A Casual Culinary Chat About Canned Pumpkin with Meghan Splawn

Summary

The Joy of Cooking Podcast: A Casual Culinary Chat About Canned Pumpkin with Megan Splawn

Release Date: March 12, 2025

In this engaging episode of The Joy of Cooking Podcast, hosted by Shannon Larson, the table is set for a delightful conversation centered around canned pumpkin. Joined by long-time stewards of the iconic cookbook, Megan Scott and John Becker, the podcast welcomes special guest Megan Splawn, a seasoned food media professional. Together, they explore kitchen dynamics, share beloved recipes, and offer creative solutions for utilizing canned pumpkin.

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1. Kitchen Dynamics: A Cohesive Duo

The episode kicks off with a light-hearted discussion about the kitchen chemistry between Megan Scott and her husband, John Becker. Megan humorously describes her role as “a food editor by day and avoider of dish duty by night” (00:56), while John introduces himself as the “4th Generation Co-author and steward of the Joy of Cooking” (01:05). Their conversation reveals the playful tension that often arises from spending extensive time together in the kitchen:

• Megan Scott (01:21): “We cook together all the time. ... but whenever we're in the kitchen together, we're constantly colliding.”
• John Becker (01:50): “I feel like an implication is being made that this is actually my fault.”

Despite the occasional kitchen mishaps, their camaraderie shines through, setting a warm and relatable tone for listeners.

2. Snack Boards and Cozy Cooking

Shannon Larson shares her recent experience crafting a snack board during a cozy getaway on the Oregon coast (02:29). She details the variety of components she included, such as canned trout, radishes with butter, and dates with nuts, emphasizing the joy of assembling visually appealing and tasty spreads:

• Shannon Larson (02:29): “It's just really fun to put together... and it was so cozy.”

Megan Scott reciprocates with stories of her weekend gardening, showcasing her multifaceted approach to culinary life beyond just cooking.

3. Welcoming Megan Splawn: A Culinary Expert

The podcast welcomes Megan Splawn, a distinguished writer and content creator with nearly two decades in food media. Megan's impressive background includes working with Alton Brown, serving as a food editor for Kitchen.com, and contributing to outlets like Better Homes and Gardens. Her expertise adds depth to the episode’s discussion on cooking techniques and recipe development.

• Megan Splawn (05:58): “I'm so excited to be here. It's such a treat.”

4. Exploring Beloved Recipes

The conversation delves into favorite recipes, with Megan Splawn sharing her experiences with Ina Garten's dishes. She highlights the simplicity and family-friendly appeal of recipes like panko-crusted salmon and Parmesan chicken:

• Megan Splawn (06:05): “Ina Garten's panko crusted salmon ... was a huge win, especially for my 10-year-old.”

Megan Scott and John Becker discuss their adaptations of classic recipes, such as haluski—a dish featuring egg noodles, cabbage, onions, and butter with a hint of gochujang for added spice.

5. The Art of Biscuit Baking

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to biscuit baking, a passion shared by both Megan Scott and Megan Splawn. They reminisce about family traditions and the challenges of perfecting biscuits:

• Megan Splawn (10:54): “I spent a lot of time making biscuits, like the first five years of living in the south...”

Megan Scott describes her mother's approach to baking, emphasizing the diversity of biscuit types—from flaky and tall to soft and tender:

• Megan Scott (13:41): “My mom's biscuits were on the thinner side, but they were crispy...”

The discussion underscores the significance of biscuits in connecting culinary heritage with modern techniques.

6. Navigating Recipe Quirks and Adaptations

The hosts and guest address common quirks found in recipes, such as the elusive petite chicken breasts often called for in professional recipes. Megan Splawn offers practical solutions for home cooks struggling with these inconsistencies:

• Megan Splawn (07:36): “I loved your trick of just buying like two bigger ones and then cutting them in half to make smaller ones.”

John Becker shares his perspective on recipe flexibility, encouraging listeners to adapt recipes to their preferences and available ingredients.

7. Tasting Segment: Pumpkin Biscuits and Special Butter

In the tasting segment, the team samples Megan Splawn’s pumpkin biscuits alongside a special compound butter crafted by John Becker:

• John Becker (09:31): “It's a compound butter with scallions and serrano pepper, charred and minced to add a counterpoint to the sweeter pumpkin biscuit.”

The feedback is overwhelmingly positive, with Megan Scott expressing enthusiasm:

• Megan Scott (10:54): “These biscuits are wonderful.”

8. Creative Uses for Canned Pumpkin

The heart of the episode revolves around innovative ways to utilize canned pumpkin. The hosts share a plethora of ideas, ranging from savory dishes like pumpkin curry to sweet treats such as pumpkin-infused baked goods:

• John Becker (34:04): “Pumpkin bread, pancakes, waffles... any baking recipe can be pumpkinified.”

Megan Splawn introduces additional creative applications, including pumpkin ravioli filling and spiced pumpkin ice cream:

• John Becker (37:00): “Spiced pumpkin ice cream... it's really good.”

The discussion emphasizes pumpkin’s versatility, encouraging listeners to experiment beyond traditional uses.

9. Listener Interaction and Future Topics

The podcast fosters listener engagement by inviting questions and sharing upcoming topics. For instance, they tease next week’s focus on cooking dried beans, responding to a caller’s query about utilizing excess canned pumpkin.

• Shannon Larson (38:35): “Caller question: What's the best way to cook dried beans? We'll talk about that next week.”

10. Closing Thoughts and Community Building

As the episode concludes, the hosts reflect on their upcoming culinary plans and express excitement for future interactions with their audience. They also acknowledge the behind-the-scenes team that makes the podcast possible, reinforcing a sense of community and collaboration.

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Notable Quotes:

• Megan Splawn (06:05): “Ina Garten's panko crusted salmon... was a huge win, especially for my 10-year-old.”
• Megan Scott (13:41): “... different types of biscuits... the really soft, pillowy, tender ones that aren't flaky... are beautifully cloud-like.”
• Megan Splawn (24:28): “If you hate the meal planning, can you subscribe to a meal planning newsletter or take someone else's meal plan?”
• John Becker (37:49): “I would like to know about where they find these mythical chickens.”

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Conclusion

This episode of The Joy of Cooking Podcast masterfully intertwines personal anecdotes, expert culinary advice, and practical recipe adaptations, all centered around the versatile ingredient of canned pumpkin. Whether you're a seasoned home cook or just beginning your culinary journey, Megan, John, Shannon, and Megan Splawn offer valuable insights and inspiration to enrich your kitchen endeavors. Don’t forget to try this week’s featured recipe—Joy’s pumpkin biscuits—and share your creations with the community on Instagram using the hashtag #JoyScouts.

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For more episodes and culinary inspiration, subscribe to joyofcooking.substack.com and follow @thejoyofcooking on Instagram.

Transcript

[Megan Splan]

Sa.

[Shannon Larson]

Hello and welcome to the Joy of Cooking podcast. Each week we set the table for a discussion about recipes and stories from the authors of the Joy of Cooking, Kitchen victories and misadventures, and most importantly, what we are cooking and eating right now. We're glad you've joined us at the table today. I'm Shannon Larson, home cook, ardent Joy of Cooking user and fan and snack board enthusiast.

[Megan Scott]

I'm Megan Scott, co Author of the 2019 edition of Joy of Cooking, a food editor by day and avoider of dish duty by night. And cabbage is my love language.

[John Becker]

I'm John Becker, 4th Generation Co author and steward of the Joy of Cooking, America's oldest family run cookbook. Despite cooking together in the same kitchen for over a decade, I still run into Megan, but it's usually her fault.

[Megan Scott]

We were talking about this last night, how, you know, we've been together since 2010. We cook together all the time. I've cooked in restaurant kitchen, so you have to like, know how to move around people and have really good spatial awareness. But whenever we're in the kitchen together, we're constantly colliding.

[Shannon Larson]

My husband and I are the same way. And I can cook in the kitchen with like one of my best friends. Like, we don't touch each other. It's like a ballet almost. And then John's in the. My husband John's in the kitchen and it's a nightmare and I want to kill him.

[John Becker]

I feel like an implication is being made that this is actually my fault.

[Shannon Larson]

Speaking spatial awareness, John.

[Megan Scott]

I think maybe it's just because we have no boundaries now, you know, so there's less concern about it. I don't know, maybe that's really romantic.

[John Becker]

I'll be in the middle of making something and you're just like, oh, it's time to put away the dishes.

[Megan Scott]

Because that's what you do first before you even start cooking a thousand percent. And when you, when you disrupt the order of operations, then somebody has to come in and like remediate the situation.

[Shannon Larson]

Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. I'm so team Megan right now.

[John Becker]

I lost, I admit.

[Megan Scott]

Shannon, what have you been cooking this week?

[Shannon Larson]

Well, we spent the weekend on the coast with some friends of ours and reason I mentioned snack board enthusiast is I love a snack board. It's just really fun to put together. The guys were all playing a game and I was just in the kitchen making it like pretty and fun. And I included like canned trout, of course, with crackers and Mama Little's peppers and dill and creme fraiche and then radishes with butter and dates and nuts and. I don't know, I love a snack board. And just sitting in a cabin and it was pouring. There was like a torrential downfall on the Oregon coast. But it was so cozy.

[John Becker]

That's so weird.

[Shannon Larson]

I know. Weird, right? But the fire going and lots of snacks and games. It was really great.

[Megan Scott]

It sounds really nice.

[Shannon Larson]

It was really nice. What about you two?

[Megan Scott]

Not so much cooking related, but we had a couple days of really nice weather this week. It's definitely fall. Spring. It's not going to last. But I took the opportunity to prune our apple tree, which was in desperate need. So I feel good getting that checked off the list.

[John Becker]

Well, and we also took the opportunity to make the cocktail that we had as the recipe club assignment, the Chan Chan, which, you know, is kind of a summary. You know, it's a little off season. You know, it's got cucumber, it's got basil. So kind of a summary thing. But luckily the weather did cooperate.

[Shannon Larson]

I loved it.

[Megan Scott]

Speaking of cabbage being my love language, we ate this amazing cabbage dish at a restaurant called Jeju. It's like a Korean restaurant and I can't remember all the elements. I tried looking it up. It's not on their website right now, but it had these. It was like charred cabbage. I think they did it in the. They have like a wood fired oven. I'm pretty sure they did it in there. But charred cabbage and then these cubes of really crispy housemade pastrami. Oh my God, it was so. It was so good. I'm. I've been thinking about it all week.

[John Becker]

Definitely on board with that cabbage dish as well. Speaking of cabbage, we did the haluski. So that. What is it? Egg noodles. And then slowly, slowly cooked cabbage and onions with a lot of butter. And I think we ended up using a bit of gochujang.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, I added a bunch of gochujang. Not enough. I would have. I would add more in the future. And more cabbage, honestly?

[John Becker]

Well, yeah, I think it was a Savoy cabbage. So it ended up like, you know, really kind of melding into the dish more than like a more substantial cabbage variety would.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, it started, but then it shrank to nothing and I wanted more. But what do you serve that with? Or is that. What did we serve? We served it with chicken.

[John Becker]

Yeah, we did a pan roasted chicken thighs where, you know, like, pan roasted as in like you actually started in the pan, skin down, then turn it over and you know, do It a little bit more on the stovetop and then stick it in the oven. Really? Like the. The skin when you do that, the crispy skin? Yeah, it was like a 425 oven. So you get the fat rendered in the pan. It's nice and efficient and then it gets crispier and crisp in the oven.

[Shannon Larson]

That sounds so good.

[Megan Scott]

We would like to welcome Megan Splan to the table. We're so excited to have you on the show today, Megan. Megan is a writer and a content creator who has worked in food media for almost 20 years. She accidentally got her start in food television when she joined Alton Brown's culinary team right after getting a baking and pastry degree from the New England Culinary Institute. You might know her work from her years as food editor for the kitchen.com or from the award winning podcast she hosted, Didn't I just feed you? Megan now works as a writer and content creator for outlets like Simply Recipes, Serious Eats and Better Homes and Gardens. Welcome to the table, Megan.

[Megan Splan]

Yeah, thank you for having me. It's such a treat.

[Megan Scott]

What have you been cooking this week that you're thinking about or that you really loved?

[Megan Splan]

Well, this is so funny because you assigned these to me. I've been cooking a lot of Ina Garten recipes lately, which I'm not like a huge Barefoot Contessa fan, so it's funny to come to her work through her memoir and the storytelling of her life. So this week we did her panko crusted salmon for dinner one night and that was a huge win, especially for my 10 year old, and surprisingly delicious and easy. I don't think of Ina necessarily always as easy cooking. And you had mentioned in the assignment, you're like, is Ina a little unhinged for trying to cover the salmon to rest for almost 10 minutes with the crispy breadcrumbs on there, but they actually stay crisp. So that was really good. And then also her Parmesan chicken, which is just like, you know, a classic, classic chicken cutlet, standard breading procedure of flour and egg wash and then seasoned breadcrumbs, but with a little bit of Parmesan in there. But my kids also love that and I feel like that will be on repeat.

[Megan Scott]

Awesome. Yeah, I noticed. I. So I get your substack newsletter that you write about meal planning or basically what your family eats every week. And you mentioned the Parmesan chicken and how, you know, Ina Garten calls for like these very petite sized chicken breasts that basically impossible to find in the real world. Like, where are these chicken, these tiny Chickens coming from. But I loved your trick of just buying like two bigger ones and then cutting them in half to make smaller ones.

[Megan Splan]

It also makes it so much easier to pound them out too. Right. You're cutting them in half anyways, so. Yeah, I. Where are those little chicken breasts? I don't know. I never.

[John Becker]

Yeah, I mean, I feel like a lot of, you know, typically, like, chef written recipes will be calling for like a tiny three pound chicken. Yeah. I would like to know about where they find these mythical chickens.

[Megan Scott]

I mean, I think the chefs get all of the tiny chickens because when I worked at a restaurant, we would get these very petite, beautiful little chickens, but I've never seen them in. In the wild, you know.

[Megan Splan]

Yeah. I also think that's a locally sourced thing for Ina. That's what I.

[John Becker]

Sure.

[Megan Splan]

She has a chicken farmer who's raising chickens out in pasture. They're not being raised to have these ginormous meaty breasts. And so they have those, like, nice petite, which is good for Ina, but for the rest of us who have to make it work with the grocery store, there's some little tips and tricks there.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah. Tiny chickens. But she always calls for extra large eggs. So I'm a little confused.

[John Becker]

Do you remember when we. We had access to, like, not a Cornish cross chicken that. What was it? Freedom Rangers, I think was what they were called. Yeah.

[Megan Scott]

Freedom Rangers chicken breed.

[John Becker]

So good.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, those were great. We were buying them from just a local farm that was raising them. Cooking a. Like an heirloom variety of chicken, or is that what you call it? Heritage.

[John Becker]

Heritage.

[Megan Scott]

Heritage variety of chicken. That sounds right. Very different from cooking grocery store chicken.

[Megan Splan]

Yeah.

[Megan Scott]

All right, so we're going to move into our tasting segment. Megan, I'm sorry that you can't be here to taste.

[Megan Splan]

I'll just be jealous over here.

[Megan Scott]

It's fine. But we are. So our theme this week is canned pumpkin. You have a recipe on your website for pumpkin biscuits. So our producer made your pumpkin biscuit recipe for us to taste, since it's a compliment.

[Megan Splan]

I love that.

[Megan Scott]

So we have the biscuits here, and John made a special butter to go with them. Can you talk about that?

[John Becker]

Yeah, sure. It's a compound butter. You take a dry stainless steel or cast iron or carbon steel skillet, no oil to dry. Then you put. I think I did. For one stick of butter, it was three scallions with the greens removed and one serrano. And then just put it on medium heat and turn them every now and then until they're nice and charred on all sides. I seeded the pepper, then minced it all up and added it to the butter because I thought that would be good with kind of a counterpoint to a sweeter pumpkin biscuit.

[Megan Scott]

I'm going to try half without the butter and then half with the butter. I'm surprised you took the seeds out.

[Shannon Larson]

Well, you know, I mean, it's a little unlike you.

[John Becker]

Yeah, I'm a seed guy, just for the heat.

[Megan Splan]

Purely John, Is that why you like the seeds in there?

[John Becker]

Oh, you know, I typically do remove seeds. My go to salsa recipe, I'm usually charring two serranos and a habanero for, like, maybe a quart of salsa. And usually I'll remove the seeds for that as well, just because I. I want to be considerate, and I don't want to necessarily outspice everybody else who's going to be having the salsa.

[Megan Scott]

You have outspiced people many times before, and so this is a learned thing that we now have to take the.

[Megan Splan]

Season I'm trying to get to.

[John Becker]

I mean, how else am I supposed to learn?

[Shannon Larson]

And, Megan, these biscuits are wonderful. What inspired you to make this recipe?

[Megan Splan]

Oh, my goodness. I think that is such a long time ago recipe on my website. I did not grow up in the South. I grew up sort of like in the Pacific Northwest. My family's from Vermont, so I spent a lot of time in the Northeast. And so when I moved to the south to work for Alton, I became a little bit obsessed with biscuit baking, in part because Alton would be like, I would make. Have to make his biscuit recipe for things, whether it was like, staff lunch or a TV appearance. And I never quite nailed it. Of course, the thing that I learned later is, like, he was comparing them always to his grandmother's biscuits. Right. Like, that was the gold standard for him. And I was never going to get it because I didn't have that muscle memory yet or the arthritis that she had in her. The later part of her life. So I spent a lot of time making biscuits, like, the first five years of living in the south, and then I married into a Southern family, and it became this thing where I really had to have good biscuits and I really had to make good sweet tea. And so I just have had so much fun in the last 15 years, like, playing with the format of the biscuit. It's kind of a blank canvas. You can make it sweet, you can make it super savory. I think for the kitchen. We developed a ranch biscuit at one point in time and played with, like, Pretzel flavored biscuits. During the pandemic once I made a pizza biscuit, like made a giant biscuit, cut it into triangles. It had like Parmesan and Italian seasoning and garlic powder in it. And we put all this like sun dried tomato and cheese on it. And then people were so mad because I never shared a recipe for it. I was like, sorry. I made this kind of ad hoc at home and I couldn't tell you how to recreate it, but it's. Yeah, they're just. I think it's fun and it's something that I feel like ties me to being in the south and my love of baking and pastry. But also, you know, I don't, I don't consider myself southern, which is a very funny place to be in.

[Megan Scott]

My mom would make biscuits only occasionally. I think she had a lot of biscuit insecurities. Like they would never just. They wouldn't come out the way she wanted them to come out. But there's a lot of pressure because, you know, like my great grandmother would make these giant pans of biscuits for her large family. And you know, that was the bar that was set was those biscuits. And so it's just kind of impossible to live up to. And there's no recipe, there's no written recipe for any of this. It's just, you know, she just made them by sight or by feel. And I think it's hard to. As a beginner biscuit maker. It's hard to get to that place of just where it's.

[John Becker]

Yeah.

[Megan Scott]

Where it's muscle memory and you're not overanalyzing everything.

[Megan Splan]

So what was your grandmother's biscuit like? Is it tall and flaky or like soft and tender? Somewhere in between.

[Megan Scott]

I actually don't remember my great grandmother's biscuits. She wasn't making them as much when I was little. I think she had made them when like her kids were growing up. But I always love my mom's actually because hers were on the thinner side, but they were crispy. Like the bottoms were really brown and crispy. And I also just love that there are different types of biscuits. Like, I think a lot of people see the real flaky, tall biscuit with the layers as like the epitome of the biscuit. But there's also the really soft, pillowy, tender ones that aren't flaky. They're kind of just. They're just beautifully like, they're kind of cloud like. But there's different kinds of biscuits and.

[Megan Splan]

I think they're all delicious, and they're really fun. Did your mom bake hers in the cast In a cast iron skillet. Then to get them, like, really crispy on the bottom. That's so much.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah. I think that's my favorite. When they have a little bit of that texture on the bottom.

[Megan Splan]

Right. It's almost a little bit. Could be over baked, but it's so satisfying to eat, especially with butter and jam, if that's how you like them. Like that contrast so good.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah. Paul Hollywood might say they're over baked, but I think they're just right.

[Megan Splan]

I'm not necessarily taking Paul Hollywood's advice on Southern baked.

[Megan Scott]

No. So I just want to recap really quick. Our recipe of the week last week was the Chan Chan cocktail. I hope everyone enjoyed making that. As a reminder, if you didn't hear last week's episode, the Chan Chan is a new cocktail in the 2019 edition. A couple of our friends actually created it, but we loved it so much that we added added it. And it has cucumber, basil, gin and elderflower liqueur and lime juice. And Shannon actually came over last night and we had cocktail hour and we drank Chan Chan.

[Shannon Larson]

Yeah. It was a great excuse to just have like a 5 o'clock cocktail hour on a Saturday night before the recording. It was great. Also, we had a sunny day in Portland in March, which is very rare. And so it was a nice way to, like, end a sunny day. A nice, sunny cocktail. And I think that what I liked about it too is that I think you can use different kinds of basil, different kinds of cucumber. And so the flavors can change over time depending on those two ingredients alone.

[John Becker]

And changing up the gin, I encourage people to do that.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, you can use any gin.

[John Becker]

Yeah.

[Shannon Larson]

So I'm excited. I think this will be our summer cocktail.

[Megan Scott]

Nice.

[Shannon Larson]

We try to have a theme every summer.

[Megan Scott]

And then this week's recipe, we are asking folks to make Joy's sweet potato biscuits, but using canned pumpkin instead of the sweet potato. That recipe is on page 60:36. And if you want, you can also make, based on John's description earlier, you can make his charred serrano and green onion butter to go with the biscuits.

[John Becker]

I mean, I'm thinking it. It pairs pretty well.

[Megan Scott]

It does. It goes really well. You also mentioned putting New Mexico green chili, like roasted chilies in the butter, which I still think that sounds awesome.

[John Becker]

You are. We have a bunch of frozen roasted New Mexico chilies. You were totally on board with me using this instead because we have so many but, yeah, they would have been really good in this.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, I think also, honey, would that combinate? Like, the spicy sweet would be really nice. So, yeah, if you make the sweet potato biscuits with pumpkin, please let us know. You can tag us at thejoyofcooking on Instagram, or you can use the hashtag Joy Scouts. Have fun baking biscuits. All right, Megan, this is the part of the show where we will interview you casually. But my first question, what is your relationship with Joy of Cooking? Like, was this a cookbook that you knew growing up, or did you just hear about it when you were an adult?

[Megan Splan]

Yeah, this is such a good question. Actually, Joy of Cooking is kind of important to my childhood in a weird way I hadn't thought about until I was prepping to come on this episode. I used to tell the story of, like, I got into cooking because my mom was a single mom, and I was just, like, really tired of eating Hamburger Helper because that's all she had time and money to make. But I also have this, like, very distinct memory of one of the many times that we moved, because my mom was, like, putting herself through college and then through graduate school, and we moved a lot, like, into student housing and out of student housing. Is one of the moves there being, like, the empty pantry. And Joy of Cooking was the only cookbook that was in there. And now I'm. I feel kind of terrible that I told the story for so long of, like, my mom being a terrible home cook. And that's why I started cooking, because her mom was the very, like, classic. She had a victory garden. She canned everything. The basement shelves were lined with her green beans and her pickles, and she kept two chest freezers full of Cool Whip, but also, like, fresh blueberries that she had gone to the local farm and picked. And she would fry donuts every time we would visit. And her recipe is, like, really special to me, and I got to write about it for the kitchen at some point in time. But I think there was, like, this struggle for my mom that I think she wanted to be the kind of home cook that her mom had been. But being a single mom and, like, having to provide for her family, she didn't have time for that. So it's very sweet. I'm like, try not to get emotional about it. But one of my gifts when I left home to live on my own was my own copy of Joy of Cooking. And then professionally, it continues to be, like, one of the reference books. Like, anytime I'm trying to develop a new recipe, when I worked for Alton. It was one of, like, five books that we went to all the time, and he had many of the editions in his library. So it'd be fun to go sometimes and, like, see how recipes changed over time. And yet still something that I reach for. Maybe not as regularly to cook from or bake from, but when I'm developing recipes or thinking about a recipe, like, oh, how. How would Joy approach this? Because it's often the most approachable way or it's been researched or it's, like, really rooted in technique, and so it's generally incredibly helpful.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, it's really good. I mean, that's how we use it a lot. As a reference.

[John Becker]

Starting point.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, a starting point. Or just to refresh my memory on something I've forgotten, like, what's the ratio of, I don't know, eggs to oil in mayonnaise or, you know, stuff like that?

[Megan Splan]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Shannon Larson]

I love how many of our guests so far on this podcast have really found their relationship with the Joy when they leave home and start cooking for themselves, especially in college. I feel like that's something that keeps coming up, and it's just really. I don't know, it's really special.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, it's really sweet. I mean, that's how I came to it as well. I've talked about this before, but I didn't. I did not grow up with Joy of Cooking, but when I left home and realized I didn't really know how to cook very much, I needed one book that was going to teach me to how to do everything, and that's. I bought Joy of Cooking, and that was, you know, what, 17 years ago, 18 years ago or something? Yeah, it's kind of wild. Megan, I had a kind of question that was based on something we talked about earlier with the Parmesan chicken recipe, where you're talking about finding the trouble of finding small chicken breasts for a recipe like that. Are there any other recipe writing quirks or things that you see in recipes? Sometimes that it's not really a red flag, it's just, like, maybe a little bit out of touch, or it makes you kind of question the recipe and have to immediately say, like, okay, well, I'm clearly gonna change that, or I'm not following that.

[Megan Splan]

Yeah. Is it. Am I a terrible professional if I say there are a lot of times I find that and I don't follow the recipes? But I was thinking about when John was talking about the roasted chicken thighs that you had and how great it is to do, like, you do them in one pan. You start them in a cold pan and it gets really crispy. I recently cooked a recipe from New York Times cooking a garlic braised chicken recipe. And you do all this work, right? You start in the cold pan, you get schmaltz all over your. Your stovetop. But then for the braising section, you cover the pot and put the chicken in the oven with, like, more butter and white wine and a ton of garlic. And at the end, all that work of, like, the crisping the skin is for nothing because it never crisp up again. That's. That's a big one for me. Like, you don't need to crisp the skin. Please don't ask me to do it.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah. I feel like one of the things that we've started doing whenever there's a recipe we want to make that feels more of like a braise situation with the chicken, but it uses skin on, is that we'll take the skin off and actually just press it between two sheet pans in the oven and bake it kind of low and slow until it turns really crispy, and then just serve that as a garnish with the. The tender chicken.

[Megan Splan]

I love that. I also wonder, could I have pulled off the crispy skin before sticking it in the braise and sort of done the same thing, like, cut it up? Because it all got pulled apart and served over rice with a little cucumber salad anyways. So, like, why. Why not preserve the crispiness?

[John Becker]

Yeah, that sounds actually a little bit more convenient than what we usually do. Yeah.

[Megan Scott]

I mean, what we do is a little extra credit, but you don't have to do that. Yeah. Or just, you know, in a situation like that, maybe using. Maybe just go for the skinless chicken if it's not going to add a whole lot to the dish.

[Megan Splan]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Shannon Larson]

I started doing the pulling the skin off and just crisping it up separately because I also don't like the texture of, like, cooked skin in that sense, so I might as well enjoy it as a little crunchy topping instead, but.

[Megan Scott]

Exactly.

[Megan Splan]

It sounds like a chicken skin skin cracker in the best way.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah.

[Shannon Larson]

Yeah.

[Megan Scott]

It's like, it reminds me. I'm going to say something controversial. I think it's better than bacon. It is. It's so crunchy. It's like, I love a very, very crunch, like, audibly crunchy bacon. And often it fails to be that.

[John Becker]

And this, it depends on the bacon.

[Shannon Larson]

John is, like, shaking his head. No, right now.

[John Becker]

I'm not shaking my head.

[Megan Scott]

I think it's better. I Think it's better. I'm just gonna.

[John Becker]

Not all bacon is created equal.

[Megan Scott]

I still like bacon.

[John Becker]

Some of it's a little bit better than chicken skin, I think.

[Megan Scott]

Whatever.

[Megan Splan]

I worry you just shared a million dollar idea too, because all. Where does all the skin go when you buy skinless?

[Megan Scott]

Right?

[Megan Splan]

Yeah. Guys, someone could be like, saving that and making chicken. Bacon. Chicken. Yeah.

[Megan Scott]

I also wanted to ask you. So your Instagram stories are probably my favorite of anybody's. They're just delightful.

[Megan Splan]

It's.

[Megan Scott]

They're just really fun and you do a lot of conversational things. But one recently that I loved so much was somebody had asked you a cooking question which was like, how do I have a better attitude about cooking? I really hate cooking. I feel like I need to have a better attitude about it. And I loved your answer. Do you remember what you said?

[Megan Splan]

I do, I do. Well, first of all, thank you. I like being on Instagram maybe a little too much. And I'm always trying, like, as a content creator, trying not to get sucked into the algorithm and worrying about how things do and just have as much fun as possible. Like, it's fun for me. Hopefully it's fun for everyone else. Yes. It was actually my friend Olivia, who recently did all my graphic design for my substack, and she was like, what if I hate cooking? Like, what do I do? And I was like, be a hater. Yeah. Like, you don't have to like cooking to do it or to do it well. And if there's something particularly sticky that you don't love about the cooking process, because it's not just standing at the stove, right? Like, it's deciding what you're gonna eat. So you're making a meal plan or you're at least like, making choices in the grocery store. You're grocery shopping. You have to put the food away. You have to do prep work before you even get to the cooking part of it. So, like, if you hate the meal planning, can you subscribe to, like, a meal planning newsletter or take someone else's meal plan? Like, which is what? Dinner Tonight, my substack series is designed to do. Like, here are the things I cooked. Take it and use it or do your own thing. Or if you hate the shopping, can you do, like, grocery pickup? Or can you get meal kits and everything else is done for you? The prep, prep part is done for you. Or if you can't afford meal kits, can you buy the short, like the already chopped onions or the frozen prepped veggies so that you're Eliminating the step that you like the least to make it a little bit easier on you, but, like, you can still hate it. I don't know. Not everyone. Not everyone finds joy in cooking, which is, like, probably the worst thing to say. On the Joy of Cooking.

[John Becker]

That's blasphemous. I demand you take that back. Now. I honestly think that Irma might have had her tongue, maybe in her cheek a little bit when she came up with that title. I have nothing to back that up. Aside from the fact that she just had a good sense of humor.

[Megan Scott]

Well. And she wasn't known for being a.

[John Becker]

Great cook, you know, more blasphemy. She liked entertaining more than she liked cooking, that's for sure.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah. I think she viewed cooking sometimes as a way of. It was like, a necessity for, you know, having people over to her house for. For she hosted a lot of, like, women's circles or, like, they would have a guest come speak about their book that they had written, and all these ladies would gather, and so she would make snacks. But I think for her, it was kind of a means to an end. And there was even a relative of Irma's that when she heard that Irma was coming out with a cookbook, she said something like, but Irma's a terrible cook.

[Megan Splan]

What do you think Irma would think about snack boards, particularly for Shannon, who just.

[John Becker]

Oh, she would love that.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, I think she would be on board.

[John Becker]

Yeah. It would be like, a low effort. Alternatives to. To an aspic or something.

[Shannon Larson]

Well, I love to host, too.

[Megan Scott]

Right.

[Shannon Larson]

So it's like, the easiest way to put food out for guests. So I feel like I understand her.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah.

[Shannon Larson]

Yeah.

[Megan Scott]

I think her snack board would. Would have had a lot of tiny sandwiches and canapes and probably oysters.

[John Becker]

Oysters, yeah.

[Megan Scott]

There's a lot of oysters in those early editions.

[John Becker]

Yeah, Like, a ton of them. I think it was like, you know, her son Edgar was living in Seattle, and I know that she went to visit him a few times, and so perhaps that's why she.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, because Irma was in St. Louis, which is not a place I think of as being a place you would get oysters. But.

[John Becker]

But, you know, just doing, like, some research on. On oysters back in the day. It is kind of crazy how popular oysters were, like, in the most landlocked parts of the country. It's just amazing that more people didn't keel over.

[Megan Scott]

Well, they were much more affordable then. Right. Like, it was. It was a very affordable food.

[John Becker]

Yeah, but this is like, before you know, widespread refrigeration. There was just, like, a lot of ice involved.

[Megan Scott]

It's wild to think about. So, Megan, your substack newsletter that is all about. Well, you have one about parenting, but you also have one about what you feed your family every week. And I was curious if you have any dinners that are on regular rotation that you make when you don't have a lot of time or, you know, you're not going to feel like cooking a big dinner.

[Megan Splan]

Yeah, snack dinners are, like, the OG for my family, and they really love that when I can, like, pull bits and bobs either from the fridge and just throw things together, like hummus and veggies and pepperoni or salami or from the freezer. Occasionally we'll do, like, freezer dinner, where it's like the. The Aldi finds that we write about often for simply recipes or things I grab at Costco and, like, kind of heat those up in the air fryer and make that dinner without cleanup. Cleanup is a pain point for me in cooking. When my husband is home, He. He is in charge of cleanup, but he travels often for work. So I'm always trying to, like, get away with less cleanup and then the like. In 2024, the recipe I cooked the most for the nights when we had, like, soccer practice and homework and I was solo parenting was is this, like, riff on beef and broccoli and actually wrote about it for simply recipes where you just, like, brown a pound of ground beef and you season it. There's like, hoisin and soy sauce and mirin, and you can add ginger and garlic and then throw some broccoli in there to steam. And you can use soba noodles, you can use rice noodles. Whatever suits your family. But I honestly use the, like, top ramen packets. Like, three of those for the four of us is plenty without the seasoning, obviously. And then I save the seasoning for popcorn and then a lot of just pasta. My kids love pasta tortellini. It could be plain butter noodles. It can be, like, pasta with Rao's jarred sauce. And we eat a lot of that with roasted or steamed broccoli, because that's like one of the go to veggies in our house. It's not very beautiful, but it's delicious and feeds us.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, the. The ramen beef broccoli thing sounds like something. I think we should try that.

[Shannon Larson]

And Megan, I know that you on your Instagram are often talking about your candy salads, so I was just curious about what inspired your candy salad and what got you into that.

[Megan Splan]

Okay. Long before candy salad on Instagram used to be silly and, like, do reviews of new candies in my Instagram stories. I am obsessed with candy. I would love to own a candy shop at some, like, in my fantasy future. I don't really think that's gonna happen, but I just, I think that, like, all of the technology involved in making candy something that we think as, like, think of as cheap and like, for kids only, is remarkable. And we should be, like, more excited about candy as adults as we. Than we. Than we are. Right. And you're, like, doing so much for your inner child by buying the candy that you couldn't have as a kid. And then candy salad was like a tick tock trend maybe a couple years ago, but I really latched on to it because it feels like if you ever went to, like, the Sweet Factory in the mall in the, like, 90s or 2000s, late 90s, oh, my God, I'm aging. I feel like I might be aging myself here, but. And you could do, like, the pick a mix, like you got a bag, and you take a little bit from each of the containers of your favorite candy salad. Feels like that. And it also feels like very low lift, high reward. Like, you basically just shop for it and then you throw everything together and you can make things themed for holidays, which is really nice because my kids are a little bit older and some of the things we used to do for holidays, they're like, that's not cool anymore, Mom. I'm like, okay, well, I guess we'll just make candy salad about it.

[Shannon Larson]

I know my husband's throwing an Oscars party tonight. Today is the day of the Oscars. And I was like, if you think of any Oscar inspired candy salad, let me know for sure. Yeah.

[Megan Splan]

Could you go like, all reds with a little bit of gold?

[Shannon Larson]

I was thinking gold. Yeah.

[Megan Splan]

Yeah. I mean, gold or like orange. Ish. Yeah. Old candies. There are.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah.

[Shannon Larson]

I don't know, like, things covered in foil, I guess.

[Megan Scott]

Right?

[Shannon Larson]

Yeah.

[Megan Splan]

Yes. I was thinking of the Haribo makes, like a lemon ginger chew, which is not. It's not like, readily available in every grocery store, but that is kind of, kind of gold in color and really delicious and would feel kind of grown up too. Yeah.

[Shannon Larson]

A little classy.

[Megan Splan]

Yeah. I wonder too, about, like, popcorn salad, for which is a similar concept. You pop popcorn and then you add like a gummy candy, a chocolate candy. We did one for Thanksgiving that was inspired by Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with, like, jelly beans and toast and pretzels. But he could do something like that so you don't have to find as many candies. 90s.

[Shannon Larson]

Yeah.

[Megan Splan]

I don't know. I feel like popcorn and Oscars is a natural pairing.

[Megan Scott]

It's a great idea to get some Swedish fish in there. Oh, yeah, yeah. All right, Megan, where can our listeners follow you?

[Megan Splan]

Yeah, I'm chronically online. My substack is called Stir and scribble, but you can find it@megan splon.substack.com and on Instagram and threads and Tick Tock. Although I'm very rarely on TikTok. I am Megan Underscore Splon. Of course, the sites I write for, like simply recipes and the kitchen.com occasionally.

[Megan Scott]

Thank you. And your name, Megan is spelled with an H, so it's M E G H A N. I am.

[Megan Splan]

I am an M E G H.

[Megan Scott]

A N. Each week we choose a topic to tackle based on caller suggestions. This week we're talking about canned pumpkin. Caller question. I have many cans of canned pumpkin taking up space in my pantry. Recipe ideas, question mark.

[John Becker]

There's a ton and joy. We chose pumpkin biscuits, which is, you know, we have a recipe for sweet potato biscuits, page 36 in the new edition. And you can easily substitute pumpkin puree. We actually, just to make sure we did that.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, I did that yesterday. It works.

[John Becker]

It works. But that will only get you like, that'll use like what, a cup.

[Megan Scott]

A cup, I think of pumpkin.

[John Becker]

Yeah. So I mean, I think that the. If you have a lot to get rid of and you're really kind of in, in a hurry to do so. The pumpkin or butternut squash soup. That's on page 105. Very good. Megan didn't really want me to mention this because it's a bit of a pain, but ravioli filling. So, yeah, like one can of pumpkin and maybe two ounces of parmesan and some nut. Grated parmesan and some nutmeg. Just mix that all up and it's a great ravioli filling. We were also thinking, like a less pain in the butt version would be cannelloni. So, you know, you just take squares of fresh pasta and, you know, you could pipe some of that filling in there. And then we also have a ricotta filling. And I was thinking would be really good to pipe alongside it, but again, that's turning into a bit of an ordeal. What else? Pumpkin bread.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of options with. When you're thinking about baked goods. So basically any recipe can. Any baking recipe can be pumpkin, pumpkinified, so like muffin, we have pumpkin muffins, pancakes, waffles. You can use it in bread recipes. So, like, if you have a sandwich bread, you could replace part of the liquid with some pumpkin and it would give it a nice golden color. I also think we don't have a recipe for this specifically, but I love Thai pumpkin curry. And I was thinking that you could usually that has chunks of pumpkin in it, but you could. We have. Well, not the way I'm talking about.

[John Becker]

Okay.

[Megan Scott]

You could mix the canned pumpkin with some, you know, like red curry paste and coconut milk and to make like a sauce for other veggies. I think that would be really delicious. Megan, do you have any other than your pumpkin biscuits? Do you have any favorite ways of using canned pumpkin?

[Megan Splan]

That's a great recipe. The only. It's only failing is that it doesn't use up a large volume. There is a Starbucks copycat pumpkin loaf recipe on the kitchen.com from Grace Elkis that is really great. And it uses a whole can of pumpkin puree, which I feel like is major when you can use the whole can. And then I've never tried it, but, you know, one of my favorite joy recipes is. Is it called the butter puff or the donut muffin, where it's kind of like a blank slate muffin and it gets tossed in butter and then cinnamon sugar coating. I wonder if you could put a little bit of pumpkin in there. And I feel like that would be.

[Megan Scott]

I don't see why not. Yeah, yeah, that would be really good.

[Shannon Larson]

Like, you can always just spoon that extra stuff from the can and give.

[Megan Scott]

It to your dog too, you know? Yeah.

[Shannon Larson]

You know. Oh, and good way to put it.

[John Becker]

Also have to put in an honorable mention for the spiced pumpkin ice cream. That's on page 843.

[Megan Scott]

Oh, yeah, that's delicious.

[John Becker]

It's really good.

[Megan Scott]

I would also use it. I think it would make a really good smoothie.

[Megan Splan]

Yes. You could freeze it like in ice cube trays or do you guys know the brand super cubes? They make that great. Those great silicone freezer molds. That's one of my favorite things when we open up canned pumpkin is to just do whatever's left over and then Future smoothies. So good.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah. I love freezing things when you're not sure what you're going to do with it yet. That's such a good idea.

[Megan Splan]

Yeah.

[Megan Scott]

It's like, this is a problem for future me. I will put in. John doesn't like this as much as I like it, but I'VE for a little bit. I was making this Mac and cheese that had butternut squash in the sauce. So it wasn't like chunks. It was the puree. And then you mix it into the cheese sauce. I think it's really good. John doesn't like it as much.

[John Becker]

Yes, I, I know.

[Shannon Larson]

I'm so, I'm so curious.

[John Becker]

Said something really bad about it. I don't, I don't remember, like disliking it, but you haven't made it again, so I must just make something just.

[Megan Scott]

Because I know you didn't. I mean, it wasn't that you hated it. You just didn't love it. And so there's a lot of things that we can make that we both love. So we don't make that anymore, but I thought it was good.

[John Becker]

I'll give it another shot.

[Megan Scott]

No, it's okay. It's really okay.

[Megan Splan]

It's okay.

[Megan Scott]

If you have a topic, ingredient, or joy story to share, call our hotline at 503-395-8858. Leave us a message or send us a text. We'd love to hear from you. Next week's question comes from our caller. Hello, Joy of Cooking. What's the best way to cook dried beans? I've never done it before. Thank you. Fun. I love beans. We'll talk about that on the show next week.

[Shannon Larson]

A lot of bean talk.

[Megan Scott]

All right, what's everybody planning for this week? What are we cooking? What are we eating this week?

[Shannon Larson]

We have no plans on our calendar this week, and this is extremely rare in our household. And I'm so giddy and excited. I feel like I've been in kind of a dry spell cooking wise, just because we've been so busy and so cooking has felt more like a chore. And I do feel like I need to kind of get my spark back a little bit. So I'm going to focus on that. And then the rain has returned, you know, gave us that little fall spring. So I'm gonna by getting excited by in the kitchen, I'm gonna focus on garden planning. So I think that that hopefully will lend to me being like, excited about cooking again. I'm going to plant some potatoes and radishes and carrots because we can get that in the ground now. But I just need some inspiration. I need to focus on getting my joy back right now. Yeah.

[Megan Scott]

What about you two?

[John Becker]

Well, it looks like we're going to have a little bit more sunny weather, so I might just start up the grill, you know, especially considering that we might be Cooking some beans this week. Yeah. Maybe a carne asada. We have a really great marinade recipe for that. And. Yeah. Anything else at Word?

[Megan Scott]

Oh, well, I looked ahead to our CSA box this week, which we'll get on Thursday, and we're getting a bunch of greens. So this is like the time of year when the greens start to really pour in. So we're going to get bok choy, spinach, and mustard greens. And I really want to make that Priya Krishna recipe for soag feta. So it's like saag paneer, but it uses cubes of feta instead of paneer, which I've never. I've never tried it. It's been around for years, and it looks delicious.

[John Becker]

And I'm sure it would be great with that. I mean, I don't think they're allowed to call it feta anymore. But the Bulgarian white cheese, I think it's called serene.

[Megan Scott]

So good.

[John Becker]

I might be mispronouncing that, but serene sounds nice because it is a very serene cheese.

[Shannon Larson]

We always have some of that in our fridge now. Thanks to you, too.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, it's like the. It's the feta that comes in a. I love the packaging because it's like a little tub with a sheep on the side. And the brand is rhodopa.

[John Becker]

Rhodopa is really good. Surgat is also very good.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, it's my favorite feta. Ish cheese. What about you, Megan? What are you doing this week?

[Megan Splan]

Oh, what am I doing this week? I'm like, I have my meal plan right in front of me. Actually. I'm really excited. I have Erin McDowell's weeknight focaccia. I think that's what she calls it in her book Savory baking in the fridge right now to make alongside chicken salt and boca. I never. Am I saying that correctly? Salt and boca Salt and buca.

[Megan Scott]

I think you're right. I don't know Italian. So we're gonna go with that.

[Megan Splan]

Yes. And then this, what we call pizza salad, which has, like, pepperoncinis and radicchio, and it's very delightful. I'm really looking forward to that. And then a friend shared a recipe from Brock youk body for this, like, crispy chicken thigh orzo lemon, creamy lemon skillet. I think I'm getting the name of the recipe wrong, but I'm very excited to eat that this week. We are in deep. We're deep in the spring soccer season. And so it is going to be one of those busy, like, bean and cheese burritos some nights from the freezer or like real quick from canned beans or the more like fun, luxurious things when I have the time.

[Megan Scott]

I love the sound of the, of everything. Can I just come over to your house and dinner?

[Megan Splan]

You know what's funny is I'm looking at your meal planning series on your sub stack a lot because we just signed up for a CSA and I'm like, oh, nice. How, what are the strategies? How am I going to make the most of all of this? Because it's been a really long time since we did community supported agriculture near us and I feel like greens, the greens are coming my way too.

[Megan Scott]

Yeah, I'm going to write some more about that, I think, because it is, it does really change the way you cook. I like it because it makes decisions for me and I don't have to figure out what vegetables I'm cooking. I just have to cook the ones I get.

[John Becker]

Yeah, it's a challenge, but it also, you know, it frees you from the tyranny of choice. I. Yeah, I'll just say that like it's nothing.

[Shannon Larson]

I loved it.

[Megan Scott]

Thanks for listening to the Joy of Cooking podcast. Before we go, show some love for your favorite podcast by subscribing to the show and leaving us a review on Apple podcasts and itunes. Follow us at joyofcooking.substack.com and on Instagram @the joyofcooking. Stay tuned for next week where we will tackle beans. And don't forget to make this week's recipe pumpkin biscuits. Call in with questions, hopes, history or where you find joy in the kitchen. Our number is 503-395-8858. That's 503-395-8858.

[Shannon Larson]

And we cannot do this without our fantastic team at the Joy of Creation production house. Thank you to Dave Dresky, our production coordinator, Haley Bowers, our audio engineer, and Sarah Marshall, our producer.