Recipes We’re Really Cooking! A Summer Recap + The Best of Season 4
Food Friends: Home Cooking Made Easy
In this summer recap episode of Food Friends, hosts Sonia and Keri reflect on their favorite recipes from Season 4 and share personal highlights from their
Key takeaways
- Simple, repeatable recipes often become long-term kitchen staples rather than fleeting trends.
- Summer cooking thrives on fresh, seasonal ingredients and easy preparation methods.
Main topics
- Summer recipes that became staples
- Tostadas as a quick, customizable dinner
Notable quotes
We've been doing this for over four years, which is hard to imagine.
You don't always need new and better. And wow, we do have a new season coming up full of new ideas.
Conclusion
This episode celebrates the joy of returning to beloved recipes and the power of
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:01) Welcome to Food Friends, a podcast inspiring home cooks to try new dishes in the kitchen by sharing trusted recipes, tips, Speaker 1 (0:10) and friendship. Hi, I'm Sonia. And I'm Keri. We met in Los Angeles over 15 years ago as personal chefs and haven't stopped talking about food since. We're so glad you're here. Speaker 2 (0:24) Hi, Carrie. Hi, Sonia. We completed another season. Season four is wrapping up. We've released over 300 episodes since we started. We've been doing this for over four years, which is hard to imagine. Speaker 1 (0:37) Sonia, I really, partially, I can't believe it that we've been doing it for so long. I also love taking a minute to reflect and think about how much I've learned. I've gotten so many more great tips and ideas from you, from our guests, from our listeners. Yeah, and I think when we're always sharing new Speaker 2 (0:54) things, sometimes it's nice to take a beat and be like, actually, I like to make things more than once. And actually, it's nice to have recipes that are easy that I keep wanting to return to. I think that's something that gets lost in the churn of media. You don't always need new and better. And wow, we do have a new season coming up full of new ideas. I'm so excited for season five. We have so many great guests coming on and fun topics. But I still want to take a beat and be like, actually, as I move forward, I'm going to keep making these things. Carrie, the thing is, you and I took a little bit of a break over summer and we didn't talk for a few weeks, which is now very unusual for us. We usually talk at least once a week, if not more. And during that time, there were so many times where I wanted to talk to you and tell you about things that I've been making. And I want to hear about what you've been making. And I was like, what is Carrie doing Speaker 1 (1:42) right now? Speaker 2 (1:43) Where Speaker 1 (1:43) is she? And what is she eating? I felt the same while we were away. I was like, I'm honoring our time away. And also I'm making a list of all the things that I want to talk to you about. That's part of the idea for this episode was how do we kind of reconnect and then what are some of our takeaways from the previous season? Yeah, so today you and I are both going to share some of our highlights from summer, the ones we haven't shared with each other yet. And I have a feeling there's some overlap knowing us because that seems to always happen. And Speaker 2 (2:10) then we're also going to talk about the recipes from this past season that are now staples in our kitchens. Yeah, Speaker 1 (2:17) so Sonia, what was the first thing that you were cooking a lot of this summer? It Speaker 2 (2:20) was the summer of toast. tostadas, Keri. I Speaker 1 (2:23) mean, what's so funny about this is that I also made many tostadas this summer. And I think to your point about repeating recipes, you have a time where you make something a few times and then you forget about it. And that was certainly the case for me until you shared about making tostadas. And then it just put me on this kick. And I made tostadas twice over the summer. Speaker 2 (2:44) Yeah, I made tostadas a bunch. We also tried incredible tostadas Alenco Place in Portland that made them with which is another one of my favorite recipes that makes me think of you because we made that chicken tinga together when we were cooking that retreat. And for that, we ate it in tacos, which is. really common for chicken tinga, which is just like a braised shredded chicken dish. That's incredible. But at this restaurant in Portland, they put it on their tostadas. But typically I was making vegetarian tostadas at home. And I was really inspired by a friend, Javier Lara, who when we'd come to his house, he'd often make homemade tostadas, just like the ones I was recreating in my kitchen. So which is just refried beans or cooked braised beans, either one with cheese topped with maybe avocado or fresh herbs, a little salsa, some shredded ice. iceberg lettuce or cabbage on top. You know, making a pot of beans is something you and I both rely on year round. And I love it in the summer because I can heat up those beans in five minutes or less and have dinner on the table in 15 minutes or less with this meal. Speaker 1 (3:44) Absolutely. I kind of repeated the menu, a similar menu to what you did. We were hosting some friends. I fried off some tortillas. I used the yellow corn. I also used the blue corn and I sort of layered them in a pan. It made them look really pretty. I made a pot of beans. Also, because we were hosting, I grilled some steak and then we just had, you know, some avocado, some salsa. But I also made... another version with mashed potatoes. I had some potatoes and I mashed them together. And then I also had some broccoli and I roasted that off. It was sort of a take on a potato broccoli breakfast taco that in the New York Times, I'll link that recipe. It reminded me of that recipe. And that night, I also just baked my tortillas. I didn't even fry them. And you can if you just put a little bit of olive oil on them and a little bit of salt and stick them in a hot oven, they will crisp up like they will if you shallow fry them in a pan. Speaker 2 (4:36) Those are all such great tips. I now want to try those breakfast tacos. So Carrie, what was another highlight from your summer besides tostadas? Well, Speaker 1 (4:43) Sonia, I made this unexpected salad or unexpected for me. It was a sweet and spicy melon salad. We had been invited over to May Lynn's for brunch and she was having bagels and she was making some desserts. And so I was trying to think of something to accompany those items. And I had some melons from my farm box in the fridge. And so This salad really came together super easily. It's lime, it's a little bit of brown sugar to temper the serrano chili. There's a little garlic, crushed red pepper, and then some shallot. and a bunch of basil, and then you sprinkle toasted peanuts over top of it. It was really kind of a perfect salad to go with a brunch spread, but I think it would make a great side for like grilled chicken, for grilled steak. It was really kind of a perfect summer salad. Carrie, Speaker 2 (5:28) I love Speaker 1 (5:29) that Speaker 2 (5:29) kind of salad. I love it so much. It reminds me of an Andrea Nguyen recipe that I linked like really early on in the summer. This is different. I mean, they're each unique, but savory and sweet and spicy and salty melon salads are one. of my favorite things for hosting during the summer. And I'm so glad you said that was one of your highlights of summer, because not surprisingly, it was also one of my highlights of summer. Now, I didn't make that version, the one that you're talking about, or the one that I talked about earlier. But when I was at summer camp this summer, you know that I went to summer camp to teach cooking classes to teenagers. It was in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and it was so much fun. And one day, one of the lessons was all about salads. I always get a little nervous. I'm like, are the teens going to like it? salads, but it's always their favorite day of the class. And one of the salads that they made is a savory melon salad. So it's similar in terms of the idea of using melon for a savory dish, but it's a different flavor profile. So this salad is watermelon and cucumber, lots of fresh basil and mint. And a very simple dressing with lots of lime and olive oil, salt and pepper, and not much else. Oh, and thinly sliced red onion or scallion. So that onion is really nice with the melon and the lime juice brings everything together. But there's no heat and there's no fish sauce or sesame oil, which I also really love on a melon salad. So it's just a little bit of a different take. The other highlight from summer was revisiting the viral TikTok carrot salad, which I also had as part of the summer camp salad day and that salad Everyone who makes it for the first time, it's almost like a light bulb goes off from them.