Family Food for Moms Podcast I Inspiration for Family Cooking and Dining I How to Enjoy Special Meals Together

Today we're going to talk about food from Germany - what we can be inspired by and what we can learn from German food and cooking. German food is hearty, it's comforting, and it's built around simple, high-quality ingredients. It's designed to keep you full, satisfied, and comforted in the colder climate.

Today we're going to be talking about cooking in sauce. Instead of making a sauce separately and then adding it later - which can be delicious, cooking in sauces is really going to enhance the meat or vegetable that you're busy cooking. I wanted to talk about cooking in sources rather than adding them at the end. It’s one of the easiest ways to make your food deeply flavorful, juicy, and hard to mess up. It's how many of the world's best comfort food dishes are made.

This is part two of How to Cook Meat Well which is part of the series about basic cooking skills. Last time we talked about techniques that help you to make your lamb and beef tasty, tender, and juicy. Today we’re going to talk about cooking chicken, fish, and other items in a way that's convenient, easy, and ends up delicious.

Today we're going to talk more about hospitality. Last time we talked about how it's important to be present, and not have it be stressful, but to enjoy the time with your guests. We said that you should have plans for what kind of meals you could make so that it's not stressful. You can plan a lot in advance. We talked about having laughter and warmth, helping people feel welcome, involving your children in the decorating and the cooking, focusing on your connection with people, prepping ahead, and making it fun for kids as well. We also looked at knowing how to welcome your kids, having some kind of treats in the freezer, micro-hospitality, and et cetera. Today we're going to talk about what you can do for food when you have guests over. You can do a tea or a dessert evening, but if you're doing a full meal, here are some ideas of what's easy, what works, and what you can do without stress!

Today I want to talk about an unusual topic - how we can be inspired by meals in the Enid Blyton Adventure Books from the 1940s. She's the author of Famous Five. I’ve mentioned this briefly before in the episode on children's literature - how we can be inspired by what they ate. I've always been particularly fascinated by the food in the Enid Blyton books - the way they have the meals and what they eat, and I wanted to talk a bit more about that. The Context Behind the Food in These Books These books were published starting from about 1946, after the Second World War. Around then food would've been quite scarce, and before that there would've been rationing. Later on it would've improved a bit though, especially on the farms. Farms seemed to be the places that these children loved to go and eat, and they always had lots of amazing farm food. I thought it was interesting to look at what they ate and what they considered healthy, in the context of kids who got a lot of exercise and sunshine. They were always outside in the fresh air - they were going on picnics, cycling, and swimming in rivers and oceans. They ate a lot of good stuff, but they were really active. It was the same with the farmer, the farmer's wife, and the shepherds - they were all very active. It’s wonderful to see what they ate, what they enjoyed, and what was available. I find it inspiring, but I think it also helps us see what's healthy and what's good for us.

Lately we've been thinking about the best ways to help our health. Some of our family have had a little bit of eczema, and some other less obvious symptoms. I was looking at an Instagram reel about the healthiest food on the planet for people. It said it was human breast milk - obviously for when people are babies. Then the things that mirror that the most in terms of their benefits and nutrients, et cetera, are fermented foods. We've always had yogurt, sometimes raw yogurt. We have raw milk, we love aged cheese, and we also get lacto-fermented pickles and sauerkraut at the whole food store. However, I wanted to look into making those things at home, as then they’d be cheaper, and I want to finally get over my fear of making them. I decided to finally take the plunge!

Last time we talked about the new series that we're starting - cooking skills we should master for home cooking. When we've mastered these basic skills, it’ll make our general cooking much easier, more effective, and tastier. Last time was the introduction, and I went through all the things we're going to cover, though not necessarily in that order. Today, we’re going to talk about heat control. I think that's one of the most valuable things to learn, especially when you're cooking on the stove top. We’ll learn what the differences are between things like a gentle simmer versus a rolling boil. What’s medium heat, and when do you use it? What’s high heat and when do you use it? A lot of common mistakes in cooking are heat mistakes.

Note: Only one episode this week as we have a CRAZY amount of stuff going on - I'll be back next Monday. I appreciate all my loyal listeners! Today I want to talk about what we've lost from food cooking and nutrition since the 1900s. Back then, food was a lot more nutritious, home cooked meals were much more common, and there was much less refinement and processing. My middle daughter has been doing some homemaking reading and studying as part of her course this year. One of the books she’s reading is Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management by Isabella Beaton, first published in 1861. It contains a lot of recipes, but also a lot of text about homemaking and cooking, how to plan it and execute it. I was just thinking about how differently we cook and eat these days. We’re really afraid of food that's what I would call decadent. We want to just do chicken breasts or lean meat, and we do the same things over and over again. I don’t know about you, but in our family, probably because it's cheapest, we repeatedly use chicken breasts and ground beef, and most of our meals are made up of those. Yes, it's good because it's cheaper, but existing on muscle meat is really not good for us. So, I wanted to talk about some things that I feel like we've lost. I love looking at old menus from the 1900s from various countries, and just seeing how they ate - It's quite amazing. If you factor in that they didn't have snacks, and that they had all their meals really full and nutritious, then it makes a bit more sense. I'm going to talk about what things we've lost since those times from cooking, food, and nutrition.

(Somehow this didn't get published yesterday.. but here it is :) Hope you enjoy! Today we're going to talk about how we break our meals into courses without making extra work for ourselves. I find that eating meals in courses helps all of us to slow down and give our full attention to the dinner meal - to be fully present and to enjoy chatting with each other. It also helps the cooking to not be too hectic because things can be prepared or finished off a little bit at a time for each course. I'm going to talk about different ways that our family do meals with courses. Sometimes it's relaxed with an activity, and sometimes it's formal. We’ll also talk about how we break down the meals.

Today we're going to be talking about food from the Caribbean. What’s Caribbean comfort food? What can we learn from Caribbean cuisine? I find it quite fascinating what they eat out there. They have some things that are quite unusual, and some things that are perhaps familiar, but it’s definitely different to living on the mainland.

Today we’re going to be continuing our theme on meaningful dinners with some practical ideas for things you can do. So, we’re thinking about how to make dinner time meaningful, how to create meaningful memories, and to make it special. Here are some ideas to focus on connection, not perfection - making the evening meaningful. There are so many ways to make dinners meaningful, whether family nights or date nights. I find that as soon as I start to make an effort, the ideas come. When I'm feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, I don’t have many ideas, but somehow putting on some soft music, dimming the lights, and setting the table beautifully helps already to bring that family closeness and connection.

Today we’re going to continue with our chef series - what we can learn from and be inspired by from famous chefs. Today, we’ll talk about Guy Fieri. Guy is the host of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives from Food Network. He has a great love for American comfort food. He loves roadside diners and dive bars, and he travels around the country to find unique places that make local-inspired food. He just loves to make ordinary dishes that are easy to cook, and to elevate them. He has many of what he calls “Guy-ifie” dishes. So, there's a lot we can learn from this inspiring chef. Let's get started.