In her interview, Elise talks about the importance of family meals. You can also get her best slow cooker and cookie recipes that her family loves!
Can you tell us about yourself, your family, and “Cooking with Elise”? What inspired you to learn how to cook?
I am a Raleigh, North Carolina-based chef well-known for my TV cooking segments “Cooking With Elise”, my blogging at Cooking with Elise and as Chef Spokesperson for BJ’s Wholesale Club. My mission is to help families understand and capture the powerful energy that cooking and eating together contributes to building healthy families and friendships. I grew up in the city of Fall River near Boston, Massachusetts. A terrible speech impediment kept me from talking until I was seventeen; I stuttered horrifically. My Portuguese grandmother’s kitchen became my refuge. My grandmother, who spoke little English, taught me to cook with the most important ingredient of all – love. I put that same love into the meals I create for my own family and friends. “Cooking With Elise” first began at my friends’ request. I began teaching friends, children, and college students how to cook. I also homeschooled my children for twenty years and our love of geography and history found its way into our kitchen. I incorporated that love into meals from around the world and expanded our family’s world one meal at a time. When my children went off to college in 2009 everyone encouraged me to reach out to the television networks. My love of people and food helped me land my first television opportunity with WNCN NBC-17 in Raleigh, North Carolina. The My Carolina Today show gave me my own “Cooking With Elise” segment which aired every Wednesday morning for over a year. I will always be thankful to them. Now through personal appearances, classes, TV, Internet and my new cookbook, I am elated to share that love with others. BJ’s Wholesale Club (or Membership Clubs) is one of the companies that now send me across the country sharing my story, my mission, and my passion with others through television appearance and cooking segments. In an amazing transformation, the child-who-never-spoke is now the funny, passionate and outspoken “Cooking With Elise”. Folks who know me now say that I have made up for those seventeen years! : )
You’ve recently released a book, “You Never Cook Alone”. What should readers expect from it?
You Never Cook Alone delights cooks whether novice or expert. Hundreds of easy-to-follow recipes are combined into dozens of tasty meals that will please any family or gathering of friends. You Never Cook Alone is divided into two main sections: “Eventful Meals” and “No Passport Necessary”. Eventful Meals builds complete menus from my favorite recipes to create memorable cooking and dining experiences the whole family will enjoy. Chapter titles like “It’s More Than Pizza” or “A Murder Mystery Dinner” entice you to try various recipe combinations and turn busy weekday meals into your own happenings to be savored. The second section of the cookbook is titled “No Passport Necessary – Expanding Your Family’s World One Meal at a Time”. Through regional, ethnic and international cuisine, I will show you how take your family around the world, just as I helped my own children to explore the world through food. Adding spice to the recipes, you’ll find glimpses of my family’s life scattered among the menus. But, be prepared! Some stories may bring a smile and chuckle, while others may produce a full belly-laugh as if you were around the table with us. You may even need a tissue or two to dab the tears on occasion. All of the recipes, meals, and stories are fully indexed so you can quickly find just what you need as you contemplate your own meal preparations. I hope that you’ll learn to cook with my grandmother’s secret ingredient – love. You Never Cook Alone invites you into my world of “Stirring Memories, Feeding Souls and Building Legacies” so that you and your loved ones can become a truly “Well-Fed Family” – spiritually, emotionally and relationally… as well as physically.
What are your best recipes that are simple and easy to make? Which ones do you regularly make for family dinners?
My grandmother’s fresh tomato sauce with meatballs is my very favorite childhood recipe. My entire family loves it so much as well. We also enjoy making Asian food at home. An investment in a good wok makes dinners simple and quick! Our favorites are honey glazed crunchy chicken, Mongolian beef, Sinagag or Filipino garlic fried rice, lumpia or filipino egg rolls, and fresh lettuce wraps, steamed dumplings and garden spring rolls. Another family favorite is stuffed cabbage. I typically made it on the weekends only but recently created an unstuffed cabbage version making this dinner easy to prepare during the week.
Fresh Tomato Sauce with Meatballs
Garden Spring Rolls
It seems that you also like cooking with a slow-cooker. What are your favorite dishes to make with it?
Some of my favorite slow cooker tips are:
Save time by choosing cheaper cuts of meat for the crock pot.
Cooking these cuts slowly will make them very tender.
Seafood should be added the last hour or so of cooking. When cooked too long, seafood becomes rubbery.
Use cayenne or Tabasco sauce sparingly as it becomes bitter when cooked too long.
Tender vegetables like mushrooms, zucchini, squash and tomatoes should be added at the end of the cooking time-30-45 minutes left.
Add dairy products the last 30 minutes of cooking time.
More slow cooker tips from Elise.
Some of our favorite slow cooker recipes are beef brisket, chili con carne, and my dad’s Portuguese pork.
Since you are a chef, what are a few cooking tips that all moms should know? What are a few important lessons you teach in your cooking classes?
The biggest tip I share with parents is to cook with love. Love is the most important ingredient in any Well Fed Family. You see, even during our quietest, most solitary moments, preparing a meal inevitably stirs up recollections of meals shared with loved ones from our past. By cooking for and with your family you are creating valuable memories — stimulated by our five senses – that will feed their souls and build legacies for your family.
I also encourage families to recreate special childhood favorites. My French meat pie recipe, a dish loved by many and the winner of a chef’s challenge charity fundraiser, was first created after learning that my husband’s favorite meal was this French classic found in many New England bakeries. You can imagine his surprise when he came home to the smell of his childhood in the oven! This delicious pie is now a favorite of my two sons as well. And its signature aroma– from allspice – stimulates valuable memories for not only my husband Mike, but now my two sons as well.
French Meat Pie
The kitchen is the heart of your home. You will find yourself more inclined to be creative in the kitchen when it is organized and welcoming! In a post on Cooking With Elise, I listed 26 benefits and helpful tips for creating a well organized kitchen. I also admitted my love affair (okay, my obsession) with collecting dish towels.
In my cookbook, You Never Cook Alone, I share 33 Helpful Meal Planning and Money Saving Tips. Planning a food budget is one of the most important things you can do to save money. With a food budget you are less likely to overspend and run out of food. Having a weekly menu will help keep you from stopping at the grocery store to find something for dinner. An unplanned trip to the grocery store, especially when you’re hungry and in a hurry, will lead to a disaster! Think about how much it costs each month to feed your family. Set a number in your mind and see if you can stick to it. You may have to be flexible, but try sticking to the number you feel is attainable. Use the 33 steps found in my book to help you!
Get the whole family involved in the preparation of your meal! Remember when families went out to eat to celebrate a special occasion? Now I hear far too often how people stay at home and eat together only on special occasions. This saddens me more than I can express in words. 80% of families value family mealtime, but only 1 in 3 achieve success. Learn about how 5 or more family meals per week will spell S-U-C-C-E-S-S for your family.
My son Alexander has asked me to share with you some of my favorite cookie baking tips.
COOKIE BAKING TIPS
Are your cookies coming out hard and dry? Try substituting half of the granulated sugar in your recipe with brown sugar. Unlike regular sugar, brown sugar contains both glucose and fructose, which pulls moisture from the air, even after the cookies have been baked. The result is cookies that are not only moist and chewy, but deeper in color and flavor.
When adding things like chocolate chips, nuts and dried fruit, first coat them in a little unbleached all-purpose flour before adding them to your cookie or cake batter. This will allow the addition of chips, nuts or dried fruit to be suspended in the batter and to not fall to the bottom of your cookie or cake.
Take your cookies out of the oven before they are finished baking all the way. They should be just a touch undercooked. Cookies continue to harden once they are removed from the oven.
We unfortunately never have trouble keeping our cookies fresh because we eat them way too quickly, but if you do manage to store your cookies, place them in a container or freezer bag with a piece of sliced bread to keep them fresh! Change the bread slice every couple of days.
Always preheat your oven before baking your cookies unless otherwise stated.
Some of our family’s favorite cookie recipes are our: colossal chocolate chippers, chewy blueberry and white chocolate, almond cookies, sweet and salty white chocolate cranberry oat cookies and our family’s very favorite cookie found in my cookbook — my orange vanilla sugar cookies!
Blueberry and White Chocolate Cookies
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Cooking with Elise