.Stephanie Hansen:Yes. Absolutely. Thanks, Jenna. Mhmm. Bye bye.Jenna Helwig:Bye.Stephanie's Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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

The weekly news analysis from I Hate Politics: Maryland House of Delegates passes the 2026 budget amidst pushback and now the state Senate debates. Maryland reconsiders how local police interact with ICE. Delaware pushes through new law to restore its reputation as the corporate registration capital of the US. Also from Delaware, why Senator Stephanie Hansen is upset with Ocean City, Maryland? And more. Music by Washington DC area composer Anna Rubin.

Join me for my next live video on the Substack app. Live Video and Recipes will eventually be paywalled as a perk for Subscribers so join me nowStephanie's Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscribersGet the Recipe we made:GRANDMA BEA'S DILLY CRACKERSServes 8Ingredients(2) 12 oz packages of oyster crackers1 package Hidden Valley Ranch Original Dressing MixOr alternately2 Tbsp Dried Dill1/3 cup fresh dill minced4 Tbsp garlic powder1 tsp black pepper2 tsp fine sea salt2/3 cup olive oilInstructionsPreheat oven to 250Put all dressing ingredients in a 3 qt Jumbo plastic Ziploc Bag and shakeDistribute crackers evenly on two large baking sheets covered in foilBake for 20 minutesShake pans to redistribute crackersTurn oven off but leave pans in the oven for 15 more minutes so crackers have more time to lightly brown.Crackers will keep in an airtight container for about 30 days.Stephanie's Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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

Join me for my next live video on the Substack app. Live Video and Recipes will eventually be paywalled as a perk for Subscribers so join me nowStephanie's Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscribersGet the Recipe we made:GRANDMA BEA'S DILLY CRACKERSServes 8Ingredients(2) 12 oz packages of oyster crackers1 package Hidden Valley Ranch Original Dressing MixOr alternately2 Tbsp Dried Dill1/3 cup fresh dill minced4 Tbsp garlic powder1 tsp black pepper2 tsp fine sea salt2/3 cup olive oilInstructionsPreheat oven to 250Put all dressing ingredients in a 3 qt Jumbo plastic Ziploc Bag and shakeDistribute crackers evenly on two large baking sheets covered in foilBake for 20 minutesShake pans to redistribute crackersTurn oven off but leave pans in the oven for 15 more minutes so crackers have more time to lightly brown.Crackers will keep in an airtight container for about 30 days.Stephanie's Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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

Welcome to another episode of "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish." Today, we're thrilled to talk with Rebecca Blackwell, a recipe developer, Substack writer, and published cookbook author of the “Lets Get Lost Cookbook”. Rebecca shares her fascinating journey of selling her possessions to live and travel full-time in an RV with her husband. Join us as we dive into Rebecca's upcoming cookbook, "Let's Get Lost," her inspirational journey of writing and recipe development, and the launch of the “Lost Supper Club.” We'll explore how she balances creativity and connection while on the road, finding community through food, and the power of diverse culinary experiences that make the world feel a little bit smaller and certainly more delicious. Get ready for a heartwarming discussion about food, community, and life's unexpected adventures!Here is a recipe from the bookThis is an upside down cake, with a sticky caramel date mixture that's baked on the bottom of the cake but is then flipped over to become the top. The batter is flavored with pureed dates, an entire orange, a bit of miso, and a lot of vanilla.Wait. Miso? I fell in love with miso in baking after making the Miso Maple Loaf in Baking With Dori and I haven't looked back. Just as it does in savory dishes, miso adds layers of complex flavor, including a hint of umami - and a little umami is always a good thing, even in sweet treats.Candied pistachios add some crunch, and I would like to mention that if you want any leftover for the actual cake it's wise to make extra because you and everyone around you will find them irresistible.It's also worth mentioning that one of our Lost Supper Club guests (you know who you are, Narissa) actually squealed with delight after tasting this cake. Like an actual, alarmingly loud, squeal. It was really more of a scream, and I can't imagine a higher endorsement.Orange and date cake with candied pistachiosIngredientsFor the caramel and date glaze:* 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature* 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar, light or dark* 1 tablespoon corn syrup* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract* 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, OR 1/2 teaspoon table salt* 8 ounces dates (about 1 cup), pits removed, cut into bite-size piecesFor the cake:* 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour* 1 3/4 tsp baking powder* 1/4 tsp baking soda* 1/4 tsp salt* 1 medium to large size orange* 1/2 cup brown sugar, light or dark* 1 stick (4 ounces/ 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature* 1/4 cup white miso* 2 large eggs, at room temperature* 8 ounces (about 1 cup) dates, pits removed* 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract* 1/3 cup plain, unsweetened greek yogurt, whole milk or 2%* 1/2 cup orange marmaladeInstructions:Get Instructions for the recipe hereLISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Stephanie Hansen [00:00:15]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's dish. I'm Stephanie Hansen. You are here at the podcast that talks to foodies, cookbook writers. And today, we have, I would say, all 3 plus more. We have Rebecca Blackwell. She is a recipe developer. She is on the verge of releasing her “Let's Get Lost”, the cookbook. She is a Substack writer who has a Substack newsletter called “Let's Get Lost. She also is starting and launching the “Lost Supper Club” and has been out in the space. One of the things about Rebecca that intrigues me, not the most because you're just a nice person, but beyond that, you live in an RV. You kinda upended your life, sold your worldly possessions, and bought a pull behind, and you and your husband travel all over the United States in your RV. We are talking right now in your RV, which I know you've got a good cookbook shelf. I see it behind you. Welcome to the show, Rebecca.Rebecca Blackwell [00:01:11]:Thank you so much for having me, Stephanie. I'm so happy to be here.Stephanie Hansen [00:01:14]:Me too. So for people that maybe aren't familiar with your story, can you talk about how you decided to just chuck it all and get into the RV?Rebecca Blackwell [00:01:24]:Yeah. Absolutely. So, we had 3 children, and, when our youngest was about 7, we decided that we wanted to work towards getting to the place where we could work from anywhere in the world by the time all of our kids were graduated. And so our youngest was getting off or getting ready to go off to college in in 2019, and and we had done it. We were both working virtually, and and we could work anywhere where there was an Internet connection. And and so we were our initial plan was that we were gonna just rent Airbnb's in various places for, you know, 3 months or 6 months or whatever at a time. So some friends of ours in Southern California were heading off to Europe for a couple of months and asked us to come house sit, and we were like, great. This will be a great test run for how this works.Rebecca Blackwell [00:02:11]:And we loved living and working in a new place, but we hated living in somebody else's home. And so we weren't sure what we were gonna do about that, and, we met up with some old high school friends while we were there that lived in an RV, and it was like the answer to all of our problems. We had never considered living in an RV. We had never in our entire lives spent one night in any kind of a camper of any kind. We're just not the camping kind of people. But we went home from that trip, and, within 5 months, we had sold our house and bought a 5th wheel RV and moved ourselves into it. So the first night we ever spent in a camper, we had already sold the house and bought our RV. So and that it's been a long time 5 years.Stephanie Hansen [00:03:00]:Did you feel brave doing it at the time?Rebecca Blackwell [00:03:04]:You know, we just felt very exciting until the night we closed on our house, and then I got a little freaked out. Understandably. What have I done? But, you know, the first night, we, we lived in Colorado, and we drove, we closed on our house on a Monday, and we drove to, Katy, Texas to pick up the RV on a Tuesday and, picked it up on Wednesday. And that first night in the camper, I wasn't worried at all. It it instantly felt like the right decision. We felt at home in it almost immediately. And, you know, we really haven't looked back. We we say that we'll keep doing it until we get tired of doing it, but so far, you know, it's been almost 5 years, and we're not anywhere close to being ready to stop.Stephanie Hansen [00:03:53]:What I think is kinda hilarious about you in particular is you have this sort of idea of who might be in an RV park, and I've been in a lot of RV parks.Rebecca Blackwell [00:04:02]:Yeah.Stephanie Hansen [00:04:02]:And you're I don't know about your husband, but for sure, you are like this type a organized, hyper productive person who's doing all this work from an RV park. I mean, your substack newsletter alone with Let's Get Lost kind of focuses on the RV living aspects and the travel aspects, but also recipes. And then as if that wasn't enough, you've launched the Lost Supper Club that just launched. What made you decide you needed yet another outlet? Because you just seem super prolific.Rebecca Blackwell [00:04:34]:Yeah. Well, you know, ask me at the end of the year if I regret adding another thing, and I'll I'll let you know. But but, really, at the end of last year, I I was just looking for more ways to connect with people on a more meaningful way as we travel around. It you know, we love being in a new place and kind of immersing ourselves in the culture of the place as much as we can. And we have met people without even trying all over the country, and that's been really fun. But this year or this last year, I I was just thinking a lot about how, when we're in a new place, when I have the opportunity to spend a few hours with somebody that lives there, it it just enriches both of our lives, in a in a really meaningful way. And so I thought, well, with the lost supper club, if I can do that and then write about it, then maybe I could also inspire other people to get together with friends over dinner on a more regular basis. I feel like it's kind of a a lost art that, and we're we're we're just craving that in person connection.Rebecca Blackwell [00:05:42]:Everywhere I go, I talk to people about this, and everybody seems to be craving that in person connection, but they're not really sure how to go about starting it. So that's kinda what I'm hoping to do is by doing it myself and writing about it, inspire more people to do the same thing.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:56]:I think food too is so common in that everyone speaks the same language when it comes to food. You know, no no matter what you eat, whether what you prepare, it has a way of bringing people together. And one of the things that you and I have talked about offline is how challenging you know, when you're a a nomad, we'll call it, it's challenging to keep up those, relationships with friends and family because they don't know where you are, and you can't just, you know, have your weekly tennis date.Rebecca Blackwell [00:06:27]:That's right. That's right. Yeah. That's been a big challenge with our friends back home in Colorado is maintaining those relationships with some of our closest friends. Thankfully, we tend to attract the kind of friends that are also similar in that they, they're very independent. They have they travel all over the place. And so it's pretty easy to just pick up where we left off. But, but I I'm just I'm starting to become a little more conscious of, trying to do things like phone calls and just just text messages and and just reaching out in any way I can to some of these relationships while we're on the road because because they are important.Rebecca Blackwell [00:07:05]:They're, those those connections that we form with people that become lifelong friends, you know, it's it's one of the most valuable things, in my life. The older I get, the more I realize how how deeply important they are.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:22]:Also, like, I'm curious what your thoughts are because I don't know your husband at all. But, my husband has a small group of friends, and they're the same friends he's had since, like, 6th grade. Oh, wow. I am, like, someone that craves a lot of friends, lot of different types of people. Everyone I meet becomes my friend. Like, we just have different needs. I'm an extrovert. He's an introvert.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:46]:Like, how to fill our buckets. Would you say you're more introverted? Or how do you is your husband, like, on the same page with you? Or do you spend a lot of time forging connections?Rebecca Blackwell [00:07:56]:Yeah. So, both of us have a strong tendency to just keep to ourselves and hold ourselves away. And that's part of the the more concentrated effort on my part of reaching out to more people and making those connections. Because if it's not deliberate, we won't do it. We're very happy parking ourselves in the middle of nowhere for months at a time and not really talking to anybody except each other.Stephanie Hansen [00:08:23]:My god. That's horrifying to me.Rebecca Blackwell [00:08:27]:We love it. We love it. We love it. But the like, no matter how introverted you tend to be, those those connections with other people are are just important. And, and so, you know, my my husband's a little worried about how many social activities I have planned for us this year because he, he gets really worn out by it. But, but, also, when he's there, he has a good time, and he knows that it's good for him as well. So, so we'll see. At the end of the year, we'll we'll take stock and see if it was too much for us or or not.Stephanie Hansen [00:09:07]:So let's get lost details. It's your newsletter on Substack that details all the places that you are and what you're cooking along the way. The Last Supper Club is the new paid version of substack that you will belong to this club. You'll talk about ways to entertain. You'll share recipes in your January edition. You did a really nice overview of homemade pasta. Because I just filmed a TV show about pasta, and I made pasta myself at home for the first time.Rebecca Blackwell [00:09:37]:Oh, fun.Stephanie Hansen [00:09:38]:Yeah. So it was really fun to read your recipe and your techniques. And then the let's get lost, the cookbook is on the verge of coming. So tell me where you're at with that and when we'll be able to get our hands on it.Rebecca Blackwell [00:09:50]:Yeah. So that should be out the last week of this month, January, the last week of January. And, there'll be links on, rebecca Blackwell.com and on both of my blogs. So, yeah, I'm I'm very excited about that. It's a 140 something recipes, 135 page cookbook, full color photos of every of every recipe. And, it wasn't a book I had intended to write last year. I just I was publishing so many recipes on substack that I thought, you know, I'm just gonna throw these together into, like, a quick little downloadable book, and then it turned into a full blown a full blown cookbook. SoStephanie Hansen [00:10:35]:So how do you do it? Are you printing on demand? Because you're obviously not warehousing things in your RV.Rebecca Blackwell [00:10:41]:Exactly. Yeah. No. Yeah. We're printing on demand. So it'll be available on print and, downloadable PDF and Kindle. So 3 different options for that. And then I'm already started on volume 2.Rebecca Blackwell [00:10:55]:So this year's volume 2 will be focused more on, supper club, and it'll be organized by the areas, that we've traveled to. So Southern California, Louisiana, the Midwest. There's a there's a pool. Yeah. And it'll include other people's recipes as well. So as we travel around and and cook and have dinner with other people, they will contribute recipes to the book. So it'll be more of a a collaborate collaborative effort.Stephanie Hansen [00:11:23]:Oh, gosh. I just love it. You're so prolific. You were a marketer in your other life before getting into the RV and kind of branching off and doing your own freelance. What did you market?Rebecca Blackwell [00:11:34]:Yeah. So I mostly worked with, businesses who wanted to improve their online strategies. So, strategies. So, I put together very comprehensive strategies for them that included, you know, a lot of different factors, and I did a lot of writings, wrote a lot of websites, a lot of emails, a lot of blog posts. I was the ghostwriter for quite a few companies' blog posts over the years. So back in 2013, I thought, maybe I'd like to do this for myself, and that's when I started my first blog. And and then gradually, I started as the blog grew, I was able to let go of some clients on a very gradual basis and was finally full time with food blogging by 2020.Stephanie Hansen [00:12:18]:That's so exciting. When you're in your RV and you're, like, making a recipe, you know, do you find space as a limitation, or how do you get, like, the perfect photograph? And have you had to adapt?Rebecca Blackwell [00:12:30]:Yeah. Yeah. That has been a a big adaption in in our house before we sold it and moved into the RV. I had a whole room just for photography, and that was that was amazing. But I have discovered that there's really nothing that you can't do in a small space. If you have it's like money. If however much you have, you seem to need it all. And that's how space is.Rebecca Blackwell [00:12:53]:I think however much you have, you figure out a way to need it all, but you don't actually need it all. So, for an RV kitchen, mine is much nicer and much bigger than a lot of RVs. As we were looking towards buying an RV, we looked at, I don't know, a 100 different models and found one where the kitchen would work for me. And it hasn't limited what I've been able to do really at all, which has been really nice. And then photography, I just use these, like, 24 inch photography boards. And Yeah. You know, some of them, you would never know that it's a board even though it's a small little board. You know, the cover of the cookbook has a window in the background, the the cover photo.Rebecca Blackwell [00:13:40]:And people are shocked to know that that's not a window, that it's just a a board that I set up on on my kitchen table.Stephanie Hansen [00:13:48]:And create, like, a little good light, and there you go.Rebecca Blackwell [00:13:51]:Exactly. Exactly. Artificial lighting for photography has been a a game changer for me because, relying on how the light comes in and what time of day it is and where we are in the world and what the weather is doing and, you know, all of those things affect it. And so that's been that's been really important to use artificial lighting in in the RV.Stephanie Hansen [00:14:14]:One thing I'm curious about, I feel like travel and being in new spaces and meeting new people, I feel like that so, like, inspires creativity and gets you sort of out of your day to day existence. Does that persist when you're, like, your day to day existence is all those things? So I'm just curious. Like, I'm wondering how it is that you, like, ground yourself when everything around you is changing, or is that just a constant source of inspiration? Like food, like the ingredients. Everything is different everywhere you go.Rebecca Blackwell [00:14:52]:That's true. Yeah. That's very true. You know, it's interesting. I I just started listening to a book that's talking about the difference between, it's it's mostly focused on anxiety and the difference between right brain and left brain functionality. And our right brain is really where our creativity lies. And, the more stressed out and anxious we are, the the more it shuts down creativity. It, like, just closes that part off of us. And I feel like as we travel around, I can identify how when we get into a new place, the more I'm able to just be present in that place and appreciate the experience of being there, the more I can feel that creativity opening up and, just relaxing relaxing my mind enough to to, like, really see where are we and and and what is this place like. And and that just brings forth a whole bunch of new ideas. And then also What's the book?Stephanie Hansen [00:15:55]:Do you know?Rebecca Blackwell [00:15:56]:Oh, yeah. It's, Martha Beck.Stephanie Hansen [00:15:59]:Okay.Rebecca Blackwell [00:15:59]:And, I don't remember the title, but it's her it's her newest one, and there's the word anxiety in the title.Stephanie Hansen [00:16:04]:It's highly recommended. And just put it in the show notes in case anyoneRebecca Blackwell [00:16:08]:Very good. Yeah. Because she has this idea that we can use our creative mind to calm stress and anxiety in our lives, and I I love that idea. So and, you know, before we moved into the RV, I I could have, you know, shopped at the same places, and I could have very distinct ideas and just go to the grocery store and get them. And now I have to show up with a very loose idea of what I want because you never know. You never know what's gonna be there. Yeah.Stephanie Hansen [00:16:33]:And that justRebecca Blackwell [00:16:35]:also been a creative, I think a creative boost to not be so rigid in that thinking.Stephanie Hansen [00:16:41]:Yeah. I love that idea. Also, I think for we're in this kind of weird political place where everybody is very polarized in their silos, and you're either all this or you're all that, and there's very little nuance. One thing I found about traveling that really helped me a lot is this idea that wherever you are in an RV park, like Yep. Whether you're alone or you're with others, everybody's kind of there for the same things.Rebecca Blackwell [00:17:11]:That's right.Stephanie Hansen [00:17:12]:You might approach them differently. Like, your political flag might fly differently. But at the end of the day, they're sitting out there at their campfire. You're sitting out at your campfire. It doesn't hurt you to kinda go over and introduce yourself and share a beer or a glass of wine. And I just felt so appreciative that I had that experience because when I'm in a dark place and I'm feeling like I'm alone in my own silo, I remember that, oh, no. There's all these other people out there, and we kinda get to it a different way, but we want security for our family. We wanna have jobs that are meaningful.Stephanie Hansen [00:17:47]:We wanna love and be able to be, you know, in a place that's beautiful. That really helped me have a lot of empathy for people that weren't like me.Rebecca Blackwell [00:17:57]:Yeah. I agree completely. We had this one experience a couple of years ago where we were talking to a couple in our campground, and, he got on a a tangent of all sorts of political ideas. And and we just stood there listening, and and I didn't agree with pretty much anything he was saying. And at the end of it, I I just said, you know, I didn't actually agree with anything that you just said, but one thing that I've learned is that there are good people everywhere even if they think differently from me. And so then we ended up talking about that. And that, I I have strong opinions about a lot of things. And so the more I meet people that don't share that same perspective, the the better it is for me, the better it is for my my state of mind.Rebecca Blackwell [00:18:50]:I can get very pigeonholed into thinking that the world is a dark place. And then when I'm out in it and actually meeting the people that live in all of these places, it's a it's a solid reminder that it's not it's not a dark place. Most people are very generous and very kind and very friendly. And in every state, that's true.Stephanie Hansen [00:19:12]:We Yeah.Rebecca Blackwell [00:19:13]:We have states that we enjoy more than others, but we have found good people and beautiful places pretty pretty much everywhere.Stephanie Hansen [00:19:23]:That is, like, the moral of the story, isn't it? Like, right what you just said. And it's why I I love sailing. I love RV ing. I love going to Europe. I love traveling. And Yeah. You know, I'm fortunate in that I have some reserves to do that, but you can just travel to your state park down the road and just really explore it in your car and sleep in your car and meet so many different people. And I didn't sleep in a tent for well, honestly, I've only slept in a tent, like, probably twice because I've either had an RV or a cabin or but it is a very eye opening experience to just put yourself out there and the people that you meet.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:03]:So I'm really excited about your lost, the let's, not the let's get lost. I'm excited about the lost supper club. Because in the Midwest, as you know, supper clubs are such a big deal here.Rebecca Blackwell [00:20:15]:Yes. I know. So that I did I didn't know anything about supper clubs until we visited the Midwest. And then I was like, well, this is cool.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:24]:Yeah. And some of them are they're sort of older, folks here, but then there's others that are more modern now, and we're kinda getting back to seeing fancy relish trays and fancy high end restaurants. And just the idea of the supper club being, like, a place where you gather on a Friday or Saturday night, and it can be with friends. And it doesn't have to be at a restaurant all the time, and it certainly does not have to always be steak.Rebecca Blackwell [00:20:49]:That's right. Well, and in the south, if you say supper club, people don't even realize that you're talking about an establishment. They supper clubs are a group of friends that get together on a regular basis. They're very organized, and, we we met some friends in Louisiana a few years ago. We're we're gonna do a supper club, at her place this year. But but she invited us to her home for dinner, and that's what it was. It was a supper club, and the table was tablescaped, and the China was out, and everybody was in their Sunday best. And, I mean, like, it was a it was an amazing dinner, an amazing event, and they they just she just does that all the time.Rebecca Blackwell [00:21:29]:It's just a a normal part of life to have theseStephanie Hansen [00:21:32]:Oh, fun.Rebecca Blackwell [00:21:33]:Amazing dinner parties with groups of people gathered around her table. And and so that's more what it is in the south. So, there's there's a lot of options and a lot of variety, for people to kind of create more community over food. And and, honestly, there's something about humans where we want if we're gonna get together with people, we want there to be food.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:56]:Yeah. Yes. Hot tea does not do it. You gotta have a stone or a biscuit or something else.Rebecca Blackwell [00:22:03]:Yes. That's right. That's right.Stephanie Hansen [00:22:24]:You can preorder the book now. We will provide a link in the show notes. Rebecca Blackwell, thank you for being our guest today. It was super fun to just chat with you. I think it's funny too the cookbooks behind you that made it on the RV list. You have probably, like, 30, way more than I would have thought.Rebecca Blackwell [00:23:09]:I have another 30 in our bedroom.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:12]:Okay. So do you read cookbooks like you read novels? Yes. Same. Like, at night when I'm in bed, I'm, like, reading a cookbook, not necessarily a book as it were.Rebecca Blackwell [00:23:23]:Yes. Well and I'm starting to order more on Kindle because, you know, I only have so much space. And Yeah. And I don't love the the Kindle cookbooks as much. It's ugh. I love having a book in my hands, but I can't stop buying them. So Yeah. Something hasStephanie Hansen [00:23:40]:Yeah. You gotta make make do where you can. Well, it was great to chat with you. Like I said, I'll have all the links for everything in the show notes here, and good luck. And I can't wait to connect with you next year after you've had this whole year of creativity behind you to see where it goes.Rebecca Blackwell [00:23:56]:Thank you so much for having me.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:58]:Thanks, Rebecca. We'll talk soon. 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

Welcome to another episode of "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish." Today, we're thrilled to talk with Rebecca Blackwell, a recipe developer, Substack writer, and published cookbook author of the “Lets Get Lost Cookbook”. Rebecca shares her fascinating journey of selling her possessions to live and travel full-time in an RV with her husband. Join us as we dive into Rebecca's upcoming cookbook, "Let's Get Lost," her inspirational journey of writing and recipe development, and the launch of the “Lost Supper Club.” We'll explore how she balances creativity and connection while on the road, finding community through food, and the power of diverse culinary experiences that make the world feel a little bit smaller and certainly more delicious. Get ready for a heartwarming discussion about food, community, and life's unexpected adventures!Here is a recipe from the bookThis is an upside down cake, with a sticky caramel date mixture that's baked on the bottom of the cake but is then flipped over to become the top. The batter is flavored with pureed dates, an entire orange, a bit of miso, and a lot of vanilla.Wait. Miso? I fell in love with miso in baking after making the Miso Maple Loaf in Baking With Dori and I haven't looked back. Just as it does in savory dishes, miso adds layers of complex flavor, including a hint of umami - and a little umami is always a good thing, even in sweet treats.Candied pistachios add some crunch, and I would like to mention that if you want any leftover for the actual cake it's wise to make extra because you and everyone around you will find them irresistible.It's also worth mentioning that one of our Lost Supper Club guests (you know who you are, Narissa) actually squealed with delight after tasting this cake. Like an actual, alarmingly loud, squeal. It was really more of a scream, and I can't imagine a higher endorsement.Orange and date cake with candied pistachiosIngredientsFor the caramel and date glaze:* 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature* 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar, light or dark* 1 tablespoon corn syrup* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract* 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, OR 1/2 teaspoon table salt* 8 ounces dates (about 1 cup), pits removed, cut into bite-size piecesFor the cake:* 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour* 1 3/4 tsp baking powder* 1/4 tsp baking soda* 1/4 tsp salt* 1 medium to large size orange* 1/2 cup brown sugar, light or dark* 1 stick (4 ounces/ 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature* 1/4 cup white miso* 2 large eggs, at room temperature* 8 ounces (about 1 cup) dates, pits removed* 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract* 1/3 cup plain, unsweetened greek yogurt, whole milk or 2%* 1/2 cup orange marmaladeInstructions:Get Instructions for the recipe hereLISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Stephanie Hansen [00:00:15]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's dish. I'm Stephanie Hansen. You are here at the podcast that talks to foodies, cookbook writers. And today, we have, I would say, all 3 plus more. We have Rebecca Blackwell. She is a recipe developer. She is on the verge of releasing her “Let's Get Lost”, the cookbook. She is a Substack writer who has a Substack newsletter called “Let's Get Lost. She also is starting and launching the “Lost Supper Club” and has been out in the space. One of the things about Rebecca that intrigues me, not the most because you're just a nice person, but beyond that, you live in an RV. You kinda upended your life, sold your worldly possessions, and bought a pull behind, and you and your husband travel all over the United States in your RV. We are talking right now in your RV, which I know you've got a good cookbook shelf. I see it behind you. Welcome to the show, Rebecca.Rebecca Blackwell [00:01:11]:Thank you so much for having me, Stephanie. I'm so happy to be here.Stephanie Hansen [00:01:14]:Me too. So for people that maybe aren't familiar with your story, can you talk about how you decided to just chuck it all and get into the RV?Rebecca Blackwell [00:01:24]:Yeah. Absolutely. So, we had 3 children, and, when our youngest was about 7, we decided that we wanted to work towards getting to the place where we could work from anywhere in the world by the time all of our kids were graduated. And so our youngest was getting off or getting ready to go off to college in in 2019, and and we had done it. We were both working virtually, and and we could work anywhere where there was an Internet connection. And and so we were our initial plan was that we were gonna just rent Airbnb's in various places for, you know, 3 months or 6 months or whatever at a time. So some friends of ours in Southern California were heading off to Europe for a couple of months and asked us to come house sit, and we were like, great. This will be a great test run for how this works.Rebecca Blackwell [00:02:11]:And we loved living and working in a new place, but we hated living in somebody else's home. And so we weren't sure what we were gonna do about that, and, we met up with some old high school friends while we were there that lived in an RV, and it was like the answer to all of our problems. We had never considered living in an RV. We had never in our entire lives spent one night in any kind of a camper of any kind. We're just not the camping kind of people. But we went home from that trip, and, within 5 months, we had sold our house and bought a 5th wheel RV and moved ourselves into it. So the first night we ever spent in a camper, we had already sold the house and bought our RV. So and that it's been a long time 5 years.Stephanie Hansen [00:03:00]:Did you feel brave doing it at the time?Rebecca Blackwell [00:03:04]:You know, we just felt very exciting until the night we closed on our house, and then I got a little freaked out. Understandably. What have I done? But, you know, the first night, we, we lived in Colorado, and we drove, we closed on our house on a Monday, and we drove to, Katy, Texas to pick up the RV on a Tuesday and, picked it up on Wednesday. And that first night in the camper, I wasn't worried at all. It it instantly felt like the right decision. We felt at home in it almost immediately. And, you know, we really haven't looked back. We we say that we'll keep doing it until we get tired of doing it, but so far, you know, it's been almost 5 years, and we're not anywhere close to being ready to stop.Stephanie Hansen [00:03:53]:What I think is kinda hilarious about you in particular is you have this sort of idea of who might be in an RV park, and I've been in a lot of RV parks.Rebecca Blackwell [00:04:02]:Yeah.Stephanie Hansen [00:04:02]:And you're I don't know about your husband, but for sure, you are like this type a organized, hyper productive person who's doing all this work from an RV park. I mean, your substack newsletter alone with Let's Get Lost kind of focuses on the RV living aspects and the travel aspects, but also recipes. And then as if that wasn't enough, you've launched the Lost Supper Club that just launched. What made you decide you needed yet another outlet? Because you just seem super prolific.Rebecca Blackwell [00:04:34]:Yeah. Well, you know, ask me at the end of the year if I regret adding another thing, and I'll I'll let you know. But but, really, at the end of last year, I I was just looking for more ways to connect with people on a more meaningful way as we travel around. It you know, we love being in a new place and kind of immersing ourselves in the culture of the place as much as we can. And we have met people without even trying all over the country, and that's been really fun. But this year or this last year, I I was just thinking a lot about how, when we're in a new place, when I have the opportunity to spend a few hours with somebody that lives there, it it just enriches both of our lives, in a in a really meaningful way. And so I thought, well, with the lost supper club, if I can do that and then write about it, then maybe I could also inspire other people to get together with friends over dinner on a more regular basis. I feel like it's kind of a a lost art that, and we're we're we're just craving that in person connection.Rebecca Blackwell [00:05:42]:Everywhere I go, I talk to people about this, and everybody seems to be craving that in person connection, but they're not really sure how to go about starting it. So that's kinda what I'm hoping to do is by doing it myself and writing about it, inspire more people to do the same thing.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:56]:I think food too is so common in that everyone speaks the same language when it comes to food. You know, no no matter what you eat, whether what you prepare, it has a way of bringing people together. And one of the things that you and I have talked about offline is how challenging you know, when you're a a nomad, we'll call it, it's challenging to keep up those, relationships with friends and family because they don't know where you are, and you can't just, you know, have your weekly tennis date.Rebecca Blackwell [00:06:27]:That's right. That's right. Yeah. That's been a big challenge with our friends back home in Colorado is maintaining those relationships with some of our closest friends. Thankfully, we tend to attract the kind of friends that are also similar in that they, they're very independent. They have they travel all over the place. And so it's pretty easy to just pick up where we left off. But, but I I'm just I'm starting to become a little more conscious of, trying to do things like phone calls and just just text messages and and just reaching out in any way I can to some of these relationships while we're on the road because because they are important.Rebecca Blackwell [00:07:05]:They're, those those connections that we form with people that become lifelong friends, you know, it's it's one of the most valuable things, in my life. The older I get, the more I realize how how deeply important they are.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:22]:Also, like, I'm curious what your thoughts are because I don't know your husband at all. But, my husband has a small group of friends, and they're the same friends he's had since, like, 6th grade. Oh, wow. I am, like, someone that craves a lot of friends, lot of different types of people. Everyone I meet becomes my friend. Like, we just have different needs. I'm an extrovert. He's an introvert.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:46]:Like, how to fill our buckets. Would you say you're more introverted? Or how do you is your husband, like, on the same page with you? Or do you spend a lot of time forging connections?Rebecca Blackwell [00:07:56]:Yeah. So, both of us have a strong tendency to just keep to ourselves and hold ourselves away. And that's part of the the more concentrated effort on my part of reaching out to more people and making those connections. Because if it's not deliberate, we won't do it. We're very happy parking ourselves in the middle of nowhere for months at a time and not really talking to anybody except each other.Stephanie Hansen [00:08:23]:My god. That's horrifying to me.Rebecca Blackwell [00:08:27]:We love it. We love it. We love it. But the like, no matter how introverted you tend to be, those those connections with other people are are just important. And, and so, you know, my my husband's a little worried about how many social activities I have planned for us this year because he, he gets really worn out by it. But, but, also, when he's there, he has a good time, and he knows that it's good for him as well. So, so we'll see. At the end of the year, we'll we'll take stock and see if it was too much for us or or not.Stephanie Hansen [00:09:07]:So let's get lost details. It's your newsletter on Substack that details all the places that you are and what you're cooking along the way. The Last Supper Club is the new paid version of substack that you will belong to this club. You'll talk about ways to entertain. You'll share recipes in your January edition. You did a really nice overview of homemade pasta. Because I just filmed a TV show about pasta, and I made pasta myself at home for the first time.Rebecca Blackwell [00:09:37]:Oh, fun.Stephanie Hansen [00:09:38]:Yeah. So it was really fun to read your recipe and your techniques. And then the let's get lost, the cookbook is on the verge of coming. So tell me where you're at with that and when we'll be able to get our hands on it.Rebecca Blackwell [00:09:50]:Yeah. So that should be out the last week of this month, January, the last week of January. And, there'll be links on, rebecca Blackwell.com and on both of my blogs. So, yeah, I'm I'm very excited about that. It's a 140 something recipes, 135 page cookbook, full color photos of every of every recipe. And, it wasn't a book I had intended to write last year. I just I was publishing so many recipes on substack that I thought, you know, I'm just gonna throw these together into, like, a quick little downloadable book, and then it turned into a full blown a full blown cookbook. SoStephanie Hansen [00:10:35]:So how do you do it? Are you printing on demand? Because you're obviously not warehousing things in your RV.Rebecca Blackwell [00:10:41]:Exactly. Yeah. No. Yeah. We're printing on demand. So it'll be available on print and, downloadable PDF and Kindle. So 3 different options for that. And then I'm already started on volume 2.Rebecca Blackwell [00:10:55]:So this year's volume 2 will be focused more on, supper club, and it'll be organized by the areas, that we've traveled to. So Southern California, Louisiana, the Midwest. There's a there's a pool. Yeah. And it'll include other people's recipes as well. So as we travel around and and cook and have dinner with other people, they will contribute recipes to the book. So it'll be more of a a collaborate collaborative effort.Stephanie Hansen [00:11:23]:Oh, gosh. I just love it. You're so prolific. You were a marketer in your other life before getting into the RV and kind of branching off and doing your own freelance. What did you market?Rebecca Blackwell [00:11:34]:Yeah. So I mostly worked with, businesses who wanted to improve their online strategies. So, strategies. So, I put together very comprehensive strategies for them that included, you know, a lot of different factors, and I did a lot of writings, wrote a lot of websites, a lot of emails, a lot of blog posts. I was the ghostwriter for quite a few companies' blog posts over the years. So back in 2013, I thought, maybe I'd like to do this for myself, and that's when I started my first blog. And and then gradually, I started as the blog grew, I was able to let go of some clients on a very gradual basis and was finally full time with food blogging by 2020.Stephanie Hansen [00:12:18]:That's so exciting. When you're in your RV and you're, like, making a recipe, you know, do you find space as a limitation, or how do you get, like, the perfect photograph? And have you had to adapt?Rebecca Blackwell [00:12:30]:Yeah. Yeah. That has been a a big adaption in in our house before we sold it and moved into the RV. I had a whole room just for photography, and that was that was amazing. But I have discovered that there's really nothing that you can't do in a small space. If you have it's like money. If however much you have, you seem to need it all. And that's how space is.Rebecca Blackwell [00:12:53]:I think however much you have, you figure out a way to need it all, but you don't actually need it all. So, for an RV kitchen, mine is much nicer and much bigger than a lot of RVs. As we were looking towards buying an RV, we looked at, I don't know, a 100 different models and found one where the kitchen would work for me. And it hasn't limited what I've been able to do really at all, which has been really nice. And then photography, I just use these, like, 24 inch photography boards. And Yeah. You know, some of them, you would never know that it's a board even though it's a small little board. You know, the cover of the cookbook has a window in the background, the the cover photo.Rebecca Blackwell [00:13:40]:And people are shocked to know that that's not a window, that it's just a a board that I set up on on my kitchen table.Stephanie Hansen [00:13:48]:And create, like, a little good light, and there you go.Rebecca Blackwell [00:13:51]:Exactly. Exactly. Artificial lighting for photography has been a a game changer for me because, relying on how the light comes in and what time of day it is and where we are in the world and what the weather is doing and, you know, all of those things affect it. And so that's been that's been really important to use artificial lighting in in the RV.Stephanie Hansen [00:14:14]:One thing I'm curious about, I feel like travel and being in new spaces and meeting new people, I feel like that so, like, inspires creativity and gets you sort of out of your day to day existence. Does that persist when you're, like, your day to day existence is all those things? So I'm just curious. Like, I'm wondering how it is that you, like, ground yourself when everything around you is changing, or is that just a constant source of inspiration? Like food, like the ingredients. Everything is different everywhere you go.Rebecca Blackwell [00:14:52]:That's true. Yeah. That's very true. You know, it's interesting. I I just started listening to a book that's talking about the difference between, it's it's mostly focused on anxiety and the difference between right brain and left brain functionality. And our right brain is really where our creativity lies. And, the more stressed out and anxious we are, the the more it shuts down creativity. It, like, just closes that part off of us. And I feel like as we travel around, I can identify how when we get into a new place, the more I'm able to just be present in that place and appreciate the experience of being there, the more I can feel that creativity opening up and, just relaxing relaxing my mind enough to to, like, really see where are we and and and what is this place like. And and that just brings forth a whole bunch of new ideas. And then also What's the book?Stephanie Hansen [00:15:55]:Do you know?Rebecca Blackwell [00:15:56]:Oh, yeah. It's, Martha Beck.Stephanie Hansen [00:15:59]:Okay.Rebecca Blackwell [00:15:59]:And, I don't remember the title, but it's her it's her newest one, and there's the word anxiety in the title.Stephanie Hansen [00:16:04]:It's highly recommended. And just put it in the show notes in case anyoneRebecca Blackwell [00:16:08]:Very good. Yeah. Because she has this idea that we can use our creative mind to calm stress and anxiety in our lives, and I I love that idea. So and, you know, before we moved into the RV, I I could have, you know, shopped at the same places, and I could have very distinct ideas and just go to the grocery store and get them. And now I have to show up with a very loose idea of what I want because you never know. You never know what's gonna be there. Yeah.Stephanie Hansen [00:16:33]:And that justRebecca Blackwell [00:16:35]:also been a creative, I think a creative boost to not be so rigid in that thinking.Stephanie Hansen [00:16:41]:Yeah. I love that idea. Also, I think for we're in this kind of weird political place where everybody is very polarized in their silos, and you're either all this or you're all that, and there's very little nuance. One thing I found about traveling that really helped me a lot is this idea that wherever you are in an RV park, like Yep. Whether you're alone or you're with others, everybody's kind of there for the same things.Rebecca Blackwell [00:17:11]:That's right.Stephanie Hansen [00:17:12]:You might approach them differently. Like, your political flag might fly differently. But at the end of the day, they're sitting out there at their campfire. You're sitting out at your campfire. It doesn't hurt you to kinda go over and introduce yourself and share a beer or a glass of wine. And I just felt so appreciative that I had that experience because when I'm in a dark place and I'm feeling like I'm alone in my own silo, I remember that, oh, no. There's all these other people out there, and we kinda get to it a different way, but we want security for our family. We wanna have jobs that are meaningful.Stephanie Hansen [00:17:47]:We wanna love and be able to be, you know, in a place that's beautiful. That really helped me have a lot of empathy for people that weren't like me.Rebecca Blackwell [00:17:57]:Yeah. I agree completely. We had this one experience a couple of years ago where we were talking to a couple in our campground, and, he got on a a tangent of all sorts of political ideas. And and we just stood there listening, and and I didn't agree with pretty much anything he was saying. And at the end of it, I I just said, you know, I didn't actually agree with anything that you just said, but one thing that I've learned is that there are good people everywhere even if they think differently from me. And so then we ended up talking about that. And that, I I have strong opinions about a lot of things. And so the more I meet people that don't share that same perspective, the the better it is for me, the better it is for my my state of mind.Rebecca Blackwell [00:18:50]:I can get very pigeonholed into thinking that the world is a dark place. And then when I'm out in it and actually meeting the people that live in all of these places, it's a it's a solid reminder that it's not it's not a dark place. Most people are very generous and very kind and very friendly. And in every state, that's true.Stephanie Hansen [00:19:12]:We Yeah.Rebecca Blackwell [00:19:13]:We have states that we enjoy more than others, but we have found good people and beautiful places pretty pretty much everywhere.Stephanie Hansen [00:19:23]:That is, like, the moral of the story, isn't it? Like, right what you just said. And it's why I I love sailing. I love RV ing. I love going to Europe. I love traveling. And Yeah. You know, I'm fortunate in that I have some reserves to do that, but you can just travel to your state park down the road and just really explore it in your car and sleep in your car and meet so many different people. And I didn't sleep in a tent for well, honestly, I've only slept in a tent, like, probably twice because I've either had an RV or a cabin or but it is a very eye opening experience to just put yourself out there and the people that you meet.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:03]:So I'm really excited about your lost, the let's, not the let's get lost. I'm excited about the lost supper club. Because in the Midwest, as you know, supper clubs are such a big deal here.Rebecca Blackwell [00:20:15]:Yes. I know. So that I did I didn't know anything about supper clubs until we visited the Midwest. And then I was like, well, this is cool.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:24]:Yeah. And some of them are they're sort of older, folks here, but then there's others that are more modern now, and we're kinda getting back to seeing fancy relish trays and fancy high end restaurants. And just the idea of the supper club being, like, a place where you gather on a Friday or Saturday night, and it can be with friends. And it doesn't have to be at a restaurant all the time, and it certainly does not have to always be steak.Rebecca Blackwell [00:20:49]:That's right. Well, and in the south, if you say supper club, people don't even realize that you're talking about an establishment. They supper clubs are a group of friends that get together on a regular basis. They're very organized, and, we we met some friends in Louisiana a few years ago. We're we're gonna do a supper club, at her place this year. But but she invited us to her home for dinner, and that's what it was. It was a supper club, and the table was tablescaped, and the China was out, and everybody was in their Sunday best. And, I mean, like, it was a it was an amazing dinner, an amazing event, and they they just she just does that all the time.Rebecca Blackwell [00:21:29]:It's just a a normal part of life to have theseStephanie Hansen [00:21:32]:Oh, fun.Rebecca Blackwell [00:21:33]:Amazing dinner parties with groups of people gathered around her table. And and so that's more what it is in the south. So, there's there's a lot of options and a lot of variety, for people to kind of create more community over food. And and, honestly, there's something about humans where we want if we're gonna get together with people, we want there to be food.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:56]:Yeah. Yes. Hot tea does not do it. You gotta have a stone or a biscuit or something else.Rebecca Blackwell [00:22:03]:Yes. That's right. That's right.Stephanie Hansen [00:22:24]:You can preorder the book now. We will provide a link in the show notes. Rebecca Blackwell, thank you for being our guest today. It was super fun to just chat with you. I think it's funny too the cookbooks behind you that made it on the RV list. You have probably, like, 30, way more than I would have thought.Rebecca Blackwell [00:23:09]:I have another 30 in our bedroom.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:12]:Okay. So do you read cookbooks like you read novels? Yes. Same. Like, at night when I'm in bed, I'm, like, reading a cookbook, not necessarily a book as it were.Rebecca Blackwell [00:23:23]:Yes. Well and I'm starting to order more on Kindle because, you know, I only have so much space. And Yeah. And I don't love the the Kindle cookbooks as much. It's ugh. I love having a book in my hands, but I can't stop buying them. So Yeah. Something hasStephanie Hansen [00:23:40]:Yeah. You gotta make make do where you can. Well, it was great to chat with you. Like I said, I'll have all the links for everything in the show notes here, and good luck. And I can't wait to connect with you next year after you've had this whole year of creativity behind you to see where it goes.Rebecca Blackwell [00:23:56]:Thank you so much for having me.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:58]:Thanks, Rebecca. We'll talk soon. 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

I am thrilled to bring you the latest episode of "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish," where we welcome the incredibly talented Hayden Haas, the creative mind behind "Simply Delishaas: Favorite Recipes from the Midwestern Kitchen." Discover Hayden's unique path from being a dishwasher on the Food Network to becoming an assistant to Molly Yeh and, eventually, a renowned cookbook author and now Minneapolis resident! Follow Hayden on Instagram @haydendelishaasFeatured RecipesThis pickle soup recipe is from Hayden's Food Blog where he has other delicious recipes including the Cranberry Tortellini recipe we talked about from the book.Pickle SoupServes 6Ingredients:* 3 russet potatoes or 3c (2-3pounds) diced (this also works with frozen potatoes) (300- 420g)* 3 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil (13g)* 2 carrots roughly chopped (130g)* 2 stalks of celery roughly chopped (120g)* 1 yellow onion, diced (150g)* 6 cloves of garlic, minced (60g)* 2 tbsp butter (14g)* 4 tbsp ap flour (30g)* Salt and pepper to preference * 4- 6 cups of vegetable or chicken broth (940-1410g)* 1 heaping cup of dill pickles chopped (about 5-6 pickles)* 1/2c pickle brine (127g)* 1 bunch of fresh dill, divided (100g)* 2 bay leaves (less than a gram) * 1 tsp fresh thyme (10g)* 1c freshly grated havarti cheese (83-100g)* 1/2c heavy cream (119g)* For garnish* Heavy cream for drizzling, sriracha for drizzling and remaining fresh dill  If you'd like an addition I grew up eating  this with garlic bread! * In a large pot over high heat begin boiling about 6cups of salted water. Once boiling add in potatoes, boil and drain.  ( you can make this all in one pot or two separate ones!* cook for 20 minutes and drain. If using a second, over medium heat add olive oil, onion, celery, carrot and garlic. * Cook until translucent about 8-10 minutes . Season with salt and pepper to preference (I use about 1tsp of each) * Once translucent, add in butter and melt then flour and mix until coated. Slowly start to incorporate the broth (you'll see it change to a light creamy color) add in the potatoes, pickles, pickle brine, fresh herbs and simmer for 20-30 minutes over medium heat. Add in the cheese and heavy cream and mix until combined! You can enjoy from here or dress a bowl! To a bowl add your soup, a drizzle of heavy cream, sriracha and fresh dill! Enjoy!Pickle PopcornThis Pickle Popcorn recipe is from Hayden's Food Blog He calls is Netflix and (Chi)DillIngredients:3 tbsp Oil of choice (see tips)1/2c  Popcorn kernels (a heaping 1/2c)5 tbsp (or more) Good quality butter (I like to use Kerrygold) ½ bunch Dill fresh or dried, chopped½ tsp Italian seasoning ½ tsp Garlic powder ½ tsp Onion powder 1 tsp cheese powder (optional) 3 tsp Pickle juice (brine) from a jar of picklesSalt ( i would recommend fine salt for this)-optional hot sauce for serving if youre Selena GomezTips: you can use avocado oil, refined coconut oil, vegetable oil, or even olive oil! I would recommend using a dutch oven or your favorite soup pot for this recipe (something with a lid)InstructionsTo a large pot over medium to high heat, add the oil, when the oil is hot add 2 or 3 kernels to test to see if its ready, then add the rest of the kernels and cover, leave a little crack to let some steam escape if needed. Another helpful tip when making popcorn over the stove, is to gently wiggle the pot while holding the lid and handles to jiggle the kernels around. Listen to the kernels, when it has mostly stopped popping, removed from the heat then add to a large bowl.In the meantime begin melting the butter on the stove or microwave in 15 second intervals. Add the seasonings to the butter along with the pickle juice, stir to combine, slowly incorporate over the popcorn and give it a light shake to distribute the pickley butter. Serve immediately! Store in an air tight container, Enjoy!EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Stephanie Hansen [00:00:16]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's dish, the podcast where we talk to people in the food space, cookbook authors, people generally obsessed with food. I am holding in my hot little hands favorite recipes from the Midwestern Kitchen. Book is called simply Delicious by Hayden Haas. Delicious. I love the title. It's so funny.Hayden Haas [00:00:39]:Thank you so much, and thank you for having me on.Stephanie Hansen [00:00:41]:Oh, it's a blast. So let us talk about your cookbook and, like, use you somehow have not been on my radar. And then I, like, found your Instagram, and I was like, oh my gosh. This guy's from the Midwest. He has almost 500,000 followers. He's friends with Molly Yeh. I mean, how would how tell us about how you got started in the cookbook world because you must have been a food stylist. Your book is incredible.Hayden Haas [00:01:06]:Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Yes. I did have a little bit experience, with, food styling. I got my start on Food Network surprisingly as a dishwasher and sort of led me, on an unexpected path into the food world where I was then met with Molly and then, you know, the pandemic happened one thing or another. And then I was her personal assistant and then got to see all everything that's involved with that whole world. And Molly was such a joy and kinda taught me how to write my own recipes. And I'm so thankful for all the time that I did spend with her, learning behind the scenes.Hayden Haas [00:01:51]:The most important part was obviously the recipe development but also kind of, when I was working behind the scenes I kind of learned how to film and direct my own videos as well as, edit them at the same time too. So it was kind of just a full package deal. I still to this day don't even really realize that I'm doing so many people's jobs, and I'm so thankful that I had that opportunity.Stephanie Hansen [00:02:18]:Yeah. Your your book is well, it's beautifully shot, and you can tell, there's a lot of lifestyle to it and, yes, we're looking at recipes, but many times we're looking at, not completed recipes, like the ingredients of making it. There's a lot of color in the book. Whoever did the design, it has a real rainbow flare, which I think is really cute. Yes. I just loved it. I really got the book, and it feels really like, if I knew you, I feel like this is really a reflection of you.Hayden Haas [00:02:54]:Thank you so much. I that was something that was really important to me. I kind of think of this as, like, my debut album. And I it's so so special to me because one of my best friends actually took all of the photography for me, and there's so much, family and friends and everything tied into it. And my designer's name was Lindsey Dobbs from Penguin Random House. So I I really wanted to include a lot of color. That was something that was really important to me and kind of all seasons. Even though,You know, it is based mostly in the Midwest, and we have winter here maybe, like, 6 to 9 months of the year. So, trying to cover all of those bases and get pictures was probably the hardest part.Stephanie Hansen [00:03:42]:Yeah. And people I mean, just the shooting of a book and having the seasonality to it, it is hard. Like, I'm working on a book that's a sort of cozy winter cooking book, but we haven't had snow for over a year. So I'm trying to find snowy pictures.Hayden Haas [00:04:01]:Yes. Yes. You're also a published author, and I was just checking out your books as well.Stephanie Hansen [00:04:07]:I am a published author, but I think I'm in a different vein than you. Because while I do like developing recipes, my point of view is usually typically from, like, someone's inspired from a grandma or a friend or and then I kinda take it and make it my own. I am getting a little more confident in just being like, oh, I'm just gonna make this and kinda knowing how things come together.Hayden Haas [00:04:33]:Yeah. And that's, something that's super important in my cookbook too because that was inspired by all the important women in my life, like my mom and my grandmas and, you know, of course, like Molly, there's so many people who have contributed to me at this point that I couldn't not also include them and all these people who have motivated me and supported me, including all of my followers and stuff. Like, this wasn't originally my intended career path, but I am so thankful that it is.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:04]:What was your intended career path?Hayden Haas [00:05:06]:I went to school for architecture and drafting. I had dreams of becoming an architect, and then I decided that that wasn't really where my heart was, but it was a very good paying job.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:18]:And you live in North Dakota. Is that correct?Hayden Haas [00:05:21]:No. I actually recently just relocated to Minneapolis.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:25]:Oh, so you're probably like a neighbor somewhere.Hayden Haas [00:05:28]:Yeah. I'm freshly here for a couple of months, so I'm still kind of catching my bearings and, making my little space home, but Minneapolis has been so welcoming, and I have literally no complaints. It's a really great place to be.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:45]:Yeah. So now are you here for a short time? OrHayden Haas [00:05:49]:No. I'm here to stay until further notice.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:53]:Okay. So I need to I'm gonna connect with you, and we'll have a cup of coffee, and maybe I could help because do you need do you need this sounds so weird. Do you need friends?Hayden Haas [00:06:05]:I do need friends. Yes. Been so actively looking for friends. I need more foodie friends. You know, I'm kind of like I don't wanna say I'm a shut in, but since I work from home, I just cook all this food, and I get to share it with all my friends and neighbors. So it's just a great little opportunity and kind of like a howdy neighbor to Minneapolis.Stephanie Hansen [00:06:29]:Yeah. I love it. And same. So I'm always cooking tons of food. I'm also, like, because of the radio show, we go out a lot, but I'm always looking for people to eat with. I know that seems weird, but, like, not everyone loves to go out.Hayden Haas [00:06:46]:I'm also in that category. I also love having people over because, you know, you make a ton of cozy recipes. So it's like when you provide that environment of home and, just being able to host somebody in your home is just so wonderful, and that really fills my cup.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:04]:Yeah. Alright. Well, we've got a mission to get you introduced because we're getting into what I think could be the long winter months. I don't know. It's 80 degrees out, and it's practically Halloween, so it's very weird.Hayden Haas [00:07:17]:Wow. So strange how that's happening. I always knew Minneapolis was slightly warmer than where I'm from in North Dakota by at least 20 degrees. So I'm like, oh, if this is really what it's like, I'm all on board.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:29]:No. It's not at all. It's usually cold as hell. Alright. So I first found out about you from my friend Paul Folger from channel 5.Hayden Haas [00:07:41]:Oh.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:41]:And he was telling me about when you were on Twin Cities Live with him and Elizabeth and that you brought this pickle popcorn.Hayden Haas [00:07:52]:Yes.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:53]:Okay. And I'm obsessed with popcorn so much so that I really am not supposed to eat it because I used to eat so much of it. I had, like, stomach problems.Hayden Haas [00:08:03]:Oh, no.Stephanie Hansen [00:08:05]:But he brings me in this ziplock bag full of this pickle popcorn, and pickles are like, I'm obsessed with pickles, and I love popcorn. How did you think of the pickle popcorn recipe? Because it's a great recipe.Hayden Haas [00:08:19]:Thank you. I am in the same category as you as popcorn was literally my favorite snack when I was growing up. I just made a video talking about this slightly. Like, I was such a little weirdo with my popcorn. I mean, after school, we lived pretty close to a movie theater, so you could, like, pop in and grab some movie theater popcorn as a great little snack. So popcorn's always been one of my favorite things, along with pickles. So combining the 2 just kind of felt great. I love using pickle brine as an ingredient, and any opportunity to use fresh dill.Hayden Haas [00:08:55]:And we all know and love butter, so I kinda just fell hand in hand.Stephanie Hansen [00:09:00]:This is funny because I really am obsessed with dill too just because I grow it and it's like it volunteers in your garden where you don't want it, and then you're like, oh, I have dill, and you just have so much of it. You just end up using it all over.Hayden Haas [00:09:14]:And I think that's such a great problem to have too. I I don't know. It's either dill either because I'm also a little bit of a gardener myself. You can either grow it, and then it'll have, like, a bunch of abundance, or you're just done for it and you're not gonna have dill that year.Stephanie Hansen [00:09:28]:Yeah. I've had those years too. And then, like, the years you have it, you're like, wow. What I thought was so fascinating about the popcorn recipe was that you used the brine with the butter and it it didn't completely sog out the popcorn. Like, it did have kind of a, day after taste a little bit, but I love that about popcorn.Hayden Haas [00:09:50]:Me too. I, not to go back to movie theater popcorn, but I always loved it more the second day.Stephanie Hansen [00:09:58]:Yeah.Hayden Haas [00:09:58]:So when when you kind of combine those together and you coat them kind of gradually, it, you know, you don't want it to be, like, soggy from all of the butter and whatnot. So kind of figuring out how that works is, you know, you kind of figure it out the more often you make popcorn.Stephanie Hansen [00:10:14]:Well, Paul said that you were considering putting it in your next book.Hayden Haas [00:10:19]:Yes. I haven't announced that I'm doing the next book or anything like that, but I am so happy to share it. And so that is one of the next, recipes that I do plan on sharing. But it is already available to share on my blog, and I would happily make a video for everyone to follow along with.Stephanie Hansen [00:10:38]:Yeah. I really loved, he brought it in. I am not supposed to eat popcorn. I ate a handful. I loved it. And he was like, oh, no. You can just keep the bag. I was like, Paul, I can't because I have no self control, and I will end up eating this entire bag either by the time the show's over or on the way homeHayden Haas [00:10:58]:in the car. Totally delightful.Stephanie Hansen [00:10:59]:We laughed about that. When you your book has everything. Like, you have desserts, you have cozy casseroles and hot dishes, you have drinks, which I also really enjoy. I have a lot of drinks in my book too. You've got a lot of soups. We're in the Midwest. Right? Soups are great. How did you decide? You have a lot of recipes in here too.Stephanie Hansen [00:11:22]:Like, they must have been cutting you off.Hayden Haas [00:11:24]:I we had kind of a tricky time deciding on we did originally have more recipes that we wanted to do, but we kind of decided on, you know, the photography that was really important to include and any, like, follow along steps. But there's over a 125 recipes. I tried to make it, kind of accessible, for everybody to be able to shop because I came from a really small town where, you know, some of the largest stores you had were probably like a Walmart or something along those lines, Target, Walmart. So you should be able to shop most of these ingredients from places like those wherever you are in the world. So I took a lot of thought into that. So you based on things that you have in your pantry and or fridge that are just like staples to always keep on hand. I it was really important to me to, share with the reader that you can make all these delicious things with things that you probably already have. A lot of my personal favorites, I'm a big breakfast and brunch kinda guy.Hayden Haas [00:12:28]:I also love, like, the meat and potatoes of things. I think that's kind of very Midwest. If you know my dad, he's, like, always more protein, always more protein. Just can't get enough of that meat. And soups are kind of like my favorite thing in the entire I think it should have its own food group because it's just the best, and I love just alwaysStephanie Hansen [00:12:52]:You and I are gonna be fast friends, dude. I can just tell.Hayden Haas [00:12:55]:No. We need to have you over for a fine bowl of soup. And then, of course, I'm not much of a sweet tooth, but I love making them for other people. And then same with, the adult beverages, there's mocktail options in there too. So I really wanted to cover all of the bases, things that I regularly enjoy or that were from my childhood and nostalgic, but slightly modernized and from foods of all kinds of cultures that I really wanted to share and also put my own little fusion or twist on.Stephanie Hansen [00:13:24]:You seem very excited about your food life. Do you ever feel, like, taxed by it? I mean, with so many followers, you gotta be spending a lot of time on social media. Does it ever feel like you're giving up too much or just like you're burned out?Hayden Haas [00:13:39]:I I that's a great question. Thank you so much for asking. I definitely experience burnout, on those days. I would say that I film maybe like 3 or 4 days of the week, and sometimes it can be 2 recipes, sometimes it can be 3. So it kind of just depends, weighing on my schedule and then other projects that I have going on, trying to make that all work. It's so much fun and stressful at the same time. I love it so much that it doesn't always feel like work, but that doesn't mean that I don't get emotionally or physically taxed from it. So sometimes where I'm like, today is not a filming day or, like, let's say I get, like, a zit or something like that.Hayden Haas [00:14:20]:You know? Because we all have everyday problems and stuff like that too. I, that's also really important where it's like, I don't, like, edit any of my videos where it's, like, lighting them different or even when I'm food styling, it's not like I'm doing anything crazy. So I want people to when they see a video or recipe of mine where it's like, how you see it is probably how it's gonna show up. That's, you know, how I intended it. And I tested that recipe 10 times or a 100 times. So it's like, I want you to have that result because I know the person at home, whether they're living on a budget or, you know, just trying to get more experience in the kitchen, that they have that confidence and they can pretty much jump into any recipe in the book that you know, it's anybody from any walk of life would be able to. So that was super important. And but sorry to get back to your original question, being taxed by the or tax or burnout.Hayden Haas [00:15:19]:I definitely experienced burnout, but those are the days where I'm like, it's more of a work on my computer type of day and Right. Let's order some takeout.Stephanie Hansen [00:15:28]:Yeah. I, when I looked at your book too, because I'm in the final like, I'm just in the final edits of my book. Yeah. That's due December 31st for my second one. We have a couple of, like, similar recipes. They're different, but they're similar. So it'll be fun to see when we when mine's out, we can kinda compare notes on some of the recipes.Hayden Haas [00:15:53]:I would love that. And that's something that I also value so much about the community and followers that I've built is a lot of these people do try the recipes, whether they post it or share it or whatever. People are making it for their families, and it's bringing so many people together, which is what makes me so happy. Or I love when somebody makes, like, a soup or a dessert recipe for, like, their friends and stuff because that's what I love to do. Yeah. It just feels full circle and it really makes my day.Stephanie Hansen [00:16:24]:So what is the first dish that you remember, like, making yourself? Can you remember? Did you cook as a kid?Hayden Haas [00:16:32]:There's so many things. My mom always had us in the kitchen. So we were always doing, like, baking and fun stuff like that. A recipe I guess this the one I can remember the most is not actually, like, an eating type recipe, but my mom and I used to make our own Play Doh.Stephanie Hansen [00:16:49]:Yes.Hayden Haas [00:16:50]:Yes. And, I mean, occasionally, I'm sure I you know, kids eat Play Doh, so I would taste it and be like, oh, that's salty. And so, like, not quite a recipe that's supposed to be edible, but that's the one that I think about and I wanna share all the time, but I don't have any kids to play Play Doh with.Stephanie Hansen [00:17:05]:That's funny. No. I think, yeah, we made that a lot as kids. And, also, I don't even know why we ever made this, but we used to make our own, like, homemade tootsie rolls.Hayden Haas [00:17:15]:Oh my gosh. I bet that was so special.Stephanie Hansen [00:17:17]:Yeah. And I don't know where we got the recipe or why we would make those, but I had sisters and so that's what we would do.Hayden Haas [00:17:24]:You have a mother's sweet little treat like that.Stephanie Hansen [00:17:26]:Yeah. Are you a freezer hoarder because you're cooking so much?Hayden Haas [00:17:30]:Oh, yeah. There's a lot of, disorganization that happens in but at the same time, I'm pretty good about, not having food waste. I kind of like auction things off to my neighbors and, you know, people that I meet that are kind of like within the vicinity where I'll say like, hey. For example, I just made, my breakfast pizza recipe and so I can kinda just auction it off to my friends who are all super busy and whatnot. And, oh, it's just great because I kinda get to feed my own little community and get their feedback at the same time where it's like, yeah. Don't add onions to this or that was too salty or something like that. So it's so helpful to get that here.Stephanie Hansen [00:18:12]:I'm creeping my neighbors out actually because I'm always like I just this morning, I did a TV segment. I had all these rice crispy bars. I didn't want them in the house because I'll eat them. So I just loaded up paper plates and kinda went door to door. And people are just like my neigh my next door neighbor, I know. She's just like because I this in this week alone, I've brought them a chicken pasta dish. I brought them apple muffins, and then I brought them rice crispy bars. And that's, like, within the last 3 days.Hayden Haas [00:18:46]:Yeah. I don't hear the problem in any of this. I think you're probably the favorite neighbor.Stephanie Hansen [00:18:51]:I hope.Hayden Haas [00:18:52]:I'm sure of it because I do the same thing. I was dropping off tiramisu, cheesecake, and some pizza and brownie. So we're in the same category. And if they don't want those leftovers, I'll take them.Stephanie Hansen [00:19:05]:That's so funny. Yeah. I need to I just I feel like, oh my gosh. These people probably think I'm so crazy because I'm always justHayden Haas [00:19:12]:Oh.Stephanie Hansen [00:19:13]:Walking door to door with piles of food. And I have a brand new neighbor that's literally right next to me that I haven't met yet. And they looked like they moved in over the weekend and then maybe were are doing some painting. So I left some of the muffins on their, like, door. And I my friend said, she goes, do you real do these people realize who you are and, like, what a gift it's gonna be living next to you? I'm like, I don't know.Hayden Haas [00:19:42]:No. I, 100% support all of that. Spread the love. I always say it's like, Nesquik, don't come for me, like, legally, but I always say share the wealth. And if your wealth is baked goods, share them. People are gonna love it. Exactly.Stephanie Hansen [00:19:55]:And thenHayden Haas [00:19:55]:it's not like you're gonna give them anything terrible or anything. Yeah. We only weigh our best creations. Right?Stephanie Hansen [00:20:01]:Yes. Exactly. So when you were at Food Network, you did you directly work on Molly's show or did you work on some other shows too?Hayden Haas [00:20:10]:I worked on Molly did a couple of things with HGTV, so that was fun to see what that was like. But I did, I started off as a dishwasher and then moved up to a food stylist. And then, at the same time, I was also Molly's assistant. And I've also had my own little touch of reality television because I was on Food Network's Chopped.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:35]:Oh, you were.Hayden Haas [00:20:37]:It was love.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:37]:Hear about that.Hayden Haas [00:20:39]:It was really fun. I did a blind date episode where yeah. It was so much fun. I was matched with somebody that I had never met before. And so you kinda go on a blind date. And then, you know, you get the basket with all of the mystery ingredients. And I think my ingredients were, like, like a cranberry kiss cocktail and, like, a red tail snapper and some heart shaped ravioli. And we I my partner and I, when we went into it, we initially kind of had, like, a situation where I was like, do you wanna take the lead, or do you want me to be sous chef or whatever? And he decided he wanted to be the lead, then I was like, I'll support you whatever you wanna do through the way.Hayden Haas [00:21:25]:So I was happy to do that. I wouldn't have, necessarily made the dish that we ended up making. Spoiler alert, I didn't end up winning, but it is still a really great episode, and I'm still friends with all the women on that show. SoStephanie Hansen [00:21:38]:So what did you end up making? Because I was listening to your ingredients and thinking, oh, well, the cranberry's gotta be a sauce.Hayden Haas [00:21:45]:Sure. If you're familiar with, like, kind of like a pate situation, it was kinda like that but with fish. So not not always a big winner. If I could have made what I wanted to, you since you have the cookbook right there, I won I would have made or leaned in towards my cranberry tortellini recipe.Stephanie Hansen [00:22:04]:Yeah.Hayden Haas [00:22:05]:And I think that would have, like, surprising people. But it also might have been, like, kinda boring because it's, like, pasta and Alfredo cranberry sauce or whatever. You know?Stephanie Hansen [00:22:15]:No. Alfredo sauce is never boring. I don't care. I feel like I eat noodles 62 times a week.Hayden Haas [00:22:22]:Yeah. I'm always a huge advocate of pasta myself.Stephanie Hansen [00:22:26]:Yeah. That's I'm gonna just go to that recipe right now, and we're gonna talk about it. Because, I love pasta. I eat pasta all the time. And I made spaghetti for a friend this weekend, and she came over and she goes, no offense, but can we just order takeout? I really hate noodles. What? I was like, who are you?Hayden Haas [00:22:48]:Interesting.Stephanie Hansen [00:22:49]:Yeah. I thought it was. Okay. So for cranberry sauce, let's see what we have in there. Here we are. Yep. Oh, I went on the wrong page.Hayden Haas [00:23:03]:Puerto Rican Alfredo sauce that we make from scratch, and then I do have my grandma's cranberry recipe. It it is like a I like I guess I like my cranberry sauce a touch sweeter, but, you know, you can make it as bitter as you want to.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:21]:Okay. This looks really good. It's got it's the sauce is kinda pink. It's got a sun dried tomato, mushrooms, artichoke hearts. Looks delicious.Hayden Haas [00:23:29]:Yeah. Big fan. When I was in college, there was this little restaurant, not not Olive Garden. But when when I was waiting when I was waiting tables in college, that was one of the more popular dishes from that restaurant.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:46]:Let's talk about all the, like, plates and the dishes in your book. Are these all things you own, or did you guys rent things?Hayden Haas [00:23:53]:No. I did not rent things. All of those were things that I do own because I am kind of a mix match person. So none of my plates match. None of my cups match. I, maybe a bit of a maximalist, if you will. So I love selection. I also kind of display them in my dining room.Hayden Haas [00:24:14]:So then whenever I have somebody over, I'm, like, grab any glass. So then that person kind of gets to pick whatever fun glass or fork or plate, whatever theyStephanie Hansen [00:24:23]:Phew. I love that idea.Hayden Haas [00:24:25]:So much fun. And then, you know, you always get really fun pictures at the same time.Stephanie Hansen [00:24:30]:Yeah. For sure. And I am feeling a little bit like and and I'm getting to the end of this book, so I'm feeling a little horny at this point. And, like, oh, I need to, like, maybe get rid of some of this stuff or repurpose it to the next house. Goodwill is my friend, but sometimes the things go back to the Goodwill too. Right?Hayden Haas [00:24:48]:Hey. You just don't have to tell me. I'm a avid thrifter myself, so I love, finding, like, a plate or 2 every time you visit or something where you're like, I have a vision for this particular plate, and it's gonna have some delicious pasta on it. And or here's this old pillowcase that I could sew into a napkin or something. So it's like, repurpose those things, make them beautiful, and share them with everyone.Stephanie Hansen [00:25:14]:Okay. I love that you would actually repurpose a pillowcase into a napkin.Hayden Haas [00:25:17]:Oh, and I've turned an old tablecloth into something els Shoot. It's all mix-and-match. I tell you, I love it. I have a whole cabinet ' whole cabinet just for my linens.Stephanie Hansen [00:25:29]:Can you think of something, like, where you got a real score at a thrift store? Like, do you have a favorite thing you thrifted?Hayden Haas [00:25:37]:Good question. I do, but I don't have, I really would love to provide, like, a image for you. But I since I am such an avid thrifter, I have a whole collection on my living room wall of mirrors. Cool. So it's kind of like you know how people have those, like, picture collages and stuff inStephanie Hansen [00:25:59]:the house?Hayden Haas [00:26:00]:It's kinda like that, but for mirrors. So it's like the whole and they're all different kinds. Like, some are new and nice. Like, I'm sure some are from, like, a Target or whatever. Sure. Got a cute one. But they're all different kinds and, some have little stands on them. I've my favorite one is, like, this vintage cover girl mirror.Hayden Haas [00:26:21]:Oh, it's so it's, like, tiny and cute. I everybody loves it when they come and check it out.Stephanie Hansen [00:26:26]:Oh, that's fun.Hayden Haas [00:26:27]:Yeah. And I don't know if a mirror is probably the greatest example because I really don't even look at myself in the mirror that much, but it's just such a fun little, addition to home and calling it cozy, and it's always a conversation starter when somebody walks in the door. And I Yeah.Stephanie Hansen [00:26:46]:It sure sounds like it.Hayden Haas [00:26:48]:Say that they wanna copy it. I'm like, it's all yours. Please enjoy.Stephanie Hansen [00:26:52]:So when you think about, a cookbook that you wish you had written, can you think of 1?Hayden Haas [00:27:02]:A cookbook I wish I would have written.Stephanie Hansen [00:27:04]:Yeah. Like, you just find it so inspiring.Hayden Haas [00:27:07]:I there's so many people that I'm inspired by. That's so tough. I would say somebody who I am always inspired by what is Molly Ye, of course.Stephanie Hansen [00:27:19]:Yeah.Hayden Haas [00:27:20]:I learned so much from my time with her. There's a couple of other people who are kind of influential. So going back a little bit when I was kind of burnt out in between architecture and whatnot, also very Minnesota of me, I went to go work for Target, like, part time, but then they ended up wanting me as a manager, which is great. I loved my time with them. In that time shift, that's when I started cooking for myself, and I really didn't have, like, social media before that. So it, like, started out fresh at, like, the age of 27 and started posting, like, food, blogs, pictures, like, kind of starting out, my own little food photography or food journey. And I started my mom had gifted me Chrissy Teigen's cookbook. And I was, so thankful for that, and I cooked my way through it.Hayden Haas [00:28:10]:And I started sharing some recipes, and she started commenting and liking on some of my things. And that inspired me to do more, which kinda led me on my way to meet Molly Ye. But there's so many other people like Anthony Bourdain and, you know, most of the people on Food Network. So that was, like, so funny that in my small little town that I was given, like, an opportunity for something I didn't think I would ever have.Stephanie Hansen [00:28:34]:Yeah. So And Chrissy Teigen's cravings book, I thought that that was a good cookbook. She's gotHayden Haas [00:28:41]:about 3 or 4 in her series. I've haven't done as much investigating into the newer books, but the first couple were so great and, like, everything, you know, you can pretty much make from home.Stephanie Hansen [00:28:55]:Yeah. I really liked Pepper's book too, her mom.Hayden Haas [00:28:58]:Oh, yeah. I also have that one. She's so cute.Stephanie Hansen [00:29:00]:Cute. Do you have, like, a white Pyrenees? Or what's your dog?Hayden Haas [00:29:03]:This is Max. You'll see a ton of him in the cookbook also.Stephanie Hansen [00:29:07]:Cute.Hayden Haas [00:29:08]:He's an English cream retriever, and so Max makes a couple of, cameos in there as well.Stephanie Hansen [00:29:14]:Well, Stanley, my dog, I wasHayden Haas [00:29:16]:Listen.Stephanie Hansen [00:29:17]:Yeah. I was gonna say you you may have heard him. He was in a squeaky toy earlier, and I was like, shut the door.Hayden Haas [00:29:23]:I I wasn't sure if you heard Max earlier, but that was him.Stephanie Hansen [00:29:27]:That's funny. Well, this has been a real delight. Hayden Haas, Simply Delish Haas. I it is, recipes from the Midwestern Kitchen. It's a beautiful book. I am excited to connect with you. We will eat or do something fun. I feel like we're gonna be fast friends.Hayden Haas [00:29:46]:We're gonna warm up at some point.Stephanie Hansen [00:29:48]:I think so. Yes. But it was great to talk to you. Congratulations on the book. People can follow you at I'm sorry. I didn't write your Instagram down.Hayden Haas [00:29:58]:It's the same thing. I wanna tell you congratulations on your book, and I can't wait to get together sometime.Stephanie Hansen [00:30:04]:Thank you.Hayden Haas [00:30:04]:You can find me if you usually type in Hayden, h a y d e n, and then Delish Haws, d e l I s h a a s, because or if you just type in Hayden Haws Cook or something or other, it'll come up. I'm on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, all of the stuff.Stephanie Hansen [00:30:26]:Alright. I'm just I'm amazed and impressed with all the work that you're putting out, and your book is great. Thanks for being a guest today. I'm sure we'll get together soon.Hayden Haas [00:30:35]:Yes. Thank you again so much for having me.Stephanie Hansen [00:30:36]:Alright. Good to see you. Bye. Alright. Bye bye. 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

I am thrilled to bring you the latest episode of "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish," where we welcome the incredibly talented Hayden Haas, the creative mind behind "Simply Delishaas: Favorite Recipes from the Midwestern Kitchen." Discover Hayden's unique path from being a dishwasher on the Food Network to becoming an assistant to Molly Yeh and, eventually, a renowned cookbook author and now Minneapolis resident! Follow Hayden on Instagram @haydendelishaasFeatured RecipesThis pickle soup recipe is from Hayden's Food Blog where he has other delicious recipes including the Cranberry Tortellini recipe we talked about from the book.Pickle SoupServes 6Ingredients:* 3 russet potatoes or 3c (2-3pounds) diced (this also works with frozen potatoes) (300- 420g)* 3 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil (13g)* 2 carrots roughly chopped (130g)* 2 stalks of celery roughly chopped (120g)* 1 yellow onion, diced (150g)* 6 cloves of garlic, minced (60g)* 2 tbsp butter (14g)* 4 tbsp ap flour (30g)* Salt and pepper to preference * 4- 6 cups of vegetable or chicken broth (940-1410g)* 1 heaping cup of dill pickles chopped (about 5-6 pickles)* 1/2c pickle brine (127g)* 1 bunch of fresh dill, divided (100g)* 2 bay leaves (less than a gram) * 1 tsp fresh thyme (10g)* 1c freshly grated havarti cheese (83-100g)* 1/2c heavy cream (119g)* For garnish* Heavy cream for drizzling, sriracha for drizzling and remaining fresh dill  If you'd like an addition I grew up eating  this with garlic bread! * In a large pot over high heat begin boiling about 6cups of salted water. Once boiling add in potatoes, boil and drain.  ( you can make this all in one pot or two separate ones!* cook for 20 minutes and drain. If using a second, over medium heat add olive oil, onion, celery, carrot and garlic. * Cook until translucent about 8-10 minutes . Season with salt and pepper to preference (I use about 1tsp of each) * Once translucent, add in butter and melt then flour and mix until coated. Slowly start to incorporate the broth (you'll see it change to a light creamy color) add in the potatoes, pickles, pickle brine, fresh herbs and simmer for 20-30 minutes over medium heat. Add in the cheese and heavy cream and mix until combined! You can enjoy from here or dress a bowl! To a bowl add your soup, a drizzle of heavy cream, sriracha and fresh dill! Enjoy!Pickle PopcornThis Pickle Popcorn recipe is from Hayden's Food Blog He calls is Netflix and (Chi)DillIngredients:3 tbsp Oil of choice (see tips)1/2c  Popcorn kernels (a heaping 1/2c)5 tbsp (or more) Good quality butter (I like to use Kerrygold) ½ bunch Dill fresh or dried, chopped½ tsp Italian seasoning ½ tsp Garlic powder ½ tsp Onion powder 1 tsp cheese powder (optional) 3 tsp Pickle juice (brine) from a jar of picklesSalt ( i would recommend fine salt for this)-optional hot sauce for serving if youre Selena GomezTips: you can use avocado oil, refined coconut oil, vegetable oil, or even olive oil! I would recommend using a dutch oven or your favorite soup pot for this recipe (something with a lid)InstructionsTo a large pot over medium to high heat, add the oil, when the oil is hot add 2 or 3 kernels to test to see if its ready, then add the rest of the kernels and cover, leave a little crack to let some steam escape if needed. Another helpful tip when making popcorn over the stove, is to gently wiggle the pot while holding the lid and handles to jiggle the kernels around. Listen to the kernels, when it has mostly stopped popping, removed from the heat then add to a large bowl.In the meantime begin melting the butter on the stove or microwave in 15 second intervals. Add the seasonings to the butter along with the pickle juice, stir to combine, slowly incorporate over the popcorn and give it a light shake to distribute the pickley butter. Serve immediately! Store in an air tight container, Enjoy!EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Stephanie Hansen [00:00:16]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's dish, the podcast where we talk to people in the food space, cookbook authors, people generally obsessed with food. I am holding in my hot little hands favorite recipes from the Midwestern Kitchen. Book is called simply Delicious by Hayden Haas. Delicious. I love the title. It's so funny.Hayden Haas [00:00:39]:Thank you so much, and thank you for having me on.Stephanie Hansen [00:00:41]:Oh, it's a blast. So let us talk about your cookbook and, like, use you somehow have not been on my radar. And then I, like, found your Instagram, and I was like, oh my gosh. This guy's from the Midwest. He has almost 500,000 followers. He's friends with Molly Yeh. I mean, how would how tell us about how you got started in the cookbook world because you must have been a food stylist. Your book is incredible.Hayden Haas [00:01:06]:Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Yes. I did have a little bit experience, with, food styling. I got my start on Food Network surprisingly as a dishwasher and sort of led me, on an unexpected path into the food world where I was then met with Molly and then, you know, the pandemic happened one thing or another. And then I was her personal assistant and then got to see all everything that's involved with that whole world. And Molly was such a joy and kinda taught me how to write my own recipes. And I'm so thankful for all the time that I did spend with her, learning behind the scenes.Hayden Haas [00:01:51]:The most important part was obviously the recipe development but also kind of, when I was working behind the scenes I kind of learned how to film and direct my own videos as well as, edit them at the same time too. So it was kind of just a full package deal. I still to this day don't even really realize that I'm doing so many people's jobs, and I'm so thankful that I had that opportunity.Stephanie Hansen [00:02:18]:Yeah. Your your book is well, it's beautifully shot, and you can tell, there's a lot of lifestyle to it and, yes, we're looking at recipes, but many times we're looking at, not completed recipes, like the ingredients of making it. There's a lot of color in the book. Whoever did the design, it has a real rainbow flare, which I think is really cute. Yes. I just loved it. I really got the book, and it feels really like, if I knew you, I feel like this is really a reflection of you.Hayden Haas [00:02:54]:Thank you so much. I that was something that was really important to me. I kind of think of this as, like, my debut album. And I it's so so special to me because one of my best friends actually took all of the photography for me, and there's so much, family and friends and everything tied into it. And my designer's name was Lindsey Dobbs from Penguin Random House. So I I really wanted to include a lot of color. That was something that was really important to me and kind of all seasons. Even though,You know, it is based mostly in the Midwest, and we have winter here maybe, like, 6 to 9 months of the year. So, trying to cover all of those bases and get pictures was probably the hardest part.Stephanie Hansen [00:03:42]:Yeah. And people I mean, just the shooting of a book and having the seasonality to it, it is hard. Like, I'm working on a book that's a sort of cozy winter cooking book, but we haven't had snow for over a year. So I'm trying to find snowy pictures.Hayden Haas [00:04:01]:Yes. Yes. You're also a published author, and I was just checking out your books as well.Stephanie Hansen [00:04:07]:I am a published author, but I think I'm in a different vein than you. Because while I do like developing recipes, my point of view is usually typically from, like, someone's inspired from a grandma or a friend or and then I kinda take it and make it my own. I am getting a little more confident in just being like, oh, I'm just gonna make this and kinda knowing how things come together.Hayden Haas [00:04:33]:Yeah. And that's, something that's super important in my cookbook too because that was inspired by all the important women in my life, like my mom and my grandmas and, you know, of course, like Molly, there's so many people who have contributed to me at this point that I couldn't not also include them and all these people who have motivated me and supported me, including all of my followers and stuff. Like, this wasn't originally my intended career path, but I am so thankful that it is.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:04]:What was your intended career path?Hayden Haas [00:05:06]:I went to school for architecture and drafting. I had dreams of becoming an architect, and then I decided that that wasn't really where my heart was, but it was a very good paying job.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:18]:And you live in North Dakota. Is that correct?Hayden Haas [00:05:21]:No. I actually recently just relocated to Minneapolis.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:25]:Oh, so you're probably like a neighbor somewhere.Hayden Haas [00:05:28]:Yeah. I'm freshly here for a couple of months, so I'm still kind of catching my bearings and, making my little space home, but Minneapolis has been so welcoming, and I have literally no complaints. It's a really great place to be.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:45]:Yeah. So now are you here for a short time? OrHayden Haas [00:05:49]:No. I'm here to stay until further notice.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:53]:Okay. So I need to I'm gonna connect with you, and we'll have a cup of coffee, and maybe I could help because do you need do you need this sounds so weird. Do you need friends?Hayden Haas [00:06:05]:I do need friends. Yes. Been so actively looking for friends. I need more foodie friends. You know, I'm kind of like I don't wanna say I'm a shut in, but since I work from home, I just cook all this food, and I get to share it with all my friends and neighbors. So it's just a great little opportunity and kind of like a howdy neighbor to Minneapolis.Stephanie Hansen [00:06:29]:Yeah. I love it. And same. So I'm always cooking tons of food. I'm also, like, because of the radio show, we go out a lot, but I'm always looking for people to eat with. I know that seems weird, but, like, not everyone loves to go out.Hayden Haas [00:06:46]:I'm also in that category. I also love having people over because, you know, you make a ton of cozy recipes. So it's like when you provide that environment of home and, just being able to host somebody in your home is just so wonderful, and that really fills my cup.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:04]:Yeah. Alright. Well, we've got a mission to get you introduced because we're getting into what I think could be the long winter months. I don't know. It's 80 degrees out, and it's practically Halloween, so it's very weird.Hayden Haas [00:07:17]:Wow. So strange how that's happening. I always knew Minneapolis was slightly warmer than where I'm from in North Dakota by at least 20 degrees. So I'm like, oh, if this is really what it's like, I'm all on board.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:29]:No. It's not at all. It's usually cold as hell. Alright. So I first found out about you from my friend Paul Folger from channel 5.Hayden Haas [00:07:41]:Oh.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:41]:And he was telling me about when you were on Twin Cities Live with him and Elizabeth and that you brought this pickle popcorn.Hayden Haas [00:07:52]:Yes.Stephanie Hansen [00:07:53]:Okay. And I'm obsessed with popcorn so much so that I really am not supposed to eat it because I used to eat so much of it. I had, like, stomach problems.Hayden Haas [00:08:03]:Oh, no.Stephanie Hansen [00:08:05]:But he brings me in this ziplock bag full of this pickle popcorn, and pickles are like, I'm obsessed with pickles, and I love popcorn. How did you think of the pickle popcorn recipe? Because it's a great recipe.Hayden Haas [00:08:19]:Thank you. I am in the same category as you as popcorn was literally my favorite snack when I was growing up. I just made a video talking about this slightly. Like, I was such a little weirdo with my popcorn. I mean, after school, we lived pretty close to a movie theater, so you could, like, pop in and grab some movie theater popcorn as a great little snack. So popcorn's always been one of my favorite things, along with pickles. So combining the 2 just kind of felt great. I love using pickle brine as an ingredient, and any opportunity to use fresh dill.Hayden Haas [00:08:55]:And we all know and love butter, so I kinda just fell hand in hand.Stephanie Hansen [00:09:00]:This is funny because I really am obsessed with dill too just because I grow it and it's like it volunteers in your garden where you don't want it, and then you're like, oh, I have dill, and you just have so much of it. You just end up using it all over.Hayden Haas [00:09:14]:And I think that's such a great problem to have too. I I don't know. It's either dill either because I'm also a little bit of a gardener myself. You can either grow it, and then it'll have, like, a bunch of abundance, or you're just done for it and you're not gonna have dill that year.Stephanie Hansen [00:09:28]:Yeah. I've had those years too. And then, like, the years you have it, you're like, wow. What I thought was so fascinating about the popcorn recipe was that you used the brine with the butter and it it didn't completely sog out the popcorn. Like, it did have kind of a, day after taste a little bit, but I love that about popcorn.Hayden Haas [00:09:50]:Me too. I, not to go back to movie theater popcorn, but I always loved it more the second day.Stephanie Hansen [00:09:58]:Yeah.Hayden Haas [00:09:58]:So when when you kind of combine those together and you coat them kind of gradually, it, you know, you don't want it to be, like, soggy from all of the butter and whatnot. So kind of figuring out how that works is, you know, you kind of figure it out the more often you make popcorn.Stephanie Hansen [00:10:14]:Well, Paul said that you were considering putting it in your next book.Hayden Haas [00:10:19]:Yes. I haven't announced that I'm doing the next book or anything like that, but I am so happy to share it. And so that is one of the next, recipes that I do plan on sharing. But it is already available to share on my blog, and I would happily make a video for everyone to follow along with.Stephanie Hansen [00:10:38]:Yeah. I really loved, he brought it in. I am not supposed to eat popcorn. I ate a handful. I loved it. And he was like, oh, no. You can just keep the bag. I was like, Paul, I can't because I have no self control, and I will end up eating this entire bag either by the time the show's over or on the way homeHayden Haas [00:10:58]:in the car. Totally delightful.Stephanie Hansen [00:10:59]:We laughed about that. When you your book has everything. Like, you have desserts, you have cozy casseroles and hot dishes, you have drinks, which I also really enjoy. I have a lot of drinks in my book too. You've got a lot of soups. We're in the Midwest. Right? Soups are great. How did you decide? You have a lot of recipes in here too.Stephanie Hansen [00:11:22]:Like, they must have been cutting you off.Hayden Haas [00:11:24]:I we had kind of a tricky time deciding on we did originally have more recipes that we wanted to do, but we kind of decided on, you know, the photography that was really important to include and any, like, follow along steps. But there's over a 125 recipes. I tried to make it, kind of accessible, for everybody to be able to shop because I came from a really small town where, you know, some of the largest stores you had were probably like a Walmart or something along those lines, Target, Walmart. So you should be able to shop most of these ingredients from places like those wherever you are in the world. So I took a lot of thought into that. So you based on things that you have in your pantry and or fridge that are just like staples to always keep on hand. I it was really important to me to, share with the reader that you can make all these delicious things with things that you probably already have. A lot of my personal favorites, I'm a big breakfast and brunch kinda guy.Hayden Haas [00:12:28]:I also love, like, the meat and potatoes of things. I think that's kind of very Midwest. If you know my dad, he's, like, always more protein, always more protein. Just can't get enough of that meat. And soups are kind of like my favorite thing in the entire I think it should have its own food group because it's just the best, and I love just alwaysStephanie Hansen [00:12:52]:You and I are gonna be fast friends, dude. I can just tell.Hayden Haas [00:12:55]:No. We need to have you over for a fine bowl of soup. And then, of course, I'm not much of a sweet tooth, but I love making them for other people. And then same with, the adult beverages, there's mocktail options in there too. So I really wanted to cover all of the bases, things that I regularly enjoy or that were from my childhood and nostalgic, but slightly modernized and from foods of all kinds of cultures that I really wanted to share and also put my own little fusion or twist on.Stephanie Hansen [00:13:24]:You seem very excited about your food life. Do you ever feel, like, taxed by it? I mean, with so many followers, you gotta be spending a lot of time on social media. Does it ever feel like you're giving up too much or just like you're burned out?Hayden Haas [00:13:39]:I I that's a great question. Thank you so much for asking. I definitely experience burnout, on those days. I would say that I film maybe like 3 or 4 days of the week, and sometimes it can be 2 recipes, sometimes it can be 3. So it kind of just depends, weighing on my schedule and then other projects that I have going on, trying to make that all work. It's so much fun and stressful at the same time. I love it so much that it doesn't always feel like work, but that doesn't mean that I don't get emotionally or physically taxed from it. So sometimes where I'm like, today is not a filming day or, like, let's say I get, like, a zit or something like that.Hayden Haas [00:14:20]:You know? Because we all have everyday problems and stuff like that too. I, that's also really important where it's like, I don't, like, edit any of my videos where it's, like, lighting them different or even when I'm food styling, it's not like I'm doing anything crazy. So I want people to when they see a video or recipe of mine where it's like, how you see it is probably how it's gonna show up. That's, you know, how I intended it. And I tested that recipe 10 times or a 100 times. So it's like, I want you to have that result because I know the person at home, whether they're living on a budget or, you know, just trying to get more experience in the kitchen, that they have that confidence and they can pretty much jump into any recipe in the book that you know, it's anybody from any walk of life would be able to. So that was super important. And but sorry to get back to your original question, being taxed by the or tax or burnout.Hayden Haas [00:15:19]:I definitely experienced burnout, but those are the days where I'm like, it's more of a work on my computer type of day and Right. Let's order some takeout.Stephanie Hansen [00:15:28]:Yeah. I, when I looked at your book too, because I'm in the final like, I'm just in the final edits of my book. Yeah. That's due December 31st for my second one. We have a couple of, like, similar recipes. They're different, but they're similar. So it'll be fun to see when we when mine's out, we can kinda compare notes on some of the recipes.Hayden Haas [00:15:53]:I would love that. And that's something that I also value so much about the community and followers that I've built is a lot of these people do try the recipes, whether they post it or share it or whatever. People are making it for their families, and it's bringing so many people together, which is what makes me so happy. Or I love when somebody makes, like, a soup or a dessert recipe for, like, their friends and stuff because that's what I love to do. Yeah. It just feels full circle and it really makes my day.Stephanie Hansen [00:16:24]:So what is the first dish that you remember, like, making yourself? Can you remember? Did you cook as a kid?Hayden Haas [00:16:32]:There's so many things. My mom always had us in the kitchen. So we were always doing, like, baking and fun stuff like that. A recipe I guess this the one I can remember the most is not actually, like, an eating type recipe, but my mom and I used to make our own Play Doh.Stephanie Hansen [00:16:49]:Yes.Hayden Haas [00:16:50]:Yes. And, I mean, occasionally, I'm sure I you know, kids eat Play Doh, so I would taste it and be like, oh, that's salty. And so, like, not quite a recipe that's supposed to be edible, but that's the one that I think about and I wanna share all the time, but I don't have any kids to play Play Doh with.Stephanie Hansen [00:17:05]:That's funny. No. I think, yeah, we made that a lot as kids. And, also, I don't even know why we ever made this, but we used to make our own, like, homemade tootsie rolls.Hayden Haas [00:17:15]:Oh my gosh. I bet that was so special.Stephanie Hansen [00:17:17]:Yeah. And I don't know where we got the recipe or why we would make those, but I had sisters and so that's what we would do.Hayden Haas [00:17:24]:You have a mother's sweet little treat like that.Stephanie Hansen [00:17:26]:Yeah. Are you a freezer hoarder because you're cooking so much?Hayden Haas [00:17:30]:Oh, yeah. There's a lot of, disorganization that happens in but at the same time, I'm pretty good about, not having food waste. I kind of like auction things off to my neighbors and, you know, people that I meet that are kind of like within the vicinity where I'll say like, hey. For example, I just made, my breakfast pizza recipe and so I can kinda just auction it off to my friends who are all super busy and whatnot. And, oh, it's just great because I kinda get to feed my own little community and get their feedback at the same time where it's like, yeah. Don't add onions to this or that was too salty or something like that. So it's so helpful to get that here.Stephanie Hansen [00:18:12]:I'm creeping my neighbors out actually because I'm always like I just this morning, I did a TV segment. I had all these rice crispy bars. I didn't want them in the house because I'll eat them. So I just loaded up paper plates and kinda went door to door. And people are just like my neigh my next door neighbor, I know. She's just like because I this in this week alone, I've brought them a chicken pasta dish. I brought them apple muffins, and then I brought them rice crispy bars. And that's, like, within the last 3 days.Hayden Haas [00:18:46]:Yeah. I don't hear the problem in any of this. I think you're probably the favorite neighbor.Stephanie Hansen [00:18:51]:I hope.Hayden Haas [00:18:52]:I'm sure of it because I do the same thing. I was dropping off tiramisu, cheesecake, and some pizza and brownie. So we're in the same category. And if they don't want those leftovers, I'll take them.Stephanie Hansen [00:19:05]:That's so funny. Yeah. I need to I just I feel like, oh my gosh. These people probably think I'm so crazy because I'm always justHayden Haas [00:19:12]:Oh.Stephanie Hansen [00:19:13]:Walking door to door with piles of food. And I have a brand new neighbor that's literally right next to me that I haven't met yet. And they looked like they moved in over the weekend and then maybe were are doing some painting. So I left some of the muffins on their, like, door. And I my friend said, she goes, do you real do these people realize who you are and, like, what a gift it's gonna be living next to you? I'm like, I don't know.Hayden Haas [00:19:42]:No. I, 100% support all of that. Spread the love. I always say it's like, Nesquik, don't come for me, like, legally, but I always say share the wealth. And if your wealth is baked goods, share them. People are gonna love it. Exactly.Stephanie Hansen [00:19:55]:And thenHayden Haas [00:19:55]:it's not like you're gonna give them anything terrible or anything. Yeah. We only weigh our best creations. Right?Stephanie Hansen [00:20:01]:Yes. Exactly. So when you were at Food Network, you did you directly work on Molly's show or did you work on some other shows too?Hayden Haas [00:20:10]:I worked on Molly did a couple of things with HGTV, so that was fun to see what that was like. But I did, I started off as a dishwasher and then moved up to a food stylist. And then, at the same time, I was also Molly's assistant. And I've also had my own little touch of reality television because I was on Food Network's Chopped.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:35]:Oh, you were.Hayden Haas [00:20:37]:It was love.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:37]:Hear about that.Hayden Haas [00:20:39]:It was really fun. I did a blind date episode where yeah. It was so much fun. I was matched with somebody that I had never met before. And so you kinda go on a blind date. And then, you know, you get the basket with all of the mystery ingredients. And I think my ingredients were, like, like a cranberry kiss cocktail and, like, a red tail snapper and some heart shaped ravioli. And we I my partner and I, when we went into it, we initially kind of had, like, a situation where I was like, do you wanna take the lead, or do you want me to be sous chef or whatever? And he decided he wanted to be the lead, then I was like, I'll support you whatever you wanna do through the way.Hayden Haas [00:21:25]:So I was happy to do that. I wouldn't have, necessarily made the dish that we ended up making. Spoiler alert, I didn't end up winning, but it is still a really great episode, and I'm still friends with all the women on that show. SoStephanie Hansen [00:21:38]:So what did you end up making? Because I was listening to your ingredients and thinking, oh, well, the cranberry's gotta be a sauce.Hayden Haas [00:21:45]:Sure. If you're familiar with, like, kind of like a pate situation, it was kinda like that but with fish. So not not always a big winner. If I could have made what I wanted to, you since you have the cookbook right there, I won I would have made or leaned in towards my cranberry tortellini recipe.Stephanie Hansen [00:22:04]:Yeah.Hayden Haas [00:22:05]:And I think that would have, like, surprising people. But it also might have been, like, kinda boring because it's, like, pasta and Alfredo cranberry sauce or whatever. You know?Stephanie Hansen [00:22:15]:No. Alfredo sauce is never boring. I don't care. I feel like I eat noodles 62 times a week.Hayden Haas [00:22:22]:Yeah. I'm always a huge advocate of pasta myself.Stephanie Hansen [00:22:26]:Yeah. That's I'm gonna just go to that recipe right now, and we're gonna talk about it. Because, I love pasta. I eat pasta all the time. And I made spaghetti for a friend this weekend, and she came over and she goes, no offense, but can we just order takeout? I really hate noodles. What? I was like, who are you?Hayden Haas [00:22:48]:Interesting.Stephanie Hansen [00:22:49]:Yeah. I thought it was. Okay. So for cranberry sauce, let's see what we have in there. Here we are. Yep. Oh, I went on the wrong page.Hayden Haas [00:23:03]:Puerto Rican Alfredo sauce that we make from scratch, and then I do have my grandma's cranberry recipe. It it is like a I like I guess I like my cranberry sauce a touch sweeter, but, you know, you can make it as bitter as you want to.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:21]:Okay. This looks really good. It's got it's the sauce is kinda pink. It's got a sun dried tomato, mushrooms, artichoke hearts. Looks delicious.Hayden Haas [00:23:29]:Yeah. Big fan. When I was in college, there was this little restaurant, not not Olive Garden. But when when I was waiting when I was waiting tables in college, that was one of the more popular dishes from that restaurant.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:46]:Let's talk about all the, like, plates and the dishes in your book. Are these all things you own, or did you guys rent things?Hayden Haas [00:23:53]:No. I did not rent things. All of those were things that I do own because I am kind of a mix match person. So none of my plates match. None of my cups match. I, maybe a bit of a maximalist, if you will. So I love selection. I also kind of display them in my dining room.Hayden Haas [00:24:14]:So then whenever I have somebody over, I'm, like, grab any glass. So then that person kind of gets to pick whatever fun glass or fork or plate, whatever theyStephanie Hansen [00:24:23]:Phew. I love that idea.Hayden Haas [00:24:25]:So much fun. And then, you know, you always get really fun pictures at the same time.Stephanie Hansen [00:24:30]:Yeah. For sure. And I am feeling a little bit like and and I'm getting to the end of this book, so I'm feeling a little horny at this point. And, like, oh, I need to, like, maybe get rid of some of this stuff or repurpose it to the next house. Goodwill is my friend, but sometimes the things go back to the Goodwill too. Right?Hayden Haas [00:24:48]:Hey. You just don't have to tell me. I'm a avid thrifter myself, so I love, finding, like, a plate or 2 every time you visit or something where you're like, I have a vision for this particular plate, and it's gonna have some delicious pasta on it. And or here's this old pillowcase that I could sew into a napkin or something. So it's like, repurpose those things, make them beautiful, and share them with everyone.Stephanie Hansen [00:25:14]:Okay. I love that you would actually repurpose a pillowcase into a napkin.Hayden Haas [00:25:17]:Oh, and I've turned an old tablecloth into something els Shoot. It's all mix-and-match. I tell you, I love it. I have a whole cabinet ' whole cabinet just for my linens.Stephanie Hansen [00:25:29]:Can you think of something, like, where you got a real score at a thrift store? Like, do you have a favorite thing you thrifted?Hayden Haas [00:25:37]:Good question. I do, but I don't have, I really would love to provide, like, a image for you. But I since I am such an avid thrifter, I have a whole collection on my living room wall of mirrors. Cool. So it's kind of like you know how people have those, like, picture collages and stuff inStephanie Hansen [00:25:59]:the house?Hayden Haas [00:26:00]:It's kinda like that, but for mirrors. So it's like the whole and they're all different kinds. Like, some are new and nice. Like, I'm sure some are from, like, a Target or whatever. Sure. Got a cute one. But they're all different kinds and, some have little stands on them. I've my favorite one is, like, this vintage cover girl mirror.Hayden Haas [00:26:21]:Oh, it's so it's, like, tiny and cute. I everybody loves it when they come and check it out.Stephanie Hansen [00:26:26]:Oh, that's fun.Hayden Haas [00:26:27]:Yeah. And I don't know if a mirror is probably the greatest example because I really don't even look at myself in the mirror that much, but it's just such a fun little, addition to home and calling it cozy, and it's always a conversation starter when somebody walks in the door. And I Yeah.Stephanie Hansen [00:26:46]:It sure sounds like it.Hayden Haas [00:26:48]:Say that they wanna copy it. I'm like, it's all yours. Please enjoy.Stephanie Hansen [00:26:52]:So when you think about, a cookbook that you wish you had written, can you think of 1?Hayden Haas [00:27:02]:A cookbook I wish I would have written.Stephanie Hansen [00:27:04]:Yeah. Like, you just find it so inspiring.Hayden Haas [00:27:07]:I there's so many people that I'm inspired by. That's so tough. I would say somebody who I am always inspired by what is Molly Ye, of course.Stephanie Hansen [00:27:19]:Yeah.Hayden Haas [00:27:20]:I learned so much from my time with her. There's a couple of other people who are kind of influential. So going back a little bit when I was kind of burnt out in between architecture and whatnot, also very Minnesota of me, I went to go work for Target, like, part time, but then they ended up wanting me as a manager, which is great. I loved my time with them. In that time shift, that's when I started cooking for myself, and I really didn't have, like, social media before that. So it, like, started out fresh at, like, the age of 27 and started posting, like, food, blogs, pictures, like, kind of starting out, my own little food photography or food journey. And I started my mom had gifted me Chrissy Teigen's cookbook. And I was, so thankful for that, and I cooked my way through it.Hayden Haas [00:28:10]:And I started sharing some recipes, and she started commenting and liking on some of my things. And that inspired me to do more, which kinda led me on my way to meet Molly Ye. But there's so many other people like Anthony Bourdain and, you know, most of the people on Food Network. So that was, like, so funny that in my small little town that I was given, like, an opportunity for something I didn't think I would ever have.Stephanie Hansen [00:28:34]:Yeah. So And Chrissy Teigen's cravings book, I thought that that was a good cookbook. She's gotHayden Haas [00:28:41]:about 3 or 4 in her series. I've haven't done as much investigating into the newer books, but the first couple were so great and, like, everything, you know, you can pretty much make from home.Stephanie Hansen [00:28:55]:Yeah. I really liked Pepper's book too, her mom.Hayden Haas [00:28:58]:Oh, yeah. I also have that one. She's so cute.Stephanie Hansen [00:29:00]:Cute. Do you have, like, a white Pyrenees? Or what's your dog?Hayden Haas [00:29:03]:This is Max. You'll see a ton of him in the cookbook also.Stephanie Hansen [00:29:07]:Cute.Hayden Haas [00:29:08]:He's an English cream retriever, and so Max makes a couple of, cameos in there as well.Stephanie Hansen [00:29:14]:Well, Stanley, my dog, I wasHayden Haas [00:29:16]:Listen.Stephanie Hansen [00:29:17]:Yeah. I was gonna say you you may have heard him. He was in a squeaky toy earlier, and I was like, shut the door.Hayden Haas [00:29:23]:I I wasn't sure if you heard Max earlier, but that was him.Stephanie Hansen [00:29:27]:That's funny. Well, this has been a real delight. Hayden Haas, Simply Delish Haas. I it is, recipes from the Midwestern Kitchen. It's a beautiful book. I am excited to connect with you. We will eat or do something fun. I feel like we're gonna be fast friends.Hayden Haas [00:29:46]:We're gonna warm up at some point.Stephanie Hansen [00:29:48]:I think so. Yes. But it was great to talk to you. Congratulations on the book. People can follow you at I'm sorry. I didn't write your Instagram down.Hayden Haas [00:29:58]:It's the same thing. I wanna tell you congratulations on your book, and I can't wait to get together sometime.Stephanie Hansen [00:30:04]:Thank you.Hayden Haas [00:30:04]:You can find me if you usually type in Hayden, h a y d e n, and then Delish Haws, d e l I s h a a s, because or if you just type in Hayden Haws Cook or something or other, it'll come up. I'm on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, all of the stuff.Stephanie Hansen [00:30:26]:Alright. I'm just I'm amazed and impressed with all the work that you're putting out, and your book is great. Thanks for being a guest today. I'm sure we'll get together soon.Hayden Haas [00:30:35]:Yes. Thank you again so much for having me.Stephanie Hansen [00:30:36]:Alright. Good to see you. Bye. Alright. Bye bye. 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

Welcome to another episode of "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish," where we dive into the world of food with our guests from all corners of the culinary landscape. This time, we're delighted to have Nicole Aufderhar with us, known for her Instagram page @TenThousandBakes, where she showcases her incredible baking creations. Our conversation traces her baking journey from family traditions to competing on the Great American Baking Show, where she reached the final three and participated in the finale. Nicole shares her love for Minnesota State Fair Baking and her insights into balancing a creative passion with an artistic career. Join us as we explore her baking adventures, inspirations, and the sweet success she's found along the way.EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Stephanie Hansen [00:00:16]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's dish, the podcast where we talk to people in the food space. And today, my guest is Nicole Ofterhauer, and she is at 10000 Bakes on Instagram. And we became friends, kind of funny, through the Jason show's hottest day on record at the state fair.Nicole Aufderhar [00:00:36]:Yes. Where we were all dying and couldn't think straight.Stephanie Hansen [00:00:40]:Yeah. We were just, like, sweating ourselves off, and you had made these super beautiful blueberry macarons. And you were there to talk about your experience that you'd had as a state fair baker, but also on the Great American Baking Show, which if people don't know because I still think people don't know that that show exists.Nicole Aufderhar [00:01:01]:They don't know. Even, like, my friends and family sometimes don't know that it exists. It's yeah. Everyone knows the British version, but surprise, there's an American one.Stephanie Hansen [00:01:10]:Yes. So The Great British Bake Off, spun off a great American baking show, and Nicole was a guest on it and did very well. Weren't you, like, in the final 3?Nicole Aufderhar [00:01:20]:Yeah. Yeah. I made it all the way to the finals.Stephanie Hansen [00:01:22]:Okay. So that's exciting. And I just wanna point out, I don't know when people are gonna listen to this because I'm probably gonna release it maybe this Friday or the next Friday. I haven't decided yet. ButNicole Aufderhar [00:01:34]:Mhmm.Stephanie Hansen [00:01:35]:If you haven't gotten a chance, please go right now to Nicole's Instagram page and look at 10,000 Bakes. Because, honestly, she has some of the most amazing spooky treats on there. Girl, I mean, those the skull truffles with the raspberry filling, are you kidding me?Nicole Aufderhar [00:01:51]:Oh, yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I I've always been kind of a Halloween nut. Like, always been my thing. The spookier, the better. And so for me, Halloween baking is kinda all about embracing kind of the quirky and weird. So I just go all in with it.Nicole Aufderhar [00:02:07]:It's always fun every year.Stephanie Hansen [00:02:09]:I mean, your stuff is real cool looking. Very beautiful. There was also a black was it what kind of a, cake was it?Nicole Aufderhar [00:02:18]:Yeah. So I made it was a peri breast, actually. So, like, a patichou base pastry.Stephanie Hansen [00:02:26]:Yeah. It looked like chew pastries stuffed or filled with, like, a cream of some sort.Nicole Aufderhar [00:02:31]:Yep. Yeah. So I used, black cocoa creme pat, and then there was also you couldn't see the picture, but there was, like, a raspberry gel as well. So kind of that dark chocolate raspberry thing kinda fitting with Halloween.Stephanie Hansen [00:02:44]:I mean, it was unbelievably fantastic looking.Nicole Aufderhar [00:02:47]:Oh, thanks. Yeah. Like I said, it's I get to be my weird artistic self this time of year, so it's kind of fun.Stephanie Hansen [00:02:53]:I like your weird artistic self. Take that and the listener kind of on the journey of how this whole thing started for you.Nicole Aufderhar [00:03:01]:So I have kind of been baking my entire life. You know, like, most people grew up mom in the kitchen, Nestle Toll House, Christmas cutout. You know, nothing, like, crazy, but just, you know, family baking. And as I grew up, I just kinda started to dive more and more into it. I'm kind of a shy person. So when I would go to parties, like, talking to people is stressful, but if I bring a bank, that gives me something to talk about. Sure. So, you know, I kind of started doing that more.Nicole Aufderhar [00:03:30]:And in college, I actually studied photography with, like, emphasis on food photography. And because I don't wanna take pictures of babies. So I decided to do the food route, and then I kinda decided that, well, if I wanna take pictures of beautiful things, I might have to learn how to bake some of these things. And so it's just kind of continued to grow and grow, and it's always been kind of my creative endeavor that's just for me and just for fun and really lets me express myself without the pressure. You know, I'm an artist full time, so I have that pressure there. So this is just just for fun, just for me. And when I saw that there was a great American baking show, which I didn't even know. You know, I've watched the British version for years, and then I saw online that they were casting for the American version.Nicole Aufderhar [00:04:19]:I thought, oh, well, let's let's see. Why not? You know? And I put my hat in the ring, and I made it all the way to the final round of 1st year, which I wasn't expecting. It's a very long process, and I just what I thought would maybe just be something that I'd enter and never hear from again ended up being this multiyear journey of traveling with baked goods and auditions. And after a couple 2 years of auditioning, I was cast on the show.Stephanie Hansen [00:04:51]:So yeah. So exciting.Nicole Aufderhar [00:04:53]:Yeah.Stephanie's Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Stephanie Hansen [00:04:54]:So how long from the beginning of you arriving to start the taping to when you go home is that length of time?Nicole Aufderhar [00:05:04]:So you are there basically for an entire month. For us, it was the entire month of August. You do a lot of prep work stateside before you go, you know, coming up with your own recipes and stuff. But once you are there, you are there the whole time. Even if you're eliminated, then you just kinda get a London vacation, but you're there for the entire month.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:24]:So they do it in the Great British Bake Off same space?Nicole Aufderhar [00:05:28]:Yeah. So for the Great British Bake Off, there's 2 tents. There is a tent where they film the version everybody knows, and then there's a tent where they film, like, celebrity versions, and I believe it's coming from Janae Baycock is still there as well, but, yeah, there are 2 tents. We're in the the other tent, like so it's not the tent, but it's one of theirs.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:51]:Yeah. And Paul and Pru are still judges.Nicole Aufderhar [00:05:55]:Yeah. Yeah. It's the same judges. It's Paul and Pru. We have American hosts. You know, that's the difference. People always kind of, I don't wanna say, hate on the American version, but they always say, oh, we don't like it because they're hypercompetitive, and they don't have the accents and all this. And I'm like, well, yeah, we don't have the accents.Nicole Aufderhar [00:06:12]:Sure. And that's the baddest. Yeah. Yeah.Stephanie Hansen [00:06:16]:So there's that.Nicole Aufderhar [00:06:18]:Yeah. So, you know, I mean, if you wanna nitpick, but it's still, like, a heartwarming, friendly show. Like, once people sit down and watch it, they're like, oh, that's actually enjoyable. I'm like, yes. That's what I've been telling you.Stephanie Hansen [00:06:32]:It is funny that the perception of Bake Off and what people love and what attracted me to it too was just how kind and supportive everybody is. And we've gotten used to watching these, you know, chopped and these sort of aggressive male dominated, like, shows of competition. And it is funny because I do think America in general this is a very gross generalization, but I do think we're more competitive. We're very aggressively business focused, like, success focused. And I think what is nice about The Bake Off is there's a lot of people from all these different walks of life, and they just happen to make pastry too or they're bakers.Nicole Aufderhar [00:07:20]:Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what it is. And that's when I auditioned because I talked a lot about my state fair, you know, competing background. And they purposely were, like, asking me, well, are you hypercompetitive? Are you how do you feel if you don't win? You know? And so I had to make sure that I expressed that I'm not competitive despite all that. Like, I love the community behind these competitions and the friends that I've made, and they are trying to seek out people for that show that are there to just be with other bakers and have fun and get this experience and aren't there because I wanna win. And, I mean, the prize is a cake plate. You know? Like, you're not getting $20,000 or a book deal.Nicole Aufderhar [00:08:01]:You know? You get a cake plate. So if you're not there to just have a good time, you know, they're not gonna put you in the tent.Stephanie Hansen [00:08:09]:You happen to mention the state fair. Can you talk a little bit about your state fair baking experience? Because you're pretty well known and traveled in the state fair scene too. Minnesota State Fair.Nicole Aufderhar [00:08:23]:Yeah. Yeah. Especially the last year, people have kind of, I don't know, found my like, I've always shared about my journey with it. That's kinda why I started my Instagram page was because I wanted to share this community and show how accessible it is. Like, you don't have to be an incredible baker to enter. You just start. You just start entering stuff, and you get to meet people on entry day. And sometimes you get feedback from the judges.Nicole Aufderhar [00:08:48]:Sometimes you get head scratching feedback from the judges, but, like, it's just a super fun thing. And so I grew up with a step grandma who competed and kinda taught me the ropes from a young age and was kinda harsh about it, but it served me in the long run. And, so then about gosh. It's been 10 years now, I believe, I started. I did my first contest. I just entered three things, you know, just to kinda feel it out, and all 3 of them ribbon. I got 2 seconds and a 5th, and I was like, oh,Stephanie Hansen [00:09:20]:okay. You know? That's either this isNicole Aufderhar [00:09:24]:you know, I wasn't sure what to think. I'm like, oh, this is easier than I thought, or I might actually be kinda good at baking because your friends and family are always like, oh, everything's fantastic, but isStephanie Hansen [00:09:33]:it really? You know?Nicole Aufderhar [00:09:35]:So it's kinda given me this avenue to try new things and meet new people. And over the years, you know, I've I've done pretty well, and I've made some really amazing friends, and I just it's something I look forward to all year round.Stephanie Hansen [00:09:48]:What do you remember what the three things you were that you made in the first?Nicole Aufderhar [00:09:53]:Yeah. They weren't even I'd call them baking light. Honestly, it was like a granola bar and then some granola, and then they used to do this thing called the recipe challenge Yep. Where everyone would get the same recipe. You know? So it's kinda like the technical on the makeup, honestly, which is what appealed to me is you all get the same recipe. You kinda have to interpret it. And so I got a second place on that. I got a second place on the bars, and then I got a 5th place on the granola.Nicole Aufderhar [00:10:23]:And the the funny thing with the cookies was I was always under this belief that you had to enter things freshly baked that morning, you know. So I woke up early to do my final round, and they didn't they failed. The dough, I don't know what I did wrong or if it was the heat, it failed. And so I'm crying in the kitchen. I'm like, what do I do? Well, I had ones that I had stored in the freezer, like, 3 weeks ago. I mean Yeah. I was like, I wanna save them just in case, and I'm so glad I did because that's what I ended up entering were 3 week old transfer cookies, and they still placed.Stephanie Hansen [00:10:55]:Yeah. And a lot of people do that. Like, I know another woman, and she enters, like, 82 contests. And some of her stuff comesNicole Aufderhar [00:11:03]:inStephanie Hansen [00:11:03]:the freezer, and she pulls it out the night before, and that's what they enter.Nicole Aufderhar [00:11:07]:That's what I and that's what I've been telling people this year, especially, people are surprised to learn that I did that. And I'm like, yeah. And they're like, well, but don't they taste them? Like, yeah. You know, you can kinda tell freezer goods from the fresh, but that's what everybody else is doing. So if you're the best of the freezer bunch Yeah. You know, and it works.Stephanie Hansen [00:11:25]:How many categories did you enter this year?Nicole Aufderhar [00:11:28]:This year, I ended up doing 12, I believe it was, which I'm not I mean, there's people that show up with laundry baskets full of stuff, you know, and max out at 20. I doing 12 was a lot for me. I usually, like, keep them in the single digits. But, yeah, it went really well. Half of them ribboned. I got a smoked steaks for the first time, so it was a lot of fun this year.Stephanie Hansen [00:11:52]:Yeah. And what people maybe don't know I mean, you said mentioned that you're an artist. You make, leather bound journals and leather goods. And, what's your website for that? Because I wanna make sure we tell people because your work's reallyThanks for reading Stephanie's Dish Newsletter! This post is public so feel free to share it.Nicole Aufderhar [00:12:07]:So my website is wayfaringgoods.com, and it's not wayfair like that big furniture supply place or whatever. It's spelled wayfaringgoods.com.Stephanie Hansen [00:12:21]:I love it. Yeah. Because you're not doing this in a professional scope.Nicole Aufderhar [00:12:28]:No. Baking is right now, you know, probably, you know, I don't know, forever. It's just for fun. I I love what I do with my leather business. That has been something I've been doing full time for 15 years. Like, that's really where my I don't know. I'm as passionate about baking as I am about leather, but I like keeping my leather as my business and my baking as my creative passion, which I think is important for professional creatives to have that thing without the pressure of selling.Stephanie Hansen [00:13:03]:And let's talk about that for a second because that's sort of uniquely American too. I think that this idea is like, oh, well, she's making all this stuff. She's in competitive realm. She's doing really well, so she must be planning a bakery because we, like, don't really just allow ourselves to have these creative outlets without making them into something. We feel the pressure from ourselves.Nicole Aufderhar [00:13:28]:Yeah. Oh, exactly. And I think I mean, it's so important to have that creative passion that you don't have that pressure behind. And I I think so I started my business right out of college. I could have either gone the professional photography router than what I did. And so I think because I started young, I learned how important it is to have that creative passion just for fun. I see a lot of my friends that have since pursued kinda similar art businesses, and I see them now struggling with this. Like, oh, well, I'm also good at this, so I should sell this and I should do that.Nicole Aufderhar [00:14:05]:And it's like, no. You don't have to sell everything you make. Like, if you're a creative person, you might be good at a lot of different creative things.Stephanie Hansen [00:14:13]:Yes.Nicole Aufderhar [00:14:14]:You know? And it stops being fun when you know, like, if I have a failure in the kitchen, I'm disappointed. You know? I get frustrated, but it's okay because it's not going anywhere. I don't have to worry about someone a customer coming. I don't have to, you know, it's a different kind of failure versus the feeling when you're struggling with the business. And so I I like having those two things very separate.Stephanie Hansen [00:14:41]:Yeah. I can see that too. And, also, like, this idea that because you're good at something or because you make something, then it's becomes less a hobby and then a job. And sometimes I struggle with that because I'm just cooking now between the cookbook and the show and the adjacent appearances and, my blog.Nicole Aufderhar [00:15:02]:I feelStephanie Hansen [00:15:02]:like I'm just cooking all the time. And sometimes, like, I feel another like, I have to, like, videotape everything I'm doing. And, like, the other day, I was like, I'm not pulling out the video camera. I'm going to cook something that could I? Sure. But, I'm just going to make these apple muffins because I have apples and I feel like an apple muffin and I'm not going to videotape it and you know what? I'm not even going to write down the recipe. And I just was like I just sat in the moment. I enjoyed the bake. I loved the smell it made my house.Stephanie Hansen [00:15:33]:The muffins came out. I ate 1. I gave one to the dog and then I went and distributed them the neighborhood and got rid of them and came home and was like, oh, that was fun.Nicole Aufderhar [00:15:43]:Yeah. Isn't that's the best. That is those are that's the best feelings. And I know exactly even though, like, I don't do my baking on a professional level, just in the world of social media. Like you said, you have this pressure to film everything you do and turn everything that you do into some form of content. And that just sucks sucks the fun out of it. You know? Like, you know, sometimes it's fun, you know, but if you're not feeling it, like, don't do it. If Yeah.Nicole Aufderhar [00:16:11]:I don't know. You know, it's important to, like obviously, for you, it is part of your work.Stephanie Hansen [00:16:17]:But But is it I mean, also and I'm sort of like I don't know. I'm just sort of working through this too. Like, we give a lot away of ourselves as creators, as people in a social media space, and it's just demanding. And I don't wanna, like, sound not grateful because I am because you build a platform and people really dig your stuff and that's fun, but also, like, trying to recognize what's real and what's not real sometimes.Nicole Aufderhar [00:16:50]:Yes. Yep. Yeah. Because people see a version of you and and a version of what you do, and they expect that over and over and over again.Stephanie Hansen [00:17:00]:Yeah.Nicole Aufderhar [00:17:00]:And it can be exhausting. Yeah. And some daysStephanie Hansen [00:17:04]:you don't feel like delivering that.Nicole Aufderhar [00:17:06]:Yeah. I don't. You know? And and then sometimes I feel like, oh, I have to put it out there because I put everything out there, and then I do it and it doesn't do well or whatever. And then I stress out about that. It's like, why? Why?Stephanie Hansen [00:17:17]:Yeah.Nicole Aufderhar [00:17:18]:You know?Stephanie Hansen [00:17:20]:Well, you and I had coffee, and I think you well, we met at the hottest day of the year, and then you followed up. And you're like, would you ever wanna have coffee? I was like, yes. Of course. And I I also loved that you reached out to me because I do like bringing this creative online life sometimes into the real life of you and I just sitting and having a cup of coffee and talking about what we're into and what's fun. And I just I was I was appreciative that you reached out. And I I wish more people would do that kind of in a real space because I think that's how you grow and how you can help mentor others and help others find their path because so many people have helped me along the way. My goodness.Nicole Aufderhar [00:18:04]:Yeah. No. Yeah. And I I'm still so grateful you said yes because Sure. It is super important. And I think that people are kinda surprised when others are willing to do stuff in person and meet in person. And even for my tiny little thing that I do at the state fair, I met people online and they were worried about bugging me or asking me questions. And I'm like, why? Like, oh, I Yeah.Nicole Aufderhar [00:18:27]:I I and maybe not I love talking about that kind of stuff. If I can help somebody else, like, I go to competition. I'm like, so, like Yeah. Like, it's better for all of us in the long run, you know, if we're encouraging others to do it and get better and help the people where we can with stuff that we've learned along the way. And, like, I personally enjoy doing that. So that's why it was so exciting to Yeah. Get to sit and talk with you and, you know, meet someone else of the food, you know, yeah, and just learn from each other.Stephanie Hansen [00:18:59]:So what's next for you, Nicole? Have you thought about that?Nicole Aufderhar [00:19:05]:All the time. No. Again, after having done the show and now I've I've been very fortunate since the show came out with opportunities that have come my way. You know, you never know if anyone's gonna notice or pay attention or anything, and I've honestly been quite overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that I have done. And so people, you know, they expect the bakery. They expect us to expect that. That is not that's not on my realm. That's not what I'm thinking at all.Nicole Aufderhar [00:19:36]:I long term dream, short term dream. I don't know. I always tell people I would like to do a cookbook. That is something I thought of wanting to do years. I mean, that's kinda always been in the back of my head because Yeah. I enjoy the recipe development portion of baking. So that's kinda where my strong suit is. That's where I that's what I enjoy the most.Nicole Aufderhar [00:19:59]:So, you know, obviously, I'm gonna be continuing on with my leather business as always Yep. Gearing up for holiday season right now. So that's, you know, the main part of my life, but I'm just gonna continue to create recipes, share that, share the state fair knowledge, and just be willing to embrace and be open to whatever might come from it.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:26]:Alright. Let's do something fun. Are you ready for fun? Maybe. Always. I have, like, 5 to 10 questions. We'll see how it goes. Just random kinda rapid fire questions.Nicole Aufderhar [00:20:40]:Oh gosh.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:42]:They're not hard. They're they're all about you. They're not hard.Nicole Aufderhar [00:20:46]:Okay.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:46]:Oh, okay. Here's number 1. What is the first bake you remember making yourself?Nicole Aufderhar [00:20:54]:Cupcakes. Cute. Yeah. Like, as a kid? It's so basic, but that's yeah. Strawberry cupcakes with Swiss meringue buttercream. Yum. That was my first, quote, unquote, real bake that I did.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:08]:I love it. Okay. When you go to a potluck, what do you typically bring?Nicole Aufderhar [00:21:16]:Macarons.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:18]:Oh, fancy. Yes.Nicole Aufderhar [00:21:20]:They're easy to share. They look impressive, but they're pretty easy to whip up.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:25]:Okay. What is the first thing you eat from a Halloween candy bucket?Nicole Aufderhar [00:21:32]:That's funny. Snickers popped into my head first, but Reese's are my favorite, but I guess Snickers would be my first.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:37]:Okay. I love that. Reese's is the number one popular candy. You probably know that.Nicole Aufderhar [00:21:41]:Yeah.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:41]:Yeah. What, is the restaurant that you've been to more than any other?Nicole Aufderhar [00:21:51]:Well, green scene since moving up to Walker. That would be yeah. Okay. I love the green scene here in town.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:57]:And you live in Walker. I should mention that. Yes. What's your most used pan?Nicole Aufderhar [00:22:05]:I my little I have a little saucepan, and I will shove anything I can into it even if it's not supposed to fit. I love it.Stephanie Hansen [00:22:12]:I have one of those too, and it's funny. Yeah.Nicole Aufderhar [00:22:15]:Yeah. Yeah. Doesn't fit. Okay. I just did that last meal with some jam. It was poor decision but I think it worked.Stephanie Hansen [00:22:21]:But you still loved your pan. Okay. This is your last question in the in the final round of the rapid fire questioning. What's an existing cookbook you wish you had written?Nicole Aufderhar [00:22:36]:Oh. Oh. I'm looking at all my cookbooks. I know. It's aStephanie Hansen [00:22:41]:hard one.Nicole Aufderhar [00:22:42]:That is a hard one. I can't I well, it's funny because I feel like picking any of them. I'm not worthy of any of them, but I have they're all old vintage ones. Like, I have this rose what's her last name?Stephanie Hansen [00:23:03]:Birnbaum Levy Birnbaum.Nicole Aufderhar [00:23:05]:I use a lot of her books. I wish I had the skill and the abilities to write something like that.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:11]:Do you know that that cake bible book that she wrote is having its 35th anniversary this year?Nicole Aufderhar [00:23:17]:I don't see that. I know. I can't believe it because except I have all, like, the real old vintage ones of it, and it's it's so cool that it still has stood the test of time.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:27]:Yeah. No. I love that you have those. That's amazing. Well, Nicole, I hope people will follow you on Instagram at 10000 Bakes. We're gonna for sure have you on, Jason's show next summer so we get a chance to connect with her there again. Wonderful. Also been doing reviews of Great British Bake Off with Bradley and Dawn on my talk 107.1.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:50]:Yeah. Yep. People should follow you, and you're making really cool Halloween stuff right now.Nicole Aufderhar [00:23:56]:Yeah. Thanks. Yes. We're having fun over here.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:59]:Yeah. It's amazing. Alright. Well, when you're gonna be coming down to town next or not downtown, down to town, next, give me a shout, and we'll have coffee again. It was fun.Nicole Aufderhar [00:24:09]:Oh, definitely. Totally.Stephanie Hansen [00:24:10]:Alright. Thanks, Nicole. I appreciate you spending time with us today. Yeah.Nicole Aufderhar [00:24:14]:Thank you.Stephanie Hansen [00:24:14]:We'll talk soon. Bye bye. Bye. Stephanie's Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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

Welcome to another episode of "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish," where we dive into the world of food with our guests from all corners of the culinary landscape. This time, we're delighted to have Nicole Aufderhar with us, known for her Instagram page @TenThousandBakes, where she showcases her incredible baking creations. Our conversation traces her baking journey from family traditions to competing on the Great American Baking Show, where she reached the final three and participated in the finale. Nicole shares her love for Minnesota State Fair Baking and her insights into balancing a creative passion with an artistic career. Join us as we explore her baking adventures, inspirations, and the sweet success she's found along the way.EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Stephanie Hansen [00:00:16]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's dish, the podcast where we talk to people in the food space. And today, my guest is Nicole Ofterhauer, and she is at 10000 Bakes on Instagram. And we became friends, kind of funny, through the Jason show's hottest day on record at the state fair.Nicole Aufderhar [00:00:36]:Yes. Where we were all dying and couldn't think straight.Stephanie Hansen [00:00:40]:Yeah. We were just, like, sweating ourselves off, and you had made these super beautiful blueberry macarons. And you were there to talk about your experience that you'd had as a state fair baker, but also on the Great American Baking Show, which if people don't know because I still think people don't know that that show exists.Nicole Aufderhar [00:01:01]:They don't know. Even, like, my friends and family sometimes don't know that it exists. It's yeah. Everyone knows the British version, but surprise, there's an American one.Stephanie Hansen [00:01:10]:Yes. So The Great British Bake Off, spun off a great American baking show, and Nicole was a guest on it and did very well. Weren't you, like, in the final 3?Nicole Aufderhar [00:01:20]:Yeah. Yeah. I made it all the way to the finals.Stephanie Hansen [00:01:22]:Okay. So that's exciting. And I just wanna point out, I don't know when people are gonna listen to this because I'm probably gonna release it maybe this Friday or the next Friday. I haven't decided yet. ButNicole Aufderhar [00:01:34]:Mhmm.Stephanie Hansen [00:01:35]:If you haven't gotten a chance, please go right now to Nicole's Instagram page and look at 10,000 Bakes. Because, honestly, she has some of the most amazing spooky treats on there. Girl, I mean, those the skull truffles with the raspberry filling, are you kidding me?Nicole Aufderhar [00:01:51]:Oh, yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I I've always been kind of a Halloween nut. Like, always been my thing. The spookier, the better. And so for me, Halloween baking is kinda all about embracing kind of the quirky and weird. So I just go all in with it.Nicole Aufderhar [00:02:07]:It's always fun every year.Stephanie Hansen [00:02:09]:I mean, your stuff is real cool looking. Very beautiful. There was also a black was it what kind of a, cake was it?Nicole Aufderhar [00:02:18]:Yeah. So I made it was a peri breast, actually. So, like, a patichou base pastry.Stephanie Hansen [00:02:26]:Yeah. It looked like chew pastries stuffed or filled with, like, a cream of some sort.Nicole Aufderhar [00:02:31]:Yep. Yeah. So I used, black cocoa creme pat, and then there was also you couldn't see the picture, but there was, like, a raspberry gel as well. So kind of that dark chocolate raspberry thing kinda fitting with Halloween.Stephanie Hansen [00:02:44]:I mean, it was unbelievably fantastic looking.Nicole Aufderhar [00:02:47]:Oh, thanks. Yeah. Like I said, it's I get to be my weird artistic self this time of year, so it's kind of fun.Stephanie Hansen [00:02:53]:I like your weird artistic self. Take that and the listener kind of on the journey of how this whole thing started for you.Nicole Aufderhar [00:03:01]:So I have kind of been baking my entire life. You know, like, most people grew up mom in the kitchen, Nestle Toll House, Christmas cutout. You know, nothing, like, crazy, but just, you know, family baking. And as I grew up, I just kinda started to dive more and more into it. I'm kind of a shy person. So when I would go to parties, like, talking to people is stressful, but if I bring a bank, that gives me something to talk about. Sure. So, you know, I kind of started doing that more.Nicole Aufderhar [00:03:30]:And in college, I actually studied photography with, like, emphasis on food photography. And because I don't wanna take pictures of babies. So I decided to do the food route, and then I kinda decided that, well, if I wanna take pictures of beautiful things, I might have to learn how to bake some of these things. And so it's just kind of continued to grow and grow, and it's always been kind of my creative endeavor that's just for me and just for fun and really lets me express myself without the pressure. You know, I'm an artist full time, so I have that pressure there. So this is just just for fun, just for me. And when I saw that there was a great American baking show, which I didn't even know. You know, I've watched the British version for years, and then I saw online that they were casting for the American version.Nicole Aufderhar [00:04:19]:I thought, oh, well, let's let's see. Why not? You know? And I put my hat in the ring, and I made it all the way to the final round of 1st year, which I wasn't expecting. It's a very long process, and I just what I thought would maybe just be something that I'd enter and never hear from again ended up being this multiyear journey of traveling with baked goods and auditions. And after a couple 2 years of auditioning, I was cast on the show.Stephanie Hansen [00:04:51]:So yeah. So exciting.Nicole Aufderhar [00:04:53]:Yeah.Stephanie's Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Stephanie Hansen [00:04:54]:So how long from the beginning of you arriving to start the taping to when you go home is that length of time?Nicole Aufderhar [00:05:04]:So you are there basically for an entire month. For us, it was the entire month of August. You do a lot of prep work stateside before you go, you know, coming up with your own recipes and stuff. But once you are there, you are there the whole time. Even if you're eliminated, then you just kinda get a London vacation, but you're there for the entire month.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:24]:So they do it in the Great British Bake Off same space?Nicole Aufderhar [00:05:28]:Yeah. So for the Great British Bake Off, there's 2 tents. There is a tent where they film the version everybody knows, and then there's a tent where they film, like, celebrity versions, and I believe it's coming from Janae Baycock is still there as well, but, yeah, there are 2 tents. We're in the the other tent, like so it's not the tent, but it's one of theirs.Stephanie Hansen [00:05:51]:Yeah. And Paul and Pru are still judges.Nicole Aufderhar [00:05:55]:Yeah. Yeah. It's the same judges. It's Paul and Pru. We have American hosts. You know, that's the difference. People always kind of, I don't wanna say, hate on the American version, but they always say, oh, we don't like it because they're hypercompetitive, and they don't have the accents and all this. And I'm like, well, yeah, we don't have the accents.Nicole Aufderhar [00:06:12]:Sure. And that's the baddest. Yeah. Yeah.Stephanie Hansen [00:06:16]:So there's that.Nicole Aufderhar [00:06:18]:Yeah. So, you know, I mean, if you wanna nitpick, but it's still, like, a heartwarming, friendly show. Like, once people sit down and watch it, they're like, oh, that's actually enjoyable. I'm like, yes. That's what I've been telling you.Stephanie Hansen [00:06:32]:It is funny that the perception of Bake Off and what people love and what attracted me to it too was just how kind and supportive everybody is. And we've gotten used to watching these, you know, chopped and these sort of aggressive male dominated, like, shows of competition. And it is funny because I do think America in general this is a very gross generalization, but I do think we're more competitive. We're very aggressively business focused, like, success focused. And I think what is nice about The Bake Off is there's a lot of people from all these different walks of life, and they just happen to make pastry too or they're bakers.Nicole Aufderhar [00:07:20]:Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what it is. And that's when I auditioned because I talked a lot about my state fair, you know, competing background. And they purposely were, like, asking me, well, are you hypercompetitive? Are you how do you feel if you don't win? You know? And so I had to make sure that I expressed that I'm not competitive despite all that. Like, I love the community behind these competitions and the friends that I've made, and they are trying to seek out people for that show that are there to just be with other bakers and have fun and get this experience and aren't there because I wanna win. And, I mean, the prize is a cake plate. You know? Like, you're not getting $20,000 or a book deal.Nicole Aufderhar [00:08:01]:You know? You get a cake plate. So if you're not there to just have a good time, you know, they're not gonna put you in the tent.Stephanie Hansen [00:08:09]:You happen to mention the state fair. Can you talk a little bit about your state fair baking experience? Because you're pretty well known and traveled in the state fair scene too. Minnesota State Fair.Nicole Aufderhar [00:08:23]:Yeah. Yeah. Especially the last year, people have kind of, I don't know, found my like, I've always shared about my journey with it. That's kinda why I started my Instagram page was because I wanted to share this community and show how accessible it is. Like, you don't have to be an incredible baker to enter. You just start. You just start entering stuff, and you get to meet people on entry day. And sometimes you get feedback from the judges.Nicole Aufderhar [00:08:48]:Sometimes you get head scratching feedback from the judges, but, like, it's just a super fun thing. And so I grew up with a step grandma who competed and kinda taught me the ropes from a young age and was kinda harsh about it, but it served me in the long run. And, so then about gosh. It's been 10 years now, I believe, I started. I did my first contest. I just entered three things, you know, just to kinda feel it out, and all 3 of them ribbon. I got 2 seconds and a 5th, and I was like, oh,Stephanie Hansen [00:09:20]:okay. You know? That's either this isNicole Aufderhar [00:09:24]:you know, I wasn't sure what to think. I'm like, oh, this is easier than I thought, or I might actually be kinda good at baking because your friends and family are always like, oh, everything's fantastic, but isStephanie Hansen [00:09:33]:it really? You know?Nicole Aufderhar [00:09:35]:So it's kinda given me this avenue to try new things and meet new people. And over the years, you know, I've I've done pretty well, and I've made some really amazing friends, and I just it's something I look forward to all year round.Stephanie Hansen [00:09:48]:What do you remember what the three things you were that you made in the first?Nicole Aufderhar [00:09:53]:Yeah. They weren't even I'd call them baking light. Honestly, it was like a granola bar and then some granola, and then they used to do this thing called the recipe challenge Yep. Where everyone would get the same recipe. You know? So it's kinda like the technical on the makeup, honestly, which is what appealed to me is you all get the same recipe. You kinda have to interpret it. And so I got a second place on that. I got a second place on the bars, and then I got a 5th place on the granola.Nicole Aufderhar [00:10:23]:And the the funny thing with the cookies was I was always under this belief that you had to enter things freshly baked that morning, you know. So I woke up early to do my final round, and they didn't they failed. The dough, I don't know what I did wrong or if it was the heat, it failed. And so I'm crying in the kitchen. I'm like, what do I do? Well, I had ones that I had stored in the freezer, like, 3 weeks ago. I mean Yeah. I was like, I wanna save them just in case, and I'm so glad I did because that's what I ended up entering were 3 week old transfer cookies, and they still placed.Stephanie Hansen [00:10:55]:Yeah. And a lot of people do that. Like, I know another woman, and she enters, like, 82 contests. And some of her stuff comesNicole Aufderhar [00:11:03]:inStephanie Hansen [00:11:03]:the freezer, and she pulls it out the night before, and that's what they enter.Nicole Aufderhar [00:11:07]:That's what I and that's what I've been telling people this year, especially, people are surprised to learn that I did that. And I'm like, yeah. And they're like, well, but don't they taste them? Like, yeah. You know, you can kinda tell freezer goods from the fresh, but that's what everybody else is doing. So if you're the best of the freezer bunch Yeah. You know, and it works.Stephanie Hansen [00:11:25]:How many categories did you enter this year?Nicole Aufderhar [00:11:28]:This year, I ended up doing 12, I believe it was, which I'm not I mean, there's people that show up with laundry baskets full of stuff, you know, and max out at 20. I doing 12 was a lot for me. I usually, like, keep them in the single digits. But, yeah, it went really well. Half of them ribboned. I got a smoked steaks for the first time, so it was a lot of fun this year.Stephanie Hansen [00:11:52]:Yeah. And what people maybe don't know I mean, you said mentioned that you're an artist. You make, leather bound journals and leather goods. And, what's your website for that? Because I wanna make sure we tell people because your work's reallyThanks for reading Stephanie's Dish Newsletter! This post is public so feel free to share it.Nicole Aufderhar [00:12:07]:So my website is wayfaringgoods.com, and it's not wayfair like that big furniture supply place or whatever. It's spelled wayfaringgoods.com.Stephanie Hansen [00:12:21]:I love it. Yeah. Because you're not doing this in a professional scope.Nicole Aufderhar [00:12:28]:No. Baking is right now, you know, probably, you know, I don't know, forever. It's just for fun. I I love what I do with my leather business. That has been something I've been doing full time for 15 years. Like, that's really where my I don't know. I'm as passionate about baking as I am about leather, but I like keeping my leather as my business and my baking as my creative passion, which I think is important for professional creatives to have that thing without the pressure of selling.Stephanie Hansen [00:13:03]:And let's talk about that for a second because that's sort of uniquely American too. I think that this idea is like, oh, well, she's making all this stuff. She's in competitive realm. She's doing really well, so she must be planning a bakery because we, like, don't really just allow ourselves to have these creative outlets without making them into something. We feel the pressure from ourselves.Nicole Aufderhar [00:13:28]:Yeah. Oh, exactly. And I think I mean, it's so important to have that creative passion that you don't have that pressure behind. And I I think so I started my business right out of college. I could have either gone the professional photography router than what I did. And so I think because I started young, I learned how important it is to have that creative passion just for fun. I see a lot of my friends that have since pursued kinda similar art businesses, and I see them now struggling with this. Like, oh, well, I'm also good at this, so I should sell this and I should do that.Nicole Aufderhar [00:14:05]:And it's like, no. You don't have to sell everything you make. Like, if you're a creative person, you might be good at a lot of different creative things.Stephanie Hansen [00:14:13]:Yes.Nicole Aufderhar [00:14:14]:You know? And it stops being fun when you know, like, if I have a failure in the kitchen, I'm disappointed. You know? I get frustrated, but it's okay because it's not going anywhere. I don't have to worry about someone a customer coming. I don't have to, you know, it's a different kind of failure versus the feeling when you're struggling with the business. And so I I like having those two things very separate.Stephanie Hansen [00:14:41]:Yeah. I can see that too. And, also, like, this idea that because you're good at something or because you make something, then it's becomes less a hobby and then a job. And sometimes I struggle with that because I'm just cooking now between the cookbook and the show and the adjacent appearances and, my blog.Nicole Aufderhar [00:15:02]:I feelStephanie Hansen [00:15:02]:like I'm just cooking all the time. And sometimes, like, I feel another like, I have to, like, videotape everything I'm doing. And, like, the other day, I was like, I'm not pulling out the video camera. I'm going to cook something that could I? Sure. But, I'm just going to make these apple muffins because I have apples and I feel like an apple muffin and I'm not going to videotape it and you know what? I'm not even going to write down the recipe. And I just was like I just sat in the moment. I enjoyed the bake. I loved the smell it made my house.Stephanie Hansen [00:15:33]:The muffins came out. I ate 1. I gave one to the dog and then I went and distributed them the neighborhood and got rid of them and came home and was like, oh, that was fun.Nicole Aufderhar [00:15:43]:Yeah. Isn't that's the best. That is those are that's the best feelings. And I know exactly even though, like, I don't do my baking on a professional level, just in the world of social media. Like you said, you have this pressure to film everything you do and turn everything that you do into some form of content. And that just sucks sucks the fun out of it. You know? Like, you know, sometimes it's fun, you know, but if you're not feeling it, like, don't do it. If Yeah.Nicole Aufderhar [00:16:11]:I don't know. You know, it's important to, like obviously, for you, it is part of your work.Stephanie Hansen [00:16:17]:But But is it I mean, also and I'm sort of like I don't know. I'm just sort of working through this too. Like, we give a lot away of ourselves as creators, as people in a social media space, and it's just demanding. And I don't wanna, like, sound not grateful because I am because you build a platform and people really dig your stuff and that's fun, but also, like, trying to recognize what's real and what's not real sometimes.Nicole Aufderhar [00:16:50]:Yes. Yep. Yeah. Because people see a version of you and and a version of what you do, and they expect that over and over and over again.Stephanie Hansen [00:17:00]:Yeah.Nicole Aufderhar [00:17:00]:And it can be exhausting. Yeah. And some daysStephanie Hansen [00:17:04]:you don't feel like delivering that.Nicole Aufderhar [00:17:06]:Yeah. I don't. You know? And and then sometimes I feel like, oh, I have to put it out there because I put everything out there, and then I do it and it doesn't do well or whatever. And then I stress out about that. It's like, why? Why?Stephanie Hansen [00:17:17]:Yeah.Nicole Aufderhar [00:17:18]:You know?Stephanie Hansen [00:17:20]:Well, you and I had coffee, and I think you well, we met at the hottest day of the year, and then you followed up. And you're like, would you ever wanna have coffee? I was like, yes. Of course. And I I also loved that you reached out to me because I do like bringing this creative online life sometimes into the real life of you and I just sitting and having a cup of coffee and talking about what we're into and what's fun. And I just I was I was appreciative that you reached out. And I I wish more people would do that kind of in a real space because I think that's how you grow and how you can help mentor others and help others find their path because so many people have helped me along the way. My goodness.Nicole Aufderhar [00:18:04]:Yeah. No. Yeah. And I I'm still so grateful you said yes because Sure. It is super important. And I think that people are kinda surprised when others are willing to do stuff in person and meet in person. And even for my tiny little thing that I do at the state fair, I met people online and they were worried about bugging me or asking me questions. And I'm like, why? Like, oh, I Yeah.Nicole Aufderhar [00:18:27]:I I and maybe not I love talking about that kind of stuff. If I can help somebody else, like, I go to competition. I'm like, so, like Yeah. Like, it's better for all of us in the long run, you know, if we're encouraging others to do it and get better and help the people where we can with stuff that we've learned along the way. And, like, I personally enjoy doing that. So that's why it was so exciting to Yeah. Get to sit and talk with you and, you know, meet someone else of the food, you know, yeah, and just learn from each other.Stephanie Hansen [00:18:59]:So what's next for you, Nicole? Have you thought about that?Nicole Aufderhar [00:19:05]:All the time. No. Again, after having done the show and now I've I've been very fortunate since the show came out with opportunities that have come my way. You know, you never know if anyone's gonna notice or pay attention or anything, and I've honestly been quite overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that I have done. And so people, you know, they expect the bakery. They expect us to expect that. That is not that's not on my realm. That's not what I'm thinking at all.Nicole Aufderhar [00:19:36]:I long term dream, short term dream. I don't know. I always tell people I would like to do a cookbook. That is something I thought of wanting to do years. I mean, that's kinda always been in the back of my head because Yeah. I enjoy the recipe development portion of baking. So that's kinda where my strong suit is. That's where I that's what I enjoy the most.Nicole Aufderhar [00:19:59]:So, you know, obviously, I'm gonna be continuing on with my leather business as always Yep. Gearing up for holiday season right now. So that's, you know, the main part of my life, but I'm just gonna continue to create recipes, share that, share the state fair knowledge, and just be willing to embrace and be open to whatever might come from it.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:26]:Alright. Let's do something fun. Are you ready for fun? Maybe. Always. I have, like, 5 to 10 questions. We'll see how it goes. Just random kinda rapid fire questions.Nicole Aufderhar [00:20:40]:Oh gosh.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:42]:They're not hard. They're they're all about you. They're not hard.Nicole Aufderhar [00:20:46]:Okay.Stephanie Hansen [00:20:46]:Oh, okay. Here's number 1. What is the first bake you remember making yourself?Nicole Aufderhar [00:20:54]:Cupcakes. Cute. Yeah. Like, as a kid? It's so basic, but that's yeah. Strawberry cupcakes with Swiss meringue buttercream. Yum. That was my first, quote, unquote, real bake that I did.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:08]:I love it. Okay. When you go to a potluck, what do you typically bring?Nicole Aufderhar [00:21:16]:Macarons.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:18]:Oh, fancy. Yes.Nicole Aufderhar [00:21:20]:They're easy to share. They look impressive, but they're pretty easy to whip up.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:25]:Okay. What is the first thing you eat from a Halloween candy bucket?Nicole Aufderhar [00:21:32]:That's funny. Snickers popped into my head first, but Reese's are my favorite, but I guess Snickers would be my first.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:37]:Okay. I love that. Reese's is the number one popular candy. You probably know that.Nicole Aufderhar [00:21:41]:Yeah.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:41]:Yeah. What, is the restaurant that you've been to more than any other?Nicole Aufderhar [00:21:51]:Well, green scene since moving up to Walker. That would be yeah. Okay. I love the green scene here in town.Stephanie Hansen [00:21:57]:And you live in Walker. I should mention that. Yes. What's your most used pan?Nicole Aufderhar [00:22:05]:I my little I have a little saucepan, and I will shove anything I can into it even if it's not supposed to fit. I love it.Stephanie Hansen [00:22:12]:I have one of those too, and it's funny. Yeah.Nicole Aufderhar [00:22:15]:Yeah. Yeah. Doesn't fit. Okay. I just did that last meal with some jam. It was poor decision but I think it worked.Stephanie Hansen [00:22:21]:But you still loved your pan. Okay. This is your last question in the in the final round of the rapid fire questioning. What's an existing cookbook you wish you had written?Nicole Aufderhar [00:22:36]:Oh. Oh. I'm looking at all my cookbooks. I know. It's aStephanie Hansen [00:22:41]:hard one.Nicole Aufderhar [00:22:42]:That is a hard one. I can't I well, it's funny because I feel like picking any of them. I'm not worthy of any of them, but I have they're all old vintage ones. Like, I have this rose what's her last name?Stephanie Hansen [00:23:03]:Birnbaum Levy Birnbaum.Nicole Aufderhar [00:23:05]:I use a lot of her books. I wish I had the skill and the abilities to write something like that.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:11]:Do you know that that cake bible book that she wrote is having its 35th anniversary this year?Nicole Aufderhar [00:23:17]:I don't see that. I know. I can't believe it because except I have all, like, the real old vintage ones of it, and it's it's so cool that it still has stood the test of time.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:27]:Yeah. No. I love that you have those. That's amazing. Well, Nicole, I hope people will follow you on Instagram at 10000 Bakes. We're gonna for sure have you on, Jason's show next summer so we get a chance to connect with her there again. Wonderful. Also been doing reviews of Great British Bake Off with Bradley and Dawn on my talk 107.1.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:50]:Yeah. Yep. People should follow you, and you're making really cool Halloween stuff right now.Nicole Aufderhar [00:23:56]:Yeah. Thanks. Yes. We're having fun over here.Stephanie Hansen [00:23:59]:Yeah. It's amazing. Alright. Well, when you're gonna be coming down to town next or not downtown, down to town, next, give me a shout, and we'll have coffee again. It was fun.Nicole Aufderhar [00:24:09]:Oh, definitely. Totally.Stephanie Hansen [00:24:10]:Alright. Thanks, Nicole. I appreciate you spending time with us today. Yeah.Nicole Aufderhar [00:24:14]:Thank you.Stephanie Hansen [00:24:14]:We'll talk soon. Bye bye. Bye. Stephanie's Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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

This week, we're excited to bring you a thought-provoking conversation with the wonderful Stephanie O'Dea, bestselling author and advocate for slow living.In this episode, Stephanie O'Dea dives deep into her journey from being known as the "crock pot queen," where I first connected with her (see her Slow cooker Brussels sprouts and Apricot Brie recipes below) , to embracing a more deliberate and slow-paced lifestyle. While we are in the month of Crocktober and Stephanie's book, “Make It Fast, Cook It Slow,” is never leaving my shelf, I also was really interested in her new “Slow Living: Cultivating a Life of Purpose in a Hustle-Driven World” pivot.Here's a quick look at what we talked about and… a recipe!

This week, we're excited to bring you a thought-provoking conversation with the wonderful Stephanie O'Dea, bestselling author and advocate for slow living.In this episode, Stephanie O'Dea dives deep into her journey from being known as the "crock pot queen," where I first connected with her (see her Slow cooker Brussels sprouts and Apricot Brie recipes below) , to embracing a more deliberate and slow-paced lifestyle. While we are in the month of Crocktober and Stephanie's book, “Make It Fast, Cook It Slow,” is never leaving my shelf, I also was really interested in her new “Slow Living: Cultivating a Life of Purpose in a Hustle-Driven World” pivot.Here's a quick look at what we talked about and… a recipe!

Adding ZINC can reduce the impacts of muscle disease in cattle.  Muscle Fatigue, which can be a precursor to animals not getting up and eating, thus leading to added stress, which leads to sickness.  Dr. Stephanie Hansen, with Iowa State University (link to press release) has been leading the latest research on benefits of added zinc into the diet of the cattle. Today will review the results of two studies they have done that focuses on added zinc supplementation both after transportation and prior to transportation.  We'll discuss the optimal level, how you can add it, and the cost.  Zinc… number 30 on the periodical table, but maybe it should be number 1 on your list to utilize this fall. #workingranchmagazine #ranchlife #ranching #dayweather #weather #agweather #beef #cows #livestock #cattle #cowpunchercoffee #gelbvieh #HallandHall #TankToad #BarnOwl #Zoetis #Inherit #purina #640 #shippingfever #transportation #zinc

Stephanie Hansen is back from Croatia! In this episode, the duo dives into the buzz around long drinks. Stephanie also shares her favorite crockpot recipes just in time for CROCKtober. They wrap up the first hour with the Ask Stephanie segment! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Elizabeth Ries is in the studio today with Stephanie Hansen! They talk about what makes recipes good, favorite foods, and making vegetarian tacos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabeth Ries is in the studio today with Stephanie Hansen! They talk about what makes recipes good, favorite foods, and making vegetarian tacos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stephanie Hansen and Elizabeth talk about their Top 2 in Hour 2, zucchini recipes, and gardening tips! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stephanie Hansen and Elizabeth talk about their Top 2 in Hour 2, zucchini recipes, and gardening tips! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brittany and Kendall welcome foodie Stephanie Hansen on the show where the ladies discuss being a mom, for better or worse. She also gives us some patios to check out while the weather is still nice. Ellie has the dirt, where we learn something new! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brittany and Kendall welcome foodie Stephanie Hansen on the show where the ladies discuss being a mom, for better or worse. She also gives us some patios to check out while the weather is still nice. Ellie has the dirt, where we learn something new! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stephanie March shares about meeting Phil Rosenthal, Stephanie Hansen recommends recipes for celebrating Cinco de Mayo, and they talk to Four Seasons Minneapolis Executive Chef Martin Morelli. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie March shares about meeting Phil Rosenthal, Stephanie Hansen recommends recipes for celebrating Cinco de Mayo, and they talk to Four Seasons Minneapolis Executive Chef Martin Morelli. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hour 1 of The Best of Weekly Dish: A replay from April 6 with Stephanie Hansen and Zoë François. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hour 1 of The Best of Weekly Dish: A replay from April 6 with Stephanie Hansen and Zoë François. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hour 2 of The Best of Weekly Dish: A replay from April 6 with Stephanie Hansen and Zoë François. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hour 2 of The Best of Weekly Dish: A replay from April 6 with Stephanie Hansen and Zoë François. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zoe Francois joins Stephanie Hansen to discuss the challenges of cookbook writing and the differences between cooking and baking. Stephanie received a brand new custom closet, and she shares her experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zoe Francois joins Stephanie Hansen to discuss the challenges of cookbook writing and the differences between cooking and baking. Stephanie received a brand new custom closet, and she shares her experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Stephs talk with Patti Soskin and Roshini Rajkumar about Taste of Twin Cities 2024.Plus, Stephanie Hansen talks about her first trip to United Noodle and some new cookbooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Stephs talk with Patti Soskin and Roshini Rajkumar about Taste of Twin Cities 2024. Plus, Stephanie Hansen talks about her first trip to United Noodle and some new cookbooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie March and Stephanie Hansen discuss the Wendy's backlash on surge pricing, AI-generated recipes, and the resilience of Midwesterners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stephanie March and Stephanie Hansen discuss the Wendy's backlash on surge pricing, AI-generated recipes, and the resilience of Midwesterners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie March and Stephanie Hansen catch up on what restaurants & bars they've been to lately, take a look at the 2024 James Beard Awards semifinalists, and disscuss winter salads. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stephanie March and Stephanie Hansen catch up on what restaurants & bars they've been to lately, take a look at the 2024 James Beard Awards semifinalists, and disscuss winter salads. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie Hansen joins the girls to discuss the James Beard nominees in the Twin Cities and weigh in on the controversy, now lawsuit, surrounding Madonna's late concert starts. Things get heated! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie Hansen joins the girls to discuss the James Beard nominees in the Twin Cities and weigh in on the controversy, now lawsuit, surrounding Madonna's late concert starts. Things get heated! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stephanie Hansen is joined by Alex Lodner today! They discuss the current state of journalism, consider different kinds of salts and how to use them, and talk with Alex Zweber from Sharab Shrubs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stephanie Hansen is joined by Alex Lodner today! They discuss the current state of journalism, consider different kinds of salts and how to use them, and talk with Alex Zweber from Sharab Shrubs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie Hansen and Stephanie March are finally reunited! They talk with Stephen Hesse about acquiring Lucky's 13 Pub, muse about New Year's resolutions, and learn about the new meat alternative: faux fish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie Hansen and Stephanie March are finally reunited! They talk with Stephen Hesse about acquiring Lucky's 13 Pub, muse about New Year's resolutions, and learn about the new meat alternative: faux fish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's the Thanksgiving episode! Stephanie March and Stephanie Hansen answer all of your Thanksgiving related questions including new side dishes, pumpkin pie, and turkey tips. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's the Thanksgiving episode! Stephanie March and Stephanie Hansen answer all of your Thanksgiving related questions including new side dishes, pumpkin pie, and turkey tips. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason, Colleen, and Holly remember the '90s mall experience (and the wonders and traumas within.) Holly has the Dirt Alert: Cassie files serious charges against Sean "Diddy" Combs, and WTF: Food Trivia -- Jason and Colleen vs. noted foodies Stephanie Hansen and Bradley Traynor! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's Jason and Colleen vs. Stephanie Hansen and Bradley Traynor -- who has the most foodie knowledge? It's Weekly Trivia Face-off powered by Trivia Mafia! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jason, Colleen, and Holly remember the '90s mall experience (and the wonders and traumas within.) Holly has the Dirt Alert: Cassie files serious charges against Sean "Diddy" Combs, and WTF: Food Trivia -- Jason and Colleen vs. noted foodies Stephanie Hansen and Bradley Traynor! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Jason and Colleen vs. Stephanie Hansen and Bradley Traynor -- who has the most foodie knowledge? It's Weekly Trivia Face-off powered by Trivia Mafia! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie and Stephanie discuss the dread of upcoming Thanksgiving cooking, a divisive article about Half Baked Harvest's Tieghan Gerard, and Stephanie Hansen's recent trip to Las Vegas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.