[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, I'm Sarah, and I'm Megan, we're two women in our 40s who live in different states and have a lot of different interests between us.

[SPEAKER_01]: On this show, we talk about all the midlife lady leisure pursuits we're enjoying at this stage of life, like travel hobbies, food, wellness, style, and more.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited today to chat about a very cozy kind of food that you and I have really been digging lately, Sarah, warm salads and grain bowls.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this is the most, I always say this was the most mid-life lady, the sure topic of all time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, well, today's episode is brought to you by our exclusive season sponsor and a long-time partner of ours, Vionic Shoes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Vionics are the perfect combination of stylish and super comfortable, and they really help keep us moving.

[SPEAKER_01]: Use the promo code midlife at Vionic Shoes.com for 15% off when you log into your account.

[SPEAKER_01]: And be sure to check out the special page we've set up where you can see our favorite Vionic Styles.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can look for that in the show notes for this episode.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, thank you to Vionic for sponsoring this episode.

[SPEAKER_00]: And let's dive right into a warm bowl of goodness, Sarah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have to tell you, when we would start talking with this episode, I think we had been talking primarily about warm salads.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like that was sort of a new thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then grain bowls kind of got like mixed in.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I thought, I don't even know what's the difference.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like what is actually the difference between a warm salad [SPEAKER_00]: and a warm grain bowl because often a warm salad has a grain, you know, and often a grain bowl has vegetables.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what's the difference?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, AI told me, you know, if it's wisdom, it's dubious wisdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: The main difference is that a grain salad has its ingredients tossed together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, a grain bowl features the ingredients, artfully arranged on top of a grain base.

[SPEAKER_00]: Grable typically includes a grain base top with proteins, vegetables, and sauce, while a grain salad may mix greens and grains with other ingredients and dressing.

[SPEAKER_00]: This seems to me very subjective because I have definitely been presented with like an restaurant, a grain bowl, where everything is kind of mixed or at least by the time I start eating it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, Mr.

Smarty robot.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, like, what's that called?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I see what the robot, I see what they're saying.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say for me a big difference is that I don't think of a grain ball as having a lot of greens element.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe a little arugula or some herbs, but like, [SPEAKER_01]: I actually, for me, and the way my mind thinks of it is that a warm salad is going to have some kind of salady element, like a kale or an arugula, or more greens, and a green bowl for me is more, I don't know, but that's arbitrary, and the robot probably knows more than me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, both delicious.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are, and we celebrate them both, and we're going to use this episode to celebrate them both.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would also say just really quickly, though, that sometimes there are things that are called salads that don't really have greens at all, for example, isn't there like a jealous salad?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or like it sometimes there's like a fruit salad a fruit salad right and that's just mixed that's just a mixed up bunch of something So no, you're totally right bringing our own perspectives one of the recipes I'm very excited to talk about is labeled a salad and has Nary a green so I think that's just how my category is up for grabs [SPEAKER_00]: Let's toss it in the air, and make a great episode out of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my gosh, that was terrible, but you don't have to edit that out, Sarah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't leave that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We keep in our mom jokes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our terrible puns.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I, okay, I want to explore whether this is a new thing for you or for us in midlife.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you always been into warm salads, grain bowls, this genre, this category of food, or is this more of like a midlife discovery?

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say, always loved a concept, but definitely up to the exploration and creativity in more recently.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, grain bulls have been in our family dinner rotation for quite a few years, but in a very simple iteration.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's usually brown rice or quinoa, roasted vegetables and sweet potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, sweet potatoes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And like a runny Friday on top and actually two of my three kids, which that's as good as I get with any wholesome home cooked family dinner, two out of my three kids will eat that grain ball, which is impressive because I don't have the most I have kind of picky kids.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that kind of grain ball has been in my life for quite a few years.

[SPEAKER_01]: Very simple.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll eat it leftover a lot like I'll just reheat those elements so yummy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Recipes from not my own invention that definitely have delved much more into what I think we're gonna get excited about talking about today Some of these ingredients that are like you would have to plan to make these because they might be things I might not always have on hand.

[SPEAKER_01]: They might might be just something like the kids wouldn't like I two of my three recipes have goat cheese I don't always have that on hand.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I would say I've always loved the feel and the comfort of a cozy bowl of really healthy wholesome ingredients mixed all together [SPEAKER_01]: But I've uped the ante in the last, just like six months to a year, I think.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was going to say similar timing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And very similar for me in that, if you take it down to like the most basic version, the, you know, rice or maybe kimwa with something on top.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've eaten them for a long time at home.

[SPEAKER_00]: But anything more complicated than that, I guess.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the sort of thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would always get excited about in a restaurant.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I think of a few restaurants around here that have had something like that on their menu for a long time and it's like I walk in and get sort of overly excited about them because truly the power has always been with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: to make sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually the most rustic and simple of the creation thing of all the $20 menu items.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the one I could replicate for two bucks at home like every day and I just don't.

[SPEAKER_00]: For whatever reason, similar to why we don't make good salads at home a lot of the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: It feels like a special thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I feel like in the last year or so, [SPEAKER_00]: because I've put together this crazy pantry.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got a lot of different kinds of grains now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beans too, I think beans help because they are often in accent or some kind of legume.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have them in my pantry all the time and I'm more comfortable with the cooking needs of each different kind of grain or a lot of different kinds of grains and more comfortable with different sort of on the fly seasoning options and just kind of knowing what will taste good with what.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it feels like it's just now coming together naturally, and I also want to say that The midlife piece for me is definitely also not having to worry at all about what make kids think a lot of the time and being like what what can I just do together tonight?

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, maybe I have like like a quarter cup of Key and what at the bottom of the bag [SPEAKER_00]: I can't feed the family with that, but you can actually, I think it fluffed up to like, it caught us.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that's a meal for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think I've gotten better about just being like, okay, I'll grab a little of this, a little of that, mix some things together, let's see what happens while on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then, of course, you've shared some really good recipes that we'll talk about in a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: that have kind of also inspired me to, if not make exactly that recipe, I am terrible about improvising sometimes, not to the benefit of the recipe, but just having that inspiration, it's like, even if I don't make that specific thing, I'll think, oh, I didn't really even occur to me that I've got all these heads of cabbage in the fridge, maybe I could do a worm cabbage salad and make something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, yeah, I would say it's new-ish.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just mentioned one of my quirks, but I'll talk about it a little bit more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have any quirks or habits when it comes to this category of food?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, no, I just mostly have a funny story about you and I talking about this so much recently that I, my, my recall about [SPEAKER_01]: when and how I have made these salads started to like meld all together.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost like I got so into making fancy grain and warm salads that I like they all started to blur together.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you and I had multiple conversations where I was telling you about a New York Times recipe and then you were telling me about making it and then I got confused about Pharaoh and [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, Fennel, Fennel, they all had Pharaoh.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pharaoh was actually the common ingredient.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's just pick that apart really quick.

[SPEAKER_00]: In your defense, these aren't like reinventing the wheel that much, because there's always, there's always overlap.

[SPEAKER_00]: So of course you're getting them a little confused.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it took me embarrassingly long to deconstruct in my mind that what had actually happened is I had [SPEAKER_01]: two recent really good successful um, makings of New York Times.

[SPEAKER_01]: cooking recipes for warm grambles, and I had merged them together in my mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then told you about them, and then could not figure out what I was talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: I felt actually insane.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the only quirk is that now this is so much a part of my life that I'm forgetting which end is which end is which and thank goodness for the recipes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because unlike you, I think I do like to actually follow these recipes kind of to a tea.

[SPEAKER_01]: to see what flavor combinations might surprise me or that I might not have thought of.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then eventually, yes, I can improvise and throw stuff together at home, but I think I'm in a phase of actually seeking out more adventurous recipes that other people have thought of.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, again, in your defense, you're not losing your mind, and it's not getting that rusty.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was taking, I think I also was mixing up different recipes you'd shared ahead of making them, and then thinking I was going to be called upon to enact certain ingredients, and then getting into the recipe and being like, well wait a second, this isn't the one that calls for a final then.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you shared to both had Pharaoh, [SPEAKER_01]: I can't remember if both had cabbage or not, it doesn't matter and I'm going to talk about when we talk about recipes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to talk about both of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we will be able to sort these out.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I was facing the additional I guess requirement obstacle goal, whatever that I have a CSA and I decided to do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: into the winter.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they have a cold season.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the regular CSA ended like, I don't know, October, maybe, but I extended it for another six weeks.

[SPEAKER_00]: So now I'm getting a lot of cold season vegetables.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here that would be things like, um, fennel, cabbage, turnips, things like that, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm getting a little bit of a stock pile of these things I have to use.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I wanted to make one of these warm salads and in my mind, I was like, oh, this is going to be the one that has cabbage and fennel, but then I got into it was like, oh, there's no fennel.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's weird.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I want to use the fennel anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: So my, my quirk is that [SPEAKER_00]: I'll either think I have everything at the beginning and not bother to check and then get halfway and it'd be like, Whoops, don't have that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Guess I'll have to like, come up with something or I'll just think it doesn't matter somehow.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I want to follow the recipe but then I don't actually do the things needed to make sure I have the things for the recipe anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I wildly altered that recipe that you shared with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It still turned out good.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it would have been better if I'd stuck to the recipe and then when you and I were talking about which one we'd made I was like, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're all the same now.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's funny is on the ingredient side I think for the most part these are very flexible and forgiving recipes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will say in following recipes I've definitely learned more about the dressings and sauces.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I would have been able to [SPEAKER_01]: come up with some of these on their own.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's often a vinegar like a red wine vinegar or a cherry vinegar.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's often a citrus or an acid of some kind.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I know one of them for sure had orange juice and orange zest.

[SPEAKER_01]: So these are things that I don't think, I mean, back to my original grain bowl.

[SPEAKER_01]: My sauce was basically like a runny egg and salt and pepper.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I wasn't, I wasn't dressing quote-unquote dressing these bowls until I started making the recipes.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's where I really do value the professionals [SPEAKER_00]: I think dressings are always the hard part about making salads at home.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have lettuce and greens.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have chewy things.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have nutty things, you know?

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a chew.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a chew.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a chew.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's what I don't always have as the ability to throw together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though making a dressing is very easy, I don't know off the top of my head what proportions of what to use to make this thing taste the way I want it to taste.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: really has stopped me from making a lot of salads at home.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was actually just talking with my my local mid-life lady crew, Jenna, and Missy.

[SPEAKER_00]: We went out to breakfast a few days ago and we were talking about the challenges of eating salads at home because this is what we talk about these days and our priorities.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we were just, we all agreed that not remembering salad dressing recipes off the top of your head is the biggest obstacle.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: everything else is easy.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when you follow a recipe, it'll make a good one.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's really good.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you're like, oh, that was really good.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, it is a whole, another step to be able to either either make it up as you go and improvise or to commit one of those to memories.

[SPEAKER_01]: And at store-bought salad justings are expensive and usually have a bunch of added stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're not that great.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's exceptions, of course, but yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, and I find that they're, they're not really made for this kind of salad either.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I agree.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're made for like a cold salad.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this is a great segue into the next question I had, which is like the different flavor profiles or seasonings or grains or veggies or combos, like just ingredients in general that we do or don't love in a grain bowl or a warm salad.

[SPEAKER_00]: And [SPEAKER_00]: I would it comes like a cold salad.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm actually not really that into salad dressing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I usually leave it on the side and I will do that thing where you like dip bites in it or sometimes drizzle a teeny amount over the top.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every now and then a restaurant that makes a really good toast salad, I will change my...

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll change my mind about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But for the most part, I find a lot of restaurants don't do that great of a job with their salads.

[SPEAKER_00]: At least not the dressing, like the dressing sometimes feels a little bit like an afterthought.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'd rather just leave it on the side and then I get to choose how much I want.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I guess I underestimated how important it would be in a worm.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I can a [SPEAKER_00]: Like I want this, I want the grains to soak up the flavor.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want every single bite to have that salty sweet, yeah, whatever, savory combo.

[SPEAKER_00]: I also really love a chewy grain.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want my grains to be done with a little bite.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I love a root vegetable and I love a creamy sauce.

[SPEAKER_00]: So those are some things that come to mind is like must-haves.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love everything you said.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think I co-sign everything you said, although with my cold salads, I'd probably more of a dressing person on there too.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I love a chewy grain.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love salty sweet.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think that's what makes these kinds of bulls so satisfying is really every flavor profile is represented.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have salty.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not unique.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, I didn't mean it that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when you can taste all those things in one bite, it's kind of why like a burger is really satisfying.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know that's the other end of the spectrum.

[SPEAKER_01]: So for me, just to add a couple of things, goat cheese keeps coming round as something that makes a warm, bold, so delicious.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it goes in crumbly, but then it sort of melts and becomes a part.

[SPEAKER_01]: It becomes the creamy sauce.

[SPEAKER_01]: And two of the three recipes I'm gonna share in corporate goat cheese.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that is a throughline lentils.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love lentils and specifically I love [SPEAKER_01]: the black beluga lentils, which are a little harder to find in a little more expensive, but I love the way they cook and they do stay a little like firmer, they're good cold, they're good warm.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a lentil, so even if it's a little more expensive, it's still going to be an fantastic like protein bang for your buck.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, totally.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so those were a couple of standout ingredients.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will name two things that I refuse to put in anything and I they did show up.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have shown up in some recipes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've searched one is raisins.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want raisins.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't mind a dried cranberry.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm okay with currents and if you need a little sweet like sometimes these things have a sweetness that's fine.

[SPEAKER_01]: But no raises, no golden raisins.

[SPEAKER_01]: I actually golden raisins are even worse because they hide and then you're like, oh man.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have a different flavor too.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't love golden raisins and I do like raisins, but I don't like either one and then olives.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's no green olives, no black olives and one of my recipes that I'm going to share I will.

[SPEAKER_01]: specifically share my substitutions because it called for both reasons and olives and I was like nope and nope But I either left them out or did substitutions.

[SPEAKER_00]: So those would be a hard pass for me in a bowl I feel like if there was like a pickled vegetable or something that would also I have run across that Yeah, but I bet it's out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, pick it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I could do a very trendy right now onions are okay with me and then after that I'm like, no [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're also very right that goat cheese has a special Meltingess that makes it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, really, really work in these.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's talk about some of those recipes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know we each have a few to share whether it's one that you've made recently and loved it or maybe when you want to make Please tell us all the ins and outs.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so that I can remember [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and we will link them so you all can remember and then I'm gonna look at them while I'm talking about them So I don't get them mixed up all three of my income from New York Times cooking Which is not it's not my only source, but as we've talked about on a previous episode It has become kind of my primary source [SPEAKER_01]: lately the last couple of years.

[SPEAKER_01]: This one I made two winters ago and I haven't made it in a long time and I'm dying to make it again.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is called brown butter, lentil, and sweet potato salad.

[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, does that not sound so delicious?

[SPEAKER_01]: You had me a brown butter.

[SPEAKER_01]: Also, it's called a salad and there's an area green so that throws out my entire thing from before.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, the picture, I don't know if you can look at it making, but it looks so simple.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's lentils, basically goat cheese and sweet potatoes, which are all delicious to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then what I remember is that the brown butter sage vinaigrette was a little bit of a, like, it was, it required my attention.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I had to, [SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's where the work was, but that's also where the deliciousness was because who doesn't love a brown butter sage and vinegar.

[SPEAKER_01]: Almost that flavor profile of when you get like a brown butter on your, like, ravioli, like a butter nut.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, ravioli with that brown butter and sage.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like that's the same flavor profile, but in a warm salad.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember it was warm when I ate it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I think on subsequent days, I ate it out of the fridge cold and it was also delicious.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is that when I think I did use the black beluga lentils the photo has the greet the French green lentils either one would work There's not it there's not a huge number of ingredients in this one like some some end up with so many different ingredients I think this one was the refindness of that dressing drizzle was so good.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's one [SPEAKER_01]: The next one is called baked charred salad with cranberries.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is where my brain starts to fritz out with the other one.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm just gonna tell you what's in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I honestly don't remember which one I made.

[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, okay, Pharaoh as a grain, which I think both you and I would enjoy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I get my Pharaoh at Trader Joe's because they have, it's just, that's my regular grocery shop.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've had trouble finding some other interesting grains.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I always have Pharaoh on hand.

[SPEAKER_01]: Green or red cabbage I used red so this has both charred and cabbage and then it has chick peas.

[SPEAKER_01]: pumpkin seeds, goat cheese, and parsley.

[SPEAKER_01]: Those are the, those were the main salad ingredients and then there's, then there's a vinegarette that you make.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and it does say dried cranberries.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I think this is maybe the one that you made, but you put, sendle in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's my, that's my thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, okay, I need to hear the other one first and then I'll tell you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because now I'm thinking I missed a, like I, I might have actually mashed two up while I was cooking it.

[SPEAKER_00]: which would exist.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this one was really tasty.

[SPEAKER_01]: I served it at a family dinner and actually even my brother and his girlfriend who I wasn't sure how they would feel about this amount of this is a lot of refuge, a lot of like.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and it's all mixed together.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like there was no picking around anything you didn't want because it was so warm, the goat cheese Goed it all up immediately.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not like you could be like, oh, I'm not crazy about such and such like it was an experience, but actually everybody loved it And then I'm just going to go right into the other one because this is where you and I were having a lot of messages back and forth.

[SPEAKER_01]: The other one is called [SPEAKER_01]: roasted, fennel, and ferro salad, and the backstory on this one is that I thought we had fennel from our garden.

[SPEAKER_01]: Brian was doing a final harvest, and he told me, I said, what's good in the garden?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like this is like late fall.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's doing a final harvest, and he said, I have a bunch of fennel, and so I went googling.

[SPEAKER_01]: I found this recipe.

[SPEAKER_01]: I went to the store, and I got all of the rest of the ingredients for this recipe, and he pulled up the fennel, and I sent you a picture of Megan, and it was like, it was something had happened below the [SPEAKER_00]: The roots were out of control.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was like, it wasn't fennel.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was something had gone wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: The tops looked like fennel.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was all your own research.

[SPEAKER_00]: Huge root systems, it looked like, and yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And no bulb, but fennel has like a big hearty bulb.

[SPEAKER_01]: So then I went back to the store and bought fennel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though the whole point was I was trying to use our garden bounty.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, well, this was really delicious.

[SPEAKER_01]: The main ingredients are the fennel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, and then it's the orange, this was the one that had citrus in the vinaigret, red wine vinaigret, citrus, and then this one called for green olives and pitted dates, and that's where I went, no on the olives, I just left them out, and then I substituted dried cranberries instead of the dates, and it also called for scallions, feta, and almonds.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think you made this one, I think what you did is you added fennel to the other one.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're right, this one, the flavor profile, this one does not sound familiar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so when I, when I made that baked charred salad with cranberries, I did, the irony is, I have been a wash in charred all season, but I didn't happen to have any, that day, for whatever reason, and I used mustard greens, which I had a ton of, remind me what mustard greens look like.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I'm picturing them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're just like a big green, like they're on a stocky-looking thing, sort of like a beat or a charred, but not as a big.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're darker colored greens, I feel like, now I have to Google it because now I'm blinking.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, yeah, they're like a big, curly green at the end of a stock.

[SPEAKER_00]: But these ones that I got from the CSA had like a really long stock.

[SPEAKER_00]: The ones that I've seen at the grocery store, I feel like are a little more compact.

[SPEAKER_00]: They almost look like spinach or something.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, this one's more like really big.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were just big.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I had a lot of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I also had Fennell.

[SPEAKER_00]: from the CSA.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I thought, well, I can just throw that in.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really like the taste of fennel, and I because the cabbage is sort of like braised in the oven for a long time, I thought, well, I just throw the fennel on with that, and that would taste good.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that was the right move.

[SPEAKER_00]: The fennel tasted great.

[SPEAKER_00]: The mustard greens did not taste as good as charred.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were a little, they're tougher, and I think I should have [SPEAKER_00]: Massaged them for something, you know, you can like check them down.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I thought I had, in my mind, it was pistachios, but it was pumpkin seeds.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I had those, but it turned out I didn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the last minute I threw in like pine nuts, you said.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I thought I had goat cheese, but it had been eaten.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't realize that to the last minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I threw in feta.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here's what I would say.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Fed is good, but it didn't do that creamy thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't do the melty creamy thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I feel like it would have been better.

[SPEAKER_00]: Although I wouldn't say the Fed it wasn't like a negative.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just wasn't quite as much of a positive.

[SPEAKER_00]: The pine nuts really got lost, which is sad, because I love peanuts.

[SPEAKER_00]: So very much and they're expensive.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you don't want those to get lost.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the pumpkin seeds would have come through more.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the mustard greens were just not right.

[SPEAKER_00]: But all that said, it was still delicious.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the dressing was amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, that I really remember that coming together so surprisingly and like being so pleased that everyone liked it now it had to be baby to bit as I recall because there was different pieces happening like there's a stuff that's in the oven.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a stuff that you're mixing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're trusting in the chip.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, peace over the.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or yeah, didn't you caramelize some?

[SPEAKER_01]: Was there like some onions or something?

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, it felt like I was doing quite a bit over the stove top and I remember our family was all over and I was like yeah, little I had to focus and people were talking to me at the same time, which is not the easiest way for me to follow a new recipe, but turned out great.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, those are three winners, and I think now I'm going to add the actual funnel and Pharaoh's salad to my list and the other one sounds amazing too.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're talking about the New York Times cooking does make me think is probably worth just investing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even if it's just for a month or on the holidays or something, yeah, it could kind of get my get all the use out of it, print out what I like and then move on.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll share a few that are just random because I tend to improvise a lot of these things and so often I'm just making, like we've talked about, I'm just making the grain, I'm throwing some greens on top.

[SPEAKER_00]: I always have some kind of will-table green in my fridge and often I have them in quite abundant quantities.

[SPEAKER_00]: raw, and you know, they wilt down to nothing, so I hate throwing them out because I'm always if I let it go too long and I can't eat them, I'm so mad at myself because it's like, I literally could have just wilted this on top of an egg or something.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it would have been like a few bites and now I'm throwing it away and it's took up all this space in my fridge.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beans avocado, something like that, if I have it, and then make a little drizzle like that, something I'm doing all the time, and so I haven't [SPEAKER_00]: to a T, but I have a couple that I want to try.

[SPEAKER_00]: One is an Ina-Garten recipe that was saved on my computer, as though I had made it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I looked at it and I was like, I don't think I've made this, but I must have visited it recently.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's got a regular and kale.

[SPEAKER_00]: This one calls for bulger wheat, although what I do think I have, I also have barley, which might be good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, Marley.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a...

Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Harder to find in my regular...

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure it's there, but I just don't come across it as often, but yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: and butternut squash which I have and red onions which I also have right now a lot of in nuts and cranberries and must like a mustard vinaigrette and of course goat cheese so that's on my list and we'll link to that in the show notes um a listener to the kettle pod cast I asked about this on one of my recent episodes I said that you and I were going to be talking about this and ask people to send me their favorites and a listener named Laura sent me a me so peanut butter chickpea salad [SPEAKER_00]: That I'm really excited to try because it's completely outside of my usual flavor profile, like usually I would look really good.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I love peanut, like I love the flavor of a peanut butter like an Asian-inspired peanut butter dish, me to dressing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so this one's definitely going on my list and I love chickpeas.

[SPEAKER_00]: me and yeah the funny thing is I always have chickpeas and sometimes I just forget I have them or I don't think to use them so it also calls for shallots and cucumbers and this actually would probably be a great spring recipe because it just calls for things that are pretty abundant in the spring but [SPEAKER_00]: but also like when you feel like you need that those fresh bright flavors in the winter like why not this looks so good and a lot of these things start to be available at farmers markets and stuff like that depending where you are pretty early in the winter like maybe not right now but March April that's when you're going to see those spring onions and things like that [SPEAKER_00]: And then the final link I'm going to share is from a site called Pinch of Yaman.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like they come up a lot when I search for different recipes.

[SPEAKER_00]: What I like about this one is it's just if you're very new to the idea of grain bowls.

[SPEAKER_00]: She just kind of breaks down for you the elements of a green bowl and then gives you a formula to follow.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I love that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm trying to scanning it right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I agree this is this would be like a primer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's just like here's the different things elements you want.

[SPEAKER_00]: You want a green.

[SPEAKER_00]: You want a green.

[SPEAKER_00]: You want maybe a root vegetable, a crunchy, a creamy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, how salty, a crunchy, a creamy.

[SPEAKER_00]: All the things we talked about.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then she kind of walks you through how to make this specific one, but if you didn't have any one of these items, it would be very easy to swap because it's not like a salad where it all has to come together perfectly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a grain bowl and then as you eat it, you can mix it to your heart's light.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's great.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll just link to that because I feel like sometimes having F formula that gets you something once, then you can iterate on it and it kind of makes it your own.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but other than that, I do think that making, you know, my goals, my green bowl and where I'm salad goals are just to get better at maybe remembering how to make those dressings.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like that would open up a whole world like if I had the sum of the same knowledge I've been able to develop over many years of making soups.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just say.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: And kind of knowing about how much liquid I'm going to need and like what flavors are going to taste good in the soup and how to get it started.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I could do something like that with addressing, then I feel like the sky's the limit.

[SPEAKER_01]: I agree.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would add to that, um, [SPEAKER_01]: putting these on my weekly meal plan and kind of committing to myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, okay, I'm gonna do that Grable on this day.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of components and while they're not technically very difficult, making sure that you, like you said, like you thought you had the papitas, you didn't, you thought you had the goat cheese.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, going that just a little bit of extra level of detail can be so yummy and satisfying and these are often dishes that you could have for leftovers for days.

[SPEAKER_01]: putting it on the meal plan and doing myself the favor of making sure I have everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the making of it is lovely and satisfying and not particularly difficult.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if I don't put it on the meal plan and pick a recipe or at least pick a pick a flavor profile or something, it might not come together.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it might not be one of those things that I think to do at the last minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, 100% agreed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this has been really very specifically fun.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a very specific way, but I feel like if we can't talk about grain bowls and warm salads on this show, we're, we're can't we?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, are we even midlife ladies if we're not eating a cozy warm bowl of wholesome grains and grains?

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, a reminder for everyone that you can find, our show notes with photos and links on Substack at midlife lady, leisurepresuits.substack.com, and that's also where you'll find the special page we have set up with some of our favorite vionic styles.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can use the promo code midlife at vionicshoes.com for 15% off when you log into your account at vionicshoes.com.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for being here, everybody.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.