Dinner Table Talks

Chicken Spaghetti - Chicken Salad - Cheesy Hot Crab Dip - Aislynn's Mango Delivery - New Car Fever Aislynn clearly states the intentions of this episode: sharing food abundance! From the magic of the surprise mango, to our leftover chicken management, to stories of the meals that are passing down through our generations, sharing food with others weaves its way throughout this week's episode. Oh, A...

Birthday Party Seafood Boil - Seafood Chowder - Intermittent Fasting - Going Back to School - Hurricane Hanna - Scallops - Store-Bought Cookies Hurricane Hanna made a close call since our last episode but didn't prevent Aislynn's daughter's 16-year-old out birthday party at the farm. It was a huge seafood boil where the leftovers became an incredible seafood chowder. We catch you up on Intermitten...

Caprese Burgers - Pizza Night - Poolside with the Girls - Smiling in Your Mask - Black is Beautiful Joe smiled at a stranger while wearing a mask that got him to thinking, can you indentify a smile in a mask? We discuss our build-your-own-pizza night when pesto and habanero chili paste are in the mix, Aislynn takes a trip to her best friend's house for some much-needed relaxation and hormonal teen...

Penne Alla Vodka - Fried Okra - Joe's Birthday Picnic - Nacho Night - Mother Sauce Challenge Conclusion - A Fight in Politics We finish up the Five Mother Sauce Challenge with the most popular meal Joe's cooked in weeks: Penne Alla Vodka. Aislynn creates an amazing birthday picnic where we break the law and get in a fight over politics which we discuss as pervading almost every single thing. It's...

Steak With Your Son - Flowered Fruit Salad - Sausage in Your Freezer - Magical Mystery Tour Continued - Crazy Contraband in the Home After a birthday serenade, we talk July 4th on the farm with a family feast and fireworks and elaborate on our bubble, safe spaces, wine, and big plans. But that's only the beginning of a deep, introspective Dinner Table Talk as we reflect about this phase of staying...

Gumbo - Podcast Introspection - Trading Food - More Time at the Farm Joe makes his very first gumbo and it causes a chain reaction of Dinner Table Talkin' from mother sauces to a continuation of the Magical Mystery Tour.  Unanswered Questions: --Pet stuck in a hot car follow up --Magical Mystery Tour clarification  TableTopics Question: --What pets would we like to own?

Fresh Lemon Redfish - Father's Day Charcuterie - The Magical Mystery Tour - Merging Families - Angry Yellowjackets Joe asks Aislynn to clarify the term 'Magical Mystery Tour' after she quickly said it last week. That leads to a rolling, rabbit-hole-filled conversation about spirituality, church histories and so much more. Covid-19 sidelined going out for Father's Day so JHAC heads to the farm for...

Chicken Pot Pie - Tannins Brunch - Girls' Dinner In - Ego Continued - Corona Purge -  5 Mother Sauce Challenge: Velouté Joe prepares velouté, the fourth Mother Sauce in our 5 Sauce Challenge, for a chicken pot pie that is fantastic...with a crust fail twist. We revisit 'ego' in Unanswered Questions and it weaves its way throughout a multi-part thought-purge on Corona, finger pointing, everyon...

Roasted (and Stewed) Pork Leg Tacos - Lemon Marmalade & Ball-Burning Habanero Sauce - A Time for Cameras - Get a Garage Fridge - Battling Egos - Our Wild Cat Well after some stuff happened recently, we go deep into the challenges of parenting teen girls compared to teen boys: trust, Dinner Table honesty, cameras, and how we did everything they did too. Dagon Produce Chef's  Basket Winner:...

#BlackLivesMatter - Salisbury Steak - Cold Cucumber Dill Soup - Black Eyed Peas - Portland v. Portlandia -  Poblano Pepper Soup The murder of George Floyd and the #BlackLivesMatter movement have dominated our Dinner Table Talks this week (as we assume they have at your table, too). Unanswered Questions: When did Portland, OR, become Portlandia? TableTopics Question: How do you like to be care...

Osso Bucco, Roasted Okra, Mashed Potatoes and Espagnole Sauce - Paté - Charcuterie - Pokiyaki Poke Bowls - Leftover Roast Tacos Joe satisfied the Five Mother Sauce Challenge with an espagnole-based gravy for mashed potatoes that were the bed of a delicious osso bucco. That meal is the centerpiece of a food-heavy Dinner Table Talks. We dine out, we create a charcuterie and eat some leftovers. And b...

Pisto - Spaghetti Tacos - Sauce Challenge Excuses - Zucchini Boat Revolt - The Film: The Film There's just not enough time in the week for Joe's 5 Mother Sauce Challenge, but there's plenty of Dinner Table to talk about from Aislynn cooking (!) pisto to the girls cooking spaghetti tacos. We're plenty passive-aggressive about the kids making movies about the dirty kitchen floor rather than actually...

Eggs Benedict - Mother Sauces: Hollandaise - Mother's Day Seafood Boil - Going to the Beach - Beach Lodge - Snoopy's Pier A jam-packed Mother's Day weekend created the opportunity for Dinner Table Talks across South Texas. From a girls' trip to the beach and Port Aransas to dinner out with the family to an incredible Mother's Day seafood boil, we enjoyed all the kids home together. Joe also detail...

Teriyaki Beef - Beef Squash Casserole - School During Covid-19 - Grackle Takedown - Noisy Toads - Bow Chicka Wow Wow x 2 Just when you thought life was done shifting, Aislynn reveals some big career changes. We discuss her big news and then get rolling into a super-fun Dinner Table Talk. From 70s porn music to being poor to taking meals in and out of the rotation, no stone is left uncovered.

Moroccan Chicken - Joe's Dad - Friends Deliver Food - Harvey the Chicken - Texas 'Reopens' - The 5 Mother Sauces Challenge As Texas 'reopens' during Coronavirus, tragedy hits our house...twice. Joe talks about the passing of his father while the top story in Backyard TV is the passing of Harvey, our favorite chicken. We find plenty of silver linings around the Dinner Table with an amazing Moroccan...

King Ranch Chicken - Delivered Filipino Food - Joe Cooking is Sexy - Zoom Meetings at Home - Neighbor Ribs - Corona Hair - TableTopics Giveaways A week after being told that The Dinner Table was slipping in terms of quality, Joe fires back with a homemade, from-scratch King Ranch Chicken. From scratch! That means homemade cream of chicken soup. But we will still use Ro-Tel. From how corona is mess...

Meat Loaf - Mac and Cheese - Fast Food - Taqueria Take Out II - Backyard TV - Who's Bored? - Neighborhood Grocery Stores - Win a Dagon Produce Chef Basket simply by listening to your favorite podcast! Are we cracking up a bit during all this 'stay-at-home' stress? Joe's cooking less and we talk about how that blank is being filled in; Aislynn's making friends with all the backyard animals; Joe and...

Squash Blossom/Arugula Pizza - Fry Night: Fried Steak Fingers, Chevre-Stuffed Squash Blossoms, Eggplant,  Onion - Our Backyard as a Nature Sanctuary - Joe's Chicken Video Big hits on The Table as our stay-at-home continues including Aislynn's squash blossoms prepared two ways. One on a pizza and the other...FRY NIGHT! Joe gets his fry on and fries everything in the house. We reflect on one mo...

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup - The Era of No Hair Stylists or Pedicures - Instant Pot Pot Roast - Village Parenting Teens - Bellino Take Out Three weeks into a corona stay-at-home, we're eating well, talking a lot, spending time on screens, gardening and cooking. We get our first take-out after the 'stay-at-home order and a surprise video call from the chef, Aislynn's a tomato-ripening master, Joe do...

Swiss Chard Rolls - Quesadillas - Fritatta - Fun and Games During a Stay-at-Home - Corona Talk Two weeks into a stay-at-home, everything is shifting: parenting, menus, work and leisure time. We talk about how we're thinking, what we're doing, what we're eating and what we're talking about as the effects of corona continue to spread.

Wild Pork Ribs - Creamed Spinach and Greens - Pork Tacos - Trading Brussels Sprouts - Chicken Cauliflower Korma - Processing and Social Distancing Joe and Aislynn have a bullet point script that does not include the words "corona" or "covid." We knew we couldn't avoid the topic--it's the chief topic of Dinner Table Talks at our house and yours--but the rule was, "Talk about what feels good." We di...

Fish Fry - Baba Ganoush - Backyard Varmints - Pet Dreams - Our First Thoughts on The Coronavirus After recording this episode, the news about COVID-19 ramped up and we had to shift things up. We talk about our initial thoughts and how it will affect the show.

Chicken Arugula Salad - Dill Mashed Potatoes/Turnips - Lunch Leftovers - Coffee Addiction Aislynn heads home for lunch leftovers and uses them to detail the amazing food we've been eating. From a new salad dressing recipe to turnips in the mashed potatoes, meals are the launchpad for Dinner Table Talks about tasting colors, coffee addictions, sour candy, procrastination and so much more. TableTopi...

Boutique Oysters - Valentine's Sushi - Kitchen Fails - Teen Girls Invade TableTopics A grand opening and a grand reopening took us out to two great Dinner Table Talks. Our favorite oyster bar gets an overhaul with new oyster offerings from around the country. Our favorite sushi team opens their new restaurant just in time for Valentine's Day. We eat and talk both along with classic kitchen fails a...

Filipino Kamayan Feast - Food Trucks - Pancit - Tortang Talong - Bad Day/Good Day/Great Day Joe and Aislynn are joined by D'Lish Food's Nicole Kindzirsky & Edita Fuentes the day after a shared Kamayan Feast. We detail the full bounty of their beautiful spread while talking family, food trucks and eggplant omelettes.