While Becky Sue Epstein's culinary heritage is quite interesting, it's her handy reference, "Substituting Ingredients" that is a MUST for all cooks - aspiring or seasoned!! Host, Carole Murko, navigates the listener through Becky Sue's upbringing - she had a catering grandmother, lived overseas in Switzerland where kids brought bread and chocolate for lunch, and ended up as a restaurant reviewer for the LA Times before becoming a wine connoisseur, food writer and consultant. Substituting Ingredients is truly a great tool for the home cook - it will solve any missing ingredient disaster and provides some very sage advice and tips. Thank you Becky Sue - this one's on my Christmas list for all my friends!!

Can you imagine growing up on a farm and learning the skills to feed yourself and your family? Shannon Hayes shares her memories with host, Carole Murko. Shannon is an advocate of pasture-raised and grassfed meats in addition to sustainable and bio-diverse agriculture. Her advocacy is clearest through her 2 cookbooks, "The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook" and "The Farmer and the Grill" where she wants the consumer to understand how to cook with the variability of grassfed animals and the robustness of flavors and taste that result in knowing how to prepare them. It's a lively and interesting discussion on our food system and the importance of small biodiverse farms.


(This is a taped copy of the show as the computer in the studio was not working - I will try and upload the show next week - it starts 10-15 minutes into the show and goes longer so you can stop listening when I end the show.)

Truly there isn’t a better description of Gordon Hyatt than the one he handed to me yesterday “....a globe trotter in search of a good story, a teller of tales on film...aspiring Renaissance man....a bit of a dandy and a magnificent cook.” For the purposes of Heirloom Meals, Gordon weaves his culinary tale with host, Carole Murko, in a humble yet erudite manner; the story told in true producer fashion from a seasoned story-teller. Of Polish,Irish and English descent, Gordon shares recipes from his family and those that he developed through his very own love of food, cooking and orchestrating a meal as though it were a symphony. Utterly Delightful!!
 

For all my Jewish friends - Happy new Year!!! L'Shanah Tovah!!! And in honor of the Jewish New Year, Lisa Dachinger joined Heirloom Meals host, Carole Murko for a delightful hour of reflections and recipe sharing. The sentiment of the holiday is reflected in the food. Apples are dipped in honey, and sweet foods are cooked up in anticipation of the sweetness of the new year. Lisa shares some ideas for her grass-fed lamb as an alternative to brisket. But lest you worry, Lisa also shared her Mom’s tried and true brisket recipe as well as her Mom’s very interesting marinade for the lamb. Lisa boasts that her Mom’s matza balls are floaters and that her ruggelach are prize-winning. Unfortunately that recipe will remain only in the hands of the Dachinger’s, with the promise that it is written down and passed down through the generations!! To the sweetness of the new year!!