014: CONCEPTS - Repurposing Leftovers

Chris

nest was around. I don't know if that camera's done, they had a thermostat so this is our Thanksgiving episode, Phil.

Phil

Oh, happy Thanksgiving and happy birthday.

Chris

Thanks. So in case nobody got it last week,

Phil

Yeah, I'm holding a birthday cake. In front of the zoom call that we're on. If you just want to blow out the candles, the proverbial candles,

Chris

Sure. Yep. Yeah,

Phil

Well, happy birthday. This is a really fun episode for us because, well, it's your birthday. It's Thanksgiving happy Thanksgiving, but it's also our 14th episode. And I seem to remember you. talking about the significance of the 14th episode,

Chris

Yeah. at least from a lot of the stats that I looked up, the average podcast has 14 episodes. So that takes into account, you know, things like this American life that's, probably nearing a thousand and

Phil

Joe Rogan that has 1500 or whatever.

Chris

And then all of the, little guys that have like one or two of which. Apparently there are many, I think if I remember, 50% of all podcasts have one episode

Phil

Yeah, that's just incredible.

Chris

have two

Phil

You think that's people that had the idea for a podcast and then publish something. And then just kind of gave on

Chris

Yeah. It wouldn't surprise me. I mean, it definitely takes, it takes a little bit of effort be able to put something together on a lot of levels. It's not just like, hanging out, having fun. I mean, it is, that's a large part of it fell,

Phil

Oh, I've had so much fun, but it is, it is, it is somewhat laborious.

Chris

Yeah. And, and just, working on your speech patterns. you, you realize all of vocal quirks that you have, and it's not always easy to like, turn it on and perform, I guess.

Phil

I feel like I would give better speeches. Now having done the show

Chris

I think so. I think we have been absolutely getting better.

Phil

if only I could go back in time and give the best man speech again at your wedding,

Chris

Yeah, it was, it was great. So

Phil

you gave a pretty good one yourself in mine.

Chris

I don't remember all that was said, but I do know that we have a great picture that came out of it. And I think you were talking

Phil

if I seen that.

Chris

of jail or something at the time.

Phil

Oh man. Good, good stuff. How long ago was that?

Chris

Well, do, do we want to give away the fact that we're not actually recording this on Thanksgiving because

Phil

actually recording it on your anniversary. Oh man. We're great dads, but we're even better husbands.

Chris

It's okay. My wife's asleep,

Phil

Well, happy anniversary, Chris. Happy Thanksgiving, happy birthday, happy anniversary. Well, if we were recording this on Thanksgiving, what are you thankful for?

Chris

in this year of just absolute craziness. I don't know how personal we want to really get on the show, but I would say the past year has been one of the more eventful and challenging years that I think we've had. But I think I've had for sure, at least that I can remember. and it really kind of all started last Thanksgiving, not to get like super, down or anything. but last Thanksgiving, we, we have this. family tradition of, getting a little house or cabin or something in the mountains and spending Thanksgiving with our family up there. And so last year we were doing that and I think we were up in, in BRAC it was sometime on Thanksgiving. My mother got a text from her brother that said that he had stage four cancer and he was going in for surgery in the morning. And that kind of kicked off a year of just, I don't even know. I feel like one thing after another, he, again, to dive too. Deep into personal stuff for like, it'd be too down. He ended up passing away about a week after that, and then Molly's grandmother passed away and we had another couple of close family, friends pass away and All of that within like a month.

And then we bought and sold a house and moved and found out we were having a kid and then this whole pandemic thing happened. Um, it's just, it's been, it's been quite the year. It's, it's literally been nonstop since last Thanksgiving. But I think, that highlights a lot of the things that we do have to be thankful for. the consistency of family. I think for, for Molly and I, the, even though it's been. You know, challenging as newborns are the new little guy in our lives. and just how brightness he brings our days, even if he keeps us up most of the night, although he's actually been sleeping a lot better lately. I think as, cheesy as it sounds this year has somehow highlighted the importance of the people around us. especially when. Yeah. The time that you get to spend with people has been, made, you've taken that for granted in the past and in this year where you can't always see people face to face, like you realize that that time is meaningful and important. I would, I would say that I'm thankful for our family and friends and the consistency, that those relationships have have had.

And, even just you and Ashley, Phil throughout this like pandemic being able to, Have our remote little dinners every so often, and just stay connected. I think that's definitely like what's, what's kept us afloat through all of the craziness, so long-winded answer. Sorry. But yeah.

Phil

I think you should leave that in.

Chris

How about you? Hopefully your dear, uh, thankfulness as a, a little less, heavy.

Phil

Well, I love that Chris. I mean, I love your story it's I love it because it's so real And so I think in many ways, we're, we're thankful for you. I think I was in this place this past year pandemic aside, I'm just ready to almost get out and breathe, you know, and try something new. and you and I have kind of been working toward this podcast for quite some time and really dates back to a couple of years. And so to be able to have it now, I think in the middle of what 2020 was, it really means a lot. And so, I'm, I'm thankful for what we have with, with this new little project it's really, really fun. And that means that I also get to be thankful for new foods and new techniques and all of the recipes that I'm learning, how to make I'm thankful for PI. I'm thankful for stuffing a boy. I'm thankful for my hot wife. She's pretty cool. I actually said that when we were dating, whenever we went over to her family's house while we were dating, for Thanksgiving and, you know, we all went around the table, we did the thing. What are we thankful for? What are you thankful for? And it got to me and I said, I was, I was thankful for my smoking hot wife and her family.

They, half of them are erupted in laughter the other half. Just kind of. Uh, huh. Oh, okay. Moving on. Oh man. It's good. Good times. excited to see them. I've been, I've been apart from him for the last few days. And um, so yeah, I'm thankful to be able to reunite. So anyways, yeah. Lots to be thankful for a lot, a lot of reflection for sure. And. You know, honestly, I, I would love to hear what some of our listeners are thankful for as well. like, if you thankful for this podcast, if you thankful for dad's kitchen, you should tell us if you're not, you should definitely not tell us. Cause we can't handle it. 2020 has been enough,

Chris

Seriously, I'm, I'm on the verge of breaking as it is. So,

Phil

You're doing a great job. you're a great dad, Chris.

Chris

thanks.

Phil

Yeah. We're we're onto something. If, if anything, we're onto the cheesiness.

Chris

yeah. I just started this as a therapy session, Phil. thanks for, uh, subscribing to, to be my therapist

Phil

you're you're welcome. Pro bono to And you know what else? I'm thankful for Chris

Chris

well you already said stuffing, so I

Phil

having it the next day. I mean, Thanksgiving does not have to be a one day affair.

Chris

No, no, it usually, it's not

Phil

You can eat really good food on black Friday.

Chris

are you guys black Friday shoppers.

Phil

No, we are not.

Chris

Okay. I

Phil

Well, actually we bought a, we bought a sofa last year on black Friday, but we bought it online.

Chris

I feel like that's acceptable.

Phil

Yeah, I think we saved a thousand dollars. So yeah, I'm going to redact that statement. We are absolutely black Friday shoppers. We just happened to do it from our couch,

Chris

Which is the

Phil

which we didn't have until we Right. Yeah.

Chris

and maybe like a folded old towel on top of those?

Phil

that actually sounds kind of comfortable.

Chris

so those, those leftovers fell. when you maybe make too much, whether it's Thanksgiving or otherwise, you know, normal, Tuesday night, let's say what happens with your leftovers? I feel like leftovers, just something that I've always been really kind of on the fence about, I grew up like absolutely despising leftovers, but lately, like for me, leftovers become my lunch for work They've grown on me more. I've seen a place for leftovers. So what, role has that taken on in your guys's family

Phil

well, growing up as a child, we had leftovers a lot and it was typically on the, you know, on the refrigerator. We would have our. Monday through Friday meal plan. And one of those days was left every day. so I grew up with them. I was used to them, but I didn't really care for them because really all they were was just the meal itself, reheated. So then you're just having the same meal again. And then I went to Costa Rica. and in Costa Rica, which is such a beautiful culture. The, the meal that you had for dinner last night is not reheated. The following night. It's actually reheated the next morning and it served as breakfast. And it's typically served with. Eggs, I guess typically scrambled eggs or maybe, maybe some rice and beans. that's a pretty common way to do food over there. And it really kind of struck me like, wow, this actually isn't that bad. I mean, it's still relatively fresh from the night before. And like, we're actually enjoying this breakfast. Breakfast. Doesn't just have to be, you know, cereal and pop tarts. It doesn't have to be these sweet breakfasts that we've come to.

I think adopt here in the U S like breakfast can be a savory meal and I just, I just fell in love with that concept. Absolutely fell in love with it. So, I mean, spaghetti for breakfast the next morning. I don't know. Probably not like more power to if you can do that, but. But like, if you, if you have, you know, some chicken or some beef or whatever, to kind of repurpose that in with some eggs the next morning,

Chris

Yeah.

Phil

that's the way to go right there.

Chris

Yeah. So as you were talking, there I think there were about four different things that popped into my mind and I'd love to at some point, like try and hit all of them, but one was how we actually reheat. This extra meal.

Phil

Yeah, let's talk about it.

Chris

and then even just like what we call it. I think the idea of leftovers makes it sound, I don't know, like it, like, obviously you get these, like, I dunno, sloppy seconds. Connotations going on. It just like leftovers brings this idea into mind of something mushy and blend and, but then, breakfast as well. And the fact that, In the U S we're so used to sweet breakfast that I think maybe the idea of, of a savory breakfast, isn't always at the forefront of your mind, but then also, I loved the word that you had for like repurposing it. So it's not, it's not just that it's this, I don't know, remainder, thinking of it, not just as leftovers, but the idea of repurposing that it's this ingredient for something else, really. And so like in a way in my mind that kind of like just shifts how I would think about it as an ingredient instead of, a meal in and of itself. And so then, like, what do you do with that? Like, how do you create something that's like elevated, more than the sum of the parts type of a thing.

Phil

well, I wonder if, we might start to approach leftovers differently if we didn't use the microwave, like if we didn't have that readily available, then I think we might be kind of forced into repurpose them a little bit.

Chris

I think honestly, that kind of hits a lot of those thoughts that I had. Like my idea of leftovers really revolves around something that's mushy, like mushy retake of whatever we had before

Phil

That's such a gross word,

Chris

mushy. Which is exactly why I don't like leftovers, but how much of that actually stems from microwave reheating when you actually shouldn't be using a microwave? Because I would, I would say that. the huge majority of it, I think in microwave has its place for sure. I love the ease and speed that a microwave can add. but I think you do have to realize that a microwave it's not gonna make it crisp, like an oven world,

Phil

yeah. W all right, so let's say you have, I don't know, carnitas for dinner, how might you reheat those to have them either the next morning with say an egg or

Chris

Shoot. Well, if I was doing it for lunch, honestly, because carnita are a little more moist of a meat, I might actually throw that into the microwave.

Phil

way to deconstruct our whole foundational argument here.

Chris

if I was just going to like, say, say I was going to take the, carnitas and throw it in a tortilla with like some avocado or something. Yeah. I'd probably stick that in the microwave. So for me, the microwave ability or something comes down to what's the moisture content?

Phil

Let's say your repurposing, a meat, let's say you're repurposing a MI that you want to be cognizant of the moisture level and you want to keep it where it is. How would you reheat that? Like a steak. If you're going to reheat a steak and have it the next day, how are you going to reheat that

Chris

I don't think it would, I did a cold fill just out the

Phil

all right. So actually I got to tell you a quick story. Um, you just eat all the steak that night. You would not let it go.

Chris

I don't understand the question. Phil, do you have leftover steak?

Phil

what if it was like a hundred ounce porterhouse. Okay. My dad. I'm dead serious. Like he, I love my dad. He's amazing. He's a great dad. That guy will devour leftovers and he does not care. I once saw him eat an entire plate of spaghetti straight out of the fridge the next morning, without even warming it up, not even microwaving it, he didn't even care. And he owned it.

Chris

cold breakfast spaghetti. Just no,

Phil

He, he will, he will eat things called and he just does not give a flip. I mean, you gotta hand it to him. Like, that's kind of impressive. I, I'm not one to be able to do that. I dunno. Like maybe that, maybe that was maybe that was the military. And then maybe that was spending time overseas as a missionary. I dunno.

Chris

so what, what would you say your kind of reheating

Phil

okay. If it's me and I want to keep the moisture in, I think steaming, it is probably my way to go and I think you're dead wrong about the carnitas

Chris

So

Phil

in the microwave.

Chris

in, but like, okay, so you

Phil

Like I love steaming carnitas the next day.

Chris

Yeah, you stole it in a bowl and put like a paper towel over the top of it microwave, it's not going to dry out.

Phil

Um, I think, yeah, I think it will. Yeah, it'll dry out. It has dried out. I've done it before.

Chris

it too long.

Phil

No Chris, no, Chris, grab a pot of water, boil it with a strainer on top. Throw the carnitas in that strainer, cover that. And you've got some delicious carnitas de licious. Okay. Also you can take any meat. Like legit, any single meat doesn't matter. And you can repurpose those into tacos the next night it's going to be delicious and like, forget about the taco seasoning with it. Don't don't kill it with that. Just, put, yeah, sure. To chicken sausage tacos have a little time kidding me. That's like every Tuesday night.

Chris

Talking about dry meat. Like, I, I, think, I think chicken sausage has, or Turkey sausage has its place, but that, that thing is like the most prone. Meet or meet composite substance to drying out that I think I've ever

Phil

if you, if you take that, whatever, whatever you have in your mind. That chicken sausage dress, substance, whatever. And you roll it up into a tortilla and you slap some salsa Lazano on that. so good. You know, what salsa Lazano is. You ever had that stuff?

Chris

I thought you were going to say salsa, lasagna. So I got it. I don't know what the heck kind of culture mashups you got going on over there, but that sounds disgusting.

Phil

that might be something different. I don't know. It might actually be the same. So is, going back to Costa Rica. It's a Costa Rican salsa, and it's like this molasses based salsa. It's got some pretty heavy cumin flavor in it. It is so good. So it's like sweet cumin. I love putting that on leftovers in a

Chris

is that something that you would regularly make on your own or is this like a, a store-bought thing? Okay. I was just wondering if that was something that like you had a recipe for and we could toss up or,

Phil

Oh, I bet I could find one. I think we've mentioned them at least two or three times.

Chris

yeah. Okay. So, around, what do you do with leftover Turkey?

Phil

I think it could, but the only times I ever have Turkey are on Thanksgiving and the morning after that's not what I'm going to have. There are other leftover items that I will have. Namely one leftover item that I will have Apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a cup of black coffee. That is my all time favorite breakfast. And I treat myself, I only have that on black Friday, Apple pie, and I do a cold, cold Apple pie. Scoop of vanilla ice cream. Black coffee, hot. Oh man. That's so good. I'm having that this Friday. I'm having that tomorrow, Chris,

Chris

I mean, I was, I was questioning the cold scoop of ice cream at first, but then like with the coffee, there's like an offer Gato thing, kind of we'll call it like a, a deconstructed off. It's fancier that way.

Phil

That is pretty fancy. I love a good off a Gato.

Chris

So I guess this whole episode is really how to, how to repurpose your Thanksgiving desserts.

Phil

Actually this whole episode was really a buildup to that. dad's kitchen has become this partisan. Do you eat Apple pie for breakfast or do you not? Are you one of the good guys or are you under the bad guys?

Chris

I think, I think

Phil

mean, listen, Chris, I, I will actually. Purposefully not have Apple pie on Thanksgiving to ensure that there's a slice the next day so that I can have it for breakfast. It's my fave. Yeah. But if somebody gets hungry, all the fun.

Chris

You just gotta make sure that you have an extra

Phil

Right. The best Apple pie I've ever had, was in Amsterdam. have you ever had a Dutch Apple pie?

Chris

I mean I I've, I've had things that are called Dutch Apple pies, but I don't know authenticity that we're talking about here.

Phil

So imagine like a deep dish pizza. Okay. That's probably still not a great example because a lot of people say it's deep dish pizza, a real deep dish pizza in Chicago, right. It has like the really, really tall crust, almost like two inches or whatever and depth and. It's almost like a suit bull almost. Okay. Imagine that as an Apple pie crust, and then the top layer is all crest, not like a lattice or fun, little rosettes or accoutrements of CROs, but I mean like a full top layer of crust, and then that's kind of slivered. To allow some moisture to escape. It's unreal. It's an real best, best meal I've ever had in my entire life

Chris

Sounds like we're going to Amsterdam next week.

Phil

I'm ready. I'm so ready? Screw you. 2020.

Chris

Seriously.

Phil

I think my wife took out. She actually made one and it turned out really, really good. She took a picture of it. I'll I'll post it on Instagram.

Chris

you reheat your, Dutch Apple pie? if you were going to reheat it though, like, say, say you had that extra pie that you should have, and you had your cold morning breakfast pie. and then at some point in the next couple of days, you wanted to have it for dessert and you wanted it warm. How would you repeat that?

Phil

Chris it's served cold.

Chris

But if you wanted it warm

Phil

It does not compute. I do not understand the question.

Chris

but it goes to 11. no, I just thought I was just trying to circle back around to ovens fill and how ovens can actually be a fantastic way of reheating leftovers. That's all.

Phil

I

Chris

and maybe even within that, I have recently found the, like, or something of the broiler.

Phil

You mean versus just like a regular convection oven? Yeah.

Chris

Yeah. Just like the normal burner and we actually have a gas oven, so it's even a little more different. but no, the broiler is one of my favorite things we actually, in our pre-recording chat and catch up, we were talking about the fact that, I don't know how we got on it, but we don't own a toaster. in part to the broiler on our oven.

Phil

It's like you, you actually do on a toaster.

Chris

of do? Yeah, just don't own a second toaster. Like everybody else. So, if, if you're not familiar with what a broiler is, because I really honestly wasn't for a long time, you know, you'd hear about like broiling meat or something, but, um, and it always sounded disgusting to me. I don't know why. Just maybe it's just the way that, that word sounds broil kind of sounds like boil. but, uh, It's a heating element. That's at the top of your oven that runs at typically a really high temperature. So on our weird gas of, and the broiler actually typically runs at about 500 degrees or something like that. Um, so yeah, so being close to the broiler. Yeah. I was going to get some, some pretty direct heat pretty quickly. And so that's, I have found a pretty fantastic way of not only making toasts, but reheating things like actually pizza. that's the way to do it. If you're going to reheat some, some pizza, broiler all the way. And it's really doesn't take that long. Like you think of the oven as being a long, arduous task.

And that's like, why we're not gonna use it to reheat leftovers, but if you have something that gets pretty stinking hot pretty quick, the time gets cut pretty, pretty substantially. pizza broiler definitely a match made in heaven. There.

Phil

I love that. I like it. And I love it.

Chris

Thank you called spaghetti breakfast. Well, Phil, pie tomorrow. oven.

Phil

And I, I think that's, I think that's a terrible idea.

Chris

Nah, it's going to be way better because then it's going to start to melt the ice cream. Just a little bit, just a little bit. It's gonna soften the ice cream to the perfect point that it does great things. I dunno. I dunno what I'm

Phil

You don't want a softened ice cream because you want to take a bite of ice cream and then you want to sip your coffee. miss out on that juxtaposition of flavors in your mouth.

Chris

If it's soft, it doesn't mean that it's hot. It's just softer, cold.

Phil

Well, yeah, I mean, it doesn't have to be hard. It's not, it's not like it's dry ice cream. That's not real. not a real thing.

Chris

I don't think so. well, okay. So my, my take is that if you, if you put the ice cream on the hot Apple pie, you're going to get some, that's gonna melt onto the pie. And then you're still going to have the hard ice cream that you can or not melted ice cream that you can then like use in your coffee combination thing.

Phil

It sounds like we need

Chris

off a Gato. Maybe, maybe I think people should write in and tell us the correct way to,

Phil

I'm going to put up a poll on Instagram

Chris

it.

Phil

or today. Yeah. Cause when does this episode launch? Is this launches on Thanksgiving. I'll put up a poll on Instagram.

Chris

Phil.

Phil

Yeah. Today. Happy Thanksgiving again. I forgot. And people will be able to vote. Should your Apple pie be warmed up or should it be served cold, which I'm not advocating that you shouldn't eat your right. Right. Apple pie straight out of the oven is delicious. There's nothing better. But the day after I say it should be served cold, Chris says it should be served hot. And you know, we, we haven't voted enough this year. We, we need to bring politics back into the conversation

Chris

Yes, please.

Phil

it.

Chris

please.

Phil

I have missed politics. I don't know about you.

Chris

I mean, going to do with myself, so let's, let's keep it going.

Phil

Yeah. I can't remember an election that I enjoyed more

Chris

Yeah. It's been a blast. So years just been fantastic with So Phil, when people want to jump on and tell me that I'm right. And, my view is the Apple pie should be reheat and reheat. And jeez, that Apple pie should be heated reheated, if you will. the next day. Because that's the only way to eat at where, where would they,

Phil

wouldn't, but if they're going to vote for me on my platform, they would do so add dad's kitchen co on Instagram. It's really simple. Cast your vote while you're eating your cold Apple pie. Uh, So delicious with your hot coffee bonus, if it's snowing outside. Chris: Instagram, is a fantastic place to find us. And that poll will be on Instagram, but then, uh, listeners can also find and connect with us on Facebook

And dad's kitchen co you know what, I guess we'll have a poll there as well,

Chris

Does Facebook two polls.

Phil

yeah, You can do polls on Facebook. Sure.

Chris

And if, while you're at it, you enjoy what we're doing here at dad's kitchen. it would mean so much to us if you just jumped on iTunes or whatever podcast platform you using to listen and just give us a rating. it helps the algorithms, whatever those things are. And, send us a message. Tell us what. Your making in the kitchen this week. we would just love to hear from you.

Phil

Yeah. And if anything, it just, it just means a lot. to get those positive vibes. It helps us be seen, uh, by the algorithm. Like you said, Chris, but more than anything, it. It just makes us feel good and we like to feel good. We want to keep going.

Chris

yeah, even beyond just feeling good, at some level I think we both believe in this message that food brings people together and maybe even more so brings families together.

Phil

dozens of people spontaneously combust every year. It's just not that widely reported.