Cooking

Whoomp! (Here It Is) Party on, party people: let me hear you touch the ground! In "Cooking," What's The Matter With Me? Podcast has all the pots on, the gas is burning and we're ready to go. This episode touches on cooking through limitations, self-imposed or otherwise (like a disability), with a trip to the military-industrial grocery store we know and love as Target, cooking @christinatosi with the kids and watching @majordomomedia food TV. Word From Sponsor Check Out Hoppin Hot Sauce On Amazon Shoutouts to Rocky Shopping List We're getting ingredients to make Rocky Road Sandwich Squares and some blondies from Christina Tosi's Milk Bar: Kids Only book. We changed plans and instead of our trip to the market in Berkeley, we headed to the desiccated old mall in San Leandro, to hit the Target for our military-industrial shopping list: 2 bags mini marshmallows (10.5 oz each) 1 bag semisweet chocolate chips 1 bag white chocolate chips At Target, there is aisle signage calling out the marshmallow section, where it's marshmallows floor-to-ceiling. Correction The Marlon Mullen show is at MOMA in New York, on 53rd Street in Manhattan. New Wheelchair in December, I got a new wheelchair. It's got a lot of good things about it: better fit, faster and more rugged. As with anything, there is a learning curve, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to use it. baby back ribs grilled indirectly. baked beans in the instant pot Majordomo Media Is Food TV Done Different For those interested, whether by absolute necessity or purely whimsical flights of fancy, in taking a different look at food, I recommend majordomo media and it's warren of YouTube channels. They make stuff with extremely unpretentious approaches, some of which are more-or-less accessible. At least. it's a different type of food tv, a bridge between daytime cooking shows and food influencers. It's refreshing. Otherwise you'll have to watch the I love Diet Coke guy. Hip Hop Journalism I wend to the San Leandro Public Library and scored some hip hop books. I put the Chronicles Of Doom on hold, and it recommended the others, so I bagged ail three. dilla time, by Dan Charnas Chronicles Of Doom by S.H. Fernando Sweat the Technique: Revelations on Creativity from the Lyrical Genius by Rakim Sizzle plate lunches Stale bread lunch. Broiling stuff together on a sizzle plate. is easy and I can accomplish it with one hand. About last night "Last night for dinner" journal is back. Blank Faceless Underwear I bought a postapocalyptic 4 pack of underwear from Costco, boxer briefs, black, blank. Faceless and nameless, unidentified remains, here I come. Selfie 00:00:00 - Mic Roll 00:00:19 - Hoppin Hot Sauce jingle 00:00:27 - Intro 00:00:55 - Shoutout 00:01:14 - Target shopping list 00:01:59 - Christina Tosi Milk Bar 00:02:31 - Bake Club 00:03:33 - Milk Bar Kids Only 00:10:36 - Correction 00:11:05 - New wheeelchair 00:14:20 - Wheelchair Excursions 00:16:15 - majordomo media 00:19:03 - Cooking through limitations 00:20:33 - I love Diet Coke 00:21:06 - Book review time 00:21:22 - Dilla Time by Dan Charnas 00:23:09 - Chronicles Of Doom by S.H. Fernando 00:24:15 - Sweat The Technique by Rakin 00:25:29 - sizzle plate lunches 00:26:59 - Last night for dinner 00:27:48 - Socks And Underwear 00:29:34 - Outro

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm doing my thing, pa bang.

(00:03):
The mic roll is going. I had to
get that
get that locked in. I'm locked in now.
You are tuned in to the what's the
Batter With Me podcast
sponsored by Hoppin' Hot Sauce.

(00:25):
Hoppin' hot sauce.
It's the best hot sauce. Happy hot sauce,
it's the best sauce in the world.
The world I'm telling you.
Happy hot sauce,

(00:56):
like us. It's a secret society.
Yo, check it out. We're rolling. You are
tuned in to the what's the matter with
me podcast. Hi. My name is John. I'm
45
years old. Hus Husband, father, two small business
owner, radio, DJ, podcaster.

(01:17):
And I have multiple sclerosis,
tantriceminal,
neuralgia.
I made this podcast this year what I'm
going through.
You are tuned into the What's the Matter
with Me podcast
called to give.
Shout outs to Rocky. Straight up. Shout outs

(01:38):
to Rocky
and and the Canadians
that are just doing a hockey victory
lap.
I went to Target.
We have a Target
in town. It's in the mall.
We have, like, this dead mall
in town. There's a movie theater there,

(02:00):
and,
it's kinda like a weird
the parking lot is
empty, and
there's, like, things that are randomly
chain link fenced off.
So you gotta pick your spots at the
movie theater in town. Okay. I made a
list at Target

(02:21):
because
because the kids are getting old enough
where they're starting to have some interest in
cooking.
And,
I saw on TV, I saw Christina
Tosi,
and she had been the pastry
chef
of, like, the David Chang

(02:43):
Momofuku,
empire
in New York.
Momofuku.
But I think there's something about Momofuku.
It's like, my mom, shout outs to mom.
So she had founded
the Milk Bars,
and I saw her
on TV.

(03:04):
She was she has a new book out.
She has a new book
out called Bake Club,
a hundred and one must have moves for
your kitchen, a cookbook.
And so this came out in November
of twenty four.
I was kinda hearing about it,

(03:26):
and she was behind,
I mean, crack pie,
you know, all the
hits,
the cookies,
the
what did she like, was she the maker
of compost cookie,
birthday

(03:47):
cake
cookie.
And I remember
they were I remember crack pie. They they
was just chess pie.
But I like the vibe, and
I looked at the Sand Leander
Library,
and they only had this other one. So
they had a couple,

(04:08):
I looked up Christina
Tosi at the library,
and they had this book,
Milk Bar,
Kids Only
A Cookbook.
And it's by Christina
Tosi.
Milk Bar Kids Only
is dedicated
to the next generation

(04:28):
of young bakers
with over
85
super fun, super easy
recipes
from apple pie waffles
and PB and J
cereal treats to choco crunch
cookies, created
to teach baking newbies the basics.

(04:52):
Think
tools of the trade, and A plus clean
up habits, and
inspire imagination
in the kitchen.
So we made those
choco crunch cookies,
and they were like
a chocolate.
They had Cocoa Krispies.

(05:14):
They had
Cocoa in the dough, so they're like a
brown cookie.
They had mini marshmallows
in them, so they were like chocolatey
crunchy
from the
the kind of chocolate
rice krispies,
and then
the crazy

(05:34):
melted
marshmallow
pops, like, one or two
or more for cookie, and that it was
kind of, like, textural,
chewy,
poppy,
gooey,
then that was fun to make for the
kids. So I went we I made that
with them, and

(05:55):
we we got over the holidays.
We got a cookie jar,
and that when we got the cookie jar,
the kids were, like, so excited. They threw
their arms
to the sky and just howled.
It was great
with the light, like, happy

(06:15):
little puppies. It was good.
So we made the Choco
Crisp cookies,
and they were a success.
My wife brought them
to school. Sorry. My wife brought them to
work.
I misspoke there. I'll I'll correct some misspeakings
later, but

(06:36):
she brought them to work. She didn't go.
She graduates. She's a master's.
She has the education
in the family. She's
a degree
or more above me. So the Target shopping
list.
So we that was the one cool thing
about

(06:57):
the Milk Bar Kids only cookbook,
is it's all it doesn't have any, like,
fancy
New York Times
kind of, like,
special sugar,
and, and, like, obscure
flour and whatever.
No. It's got stuff you can get at

(07:18):
Target,
and that's why I was, like, I like
this kids only book. So we made the
Choco
Crisp Cookies,
and now our shopping list,
it was two bags of mini marshmallows,
one cup of chocolate
chips, which I think is just a bag,

(07:40):
it ended up being.
And then two bags of white chocolate chips.
So I'm not sure what
my sliced
almonds. I'm not sure what the whole idea
was, but I know one I think one
of them is, like,
we have all this

(08:01):
choco krispies
cereal,
And I the there's a recipe
in the book where
later on, they're like, you need eight cups
of Choco Crisp cereal. And I'm like, oh,
yeah. I have that. And
so I think you combine
the mini marshmallows

(08:23):
and some butter in the microwave
and mix in the ChocoCrisp,
CocoaCrisps.
I they're called the Choco Crisp cookies, but
I think that it's Cocoa Crisp, Cocoa Crispies.
We have this whole thing with my family
where we weren't
I wasn't sure. I thought maybe it was

(08:46):
called
chocolate
crisps.
And then we were like, that doesn't flow
exactly
right. Like, the marketing
department was not like, we have this brand
new cookie,
Cocoa Crisps.
No one no one named it. Anyway, we
got the marshmallow

(09:06):
and
the Cocoa Crispies,
and we'll make kind of Rice Krispies
treats with that and the white chocolate chips,
and I think some almonds, maybe. Who knows
where I'm going? In in Target,
they have aisle signage,
like,
you know, dairy, eggs, milk, but they have

(09:28):
an aisle sign
just calling out the marshmallow
section.
So they have the unhealthy
stuff at Target.
It's the marshmallow.
And my wife was like, they have so
many different sizes
of marshmallow. And I'm like, yeah, man. Because
sometimes you need different sizes.

(09:51):
They're for you when you need it. The
marshmallow
section, and there's a sign
saying,
you're here.
This is the marshmallow
section.
Really, top to bottom, floor to ceiling marshmallows
at Target. So we'll be making to more
baked goods with the kids. And that Christina

(10:13):
Tosi went in somehow, the the assistant was,
like, listening
to us and started
selling
those maybe you've seen these ads for Taco
Bell birthday cake churros,
and that's, like, a milk bar thing. We
had one of those today,

(10:33):
and boy, it was dis disturb disturbing.
Disturbing.
It was disturbing. But I mean, it it
was a little throw in. We split one.
Naomi and I split one. And we're like,
imagine if we'd ordered two, and we're like,
working at getting down two bites of it.

(10:54):
Boy, that's the the thing. Christina
Tosi is, like, very sweet,
very sweet and kind of amazing
and
a little too far, but it's, like, what's
good about it?
Correction,
the Marlin Mullen show. Well, I kinda

(11:14):
did it right once. I did it wrong.
Let me correct. Set the record straight. Marlin
Mullen at MOMA.
Marlene Mullen
through April 20
at MOMA.
New York. New York MOMA. I know I
want everyone to know it's at New York
MOMA. So that's for my East Coast listeners.

(11:38):
In December,
I got a new wheelchair,
and that was pretty
pretty rad.
It fit to my
size. So
the one wheelchair
I have had is a folding travel wheelchair,
and
I'm on my second one actually,

(12:00):
but it's not fit to me. It's too
small for me. It's for a smaller person.
You know, I'm, like, two hundred fifteen pounds,
six two, and I'm
too big for this travel wheelchair.
So I got a new wheelchair,
and it was, like,

(12:21):
five times more expensive,
five times
heavier. But I got that wheelchair
lift
last year. So I was able
to use it. I still haven't, like, really
got my c legs with it. I'm a
little bit afraid to take myself out of

(12:42):
my house and drive myself somewhere.
I kinda have that
this imposter
type syndrome where
the people were like, you're here by yourself,
and that was like a self fulfilling
prophecy.
Now I I hear that voice in my
head where I'm I'm like, you shouldn't be
going somewhere. What if you what if x,

(13:05):
y, and z, you need help? And
so it's like I'm canceling
myself.
Man, that's like a bunch of baggage. I
gotta figure out, take my wheelchair out. I've
still got it. But I've got a new
wheelchair when I do go out. It goes
faster, it goes farther, it sits

(13:26):
my body
properly,
and
it's
there are things like
problems with it. Like, it doesn't have
any storage, so I have to, like,
carry a bag with me or go to
go alone somewhere. I can't carry hardly I

(13:46):
think nothing pretty much. Only what I can,
like, rest on top of myself, balance
where I can balance on the top of
my head,
which is not very much. So I got
a new wheelchair.
It's, like, technically
superior. It's a lot bigger.

(14:07):
It's a much more comfortable.
It hurts my back far less. It
it has some amount of suspension
even. Not like, nothing crazy, but it just
having some suspension
is more than none, which is what my
old wheelchair had. They had no

(14:29):
you know, it was pretty you know, it
was a
20%
the weight of my new wheelchair.
So, I mean, there it's a lot less
substantial.
So I guess the thing is I'm not,
like,
using my new wheelchair
as much as I could, but in December,

(14:51):
I got it. And
I've been going
out on the weekends, like, when we were
able to go to the market or go
to Berkeley or shopping or or whatever, I've
been trying to use it. It's and we've
been going to shows, like, I saw
at Berkeley,

(15:12):
we saw Antonio
Sanchez,
and we saw Samara Joy
jazz vocalist. She was good. Antonio
Sanchez
played the drums to Birdman
live on the tenth anniversary.
Birdman tour, that was interesting.

(15:32):
This weekend, we're gonna see Lady Smith Black
Mambazo.
So this is, like, some Berkeley
action
world music. I'm going to Berkeley and seeing
some
more world music.
Beloved
South African
vocal group Ladysmith,
Black Mambazo,

(15:53):
with one of in the words of NPR,
I'm going to see an NPR approved
African coral group in Berkeley.
I think we're gonna on Saturday, I tomorrow.
I think we're gonna we're gonna,
go
to woah. They launched to they were the

(16:15):
the choral group on Paul Simon's
Greaseland
album
in '86.
Freedom, Love, and Peace, Nelson Mandela. You know
I love Mandela,
so this is gonna be great. So I'm
going to that show. We'll go to an
izakaya
kind of Japanese

(16:35):
food place
in Berkeley.
So the wheelchair is getting me out and
about in a way that is a lot
better for my posture,
my back.
Hey, I recommend
checking out check out this Major
Domo YouTube channel.

(16:55):
It's like the David Chang,
Ecoverse
Universe Multi Magic Zone.
Check it out. It's called Major Domo. They
have the Dave Chang show.
Andrew Yang is on there. And the reason
I thought of it, it's it's like entertaining
kinda different

(17:16):
style of
different style of food television. But at the
same time, there's a lot about it that's
kind of accessible. They make a lot of
stuff with unpretentious
approaches.
Like, sometime,
they'll use only canned food or only
pantry items.

(17:37):
And something about that is accessible,
and
there are certain
techniques
they use,
and it's a lot about kind of dealing
with limitation,
like only pantry,
or only
this type only
keto

(17:58):
food, or only, you know, they have this
recipe
thing
where they'll take it they'll cook a recipe
from all recipes,
website,
and then
they'll have, like, one person make it into
a drink, like a cocktail.
One person make a super fancy version of

(18:18):
it. One person make, like, an apocalyptic
prepper
version
of the recipe
that's only uses shelf stable stuff from cans.
And then another person,
you know, it says another person do, like,
fusion
African

(18:39):
Thai food,
you know. And so, like, they take different
spins on something,
and that's kind of related to accessible
cooking
because they're,
like, approaching
challenges.
They're like, okay. I can only use stuff
in cans.

(18:59):
So they'll do you know, they'll get a
lot of canned stuff, and I'll look at
it, and I'll be like, woah.
Like, they made crab cakes
from
canned you know, what is essentially
cooked crab, canned lump crab meat, and they
made
crab cakes, and and they looked really

(19:21):
delicious, and everyone said they were.
So that's a food thing. They could be
lying, but I like that
they use
these kind of improvised,
okay, I'll only use this kind of ingredient.
Only
no carbs,
you know, like, stuff like that. That's kind

(19:43):
of when I look at recipes,
I'm like, okay, I'll make that
I'll make that, but one hand, but version
with one hand. You know, that's like everything
I cook. And they're like, dice dice the
celery
finally.
And I'm like, no. I'm not

(20:04):
not gonna be doing that. So once once
they're having you make everything like
chop fine and mousse and
force meat and stuff. I'm not doing that.
So I've had to adapt my approach.
So I like this cooking channel where

(20:24):
they like have challenges
and and arbitrarily
imposed
limitations.
That's
just like
cooking while you're disabled.
Or it's not it's not
analogous,
but it's like it it it echoes
or resonates.

(20:46):
Unpretentious
ex
unpretentious
approaches,
some of which are accessible,
and it's at least a different type of
food TV
and a kind of bridge
between daytime cooking shows
and, like, food
influencers.
I saw I was on Facebook,

(21:08):
I think, and there was,
an overweight guy saying I love Diet Coke,
and he was in the shower, and he
had a really small Diet Coke shirt on.
And then he had a two liter bottle
of Diet Coke, and he, like, exploded. He
drank it,
and it was really gnarly.
And I was like, the phone is dehumanizing.

(21:31):
So I'd like to see new types of
stuff, new types of food television.
It's book review time.
Been also at the library. I had a
trio of, like, hip hop books.
Dilla time. I got this. I these were
on hold, so I got some hip hop

(21:51):
books from the San Leandro library.
Dilla time.
The life and afterlife
of Jake Dilla, the hip hop producer who
reinvented
rhythm.
I I had to like I'm not really
sure. It's by Dan Charnas.
Dan Charnas,
journalist,

(22:12):
screenwriter,
record producer, teacher, one of the first writers
for the source.
Part of a generation
of young writers who helped create hip hop
journalism.
The life and afterlife
of Jake Dillard, the hip hop producer who
reinvented
rhythm,

(22:33):
Dan Charnas came out February
2022.
Quest Love has the quote, this book is
the must
for
everyone
interested in illuminating
the idea of unexplainable
genius.
That's interesting.

(22:53):
Equal parts of biography,
musicology,
and cultural
history.
Dilla time chronicles
the life and legacy of Jay Dilla,
a musical
genius who transformed
the sound of popular music popular
music
for the twenty first century.

(23:14):
So getting
we got some hip hop books at the
library. I'm not really sure how I came
to have all these other than that they're
kinda cool.
I think they might have set them out
or something
at the library.
Otherwise,
I don't really understand

(23:35):
I don't really understand
how
I came up with these three books. They
must have had a display at the library,
and I was checking it out. So I
got this book, The Chronicles of
Doom,
unraveling
wrapped
masked
masked iconoclast

(23:55):
masked
iconoclast
by s h
Fernando. The definitive
biography of MF Doom,
charting the reclusive
and revered
hip hop artist life, career, and eventual
immortality.
Passed away in 2020.

(24:16):
I think I saw him around
02/2004,
and
he had,
Jerry Rice
Raiders jersey.
He played at the independent.
Jeremiah
was there. I was there.
I think Steve came.
MF Doom, a new the definitive

(24:36):
biography
of MF Doom, and that kinda sold me.
So what maybe they had one of these
things where it's, like, if you like this,
you write like this, because
so I got agility time. I got the
MF Doom Chronicles of Doom book. And then
I got
another one, Sweat the Technique.

(24:59):
Sweat the Technique
Revelations on Creativity
from the Lyrical
Genius
by Rakim
by Rakim.
Sweat the Technique
revelations on
creativity
from the lyrical genius,
09/15/2020
by Rakim.

(25:19):
The musician
and hip hop legend hailed as the greatest
MC of all time and compared to Thelonious
Monk,
reimagines
the writing handbook in this memoir and guide
that incorporates
the soulful genius,
confidence, and creativity

(25:40):
of a master
artist.
So, you know, gonna have hip hop books.
Once I had one hip hop book, it
was like, maybe it's like, and I was
like, oh, yeah. And then it the third,
I was like, oh, yeah. Don't sweat the
technique.
What's the matter with me? Alright. We're back.
Hip hop books, you know?

(26:02):
So Sizzle Plate lunches,
this has been
have you guys ever got into a Sizzle
Plate? A Sizzle Plate was in my dreams.
Someone was talking
about a Sizzle Plate.
I was having a conversation.
So sizzle platters
are pretty awesome.

(26:23):
Like, an 11 and a half inch sizzle
platter.
So I'll I'll just put,
like, single
servings,
like, under the broiler.
There's nothing better than a sizzle plate.
And so I I put, like, yesterday,
I had a baguette.
It was really stale. So I cut it

(26:45):
in half long way, and I cut the
ends off because the ends were like rocks.
And I had this, like, long, stale
and so I cut it
about
10 inches,
nine inches long, and I put them on
the platter, and I put olive oil on
them, and I had a little bit of

(27:06):
blue cheese,
and I sprinkled that over,
I put more olive oil, really plenty, and
then salt and pepper on that, and then
I put that under the broiler. And I
broiled the heck out of it.
And when it was
starting to, like, get a little too much

(27:26):
color,
I took it out, but
cheese was liquid.
Get yourself a sizzle bladder. I've been thinking
about food. I've been writing in the last
night for dinner journal.
So I've been cooking and, you know, today
even I roasted
a bunch of,

(27:47):
butternut squash. I figured out how to
peel a whole butternut squash and cut it
up.
And with a minimum
of help, I can I can accomplish it
on my own, but it's really a piece
of cake with some help? So I roasted
some squash. We're gonna have roasted

(28:09):
squash and
pecans
and kale salad
as, like,
make ahead salad.
I did the squash part earlier
today. Socks are really expensive.
They want you to wash them separately and
hang them to dry, and they're really expensive.

(28:29):
I bought, like, four socks, and they weren't
the fancy
socks, and it still costs, like, almost a
hundred bucks.
I had to buy, like, an $8
sock clip so I could get free shipping.
But then I was having Sticker Shock, and
I was like, what's going on? A hundred
dollar, 4 socks.

(28:51):
So that stressed me out, and then I
was looking for underwear. That was my mission,
socks and underwear. And it was, like, through
the nose on socks.
So for the underwear I saw,
you can get a four pack of underwear
from Costco. They're boxer briefs.
They're all the same color. They're black. But

(29:14):
they were, like, recommended.
Right? You know, and I was like, okay.
It it it was something like under $4
a pair.
So I just spent, like, $25
on one pair of socks. So, you know,
a hundred bucks on four pairs of socks
is like
$12.50

(29:34):
a sock. And so in Costco, you're getting
boxer briefs, both legs you're getting, and it's
under $4.
They come in only one color, black.
And that is like our cultural moment that
we're in right now where it's like spend
a hundred on socks and nothing on underwear,

(29:55):
but you can't choose the color of your
underwear. And it's like, thank you very much.
That's that's where we're at as
a culture
in this moment.
Thanks for tuning in to What's the Matter
with Me. Check it out.
What's the matter with me dot o r
g is the key to success. It's probably

(30:16):
all seven habits
are
there. And,
so check it out and,
give me an email. I'll give you a
shout out. [e-mail].
J o a jen at h o p
p I n w o r l d
dot com. Hope you have a good weekend.
Stay cool. Stay,

(30:37):
next level. That's where we need to go.