Not A Single Fork

CARBS! Most of us have a love/hate relationship with them. If you’re one of those people, let us enlighten you. Carbs can and should be your friend. Here we are! Still keeping it real for you and now we’re breaking down the carb story. We’ve wrapped up all the proteins (at least, the animal variety) and it’s on to the other parts of your plate. Remember, we did that balancing act episode where we...

We're in Oklahoma but you've probably figured that out by now. Not only are we insulated from the Coasts in our red state but we are severely land-locked. Being in the middle of the country makes it hard to keep up with the latest goings on (my NYC daughter keeps me updated) and it also makes it difficult for us to convince people in this part of the world that fish are delish! Can’t control mysel...

Chicken. The go-to protein for so many people. And, let’s be honest (surprise!), it is a super versatile food. It can be prepared in so many ways and can take on flavor like no other, I mean, it’s a blank slate, really. It can also be abused in so many ways and cooked so badly! Dry, tasteless, stringy. It can be described as sawdust falling apart in your mouth. All words to suggest something terri...

MOO, BAA, OINK…we got ‘em all. Now we’re going to start working our way around the plate (remember the Balancing Act episode?), beginning with proteins and in this case, animal proteins. So we’ll be giving you a rundown on everything in this episode except for poultry because it deserves an episode of its own. Once more, we are sharing probably way more than you ever wanted to know about all kinds...

Here it comes, THE FOOD PART! And, it’s all wet. Yep, and holding true to our tradition, we will begin at the beginning with stock, broth and sauce, OH MY! These are the things that help make your food delicious and also help you build an understanding of why some things taste great and others, meh, not so much. So, stock is the next foundation. You need it to make soup, stew, and sauces. But it’s...

By now, you’re probably wondering when are we going to start talking about the good stuff…FOOD!?Trust me, we’re getting there but in case you didn’t know this, there’s a whole bunch of back story involved in cooking. We’re helping you with the “mise en place” of enjoying the whole cooking process and having FUN!So, we have to do some cleanup to get you prepared. If you have most of the basics, the...

Cooking is, of course, about food but remember, there are also tools involved to make your life easier. We no longer have to cook over an open campfire, wash our food and equipment and dishes and ourselves, for that matter, in the nearby lake, or use our bare hands to tear food apart. Primitive humans discovered (certainly by accident) that when food is cooked it is typically more flavorful so fir...

Here’s the next brick in your foundation. After talking about ingredients, we gotta get into their flavors and how they go together, makes sense, right? So, yep, this episode is all about flavors and flavor profiles. Scratching your head, thinking what does this have to do with anything… Well, flavor profiles are everything! It’s why things taste so great because things work together like a team o...

Your new cooking foundation is being built. We’re almost there and getting into the fun stuff…ingredients! The next piece to this puzzle is learning about ingredients so in this episode we’ll get your started with an overview of the basics and how to approach ingredients. It’s very different from the era when housewives were fascinated with canned foods and making things convenient. The 50’s and 6...

I don’t like to measure. I don’t like to measure so much that I rarely make anything that demands precision…like baking. Exact measuring cramps my style and who wants their style cramped, right? That’s what we’re talking about in this episode, how measuring can get in the way of freeing yourself in the kitchen and cooking. My mom never measured anything. Imagine how difficult it was trying to lear...

One of the biggest stressors for home cooks is organization, or the (total) lack thereof.. In this episode, we will teach you how to “mise en place”, the ins and outs of how professional chefs stay organized,Here is another game changer! Organization is what it’s all about. Everything is ready to go. You know you have the ingredients, you know they’re the right shape and you know where they are. N...

You are kidding yourself if your don’t think you need to know anything about cutting shit up. And, that’s the truth! Nothing is more important in a kitchen (commercial or home) than having solid knife skills. I saw a tweet this morning from @ExcuseMyFly (AKA hot pot of grits.) with a picture from someone in a professional kitchen who was supposed to cut (looked like potato) a vegetable into a 1/4”...

Let's clear some things up. I'm talking about cooking terms. They're thrown around a lot on cooking shows, in recipes and other places but what do they actually mean and how do you do them? Things like folding, deglazing or reducing. We're here to clear that up for you so that when you use those terms or even try to do them, you know what you're talking about. We also (for some reason) started by...

Not one to belabor a point but let's belabor a point. We can never talk too much about knife skills and all the crazy suggestions that are emailed, promoted, social-ed out there. There are many knife basics and we really wish that people would stick to those but they just can't help themselves. So, instead, we're going to help you with it, once again. In this episode, we discuss five more, five mi...

Tapping into one of my favorite sources, NYT Cooking, I discovered their rundown on the menu and dining trends happening across the country right now. Menus are getting smaller and more descriptive. Current menu items include everything from caviar to fried chicken and so much in between. Even nostalgic (and yummy) desserts are making a big comeback. Also noticed, commitment to staff (long overdue...

Whether you like it or not, solid knife skills make your cooking life easier. In today's episode, we discuss a short list of what to consider when using, buying and holding a knife. Some basics include: Do not rub your fingers across a knife no matter how careful you are. There are many other ways to get the garlic smell off your hands. Cut an end off round fruits or vegetables so they don't roll...

Ready for a history lesson? A food history lesson. Believe it or not, there is almost always history behind a food especially one that was created and does not exist organically. Enter J-E-L-L-O! Jello! Whether you love it, hate it or have never eaten it, Jello has a long and unusual story that began a trend and inspired home cooks but then fell out of favor. But it lasted for a good six decades b...

Welcome February and Groundhog Day. Hope spring comes early regardless of what happens with Punxsutawney Phil. We took today's episode as an opportunity to bring you a little food chemistry (get the allusion in the title?) because we received a very nice email from a very nice listener who shared her experience using baking soda to calm the acidity in her tomato sauce. Thank you, Brenda! If you ha...

Don't you just love those "hook" words? The ones that basically provoke you to click or respond in some way? I think "cheat" is one of those words. We either want to see who cheated or why they cheated or more importantly, how wecan use that cheat. To that end, we ran across a Buzzfeed article about cooking "cheat codes". Frankly, I don't really know what that means. The cheats all seemed like tip...

In the whole scheme of things, recipe ownership probably doesn't mean a lot to most people. But if you are a recipe creator, chef, cookbook author, etc. then having your own recipes becomes meaningful. If you have taken the time, effort and your skill/talent, to put together a step-by-step plan to make a tasty dish, you don't want someone else saying it's theirs. That is plagiarism and in the writ...

BRRRR! We are deep into soup season and I know most of you guys love it. As you probably know, soup is not my favorite but hey! It's not all about me, right? It's really all about YOU! So, here comes not only an entire episode about soup but we are sharing four new soup recipes with our website subscribers. You can find all the soups we talk about in our Online Recipe Collection starting next week...

Happy New Year! Hope everyone is ready to jump in feet first! Not into the trends, though. It seems like during the first week of each new year, we've got to bring out what the Trendsetters are thinking. This year I think they are a bit late on some of the them, at least the list I found. And not sure we agree with a lot of their forecasting as usual. Included in the discussion and opinions is the...

The last episode of 2023 lies ahead and boy...did we go off the rails on this one. Must be this time of year but whatever. It is pretty entertaining and there's something here for everyone whether you sew, cook, or anything else. Things are changing around the kitchen so you'll find us on our website: The Girl Can CookSo if you're looking for recipes (video or otherwise), pasta classes, wine tasti...

Do you like to receive cookies for Christmas? Or one step better, do you make food gifts for Christmas? In today's episode, we break down homemade food gifts and which ones mean the most and maybe those that don't. Not surprisingly, Natalia has some definite opinions about what she likes to get and how she likes to get them. Just hope your house doesn't have a distinctive smell that sneaks its way...

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 listen...