Food Glorious Food! 44:19

Oh, Jan Arden podcast, it's going to be great. We've got a guest and you know what, I better not do that because there's copyright infringement, I'm sure, but we're okay just for 10 seconds. Welcome to the Jan Arden podcast. I wrote that song myself. We have an action packed show. Julie Van Rosendahl is with us. And you know, we've had her in the holding room.

like in the green room. And we're just like, let's get her out of that green room and drag her with us for this entire program. Caitlin Green is here. Adam, as always. And Caitlin is pregnant. Yeah. If you're just joining us and she has a young man growing in her torso and he has been kicking butt, like what's going on, Caitlin? He's so...

He's so active and I'm told that it's a very good thing that he's active. So I'm taking that in stride. But I because I work on a morning show, I already operate on very little sleep just as a byproduct of my job. And now even less so because fun fact about the unborn is that they kick you whenever you lie down.

So that's been kind of funny. It's a metaphor for life. It's a metaphor. Yeah, that's what I think it is. Because the second I stopped doing stuff, it becomes like Michael Flatley, Lord of the Dance in my abdomen. And I feel like I was like, am I growing an escalator? Like, can he get boots on somehow in there? I don't know what's going on. He's probably making a sourdough starter too, because that's the COVID thing to do.

We're going to just be talking about food today. So I would be remiss if I didn't ask you if you have any cravings, because people always ask that, oh, pickles or ice cream, or I want to drink the liquid out of sauerkraut, or I've been melting gummy bears and putting them on whole wheat toast. Like I know there's all kinds of weird crap. So anything?

That's like a, that was a first trimester thing for me. And it was definitely food aversions. And then, and then that would kind of determine what I was craving, because it was really like what I felt I could eat. So if you came near me with onions or garlic, when I was early days pregnant, I gross meat really grossed me out. So I wasn't into that so much.

I became, I already like do try to prioritize having vegetarian and vegan options in our meals every week at home. But that was definitely a big thing that happened during first trimester. I didn't like eggs. So it was a lot of carbs.

It was a lot of pasta and it was a lot of fruit. I think I was just thirsty all the time and like very specific, strange fruits. Like I would go on a hunt for sumo oranges or like Asian pears. And I wanted the Korean Asian pears because they were the crunchiest and had the most water. So in Toronto, we're very fortunate to have just so many amazing food options and like grocery options. So yeah. And pecans. I would eat like handfuls of pecans.

Yeah, just raw pecans. My husband would come out and find me in the kitchen at like 6am eating an Asian pear and a bunch of pecans. And he was like, what are you doing? Well, they say that your body tells you what to do. Julie Van Rosendahl, who was just standing by, you were pregnant as a young woman. Did you have like food, food things going on?

was so turned off of food and same as Caitlin meat. Oh, meat was the worst for the first, the first trimester. People say you get, get past it. I didn't get past it. I think I went four days without throwing up and he was four days late. So I just, I, I started to plan what I ate based on what it would taste like coming back.

And, uh, so Slurpees were good. Key lime pie was, but really I lost my appetite and I didn't recognize myself because I'm usually so hungry and thinking about food all the time and not liking the thought of food was really weird. Well, it's, I feel like your body and I've never had children. I have no idea what I'm talking about this. I'm inserting complete fabrication right now, but I would imagine that.

A body being the brilliant machine that it is would have you give it what it fricking needed. Almost like a, I don't know, like an ice cream maker or, you know, something that you, like you just, you pour stuff in and you make stuff with it. Like I would like you just become this little food processor. So if you're, if your body's saying I need calcium or like, does it work that way? Or am I way off? Yeah.

I don't think it does. I, so a few years ago I found out I was really low in iron. I was eating a one liter jar of dill pickles every two days. It was the first thing I ate in the morning. Last thing before I went to bed, even after I brushed my teeth and mint and dill pickle is not a good combination. I would pack dill pickles on the plane. That's not something...

Anybody needs. I wasn't craving chips. I wasn't craving like, I would go, I would land in a city and I would go find a store and stand on the corner and just eat and like drink the brine. I'm surprised I have teeth, but there's nothing in dill pickles that your body needs. So, but did you not tell a physician this? Like what did they say? I told three and they were like, huh, that's weird. That's no, right? That's a lot of fricking salt, Van Rosendaal.

I started getting the half salt ones, but I would buy like five jars at a time. And if they were on sale, I would just like load up. It was crazy. And so those and microwave popcorn, but only like the half, the half popped kernels in the bottom. It was super specific, but that's,

The half popped kernels at the bottom was what you were jonesing for? Oh, and it made me feel better in a way I can't even explain. But when I finally had to go to the hospital and get ironed by IV and after my first infusion. You didn't want pickles anymore? No. That is the worst.

Weird story. But that the, the weird food cravings, even like, so when you're pregnant, obviously that could be related to the anemia, but in real life outside of pregnancy, those very strange food desires are often linked to anemia as well. And I learned this because I was very, very anemic as it turns out when I was a teenager and I was obsessed with eating ice much to the disappointment of my dentist who was like, you're going to crack a tooth. But I had these constant cravings for ice all the time.

That's very typical of anemia. Yeah. And we learned that that was why. So, and you need a ton of iron when you're pregnant, because another fun thing I learned from, from all these books I'm now reading is that by the time you give birth, you have 40% more blood in your body. And so it takes up all this, the whole process just, you use this so much iron. So you can't really get enough. Like I take an inordinate amount of iron. That just pinged my strength. That just pinged my strength. Yeah.

That you have 40% more blood. Here's a fun fact. Since we're talking about iron, I too was iron deficient as a young person and very much so in my early 50s. Anywhoos. I remember saying to my grandma when I was a teenager, Graham, what did you guys do for iron? Because of course we just get supplements and we're taking pills. And Graham said, well...

I know for a fact that my mother would always tell us that the cast iron frying pan, which every single meal that we ever had was cooked in that thing.

We saved the fat under the cupboard. We never threw anything out. It just, that bacon grease was there for years or whatever. And my Dutch friend, Teresa often talked about her parents keeping the fat in the frying pan. And it's the only other person I ever heard of doing that. My dad does that. Yeah. She said the cast iron frying pan supplied them with the iron that they needed. It literally went into everything that was being cooked was iron. Is that true? Yes. Yeah.

I use cast iron and I still had low iron, but yeah, in some countries they've, they've came up with this cast iron fish. I love that thing. Yeah. And that was to sort of increase people's iron intake.

So you drop the cast iron fish in a pot of like boiling potatoes or pasta water and it helps with iron. Oh, I love that. I'm going to see if I can order some of those. I think it was linked to high anemia rates in parts of the world where they don't consume a lot of foods or meat, especially that's rich in iron. And so I think it was like Southeast Asian cultures were really, really using it. And obviously it's linked in some countries to food insecurity. So just people who-

are you know living off of simple carbohydrates for you know two meals a day and so they're not getting enough iron so they drop this fish in and it looks adorable but I never realized like as I should feel like I would seem so dumb now but I never thought oh yeah iron like cast iron I should have thought of this all along well no I was so surprised I mean always asking grandparents about stuff I mean I remember asking my gram what they did with their periods like

But as a young girl, I know, welcome to the show. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. We're here with food expert Julie Van Rosendahl, and we're talking about periods at the turn of the century. Welcome. But I mean, sorry, Adam, but as young women, that just seemed like... No, I'm here. It's funny. I like it.

I just wanted to know and, you know, they just, I won't get into it. We'll change the subject. But it was just things that I wanted to know. Julie's laughing. Anyway, so here we are. We're racing towards the holidays.

for you viewers that were thinking of tuning out, don't, because we're going to change the subject from anemia and early 19th century periods to food. Julie, we're so glad to have you here. And we're going to drag you into segment three and four, if you don't mind. But I feel like we've ruined the opportunity to talk to you about food, so we have to redeem ourselves. What are some of your favorite things to do with the holidays?

I eat, um, also eat and I eat a lot. Um, you know, and it's funny, everything, all the holiday events are

involve food in some way. So one, one tradition that we've had, we watch Elf, you know, the Will Ferrell movie Elf and all the cousins come over. We've got, my sisters and I have six boys, Caitlin, between us. Oh, wow. My one niece has two boys. So we have a room full of boys. I don't know how we're going to do it this year. We probably won't. And then we, we, we replicate, reenact the

the spaghetti and candy and pop-tart scene? No. Oh yeah. I, this, this won me lifetime best aunt in the world award. Did you actually do it? A hundred percent. I put out all the stuff, let them all eat it with their hands. And you know, I've got, I've got videos from every year of the, of the elf night. They put the sauce on and the candies and they mush it up and they eat it. It's just stuffing into their faces. It's the best. It's the best. And that's what the holidays are all about. It, I,

I might have to like do that. I know that I eat things that are my favorite, favorite things to eat during the year. Like I do love shortbread more than,

my own life and this past few years obviously I've gone vegan I mean I'm not going to say I'm perfect sometimes I will eat butter because just because I do and I'm not perfect but I um my friend last year made me some vegan shortbread and I don't know what it's made with but we'll talk about that when we get back we have to take a quick break you're listening to the Jan Arden podcast with Julie Van Rosendahl we're going to drag her back with us for the entire show so

We are back. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. This is one of the best episodes we've ever done. And I would not be surprised, Caitlin, Adam and Julie, if we win awards for this particular podcast of how focused it is, how on point, how on topic.

So now, because we have Julie Van Rosendahl, who is like one of the greatest food people that I've ever met in my life and just as on a personal aside, when I had a procedure done last year I had my gallbladder out. Surprise, surprise, your gallbladder is coming out. Julie hung a care package on my gate.

She said, I didn't want to bother you. I staggered out there. I was just crying. I'm like, why didn't you come and say hi? I would have said hello. I was feeling so sorry for myself. And there was this coconut tree.

curry soup and there were goodies and there Julie that was the kindest thing when and we're going to talk about that because I'm going to drag you forward into the second half of the show and I want to talk about you know how food is so comforting but anyway swaps we found ourselves in our homes uh this past six seven eight months without the stuff we're supposed to have for for recipes I remember you telling me at one point Jan yeast is the new gold

Yeast is like the new gold in this country. Everyone's looking for dry, rapid rise yeast. What were some of the swaps? Because I know you got bombarded with, Julie, what do I do? I don't have baking soda. I could have spent full time on my phone answering people's questions, which is great. Because I think, you know, I write recipes for a living. But I think it's

It's, it takes away people's intuitive, like able to ability to intuitively cook or bake, right? You think that you have to follow a recipe exactly. So, you know, a recipe calls for instant yeast. People are afraid of making it with active dry yeast. So tons of yeast questions, active dry, the grains are a little bit bigger than instant yeast. Instant is really fine. So you can stir it directly into your flour, active dry. You have to dissolve. Then there's fresh yeast, which

a lot of people are not familiar with. And I use them all in about the same quantities. But one thing that, you know, I learned a long time ago that I think a lot of people don't realize is that just because you take something out of a recipe doesn't mean you necessarily have to replace it with something else. You know, if you don't like cilantro, leave it out. If you, you know, why does a recipe have to have one clove of garlic? This is what I struggle with when I write recipes. You know, why is it a teaspoon of thyme? What if you have oregano? What if you want to use rosemary?

So I think, you know, the more you cook, the more you get to know what you can get away with and what you have to do. Follow a recipe. Exactly. You guys, when you follow, I mean, I'm not, I'm not a really confident cook, but I think initially I did try and follow it. I, I, and people get scared of baking, Julie. I mean, you would know this because I,

Martha Stewart's are always telling us or Anna Olson, that it's that baking is an exact science. You know, if you want it to rise this way, or if you want your biscotti to be that it, you can't fool around. You can't use a cup of flour when it says two and a half cups of flour, like you kind of have to be exact. So that always worried me with baking, but we did find ourselves doing a lot of really clever swaps through COVID and

or trading with our neighbors or chucking things from balcony to balcony. I know eggs were difficult to find for a while too.

Yeah, eggs were tricky. And of course, you could use flaxseed and water. You could use the liquid from your can of chickpeas. Tell us about that. Tell people about the chickpea liquid stuff because we all throw it out. Exactly. You drain it off. It's like a free egg replacement in every can. And it's this sort of viscous liquid. You can use the liquid from chickpeas that you soak and boil, but the can stuff seems to work better. And if you whip it, it whips up. Whip cream. No. No.

No, that would not be delicious. Meringue, like meringue. It whips up like meringue. It's got that viscosity and that sort of starchiness from the chickpeas. And other pulses work too, but chickpeas particularly well. You can use it in place of egg. So if you're out of eggs, you know, and I had people all the time, what I only have a quarter of-

Could you fold that like egg white substitute into recipes that call for folding in an egg white? A hundred percent. You absolutely can. And it works even on its own. You can make meringues, full on meringues on its own. They're not as chewy. They're a little bit harder, but you know, it's, it's amazing what you can do. But even if you, you know, you're making a batch of cookies and it calls for a half a cup of butter, you could use a quarter cup of butter and it will probably get, I think,

knowing what the dough should feel like and look like is more important than the specific measurements. But, you know, I was telling people use a little bit of oil and a little bit of butter. If you can stretch a small amount, you know, a further way, a lot, a lot of recipes have more sugar and more fat than they need. And you can usually trim them back without replacing them with anything. I always trim back the sugar. Yeah. Like if it, if it says like a cup and a half of

and a cup of white, I will literally have that. And that's sweet. I mean, I don't feel like that ever affects the baking, but I hope I'm not. No. I mean. Oh, here's a hack. So if you don't have brown sugar, you can mix a tablespoon of molasses into a cup of white sugar. You just work it in and voila, you have brown sugar. Yep. Really? I have been screwed without brown sugar a hundred times. Yeah.

And all I needed to, and I do have molasses and it says it's outdated. It says it's expired like four years ago, but yeah, I kept it anyway. I'm still using it. And I have only got like the one small penis growing off of my shoulder blade on the back from not...

you know, it's so just Caitlin. Yeah. I know it's not on my shoulder, but it is growing. That's what the doctor tells me. Yeah. I have a question about, okay, like now I, now I have a little baking question. What is the difference between all purpose flour and when a recipe calls for pastry or like cake flour? Yeah. So we have really good flour in Canada. We're so lucky. Uh, cake and pastry flour is lower in gluten.

So the protein and flour and bread flour is higher in gluten. So when you, you know, you need your dough, you're developing the gluten. If you mix flour and water and you get that sort of pasty, like elastic, stretchy stuff, that's gluten. And you don't want to develop the gluten when you're making pastry or biscuits, you know, anything with sort of a fine crumb.

So some recipes call for cake and pastry flour and bread flour. You want that chew, you want that, that stretch. And so bread flour, I just always default to all purpose flour because that's what people have. And it's all purpose because it's good for, for anything. And you can develop the gluten by kneading it more or, you know, being gentle if you're making biscuits and pastry and, and it's good for both.

Oh, good. Okay. Cause like there are some, some publications like I find Bon Appetit great, lots of stuff, super inventive. I love them. However, they get so specific on some ingredients that they're like, Oh, this calls for curry leaves. And I was like, it is a pandemic. I'm not finding curry leaves, nor am I finding pastry flour. I know that they're probably different, but I'm just going to have to use all purpose. Well,

Well, and they're also different in the U S versus Canada. They're different. If you go between brands, like I think if you find a flower that you like and you sort of get used to how it behaves, another question I get a lot is about unsalted butter versus salted butter. Yeah. I always use salted butter and a lot of bakers and, and, and food writers use unsalted butter, but you're always adding salt into recipes. It always asks for a half teaspoon of salt.

Exactly. You need to add, you need to add salt anyway, to keep your baking from tasting flat. So I, I always use salted butter and, and some salt.

Keep in mind, kosher salt is sort of fluffier. So it's got a lower salinity than table salt. That's a whole other conversation. It's a whole other conversation that we will have maybe when we come back. Will you stay with us, Julie? I will. We got way too many things on our plate. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. I'm with Julie Van Rosendahl, Adam Karsh, Caitlin Green, and an unborn child. We will be back.

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Well, hello, everybody. As promised, as you heard me mention earlier in the show, I'm here with, and I know people always say this, she's a friend of mine. Julie Van Rosendahl actually truly is a frickin' friend of mine. We went on a really interesting gay history walk together.

through Calgary in the summer. And I knew more about Calgary's gay history than the guy giving the tour. Ladies and gentlemen, Julie Van Rosendahl. Thank you. I've been listening to you guys for so long. So it's sort of surreal that I've stepped through the door onto the show.

This is like the aha video, Julie, when the cartoon guy, when what's his name? Yeah, so you're the girl and I reach through and I pull you through. Or no, you're pulling me through. I'm pulling you through. Right. You're going to have to pull hard. I...

Listen, we're going to be totally fine because I'm a good eater too. Caitlin and Adam are still with us because I want them to jump in. We're going to talk about food for food. Julie, on a personal note, I want to tell you that you are one of the most extraordinary people in this city. Like I'm so proud to call you friend for one thing. What Julie's done on the forefront of food insecurity is

gathering forces during COVID, organizing school lunches. Thousands and thousands of kids found themselves without lunches.

you know, when school ended, they were suddenly like, we're not getting our lunch every day, you know, and people found themselves. Julie, you have been absolutely inspiring what you've done for restaurateurs, utilizing kitchens all through the city to make food for people that were struggling during COVID. You have been a one woman army. I'm not going to take up any more time, but you are exceptional. And I'm, Calgary is very, very lucky to have you. So,

What are we doing this winter with food, Julie Van Rosendahl? What is happening with COVID food times? What is happening? Oh my gosh. Tell us what to do. This is a four hour podcast, right? You've got eight minutes and then we've got more time. But what does winter look like with food for us? It's interesting how people's perspectives have changed, their priorities have changed, our eating habits have changed hugely. We've never...

cooked so much at home in the history of ever, right? We're making all the dishes. I have a friend who is like, I now only make things that don't require dishes because, you know, making breakfast, lunch, and dinner at home is something that people, most people aren't used to. You sort of take for granted that you can pick up something while you're out. So, you know, it's had a catastrophic impact on our hospitality industry. And that's, I'll, I'll

We'll get into that in a bit, but I, I find it really interesting how people are learning to cook. They're paying attention to food waste and using what they have. So rather than say, oh, you know, I, I saw this recipe on Pinterest that I really want to make and running out and buying cilantro and scallops or whatever.

They're looking at what they have. We're really spoiled when it comes to food. A lot of us, those of us who have the luxury of eating this way, we have the luxury of thinking, what am I in the mood for? Maybe I'll go to this restaurant or maybe I'll pick this up or maybe I'll make this recipe that I saw. People are looking at what they have, figuring out how to use it.

growing their own food. I mean, it's really paying attention to supporting local producers. And it's like our whole priority, our perspective has changed hugely. But now we're getting into the entertaining season, right? The holiday. Lots of cheers from our section. I mean, as you know, our shows, Caitlin and Adam and I are pretty foodie-ish.

But it's exciting to think about the holidays. And also it's kind of scary, Julie, if I'm honest. I don't know how Caitlin and Adam feel, but, you know, we're not supposed to do big family gatherings. And so it looks a little different how we're going forward, like the 12-pound turkey and the... Yeah. But all the goodies. Like, what, do you have any ideas, like, for us as far as, you know, the cookie...

Sort of collectives that you see. Yeah. The cookie swaps and stuff like that. I guess we can still do that from our homes.

You know what I love? One of the things that I love about the pandemic is how the efforts that people are going through to connect with each other and to do these things. There are so many things typically on our calendars in December. It's not just the big Christmas day. It's all the office parties and the cocktail parties and the school performances and, you know, the theater productions, all those things. And it's

You know, when it comes to the big feast, so many people say, you know, I'm going to miss making the big turkey dinner. We usually have a dozen people around the table. I say, do it anyway. I say, spend the day cooking. Cause that, you know, for me, that's a big part of it is spending the day cooking. I'll probably put, you know, my sisters and my mom on speakerphone in the kitchen cook all day. You know, even if it's just for two or three or one, you can freeze the rest or pack it up and bring it to your, your neighbor's houses. Yeah.

But for cookie swap, I do love a good cookie swap. No kidding, right? So the idea is that, you know, everyone participating makes, you know, there's 10 people participating. Everyone makes 10 dozen cookies and you go and you drink wine or tea or eat cookies and swap and everyone gets their baking done. I think a door drop cookie swap. Yeah, I'm down for that. Right? Like pack up your cookies and even just like logs of cookie dough, I think is a great idea to swap.

Everybody logs of frozen cookie dough. Logs and balls. I think that was going to be my, that is my dating history. That is my dating history. Logs and balls. Uh, logs. That was the eighties for me. Holiday. Same, same, but you know, less baking. And if you get 10 dozen cookies at once, not all going to last. So it's nice to have, you know, a stash of dough and you're free to peel it.

Peel it and eat it just like an ice cream cone. Oh, now, Julie, that is not, we are not advocating you eat raw cookie dough, people. Leave the eggs out. But there's flour issues. Yeah, yeah. Caitlin's eyes lit up. We can get a sponsor for some sort of like worm medication maybe out of this one. She's always on the cutting edge of thinking, Julie. She really is.

So, I mean, that's a great idea to do your cookie swap, everybody. And maybe instead of baking them off, you can do some of them. But for the I would love to get a package hanging on my fence. I just put this out there, Julie, of like cookie dough. I know. And I know where you live now. But I think the interest that we've taken in cooking has been inspiring, Julie, like,

that everyone is teaching their kids. That has been one of the best parts of COVID for me. Pandemic baking, learning how to make sourdough. I'm curious how many sourdough starters are still alive. Although, you know, they can stay dormant in the back of your fridge for like a year. There are people. Did you learn that the hard way? Yeah. Yes. And it gets that layer of hooch that, you know, the gold miners used to drink because it's alcoholic anyway. But

But yeah, I love how much baking people are doing. You know, they're learning to be more self-sufficient and minimizing, you know, trips to the bakery or the grocery store. And, you know, baking is such a comfort, just the smell of baking. We typically bake for people around us. And so-

And baking is coming back. I'm getting tons of questions these days about flour and yeast and sourdough starter. I'm leaving sourdough starter in my mailbox for so many people who are like, can I please just have a little bit? I just got a 1918 sourdough starter from the Yukon. What? From a chef. Yeah, it's from 19. No. Is that a real thing? So this thing has just been regurgitated. Like it was started in 1918. It was started 102 years ago.

It was longer than that. I'm going to look it up before the next, it was in the 1800s. I'm sure there's an 18 in there. It's really old. So it's been kept going and you can freeze your sourdough starter. You can dry it.

So I always have backup in the freezer just in case, you know, I kill mine, but they're hard to kill. I haven't learned. I haven't learned yet. I haven't learned the, yeah, the pet rock sourdough starter. And I, and I will, I would like to try it before this is all over. I feel like we're going to kind of get back at things next year, but yeah, the, the, you brought up an interesting thing, Julie. And I think a lot of us have realized how much stuff we threw out. I sure did. Yeah.

Totally. And food waste is a huge thing, but especially when you're trying to reduce trips to the grocery store and people are worried about money right now, you know, using what you have and realizing that you don't have to necessarily have every ingredient in a recipe, right? Learning to cook rather than how to follow a recipe, I think is one of the big benefits of being forced to cook at home so much. You are one of them. Before we go to break, I want to tell everyone to follow at dinner.

with Julie, D-I-N-N-E-R with W-I-T-H-J-U-L-I-E. It's one of the best Instagram pages that you will stumble across.

The food, the first six months that I followed Julie, I was basically flipping her the bird through the internet whenever she'd show me some fantastical, like a couple days ago, folks, you can go on there right now. You can see the world's biggest cinnamon bun. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. We're going to be right back with Julie Van Rosendahl, Caitlin, and Adam. Don't go away. Eat it, eat it. Get yourself an egg and beat it. Some more chicken, have some more pie.

You're listening to the Jen Arden Podcast. I'm here with our very, very special food expert, foodie, champion of food, and one of the most

unbelievably influential food people in the city of Calgary, if not the country. Julie Van Rosendahl writes a column for the Globe and Mail. You can check her out there and she's just, just check her out. Dinner with Julie, at dinner with Julie on Instagram. Welcome back to the last segment of the show. We've been talking about a little bit about food waste, about doing frozen cookie logs for your cookie bake-off this year, which is a great idea.

And balls, a sack of balls. You could just put them in a Ziploc bag. Yeah. A sack of balls. And then you could just like swing them over your head and hurl them at the door. Do you remember those things that were resin that were, you'd put the string into them and you clack them up and down? Those clackers. Do you remember that? We're old. Yes, I do. Yes. There was always so many injuries. Yes.

Yeah. Well, when the sourdough, when you started that sourdough starter in 1920, that's, that's when you ran into the clackers. I'm looking that up. Yep. Food is paramount to all of us. And I think it has been one of the saving graces this past eight months. It's hard to believe that we're coming on eight months. Why do you think that is? And why do you think it's such a comfort to human beings to eat?

be around food, to eat food, to like, what's your take on it? To be fed. You know, it's such a personal thing.

you know, it's, it's influenced by our, you know, our cultures and our, the terroir and how we grew up and who cooked for us growing up. And, you know, our, what we like is such a personal thing. How we eat is such a personal thing. As an aside, it's interesting to me that, you know, pre COVID a third of Canadians followed some sort of strict dietary plan, you know, whether it was whole 30 or paleo or whatever. And now it's like, you know, it's,

Yeah. And now I hear a lot less of that. It's such a comfort. I mean, that's why when something happens, you know, in your life, that's hard. People bring a casserole, people bring food. I, in the last 10 days, two weeks, I, I lost a close friend. I lost my dog. I lost my pickup truck. Um, no, not my picture. That was a joke. Okay. That was, I was like, wow. And I turned,

And I turned 50. And so, which is all to say, I've had this sort of steady stream of people coming to my door with food, with cookies, with soup, with, you know, and it's, it's something that we can all relate to. It's something we can all do. We all have to eat anyway. So it's a gesture. And that's why I know I fell in love with cooking when I was three. My mom tells this story about when I was three and I asked when I could cook for myself. And she said, when you can read a recipe by yourself, then you can cook for yourself. So I went off with a stack of cookbooks and learned how to read cookbooks and

And I learned early on that, you know, cooking for people made them happy. It makes everybody happy. It makes people feel cared for. And so often people say to me, oh, I would never invite you over for dinner. You know, and I'm like, have you met me? I've invited you over for dinner and I've always made like the weirdest things and you're always very gracious. It doesn't, you know, it doesn't matter, right? I mean, A, I'm not a snob when it comes to food, but just being cooked for is such a big thing.

thing. And it's something that we can all do for each other. Something we can all do, all do for each other. And then, and seeing people in real life, you know, having people stop by on the step, I feel like we're going to do this a lot during the holiday season, drop by with cookie ball logs and balls, or I feel like caroling might make a comeback this season. I was thinking of doing like the bringing my boom box, you know, like John Cusack can say, Oh, Hey, standing outside.

With food. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And then handing them a bag of like, I always love getting caramel popcorn at Christmas. Or the mix, the nuts and bolts thing that always seems to surface at Christmas time when people dump all their leftover cereal onto a baking sheet and add garlic salt. And Worcestershire sauce. And you're like, is that a mini wheat?

Like my friend actually made mix with mini wheats in them and I died. It'd be like sweet, sweet and savory. It'd be delicious. There are those foods that you only eat at Christmas time. You would never think of making like, I love mincemeat. I love fruit mincemeat. I would never think of making it in July because it tastes like Christmas. Right.

So those are the things I think we really need to hang on to, you know, bake like crazy, even if you don't have your family around. I'm plotting maybe decorating an outdoor tree with, you know, some bird decorations or something so that our family can exchange presents outside. I think this has potential to be the best Christmas ever because our focus is on

making an effort to see each other and connect with each other. And like, it's really, it's really focusing in on what is important in life and the holidays. I want to invite you to the decorating of, it's called the inclusion tree. My friend, Wendy Williams-Watt, who's in Vancouver, she did the big love ball.

yeah that's one of her that's one of her many many creative artistic um installations but she's got me involved this year she's like you should do it in calgary jan it's uh called the inclusion tree i went out and i bought a whole bunch of like you can get secondhand balls or balls at the dollar store and glue eyeballs on them and you go find a lonely charlie brown tree i'm gonna do one in front of uh

the John Howard society. That's sort of what we, I'd love for you to come with us and we're going to hang balls on a very lonely looking tree and

And we'll go collect them afterwards. We're not just going to leave them there for the city, but that exactly doing those kinds of things this year, I think is going to be, you know, being thoughtful about your community and doing things. I would be remiss if I didn't ask you what your, one of your favorite all-time meals was because Caitlin and Adam and I, we talk about, we try and talk about what we're eating as often as we can, but what, what is one of your favorite all-time meals? Yeah.

Like in general or most memorable that I've eaten in the past? Okay. Let's, can we do both? Oh my gosh. Um, I really like pizza. I like, I like bready things. I like melty cheesy things. Yeah. Um, I really love, I really love cheese. Um, I, and you have a glow about you when you say it, it's a, it's a glow. I have a cheese glow. I have a cheese aura. That's true. Yeah. Well, I'm going to make you pizza. So yeah, pizza. It's fantastic.

I love pizza. I love anything that's, yeah, I love all kinds of chewy dough. My most memorable meal, I was, it was, I don't know, 20 years ago, I was in Toronto. I was doing, I had my first cookbook was out. I was doing all this media. I was doing a demo at the Eaton Center. And then Elizabeth Baird, who was the editor of Canadian Living. When I was a kid, I told my class, we had to present what we wanted to be when we grew up. And I said, I wanted to be the food editor of Canadian Living magazine. Oh, wow.

As you know, most kids in grade four. Oh yeah. So yeah, she does. Yeah. And now I know her very well, but at the time she invited me to the test kitchen and the cab driver couldn't find it and dropped me off in the middle of like nowhere. And it was snowing and I had my luggage and these cookies for Elizabeth Barrett. And I walked to my, my friend's house on Pemberton.

And I thought it was not very far, but it was like an hour and a half long walk. And I was freezing and I was soaked and I was so tired and I was sad. I was probably crying. And she made me a roasted chicken and asparagus and with soy sauce and butter on rice. And she put me by her fireplace and it was like the best meal I think I've ever had. I just, what a great memory. And, and I'm sure you were kind of scared. You know, there's nothing sadder than a woman.

dragging luggage through the snow. I'm sorry. There is a vision of terror that comes to mind. I think that would be a very scary poster for a horror movie. A soaked, a very wet traveler pulling luggage. Lost. And then she gets in the shower and the dagger comes through. Yeah. I wanted to ask you about the plant-based movement that's happening. Hmm.

And I think it's because we've all taken an interest in our environment and people are always saying, what can I do to help save the world? And obviously having a plant-based meal every week would be a super great thing for millions and millions of people to do. I mean, that's a great start off point. What thoughts on that? Well, it is not all or nothing, right? People are definitely seeing the benefits of plant-based as an environmental and ethical choice.

and doing it more often. So whether or not people identify as vegetarian or vegan, they're eating more plants, they're seeing meat as less the center point. I mean, it used to be like the focus of the plate. You had your big protein and then everything else was just like sides or filler. So people are starting to see it in a different way and see meat as almost like a

a seasoning or like a small, certainly gone, gotten smaller. The portions are more reasonable, right? Yeah. Well, and, and I think I'm really, I'm a pulse enthusiast, right? Beans, chickpeas, lentils. Um, my dad is a gastroenterologist and he,

He is a fiber enthusiast. He always puts... If you want to poo, this is what you do. He's very regular. And he would put oat bran in everything, right? Like I was an adult before I realized that burgers were supposed to be juicy because he would use...

extra lean ground beef and oat bran in about equal proportions. And so now I put beans and everything and lentils and everything, but they grow here. Like Saskatchewan is the biggest exporter of lentils in the world. Um, they're so good for our soil. They fix the nitrogen in the soil. So they're good for crop rotations. They're good for our farmers. They're inexpensive. They're shelf stable. They're versatile. You know, you can, there's, there are

pulses in every cuisine around the world. So people are looking for these plant-based protein alternatives like the Beyond Burger or Possible Burger, none of which they're just starting to be produced in Canada, but

Anyway, which is great. But pulses, you know, just learning how to how to cook beans, how to how to cook lentils and what to do with them. Well, for the first time we saw when the when the rush started in March, when we saw the shelves being emptied out, what really what really actually warmed my heart. It was scary. But I also saw every bean, every lentil, every legume, every dried kidney bean. They were gone.

I think people on some level really understand the importance of a protein that doesn't come from a living animal because we've suddenly realized those avenues were cut off to us. They were finding COVID in a lot of places where the regular stream of our, of our proteins was disrupted. And so people were like, they really, I think realized, and then they thought, well, gosh, we don't have to go back to

a roast beef three days a week anyway no and they're shelf stable right dry beans i know this is a very weird way to end this show but beans beans the musical food the more you eat the more you toot and the more the the more you eat the less you toot sorry to interrupt but the more you eat the less you toot if they got it wrong carry on julie van rosendahl has had the last word you've been listening to the jan arden podcast uh

I thank you for being with us, Caitlin, Adam and me. And we'll talk to you, Julie. You've been awesome. Thank you. And we'll see you again. Totally. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at women in media dot network.