Everything You Need to Organize Your Pantry + Trader Joe’s Greek Food Taste Test

We've all been there before, searching for an item in the pantry only to discover something that expired ages ago! Spring cleaning isn't just for closets and backyards, it's the best time to organize your pantry, and we've got some tips to help you formulate your plan of attack. Watch on YouTube https://youtu.be/LHuJSO_fZko This is the time of year we all feel inspired to do some deep cleaning and purging. Whether it be storing warm clothes and jackets until the fall, clearing our backyards to start a garden, or deep cleaning our homes, spring cleaning is something we as humans tend to do without thinking. But all too often the pantry gets overlooked and it shouldn't! In this episode we share our game plan for pantry cleaning and organization and talk about some of the containers and storage options we find most useful. We also discuss some of the items you can consider stocking in your pantry and spice cabinet! Taste testing Trader Joe's Greek goods Tara and I were excited to try some of these Trader Joe's shelf-stable Greek goodies for you. The taste test included TJ's Greek eggplant, Greek chickpeas, and grape leaves. Follow along in the video if you'd like to see the items we're tasting! Resources Lemon Caper Linguine Recipe Linguine al Limone Recipe Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad Recipe Chocolate Guinness Cake Recipe Italian Wedding Soup Recipe If you enjoyed the Spring Cleaning Your Pantry Episode, leave a comment below and let us know!   We love your questions.  Please send them to [e-mail] (remove the 11111 for our contact).  There’s no question not worth asking. If you enjoy our weekly podcast, support us on Patreon and you will get 2 more bonus episodes each month! Thanks for listening! For a complete list of all podcast episodes, visit our podcast episode page.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
- Welcome back tothe Sip and Feast podcast,
episode number 46, everything you need
to organize your Pantry.
Tara, this is a great idea.
This is a great ideafor a podcast episode.
I am glad that once again, youcame up with it and not me.
You always have the goodideas. Uh, she does.

(00:21):
She comes up with a lot of them.
And I will say that thistopic is probably, it,
it's perfect for spring.
Right now it's like springcleaning, basically.
Like you're probably thinkingabout cleaning your garage,
maybe cleaning out the shed,moving the stuff, you know,
that was winterized backout in your backyard
or your porch or whatnot.

(00:42):
But really, you should probablybe thinking about cleaning
that pantry also.
And I have seen some pantries
that have had things expiredfor probably a decade.
, Tara, I actuallywasn't singling out you at all
there, but that's .
Are you, you're doingthat, are you worried
that you have some stuff likethat? I don't think you do.
- I do have some old stuffthat needs to go like nuts.

(01:06):
Like actually I have stuff inthe fridge that, that needs
to go, like stuff that expiredin like 2020, like mustard
and I, I, I don't knowwhere this stuff comes from.
It shows up, it hides inthe back of the fridge
and then I forget about it for like years.
- Yeah. And I don't wanna gethung up on, on a refrigerator.

(01:26):
I think a refrigerator oneis almost a separate episode.
I will just say quickly thatwe have two refrigerators.
We have the home refrigerator,
and we have the work refrigerator.
And the work refrigerator iseverything for sip and feast.
And that one,
I would say is much cleanerand much more Mm-Hmm.
barren than, yeah.
The other one that everythingis shoved in there, ,

(01:47):
like the one, the one for sip and feast.
I, you know, things go quickly.
I'm like, okay, thisisn't like really good.
I kind of have to get rid of it. Mm-Hmm.
or I bring itinto the other fridge, the,
the home fridge, but kind
of need the ingredients to look better.
And, and it's nice that it's open,
but that's not how a, aperson, a family can live.
They can't live like
how someone who's makingYouTube cooking videos.

(02:08):
Right. Does. So if youwant that type of episode,
please let us know,
and we will do a wholeepisode on the refrigerator.
But today we're gonna bes singling out the pantry.
- Yes. This is a good one.
- Yeah. You just quickly,
you said it was like yournut section and everything.
Now that's not technically our pantry.
And I kind of let you havefree reign of that area.

(02:29):
Like I don't you let me,well, I don't, you let
- Me.
- Okay. I don't sayanything. . Yes.
I let you, I let you havefree reign of the nut drawer.
Okay. But , I don't,
- This is a family show.
- I, I don't do anything with that.
And I'm telling you theamount of stuff you have.
It's mostly, it's all from Trader Joe's.
- Okay. So the intent
and purpose of this podcast,the nut drawer as you

(02:54):
so put it, is part of a pantry.
Okay. Like, most people havea pantry and they store Yeah.
If they store nuts, they'restoring it in their pantry.
They don't have a separate drawer for it.
That's just our layout.
- Yeah. You don't even have one drawer.
You have like a whole entirecabinet. It's the nut cabinet.
Anyway, I digress.
Let's get back to the pantry

(03:14):
and we're going to move the nuts
and everything into thetypical person's pantry.
- All right. So yeah.Expired stuff needs to go.
- And are you in, are you, are you, uh,
you seem very annoyed
that I said I gave youfree reign of that drawer.
. I mean, you free,
- You're like, you're like, I let
you have this little parcel. You get

(03:35):
- Free reign.
You have free reign andcontrol of everything. I know.
I, the only thing I havecontrol is like of one drawer.
- I think it's just funny how you
how you phrased it.
- Well, okay. I don't want people to think
that I'm some tyrant, you know, so, well,
- Heaven forbid.
Yeah. . So I think when it comes
to cleaning out thepantry, the first step is

(03:59):
to actually clean it out.
Take everything out of the pantry so
that you can better assesseverything that you've got.
You can look at expiration dates.
You can also assess thetrue amount of space
that you have in your pantry Yeah.
Before you start loading it back up.

(04:20):
And oftentimes when we'vecleaned it out, I'm amazed at
how much space we have
and how poorly we're actually using it.
So one of the things that Ithink comes in very handy,
and we have kind of an oddpantry, like it's kind of deep
and it's hard to get into the back.

(04:41):
Do you know what I'm talking about?
- It's more, it, oursis more like a closet.
We had our kitchen semi redonewhen we moved into the house.
When I say semi redone, thekitchen in our old videos
was actually redone, thoughmany people will comment
and say, your kitchenlooks like it's from 1985
- With the, well, well, we didn't do the
- Cabinets. Yeah. Wedidn't do the cabinets.
- We did the side that youcouldn't see on camera.

(05:03):
- Precisely. We did theside, you couldn't see.
Uh, I left the I IKEA cabinets
and I left the stick on, uh, wall tile.
And it's funny, some peoplewould be like, I have
that same stick on wall tile.
Yeah. You know? Yeah.
- Actually it doesn't look,it doesn't look that bad.
- Yeah. But anyway, we redidthe side, you couldn't see.
And we moved the refrigeratorto a different spot

(05:24):
of the kitchen, and webuilt a closet slash pantry,
and that is our whole pantry.
And a, as Tara is saying,it is a little deep
and it's not the best.
A more ideal pantry would be wider,
where you have eitherbi-fold doors or Mm-Hmm.
or slider.
And, uh, maybe an accordion would work.
Well, you need, you need something

(05:46):
that you have full access.
That's the thing withbifold, like you lose
that last 20% on the sides
and a slider, you lose half of half of it.
- Yeah. So I think forthe side that is deep,
where it's kind of hard to reach in
and grab stuff, the solution for that
is those containers, likethose clear containers.

(06:10):
I love those containers that you can kind
of use almost like a drawer.
So for example, if you have a bunch of
mac and cheese, let'ssay you went to Costco
and you stocked up on, on the mac
and cheese that they have there,you could put, what is it,
like 12 boxes that comes in a pack?
You can put more the 12 boxesinto one of those like plastic

(06:33):
container type things.
Yeah. And you can pull it out almost like,
- Well, let's back it up. What are, like
- You wrote- A drawer.
These containers, DD different,
they're made by a lot of brands.
But the ones that Tara Tara'sspecifically referring to
as set we purchased at Costco,
but you don't have to get this at Costco.
Lowe's has them, home Depot, uh, Amazon.
They're, they're clear plastic.

(06:54):
They're, they're very durable.
They can hold a lot ofweight. Mm-Hmm. .
And they're come in alldifferent sizes and lengths.
So some are wide that maybethey're actually the exact width
of a standard American, uh,tomato can, which is 28 ounces.
So you can fit them all,like laying down in there.
Then there's other onesthat are far narrower.

(07:15):
Maybe they can fit a standard15 ounce can of beans. Mm-Hmm.
. So there, they all,
there's all different uses.
And to be honest withyou, we bought a bunch.
I, I think as Tara is saying,
having even more wouldbe, would work wonderful.
Yeah. This is a cheap solution
because, you know, high-endsolution is gonna be having

(07:35):
actual pull out cabinet cabinets.
Like pull out Yeah. Ca likepull out drawers in your closet,
which you know, gets veryexpensive if you have a
carpenter or somebodydo this for you. Mm-Hmm.
- . Yeah. Andactually I, this is my fault,
but I am getting ahead of myself.
I want to, this kind of, Iwanted to talk about organization
after we talk about like,the actual cleanout.
Yeah. So do, let's,

(07:56):
- Let's, let's- Go back to the cleanout.
Let's back up and talk about the cleanout.
- Yeah. Let's go back to the cleanout.
- So again, get everythingout, then you can assess
what you're working with asfar as what's in your pantry,
and you can also assessthe space you have.
Um, one thing I would say is definitely,
and it's obvious look at expiration dates.
Yeah. But some of the thingsthat you might not think

(08:19):
to look at, which are actuallyreally important is if you're
storing, like what bakingsoda in your pantry,
baking soda does expire.
And if it's past its expiration date,
or if it's even just not even that fresh,
you're gonna get a differentresult when you're using your
baking soda in different, you looked that

(08:40):
- Up.
Baked good. It does changethe results. Definitely.
- Yeah. Definitely.- I didn't know, I mean,
I definitely know yeast isyeast eventually can die.
And then Mm-Hmm. then it goes from working
to not working at all for you.
- Yeah. You should alwaysuse as fresh baking soda
as possible Yeah.
In order to get the resultsthat you're looking for. Yeah.

(09:00):
We, when it comes to rise,
- We had an issue with, uh,
when we made the chocolateGuinness chocolate cake.
This cake we put out a few weeks ago,
we put it out before St.
Patrick's Day. It went, uh,mini viral on the internet.
It not on, like, we didn'tdo a video for it, obviously,
but it ended up getting likealmost a hundred thousand page
views in a very, like, a few days.

(09:22):
And I,
I think Google was showing it on this
thing called Google Discover.
And so many people made it.
And we were worried, we getworried under this situation
because when that happens,
that means the recipe better be like,
the recipe better be spot on.
Perfect. Because ifit's not, oh boy, a lot

(09:43):
of those people are gonna let you know.
Mm-Hmm. . Becausea lot of them are making it.
So one of the first comments
after it went viral wasfrom a person that said,
you know, you've ruined, what is it?
Like, you ruined myoven or something. Well,
- She wasn't, I don't thinkshe was being like super
accusatory or anything.
Okay. But she was saying thatshe questioned the amount of

(10:04):
baking soda that we had in there
because hers started to spill over Yes.
When she was making it.
So I right away and panickedand I was like, oh my gosh.
I, I test, we tested therecipe multiple times,
but what if our baking soda was old
and needed to be replaced?
And maybe she's right.

(10:25):
Turns out she lives ata very high altitude.
And, um, I think she was over,she's over 6,500 feet over.
Yeah. Over 6,500 feet.
So once you increase, and,
and I'm not a, you know,
an expert in this altitude, set it up.
We, so there's actually, um,I think it's King Arthur,
they have a great articlethat talks about, you know,
the effect that altitude has on baking.

(10:47):
But it turns out she was, I think,
in Colorado at a high altitude
and needed to reduce the amountof baking soda, the shoes.
Correct. Long story short, shewound up writing back saying
that it came out greatdespite, like having
puffed up a little bit too much.
And, and everybodyseemed to enjoy it. Yeah.
So, but we, I, I did run outand I did buy a brand new Yes.

(11:10):
Package of baking soda Yeah.
To test it with fresh baking soda.
And I had the same resultsthat I had with Yeah.
- And that's a hunt. Yeah.
I mean, this was, this wasactually giving me stress, the,
the stress of a,
of a food recipe maker. Mm-Hmm.. Um, no, I
- Was worried. It's stressful.
- I, I was worried. So,um, so we did it quickly.

(11:34):
Got it done. And, uh, sothen I was like, all right,
before we knew about thealtitude, I was thinking, oh,
maybe it's, she didn't use the exact size
pan that I specified.
So the baking, uh, sheet, baking tray,
whatever it's called. What is the exact,
- It's a sheet pan for, for cake.
- Yeah. So it's like a two and a half inch
deep, roughly. Basically
- It's like a nine by nine by 13. Nine

(11:55):
- By 13.
This is standard baking sheet sheet cake.
It's like for a sheet cake.And it holds 14 quarts.
So I was like, okay, maybe sheused a square one, like a 12
by 12, and it only held say, 10 quarts,
which would definitely explain it.
But it, but in the end it was,it was the altitude and Yeah.
Yeah. I mean that's, that'swhat it came down to.

(12:16):
So, uh, yeah, let's moveback to, uh, uh, yeah.
You know what you weretalking about the other
ingredients that can go bad. Yeah,
- That's right.
But long story short, checkyour, check your baking soda
and replace it if necessary.
Yeah. The other thing Iwanted to talk about is,
so we're gonna talk about spices too,
because I think we're gonnagroup spices in with the pantry,
even though a lot of peoplehave a separate spice cabinet.

(12:38):
But, um, spices should be replaced too.
I mean, old spicesdefinitely lose their potency
and won't give you the same effect
when you're using them to bake with.
Um, I've come across super old
spices in like,
I I think we have spicesin our cabinet right now

(13:01):
from when we lived in Queens in the year
2002. .
- No, I've, I've cleared it out. No. Okay.
Well, you know what it is,this is a hoarding mentality.
It's a sunk cost mentality. Uh,you know, sunk cost fallacy.
You buy something, you're like, oh,
I only got one or two uses out of it.
It's brand, you know, it'sstill filled, it's 90% filled.

(13:22):
But, but the issue is yeah,it's 90% filled with something
that's not nearly as potent anymore.
Yeah. And just not as flavorful.
If you're even a moderatecook and, and you,
and you like to read about,you know, stuff like this.
I'm not telling youanything you don't know,
you will always hear the sametrope by the smallest amount
of spice as possible, becauseit will be the freshest,

(13:45):
and then you'll run outof it in a few months
and you'll go back and buynew fresh spices again.
You know, those really big ones
that are 12 ounce containers,those are for restaurants.
And they're not evenfor restaurants, they're
for like catering companies.
They're for, they're forplaces that do a massive amount
of volume of certain things.
Like, okay, we do, and 500pounds of chili a week.

(14:07):
Well, yeah, you gotta havebig containers of cumin,
chili powder, garlic powder, et cetera.
But for a home cook, those ones,
and they're sold at Costco,they are not the best.
I don't recommend them.
And do I, you know, do I fall prey
to sometimes buying one or two at Costco?
If I'm gonna use a lot
of it maybe in the summerwhen we do barbecue
and I'm making a lot of rubs and stuff.

(14:29):
Mm-Hmm. for themost part, you're better off
going small and you're reallybetter off going whole spice
and grinding them yourself. Yeah,
- That's true. So
- Like, cumin seed would bebetter than ground cumin.
Take the cumin seed, youcan bro dry roast it,
whatever you can put itin, uh, a spice grinder,
a coffee grinder, and thenyou will have the most potent
cumin you've ever tasted in your life.

(14:50):
- The other thing in thepantry where I feel like I,
I feel like the pantry in our house,
and let us know in the comments if,
if you feel the same way, ifthis happens in your house,
because I wanna know if I'm alone or not.
I feel like our pantry iswhere things go to die .
And the thing that is constantly going

(15:13):
to die is cereal.
Like, I can't, first ofall, I don't eat the cereal.
You don't eat the cereal. The kids do.
And they're the ones that ask for it.
And sometimes they'lleat it in the morning.
More often than not, they're
not eating anything in the morning.
They're just, they're like,nah, I'm not hungry. I wanna go.
We have so many boxes ofcereal where there's like,

(15:36):
I don't know, a quarter inchleft in the, in the bag,
but yet it's in a fullbox that's taking up
so much space. Why does this happen?
- It drives me nuts. Um,I think part of it is,
since we don't eat it, ourkids don't want to have
that last bit because theythink it might be old.
- So then throw out the

(15:56):
- Bag.
I think the onus is onus as the parents No.
To do, to do that for
- Them.
No, they need to getbetter. They're, they're,
- Yeah.
But then they might startto throwing out stuff
that's half full. Okay.
- But they're like twlike James is almost 13.
Sammy's almost 16. Theyneed to step it up. Yeah.
Not that they listen to this,
but if they're listening, step it up.
- No, they, I, I, listen, IJames is like just starting

(16:18):
to learn to cook a not evencook to prepare his ramen
and stuff by himself.
And, uh, Sammy's a lot more experienced,
but I, I do think that's notsomething that just kids do.
That's something that a parents,
that's something that adults do.
They don't wanna throw outthat, oh, that Tostito bag
that has like 10% left's been there since,

(16:39):
since like 2020. I
- Know.
Okay. So that's further proof
that the spring cleaning ofthe pantry needs to take place.
And actually as we're talkingabout this, like we need,
we need spring cleaning our
- Pantry quarterly.
I think quarterly is theway to do it. Yeah. Because,
- Well, at least annually, you
- Know, three months, threemonths of a 10% filled toed bag,

(17:01):
it, those Tostitos are stale.
Uh, yes. They, they should be thrown
- Out. Needs to go,
- You know, that,- Uh, I know the crock
- Cap, the Captain Crunch needs to go,
you know, you don't Well,
- We don't have Cap.We have Captain Crunch.
- She gets so upset if I say that too.
Like, she, she like really thought,
you really thought they tower
that like people were gonna judge
you for buying Captain Crunch. I, number
- One, I don't buy Captain- Number one.

(17:22):
Tara has never boughtCaptain Crunch in her life.
But number two, I wasthinking about Captain Crunch
because I haven't had it in about,
you know, what, 20 years. What,
- Speaking of Captain Crunch, you just
like activated a memory.
I think it was, we, you andI must have been together.
Do you ever have the peanutbutter Captain Crunch? Yeah,
- It's even better.
- That was so good.- We don't do any peanut butter stuff
because, uh, becauseour daughter's allergic.

(17:44):
So there's no peanutsin the house anymore.
Is that being said? I feellike I still need to do like
some, like a peanut sauce or something.
Is that okay if I do that thisyear? You know, like for the
- Website?
- Yeah. Like, I mean, I wanna do it.
I I I love the chicken and the beef saute.
- Yeah. If you're gonnado something like that,
you really have to keep it separate.

(18:05):
And I have, I actually have a, a knife,
it's a butter knife that I wrapped
black electric tape around.
And if I do buy peanut butter,
'cause sometimes Jameswants a peanut butter
and jelly sandwich, andI will make it for him,
but we'll use, you know, apaper plate and discard it.

(18:27):
And I use this butter knife
and I told Sammy, I said, Isaid af as soon as I am done
with this knife, I cleanit and sanitize it.
I said, but still don't everuse the knife with the black
tape on it because it'sthe peanut butter knife
- .
Yeah. I, I mean, allergies aresomething that I think a lot
of people, like all different ones,

(18:48):
you know, you have to worry about.
Sammy was actually discussing,we were talking about this,
it's getting worse and worse.
There's stuff in Costco from afew years ago, like, we have,
we have 'em because we don'tclean our pantry out enough.
Like, it'll be like you knowingnuts from three years ago.
It won't say anything aboutprocessed in a factory
that processes peanuts.
The newer bag does.

(19:09):
It's getting to the pointwhere every single thing
is saying that.
So, and there it's happening
because it's, companies areworried about being sued.
Mm-Hmm. , youknow, in the United States,
there's, there's no limiton what you can sue for.
Yeah. And so it's, I I mean,honestly, if I owned a big
food processing plant,

(19:29):
I think I would put iton all my labels too.
Even if it's like almost ahundred percent certain that,
that there is no allergenin it. You have to have,
- Like I I, I have seen somethings like the almond butter
that I used to buy from Costco.
I don't know if they have it anymore,
but it has made in a dedicatedpeanut free facility. So,
- I mean, they're f they're few and
far between those facilities.

(19:50):
Yeah. Because of globalization.
Everything is made inthe same place. I know.
Like it's, there's not ahundred different factories
that are processing this stuff.
It's a few big ones
and then the, then thebrand name gets attached
to it after the fact. Yeah.
- Yeah. I know. But we're,we're moving off topic.
- Yeah. Oh, and by the way, moving more
off topic, I'm sorry.
If you hear the rain at all today,

(20:11):
it's right here, right in back of tower.
This corner is a downspout.
And this rain has been relentlessthe last few days. Yeah.
It's just doesn't stop. It's,
- It's kind of nasty outeven though it is springtime.
But I'm in a sweatshirt'cause I'm freezing
and you're in a flannelbecause that's all you
- Wear.
Tyra, I know you wannago into organization.
I'm sorry for digressing even more.
We didn't even set up what we're

(20:32):
doing for the taste test today.
- Oh, set it up.- Okay.
Like, I mean, they're probably like,
is there a taste test? There
- Is a taste test.
- We didn't even mentionit. There is a taste test.
There is always a taste test from now on.
Honestly, I love them.
It's like one of thefunnest parts of my week.
- Funnest- What? How say that correctly?
- I think it's most fun.
- It's my most, yeah.
It's the most fun day of theweek for me. Okay. Whatever.

(20:54):
You're not here for myexpert grammatical skills.
Um, that's, that's probably not Right.
- Right. Either it's funnesta word. I don't think it is.
Yeah, it's not. Watch it be a word
and then I'm correcting you.
- YY you know, people go nuts when I say
moister and I look that up.
And that is a word. It is. Moister is a word. Okay.
Anyway, we're going to bedoing three different canned

(21:18):
ingredients from Trader Joe'sand they are the Greek stuff.
Mm-Hmm. . Sothe grape leaves the tomato,
eggplant, egg, eggplant and tomato.
Yeah. And then what's the last one?
- Chickpeas. - Chickpeas.These are good for most brands.
I don't know if I've hadall the Trader Joe's brands.
So you have to wait and see for that. I'm
- Excited.
Yeah. All right. Let'smove into organization.

(21:39):
So we started talking about using the
clear type of containersfor when you have a deep
pantry, but you can also useit in a shallow pantry too.
They have all different shapes and sizes.
Um, Costco usually doeshave some sort of container,
but you can also get them on Amazon.

(22:00):
But I will tell you thatsome of the best deals as far
as price goes, you'll findat if you have Home Goods
or Home Sense or a Marshalls,or, I don't go into TJ Maxx,
but I know TJ Maxx is the same company.
The same company. So if youhave one of those near you,
I would definitely go thereand, and see what they've got.

(22:23):
They, their prices are always great.
Um, also for
if you have a small pantryor if you have a large pantry
and you just want to usethe most of your space,
get an over the door rack
to hold whatever you want it to hold,

(22:46):
they'll have like, you know,sometimes three or four tiers.
They are great to them and they're great.
- I have one downstairs I know in
a box that I haven't opened yet.
- I know, but I, Ithink we should put one.
First of all, I think we shouldput one in our own. Yeah.
But I also think we shouldput one over our basement door
because I feel like that's a good spot
to stick. Cleaning supplies

(23:07):
- The biggest problem there.
They are great. I mean,that is such unused space.
In a typical setup like this,
the main issue is if you doit, you want to make sure
that you're driving three
and a half inch screws inthrough the jam at the top.
Because what'll happen is like
through the hinges at the top,the hinge side that connects

(23:28):
to the jam, that connects tothe two by four underneath it.
Okay. Huh. That's, listen,
most people are gonna knowwhat I'm talking about.
And if you don't knowwhat I'm talking about,
then have somebody do it for you.
But what that'll do is it'llprevent the door from sagging
because the door, oh, when
- You- Oh, from the weight, when you put all
that weight on there on there, the door
is just gonna go like this.
Yeah. And then, then the topcorner of the door is gonna rub

(23:48):
and the door won't close
- Properly.
Okay. That makes sense. Yeah.
- I mean, really you shouldhave those big screws in, even
for a door that doesn'thave that, like, especially
for an entry door, frontentry door, you should do it.
Mm-Hmm. . Becausethose are typically solid
doors that are very heavy.
Yeah. Yeah.
- So those are great formaking the most of your space.
Um, I also, we have a fewwire baskets, like hanging

(24:11):
basket type things that I think we,
I think we got those fromCostco actually a while ago.
But I put those on the floor of the pantry
because it gives you more
- Space.
Floor is a spot, like you don't put is
- A good spot.
You probably don't wanna put food directly
onto the floor in the pantry.
But if you get theselike little baskets, um,
I use those for onions.

(24:31):
Yeah. Potatoes, some
of those types of things. Yeah.
- Onions and potatoes. Uh,you're supposed to separate them,
but you keep 'em in yourpantry in a dark area.
Supermarkets, when the storecloses, they take big burlap
and they put it over all the potatoes
and stuff that needs to be in the dark

(24:52):
so the potatoes don'tget, uh, eyes as quickly.
- Yeah. Speaking of eyes, do you know
who has a phobia of potato eyes?
- James?- Yeah.
I , I pulled stuffoutta the pantry yesterday.
It was potatoes that wereactually in a plastic bag.
I don't know why theywere in the plastic bag.
I usually take them out. Yeah,
- They gotta be taken out of the

(25:13):
bag when you get home with 'em.
- Yeah. But I must haveforgotten to to do that.
And they had eyes all overthem, so I showed them to him
and he, he was like, hereverted to being a little boy.
He was like, please getthem away from me. .
They're so scary. He was like,I'm so afraid of potato eyes.
. So anyway,apparently it's a thing

(25:33):
to have a phobia of potato eyes.
Anyway, again, off topic. That's not
- Off topic.
- I mean, we should just call,we should just call the Sip
and Feast podcast, likethe off topic podcast
because everything is
- Off topic.
Let me tell, let me tellyou something right now.
If you listen to otherpodcasts, if you, I,
I don't care who it is.

(25:55):
You, it is this, this isfollowing a topic I would say,
and, you know, you let me know.
You let me know. You let Tara know.
This is following morethan almost all podcasts.
The only ones that follow more so are ones
that are serial type andthose are highly produced.
Okay. Those are, uh,
that's a completelydifferent type of podcast.

(26:17):
Yeah. Which I take it you don'tlisten to any of that. No.
But those have like music, they have like
- Yeah.
It's almost like a show,you know, different
- A voice actors.
Yeah. And, but this one, I mean,
most podcasts is just a bunchof just babbling for three,
three or four hours, you know? Yeah.
- I suppose- Smoking cigars and whatever else.
- Taste testing, foodtrader toast, taste testing,

(26:38):
- Greek food.
- Yeah. All right, let's move on.
I also like the airtight food containers.
Those are good for like rice or lentils.
Yes. Beans, pasta.
If you, so Jim has like a whole bunch
of deli soup containers filled with

(27:02):
a variety of driedpastas that you like ran.
Like if you use likehalf a pound of pasta,
you'll put the other back ina, in a soup container Deli.
- Yeah. Deli container.Yeah. I've showed this
in the most recent video.
I, most recent videoI showed this was, uh,
the Italian wedding soup,
which we released probably six weeks ago.
- So Yeah. And you cameout with a, a stack. Yeah.

(27:23):
But they do sell the prettycontainers, you know,
at Costco or, or Home Goods or whatever.
If you wanna, if you wannamake your pantry look
really nice, it's, it's
- A, it's a cost if you,because you know what it is.
You don't wanna do, like,you don't wanna do it.
Uh, like half ass.
You don't want to be, oh,
I'm gonna get a quarter of the containers.

(27:44):
Mm-Hmm. or halfof 'em. You wanna get 'em all.
So then it's like thisbig outlay of money,
but then those containers
will last you. Well, they're forever.
- Forever, yeah.- And certain things are really worth
putting in those containers, like sugar.
Mm-Hmm. flour.Yep. I mean, powdered sugar.
Forget it. You, you know, those will
attract ants so quickly.

(28:05):
So you really wanna get them
- C sealed up Chocolate chips.
Yeah. We put in containers
because you get the,like we'll get the bag
of chocolate chips from,from Costco and it's big
and it, it usually does seal,but sometimes it doesn't Yeah.
Seal properly. So you're betteroff just putting everything
into a container and you canget those, um, stick on labels

(28:27):
and just say like, oh, theseare from April of 2024.
That way, you know, whenyou put them in there. Yeah.
- Or you could just do what I do.
I just use painter'stape, blue painter's tape.
I use it for everything. Iuse it for, for the pantry.
I use it for when I'mputting stuff in the freezer
when I'm wrapping meat.
One more thing about pestsand bugs pan, uh, pantry mors.
Okay. These things will do aton of damage very quickly.

(28:50):
You can buy the little stickon bait stuff from Lowe's.
It's won't, you know, youwon't even know it's there.
You just put it in there.And that'll prevent,
because if you get a one pantry moth
and they get into like your flour
and stuff, like it will, uh,
it will ruin everything quickly.
- I feel like we had themat some point. We wasn't it.
We did, wasn't it the catfood? That's, I meant cat
- Food.

(29:11):
I don't know what it was, butthat's why I'm mentioning it.
And the solution is so simple.
- Yeah. That was like a long time.
That was in Minnesota, wasn'tit? That we have them. I,
- I don't remember, but Iknow I've basically have been
using it as preventativemeasures from now on. Yeah.
- I think it was the cat food.
- Even the little ant traps are good
to just preventative measure,
because right now, the timeof year, the, the changing

(29:33):
of seasons is when allthe little ants will
just, just come outta nowhere.
Mm-Hmm. . Andit's impossible to isolate
where they're getting in through.
It could be a windowthat's, uh, fairly common,
uh, bottom of a door.
You know, it's, it's hardto know. Exactly. Yeah.
But those traps, they, theygo in there, it's bait,

(29:53):
they take it back, and thenthe whole entire colony dies.
Mm-Hmm. simple. Yeah. No pesticides.
Anything you just put inthe bait there. Yeah. That's
- It.
Um, one other contraption that I saw,
it's not even a contraption,it's like a storage thing, um,
is for tea.
Now, if you were to come into our house
and ask for a cup of tea, I would pull out a box

(30:16):
that's probably 20 years oldthat's almost falling apart.
And there's tea bags in there
that are probably alsoalmost 20 years old.
They, it ranges in age from 20 to,
you know, six months . Six months
- Old.
That's your tea. I have
- A whole bunch of tea now.
I think tea also does lose. Its,

(30:37):
- Oh, absolutely.
- See, so I need to spring, I need
to take my own advice here, and I need
to spring clean my tea bags.
But I saw this really cool contraption.
I think it was on Amazon whereit has like little drawers
that are the size of tea bags,
and it's maybe like six of them.
I'm trying to remember. But you can

(30:57):
put your different tea bags in
and easily pull it out and there you go.
Yeah. Instead of like, when,when we have company here
and somebody's like, oh yeah,I'll, I'll have an herbal tea,
and then I take outthis box and it's like,
- Well, that's yours. You
- Have to sift. Th
- That's your tease.
- I know. And I'msaying, I have a problem.
I'm admitting I have a problem.

(31:19):
- I, I get the boxes andI just, I know, you know,
and I get, I go through 'em
- Quick.
Yeah. But your boxes arealso taking up space.
It, they would be much better if you
could organize them. I used
- To be more into the tea and I would do
the, I had the tea ball.
Yes. And I was using thefresh, uh, not the fresh,
the whole, the whole tea,but that's kind of a pain.
I just went back to tea bags.
- Okay. So the next thing Ijust wanted to mention Yeah.

(31:40):
Is for a spice cabinet organization,
they do sell those three-tiered shelves.
So if you want to be able to easily see
what spices are behind the other spices,
those shelves look good.
We're guilty. Anytime we, we have
to take something outof the spice cabinet.

(32:01):
I have to take everythingout that's in front in order
to find anything that's inthe back of the cabinet.
And it's just, it's not thebest use of space. Think
- We have too much stuffin the regular kitchen.
Yeah. We have the, honestly, the sip
and fe kitchen is better equipped.
It is. It's only the stuffthat I use in the videos.
So it, it's lax.
There's like a lot of, uh, alot of the specialty stuff.

(32:22):
Like, um, I don't know everything
that's on the top shelfin the main kitchen.
Mm-Hmm. .That stuff I don't touch.
That's your stuff. And it's a disaster up
there. It's a disaster.
- Okay. So we need some,
we have some spring cleaningahead of ourselves to do.
But really quick, Jim, Ithought it would be helpful.
First of all, I know weshould do a full pantry tour.

(32:43):
- Yes. Pat, we're gonna do that
- On with- Video.
It's gonna be on Patreon. Yeah.
Um, if you live, if ifyou're a Patreon subscriber,
then it will be coming up.
We're actually today goingto be doing a taste test,
non-alcohol beer on Patreon.
So we're gonna be filming that one
after we film this episode.
And that one will be onPatreon two in a couple weeks.
But I think the touris the best for there.

(33:06):
- I think so too. I'm not- Gonna put it on
the main YouTube channel.
I'm not gonna put it here.
So, um, that's where it's going to be.
- Yeah. It's reallymore of a visual thing.
I don't think folks whoare choosing to listen
to the podcast, which by theway, I don't watch podcasts.
Yeah. I prefer to listen to them,
but I think a pantry tour isbetter for a visual thing.

(33:28):
- Yeah. We don't know if you'relistening or watching here.
Uh, you know, I lookat the, you know, how,
how this podcast does,
and it, there are more peoplelistening than watching it.
Mm-Hmm. . So,and I even think that a lot
of the people that arequote unquote watching it
probably have it on theback in the background.
Mm-Hmm. andmaybe not too intently. Yeah.

(33:49):
That's why we do try to be descriptive,
uh, with the taste tests.
- So really quick, quicklygo through some, you know,
like I said, we're not, we'll do
a full pantry tour at some point.
Yeah. But I want you to beable to give folks an idea
of some of the things thatyou think are necessary
to have in the pantry at all times. Yeah.
- So the thing I, and I'm,you know, I know I helped Tara

(34:11):
with this list before.
So the things that are reallylike, that are necessary
for my pantry,
but probably for your pantryif you cook, the similar types
of food is pasta.
So small pasta, tubular,and then long pasta.
So small would be allthose containers I brought
out in, in that video.

(34:31):
Uh, and that would beyour orzo, uh, ditalini,
- Chinni de- Pepe, that one, um, uh, pastina, which,
you know, there, there's alla bunch shells, tiny shells.
Then your tubular would beyour zdi, your rigatoni, uh,
pei metzi, metzirigatoni, stuff like that.
And your long ones would beyour linguini and your Papa de

(34:54):
and, uh, spaghetti.
My favorite long oneis definitely linguini.
- Me too.- It's so good. It's like,
- I love linguini. It's
- Just a tiny change from spaghetti,
but it is infinitely superior. I
- Couldn't agree more.
- What is it about that?That it just, it it's crazy.
And now listen, spaghettiis by no means bad,

(35:17):
- But I would never buy spaghetti.
Yeah. James asks for it.Linguini is my favorite.
I like that it's flat.I don't, I, I'd prefer
to eat a flat pastarather than a round pasta.
Like I, I'm not a Bucatini fan.
- Bucatini is good,
but it's, I think it shouldbe used for just cacio,

(35:39):
pepe or, uh, Ana
or maybe one or two other things.
Mm-Hmm. .It's very spec specific.
- I don't know. Gimme a plateof linguini and I'm, I'm good.
- You know, I think the reasonlinguini is superior is even
it's harder to overcook it.
It's, it has a better bite.Mm-Hmm. .

(36:00):
So, you know, if you followa package instructions
and you cook both of them tovery al dente, it's still,
the spaghetti is just,doesn't have that mouth feel.
Yeah. That linguini does. I agree.
And, you know, nothing beatsDeCheco linguini, you know,
you can get like the superhigh end like Joseppe Coco
or whatever other brands that I never buy

(36:22):
because they're like $6a pound DeCheco linguini.
That is the best.
- That is. We should do an episode also.
I know we've had people ask for it.
We should do an episode wherewe talk about which pasta
shapes for which sauce.
Yes. So, okay, that is on our list.
- Yeah. If you want that one,
please leave it in the comments.

(36:42):
You know, we have about 50 ideas,
and honestly, the way we decidewhich ones are going going
to be next isn't too scientific.
Um, the next part of the,
your pantry should be cannedgoods, like beans, tuna,
tomatoes, uh,
- Anchovies,- Anchovies.
I, I'm a broken record here,but Costco is your friend.

(37:03):
Why go to another placeand pay double or triple?
It doesn't make sense. It just doesn't.
Once again, I will reiterate,
Costco does not support this podcast.
Our YouTube cooking videos
or our website in any way possible.
They don't even know we exist.
But, but, and this is a big,

(37:23):
but I try to give youwhat I think is going
to be the best information for you.
I did this from the beginning.
I did this from six yearsago when I was making
$0 doing this.
I wasn't making $0 doingthis six years ago.
I was losing money because Iwas paying for all the stuff
that involves doing this.
But I, from the get go inthe pictures I was putting,
showing to Checko in,in the ingredient shots,

(37:46):
I was saying like, the best place
to get this is here in the cooking videos.
I was saying the best placeto buy this is Costco.
And I was doing that simplyto try to provide you
with the app
actually unsolicited.
Like nobody was pushing me to say that.
I was trying to give you thebest piece of information

(38:06):
that I genuinely believed.
And I still to this day, believe it.
Next thing, rice grains, legumes again.
Costco's your friend here, uh, you know,
some things maybe you don'twanna buy 25 pound ba,
25 pound bag of rice. I do get that.
- We get that because we userice quite a bit in our home.
So it really does make sense for us

(38:28):
to get the big bag from Costco.
And then what we do is,
rather than reach into the25 pound bag every time
we put it in those clear containers
and store it in the pantry. Yeah.
- They seal, thosecontainers hold about six
to eight pounds of rice.
So if you wanted to, when youcame home with a 25 pound,
25 pound bag,
you could put it into threecontainers and fit it all.

(38:50):
But normally what Iwill do is I will put it
into one container.
So I got about six or eight pounds there.
And then I will wrap thebag, close it very tightly,
and I will use tape, like duct tape
and I will just seal the heck out of it
so nothing can get in there.
That's kind of my strategy.
And then that big bag ofrice I will put at the bottom
of the pantry or justout of the way somewhere.

(39:13):
Uh, next thing. So yeah,grains, legumes, yeah.
Obviously Costco, flour,sugar, baking soda,
Costco again, I mean, Costco sells 10
or 12 pound bags of flour.
They also have a 25 pound bagand I think a 50 pound, which,
but a 10 or 12 is, is perfectlyfine for, for a home cook.

(39:33):
You, you, you know, ifyou bake, you will go
through flour very quickly.
Sugar too. They have raw sugar,
they have other types of sugar.
Uh, again, you know, you don'twanna buy the stuff there,
just buy it in another place.
Mm-Hmm. thatgives you a good deal.
Baking soda, you know, youcould get that anywhere.
Uh, oils, vinegars, uh,
where should we buy those? Tara
- Costco.

(39:54):
- He, why pay more?
And it's not, you're notpaying a little more.
You're paying an insanely,
like an insane markup.
There's this guy, his name is Bobby Fla.
His whole entire business is
- Bob .
That's not his name.. It's Bobby Parrish.

(40:15):
- Bobby Parrish. Slave,- Slave City.
- . Oh my God. Icombined a slave city .
Anyway, his whole entire business is just
talking about Costco.
- Does he get sponsored by Costco?
- I don't even think he does.He films videos in the place.
But he has, um, he doeslike a health angle, like
where he's like counting carbs and stuff.
- He has an app. Yeah.
Like he has an app where itsays it's Bobby approved.

(40:39):
- Yeah. So he's got like
- This gi so you can, I think,think you can scan the food,
like scan the barcode or something.
I haven't used it. Yeah.
You can scan the code and it'll come back
and tell you if he approves of it or not.
He's like kind of into thenatural ingredients. Like
- That's like the o um, theo what's the right word?
The o ode to authority.

(40:59):
Like he's basically tellingpeople how to think,
like they wanna like follow him.
- So like Yeah. They want, they don't,
they don't wanna read labels themselves.
Yeah. Or, or they're, but sothey'd rather listen to what?
To whether or not Bobbyapproves of it, I think.
- Yeah. I'm curious how much
of an overlap he is here if you,

(41:19):
if you listen to him or not.
Anyway, he's e he's hugely popular.
I mean his, again, he used tomake cooking videos. Probably.
He's been doing this stuff
for a long time, probablylike over 10 years. 15 years.
- Yeah. I think he, he bringshis daughter on a video
with him, used to a little
baby to make little, shewas like a baby. He used to,
- He used to make regular cooking videos.
- Yeah. I dunno. I never really,

(41:39):
I don't think I ever watched his
- Stuff.
He, he made a switch intonot the cooking videos.
Now it's about this. And, you know. Yeah.
Again, that's what he does.
And listen, I don't listento, I don't watch a lot
of his stuff, but I know that's what he,
I see he comes up on adsall the time on Facebook.
Like I'll just be on Facebook
and it'll just be him,like advertising seed
- Or I actually do see- Like drops or something.

(42:02):
- Yeah. I do see him come up on Facebook.
I see him and I see themedical medium. Medical medium.
- Yeah. He's in the same if you, it's
- Like the same niche.
- He's the same thingas the medical medium.
That type of niche. Like, it'sbasically like, I don't know,
like, like health stuff.
Yeah. Okay. A anyway, artichoke carts,
capers, sun dried tomatoes.

(42:22):
These are all great,
you know, you get thesein a lot of places.
I, I do have an Amazon store.
You know, I try to link thestuff for like, in the recipes
to, to be helpful, but oftenI won't link certain things
because the markup is just insane.
It'll be like $22 for a jar
of artichoke carts when you can go get
them at the store for $4.
Mm-Hmm. .It's, it's ridiculous.

(42:44):
- One thing I put on the listof stuff to put in your pantry
for a rainy day, it's stufffor like when you're sick
or for when your kids are sick.
Like you can get the individualservings of applesauce
and the individual, um, cans of ginger ale
and also Gatorade.

(43:05):
And I feel like having likea little designated section
and be like, listen, the sick
- Section,- These are for when we're sick.
You're not allowed to take the ginger ale
'cause you just feellike having a ginger ale
or you're not allowedto take the Gatorade.
It's specifically therefor when somebody is sick.
And I mean, I know like gingerale's not the healthiest
thing, but that, that stuffworks when you're feeling like

(43:27):
nauseous or something.
I love ginger ale. I always,
I like anytime I wassick when I was a kid,
if I would have like the flat ginger
ale and it would really help.
Um, so I think just like keeping
that little designatedsection is good. Yeah.
- Ginger ale is great.
Is that what a Shirley Temple'smade with Ginger Ale? Right?
- I think it, it's Sprite.Oh, it's Sprite, okay.
Isn't it Sprite and Grenadine? Yeah.

(43:48):
Well anyway, and cherry juice,
- Ginger ale's better than Sprite.
Other things nuts.There's a lot of places.
If you don't wanna go to Costco,
trader Joe's has nicelittle sizes of them.
So you can have a huge Johnnut cabinet like Tara has.
And then I got spices, salts.
There's a lot of places you can buy them.
You can order theseonline in different sizes.

(44:09):
A lot of people like penniesor like other spice sellers.
Um, I do recommend you not go too too
large on the spice containers.
It'll, it'll save you room too.
Certain things like salt by the big thing
of salt stuff, like stuff
- You're gonna go through quickly.
Yeah. Like I feel like we, wego through like salt pepper.

(44:29):
We do use granulated garlic.
- I use granulated garlicmore than garlic powder. Yeah.
Garlic powder always cakes
and turns into like thishard mess. Yeah. Um,
- And I feel like that keeps its potency.
The granulated garlic.
- So granulated garlicpotency is supposedly
half of garlic powder.
Okay. Yeah. So like if you're measuring
equal volume amounts,
- But that's always good.
We put that on top of pizza.

(44:50):
- I like it on pizza. And I,
I have been specifying inthe recipes now though.
Uh, granulated garlic. Mm-Hmm.
instead ofgarlic powder because you say
garlic powder and I don'twant people to get confused.
Yeah. Alright. Enough of that.
It's time for the real reason
that you're here and the real reason here.
- There's the real reason you're
- Here, .
Alright, so we got ourhigh end plates here,

(45:11):
which I honestly,
I think we're gonna usepaper plates from now on.
So I have Greek chickpeas with parsley
and cumin, Grecian style eggplantwith tomatoes and onions.
I could just tell thisis gonna be good. Mm-Hmm.
. And theseare nice. They open up.
Um, so you don't have to use a can
- Opener.
No need for a can opener. Mymost loathed appliance. Yes.

(45:32):
- Right. And then do domas orGreek stuffed grape leaves.
- I can't wait to try these.
- I, these Greek stuffed grape leaves
normally taste the same nomatter where you get 'em.
Yeah. They all, even like my friend
who owned a Greekrestaurant said like, yep,
they come from the same place,
you know, which I think is true.
- I'm excited. Are we gonna rank these

(45:53):
or are we just gonna taste them?
- I think we just kind of taste them
and tell people which onewe think is really bad.
Bad. I don't think anyof them are gonna be bad.
I'm going out on a limb here
and saying everything's gonna be good.
All right. Alright. Whichone do you wanna do first?
- Did you wipe down all of them?
- Yeah. I mean, I did. Idid the best I could here,
you know, like, we'reupstairs, we don't have
to sink bias or anything.
Um, so what, which onedo you wanna do first?

(46:16):
- I feel like we should go from like least
flavorful to most.
So I feel like, I don't know either.
I think the eggplant weshould hold for last.
- We are going to be having new chairs
and setup, uh, not nextweek's one the week after.
Gotta paint the wall chairs.
So we're gonna have a different setup
when we're eating the stuff.
So that's the thing we're worried about,

(46:37):
that the table is large enough
and we're gonna havewhite rug underneath us,
which might not have been the best idea.
- Let's start with the grape leaves. Okay.
I think we should do the eggplant last.
Okay. Are you ready? Yes,
- I am ready.
- All right. It tastes

(46:58):
like a stuffed grape leaf.
It tastes like the one you get at
the rest at the Greek restaurant.
- It's good.- I love them. I could eat the whole can
- Tastes like a Greek restaurant. It's
- Stuffed with rice.
Yep. It's a stuffed grape leaf.
That's exactly what it tastes like.
And it doesn't taste any better
or any worse than the ones
that I've had in the Greek restaurants.
- They taste very similar.Mm-Hmm. . I mean,

(47:20):
- There might be, or- Diners in diners.
There might be a few factories
that make these like food supply places
that sell commercially.
But, um, I've had other brands too.
I've had like the Sophia brand,which is, uh, an Italian,
uh, brand, kind of like chito.
Their, theirs might have beena little bit more pungent,
but for the most part,all these taste the same.

(47:41):
And it's good. They're good.
It's delicious. So whatdo you wanna do next?
- Let's move on to thechick pea. All right.
You know, should wescoop these? All right.
I feel like chickpeasare kind of hard to eat
individually, like with a fork.
So I, I think these are, theseare probably better eaten
with a spoon, but they'realso, when we get these from

(48:03):
the Greek restaurant by usAcropolis, they usually serve it.
If you eat there, they serveit for free as an appetizer,
and they serve it toyou with some warm pita.
So you would put it on top of the pita.
But we're not doing that. We're just
eating it outta the can.
- I think they're good. They'renot, don't confuse 'em at
the one from Acropolis is aGreek restaurant that's kind

(48:26):
of local to where we live.
It's the best Greekrestaurant around here.
Honestly, I, I know there'ssome better people say there's
better places in Astoria.
This place has been going forever,
and they give you the mostfood, you know, they've had
to raise their prices,like other places have to,
but you get a ton of food.
So there's all these otherGreek places here too.

(48:47):
None of 'em, in my opinion,compare to Acropolis.
It's not a good comparison.
- It's not- Their, their chickpeas are
completely different than this.
These are really good for what they are.
- Yeah. So the, i I, I amin my mind comparing it
to the ones from Acropolis,which Acropolis has like fresh,
um, fresh minced red onion in it
and it lemon juice and yeah.
It's, it's much more fresh tasting.

(49:08):
Like you could tell they're not using it
from a can. They might be,
- Well- They're probably using canned
chickpeas, but then they're mixing it.
Yeah. With the other stuff. I'm getting
too much cumin in here. I like
- Cumin. I think it's good. And
- I think it's, I think it's good,
but it wasn't what I, I Iwasn't expecting it to be
so heavy on the cumin.
So I think these are good.
I mean, they're like a goodsnack to have in a pinch.

(49:30):
I would probably keep acan around in the pantry
that once it's cleaned out.
Um, but Okay. I don't love them.
- I disagree with Tara.I think these are really
good. Uh, I do
- Too much cumin for me. Yeah.
- And I, I I know you always
had a problem with too much cumin. Okay.
- No, I, I don't have aproblem with too much cumin.
I just wasn't expecting these. Oh, okay.

(49:51):
Is cumin used in Greek cooking?
- This isn't supposed to be Greek. Yes.
- It's, it says Greek chickpeas.
- All right. It was moremedi, just Mediterranean.
Um, yeah, I mean, cumins nottypically used in Greek food.
I think it's more Turkish food that's
- Cu I don't know ifanybody who's listening is
Greek, let us know. Tell us we're
- Wrong.
I, yeah, I might, I mightbe wrong about that too.

(50:11):
Um, we have crackers back here,
but I don't think we need 'em.
I think we can just use, unlessyou want a cracker, but no,
- I think I'm, I wasn't surewhat to expect with this.
That's why I said have the crackers in
case it's like a spread, but
- You can reach in and get some eggplant.
Yeah, I think you should justgo in and grab it, you know.
- Okay. Oh, this looks good.
I, I have very high hopes for this.

(50:32):
So the eggplant is soft,
it's submerged in like atomato type of sauce. And
- Yeah, this is comparable.
If you know the brandSabra, it's comparable
to Sabra, though.
I do think sabras is better.
- Okay. I'm about to taste it. Yeah.
So I just wanted todescribe it for Elizabeth.
- Yeah. And I'll, and I'll

(50:53):
continue to describe it as you taste it.
So it's, this is like ultrasoft braised eggplant.
It's probably roastedfirst, then it's mixed with
a flavorful tomato sauce.
Uh, it's eggplant
and sauce, so theingredients are upside down,
so you're gonna havea hard time seeing it.
I think it's good. But, uh,
maybe Tara will disagree with me.

(51:14):
She knows the ser one too.
- I wanna eat the whole can. Okay.
- You, you like it that much? It's
- Delicious. Do you
- Remember how the Saber one tasted?
- Yeah, I really likedthe saber one. Yeah.
I haven't seen it. I don'tknow if they stopped making it.
Oh, so this is obviously room temperature.
I think it would be really goodif it was warmed up a little
bit and I could see maybeputting this out as an appetizer

(51:38):
with maybe a little crumbled feta.
- Yeah, - I think it's great.Yeah. I think it's delicious.
- It it is good. Um, ifI had to rank these, uh,
the best one I, for me wouldprobably be this one, which,
which I think Do you, is thatyour best one too? The egg,

(51:58):
- The eggplant one is, say it
because you're pointing to it. Yeah.
- This is the eggplanttomato sauce one that,
the last one we just ate.
I think that's the best one.
My number two is goingto be the Greek stuff,
the stuffed grape, uh, grape leaves,
Greek style stuffed grape leaves.
They are nothing to write rave about,
but they taste very similar toones you will get in a diner

(52:19):
or in your typical Greek restaurant.
And then my number three, andit's a close number three.
'cause I thought that, Ithought they were good too.
Uh, are the chickpeas with cumin?
I think both of those are close.
I think the eggplant is better. Yeah.
- I, - But I like every, Ilike everything. Nothing.
I wouldn't, I wouldn't rateany of this stuff in a bad way.
They're, they're all good. AndI highly recommend all three.

(52:42):
- I agree with the order.
The, my number one is, is the eggplant
with the tomatoes followedby the grape leaves
and then followed by the chickpeas.
I think these would all besomething good to, like I said,
keep in your pantry.
We just talked about the pantry.Keep them in your pantry.
If you have somebody come over Yeah.
Unexpectedly, make a spread easily,

(53:03):
and you just want to quicklythrow some something out.
These three things Iwould definitely put out.
- Absolutely. All right.Let's move into the questions.
All right. We are ready for the questions.
And if you do have questions,remember to send them
to [e-mail].
That's the email forthe podcast questions.
Again, it's [e-mail].
- Yeah. And feel free tosend them in a video Yeah.

(53:26):
Or an audio file. All right.
Jim, this question comes from Robert.
Is there any type of dish youare thinking about making,
but it seems daunting or intimidating?
If not, are there any in thepast that fit this description?
- Robert? There aredefinitely dishes like that.
One of them is a de-bonedwhole chicken. Okay.

(53:47):
This is the, you'll see videosof Jacques Paon doing it,
and he makes it look really easy, easy.
He does the whole thing in like10 minutes, which is insane.
But he is basically, you'retaking all the ligaments,
the bones, pulling them allout while maintaining the whole
entire shape of the chicken.
I've seen some other people do it.
Um, it's awesome becauseyou're getting, like,

(54:10):
after it's done, then youcan roll it, you can tie it,
wrap, you know, truss it, whatever.
And you will have perfectskin on the outside
and just all edible meat on the inside,
both the white and the dark meat.
You can make it easier and just do this
with like a chicken quarterso you can deone that.
So that's like a much easier way to do it.

(54:33):
That's probably the dish that I, uh,
because I, I think it wouldprobably take me a couple
chickens or more tostart like perfecting it.
And I would probably, youknow, run through a bunch
of chickens, which, youknow, isn't the worst thing.
I could just make chicken stock
or whatever for ones thatI don't, uh, succeed with
other dishes that I thinkare really intimidating.

(54:53):
Um, , it's, it's funny,
like they're not intimidating,
but they're, they'reintimidating for me to do on,
for YouTube for like, the cooking videos.
'cause I just know I'm gonna get like,
like flack from certain groups of people.
And, you know, the mostvocal people, the most, um,
annoying people, I guessare the typical like,
young impressionable Reddit crowd.

(55:14):
Uh, it's just, it's just,I'm just being honest.
They are the ones who just,they know everything though.
They know nothing. And they tell you,
you should have done itlike this and this and that.
You know, it's like, allright. You know, like,
you've been cooking forfive years, you know,
obviously they're just parroting
what some other YouTuber told them to do.
And then they take that as gospel
until they find anotherYouTuber that they like better.
So that's part of thereason why I just like,

(55:37):
stay away from certain things.
Like I would love to do, uh, ani,
but that would get a lot ofvocal critics, fried rice.
There's a guy named Uncle Rogerwho's made his whole entire
career off of justtalking about fried rice.
- I think Uncle Rogers hysterical. Yeah.
- So, you know, stuff like that.
I'd probably just, Idon't wanna what, like get
that type of audience.

(55:58):
So I'd stay away from it. You
- Know, what I would findvery intimidating to make,
especially after watching, uh,
Mike g of Pro home cooks.
He had a sushi chef come to his house
and show how to prepare sushi.
And I didn't realize howmuch is involved Yeah.

(56:20):
With preparing sushi.
It's not just like gettingthe fish and, and cutting it.
There's so much more to it.
So if you're interested,
that video is actually a really good one.
I don't know the name ofit, but it's pro home cooks.
I would be very intimidatedto make sushi at home.
I don't even think I would attempt it.
I'd just rather go toour local sushi place

(56:41):
and have them fix it for me.
- I would too. And you know,a big part of doing it well
or not is being able tosource the freshest fish.
That's right. Possible.When you're dealing
with certain fish like salmon
and whatnot, you gotta look out for things
that could get somebody very sick too.
So, Mm-Hmm. .It's not something
that I think I would, I would do.

(57:02):
Um, maybe, you know,
and the other thing istoo, if you're gonna do it,
you're never gonna be able to duplicate
a good Japanese restaurant.
Because the whole point of going
to get sushi at a goodJapanese restaurant is you get
all these different flavors.
So you have like 13different pieces. Yeah.
13 different fish. Each timeyou're having a piece of fish,
you're cleaning your palate in between

(57:23):
and taking the next, the biteof the next interesting one.
How are you gonna do that at home?
You know, you're gonnabe like, you can't, oh,
I'm having a whole thing at tuna today.
And nothing wrong with that.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with that,
but hard to duplicate that experience.
We, we, do we have any more questions?
- Yes. One more. This is from Daniel.
Daniel says, I will starta new job next month
and will no longer be working from home.

(57:45):
Can you please recommenda dish for me to take
for lunch to the office?
Preferably something a little healthier
and it is okay to be reheated
or eat in room temperature or a cold.
- Well, Daniel, I made, um, I used
to make these all thetime when I was really
into like, oh, you already that.
- I was gonna say that. Go ahead.
- So I was really intoworking out like, I, like,

(58:06):
it's like my formal life.
I mean, I'm, I'm gonna start again.
I've been saying thatfor five years. Okay.
Gonna gonna start up again.
Um, but I was really into it
and I would make thesethings called power packs,
and I would, it's almostlike meal prepping.
So it would be brown rice, it would be
like a different vegetable medley.

(58:27):
Sometimes I would likedo a saute. Sometimes
- You would do edamame a lot.
- Sometimes I would do likeat edamame from Trader Joe's,
like the frozen bag. And then like, it's
- Already shut.
Like it's already takenout of the Yeah. The shell.
- Or I would do like cornmixture or a chickpea.
And then I would do a meat.
So sometimes it wouldbe like grilled chicken,
seasoned grilled chicken.
Sometimes it would be, uh,
tuna oil packed tuna,which is really nice.

(58:49):
Uh, sometimes it wouldbe a little bit of beef,
like marinated beef, likebulgogi style or whatever.
And these were like, they'reinfinitely changeable.
So you, you could start with the same two.
We'll definitely start with theone, the rice for that week,
the next week, you know, youcould switch to kin quinoa
or um, a noodle or something.

(59:10):
But, and then you can,
you can alternate like thevegetables for the week too.
So you can keep getting these changes.
All you have to do isjust rotate the proteins,
the grains, and the vegetables. Yeah.
- And those were, I havefound, I used to eat those too.
And I think that those weregood. Even at room temperature?
Yes. Where you could like,keep it on your desk.
I mean, you don't wannakeep it on your desk

(59:31):
and then re refrigerate itif you don't eat it. 'cause
- But you can just put 'em inthe refrigerator, then pop it,
take it outta the refrige an
hour before you're going to eat.
Yeah. And then Perfect.
And I would have like, sometimes some
oil and vinegar on 'em.
Mm-Hmm. . That's,that's what I would do a lot.
Or just straight vinegar. Ifyou wanna be healthier. Yeah.
Um, you know, so oil, oiljust has calories. But
- Yeah, I like, um, I like orzo.

(59:52):
Yeah. With chicken for, so you,you recently did a, an orzo
with shrimp, um, recipe.
I think you could do the same thing,
but maybe do it with chicken.
I know sometimes, likepeople are, when I used
to work in the office, likeeverybody got mad at the people
that would heat up seafood.
. Yeah. Seafoodmicrowave. 'cause it
kind of stinks off the joint.

(01:00:13):
Um, but I think orzo with chicken
and that can also, that'salso really good if it's eaten
at room temperature and the pasta salad.
So we have, we have a pesto pasta salad
with chicken on the website.
That one's really good. And you,
- You do whole weed pastatoo, if you wanna make it
- A little healthy.
Yeah. If you wanna makeit healthy, you could

(01:00:34):
definitely do that.
And that's really good too,also at room temperature.
- Yep. Yeah. So hope thathelps you Daniel, and
- Good luck. Yeah. With your new
- Job.
Good luck. Enjoyed the new job
and yeah, that's, uh,something, uh, everybody wants
to work at home, but it maybe it's nice to
be working somewhereand being out and about.

(01:00:55):
Me and Tara are stuckin here all the time.
Send help. It's hap it, it's good for her.
But you know, it's, um,
- No, I, every single day when I hear
the 5 45 train whistle blowing, I am like,
oh, I am so happy.
I'm not on that train right now. Yeah.

(01:01:17):
Because that was rough.
- Yeah.- 20 something years
commuting from Eastern LongIsland to either Jersey City,
Brooklyn, Manhattan,all different places I
worked. I'm happy to be home.
- Well, I'm glad she'senjoying being my assistant,
- Even if I'm with you.
- Yeah.- Your assistant ,
you are seriously going to get smacked

(01:01:38):
- .
All right. Anyway, uh,podcast. I'm jo I'm joking too.
She's, she's my partner. Okay.
- I am your superior. Well,
- I wouldn't go that far. .
- Oh, we are, we're- Equals. I mean, that's,
- We're, we're, we're partners.
- Listen, you don't see it that way
with your wife or yourhusband. You just see

(01:01:58):
- We joke around a lot.
- It's, it's not, I'm,I'm gonna give you advice.
It's, it's not gonna last.Well, okay. It's like,
- I will say, I, I, I joke around a lot.
Like, I'm like, send help.
Like, I actually, I actuallydo enjoy being with you.
Like, you are my best friend.
- Such a, I'm, I'm such a, yeah. So yeah.
I mean, everybody's probably like,
has thrown up like three times already.

(01:02:19):
Like listening to thislast, uh, two minutes.
[e-mail] will see you next time.