Julia Turshen, SIMPLY JULIA

2021-03-04  ·  27:15  ·  Julia Turshen  ·  Podcast Audio

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[0:01]Hi, this is Vivi Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[0:06]I'm also the host of Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight, and I'm the editor of the anthology,
[0:12]which you should run out and buy called Moms Don't Have Time to Accarantine Anthology.
[0:16]I'll proceed to that book, go to COVID-19 Vaccine Research.
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[0:29]And if all that isn't enough, you can follow me on Instagram, ad-Zibioins, and my website at zibioins.com.
[0:35]Okay, now back to this amazing podcast.
[0:38]Julia Tertan is the author of Simply Julia, 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food.
[0:45]Julia is the best-selling author of Now and Again, which was named the Best Cookbook of 2018 by Amazon, and was an NPR great read.
[0:54]Also, she wrote Feed the Resistance, named the Best Cookbook of 2017 by Eater, and Small Victories,
[1:00]named one of the Best Cookbooks of 2016 by The New York Times, and NPR, which by the way sits right next to our oven.
[1:08]She also hosts the IACP nominated podcast called Keep Calm and Cook On.
[1:13]Julia has co-authored numerous cookbooks, and has also written for The New York Times the Washington Post,
[1:18]The Wall Street Journal, Bug, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, Saver, and more.
[1:23]Epicurious has called her one of the 100 greatest home cooks of all time, and The New York Times has described her as
[1:29]at the forefront of the new generation of authentic, approachable authors.
[1:34]Julia regularly travels from media appearances to speak about her work, sit on panels, moderate conversations,
[1:39]and de-cooking demonstrations around the country of pre-COVID.
[1:43]She also sits on the kitchen cabinet advisory board for the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History,
[1:48]as a member of God's Love We Deliver's Culinary Council, and is the founder of Equity at the Table,
[1:54]an inclusive digital directory of women and non-binary individuals in food.
[1:59]Julia lives in Hudson Valley with her wife and pets.
[2:02]Welcome, Julia, thank you so much for coming on Monster and have time to read books.
[2:06]Thank you so much for having me.
[2:08]I'm really excited.
[2:09]I've been listening to some of your interviews, so I'm so excited to get to do one with you.
[2:14]Oh, thanks for listening. That's nice. You've had amazing people, so I'm very honored.
[2:19]Oh, thanks. Okay, simply Julia. Let's talk about your latest book and everything related to it.
[2:27]I loved this book because, yes, of course it was a cookbook, but there was like an essay before every recipe, which was so great.
[2:34]It's like you sort of unveiled yourself over every dish, and of course food has so much to do with who we are and our experiences and memories.
[2:43]So tell me about the idea behind the format of this book and how it came to be.
[2:47]Sure, yeah. Well, I really appreciate hearing your experience with it, and that's wonderful to hear because I did pour so much of myself into this book.
[2:57]And yeah, every recipe has like an incredibly personal story behind it. There are other essays woven into the book. There's like old family photos.
[3:06]So it's a deeply personal book, you know, that's my name and my face on the cover. Like it's me for sure.
[3:14]But it's also, in addition to being the most personal cookbook I've ever written.
[3:18]It's the most practical one I've ever written and, you know, my career has been a mix of doing my own books and also collaborating with other people.
[3:27]And simply Julia is actually accounted recently. It's the 15th cookbook I've worked on.
[3:33]So I was able to, you know, take everything I've learned from all of these experiences and put so much of that into this book.
[3:43]And what my main goal is and what I've learned from working on all those books is I just want to help people feel comfortable cooking and feel, you know, as excited as possible to do it and also know it's okay if you're not always excited to cook.
[3:57]But when you're cooking to just feel really comfortable and really calm and feel kind of that sort of friendly feeling of someone is in your corner saying like you've got this it's no big deal.
[4:07]It's gonna be okay. It's just dinner. And so that is really the goal of simply Julia. It's all really really easy recipes. It's all for healthy comfort food. You know, I take, I think a long look at what those words mean healthy and comfort and try to offer my own definition.
[4:23]Invite everyone to think about their own and yeah to just kind of be there for you in your kitchen. That's, that's my goal. So I hope that comes through and that's great to hear that like all that personal stuff came through.
[4:35]You know, for sure. You know, it's funny. You mentioned how, you know, this is for people even if you don't feel like cooking. And I couldn't believe in your introduction how you were talking about house.
[4:43]Sometimes you just don't feel like cooking because I would imagine you always feel like cooking like it would be like second nature.
[4:48]And you were like sometimes you just don't feel like feeling onion. I'm like really even you.
[4:52]So then I'm like reading along. I'm like, oh, she totally gets me. And then it's like staples that I always have in my kitchen.
[4:57]And I was like, okay, she's going to say like, you know, the basics like, I don't know, olive oil eggs, milk or butter. I don't know something. And then it's like kimchi.
[5:07]Of course, most heard from this level. I was like, okay, so we're not like corn tortillas, which is so interesting, right?
[5:14]Because I don't even have corn tortillas. I mean, I usually have flour tortillas, but my kids like this much.
[5:18]So we diverged there because you're like staples in cabinets and everywhere. We're just a little more exotic than mine.
[5:25]But then as you unfolded all the recipes and found, you know, where you used a lot of them, it became very clear. Although I have the same olive oil. So I will say just a small tiny tangent just because you brought it up. I am, you know, books are only ever done because we've turned them in, right?
[5:44]A friend of mine, Amelia is always tells me that. And something I've been thinking about a lot as I really wish I gave as equal of a shout out to flower tortillas as I did to corn tortillas because I love both of them.
[5:57]I just want to say here and you say that I'm just, I think whenever our conversation is done, I'm feeling a little bit hungry and I should have had a snack before.
[6:05]And I'm like, I cannot wait for the flower tortilla quesadilla that is waiting for me that I will be making.
[6:11]So that's something my mind. I'm like so happy about that.
[6:14]Julia, you would like to take your laptop into the kitchen and make a case as we talk. That would be great. I would be all for real ahead. You could show me how to do your way.
[6:25]I would, but then we would have two very loud dogs barking because they would want one too. So maybe after our recording.
[6:34]Well, given that my breakfast this morning was my kid's honey nature is I'm shame to admit that. Yes, maybe I'll be inspired for my lunch to and make what you're.
[6:44]No shame there. I definitely I love cereal. So yeah, but I think pointing out that we're not always in the mood to cook is a totally okay thing to talk about.
[6:55]Yeah, I'm very happy that you noticed that part of it and I resonated because I think about that a lot. Like I'm a cookbook author and I'm a cookbook author because I love to cook and I have my entire life.
[7:07]And you know, I have a lot of things going for me when it comes to making home cooking feel really easy and doable, including my love for cooking, including the fact that I work from home, including the fact that I have a kitchen that I'm really comfortable in.
[7:20]You know, I have all these things going for me. And yeah, sometimes I don't feel like cooking. So I can only imagine people who, you know, I know you have four children, you know, people who have other things going on.
[7:30]You know, I know if I don't always feel like that other people must feel that way too, but you know, we still want to make dinner or you know, get through the day.
[7:38]So I like acknowledging that because I just think it's true. And that's part of home cooking is cooking when you don't feel like it.
[7:46]It was also really interesting how in this book, which, you know, as we're talking, it's still December of 2020. I know this will come out after this.
[7:54]But you know, it's still sort of pandemic life. And yet you reference a lot of stuff in the beginning of the pandemic how the pictures were taken even in April and everything was shut down and how you were finalizing it in February.
[8:05]And you reference how some of the meals and get with some sort of beef, something stew or something you gave to a lot of first responders and people were asking all the time how to make beans.
[8:15]And then so you came up with the recipe for that. So tell me about how you decided to I mean, obviously that wasn't the original plan of this book to include any of that because it hadn't been happening.
[8:26]So just tell me about that.
[8:27]Yeah, sure. I also will just add I really appreciate that you really read the book. And that doesn't always always happen. So yeah, I appreciate that.
[8:35]I basically the timeline of the book, you know, I sold the book and started working on it pre pandemic. I had no idea that, you know, none of us had any idea of you know, but the last year would would hold for us.
[8:48]And so when COVID began in at least, you know, in the United States and in New York state where I live, I was basically at the point where I had written the whole book.
[9:01]I had tested all the recipes. So all of the words for the book were done.
[9:06]And I was getting ready to take all the photographs, which is, you know, a huge part of any cookbook. It's the sort of marriage between between the words and the pictures.
[9:14]Which are gorgeous. Oh, thank you. Thank you.
[9:18]And but the way we were able to make those gorgeous photos is kind of was was unlike any photo shoot I've ever been a part of.
[9:27]I ended up working with an amazing photographer, Melina Hammer, who actually lives 10 minutes away from me. We both live in a pretty rural area in the Hudson Valley.
[9:36]And she is incredible because not only is she a great photographer, but she's also a food and a prop stylist. And if anyone doesn't know what those words mean, a food stylist is someone who prepares all the food that happens in the, you know, beautiful photos and cookbooks and a prop stylist with a person who picks about the dishes and the napkins and a little, you know, juggle flowers or whatever it might be.
[9:56]And it's rare to find someone who does all those things, let alone someone.
[10:00]who lives nearby in this pretty random place where we live.
[10:04]And because we did all the photographs right
[10:07]at the beginning of the pandemic, which was, you know,
[10:11]a lot of lockdown, we devised this kind of wild system
[10:16]where I would prepare everything at my house
[10:19]and I would find reference photos
[10:21]or what I wanted the photos to look like.
[10:23]And then I would drop off a box of containers
[10:25]moving as step every day
[10:28]and then should we put the finishing touches on everything?
[10:31]Sometimes I would drop off, you know,
[10:32]my grandmother's platter that I wanted, you know,
[10:35]the dish to appear on things like that
[10:37]or, you know, a little ceramic pot, my wife made
[10:40]when she was, you know, a kid, you know,
[10:42]just these little details but no one else would know
[10:44]but, you know, they're important to me
[10:45]and that's how we made all the photos.
[10:47]So we made it at this very surreal time
[10:50]and, you know, I was thinking about when it came time
[10:54]to do the photo shoot and, you know,
[10:56]to do it in this unusual way, we figured out,
[10:58]you know, I didn't know if that would be possible
[10:59]and, you know, I definitely thought like,
[11:01]I'll just postpone the book, like, you know,
[11:04]there's much more important things going on
[11:06]but because I had the opportunity to complete it
[11:08]with someone as talented as Molina
[11:11]and to do it in this way that was quite literally
[11:13]very close to home, it just felt like why not just go for it
[11:17]and I felt some momentum and a sense of,
[11:21]I don't know, maybe some kind of,
[11:23]yeah, motivation to complete this is quickly as possible
[11:26]because I do think that this book is just incredibly useful
[11:30]and I think there's recipes that are really,
[11:33]yeah, I mentioned the word practical before,
[11:35]it's just like an incredibly practical book
[11:36]and I just want as many people to have it
[11:38]because I just want people to feel super comfortable
[11:41]cooking and I think the book really offers that
[11:44]and, yeah, so there's a lot of stories
[11:46]about things I made, I do a lot of like community work
[11:48]where I live and volunteer works
[11:50]so there's a lot of stories about things I made,
[11:51]yeah, for our local first responders,
[11:53]we have like an all volunteer EMT squad in her area
[11:57]who were and continued to respond to this crisis
[12:00]and my next door neighbor who is the retired EMT
[12:04]of I think she was in the squad for like 30 years or something.
[12:08]She was feeling really sad to not be on the front lines
[12:12]but she had been forever and so I was talking to her
[12:16]and she was like, well, the one thing I can do
[12:18]is make something to eat and so we sort of went in
[12:21]on it together and between the two of us every week
[12:24]we're dropping off a big thing of this or that
[12:26]including one of the recipes which is for Rupa Vieja
[12:29]which was really delicious kind of like shredded beef dish
[12:32]with all sorts of like delicious aromatics
[12:34]and you just put it in the oven and forget about it
[12:36]like you don't have to do anything.
[12:38]So yeah, so the stories come in and all that kind of stuff
[12:40]and so yeah, I got to start the book
[12:43]before the pandemic finished it during the pandemic
[12:46]and it feels just incredibly relevant and useful
[12:50]and it will be published about a year anniversary
[12:56]of at least in an hour region people being at home
[13:00]and we're all cooking.
[13:01]So I hope that just gives a little bit of spark
[13:04]for some new recipes and routines.
[13:07]No, it's good, it puts it, it's very of the moment, right?
[13:11]It's obviously there's so many stories from the past
[13:13]but I love how you throw in all this stuff
[13:16]with your family like the mixed master,
[13:19]your grandmother gave me your book.
[13:20]It's so which is amazing because I got one from my,
[13:24]not a mixed master, we got to stand up
[13:25]for a kitchen idea.
[13:26]It should have, yeah, so I have a yellow one
[13:27]that I got from my first wedding
[13:29]which I still have, I should have kept that
[13:31]in my family or whatever and like literally like
[13:35]the kids will be making the vegan movie like
[13:37]well, this calls for mixed, it's a kitchen day
[13:39]and I'm like, no, it's fine.
[13:40]We'll just like stir it ourselves.
[13:41]Like I don't want to pull it out, it's so heavy.
[13:43]It's so heavy, it's so heavy.
[13:45]But then whenever I use it, of course it brings back
[13:46]all sorts of stuff.
[13:47]Yeah.
[13:48]And essay in there where you should have picked your view
[13:50]and your mom and talked about body image a little bit.
[13:53]Tell me a little more about that.
[13:55]Sure, that essay is one of the things
[13:58]I'm most proud of in the book
[14:00]and I'm just so happy.
[14:02]It's in this book and the essay is about,
[14:05]it's essentially like a reflection on sort of body image
[14:08]and self-worth, both my own and all of ours
[14:13]and I included that essay because this book
[14:16]it's about healthy comfort food.
[14:18]And so often I see healthy cookbooks
[14:21]that are in my opinion a little bit of a kind of like
[14:25]a disguise for some disordered eating
[14:28]or restrictive eating.
[14:29]And I say that because I've been part of that.
[14:33]I grew up very much in diet culture.
[14:36]I grew up with a lot of restrictive eating
[14:38]and disordered eating.
[14:40]And I've, I don't know the right word for it.
[14:44]I think I've clogged my way through that
[14:45]and tried to get to the other side of that.
[14:48]And that's something I continue to work on
[14:50]in my personal life and therapy
[14:54]and in conversations with my wife and my closest friends
[14:57]and my mother who you mentioned
[14:59]there's a picture of us when I was really little
[15:01]and I feel like it was vital that I share some of that
[15:06]in this book because this book is a book of quote unquote
[15:10]healthy recipes.
[15:11]It's a book of things to prepare to make you
[15:13]hopefully feel really good.
[15:15]So I wanted to talk really honestly
[15:16]about how I've felt about my body and about cooking
[15:20]and about eating.
[15:21]And you know, I mentioned earlier,
[15:22]I've lived to cook my whole life.
[15:24]And while that has always been true,
[15:26]I've also had like a really fraught relationship
[15:29]with eating the food I've cooked.
[15:31]And you know, that's complicated.
[15:33]And I think it's worth at least attempting to untangle.
[15:36]I don't know that I have the answers by any means,
[15:39]but I think it's really important to be honest
[15:41]about that kind of conversation,
[15:43]especially in a book that promotes healthy eating.
[15:45]And you know, I think it comes back to, for me,
[15:49]defining it as like a very kind and holistic relationship
[15:53]and you know, healthy doesn't mean skinny.
[15:57]You know, they're not interchangeable words.
[15:59]And you know, I, in that essay talk about
[16:02]that I have really struggled with the idea of just the word
[16:06]fat and fat phobia and that's something that's,
[16:09]you know, been a through line in my entire life.
[16:11]And I think it has for many people,
[16:12]especially women who are home cooks.
[16:16]And I just wanted to sort of talk about that
[16:19]and kind of help in whatever way I could
[16:22]to destigmatize the word fat in a healthy cookbook.
[16:25]And I think that's a pretty powerful thing
[16:28]and something I haven't seen done before
[16:31]in this kind of cookbook.
[16:31]And I'm really, you know, I'm happy that it's part of it.
[16:35]And I really appreciate the support
[16:37]of all the people I've worked on for the cookbook
[16:40]to, you know, really be excited to include that
[16:44]and to kind of open up this conversation a little bit more.
[16:46]So yeah, that's, that's the essay.
[16:49]And I think, you know, when I was digging through old family
[16:52]photos to incorporate into the book,
[16:54]there is like this really sweet photo of me
[16:57]when I was really little sitting, you know, my mom's laugh
[16:59]that we ended up attaching to that essay.
[17:02]And it feels really kind of poignant to me
[17:05]because, you know, this is something my mom
[17:08]and I discuss a lot.
[17:09]And I think we're both working through both separately
[17:12]and together.
[17:13]And, you know, to sort of have that photo of me,
[17:17]I think before I even really realized
[17:19]what I was so steeped in, just feels, yeah,
[17:22]kind of powerful in some way and also very healing
[17:27]in a way.
[17:28]So yeah.
[17:29]No, I loved it.
[17:29]I was so happy you put it in.
[17:31]And it's funny, my, well, I guess that's funny.
[17:33]I shouldn't preface this with it.
[17:34]It's funny.
[17:35]My grandmother, my grandmother recently passed away.
[17:37]We were very close.
[17:38]Oh, I'm sorry.
[17:38]She was 97.
[17:39]So it's, you know, it's okay.
[17:41]But anyway, I'm actually, I just, my mother just sent me
[17:43]all her belongings and I'm wearing her sweater
[17:45]because it came last night for the first time.
[17:47]And she, her whole life was like obsessed
[17:50]with the word fat per year conversation.
[17:52]And this is something of course it goes generations
[17:53]and through families and, you know, whatever.
[17:56]And she would always say like walking on the street,
[17:58]you know, she's fat as I am, you know,
[18:00]she's not about her.
[18:01]Like, what do you think?
[18:02]And, you know, her body barely changed her whole life.
[18:05]And yet she was obsessed with it.
[18:07]I'm like, you're 86 or whatever she was, nobody's looking.
[18:10]You know, but some of these things,
[18:12]they're just so entrenched in someone's DNA
[18:15]that if they're not worked through at a youngish age,
[18:18]they're just not going away.
[18:20]Yeah.
[18:21]No, that's really, wow, that's like, wow.
[18:24]And, you know, it's, I think it speaks to the, you know,
[18:28]the comparison that diet culture kind of encourages
[18:31]for us to compare ourselves to each other or to, you know,
[18:35]I know I've like had a hard time like looking at pictures
[18:39]of myself when I was, whether I was in a smaller size body
[18:42]than I am now or a larger one, you know,
[18:45]like I compare myself to myself, you know,
[18:48]and your grandmother walking down the street
[18:49]and pointing that out at that's such a good example of that.
[18:53]And, you know, what I think a lot about now is what would it
[18:57]be like if we, if there was, if we swapped comparison
[19:01]for like compassion, like what would that feel like?
[19:04]I don't know exactly how that happens,
[19:06]but I think thinking about it and just being able to talk
[19:08]about it and then setting like this is part of it, I hope.
[19:11]So that's really sweet that you're wearing her sweater,
[19:14]but I love knowing that.
[19:16]That's really, I don't know.
[19:17]Not to mention that like it fits.
[19:18]And I'm like, huh, like it feels like, what does that mean?
[19:22]Yeah.
[19:22]Does that mean, you know, it's funny your buck.
[19:25]It could so easily be a memoir with recipes
[19:29]and you change the font and format.
[19:31]Like I feel like maybe, well, not that you need more ideas
[19:34]or anything, but I feel like you have so many stories in you.
[19:38]And even like that one essay and how much that just brought up,
[19:41]like you could write an actual, instead of formatting it
[19:44]as a cookbook and putting it in that aisle,
[19:46]I feel like you should also do, it doesn't have to be that long,
[19:50]but like a memoir and maybe you have a few recipes
[19:52]at the end of chapters.
[19:53]Like trying to think I was looking behind me,
[19:55]there's this book by Phyllis Grant.
[19:57]It's called Everything Is That A New Year?
[19:58]Oh, yeah.
[19:59]That was amazing.
[19:59]Yeah.
[20:00]It's like that's her story, but then there's a recipe and then you're in the memoir aisle and you reach a whole
[20:05]No, they're group of people who may be like food, but they're not gonna try to cook anyway
[20:08]Just put that on
[20:10]The back burner because I think you would write a really great memoir and of itself a call these stories and one that I would really like to read
[20:17]So anyway, I appreciate that the idea of working on a book that didn't involve all the logistics of recipe testing and and photographing
[20:26]It sounds like really relaxing to me
[20:30]Yeah, no, I love that what's cool about cookbooks though is you know
[20:34]Especially one like mine where I've had the opportunity to you know
[20:38]Put so much writing and put so much myself in what constantly amazes me is that because it is not a memoir because it is a cookbook
[20:46]all of these recipes get to become part of other people's lives and
[20:50]People come back to cookbooks
[20:52]I think in ways they don't necessarily come back to other books like I know when I read
[20:56]Memoirs that really moved me it's rare. I'll read it twice
[21:00]You know, I might underline some stuff and reference it, you know, or think about it over the years and share it with a friend
[21:06]But you know cookbook is something you keep returning to so
[21:10]it forms a kind of relationship between myself and and the people who cook for my books that is something I
[21:18]value so much and I've come to find to be just I think
[21:23]Absolutely like the most gratifying part of what I do
[21:25]You know, I talk to a lot of people I've gotten to know just from being a cookbook author and you know
[21:31]I get to hear about how you know, I don't know a soup or a cake or something that has meant a lot to me
[21:37]That's maybe a family recipe. Maybe it's something that's like my wife's favorite thing
[21:40]Whatever whatever it is, and then all of a sudden it becomes
[21:43]You know, someone's birthday cake every year and you know, it becomes not about me and it becomes about them and their family or their friends
[21:50]And it's a very profound experience and I you know, I really just appreciate it
[21:57]I don't know what to say about it. It's really special
[22:00]I've never thought about that from the point of view of a cookbook author how that thrill that you must feel like knowing that what you do
[22:07]Yeah, what you've created is then replicated
[22:09]I'm trying to think who else that would even refer to maybe like songwriters like what are they?
[22:14]Yeah, totally repeated experiences on the other end of the page, you know
[22:19]It's yeah, it's really surreal and it's very special and you know being a cookbook author also in the age of social media
[22:28]Which you know social media is
[22:31]complicated, but one really beautiful thing about it is
[22:34]getting to see actual pictures of things people are cooking and
[22:38]And you know that never gets old and I remember when I published my first solo cookbook and I was seeing that happen
[22:45]And people making you know my lasagna recipe my meatball recipe, you know these things that are just part of my like
[22:52]You know weekly kind of life at home and I was seeing pictures of those recipes appear in other people's kitchens like I would cry each time and
[23:00]Like it was just I was you know
[23:03]I would hope that if you write a cookbook, you know someone would cook out of it
[23:07]but to actually see it I like didn't anticipate how emotional that would be and
[23:11]You know, yeah, it really I've like learned to not cry each time
[23:15]Also like an easy cry like I cry at like the commercials
[23:20]Yeah, it's really it's like it's a very like emotional experience, and it's really amazing and I'm just very grateful for it
[23:27]All right, well, I am vowing and then I am going to make one of your recipes no matter how badly I botched it up because I'm not the best cook
[23:35]But I'm gonna do it. I'll tag you. They're very pretty. Give-ring
[23:38]Really, I just I believe in you, and it's gonna be great and even
[23:43]It'll be great so I
[23:45]Know on your podcast keep calm and cook on that you always ask people about their most meaningful childhood dish
[23:52]Or thing that they used to cook or eat or whatever
[23:55]So what is yours? I'll end my podcast with you. I still think you're out. This is such a like
[24:00]Like I've just turned my chair around the thing that I love most when I was growing up off the top of my head
[24:06]I mean so many things right, but the first thing that popped into my head is my dad's meatloaf
[24:12]Which I did a version of and simply Julia as meatballs
[24:16]Mostly because I'm impatient. I just cook a lot faster
[24:19]But my dad's famous Tex-Mex meatloaf, which was famous amongst me my mom and my brother
[24:26]And but it's like a really genius idea and he would basically both my parents worked full-time when I was growing up and
[24:34]You know the only time we really had like a family dinner was like
[24:38]usually like Saturday night and
[24:40]my dad often cooked and
[24:42]So for his meatloaf he would combine
[24:44]Whatever kind of meat like whether it was just ground beef or a mixture of things and then instead of the usual kind of eggs and breadcrumbs
[24:51]To help kind of stretch out that meat and a typical meatloaf
[24:54]He would put a jar of salsa and he would crush a bag of tortilla chips
[24:59]And then he would put like a ton like a ton of cheddar cheese like in it and on top of it
[25:05]And it was so good and we all like looked forward to it so much and
[25:10]The best thing was you know Saturday night dinner was great and the meatloaf was you know out of the oven wonderful
[25:15]But the best best thing was Sunday when we would have like cold meatloaf sandwiches for lunch and I think that was like really my favorite
[25:23]My dad is like he mixed like the best sandwiches and
[25:27]So yeah, there's a Tex-Mex turkey meatball recipe inspired by that meatloaf in the book and
[25:33]that was the first thing to come to mind and
[25:36]Yeah, I'm now feel like I want both the case of the end
[25:44]And also by the way, I've been doing these anthologies and I have one coming in February and one next November
[25:49]And I would love you of any interest in contributing like a recipe without a story. Yeah, the second one
[25:55]That would be amazing. I mean, that's clearly like my favorite thing to do is a recipe and a story
[25:59]Yeah, I'd be delighted. All right. Okay. All right. I'll follow up. We've all this has been so fun
[26:05]And I feel like I could just you know open the door that's behind you and like follow you into your kitchen and watching
[26:10]Make your stuff so I will leave you to go to your life and I'll back to mind
[26:15]But it's nice that I got a little on Jay into into yours for the morning
[26:19]Thank you so much. This really was so fun and they went by so quickly and I really
[26:24]Just appreciate you sharing like especially about your grandmother and stuff and I'm glad we had this opportunity
[26:30]Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. I'll be great. It really went so fast
[26:36]Thank you very much. Yeah, please do like send me whatever details about that. I'd love to be a part of that. Awesome. I'm so I'll say well. Okay. All right. Take care. Bye
[26:47]Thanks for listening to this episode of moms don't have time to read books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at
[26:53]ZB Owens and at moms don't have time to read books. Also sign up for my newsletter at zB Owens.com and sign up for my virtual
[27:00]Book club and meet lots of authors on zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan
[27:04]Heck texture sound for the sound editing and thank you to morning moon productions for providing this fantastic intro and now trim music