March 17, 2025 • 28 mins
We're still on our kick about personal tastes. After three dozen cookbooks, we're nothing but opinionated about food! It's our passion, after all.
We'll let you know our preferences in the hopes we can hear more about yours. We've also got a one-minute cooking tip. And we'll tell you what's making us happy in food this week.
Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:
[00:54] Our one-minute cooking tip: keep a dry-erase white board by your freezer.
[02:43] Part two of the the foods we love and the foods we hate
[24:53] What’s making us happy in food this week? Fresca and jam oat bars.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bruce (00:01):
Hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein, podcast Cooking
Mark (00:03):
with Bruce and Mark.
And I'm Mark Scarborough, and togetherwith Bruce, we have written three dozen
cookbooks on our own, not countingthe ones for celebrities, ahem, Dr.
Phil, and others, uh, which I'm notsupposed to say because of confidentiality
agreements, but that's a whole storyin and of itself, but I said it anyway.
Uh, we've written a lot of cookbooksand been in, uh, food business
for now, what, 26, 27 years.
(00:25):
We've been doing this a long time.
This is our podcast about foodand cooking and our passion.
We, as always have a oneminute cooking tip for you.
We're going to continue what we didin the last episode of this podcast,
which is tell you some of our loves andhates the foods we actually love and
the foods we hate to get you thinkingabout the foods you love and you hate.
And then at the end, we'll tell youwhat's making us happy in food this week.
(00:49):
So let's get started.
Bruce (00:54):
our one minute cooking tip.
Keep a whiteboard, you know, whereyou can use markers on it next to
your refrigerator so that you caninventory what's in the freezer.
Because if you're like me, you buystuff when it's on sale, you buy things
when they look good, you shove itin the freezer and six months later,
you have no idea what's in there.
So we have a freezer in our basement andwe have a big whiteboard and I keep a
(01:16):
tally of Everything that's in there, Iremember to add things when I put them
in, and I erase them when I take them out.
Okay, now I'm going to make fun of you.
Oh, please
Mark (01:25):
do.
Yeah, please.
You know smart refrigerators can dothis without a whiteboard, right?
You know that people whohave smart refrigerators
Bruce (01:31):
don't need the whiteboard.
Okay, if you have a smartrefrigerator, you don't need
my one minute cooking today.
No, you do not!
Now I would like to know how many ofyou actually have a smart refrigerator.
So, please go to our Facebookgroup, Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
And tell me if you havea smart refrigerator.
And if you say you do,I want a picture of it.
Mark (01:47):
A smart refrigerator will have, in fact, note taking abilities right
on the door of the refrigerator itself.
Bruce (01:53):
I'mma love it.
Mark (01:54):
Your tip is for ancient people as we are.
But, okay, yes, a whiteboardis really, uh, good.
And Bruce says that there's one rightdown by the freezer in our basement.
And it keeps a tally ofeverything that's in there.
Okay, before we get to thenext segment of this podcast.
Let me say, I remind you thatit would be great if you could
subscribe to this podcast.
And if you could rate it, that's perfect.
(02:16):
If you can give it a starrating on whatever platform
you're listening to this on.
And if you could write a reviewthat is going even above and
beyond the call of duty, but we areunsupported and your reviews help
keep us fresh in the algorithm.
So even something like greatpodcast or thanks for the
podcast that really does help.
And it is the way thatyou can actually support.
This podcast, because otherwisewe have eschewed any kind of other
(02:40):
support so that we can say thingslike what we're about to say, the
foods we like and the foods we hate.
Let's get to it.
Bruce (02:49):
I'm going to start with something I hate.
Mark (02:51):
Okay.
Bruce (02:52):
Fake.
Apple flavoring.
Mark (02:53):
Fake apple flavoring.
I don't even know what that is.
Okay,
Bruce (02:57):
so I can go back to my childhood and remember life savers that came in
multi flavors and they were apple ones.
I didn't like and Jolly Rancher candy.
Yes.
Mark (03:07):
Sour,
Bruce (03:07):
sour, green, sour apple.
And I love the watermelon.
I love the grape.
I love the strawberry.
The apple.
No, thank you.
Jelly bellies to this day.
I will not Buy Jelly Bellies anymore,because you might accidentally get
one in your mouth that's apple.
Or licorice, eww, or root beer.
But the apple ones really turn my stomach.
(03:28):
And the thing is, Ilove fake fruit flavor.
Fake banana flavor?
One of my favorite things ever invented.
Mark (03:34):
I'm not a fan of Jolly Ranchers, so the whole thing kind of is beyond me.
But I do now know what youmean by fake apple flavor.
It's that fake green, tartgreen apple flavor, unquote.
Bruce (03:44):
Yeah, and when Mark and I used to make lollipops and hard
candies at the holidays for all ofour family, and I would never ever,
ever buy the apple flavoring for them.
I just couldn't do it.
We made banana.
We made chocolate.
We made coconut.
Yeah, that's true.
But I would never make apple.
That's true.
I never liked it.
Okay, so something I like.
Let's stay with the sweet.
Now, this is something I haven't had in along time because I can't find it anymore.
(04:07):
But soft serve vanilla ice cream with it.
Hot marshmallow topping.
Oh my, so you like diabetes.
Alright, fine.
What
Mark (04:17):
is soft serve ice cream with a hot marshmallow topping?
Well, soft serve,
Bruce (04:21):
like a Dairy Queen, but when I was growing up in Queens, we had Carvel.
I know what
Mark (04:25):
soft serve is.
It's the hot marshmallow part of it.
Carvel offered
Bruce (04:28):
you hot fudge.
Or wet nuts, or pineapple.
Wet
Mark (04:33):
nuts?
This is not that kind of podcast.
Go on.
Or
Bruce (04:35):
pineapple, or strawberry syrup, or hot marshmallow.
And you, so basically it's likeyou heat up marshmallow fluff.
And you put it on ice cream.
What?
And you have the hot creamywith the cold creamy.
And it was my favorite.
I can feel it catchingin the back of my throat.
When my sister visited lastyear, we took you to Carvel.
(04:55):
You did, and I And youdid have your soft serve.
And I almost died on the wayhome because I'm so full.
She said get the medium, and themedium could serve a family of six.
Yes, I know.
And she had one, you hadone, and Mike had one.
Oh.
But they didn't have anyhot marshmallow topping.
Hot
Mark (05:09):
marshmallow topping.
I
Bruce (05:11):
love it.
Okay.
Yum.
Mark (05:12):
All right.
Well, um, I'm going tosay something that I love.
And this will kind ofcrack you up, I think.
Maybe.
I don't know.
I like good All Americanblock, yellow cheese.
Uh, I know Government cheese.
Government cheese.
I know this is insane.
You think, oh, I think thisguy's written 36 cookbooks, he
should like better than that.
I do like other cheeses, and I dolike fine cheesemaking, but I have to
(05:36):
tell you that many times when we go toCostco or Bruce goes to the supermarket,
I say, can you get me just a blockof good old American sharp cheddar?
Bruce (05:45):
And you're not talking about American cheese.
You're talking about cheddar cheese.
Mark (05:48):
Yeah, exactly.
Cheddar.
But America, to me, that is what wegrowing up called American cheese.
And I like the sharp version.
And honestly, a slice of thatis just a fine thing with lunch.
I, I, I know I wrote for WineSpectator and yet here I am
liking block yellow cheese.
All right.
It just is a thing with me.
I
Bruce (06:07):
will say the truth is last week we went to Costco, and not only did we
get the block of yellow cheese, but youdid buy the block of Manchego as well.
I did.
I'm not saying that I don't
Mark (06:15):
like other fancier cheeses.
I just like that cheese.
And here's something that I hate, andif you listen to last week's episode
of the podcast, you might detect atheme here, is I cannot stand sweet.
Barbecue.
I do not like barbecuesauce by and large period.
(06:35):
I like vinegar based barbecue sauces.
I like Alabama white sauce.
That's a whole different thing.
But I don't reallyappreciate sweet barbecue.
And I really don't like yoursmoked brisket that has a ton
of sugary sauce on top of it.
I just don't think you're in
Bruce (06:54):
a minority there because I think I know I'm in the most U.
S.
Citizens think of barbecue as the craftbarbecue sauce that thick corn syrup and
tomato paste based thing that you slatheron the chicken before you cook it so that
it's a charred mess when it comes off.
Mark (07:10):
And you know, I mean, I grew up in barbecue country.
So when I was a kid, we hadthis And it's this thing.
If we want to try a new barbecuerestaurant, what we did is we
never went in and got the porkribs or anything like that.
We went in and got the brisket.
Because brisket is the sign of whetherit's a good barbecue restaurant or not.
And my parents, and I guess they taughtme, my parents ate the brisket, at
(07:35):
least to begin with, without any sauce.
Because they wanted to see whatthe brisket itself tasted like?
Was it smoky?
Was it overly smoked?
Too smoky so it tasted like, you know,you burned your house down and licked
out the fireplace, which is gross.
Was it too smoky?
Was it not smoky enough?
Was it tender?
And I guess I just continued thatbecause I don't eat, as Bruce knows,
(07:56):
Bruce will smoke a brisket, and Brucewill even make homemade barbecue sauce,
and I won't touch the barbecue sauce.
Oh yeah,
Bruce (08:02):
I make a chipotle and fig barbecue sauce, it's so good with fig,
but it's fig jam and it's got a figjam and chipotles, and I do like it,
but I like a little bit of it, I don't
Mark (08:12):
like sweet.
Pork ribs smoked out of a barbeque,I don't like any of that sweet
Bruce (08:16):
stuff.
There should be no sauce on pork ribs.
I'm gonna agree with you on that.
And I
Mark (08:20):
know I'm in the terrible minority on that.
But, uh, I just don't like sweet barbeque.
Bruce (08:26):
Well, something that I love is lobster.
Now, last time I said I love smokedsalmon, I told the whole history of how I
didn't eat anything that lived in water.
So of course, lobster was somethingI never ate growing up because
I just couldn't deal with it.
Partly, you know, lobsters, if you lookat them, they look like giant insects.
(08:46):
And I mean, these decapods are just,they are just insects of the ocean.
I mean, Oh, come on.
Well, a roach is adecapod of your kitchen.
And a lobster is a decapod of
Mark (08:58):
Okay, just go on while you like lobster.
And do you
Bruce (09:00):
know that if you cook a roach, it turns red like a lobster does?
Okay, come on.
Stop.
So lobsters are so
Mark (09:05):
God, you are so 12 years old.
It's pathetic.
Bruce (09:08):
Go on.
Please go on.
But it's funny because we have somefriends that whenever we visit them out
on Long Island, they serve us lobsters,and this one friend, she's my oldest
friend in the world, and she only wantsto crack it open and eat all the guts
and the liquid inside, and then I'lleat the the tail and the claw off of her
because she doesn't even want the meat.
She only wants the sludge inside of it.
(09:28):
I mean, I may
Mark (09:28):
agree with this, but I love lobster, and I love it in the classic
way, dipped in butter, in melted butter.
I just love it.
It's a spectacular thing, andI'm lucky to live in New England,
where it's actually easy to get it.
Okay, what do you hate, then?
Bruce (09:40):
Well, I hate stinky cheese.
You are totally wrong on that one.
Parmesan, that's about asstinky as I want to get.
Mark (09:49):
No.
Bruce (09:49):
Um, but you love like a pois.
Mark (09:52):
I want, I like the cheese, the soft French cheeses that taste like you
took your garbage out and then drankthe liquid in the bottom of the can.
That's exactly what I want.
And I
Bruce (10:02):
can't stand the smell of a cheese cave.
Oh my god, I love it.
There was a restaurant in New Yorkthat was a cheese specialty place
and we went there with some friendsonce and they thought they were doing
us a favor and an upgrade by seatingus in the cheese cave for dinner.
Oh, that just like, I couldn'tget past anything else.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna
Mark (10:18):
leave this as my, you mean hate, and it can be my love.
I, I love stinky cheese.
In fact, I have a friend who Iwas, uh, she was coming over for
dinner and, um, she's British.
But she, she knew that wewere going to serve cheese.
After dinner, I love what you said to me.
She said, well, make sure as if Iwouldn't make sure you put it out
in the morning so it can fester.
(10:40):
And I was like, exactly.
That's exactly what I wantedto do is fester all day long.
So that is.
Unbelievably creamy and rich.
It is a live food product.
Oh, it's so great.
I love a poisse morethan I can possibly say.
Uh, it's, it's like one of thosethings in my life that makes me
(11:00):
just shudder how much I love it.
But see, I think I have a sugar aversion.
Except I love birthdaycake, and I love ice cream.
You're
Bruce (11:09):
obsessed with birthday
Mark (11:09):
cake.
I know, and I
Bruce (11:10):
love ice cream of all sorts.
But you don't like wedding cake.
Isn't that an interesting thing?
You love birthday cake,but they're very different.
Wedding cake frosting is notthe same as birthday cake.
I
Mark (11:20):
mean, it's not I hate wedding cake.
It's that Crisco y shortening, and I canfeel it catch in the back of my throat.
I don't like it.
Okay, so, since you said you hatestinky cheese, and I said I like it,
I'll tell you something that I hate.
Hate is a little bit too much for this,but I don't care if I ever eat one again.
And that is a liquor soaked dessert.
(11:43):
Oh, we've
Bruce (11:44):
discussed this in a previous podcast.
I
Mark (11:46):
don't really care for rum and bourbon and whiskey brushed onto cakes.
It's okay.
If I come to your house and you haveit, I'm not going to turn it away.
Bruce (11:56):
Barboso rum where they're just soaked in it.
It's not my favorite thing.
And tres leches cake wherethe cake is just soaked in
Mark (12:03):
milk.
That's different.
That's not, that's not liquor soaked.
That's, that's a whole different matter.
It's the liquor soaked.
And I like the liquor.
I love brandy, and I love whiskey, andI love bourbon, and all that stuff.
And I mostly like the cake.
It's usually a sponge of some sort.
I like all of that.
I don't like the two together.
(12:23):
Well,
Bruce (12:24):
often it's a way for Bakers to make sure their cakes stay moist and fresh.
Like when you look at the way a classicFrench bakery makes a cake, they'll
take a sugar syrup with some kind ofliqueur in it and brush it on every
layer before the buttercream goes on.
And I
Mark (12:39):
think this is partly my overall sweet aversion.
Although, again, I justwant to say I love cakes.
I love pies of all sorts.
I love ice cream, but Idon't like sweet cocktails.
So all those things whereyou make, I don't want to
like an old fashioned, right?
Where you muddle sugar inthe bottom is there was
Bruce (12:57):
a sugar cube, right?
Mark (12:58):
And all that stuff.
I don't like Any of those cocktails,because I don't want sugar in a
distilled spirit, so I guess thatjust connects to the desserts itself.
So there you go.
Interesting,
Bruce (13:11):
because my next love is both a sweet dessert that does get a syrup
and poured over it, which is baklava.
And I adore baklava.
I like baklava.
Philo dough with the butter andall the candied nuts in there.
And then when it comes out of the oven,you pour a syrup over that soaks in.
We actually have a baklava recipe inour book, Vegetarian Dinner Parties,
(13:31):
which uses pecans and instead ofbutter, pecan oil and the syrup.
Mark (13:36):
Tell them what you and your friend used to do
Bruce (13:37):
before I met you in your driveway out to Queens to do this.
Oh, gosh.
Carol and I would go.
Out, we'd have to go to oneparticular diner in Queens.
Alright, go on.
And I would order the baklava andshe would order the cheesecake.
Uh huh.
And we would smush them together.
There you go.
And you'd just, so, because You called it.
Because we called it Baklava Cheesecake.
There you go.
And so for the book, the ultimate cookbookthat we wrote, I came up with a real cake
(14:01):
called Baklava Cheesecake, where you it.
No, I,
Mark (14:03):
no, it's not as good.
I like that you went to the diner, youeach ordered a piece, you ordered a piece
of baklava, and she ordered cheesecake,and then you would smash it together.
We would just
Bruce (14:12):
smash it together like Steve's ice cream.
We would just, you know,you're just mushing it.
There you go.
Steve's ice cream, youhave just dated yourself.
And you'd name it, and name it,and you'd eat it with a spoon, and
it was baklava mush cheesecake.
It was the best.
Okay, um, I guess, uh I did love that,but what I don't like is raw toast.
(14:32):
And I know if you think rawtoast is just bread, and I
don't know why they have that.
You mean under toasted toast?
It's raw toast.
I don't know why toasters havethose numbers one through nine.
Well, I don't either.
You know I don't.
Ten is the only number you need, right?
Toast should come out brown.
It should come out mostlylike a shingle, in my book.
And it should be
Mark (14:51):
evenly brown everywhere.
I toast.
For the full 10 on our toaster, andthen I put it back again and let
it go about a half a cycle again.
I, I made toast for Bruce's motheronce, and she asked me the next day
if I could not make it that well done.
I was like, what?
What are you talking about?
That's
Bruce (15:10):
when I started calling it raw toast.
Who knew my mom liked raw toast?
Mark (15:13):
I want the toast to short.
I'm with you on the raw toast.
So, I guess, then, if I'm going tosay something that I'm going to say
something that I hate before I saysomething I love, so I'm reversing
it, that you brought up raw toast.
I also hate, and this is reallyfunky, I hate burnt toast.
I
despise the smell of burnt toast.
I don't like toast to havea blackened edge anywhere.
(15:36):
It's a very fine line.
I want to shingle.
But I don't want it to haveany blackened parts to it.
I agree with you.
Well, you agree with me, except everynight our dog eats a piece of toast.
Our dog has acid reflux.
And so, before he goes to bed at night,we give him a piece of toast to kind
of calm his stomach down all nightlong so he doesn't barf in the bedroom.
And Bruce makes, it's justwhipped bread, like Wonder
(15:57):
Bread, that he makes for a nosh.
No.
Bruce (15:58):
He likes it.
It's the Panera Bread.
He gets Panera Bread.
Mark (16:02):
Okay, but it's still whipped bread.
All right, excuse me.
The Panera Bread.
God, what a spoiled dog.
But every night, you slightly burnit, and I come in from Walking Nosh
at night, and you've got the toastready, and I smell that burned
toast, and I'm always like, ugh.
That's just
Bruce (16:17):
a testament to how much sugar they put in their dough, because I
just got a number 10 on the toaster.
So your lovely whole grain toast inthe morning doesn't burn, but his does.
Okay,
Mark (16:26):
so, one of the things I love, since I'm going to reverse order,
since I hate burnt toast, is Ilove braises of almost all sorts.
Lucky
Bruce (16:33):
you, you're getting one tonight.
Mark (16:34):
I know, and Bruce makes a lot of braises.
I talked about the passatas that he'sbeen making with the Italian tomato.
But he's also been doing a lot ofthese open skillet braises where
he, uh, browns chicken really well.
Chicken thighs really well in a skillet.
And then he adds all the aromaticsand vegetables and stock and
brings it up to a simmer.
(16:55):
Puts the chicken thighs back inand then shoves it in the oven.
And essentially braises thebrowned chicken in the oven.
I love that.
So I couldn't agree with you more.
I couldn't agree more.
I would rather have a braise.
I think this is a crazything that a roast.
So there you go.
Bruce (17:12):
If I think about that whiteboard that we have next to
the freezer and all the things inthat freezer that could be braised.
I have a shoulder of goat.
I have a leg of goat.
I have so many bone and chicken thighs.
There's so much braisingcoming in your future.
I love
Mark (17:27):
phrases.
Bruce (17:28):
Okay, so something else that I love and this is Seasonal, unfortunately,
because when I try and do it offseason, I'm always disappointed.
Melon.
Melon is one of my favorite food.
You are the melon obsessed human being.
And all melons.
I love watermelon.
You do.
I love cantaloupe.
You do.
I love honeydew.
You do.
I love all those melons.
And you just
Mark (17:49):
Bruce eats more watermelon than you can possibly understand.
And he eats it as long ashe can find it decently.
Yeah.
So if he can find, even here inwinter, Decent watermelons at Costco.
He'll buy them.
Bruce (18:03):
The thing is, you don't know if it's decent till you cut it open.
And unfortunately I failedon that two Costco trips ago.
The melons looked good,but it was not very good.
They always have the golden hammymelons, those Korean oblong melons.
And I love those.
And those are good all year round.
They're
Mark (18:19):
super, if you don't know these hammy melons, they're super crunchy.
But
Bruce (18:23):
yet they're sweet and cantaloupe flavor.
They are the texture of a cucumber, butthe flavor and juice of a watermelon.
Connected, botanically,but yeah, connected.
And so what I do in the winter whenI can't get melons that are really
good, I just substitute grapes.
But grapes are also picky becausethey have to be crisp and crunchy.
(18:43):
Grapes that are soft don't do it for me.
So if I could tasteone in the store, I do.
But grapes,
Mark (18:48):
one of those things that I could take or leave for the rest of my life.
Bruce (18:51):
And there, you always called them shaped
Mark (18:52):
water.
I know what, mostly to me, they are shapedwater and I'm not a fan of, I love wine.
Uh, and I even like conquergrape juice, but I'm, I'm not.
Uh, fan of grapes in and of themselves.
Give me a
Bruce (19:06):
good crunchy green grape.
Yeah, I
Mark (19:07):
know, but it's a thing.
My father loved melons too.
Except Bruce doesn'tdo what my father did.
And that is my father salted all melons.
Your
Bruce (19:15):
father salted everything.
Mark (19:16):
Watermelons, cantaloupes, uh, honeydew.
Any of those kind of melons, my fatherwould actually salt them with each bite.
Bruce (19:23):
Yeah.
Each
Mark (19:24):
piece of it.
Alright, well, so what doyou, what do you hate then?
Bruce (19:26):
Smooth.
peanut butter.
What's the point?
Oh,
Mark (19:29):
I'm with you on this one.
What is the point of that?
And do you know, maybe you don't knowthis, but this is a gendered thing.
Do you know that by and large, womenprefer smooth peanut butter to crunchy,
and that men by and large prefercrunchy peanut butter to smooth?
And I, I don't know what thatsays, but I am with Bruce.
I only Smooth peanut butter is okay.
(19:50):
I
Bruce (19:50):
only like Extra crunchy peanut butter and you know, at this
point, Mark and I love Costco andlast time we were there, he said,
look how cheap the peanut butter is.
And it was the two giant jarsof teddy peanut butter, which I
love, but they only had smooth.
I said, all right, I'll try it.
I bought it.
I had one spoonful and then I spent thenext month trying to figure out how to
bake with it because I wouldn't eat it.
(20:11):
So I made peanut butter biscotti andpeanut butter cookies, peanut butter
cakes, but it was good for baking.
You did.
I,
Mark (20:17):
I, I mean, I don't mind soupy, but I'd rather have it crunchy.
Okay, so one of the things I love thatBruce is going to just absolutely gross
out at, and I bet you might gross atit too, and it is one of the things
that makes my eyes roll up in my head.
Ready?
Yeah.
It's raw scallops.
Um, yeah, no.
Yeah, I know you are, andyou won't ever eat them.
(20:40):
It's Raw shellfish.
Let me finish and then youcan say whatever you want.
Raw scallops are unbelievable to me.
And if you don't know, if you've neverhad them, um, we go to this place on the
docks in Portland, Maine, Jay's Seafoodand they have delicious raw scallops.
And what you do is you take the scallopand you thinly slice it into really
thin coins and then you eat them andit has this gorgeous texture to it.
(21:06):
I, I just love it morethan I could possibly say.
Bruce (21:08):
Yeah, when we go to Jay's, we get that we share this raw plate.
We do.
And I let Mark
Mark (21:13):
Actually Ordered it twice.
We finished the raw plate andwe said to the waiter, uh,
bring, just bring another one.
And I always let
Bruce (21:19):
Mark have the giant scallop and he lets me have the extra bit
of crab, so it, it works out nicely.
Mark (21:24):
It does work out, but I think a lot of people gross out at the thought of
Bruce (21:27):
raw
Mark (21:28):
scallops.
Bruce (21:29):
And I think, you know, I didn't grow up kosher, but there's just, cause
I eat cooked scallops and I eat shrimpand I eat lobster, but the idea of eating
those things raw, although I love rawoysters, But I can't eat raw clams.
There's just somethingabout it I can't do.
Oh God, another great
Mark (21:43):
thing.
But raw, if you ever go to a sushirestaurant, see if they have raw
scallops and see if you don't like them.
They're amazing if they're really fresh.
We had friends who brought awhole bunch of scallops back
from the Cape in Massachusetts,and they were Just dock fresh.
I mean, they literally ordered them andpicked them up off the boat on the dock
and we went over to their house fordinner and we sat at the table and, um,
(22:06):
our friend made skillet after skilletof seared scallops, except I said at
one point, can I just have one raw,just like dead raw and thinly slice
it and I'm going to dip it in thismelted butter and oh, it was so good.
Okay.
So, there you go.
You can gross out all you want,but I love a raw scallops.
And here's something that you might besurprised that I don't like as a storied
(22:28):
food writer, but it is true that I do notlike sesame seeds under any circumstances.
It's one of those things.
You don't like
Bruce (22:36):
sesame bagels.
No.
But you like tahini sauce.
And you like toasted, so
Mark (22:41):
when they ground up.
And I like, I like Sesameoil, toasted sesame oil.
Yeah,
Bruce (22:45):
it's just the seeds.
Is it because they getstuck in your teeth?
What is that?
No,
Mark (22:48):
it's something about, like, sesame seeded hamburger buns.
The seeds burn if you toast the bun.
And I don't like that flavor.
I don't like the burnedflavor of sesame seeds.
And that's, I'm afraid of raw sesameseeds that you're going to burn them.
When you like use them as a garnish onan Asian dish and you just sprinkle them
(23:08):
over it, I don't, then it's irrelevant.
And
Bruce (23:11):
what about that sesame candy?
That's like caramel.
Hard toasted.
Hard no.
Hard no.
Hard
Mark (23:18):
no.
Hard no.
Because the seeds take on thisburned, bitter taste and I just,
it's not my favorite thing.
And it's, here's, here's a weird part.
I like halva.
Right?
Well that's.
I love halva.
But the seeds are not toasted that far.
No, it's a sesame paste.
When you put them in that hotsugar syrup to make that cracky,
crunchy candy, the seeds burn abit and you get that bitter edge.
(23:42):
I, the same thing with a sesame bagel.
The seeds have.
burned a bit, and I just don't like it.
Well, I
Bruce (23:48):
agree with you about a sesame bagel.
It's definitely at the bottom of thelist, with, of course, cinnamon raisin
being at the top, and then poppy,and then salt, but no, no cinnamon.
Oh,
Mark (23:57):
God, even poppy seed bagels.
I really, why don't you just go aheadand get baptized, and get it over
with, and, like, Uh, seriously, um, no.
So, I, I do like chalvah, so maybe Ishould, uh, go to Hebrew school and
Bruce (24:12):
Be my guest.
Mark (24:12):
Do the whole bit myself, since I like chalvah, and I like
plain bagels, or salt bagels.
Maybe I'm the one who should actuallygo through, what do you go through?
A bar mitzvah?
A bar, uh, well, no.
Uh, anyway, that involves A bris?
Oh, see that involves certain things.
I'm not sure about that.
Okay.
Suddenly it got scary.
(24:33):
Um, all right.
So that's our loves and hatesfor this second episode of this
kind of thing on the podcast.
We appreciate your being with us.
Let me remind you that we have aFacebook group, Cooking with Bruce
and Mark, and you can go there andcheck out this episode, but also tell
us the things that you love or hateor whether you agree with us or not.
Okay.
The final segment as is traditional,what's making us happy in food this week.
Bruce (24:59):
A blast from the past, Fresca Soda.
Mark (25:02):
Fresca?
Bruce (25:03):
I know, I found Fresca
Mark (25:05):
We have a Is there Fresca in this house?
Bruce (25:07):
There is, a 12 pack.
Well, um, excuse me.
It's in the back fridge in the pantry.
Excuse me.
Yes, we have multiple fridges.
What, what?
Mark (25:12):
Is there Fresca?
It's grapefruit soda.
It's one step to Mountain Dew.
Is there Fresca in this house?
No, it's
Bruce (25:18):
one step to Tab.
Oh.
It's just Fresca and Tab,we're the same generation.
Oh
Mark (25:24):
my god, my great aunt would drink.
Tab and Vodka.
I thought it was so sophisticatedto have Tab and Vodka.
Well,
Bruce (25:32):
maybe tonight I'll have a Fresca and Vodka.
Oh, gosh.
Actually, no, it's Grapefruit.
I'll have a Fresca and Tequila.
Mark (25:37):
Oh, gosh.
Remember, so maybe you remember,do you remember the Soda
Rondo when Rondo came out?
I think it was a Coke product, I think,and it was Grapefruit Soda Rondo.
I know.
I don't remember that.
In fact, I was working for thesummer for Coca Cola and I got the
first bottle of Rondo, it was aCoke product, to come off the line.
(26:00):
Wow.
And I kept that bottle foryears like anybody would know.
Rondo must
Bruce (26:05):
have been sugary, right?
Fresca is a diet grapefruit soda,so it has like aspartame in it.
Yeah, Rondo is sugary.
Yeah, Fresca is a diet grapefruit soda.
Oh, interesting.
Like is why I thought it wasTab, you know, the diets.
Mark (26:17):
Oh, that's, um.
I don't even, I, I gotnothing to say about that.
Well,
Bruce (26:21):
you could try one.
Mark (26:22):
No, I can't believe it's in my house, so no.
I'm not doing that.
I mean, really, honestly, you'reone step away from sweet tea.
And you're one step away from allthe things she, uh, disapproved of.
Oh, well.
Well, uh, no.
Okay, so what's making me happy infood this week are jam oat bars,
and you've probably heard thisalready on this podcast, but Bruce
(26:42):
makes these fantastic jam oat bars.
You make a dough, and you put half of itin the pan, and then you slather on a ton
of jam on top of that, and then you putthe dough, you dollop the dough all over
the top of that, and then you bake it.
You can find a recipe for thisand how to do it on our YouTube
channel, Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
There's a video of jam oat bars.
And Bruce has been making aton of them for the classes.
(27:05):
I've been teaching, I'm just about tofinish up a class on Henry James and
Paul Cezanne, if you can believe it,in another part of my life, an eight
week seminar at a local library on it.
And Bruce is bringing these jam oatbars, and I tell you, people go nuts
for these things, and I always hope thatthey don't go too nuts so that there's
one left for me to eat on the way home.
(27:27):
And
Bruce (27:27):
that dough, it's an oatmeal cookie dough, so it's got these nuts and oats
in the dough, and they really are good.
They are.
I use a.
Von four fruit jam in the middle,and they're really delicious.
And the nice thing that we getit, Costco, we should really
be underwritten by Costco.
And when Mark goes this weekto the last of those classes on
James and C, he will bring the Obars and he will drive himself.
Mark (27:49):
I know my leg is, I do not have to, and I am, my right leg was broke and
I, for eight weeks, I could not drive.
I drove myself for the first time.
The physical therapy last weekand I am back able to drive again.
It's an amazing thing.
Okay.
That's the podcast for this week.
Thanks for being a partof our podcast journey.
(28:10):
We appreciate your spending timewith us and we are certainly
glad you're here with us.
Bruce (28:15):
And as Mark said, we do have a Facebook group cooking with
Bruce and Mark, and please go therebecause every week we tell you
what's making us happy in food.
Go there and tell us what's makingyou happy in food this week.
There will be a posting that says.
What's making you happy in food this week?
So let us know because we do want toknow here on Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein, podcast Cooking
Mark (00:03):
with Bruce and Mark.
And I'm Mark Scarborough, and togetherwith Bruce, we have written three dozen
cookbooks on our own, not countingthe ones for celebrities, ahem, Dr.
Phil, and others, uh, which I'm notsupposed to say because of confidentiality
agreements, but that's a whole storyin and of itself, but I said it anyway.
Uh, we've written a lot of cookbooksand been in, uh, food business
for now, what, 26, 27 years.
(00:25):
We've been doing this a long time.
This is our podcast about foodand cooking and our passion.
We, as always have a oneminute cooking tip for you.
We're going to continue what we didin the last episode of this podcast,
which is tell you some of our loves andhates the foods we actually love and
the foods we hate to get you thinkingabout the foods you love and you hate.
And then at the end, we'll tell youwhat's making us happy in food this week.
(00:49):
So let's get started.
Bruce (00:54):
our one minute cooking tip.
Keep a whiteboard, you know, whereyou can use markers on it next to
your refrigerator so that you caninventory what's in the freezer.
Because if you're like me, you buystuff when it's on sale, you buy things
when they look good, you shove itin the freezer and six months later,
you have no idea what's in there.
So we have a freezer in our basement andwe have a big whiteboard and I keep a
(01:16):
tally of Everything that's in there, Iremember to add things when I put them
in, and I erase them when I take them out.
Okay, now I'm going to make fun of you.
Oh, please
Mark (01:25):
do.
Yeah, please.
You know smart refrigerators can dothis without a whiteboard, right?
You know that people whohave smart refrigerators
Bruce (01:31):
don't need the whiteboard.
Okay, if you have a smartrefrigerator, you don't need
my one minute cooking today.
No, you do not!
Now I would like to know how many ofyou actually have a smart refrigerator.
So, please go to our Facebookgroup, Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
And tell me if you havea smart refrigerator.
And if you say you do,I want a picture of it.
Mark (01:47):
A smart refrigerator will have, in fact, note taking abilities right
on the door of the refrigerator itself.
Bruce (01:53):
I'mma love it.
Mark (01:54):
Your tip is for ancient people as we are.
But, okay, yes, a whiteboardis really, uh, good.
And Bruce says that there's one rightdown by the freezer in our basement.
And it keeps a tally ofeverything that's in there.
Okay, before we get to thenext segment of this podcast.
Let me say, I remind you thatit would be great if you could
subscribe to this podcast.
And if you could rate it, that's perfect.
(02:16):
If you can give it a starrating on whatever platform
you're listening to this on.
And if you could write a reviewthat is going even above and
beyond the call of duty, but we areunsupported and your reviews help
keep us fresh in the algorithm.
So even something like greatpodcast or thanks for the
podcast that really does help.
And it is the way thatyou can actually support.
This podcast, because otherwisewe have eschewed any kind of other
(02:40):
support so that we can say thingslike what we're about to say, the
foods we like and the foods we hate.
Let's get to it.
Bruce (02:49):
I'm going to start with something I hate.
Mark (02:51):
Okay.
Bruce (02:52):
Fake.
Apple flavoring.
Mark (02:53):
Fake apple flavoring.
I don't even know what that is.
Okay,
Bruce (02:57):
so I can go back to my childhood and remember life savers that came in
multi flavors and they were apple ones.
I didn't like and Jolly Rancher candy.
Yes.
Mark (03:07):
Sour,
Bruce (03:07):
sour, green, sour apple.
And I love the watermelon.
I love the grape.
I love the strawberry.
The apple.
No, thank you.
Jelly bellies to this day.
I will not Buy Jelly Bellies anymore,because you might accidentally get
one in your mouth that's apple.
Or licorice, eww, or root beer.
But the apple ones really turn my stomach.
(03:28):
And the thing is, Ilove fake fruit flavor.
Fake banana flavor?
One of my favorite things ever invented.
Mark (03:34):
I'm not a fan of Jolly Ranchers, so the whole thing kind of is beyond me.
But I do now know what youmean by fake apple flavor.
It's that fake green, tartgreen apple flavor, unquote.
Bruce (03:44):
Yeah, and when Mark and I used to make lollipops and hard
candies at the holidays for all ofour family, and I would never ever,
ever buy the apple flavoring for them.
I just couldn't do it.
We made banana.
We made chocolate.
We made coconut.
Yeah, that's true.
But I would never make apple.
That's true.
I never liked it.
Okay, so something I like.
Let's stay with the sweet.
Now, this is something I haven't had in along time because I can't find it anymore.
(04:07):
But soft serve vanilla ice cream with it.
Hot marshmallow topping.
Oh my, so you like diabetes.
Alright, fine.
What
Mark (04:17):
is soft serve ice cream with a hot marshmallow topping?
Well, soft serve,
Bruce (04:21):
like a Dairy Queen, but when I was growing up in Queens, we had Carvel.
I know what
Mark (04:25):
soft serve is.
It's the hot marshmallow part of it.
Carvel offered
Bruce (04:28):
you hot fudge.
Or wet nuts, or pineapple.
Wet
Mark (04:33):
nuts?
This is not that kind of podcast.
Go on.
Or
Bruce (04:35):
pineapple, or strawberry syrup, or hot marshmallow.
And you, so basically it's likeyou heat up marshmallow fluff.
And you put it on ice cream.
What?
And you have the hot creamywith the cold creamy.
And it was my favorite.
I can feel it catchingin the back of my throat.
When my sister visited lastyear, we took you to Carvel.
(04:55):
You did, and I And youdid have your soft serve.
And I almost died on the wayhome because I'm so full.
She said get the medium, and themedium could serve a family of six.
Yes, I know.
And she had one, you hadone, and Mike had one.
Oh.
But they didn't have anyhot marshmallow topping.
Hot
Mark (05:09):
marshmallow topping.
I
Bruce (05:11):
love it.
Okay.
Yum.
Mark (05:12):
All right.
Well, um, I'm going tosay something that I love.
And this will kind ofcrack you up, I think.
Maybe.
I don't know.
I like good All Americanblock, yellow cheese.
Uh, I know Government cheese.
Government cheese.
I know this is insane.
You think, oh, I think thisguy's written 36 cookbooks, he
should like better than that.
I do like other cheeses, and I dolike fine cheesemaking, but I have to
(05:36):
tell you that many times when we go toCostco or Bruce goes to the supermarket,
I say, can you get me just a blockof good old American sharp cheddar?
Bruce (05:45):
And you're not talking about American cheese.
You're talking about cheddar cheese.
Mark (05:48):
Yeah, exactly.
Cheddar.
But America, to me, that is what wegrowing up called American cheese.
And I like the sharp version.
And honestly, a slice of thatis just a fine thing with lunch.
I, I, I know I wrote for WineSpectator and yet here I am
liking block yellow cheese.
All right.
It just is a thing with me.
I
Bruce (06:07):
will say the truth is last week we went to Costco, and not only did we
get the block of yellow cheese, but youdid buy the block of Manchego as well.
I did.
I'm not saying that I don't
Mark (06:15):
like other fancier cheeses.
I just like that cheese.
And here's something that I hate, andif you listen to last week's episode
of the podcast, you might detect atheme here, is I cannot stand sweet.
Barbecue.
I do not like barbecuesauce by and large period.
(06:35):
I like vinegar based barbecue sauces.
I like Alabama white sauce.
That's a whole different thing.
But I don't reallyappreciate sweet barbecue.
And I really don't like yoursmoked brisket that has a ton
of sugary sauce on top of it.
I just don't think you're in
Bruce (06:54):
a minority there because I think I know I'm in the most U.
S.
Citizens think of barbecue as the craftbarbecue sauce that thick corn syrup and
tomato paste based thing that you slatheron the chicken before you cook it so that
it's a charred mess when it comes off.
Mark (07:10):
And you know, I mean, I grew up in barbecue country.
So when I was a kid, we hadthis And it's this thing.
If we want to try a new barbecuerestaurant, what we did is we
never went in and got the porkribs or anything like that.
We went in and got the brisket.
Because brisket is the sign of whetherit's a good barbecue restaurant or not.
And my parents, and I guess they taughtme, my parents ate the brisket, at
(07:35):
least to begin with, without any sauce.
Because they wanted to see whatthe brisket itself tasted like?
Was it smoky?
Was it overly smoked?
Too smoky so it tasted like, you know,you burned your house down and licked
out the fireplace, which is gross.
Was it too smoky?
Was it not smoky enough?
Was it tender?
And I guess I just continued thatbecause I don't eat, as Bruce knows,
(07:56):
Bruce will smoke a brisket, and Brucewill even make homemade barbecue sauce,
and I won't touch the barbecue sauce.
Oh yeah,
Bruce (08:02):
I make a chipotle and fig barbecue sauce, it's so good with fig,
but it's fig jam and it's got a figjam and chipotles, and I do like it,
but I like a little bit of it, I don't
Mark (08:12):
like sweet.
Pork ribs smoked out of a barbeque,I don't like any of that sweet
Bruce (08:16):
stuff.
There should be no sauce on pork ribs.
I'm gonna agree with you on that.
And I
Mark (08:20):
know I'm in the terrible minority on that.
But, uh, I just don't like sweet barbeque.
Bruce (08:26):
Well, something that I love is lobster.
Now, last time I said I love smokedsalmon, I told the whole history of how I
didn't eat anything that lived in water.
So of course, lobster was somethingI never ate growing up because
I just couldn't deal with it.
Partly, you know, lobsters, if you lookat them, they look like giant insects.
(08:46):
And I mean, these decapods are just,they are just insects of the ocean.
I mean, Oh, come on.
Well, a roach is adecapod of your kitchen.
And a lobster is a decapod of
Mark (08:58):
Okay, just go on while you like lobster.
And do you
Bruce (09:00):
know that if you cook a roach, it turns red like a lobster does?
Okay, come on.
Stop.
So lobsters are so
Mark (09:05):
God, you are so 12 years old.
It's pathetic.
Bruce (09:08):
Go on.
Please go on.
But it's funny because we have somefriends that whenever we visit them out
on Long Island, they serve us lobsters,and this one friend, she's my oldest
friend in the world, and she only wantsto crack it open and eat all the guts
and the liquid inside, and then I'lleat the the tail and the claw off of her
because she doesn't even want the meat.
She only wants the sludge inside of it.
(09:28):
I mean, I may
Mark (09:28):
agree with this, but I love lobster, and I love it in the classic
way, dipped in butter, in melted butter.
I just love it.
It's a spectacular thing, andI'm lucky to live in New England,
where it's actually easy to get it.
Okay, what do you hate, then?
Bruce (09:40):
Well, I hate stinky cheese.
You are totally wrong on that one.
Parmesan, that's about asstinky as I want to get.
Mark (09:49):
No.
Bruce (09:49):
Um, but you love like a pois.
Mark (09:52):
I want, I like the cheese, the soft French cheeses that taste like you
took your garbage out and then drankthe liquid in the bottom of the can.
That's exactly what I want.
And I
Bruce (10:02):
can't stand the smell of a cheese cave.
Oh my god, I love it.
There was a restaurant in New Yorkthat was a cheese specialty place
and we went there with some friendsonce and they thought they were doing
us a favor and an upgrade by seatingus in the cheese cave for dinner.
Oh, that just like, I couldn'tget past anything else.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna
Mark (10:18):
leave this as my, you mean hate, and it can be my love.
I, I love stinky cheese.
In fact, I have a friend who Iwas, uh, she was coming over for
dinner and, um, she's British.
But she, she knew that wewere going to serve cheese.
After dinner, I love what you said to me.
She said, well, make sure as if Iwouldn't make sure you put it out
in the morning so it can fester.
(10:40):
And I was like, exactly.
That's exactly what I wantedto do is fester all day long.
So that is.
Unbelievably creamy and rich.
It is a live food product.
Oh, it's so great.
I love a poisse morethan I can possibly say.
Uh, it's, it's like one of thosethings in my life that makes me
(11:00):
just shudder how much I love it.
But see, I think I have a sugar aversion.
Except I love birthdaycake, and I love ice cream.
You're
Bruce (11:09):
obsessed with birthday
Mark (11:09):
cake.
I know, and I
Bruce (11:10):
love ice cream of all sorts.
But you don't like wedding cake.
Isn't that an interesting thing?
You love birthday cake,but they're very different.
Wedding cake frosting is notthe same as birthday cake.
I
Mark (11:20):
mean, it's not I hate wedding cake.
It's that Crisco y shortening, and I canfeel it catch in the back of my throat.
I don't like it.
Okay, so, since you said you hatestinky cheese, and I said I like it,
I'll tell you something that I hate.
Hate is a little bit too much for this,but I don't care if I ever eat one again.
And that is a liquor soaked dessert.
(11:43):
Oh, we've
Bruce (11:44):
discussed this in a previous podcast.
I
Mark (11:46):
don't really care for rum and bourbon and whiskey brushed onto cakes.
It's okay.
If I come to your house and you haveit, I'm not going to turn it away.
Bruce (11:56):
Barboso rum where they're just soaked in it.
It's not my favorite thing.
And tres leches cake wherethe cake is just soaked in
Mark (12:03):
milk.
That's different.
That's not, that's not liquor soaked.
That's, that's a whole different matter.
It's the liquor soaked.
And I like the liquor.
I love brandy, and I love whiskey, andI love bourbon, and all that stuff.
And I mostly like the cake.
It's usually a sponge of some sort.
I like all of that.
I don't like the two together.
(12:23):
Well,
Bruce (12:24):
often it's a way for Bakers to make sure their cakes stay moist and fresh.
Like when you look at the way a classicFrench bakery makes a cake, they'll
take a sugar syrup with some kind ofliqueur in it and brush it on every
layer before the buttercream goes on.
And I
Mark (12:39):
think this is partly my overall sweet aversion.
Although, again, I justwant to say I love cakes.
I love pies of all sorts.
I love ice cream, but Idon't like sweet cocktails.
So all those things whereyou make, I don't want to
like an old fashioned, right?
Where you muddle sugar inthe bottom is there was
Bruce (12:57):
a sugar cube, right?
Mark (12:58):
And all that stuff.
I don't like Any of those cocktails,because I don't want sugar in a
distilled spirit, so I guess thatjust connects to the desserts itself.
So there you go.
Interesting,
Bruce (13:11):
because my next love is both a sweet dessert that does get a syrup
and poured over it, which is baklava.
And I adore baklava.
I like baklava.
Philo dough with the butter andall the candied nuts in there.
And then when it comes out of the oven,you pour a syrup over that soaks in.
We actually have a baklava recipe inour book, Vegetarian Dinner Parties,
(13:31):
which uses pecans and instead ofbutter, pecan oil and the syrup.
Mark (13:36):
Tell them what you and your friend used to do
Bruce (13:37):
before I met you in your driveway out to Queens to do this.
Oh, gosh.
Carol and I would go.
Out, we'd have to go to oneparticular diner in Queens.
Alright, go on.
And I would order the baklava andshe would order the cheesecake.
Uh huh.
And we would smush them together.
There you go.
And you'd just, so, because You called it.
Because we called it Baklava Cheesecake.
There you go.
And so for the book, the ultimate cookbookthat we wrote, I came up with a real cake
(14:01):
called Baklava Cheesecake, where you it.
No, I,
Mark (14:03):
no, it's not as good.
I like that you went to the diner, youeach ordered a piece, you ordered a piece
of baklava, and she ordered cheesecake,and then you would smash it together.
We would just
Bruce (14:12):
smash it together like Steve's ice cream.
We would just, you know,you're just mushing it.
There you go.
Steve's ice cream, youhave just dated yourself.
And you'd name it, and name it,and you'd eat it with a spoon, and
it was baklava mush cheesecake.
It was the best.
Okay, um, I guess, uh I did love that,but what I don't like is raw toast.
(14:32):
And I know if you think rawtoast is just bread, and I
don't know why they have that.
You mean under toasted toast?
It's raw toast.
I don't know why toasters havethose numbers one through nine.
Well, I don't either.
You know I don't.
Ten is the only number you need, right?
Toast should come out brown.
It should come out mostlylike a shingle, in my book.
And it should be
Mark (14:51):
evenly brown everywhere.
I toast.
For the full 10 on our toaster, andthen I put it back again and let
it go about a half a cycle again.
I, I made toast for Bruce's motheronce, and she asked me the next day
if I could not make it that well done.
I was like, what?
What are you talking about?
That's
Bruce (15:10):
when I started calling it raw toast.
Who knew my mom liked raw toast?
Mark (15:13):
I want the toast to short.
I'm with you on the raw toast.
So, I guess, then, if I'm going tosay something that I'm going to say
something that I hate before I saysomething I love, so I'm reversing
it, that you brought up raw toast.
I also hate, and this is reallyfunky, I hate burnt toast.
I
despise the smell of burnt toast.
I don't like toast to havea blackened edge anywhere.
(15:36):
It's a very fine line.
I want to shingle.
But I don't want it to haveany blackened parts to it.
I agree with you.
Well, you agree with me, except everynight our dog eats a piece of toast.
Our dog has acid reflux.
And so, before he goes to bed at night,we give him a piece of toast to kind
of calm his stomach down all nightlong so he doesn't barf in the bedroom.
And Bruce makes, it's justwhipped bread, like Wonder
(15:57):
Bread, that he makes for a nosh.
No.
Bruce (15:58):
He likes it.
It's the Panera Bread.
He gets Panera Bread.
Mark (16:02):
Okay, but it's still whipped bread.
All right, excuse me.
The Panera Bread.
God, what a spoiled dog.
But every night, you slightly burnit, and I come in from Walking Nosh
at night, and you've got the toastready, and I smell that burned
toast, and I'm always like, ugh.
That's just
Bruce (16:17):
a testament to how much sugar they put in their dough, because I
just got a number 10 on the toaster.
So your lovely whole grain toast inthe morning doesn't burn, but his does.
Okay,
Mark (16:26):
so, one of the things I love, since I'm going to reverse order,
since I hate burnt toast, is Ilove braises of almost all sorts.
Lucky
Bruce (16:33):
you, you're getting one tonight.
Mark (16:34):
I know, and Bruce makes a lot of braises.
I talked about the passatas that he'sbeen making with the Italian tomato.
But he's also been doing a lot ofthese open skillet braises where
he, uh, browns chicken really well.
Chicken thighs really well in a skillet.
And then he adds all the aromaticsand vegetables and stock and
brings it up to a simmer.
(16:55):
Puts the chicken thighs back inand then shoves it in the oven.
And essentially braises thebrowned chicken in the oven.
I love that.
So I couldn't agree with you more.
I couldn't agree more.
I would rather have a braise.
I think this is a crazything that a roast.
So there you go.
Bruce (17:12):
If I think about that whiteboard that we have next to
the freezer and all the things inthat freezer that could be braised.
I have a shoulder of goat.
I have a leg of goat.
I have so many bone and chicken thighs.
There's so much braisingcoming in your future.
I love
Mark (17:27):
phrases.
Bruce (17:28):
Okay, so something else that I love and this is Seasonal, unfortunately,
because when I try and do it offseason, I'm always disappointed.
Melon.
Melon is one of my favorite food.
You are the melon obsessed human being.
And all melons.
I love watermelon.
You do.
I love cantaloupe.
You do.
I love honeydew.
You do.
I love all those melons.
And you just
Mark (17:49):
Bruce eats more watermelon than you can possibly understand.
And he eats it as long ashe can find it decently.
Yeah.
So if he can find, even here inwinter, Decent watermelons at Costco.
He'll buy them.
Bruce (18:03):
The thing is, you don't know if it's decent till you cut it open.
And unfortunately I failedon that two Costco trips ago.
The melons looked good,but it was not very good.
They always have the golden hammymelons, those Korean oblong melons.
And I love those.
And those are good all year round.
They're
Mark (18:19):
super, if you don't know these hammy melons, they're super crunchy.
But
Bruce (18:23):
yet they're sweet and cantaloupe flavor.
They are the texture of a cucumber, butthe flavor and juice of a watermelon.
Connected, botanically,but yeah, connected.
And so what I do in the winter whenI can't get melons that are really
good, I just substitute grapes.
But grapes are also picky becausethey have to be crisp and crunchy.
(18:43):
Grapes that are soft don't do it for me.
So if I could tasteone in the store, I do.
But grapes,
Mark (18:48):
one of those things that I could take or leave for the rest of my life.
Bruce (18:51):
And there, you always called them shaped
Mark (18:52):
water.
I know what, mostly to me, they are shapedwater and I'm not a fan of, I love wine.
Uh, and I even like conquergrape juice, but I'm, I'm not.
Uh, fan of grapes in and of themselves.
Give me a
Bruce (19:06):
good crunchy green grape.
Yeah, I
Mark (19:07):
know, but it's a thing.
My father loved melons too.
Except Bruce doesn'tdo what my father did.
And that is my father salted all melons.
Your
Bruce (19:15):
father salted everything.
Mark (19:16):
Watermelons, cantaloupes, uh, honeydew.
Any of those kind of melons, my fatherwould actually salt them with each bite.
Bruce (19:23):
Yeah.
Each
Mark (19:24):
piece of it.
Alright, well, so what doyou, what do you hate then?
Bruce (19:26):
Smooth.
peanut butter.
What's the point?
Oh,
Mark (19:29):
I'm with you on this one.
What is the point of that?
And do you know, maybe you don't knowthis, but this is a gendered thing.
Do you know that by and large, womenprefer smooth peanut butter to crunchy,
and that men by and large prefercrunchy peanut butter to smooth?
And I, I don't know what thatsays, but I am with Bruce.
I only Smooth peanut butter is okay.
(19:50):
I
Bruce (19:50):
only like Extra crunchy peanut butter and you know, at this
point, Mark and I love Costco andlast time we were there, he said,
look how cheap the peanut butter is.
And it was the two giant jarsof teddy peanut butter, which I
love, but they only had smooth.
I said, all right, I'll try it.
I bought it.
I had one spoonful and then I spent thenext month trying to figure out how to
bake with it because I wouldn't eat it.
(20:11):
So I made peanut butter biscotti andpeanut butter cookies, peanut butter
cakes, but it was good for baking.
You did.
I,
Mark (20:17):
I, I mean, I don't mind soupy, but I'd rather have it crunchy.
Okay, so one of the things I love thatBruce is going to just absolutely gross
out at, and I bet you might gross atit too, and it is one of the things
that makes my eyes roll up in my head.
Ready?
Yeah.
It's raw scallops.
Um, yeah, no.
Yeah, I know you are, andyou won't ever eat them.
(20:40):
It's Raw shellfish.
Let me finish and then youcan say whatever you want.
Raw scallops are unbelievable to me.
And if you don't know, if you've neverhad them, um, we go to this place on the
docks in Portland, Maine, Jay's Seafoodand they have delicious raw scallops.
And what you do is you take the scallopand you thinly slice it into really
thin coins and then you eat them andit has this gorgeous texture to it.
(21:06):
I, I just love it morethan I could possibly say.
Bruce (21:08):
Yeah, when we go to Jay's, we get that we share this raw plate.
We do.
And I let Mark
Mark (21:13):
Actually Ordered it twice.
We finished the raw plate andwe said to the waiter, uh,
bring, just bring another one.
And I always let
Bruce (21:19):
Mark have the giant scallop and he lets me have the extra bit
of crab, so it, it works out nicely.
Mark (21:24):
It does work out, but I think a lot of people gross out at the thought of
Bruce (21:27):
raw
Mark (21:28):
scallops.
Bruce (21:29):
And I think, you know, I didn't grow up kosher, but there's just, cause
I eat cooked scallops and I eat shrimpand I eat lobster, but the idea of eating
those things raw, although I love rawoysters, But I can't eat raw clams.
There's just somethingabout it I can't do.
Oh God, another great
Mark (21:43):
thing.
But raw, if you ever go to a sushirestaurant, see if they have raw
scallops and see if you don't like them.
They're amazing if they're really fresh.
We had friends who brought awhole bunch of scallops back
from the Cape in Massachusetts,and they were Just dock fresh.
I mean, they literally ordered them andpicked them up off the boat on the dock
and we went over to their house fordinner and we sat at the table and, um,
(22:06):
our friend made skillet after skilletof seared scallops, except I said at
one point, can I just have one raw,just like dead raw and thinly slice
it and I'm going to dip it in thismelted butter and oh, it was so good.
Okay.
So, there you go.
You can gross out all you want,but I love a raw scallops.
And here's something that you might besurprised that I don't like as a storied
(22:28):
food writer, but it is true that I do notlike sesame seeds under any circumstances.
It's one of those things.
You don't like
Bruce (22:36):
sesame bagels.
No.
But you like tahini sauce.
And you like toasted, so
Mark (22:41):
when they ground up.
And I like, I like Sesameoil, toasted sesame oil.
Yeah,
Bruce (22:45):
it's just the seeds.
Is it because they getstuck in your teeth?
What is that?
No,
Mark (22:48):
it's something about, like, sesame seeded hamburger buns.
The seeds burn if you toast the bun.
And I don't like that flavor.
I don't like the burnedflavor of sesame seeds.
And that's, I'm afraid of raw sesameseeds that you're going to burn them.
When you like use them as a garnish onan Asian dish and you just sprinkle them
(23:08):
over it, I don't, then it's irrelevant.
And
Bruce (23:11):
what about that sesame candy?
That's like caramel.
Hard toasted.
Hard no.
Hard no.
Hard
Mark (23:18):
no.
Hard no.
Because the seeds take on thisburned, bitter taste and I just,
it's not my favorite thing.
And it's, here's, here's a weird part.
I like halva.
Right?
Well that's.
I love halva.
But the seeds are not toasted that far.
No, it's a sesame paste.
When you put them in that hotsugar syrup to make that cracky,
crunchy candy, the seeds burn abit and you get that bitter edge.
(23:42):
I, the same thing with a sesame bagel.
The seeds have.
burned a bit, and I just don't like it.
Well, I
Bruce (23:48):
agree with you about a sesame bagel.
It's definitely at the bottom of thelist, with, of course, cinnamon raisin
being at the top, and then poppy,and then salt, but no, no cinnamon.
Oh,
Mark (23:57):
God, even poppy seed bagels.
I really, why don't you just go aheadand get baptized, and get it over
with, and, like, Uh, seriously, um, no.
So, I, I do like chalvah, so maybe Ishould, uh, go to Hebrew school and
Bruce (24:12):
Be my guest.
Mark (24:12):
Do the whole bit myself, since I like chalvah, and I like
plain bagels, or salt bagels.
Maybe I'm the one who should actuallygo through, what do you go through?
A bar mitzvah?
A bar, uh, well, no.
Uh, anyway, that involves A bris?
Oh, see that involves certain things.
I'm not sure about that.
Okay.
Suddenly it got scary.
(24:33):
Um, all right.
So that's our loves and hatesfor this second episode of this
kind of thing on the podcast.
We appreciate your being with us.
Let me remind you that we have aFacebook group, Cooking with Bruce
and Mark, and you can go there andcheck out this episode, but also tell
us the things that you love or hateor whether you agree with us or not.
Okay.
The final segment as is traditional,what's making us happy in food this week.
Bruce (24:59):
A blast from the past, Fresca Soda.
Mark (25:02):
Fresca?
Bruce (25:03):
I know, I found Fresca
Mark (25:05):
We have a Is there Fresca in this house?
Bruce (25:07):
There is, a 12 pack.
Well, um, excuse me.
It's in the back fridge in the pantry.
Excuse me.
Yes, we have multiple fridges.
What, what?
Mark (25:12):
Is there Fresca?
It's grapefruit soda.
It's one step to Mountain Dew.
Is there Fresca in this house?
No, it's
Bruce (25:18):
one step to Tab.
Oh.
It's just Fresca and Tab,we're the same generation.
Oh
Mark (25:24):
my god, my great aunt would drink.
Tab and Vodka.
I thought it was so sophisticatedto have Tab and Vodka.
Well,
Bruce (25:32):
maybe tonight I'll have a Fresca and Vodka.
Oh, gosh.
Actually, no, it's Grapefruit.
I'll have a Fresca and Tequila.
Mark (25:37):
Oh, gosh.
Remember, so maybe you remember,do you remember the Soda
Rondo when Rondo came out?
I think it was a Coke product, I think,and it was Grapefruit Soda Rondo.
I know.
I don't remember that.
In fact, I was working for thesummer for Coca Cola and I got the
first bottle of Rondo, it was aCoke product, to come off the line.
(26:00):
Wow.
And I kept that bottle foryears like anybody would know.
Rondo must
Bruce (26:05):
have been sugary, right?
Fresca is a diet grapefruit soda,so it has like aspartame in it.
Yeah, Rondo is sugary.
Yeah, Fresca is a diet grapefruit soda.
Oh, interesting.
Like is why I thought it wasTab, you know, the diets.
Mark (26:17):
Oh, that's, um.
I don't even, I, I gotnothing to say about that.
Well,
Bruce (26:21):
you could try one.
Mark (26:22):
No, I can't believe it's in my house, so no.
I'm not doing that.
I mean, really, honestly, you'reone step away from sweet tea.
And you're one step away from allthe things she, uh, disapproved of.
Oh, well.
Well, uh, no.
Okay, so what's making me happy infood this week are jam oat bars,
and you've probably heard thisalready on this podcast, but Bruce
(26:42):
makes these fantastic jam oat bars.
You make a dough, and you put half of itin the pan, and then you slather on a ton
of jam on top of that, and then you putthe dough, you dollop the dough all over
the top of that, and then you bake it.
You can find a recipe for thisand how to do it on our YouTube
channel, Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
There's a video of jam oat bars.
And Bruce has been making aton of them for the classes.
(27:05):
I've been teaching, I'm just about tofinish up a class on Henry James and
Paul Cezanne, if you can believe it,in another part of my life, an eight
week seminar at a local library on it.
And Bruce is bringing these jam oatbars, and I tell you, people go nuts
for these things, and I always hope thatthey don't go too nuts so that there's
one left for me to eat on the way home.
(27:27):
And
Bruce (27:27):
that dough, it's an oatmeal cookie dough, so it's got these nuts and oats
in the dough, and they really are good.
They are.
I use a.
Von four fruit jam in the middle,and they're really delicious.
And the nice thing that we getit, Costco, we should really
be underwritten by Costco.
And when Mark goes this weekto the last of those classes on
James and C, he will bring the Obars and he will drive himself.
Mark (27:49):
I know my leg is, I do not have to, and I am, my right leg was broke and
I, for eight weeks, I could not drive.
I drove myself for the first time.
The physical therapy last weekand I am back able to drive again.
It's an amazing thing.
Okay.
That's the podcast for this week.
Thanks for being a partof our podcast journey.
(28:10):
We appreciate your spending timewith us and we are certainly
glad you're here with us.
Bruce (28:15):
And as Mark said, we do have a Facebook group cooking with
Bruce and Mark, and please go therebecause every week we tell you
what's making us happy in food.
Go there and tell us what's makingyou happy in food this week.
There will be a posting that says.
What's making you happy in food this week?
So let us know because we do want toknow here on Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!