Weekend Faves with Amanda Haas

Join Amanda Haas as she makes her weekend staples that are so simple, but perfect when you have a little extra time on your hands. We’ll make…

Meatballs in Sunday Sauce RECIPE: https://www.amandahaascooks.com/amandas-cheater-version-of-a16s-famous-meatballs/

Moroccan-Spiced Sheet Pan Chicken with Root Vegetables and Chermoula RECIPE: https://www.amandahaascooks.com/moroccan-spiced-chicken-thighs/

Explore Amanda’s House of Haas RECIPES: https://www.amandahaascooks.com/recipes/

Check out Amanda Haas COOKBOOKS: https://www.amandahaascooks.com/amandas-cookbooks/

Follow Amanda Haas on INSTAGRAM: @amandahaascooks

Contribute to HOUSE OF HAAS: https://www.amandahaascooks.com/pay-it-forward/

So, I am going to get started. Is anybody cooking along live with me today? I talked about it a little bit. Hi, Ann and Darien. How are you? This is a lot to try to cook live with me. So, if you’ve meased your ingredients and everything’s ready to go, terrific. Otherwise, I’m just going to say it right now. It’s probably going to be hard to keep up because I would never try to do both of these recipes at once, right? So, if you’re trying to get it all done, don’t pressure yourself. I would say to um like if you want to do the meatballs with me and you want to assemble the ingredients with me, great. And then you can stock refrigerate that and you can um scoop them out later and roast them, right? Because we’re going to move right into the chicken and that takes a little while as well. So, I guess my recommendation is pick one to feel like you can finish with me tonight. And um good call Victoria Christy, you’re going to do the chicken. Amazing. Hopefully you guys have your ingredients out and you read your recipes. I had to reread my recipe because I changed these recipes a bit to make them better. So, let me get this out of the way and let’s get cooking. Let’s start. I am going to We’re going to make the meatballs first, but I want to get the spice blend on the chicken first. So, let me just show you all of these beautiful spices in the Moroccan chicken and get the recipe so I can show you all the ingredients. Um, I put it under this one, didn’t I? Moroccan spiced sheep pan chicken with root vegetables and charmula. Um, hi Vina, how are you? Meatballs prepped for today. Chicken later in the week. You guys are all so smart. So, what I did was I put the spices together already for the Moroccan spice chicken. And I have somehow There it is. I didn’t do this. Caitlyn did this. I’m kidding. But, um, I’ve got salt. uh kosher salt, cinnamon, coriander, turmeric, cumin, cardamom, freshly ground black pepper. The only thing I’m missing is the cardamom today, but you know what? It’s going to be fine. So, I’m not going to worry about it. But this is a really great way to get things together ahead of time if you want. You can just like make the spice blend early, right? And then when you go to make dinner, it saves a ton of time. Or just dump them all in together. I just wanted you guys to see how gorgeous it is, right? So, I’m just going to take a little whisk, actually, and um whisk these together. And these are going to go on the chicken and the veggies. And so, I’ve got my chicken pieces right here that um I called for bone in, skin on chicken thighs. I also got a couple chicken breasts. If you like boneless, skinless, that’s totally fine. Um yes, all those spices should be ground, Sonia. And I’m so glad you asked that. And I should encourage all of you to ask questions. And since I’ve got Caitlyn here, if I don’t answer one of your questions, she’ll make sure that I get it answered for you. Okay? So, um, like I said, you can use, um, boneless, skinless, you can use boneless chicken that’s got the skin on. Both of those are going to cook faster. I like the skin on because it keeps it juicy and the bone in is what gives it extra flavor. It just adds so much more flavor to your chicken. But do what’s best for you. We’re always going to check the internal temperature to make sure it’s 165° um internally when it’s done. Okay. So, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to take about a tablespoon of that spice blend. I’m still here. And put it in this bowl and add a couple tablespoons of olive oil. This is my more basic olive oil that I’m using cuz it’s going to get cooked at a high heat. So, I’m not worried so much about flavor. I’m not finishing with it. I’m just going to kind of whisk this up a little bit. Okay. Now, you could certainly just put um the chicken like on a sheet pan or whatever you’re going to bake it on and sprinkle like rub it with olive oil and sprinkle the spices on, but this will just coat it better. So, let me get some tongs and show you. Um I’m going to just put these pieces right in here. And I’m just going to kind of turn them in this. See this? Right. And so, I’m going to kind of do one at a time because these chicken breasts are so big. Don’t worry, I’ll be washing my hands like a maniac today, you guys. So, yes, I’m dealing with a ton of raw meat, poultry, beef, pork, but I’m washing my hands like crazy. And we’ll be smart about it. So, we don’t worry about crosscontamination. I was saying, um, my cooking school teacher used to always say like in California, room temperature is like 70°, right? So you don’t have to worry if your meat’s been out for an hour or two at room temperature. It’s when you live in a place that’s super hot or you let your house get super hot that you have to worry about that. So for chicken, beef, all of those things, I actually like it to be at room temp to have been out for like 30 to 60 minutes before I put it in the oven. So it doesn’t go from super cold to hot. It’ll cook more evenly that way. Let me get this bowl out of the way. And then um I think I just want to add just like a tad more of the spices. There we go. And then you’ll see how I’ve coated these. And we’re just going to let these sit for like 30 minutes while I get the meatballs going. Okay. Give them a chance to just kind of absorb those spices. My gut is telling me that I’m going to want more salt on this as well. Um looking at that. So I’m just going to give it a little sprinkling. Isn’t it fun that everything I need is like within three inches? Hi from Boston. Thank you, Michael. I am continuing to feel much better um for many reasons. And thank you for asking or saying so. Um yes, all the spices should be ground. I think we’ve got everything covered. Right. I’m going to put this chicken aside. And then look what I’m going to do for the vegetables. for the vegetables, which Caitlyn has prepped so beautifully. I’m going to show you. I’m doing um carrots, parsnips, and red onion. Okay, so she peeled those for me, and she diced them kind of on a bias, which makes everything look prettier, right? But you could certainly just do them straight in coin shapes if you like. With a parsnip like this, see how it gets bigger at the top? What you can do when you peel it is that you can cut it in half up here if you want the pieces to be um more uniform in size because the more uniform they are, the more um evenly they’ll cook. But what I like to say too is like if things are of even thickness, even different vegetables, you’re in good shape. They’re going to cook around they’ll need around the same amount of time. Is that cool? Okay, so here’s what I’m going to do for this. I’m going to sprinkle some more spice blend on them. And for the onion, we just cut it in quarters and I had her peel the skin off. And I just think it looks really pretty to have it in quarters like that. It’s just a visual thing for me. Um, and let’s get another pair of tongs cuz I don’t want to use those tongs that I use for the chicken on my veggies right now. That’s kind of even for me that’s kind of gross. Oh, garlic. I forgot about the garlic. Let’s take that out. This is the best part about all of this, guys, is like it’s kind of hard to mess these things up or like what I should say is like don’t worry about it, right? If you um skip a step or miss a feeling I’m supposed to mince the garlic and add it to the veggies. So, I’ll just do this real fast. I’m just pressing down on those garlic cloves again to get the skin to break up. And then I’m glad I’m showing you this because I’m going to show you the part of the garlic you don’t want. Hi Dana, how are you? Dana, did I know you lived in Jersey? I was thinking Connecticut. I should know that by now. Can you guys see the green part of that garlic? I don’t want that. So, I’m going to cut it off. And I’m also going to cut off the little stem part. And then if it’s sprouted in the middle and it’s green, I peel that. If it’s like really green, I get rid of it. This one’s fine. Okay. So, I’m just going to give this kind of like a rough mince. There’s such a thing as a rough mince. I don’t know. A casual mince. I’m not going to worry about chopping it too finely. That’s probably what I’m trying to say. Okay. I’m just going to scoop mine up on the side of my knife. Okay. I am seriously so excited to see who wins this pot today. And then um I’m thinking too because um there will be cutlery involved in these giveaways too, friends. We have so many good prizes coming up. I’m super excited. Um we have very many wonderful friendly people in this business who are willing to give us things which I appreciate so much. Okay, so now these veggies are done and we’ll be able to put them in at the same time as the chicken. Okay. So, I’m going to ditch this for a little bit and I’m going to move on to the meatballs. We’re going to get our hands dirty and I’m going to show you how to do this. Okay. So, if you want to make the meatballs with me, why don’t you take a second and um get all of your ingredients out and ready to go. Okay. Let’s put this over here. Sheet pans. I’ve even got guys sheet pans with parchment paper on them so that when we go to scoop out the meatballs, we can put them directly on here. You could certainly grease the pan, too, but this just makes it so much easier. I got a little excited and even got out extra pieces of parchment paper. How do you geek it out? Okay, so we’re going to have these back here. Let me just get the rest of the chicken stuff cleared out. Okay, this And I’m going to wash my hands one more time because when you’re working with these things, you Hi, Shelly. You can never wash your hands too much. So, I’m going to do that. Okay. And also get rid of this. Clean as you go. We need like elevator music or a side show. I don’t ever go far. We’re saying I need some sort of like entertainment music while I’m off camera, right? Am I going to the Warriors game tomorrow? I am not. I’m going to tell you guys, I have a confession. Um, I have a really hard time watching the Warriors. If I go live, I could do it, but I get super stressed and I scream at the television and I’m convinced that when they get down that it’s my fault. And so, I walk away from the teleision and I convinced my son the other night that it was my fault, too. Like, every time they’d go down, I um was sitting on the couch and so I walked away and everything got better. So, in the other night’s win, I maybe watched five minutes of the game. I was home by myself and I just could not bring myself to watch. And so, tomorrow night, I think I’ll watch unless it’s so bad. I I seriously think I guess I’m superstitious. I never knew that until um I applied it to basketball. But for those of you from Boston, I won’t do any trash talking. We’ll keep it above board. Um, may the best team win, which is the Warriors. I’m kidding. I’m just messing with you guys. Okay, let’s talk meatballs. I am so excited to show you all this recipe because it’s like the most delicious thing that I probably make. My kids are going to tell you this is in their top five for sure of favorite recipes. And when I had them for the first time over 15 years ago at A16 uh in San Francisco, they blew my mind. And I didn’t know why they were fluffy yet meaty and amazing. They’re just everything. The texture is incredible. They’re just perfect. And then I worked on their cookbook and I made them for me for them and I was like, “Oh, this is why they’re so good.” Because they use ground pork. They use they would hand grind extra fat from the pork because they do a lot of um butchery and whole animal butchery in the restaurant. So they would take extra fat and put it in. Then they’d have beef and then they’d add pushcido and I was like this is why they’re so good. Then they take like day old country bread and grind it up. So those are the breadcrumbs. But the thing they have is ricotta milk and eggs too. And so this mixture is really tacky. There’s just it’s sticky and it’s a lot looser than what you would expect from a meatball. So, I want to show you because I don’t want you to be worried when you make them. Like they’re they’re going to look like they’ve got as much dairy and breadcrumb almost as they do meat. Okay? They just need to be able to hold their shape like a little golf ball. So, isn’t it funny how when I talk I have to describe what I’m doing. So, here’s another thing. And this is about being flexible, you guys. I bought ricotta um at the store and because they call for ricotta and they call for eggs and they call for whole milk. I also bought cottage cheese because I wanted to try for the lasagna this weekend using cottage cheese and shoving it out like um my mom used to always use cottage cheese instead of ricotta. Guess what? I opened the ricotta today and it was already bad even with the packaging still on. So, I’m going to be flexible and use it’s whole milk cottage cheese, which is going to blend really beautifully, actually, and it’s going to be equally delicious. But I just wanted to show you that we can make substitutions and survive. Okay, so here’s what we’ve got. We have got the oregano, fennel, chili flake combination. I love fennel seed. And frankly, I’m remembering this is the recipe that got me hooked on the oregano, fennel seed, chili flake combo. So, we’re going to just sprinkle this over. where I’ve got the ground beef and the ground pork. Don’t you worry, we’re going to get it all figured out. And then I have 3 tablebspoon of salt for this, which is right over here. I’m going to use two tablespoons in the meat mixture itself. That sounds like a lot of salt, but when you see how many meatballs this makes, um, don’t you worry. Um, Kristen, I am using gluten-free bread today. Um, yes. So, my kids, they know when I don’t use regular bread, but you got to do what you got to do. And I have to say, like, if you’ve been completely gluten-free, you’re going to think these are still delicious, right? It’s when you eat, you don’t eat gluten-free that you get really confused, but I think they’re going to work just fine. Um, hi Danville. And go Ducks and go Warriors. We’ve got a duck here. Amazing. There goes. But the other thing I’m going to teach you guys is that we It’s really hard when you’re working with raw meat and it’s like how do you know if the meat is well seasoned right before you put them all in the oven. We’re going to make a little patty and we’re going to cook one on the cook top so we can see how it is and see how it tastes. And then you can adjust the seasoning of the entire mixture before you put them all in the oven. Does that make sense? Hopefully somebody Deb, you already tested the meatball and the salt was perfect. Amazing. Um, and there’s, you know, the things that will be different about salt levels, too. Um, depending on the bread that you’re using, everything will be different depending on the ricotta or the cottage cheese. Like the salt levels and those things can vary tremendously. So, I’m not going to know until I taste a little sample of this what I think. Okay. So, this is nine eggs that I’ve got mixed here. Okay. And then we’ve got the milk. We’ve got the cottage cheese. You guys are going to be like, “What the heck?” It’s really messy and it’s really fun. Okay, so the thing is I need the biggest bowls possible because I wrote this recipe to do this humongous humongous batch because every time I make like three or four dozen, they’re gone. and so it’s out of control. So I just decided to write the recipe for a mega batch and then you can certainly um freeze some or throw a party. They’ll be gone in no time. I made like six batches of these once for a Christmas party. So like six double batches. They were gone in 30 minutes. It was hilarious. Um I’m reading that ad hoc addendum uses cup for cup. Yes. You know what’s funny? When I was at Williams Sonoma, I was there when they invented um that cup for cup flour and we sold it at William Sonoma and so we were testing it in the test kitchen and I was like, “God bless them. I’m going to live.” It really works well. And then when you get used to cup for cup flour or Bob’s red melt, what you realize is that um you can fry chicken with it. You can do all the things that people usually use regular flour for. and you don’t have to worry about it tasting funny and you still get like a really good crisp surface. Okay, so here’s what we’re gonna do, folks. Clean hands. If you prefer gloves and you’re not used to working with raw meat, that is absolutely okay. I know who I’m feeding. The only one I’m worried about is Caitlyn. She’s not a family member. I’m feeding my boys and their dad with these clean hands. Right? So, here’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to mix the pork and the beef and the parsley and the spices and the salt evenly, right? And I’m going to mix some of those breadcrumbs in. But first, I just kind of want to make sure that the pork and the beef combine, right? The thing that’s so cool about this is that these are going to bake really quickly in the oven. Um, like 20 minutes, and then when they braze in the tomato sauce, the flavors are all going to kind of like meld into the tomato sauce and you’ll taste everything. So, even if every meatball isn’t like exactly half pork, half beef, don’t worry about it. Um, if you wanted to use one type of meat, Michael, I would probably use ground pork for this. I think it’ll taste more like a traditional Italian meatball than um than if you just did beef. I mean, I’ve done it with all beef before, and let me tell you, it was absolutely delicious, but I think I would prefer the pork combo. See how I’m just literally just getting in there, folks? And then when I add the um breadcrumbs and the liquid, don’t worry, we’ll get everything like evenly out. I’m going to rinse my hands again. Also, you just realize what a big bowl you need to do this, right? So, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to put like half these breadrumbs in because I know what percentage it called for, how many ounces of bread it called for, but I think because this bread is denser, I’m not going to need all of them. So, we’re just going to mess around with this. Okay, we’re going to experiment. Again, this is more of an art form than a science. That’s why I like it. Play with your food a little bit. And you can see how quickly all of this bowl is going to be. Um once I add the liquid, it’s going to be a tight bit. I need a bigger bowl. And yeah. Okay. I’m going to add more breadrumb. I can tell I need it. Uh if you guys are using country bread like they called for like an ario bread, can’t remember if it’s like 12 ounces, 16 oz, 18 ounces. I think that’ll be totally fine. You can throw it all in. Is there a preference when freezing meatballs raw or cooked? Um, Leslie, I actually like to serve them. I like to freeze them cooked. I think that you can bake them off. Don’t braze them. Just bake them off like little golf balls. Let them cool. Put them in a storage container and pack them in really tightly and cover with Saran Wrap before putting a lid on it so that the ice can’t hit them. And then let them come to room temperature on the counter when you’re ready to um to use them. And then brace them in the tomato sauce. So, yeah, I think that they work better when you cook the meatballs first and then freeze them. Just don’t try to take them from frozen to tomato rings. Okay, are we ready for this? This is going to be a big floppy mess. So, I’m not going to put all of it in at once. It’s like when we talk we’re going to talk about Rs. How to make a R and you have butter and flour and then you don’t want any lumps in your sauce, but if you add all of the liquid at once, it’s a big hot mess. This is the same thing. You don’t want to add all of the liquid at once. Otherwise, it’s going to be a big hot mess, but it’s still really goopy. It’s kind of fun. Not going to lie. Um, it’d be fun to do with kids. Any Nope. I caught up on questions, I think. Huh? Okay. So, since I’m It’s just you and me, you guys aren’t going to care that I’m going to put my dirty hands on this bowl, right? I’m just basically not putting them on like any of the counter surfaces and things like that. I’m being aware. Okay. I feel like I should have some music going, don’t you? Oh, if you were going to replace an original food processor, would you purchase a food processor or a Vitamix? Erin, that’s such a tough decision because I have a um Brevel food processor that I’m obsessed with because it has so many attachments and the blade allows you to get to adjust the thick or thinness of the slice on one blade and I think it’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen. So I but I use my Vitamix all the time, too. Put a little more breadcrumb in too. It’s making a big old hot mess. Okay, here we go. Let’s just do a little more of this, friends. Again, if you were using the kind of bread you’re supposed to, like day old country bread, and you ground it up into crumbs, you can put the whole thing in. Okay. It’s absorbing the the liquid pretty well, though. So, can you see how much? Yeah, I can. It can take a little bit more. The thing that’s cool about this, too, and I don’t know if this is why this recipe was invented like this, Italians are smart. They know how to stretch things, right? So, by adding some ricotta and um all this dairy and the breadcrumbs, you’re stretching the recipe with the amount of meat you’ve got, and you can serve a ton more people, but it also makes them so much fluffier and less dense than if you were just doing a meatball with say a couple eggs thrown in. Um, I caught that you are cooking for your kids, that you have a continued friendly relationship, or did I bought my ex-husband? Yes, I’m cooking for him, too. Um, is there a cheat for bread like is in storebought something? So, bread I bought, Bonnie, is actually loaf bread that’s country bread, um, slices that’s gluten-free. And so, uh, I cheated because I wanted them to be gluten-free for my own sake. Otherwise, I would just go with like country bread that you can chop up in a food processor that’s like a big loaf, right? Like a white country bread. Um I wouldn’t do sourdough in this case because the sourdough has such a distinct flavor that it’s I think a little too much, you know? So, if somebody’s asking about um the cottage cheese curd size, Lesie, if I’d known that I was going to end up using the cottage cheese instead of the ricotta, I would have gotten a smaller curd because it’ll blend better, right? Um but I didn’t know that. So, oh well, we’re going to do it. At the end of the day, the flavor is going to be amazing. So, can you guys see how tacky this is? For lack of a better word, it’s like sticky, right? Like glue almost. That’s right. This is We want that. We want as much liquid in here as possible. So, here’s what I’m going to do. I am going to rinse these one more time. I’m going to get rid of these breadrumbs and we’re going to taste one. We’re going to cook it first. I promise. Just trying to keep it a little bit orderly in this sink. So, I practice what I preach. Well, actually, I would have to practice and preach what I preach. I don’t even preach to clean as you go, but I shouldn’t. Okay, let’s see here. How am I going to do this? I’ll show you. And I am going to preheat this pan and we’ll just kind of do this. I’m going to take you with me on a little tour and I’m going to flatten one out cuz right now it doesn’t matter what shape this mixture is in. We’re just trying to get to the flavor of it. Right. So, I am going to taste it. I’m going to cook a flat little piece a disc in the pan. I’m going to taste it and then I’m going to decide what I think of this mixture. Okay, I have a little bit of the dairy left. If it feels like it’s too dense, I’m going to add it. So, we’re going to see. But mostly, I’m checking for salt levels in this. Okay. All right. Let’s use You want to make sure that you get your pan hot enough. Otherwise, what’s going to happen? This is everything. My kids rush it and it drives me so bonkers because they’ll put a bagel in to toast it and the pan is so cold and then it takes forever to heat up and then they’re mad that it burns. Just let your pan get hot. You’ll be really glad that you did. Okay, it’s warm. Little splash of olive oil. Amanda, is there an option for dairyfree? Oh, I did see that. You know what? Is there an option for dairyf free? I want to try it. I have seen that Kite Hill makes dairyfree ricotta. Now they um and then like a dairyfree milk that you like that doesn’t have any sweetener in it, right? So I would say the trickiest part is replacing the milk because we’re using full fat milk here and you don’t want um anything like a lot of times almond milk is like primarily water. So, you don’t want to I have a piece of parsley on me. You don’t want to use something that’s really um low fat. But if you make your own nutmils, you could do I think cashew milk is one of the most mild tasting. So, you could just puree some cashews in the blender with water and um use kind of a thicker version, fattier version of that. I’m sure it would work. The next time I make these, I’m making I’m putting like three in the pan actually, so there’s just not all of these like hot spots in the pan. Kaitlin and I are both gonna have to try this. Um, yeah, I think I told you guys that I um am coming off of dairy and sugar and gluten and everything because I have been feeling so lousy. And so I’m sitting here being like, should I cheat and try it because they’re so good. The gluten is the one that literally kills me. So that’s why I’m gluten-free. But it’s kind of weird to teach a cooking class and not taste your own food. Don’t you agree? Okay, let me wash my hands one more time before I cook these. Plus, I don’t know if Kaitlyn is like this, but when I’m serving other people food, I always want to taste it and make sure it’s okay. Whole fat coconut milk, Shelly, I would be so curious if that works. Well, obviously it works, but what the taste is like. That’s probably delicious. Like, I’ve made Thai meatballs and things before with coconut milk. I make a chicken burger with coconut milk and it’s delicious. That would be amazing. What size is your scoop? What’ you say? What size is this? This is What’s the number on this one? They go by numbers, don’t they? That’s a great question. I’ll measure it. I think it’s like a tablespoon and a half, I think. I’m going to look or we’ll measure it for you. Okay. I have a bigger one that’s literally like that big. And I love it for these, but that’s when I’ll serve like three, right? You can make really good ones if you like. What’s the bread you’re using? Um, so it calls for day old, and that’s another thing. If your bread is dry, what’s going to happen, which is great. It’s really going to absorb the moisture from the dairy, right? So mine, as I ground it, it was a day old, but it wasn’t because it was sitting in that bag. It wasn’t quite as dry as I would have wanted. So those are great questions. You want it to be dale. It definitely helps a ton. Your meatballs will be tastier than mine if you do dry bread. Fluffier. I don’t want to serve Kaitlin Ramy ball. That would be rude. She’ll never come back. Maybe she’d come back, but I doubt it. Um, oh, Lori, I’ll look at the scoop measurement for you. Okay. Yeah, I don’t think that’d be a fun food poisoning moment. Okay, let’s I’ll check it first. So, the thing is when you roast these in the oven, you don’t have to worry about them getting so dark, which I love as well. But for our little taster, we’ll be okay. Okay, I’m gonna break one of these apart. And let’s see. Oh, thanks, Lori. I’m sure this is too hot to eat. Can I give you one? Would you like a plate? Tell me if you think it could use some more salt. The thing is, all of the flavors develop when you let these sit. So, I’m gonna rush them to tonight. You think it’s not enough salt? No. You guys, it’s a good thing I’m giving all of this food away tonight. Then, oh, so good. Okay, so here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to roll up a batch just as soon as I’m eating done eating this sample one. And yours is perfect. I’m so happy for you. Um, I need to have a new query to change the expression on my rainbow board. Yeah, we should. Well, while I’m rolling meatballs, do you guys want to put in suggestions? On my rainbow board, it says house of past. It used to be Ted Lasso quotes, which I love, too. So, if you guys have any suggestions, I’ll take them while I show you how to make the meatballs, how to shake them. I missed this recipe. Oh my god. I’m not going to lie. I’m going to keep eating the samples. I’m just going to move it over so you guys don’t see my mess. The power. And let me move this back. I think we’ve all identified by now I’m not going to be winning any awards for best camera um movement, action, cinematography. That’s the word I’m looking for, right? So, okay. You can either use an ice cream scoop. I end up using my hands. Again, it’s just me. Or I just use like a tablespoon and I scoop it out because here’s what I end up doing. I want them to all be uniform. So, I end up going like this. It’s just a habit that I have. And I like it. But if you want to just do it like this and kind of like pack it down and then put it on the um parchment paper like that, that works as well. I think what it is is I’m such a weirdo, but I like them to be perfectly round instead of flat on one side. So, I just roll them with my hands like that, you know? So, why don’t I do one batch and then Caitlyn is going to do another sheetpan for us and get them in the oven for us. I obviously won’t be able to let them braze in the tomato sauce the entire time. Um, but we’re going to at least see what they look like and then you guys can let yours cook longer in tomato sauce because what happens, you turn the oven way down to like 275 or 300, I think, and they just take a little bath in the tomatoes and they’re so good. Oh, when people continue to prove who they are, happily or sadly, believe them. Michael, I love that one, but it’s kind of a downer for me, right? because I read the one where it says just believe pe believe people the first time, right? When they show you who they are. Um, so I think I need more upbeat. No offense for our first submission. Thank you for the suggestion to change it because yes, it’s been up there for a while. I’m going to get these a little bit closer together. They’re not going to spread out like cookies. So, I’m just going to pack them in a little tighter. Okay. So, here. Give me another one. Michael, let’s see. I think I might have to go for Tedaso again because I in my heart I’m an optimist. Two more questions to the question. Yeah. Great. Can you omit the fennel if you don’t like the taste? Absolutely. You can omit the fennel if you don’t like the taste. Yes. And could po breadrumbs be used? Pango breadrumbs could definitely be used. I think you’re going to need less because they’re so dry. So start with like I don’t know like a cup. I don’t know by weight how much they’re going to look like. Use less and and see. Um but yes, you could certainly use panko. They’re just going to be kind of like a different texture and that’s fine. How many did I get on here? 2 4 6 8 10 12 14. I usually put like 15 or 20 on a sheet. So, I was being polite in how I’m spacing these, right? But, um I’m going to move them this way and wash my hands again and hand it over to Caitlyn. And then when she’s done making a second sheet, what we’ll do is we’ll do two sheets in the oven at one time. They cook for about 20 minutes. And all I do is take them out once at like 10 or 12 minutes and kind of give them a shake to flip them over so they brown evenly in the oven. It’s just something that I like to do so they look nice. Okay, we should have played a game. How many times do I wash my hands tonight? Okay. And I think if memory if memory serves me correctly, this makes like 70 to 80, maybe even 96 meatballs. It’s out of control. Um, so I just say get your hands dirty once, make all of these, and then freeze the ones that you don’t use tonight, and you’ll be glad you did. I’ll put this one here, Kaitlyn, if you don’t mind. Thank you so much. Okay. Can you uh stack the baking sheets in the oven? You can. So, what I’m having her do is that my oven almost fits a half sheet pan perfectly. So, what I do is I put them in the oven. They’re like this much too um too too narrow. So, they kind of fall at a little angle in my oven. But, it’s so nice to be able to just put those in instead of using racks in the oven. And then I take them out and uh and I’ll put them in the pan to brace them. Okay. Any other questions? Before I go back to the chicken, I’m going to check the question section. Since Caitlyn’s got her hands free, um we talked about the fennel. You can certainly omit it. Does the cottage cheese curd size matter? I would use the smaller curds if you could find it. And can panko be used? We’re good to go. Okay, cool. Any other questions? You got 56. Oh, good, Debb. That’s solid. Um, thanks for answering that and I’m so glad that you did it already. That’s so much fun. Okay, I’m looking at Michael’s other statement. The news gets viewers and clicks by highlighting the negative. Remember, those folks are the minority. Exactly right. Like I’m going to keep it positive. Um even if it gets me less less likes, less attention, less everything. Um no garlic in these. Dana, you’re correct. But I was going to say, um if you like garlic, you could certainly add some. When someone said, “Can I leave out the fennel?” You could do a little bit of um crushed garlic if you like instead. Um but yeah, I kind of like that they don’t have garlic and they have parsley in them instead of basil in the meatball. But then with the tomatoes on top, you add some part some basil leaves at the end. Bonnie is asking, “Do the crushed tomatoes also need to be San Marzano?” Only if you’re a snob. I love San Marzanos. And Bonnie, I did buy San Marzanos. Um, but that being said, here’s what I got. And I already opened mine like a dork. Like I told everybody to prep, right? So, um, I love this brand. These are crushed and diced. So, it’s a textural thing, too, that I love that these are crushed and so it’s like a smoother sauce, but then the diced gives it a little bit more of a chunk. So, you can combine them. You can use all diced, you can use um all crushed. Uh I think the original recipe calls for whole tomatoes, whole um San Marzanos with their juice and you put them in a bowl and you use your hands to just break them up, right? So, that’s really chunky. Uh but again I was just trying to make this easier for all of us. So samarzanos are great. A lot of places grow the uh tomato like this the Roma tomato here in the states. Now I look for organic to be honest a lot or I look for this brand and I don’t even know Pomodoro. I just know is it San SMT is San Marzano Tomatoes? I think that’s the name of the company, but they if you enter San Marzanos on Amazon or Whole Foods, I think this will this is the brand that pops up. They sell them everywhere. Oh, it’s Dopoly. Okay, now we know. Thanks, Angela. Um, but I also use Jovial a lot because I’m a huge fan of Jovial and they um are out of Italy. I don’t know if all of their tomatoes are, but they make their pastas, their gluten-free, and their wheat pastas in Italy from Italian ingredients. Um, yeah, you I I actually go to the store and I look for what I can find and I usually look to see what’s on special because they’ve gotten really expensive, you know. So, I just happen to use these two today. Okay, so I’m going to turn on another oven because what’s happening since I’m cooking two meals at once is that they’re both going to need to go into the oven at the same time. Oh my god, it’s just rude at this point, isn’t it? So, I’m going to turn on my big oven, which I never do. I’m going to teach you a little trick. If you don’t use your oven and you happen to be a person who stores things in there, just make sure that it’s empty before you start. I have no idea what I’m going to find in this oven. So, let’s find out. A pizza stone. And I’m glad I looked. So, I have a pizza stone in there, which is not a big deal, but um pizza stones help conduct the heat more evenly in the oven. I just moved it down to the bottom shelf. I don’t know why I did that, but I know I’m going to want to put vegetables in and chicken in. So, let me turn this on to 375. Your grandma used to hide cash in the oven. Oh my gosh, that is so funny. I love that, Grandma. Let’s see here. I never use this big oven. Can you go over there, Kayla? Yeah. Great. Okay. So, I’m going to let that one heat up, but let me put the um let me bring the chicken back out. I’m going to show you how I’ll put it in the oven and what I like to do. And if you wanted to cook it all in one pan, um what’s Kristen saying? since you told us about the fancy ass oven with steam, but what about convection for speed? I love it. Um I both of these ovens are convection actually. So basically all I’m doing is cooking on convection. Uh yeah, you can certainly do it. And if anything, if your oven runs hot, convection tends to cook things faster. So you can lower it a couple degrees, like 10 or 15 degrees. Um but yeah, I’m a huge fan of convection, so go for it. Okay. I have a feeling what’s going to happen is we’re going to put all of this food in the oven and then we’re going to have time to hang out together and just you guys can ask me anything. Um the canned tomatoes using San Marzo brand. Yeah. Use a similar spice blend to make a vegan dish. Yum. Okay, let me get the chicken and show you how we’re going to do this. We’re going to be able to like talk. So, think about questions if you have anything that’s like off topic or that has to do with these because I’m going to have some time to explain it to you. I want to use Let’s think about this. I really think and talk to myself all the time. Here’s what I want to show you. And especially since we’re using the big oven now, and I’m not going to make a mistake with it. Okay. This is a cooling rack. Did you find what you need? Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. She’s so great. She just figured things out. Oh, there’s like one way to make those fit. Don’t worry about it. Yeah. It’s like on the bottom. You have to take stuff out. I’m like, I know what you’re trying to do. Um, cooling rack for baking, right? This cooling rack happens to fit in this house sheet pan. That’s on purpose. Isn’t that smart? So, here’s what I’m going to do. If you want the chicken to kind of brown nicely on the bottom as well, you can put this in the oven like this and the juices are going to drip down and the air will circulate underneath the chicken making it crispier. Kind of clever, right? What other career would you have? Oh, these are going to be good questions. Okay, we’re going to get into it. I just asked myself that question the other night. So, I’ve got answers for you. Okay, these chicken breasts are huge. I should have probably cut them in half if I wanted them to cook evenly with the thighs because the thighs are a lot smaller than I was expecting and the chicken breasts are just big. So, I’m just trying to get all the yummy spices out of these. Okay, let’s get I’m going to reverse dip this one cuz there’s a lot of the spice mixture still in the bowl. And there we go. Oh, you want I’ll pop those in the oven. We’re just going to pass those down. How’s that? I’m going to take these and put them in my smaller oven. Thank you. And then Kaitlin, will you keep an eye on them like Let me know in about 12 minutes. Actually, you can set up for 15. In they go. And then change. There we go. Okay, that’s still heating up. Okay, great. So, here I’ve got my chicken on this cooling rack in here so that the air circulates. If you don’t have this, it’s totally okay. You can just cook them directly on a baking sheet or in a baking pan like this would be fine, too. They’ll be super juicy. They just won’t be as brown. So, it, you know, you’re trading one thing for another. So, we’re good on that. I am going to put my veggies. I actually think I should use something. That’s the nice size, isn’t it? I’m going to use this one because it cleans up better and all this, the turmeric with the spices, it turns everything yellow. And I might, since I have time, cut up some more veggies. That’s what I’m going to do with you all while I answer questions. So, I’m going to put the chicken in first. I’m still waiting for the oven to heat up because it normally cooks a little bit faster than these veggies. Originally, what I wanted to do for you all, and I’ve done it and it works, is I put everything on one sheetpan, but if you really want your chicken to be crispy and you don’t want any of these things to overcook, these can get charred pretty quickly. So, I just decided to separate them. You can do what you want, though. Okay. Oh my gosh, I love it. Dinner in ideas for snobby in-law family and a week night of Michael. It’s definitely a William Sonoma baking fan. I’ve spent half literally I’ve spent half my life at William Sonoma. So most things I own in my kitchen have um come from William Sonoma over the years. Okay, this oven is much slower to heat up. I’ve noticed too. I’ve got my peeler over here. So, I’m going to just wait for the oven to come to temp before I put the chicken in. And then let’s cut some more veggies and add them because the veggies are what I’m going to eat the most of because I’m eating um well, except for those two delightful pork and beef gluten-free meatballs, I’m eating more um almost all vegetables this week. And surprise, surprise, I feel so much better. I think it’s um the fact I convinced myself that I didn’t have a problem with gluten was ridiculous. I do. And um when you combine it with other foods I’m sensitive to like dairy and eggs, it was just a recipe for disaster. Okay, let’s answer some questions. If you have a steam oven, what percent of steam would you use? You know, that’s a hard one to say because I don’t use it on the setting that asks for what percentage. I just do blasts of steam. So, I’ll put my food in and I’ll blast it at the beginning and if things are getting too crisp, I’ll blast it and it just puts a great edge on it. So, I think every every steam oven is different and it depends on what you’re cooking. Michael, um, what other career would I have chosen? Okay, here’s what I’m going to tell you because I was Oh, I did this all day meditation workshop the other day, almost four hours. Um, and they were talking about kind of like pursuing your best life and I was thinking to myself, you just knew that was going to happen. I already am doing what I love. But it was like, okay, if there were five things on earth that you could do, what would they be? Guys, I think I’d want to be a singer or a professional dancer. I hurt my back in high school and so I couldn’t dance, but like backup singer or backup dancer or like a rock star. Um, but I’m pretty happy with the career I chose. I’m going to dice this just to show you guys a different cut. Okay, if you like things cubed more than you like them um on the angle. The thing you always want to remember though is that if you’re working with round veggies, you need to have a flat surface when you cut them. So even if you want to keep them in this shape, you want to take a little bit off the bottom so that you’ve got a flat surface. If it’s rolling around, it’s really dangerous. Okay. So let’s see. I would like to be I was thinking about the fact Oh, I was reading about a singer who was saying she’s super like introverted and shy in some ways and then she gets on stage and she goes nuts. I would love to have like that alter ego where you just get it all out and then you just go back to your normal quiet life. Singer, rock, rock star, let’s say, dancer. I play the drums. So maybe I’d be a drummer. And then um what’s interesting is they’re all creative jobs. Maybe I would have been a doctor if I weren’t such a baby. I wouldn’t have made it through the cadaavver process. Want to be a doctor? I think I’m more of a creative person. Oh, I love writing. So, maybe I’d just be a writer, period. I I love writing. I want to write a book that’s not a cookbook. So, um yeah, that’s it. Any other questions? Um you can turn on the convection fan, Angela, for sure. Just watch them. They’ll be done a little faster. Hi, Elizabeth from Charlotte. You guys, I’m so impressed with how many of you are getting on live. My business is working with Broadway performers. Dana, what do you do for Broadway performers? I would love that. I actually think here’s what I think now we’re getting to know each other. Um, I’m ahead of the game. Um, I when I did that commercial the other day for for Bulli olive oil, it’s so funny because I guess it’s on in other parts of the country, too, because I’ve been hearing from people. Um, I didn’t realize that when you do all these cooking videos over time, I have to act, right? Like the guy said to me, I was doing this cake where I’m like, “The cake’s out of the oven and blah blah blah.” And he’s like, “Give me what you got. This is why you act.” And I was like, “I’m not an actress, actor, I should say.” Um, but I realized that when you do these cooking videos and people, you know, you learn how to have a certain amount of energy all the time, that it is kind of like acting, right? I don’t know if I could do the serious part, but I think it’d be fun to try. Oh. Oh, here’s my last one, and then I’m gonna ask Kaylin what she would be. Um, I want to be like Helen Mirren in the movie Red. I want to be a badass karate chopping superhero kind of person when I’m even older. Like, I love Helen Mirren and I think she’s amazing in roles where she is just you don’t mess with her, right? So, that’s my dream one. If I could like switch careers for a day, I would go with Helen Mirren and be like, “Teach me everything.” And there’s something I want to do. I I want to be able to be really strong enough physically to like do a fight scene. Isn’t that weird? Um, Kaitlin, what about you? Do you have any big career things that you’re missing out on? If I was good at science, I’d do like a nurse or doctor, but I can’t do science, you know. She’s saying if she was good at science, she’d be nurse or doctor. and she literally finishes culinary school this week. So, you’re kind of pursuing what you want to be doing, right? Yes. But, um, the dream, but it’s fun to think about other things. I’m going to have to do that this direction and then let me get the veggies in and then we’ll talk about the sauce. We’ve got a few more questions for you, too. Oh, fantastic. More questions. Fire away. Okay. Can you use be as well? Great question. Can you use be? You can so you can use pork, ve beef, combinations of these that you like, right? Like I mentioned before too, the original recipe had pushcido in it and what you do is you grind the pushcuto in a food processor. So it’s just like little little bits, right? Um and that would be amazing. So ve Yes, you can use ve as well. Most definitely. And you could use like half be if you wanted. Um or all if you like. Any other questions? Thoughts on recipes calling for fresh parsley? Not sure what parsley does for flavor. Oh, I love this question. Let’s talk about parsley. Um, oh, we’ve got so many good questions. And Angela, I see your next one. Okay, parsley. When I thought of parsley growing up, I thought of ew curly parsley that’s on the side under your fruit when you go out to a diner for breakfast. And it’s gross. First of all, it’s kind of underrated, but it’s a textural thing for me. I don’t love it. Um, Sandy, they’re asking why parsley in this recipe for flavor. What it does for flavor. Um, if you use Italian flat leaf parsley, what you’ll realize if you take some leaves off and taste it on its own, it’s definitely got its own flavor. And it’s it’s probably the most agreeable herb to match with other things. So, like I use it kind of as a base flavoring a lot. So, I’ll do parsley with basil or parsley with mint. Um, it’s not too strong. So, you could call that mild or like not exciting, but at the same time, you get some fresh herb flavor without it being dominant in a recipe. So, I love that you asked that. um when I made those green sauces and I do chimmy cherry and I do um all of those. I usually love having parsley in some of them because I can find like basil gets a little too sweet on its own. Um and I like to cut herbs with it. But sometimes I’ve gotten so used to parsley on its own with olive oil that I’ll just use parsley in a sauce and I love it. It’s a little more bitter than some. And if you get a salad, like it’s super trendy to do like sliced celery in a salad with parsley leaves, a little bit of citrus, shaved fennel, um, give it a shot on its own and see what you think. I dig it. But if you don’t like it, you can certainly change it. Um, I don’t use dried parsley ever. It’s more concentrated. I don’t like most herbs dried except for the spices I’m using more for rubs like cardamom, coriander, things that you don’t use fresh really, right? Um, I’ll use dried thyme at the holidays and rosemary, but I usually use fresh herbs. Um, urgent, is it times? I don’t think so. Three more minutes. Okay, three more minutes. And I’m so glad that you asked. Thank you for asking. And if I put the chicken in at like 52 or so, we’re going to check the chicken in like 20 minutes because I want to check the veggies, too. Okay. Um, other questions? bring them on and then we can talk about the sauce. Says, “I would love to use a cast iron skillet but always seem to have trouble and nothing cooks properly. Is there a secret to using them?” Oh, Lori, that’s such a fantastic question. She’d love to use a cast iron skillet, but always has trouble. Is there a secret? Here’s the secret. Sometimes cast iron pans come already seasoned. And what that means is that it has been oiled and baked in a way where things don’t stick to it. Okay? Um, and so what happens with nonstick, which is so fantastic, is that as you continue to use it, the fat in your ingredients kind of puts a seal on the pan and it makes it become naturally non-stick and it kind of interacts with the cast iron. So foods you don’t want to do in cast iron are things like tomatoes, really acidic foods, because it can pit the cast iron. Um, and the other thing is Lori, it is a kind of thing where to take care of it, you have to know how to take care of it because you want to make sure that it’s well seasoned, which means that it’s got that um kind of grease fat coating on it, right? And then after you use it, you need to wash it quickly and dry it because they get rust in them so easily. Here’s the best news about cast iron. You literally, it’s so hard to ruin. If they rust, you can scrape off the rust and reseason it. Like if you go to Lodge cast iron online, it teaches you how to season your pan. So, my guess is if you’re having a hard time with it, it just doesn’t have like that coating on it from multiple cooks that keeps things non-stick. Um, you need to cook, especially if you’re doing like eggs and things like that. You want to cook at a really low heat until it kind of gets that almost non-stick quality. I call it mother nature’s nonstick. So Lori, if you have more questions, let me know. But if you if you feel like the pan is messed up, they’re so heavy, they can get so um rusty quickly, you’re probably going to have to just scrape it off. And you bake it in an oven. It sounds so weird. With oil on it, and it puts that coating back on it. Okay. Uh what else? Other questions? Are chili flakes the same as red chili pepper flakes or spicy? Did I mess up? You did not mess up, Trisha. Again, I’m so glad you’re bringing this up because I don’t have um Oh, yeah. You’re absolutely right, Betsy, about cast iron adding iron to our food. Um, let me get my chili flakes out. It’s so confusing because between countries and between parts of our country, we um call things different things. These are just called crushed red pepper on here. I call them chili flakes or red chili flakes. These are super spicy and so um I have a pretty low tolerance. So the amount I put in this recipe is for a wimp like me. Like if anything you just get like a small amount of heat on the finish. If you like spice, I mean get after it. How much should I call for? Like a teaspoon. Let’s see. Did you guys even see that? I pulled a knife on the wall off the wall with another knife and I didn’t even get nervous. Um, I’m glad you like the kick, Trisha. Two teaspoons. Okay, so if you like spice, that was two teaspoons, too. Four pounds of meat. Like, that’s not a lot. You could go for a tablespoon, tablespoon and a half, and you would definitely get spicier. The way you can test that, too, though, is to put the red chili flake in and make sure you sprinkle it really evenly all over the meat. Mix everything together. make one of those discs of meat and cook it and see if you like the heat. Um, if it’s a little mild, I would leave it because the heat will intensify as it um kind of melds with the other ingredients. Okay. Um, Dana, you put tablespoons in yours. Do you like spice, Dana? You strike me as someone who’s a little spicy. We’re going to find out what happens, right? And I want to get back to you dealing with psychological issues at Broadway Stars. fascinated. Um, Angela, I love the idea of grinding the chili flake spiner and putting in a smaller amount. That’s a great idea. And, um, you know what you can use is a coffee grinder to grind spices. I have this little crutch coffee grinder that I bought at Wayne Sonoma like 20 years ago. And I have one for grinding coffee beans and I have the other one for grinding spices. So, when it calls for breaking down I don’t know. I’m trying to think. Um, when I do a lot of Mexican recipes, it seems like I’m grinding spices more, but that’s a great suggestion with the chili flake because you can get um you can get a finer, you know, you get it. It’s so fine that it will meld more consistently into the food if you were to grind them up. So, that’s a great idea. Um, thanks, Angela. Love Calabrian chilis instead of pepper flake. More nuanced. Oh my gosh. at A16. The recipe, the restaurant that um the meatball recipes originally from, they serve collaban chilis in the chili oil. Oh my gosh, talk about spicy when you do like that and you put it on your food. It’s amazing. How are the meatballs? Were you just checking them? Yeah, they’re looking good. Okay, good. So, couple more. All I check for and I’ll show people. Um yeah, they’re good. They’re like a couple more minutes and they’ll be fine. The um the other thing about the Thank you, Kaitlin. I’ll give the meatballs a couple more minutes and then I’ll show you what they look like and we’ll get them back in the oven with their tomato sauce on them. Um, the meatballs are super forgiving because you’re going to braze them in this liquid. It’s going to continue to soften them and so it’s kind of amazing because you don’t have to worry about overcooking them that much. I mean, if you cooked them for twice as long, yes, you could like cook the fat out, but because there’s the egg and the um cottage cheese or ricotta and the fat from the meat, they’re very, very forgiving. Um, what other questions am I seeing? Question on, um, could you use hot sausage in the new Oh, right. I missed that question. I think that they’d be pretty darn spicy, but no. You know what? Yes. Do like a pound. I would do probably like three to one if you were going to do the spicy, right? With one being the spicy. Or if you really like spice, then sure, do half ground beef and half of the spicy Italian mix and then you wouldn’t have to add any of those other spices. Okay, that’s a great idea. Um, I liked the idea too to clean your um spice grinder with white rice. That is brilliant. And I’ve actually brown rice in it before to use rice as a coating for things. It gets really crispy on foods like um Frito. You can use ground rice. Um just a reminder to talk about salt. Elizabeth, thank you. It’s you. Um, I got an email today about salt and I take this for granted because in the cooking world it’s kind of a given, but I only use kosher salt in cooking and baking. And we’ll talk more about nice salt for finishing. Like I’ve got um molded, which I love for finishing foods, but it’s a much bigger flake, but I don’t ever use iodized salt. It is. Um, and Michael, if you want to weigh in here about what is in um, that salt, you’re welcome to, doctor, but I don’t use it. It is so salty and for health reasons, I don’t use it. But cooks, most cooks everywhere are using kosher salt. It dissolves really nicely into the food. It’s It’s got like a lower salinity, as we say, so it’s less salty. Um, so all of my recipes have been written using kosher salt. And I would guess in today’s day and age, 90% of the books you’re reading are using kosher salt. It’s very rare that someone uses iodized like Morton salt in their cooking or their baking anymore. I use kosher in my baking as well. Um, I wanted to show you the Morton. See how these flakes are big? They’re like an ingredient unto themselves. So, if I grill a beautiful steak and I want to top it with a couple of flakes of this, it’s like a beautiful ingredient. Leslie’s asking about um kosher salt different than sea salt. What’s different is that sea salt can be a million different things depending on where it’s harvested and how it’s harvested. It can be really large flakes like I was just showing you. This is French. It can be tiny flakes. Um, I just think that I usually don’t use sea salt as an ingredient in food unless you’re like sea salt caramel, right? Something like that where you want these bites of it. So, I use sea salt for finishing things and I use kosher for putting it in recipes. Okay, look at how big that plug is. Beautiful. Um, what else have I missed for questions? Yeah, Morton salt. No Morton salt. I use um D well Morton sells kosher salt if if you want to go there. But most people are using diamond. I’m going to show you the box. Hold please. Did I put it back? Okay, I have to run and get it. You guys are going to laugh because kosher salt is really good for salt baths. It’s in my bathroom. Hold on. Tada. This box, you can order this practically anywhere. You can order it online. Um, during COVID, at the beginning of the pandemic, I was literally ordering big boxes of these because they ran out of the store and I was panicked. I was never going to have it again. But this is what most people write their recipes to. Diamond crystal kosher salt. Um, even in certain cookbooks, like my friend Michelle Tam, who just wrote her third cookbook, Nom Nom Nom Paleo, she literally calls for diamond crystal kosher salt in every recipe because they can all vary so much. So, I love when people tell you that. And um it’s something that at the front of my cookbooks I always talk about because it can affect the taste of your food so much. So I’m so glad you brought that up. Thank you for reminding me. Um yeah, and you can get this literally online if they don’t have it at your grocery store. Um the mother-in-law the in-law dinner dilemma for next week. Okay, Bonnie. So what you said is that this is really fun. You have in-laws coming on a week night. I need more information. Are they picky? And are there certain things um you should stay away from just because you know they don’t like them? Well, you answer that they are snobby but not picky. Okay. So, they’re going to want elevated and it’s next week, Bonnie, because you know what you could do is that um the fish and parchment paper that we’re doing on Saturday on Cape Cod. Okay. Oh my gosh. You could totally do this with them. um with good seafood. I’m gonna we’re going to make those beautiful little fancy packets of fish and I do it usually with salmon or halibit, but I also have a recipe. Oh, it’s so good. You can use any white fish or you can use sea bass. I think sea bass though is like $50 a pound now because it’s so hard to get. Um you could use bronzino and I have a recipe in this book. Oh my gosh. I wonder if this is one of the ones we had sent to us. Um I’m going to have to share this recipe with you all. So, um feed them a steak and call it a day. I make steak a lot for guests. But if I want to impress, they’re going to think this is so cool and you’re going to be so cool. Coconut ginger sea bass in parchment with king trumpet mushrooms and bok choy. You guys, it’s good for you and it’s freaking delicious and it’s so easy to make. So, that’s my number one suggestion, and I’m going to show it to you. I can’t remember. Yeah, they did put the picture in the book, but they didn’t show it in the parchment. And um I think I told people to put it in parchment. Could you use bronzino? Yeah, you could use bronzino. I would probably um change the flavors a little bit for the bronzino, but this has coconut milk in it, and it makes you seem really cool. So, it calls for toasted sesame oil, tamari, soy sauce, just gluten-free, coconut milk, a little lime zest, ginger, honey, garlic, and then you put I love king trumpet mushrooms. They’re so meaty. They’re like steak. So, I I put king trumpets in with baby bok choy and some green onions in it. And then you wrap the parchment like a little Tootsie Roll, right? I could show you guys that this weekend. Um, and then it is so delicious. And you can serve them in the parchment packets or you can serve them here. It’s just on the plate itself. But I think the parchment would impress them. If you don’t like that idea, let’s look for a couple others. If you like steak, we could certainly have you do steak. Um, look, I’m in on this now. I’m like, we can be making Leslie saying, “Ask Amanda to come cook. That will impress them.” I just had somebody ask me to do that for them. Um, whole roasted fish with currant brown butter sauce. That’s another one you can do. Um, bronzina would be great with that. I’ll just literally put this on Instagram tomorrow, you guys. And you can pick one of these. Uh, let’s look at things that aren’t fish. Oh, those tie chicken burgers I was talking about where you use coconut milk. Oh, with pickled papaya sllo. That’s totally snobby. Um, not chili. Well, the Moroccan chicken is a different version of it. They’re not going to like tacos, even though these are elevated. Tuna py with miso, mayonnaise, and pickled cucumber. Snobby people like py. Um, oh, thanks for remembering the meatballs. I’m just talking away. Um, I also have desserts. I love matcha panakata. I also have a honey panakotta that is so easy to make with coconut milk and raspberries crushed on top or blackberries. So good. Okay, so you did the parchment cod. Yeah, it’s just impressive coming out of parchment paper. Do you have somewhere you can lay them, Caitlyn? Let’s do this. Awesome. I’ll show everybody what they look [Music] like. Um, I’m going to show you guys the meatballs and then I’m going to quickly look in the bottom of it. Do you know why I never use this oven? Because when they’re low like this, you all know this, they light you on fire when you open it. If I’m wearing any jewelry, it like heats up. It’s crazy. This is really good. That’s so funny. Caitlyn handed me the oven mitts so I could even do it and I just totally forgot about them. Um, pardon my adult onset ADB. So, here’s what they look like. Voila. Right. They’re going to soften and lose some of their color when you put them in the brazing in the tomatoes for brazing. And so, these are perfect. All you want to make sure is that they’re cooked through. Okay. So, I am going to just kind of wiggle these around. And now I’m going to pack them into this dish. Okay. And how are we going time? What time is it? 6:12. Oh, awesome. You guys, these are going to be good. Okay. So, now I’m going to K, won’t you turn that oven down to 300 for me? Let me bring you guys with me again just so you can see what I’m doing. Okay. Okay. Good. All right. So, all I’m trying to do here is I’m going to load these. I’m going to pack these into here. And I used my fish st already. Oh, I’m going to give away I know what part of the giveaway is going to be on Saturday. Two fish spatulas. Oh, I just remember I saved them as a prize for someone. Oh, I know what I’m going to do. I got it figured out. Okay, so these are really hot. We want to give them a second. Okay, we don’t want to put the tomatoes on them right now. Just let them cool for a minute. Oops. Kind of give them some room, right? But if I were doing I’m going to show you how many I put in here. You could probably put double in here or you can just use a huge roasting pan and you could cover it with foil. Okay, let’s just do this. See how easy that is to clean when you’ve got parchment? So great, right? Um, while those are cooling, I’m just going to look at my veggies. The chicken’s looking gorgeous. Okay, I want to toss these a little bit because they look a little dry on top and all the olive oils on the bottom. So, let’s do that. I like this spoon for the job to really get in there. I think what I want Oh, yeah. No, that’s good. I’ll show you guys. You know what I do on my grill? I’ve done this on my Trager before. I put the chicken above the vegetables. I put the chicken just on a rack, veggies in a pan, and the chicken just goes into the veggies. So good. These are looking great. I just toss them so that they have more oil on the top of them. And you know what? They’re going to need more salt. Okay. Oh, for the meatballs. This is for someone put them in a Dutch oven, cover them with the tomato mixture, and then cook them tomorrow. Oh, you know what? Here, if you wanted to put them in a Dutch oven and then Did it say put the tomatoes on? um right away and then cook them tomorrow. I would wait to put the tomatoes on until tomorrow. So um if you want to put them in a Dutch oven tonight, let them cool, put the lid on them and put them in the fridge. So don’t put them in the fridge hot. Take them out tomorrow. Let them come to room temp for like an hour. Then put the tomatoes on the lid on and bake them. And that’s a brilliant idea. So yeah, just put them directly into whatever vessel you’re going to use to braze them in the sauce. Then you’re not wasting another dish, right? Okay. So, see how many this is? This is probably close to 30 meatballs. Um, you could certainly get like 50 in here, and I’m not even kidding. You just pile them on, right? Um, what else are they saying about the meatballs? Um, I only added the minced garlic to the vegetable mixture, Victoria, if you wanted to add it to both. It probably says in the recipe to add it to both. I don’t know. It’s a good question now that you say it. Um, my favorite family dinners were with my Jewish friend and her family. Delicious and so entertaining. Oh, so many people have different traditions in the kitchen is what I love, right? Different kind types of food. We could braze the meatballs on the grill while something else is cooking as well to keep that house cooler. You absolutely could. In fact, if you go to Trager’s website, I have a version of this recipe on the grill because I’m not kidding when I say I put this cookwware on my grill and it’s totally fine. So, um, you could absolutely do that. Truffle butter is always a good fit for snobbery, but we’re going back to that. I love it. Okay, this is what a loose arrangement this is for the sauce. Okay, guys. Were there any other questions I missed? There’s question about the recipe, but what brand of knives do you like using right now? Oh, okay. I’ll answer the question about the knives in 1 minute, you guys. I’m taking about half of this. It’s cool to make it really saucy. And then I’m going to cook the rest of those meatballs later. And so I’m saving about a half a can for each of those. Okay, look what I’m going to do now. I’m going to take my yummy olive oil, which I have right here. This is from my friends down the street, Ballastra. And I’m going to drizzle some on here. And I’m going to add some more salt to the tomatoes. I You can’t have enough olive oil. These are going to braze at 300, so they’re not going to get very hot. So, I can use my fancy olive oil and it will retain its integrity. Okay, I’m just going to kind of gently do this, right? You want to make sure that all the meatballs are interacting with all the tomatoes. You want them to get saucy. Okay, let’s talk knives. Um, I cannot believe I never picked up the San Marzo, Dana. It’s like something new every day though, isn’t it? Exciting. Um, as my dad said to a friend who invited us to dinner, Rick is the expensive wine. I think so, since it isn’t, do you know what our wedding? We had our wedding at a winery and it was I mean, everything’s expensive in life. But we did have one or two tables where we served them the extra fancy wine. Don’t tell the other people. I’m sure if anybody remembers our wedding 22 years ago, they know they knew already if they were at the fancy table or not because, you know, whatever. See this? Okay, so they’re in there. There’s a lot of sauce down in the bottom or juice from the tomatoes. I’m going to put the lid on this. Pop it back in the oven. If you’re just using a roasting pan, just seal it tightly with aluminum foil. Okay. And um yes, the basil I’m going to put on at the very end. And so after they come out of the oven, I’m just going to You can either chop the basil or just take whole leaves and it just melts into the sauce. So you get the really fresh basil taste and it’s delightful. Um, so into the oven they go. And they’re only going to go in for less than 40 minutes, but they just get better with time, you guys. They won’t be as fluffy as they would be if we gave them more time. Okay, so here we go. Yes. I’ll set this timer just so it’s one less thing to worry about. And then remind me, Kaitlin, about the instant meat thermometers. They’re so good. Um, I’m just thinking of more giveaway ideas for you all, too. Shall we um talk about the turmula sauce while we let the chicken I don’t want to check the chicken yet. It hasn’t been long enough to to take its temperature, as I like to say. What will I serve the meatballs with? Okay, so um the joke is around here I’ve literally made these meatballs, taken them out of the oven and people eat them. I’ll put fresh basil and a little bit of good parmesano organo on top and they’re gone. So at the restaurant too, they just serve them on their own like in a bowl with the sauce. But if you want to do pasta with them, you certainly could. And I would do like a big thick hearty pasta. Maybe like a rigetoni or something. So you’re like taking a bite of the meatball with like a big hearty piece of pasta. You have to have like a thick big piece of pasta to hold up to those meatballs. Um but then as a side I usually end up doing a salad. Everything else like they’re just the star of the show. So salad is usually what I do. Like I’ll do Roma salad with um that lemon dressing that I make with fresh parmesan cheese on it and just keep it super basic. Giveaway House of Hos apron. I’m impressed you don’t wear one. I always have to or I ruin my clothes. Elizabeth’s funny you should mention that. I always ruin my clothes as well for some reason. I love Headley and Bennett aprons but when I use an apron I fold it down. I don’t like having something around my neck. I fold it down and I usually spill on my shirt anyhow. So, I don’t know what my deal is. I have a gazillion great aprons. And there will definitely be an apron giveaway at some point. And I’m not talking any old apron. I’m talking like amazing apron. Um, but if you guys want a House of Hos apron, stand by. I’m getting I’m working on a trademark, so can’t do it yet, but thanks for suggesting it. I’m on it. I’m on it. I’m on it. It’s going to take a while. What else? Any other questions before we talk about Trula wondering if you compost? Oh, do I compost? And Michael, thank you for the compliment. That’s so kind of you. It’s fun to hang out with all of you here, isn’t it? Do I compost, you guys? As in, do I compost like I keep my compost bin here and do it myself? No. Do I wish I would? Yes. I can hardly keep a garden of herbs right now. I And I live in a place where it would be amazing to do both things. But we here in Northern California, we have compost collection and they just passed it into law. Did you know this? If you don’t compost, you can get fined. Like you get in trouble. Um if you don’t use your green bin and if you put food scraps in the other garbage, supposedly they can come after you. So I compost in my little um I’ll show you what I use. This is just the little kind that you can get um at most hardware stores, even some grocery stores with the compostable bags which dissolve on you. Well, I mean, it’s mother nature, right? And it has like the charcoal top on it. So, it never stinks. I mean, these things last forever. And since it’s aluminum, if your food gets gross in there, you can rinse it out easily, right? So, I do this and I mean, it’s kind of gross how many food scraps I end up having to be honest with you. Um there’s a big case for using the entire vegetable, right? Because I feel like I throw away so much um vegetable and fruit parts. That just means the oven’s up to temperature. So this is the time where you have to be patient. Um yeah, Bonnie, we’re definitely going to need a report about the in-law dinner. And if you want any other ideas, will you email me if any of those sounded good? But the other good news we have is that I have a ton of recipes from both of my last cookbooks that we’ll be putting up on Amanda Hoscooks slowly. But um I just got the rights to share many more of them with you. So if you go to amandaoscooks.com, check out the recipe section, see if there’s anything snobby enough on there, and um if not, email me and I’ll send you some other suggestions. Okay. What did I decide to do about the dishes in the sink? Um, I’m just staring at them, Lori. But here’s the good news. I have um an empty dishwasher and I have children and my ex-husband coming over to pick up dinner after this. So, guess what? I think they can do some dishes. I’m not going to make Caitlyn do them, that’s for sure. She prepped all of this stuff. Um, we’ll report back. Whatever I choose, my mother-in-law or brother-in-law will still make comments. Gosh darn it. Don’t you want to like I don’t know if any of you meditate but when I meditate those are the things I could I want to go away right that you um you don’t get upset about things like that but I hate it when people put in digs and you’re just doing your best right I think we can totally outs snob them though I’m not kidding Bonnie we should have you get a cut of fish that just sounds like extra impressive too and um use some words like sustainable and um wild and impress them We all want to follow up. Yeah, sea bass. Exactly. Okay. All right. I’m gonna talk about the green sauce, which if you guys have been watching the classes, look, I’m just adding more dishes to the pile. Um, if you’ve been watching my other classes, you know I have already hit on um on green sauce. And so I cheated and I had Caitlyn make it in advance today. This is the chula that’s part of the recipe. And then we’ll talk about cows. Um, so sorry, I just have to refer back to my own recipe because I’ve done so many brain sauces I forget what I’ve done. Chula typically in Morocco has cilantro in it. If you are not a cilantro fan, fear not. You don’t have to use it. You could certainly replace it. So, I gave you options of mint, cilantro, and or parsley. Okay? And then it’s got fresh lemon juice. It’s got a clove of garlic minced, some sugar, just a teaspoon of sugar, especially if you’re using all cilantro. It helps balance it a little bit. Um, salt, black pepper, extra virgin olive oil, and then preserved lemon, which she left out so we can talk about it again because I don’t want you guys thinking I use it all the time. Didn’t I use this? Oh, what? We made like the granulada or something. I was going through a preserved lemon phase because if you buy them, they’re like three in a jar. They last forever. So when I get into a phase, I put them in everything. But um they’re very common in Moroccan cooking and they add a ton of umami. One word that I think is totally overused, but here it works. Um I’m just laughing at the comments. That’s hilarious. Oh, no. No, no repro happening here. Um so she diced it very beautifully. Let me show you. Clearly someone just got out of cooking school and has better knife skills than me. We spent like three minutes on knife skills. Did you guys spend days on knife skills or Yeah, we literally had like 30 minutes of knife skills in my cooking school and then she was like go home and chop some onions. So I’m laughing because Caitlyn’s it’s like perfectly perfectly like little minced pieces of preserved lemon. And frankly I prefer it this way so much because it just melds kind of into the into the sauce. So, if you taste the sauce and you like it as is, or if you taste preserved lemons and you’re like, “Not for me.” You don’t have to use them. But the thing is, when you combine them with other flavors, guess what happens? They mellow out and you just get this like tang and this really interesting in a good way flavor where people are like, “What’s that? I’ve never tried that before.” Um, I think I’ve lost um Should we back up to the cows? Whose cows live near your yard? My friend figured it out who came to visit. He said what happens is that um well the answer is I don’t know because it’s um municipal utility district property behind me and so they lease that land and they let people put their cattle on it to graze and so they rotate them around on this huge piece of property. So my friend who’s a rancher told me he’s like, “Oh yeah, they’re just somebody’s cattle like a cattle rancher and you don’t even have to have your own land really. you lease the land from the municipal utility department and you let them roam and so they come around. I don’t know how often they um they come here. Um but he’s like, “Yeah, they’re just moving them.” He was like, “The cows you see here are the cows you see there next week.” I’m like, “Oh, I get it now.” So those are my cows. Um Copper River salmon. Oh, that’s such a good call, Kristen, for the snobs. It is in season. And I just saw the best recipe um for copper salmon from Pamela Salsman. S A L Z M-N. She’s on Instagram. And she just did like horse mustard and maple syrup. I want to say a little bit of Dijon and she did it on a wood plank on the grill. You know, you can soak a wood plank that you get at the grocery store and you can even put them in the oven. That would impress them. I love that. Um, Betsy, I like the cow comment. Can you review how to cut an onion? I would love to. We’re also going to make a little video for you guys where it’s up close and personal. I’ll I’ll do the oven. I’ll do the onion. Preserved lemon, pasta, but not preserved lemons. Can they be used interchangeably? Oh, it’s telling me I only have 30 minutes remaining. Time flies. Oops. I said I wanted a new session. Sorry. Okay. Are we still here? Um, I have a friend who owns a fish market. The next best PR marketing was calling squid color. Totally. Wait. Pastor, but not preserved. Oh, lemon paste. Preserved lemon paste. Thank you. Yes, but use less. Use less. It’s probably more concentrated if it’s um kind of pureed like that. Start with less and then see what you think. Okay. I’m just going to have a bite of this. I’m not going to double dip. I’m just going to taste it for flavors. And salt as always because preserved lemons have so much salt. You want to taste it before you season it. Caitlyn’s is extra good. I think food tastes better when somebody else makes it. And I’m not even kidding you. That’s delicious. And I’m not changing anything. She gets a pass. She graduates from culinary school. Congratulations. And honestly, the dishes aren’t even bad. All it is is a bunch of bowls in my sink. It’s not bad at all. Oh, onion. Should we talk about an onion? And then, um, we’re getting close to when Caitlyn can maybe pick a winner for the cookware, which would be super fun. Unless any of you were too embarrassed to have your name called, but we were going to announce it on here. Let’s try knives, too. Oh, okay. Knives and then onion. And then um we’ll pick our winner. Does that sound good? And then in like here, watch this. I’m being so lazy. I’m not even getting off my stool. You know what? Let’s check the internal temperature of the chicken cuz we are here to cook. And then knives. And I have such opinions on instant read thermometers. We have to do a real on instant read thermometers, too. This is a company called Thermopen which I absolutely love. They are so accurate within like one/tenth of a degree, but you can’t put them in the oven. You can’t keep them in your food, right? Then meter came along and Trager acquired meter and you can leave the thermometer in your food and read it from an app. So, you can imagine how amazing that is when you’re grilling or you put something in the oven and you’re running around and you can be like, “Oh gosh, my food’s ready.” Right? So, I’m going to use this um today. and I love them so much. I have two because I’m really into them. I’ll give you a link to them when they have a sale and you can get one if you want. Okay, let me get an oven mitt. They’re probably back in here. Isn’t that funny? Right where they’re supposed to be. Oo, look at the juice. do this. Okay, I’m going to bring the whole thing over here and show you. Okay, we’re going to do this up close and personal. Let me get one other going to grab one more for Oh, yeah. Thank you. I love this. I can hide my mess from you all. Okay. So, I’m going to lay on this chicken here and we’re going to take its temp. Yes, it sounds like it’s going to the doctor. Okay. So, see how it’s I don’t know if you guys can see, but it’s kind of crispy because I’ve left it up here. So, the skin will get crispier. If we’re down in the juices, you can spoon the juices over it, which is a delicious way to do it, too. Bonnie, you’re right. Does Zoom have an app where you can like Does um Zoom allow you to say whether you like it or not? Okay, this is 194, which to me sounds strange because it has not been cooking for the H 180. I still think it’s lying. I still think it’s lying. Um, let’s test the smaller one. This smaller chicken breast might be done. 172. You know, like you have common sense and when you’ve cooked this long, I mean, I’m getting up there. It says they’re done. I’m suspicious. I’m like, it has been like 30 minutes. 34 minutes. It says they’re all done. Like they’re 185. And this poor little guy, it looks like a baby turtle. Yeah, you guys, it says it’s done. So, here’s what I’m going to do. We’re going to let them rest because they’ll carry over cook. This one I’m very suspicious about that. That’s just really fast. But here is what I’m going to do. I’m going to put all of this um I’m going to land it all in one platter. But you know what? I want my veggies down first. Oh, please. I’m just thinking as I go tonight. And what I thought was gonna happen. Oh, you know why? It’s because this oven’s a lot hotter on the top than the bottom. So that’s why these veggies are taking longer. And oh, I know what I’m going to do. I’ve got a great idea. I’m going to take some of the chicken juice and put it on the veggies and let them keep cooking. and it’s going to be the best batch I’ve done yet. This is the best part about cooking with you all. I get smarter as I go and then we think of new new ways to do things, right? So, here’s what I’m going to do. I’ll keep some of these chicken juices, of course, for the chicken. But this, remind me to teach you how to wash this. You know what you do is you invert it on one of these sheets and you put it in your sink like that and then you put dish soap on it and you let it soak upside down so it gets all of the fat and then you scrub it in that sheet pan. Brilliant, huh? I think um I think Michelle Tam, my friend Michelle has a video on doing that on nom paleo which I think is hilarious but so good. Okay, I’m going to take part of this yummy juice um from the chicken. I’ll reserve a little bit just for the chicken. Yummy. And I’m going to put the rest directly on the vegetables and put them back in the oven. This is going to be so good. This is love. This is food love right here. Yummy. [Music] And then we’re just going to kind of mix it in. Oh, this is going to be so good. So, the thing about this chicken dish is that um the root vegetables are really sweet and then you get the warm spices from the chicken and the vegetable marinade which work well with sweeter things as well. And then the chicken is a little savory, but it’s the chula. It’s this green sauce that cuts through it and is really vibrant. And so you can serve you can serve it all in a platter if you want or you can serve people individually with the veggies and a piece of chicken and then just drizzle the turmula over the top and serve extra on the side because it’s the secret weapon. I I think it’s really amazing. Um I like Erin that you like hanging out like this. You know what? Me too. Okay, I’m gonna get these out of the way and they’re just going to go into the dish pit. Do you guys want to see the dish pit before we talk onions and knives? I’ll just I might as well show you. We’re all We’re all friendly here now. Right. Here we go. Can you see into it? You can’t really see that much. H There you go. Yeah, it’s just kind of piled up. What are you going to do? I’m not going to complain. I have two dishwashers, friends. I’m not worried about it. I don’t mind washing dishes when I’m not in a hurry. Okay, so we’re still going to let those meatballs go a little bit longer. I think the vegetables are going to need like 5 to 10 minutes. So, why don’t we talk about how to cut an onion and we’ll also talk about knives? Does that sound good? Um, hot sauce. Exactly. Um, what else? Quick question, too. Could you put basil in the tremula or is it better to use more mint? Um, you can absolutely put basil in the tremula. I always say it’s whatever you like, right? So, I got really used to cilantro when I was Who am I talking about? It’s like when I was in Morocco. I’ve been to Morocco one time. It was a work trip. It was like 10 years ago. I had tremula there one time. I’ve had more tmula in the United States than anywhere else. What I meant to say was I’m used to tremula recipes that have cilantro in them. So, if you don’t like cilantro, basil would be amazing. They eat a lot of mint in Morocco as well. There’s mint tea everywhere and so I suggested mint just because it’s kind of um something they use a ton of but use basil if you’d like. Absolutely. Two DW are those your kids dishwashers. I I mean like I’m just we should just face it. I’m never getting my brain back. Um well I have two kids and they can be my dishwashers but I literally have double dishwashers built into this kitchen as well. Is that not the most brilliant thing? Neila donated the appliances for my kitchen when I remodeled it. And um the designer was smart enough to be like, “Didn’t we just want two dishwashers?” So I was like, “I do.” And very often they are um both full. I’m going to get some knives down and then we’re going to talk about cutting an onion, too. Um and it’s funny because well, we’ve had knives on our minds, haven’t we, Caitlyn? Um, okay. What knives do I like? Do you do a red hot sauce ever? Yes, I do. It is my Romemesco and I love it. And that’s on my website, too, Michael. Um, my Romemesco sauce. And try to think. We didn’t make it in class. I can always make it in class. I mean, when I make that, it it goes down as quickly as the green sauces. Um, okay. Let’s talk cutlery. knives. Here is another case of Amanda is spoiled rotten because working at William Snow for so many years. First of all, I started in the retail stores when I was just a little baby and so they had cutlery vendors come and talk to us about their knives and so I learned a ton about the different brands. Um, and I got totally sold on the story behind German knives because Woof and Zwilling are all handforged from one piece of metal. And so what I learned is that hand forged ones don’t snap in half, right? When it’s a whole piece of metal going all the way through. See this same piece of full tang is what that’s called. When it’s all one piece of metal instead of being glued together right here and it’s stopping, these knives are going to last you forever. So this is a Zilling. Um we have friends there still if you like giveaways. Um, I love Zwelling as a brand. I love Shoun. This is a Japanese brand. Um, people get really weird about German versus Japanese. Um, Japanese design a lot of knives for vegetable and fish prep. I use them interchangeably. Some blades are thicker than others. So, if you’re working with thicker foods or hardier foods, um, thicker blades tend to help. I use a thinner blade. Can you guys see the difference in those two? Maybe up against that. A thinner, more flexible blade when I’m slicing and I need to slice things thinly or maneuver around things where you’re not trying to carve or cut into things as much. So, um, I use this for vegetable prep a lot for smaller vegetables. I use it for boning a chicken sometimes. I’m trying to think what else I use this knife for. All kinds of citrus. Citrus mostly soft fruits and vegetables. Um, but in terms of brands, you can’t go wrong with Woo stuff. Zwilling, but Zwilling that I’m talking about is different than their Ja Hankle slime. One of them was sold off and it’s cheap now. So, Zwilling I think is um, Bye Bea. So fun to hang out with you. Um, the Goods Willing brand is the one sold at Sir Lot, William Sonoma, Kraton Barrel, um, all of the higherend retailers and it costs more. But the one at Costco, I think, is not the same quality. It has like one little nan instead of two little robots. I’ve seen your son Charlie on your video. Seems like a typical but very pleasant young man. That’s what they tell me, Michael. But he’s a pleasant young man. I’m kidding. He is darling when he wants to be, right? He’s a very typical teenager. His older brother is very, very kind to him. I’m just going to say that. So guys, we can get into more about like the shapes of knives to have. If you don’t recall, I put up a free class for you guys on the tools that I use and I talk about knives in that video. So, uh, if you go back to the video about the tools I have in my kitchen, it’s like the very first thing I posted along with the pantry ingredients. I have a list of the knives that I like and I show them all to you in that video. Okay. Um, okay. Uh, should we cut an onion? Um, Cupco knives? No comment. I do have an opinion. I don’t use them. How’s that? How often do I sharpen my knives? Not often enough. The important part is is that, and this is what I learned in the stores at William Snowma as well, it’s about using a sharpening steel um commonly or frequently to keep your knives in shape because think of the blade as being like a bunch of little teeth that are aligned and every time you cut the teeth get out of alignment. So, if you use that piece of metal before you cook a lot or chop a lot, it keeps those teeth aligned. And if you take good care of them like that, then you won’t have to sharpen them as often. But, um, I sharpen mine about once a year. Ann, and they desperately need sharpening right now. Um, is western angles on knives. Michael, Michael, you just like to throw me curveballs. Totally depends on the person. When you understand the angle on an Asian knife versus a western knife, that means that you’re like really into technicalities, right? I This is like how I am when people ask me what type of wood pellet I use in my Trager grill and I say whatever I’ve got on hand. I usually get my knives for free and so I just love whatever is handed to me, right? But um they are sharpened on different angles and it totally comes down to what you like to chop, you know, and what you do the most of. Um is it true that an onion can taste differently depending on how you cut it? Absolutely. And guess what? A ton of foods can taste differently depending on how you cut it. Do I even have an onion to cut for you guys? I do. Um let me grab Was that my timer for Oh, is that for the meatballs? Should we check the vegetables, you guys? The meatballs can keep going and we’ll we’ll let the meatballs stay in there for five more minutes while we do the onion. Okay. And then I’ll bring everything together for you and we’ll announce um our winner. Hold on one. I’m not forgetting about the onion. I just want to check the veggies. Oh yeah, these are going to be delicious. I want those to cool a little bit, though. So, let’s talk about this onion situation. So, you’re a nerd with too much time on your hands. I totally get it. Clearly, you like to research, right, Michael? You’re a researcher at heart. Um, okay. Let’s talk about cutting an onion and cutting foods different directions. Yes. Have you ever had Well, no. Let me start over. When I was a kid, I hated zucchini. I thought it was the most disgusting food I’d ever had. And my mom would cut it in coins so the seeds, the middle part would stay in there. Um, and they were mushy and gross. I hated the texture. I hated everything about it. Um, and then I had I grew up I moved to San Francisco and someone served me zucchini that had been diced and sauteed and I was blown away. I was like, I don’t understand that this is the same food. Um, eggplant can be a lot like that. Depending on how you cut it, it can be really different because when textures vary throughout foods as well. Um, they it affects the taste, right? So, what I thought was mushy and awful, I ended up loving. So, I diceed zucchini and I love it. I slice it into coins and I literally have um PTSD. Zucchini stress. So, let’s talk about cutting an onion. Um, and then any other questions? You guys debate about it. Okay. So, here’s what I’m going to do. Because my knife is not very well sharpened, we are going to do a separate little video on how to do this that’s really up close, but I’m going to take you through the steps of it right now just for fun. Okay. None of these knives are are good right now. But here’s the trick. If you’re looking to dice an onion, not slice an onion, there is a trick. And you want to keep this root side intact. Okay. So, what we’re going to do is we’re going to cut this stem off just like this. Yes, I’m using my wood board as the block. We’re going to cut straight through the root. Okay, you have two halves. Root is still intact. Very important if we’re going to dice it. I’m going to peel off that outer layer, which is such a pain in the booty when it doesn’t want to come off easily for you. This one’s like super thin. You’re doing this right now. Oh, hold on. I’m just going to take a thicker layer off so we don’t waste time. Was to be careful when buying sharpeners. Makes a difference if it is a Shun or Westtop. Nerd alert. Nerd alert. Yes, you’re absolutely right about that. Um, and I that you’re absolutely right about that, Michael. And I don’t tend I have a I have a German sharpener now that you mention it. It’s a wo. So yeah, if you want to sharpen them at home with an electric sharpener, great. But I always take mine to someone because they just do it better and it is not expensive. It’s like $6 a knife. Um you can take them to your hardware store normally like once a week or once a month and someone will do it for you or your butcher shop. Um you guys are all hilarious, Angela. I love your comments. Okay. So, now that you have two halves, here’s what we’re trying to do. If you’re wanting to get evenly diced onion, what you do with the roots still intact is that you sli. We’re going to slice through it horizontally two or three times. We’re going to slice across it vertically. But the whole point is that you leave this intact so it doesn’t fall apart. And then what happens is when you cut down on the side of it, it’s going to come out in this perfect little dice. Right? So, my camera is not in great shape to do this right now, but I’m going to show you the method I’m talking about. Okay. So, you have the half of onion, so it’s stable. You’ve got the root still attached. You’re going to do two cuts horizontal horizontally and then go across it vertically. And then we’re going to cut it into dices, right? So, you got to steady the knife. See, if my knife were sharp, I would not be sawing through it. So, this is how to tell if your knives are dull. So, I’ve made two cuts this way. You’ll notice that I always keep this hand in a little claw shape so that I can’t cut my fingers. So, I’m going to come across the top. And I cut across the top. And then look what happens when you go to cut. Tada. It’s diced. Isn’t that cool? So, that’s a dice. I’m so excited about that. If you just wanted to slice, all you would do if you want half moons is you just cut straight down on this and you get really thin, nice slices, okay? And then you can break those up to sauté them. So, we will do that a million times. And um I’ll do a little video for you. Like I said, we’re going to start doing some reals. Um if you guys aren’t on Instagram, I would love it if you would join Instagram because we’re going to share so much content on there for you. Okay. Um I’m glad you’re liking this interactive class. Let’s take a poll really fast before we announce our winner and I get the meatballs out. Um, do we like having a little more time to chat and um not feeling so intense in terms of how much we’re trying to get done? Yes, Dana. Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. Um, Lindsay, my co-founder. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. You Oh, this is so good to know. She was right. Oh, I wish Lindsay was on because she was like, “You don’t you’re doing too much.” And she’s right. like um I think it’s kind of nice to have a little downtime. Oh, you’re cleaning up. That’s good. I’m not. If I got my cameras right, I could wash dishes while we chat, but that’s kind of a distraction. You guys want to think that I live in a relaxing world, don’t you? So, why don’t we do this while Kaitlyn announces the winner? I am going to get the meatballs out here. I’m going to plate everything for us. Okay. And is this still super hot? No. Oh my gosh, she already pulled the name. I was going to make her come on camera. I’m not. Oh my gosh. Are you guys ready? Drum roll, please. Deb Wallace. Deb, didn’t you comment at the beginning that you were excited or that it was a pretty pan? I’m so excited for you. Congratulations. Can you do me a favor? What? Yes. Yay. Yay. Yay. Yay. Yay. Can you send us an email at [email protected]? Wait, are you on Instagram? I think you are. Or you can DM me at Amanda Hos Cooks with your address and your email and I think your phone number. They need it too for the shipping label. But it will come directly from H, which is here in Vallejo, California. Congratulations. So excited for you. And yes, we’re coming to your house. Oh, I’m so excited for you, Deb. You’re going to love it. You’re going to use this pan forever. Um Chrissy’s excited for you. We’re all excited for you. And Michael, I’m sorry I lost your comment. I saw something that you live with two really old dogs. I get it. Um I talk to myself all the time. I dress up like a pig and dance when I’m by myself for crying out loud. Okay. Um let’s get the meatballs. Thank you, Kaitlyn, for choosing. Now, these are going to need more time, but I just want to Just trying to melt my phone here. Okay, these are definitely going to need more time. So, I’m going to take I’m going to show you what they look like and then I’m going to put them right back in the oven. Oh, should we do this? We’re getting the Instagrammable moments. Gorgeous, you guys. But, um, they’re going to get even softer and, um, we just want the flavors to keep me together. Okay. So, I’m going to put those right back in the oven and then let’s plate the chicken and then we can say good night. We still have 7 minutes. Can I make it? Let me get a pretty plate and I’ll show you how I would do this dish. Are we ready? Drum roll. Thanks, Katie. Okay, let’s get some veggies first. This is what I do, though. I use I use every utensil in my house, so it’s my fault that there are so many dishes to do. But I’m going to start with some veggies. And you see my spoon upside down. What did that tell you? I think I want more vegetables for this recipe. So, I’m going to have them ready that way. Friends, I think I would want more vegetables. So, bye, Lori. To DM me if you still have questions. I can’t remember what you asked me about. Oh, cast iron. Okay, let’s get a piece of chicken on here. I want to get a little bit of the chicken juice and another spoon for the turmula. Um, sorry to have my back to you. That feels rude. See, you just want a little bit of the juice on there. You could also finish it with olive oil. And then let’s um You want more veg, too? Um, yes, you can email me, Deb, or you can DM me. I think you’re on Instagram, right? I think I follow you on Instagram, maybe. Um, so you can DM me. Do that if it’s easier either way. But I just need your address, phone number, and your email so that we can give it to H and they’ll get that out right away. They’re amazing. Okay. Drizzle, drizzle, drizzle. I’m telling you, this might be one of my top five meals now. Oh, you can’t see it yet. That’s just rude. Okay, big reveal. Tada. I wish you could see more with the contrast. I’m going to eat part of this just to say ah nice work. Um and this one I promise I won’t share with anybody else so it won’t be totally gross. Um friends, that was so much fun. Um wish we had taste division. Me too. And um I can’t wait to do it again for those of you who are joining me on Saturday. One last announcement. We are going to announce the class dates for every month sooner so you all can see. I’ve been messing around with times. Um but I think what I’m learning is that people would rather just know even if the times aren’t very convenient for them and plan ahead. So um yay Chrissy. Um, so we will be letting you know what I’ll probably release July and August dates together. Okay. Um, Oh, I’m glad you liked the chicken. Let’s try one bite. So good. This is one of my personal favorites. I love it. I’m so excited. I’m so excited we had that time together. Um, yay. Let those meatballs keep going. Um, you watch the rest. Yay. You’re welcome, Dana. Everybody, so glad to spend this time with you. If you’re having a blast, please spread the word. I’d like more members. I am going to cut it off at some point. Um, because I like that we can manage the conversations in here and it’s not so many people that we can’t chat. Stay tuned in the next week. I’ll probably be emailing everybody with my first class that is outside of um these classes. So, a guest chef class and go Warriors. Done everything else. Okay. Tag me on Instagram if you cook any of this. I love to see your pictures. Christy did and I loved it. Okay, everybody. Have a great night and thank you to Caitlyn who does everything. Bye, guys. See you soon. Try to use this as my mouse pad. Ciao. Oh, wait. Let’s see. I’m pressing the wrong buttons, of course. And broadcast. That’s what I mean. Yes. Stop the broadcast.