WELCOME TO OUR KITCHEN: We're talking about childhood favorites that even we food snobs can't make better!

Are there foods from your childhood you can't make better, even with all you know about cooking? We've got a list, despite our current snobbery. We may have written for WINE SPECTATOR and FINE COOKING, but there are some things we crave, even though we know how to make them better.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, authors of over three dozen cookbooks. If you'd like to see our latest, COLD CANNING, please check it out at this link right here.

Plus, we've 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:

[01:26] Our one-minute cooking tip: the best way to prep hard winter squash.

[03:55] The foods from our childhoods we could never change, despite our current food snobbery.

[17:15] What’s making us happy in food this week? Chili con queso and banoffee pie!

Episode Transcript

bruce (00:01):
Hey, I am Bruce Weinstein
and this is

mark (00:03):
the Podcast Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
And I'm Mark Scarborough, and togetherwith Bruce, my husband, we have
written 37 cookbooks, but 41 booksbetween total between the two of us.
Yep.
With knitting books andmemoirs and all that stuff.
A lot.
We've published a lot of books witha lot of publishers, but this is our
podcast about the major passion inour life, food and cooking, something
that has driven us for the past.

(00:24):
26 years, probablylonger than that, right?
Mm-hmm.
I mean, publishing for 26 years.
Mm-hmm.
But longer than that in our lives, I thinkwe both were known for throwing lavish
dinner spreads and doing all that kindof stuff before we started this career.

bruce (00:37):
And I did go to chef school at 18.

mark (00:39):
And you did?
And you did develop recipesin a test kitchen in New York?
Mm-hmm.
For who?
I don't remember.
Oh, the food group.
Okay.
The food group.
Well, anyway, this is our current.
Podcast about food and cooking.
We've got a one minute cooking tip.
As usual, we wanna talk aboutchildhood favorites that we still
think are better even with allof our current food snobbery.

(01:02):
So even though we might be ableto now make these things much.
Better these days.
We still harken back to the oldchildhood way these things were, which
may not be the best way possible,but still call to us dramatically.
So we'll talk about that, how weconnect to foods from our childhood
that, uh, maybe escape our currentfood snobbery and we'll tell you what's

(01:24):
making us happy in food this week.
So let's get started.

bruce (01:30):
Our one minute cooking tip.
When you're dealing with largewinter squash, butternut acorn,
that kind of squash buttercup.
Um, sure.
Uh,

mark (01:39):
what's some others or

bruce (01:40):
kobocha?
Kobocha, what's that

mark (01:42):
blue one?
Is that Hubbard?
Hdd, blue Hubbard.
Squashes.
Right.
And pumpkins,

bruce (01:46):
yeah.
Right.
Do not pick out a pairingknife from your drawer.
Don't be silly.
Get a big knife.
You want a large chef knife, atleast eight inches or 20 centimeters.
And here's a tip for you.
First slice off the top andbottom 'cause that will make it
easier to stand on a flat surfaceso you could cut straight down.
Don't try and save flesh bycutting only the outside edges.

(02:08):
It's okay if a little flesh goes away.
What we found is if you microwave thatsquash for up to two minutes, it will
soften the skin to make it even easier.
Yes.

mark (02:17):
Just slightly.
Do you don't want it to get reallyhot 'cause it will actually explode.
Mm-hmm.
And you don't wanna cook it.
No.
So you wanna really just do themicrowave for maybe up to two minutes.
Yep.
You can even try one minuteand see where that gets you.
It'll soften the skinto take it off easier.
But as Bruce says, if you take offthe top and the bottom, even above.
Pumpkin.
Then it'll stand flat on a cuttingboard, and you can slice it down now

(02:39):
through the middle and create two halves.
Same with an acorn, SWAs,that technique, et cetera.
Use

bruce (02:44):
it for everything.
You could even cut the top and bottomoff an onion or an apple or anything
round to make it sit flat on yourcutting board so it's easier to cut

mark (02:51):
as Bruce is sitting here across from you with.
Uh, part of his finger cut offfrom having to slice a tomato that
he didn't cut the bottom off of.
Mm-hmm.
I also

bruce (03:00):
just sharpened my knives.

mark (03:00):
Mm-hmm.
And he cut the tip of his finger off.
So here we are.
Um, so there you go.
There's a good way to dealwith, uh, winter squashes
that are coming in right now.
So before we get to the big central.
Part of this episode of our podcast,let me say that it would be great if
you could like this podcast, if youcould rate it, if you could subscribe
to it on whatever platform you're on.

(03:21):
This is the way that you can help supportour otherwise Unsupported podcast.
And if you can write a review,that is the best of all.
Even something as simple as nicepodcast, it helps us in the analytics.
Thanks for doing that.
We do see a lot of increasingnumbers around this podcast.
We really.
Thank you for that.
Thank you for the people tuningin from Australia and New Zealand

(03:43):
and from the UK and Canada.
Thanks for all of that.
We hope we keep you entertained now bytelling you about childhood favorites.
Mm-hmm.
That we can't improve ondespite all of our snobbery now.

bruce (03:55):
Just say, despite all our snobbery now,

mark (03:57):
despite all our snobbery.
Now

bruce (04:03):
Mark, why don't you start, tell me something from your childhood
that you love, even though youcould probably make better now.

mark (04:09):
Um, well, I can't make it better now, but I'm s.
Certain my chef husband can.
So I grew up in Dallas, Texas,and I grew up going to a Dallas
institution called L Phoenix.
Mm.
If you're from the Dallas-Fort Wortharea, you probably know l Phoenix.
It is sloppy gloppy me.
Mexican Tex-Mex Food's notMexican food, TexMex food.

(04:33):
It is greasy and fabulous, andI have to tell you that I still
crave El Phoenix meat enchiladas.
So much so that a couple nights ago.
I asked Bruce to make enchiladas andhe was like, oh, you know, he's gonna
grind these chilies and do that.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

(04:54):
I want El Phoenix meat enchiladas.
And so I went out online andfound a recipe that replicated
El Phoenix's version of this.
So this trained chef

bruce (05:04):
that you're married to.
Opened cans of enchilada sauce.

mark (05:08):
I told him he was not allowed to make an enchilada sauce.
He had to use canned red enchilada sauce.
And rather

bruce (05:13):
than what I would normally do by making my own tortillas, I
took store-bought tortillas, dippedthem in canned enchilada sauce.
You bet.
And I layered them up withshredded pre-bagged cheese.
Did I find fancy cheese and grated?
No, no.
I got pre shredded.
Free bag cheese.
I think you got

mark (05:33):
Tex-Mex

bruce (05:34):
blend right.
Or Mexican blend or something.
And then the meat sauce was cannedtomato sauce and chili powder.
Mm-hmm.
And just shredded up meat.
And it was, you loved it?

mark (05:45):
I did.
Mm-hmm.
We actually served it to people at adinner party as part of a bigger, larger
Tex-Mex, well, Mexican food spread.
This was the real Tex-Mex thing.
Everything else.
Well, well, uh, now Isay that there was also.
Sloppy chili Cato from El Phoenixthere too, so I can't help it.
You know what, uh, you can I behindbrew, make a better enchilada sauce with

(06:07):
dried chilies and all that kind of stuff.
Have we written recipes that are farbetter enchilada sauce than this?
Yes, but I knew that the ElPhoenix sauce had tomatoes in it.
I knew that it was, it was kindof weird and sweet and delicious
and I, I can't make it better.
Mm-hmm.
So, there you go.
Bruce made me a, an nail phoenix meatenchilada casserole, and I loved it.

(06:30):
Okay.
Your turn.

bruce (06:31):
One of my favorite childhood things to eat ever was Bono, Turkish Taffy.

mark (06:38):
Okay, so I just, as I had to explain Dallas and Elish, you're gonna have to
explain Bono, Turkish, Chevy to thosepeople who don't live on the East Coast

bruce (06:47):
Bono.
Turkish Taffy was a candy thatcame in a flat bar, so like imagine
the length of a Snickers bar,but only a quarter inch thick.
And when you peeled off thefoil wrapper, you had this.
Basically tongue of hard candy thatyou crack it and then chew it and it
got soft and it came in strawberry,vanilla, chocolate, and my all

(07:11):
time favorite banana flavorings.
And I used to buy a bag ofthese and eat these banana.
Bono Turkish taffy things,and they were amazing.
We tried to improve itor at least recreate it.
We did.
We wrote a candy book back in theearly two thousands and I tried to
recreate Bono Turkish taffy, and I cameclose, but I even this trained chef

(07:33):
couldn't recreate that spectacular,hard to soft, cracky chewy now.
The banana flavor was easy because fakebanana flavor is fake banana flavor.
Okay.
So which

mark (07:43):
is stop, stop, stop, stop.
Mm-hmm.
So fake banana flavor, ifyou don't know is a thing.
Yeah.
And it, it bears very littleresemblance to bananas, I suppose.
Tangentially related to bananas.
It's no, it is not case.
Like a banana.
It's a chemical banana.
Yeah.
Right.
A banana passed througha nuclear waste site.

(08:05):
So first of all, if

bruce (08:06):
you imagine.
Ripest banana you can possibly imaginethat is on this side of fermented.
That's getting close.
Also slightly flavor.
Flavor.
And back to the

mark (08:14):
nuclear waste side.

bruce (08:15):
Go on the flavor of like banana laur used in banana daiquiris.
Yes, exactly.
There it is.
So if you've never had a frozenbanana daiquiri, you're coming
close to the flavor of Bono,Turkish Daffy, fake banana.
And to this day, that bananaflavoring is available in every.
Asian supermarket I ever gointo and I keep it in the house.
And I have been known to put afew drops of banana flavoring

(08:37):
into my banana breads you have?
And people go, oh mygoodness, it's so banana.

mark (08:42):
No it is not.
It tastes like fakebanana, but okay, love it.
Whatever.
Um, okay, so I'm gonna say now.
Say something from my childhood thatmy food snobbery cannot improve on.
And that is, and don't gross outon me, but that is cherry pie.
And when I say cherry pie, Imean canned cherry pie filling.
I, I'm serious.

(09:02):
Corn

bruce (09:02):
starch thickens.
I'm

mark (09:03):
serious.
The gloppy canned.
Cherry pie filling is what I grew up on.
And even two weeks ago, I pulled a bagof sour cherries outta the freezer, sour
cherries that Bruce had picked, and hehad pitted them and he had frozen them.
And I made a sour cherry pie.
I legitimately made a.
A filling.

(09:24):
I made my own crust for it andI was vaguely disappointed.
You were the only one.
I know.
Everybody else liked it.
It was the best pie I had had in years.
Where is the snotty sloppy gel me bitbetween the chairs, the lured red color.
You might as

bruce (09:41):
well just buy those Drake's hand pies and eat them.
They're so gross.
I like the hostess

mark (09:46):
fruit pies.
Oh yeah, cherries too.
Yeah.
Just canned cherry pie filling.
I grew up on it and I can't help it.
It it, it, I was disappointedin this homemade pie I made
because I thought it's not right.
It needs the canned cherry pie filling.
Mm-hmm.
My, my mother would doctor cannedcherry pie filling with, uh, a
quarter teaspoon of almond extract.

(10:08):
She would stir into itand that would doctor it

bruce (10:10):
what was with our parents and doctoring things.
My mother and grandmotherto this day still.
Dr.
Jarred Gefilte fish.
Oh, well

mark (10:17):
that's disturbing.
And

bruce (10:19):
they think as long as you reco it with fresh carrots,
it tastes like homemade.
It tastes like snot.
It tastes like

mark (10:25):
slimy snot.
And they always

bruce (10:26):
talk about, Ooh, I made gefilte fish.
I bought it, but I doctored it.
Oh,

mark (10:30):
okay.
So it's your turn.
What's something that from your childhood,

bruce (10:33):
you know, at this point, if you've listened to this
podcast enough that I love.
Hamburgers, like I love themmore than anything you do.
And I know how to make anamazing hamburger, but I grew
up eating White Castle and thereis nothing like a White Castle.
I'm sorry.
No matter how now it istrue, it doest taste anything

(10:53):
like a hamburger I make now.
No, but I cannot.
It does like anything except grease.
You can't, you can't recreate that.
It's like, so if youdon't know White Castle.
They're flat little square pattiesthat maybe they're an ounce of meat
and they have five holes, and thenlike, it's the number five on a dice.
Mm-hmm.
And they're cooked on a big, flat topgriddle with lots of onions and oil.

mark (11:16):
What?
Wait, what?
We just learned that name of thatpattern of the five on a dice?
Yeah, it's a Quin C pattern.
There you go.
Something like that.
Yeah.
Didn't you

bruce (11:22):
learn on this podcast?
Okay.
And then they put the buns on top.
So the buns steam with the grease,onion steam coming through the
holes of the patties, even as a.
Kid, I would eat five or six of them.
Oh, my dad would go buy a giant sack.
Okay.
So to this day, no matter howgood a hamburger I can make, I
nothing will beat a White Castle.
So I'm

mark (11:41):
gonna say that I did not grow up with White Castle.
I, I keep wanting to tell this.
So I did not grow up with White Castle,and Bruce was appalled when I was in
New York, living in New York with himthat I had never been to a White Castle.
So we went.
Out to the A b, C outlet,which was in the Bronx.
But if you don't know, A B, Cis a very high-end furniture
and design store in Manhattan.

(12:01):
But they had an outlet back in theday in the Bronx where you could get
stuff pretty on, pretty good bargains.
Mm-hmm.
So we drove out to the outlet andhe's like, oh, there's a White Castle
right out there in the Bronx by it.
We're gonna stop at the WhiteCastle and eat White Castle
because you've never had it.
So we got to A, B, C,and I want to say that.
I couldn't get to thebathroom fast enough.

(12:21):
It was like an emergency.
It was, wow, that is a greasy mess.
And that, no comment.
But I, I was lucky to make it then back toour apartment in Manhattan without soiling
the car that, wow, that was really gross.
Okay, so here's something from methat I just can't improve on, and

(12:41):
I have tried and tried and triedto improve on it, and I know that
every Southerner is about to kill me.
So kill me.
I don't care.
I cannot improve on canned biscuits.
Oh, they're so

bruce (12:52):
easy.

mark (12:53):
Popping, fresh.
Just, I'm sorry.
I can't do it.
I, I grew up with them outtathe can from my mother.
My, did my grandmothermake homemade biscuits?
Yes, she did.
Well, your

bruce (13:01):
grandmother was a baker.
I, exactly.
That was her job.
She

mark (13:04):
made homemade biscuits with butter and shortening and buttermilk and, yes.
They were fine, but my

bruce (13:11):
fine, I'm sure they were

mark (13:11):
spectacular, but my mother made canned biscuits.
You know, the kind, you crack on theedge of the counter and open the can.
And to this day when I make homemadebiscuits, I still am vaguely
dissatisfied with it because I thinkmm, well, you know, I mean, it is.
I could do just as wellwith a canned biscuit.

(13:32):
Okay.
The canned

bruce (13:32):
biscuits is like comparing a donut to a bagel.

mark (13:36):
I, I mean,

bruce (13:37):
it's no's.

mark (13:37):
I just,

bruce (13:38):
I can tell you

mark (13:39):
that what I'm hankering for, to drag through my egg yolk.
Mm-hmm.
Is that stupid canned biscuit.
That's easy.
I

bruce (13:44):
could get some of those.
But your mom also did reallyinteresting things with them.
You know, she would

mark (13:49):
Oh,

bruce (13:49):
fill them and stuff them and bake them and, and cover them.

mark (13:52):
Okay.
I don't like that.
None of that.
I like.
She doctored them and she did.
Um, I'm sure my mother hadall kinds of weird things.
My mother wa thought she was avery creative cook and she was
actually a very terrible cook.
So, uh, uh, sometime I'll tell youabout liver and bananas together.
Together.
At last.
At last, yes.
Um, anyway, but canned biscuit,because are just something that

(14:12):
I, I can't explain it to you.
It's like right outta my childhood.
And yes.
Have I followed Natalie Dre'sperfect recipe for biscuits and am I.
Studied all these recipes for how tomake the perfect southern biscuit.
Yes, I have.
And I always make them,and I always think nice.
Then they're amazing.
I should have bought a can'cause it's what I wanted.
So anyway.

(14:33):
Okay, there's mine.
Do you have another one?

bruce (14:34):
I do.
This is something my grandmotherserved as a side dish and you
could get it also in kosher delis.

mark (14:42):
Oh no, I know where this is going.

bruce (14:43):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Noodle gel.
Oh, so the word gel just means pudding.
And so noodle pudding.
Now it means differentthings to different families.
A lot of families.
Cool cake, right?
Okay.
Cake

mark (14:56):
pudding.
Yeah.
Okay, go on.
So

bruce (14:57):
in a lot of families it included cottage cheese and sour
cream, and it became a dairy thing.
But no, my grandmotherserved it with meat meals.
So it would be a side dish to potroast or a side dish to meatballs.
So what it

mark (15:10):
is, mind to wait before you start what it is, I just
want you to remember, this is a.
Side dish.
This is not a dessert.
This is sort of

bruce (15:17):
your Jewish version of snicker salad, I think.
Mm-hmm.
I think it is.
So you boil egg noodles and thenyou drain them and you put them in
a big bowl and let them cool a bit.
And here's what you'regonna mix into them.
You're gonna mix in some oil.
Some sugar, some beaten eggs, anda drained can of fruit cocktail.
Oh God.
And you're gonna pack thatinto a baking dish pack

mark (15:39):
being the important word, and you're gonna

bruce (15:41):
bake it until the top is browned and the noodles get crunchy and dark.
And you're gonna slice it intosquares and you're going to eat it
alongside meatloaf pot roast or potroast or sweet and sour meatballs.
Oh, sweet, sweet and sour.
So you can just basicallyhave dessert all night long.
Um, and kosher delis do make itas good as my grandmother did,

(16:01):
and I actually have never made it.
I don't want to make it becauseI want to get it from the deli.
I want it to be just theway my grandmother made it.
And

mark (16:10):
when you're talking about that, you're talking about really delis meat.
Kosher meat restaurants.
Yes.
Koko Becausecause.
They're not gonna put any dairy

bruce (16:16):
in it, right?
Kosher meat restaurants have it.
Kosher meat delis.
Um, like Ben's Deli in mm-hmm.
Bay Terrace in Queens.
Or the Kosher or the Kosher Not, yep.
These wonderful places.
Yeah.

mark (16:28):
Um, I will tell you that my goyish heart rises up and
strikes back at you because I justcan't deal with the noodle gel.
I love Delicate in food.
I love delis like crazy, but Ijust can't go down that road,
down the Noodle Kugel road.
No, and I'll never ask you to go downthe Snicker salad, bro, so mm-hmm.
That's a whole thing.

(16:49):
If you don't know what Snicker salad is.
Google it and you'll find out.
Um, okay, so those are things that wecan improve on from our childhood despite
our current food professionalism andsnobbery, we bet you have your list too.
So

bruce (17:02):
please go to our Facebook group cooking with Bruce and Mark, and share
some of your childhood favorites, thingsthat you love that you would never think
of improving on, even if you know how.

mark (17:15):
Okay.
That is the standard pitchnow, the standard end.
What's making us happy in food this week,
and I'm gonna start, okay, so rememberI was talking about that El Phoenix
casserole and having people over,and I mentioned that chili queso.
Well, it was really good, and in fact, allof these Yankees who I live amongst in New

(17:39):
England, were undone by said chili queso.
Now I wanna tell you that Bruce made it.
Not with Velv Vita.
No, no, no.
I Instead he made a bechamel,which is apparently the real A
Phoenix recipe, and then you melt.
But the beel with

bruce (17:53):
half and half, not

mark (17:54):
milk.
Okay.
A bechamel with half and half,and then you melt cheese into it.
And then yes, a can ofrotel tomatoes and chilies.
If you don't know what that is,we probably can't be friends,
but a can of rotel and it wasjust absolutely fantastic.
We sat out.
On our outdoor dining porch outsidelast night, it was a cool fall
night, and I watched all theseYankees get this poor chi in queso

(18:18):
over guacamole on their plates, sothey don't know really what to do.
They're just Yankees, but still,and nonetheless, I loved it and
it made me very, very happy.

bruce (18:27):
What made me happy is what I served for dessert.
After all of that, it was good.
I had never made a banfi pie before.
If you don't know what that is,bananas and toffee equals banoffee.
It's a British thing, and it is usuallydone in a graham cracker crust, but
it can be a sweet pie crust too.
I use graham cracker crustand then you make a Dolce dce.

(18:48):
You can burn sugar and add milk andmake a whole pudding, or you could
cheat like I did, which is tookcans of sweet and condensed milk.
Boiled them in water forthree hours, which in

mark (18:58):
the sealed can, if you don't know this, yep.
In

bruce (19:00):
the sealed can.
And you have to maintain the watertwo inches above the can, the whole
time, less the can explodes, and thenyou let it cool at least four hours
before opening it, and you have this.
Beautifully dark caramelizedDolce dce, and I spread that
in the bottom of the crust.
Top that with sliced bananas coveredwith whipped cream and shaved chocolate.

mark (19:21):
It was good.
Let's just say that chili queso andenchilada casserole and banfi pie.
You look at the number of guests you haveand you count the number of bathrooms
you have, and you go from there.
So, okay, that's thepodcast for this week.
We hope you've enjoyed the podcast.
We certainly thank you forbeing on this journey with us.
We thank you for taking the time to let.

(19:41):
Us into your podcast landscape,as they say in the industry.
So thanks for that and thanksfor being here with us.

bruce (19:47):
And besides our Facebook group cooking with Bruce and
Mark, we have a TikTok channelcooking with Bruce and Mark.
So please go there and check outall the videos of both of us cooking
things for each other and making allsorts of jams and chutneys and things
out of our new book called Canning.
And even though there is a worldof AI out there and you don't know
what videos are real and aren't.
Always are always real.
No AI here on cooking with Bruce and Mark.