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

Karyn here from the Family Food for Moms podcast. I just wanted to let you know that I've decided to take a break for three months from the podcast, not publishing any episodes for May, June, and July. Then I will be back the very beginning of August. I so love doing this podcast and talking about food and dining with you!. I love thinking about celebrating with your family, about date nights, abo...

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

 Today I want to talk about desserts, and how it's not necessarily bad to have dessert, even if you have it quite regularly. I was recently talking to my mom-in-law who's visiting from Belgium, and she was telling us how in Belgium people often eat dessert every night.  Most nights they have a three-course dinner, usually starting with soup, then having the main, and then a dessert. It's expected...

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

 Today we’re going to talk about celebrating life - the small things in life, and not having to wait for the occasions. Celebration meals are always special and fun for a family, and they don't need a calendar event to happen. We can make them meaningful by celebrating the small things, and just celebrating life - being together and enjoying each other. Some of the best celebrations come from ordi...

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

Today we're going to be talking about cooking meat - knowing how to cook it, which kitchen appliances to use, how to make sure it's not dry, but nice and moist, how to not overcook your meat, how to prepare it for cooking, et cetera.  So, let's start with some techniques that make all the difference. They seem like small things that wouldn't actually matter, but they really do make a huge differen...

Today we're going to talk more about hospitality. Last time we talked about how it's important to be present, and not have it be stressful, but to enjoy the time with your guests. We said that you should have plans for what kind of meals you could make so that it's not stressful. You can plan a lot in advance. We talked about having laughter and warmth, helping people feel welcome, involving your...

 I'm going to do two shorter episodes this week about hospitality. The first one will be tips about hospitality - what can make it easier for you, and the second one will be ideas that you can use for your meals when you have guests over. It’s always a good idea to have meals planned in advance, and we'll talk more about that in the next episode. So, let’s talk about hospitality. It always works o...

Today I want to talk about an unusual topic - how we can be inspired by meals in the Enid Blyton Adventure Books from the 1940s. She's the author of Famous Five. I’ve mentioned this briefly before in the episode on children's literature - how we can be inspired by what they ate. I've always been particularly fascinated by the food in the Enid Blyton books - the way they have the meals and what the...

 Last week, we spoke about how to season your food amazingly, using spices and herbs, acid and citrus, and other flavors that you can add to make it delicious. Today, we’re going to do a spices and herbs guide - a guide to which herbs and spices are good, which ones are best to have in your kitchen, and what to do with them. We’ll also talk about which spices to use on which proteins, vegetables,...

 Lately we've been thinking about the best ways to help our health. Some of our family have had a little bit of eczema, and some other less obvious symptoms. I was looking at an Instagram reel about the healthiest food on the planet for people. It said it was human breast milk - obviously for when people are babies. Then the things that mirror that the most in terms of their benefits and nutrients...

Today we're going to talk about seasoning. This is part of our series about skills that we should all learn in order to become better cooks. We’ll be talking about how to season different kinds of food, how to understand seasoning, and how to get the best results.  Understanding seasoning means knowing how to effectively use salt, spices, herbs, etc in your cooking; understanding the role of salti...

 Last time we talked about the new series that we're starting - cooking skills we should master for home cooking. When we've mastered these basic skills, it’ll make our general cooking much easier, more effective, and tastier. Last time was the introduction, and I went through all the things we're going to cover, though not necessarily in that order. Today, we’re going to talk about heat control....

 Today we're going to be starting a series on basic cooking skills that we should all master. We’re going to do a number of episodes on this, and today I'm going to give you a bit of an introduction to what kind of things we’re going to talk about. It's easy to feel nervous when attempting new things in the kitchen - new proteins or vegetables you haven't cooked before, new cooking methods, or usi...

Note: Only one episode this week as we have a CRAZY amount of stuff going on - I'll be back next Monday.  I appreciate all my loyal listeners! Today I want to talk about what we've lost from food cooking and nutrition since the 1900s. Back then, food was a lot more nutritious, home cooked meals were much more common, and there was much less refinement and processing. My middle daughter has been do...

In Episode 113, we talked about a meal planning method that our family's been using, which is based on who's cooking each night and what dishes they know how to cook. We discuss what our older children enjoy cooking, and then we plan together based on that.  Today, I want to talk about a meal planning method based on themes. You set a theme for each evening; each day of the week, and then you do y...

(Somehow this didn't get published yesterday.. but here it is :) Hope you enjoy!  Today we're going to talk about how we break our meals into courses without making extra work for ourselves. I find that eating meals in courses helps all of us to slow down and give our full attention to the dinner meal - to be fully present and to enjoy chatting with each other. It also helps the cooking to not be...

 Today I want to talk about what we've been eating lately, a bit about our current menu planning method and how we decide what meals to have each week. We've been trying to involve the kids in cooking, and to be more organized and orderly in the way we plan our meals.  At the beginning of the year, I made a master plan for our meals, and now each week we take that and set up our weekly meal plan f...

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

Just one episode this week - I'll be back next Monday! Today we're going to be talking about chef Rachel Ray. You may have seen her on the Food Network. She loves to do all her cooking from home. You can look her up on YouTube - she's lots of fun. She's very much about taking things like fast food, or anything that you enjoy, like Chinese food takeout, and then recreating it at home using simple t...

Today we’re going to be continuing our theme on meaningful dinners with some practical ideas for things you can do. So, we’re thinking about how to make dinner time meaningful, how to create meaningful memories, and to make it special. Here are some ideas to focus on connection, not perfection - making the evening meaningful.  There are so many ways to make dinners meaningful, whether family night...

 Today we're going to be talking about dinnertime in your family - what makes memories, what makes it meaningful, and what makes it special. I've been feeling that lately I've been leaping up a lot in the middle of meals, both at lunch and dinnertime.  What I really want is connected family mealtimes where we feel close, where the conversation is good and deep, and where it's a meaningful experien...

 Today we’re going to continue with our chef series - what we can learn from and be inspired by from famous chefs. Today, we’ll talk about Guy Fieri. Guy is the host of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives from Food Network. He has a great love for American comfort food. He loves roadside diners and dive bars, and he travels around the country to find unique places that make local-inspired food. He just l...

 Today we’re going to continue the series about comfort food. We've done French, Swiss and Italian comfort foods, and today we're going to talk about British comfort foods - all the yummy things that they eat that are easy to make.  If you order a meal at a pub on the street, you'll probably order one of these things. They're easy to cook at home, and they're hearty, they help in the winter. In Br...