Trip to Kenya - Part One and Two
Episode 13 and 14 Season 2: I took notes so you didn’t have to…. So grab your apron and let's get into it!
This week on the Food Adventures Podcast it’s Part One and Two of my conversation with Wambui from @farmtotablepodcastke from Kenya. Please make sure you go and check out her podcast, and instagram for sure.
Wambui and I touch on so many things in our conversation that I encourage and challenge you to look into more if you feel drawn to it. Like for example food insecurity in Kenya and neighboring countries or even food insecurity where you currently call home and what you may be able to do to help. Here’s a good article to help you get started here in the US. And again worldwide food insecurity is a MAJOR deal and organizations like the World Central Kitchen do so much for so many worldwide. If you are looking to donate time and money I think it’s an amazing organization.
We talked a lot about traveling in and around Kenya. The country has an amazing and extremely diverse landscape. Nothing should be missed. From traveling to the coast, checking out the mountain region, Lake Victoria and of course the safari. Do research, plan your trip and take time to truly savor this beautiful country and all it has to offer for sure!
Recipes from Kenya
Here’s a few recipes that were highlighted during our conversation
Kachumbari (Tomato, Cucumber Salad with Avocado)
Beth Fuller is a Boston based Food, Product and Lifestyle Photographer. One of the best ways to support the podcast and Beth is to write a review wherever you listen, like the podcast on your favorite platform and please keep Beth in mind for any photography projects as a gal has got to pay her bills!
If you have a question and want it to be featured on the podcast please email either the question or a voice memo to letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com. Are you on instagram? Tag me in your food adventures, @letsgoonafoodadventure. Do you want to work together with food and product photography, drop me a line here!
xoxo
Beth
Food Budgets and Living within them
Episode 12 Season 2: I took notes so you didn’t have to…. So grab your apron and let's get into it!
Recently I was chatting with someone and they were saying how they would really love to cook more but it was too expensive. And that got me thinking, “What is the average weekly grocery budget for a single individual in the States?” Well that question of course led to more questions and some dead ends but some interesting information. So here’s what I found out….
I had to start with, ‘What’s the average income for a single individual in the US’ the answer I could best find is about $42k - $63k, so for easy math let’s say it’s about $50,000 before taxes and I also do realize that this income in a lot of households feeds a lot more than one person but for this purpose we are looking at from the single individual lens.
Alright so after taxes what are we looking at…about $42,000 give or take. Now in the US “we” spend about 35% of our income on housing, about 15% on transportation, 10% on healthcare, 10% on food/groceries and 30% on EVERYTHING ELSE. And these numbers can be very skewed depending where in the US you live. Like for example if you live in a Major City you could spend closer to 50%+ of your income on housing. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for savings, education, vacations, splurges and everything else in our lives.
So for this purpose what does that $42,000.00 leave us for a grocery budget? About $4,200 per year which is about $80.76 per week. And again that may need to feed a lot more than just one person in many households in the US which I acknowledge. So can you live off of $80.76 per week for all of your food needs? This also means take out or possibly going out.
What I came up with is 6 recipes for dinner and lunches the next day, one day for take out and breakfast every morning for about $81. I also assumed that the person making these recipes would have olive oil (or some kind of cooking oil), salt and pepper in their pantry. It wasn’t easy to create healthy meals with fresh vegetables and fruits. It also doesn’t leave a lot of room for snacks and fun little splurges like even a bottle of wine.
I did my best to pick recipes that had fresh ingredients and that could piggy back on one another with a few of the ingredients too. The majority of the recipes are all Skinnytaste.com recipes with a few exceptions and all that I have personally cooked. So I can vouch for them being delish! For breakfast I budgeted milk (any type) for coffee, coffee, loaf of whole grain bread, almond butter and bananas.
Beth Fuller is a Boston based Food, Product and Lifestyle Photographer. One of the best ways to support the podcast and Beth is to write a review wherever you listen, like the podcast on your favorite platform and please keep Beth in mind for any photography projects as a gal has got to pay her bills!
If you have a question and want it to be featured on the podcast please email either the question or a voice memo to letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com. Are you on instagram? Tag me in your food adventures, @letsgoonafoodadventure. Do you want to work together with food and product photography, drop me a line here!
xoxo
Beth
Culinary Sleuthing Part One and Two with Mike Doyle
Episode 10 and 11 Season 2: I took notes so you didn’t have to…. So grab your apron and let's get into it!
Mike has two podcasts, This Was the Scene, a podcast about the late 90’s and early 2000’s punk scene and Your Daily Bred, a super fun comic and podcast. If you want to work with him he does incredible animations for a multitude of platforms, check out his company, Drive80. So check out his amazing work!
So you may have noticed that this season we have had a handful of two parters. I realized, as a consumer of many many podcasts, I love the 30 - 45 mins kind of episodes and every once and awhile an hour episode is great. Anything more than that and I find it hard to make time to actually listen to it. So that got me thinking….I can’t be alone in this so I thought why not shorten my own. BUT THEN I ran into the big issue of…..THERE IS NOTHING I WANT TO CUT FROM THESE CONVERSATIONS!!! Eeeeeeekk!!! What’s a girl to do?! Create a handful of two parters!
In this episode Mike and I answer all of your amazing listener questions. Keep them coming my friends. I love your questions, it helps me deepen my own knowledge and honestly it’s a ton of fun to do this culinary sleuthing on your behalf! Email them, letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com or DM me on Instagram.
How to clean a cast iron pan
One way to clean your cast iron is to take kosher salt, this scrub brush, some elbow grease and go to town on it. Usually that will get up most of the stuck on pieces but if you have some stubborn stuff that just won’t come off then you could try some baking soda, water and boil it on the stove for a little bit. Keep an eye on it because you don’t want the water to completely boil away. Let it cool slightly and try that scrub brush again. For more tips you can try this article.
Dried Herbs and Spices vs Fresh
So my thoughts on this is to buy my herbs fresh. So that would be chives, tarragon, basil, oregano, bay leaves, mint, parsley, cilantro, rosemary, thyme…etc….and then I dry them myself. Wash them, put them on a clean tea towel lined sheet pan and leave them in a sunny place in your own for a few days. Even the top of the fridge will do. Check on them every day or two until they are completely dried and place them in an air tight container. I do this myself so I know how old my dried herbs are because the stuff you buy in the store could’ve been dried awhile ago which means it loose flavor and could end up tasting kind of stale or bland. For spices, I really recommend buying single origin, fair trade spices from wonderful companies. Do some research and support companies who treat the farmers with respect and fair pay. Curio Spice, Diaspora Co., Burlap and Barrel are great places to start for sure.
Salts…
There are a few different kinds of salts out there and each are actually a little different. Here’s the breakdown…
Table Salt - Super Fine - most likely this is what you’ll find in many salt shakers around the country. Because this salt is so fine an anti-caking agent is usually added to it as well as iodine. I don’t recommend using this salt but if it’s what you have, then that’s totally fine.
Kosher Salt - Usually fairly coarse - This salt is a mined salt and usually is fairly coarse. This is most chef’s “go to” salt in the kitchen when cooking, salting water, coating etc…some brands are more salty than others. My personal preference is Diamond Kosher Salt
Himalayan Pink Salt - Coarse to Fine - this salt is mined as well. Honestly I know people who cook with this salt but because I think it’s personally it’s a little pricey for a salt I would cook with I love to use it as a finishing salt.
Sea Salts - Coarse to Fine - Sea Salts are what they say…they come from the sea. The salt actually varies in saltiness and flavor depending on where in the world it is made from. I, again, tend to use this as a finishing salt verse cooking with it but don’t get me wrong you can use it in any way you’d like.
Lastly there are many finishing salts in the world. These are flavored salts, smoked salts, black salts and very coarse french salts, like Maldon. These salts are meant to be one of the last touches when plating a dish, on top of a dessert (think sea salt caramel brownies) or that fun crunchy element on top of a dish. Some of these salts pack a lot of flavor as well as saltiness so be careful when using them. A little can go a long way.
Cooking Chicken…..
So I am not going to go into huge detail about how to cook chicken because honestly there are so many food blogs out there who have gone into great detail on how to do it but here’s a few that I think explain it well. If you’re interested in learning how to poach chicken, sauté chicken or grill it. And of course get yourself a meat thermometer and make sure it’s 165F or about 75C.
Recipes:
Beth Fuller is a Boston based Food, Product and Lifestyle Photographer. One of the best ways to support the podcast and Beth is to write a review wherever you listen, like the podcast on your favorite platform and please keep Beth in mind for any photography projects as a gal has got to pay her bills!
If you have a question and want it to be featured on the podcast please email either the question or a voice memo to letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com. Are you on instagram? Tag me in your food adventures, @letsgoonafoodadventure. Do you want to work together with food and product photography, drop me a line here! xoxo
Beth
D