Latest / Dishing with Stephanie's Dish / Erin Clarke Cookbook Author @wellplated

Transcript

Erin Clarke Cookbook Author @wellplated · Dishing with Stephanie's Dish

• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish,
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: the podcast where we talk to cookbook authors and people obsessed with food generally.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I am here today with Erin Clark.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Erin is well-plated on Instagram.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: She's also a New York Times bestselling author of the Well-Plated Cookbook and the
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: soon-to-be Well-Plated Everyday Cookbook.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: You are going to be having an event in the Twin Cities in Stillwater.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited for you.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: I am thrilled as well.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I lived in the Twin Cities at the very beginning of my career.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: I worked for Target at their corporate headquarters.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I just have a really big soft spot for the area.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm really looking forward to being back there again.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And do you live in Milwaukee now?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I live in Milwaukee now.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Cause my family is all from Milwaukee and I was looking on your Instagram.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: You make Milwaukee look more fun than I recall because we've been all over like the
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: third ward and you found some hidden gems that I was like,
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh,
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: she knows her way around here.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: I moved there about 10 years ago,
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: kicking and screaming because I married a Wisconsin boy and he's from Milwaukee.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: So we ended up back there and I like, I loved the city so much.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: I was like,
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't understand why I'm moving to still be cold and still be in the Midwest to
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: this like random city.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: Minneapolis is great.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then I just fell in love with it.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like it just has there.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much to do.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: The city has grown so much, even just since I have been there.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: We've got a great food scene.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: People are friendly.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: You're right on Lake Michigan.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like it really has a lot going for it.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I really my family is in Delafield,
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: but we go into Milwaukee and spend a couple of days during the holidays and during
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: the summer.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: I really like it.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, OK, well, you're on the verge.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Has your new cookbook come out yet?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine it's already out.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: No, it is T minus 11 days.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Not that I'm counting.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: I am absolutely counting every single day.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I just cannot.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just so giddy.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: I like cannot wait for people to have it in their hands.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: You are gonna have 100 recipes in the book.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: But will you like get people that maybe aren't familiar with your profile kind of
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: what your point of view is?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I grew up cooking and baking with my grandmothers in Kansas, like pure Midwest comfort food.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then after I graduated college and started living on my own,
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: I realized that I wasn't going to be able to live on grandma's cinnamon rolls and
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: cakes that she taught me to make.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I needed to learn how to cook.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: And that was where I really started going to farmer's markets,
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: like really just kind of discovering the beauty of eating seasonally,
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: which I feel like we talk about very often.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: you know, it's just so like a part of the conversation now.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: But for me back then,
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: it really wasn't like in my family,
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: like corn and potatoes are the primary vegetables.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: So,
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: so I was trying to support markets,
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: learn how to cook,
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: but I found myself just like really missing my grandmother's cooking.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I would call my Grammy and be like, Hey, like, can you tell me about like your recipe for enchiladas?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: And she would like in detail, tell me on the phone while I was taking notes and
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then I started to think like, okay, well, you know, I'm learning to cook.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to feed myself.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well,
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: maybe I can make Grammy's enchiladas,
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: but let's just do a couple of little swaps like that could make it healthier.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Let's try it with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Let's try a whole wheat tortilla.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then around that time, a friend had encouraged me to start a food blog.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, what is a food blog?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like I, this is very like OG days.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I ended up posting the recipe and I had a few friends from high school make it and love it.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And they were like, Hey, do you have any other recipes?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, yeah, like I do.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so that just,
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
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  SPEAKER_01: kind of sharing the lightened up versions of my grandmother's dishes just sort of
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: started me off.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I still like,
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: very much keep the Midwestern sensibility and unfussiness with my recipes.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: So if I could describe them briefly,
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: it would be they're easy,
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: healthy,
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: with a heavy emphasis on lightened up everyday comfort food.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Which is perfect.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, honestly, that's what I love.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of more on the comfort food side,
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: but I feel equally as comfortable cooking with kale,
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: as I would,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know,
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: corn and potatoes,
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: right?
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  SPEAKER_00: And just... Yeah.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's wonderful that people have gotten,
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: those ingredients have gotten more mainstream.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I really like the idea of finding ways to make healthy eating more accessible.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: So for example...
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: In my cookbook on my blog,
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: I will not put an ingredient in there if it's going to require you to go to a
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: specialty food store.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: I try to keep the spices like very streamlined.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: I get it like we're all busy and sometimes you're not in the mood to cook.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: So how can we get to a result that's good for you faster,
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: but it's still delicious because life is also just way too short for
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: boring chicken breasts and rice like every single night of our lives.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: So how can we have a little fun with it without, you know, making it a ton of work for ourselves either.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: So how long have you had your blog then?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: going on 13 years I was gonna say it has to be about we've had a radio show about
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: food for 15 years and we kind of started right at the very beginning of you know
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: food culture and that was one of a lot of the bloggers were getting started and do
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: you still blog a lot or are you kind of to the stage where you're repurposing
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: recipes and re-looking at some of your old content I
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: We are doing both.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I still publish about three new recipes a week to my blog.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're constantly going back,
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: especially to some of those older recipes and seeing,
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: if there are tweaks that we can do to make them better.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: At the beginning, I was the photographer with my like
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: flip phone underneath our you know awful like orange light in our kitchen so some
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: of those recipes it's been fun to go back and spruce them up and then as you know
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: video has taken over social media and with me being the face of the brand a lot of
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: the we've been shooting videos with me in them and that has actually been a ton of
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: fun
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: in the sense of just like rediscovering, you know, favorite recipes that I haven't made in years.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And looking back on what would you say are like,
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: are there some that are you're known for that are like your specialties?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: I would say I definitely am known overall for one pot meals.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I can one pot or one pan something, I will absolutely do it.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: A recent one that we did,
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: and this is just top of mind because we did the video a couple of weeks ago,
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: is a homemade version of Hamburger Helper.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I grew up like Hamburger Helper house all the way.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: And there's still something like very nostalgic and comforting about it.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Except, I mean, this will sound
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: hysterical to describe it this way, but it is a gourmet hamburger helper.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: There's just always like to find like just a couple of little things that you can tweak.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, first of all, it's from scratch.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's easy.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: You don't need the box.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I add a little bit of hot sauce and a little bit of Dijon mustard.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: You cook everything together in the same pot so that as the pasta cooking liquid
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: reduces and the pasta releases those starches,
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: it makes this really like luscious silky sauce without the need for any cream.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone loves this recipe.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: My husband loves it.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: My nieces love it.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: My nieces that are the age from like four to six, they all love this hamburger helper.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's something that the whole family can really sit down and enjoy.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you really do have a very distinct point of view in how you're thinking about
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: your individual recipes.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm guessing you don't have za'atar in any of your ingredients.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't, even though I personally love za'atar.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: I cook with it at home,
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: but I recognize that like every single person doesn't have the spice cabinet that I have.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: So while I'll do, you know, Middle Eastern inspired dishes and I love to travel.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of my dishes are inspired by my travels.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: I try to do it in a way that brings it home to the Midwest and makes it
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: just as attainable for people as possible.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Where's the last place that you traveled to just out of curiosity?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: We spent a month in France this spring, which was just wonderful.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: I never, I speak pretty good French and I, you know, you just have to go back to practice.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Really purely academic.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Where did you go?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: What region?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: So each time we go, we try to visit a different region.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: This time we did Alsace, which is right on the German border.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it is just right out of a fairy tale.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's the,
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: some of the little villages around there are what inspired Walt Disney to design
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Bell's hometown and beauty and the beast.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it really was, it was like stepping into a storybook.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was just so charming.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Are you able to,
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: as a content creator,
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: are you able to take like a month off and fully unplug or are you just working remotely?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: How does that work for you?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because I imagine you've got a team at this point.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: I have a wonderful team.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: They're just fantastic.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like Well Plated would not be able to offer the content that we do without them.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that they would probably be more okay with me unplugging than I am okay
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: with myself being totally off.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: And this is just the reality of being a small business owner.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like for us, even getting a full day off on the weekend is really, really challenging.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you kind of, it kind of bites you the next day, you know, or Monday when you get back.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to be a little better about finding at least one day where we don't do any work.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: So even when we travel, we are always checking in.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: We put in a few hours here and there.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: We're often creating content while we're out there.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: But I also just view it as like,
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: wow,
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: how cool is it that I get to,
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: yes,
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: you could view it as like,
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in France and I'm working.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: I view it as like how cool I can go to France while I work.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it is really like a change in lifestyle.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like the creative culture has created so much flexibility for so many people.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Do you get caught up and worried about like the algorithms and when things change and traffic goes down?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And are you always kind of chasing that?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we are chasing it in the sense that
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: you know, it is our livelihood.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like my site depends on traffic and that traffic primarily for us comes from Google search.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm constantly like reading articles,
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: trying to stay up to date at the same time,
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: ranking a friend of mine described it as like checking your rankings is like
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: standing on the scale every single day.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Don't do it.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um,
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: just overall,
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: we're always looking for healthy growth and the truth is like you are constantly,
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: you win some,
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: you lose some,
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: this is a particularly challenging time for online content creators,
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: just with AI,
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: no one is really certain of what
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: what that's going to lead to.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: You're seeing AI appear in search results where independent content creators like
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: myself and my peers used to have our recipes appear.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now it's AI.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: And just over really, especially the last five years, I feel like it's gotten super saturated.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so Google is sorting through what's quality content and what's not.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's less,
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: there's just overall,
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: there's just less space to go around and there's less content than ever,
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: or excuse me,
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: less space to go around and more content than ever.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this idea of low quality is sort of a,
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: to get to these advertising tiers,
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: people need to have high quality content,
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: right?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Google's just like, oh, we spotted some low quality content.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you're just like, what?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, help me figure this out.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So many people have been caught in that kind of trap of trying to grow and not
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: really getting direction very much from Google.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it is just changing the game, I think.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then I wonder like, okay, as creatives, we're going to find the next thing, right?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: So is it
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm seeing a lot of people, you mentioned video.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing a lot of people on YouTube creating their own TV shows.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing Substacks.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Is that something that you're exploring?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Any of those other alternative avenues?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of those things where like, if I could clone myself, I would try to do them all.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Substack I think is really fun and intriguing to me because it gives people a way
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: to directly support at a very affordable rate,
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: their favorite authors,
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: creators.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: For us,
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: but I feel like a key to making that work is to offer content that you can't get
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: anywhere else without paying.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Currently, Well Plated is free for readers to access, and we don't really have the capacity to create.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: additional free content on top of that.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: So kind of the way that we have structured our strategy is to give away as much as possible.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Not only are the recipes free, we do free meal plans.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: And my hope is that we'll make Well Plated a resource for you and make it the place that you want to go.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then,
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: for now,
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: if by cultivating that loyal reader base,
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: that can kind of be a foundation of our business that's not subject to algorithms.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: like maybe creating modules or workbooks or PDF content that can be about,
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: the top 30 things you need to have in your pantry and blah,
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: blah,
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: blah.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're always looking to offer resources right now.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: We're working on putting together an updated, super comprehensive Thanksgiving guide that gives you
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: the realistic week of Thanksgiving prep list, not the like, I mean, yes, it would be great.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: I know I can freeze pie crust three months in advance.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: I am not freezing my Thanksgiving pie crust three months in advance.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just not that person.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: I admire that person.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not that person.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: So what say we start on Sunday, like how can we really get this done?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: How are we going to streamline our shopping list?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm always looking for ways to provide value.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we're really excited about that PDF that'll be coming out here at the end of the month.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: How many people do you cook for at Thanksgiving?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very spoiled on Thanksgiving day and that I get to go to my mom's house and she
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: and my stepdad are fabulous cooks and take off like two days of work and the turkey
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: is like a masterpiece.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: But for about the last...
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now going on almost, oh my gosh, how many years has it been?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now going on almost 15 years, I've been hosting Friendsgiving.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: At its smallest, it was probably about seven people.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: At one year, we got up to 35 people.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're kind of somewhere in the sweet spot with around 20.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: So that every year is just really just, it's like chaos, but in the most...
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: fun way now that, you know, when it started out, it was all adults.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: We set nice tables.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Now my friends have families.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you have kids like running around all over the place.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do it at a certain time of year or do you do it in the month of November?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Some people I know do like it in February and call it Feb's giving.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's well with how crazy busy holidays are, I completely understand.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: And like, let's be honest, there's not that much to look forward to for February and March holiday wise.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: We do, we do November.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I guess I'm just lucky because I get, I love Thanksgiving food.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, this is great that I get to eat this more than once.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to eat it for friends coming and then I'm going to go home and I'm going to eat it.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: on the actual holiday.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Super delicious.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk a little bit more about your book.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you have it organized in any certain way?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I like to,
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: and I know cookbooks all take different approaches and it's kind of fun to see how
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: different cookbook authors differentiate things.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: For me, I think it's just like, I'm a very traditional cookbook girl in the sense of the organization.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we start out with breakfast and
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: have appetizers and drinks, salads.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then the main dishes are really the meat and potatoes of the book,
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: pun intended,
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: just because that is where I know that people need the most help.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like everyone has to cook dinner.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: So having a robust assortment of recipes and then organizing those well is really important to me.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we actually ended up breaking the main dishes down
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: into three different categories.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: So there's an entire chapter that's just pure one pot meals, one pot, one pan, boom.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: We have a chapter that's mostly focused on lightened up comfort food.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have this third chapter that I did not intentionally set out to make it
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: a vegetarian chapter just because I never want vegetarian food to feel lesser than
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: or like it needs to get singled out.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: But we just ended up with this really wonderful collection of vegetarian dishes
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: They're also pretty heavily globally inspired that ended up being their own chapter as well.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: So we call those the veggie mains with all the flavor.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then you've got your, you know, your soups, your sides, and of course your sweets.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: How do you find like, so you have a team of people, how do you find them?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Do you just advertise for them and interview just like a normal company would?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's really hard.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's really hard to find good people.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like I feel incredibly lucky.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: I've worked with most of my team for,
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: five years or longer.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Some of it has been word of mouth,
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: like other bloggers will work with someone and say,
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Hey,
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: my social media person,
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: I might reach out to a friend and say,
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hey,
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really looking for someone to help me with my Facebook.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: And friends will generously say like, hey, my social media manager is great.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't you reach out to her?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Some of it has been,
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: we went through our,
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: when we hired our first full-time employee,
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: we did the whole post on Indeed,
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: like a really rigorous application interview process.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually ended up finding Brenna, our first employee, because I posted on my Instagram.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so she reached out, applied through Indeed,
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: And we really went through that formal process, but it is truly time consuming and exhausting.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I think every business, I don't find myself unique in that way.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the first hire or the first couple are also really hard because you're
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: probably getting to the point where you can monetize some things,
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: but it like takes money to make money and it takes more hands to make money.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So how did you feel like you knew when that time was right?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: When I just could not,
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: I just got to a point where I either had to be,
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: we either needed to hire someone or we needed to be okay with doing a lot less.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I just could not,
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: at that point I had managed to outsource,
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: the recipe photography,
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: the social media,
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: but I really was so burned out.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like,
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: I can't,
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: I love what I do,
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: but I can't do it at the right capacity and I'm not enjoying my life.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: So how do I find someone that I really want to invest in?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: And invest is the word to use, because as you said, it is not easy.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: cheap to hire someone not only to pay you know if you want to hire someone good
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: they deserve a great wage yeah and then also even expenses like setting up a 401k
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: kind of thinking through some of those pieces like that is administratively very
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: time consuming and it is costly but it's worth it like I that was you know one of
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: the best decisions I've ever made for my business
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And things like health care.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you are employing people full time, they want benefits.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: And you can choose not to offer benefits,
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: but then you're not going to get the quality of candidates that you're looking for.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: And also just personally,
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: for me,
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: like building a company where I can provide benefits for people like that's
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: something that I'm proud of and that we want to be able to offer.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: it's funny that you mentioned that because I had a business before getting...
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm mostly a broadcaster who happens to write some cookbooks that are regionally based.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: But before being a broadcaster, I did have a small business.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I was really proud of the fact that we always offered health care.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: It just felt like a...
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: businesses.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't, it's not the business's job, but it is the way our society is set up.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if that's the way it's going to be, then let's participate.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let's take care of our employees.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, I wish that everyone could have a single payer healthcare system and just pay into it.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: But that's my utopian fantasy as a freelancer out here still,
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: paying for healthcare on the open market.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's not cheap.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's really challenging.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: And someday we're all going to get together.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's 150,000 creatives just in the state of Minnesota, all buying independent health care.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be cool if we could find some way to all band together and bring everyone
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: else's costs down too,
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: right?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me some of your favorite cookbooks?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you like even look at cookbooks anymore?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Are you just so focused on your own?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: No, I just love cookbooks.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: I read cookbooks.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like people read novels,
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: which is why,
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: if you read my first cookbook and my second one,
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: when it comes out,
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: like the writing is incredibly personal to me.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: I pour like so much of myself into that because I,
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: the recipes need to work.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: They need to be rock solid.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's the number one thing with the cookbook.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we work incredibly, incredibly diligently on that.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: My whole team does.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: But from there, I just want a cookbook with some personality.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so I just find it so inspiring to hear about the food, hear the stories.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then I can say like,
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: anyone can post a recipe online.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I absolutely stand behind the quality of the well-plated recipes that we do online,
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: but there is something special and a higher standard about a cookbook that it's
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: just like sacred to me.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I feel like you're like getting a piece of someone.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a lot, a lot of cookbooks.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: I joke, but it's not, it's actually quite true that Ina Garten taught me how to cook when I started.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: when I started my blog, my husband was in law school.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: We were on a budget.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like we were not going out to eat and he had a voracious appetite.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, okay, I got to figure out how to cook food that tastes good.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Cause we enjoy,
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: that we'll enjoy eating that,
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: makes a decent enough quantity to feed him,
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: like start hosting friends.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so I just checked out Ines cookbooks from the library and would read them and,
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: work my way through them.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so from there, um,
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: So the foundation of my grandmother's and then like moving on to Ina Garten,
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: some of the,
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: and then I also,
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: now that I am a professional recipe developer,
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: I also have taken lessons from the way that some of the best of the best write
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: their recipes.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: So one person that always comes in mind to me
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: is Dori Greenspan.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: I just think she has this beautiful way of writing recipes.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: And she's kind of who I learned, like, don't, you can't just, don't just tell me the time on the stove.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: I need you to tell me what it smells like.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: I need you to tell me,
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: if the color is golden,
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: like how do we appeal to all of these different senses?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: to make people feel really confident.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that confidence aspect is really important to me too.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I want you to feel good the entire time you're making my recipe,
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: not just be like pleased at the end that it turned out.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: So,
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: if you're making a cake batter and it looks curdled,
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to tell you it will,
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: it looks curdled.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be fine.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I feel like I picked some of that up from Dory Greenspan as well.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Those are some of my heroes too.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's fun to hear that.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Have you, I just started reading the Ina Garten memoir.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm listening to it.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm about a third of the way through.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's just delightful.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: She's so great.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: I, does she read it?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: I probably should have listened.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: She does.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because I find her so, she's so funny.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: She really is.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's delightful.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: So people can come to your, you're going to do a reading.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to be at Valley Booksellers in Stillwater on October 30th.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: We are doing the event at Modern Wealth.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it's in partnership with Valley.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's in Minneapolis and I will have a partner in conversation,
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Lee Funke from Fit Foodie Finds,
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: who is a friend and just like a rockstar food blogger who is also based in
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: the twin cities.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: So she graciously agreed to do a Q and a with me.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be having some snacks passed out from the book.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's just going to be a really fun evening of conversation.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, everyone will leave with a signed copy of the book and I'm just,
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: So looking forward to having that in-person connection.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'll go ahead and put a link for tickets in the show notes.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to bump up when I release this podcast so that people have time to get tickets.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was super nice to talk with you and to meet you.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited about your book.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: I have followed you on Instagram, so it's fun to get a chance to talk with you.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I loved hearing how thoughtful you are about your point of view on the recipes.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: it really shows in the work that you do.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're doing a really good job.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so, so much.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: That really just means a lot.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: I can't overstate how much that means because sometimes you just feel, I mean, it's hard.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're in the void.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of work.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Erin, it's great.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Good luck with the book and maybe we'll see you at Modern Well, who knows?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I hope so.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was great meeting you.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, thanks, Erin.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again.