Food Sharing Apps, Our One-Minute Cooking Tip, An Interview With Matt Moore, Watermelons, Snickerdoodles & More!

Bruce: 00:00:00

Hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein and this is the Podcast

Bruce: 00:00:02

Cooking with Bruce and Mark.

Mark: 00:00:03

And I'm Mark Scarborough.

Mark: 00:00:04

And together with Bruce, we have written three dozen cookbooks,

Mark: 00:00:08

including the latest out this fall of 2023, the look and cook.

Mark: 00:00:15

Air fryer Bible.

Mark: 00:00:17

It has 125 simple and easy air fryer recipes, but better than

Mark: 00:00:21

that, it has 704 photographs.

Mark: 00:00:25

Count them that exhaust than four.

Mark: 00:00:27

Oh my God.

Mark: 00:00:28

Three huge photo shoots to get 704 photos of.

Mark: 00:00:33

Every step of every recipe.

Mark: 00:00:36

The whole thing is photographed, start to finish, kind of an insane project.

Mark: 00:00:43

We're not talking about air frying today, although we do love air frying.

Mark: 00:00:46

We're gonna instead talk about food waste and three apps that you can use

Mark: 00:00:51

to actually cut down on food waste.

Mark: 00:00:53

This is kind of fascinating, and I didn't know anything about

Mark: 00:00:56

this until Bruce brought it up.

Mark: 00:00:57

Bruce has an interview with Matt Moore, the author of.

Mark: 00:01:00

Butcher on the block of God, of course.

Mark: 00:01:02

Our one minute cookie tip, and we're gonna talk about what's

Mark: 00:01:04

making us happy in food this week.

Mark: 00:01:06

So let's get started.

Bruce: 00:01:12

Food waste is a real thing, and from restaurants to home cooks

Bruce: 00:01:16

to just anybody that buys food tends to throw a lot of it away.

Bruce: 00:01:20

It is.

Bruce: 00:01:20

And.

Bruce: 00:01:21

I am so happy that I found these apps because they're so great.

Bruce: 00:01:24

They, what they do is they allow neighbors to share food with each other.

Bruce: 00:01:29

Let's say you made a dozen cookies and you only want to eat one.

Bruce: 00:01:32

Well, you can give away 11 cookies via this app to people who live near you.

Bruce: 00:01:36

Restaurants can use it to share their leftovers at the end of the

Bruce: 00:01:39

day, and if you just wanna volunteer some of these apps, Need volunteers

Bruce: 00:01:43

to pick up food and delivery.

Mark: 00:01:44

You know, I'm, I'm gonna tell a personal story for a minute if I can.

Mark: 00:01:47

Yeah.

Mark: 00:01:48

Um, you, back in the day when I was a little kid, uh, we did a lot of work at

Mark: 00:01:53

a place in Dallas called Union Gospel Mission, and it was this place that

Mark: 00:01:57

fed homeless people on the street.

Mark: 00:01:59

And of course you had to come in and hear a sermon.

Mark: 00:02:01

It was, it was related to a church, and you heard a sermon and then you got.

Mark: 00:02:05

Fed dinner.

Mark: 00:02:06

And so we did a lot of cooking down there, even as a kid.

Mark: 00:02:09

And we would go to grocery stores.

Mark: 00:02:11

This is way back in the day, and we would ask them what they had that

Mark: 00:02:15

was off or that had expired, and I would come in with boxes and ask,

Mark: 00:02:21

and they would always send me in.

Mark: 00:02:22

I think they thought like the nine year old got a better response than the adults.

Mark: 00:02:27

I don't know.

Mark: 00:02:28

But I would go in and I would talk about Union Gospel mission and

Mark: 00:02:31

that we were gonna, you know, make dinner and we just needed some food

Mark: 00:02:34

if they had anything to donate.

Mark: 00:02:36

And they would.

Mark: 00:02:36

But here's the thing, it always felt like begging and I, I was always slightly

Mark: 00:02:41

embarrassed as a kid to go in grocery store and say, oh, you know what?

Mark: 00:02:46

Do you got meat that's gone off today?

Mark: 00:02:48

Gone off?

Mark: 00:02:48

Well, at least you aspired for today.

Mark: 00:02:50

So what I think is cool about these apps is that it doesn't feel like.

Mark: 00:02:55

Begging.

Mark: 00:02:56

Mm-hmm.

Mark: 00:02:56

This is actually a way to cut down on food ways that kind of is ethical, um,

Mark: 00:03:02

and has a little bit more, uh, this is what I like, anonymity about it.

Mark: 00:03:06

So what's the first one?

Bruce: 00:03:07

So, the first one is called Olio, o l i o.

Bruce: 00:03:10

Remember, they have websites.

Bruce: 00:03:11

You can go to oleo.com and find out about it.

Bruce: 00:03:13

But to access any of the services, you have to download the app.

Bruce: 00:03:17

Oleo, o l.

Bruce: 00:03:19

I o.

Bruce: 00:03:20

So you set up an account for free and you could browse free

Bruce: 00:03:23

food items to pick up locally.

Bruce: 00:03:25

There are no delivery options.

Bruce: 00:03:26

You're gonna have to be able to get to the store or get to the

Bruce: 00:03:30

restaurant, or was ever giving it away.

Bruce: 00:03:32

So a restaurant might say, Hey, we have, you know, extra hamburgers

Bruce: 00:03:36

tonight and they can't save.

Bruce: 00:03:37

So you're going to be able to find out where they are and go get them.

Mark: 00:03:40

Okay, so now let's just stop.

Mark: 00:03:42

Before we go forward, let's stop.

Mark: 00:03:45

So this is basically restaurants and food service places and maybe

Mark: 00:03:50

supermarkets who have excess stuff Yes.

Mark: 00:03:53

That they cannot get rid of at the end of the day.

Mark: 00:03:56

So you have to be ready with Oleo to go get it.

Mark: 00:03:59

That's part of the problem.

Mark: 00:04:00

Right?

Bruce: 00:04:00

you do but Oleo has, 7 million members worldwide, including 86,000

Bruce: 00:04:06

volunteers, and the volunteers can rescue unsold food from local businesses.

Bruce: 00:04:10

Ah, there you go.

Bruce: 00:04:11

And bring it to you or bring it to a place where you can get,

Mark: 00:04:13

when you said no delivery option available, my hunch is a lot

Mark: 00:04:17

of those volunteers go and deliver them to charitable organizations.

Mark: 00:04:20

Yep, yep.

Mark: 00:04:21

But maybe there's a charitable organization you can connect to if

Mark: 00:04:24

that's something that you wanna do.

Mark: 00:04:25

But you can also do this on your own.

Mark: 00:04:27

And I think that this is what's kind of cool about Olio is that you can

Mark: 00:04:31

do this and set it up on your own, go on your own to pick up items.

Mark: 00:04:36

Um, please don't think that you're somehow stealing them out of the

Mark: 00:04:40

mouths of charities, because honestly, there is more food waste, particularly

Mark: 00:04:43

in the United States and Canada.

Mark: 00:04:45

Then there can possibly be people who need it.

Mark: 00:04:48

So you're not taking food outta the mouths of the Red Cross.

Bruce: 00:04:51

But there's another aspect to Oleo that I really love, and it's

Bruce: 00:04:54

sort of the social media, almost Craigslist kind of thing about it.

Bruce: 00:04:58

Oh, let's see.

Bruce: 00:04:58

Before Craigslist became all sex before it did, so now it's the

Bruce: 00:05:02

oleo is sort of like the food of Craigslist or the Craigslist of food.

Bruce: 00:05:06

So you make.

Bruce: 00:05:07

Two dozen cookies.

Bruce: 00:05:08

Three dozen cookies.

Bruce: 00:05:09

You bake four cakes.

Bruce: 00:05:10

You make four pizzas for whatever reason.

Bruce: 00:05:12

Let's say you were having a party, right?

Bruce: 00:05:13

And then people didn't show up, right?

Bruce: 00:05:15

And you have all this food left over, you could post in an oleo, and if your

Bruce: 00:05:18

neighbors are also members of Oleo, they could find out that you have two pizzas

Bruce: 00:05:23

and they can come take them from you.

Bruce: 00:05:24

Yeah, so that's a really nice way to share it with your neighbors.

Mark: 00:05:27

Yeah, it is.

Mark: 00:05:28

Or people in your town.

Mark: 00:05:29

We live very rurally, as you probably know if you listen to this podcast in

Mark: 00:05:32

New England, and there is a great deal of economic disparity in our town.

Mark: 00:05:37

In a typical New England town, we have a lot of ex New Yorkers, ex techies,

Mark: 00:05:42

a lot of ex show business people, and they eat up a lot of the wealth.

Mark: 00:05:46

And then we have a lot of people who were.

Mark: 00:05:48

Born here, generationally born here.

Mark: 00:05:50

We have one road that essentially holds one family in this town.

Mark: 00:05:54

And, uh, those people have been born here for years.

Mark: 00:05:57

And those people, uh, along that road, by the way, that family

Mark: 00:05:59

is not necessarily in poverty.

Mark: 00:06:01

No, not at all.

Mark: 00:06:02

But I'm just saying that there are people here who are generationally in this town.

Mark: 00:06:05

Mm-hmm.

Mark: 00:06:05

But beyond that family on that road back in the woods.

Mark: 00:06:08

And we live very remotely and there are a lot of, back in the woods,

Mark: 00:06:11

there are a lot of very poor people.

Mark: 00:06:13

We, we know a place, in fact around us where there are four cabins behind a house

Mark: 00:06:18

that are non electrified and non plumbed.

Mark: 00:06:21

And people live in the, the family offers these homes to

Mark: 00:06:25

people who don't have any shelter.

Mark: 00:06:27

So they're not.

Mark: 00:06:28

Electrified.

Mark: 00:06:29

They're not heated, they're not plumbed, but there is a lot of po and these

Mark: 00:06:33

people couldn't connect to Lio, but there is a lot of poverty around us.

Mark: 00:06:37

Right.

Bruce: 00:06:37

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:06:37

As Mark said, you need to be internet connected.

Bruce: 00:06:40

You have to have either a smartphone or a tablet.

Bruce: 00:06:43

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:06:43

To be able to download the app.

Bruce: 00:06:44

So there is a certain level of.

Bruce: 00:06:46

Economic wealth or situation that you have to have to use it, and it's something

Bruce: 00:06:51

that I'll consider using in the future.

Bruce: 00:06:53

When we do our photo shoots for our book, we shoot, as Mark said, we

Bruce: 00:06:56

shot 704 photos for the new book.

Bruce: 00:06:59

Right?

Bruce: 00:06:59

That's a lot of food we're making and I give it to my neighbors all the time.

Bruce: 00:07:03

But it would be nice if I could post on Oleo that, you know, today we

Bruce: 00:07:07

shot three pies, two cakes and four stews, and if you want to come by,

Bruce: 00:07:11

I could leave it in a cooler at the road and you can have some free food.

Mark: 00:07:14

And so we're gonna move on to the second app, which

Mark: 00:07:16

is called Too Good to Go.

Mark: 00:07:18

And that's t o o.

Mark: 00:07:20

Good to go, too.

Mark: 00:07:21

Good to go.

Mark: 00:07:22

But before we get there, let me just say that it, what, what, one of the things

Mark: 00:07:25

that could be interesting about this, if you wanna become more involved in this, is

Mark: 00:07:28

not only for you to have food that is, uh, potentially bound for the food waste bin.

Mark: 00:07:34

But also if you live as we do again rurally, you can pick up food and have

Mark: 00:07:39

it delivered to your community center.

Mark: 00:07:41

Mm-hmm.

Mark: 00:07:42

Let's say you live, um, I don't know, let's say you live 40 miles, 50

Mark: 00:07:46

miles outside of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Mark: 00:07:47

You could find places in Lincoln, Nebraska that are on the verge

Mark: 00:07:51

of throwing out food and bring it back to your small town center and.

Mark: 00:07:55

I would bet you that there are people in your town that could use

Mark: 00:07:58

that food even if you don't use it.

Mark: 00:07:59

So let's talk about it too.

Mark: 00:08:00

Good to go.

Bruce: 00:08:01

So too good to go is a great way both to eat well, cuz you're gonna

Bruce: 00:08:04

get some decent food and save money.

Bruce: 00:08:06

And it's great for the food business because this is only for food businesses

Bruce: 00:08:11

to make a little extra money out of what they otherwise would've thrown out.

Mark: 00:08:14

So we're talking here, mostly restaurants.

Bruce: 00:08:16

Mostly restaurants, but also some stores.

Bruce: 00:08:18

So here's how it works.

Bruce: 00:08:20

You could browse through nearby locations on the app to find out what you like.

Bruce: 00:08:24

Then you reserve what they have.

Bruce: 00:08:27

So you have to actually reserve in advance and then go pick it up.

Bruce: 00:08:29

So if it's a supermarket, you might find that they have in the morning, they'll

Bruce: 00:08:34

say, we have three bags of produce that are gonna be available at $8 a bag.

Bruce: 00:08:40

Now, you know, if you went in the morning, those bags of produce might cost

Bruce: 00:08:43

you $30 and you don't necessarily know what you're gonna get, but they know.

Bruce: 00:08:46

Every day they have X amount of produce left over.

Mark: 00:08:49

I mean, we, when we were, uh, out trolling the app and trolling, looking

Mark: 00:08:53

around the app, didn't we see a chocolate story that had bloomed chocolate on?

Mark: 00:08:58

Okay.

Mark: 00:08:59

If you don't know what that means, that means some of the, the fat

Mark: 00:09:01

has come to the surface and given it that kind of white, foggy film.

Mark: 00:09:06

There's nothing wrong with the No, we're still that a ball, you just can't sell it.

Bruce: 00:09:09

They can't, well, the store's selling chocolates at like $80 a pound.

Bruce: 00:09:12

It's in New York, in Times Square and.

Bruce: 00:09:15

$80 pound chocolates are out of the reach of most people.

Bruce: 00:09:18

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:09:18

Outta the reach of this, people go on to too good to go.

Bruce: 00:09:21

And they were sound, they said they had 10 boxes of chocolates that

Bruce: 00:09:25

were perfectly edible, but they had bloomed so they can't sell them.

Bruce: 00:09:28

And they were like $5 a box.

Bruce: 00:09:30

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:09:30

So you can reserve it, go in and get it.

Bruce: 00:09:32

So it's a way to have some really nice chocolate, really cheap.

Bruce: 00:09:35

So, This works from fish stores, produce stores, chocolate stores.

Bruce: 00:09:39

It's really nice.

Bruce: 00:09:39

Yeah.

Mark: 00:09:40

We even found when we were looking at the app two, didn't we find

Mark: 00:09:43

something about fish, headss and tails?

Mark: 00:09:44

Yep.

Mark: 00:09:45

That some store was basically giving away fish, headss and tails from filets.

Mark: 00:09:49

And while you may think, well, who wants fish?

Mark: 00:09:51

Headss and tails, well, maybe you wanna make fish stock, which yep.

Mark: 00:09:53

Actually in our cookbook house, we would actually do,

Bruce: 00:09:57

oh, I would drive to get free fish.

Mark: 00:09:59

Bruce made fish stock for peja, right?

Mark: 00:10:02

Mm-hmm.

Mark: 00:10:02

For the filter fish, when you make a filter fish.

Mark: 00:10:04

So, I mean, this is something might we might do, but you

Mark: 00:10:07

can also get mystery bags on

Mark: 00:10:09

Too.

Mark: 00:10:09

Good to go?

Bruce: 00:10:10

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:10:10

A store knows it's gonna have.

Bruce: 00:10:11

X amount of leftovers every day, or a restaurant or a diner, but they don't

Bruce: 00:10:15

necessarily know what it's going to be.

Bruce: 00:10:17

So you can reserve a mystery bag in the morning for $5, $8, $10, and you know

Bruce: 00:10:22

you will get 30 or $40 worth of food, but you don't know what it's gonna be.

Mark: 00:10:26

It's so, I think this is such interesting stuff.

Mark: 00:10:30

Olio too good to go.

Mark: 00:10:31

And this last app, flash food.

Mark: 00:10:34

Hmm.

Mark: 00:10:34

It's a great way to cut on food waste and save some money along the way.

Mark: 00:10:39

Okay, so let's talk about flash food.

Bruce: 00:10:41

Flash food is great.

Bruce: 00:10:42

It's almost like having a super coupons in a supermarket.

Bruce: 00:10:46

So you go to flash food and you look for supermarkets in your.

Bruce: 00:10:51

Area and then you literally go shopping on the app.

Bruce: 00:10:54

And stores always do markdowns.

Bruce: 00:10:57

When you're in the store for milk, that's gonna go bad in two days or meat

Bruce: 00:11:00

that's gonna go bad tomorrow, right?

Bruce: 00:11:01

So on flash food, you'll find yogurt for 25 cents a.

Bruce: 00:11:06

Pint because it's gonna expire in two days and the store would rather

Bruce: 00:11:09

give it to you for 25 cents and get

Bruce: 00:11:11

rid of it.

Bruce: 00:11:11

I mean,

Mark: 00:11:11

I used to this all the time before there were apps I used to, we would make

Mark: 00:11:15

banana both Bruce and I like banana bread, and I know that's super controversial

Mark: 00:11:19

because that's good Banana bread.

Mark: 00:11:20

People hate it.

Bruce: 00:11:21

But I, well, that's not controversial.

Bruce: 00:11:23

That's just idiot.

Bruce: 00:11:24

C

Mark: 00:11:25

Okay.

Mark: 00:11:25

No, but people who allow their taste.

Mark: 00:11:27

But I, I admit that I don't like banana bread.

Mark: 00:11:29

The second day it does get gummy, so I look at the day it's made well.

Mark: 00:11:33

So anyway, we would make banana bread for parties and you know, or I would

Mark: 00:11:36

bring banana bread to one of the book groups I lead and ultimately

Mark: 00:11:39

have three quarters of it leftover, cuz nobody likes banana bread.

Mark: 00:11:42

But anyway, I would go back to that speed rack in the grocery

Mark: 00:11:45

store and buy the bananas.

Mark: 00:11:47

That were in the back, usually in the hallway to the restrooms, right, that are

Mark: 00:11:52

on that speed rack of not great produce.

Mark: 00:11:55

Because honestly, for the best banana bread you want not great bananas.

Mark: 00:11:58

You don't want firm just ripe bananas.

Mark: 00:12:01

You want overwrite bananas?

Mark: 00:12:02

You do.

Bruce: 00:12:02

And the app allows you to buy all the stuff you pay for in advance.

Bruce: 00:12:05

It's just like ordering on the supermarket website where you do

Bruce: 00:12:09

grocery shopping and then pick it up.

Bruce: 00:12:11

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:12:11

But this way you're getting only things a store is marking down.

Bruce: 00:12:14

You might get.

Bruce: 00:12:15

Sales on food, that's really good, but the store just hasn't been able

Bruce: 00:12:18

to sell them, so all of a sudden you're getting something really

Bruce: 00:12:21

nice that the store is marked down.

Bruce: 00:12:22

It's a great way to save some money when you do your shopping.

Mark: 00:12:25

We've talked about that.

Mark: 00:12:26

Yeah.

Mark: 00:12:26

You can pay for this, that you can pay for the, did we say this, that you can

Mark: 00:12:29

pay for this with any major credit card?

Mark: 00:12:30

Yep.

Mark: 00:12:31

You can pay or debit card.

Mark: 00:12:32

Or, um, on flash food, you can pay for it with Snap e b T cards.

Bruce: 00:12:37

You can, you can.

Bruce: 00:12:38

So even if you're getting assistance, you could still use it.

Mark: 00:12:41

That's right.

Mark: 00:12:41

So you can use all kinds of methods.

Mark: 00:12:43

So let's go over these apps one more time.

Mark: 00:12:44

There's oleo, O L I O.

Mark: 00:12:46

I keep spelling it that because I'm old enough to know oleo as with an

Mark: 00:12:49

E, meaning margarine, but, okay.

Mark: 00:12:52

O l i O.

Mark: 00:12:53

Think Italian.

Bruce: 00:12:54

That's your Craigslist of food where you can get food

Bruce: 00:12:57

from neighbors or from stores

Bruce: 00:12:58

where

Bruce: 00:12:58

it's all,

Mark: 00:12:58

and then there's.

Mark: 00:12:59

Too good to go, which is the restaurant and food producers Mostly.

Mark: 00:13:04

Yeah, mostly.

Mark: 00:13:05

And then there's flash food, which is mostly grocery stores.

Bruce: 00:13:08

Mostly grocery stores giving you super discounts of

Bruce: 00:13:11

food they know they can't sell.

Mark: 00:13:15

Before we get to that next segment, Of our podcast.

Mark: 00:13:18

Let me say that we have a newsletter.

Mark: 00:13:20

It goes out.

Mark: 00:13:21

Well, it has been going out a while, but in case you don't know,

Mark: 00:13:26

I wrecked my shoulder and have been a wreck over my wrecked shoulder.

Mark: 00:13:30

So it hasn't gone out in about a month now, but it is now going out again.

Mark: 00:13:34

So if you would like.

Mark: 00:13:35

To sign up for our newsletter, which is not connected to this podcast and has

Mark: 00:13:39

different content than this podcast, go to our website, Bruce and mark.com.

Mark: 00:13:43

There is a signup form on the splash page of our website, Bruce and

Mark: 00:13:47

mark.com, and you can sign up there.

Mark: 00:13:49

And again, I say this every time, but I just wanna remind you, I

Mark: 00:13:51

have locked it so I don't see your email and I don't see your name.

Mark: 00:13:55

And then, uh, I can't sell it, nor can the service I use.

Mark: 00:13:59

Sell your name to any mailing list.

Mark: 00:14:02

And furthermore, any email always includes an unsubscribed button

Mark: 00:14:06

with you don't wanna get these emails anymore, so you can do that

Mark: 00:14:10

on our website, bruce and mark.com.

Mark: 00:14:13

Up next are one minute Food cooking tip.

Bruce: 00:14:21

The tip is to improvise in cooking, not baking.

Mark: 00:14:25

Right.

Mark: 00:14:25

If you think that you make a vinegarette, I don't know.

Mark: 00:14:29

And you think it would be nice to add a little cumin to your vinegarette?

Mark: 00:14:32

Mm-hmm.

Mark: 00:14:32

Try it out.

Mark: 00:14:33

Yep.

Mark: 00:14:33

And see what cumin tastes like in your vinegarette.

Mark: 00:14:36

But do not make some kind of wild substitution in baking because

Mark: 00:14:41

as we've said a million times and as is the truth, cooking is

Mark: 00:14:44

physics, but baking is chemistry.

Mark: 00:14:46

Mm-hmm.

Mark: 00:14:46

So you gotta get the formula right in baking you do for it to work.

Mark: 00:14:51

Um, Yeah, that's, it's really important.

Mark: 00:14:53

I, I think I've told you this before, but I had a friend who

Mark: 00:14:56

substituted corn starch for flour.

Bruce: 00:14:58

Well, they're both white and powdery.

Bruce: 00:14:59

That's

Mark: 00:15:00

what she said in a baking recipe.

Bruce: 00:15:02

And well, so is cocaine, I guess you could try that.

Mark: 00:15:05

Um, nice.

Mark: 00:15:06

So anyway, uh, yeah, don't experiment in your baking, but.

Mark: 00:15:09

Do experiment in your cooking.

Mark: 00:15:11

Mm-hmm.

Mark: 00:15:11

And use a recipe as a guideline, not necessarily a rule.

Mark: 00:15:15

Okay.

Mark: 00:15:16

Before we get to our interview segment of this podcast, let me say that it would be

Mark: 00:15:19

great if you could rate this podcast, if you could drop down on the Apple page or

Mark: 00:15:24

the Google Page, or any place where you get your podcast and simply look there.

Mark: 00:15:28

It's tells you how to rate it, and it says, write a comment or write a review.

Mark: 00:15:33

Man, that would be great.

Mark: 00:15:35

Even nice podcast.

Mark: 00:15:36

We had a recent rating where someone just said, nice podcast.

Mark: 00:15:38

Thank you so much for that, because that is honestly what does

Mark: 00:15:42

the analytics a world of good.

Mark: 00:15:43

Mm-hmm.

Mark: 00:15:43

And otherwise, we are unsupported except for your support.

Mark: 00:15:47

So thanks for doing that.

Mark: 00:15:48

Okay.

Mark: 00:15:49

Up next Bruce's interview with Matt Moore, author of Butcher on the Block.

Mark: 00:15:53

This is a.

Mark: 00:15:53

Book that Bruce loved.

Mark: 00:15:55

Bruce is a carnivore from long ago, and he was very excited when he got

Mark: 00:16:00

Butcher on the block in the mail.

Bruce: 00:16:02

Hey, this morning we're talking with Matt Moore.

Bruce: 00:16:04

He's the author of the book, butcher on the Block, everyday Recipes,

Bruce: 00:16:08

stories, and Inspirations From Your Local Butcher and Beyond.

Bruce: 00:16:12

Hey, Matt.

Matt: 00:16:13

Hey, good morning.

Matt: 00:16:14

Thanks so much for having me.

Bruce: 00:16:15

Uh, my pleasure.

Bruce: 00:16:16

Hey, you come from a line of butchers and said, is your wife?

Bruce: 00:16:18

And your book is a story of butchers, the butchers you've

Bruce: 00:16:21

met and even around the world.

Bruce: 00:16:23

And you say right up front in the book, no matter what level of home

Bruce: 00:16:27

butchering you can do, it's great to have a relationship with a local butcher.

Bruce: 00:16:32

Why is that?

Matt: 00:16:33

You know, for me, um, this book was personal.

Matt: 00:16:36

Uh, my grandfather and, and going back even to my great-great-grandfather

Matt: 00:16:40

come from the trade of butchering.

Matt: 00:16:42

And it's always been a necessity no matter where you travel and which culture.

Matt: 00:16:47

Um, it, it, it's a trusted relationship and I think I.

Matt: 00:16:51

You know, during the seventies and eighties and nineties of the mass

Matt: 00:16:53

trends of the supermarket, we sort of lost track of, of the, the quality and

Matt: 00:16:58

care that goes into shaping our food.

Matt: 00:17:00

And, uh, for me, um, being able to travel throughout the world, uh, especially

Matt: 00:17:05

in Europe, that's still a tradition that's very much rich and still alive.

Matt: 00:17:08

And I think, uh, my inspiration came after writing a book on, on, on

Matt: 00:17:13

barbecue called The Sal's Best Butts.

Matt: 00:17:15

And following that with cereal griller on live fire grilling.

Matt: 00:17:18

Um, you know, that book came out in Covid and I would go to the grocery store and

Matt: 00:17:21

I would see things like whole chickens just sitting there, even though there

Matt: 00:17:25

was scarcity or beef ribs or London broils and all these different cuts.

Matt: 00:17:29

And it kind of dawned on me that a lot of people just don't know how

Matt: 00:17:32

to utilize those ingredients and without maybe having a butcher to tell

Matt: 00:17:36

you, Hey, this is how you cook it.

Matt: 00:17:37

Um, that offered an opportunity for me to explore my own family roots,

Matt: 00:17:41

but also to combine, you know, the ideas that I, I think are I'm known

Matt: 00:17:44

for in terms of barbecuing, grilling.

Matt: 00:17:47

But then open up this whole platform that it could be barbecued, it

Matt: 00:17:49

could be grilled, it could be raw, it could be roasted and fried.

Matt: 00:17:52

And that sense of community of, of a butcher that's gonna be able

Matt: 00:17:56

to explain and, and customize or fabricate those cuts, as well as

Matt: 00:18:00

giving you, uh, expertise and cooking tips just really opened up the door.

Matt: 00:18:04

And, um, it was a great conduit for me to strike up some friendships and

Matt: 00:18:09

continue to, to, to write great books and, and meet really interesting people.

Bruce: 00:18:13

Do you think that's a universal skill of butchers

Bruce: 00:18:15

that they all know how to cook?

Matt: 00:18:18

You know, they're probably the most underpaid, uh, cooks,

Matt: 00:18:21

or really all of them should, should have their own cookbooks.

Matt: 00:18:24

But the most common question is how do you cook this to the butcher?

Matt: 00:18:29

Right.

Matt: 00:18:30

And you know, I think they appreciate that question because ultimately they're in

Matt: 00:18:33

business and they want you to have a great experience with what they sell, and they

Matt: 00:18:37

want you to come back to that business.

Matt: 00:18:38

And so, Part of providing that quality product is also the advice

Matt: 00:18:43

on how to have a fantastic result.

Bruce: 00:18:44

One of the reasons I like to go to a butcher is for dry-aged beef.

Bruce: 00:18:48

Can you talk about what that means?

Bruce: 00:18:50

What does dry-aging do to meat, and is there any way we can come close to doing

Bruce: 00:18:55

a decent and safe job of it at home?

Matt: 00:18:58

Yeah.

Matt: 00:18:58

So, you know, aging is a, a technique that's been around really since

Matt: 00:19:01

the beginning of, of actually butchering and, and eating animals.

Matt: 00:19:05

But specifically with, with beef, um, you know, the process of dry aging is

Matt: 00:19:10

I think really what separates a lot of the local butcher shops from, um,

Matt: 00:19:16

Primarily the, the mass stores that you're gonna find that wet age, right?

Matt: 00:19:20

So wet aging is typically, you know, after maybe hanging for a period of

Matt: 00:19:24

time, it's gonna be packed and sealed and quote unquote kind of age on

Matt: 00:19:28

its way to transport into the store.

Matt: 00:19:31

And the reason that that takes place is because they don't

Matt: 00:19:33

have any loss of mass, right?

Matt: 00:19:34

If they're wet aging, they're not gonna be reducing the actual weight

Matt: 00:19:39

and, and quantity of the beef.

Matt: 00:19:40

So it's, it's better from a commercial standpoint.

Matt: 00:19:43

Dry aging, you know, specifically we're talking about, uh, under time

Matt: 00:19:47

and temperature control, allowing that, that meet to age for, um,

Matt: 00:19:52

you know, at minimum a couple of days, upwards of 75 to 90 days.

Matt: 00:19:56

And it's basically going to ba.

Matt: 00:19:58

Be breaking itself down and losing mass over time, which enhances, um,

Matt: 00:20:03

in my opinion, a lot of the flavor.

Matt: 00:20:05

And so you are losing a lot of product to the dry aging process.

Matt: 00:20:09

And it is something that, as I mentioned earlier, has to

Matt: 00:20:11

be under proper temperature.

Matt: 00:20:13

Um, and, and storage and control, which a lot of the, the butchers

Matt: 00:20:16

have, have honed in on this process.

Matt: 00:20:18

It's sort of like saying, teach me how to make wine.

Matt: 00:20:20

Well, I mean, it could take a lifetime to master.

Matt: 00:20:23

Yeah.

Matt: 00:20:24

And so I think that's a big differentiation.

Matt: 00:20:26

You know, I would be amiss without.

Matt: 00:20:27

Not covering the subject lightly.

Matt: 00:20:29

In, in the book, the first line of the book is, this is not a

Matt: 00:20:33

book about butchering per se, rather it is about the butcher.

Matt: 00:20:36

Mm-hmm.

Matt: 00:20:37

You know, that being said, we do give a, a primer on how to do some

Matt: 00:20:40

basic things at home, like breaking down a whole chicken, playing a fish.

Matt: 00:20:44

Mm-hmm.

Matt: 00:20:44

Doing a beef tenderloin, even, uh, going so far as frenching a pork chop.

Matt: 00:20:49

But we, we visit slightly the idea of dry aging at home because technology has

Matt: 00:20:53

come a long way and now we can source.

Matt: 00:20:56

These dry aging bags that allow us within our own refrigerator so we don't

Matt: 00:21:00

have to do a whole lot of time and I temperature control to use those bags and

Matt: 00:21:04

produce a a, a quality result at home.

Bruce: 00:21:07

There's a recipe in your book from the Rim Family Butchers

Bruce: 00:21:11

in Cambridge City, Indiana, and this recipe strikes me as fantastic and

Bruce: 00:21:17

easy, but might scare a lot of people.

Bruce: 00:21:19

It only has two ingredients.

Bruce: 00:21:20

So tell me about this dish.

Matt: 00:21:22

This is a, a recipe that I almost left, uh, and headed

Matt: 00:21:26

back to Nashville, um, and, and would've missed out on, on my visit.

Matt: 00:21:31

But I, I, I believe we might've had a, a few cold beverages at this point.

Matt: 00:21:35

We were having some Hogshead tacos and Hmm.

Matt: 00:21:37

Uh, Jerry Rim, who's the family patriarch, had, had talked to me

Matt: 00:21:41

about, Work in the line and how they would spend days of processing.

Matt: 00:21:45

And one of his favorite snacks, he didn't even have a chance to leave the floor and

Matt: 00:21:48

they would cut out the little tips at the ends of, uh, roasts and ribeyes and they'd

Matt: 00:21:53

just dunk 'em in some worcestsershire, and then they would eat those all day long.

Matt: 00:21:57

Yeah.

Matt: 00:21:57

And I kinda paused and I said, well, where's that recipe?

Matt: 00:22:00

I don't see that out.

Matt: 00:22:01

And he literally got in his little, uh, truck and, and drove up to the plant

Matt: 00:22:05

and trimmed up some steak and soaked it.

Matt: 00:22:07

And you know, it's one of those moments where, Time and place kind of stop.

Matt: 00:22:11

And that's, that's a moment I always crave when I'm out seeking recipes.

Matt: 00:22:16

And just the, the, the mix of the trim meat just soaked in that kind

Matt: 00:22:20

of smoky, tangy, umami style sauce.

Matt: 00:22:23

Mm-hmm.

Matt: 00:22:23

Just with just the right bite, maybe a little bit of a

Matt: 00:22:26

crusty bread alongside of it.

Matt: 00:22:27

I said, that's a super simple recipe.

Matt: 00:22:29

That's why I'm out on the road is to get the good stuff.

Matt: 00:22:31

And I was super thankful to, for them to deliver it to me.

Bruce: 00:22:35

I can't wait to try that.

Bruce: 00:22:36

Um, especially we do a homemade Worcestershire around here until, oh wow.

Bruce: 00:22:40

That sounds like we have to do it.

Bruce: 00:22:43

You tell the story of two butchers in the south of France.

Bruce: 00:22:47

Uh, how did their journey differ from butcher's you met in other parts

Bruce: 00:22:51

of the world, especially in the us.

Matt: 00:22:52

Well, they were tech guys to start software and sales.

Matt: 00:22:58

Um, and through some late night conversations, uh, decided that

Matt: 00:23:03

that was just a career that wasn't giving them fulfillment.

Matt: 00:23:06

And, you know, I think the old world qualities, especially in

Matt: 00:23:09

France, there's a tradition of still going to the local butcher.

Matt: 00:23:12

Yeah.

Matt: 00:23:13

To the local bakery.

Matt: 00:23:14

You know, the, the mass supermarkets are really things that you, you don't see.

Matt: 00:23:19

They are becoming more common.

Matt: 00:23:20

And I would tell you, That most people are telling you that it's sort of

Matt: 00:23:23

destroying the culture, so it's a, a big debate, but for them, They wanted

Matt: 00:23:27

to have that connection to community, to family, uh, to pass on a legacy.

Matt: 00:23:33

And so they, they literally quit their jobs and went about, uh, learning

Matt: 00:23:37

a trade that most people are, are apprentices for, you know, 10 to 15 years.

Matt: 00:23:42

Uh, they said that they worked 10 times that amount in three years

Matt: 00:23:44

and, and learned that process and, and now have created just a, an

Matt: 00:23:49

incredible destination of not only.

Matt: 00:23:51

Dry and, and specialty age cuts, but also this beautiful world that

Matt: 00:23:56

we call, uh, Importe on France, where, you know, they're not going

Matt: 00:23:59

to the fast food restaurants.

Matt: 00:24:00

They're actually stopping at the local butcher.

Matt: 00:24:02

Mm-hmm.

Matt: 00:24:02

To get the plate too shore, which could be a lasagna or a pork stew

Matt: 00:24:06

the particular day that I was there.

Matt: 00:24:07

And I think that's just a beautiful tradition is that the secret is that some

Matt: 00:24:11

of the best meals that you eat in Europe actually come from the butcher shop.

Bruce: 00:24:14

It goes back to that whole thing we just talked about, butchers

Bruce: 00:24:17

being these underrated cooks and really know what that's about.

Bruce: 00:24:20

Besides cooking, is there a common thread in most of the butchers you talked to?

Matt: 00:24:26

I think there's just a thread of service.

Matt: 00:24:27

You know, at the end of the day, um, the butcher's just constantly asked to give.

Matt: 00:24:33

It's a hard job, probably an underpaid job.

Matt: 00:24:35

You know, they are working to take, uh, an animal or a sacrifice and,

Matt: 00:24:40

and, and utilize every part of that.

Matt: 00:24:42

Mm-hmm.

Matt: 00:24:42

Um, and that's a, a trend that you're seeing in the whole animal butchering

Matt: 00:24:45

side, that a lot of the, the market here in the US doesn't necessarily

Matt: 00:24:49

know how to work that process.

Matt: 00:24:51

And so with that being said, they've got to, you know, work throughout the

Matt: 00:24:55

entire lineage of being able to provide.

Matt: 00:24:58

Cut me like this, tie it like that.

Matt: 00:25:00

I need a quarter pound of this.

Matt: 00:25:01

Not so much of that.

Matt: 00:25:02

Do you have this in stock?

Matt: 00:25:04

And then as we said earlier, give me your recipe and give me

Matt: 00:25:07

your technique for making it.

Bruce: 00:25:08

I think the most unusual butcher you feature in your book has gotta be

Bruce: 00:25:13

the vegetable butcher in San Francisco.

Bruce: 00:25:15

Well, I have to ask you what.

Bruce: 00:25:17

Is a vegetable butcher.

Matt: 00:25:19

Hey, listen, my job as an author is to create a time and place

Matt: 00:25:23

and a stamp as to where things are.

Matt: 00:25:25

When I did a barbecue book, you know, I, I had to look at,

Matt: 00:25:28

okay, this is what's historic.

Matt: 00:25:30

And this is maybe the future of barbecue.

Matt: 00:25:32

And a lot of people sometimes opine that, Hey, barbecue is, is static.

Matt: 00:25:36

But truthfully, it's something that's constantly changing and

Matt: 00:25:39

that's what makes it so great.

Matt: 00:25:40

And so the same thing applies to the world of butchering there.

Matt: 00:25:43

There's a lot of techniques and traditions that have lasted

Matt: 00:25:45

for, uh, Thousands of years.

Matt: 00:25:48

But this idea of vegetable butchering came about truly because Caramel Jeanie

Matt: 00:25:52

was the first quote unquote vegetable butcher in New York's eat Italy market.

Matt: 00:25:56

Mm-hmm.

Matt: 00:25:57

And if you think about it, it makes a whole lot of sense.

Matt: 00:25:59

There's a lot of folks that are intimidated by vegetables and they

Matt: 00:26:02

don't know how to approach them, how to break them down, how to prepare them.

Matt: 00:26:04

And so they created essentially a vegetable butcher in the market,

Matt: 00:26:08

uh, so that you could take your Cole Robbie or your cabbage or whatever

Matt: 00:26:11

that might be, and, and work with Kara.

Matt: 00:26:13

And you know, she's somebody that.

Matt: 00:26:15

Uh, wants to make vegetables more of the center of the plate.

Matt: 00:26:18

And, you know, that's her mission.

Matt: 00:26:19

And I think, uh, teaching folks, uh, proper techniques in the same

Matt: 00:26:23

way that you break down a whole chicken, you might break down a, a

Matt: 00:26:26

vegetable along the same lines to maximize the flavor and the potential.

Matt: 00:26:30

Um, and so for me it was really, um, a point of diversification in the book

Matt: 00:26:35

to showcase that, you know, butchering is not just meat and game, but it can

Matt: 00:26:39

include vegetables and seafood as well.

Bruce: 00:26:41

The recipes in your book are just mouthwatering.

Bruce: 00:26:44

The photos are gorgeous and they range from sublime smoke

Bruce: 00:26:48

carrots to those hog head tacos.

Bruce: 00:26:50

You mentioned earlier you've got braised oxtails, double cheese smash burgers.

Bruce: 00:26:56

You have a few takes on chicken wings, something you

Bruce: 00:26:59

claim to be a connoisseur of.

Bruce: 00:27:01

So Matt, what makes a great chicken wing?

Matt: 00:27:04

Yeah, I think every book I have, you gotta have a couple,

Matt: 00:27:06

uh, chicken wing resumes, right?

Matt: 00:27:09

Uh, that's typically my, uh, my night out with, with friends as well.

Matt: 00:27:13

Um, you know, the, the, a couple of the takes, the kind of the smoked lollipop.

Matt: 00:27:17

So, uh, you know, frenching the bone is, is a, a barbecue technique

Matt: 00:27:21

that you see a lot, uh, especially throughout the competition circuit.

Matt: 00:27:24

I, I will tell you, probably my favorite one is just the fried chicken wing.

Matt: 00:27:28

I did it in sort of my grandmother's old fashioned style of just salt.

Matt: 00:27:33

Pepper flour, a little bit of water and just deep fried and cast iron.

Matt: 00:27:38

And I think oftentimes we think of chicken wings as being more along the buffalo

Matt: 00:27:42

style, either smoked or flash fried without that kind of crispy coating.

Matt: 00:27:47

And I always do tell folks that, you know, whenever you can, um, you know, pick 'em

Matt: 00:27:52

up, you can source 'em at your butcher.

Matt: 00:27:53

I like to buy the wings as a whole and, and actually take the time

Matt: 00:27:56

with a little cleaver and just kind of pop 'em between the joint.

Matt: 00:27:59

I think if they've been processed somewhere else,

Matt: 00:28:01

the consistency of the meat.

Matt: 00:28:03

Is not quite as good.

Matt: 00:28:03

So that's definitely something that I'm often sourcing whole, and it's

Matt: 00:28:07

an item that I'll simply butcher at home or maybe ask, you know, of

Matt: 00:28:10

course my local butcher to, uh, to take care of that work for me as well.

Bruce: 00:28:14

What's your take on sauces with wings?

Bruce: 00:28:16

Once you frame crisp, toss 'em with a sauce or don't toss 'em with a sauce.

Matt: 00:28:20

The fried chicken wings in that book do not sauce them.

Matt: 00:28:23

Um, now my wife is, uh, a connoisseur of all things sauce.

Matt: 00:28:27

So she'll tell you that the house made blue cheese that I feature in the

Matt: 00:28:29

book is probably one of her go-tos.

Matt: 00:28:31

And, uh, we've been married long enough that I just turned my head.

Matt: 00:28:34

Uh, same thing with dry rub ribs.

Matt: 00:28:36

She's always asking where the sauce is, but I don't believe in it.

Bruce: 00:28:39

Hey, one of the things I love about your book is you include phish.

Bruce: 00:28:44

As well as beef, pork, and chicken.

Bruce: 00:28:45

I think it's really important to understand fish is meat, and

Bruce: 00:28:48

most people understand grilling a steak or smoking a pork shoulder.

Bruce: 00:28:53

The thought of cooking a salmon for Lake can be scary to them.

Bruce: 00:28:56

Do you have any tips for success with fish?

Matt: 00:28:59

I'm so glad you brought that up.

Matt: 00:29:00

I mean, again, My intention for Butcher on the Block was to create a general

Matt: 00:29:04

cookbook through the lens of the butcher.

Matt: 00:29:06

Um, it's not like I mentioned a, a bunch of technique on butchering.

Matt: 00:29:10

Rather, it's this beautiful window into incredible people, uh, diverse

Matt: 00:29:14

cuisines, great stories, tips and techniques, including seafood.

Matt: 00:29:18

And that's why we traveled to Boston and met Jared Auerbach, who, uh,

Matt: 00:29:21

really is just a fantastic, uh, person who's kind of upending the seafood

Matt: 00:29:25

industry by changing the way that.

Matt: 00:29:27

That we source sustainably great seafood.

Matt: 00:29:29

And you're exactly right.

Matt: 00:29:30

A lot of people have a lot of fears when it comes to specifically grilling seafood

Matt: 00:29:34

because is it gonna stick to the grate?

Matt: 00:29:36

Is it gonna be dried out?

Matt: 00:29:37

Am I gonna lose half of it to the coals?

Matt: 00:29:40

And you know, there are a couple different techniques that I always tell folks,

Matt: 00:29:42

you know, choosing, um, a piece like a salmon or, uh, the sport fish, like

Matt: 00:29:47

a Kobe that we have in the book, or even tuna, you know, something that's

Matt: 00:29:50

gonna be a little bit more hearty, uh, more steak like in consistency.

Matt: 00:29:54

We wanna give it every opportunity to create the mayard reaction on the grill.

Matt: 00:29:58

So starting with really good clean grates, uh, just a touch of oil.

Matt: 00:30:02

And then, uh, where most people mess up on seafood is they

Matt: 00:30:04

start touching it too quickly.

Matt: 00:30:06

They don't allow that reaction to occur to really just let the proteins kind

Matt: 00:30:10

of lift themselves off of the grate.

Matt: 00:30:11

If you're working with, um, you know, solutions like

Matt: 00:30:14

maybe, uh, or ingredients like.

Matt: 00:30:16

Flounder or trout, typically those are gonna be a little

Matt: 00:30:18

bit more, um, less dense.

Matt: 00:30:21

And so oftentimes I tell people to use maybe a, a pan or like a grilling basket,

Matt: 00:30:25

something like that where we're not having to, to flip it or turn it too much.

Matt: 00:30:29

Um, again, just kind of set yourself up for success and you can just

Matt: 00:30:32

look and touch the, the filet and have a good understanding.

Matt: 00:30:34

Is this gonna stand up over high heat?

Matt: 00:30:37

Or maybe I need to put it in a basket or something along those lines and still

Matt: 00:30:40

perfume it with the charcoal and smoke.

Matt: 00:30:42

Uh, but maybe not flip it and, and have that aha moment

Matt: 00:30:45

where it drops in the fire.

Bruce: 00:30:47

I like that you offer these kind of tips and, and help with grilling the meat.

Bruce: 00:30:51

And it's not just a book about how to cut up meat.

Bruce: 00:30:53

It's not just butchering techniques.

Bruce: 00:30:55

It is.

Bruce: 00:30:56

Book full of wonderful recipes, as well as the importance of just butchering

Bruce: 00:31:01

in general, and we need to, as you say, have a relationship with our butcher.

Bruce: 00:31:05

Go to them for advice, go to them for suggestions, and then follow

Bruce: 00:31:09

the amazing recipes in your book.

Bruce: 00:31:11

Matt Moore, author of Butcher on the Block, thanks for spending some time

Bruce: 00:31:15

and sharing your insight with me today.

Matt: 00:31:17

It's been a pleasure.

Matt: 00:31:18

Thanks so much for having me.

Matt: 00:31:19

So you like the book, right?

Bruce: 00:31:21

I think this book is fabulous because Matt is so smart about

Bruce: 00:31:25

meat and his advice about cooking meat and talking to your butcher.

Bruce: 00:31:29

It's the most important thing if you cook meat that you can do is develop

Bruce: 00:31:34

a relationship with a local butcher.

Bruce: 00:31:36

Even if that butcher is inside the supermarket, you will get.

Bruce: 00:31:40

Better cuts of meat.

Bruce: 00:31:41

You'll learn about meat.

Bruce: 00:31:42

They could teach you how to cook it.

Bruce: 00:31:44

Matt knows that that's what you have to do.

Bruce: 00:31:45

He talks about it in the book and his recipes are fantastic.

Mark: 00:31:48

Yeah, it was.

Mark: 00:31:49

That's a great interview.

Mark: 00:31:50

It was nice to have him on because we've had a lot of vegans and vegetarians

Mark: 00:31:53

on lately and that's beautiful stuff.

Mark: 00:31:55

And um, if you know, I have cut down on the amount of meat I eat by a great deal.

Mark: 00:32:00

So of course I'm very interested in vegan and vegetarian recipes.

Mark: 00:32:03

But, um, it was nice to have just an old-fashioned

Mark: 00:32:05

carnivore podcast this weekend.

Mark: 00:32:08

Okay.

Mark: 00:32:08

So as these typical, our last segment, what's making us happen in food this week?

Bruce: 00:32:15

It's watermelon time again, and I bought my first watermelon of the spring

Bruce: 00:32:19

at the local supermarket yesterday.

Bruce: 00:32:21

No, no, it's not the watermelon's making me happy.

Bruce: 00:32:23

That's, no, it's not a local watermelon.

Bruce: 00:32:25

No, no, it's not.

Bruce: 00:32:26

It's still coming in from where?

Bruce: 00:32:28

I don't know.

Bruce: 00:32:28

Probably Ecuador, but yeah.

Bruce: 00:32:29

UA or actually Bolivia?

Bruce: 00:32:31

No, Ashley.

Bruce: 00:32:32

I think this one's from Florida.

Mark: 00:32:34

Well, this Texas boy just refuses to eat them until

Mark: 00:32:37

they come into the local farms.

Bruce: 00:32:39

Well, that's the end of August now.

Bruce: 00:32:40

I'm not waiting till the end of August to have a watermelon.

Mark: 00:32:43

Bruce loves watermelon more than I can even say.

Mark: 00:32:45

What's making me happy through this week?

Mark: 00:32:47

Uh, our snicker doodles.

Mark: 00:32:48

I, I made a party for Bruce.

Mark: 00:32:51

Bruce sings with a baroque.

Mark: 00:32:52

Group who, uh, they perform, I don't know, lots of Baroque music

Mark: 00:32:57

and BK is too late for them.

Mark: 00:32:59

They're earlier than they have their really early Baroque music.

Mark: 00:33:02

Uh, and he sings with this group.

Mark: 00:33:04

And when our friends come to concerts, I make dinner and I made 70 snicker doodles.

Mark: 00:33:09

So many snicker doodles.

Mark: 00:33:10

It was ridiculous.

Mark: 00:33:11

The, it was a recipe from our book, the Ultimate Cookbook.

Mark: 00:33:14

And it's my mom's old recipe.

Mark: 00:33:16

And to be honest with you, I just came here from St.

Mark: 00:33:18

Louis and I took my mom a bag of the leftover snicker doodles and

Mark: 00:33:22

I was like, this is your recipe.

Mark: 00:33:23

She was very thrilled to get them.

Mark: 00:33:26

Despite her increasing a1c, she was very thrill.

Mark: 00:33:29

Grilled together.

Mark: 00:33:30

My mom's 90, so cut her a break.

Mark: 00:33:33

So,

Bruce: 00:33:33

hey, I would like to have her a1c, so let's go

Mark: 00:33:35

there.

Mark: 00:33:36

No, let's not.

Mark: 00:33:37

So I took her a bag and she sat there snacking on them, on

Mark: 00:33:40

the couch as we watch the news.

Mark: 00:33:43

So, uh, that's about where I go with my mom at this point, is we watch the news

Mark: 00:33:47

together and that's what visiting means.

Mark: 00:33:48

So, Anyway, it was really nice to make snicker doodles such an old

Mark: 00:33:52

fashioned US cookie, at least if you're a US citizen of my age, you are

Mark: 00:33:58

really familiar with snicker doodles.

Mark: 00:34:00

Most likely there were two Brits at the party.

Bruce: 00:34:02

Oh, they didn't even know what they were.

Mark: 00:34:03

No.

Mark: 00:34:04

And they had no clue what they were.

Mark: 00:34:05

And I was like, oh, well it's a thing.

Mark: 00:34:08

It's a thing.

Mark: 00:34:08

Especially if you're my age and you grow up in the United States.

Mark: 00:34:11

Maybe Canada too, for all I know, but sorry, I didn't grow up in Canada.

Mark: 00:34:14

Lamentably didn't grow up in

Bruce: 00:34:16

Say It right, Canadia, where the Canadians are from.

Mark: 00:34:19

Right.

Mark: 00:34:19

I didn't grow up in Canadia and so I, I don't know if Canadians know

Mark: 00:34:24

about the snicker doodles, but we sure did in the United States.

Mark: 00:34:27

Okay.

Mark: 00:34:27

That's our podcast for this week.

Mark: 00:34:28

Thanks for being a part of our podcast.

Mark: 00:34:30

We know that there are thousands of podcasts out.

Mark: 00:34:33

There and we are thrilled that you have chosen to listen to ours,

Bruce: 00:34:37

and I will ask you, please go to our Facebook group, also called Cooking

Bruce: 00:34:41

with Bruce and Mark, where I share recipes, videos, conversations about food.

Bruce: 00:34:45

I want to know what you had last night.

Bruce: 00:34:47

I wanna know what's making you happy in food this week, so you can share it

Bruce: 00:34:49

there at cooking with Bruce and Mark on Facebook and listen to more episodes of