July 27, 2025 • 45 mins
Step onto Brownsville Road with us as we immerse ourselves in the sights, smells, and flavors of the Mount Oliver Farmers Market. This episode takes a delightful detour from our usual format as we wander through this vibrant community gathering, microphone in hand, meeting the passionate entrepreneurs who make this neighborhood special.
The market reveals itself as a microcosm of Pittsburgh's diverse food scene. Chef Alekka Sweeney shares her slow-roasted strawberry mini pies and explains how her Hilltop Shared Kitchen nurtures small food businesses. Yvette Rodriguez-Schmidt transports us to her homeland through Flavor Puerto Rico's authentic cuisine, including five varieties of empanadas that keep customers coming back for more.
Mount Oliver Borough Manager Rick Hopkinson provides insight into how events like this farmers market help build sustainable local shopping habits, while newer businesses like Nick's on Hilltop showcase their popular wings and specialty burgers. We discover unique products like Chef Ken's gochujang barbecue sauce, Devin's whiskey-infused vanilla extracts, and Kelly's freshly cut flowers and herbs from her urban farm.
The connections between vendors become apparent as we speak with each one – Chef Janet mentions how Chef Alekka helped her prepare for her first market appearance, while another vendor, Ripepi Winery talks up collaboration with The Cheese Queen. These relationships form the foundation of a supportive community where entrepreneurs lift each other up.
As summer continues, there's one more market in August where the Cheese Queen will celebrate a third anniversary. Whether you're a Pittsburgh local or planning a visit, this episode offers a taste of an up-and-coming food neighborhood worth exploring. Which vendor would you visit first? Follow us to discover more hidden gems throughout the Pittsburgh food scene.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Doug (00:01):
Welcome to the Pittsburgh Dish.
I'm your host, doug Heilman,and we're doing something
different this week.
We're on the streets of MountOliver Right now I'm walking out
Brownsville Road and we'regoing to check out the Mount
Oliver Farmer's Market.
Nothing better than a vibrantcommunity.
I know I have some old friendsthere, as well as probably some
new ones to meet.
Lots of goodies to check out.
(00:22):
Let's go talk to some people.
Some new ones to meet.
Lots of goodies to check out.
Let's go talk to some people.
Hi there, would you introduceyourself to our listeners?
(00:31):
Hello, I am Chef Alekka Sweeney.
Doug (00:34):
Aw, Chef Alekka, you are a friend of the show as well.
(00:36):
Yes.
Doug (00:37):
What is going on up here in Mount Oliver today for you.
(00:48):
So we're.
This is the first Mount OliverFarmer's Market that I've done.
Doug (00:50):
I'm selling a whole bunch of my favorite baked goods.
I specifically see mini pies.
(00:53):
Yes, kind of inspired from my trip to Toulouse.
Doug (00:56):
Yeah, that looked amazing.
(00:57):
So it is a roasted strawberry pie with my all butter pie crust
that everybody loves, so Islow-roasted the strawberries
for three hours yesterday.
Doug (01:08):
And this is like what?
Like a six-inch pie, yeah, soit's a six-inch pie.
(01:12):
It's one of my favorites, I would say you can have it
yourself, yeah.
I would If you want to share it, you can.
Doug (01:17):
Your packaging is beautiful.
(01:18):
Thank you.
Doug (01:18):
You're always on point.
With your brand, you're gettingcustomers.
(01:28):
So if you need to go, let me know.
Oh no, I've got help.
Okay, Always bringing help withme.
Now what did you bake all thisup at the Hilltop?
Shared.
Doug (01:31):
Kitchen.
I did.
I did it all in the SharedKitchen space and remind us that
location.
(01:33):
It's just down the road here, so it's 735 Brownsville Road.
Doug (01:36):
Okay, and we're at about 150 Brownsville right now.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
So we're just not too far away, not that far away.
Doug (01:41):
I don't know if we've talked about the shared kitchen
since you've been on, so this isa newer concept for you.
Yes, you manage this kitchen,and when we say a shared kitchen
, what does that mean?
A shared kitchen?
(01:52):
So smaller businesses can come in and prepare their foods,
like, for example, ken came inyesterday.
Doug (02:02):
Chef Ken is across the street now you're talking about.
(02:04):
He came in and made his barbecue sauce.
So we rented the space forthree hours.
Doug (02:09):
Okay.
(02:09):
So I made it pretty affordable for small businesses to rent by
the month or part-time or bythe hour.
Doug (02:18):
I love this.
So folks that need a commercialkitchen space to make a product
that they're going to sellelsewhere- Off-site.
Yeah, they're not really makingit and running a restaurant in
the kitchen.
No, no, no, no.
But they're making it andthey're taking it Off-site To
sell elsewhere.
(02:34):
I also use it for my private events.
I do all my prep at the sharedkitchen.
Doug (02:38):
Okay.
(02:38):
And then I'll take it off-site to private events.
All right, which?
Doug (02:45):
I've helped you with a couple of reasons.
(02:46):
I know They've been so much fun.
Yes, you are my best helper.
Doug (02:48):
Aw Well, let's talk a little bit more about what
you're selling today.
In addition to the pies, I seesome cookies.
Yes, what are these?
Have sea salt on?
(02:55):
them.
I have malden sea salt.
Oh my goodness.
So these are my 24-hourchocolate chip cookies.
Doug (03:01):
Yeah, it doesn't take me 24 hours to make them.
It won't take me 24 hours toeat them either.
(03:06):
So the trick is, you make the dough and you let it sit for 24
hours in the refrigerator.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Okay.
(03:12):
And you let them out at room temperature for about five
minutes, I sprinkle sea salt onthem and then I bake them, so
they're like soft and chubby,like me.
Doug (03:24):
Now, what does that overnight rest do?
Is it let the flavors gettogether?
Does it let the dough get alittle cool funk on it, or I
don't know?
(03:35):
I mean, it's not fermenting, it's really not fermenting, but
it does like the flavors meldyeah, yeah I think there's a
couple of schools of chocolatechip cookie like people like the
thin and crispy.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yes.
(03:46):
Or they like the like the Le Bon kind of vibe.
Okay, so what this does, itkind of solidifies the butter.
Speaker 7 (03:53):
Mm-hmm.
(03:54):
And keeps everything stable.
So the outcome is like thisnice crunchy outside.
Yes, but still and still kindof almost underdone in the
inside.
Doug (04:03):
Which is exactly how you want it.
(04:04):
Yes, so I take them out of the oven when they're almost done
and let them finish cooking onthe sheet pan.
Doug (04:10):
Yeah, that sort of carryover cooking, yeah the
carryover cooking.
All right.
(04:13):
And then the brown butter.
Butterscotch blondies.
Oh my goodness, the pan weighedlike a small child.
Doug (04:21):
Well, these themselves I'm just lifting.
We've got like a small child.
Speaker 8 (04:25):
Well, these themselves.
Doug (04:26):
I'm just lifting, we've got like a three by three square
here, but they're heavy.
They are, wow yeah, delicious.
Speaker 8 (04:30):
They are so good.
(04:31):
I can already tell I mean I knew I had fruit, I knew I had
chocolate.
You know I have the applecinnamon muffin.
So I had a whole bunch ofbutterscotch chips left over and
I, I'm like listen, why not?
Doug (04:43):
Why not Brown butter?
(04:44):
butterscotch.
It was so good, wow, and it'sgoing well with my coffee this
morning.
Doug (04:50):
I bet it is.
So this is the first timeyou've set up at the market.
Now there's one more in August.
Are you going to be?
(04:56):
back.
Yes, I'm going to be back.
All right, I'm excited.
I love Thanks so much forjoining us on the Pittsburgh
Dish.
Thanks for coming, doug.
You're always my favorite, thePittsburgh Dish is number one.
Doug (05:10):
Hi.
Would you introduce yourself toour listeners?
Speaker 9 (05:12):
Sure, my name is Yvette Rodriguez-Schmidt and I
am co-owner of Flavor PuertoRico with my husband, Victor
Schmidt.
Doug (05:19):
Up here in Mount Oliver, in Mount Oliver, how long has
Flavor Puerto Rico been open?
Speaker 9 (05:25):
We have been open now five years.
Doug (05:27):
My goodness, yes, and if someone hasn't visited your shop
, okay, and they're not familiarwith Puerto Rican food, yes,
tell me what are some of the,the big sellers, or just some of
the, the main dishes that youguys love to make here.
Speaker 9 (05:41):
Sure, so we sell flavorful, delicious food from
the island.
Doug (05:46):
Yes.
Speaker 9 (05:47):
And one of our big and top sellers is our penil
with arrogo gandules.
And let me translate that.
That is our slow roasted porkwith rice and pigeon peas.
I know pigeon peas translatesinto peas, but it's not, it's a
bean.
Doug (06:02):
It's a bean, it's a bean.
Speaker 9 (06:04):
Are they little yellow beans?
They're little yellowish,greenish beans, nice and creamy.
Nice and creamy and it'sdelicious.
It's one of our biggest topsellers.
And for those people who don'teat pork.
Our other big seller is ourpollo guisado, which is
delicious.
It comes with potatoes andchicken and people love that.
(06:24):
So that's great for ournon-pork eaters.
Doug (06:27):
The chicken stew, what's it called again?
So it's pollo guisado, okay.
Speaker 9 (06:31):
Okay, so people love that.
Doug (06:32):
That's our second big top seller, best seller, yeah.
Speaker 9 (06:36):
And people love that.
And then we also have fiveempanada flavors which people
come in today.
I know about your empanada,yeah people love to come eat our
empanadas we have five flavors,so we have chicken, beef and
cheese.
We have a vegan one, which myhusband made the recipe himself
okay, what's in the vegan?
So in the vegan one we have umcoconut flour, we have lentils,
(06:58):
we have beans, so it doesn'thave like any meat substitute
none of that stuff, because alot of people who are vegan
really don't like the meat yeah,you're not just going with.
The beyond burger thing we'renot going with the beyond burger
meat substitute, so he made itand people love it.
Even our non-vegans buy ourvegan empanadas because it
tastes so good yeah, we alsohave a dessert, one which is a
(07:18):
caramel apple empanada.
Okay, and you eat that with alittle bit of, with a little bit
of sugar on top.
Doug (07:24):
Okay.
Speaker 9 (07:24):
That's delicious.
And then we have the one thatthe kids love it's a pizza
empanada.
What so the kids love that?
Because they say it's like ahot pocket.
So they love the pizza empanada.
Doug (07:34):
Well, I was going to say, if someone's not familiar with
empanada, it is like the bestkind of hot pocket.
Yes, yes, but I was wonderingif you did have a sweet one.
But you do, we do, we have asweet one.
Speaker 9 (07:43):
And then once, in a while we will have the steak and
mozzarella which is our limitedtime addition sometimes that we
put on the menu once in a whilewhich is also a nice salad.
Doug (07:55):
I love that.
Speaker 9 (07:55):
We offer catering.
You can look us up on ourwebsite, wwwflavorcuatoricocom,
and we offer catering.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
We do deliver for catering Okay.
Speaker 9 (08:06):
So we've done weddings, we've done parties, we
deliver to colleges.
We do a lot of big colleges forcatering.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
Yes.
Speaker 9 (08:14):
Yep, so, and then our hours are Monday through
Wednesday.
We're open 12 to 6.
Doug (08:20):
Okay.
Speaker 9 (08:20):
Thursday through Saturday, sundays we're closed.
We have to take the day off toset up the food and everything,
but those are our hours rightnow.
Doug (08:29):
Well, thank you so much and remind us your name again.
Speaker 9 (08:31):
And again, my name is Yvette Rodriguez-Schmidt and
I'm co-owner of Flavor, puertoRico, with my husband, victor
Schmitz.
Doug (08:37):
Yvette, thank you so much for talking with us.
Speaker 9 (08:39):
Thank you so much for the interview and if you
haven't been down to Flavor,puerto Rico, please come down
and check us out.
Doug (08:45):
You heard it here.
Speaker 9 (08:45):
All right, thank you so much.
Doug (08:48):
Hey there, how you doing Good good.
Would you introduce yourself toour listeners?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yeah, my name is Rick Hopkinson.
I'm the Mount Oliver BoroughManager.
Doug (08:55):
Can you tell our listeners a little bit more about what
your role is for all thesebusinesses up here doing
something really good in MountOliver?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
We're really focused on supporting and developing the
business district.
Yes, you know working withlocal businesses doing events to
help drive foot traffic totheir businesses, helping them
succeed.
And this farmer's market isjust kind of another facet of
that.
Doug (09:16):
Yeah, and I was talking with one of the other vendors
it's not just a farmer's marketwhere folks have come in.
It's a lot of the businessesthat are here all the time, so
it's bringing in folks thatmaybe get a taste of their
product on the street and thencome back and visit even in
their brick-and-mortar location.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I think it's really all about forming habits, to
like getting people to get intothe habit of coming up the
Brownsville Road and shoppinglocal and fun things like this I
think get people to see that wehave a lot to offer and
hopefully start to build thosehabits of shopping local and fun
things like this, I think getpeople to see that we have a lot
to offer and hopefully start tobuild those habits of shopping
local in the monoliver businessdistrict.
Doug (09:50):
I love that and this market has been going on all
summer long.
There's one more in august.
Any other events in your mind'seye that will happen in the
fall or over the winter formount oliver?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
yes, so we actually are partnering with the hilltop
Urban Farm to do a harvest fest.
I think that might be ourfourth annual Nice.
Third or fourth annual Love that, but that is in September, okay
.
So that'll be a lot of fun.
We'll close the road down,we'll have the same kind of
local vendors, but the HilltopUrban Farm will really be the
highlight and showcase of thatevent.
They've been growing all yearlong.
(10:29):
We'll have live music and, youknow, local brews and that type
of thing.
Closer to the holiday season wedo a cookie tour on Small
Business Saturday, free parking.
We actually worked with a localartist, maria DeSimone, up the
street to do a map.
So we're really excited aboutthis mapping project and what it
could potentially do for theMontoliver, allentown and
surrounding business districts.
So it's kind of like a Disneymap.
It's kind of whimsical, fun,really colorful.
(10:50):
It captures the essence of thebusiness districts and then it
has a QR code where you can goon a landing page to see all of
the businesses in our area, inthe Hilltop area as well, as you
know the events that we havecoming up, so we would like to
kind of unveil that afterHalloween we have people to
start thinking about shoppinglocal for the holidays.
Doug (11:07):
It's sort of a fun trail.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Like you know, you're kind of following Candyland or
so, yeah, yeah, speaking ofartists, do you know who our
singer is today over on the deck?
So that is Gianna Rockoff, andI actually met Gianna last year
at Megan McGinnis the cheeseQueens.
I actually met Gianna last yearat Megan McGinnis the.
Cheese Queen's Night Market,which kind of celebrates her
anniversary, which is, I wouldsay, probably the inspiration
(11:30):
behind all of this, but you knowGianna is an up-and-coming
artist, beautiful voice.
You know dynamic duo between thetwo of them.
So we're really excited to haveher for the Farmer's Market.
Doug (11:42):
And speaking of Farmer's Market, you are not just the
borough manager.
You are parked here at a tablewith a lot of farm fresh produce
.
Can you tell us where this isall from?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Yes, so all of this produce is from Triple B.
Triple B Farms in Monongahelahas been an amazing partner.
Doug (11:56):
They're a great friend of our show.
They were just on earlier inJuly.
That's so awesome.
Yeah, yeah, that's so awesome.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, yeah.
So we place our order with themand actually I drive up there.
You know I'm there at 7 in themorning picking up the you know
fresh farm, fresh produce.
Doug (12:10):
These peaches look amazing .
Oh, they're so good.
The peaches are incredible.
Well, thanks so much fortalking with us and thanks for
all you do up here in Mount.
Oliver, thank you.
Speaker 7 (12:19):
This is Shafalaka.
This is Chef Janet from ChefLife.
Speaker 9 (12:22):
Hacks.
This is YvetteRodriguez-Schmidt from Flavor of
Puerto Rico, and you'relistening to the Pittsburgh Dish
.
Doug (12:30):
Hi, how are you doing today?
Speaker 5 (12:31):
Good, how are you?
Doug (12:32):
Would you introduce yourself to our listeners and
tell us a little bit about yourbusiness?
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Sure, my name is Megan Veronti.
I'm one of the owners of NixonHilltop in Mount Oliver.
Doug (12:41):
And you guys just opened not too long ago.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
We did.
We just opened on May 2nd.
Congratulations, thank you.
I appreciate that very much.
Doug (12:49):
Is this one of your first markets here on the Hilltop, so
this would be our second one,because we did the first Mount.
Speaker 8 (12:54):
Oliver Farmer's Market.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
We've also done their live music.
We had a bar for their livemusic.
Okay, and I see some reallygood looking wings here today.
Yep, wings are one of thethings that we're known for, our
chicken especially.
We have hand-breaded chickentenders in the restaurant.
We do a really big wing night50-cent wings on.
Wednesdays.
But I would say my partners aredefinitely known for their
(13:17):
chicken.
Doug (13:18):
All right, all right, well , that was my question.
So, since Nick's just opened,can you tell us a little bit
more about the menu and maybeeven the hours?
Speaker 5 (13:33):
Is it breakfast, lunch, dinner?
Is it just dinner?
So we have brunch on theweekends?
Yeah, we do brunch.
Our hours are getting ready tochange.
We've been open 11 to 11 daily.
Doug (13:37):
Oh, that's a lot.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
But because we're new , we weren't really sure when we
would be busy.
We're going to be changing ourhours on the weekends to open at
12 and we will be doing brunchon saturdays until four and all
day on sundays so 12 to 8wonderful and then um the rest
of the week we do a normal lunchand dinner menu.
(13:59):
We have a bunch of burgers thatare really great our aloha
burger is is flying out of thekitchen.
Doug (14:05):
What is on that?
Speaker 5 (14:06):
That one has our sweet chili sauce and grilled
pineapple provolone cheese.
It's very good.
Doug (14:12):
Aloha yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
Aloha for sure.
And then we have some specialsthat we run the rest of the week
, like we just did a steakburger the other day.
It was a steakhouse burger, itwas with a steak patty.
That one sold out in a matterof hours.
Doug (14:27):
I love that.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Yeah.
Doug (14:29):
All right.
So we're talking about Nick'son Hilltop, nick's on Hilltop
yeah.
If folks want to find andfollow you, sure It'll be at.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
Nick's on Hilltop on Instagram, facebook, tiktok, and
we have a really activeInstagram and Facebook page.
We post our daily specialsthere and we let you know what
events are going on in therestaurant.
Doug (14:48):
Love it.
Thanks so much for talking tous today and all the best with
the new restaurant.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Hey, how are you doing today?
I'm good.
How are you doing Good?
Would you introduce yourself toour listeners?
Speaker 12 (14:59):
Yeah, I'm Chef Ken of KCZ Cuisine.
I'm a private chef here in thePittsburgh area.
My wheelhouse is East Asianflavors tuned into like a
Western style fine dining feel.
So what I do is I bring achef's table to your home for
any sort of celebrationsbirthdays, dinner parties, that
(15:21):
kind of thing Love that.
I also do some private cookingclasses as well as some personal
chefing.
Doug (15:28):
Chef Ken, I have been following you for a little bit
on Instagram because I think myfriend Ashley Cesarato had you
for some type of dinner.
Speaker 12 (15:35):
Yes, I did a dinner for her.
Alex Eats Too Much.
Yes, nelly the Pittsburgh FoodNerd.
And then Ashley's husband.
Doug (15:43):
Yes, all of these folks are good friends of the podcast.
Yeah, thank you so much, I lovehow connected everybody is.
Yeah absolutely so.
If folks want to find you foran event, what is your handle on
social and can they get to youthat?
Speaker 12 (16:01):
way.
Yeah, so my handle on social isKen underscore cooks food.
So, and then my website iskczcuisinecom.
Um, you can find me oninstagram, on facebook, I think.
Yeah, that's the main placesthat people find well, that
sounds great.
Doug (16:16):
And so, ken, we're up here in the mount oliver market.
What are you tabling today?
Speaker 12 (16:21):
I see some cool looking sauces here yeah, so I
have a gochujang barbecue sauceoh, I love going it's, it's so
good, so good it brings such adepth of flavor to basically
anything is this something youoffer is as one of your meals?
so show up or it shows, oh thefarmers market for me today is
(16:41):
really like this is my firstfarmers market.
I've never done this before.
I just thought it would be funto see yeah know, make some
stuff, kind of show off what Ican do.
But the gochujang sauce I makefor like the recipes that I do
for clients, I'll do likebraised ribs or, like a Brit,
like a pulled pork with this.
(17:02):
So good.
And then I'm also slinging somecucumber salads A Chinese style
smashed cucumber salad and agochujang sesame oil.
Love that.
Doug (17:12):
You know, after a while people will be asking you to
sell that gochujang sauce.
I'm hoping.
What is your connection to theMount Oliver community?
Speaker 12 (17:21):
So actually I've known chef alecca for a little
bit, uh, and she, you know I Iuse her kitchen space every once
in a while.
The hilltop, yeah, the hilltop'syour kitchen and because of
that, uh, you know, everybody onmount oliver hilltop um,
allentown has just been so uh,welcoming, like meg and rick.
(17:42):
They they've invited me to youdoing this the farmer's market
as well as helping me withbecause I'm a pretty new
entrepreneur.
Yeah, like invited me to go tothe Hilltop like the business
development sessions.
So I've learned a lot throughthat and that's sort of my
connection to here, amazing.
Doug (18:02):
Well, thank you so much for talking to us today.
All the best on your chefadventure, that solopreneur
adventure can be kind of scary,so I'm glad that you found this
community.
Thanks a lot, Ken.
Thank you very much, hey.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 10 (18:17):
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm great.
Doug (18:19):
Would you introduce yourself to our listeners?
Speaker 10 (18:21):
Absolutely so.
My name is Kelly.
I'm the owner of Armful ofFlowers Urban Flower Farm and
Design Studio in MountWashington, right here in
Pittsburgh.
Doug (18:28):
I have been following you for a really long time.
You have beautiful bouquets.
Thank you, you're so kind.
Well, I'm also noticing todaywe're at the Mount Oliver Market
Such a beautiful day today.
So good and you have a ton ofherbs.
Yes, I don't know if I realized.
Do you grow these?
Speaker 10 (18:46):
We do.
Yes, I had no idea, so it'sactually really exciting.
This year, we started an herbprogram and an edible garden
program at the top of our farm,in addition to our cut flowers.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Love it.
Speaker 10 (18:57):
And it actually was curated, planned, planted and
maintained by our Not yourMother's Flower Club, which is
like the funnest club in theentire world.
So good and these ladies pulledtogether these beautiful herb
planters and they've just beenso prolific.
We sell herb bundles at ourfarm stand on Mount Washington
now and we figured we'd bringsome here, because what better
(19:19):
place to sell herbs than at a?
Doug (19:21):
farm market.
So smart, I mean, are yougrowing all of these flowers?
Speaker 10 (19:24):
Oh, yeah, for sure, oh my gosh.
Doug (19:26):
Everything is so beautiful .
Thank you, now educate me.
I'm looking at, I'm going totake some pictures here in a
second.
So are these zinnias?
Speaker 10 (19:34):
They're actually kind of my soul flower.
Doug (19:37):
Are they?
This is a beautiful color.
Speaker 10 (19:38):
Yeah, my mom, when I was a little girl, had zinnias
growing all around the border ofher garden and it was really
like when I got older.
It was the thing that Iremembered most as a child and I
was like I just remember howvibrant and tall and beautiful
they are.
Like I can grow those and I cangive them to my friends and
that's kind of what blossomedand started my business and
(20:00):
started our farm beautifulzinnia yeah what is this?
Oh, she's really fun, so she'scelosia, okay.
Celosia, celosia, yeah, and sowe grow all sorts of gorgeous
varieties of her on the farm.
Doug (20:14):
They're taller and spikier .
Speaker 10 (20:16):
In a way, they're very fluffy.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yes.
Speaker 10 (20:18):
We consider them kind of like a filler in our
bouquets, but they're alsoreally cool dried, so we love
something on the farm that wecan dry and utilize in the fall
and winter months as well.
Doug (20:29):
All right, I'm going to turn my attention down to these
herbs because I want to cookwith them.
Are we talking flat leafparsley here?
Yes, some gorgeous flat leafparsley.
Speaker 9 (20:37):
It smells so good, Absolutely give it a good sniff.
Speaker 7 (20:39):
It does yes.
Speaker 10 (20:40):
And then we do have some sage.
Doug (20:43):
The sage is looking amazing we have mixed bundles as
well.
I love this on the end I knowit's an opal basil.
Opal basil.
I always call it purple basil,but it is so gorgeous.
Speaker 10 (20:54):
She's gorgeous, she's so luscious and she's
really, really good as analternative to a classic basil.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (21:01):
She's really great on a caprese salad or do like a
purple pesto, like how fun isthat?
It's just a fun way to take adifferent approach to cooking.
Doug (21:10):
I have grown that in the past and it is.
It's just.
I actually think I put it in mypots as another, just a color,
A filler.
Yeah, yeah, and I can see youdoing that with a bouquet as
well.
Speaker 10 (21:22):
Yes, we actually.
So there's two different ways.
You can grow basil, you can letit flower.
Doug (21:28):
Yes, I see a little bit of that and typically if you're
growing, it for food.
Speaker 10 (21:30):
You wanna cut that back, so it's not quite as
bitter.
Doug (21:33):
Right right.
Speaker 10 (21:34):
But if you let it grow, they're really great for
cut flowers.
They're beautiful yeah, they'rebeautiful foliage and they give
our bouqu.
Is this summery smell that?
Just makes you want to hug thebouquet it just smells like
summer in a little bit.
Doug (21:47):
Hang on to summer as long as we can.
Yes, absolutely, oh my gosh.
Well, thank you so much.
Let's just remind folks wherethey can find and follow you if
they're interested in more ofyour work.
Speaker 10 (21:56):
Absolutely so.
You can come find us on MountWashington in Pittsburgh.
We're on the corner of BinghamStreet and Virginia Avenue and
we have a farm market actuallyevery Saturday and Sunday as
well.
Um, and our next big event isour flower fest on August 24th,
where we close the street downand all the vendors are themed
around flowers and you can pickyour own flowers from our farm.
Doug (22:17):
Oh, I love it.
And what is your handle againon Instagram?
Speaker 10 (22:20):
Yeah, so it's just at arm full of flowers.
Doug (22:23):
All right.
Thank you so much, kelly.
Hey, how are you doing today?
Good, how are you doing?
Would you introduce yourself toour listeners and your business
name?
Speaker 8 (22:32):
Absolutely.
My name's Devin.
I run Spirited Extracts.
We're a vanilla extract company.
We do things a littledifferently though, where we
have different alcohol bases, sowe kind of create different
flavors in our vanilla extracts.
Doug (22:44):
We met once before at Hometown Homegrown at the Heinz
History Center.
Speaker 8 (22:49):
Yeah, correct.
Yeah, it was back in November,that's right.
Doug (22:52):
Yeah, big event, and so business is good.
Speaker 8 (22:55):
Yeah, we're doing well.
This is our third summerselling Congratulations.
Thank you so much.
Our better time is normally inthe fall when people start
baking a lot more, so it'salways good to be out here in
the beginning and start gettingback into the groove and things
Okay.
Doug (23:11):
And you're doing all this locally.
I mean, we're so used to goingto have to buy our McCormick's
or something, but we can buyvanilla extract straight from
you.
Yes, I'm just in the SouthHills of Pittsburgh, I'm in.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Whitehall.
Speaker 8 (23:23):
I make all of it there I source my vanilla beans
and get all the alcohol here aswell, and then, age, all of it
for a year here, so I try andmake it a little bit better than
what you're going to get in agrocery store.
Doug (23:35):
Okay, and tell me a little bit more about those different
bases that you mentioned earlier.
So you're not just using, Iguess, whatever the traditional
alcohol would be.
How does yours differ fromwhat's on the market?
Speaker 8 (23:47):
Yeah, yeah, so I do have just that classic vanilla
extract like you would find, butthen the other ones I have are
whiskey-based, brandy-based andorange liqueur-based Okay.
So the idea behind it is thatyou're kind of getting different
flavor profiles, so you'remixing and matching what you
think would go well together,like, for instance, my personal
(24:09):
favorite is the whiskey one.
One I just really like whiskeyand two I really like making
chocolate chip cookies and sochocolate and whiskey.
Those flavors pair really welltogether.
So when you're using it in thatyou're kind of adding this more
warmth and these other flavorcompounds that you're not
getting from just thattraditional vanilla.
Doug (24:29):
So just for the science of it, the alcohol is what really
brings in that vanilla flavor.
It holds on to it.
So you need some generally somekind of alcohol base.
Yes, but then, just like thevanilla stays in the cookie, a
little bit of that whiskeyflavor or that orange liqueur
flavor is also staying in yourbaked good.
So you're kind of getting a twofor one.
Speaker 8 (24:50):
Exactly.
So.
What I'm doing is getting allthose other flavors that you
find in whiskey and brandy thesweetness of brandy, the citrusy
of the orange liqueur and it'sadding that to the vanilla.
So you're getting that vanillapunch still like you would from
a regular extract, but you'regetting all those other flavors
as well.
And you're right that thealcohol is necessary, because
(25:10):
that's what draws the actualoils out of the vanilla beans.
It's what makes it actuallyvanilla extract.
Doug (25:17):
Wow, where did this all get started?
Speaker 8 (25:20):
Yeah.
So I started with just bakingmyself.
I wanted to, whenever I bakesomething I like, really try and
make it the best possible thatI can, and so I go way too hard,
way too extra with it.
And so I started just making myown vanilla and I wanted to
make it a little stronger and Iwanted to know that it was like
really good quality and that Iknew what was in it.
(25:42):
And so when I started I waslike, oh, I was like I've never
really seen anybody do this withwhiskey, so I want to make my
own batch with whiskey.
And I started making that in mycookies and I was like this is
actually really good.
And so then I wanted toexperiment a little bit more and
see what other alcohols I coulduse, and I went through 10
different alcohol types, liketequila and gin and rum and some
(26:04):
other whiskeys, and I found thefour that I think worked the
best that classic one like aneutral, and then the three
others that I had mentioned aswell.
So it all started from a bakingbackground and just kind of
expanded into that.
Doug (26:16):
And you're on your third year now.
Speaker 8 (26:17):
Yep my goodness.
Yeah, second full year ofselling now.
Congratulations, thank you.
Doug (26:26):
All right.
So I know you're out here todayvending.
What is your connection to theMount Oliver Hilltop Market?
Speaker 8 (26:29):
So my girlfriend actually works in this area.
She works for Hilltop Allianceand so I've been in this
neighborhood a lot, both hereand out in town.
I spend a lot of time at thedifferent events here, you know
night market and differentmarkets around here.
In general Cheese Queen, who'shere as well.
I've got my product in herstore, so really it's just like
(26:52):
a good chance to expand myfootprint, I think.
Yes, just introducing the newneighborhood.
Just try and get the name outthere.
Doug (27:00):
Remind our listeners if they want to find your spirited
extracts.
How can they find or follow you?
Where can they get them?
Speaker 8 (27:07):
Yeah, so we have a website, spiritedextractscom,
just as you would spell it.
We're on Instagram if you wantto follow us there.
We're in a few differentfarmers markets throughout the
summer hometown homegrown.
At the end of the year we'renormally in, and right now I'm
trying to expand into differentcoffee shops and different cafes
, things like that, andhopefully, maybe by the end of
(27:28):
the year, into some grocerystores.
Doug (27:30):
Oh, I love that Well.
Thanks so much for talking withus today.
Speaker 8 (27:32):
Thank you, it's been great.
Speaker 12 (27:34):
This is Chef Ken with KCZ Cuisine.
Speaker 8 (27:36):
This is Devin O'Leary with Spirited Extracts.
Speaker 10 (27:39):
This is Kelly, with Armful of Flowers and you're
listening to the Pittsburgh Dish.
Doug (27:45):
How are you both doing today Good?
Speaker 6 (27:47):
Good, a little sweaty , but very happy to be here.
It's getting warm.
Doug (27:50):
Would you introduce yourselves and who you're
representing today here at themarket?
Speaker 4 (27:55):
You got it.
My name's Liz Metzler.
I'm the Director of FarmPrograms at Hilltop Urban Farm.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
And I'm Wiley Ford.
I'm the Community FarmCoordinator at Hilltop Urban
Farm.
Doug (28:06):
I'm looking at your table and I see lots of vegetables and
beautiful flowers.
Is this herbs down in front?
Speaker 6 (28:15):
Yeah, the seedlings down in front are all from Hart
Farms in our farmer incubatorprogram, and then the rest of
the stuff came out of our whatwe call our community farm plot,
which is about three quartersof an acre of space where we
(28:35):
primarily do diversified veggiegrowing for three food bounties
in the area.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
I love that.
Speaker 6 (28:41):
So we work with the Brashear Association down the
street and then Abiding Missionsin Allentown and St Paul AME
Church over in Knoxville.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (28:54):
So this is our first time selling.
We had more than, like thepantries would be able to
distribute.
Doug (29:00):
Yeah, so you brought that abundance here, for the market
today, yeah.
Exactly.
I love that.
It looks so fresh, so good, andit is a farmer's market, so we
needed to have some fruits andveggies, of course yes, so we
actually learned there wasn't afarm vendor here, and that's
kind of why we took that slot.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
We don't really like to compete with other farms and
so actually the borough has astand over there with Triple B
Farms and we just let them knowwhat abundance we had.
And then they got produce thatwasn't competing over there with
Triple B Farms, and we just letthem know what abundance we had
, and then they got produce thatwasn't competing and so
hopefully everyone just hassales today.
So smart yeah, we're justreally rocking and rolling and
(29:39):
trying to get food access intothis neighborhood.
Doug (29:42):
It's so much great energy going on in Mount Oliver with
the permanent shops that havecome out on the street.
Love seeing you all coming outand sort of round out the market
.
Yeah, thank you both so much.
Speaker 6 (29:54):
Of course I want to know what everybody else is
working on, oh.
Doug (29:57):
I'll tell you I'm going to have to listen to your podcast.
You will, you will, yes, okay,hi there.
You are a special guest of thismarket today, aren't you?
Speaker 7 (30:05):
I am.
It's my first one ever.
I'm very excited.
Doug (30:07):
Would you introduce yourself to our listeners?
Speaker 7 (30:09):
Sure, I'm Chef Janet Loughran.
You also know me from Chef LifeHacks.
Doug (30:12):
You're a friend of the show.
Yes, janet has been on before.
Do you know what episode number?
Speaker 7 (30:18):
Oh, probably.
I think it's episode eight.
Doug (30:19):
Okay, I'll look it up.
Yeah it was pretty early on.
Yeah, yeah, and so you're up,you selling today.
Speaker 7 (30:28):
Well, I'm kind of known for my granolas.
I have a gingerbread granola.
That's delicious.
It has molasses in it, so itreally has that gingerbread
flavor.
Doug (30:34):
That looks good, but I see this other one mango coconut,
Mango coconut.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
Yeah, that was a new one for me.
I tried to do one that had zero, had no nuts so that one just
has sunflower seeds.
Doug (30:45):
It's important to some people.
Speaker 7 (30:46):
Yeah, we're also going to be making some yogurt
parfaits with some freshpineapple and then I have this
berry compote here, blueberrycompote you brought this to me
once before, so I've had thisit's delicious, it's so good
it's so simple too, because youjust simmer it with a little bit
of honey and apple cidervinegar and it becomes like a
jam, so you can put it on yogurt, or you can put it on your
pancakes or waffles if you wantto.
Doug (31:07):
Delicious.
I love it.
Now, Janet, I didn't know thatyou have done pop-ups like this.
Have you done this before?
Speaker 7 (31:14):
No, this is my first one.
This is brand new.
I was a little stressed thisweek, but I think everything
turned out okay.
Aleka was a big help.
Doug (31:19):
For folks that can't see the visual.
She has a lovely frame with allof her items and she's got a
little Venmo coat.
You look totally pro here.
I'm trying to be organized.
Well, let's talk for a littleminute, because I know we talked
back in the fall forThanksgiving prep, but when we
talked on your interview morethan a year ago, you know you
were doing a lot of mealdelivery and so some things have
(31:41):
changed, right.
So tell me a little bit moreabout, like your current
business model, Like what allare you offering or doing right
now and what are you not doinganymore.
Speaker 7 (31:50):
Sounds good, so I'm focusing more so on catering
private events, private chefingas well, as I'm doing a lot of
cooking classes, which I love.
I love teaching people how tocook.
It's so neat because they don'trealize that they really can do
this.
It's not intimidating oncethey're shown.
I did do meal delivery for acouple of years.
I have put that on the backburner.
Sometimes, I'll do a pop-uphere and there if I have nothing
(32:11):
on my schedule that week.
Doug (32:12):
I think that's the thing.
I thought that was changing.
You were kind of, you were kindof winding that part down.
Speaker 7 (32:17):
Right, I know and my clients miss me and I feel bad
but it's just, it's very timeconsuming, and there's other
things that I would really liketo pursue Right Fun things, you
know.
Plus, I have more time for myfamily now yeah, you know
they're getting.
I have a nine-year-old and afour-year-old and they're not
getting any younger no, youcan't.
Doug (32:31):
You blink and it's gone.
Exactly, you got to do that,but you're still killing it on
social media.
I see all of the tips, or Ishould say the hacks, and
they're not always chefing hacks.
Speaker 7 (32:40):
It's life hacks too exactly, I try to do a mixture.
So yeah, like I said, I justlove teaching people how to cook
, and my party people I callthem yeah, they've all come
together it's just a nicecommunity and I just love doing
it.
Doug (32:52):
So I want to ask you about a semi-recent post of yours,
and this was grilling hacks forthe summer.
I think I saw you out at yourgrill.
Am I remembering this right?
It was with like a half of acut onion or something.
Oh yeah can you tell us thathack?
Speaker 7 (33:05):
yes, if you want to make your grill non-stick
because you don't want to useoil that can flare up you just
cut an onion in half, grab yourtongs and run that onion on the
grates and it has like.
It makes like a barrier, soit's more non-stick for you.
Doug (33:16):
Okay, anything else while we're still in the depths of
summer for grilling hacks.
Speaker 7 (33:22):
Oh well, if you want to make those beautiful grill
marks you know how they love thediamond pattern Right.
Whenever you put the piece ofmeat or a vegetable or something
on the grill, put it on adiagonal.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
So, those lines are going straight up and down Put
it on a diagonal After a coupleof minutes.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
what I like to say is move it from 10 to 2.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yes, that's all you have to do.
10 to 2.
Speaker 7 (33:38):
Let it go for a couple more minutes and once you
flip it over it's thatbeautiful diamond pattern
driver's ed.
Doug (33:48):
Oh well, janet, you're always great for your hacks and
your tips.
The granola and the compotelook great.
I'm going to come back and geta parfait from you Awesome.
Thank you so much for being onthe Pittsburgh Dish and thanks
for supporting up here in MountOliver today.
Speaker 7 (33:59):
I'm happy to be here, nice to see you.
Doug (34:01):
All right, you too, bye, bye, bye.
Would you introduce yourself toour listeners?
Speaker 13 (34:06):
Sure, hi, I'm Janelleelle.
I'm from Ripepe Winery.
Doug (34:10):
And Janelle, you're up here at Mount Oliver.
Tell us, like, what brings youup here today?
Speaker 13 (34:15):
Sure, well, I've actually become good friends
with a lot of the businesses uphere and I do a lot of
collaborations with the CheeseQueen, and Hilltop Alliance
invites us up.
But we're a local winery.
We're from Monongahela, we havea 10-acre vineyard there and
most of our wines are made fromgrapes that we grow or we source
(34:36):
local fruit from Triple B Farms.
Doug (34:38):
We love them.
Speaker 13 (34:39):
Yes, we do too.
We're up here selling wine bythe bottle and by the glass.
Doug (34:44):
Okay, and if folks want to come visit you, is the winery
down in Monongahela open to thepublic on certain days?
Speaker 13 (34:51):
Yeah, we're open Friday, saturday and Sunday.
Our tasting room is open.
You can walk in.
You can do a flight.
If we don't have a foodprovider, you can bring your own
food or just grab some smallbites in our tasting room.
I love that.
Doug (35:05):
And what are you sampling today?
I see something with peach orstrawberry, is that right?
Speaker 13 (35:10):
Yes, so we brought two of our fruit wines.
We brought three sweet winesand three dry wines.
I brought a strawberry and apeach from Triple B Farms fruit
Our Valley Sunrise is a blend ofa red and a white.
That's our best seller.
Those grapes come from ourvineyard.
And then I brought our threemost popular dry wines is our
Repepe White, our repepe roséand our cabernet.
Doug (35:34):
All right, and I have learned this over the years that
dry means not sweet.
Speaker 13 (35:38):
Yes, so dry means no sugar.
It doesn't describe thesensation in your mouth.
So, those are things that getconfused a little bit, but we
love, you know, to educate ourcustomers.
We do a lot of classes andeducational events at our winery
(35:59):
where we just like talk throughbasics of wine tasting and yeah
.
Doug (36:04):
All right, learn a lot.
Yeah, so great she's gettinginto her cooler.
Oh, and she's getting me thepeach.
I like this.
Speaker 13 (36:12):
Yes, so our peach is actually made from peaches from
Triple B Farms and our property.
We have some peach trees on ourproperty.
When we make our fruit wines,we do it in the style of a red
wine.
Doug (36:22):
Okay.
Speaker 13 (36:22):
So we crush the fruit and then we do the
fermentation on the mash so youget color and flavor that you
can't get from just the juice,and so you get a lot of like
depth, of flavor and aromas, andit's all natural, no artificial
color or flavor.
Doug (36:41):
All right, they look beautiful.
It smells really good, so I'mgoing to take a sip.
Okay, that is delightful.
Yeah, I mean it's very.
I mean this is one of the sweetwines and it is really
drinkable on a warm summer daylike today.
Speaker 13 (36:55):
Yeah and I we've been experimenting a lot with
wine spritzers or like a winecocktail.
Yes so cocktail style, withoutyou know, with using our wine,
so you can add some sparklinglemonade or you lemonade, or
just like a club soda or somefruit, you can do sangria with
it.
Doug (37:15):
Okay.
Speaker 13 (37:15):
There's a lot of different things you can do,
even if you don't always likesweet wine, and it pairs great
with sweet food.
Doug (37:20):
Okay, well, we're going to go find some sweet food.
Okay, Janelle, from RepepeWinery.
Yes, thank you so much.
Thank you, okay, we've comeinside to the Cheese Queen and
we're going to talk to ourfriend, megan McGinnis.
Megan, you were on, I think,episode 39.
Speaker 11 (37:38):
I was on episode 39.
Oh yeah, it was such a greatfun time.
Doug (37:43):
Well, we love having you and it's always fun to be up in
your shop.
We're here in Mount Oliver,yeah, and outside I just talked
to Chef Aleka and Chef Janet.
They're parked right in front.
Speaker 11 (37:53):
I know and I love having them out there.
What a great energy right?
Doug (37:56):
Yes, so this market that you all have been doing up in
Mount Oliver, it goes on once amonth.
We're in July, so we've got onemore.
Speaker 11 (38:03):
Yes, and guess what?
We're celebrating Cheese Queenanniversary.
Oh, that's great.
Doug (38:08):
Now tell us about the anniversary.
Where are we at?
Speaker 11 (38:11):
So we are going to be here three years.
Doug (38:13):
Wow.
Speaker 11 (38:15):
That's wonderful.
Speaker 7 (38:16):
Congratulations.
Speaker 11 (38:17):
We're really excited .
I wanted to.
I'm very busy this weekend.
Speaker 7 (38:21):
I had a very busy weekend with weddings.
Speaker 11 (38:23):
So actually Cheese Queen anniversary was yesterday.
But I'm going to celebrate itbecause for the farmer's market,
because that's how my dadstarted his business, so I want
to bring that together.
And my family started theirbusiness my grandpa from a
farmer's market.
I remember as a child runningaround in a farmer's market.
There's something aboutbringing fresh food to people
(38:46):
and making it accessible.
That makes me so happy and Iwant to celebrate that for
Cheese Queen.
Doug (38:51):
Well, I'm so happy for you .
Congratulations, I'm so excited.
Speaker 11 (38:55):
We're going to have our Cheese Queen cart going.
We're going to have oursandwiches a lot of Cheese Queen
favorites.
We're going to have somespecial friends popping up.
We're going to have music byour dear friend Gianna Rockoff,
and she's over there singingtoday.
But she'll be there, and ChefAleka, chef Janet, all the
people here today will be back,and then we'll have some that
(39:17):
were here in June.
They'll be back and we're goingto have a full market in August
.
Doug (39:21):
And we should remind our listeners too.
It's not just vendors that arekind of coming in that don't
exist here, it's really a lot ofthe folks that occupy the
street, like yourself, likeFlavor of Puerto Rico.
We have Nick's on the hilltopthat just opened recently, so
they're right outside as well,so you're really coming up and
getting on the street flavor ofwhat Mount Oliver has to offer
(39:42):
all the time.
Speaker 11 (39:43):
Yes, and then also Triple B Farms is supplying our
produce.
We love them, and yes, and weat McGinnis, when my family had
their stores.
We had such a greatrelationship with them and I'm
actually doing their farm eventsfor their date nights out there
with my cheese boxes.
So it's just kind of workingwith those partners Amazing.
Doug (40:02):
And supporting.
Speaker 11 (40:03):
And all the local and we have corn today, we have
peaches today.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (40:08):
We have all those great things.
Speaker 7 (40:09):
So great so many amazing.
Speaker 11 (40:12):
It's just supporting the community and there's so
many great businesses up here inMontoliver I don't think people
know about, so I'm reallyexcited for people to come and
kind of experience just thepeace.
That's right Of what they do,and then they'll be able to come
back.
Doug (40:24):
Yeah, get up here.
Speaker 11 (40:25):
Yeah.
Doug (40:29):
Now for yeah, Get up here.
Yeah, Now for your shop.
I know you're doing a lot ofweddings, as you said, a lot of
catering.
Speaker 11 (40:33):
Do you still have some open hours?
I don't have any open hours.
I'm mostly posting pop-ups.
That's right when I'm going tobe with my cart and I'm going to
be doing Lunchables, likesometimes I might post on a
Monday.
Hey, we're open this Friday.
Yes, come in, we'll have thesecheeses, we'll have these
sandwiches, you know those kindsof things.
Doug (40:49):
So folks need to be following you on your socials.
Speaker 11 (40:52):
Yes, to see where we will be and the cart is just
rolling all around Pittsburgh.
Doug (40:56):
It is so fun If folks haven't seen that cart they need
to.
Speaker 11 (40:59):
The adult Lunchable is a thing, and we're going to
be at Red's Good News thiscoming Saturday with the cart.
Doug (41:04):
Over in Brookline.
Brookline, we love Brookline.
Speaker 11 (41:06):
And we're popping up there from 12 to 4.
We'll have the Cheese Queencart.
You can play cornhole.
Sit on the picnic tables, enjoythe sunshine, have your
lunchable, have your beer.
Doug (41:15):
And what's the date for that?
Speaker 11 (41:16):
August 2nd.
Doug (41:17):
All right, it's coming right up.
Speaker 11 (41:18):
It is.
Doug (41:19):
Megan McGinnis, the Cheese Queen.
Thank you so much and thanksfor inviting me up today.
This was really your idea.
Speaker 11 (41:25):
Doug, I love you so much, we had to have you here
Well we love you guys, thank you.
Doug (41:30):
Thank you so, Aleka?
Yes, Doug.
What was the best dish you'vehad to eat this past week?
(41:39):
That's a really good question.
We just went to Balvanera.
Oh yeah, Down in the stripdistrict, my mom's birthday and
they have an empanada there thathas the corn and the red pepper
in it sounds delicious I havenot forgotten about that.
Speaker 10 (41:55):
That one empanada, that's the best thing I've had
spaghetti and meatballs I lovespaghetti and meatballs made
very well oven roasted salmonand I used some lemongrass from
our herb garden in it.
It was so good and I just Ilove using fresh herbs in the
summertime.
(42:16):
And.
I had some really good, likefarm fresh potatoes and all that
good stuff in it.
Speaker 8 (42:22):
So yeah, my partner's mom made beef bulgogi.
That is so delicious.
Doug (42:28):
Oh, I bet, I love bulgogi.
Speaker 6 (42:30):
I made birria tacos last night, one of my favorite
dishes and that kind of that wasreally good.
I was exhausted.
I was just like burnt out fromthe week.
That really helped me get backon track.
I used some of the onions andcilantro that we grew on there.
So good Fantastic.
Speaker 13 (42:51):
Well, actually I've been cooking with my kids a lot.
We made homemade pastacarbonara.
Wow, how old are your kids?
They're still young.
They're 10, 12, and 14, butespecially my middle son, he's
12, and he loves to cook.
That's a pretty impressive dish.
We did.
Yeah, we made from scratch.
Sounds delicious.
We're a pretty impressive dish.
We did.
Yeah, we made it from scratch.
Sounds delicious.
We're always trying somethingnew in the kitchen.
Doug (43:13):
What was the best dish you had to eat this past week, this
past?
Speaker 12 (43:18):
week.
Ooh, I made a soy braised porkchops.
It's a recipe that I grew upwith in China and it's super
simple and it's just homey, it'srich and it's so good over rice
.
Speaker 7 (43:37):
I made sweet and sour chicken that you would get at
any Chinese restaurant, but Imade it at home and I feel like
it might have been a little bitbetter.
Doug (43:43):
Well, because you made it.
Speaker 7 (43:45):
If you look online, made with Lau L-A-U.
He has taught me so much aboutCantonese cooking.
He used to be a chef at aChinese restaurant.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
We're farming and it's hot, and so this week I got
really into this Caesar pastasalad and so I added some peas
and some kale from the farm andjust did it up, and it's
something nice that can staycool and is refreshing, but
still has that carby, highdensity energy I need.
(44:15):
Sounds perfect, yes.
Doug (44:17):
Rick, the name of the show is the Pittsburgh Dish.
What's the best dish you had toeat this past week?
Speaker 3 (44:24):
I actually had an abundance of cucumbers, so I
made a cucumber and tomato saladwith parsley, some olive oil
and lemon, and I just ate thatwith some crusty bread with
olive oil Perfect that sounds sogreat for summer.
Really good Best bite this week.
Doug (44:38):
Thank you.
If you enjoyed the show,consider buying us a coffee for
this episode or supporting theshow monthly.
You can find links to thoseoptions at the bottom of our
show description, and if youwant to follow my own food
adventures, you can find me onsocial media at DougCooking.
(44:58):
That's our show for this week.
Thanks again to all of ourguests and contributors, and to
Kevin Selecki of CarnegieAccordion Company for providing
the music to our show.
We'll be back again next weekwith another fresh episode.
Stay tuned.
Welcome to the Pittsburgh Dish.
I'm your host, doug Heilman,and we're doing something
different this week.
We're on the streets of MountOliver Right now I'm walking out
Brownsville Road and we'regoing to check out the Mount
Oliver Farmer's Market.
Nothing better than a vibrantcommunity.
I know I have some old friendsthere, as well as probably some
new ones to meet.
Lots of goodies to check out.
(00:22):
Let's go talk to some people.
Some new ones to meet.
Lots of goodies to check out.
Let's go talk to some people.
Hi there, would you introduceyourself to our listeners?
(00:31):
Hello, I am Chef Alekka Sweeney.
Doug (00:34):
Aw, Chef Alekka, you are a friend of the show as well.
(00:36):
Yes.
Doug (00:37):
What is going on up here in Mount Oliver today for you.
(00:48):
So we're.
This is the first Mount OliverFarmer's Market that I've done.
Doug (00:50):
I'm selling a whole bunch of my favorite baked goods.
I specifically see mini pies.
(00:53):
Yes, kind of inspired from my trip to Toulouse.
Doug (00:56):
Yeah, that looked amazing.
(00:57):
So it is a roasted strawberry pie with my all butter pie crust
that everybody loves, so Islow-roasted the strawberries
for three hours yesterday.
Doug (01:08):
And this is like what?
Like a six-inch pie, yeah, soit's a six-inch pie.
(01:12):
It's one of my favorites, I would say you can have it
yourself, yeah.
I would If you want to share it, you can.
Doug (01:17):
Your packaging is beautiful.
(01:18):
Thank you.
Doug (01:18):
You're always on point.
With your brand, you're gettingcustomers.
(01:28):
So if you need to go, let me know.
Oh no, I've got help.
Okay, Always bringing help withme.
Now what did you bake all thisup at the Hilltop?
Shared.
Doug (01:31):
Kitchen.
I did.
I did it all in the SharedKitchen space and remind us that
location.
(01:33):
It's just down the road here, so it's 735 Brownsville Road.
Doug (01:36):
Okay, and we're at about 150 Brownsville right now.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
So we're just not too far away, not that far away.
Doug (01:41):
I don't know if we've talked about the shared kitchen
since you've been on, so this isa newer concept for you.
Yes, you manage this kitchen,and when we say a shared kitchen
, what does that mean?
A shared kitchen?
(01:52):
So smaller businesses can come in and prepare their foods,
like, for example, ken came inyesterday.
Doug (02:02):
Chef Ken is across the street now you're talking about.
(02:04):
He came in and made his barbecue sauce.
So we rented the space forthree hours.
Doug (02:09):
Okay.
(02:09):
So I made it pretty affordable for small businesses to rent by
the month or part-time or bythe hour.
Doug (02:18):
I love this.
So folks that need a commercialkitchen space to make a product
that they're going to sellelsewhere- Off-site.
Yeah, they're not really makingit and running a restaurant in
the kitchen.
No, no, no, no.
But they're making it andthey're taking it Off-site To
sell elsewhere.
(02:34):
I also use it for my private events.
I do all my prep at the sharedkitchen.
Doug (02:38):
Okay.
(02:38):
And then I'll take it off-site to private events.
All right, which?
Doug (02:45):
I've helped you with a couple of reasons.
(02:46):
I know They've been so much fun.
Yes, you are my best helper.
Doug (02:48):
Aw Well, let's talk a little bit more about what
you're selling today.
In addition to the pies, I seesome cookies.
Yes, what are these?
Have sea salt on?
(02:55):
them.
I have malden sea salt.
Oh my goodness.
So these are my 24-hourchocolate chip cookies.
Doug (03:01):
Yeah, it doesn't take me 24 hours to make them.
It won't take me 24 hours toeat them either.
(03:06):
So the trick is, you make the dough and you let it sit for 24
hours in the refrigerator.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Okay.
(03:12):
And you let them out at room temperature for about five
minutes, I sprinkle sea salt onthem and then I bake them, so
they're like soft and chubby,like me.
Doug (03:24):
Now, what does that overnight rest do?
Is it let the flavors gettogether?
Does it let the dough get alittle cool funk on it, or I
don't know?
(03:35):
I mean, it's not fermenting, it's really not fermenting, but
it does like the flavors meldyeah, yeah I think there's a
couple of schools of chocolatechip cookie like people like the
thin and crispy.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yes.
(03:46):
Or they like the like the Le Bon kind of vibe.
Okay, so what this does, itkind of solidifies the butter.
Speaker 7 (03:53):
Mm-hmm.
(03:54):
And keeps everything stable.
So the outcome is like thisnice crunchy outside.
Yes, but still and still kindof almost underdone in the
inside.
Doug (04:03):
Which is exactly how you want it.
(04:04):
Yes, so I take them out of the oven when they're almost done
and let them finish cooking onthe sheet pan.
Doug (04:10):
Yeah, that sort of carryover cooking, yeah the
carryover cooking.
All right.
(04:13):
And then the brown butter.
Butterscotch blondies.
Oh my goodness, the pan weighedlike a small child.
Doug (04:21):
Well, these themselves I'm just lifting.
We've got like a small child.
Speaker 8 (04:25):
Well, these themselves.
Doug (04:26):
I'm just lifting, we've got like a three by three square
here, but they're heavy.
They are, wow yeah, delicious.
Speaker 8 (04:30):
They are so good.
(04:31):
I can already tell I mean I knew I had fruit, I knew I had
chocolate.
You know I have the applecinnamon muffin.
So I had a whole bunch ofbutterscotch chips left over and
I, I'm like listen, why not?
Doug (04:43):
Why not Brown butter?
(04:44):
butterscotch.
It was so good, wow, and it'sgoing well with my coffee this
morning.
Doug (04:50):
I bet it is.
So this is the first timeyou've set up at the market.
Now there's one more in August.
Are you going to be?
(04:56):
back.
Yes, I'm going to be back.
All right, I'm excited.
I love Thanks so much forjoining us on the Pittsburgh
Dish.
Thanks for coming, doug.
You're always my favorite, thePittsburgh Dish is number one.
Doug (05:10):
Hi.
Would you introduce yourself toour listeners?
Speaker 9 (05:12):
Sure, my name is Yvette Rodriguez-Schmidt and I
am co-owner of Flavor PuertoRico with my husband, Victor
Schmidt.
Doug (05:19):
Up here in Mount Oliver, in Mount Oliver, how long has
Flavor Puerto Rico been open?
Speaker 9 (05:25):
We have been open now five years.
Doug (05:27):
My goodness, yes, and if someone hasn't visited your shop
, okay, and they're not familiarwith Puerto Rican food, yes,
tell me what are some of the,the big sellers, or just some of
the, the main dishes that youguys love to make here.
Speaker 9 (05:41):
Sure, so we sell flavorful, delicious food from
the island.
Doug (05:46):
Yes.
Speaker 9 (05:47):
And one of our big and top sellers is our penil
with arrogo gandules.
And let me translate that.
That is our slow roasted porkwith rice and pigeon peas.
I know pigeon peas translatesinto peas, but it's not, it's a
bean.
Doug (06:02):
It's a bean, it's a bean.
Speaker 9 (06:04):
Are they little yellow beans?
They're little yellowish,greenish beans, nice and creamy.
Nice and creamy and it'sdelicious.
It's one of our biggest topsellers.
And for those people who don'teat pork.
Our other big seller is ourpollo guisado, which is
delicious.
It comes with potatoes andchicken and people love that.
(06:24):
So that's great for ournon-pork eaters.
Doug (06:27):
The chicken stew, what's it called again?
So it's pollo guisado, okay.
Speaker 9 (06:31):
Okay, so people love that.
Doug (06:32):
That's our second big top seller, best seller, yeah.
Speaker 9 (06:36):
And people love that.
And then we also have fiveempanada flavors which people
come in today.
I know about your empanada,yeah people love to come eat our
empanadas we have five flavors,so we have chicken, beef and
cheese.
We have a vegan one, which myhusband made the recipe himself
okay, what's in the vegan?
So in the vegan one we have umcoconut flour, we have lentils,
(06:58):
we have beans, so it doesn'thave like any meat substitute
none of that stuff, because alot of people who are vegan
really don't like the meat yeah,you're not just going with.
The beyond burger thing we'renot going with the beyond burger
meat substitute, so he made itand people love it.
Even our non-vegans buy ourvegan empanadas because it
tastes so good yeah, we alsohave a dessert, one which is a
(07:18):
caramel apple empanada.
Okay, and you eat that with alittle bit of, with a little bit
of sugar on top.
Doug (07:24):
Okay.
Speaker 9 (07:24):
That's delicious.
And then we have the one thatthe kids love it's a pizza
empanada.
What so the kids love that?
Because they say it's like ahot pocket.
So they love the pizza empanada.
Doug (07:34):
Well, I was going to say, if someone's not familiar with
empanada, it is like the bestkind of hot pocket.
Yes, yes, but I was wonderingif you did have a sweet one.
But you do, we do, we have asweet one.
Speaker 9 (07:43):
And then once, in a while we will have the steak and
mozzarella which is our limitedtime addition sometimes that we
put on the menu once in a whilewhich is also a nice salad.
Doug (07:55):
I love that.
Speaker 9 (07:55):
We offer catering.
You can look us up on ourwebsite, wwwflavorcuatoricocom,
and we offer catering.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
We do deliver for catering Okay.
Speaker 9 (08:06):
So we've done weddings, we've done parties, we
deliver to colleges.
We do a lot of big colleges forcatering.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
Yes.
Speaker 9 (08:14):
Yep, so, and then our hours are Monday through
Wednesday.
We're open 12 to 6.
Doug (08:20):
Okay.
Speaker 9 (08:20):
Thursday through Saturday, sundays we're closed.
We have to take the day off toset up the food and everything,
but those are our hours rightnow.
Doug (08:29):
Well, thank you so much and remind us your name again.
Speaker 9 (08:31):
And again, my name is Yvette Rodriguez-Schmidt and
I'm co-owner of Flavor, puertoRico, with my husband, victor
Schmitz.
Doug (08:37):
Yvette, thank you so much for talking with us.
Speaker 9 (08:39):
Thank you so much for the interview and if you
haven't been down to Flavor,puerto Rico, please come down
and check us out.
Doug (08:45):
You heard it here.
Speaker 9 (08:45):
All right, thank you so much.
Doug (08:48):
Hey there, how you doing Good good.
Would you introduce yourself toour listeners?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yeah, my name is Rick Hopkinson.
I'm the Mount Oliver BoroughManager.
Doug (08:55):
Can you tell our listeners a little bit more about what
your role is for all thesebusinesses up here doing
something really good in MountOliver?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
We're really focused on supporting and developing the
business district.
Yes, you know working withlocal businesses doing events to
help drive foot traffic totheir businesses, helping them
succeed.
And this farmer's market isjust kind of another facet of
that.
Doug (09:16):
Yeah, and I was talking with one of the other vendors
it's not just a farmer's marketwhere folks have come in.
It's a lot of the businessesthat are here all the time, so
it's bringing in folks thatmaybe get a taste of their
product on the street and thencome back and visit even in
their brick-and-mortar location.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I think it's really all about forming habits, to
like getting people to get intothe habit of coming up the
Brownsville Road and shoppinglocal and fun things like this I
think get people to see that wehave a lot to offer and
hopefully start to build thosehabits of shopping local and fun
things like this, I think getpeople to see that we have a lot
to offer and hopefully start tobuild those habits of shopping
local in the monoliver businessdistrict.
Doug (09:50):
I love that and this market has been going on all
summer long.
There's one more in august.
Any other events in your mind'seye that will happen in the
fall or over the winter formount oliver?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
yes, so we actually are partnering with the hilltop
Urban Farm to do a harvest fest.
I think that might be ourfourth annual Nice.
Third or fourth annual Love that, but that is in September, okay
.
So that'll be a lot of fun.
We'll close the road down,we'll have the same kind of
local vendors, but the HilltopUrban Farm will really be the
highlight and showcase of thatevent.
They've been growing all yearlong.
(10:29):
We'll have live music and, youknow, local brews and that type
of thing.
Closer to the holiday season wedo a cookie tour on Small
Business Saturday, free parking.
We actually worked with a localartist, maria DeSimone, up the
street to do a map.
So we're really excited aboutthis mapping project and what it
could potentially do for theMontoliver, allentown and
surrounding business districts.
So it's kind of like a Disneymap.
It's kind of whimsical, fun,really colorful.
(10:50):
It captures the essence of thebusiness districts and then it
has a QR code where you can goon a landing page to see all of
the businesses in our area, inthe Hilltop area as well, as you
know the events that we havecoming up, so we would like to
kind of unveil that afterHalloween we have people to
start thinking about shoppinglocal for the holidays.
Doug (11:07):
It's sort of a fun trail.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Like you know, you're kind of following Candyland or
so, yeah, yeah, speaking ofartists, do you know who our
singer is today over on the deck?
So that is Gianna Rockoff, andI actually met Gianna last year
at Megan McGinnis the cheeseQueens.
I actually met Gianna last yearat Megan McGinnis the.
Cheese Queen's Night Market,which kind of celebrates her
anniversary, which is, I wouldsay, probably the inspiration
(11:30):
behind all of this, but you knowGianna is an up-and-coming
artist, beautiful voice.
You know dynamic duo between thetwo of them.
So we're really excited to haveher for the Farmer's Market.
Doug (11:42):
And speaking of Farmer's Market, you are not just the
borough manager.
You are parked here at a tablewith a lot of farm fresh produce
.
Can you tell us where this isall from?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Yes, so all of this produce is from Triple B.
Triple B Farms in Monongahelahas been an amazing partner.
Doug (11:56):
They're a great friend of our show.
They were just on earlier inJuly.
That's so awesome.
Yeah, yeah, that's so awesome.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, yeah.
So we place our order with themand actually I drive up there.
You know I'm there at 7 in themorning picking up the you know
fresh farm, fresh produce.
Doug (12:10):
These peaches look amazing .
Oh, they're so good.
The peaches are incredible.
Well, thanks so much fortalking with us and thanks for
all you do up here in Mount.
Oliver, thank you.
Speaker 7 (12:19):
This is Shafalaka.
This is Chef Janet from ChefLife.
Speaker 9 (12:22):
Hacks.
This is YvetteRodriguez-Schmidt from Flavor of
Puerto Rico, and you'relistening to the Pittsburgh Dish
.
Doug (12:30):
Hi, how are you doing today?
Speaker 5 (12:31):
Good, how are you?
Doug (12:32):
Would you introduce yourself to our listeners and
tell us a little bit about yourbusiness?
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Sure, my name is Megan Veronti.
I'm one of the owners of NixonHilltop in Mount Oliver.
Doug (12:41):
And you guys just opened not too long ago.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
We did.
We just opened on May 2nd.
Congratulations, thank you.
I appreciate that very much.
Doug (12:49):
Is this one of your first markets here on the Hilltop, so
this would be our second one,because we did the first Mount.
Speaker 8 (12:54):
Oliver Farmer's Market.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
We've also done their live music.
We had a bar for their livemusic.
Okay, and I see some reallygood looking wings here today.
Yep, wings are one of thethings that we're known for, our
chicken especially.
We have hand-breaded chickentenders in the restaurant.
We do a really big wing night50-cent wings on.
Wednesdays.
But I would say my partners aredefinitely known for their
(13:17):
chicken.
Doug (13:18):
All right, all right, well , that was my question.
So, since Nick's just opened,can you tell us a little bit
more about the menu and maybeeven the hours?
Speaker 5 (13:33):
Is it breakfast, lunch, dinner?
Is it just dinner?
So we have brunch on theweekends?
Yeah, we do brunch.
Our hours are getting ready tochange.
We've been open 11 to 11 daily.
Doug (13:37):
Oh, that's a lot.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
But because we're new , we weren't really sure when we
would be busy.
We're going to be changing ourhours on the weekends to open at
12 and we will be doing brunchon saturdays until four and all
day on sundays so 12 to 8wonderful and then um the rest
of the week we do a normal lunchand dinner menu.
(13:59):
We have a bunch of burgers thatare really great our aloha
burger is is flying out of thekitchen.
Doug (14:05):
What is on that?
Speaker 5 (14:06):
That one has our sweet chili sauce and grilled
pineapple provolone cheese.
It's very good.
Doug (14:12):
Aloha yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
Aloha for sure.
And then we have some specialsthat we run the rest of the week
, like we just did a steakburger the other day.
It was a steakhouse burger, itwas with a steak patty.
That one sold out in a matterof hours.
Doug (14:27):
I love that.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Yeah.
Doug (14:29):
All right.
So we're talking about Nick'son Hilltop, nick's on Hilltop
yeah.
If folks want to find andfollow you, sure It'll be at.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
Nick's on Hilltop on Instagram, facebook, tiktok, and
we have a really activeInstagram and Facebook page.
We post our daily specialsthere and we let you know what
events are going on in therestaurant.
Doug (14:48):
Love it.
Thanks so much for talking tous today and all the best with
the new restaurant.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Hey, how are you doing today?
I'm good.
How are you doing Good?
Would you introduce yourself toour listeners?
Speaker 12 (14:59):
Yeah, I'm Chef Ken of KCZ Cuisine.
I'm a private chef here in thePittsburgh area.
My wheelhouse is East Asianflavors tuned into like a
Western style fine dining feel.
So what I do is I bring achef's table to your home for
any sort of celebrationsbirthdays, dinner parties, that
(15:21):
kind of thing Love that.
I also do some private cookingclasses as well as some personal
chefing.
Doug (15:28):
Chef Ken, I have been following you for a little bit
on Instagram because I think myfriend Ashley Cesarato had you
for some type of dinner.
Speaker 12 (15:35):
Yes, I did a dinner for her.
Alex Eats Too Much.
Yes, nelly the Pittsburgh FoodNerd.
And then Ashley's husband.
Doug (15:43):
Yes, all of these folks are good friends of the podcast.
Yeah, thank you so much, I lovehow connected everybody is.
Yeah absolutely so.
If folks want to find you foran event, what is your handle on
social and can they get to youthat?
Speaker 12 (16:01):
way.
Yeah, so my handle on social isKen underscore cooks food.
So, and then my website iskczcuisinecom.
Um, you can find me oninstagram, on facebook, I think.
Yeah, that's the main placesthat people find well, that
sounds great.
Doug (16:16):
And so, ken, we're up here in the mount oliver market.
What are you tabling today?
Speaker 12 (16:21):
I see some cool looking sauces here yeah, so I
have a gochujang barbecue sauceoh, I love going it's, it's so
good, so good it brings such adepth of flavor to basically
anything is this something youoffer is as one of your meals?
so show up or it shows, oh thefarmers market for me today is
(16:41):
really like this is my firstfarmers market.
I've never done this before.
I just thought it would be funto see yeah know, make some
stuff, kind of show off what Ican do.
But the gochujang sauce I makefor like the recipes that I do
for clients, I'll do likebraised ribs or, like a Brit,
like a pulled pork with this.
(17:02):
So good.
And then I'm also slinging somecucumber salads A Chinese style
smashed cucumber salad and agochujang sesame oil.
Love that.
Doug (17:12):
You know, after a while people will be asking you to
sell that gochujang sauce.
I'm hoping.
What is your connection to theMount Oliver community?
Speaker 12 (17:21):
So actually I've known chef alecca for a little
bit, uh, and she, you know I Iuse her kitchen space every once
in a while.
The hilltop, yeah, the hilltop'syour kitchen and because of
that, uh, you know, everybody onmount oliver hilltop um,
allentown has just been so uh,welcoming, like meg and rick.
(17:42):
They they've invited me to youdoing this the farmer's market
as well as helping me withbecause I'm a pretty new
entrepreneur.
Yeah, like invited me to go tothe Hilltop like the business
development sessions.
So I've learned a lot throughthat and that's sort of my
connection to here, amazing.
Doug (18:02):
Well, thank you so much for talking to us today.
All the best on your chefadventure, that solopreneur
adventure can be kind of scary,so I'm glad that you found this
community.
Thanks a lot, Ken.
Thank you very much, hey.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 10 (18:17):
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm great.
Doug (18:19):
Would you introduce yourself to our listeners?
Speaker 10 (18:21):
Absolutely so.
My name is Kelly.
I'm the owner of Armful ofFlowers Urban Flower Farm and
Design Studio in MountWashington, right here in
Pittsburgh.
Doug (18:28):
I have been following you for a really long time.
You have beautiful bouquets.
Thank you, you're so kind.
Well, I'm also noticing todaywe're at the Mount Oliver Market
Such a beautiful day today.
So good and you have a ton ofherbs.
Yes, I don't know if I realized.
Do you grow these?
Speaker 10 (18:46):
We do.
Yes, I had no idea, so it'sactually really exciting.
This year, we started an herbprogram and an edible garden
program at the top of our farm,in addition to our cut flowers.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Love it.
Speaker 10 (18:57):
And it actually was curated, planned, planted and
maintained by our Not yourMother's Flower Club, which is
like the funnest club in theentire world.
So good and these ladies pulledtogether these beautiful herb
planters and they've just beenso prolific.
We sell herb bundles at ourfarm stand on Mount Washington
now and we figured we'd bringsome here, because what better
(19:19):
place to sell herbs than at a?
Doug (19:21):
farm market.
So smart, I mean, are yougrowing all of these flowers?
Speaker 10 (19:24):
Oh, yeah, for sure, oh my gosh.
Doug (19:26):
Everything is so beautiful .
Thank you, now educate me.
I'm looking at, I'm going totake some pictures here in a
second.
So are these zinnias?
Speaker 10 (19:34):
They're actually kind of my soul flower.
Doug (19:37):
Are they?
This is a beautiful color.
Speaker 10 (19:38):
Yeah, my mom, when I was a little girl, had zinnias
growing all around the border ofher garden and it was really
like when I got older.
It was the thing that Iremembered most as a child and I
was like I just remember howvibrant and tall and beautiful
they are.
Like I can grow those and I cangive them to my friends and
that's kind of what blossomedand started my business and
(20:00):
started our farm beautifulzinnia yeah what is this?
Oh, she's really fun, so she'scelosia, okay.
Celosia, celosia, yeah, and sowe grow all sorts of gorgeous
varieties of her on the farm.
Doug (20:14):
They're taller and spikier .
Speaker 10 (20:16):
In a way, they're very fluffy.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yes.
Speaker 10 (20:18):
We consider them kind of like a filler in our
bouquets, but they're alsoreally cool dried, so we love
something on the farm that wecan dry and utilize in the fall
and winter months as well.
Doug (20:29):
All right, I'm going to turn my attention down to these
herbs because I want to cookwith them.
Are we talking flat leafparsley here?
Yes, some gorgeous flat leafparsley.
Speaker 9 (20:37):
It smells so good, Absolutely give it a good sniff.
Speaker 7 (20:39):
It does yes.
Speaker 10 (20:40):
And then we do have some sage.
Doug (20:43):
The sage is looking amazing we have mixed bundles as
well.
I love this on the end I knowit's an opal basil.
Opal basil.
I always call it purple basil,but it is so gorgeous.
Speaker 10 (20:54):
She's gorgeous, she's so luscious and she's
really, really good as analternative to a classic basil.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (21:01):
She's really great on a caprese salad or do like a
purple pesto, like how fun isthat?
It's just a fun way to take adifferent approach to cooking.
Doug (21:10):
I have grown that in the past and it is.
It's just.
I actually think I put it in mypots as another, just a color,
A filler.
Yeah, yeah, and I can see youdoing that with a bouquet as
well.
Speaker 10 (21:22):
Yes, we actually.
So there's two different ways.
You can grow basil, you can letit flower.
Doug (21:28):
Yes, I see a little bit of that and typically if you're
growing, it for food.
Speaker 10 (21:30):
You wanna cut that back, so it's not quite as
bitter.
Doug (21:33):
Right right.
Speaker 10 (21:34):
But if you let it grow, they're really great for
cut flowers.
They're beautiful yeah, they'rebeautiful foliage and they give
our bouqu.
Is this summery smell that?
Just makes you want to hug thebouquet it just smells like
summer in a little bit.
Doug (21:47):
Hang on to summer as long as we can.
Yes, absolutely, oh my gosh.
Well, thank you so much.
Let's just remind folks wherethey can find and follow you if
they're interested in more ofyour work.
Speaker 10 (21:56):
Absolutely so.
You can come find us on MountWashington in Pittsburgh.
We're on the corner of BinghamStreet and Virginia Avenue and
we have a farm market actuallyevery Saturday and Sunday as
well.
Um, and our next big event isour flower fest on August 24th,
where we close the street downand all the vendors are themed
around flowers and you can pickyour own flowers from our farm.
Doug (22:17):
Oh, I love it.
And what is your handle againon Instagram?
Speaker 10 (22:20):
Yeah, so it's just at arm full of flowers.
Doug (22:23):
All right.
Thank you so much, kelly.
Hey, how are you doing today?
Good, how are you doing?
Would you introduce yourself toour listeners and your business
name?
Speaker 8 (22:32):
Absolutely.
My name's Devin.
I run Spirited Extracts.
We're a vanilla extract company.
We do things a littledifferently though, where we
have different alcohol bases, sowe kind of create different
flavors in our vanilla extracts.
Doug (22:44):
We met once before at Hometown Homegrown at the Heinz
History Center.
Speaker 8 (22:49):
Yeah, correct.
Yeah, it was back in November,that's right.
Doug (22:52):
Yeah, big event, and so business is good.
Speaker 8 (22:55):
Yeah, we're doing well.
This is our third summerselling Congratulations.
Thank you so much.
Our better time is normally inthe fall when people start
baking a lot more, so it'salways good to be out here in
the beginning and start gettingback into the groove and things
Okay.
Doug (23:11):
And you're doing all this locally.
I mean, we're so used to goingto have to buy our McCormick's
or something, but we can buyvanilla extract straight from
you.
Yes, I'm just in the SouthHills of Pittsburgh, I'm in.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Whitehall.
Speaker 8 (23:23):
I make all of it there I source my vanilla beans
and get all the alcohol here aswell, and then, age, all of it
for a year here, so I try andmake it a little bit better than
what you're going to get in agrocery store.
Doug (23:35):
Okay, and tell me a little bit more about those different
bases that you mentioned earlier.
So you're not just using, Iguess, whatever the traditional
alcohol would be.
How does yours differ fromwhat's on the market?
Speaker 8 (23:47):
Yeah, yeah, so I do have just that classic vanilla
extract like you would find, butthen the other ones I have are
whiskey-based, brandy-based andorange liqueur-based Okay.
So the idea behind it is thatyou're kind of getting different
flavor profiles, so you'remixing and matching what you
think would go well together,like, for instance, my personal
(24:09):
favorite is the whiskey one.
One I just really like whiskeyand two I really like making
chocolate chip cookies and sochocolate and whiskey.
Those flavors pair really welltogether.
So when you're using it in thatyou're kind of adding this more
warmth and these other flavorcompounds that you're not
getting from just thattraditional vanilla.
Doug (24:29):
So just for the science of it, the alcohol is what really
brings in that vanilla flavor.
It holds on to it.
So you need some generally somekind of alcohol base.
Yes, but then, just like thevanilla stays in the cookie, a
little bit of that whiskeyflavor or that orange liqueur
flavor is also staying in yourbaked good.
So you're kind of getting a twofor one.
Speaker 8 (24:50):
Exactly.
So.
What I'm doing is getting allthose other flavors that you
find in whiskey and brandy thesweetness of brandy, the citrusy
of the orange liqueur and it'sadding that to the vanilla.
So you're getting that vanillapunch still like you would from
a regular extract, but you'regetting all those other flavors
as well.
And you're right that thealcohol is necessary, because
(25:10):
that's what draws the actualoils out of the vanilla beans.
It's what makes it actuallyvanilla extract.
Doug (25:17):
Wow, where did this all get started?
Speaker 8 (25:20):
Yeah.
So I started with just bakingmyself.
I wanted to, whenever I bakesomething I like, really try and
make it the best possible thatI can, and so I go way too hard,
way too extra with it.
And so I started just making myown vanilla and I wanted to
make it a little stronger and Iwanted to know that it was like
really good quality and that Iknew what was in it.
(25:42):
And so when I started I waslike, oh, I was like I've never
really seen anybody do this withwhiskey, so I want to make my
own batch with whiskey.
And I started making that in mycookies and I was like this is
actually really good.
And so then I wanted toexperiment a little bit more and
see what other alcohols I coulduse, and I went through 10
different alcohol types, liketequila and gin and rum and some
(26:04):
other whiskeys, and I found thefour that I think worked the
best that classic one like aneutral, and then the three
others that I had mentioned aswell.
So it all started from a bakingbackground and just kind of
expanded into that.
Doug (26:16):
And you're on your third year now.
Speaker 8 (26:17):
Yep my goodness.
Yeah, second full year ofselling now.
Congratulations, thank you.
Doug (26:26):
All right.
So I know you're out here todayvending.
What is your connection to theMount Oliver Hilltop Market?
Speaker 8 (26:29):
So my girlfriend actually works in this area.
She works for Hilltop Allianceand so I've been in this
neighborhood a lot, both hereand out in town.
I spend a lot of time at thedifferent events here, you know
night market and differentmarkets around here.
In general Cheese Queen, who'shere as well.
I've got my product in herstore, so really it's just like
(26:52):
a good chance to expand myfootprint, I think.
Yes, just introducing the newneighborhood.
Just try and get the name outthere.
Doug (27:00):
Remind our listeners if they want to find your spirited
extracts.
How can they find or follow you?
Where can they get them?
Speaker 8 (27:07):
Yeah, so we have a website, spiritedextractscom,
just as you would spell it.
We're on Instagram if you wantto follow us there.
We're in a few differentfarmers markets throughout the
summer hometown homegrown.
At the end of the year we'renormally in, and right now I'm
trying to expand into differentcoffee shops and different cafes
, things like that, andhopefully, maybe by the end of
(27:28):
the year, into some grocerystores.
Doug (27:30):
Oh, I love that Well.
Thanks so much for talking withus today.
Speaker 8 (27:32):
Thank you, it's been great.
Speaker 12 (27:34):
This is Chef Ken with KCZ Cuisine.
Speaker 8 (27:36):
This is Devin O'Leary with Spirited Extracts.
Speaker 10 (27:39):
This is Kelly, with Armful of Flowers and you're
listening to the Pittsburgh Dish.
Doug (27:45):
How are you both doing today Good?
Speaker 6 (27:47):
Good, a little sweaty , but very happy to be here.
It's getting warm.
Doug (27:50):
Would you introduce yourselves and who you're
representing today here at themarket?
Speaker 4 (27:55):
You got it.
My name's Liz Metzler.
I'm the Director of FarmPrograms at Hilltop Urban Farm.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
And I'm Wiley Ford.
I'm the Community FarmCoordinator at Hilltop Urban
Farm.
Doug (28:06):
I'm looking at your table and I see lots of vegetables and
beautiful flowers.
Is this herbs down in front?
Speaker 6 (28:15):
Yeah, the seedlings down in front are all from Hart
Farms in our farmer incubatorprogram, and then the rest of
the stuff came out of our whatwe call our community farm plot,
which is about three quartersof an acre of space where we
(28:35):
primarily do diversified veggiegrowing for three food bounties
in the area.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
I love that.
Speaker 6 (28:41):
So we work with the Brashear Association down the
street and then Abiding Missionsin Allentown and St Paul AME
Church over in Knoxville.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (28:54):
So this is our first time selling.
We had more than, like thepantries would be able to
distribute.
Doug (29:00):
Yeah, so you brought that abundance here, for the market
today, yeah.
Exactly.
I love that.
It looks so fresh, so good, andit is a farmer's market, so we
needed to have some fruits andveggies, of course yes, so we
actually learned there wasn't afarm vendor here, and that's
kind of why we took that slot.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
We don't really like to compete with other farms and
so actually the borough has astand over there with Triple B
Farms and we just let them knowwhat abundance we had.
And then they got produce thatwasn't competing over there with
Triple B Farms, and we just letthem know what abundance we had
, and then they got produce thatwasn't competing and so
hopefully everyone just hassales today.
So smart yeah, we're justreally rocking and rolling and
(29:39):
trying to get food access intothis neighborhood.
Doug (29:42):
It's so much great energy going on in Mount Oliver with
the permanent shops that havecome out on the street.
Love seeing you all coming outand sort of round out the market
.
Yeah, thank you both so much.
Speaker 6 (29:54):
Of course I want to know what everybody else is
working on, oh.
Doug (29:57):
I'll tell you I'm going to have to listen to your podcast.
You will, you will, yes, okay,hi there.
You are a special guest of thismarket today, aren't you?
Speaker 7 (30:05):
I am.
It's my first one ever.
I'm very excited.
Doug (30:07):
Would you introduce yourself to our listeners?
Speaker 7 (30:09):
Sure, I'm Chef Janet Loughran.
You also know me from Chef LifeHacks.
Doug (30:12):
You're a friend of the show.
Yes, janet has been on before.
Do you know what episode number?
Speaker 7 (30:18):
Oh, probably.
I think it's episode eight.
Doug (30:19):
Okay, I'll look it up.
Yeah it was pretty early on.
Yeah, yeah, and so you're up,you selling today.
Speaker 7 (30:28):
Well, I'm kind of known for my granolas.
I have a gingerbread granola.
That's delicious.
It has molasses in it, so itreally has that gingerbread
flavor.
Doug (30:34):
That looks good, but I see this other one mango coconut,
Mango coconut.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
Yeah, that was a new one for me.
I tried to do one that had zero, had no nuts so that one just
has sunflower seeds.
Doug (30:45):
It's important to some people.
Speaker 7 (30:46):
Yeah, we're also going to be making some yogurt
parfaits with some freshpineapple and then I have this
berry compote here, blueberrycompote you brought this to me
once before, so I've had thisit's delicious, it's so good
it's so simple too, because youjust simmer it with a little bit
of honey and apple cidervinegar and it becomes like a
jam, so you can put it on yogurt, or you can put it on your
pancakes or waffles if you wantto.
Doug (31:07):
Delicious.
I love it.
Now, Janet, I didn't know thatyou have done pop-ups like this.
Have you done this before?
Speaker 7 (31:14):
No, this is my first one.
This is brand new.
I was a little stressed thisweek, but I think everything
turned out okay.
Aleka was a big help.
Doug (31:19):
For folks that can't see the visual.
She has a lovely frame with allof her items and she's got a
little Venmo coat.
You look totally pro here.
I'm trying to be organized.
Well, let's talk for a littleminute, because I know we talked
back in the fall forThanksgiving prep, but when we
talked on your interview morethan a year ago, you know you
were doing a lot of mealdelivery and so some things have
(31:41):
changed, right.
So tell me a little bit moreabout, like your current
business model, Like what allare you offering or doing right
now and what are you not doinganymore.
Speaker 7 (31:50):
Sounds good, so I'm focusing more so on catering
private events, private chefingas well, as I'm doing a lot of
cooking classes, which I love.
I love teaching people how tocook.
It's so neat because they don'trealize that they really can do
this.
It's not intimidating oncethey're shown.
I did do meal delivery for acouple of years.
I have put that on the backburner.
Sometimes, I'll do a pop-uphere and there if I have nothing
(32:11):
on my schedule that week.
Doug (32:12):
I think that's the thing.
I thought that was changing.
You were kind of, you were kindof winding that part down.
Speaker 7 (32:17):
Right, I know and my clients miss me and I feel bad
but it's just, it's very timeconsuming, and there's other
things that I would really liketo pursue Right Fun things, you
know.
Plus, I have more time for myfamily now yeah, you know
they're getting.
I have a nine-year-old and afour-year-old and they're not
getting any younger no, youcan't.
Doug (32:31):
You blink and it's gone.
Exactly, you got to do that,but you're still killing it on
social media.
I see all of the tips, or Ishould say the hacks, and
they're not always chefing hacks.
Speaker 7 (32:40):
It's life hacks too exactly, I try to do a mixture.
So yeah, like I said, I justlove teaching people how to cook
, and my party people I callthem yeah, they've all come
together it's just a nicecommunity and I just love doing
it.
Doug (32:52):
So I want to ask you about a semi-recent post of yours,
and this was grilling hacks forthe summer.
I think I saw you out at yourgrill.
Am I remembering this right?
It was with like a half of acut onion or something.
Oh yeah can you tell us thathack?
Speaker 7 (33:05):
yes, if you want to make your grill non-stick
because you don't want to useoil that can flare up you just
cut an onion in half, grab yourtongs and run that onion on the
grates and it has like.
It makes like a barrier, soit's more non-stick for you.
Doug (33:16):
Okay, anything else while we're still in the depths of
summer for grilling hacks.
Speaker 7 (33:22):
Oh well, if you want to make those beautiful grill
marks you know how they love thediamond pattern Right.
Whenever you put the piece ofmeat or a vegetable or something
on the grill, put it on adiagonal.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
So, those lines are going straight up and down Put
it on a diagonal After a coupleof minutes.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
what I like to say is move it from 10 to 2.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yes, that's all you have to do.
10 to 2.
Speaker 7 (33:38):
Let it go for a couple more minutes and once you
flip it over it's thatbeautiful diamond pattern
driver's ed.
Doug (33:48):
Oh well, janet, you're always great for your hacks and
your tips.
The granola and the compotelook great.
I'm going to come back and geta parfait from you Awesome.
Thank you so much for being onthe Pittsburgh Dish and thanks
for supporting up here in MountOliver today.
Speaker 7 (33:59):
I'm happy to be here, nice to see you.
Doug (34:01):
All right, you too, bye, bye, bye.
Would you introduce yourself toour listeners?
Speaker 13 (34:06):
Sure, hi, I'm Janelleelle.
I'm from Ripepe Winery.
Doug (34:10):
And Janelle, you're up here at Mount Oliver.
Tell us, like, what brings youup here today?
Speaker 13 (34:15):
Sure, well, I've actually become good friends
with a lot of the businesses uphere and I do a lot of
collaborations with the CheeseQueen, and Hilltop Alliance
invites us up.
But we're a local winery.
We're from Monongahela, we havea 10-acre vineyard there and
most of our wines are made fromgrapes that we grow or we source
(34:36):
local fruit from Triple B Farms.
Doug (34:38):
We love them.
Speaker 13 (34:39):
Yes, we do too.
We're up here selling wine bythe bottle and by the glass.
Doug (34:44):
Okay, and if folks want to come visit you, is the winery
down in Monongahela open to thepublic on certain days?
Speaker 13 (34:51):
Yeah, we're open Friday, saturday and Sunday.
Our tasting room is open.
You can walk in.
You can do a flight.
If we don't have a foodprovider, you can bring your own
food or just grab some smallbites in our tasting room.
I love that.
Doug (35:05):
And what are you sampling today?
I see something with peach orstrawberry, is that right?
Speaker 13 (35:10):
Yes, so we brought two of our fruit wines.
We brought three sweet winesand three dry wines.
I brought a strawberry and apeach from Triple B Farms fruit
Our Valley Sunrise is a blend ofa red and a white.
That's our best seller.
Those grapes come from ourvineyard.
And then I brought our threemost popular dry wines is our
Repepe White, our repepe roséand our cabernet.
Doug (35:34):
All right, and I have learned this over the years that
dry means not sweet.
Speaker 13 (35:38):
Yes, so dry means no sugar.
It doesn't describe thesensation in your mouth.
So, those are things that getconfused a little bit, but we
love, you know, to educate ourcustomers.
We do a lot of classes andeducational events at our winery
(35:59):
where we just like talk throughbasics of wine tasting and yeah
.
Doug (36:04):
All right, learn a lot.
Yeah, so great she's gettinginto her cooler.
Oh, and she's getting me thepeach.
I like this.
Speaker 13 (36:12):
Yes, so our peach is actually made from peaches from
Triple B Farms and our property.
We have some peach trees on ourproperty.
When we make our fruit wines,we do it in the style of a red
wine.
Doug (36:22):
Okay.
Speaker 13 (36:22):
So we crush the fruit and then we do the
fermentation on the mash so youget color and flavor that you
can't get from just the juice,and so you get a lot of like
depth, of flavor and aromas, andit's all natural, no artificial
color or flavor.
Doug (36:41):
All right, they look beautiful.
It smells really good, so I'mgoing to take a sip.
Okay, that is delightful.
Yeah, I mean it's very.
I mean this is one of the sweetwines and it is really
drinkable on a warm summer daylike today.
Speaker 13 (36:55):
Yeah and I we've been experimenting a lot with
wine spritzers or like a winecocktail.
Yes so cocktail style, withoutyou know, with using our wine,
so you can add some sparklinglemonade or you lemonade, or
just like a club soda or somefruit, you can do sangria with
it.
Doug (37:15):
Okay.
Speaker 13 (37:15):
There's a lot of different things you can do,
even if you don't always likesweet wine, and it pairs great
with sweet food.
Doug (37:20):
Okay, well, we're going to go find some sweet food.
Okay, Janelle, from RepepeWinery.
Yes, thank you so much.
Thank you, okay, we've comeinside to the Cheese Queen and
we're going to talk to ourfriend, megan McGinnis.
Megan, you were on, I think,episode 39.
Speaker 11 (37:38):
I was on episode 39.
Oh yeah, it was such a greatfun time.
Doug (37:43):
Well, we love having you and it's always fun to be up in
your shop.
We're here in Mount Oliver,yeah, and outside I just talked
to Chef Aleka and Chef Janet.
They're parked right in front.
Speaker 11 (37:53):
I know and I love having them out there.
What a great energy right?
Doug (37:56):
Yes, so this market that you all have been doing up in
Mount Oliver, it goes on once amonth.
We're in July, so we've got onemore.
Speaker 11 (38:03):
Yes, and guess what?
We're celebrating Cheese Queenanniversary.
Oh, that's great.
Doug (38:08):
Now tell us about the anniversary.
Where are we at?
Speaker 11 (38:11):
So we are going to be here three years.
Doug (38:13):
Wow.
Speaker 11 (38:15):
That's wonderful.
Speaker 7 (38:16):
Congratulations.
Speaker 11 (38:17):
We're really excited .
I wanted to.
I'm very busy this weekend.
Speaker 7 (38:21):
I had a very busy weekend with weddings.
Speaker 11 (38:23):
So actually Cheese Queen anniversary was yesterday.
But I'm going to celebrate itbecause for the farmer's market,
because that's how my dadstarted his business, so I want
to bring that together.
And my family started theirbusiness my grandpa from a
farmer's market.
I remember as a child runningaround in a farmer's market.
There's something aboutbringing fresh food to people
(38:46):
and making it accessible.
That makes me so happy and Iwant to celebrate that for
Cheese Queen.
Doug (38:51):
Well, I'm so happy for you .
Congratulations, I'm so excited.
Speaker 11 (38:55):
We're going to have our Cheese Queen cart going.
We're going to have oursandwiches a lot of Cheese Queen
favorites.
We're going to have somespecial friends popping up.
We're going to have music byour dear friend Gianna Rockoff,
and she's over there singingtoday.
But she'll be there, and ChefAleka, chef Janet, all the
people here today will be back,and then we'll have some that
(39:17):
were here in June.
They'll be back and we're goingto have a full market in August
.
Doug (39:21):
And we should remind our listeners too.
It's not just vendors that arekind of coming in that don't
exist here, it's really a lot ofthe folks that occupy the
street, like yourself, likeFlavor of Puerto Rico.
We have Nick's on the hilltopthat just opened recently, so
they're right outside as well,so you're really coming up and
getting on the street flavor ofwhat Mount Oliver has to offer
(39:42):
all the time.
Speaker 11 (39:43):
Yes, and then also Triple B Farms is supplying our
produce.
We love them, and yes, and weat McGinnis, when my family had
their stores.
We had such a greatrelationship with them and I'm
actually doing their farm eventsfor their date nights out there
with my cheese boxes.
So it's just kind of workingwith those partners Amazing.
Doug (40:02):
And supporting.
Speaker 11 (40:03):
And all the local and we have corn today, we have
peaches today.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (40:08):
We have all those great things.
Speaker 7 (40:09):
So great so many amazing.
Speaker 11 (40:12):
It's just supporting the community and there's so
many great businesses up here inMontoliver I don't think people
know about, so I'm reallyexcited for people to come and
kind of experience just thepeace.
That's right Of what they do,and then they'll be able to come
back.
Doug (40:24):
Yeah, get up here.
Speaker 11 (40:25):
Yeah.
Doug (40:29):
Now for yeah, Get up here.
Yeah, Now for your shop.
I know you're doing a lot ofweddings, as you said, a lot of
catering.
Speaker 11 (40:33):
Do you still have some open hours?
I don't have any open hours.
I'm mostly posting pop-ups.
That's right when I'm going tobe with my cart and I'm going to
be doing Lunchables, likesometimes I might post on a
Monday.
Hey, we're open this Friday.
Yes, come in, we'll have thesecheeses, we'll have these
sandwiches, you know those kindsof things.
Doug (40:49):
So folks need to be following you on your socials.
Speaker 11 (40:52):
Yes, to see where we will be and the cart is just
rolling all around Pittsburgh.
Doug (40:56):
It is so fun If folks haven't seen that cart they need
to.
Speaker 11 (40:59):
The adult Lunchable is a thing, and we're going to
be at Red's Good News thiscoming Saturday with the cart.
Doug (41:04):
Over in Brookline.
Brookline, we love Brookline.
Speaker 11 (41:06):
And we're popping up there from 12 to 4.
We'll have the Cheese Queencart.
You can play cornhole.
Sit on the picnic tables, enjoythe sunshine, have your
lunchable, have your beer.
Doug (41:15):
And what's the date for that?
Speaker 11 (41:16):
August 2nd.
Doug (41:17):
All right, it's coming right up.
Speaker 11 (41:18):
It is.
Doug (41:19):
Megan McGinnis, the Cheese Queen.
Thank you so much and thanksfor inviting me up today.
This was really your idea.
Speaker 11 (41:25):
Doug, I love you so much, we had to have you here
Well we love you guys, thank you.
Doug (41:30):
Thank you so, Aleka?
Yes, Doug.
What was the best dish you'vehad to eat this past week?
(41:39):
That's a really good question.
We just went to Balvanera.
Oh yeah, Down in the stripdistrict, my mom's birthday and
they have an empanada there thathas the corn and the red pepper
in it sounds delicious I havenot forgotten about that.
Speaker 10 (41:55):
That one empanada, that's the best thing I've had
spaghetti and meatballs I lovespaghetti and meatballs made
very well oven roasted salmonand I used some lemongrass from
our herb garden in it.
It was so good and I just Ilove using fresh herbs in the
summertime.
(42:16):
And.
I had some really good, likefarm fresh potatoes and all that
good stuff in it.
Speaker 8 (42:22):
So yeah, my partner's mom made beef bulgogi.
That is so delicious.
Doug (42:28):
Oh, I bet, I love bulgogi.
Speaker 6 (42:30):
I made birria tacos last night, one of my favorite
dishes and that kind of that wasreally good.
I was exhausted.
I was just like burnt out fromthe week.
That really helped me get backon track.
I used some of the onions andcilantro that we grew on there.
So good Fantastic.
Speaker 13 (42:51):
Well, actually I've been cooking with my kids a lot.
We made homemade pastacarbonara.
Wow, how old are your kids?
They're still young.
They're 10, 12, and 14, butespecially my middle son, he's
12, and he loves to cook.
That's a pretty impressive dish.
We did.
Yeah, we made from scratch.
Sounds delicious.
We're a pretty impressive dish.
We did.
Yeah, we made it from scratch.
Sounds delicious.
We're always trying somethingnew in the kitchen.
Doug (43:13):
What was the best dish you had to eat this past week, this
past?
Speaker 12 (43:18):
week.
Ooh, I made a soy braised porkchops.
It's a recipe that I grew upwith in China and it's super
simple and it's just homey, it'srich and it's so good over rice
.
Speaker 7 (43:37):
I made sweet and sour chicken that you would get at
any Chinese restaurant, but Imade it at home and I feel like
it might have been a little bitbetter.
Doug (43:43):
Well, because you made it.
Speaker 7 (43:45):
If you look online, made with Lau L-A-U.
He has taught me so much aboutCantonese cooking.
He used to be a chef at aChinese restaurant.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
We're farming and it's hot, and so this week I got
really into this Caesar pastasalad and so I added some peas
and some kale from the farm andjust did it up, and it's
something nice that can staycool and is refreshing, but
still has that carby, highdensity energy I need.
(44:15):
Sounds perfect, yes.
Doug (44:17):
Rick, the name of the show is the Pittsburgh Dish.
What's the best dish you had toeat this past week?
Speaker 3 (44:24):
I actually had an abundance of cucumbers, so I
made a cucumber and tomato saladwith parsley, some olive oil
and lemon, and I just ate thatwith some crusty bread with
olive oil Perfect that sounds sogreat for summer.
Really good Best bite this week.
Doug (44:38):
Thank you.
If you enjoyed the show,consider buying us a coffee for
this episode or supporting theshow monthly.
You can find links to thoseoptions at the bottom of our
show description, and if youwant to follow my own food
adventures, you can find me onsocial media at DougCooking.
(44:58):
That's our show for this week.
Thanks again to all of ourguests and contributors, and to
Kevin Selecki of CarnegieAccordion Company for providing
the music to our show.
We'll be back again next weekwith another fresh episode.
Stay tuned.
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