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"When a child is learning how to walk and falls down fifty times, they never think to themselves, "Maybe this isn't for me."
—UNKNOWN
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THIS WEEK'S NEWSLETTER IS SPONSORED BY
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Science-based supplements that improve the quality of life
for people with chronic conditions.
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LAST WEEK WAS OUR 100TH ISSUE!
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I am fortunate to love cooking. As a home cook, I’ve been known to call cooking my mistress. After all, it’s my lifelong passion! I’m not necessarily the best cook you know. There are so many people who are great cooks, and so many chefs with such unimaginable talent. That being said, I am certainly a gal who can put a delicious meal on the table, and one of my favorite things to do is to share on Instagram with new cooks the many tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way.
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Recently I was talking to my Lucy, @ITSTHELUCYSHOW who has been out of the house for the last couple of years. When living at home, Lucy loved to bake but had little interest in everyday cooking. Having to put dinner on the table every night living alone changed that. We began to spend time on the phone and FaceTime while Lucy cooked, going over the basics, just like I do with my followers. Recently we were chatting about the cooking tips Lucy learned from me that have really helped elevate those everyday dinners. Our conversation gave birth to this issue and the tips I’ll be sharing with you. I’ll also include some tips from other cooks.
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MY COOKBOOK TAGGED, SPILLED ON, AND WRITTEN IN
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I love to tell new cooks that there’s a difference between following a recipe and truly learning to cook. In order to not be locked into a recipe, you have to tune in to your own intuition. One way to do this is to follow a recipe all the way through the first time if necessary. Then, use it as a guide the next time, changing it up by using the ingredients you have on hand and experimenting. The most important thing is to have fun. When you do, you’ll absolutely be able to taste the joy in the dish! Cooking is a lifelong learning, and you want to enjoy the process as much as the finished product. I sure do! And I always encourage new cooks to dig deeper and experiment to find what works for them.
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Write in your cookbooks, people! Learning as you go is really what I’m all about. For me, helping people learn to cook includes encouraging them to write down what they’re learning. When you’re cooking from a recipe, make notes about details, like whether you used more or less salt, for next time. If it’s a recipe you want to repeat, make a note of what you changed.
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If oven bacon takes 22 minutes in your oven, but the recipe says 25, then write it down so you’ll remember next time. This is especially important for recipes you only make annually. I always like to say “spills and drips welcome” on any of my books. That lived-in look is how you know you love a recipe.
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One of the most important things to know is how to roast a chicken to perfection, which always includes lovingly basting it with its own pan juices . If you’ve watched my Instagram stories, you’ll know that if the chicken is nearly done but doesn’t have that golden hue, I like to baste it several times, turning up the heat and using the hot fat to finish off the bird. When roasting a chicken, a rule of thumb is 20 minutes per pound in the oven. Use that as a jumping off point, and remember: you know the chicken’s done when the leg wiggles easily. (It won’t do that on its own; you have to wiggle it.)
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SAVE YOUR PAN JUICES, PEOPLE!
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Speaking of roasting a chicken, save your pan juices! If you’re a nocrumbsleft regular, you’ll know this is one of my favorite pieces of advice, whether it’s a roasted chicken or a great steak you’ve let rest on the board. Au jus is a French cooking term meaning “with juice.” These gorgeous pan juices can either be poured over your meat or saved to add to a soup, stew, minestrone, or even rice. The umami in pan juices is off the hook, and by the way, umami is a category of flavor in a food that’s independent of the four basic tastes (sweet, salty, sour, and bitter). It’s a meaty, savory, broth-like taste.
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Learning to make an easy and spectacular basic protein is a lovely and necessary skill. My Everyday Roast Chicken Breast fits this category perfectly. While the trick here is using bone-in, skin-on chicken, the recipe is quite simple. Start with salt and pepper, then work up to spice blends like my Picante Seasoning, Greek Seasoning, or any blend that appeals to you. Experiment! When mixing a blend, make extra, label it, and keep it in your spice cabinet to use again and again.
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EXPERIMENT WITH SPICES TO SEASON YOUR PROTEIN
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These seem like the kind of tips I would have learned from my mom, but the reality is that these are the tips I learned in spite of my mom. She was a spectacular human being and a fabulous mother who filled our home with music, love, and laughter…but not cooking tips. By watching her not enjoy doing something we all have to do on a daily basis, I realized I wanted to find joy in cooking.
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OUR PHONES' ALARM, TIMER, AND STOPWATCH
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One of the best things I've learned from being in a working kitchen with a lot going on is to set both a timer and a stopwatch when working on a recipe. That way, if it any point you lose track of where you are, you can look at the stopwatch and see your total cooking time.
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At any point during the day we have an old school kitchen timer and two or three phones running with timers and stopwatches. Keeping track of everything is quite an endeavor!
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The other day, I asked Fernanda, who works in the kitchen with me, for her favorite cooking tips, and she loves the idea of reading a recipe through twice so that you know what’s happening in advance. I celebrate the idea of mis en place, a French culinary term that means everything in its place. It’s one of my favorite uses for the Crum-bowls. The practice (and the Crum-bowls) simply make cooking more fun—and why in the world shouldn’t we be having more fun?
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LUCY K, ME, AND JOANNA IN THE NOCRUMBSLEFT KITCHEN
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Fish doesn't need to be difficult to prepare. The key is to get the best fish you can afford. Lucy K., who's been working in my kitchen with me for a couple of decades, likes to say, “Fish loves salt,” and she's absolutely right. Dredge your fish in a bit of flour, sauté in butter or oil, and serve with my Tarragon Tartar Sauce. The Tarragon Tartar Sauce itself is a revelation and elevates any fish to extraordinary.
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FRESH FISH FROM MY LOCAL FISHMONGER
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And don't forget a prepared spice like Old Bay, which has been around forever. It’s delicious with seafood. I gave my Lucy this recipe recently, as a framework for salmon: salt the fish well, get the fat hot in the pan, place the fish skin side down, and cook 6 to 8 minutes total, flipping halfway through. I believe salmon should be very pink in the middle, so for mine, it's only about three minutes per side. Try this method and decide how long you need to cook it so it’s just the way you like it.
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ALWAYS BUY THE BEST INGREDIENTS YOU CAN AFFORD
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I delight in creating a masterpiece, and you can’t do that without carefully selecting wonderful ingredients, whether it’s a gorgeous piece of fish or steak, the perfect tomatoes, robust lemons, or the greenest greens.
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MY CLOTH NAPKINS,READY FOR USE
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Use cloth napkins. If that sounds extravagant, you can absolutely pick them up at a secondhand store or World Market. Cloth napkins simply make food taste better and make any meal more special.
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BLEND VEGETABLES WITH CHICKEN STOCK TO MAKE THIS SUNSHINE SOUP
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Roasted vegetables pureed with chicken stock make a lovely soup. To dress up a tomato sauce, add some extra tomatoes, and you’ll end up with something that's truly magnificent.
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For crispy mushrooms, wait till the end to add salt.
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BEEF PEPPERONCINI, ONE OF MY FAVORITE RECIPES FROM THE BOOK
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Let meat cook longer on one side, like with the Steak Stir Fry, and then flip it over to finish quickly so you can get a nice brown char on one side.
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One lovely way to deglaze the pan in order to get all those browned bits is to add a bit of chicken stock. Deglazing simply means adding liquid to a hot pan to release those bits of goodness.
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Salt each layer of ingredients when adding them to a pan.
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MY NEPHEW TERENCE WITH MY SISTER PATTY SUE
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I asked some of my favorite cooks for their favorite cooking tips, and my sister Patty Sue said, “When I bake, I add a little baking pan of water to the oven to add moisture. And for high altitude baking, my recipe is a quarter of a cup more flour, 2 tablespoons more liquid, and 2 tablespoons less sugar.
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GRAPEFRUIT JUICE ICE CUBES
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Also, fill ice cube trays with chicken stock to make cubes that you can pop into rice or use when sautéing vegetables.” She added, “As a gal who loves a cocktail, I fill ice cube trays with fresh grapefruit juice and add them to my usual drink, vodka soda. Just one cube carries through the evening and makes the drink better.”
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TERENCE AT ONE OF MY BOOK TOUR EVENTS
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My nephew Terence said, “A sharp knife is safer than a dull one,” and I couldn’t agree more. He also said, “Don’t burn your garlic; lower the heat, letting it sweat. And remember that pots and pan retain heat, so even when they're off the burner, things continue to cook.”
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See below for tips from a few of my other favorite cooks.
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ROY AND I CELEBRATING VALENTINE'S DAY IN CALIFORNIA
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The first thing to do before cooking is to boil a pot of water. That way, it’s ready when you need it.
Roy
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LUCY ON THE RIGHT WITH GIRLFRIEND, CC
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Using my “intuition” in the kitchen, as my mom often says, was a really difficult and confusing concept for me to understand as a person who was usually glued to a recipe and didn’t like to stray. But once I learned the mechanics, the “hows” and “whys” of making a fabulous chicken with just salt and pepper, it became easy to branch off and add other spices to match the meal or occasion. My mom and her recipes taught me the objectives of cooking so many basic foods, and that has given me a sense of the boundaries that I should and shouldn’t push as I experiment and make a dish my own.
Lucy Hartman, Actress/Storyteller/nocrumbsleft's kid
@itsthelucyshow
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- Sometimes I rely on the butcher to prep fish, chicken, or meat (by that I mean cutting it for my recipe) so I am ready to roll when I get home.
- Use the best ingredients you can afford.
- When I’m having company, I measure the ingredients prior to their arrival so there is ease in assembly while entertaining.
- Less is more: you can always add salt, pepper, etc. but start slow.
- Cut ingredients in uniform size for even cooking.
Rose Funkhauser, Crumble
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MY FRIEND AND AMAZING DESIGNER JASON
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Whenever a recipe calls for chilled cubed butter (like my favorite biscuit recipe), I always use my box grater instead of cubing the butter. Chill the grater and the bowl (and the butter, of course). Keep the butter wrapped and only expose enough to grate. Grate in small amounts to keep it cold. Makes delicious flaky biscuits!
Jason Hall, Creative Director
charliegreenestudio.com
@charliegreenestudio
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CALIFORNIA GROWN VEGETABLE SANDWICHES
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To celebrate California farmers and farmworkers, the nocrumbsleft team made some delicious roasted vegetable sandwiches. Take a look at some of our delicious variations here on the blog and make some with your family using your favorite California grown vegetables.
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WE'RE SUPER EXCITED TO UNVEIL OUR REDESIGNED SHOP TODAY!
We are so delighted and proud of it! If you haven't yet, click here to check it out.
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I'm excited to announce that next Friday we launch Season 3 of the Table Talks podcast in conjunction with California Prunes.
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Discover the joy of delicious food that your body will love. Food that fuels you with clean, pure ENERGY! It’s exactly what you’ll get in the CuraLife Cookbook for a healthy & delicious diabetes diet.
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CuraLin is a 100% natural glucose support supplement for people looking to maintain healthy blood sugar levels and enjoy life's events to the fullest. To receive 25% off CuraLin, click here to order and use code nocrumbs25 at checkout.
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This week we are giving away a nocrumbsleft Tumbler! They are one of a kind pieces that are NOT available in the shop. Enter below.
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Pull up a seat, because this cookbook is akin to learning to cook from your mama. Each recipe is infused with love to ensure no crumbs will be left.
Leilani Weaver, Wellness Advocate
Royal Center, Indiana
@itiswell_withmysoul
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If you want to be featured here with the cookbook, DM Teri and let her know.
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I celebrate the idea of magic in every form, and this symbol always brings me joy and feels lucky. I'm delighted to share it with you! You can find the Rooster on the Molly Plates or imprinted on your nocrumbsleft pottery.
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