Not A Single Fork

What's your favorite Christmas movie? And is there ever any discussion about whether it is or isn't?I contend that Die Hard is a Christmas movie but I know not everyone agrees with me. So, Natalia and I discuss Christmas movies with food themes along with a few others without food themes. And as usual, it's a matter of opinion.Today, December's Online Recipe Collection videos drop. If you listened to our last episode, we told you all about it. This is just another little shameless plug for gifting this subscription for the holidays. You can put in the recipient's email address so they get the videos but use your credit card and pay for it. Great idea, right? And super easy. The gift that keeps on giving and who knows...maybe they'll cook something just for you. Click here to check it out and watch our teaser.Thanks for listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch us do our thing on YouTube @thegirlcancook. It's unedited and highly crazy.

Happy Hanukkah! May your candles burn bright this season!!My apologies for not being better versed in my Hanukkah knowledge...I got a little rusty.We stumbled through my very bad explanation of the Festival of Lights and then we moved on.You probably know we have an opinion or two about everything so wanted to share how much we appreciated Chef Nikki setting us straight with her experience and opinion regarding culinary school. Thanks, NIkki!I hope you're right about people listening to our podcast!Then we jumped into International Christmas foods by country and I quizzed Natalia about what each country has for the holiday table.We also shared what our families do or did during Christmas.Check out our YouTube @thegirlcancook for the unedited version and you can see all the Christmas in my house. You can listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts and thanks for listening!

I was never very good with leftovers because my mom hated leftovers. I just never learned any clever techniques for repurposing food but things have changed.I have come to love leftovers and the creative options they provide. Weird, right?That doesn't mean I save everything forever (unlike Natalia and her bean burrito story...stay tuned in for that saga) but I don't dread having extra food hanging around.So we spend a lot of time talking about what you can do with leftover food whether from the holidays or every day.In fact, we recorded a series of videos for the Online Recipe Collection to give you some more ideas (jumping off points?) for your leftovers. Those will all be available on December 15 when they drop in the subscription. This is news to you? Then check out the Online Recipe Collection on our website by clicking right here.You can listen to the entire leftover episode wherever you get your podcasts and if you prefer a video version...YouTube @thegirlcancook where you can see us up close and unedited.Thanks for listening!

We don't do interviews very often but when we do...it's one for the books. We had the pleasure of speaking with Chef Nikki Pettineo. She has had a colorful and varied career and tells us all about it. She began in the corporate food world but quickly moved on to become a personal chef for several professional football players. She has cooked on yachts and has taught culinary arts to almost everyone, including inmates in a medium security prison.So after owning a restaurant in addition to everything else, she has added entrepreneur to her resume by developing a spice brand, Pro Seasoning, and is now empire building there. When she's not blending spices, she has a YouTube channel, Nikki Talks Food and teaches virtually and in-person cooking classes as well as creating private dining experiences in the Tallahassee, Florida area.Chef Nikki also took us to task on the importance of culinary training and the places it can take you. She has personal experience with that and believes that without her certifications, she would not have gotten as far as she has. She's a super smart, dynamic woman so I'm pretty sure she would have made it with or without those.We met during taping Rat In The Kitchen for TBS. I would say we met on set but we actually first met in the laundry room of the hotel they put us up in. So we talk about that a little as well. Her story is so interesting. You don't want to miss this episode.Listen wherever you get your podcasts and see all of us on our YouTube channel @thegirlcancook.Thanks for listening.

We're not quite finished with our list of kitchen basics that you should know by now.We actually agreed with most everything. Hard to believe, I know.Tips on cooking rice and finishing pasta in the sauce. Did you know that pastas have "matching" sauces? That means that some pasta shapes are better suited to specific sauces. Roasting a whole chicken is always a good technique to add to your cooking. It's always more economical to buy a whole chicken than parts. When you buy parts you're paying for the convenience and then the economy of buying chicken goes out the window.More bechamel making along with a shameless plug for our online video recipe subscription because we just did a Skill Drill for making bechamel.This seems like a no-brainer but if you clean as you go when you're cooking, your final clean up will be so much easier. Keep a big bowl handy as your garbage bowl to have a place to throw all the vegetable drop offs and such.Finally, we talk about making Southern style macaroni and cheese and we'll probably do a video about that, too.There's lots more that we rundown but you'll have to listen to get that!Hope you enjoy this short and sweet episode. You can watch us up close, unedited and personal on YouTube @thegirlcancook.Thanks for listening.

More kitchen advice in this week's episode starting with a Buzzfeed article about kitchen basics that you should probably know by now. We're not really into "shoulds" so we decided to tackle this list.We could get on board with most of the suggestions but there are so many, we're doing a second edition.But we're always going to support mise en place, knife skills and recipe reading. It goes into much more detail but honestly, if you get the basics down, your cooking will go smoothly and with so much less stress.We take the list to task on meat temperature testing. We opt for a good internal thermometer and a few other things fly in the face of what we consider reasonable basics but in this first installment, we're mostly in agreement.See what you think as you listen to this week's episode (almost anywhere you get your podcasts). Watch us unedited and ridiculous on YouTube @thegirlcancook.Thanks for listenting.

You know that saying..."expect the unexpected"? That's kind of my life but it was no more apparent than when the woman who produced our first promo reel for The Girl Can Cook! asked if she could work as an extern for us as she completed the requirements for her culinary degree.But it happened so what makes for a better interview than someone who has a journey that includes a drastic career change and is charting her future endeavors.Meet Rebecca Bennett, a highly accomplished media producer and marketer who has become a culinary student in the last year. And it's something she's always wanted to do. It is her spark and until recently, she thought she had lost it. She was questioning her entire life on a very long solo road trip to and from Maine with her three dogs in the car. She stopped at a sad and seedy motel because, well, dogs, and went to the Applebee's next door for a salad. When the salad came without lettuce, that was the turning point when she took the leap and enrolled in the Escoffier online culinary program. It had to be a sign.If you have any interest in culinary school (online or otherwise), Rebecca takes us through her entire culinary experience and as she finishes her first program, she's planning on learning more about nutrition and plant-based programs but is leaving the rest up in the air. That will come in the future but for now, it's enough to say that she did it and will not have to wonder "what if". What she does know is that people, in general, simply do not know how to cook and she wants to help them not only learn to cook but how to cook fresh, unprocessed food.We hope you enjoy this interview wherever you listen to podcasts and you can watch the up close and uncut version on YouTube @thegirlcancook.Thanks for listening.

Well...this one was a fun romp. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.I started my real cooking journey in the 1980s while I was in graduate school for clinical psychology. Maybe it was just the inquisitive, scientist part of me coming out but I was all over reading about exotic foods, techniques and how different they are from what I grew up on. Now, most of the food I grew up on was delicious but let's face it, basic, country fare. I made my first risotto, bought my first real wok (that I still have and man, is it well-seasoned) and started having "perfect" dinner parties.It is the time when I just started to understand recipes and the science of food and boy, was it fun!Natalia was barely born in the 80s so her experience was somewhat (?!) different from mine but we get to hear about her family's Serbian traditions and how she learned that dinner parties had to be perfect.The 1980s also gave rise to the many gourmet food trends that we don't even consider gourmet anymore, in fact, most of them are mainstream and we have the ubiquitous sun-dried tomato to thank for that. Hard to believe, right?Our final suggestion? When traveling, do your souvenir shopping at the local grocer. It's a lot more interesting and cheaper!Thanks for listening!You can find us wherever you listen to podcasts and the unedited version video-style is on YouTube @thegirlcancook.

Here we go with another look at Retro Foods. This time foods that are making a comeback. As usual, we disagree with any number of items on this list but most of them have stories behind them. Lots of storytelling going on in this episode.We spend an inordinate amount of time on Jello. I think it's because neither one of us get it and yet I grew up on it and Natalia does love a good Jello shot.If you want a few more opinions, stick around for Natalia's rundown on martinis and why she thinks people drink them.In the end, why would retro food be making a comeback? With all of the world's turmoil, people need some comfort and food, one of our basic needs, fills the bill for so many of us. It kind of makes sense that we need something comforting, right now.You can listen to us here or wherever you get your podcasts and thanks for listening.If you want to get us up close and unedited, try the YouTube version @thegirlcancook.

We all know it even if we don't like to admit it.Fast food lures us in with all the salt and grease and sugar and we love it. We especially love it when we've been drinking...too much.So we spend a lot of this episode, extolling our occasional love for particular fast food treats. And we really do mean treats because fast food is a guilty pleasure for us.Sadly, in the food industry because of our crazy night-crawling hours and personalities, we rely on fast food just to get something to eat before we have to get up the next day to hit the line again.Natalia and I are lucky enough to be on the end of the industry that is able to set our own hours (more or less) but that doesn't mean we don't indulge every once in awhile.We share another quiz (about fast food) from one of my fave websites, Serious Eats, which leads Natalia right into a full on conversation about "drunk girl" fast food.It's a pretty fun conversation so hope you enjoy it!You can listen to Not A Single Fork, Episode 273 wherever you get your podcasts and watch us unedited, up close and personal on YouTube @thegirlcancook.Thanks for listening!