February 29, 2024 • 32 mins
Tyler and Wells are back and getting ready for Spring, but that means spring cleaning is just around the corner!
Content creator Nicole Jaques joins Tyler and Wells with cleaning kitchen hacks to help you become the clean queen of your home, including putting oven racks in the grass (yes, you heard right), the viral ice cube dishwasher trick, tips to clean your microwave, and how to make your own nontoxic cleaner at home!
Plus, the easiest way to peel a potato, a quick way to make a grilled cheese sandwich, why you should freeze your pasta water, and how to keep your wine cool! Hack away!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Two Dudes in a Kitchen with Tyler Florence.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
And Wells Adams, an iHeartRadio podcast. All right, welcome into
another episode of Two Dudes in a Kitchen. It's Wells
Adams in his studio and Tyler Florence in an embassy
suite's in Florida. So neither of us are actually in
a kitchen right now.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
That's right, Well, we're in the kitchen in your mind,
which is you know where it all starts anyway. But yeah,
I'm on the road with the Great Food Truck Ray
season seventeen. We're turning the corner on the Panhandle of Florida's.
We started the season in Houston and this whole season
is going to go around the Gulf of Mexico. So
we're going to be at the South Beach Food and
Wine Festival next week for the finale, which is wild.
(00:39):
We've never done this before, so we're I'm going to
give away fifty thousand dollars to the winner in front
of a crazy streaming crowd of Food Network fans and
I am here for it. It's gonna be for Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
That's amazing, dude. Well, today's Leap Day, which do you
know anyone that's born on Leap Day.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I don't know if I know a lot about it.
So I had to look this up and I watched
this really fascinating YouTube video on why leap year is
a thing every four years? Right, so it takes three
hundred and sixty five days for the Earth to go
around the sun. But it actually takes three hundred and
sixty five point two five days, yeah, to go around
the sun. So every four years they have to add
(01:19):
a day to the calendar. So all the clocks sink
up and that wild.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, yeah, no, I no, I know why why we
have leap here.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I didn't know that. I swear to God, I didn't
know that. I mean, I'm a grown man. I've never like,
I'm like, I just accept it, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I think it's three hundred and sixty four point two five.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Okay, Okay, that's it. You listen. I watch a YouTube
video on this, so who knows if it's accurate. One.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So, if you're born on leap Day, you really only
have a birthday every four years, which is great. You
stay forever young. Does that make sense? Yeah, So you
don't know anyone that's born on leap day.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I do not. I don't know anybody boring that did.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
You, I don't. I don't think i'd I do, but
we did some research. Leap day is often associated with
marriage proposals and flipping gender roles, which is interesting. And
in Greek tradition, however, it's considered bad luck to marry
on leap Day, and statistics suggest that Greek couples continue
to take this superstition very seriously. So the Greeks are
(02:21):
very very concerned about leap Day.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I know, that's just a very ancient thing, right, So
somewhere between the Greeks and the Egyptians that started this, right,
It's been around a long time.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I guess Julius Caesar introduced leap day. I'm just so
confused is how they figured it out.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, exactly. It seemed like sort of primitive math, and
you know, we'll probably fairly advance math for what it was.
But the idea of counting the days, I guess based
on you know, starting with some point in time, I guess,
like the longest day of the year and the shortest
day of the year, like how you recorded that, you know,
it just seems it seems how you could figure that out.
That's kind of wild.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Maybe it's like where the sun is in the sky
when it gets back to that exact point. That's how
you know a year is going by. I don't know.
I don't even know how Julius Caesar did without YouTube.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, this is the greatest thing about podcasts. So there's
a bunch of bro science. Like I heard the story
and I watched this YouTube video. This guy said this
thing about a thing, so it must be true. So yeah,
I don't know, but but listen, spring is coming, which
is fantastic. I mean, my my birthday is the third
of March, which is like just the dead of winter,
(03:26):
and so that's kind of coming up in a couple
of weeks. But I'm so excited for spring. It's a
fabulous time to cook. You know, some of the ingredients
start to pop up, or just those real super special
short season things like moral mushrooms and ramps and you
know and sort of like green strawberry which are really
kind of interesting and beautiful fresh floral notes. And so
spring is a very very special time to cook. And
(03:48):
that's what I get excited about.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Do you go to like the farmers market like constantly
to get new ingredients for your restaurants.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I do. I've been doing this a long time, especially
you know, I've been in northern California here for at
fifty sixteen years now seventeen years, and so we have
a great relationship with the people who we just you know,
done our research on and produce the best stuff and
then they deliver to our restaurant, which is okay. So
I do pop Eye with a cup of coffee at
the Ferry Terminal farmers market in San Francisco, but the
(04:19):
one in Marin County in San refel is really special.
That one's really big, it's super it's close to all
the farmers up in Petaluma and Sonoma and up in Napa.
They're just growing just spectacular stuff. So that's always like
a real special thing. And one of the most important
light bulb moments for me is a chef going to California,
(04:41):
where you get a chance to taste that California produce
miraculous special thing. Where where you know, coming from restaurants
in New York City before I moved to California, you know,
restaurants in New York or restaurants in New York with
some of the world's greatest and you go out to
California and then you kind of don't get it until
you do. But the food in northern California, I think
(05:02):
is the best food in the country. I think from
a produce farming standpoint, there are long growing seasons are
you know, sort of kind of ancient dry aging techniques
with some of our you know, stone fruit producers that
are kind of coming up a little bit later in
the season. I mean, if you've ever had a frog
hollow peach or a frog hollow plum or anything like that,
like this just it's just some of the best food.
(05:24):
In the figs, the tomatoes, they're just amazing. So it's
you know, like as soon as the weather starts and
warm up a little bit, Like that's what I get
really excited about, is sort of kind of going from
you know, polenta and you know portunity braised short ribs
into you know, super fresh flavor profiles and avocados are
going to start coming down the pipe pretty soon, and
(05:44):
and that just makes it really hungry, very excited.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I think one of the best hacks for any cook
is to go to the farmer's market and buy what's there,
because that means it's it's fresh right now, it's in
season right now, and then kind of curate your menu
from what's really really fresh right now. I go to
the Studio City farmers Market all the time and I
absolutely love it. Speaking of hacks, we have the Queen
(06:09):
of hacks on the show today. Nicole Jacks joins us
on the show. She has a growing social media presence
as she goes viral for hacks and tips and tricks
and on cleaning and cooking and holiday creations and so
much more. In addition, she's teaching us how to live
a non toxic lifestyle, which you know, I think we
all need some of that. Her tagline is making you
the CEO of your home, which I absolutely love. We're
(06:31):
gonna take a quick break and we come back. Nicole
Jacks will be on the show giving us all the
hacks that we need for our daily life. All right,
welcome back to two Dudes in the kitchen. It's not
two dudes and a lady. Nicole Jacks joins us on
the show. Thank you so much for coming on. How
are you doing.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I'm doing great. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
This episode's coming out on Leap Day we were talking
before we brought you on. Do you know anyone who
was born on Leap Day? I don't, do you, I don't.
I don't know if they exist, And if they do,
they're they're far too young for me to be talking
to because they are one full far age. Yeah that's fair, Nicole.
(07:14):
I was looking at your social media today. You have
a huge following and you are just giving the world
all the hacks, the tricks, the tips, the DIY stuff.
How did this all start?
Speaker 3 (07:29):
So it was a passion project. I went on a
beach trip with some girlfriends and they were like, you
should really be showing people these tips. I would cook,
you know, when we go away for girls trips. They
were like can you cook? And I was like, sure,
I'll do all the cooking. You guys go get all
the groceries. And I was like smashing the head of
lettuce to core it and I was cleaning the cast
(07:50):
iron with a potato and salt and they were like,
where did you learn that? And I just thought it
was normal. I just thought that's what everyone did in
their kitchen. And I was raised by a Southern cook,
a Southern grandma, and a dinner party enthusiast mom, like
the og pinterest mom before Pinterest existed. And I think
(08:11):
I've just become a blend of my mom and my
grandma and now I'm just sharing it on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Are you getting DIY tips sent to you now? And
then you're like trying them out and then getting to
kind of pass them off as your own because I imagine
eventually you run out of tips, right.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Well kind of. I think what's happened in the social
media world is kitchen hacks became trendy. It was like
who knew the hack? And so if you were the
first one to post it, it was like, that's cool,
and then a million other people post it. Now I
get a lot of can you debunk this? Oh, on
my stories, there's a lot of like does this really work?
And I go on my stories and say, Nope, this
(08:49):
doesn't work, or yes it does, but most of them
don't work. Unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Let's go through some of your famous ones and everyone
needs to go follow you on social media because you're
gonna do a much better job at describing it on
your channel that I'm going to do kind of describing
it right now. But let's just do this. Let me
a'll say the kind of title of it, and then
you can kind of talk us through it.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I want that, sure, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Ice cube dishwasher dishwasher trick? What is that?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
So you're gonna take your oven racks that are dirty
out of the oven, You're going to put them in
your dishwasher. You can wash them in your dishwasher. Not
every dishwasher has a steam function, so you put the
cubes in there to create the steam when they're washing,
and then we'll just take off all of the grime.
Heat is a great cleaner, especially with dirt and grime.
(09:39):
And we have a built in dishwasher that will literally
clean your oven racks. So that's like one of my
go tos. You can also my grandma used to put
her oven racks in her grass overnight in the yard
in the springtime when it's really dewy, and when she
would pick them up out of the grass, all of
the dirt and grime and grease would just fall off
her oven rack.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I did not know that that would work.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, I posted it like a year ago. I should
probably redo it come spring because it's one of those
that you're like this can't work, and then thousands of
people are dming me like the grass cleaned my like
my oven racks, and I was like, well, actually the
dew when the overnight temperatures do it. But it really
really works.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Okay, let's talk about boil over preventter. I always just
heard you put a spoon on top of it, so
you can and.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
That will break some of the surface tension. But it's
not like tried and true. So if you really just
don't want to have to deal with watching your temperature
on your pot or pan, which is what most people
don't do. They don't want to control it and turn
it down, just rub olive oil or any kind of
oil on the very rim of your pot and it
will break the surface tension when it starts to boil
(10:49):
up and keep the boil at bay.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Tyler, have you heard of that before?
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I have, which is great. And the spoon thing works
for sure. You know, a wooden spoon on top of
a boiling pot. You have to be really careful that
the flame that licks around the side of the pot
doesn't melt the handle of the spoon or catch it
on fire or something like that, because like that's happened
before too, But yeah, that absolutely works for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Okay, let's get into dental floss. How the hell can
I use dental floss in my food?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Well?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I usually use it just to cut like cinnamon rolls,
because it's just easy and it's accessible. But because it
has that nonstick surface and then you have your tension
in your hands, it can, you know, be you can
cut it through anything that stuff cheese caked, you know,
anything that's kind of tricky, you know, when you're cutting,
(11:35):
like cutting something you don't want to flatten. Yeah, is
usually when I use it, And so it's just an
easy go to if you need to not flatten whenever
you're cutting with that.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Do you need like unflavored floss or can you have
like the minty green.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Or the or the cinnamon cinnamon?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
You can use cinnamon with cinnamon rolls. That's actually probably
another tip Tyler. That's like a good Yeah, yeah, it
can be any kind really, I mean unflavored. They're always
going to say is better, but it doesn't really make
a difference.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, Okay, how do I keep my my wine cools?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
So this I grew up in Sonama, so this is
like a like college kid trick. That I learned by
going around to wineries and in the summer, the heat
is hot, and they would put frozen grapes in our
wine when they would give it to us, and I
just thought that was like the funniest thing, But it
really does work. So grapes don't change the flavor profile
of the wine. They're not going to give it a
(12:33):
weird acidic taste. Nothing on them is going to cause
a problem with your wine bouquet or profile. So just
freeze them in your freezer and then pop them in
and they'll keep yourself blank super cold on a hot
day without watering it down.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I like that idea too, because my wife and my
mother in law love a big ice cube in their wine,
especially their rose. So I'm totally going to try that.
I think that's very interesting because obviously you'd like you
because they like a cold cold and obviously that when
that I keep is gonna melt, it's going to dilute
the flavor of the wine itself. I think the grape
(13:08):
thing is cool.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Yeah, if you want to get really intricate, you can
find gooseberries during a certain time in the summer when
they sell them, and it actually adds a little bit
of acid to like a saft blank or even a
rose that gives it a really nice twist. So that
actually is another one. If you can't find grapes, kind
of gooseberry, right, we.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Got plenty of gooseberries.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, it's goodsberries everyone.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I love this next one. Growing up, I don't think
I knew the importance of pasta water and how to
make a good pasta dish. And I saw this hack
with saving your pasta water. Explain this one because it's
very very good, especially if you are making a bunch
of Italian food.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, so this to me is like the new mom hack.
I feel like my brain went out the door once
I had my kids, and I like would constantly forget
to say the pasta water as I was straining the
massive amounts of pasta that kids eat right, and then
the sauce put in adhere to the noodle the right way,
and I was like, I need that starchy pasta water
so bad, and I just kept throwing it down the drain.
(14:13):
So I called my grandma and she was like, oh, honey,
you just need to freeze the pasta water. So that's
exactly what I did. I made a pot of water
boiled the pasta stuff. I saved it, put it in
these big ice cube trays. You know, you want a
good amount of past water cup half a cup depending
on how much pasta, and I just froze it. Then
(14:35):
I started freezing it with herbs and olive oils, so
then it was infused or with garlics. And I always
now have starchy pasta water for that like brain blit
moment that you dump it down the drain and you
can just add it in to your pasta after when
you're mixing it with your sauce, and it does the
same exact thing as fresh pasta water.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Now an interesting take on that too, is to create
a gluten free version. The pasta water has gluten, it
has got a diluted flour, But you can do the
same thing with you either arrowroot or corn starch diluted
in water as well, and that will really tighten up
the sauce and kind of give it a nice sort
of a thick viscosity. Again to cling on to the
(15:15):
pasta so it feels like you're eating pasta and sauce
at the same time, doesn't drip off. It's nice.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I love that. I have a gluten free so I'm
going to try that one. That sounds great.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Look as you're writing that down, there you go.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
I am.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
The next video sponsored by Tyler for There I Go.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
You make it a shout out, please do.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
What's your hack for peeling potatoes?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
This one is probably one of my most viral tips,
and this was one of those. I just thought everyone
peeled their potatoes this way. And my friend came over
and I put her on potato duty and she was,
you know, peeling it with the peeler, and I was like,
what are you doing? So when I just boil my potatoes,
it's easy. It gets it done, especially as I'm multitask
in my kitchen. Can you cut take a knife, take
(16:02):
the potato, you know, cut a circle around the center
of it, just lightly, just on the skin. You're gonna
boil the potato and when you get about you're gonna
ice back them for like thirty seconds and you can
pick up the potato and then you just take your
fingers and gently pull and the peels come straight off.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Does that work with tomatoes too, Tyler? I feel like
I've seen that with tomatoes. Yes.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, So that's a blanching method that we use in
restaurants all the time. If you want to put an
X on the bottom of the tomato, a mondir which
like a leg, nice little cross, and then blanch it
in salted water. Ice it in salted water because if
you if you don't ic it, salt of water basically
washing off the flavor, and then the skin kind of
comes right off, and then you cut off these really
(16:46):
beautiful cheeks of the outside of the tomato for a
beautiful knife cut for tomato concussated. Yeah, that's not really pretty.
It works out. Peaches do the same time.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Oh nice. Yeah, Nicole, my wife's favorite drunk food, well
just setting any type of food, but favorite drunk food.
She made them last night. Actually, when we came back
from dinner is grilled cheese. What is your grilled cheese hack?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
So this was when my mom used to do, and
I thought, what a weird way to make grilled cheese,
Like don't you just take out your cast iron and
make it?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:20):
So I did not like this tip for the longest
time until I had children on my own and I
was running busy schedules. But you take the toaster and
you lay it on its side, right, so we're not
talking about like you know, a door a toaster, it'll
pops your toast up in the air. You're gonna turn
it on the side and you're going to put your
curlled cheese in it. It's going to toast the bread
and melt the cheese at the same time. Sometimes if
(17:42):
you add too much cheese, this one is messy. So
you can wrap it actually in like parchment or now
they actually have little DAGs because this became a real
tip that people love that you can put the grilled
cheese in and it'll toast it all and melt the
cheese at the same time. And you don't have to
dirty a pan, which is a great tip because I
hate washing dishes.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
But here's the thing. If you're making a grilled cheese,
you need to have the butter in the pan. Who
it needs to be soaking it up. And I don't know,
I don't know if I like that one.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I like it was tough for me too.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, but listen, we just did this this whole campaign
with Heston Cookware and they wanted some really simple recipes
and I stumbled across this recipe not too long ago
where this technique. And I had to make a grilled
chees sandwich with my sixteen year old son and he
just like, Dad, can you make me some lunch? I'm like,
you want a grilled chy sanwich? And then I normally,
(18:36):
just because I was on a conference called when I
was making this, I forgot to put the butter on
the outside the thread. Okay, So now I think a
grilled ches sandwich is actually technically complicated, right, technically right,
So you got the bread. Bread's gotta be if you're
you know, using store ball backbread. They're all perfectly sliced.
But if you got to like a nice batar from
the fancy place, expensive bread, you want to cut them
(18:58):
nice and consistent. And then I like a little smear
of mayonnaise on the inside for the little kind of
extra creamy gush. Then the cheese, right, so you have
to So the cheese is a perfect square, bread is
not right. No one has made a perfect slice of
cheese that fits a perfect slice of bread. So it's
either somewhere between, and more often than not, we have
a bag of shredded cheese in the house, so that's
(19:19):
what I used. I use the bag of shredded cheese,
and I use the mayonnaise as the glue to kind
of hold the whole thing together. And then I was
just busy in a conversation and I forgot to put
the butter on the outside of the bread and I
dropped it in the pan dry. Now this is where
this gets really kind of interesting. So I toasted the
bread in the pan as if you're using a toaster,
(19:40):
because you don't put butter on toast before you put
in the toaster. You put it on after. Really just
like glass like texture on the outside of the bread
because because butter will burn right like whole butter has
milk solids and it will actually start to burn. And
sometimes you get this like crispy, saggy texture on the outside,
but not anything. It's like glass like crispy, like you're
(20:02):
gonna get it out out of a toaster of it.
So I toasted it dry on one side, and then
I flipped it over and I toasted it dry it
on the other and then I threw in two or
three tablespoons of butter, and then butter based it like
you're basing a filame mignon.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Oh. I love how technical a grilled cheese can be.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
But honestly, it seems it seems kind of simple because
like the you know, how often do we have, you know,
the perfect temperature of butter to get the perfect smear
on the outside. It's usually cold or like chili room temperature,
and you're trying to like smear it, so it doesn't
even even like gracefully kind of flip from one side
of the other. But the brown butter basing on top of
the dark like darker toasted toast anyway was just spectacular.
(20:43):
And I threw in a garlic clove, I threw in
a couple of sprigs of fresh time and now I'm
basing this thing if you go on, Yes we did.
We shot this with Williams and Oma and so this
video is on Williamston's homepaste, but just kind of butter
based it as if you're basing a flame, Andyon, and
my god, it was just like, okay, I just this
is the best grill cheese ever had in my life.
This is kind of amazing.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yeah, I'm going they need to have one. I'm so hungry.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah. The texture of the toast, the texture of the
toast was just like that is just shattery crispy, really
really dry, shattery crispy with that liquor brown butter on top.
It was I stumbled into something really interesting butter after
the toast.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I'm a little shook. Though you don't use American singles
for your grilled cheese.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I'm not opposed to that, you know what I mean. Like, listen,
I like Mount Tam Triple Cream Bree. To be honest
with you.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Oh, we're gonna get We're gonna get snoopy.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
He's out of fancy, super fancy. That's my favorite cheese
on Planet Earth is Mount Tam by Cowgirl Creamery, Mount
Tam Triple Cream Bree, boom done. That's the cheese you
put on our burgers at Miller Lux, which the Michelin
Guide said is one of the five best burgers in
the state of California.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
By the way, go and Brusters shoulders on.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
But I really like Kraft American singles. I think those
are delicious. I think it's great.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Yeah, I just feel like it's the perfect texture, especially
when you cut it diagonally, of course, and you pull
it apart. The cheese pull is absolutely amazing. But this
new basting technique I'm going to try. I really like it. Yeah, so, Nicole.
One of the things that I noticed from your social
media pages. Yes, it's a lot of like cooking hacks,
but then it's a lot of like cleaning hacks. Like
(22:28):
there's one where you made your own cleaning salt, which
I thought was amazing, probably really good for the environment,
not putting a bunch of like microplastics down the drain.
So kind of talk us through some of the cleaning
solvents that you make.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Yeah, so I started lower talking in the house because
I have an autoimmune disease and I've got kids. I
live on the West Coast, and I found a recipe
book from my grandma, and she used to make a
lot of her own. She cleaned a lot of things
with the potato. The potato is the big thing in
our family. Clearly we were potato lots. But she would
(23:01):
like clean a mirror with a half cut potato. It
actually cuts the steam effect on a mirror. And she
like had written these down kind of in like a
little diary. And as I was going through my own
tobaccle with low tox in my house, I was like, well,
why don't we just try some of these? So some
of them are hers and some of them are adaptations
(23:22):
of them, but I love baking soda. There are like
five things I always have in my house. Vinegar, you know,
distilled vinegar, baking soda, citric acid, A pumice stone, so
like a Pomis stone is great for cleaning your oven.
That is like my number one tip, not like the
Pomas stone you like, scrape your feet with like an
actual cleaning palmice stone. It will get your I have
(23:45):
a real up that shows my friends even before and
after the window pane, and it is sparkling clean. It
is like a bachelor oven, so dirty and it just
made it sparkling clean. And then I love to just
add in an essential oil. But if you grab cal soap,
which is eco friendly and been out there for a
long time, and you mix it with baking soda until
(24:07):
you get a paste, you can clean almost anything in
your house with it. It's low tox it doesn't have
to have a scent, and it is an incredible scrubber.
So I do like to make a lot of my
own potions, as my husband calls them.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Do you have a hack for detergents? Because I know
that like that's one of the really bad things that
we're dealing with. But in terms of microplastics, those little
pods are terrible to be flushing down the drain. Do
you have one for that for that?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah, So any little pod does have microplastics and a
lot of toxins in it, but the other endocrine disruptors
and things like that. But if you get out like
an ice cube tray, me and my ice cube trays,
and you fill it with baking soda citric acid, and
then can geal it with either water just filled water
or casteal soap and you let it set overnight, it'll
(24:56):
make a little pod and you can use that. Usually
the breakdown kind of differs, and sometimes I add in
a little bit of like another solution, a borox space,
and it'll clean your dishes really well. I also make
my ownlaundrie detergent. It's not as complicated as it seems
people are super intimidated by it. Kind of like sourdough bread.
(25:18):
Not as intimidating as it seems. You just have to
commit to the process.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
My wife makes a lemon cleaner, so all of our
lemons that we cook with, once we kind of ring
the juice on the outside, she'll take all the holes
of the lemon, put them into a big glass star
that we have and fill it full of vinegar and
just let it sit for a while. And that's what
we use to clean all the surfaces in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
That's fantastic because it's a natural citric acid base, right,
so it's going to take off all that dirt, all
that grime, and it's easy. I actually use my Christmas
tree the same way. So if you take off a
few stems of your Christmas tree, if it's real and
oregon here, they're always real. But we clip it off
and we put it in vinegar and it smells like
pine salt, but pine scented distilled vinegar, and it smells delicious.
(26:05):
So you can throw anything orange rindes. Do you have
those little clementines kids love to eat, Take all those rines,
throw them in some vinegar and then like you know,
four weeks you'll have really nice scented vinegar.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah. My wife has a pantry filled of like potions
and then like alcohol concoctions, right, so she'll take like
pineapple and tequila and like let it sit for six months.
Oh yeah, and we usually will make take bourbon and
cranberries and then we'll steep that for six months. And
we also have we have a bunch of fruit trees
in our backyard. We have apples and pears we make
(26:37):
like an odor v with vodka. And then the beautiful
thing about that is the oxidation of the apples and
the pears kind of gives the o to d sort
of a bourbony color, which is really kind of nice.
And normally that they'll come from wood or toasted wood,
but the oxidation of the fruit kind of gives it
a nice texture. And she'll throw in a cinnamon stick,
you're throwing some cloves, you're throwing some them on. And
(27:00):
then we'll have this like snuggler fip vodka thing for
the holidays, which is just delicious. She's always using everything.
We down nothing away.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
That's great. No food waste is a big deal.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
So I love that.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Sounds like your wife and I would get along very well.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I'm going to introduce the two of you. I think
you guys would be best friends, Like, no kidding, you
guys would be best friends.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I love that. And my husband's name is Tyler, So
there you go, more common, there you go, common denominators.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
That's double date that'd be good.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
I love it. Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Last one you were talking, you guys were both talking
about like the sleiting properties of lemons and limes. You've
got a microwave cleaning tip that has to do with lemons, right.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, So this one my mom always did. I always
saw her to do it. I thought, this is just
the way you clean your microwave. But you just take
a bowl of water, you put the lemon rhymes. Usually
for my lemon water in the morning, I just add
them in to the bowl. You put it in the microwave,
turn it on thirty seconds a minute, depending how high
powered your microwave is. It steams the citric acid. It's alleviated.
It smells like lemon. It's like a lemon grove in
(28:01):
your microwave, and you just wipe it down. It gets
out anything melted, cheese, spilled, you know, coffee. My son
loves to over microwave his oatmeal. I'm like, just use
the boiling water tapped, honey, it's not that hard and
oatmeal is all stuck all over the place. Or my
husband loves to reheat like spaghetti and it's all over
(28:22):
and he's like, oh, you know, gosh, you know, God forbid,
they can actually do the lemon trick. It's very easy.
But that is like my go to and I feel
good doing it because it smells good. Citrus naturally releases
dopamine in your brain makes you feel happy, and so
if you can find a dopamine rush while you're cleaning,
that's a win win.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
In my book, our microwave with our teenagers looks like
a crime scene. A crime scene, like like did this
spill over or bubble over? And then you just left it.
There's like a lake of goo in the bottom of
this that I don't know if it's tomato, sauce or
cheese or both, but they just load us leave it.
It's disgusting.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I feel like every time I microwave butter, it gets everywhere.
I don't know why I can't microwave butter correctly.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Why are you microwaving butter?
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Because popcorn is one? And then also, I have this
recipe that's terrible for you, but it's so delicious and
it's broccoli florets and then it's a bunch of velveta
cheese and then you get ritz crackers and melt the
butter and you crush it up in a bag and
then you put it over the top, over top of it,
and then you put it in the oven for thirty
minutes and it's the greatest thing you've ever eaten in
your entire life. So every time I do that, though,
(29:33):
I feel like I over microwave it and then it
gets everywhere. So I need a hack for that. It's
very specific though.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, instead of microwaving for three minutes, microwaved for a
minute and a half.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, that's the that's your's.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Don't yeah, don't microwave it on high for three minutes.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
That's the tip.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
All right, I learned something every tip. That's the tip.
If you guys out there want to learn about all
this stuff and much more, please head on over to
Nicole's website, which is www dot Nicolejacks dot com. But
you spell your last name kind of interestingly. You are
you French? I assume my husband yeah, J A q
(30:15):
U E S no C. Very fancy. And then the
same thing for Instagram and TikTok, it's it's Nicole Jack's brecked.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Yeah, thank you so.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Much for coming on too, dudes. This was so much fun.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
This was a blast and I can't wait to meet
Tyler's wife and make all the concoctions. I'm about it.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
You guys are best best buds. Promption love that.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Let's teach your teenagers how to clean the mic with
you know, honestly, I've clearly spoiled my children, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
So it would be torture for them if they had
to clean the microwave up. It would be the worst
thing on planet Earth if we made them clean out
the microwave oven. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Well, Thank you guys. This was a blast, great way
to start my day.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Have a wonderful day. Thank you so much for coming
on all right, you guys have a good one you too,
see you.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Thanks to take Care.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
That was an awesome, awesome interview with so much information.
I was wondering, do you have any like diy hacks?
Speaker 1 (31:09):
You know what I like about the internet? Right? And yeah,
because before the wealth of knowledge that people have just
doing things and getting it right by experimenting at home.
It's a difference between like cooking and recipes and what
I like to call kitchen wisdom. So what we just
heard was a half an hour of just really beautiful
(31:30):
kitchen wisdom by somebody who's just kind of leaning into
that and kind of sharing that through social media. So
people are going like, this is what I've This seems
so dumb. Like I literally, you know, forgot my grill
racks or my oven, you know whatever it is out
in the lawn and I picked them up and all
of a sudden, the dew in the grass kind of
cleaned them. And I don't know why, but it works.
And I think all that stuff is just really really special,
(31:51):
and I think it connects a lot of people because
they're like, oh, me too, or I was just wondering
about that, or I had heard about that. So I mean,
she's obviously an authority and all of it, and she's
really good at it. That was fun, man, I like that.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah, it's very cool. If you guys have some DIY hacks,
sending on over to our Instagram page. Coming up next
week we will be doing more questions, so if you
have any questions for Tyler Florence, please dm us over
there as well. Thank you guys so much for listening
to Dudes in the Kitchen. This one was awesome. I
love this one. Me Sure we'll see you next time,
all right, guys, thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram
(32:21):
at Two Dudes in a Kitchen. Make sure to write
us a review and leave us five stars.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
We'll take that and we'll see you guys next time.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
See you next time.
It's Two Dudes in a Kitchen with Tyler Florence.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
And Wells Adams, an iHeartRadio podcast. All right, welcome into
another episode of Two Dudes in a Kitchen. It's Wells
Adams in his studio and Tyler Florence in an embassy
suite's in Florida. So neither of us are actually in
a kitchen right now.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
That's right, Well, we're in the kitchen in your mind,
which is you know where it all starts anyway. But yeah,
I'm on the road with the Great Food Truck Ray
season seventeen. We're turning the corner on the Panhandle of Florida's.
We started the season in Houston and this whole season
is going to go around the Gulf of Mexico. So
we're going to be at the South Beach Food and
Wine Festival next week for the finale, which is wild.
(00:39):
We've never done this before, so we're I'm going to
give away fifty thousand dollars to the winner in front
of a crazy streaming crowd of Food Network fans and
I am here for it. It's gonna be for Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
That's amazing, dude. Well, today's Leap Day, which do you
know anyone that's born on Leap Day.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I don't know if I know a lot about it.
So I had to look this up and I watched
this really fascinating YouTube video on why leap year is
a thing every four years? Right, so it takes three
hundred and sixty five days for the Earth to go
around the sun. But it actually takes three hundred and
sixty five point two five days, yeah, to go around
the sun. So every four years they have to add
(01:19):
a day to the calendar. So all the clocks sink
up and that wild.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, yeah, no, I no, I know why why we
have leap here.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I didn't know that. I swear to God, I didn't
know that. I mean, I'm a grown man. I've never like,
I'm like, I just accept it, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I think it's three hundred and sixty four point two five.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Okay, Okay, that's it. You listen. I watch a YouTube
video on this, so who knows if it's accurate. One.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So, if you're born on leap Day, you really only
have a birthday every four years, which is great. You
stay forever young. Does that make sense? Yeah, So you
don't know anyone that's born on leap day.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I do not. I don't know anybody boring that did.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
You, I don't. I don't think i'd I do, but
we did some research. Leap day is often associated with
marriage proposals and flipping gender roles, which is interesting. And
in Greek tradition, however, it's considered bad luck to marry
on leap Day, and statistics suggest that Greek couples continue
to take this superstition very seriously. So the Greeks are
(02:21):
very very concerned about leap Day.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I know, that's just a very ancient thing, right, So
somewhere between the Greeks and the Egyptians that started this, right,
It's been around a long time.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I guess Julius Caesar introduced leap day. I'm just so
confused is how they figured it out.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, exactly. It seemed like sort of primitive math, and
you know, we'll probably fairly advance math for what it was.
But the idea of counting the days, I guess based
on you know, starting with some point in time, I guess,
like the longest day of the year and the shortest
day of the year, like how you recorded that, you know,
it just seems it seems how you could figure that out.
That's kind of wild.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Maybe it's like where the sun is in the sky
when it gets back to that exact point. That's how
you know a year is going by. I don't know.
I don't even know how Julius Caesar did without YouTube.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, this is the greatest thing about podcasts. So there's
a bunch of bro science. Like I heard the story
and I watched this YouTube video. This guy said this
thing about a thing, so it must be true. So yeah,
I don't know, but but listen, spring is coming, which
is fantastic. I mean, my my birthday is the third
of March, which is like just the dead of winter,
(03:26):
and so that's kind of coming up in a couple
of weeks. But I'm so excited for spring. It's a
fabulous time to cook. You know, some of the ingredients
start to pop up, or just those real super special
short season things like moral mushrooms and ramps and you
know and sort of like green strawberry which are really
kind of interesting and beautiful fresh floral notes. And so
spring is a very very special time to cook. And
(03:48):
that's what I get excited about.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Do you go to like the farmers market like constantly
to get new ingredients for your restaurants.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I do. I've been doing this a long time, especially
you know, I've been in northern California here for at
fifty sixteen years now seventeen years, and so we have
a great relationship with the people who we just you know,
done our research on and produce the best stuff and
then they deliver to our restaurant, which is okay. So
I do pop Eye with a cup of coffee at
the Ferry Terminal farmers market in San Francisco, but the
(04:19):
one in Marin County in San refel is really special.
That one's really big, it's super it's close to all
the farmers up in Petaluma and Sonoma and up in Napa.
They're just growing just spectacular stuff. So that's always like
a real special thing. And one of the most important
light bulb moments for me is a chef going to California,
(04:41):
where you get a chance to taste that California produce
miraculous special thing. Where where you know, coming from restaurants
in New York City before I moved to California, you know,
restaurants in New York or restaurants in New York with
some of the world's greatest and you go out to
California and then you kind of don't get it until
you do. But the food in northern California, I think
(05:02):
is the best food in the country. I think from
a produce farming standpoint, there are long growing seasons are
you know, sort of kind of ancient dry aging techniques
with some of our you know, stone fruit producers that
are kind of coming up a little bit later in
the season. I mean, if you've ever had a frog
hollow peach or a frog hollow plum or anything like that,
like this just it's just some of the best food.
(05:24):
In the figs, the tomatoes, they're just amazing. So it's
you know, like as soon as the weather starts and
warm up a little bit, Like that's what I get
really excited about, is sort of kind of going from
you know, polenta and you know portunity braised short ribs
into you know, super fresh flavor profiles and avocados are
going to start coming down the pipe pretty soon, and
(05:44):
and that just makes it really hungry, very excited.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I think one of the best hacks for any cook
is to go to the farmer's market and buy what's there,
because that means it's it's fresh right now, it's in
season right now, and then kind of curate your menu
from what's really really fresh right now. I go to
the Studio City farmers Market all the time and I
absolutely love it. Speaking of hacks, we have the Queen
(06:09):
of hacks on the show today. Nicole Jacks joins us
on the show. She has a growing social media presence
as she goes viral for hacks and tips and tricks
and on cleaning and cooking and holiday creations and so
much more. In addition, she's teaching us how to live
a non toxic lifestyle, which you know, I think we
all need some of that. Her tagline is making you
the CEO of your home, which I absolutely love. We're
(06:31):
gonna take a quick break and we come back. Nicole
Jacks will be on the show giving us all the
hacks that we need for our daily life. All right,
welcome back to two Dudes in the kitchen. It's not
two dudes and a lady. Nicole Jacks joins us on
the show. Thank you so much for coming on. How
are you doing.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I'm doing great. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
This episode's coming out on Leap Day we were talking
before we brought you on. Do you know anyone who
was born on Leap Day? I don't, do you, I don't.
I don't know if they exist, And if they do,
they're they're far too young for me to be talking
to because they are one full far age. Yeah that's fair, Nicole.
(07:14):
I was looking at your social media today. You have
a huge following and you are just giving the world
all the hacks, the tricks, the tips, the DIY stuff.
How did this all start?
Speaker 3 (07:29):
So it was a passion project. I went on a
beach trip with some girlfriends and they were like, you
should really be showing people these tips. I would cook,
you know, when we go away for girls trips. They
were like can you cook? And I was like, sure,
I'll do all the cooking. You guys go get all
the groceries. And I was like smashing the head of
lettuce to core it and I was cleaning the cast
(07:50):
iron with a potato and salt and they were like,
where did you learn that? And I just thought it
was normal. I just thought that's what everyone did in
their kitchen. And I was raised by a Southern cook,
a Southern grandma, and a dinner party enthusiast mom, like
the og pinterest mom before Pinterest existed. And I think
(08:11):
I've just become a blend of my mom and my
grandma and now I'm just sharing it on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Are you getting DIY tips sent to you now? And
then you're like trying them out and then getting to
kind of pass them off as your own because I imagine
eventually you run out of tips, right.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Well kind of. I think what's happened in the social
media world is kitchen hacks became trendy. It was like
who knew the hack? And so if you were the
first one to post it, it was like, that's cool,
and then a million other people post it. Now I
get a lot of can you debunk this? Oh, on
my stories, there's a lot of like does this really work?
And I go on my stories and say, Nope, this
(08:49):
doesn't work, or yes it does, but most of them
don't work. Unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Let's go through some of your famous ones and everyone
needs to go follow you on social media because you're
gonna do a much better job at describing it on
your channel that I'm going to do kind of describing
it right now. But let's just do this. Let me
a'll say the kind of title of it, and then
you can kind of talk us through it.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I want that, sure, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Ice cube dishwasher dishwasher trick? What is that?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
So you're gonna take your oven racks that are dirty
out of the oven, You're going to put them in
your dishwasher. You can wash them in your dishwasher. Not
every dishwasher has a steam function, so you put the
cubes in there to create the steam when they're washing,
and then we'll just take off all of the grime.
Heat is a great cleaner, especially with dirt and grime.
(09:39):
And we have a built in dishwasher that will literally
clean your oven racks. So that's like one of my
go tos. You can also my grandma used to put
her oven racks in her grass overnight in the yard
in the springtime when it's really dewy, and when she
would pick them up out of the grass, all of
the dirt and grime and grease would just fall off
her oven rack.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I did not know that that would work.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, I posted it like a year ago. I should
probably redo it come spring because it's one of those
that you're like this can't work, and then thousands of
people are dming me like the grass cleaned my like
my oven racks, and I was like, well, actually the
dew when the overnight temperatures do it. But it really
really works.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Okay, let's talk about boil over preventter. I always just
heard you put a spoon on top of it, so
you can and.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
That will break some of the surface tension. But it's
not like tried and true. So if you really just
don't want to have to deal with watching your temperature
on your pot or pan, which is what most people
don't do. They don't want to control it and turn
it down, just rub olive oil or any kind of
oil on the very rim of your pot and it
will break the surface tension when it starts to boil
(10:49):
up and keep the boil at bay.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Tyler, have you heard of that before?
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I have, which is great. And the spoon thing works
for sure. You know, a wooden spoon on top of
a boiling pot. You have to be really careful that
the flame that licks around the side of the pot
doesn't melt the handle of the spoon or catch it
on fire or something like that, because like that's happened
before too, But yeah, that absolutely works for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Okay, let's get into dental floss. How the hell can
I use dental floss in my food?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Well?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I usually use it just to cut like cinnamon rolls,
because it's just easy and it's accessible. But because it
has that nonstick surface and then you have your tension
in your hands, it can, you know, be you can
cut it through anything that stuff cheese caked, you know,
anything that's kind of tricky, you know, when you're cutting,
(11:35):
like cutting something you don't want to flatten. Yeah, is
usually when I use it, And so it's just an
easy go to if you need to not flatten whenever
you're cutting with that.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Do you need like unflavored floss or can you have
like the minty green.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Or the or the cinnamon cinnamon?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
You can use cinnamon with cinnamon rolls. That's actually probably
another tip Tyler. That's like a good Yeah, yeah, it
can be any kind really, I mean unflavored. They're always
going to say is better, but it doesn't really make
a difference.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, Okay, how do I keep my my wine cools?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
So this I grew up in Sonama, so this is
like a like college kid trick. That I learned by
going around to wineries and in the summer, the heat
is hot, and they would put frozen grapes in our
wine when they would give it to us, and I
just thought that was like the funniest thing, But it
really does work. So grapes don't change the flavor profile
of the wine. They're not going to give it a
(12:33):
weird acidic taste. Nothing on them is going to cause
a problem with your wine bouquet or profile. So just
freeze them in your freezer and then pop them in
and they'll keep yourself blank super cold on a hot
day without watering it down.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I like that idea too, because my wife and my
mother in law love a big ice cube in their wine,
especially their rose. So I'm totally going to try that.
I think that's very interesting because obviously you'd like you
because they like a cold cold and obviously that when
that I keep is gonna melt, it's going to dilute
the flavor of the wine itself. I think the grape
(13:08):
thing is cool.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Yeah, if you want to get really intricate, you can
find gooseberries during a certain time in the summer when
they sell them, and it actually adds a little bit
of acid to like a saft blank or even a
rose that gives it a really nice twist. So that
actually is another one. If you can't find grapes, kind
of gooseberry, right, we.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Got plenty of gooseberries.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, it's goodsberries everyone.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I love this next one. Growing up, I don't think
I knew the importance of pasta water and how to
make a good pasta dish. And I saw this hack
with saving your pasta water. Explain this one because it's
very very good, especially if you are making a bunch
of Italian food.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, so this to me is like the new mom hack.
I feel like my brain went out the door once
I had my kids, and I like would constantly forget
to say the pasta water as I was straining the
massive amounts of pasta that kids eat right, and then
the sauce put in adhere to the noodle the right way,
and I was like, I need that starchy pasta water
so bad, and I just kept throwing it down the drain.
(14:13):
So I called my grandma and she was like, oh, honey,
you just need to freeze the pasta water. So that's
exactly what I did. I made a pot of water
boiled the pasta stuff. I saved it, put it in
these big ice cube trays. You know, you want a
good amount of past water cup half a cup depending
on how much pasta, and I just froze it. Then
(14:35):
I started freezing it with herbs and olive oils, so
then it was infused or with garlics. And I always
now have starchy pasta water for that like brain blit
moment that you dump it down the drain and you
can just add it in to your pasta after when
you're mixing it with your sauce, and it does the
same exact thing as fresh pasta water.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Now an interesting take on that too, is to create
a gluten free version. The pasta water has gluten, it
has got a diluted flour, But you can do the
same thing with you either arrowroot or corn starch diluted
in water as well, and that will really tighten up
the sauce and kind of give it a nice sort
of a thick viscosity. Again to cling on to the
(15:15):
pasta so it feels like you're eating pasta and sauce
at the same time, doesn't drip off. It's nice.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I love that. I have a gluten free so I'm
going to try that one. That sounds great.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Look as you're writing that down, there you go.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
I am.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
The next video sponsored by Tyler for There I Go.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
You make it a shout out, please do.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
What's your hack for peeling potatoes?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
This one is probably one of my most viral tips,
and this was one of those. I just thought everyone
peeled their potatoes this way. And my friend came over
and I put her on potato duty and she was,
you know, peeling it with the peeler, and I was like,
what are you doing? So when I just boil my potatoes,
it's easy. It gets it done, especially as I'm multitask
in my kitchen. Can you cut take a knife, take
(16:02):
the potato, you know, cut a circle around the center
of it, just lightly, just on the skin. You're gonna
boil the potato and when you get about you're gonna
ice back them for like thirty seconds and you can
pick up the potato and then you just take your
fingers and gently pull and the peels come straight off.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Does that work with tomatoes too, Tyler? I feel like
I've seen that with tomatoes. Yes.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, So that's a blanching method that we use in
restaurants all the time. If you want to put an
X on the bottom of the tomato, a mondir which
like a leg, nice little cross, and then blanch it
in salted water. Ice it in salted water because if
you if you don't ic it, salt of water basically
washing off the flavor, and then the skin kind of
comes right off, and then you cut off these really
(16:46):
beautiful cheeks of the outside of the tomato for a
beautiful knife cut for tomato concussated. Yeah, that's not really pretty.
It works out. Peaches do the same time.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Oh nice. Yeah, Nicole, my wife's favorite drunk food, well
just setting any type of food, but favorite drunk food.
She made them last night. Actually, when we came back
from dinner is grilled cheese. What is your grilled cheese hack?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
So this was when my mom used to do, and
I thought, what a weird way to make grilled cheese,
Like don't you just take out your cast iron and
make it?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:20):
So I did not like this tip for the longest
time until I had children on my own and I
was running busy schedules. But you take the toaster and
you lay it on its side, right, so we're not
talking about like you know, a door a toaster, it'll
pops your toast up in the air. You're gonna turn
it on the side and you're going to put your
curlled cheese in it. It's going to toast the bread
and melt the cheese at the same time. Sometimes if
(17:42):
you add too much cheese, this one is messy. So
you can wrap it actually in like parchment or now
they actually have little DAGs because this became a real
tip that people love that you can put the grilled
cheese in and it'll toast it all and melt the
cheese at the same time. And you don't have to
dirty a pan, which is a great tip because I
hate washing dishes.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
But here's the thing. If you're making a grilled cheese,
you need to have the butter in the pan. Who
it needs to be soaking it up. And I don't know,
I don't know if I like that one.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I like it was tough for me too.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, but listen, we just did this this whole campaign
with Heston Cookware and they wanted some really simple recipes
and I stumbled across this recipe not too long ago
where this technique. And I had to make a grilled
chees sandwich with my sixteen year old son and he
just like, Dad, can you make me some lunch? I'm like,
you want a grilled chy sanwich? And then I normally,
(18:36):
just because I was on a conference called when I
was making this, I forgot to put the butter on
the outside the thread. Okay, So now I think a
grilled ches sandwich is actually technically complicated, right, technically right,
So you got the bread. Bread's gotta be if you're
you know, using store ball backbread. They're all perfectly sliced.
But if you got to like a nice batar from
the fancy place, expensive bread, you want to cut them
(18:58):
nice and consistent. And then I like a little smear
of mayonnaise on the inside for the little kind of
extra creamy gush. Then the cheese, right, so you have
to So the cheese is a perfect square, bread is
not right. No one has made a perfect slice of
cheese that fits a perfect slice of bread. So it's
either somewhere between, and more often than not, we have
a bag of shredded cheese in the house, so that's
(19:19):
what I used. I use the bag of shredded cheese,
and I use the mayonnaise as the glue to kind
of hold the whole thing together. And then I was
just busy in a conversation and I forgot to put
the butter on the outside of the bread and I
dropped it in the pan dry. Now this is where
this gets really kind of interesting. So I toasted the
bread in the pan as if you're using a toaster,
(19:40):
because you don't put butter on toast before you put
in the toaster. You put it on after. Really just
like glass like texture on the outside of the bread
because because butter will burn right like whole butter has
milk solids and it will actually start to burn. And
sometimes you get this like crispy, saggy texture on the outside,
but not anything. It's like glass like crispy, like you're
(20:02):
gonna get it out out of a toaster of it.
So I toasted it dry on one side, and then
I flipped it over and I toasted it dry it
on the other and then I threw in two or
three tablespoons of butter, and then butter based it like
you're basing a filame mignon.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Oh. I love how technical a grilled cheese can be.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
But honestly, it seems it seems kind of simple because
like the you know, how often do we have, you know,
the perfect temperature of butter to get the perfect smear
on the outside. It's usually cold or like chili room temperature,
and you're trying to like smear it, so it doesn't
even even like gracefully kind of flip from one side
of the other. But the brown butter basing on top of
the dark like darker toasted toast anyway was just spectacular.
(20:43):
And I threw in a garlic clove, I threw in
a couple of sprigs of fresh time and now I'm
basing this thing if you go on, Yes we did.
We shot this with Williams and Oma and so this
video is on Williamston's homepaste, but just kind of butter
based it as if you're basing a flame, Andyon, and
my god, it was just like, okay, I just this
is the best grill cheese ever had in my life.
This is kind of amazing.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yeah, I'm going they need to have one. I'm so hungry.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah. The texture of the toast, the texture of the
toast was just like that is just shattery crispy, really
really dry, shattery crispy with that liquor brown butter on top.
It was I stumbled into something really interesting butter after
the toast.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I'm a little shook. Though you don't use American singles
for your grilled cheese.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I'm not opposed to that, you know what I mean. Like, listen,
I like Mount Tam Triple Cream Bree. To be honest
with you.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Oh, we're gonna get We're gonna get snoopy.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
He's out of fancy, super fancy. That's my favorite cheese
on Planet Earth is Mount Tam by Cowgirl Creamery, Mount
Tam Triple Cream Bree, boom done. That's the cheese you
put on our burgers at Miller Lux, which the Michelin
Guide said is one of the five best burgers in
the state of California.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
By the way, go and Brusters shoulders on.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
But I really like Kraft American singles. I think those
are delicious. I think it's great.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Yeah, I just feel like it's the perfect texture, especially
when you cut it diagonally, of course, and you pull
it apart. The cheese pull is absolutely amazing. But this
new basting technique I'm going to try. I really like it. Yeah, so, Nicole.
One of the things that I noticed from your social
media pages. Yes, it's a lot of like cooking hacks,
but then it's a lot of like cleaning hacks. Like
(22:28):
there's one where you made your own cleaning salt, which
I thought was amazing, probably really good for the environment,
not putting a bunch of like microplastics down the drain.
So kind of talk us through some of the cleaning
solvents that you make.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Yeah, so I started lower talking in the house because
I have an autoimmune disease and I've got kids. I
live on the West Coast, and I found a recipe
book from my grandma, and she used to make a
lot of her own. She cleaned a lot of things
with the potato. The potato is the big thing in
our family. Clearly we were potato lots. But she would
(23:01):
like clean a mirror with a half cut potato. It
actually cuts the steam effect on a mirror. And she
like had written these down kind of in like a
little diary. And as I was going through my own
tobaccle with low tox in my house, I was like, well,
why don't we just try some of these? So some
of them are hers and some of them are adaptations
(23:22):
of them, but I love baking soda. There are like
five things I always have in my house. Vinegar, you know,
distilled vinegar, baking soda, citric acid, A pumice stone, so
like a Pomis stone is great for cleaning your oven.
That is like my number one tip, not like the
Pomas stone you like, scrape your feet with like an
actual cleaning palmice stone. It will get your I have
(23:45):
a real up that shows my friends even before and
after the window pane, and it is sparkling clean. It
is like a bachelor oven, so dirty and it just
made it sparkling clean. And then I love to just
add in an essential oil. But if you grab cal soap,
which is eco friendly and been out there for a
long time, and you mix it with baking soda until
(24:07):
you get a paste, you can clean almost anything in
your house with it. It's low tox it doesn't have
to have a scent, and it is an incredible scrubber.
So I do like to make a lot of my
own potions, as my husband calls them.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Do you have a hack for detergents? Because I know
that like that's one of the really bad things that
we're dealing with. But in terms of microplastics, those little
pods are terrible to be flushing down the drain. Do
you have one for that for that?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah, So any little pod does have microplastics and a
lot of toxins in it, but the other endocrine disruptors
and things like that. But if you get out like
an ice cube tray, me and my ice cube trays,
and you fill it with baking soda citric acid, and
then can geal it with either water just filled water
or casteal soap and you let it set overnight, it'll
(24:56):
make a little pod and you can use that. Usually
the breakdown kind of differs, and sometimes I add in
a little bit of like another solution, a borox space,
and it'll clean your dishes really well. I also make
my ownlaundrie detergent. It's not as complicated as it seems
people are super intimidated by it. Kind of like sourdough bread.
(25:18):
Not as intimidating as it seems. You just have to
commit to the process.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
My wife makes a lemon cleaner, so all of our
lemons that we cook with, once we kind of ring
the juice on the outside, she'll take all the holes
of the lemon, put them into a big glass star
that we have and fill it full of vinegar and
just let it sit for a while. And that's what
we use to clean all the surfaces in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
That's fantastic because it's a natural citric acid base, right,
so it's going to take off all that dirt, all
that grime, and it's easy. I actually use my Christmas
tree the same way. So if you take off a
few stems of your Christmas tree, if it's real and
oregon here, they're always real. But we clip it off
and we put it in vinegar and it smells like
pine salt, but pine scented distilled vinegar, and it smells delicious.
(26:05):
So you can throw anything orange rindes. Do you have
those little clementines kids love to eat, Take all those rines,
throw them in some vinegar and then like you know,
four weeks you'll have really nice scented vinegar.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah. My wife has a pantry filled of like potions
and then like alcohol concoctions, right, so she'll take like
pineapple and tequila and like let it sit for six months.
Oh yeah, and we usually will make take bourbon and
cranberries and then we'll steep that for six months. And
we also have we have a bunch of fruit trees
in our backyard. We have apples and pears we make
(26:37):
like an odor v with vodka. And then the beautiful
thing about that is the oxidation of the apples and
the pears kind of gives the o to d sort
of a bourbony color, which is really kind of nice.
And normally that they'll come from wood or toasted wood,
but the oxidation of the fruit kind of gives it
a nice texture. And she'll throw in a cinnamon stick,
you're throwing some cloves, you're throwing some them on. And
(27:00):
then we'll have this like snuggler fip vodka thing for
the holidays, which is just delicious. She's always using everything.
We down nothing away.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
That's great. No food waste is a big deal.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
So I love that.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Sounds like your wife and I would get along very well.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I'm going to introduce the two of you. I think
you guys would be best friends, Like, no kidding, you
guys would be best friends.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I love that. And my husband's name is Tyler, So
there you go, more common, there you go, common denominators.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
That's double date that'd be good.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
I love it. Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Last one you were talking, you guys were both talking
about like the sleiting properties of lemons and limes. You've
got a microwave cleaning tip that has to do with lemons, right.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, So this one my mom always did. I always
saw her to do it. I thought, this is just
the way you clean your microwave. But you just take
a bowl of water, you put the lemon rhymes. Usually
for my lemon water in the morning, I just add
them in to the bowl. You put it in the microwave,
turn it on thirty seconds a minute, depending how high
powered your microwave is. It steams the citric acid. It's alleviated.
It smells like lemon. It's like a lemon grove in
(28:01):
your microwave, and you just wipe it down. It gets
out anything melted, cheese, spilled, you know, coffee. My son
loves to over microwave his oatmeal. I'm like, just use
the boiling water tapped, honey, it's not that hard and
oatmeal is all stuck all over the place. Or my
husband loves to reheat like spaghetti and it's all over
(28:22):
and he's like, oh, you know, gosh, you know, God forbid,
they can actually do the lemon trick. It's very easy.
But that is like my go to and I feel
good doing it because it smells good. Citrus naturally releases
dopamine in your brain makes you feel happy, and so
if you can find a dopamine rush while you're cleaning,
that's a win win.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
In my book, our microwave with our teenagers looks like
a crime scene. A crime scene, like like did this
spill over or bubble over? And then you just left it.
There's like a lake of goo in the bottom of
this that I don't know if it's tomato, sauce or
cheese or both, but they just load us leave it.
It's disgusting.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I feel like every time I microwave butter, it gets everywhere.
I don't know why I can't microwave butter correctly.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Why are you microwaving butter?
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Because popcorn is one? And then also, I have this
recipe that's terrible for you, but it's so delicious and
it's broccoli florets and then it's a bunch of velveta
cheese and then you get ritz crackers and melt the
butter and you crush it up in a bag and
then you put it over the top, over top of it,
and then you put it in the oven for thirty
minutes and it's the greatest thing you've ever eaten in
your entire life. So every time I do that, though,
(29:33):
I feel like I over microwave it and then it
gets everywhere. So I need a hack for that. It's
very specific though.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, instead of microwaving for three minutes, microwaved for a
minute and a half.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, that's the that's your's.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Don't yeah, don't microwave it on high for three minutes.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
That's the tip.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
All right, I learned something every tip. That's the tip.
If you guys out there want to learn about all
this stuff and much more, please head on over to
Nicole's website, which is www dot Nicolejacks dot com. But
you spell your last name kind of interestingly. You are
you French? I assume my husband yeah, J A q
(30:15):
U E S no C. Very fancy. And then the
same thing for Instagram and TikTok, it's it's Nicole Jack's brecked.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Yeah, thank you so.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Much for coming on too, dudes. This was so much fun.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
This was a blast and I can't wait to meet
Tyler's wife and make all the concoctions. I'm about it.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
You guys are best best buds. Promption love that.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Let's teach your teenagers how to clean the mic with
you know, honestly, I've clearly spoiled my children, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
So it would be torture for them if they had
to clean the microwave up. It would be the worst
thing on planet Earth if we made them clean out
the microwave oven. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Well, Thank you guys. This was a blast, great way
to start my day.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Have a wonderful day. Thank you so much for coming
on all right, you guys have a good one you too,
see you.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Thanks to take Care.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
That was an awesome, awesome interview with so much information.
I was wondering, do you have any like diy hacks?
Speaker 1 (31:09):
You know what I like about the internet? Right? And yeah,
because before the wealth of knowledge that people have just
doing things and getting it right by experimenting at home.
It's a difference between like cooking and recipes and what
I like to call kitchen wisdom. So what we just
heard was a half an hour of just really beautiful
(31:30):
kitchen wisdom by somebody who's just kind of leaning into
that and kind of sharing that through social media. So
people are going like, this is what I've This seems
so dumb. Like I literally, you know, forgot my grill
racks or my oven, you know whatever it is out
in the lawn and I picked them up and all
of a sudden, the dew in the grass kind of
cleaned them. And I don't know why, but it works.
And I think all that stuff is just really really special,
(31:51):
and I think it connects a lot of people because
they're like, oh, me too, or I was just wondering
about that, or I had heard about that. So I mean,
she's obviously an authority and all of it, and she's
really good at it. That was fun, man, I like that.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah, it's very cool. If you guys have some DIY hacks,
sending on over to our Instagram page. Coming up next
week we will be doing more questions, so if you
have any questions for Tyler Florence, please dm us over
there as well. Thank you guys so much for listening
to Dudes in the Kitchen. This one was awesome. I
love this one. Me Sure we'll see you next time,
all right, guys, thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram
(32:21):
at Two Dudes in a Kitchen. Make sure to write
us a review and leave us five stars.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
We'll take that and we'll see you guys next time.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
See you next time.
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