Al Roker and Courtney Roker Laga, AL ROKER'S RECIPES TO LIVE BY: Easy, Memory-Making Family Dishes for Every Occasion
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[0:42]Al Roker and Courtney Roker-Laga are co-authors of Al Roker's Recipes to Live by Easy Memory Making Family Dishes for every occasion.
[0:52]Al Roker is a co-anchor of NBC's today, an Emmy award-winning journalist and a New York Times best-selling author.
[0:59]He lives in New York with his family.
[1:01]Courtney Roker-Laga is a recipe developer and trained chef who has worked in two Michelin-star restaurants.
[1:08]She lives in New Jersey with her husband and young daughter.
[1:11]Welcome Al and Courtney. Thank you so much for coming on Momstone.
[1:14]I have time to read books to discuss Al Roker's Recipes to Live by Easy Memory Making Family Dishes for every occasion.
[1:21]Thank you.
[1:22]Yes.
[1:23]So exciting.
[1:25]Okay. First of all, I have to know collaborating on a book project with a daughter or a dad.
[1:31]Like, what is that? Like, were there any conflicts? How did you go about it?
[1:35]You know, it would be a dream to do a book project with my own dad, but I don't know.
[1:39]I don't know if we could do it.
[1:41]Oh, man. In my mind, of course, dream project, right? Like, you're with your father.
[1:46]I'm super blessed that I was able to do this with him.
[1:49]There was a little bit of conflicts, I guess.
[1:52]Well, where were the conflicts?
[1:54]Complex as in, you know, it's a busy guy, right?
[1:56]He has a full schedule and you have deadlines.
[1:59]So I think I was very pushy and not asked.
[2:03]But, you know, there was a point also where he was sick for a little bit.
[2:07]I think that was before the conflicts from your sick. Yeah.
[2:10]Yeah. So I obviously didn't push him during that time.
[2:13]I kind of thought in my head maybe we shouldn't even do this because, you know, he was in the hospital.
[2:18]Yeah, but, but the, here's the thing, I'm very lazy fair about these, these sort of things.
[2:24]So I don't get to work up. I figure it'll work out.
[2:28]And, you know, Courtney was like, no, we, I really need you to do this because we have deadlines.
[2:34]And I'm like, because I do live TV and somehow it all works out.
[2:39]And something, it shows a book is a little different.
[2:42]So and especially a cookbook because, you know, it's not just, you know, writing something down.
[2:47]it's, you know, she's developing recipes and then, you know, we got to pick out the recipes and then we got to photograph the recipes.
[2:53]And, you know, and then you got to write about the recipes.
[2:55]It's a process.
[2:56]So she's like, come on, you know, but, and I'm like, you know, and, you know, and, and she's going to get broke my life to say, he's not responding.
[3:04]You know, and it's like, and Deborah's like, welcome to my world.
[3:07]Yeah.
[3:08]But it got done.
[3:10]It was like little conflicts, nothing like huge.
[3:12]Yeah.
[3:13]You know, explosions or anything like that.
[3:16]Did you debate which recipes to include in which not.
[3:19]Did you make anything and you were like, that doesn't taste good. Forget it.
[3:22]Really.
[3:23]We sat down one day.
[3:25]I think for like an hour or two hours and just I had a list of rest.
[3:29]You actually had me for two hours.
[3:31]I stayed.
[3:32]Yeah.
[3:33]We'll not focus.
[3:34]It was a long list and we chose what we wanted and crossed out stuff we didn't want.
[3:38]So yeah, we agreed with pretty much.
[3:41]Yeah.
[3:42]I think so.
[3:43]I think it was because of the recipes are based on, you know, what I've made that and also stuff that my mom made and my wife Deborah's mom and Courtney's mom Alice and grand parents friends who come over.
[3:58]You know, we have a very diverse group of friends.
[4:01]And we've been very fortunate.
[4:02]Courtney has worked in the restaurant industry and I've we've had people from the today show come on kind of befriended us.
[4:09]It was, it was a nice, I think a nice combination of a family recipes and professional recipes and.
[4:17]But, but you look a lot of the credit goes Courtney because.
[4:21]You know, a lot of these recipes were not written down and so she had to kind of.
[4:25]Let's go off of like remembering from taste right or listening to him on what he remembers from taste.
[4:31]So it was a lot of cooking.
[4:33]A lot of repeating recipes over and I was eight months pregnant during that time.
[4:37]Oh, my gosh.
[4:39]She brought the baby in a book.
[4:41]Well, a well fed, well fed baby.
[4:45]So that's great.
[4:46]Starting out on the right foot and husband.
[4:48]Well, that husband.
[4:49]Yes.
[4:50]Yes.
[4:51]So you're just making everybody happy.
[4:52]Yeah.
[4:53]This is mom's don't have time.
[4:54]It's perfect.
[4:55]Speaking of making time.
[4:56]I was really struck by the way.
[4:57]Oh, and you were saying that you used to make a hot meal for your son before, even though you were leaving the house at four.
[5:04]and you would leave it in the warmer so that he had a hot meal when he woke up.
[5:07]That is like putting the rest of parents to shame for small.
[5:09]No, not really.
[5:10]Listen to me.
[5:11]Not not at all because here's the deal.
[5:14]Everybody does what they can when they can.
[5:18]And you know, so I'm not there in the morning.
[5:22]You know, when he was waking up.
[5:24]You know, unlike it was different with Courtney for her early years because.
[5:29]I did local news, the five, six and eleven.
[5:32]So I was home during the day.
[5:34]So I got up with her breakfast.
[5:36]You know, when she was in preschool, you know, to take her to school, pick her up, drop her off.
[5:40]And then and then had to work.
[5:42]So the breakfast part.
[5:44]And let's face it, breakfast isn't that tough.
[5:47]So it's still it's 10 minutes and boom.
[5:51]And there's there's a little thing.
[5:52]Okay.
[5:53]I can't be here to tell you.
[5:54]I love you, but here's a little here's a little food love.
[5:57]It's true.
[5:58]Well, I mean, so much of food and feeding a family is about emotion.
[6:01]Right.
[6:02]We have the recipes, but you can tell in your book, they're infused with story, family, tradition.
[6:07]Like there's so much more than just the ingredients and taken together.
[6:11]That's what makes the family come together.
[6:13]And you wrote about this really nicely.
[6:15]And the story too.
[6:16]And how your mom was just able to whip out meals for as many people.
[6:20]And you set such a scene of her in the kitchen with her simple tools.
[6:24]And just like here it is, we can do it.
[6:26]So I feel like it's inspiring to other parents or busy people out there that you don't have to have a six burner fancy stove.
[6:34]Like you just need heart and dedication and a few ingredients.
[6:38]And you can make a meal and a whole experience, which will be the things you remember.
[6:43]Yeah.
[6:44]Yeah.
[6:45]Look, I mean, I think the only utensils my mom had, I mean, you know, that we would talk about today.
[6:52]I mean, this was even before food processor.
[6:54]She had a kitchen aid mixer.
[6:56]And that was pretty much it.
[6:58]Yeah.
[6:59]And I don't even think it was a kitchen aid mixer to be honest.
[7:01]I can't even remember what it was.
[7:02]But, you know, and there was a Hamilton beach hand mixer.
[7:07]I remember that.
[7:08]And that was pretty much it.
[7:10]You know, it's kind of a crummy wall stove and, you know, a frigid air refrigerator.
[7:16]And that was it.
[7:17]And somehow she was able to feed, you know, when Thanksgiving, I don't know how many people, 10, 12 people.
[7:23]Yeah.
[7:24]Was it the same kitchen I grew up in?
[7:25]Yeah.
[7:26]Yeah.
[7:27]Yeah.
[7:28]Yeah.
[7:29]We didn't.
[7:30]It was a nice kitchen.
[7:31]It was, it was, it was, it was a nice average.
[7:33]But, you know, today kitchens are like these designer things, you know, and it was a nice kitchen.
[7:37]But it was small.
[7:38]I mean, it's a tiny little kitchen.
[7:41]So, but, you know, everybody today kitchens are bigger and they're kind of wider.
[7:47]They're kind of the new family room.
[7:50]Yeah.
[7:51]And that's, you know, that's kind of what, you know, Courtney's grown up with.
[7:55]And so that's why I think food and family today is such a big deal because it's, you know,
[8:01]we just start, we're all in the same room cooking, talking, yacking.
[8:06]Yeah, pretty much summed it up.
[8:08]Sometimes I don't even know if it's worth it.
[8:10]You know, like in the mornings, like making them smoothies and like all this stuff with fresh ingredients.
[8:16]Like put it in, I have four kids and I like put it in front of the two younger kids.
[8:19]And they like barely look up.
[8:20]And I go, okay.
[8:21]And I'm like, this totally bombed.
[8:22]Do you know, like, why do I bother?
[8:24]But then I realize some of it is for me.
[8:26]And like, even if kids don't take what you're giving, that's like parenting in a nutshell, right?
[8:30]You have to just keep putting it out there and see what happens.
[8:32]That's it.
[8:33]And then you listen to me breakfast really is the most important meal of day.
[8:37]Because to me, it kind of, I don't know, it sets you up.
[8:42]You know, we have a waffle recipe, some pancakes.
[8:45]But waffles, to me, was growing up before there were eggo waffles.
[8:51]There were like these frozen downy flake waffles.
[8:54]Yeah, sure.
[8:55]You put them in.
[8:56]Yeah, exactly.
[8:57]And I remember seeing on TV, there was some show and the mother was making waffles.
[9:03]And I was like, wait, wait, they don't come out of a box.
[9:07]Yeah.
[9:08]And they bake these.
[9:10]And I remember it is crazy what you remember.
[9:13]But I remember thinking, when I grow up, I am never going to eat another frozen waffle in my life.
[9:19]And that's it.
[9:20]And I love the waffle.
[9:22]The waffle to me, it's even more than the pancake.
[9:25]The waffle is just, there's something, not the Belgian waffle.
[9:28]The nice, just the square.
[9:30]You remember that square waffle maker at the magic ship?
[9:33]It's like 30 years old.
[9:35]But it makes perfect waffles.
[9:36]That's why the Hampton Inn is so great.
[9:37]They have that waffle maker.
[9:38]Have you ever been the lollipop?
[9:39]Oh, yeah.
[9:40]Oh, yeah.
[9:41]Oh, no.
[9:42]I'm going to pour it in.
[9:43]And then you flip it up like you're at it.
[9:44]It's amazing.
[9:45]Yeah.
[9:46]It's like magic.
[9:47]Come on.
[9:48]We had that goes this morning.
[9:49]But that sounds great.
[9:50]Perfect.
[9:51]The waffle is the perfect transport system for butter and syrup.
[9:55]It's got the square.
[9:56]It's got the square.
[9:57]The square.
[9:58]And cups that the melted.
[10:00]butter and the syrup.
[10:01]I think it just falls off, it too.
[10:04]Unless you cut into it and then it goes into it.
[10:06]And then you cut and then you muffle.
[10:08]Boom.
[10:09]The art is the loveful.
[10:11]And Courtney, you're obsessed with Apple butter.
[10:13]I'm glad you're going to have to be in,
[10:14]because I kept reading about it.
[10:15]And I was like, how do I make Apple?
[10:16]But I mean, it sounds obvious.
[10:17]I love it.
[10:18]Have you been to Sarah Beths?
[10:19]Yes.
[10:19]Yes.
[10:20]They're Apple like growing up.
[10:22]Thank you.
[10:23]Thank you.
[10:23]To sausage it.
[10:24]I put it on sausage, waffles, pancake.
[10:27]It's so good.
[10:28]So that's inspired the recipe.
[10:29]And it's funny because Courtney didn't even,
[10:31]until we started doing this, didn't even know.
[10:33]My mother used to have Apple butter growing up.
[10:37]And then kind of went over.
[10:39]And so we both have this childhood connection
[10:43]to Apple butter.
[10:44]But in different completely, for Courtney,
[10:46]it was going to Sarah Beths and having it.
[10:49]And for me, it was around the kitchen table and Apple butter.
[10:53]What did you two have for breakfast today?
[10:55]Nothing.
[10:55]I have an event.
[10:58]I have a tradition at the show that I now have kind of locked
[11:02]into.
[11:03]I stop at a bagel place that's literally right around the corner
[11:07]from my house.
[11:08]And now I'm up to bringing four dozen bagels for the crew.
[11:12]But they're hot out the oven.
[11:14]They're hot bagels.
[11:16]And now the crew has taken to bringing toppings
[11:20]and different condiments.
[11:21]Like there's one guy, Matt, who goes
[11:23]stops at this place near Queens to bring bacon, cheat,
[11:27]cream cheese, scallion, cream cheese, salmon, cream cheese.
[11:31]So that's what I have for breakfast this morning.
[11:34]What did you have?
[11:36]I just had a scone, actually.
[11:37]What's it?
[11:38]Yeah.
[11:39]No, scones are good.
[11:42]Did you see that Larry David episode?
[11:44]To me, scones are like, if a bad, dry biscuit
[11:48]and a cookie had a baby, it was not the best, I have to say.
[11:52]but my husband wanted to stop somewhere for coffee.
[11:54]And I was like, yes, I'm saying so I got to see.
[11:56]To me, the biscuit, scones, see, again,
[11:59]whatever the Brits had, we've made better.
[12:02]You know, I was a scone, but we have buttermilk biscuits.
[12:06]There's so much about that.
[12:07]They are.
[12:07]They really are.
[12:08]So in the book, you write about your gastric bypass
[12:11]operation and severe lifelong history with obesity
[12:14]and all of that.
[12:15]And even how some emotional times in your life
[12:17]caused you to gain some of the weight back.
[12:18]And you have to sort of be cognizant of that as everyone
[12:21]does, right?
[12:22]So the recipes in the book are not
[12:24]exactly the most, like, it's not all green juices.
[12:29]So how do you, some of them, like the cinnamon buns
[12:33]and the chocolate chip pancakes and macaroni,
[12:36]I mean, these are like rich dishes.
[12:38]So how do you think about the food in the book
[12:41]relative to being aware of all the risks of eating
[12:45]and all that?
[12:46]Well, I think it kind of goes almost back
[12:50]to my childhood where food was celebratory.
[12:54]So a lot of these recipes are not
[12:57]made to have every day or, you know,
[13:00]and it's taken me a while to learn this,
[13:03]but it's all on the table.
[13:06]But it's about how much of a de-weed.
[13:09]Do you really need to eat the whole thing?
[13:11]No, so it's a small portion, but you've gotten that.
[13:15]Somebody told me once, and it's really true.
[13:17]And you think about your first bite of your favorite food.
[13:21]How great is that?
[13:23]It is, oh my gosh.
[13:24]And then the second bite, it's still good.
[13:27]That's great as the first, but still good.
[13:29]Well, by the time you're at the tenth bite,
[13:31]it's kind of leveled off.
[13:33]So, you know, if you have a small portion,
[13:35]you enjoy three or four bites.
[13:38]We're done, moving on.
[13:39]Yeah, I found that to be very hard
[13:42]when it's something really good.
[13:43]No, it's true.
[13:43]I mean, I can, I'm on majority now,
[13:46]and it's like changed my life not to make this an ad.
[13:49]But now I can do it because I literally,
[13:51]I'm like, oh, that satisfied me.
[13:52]I can move on.
[13:53]But before that was not in the realm of possibility,
[13:56]even though I would've liked it to be, you know?
[13:58]So, I think with a little training,
[14:02]it is not to say, listen, you're not gonna go off the rails
[14:06]every now and then, you're going to.
[14:08]But again, if it's that, and then you get back
[14:11]on the horse, everything's good.
[14:13]Yeah.
[14:14]And Courtney, tell me a little more about your training
[14:16]as a chef and your experience
[14:18]and where you're taking that, your Instagram is so awesome.
[14:21]Yeah.
[14:22]So I've been cooking for about like 14 years.
[14:25]We're just gonna show up.
[14:27]Oh, my gosh.
[14:28]I'm really, really good.
[14:30]Yeah.
[14:32]Cooking for about 14 years, I've cooked in some restaurants
[14:35]for a couple of years.
[14:36]I was at Google for a little bit.
[14:38]And then I got kind of burned out, you know,
[14:40]I wasn't with my family for holidays for a number of years.
[14:43]So I went into recipe development for kitchen appliance.
[14:47]Cultural bit, recipe development, that's my focus right now.
[14:50]I do personal, a personal chef on the side
[14:53]for a couple of clients.
[14:54]But my real passion is recipe development company.
[14:57]I'll call tiny spin chefs.
[14:58]They're great.
[14:59]But I was explaining my real passion is recipe development.
[15:02]I've done food styling.
[15:04]I'm all about the social media content creator, food thing.
[15:08]I didn't have that growing up.
[15:10]So I'm like in it now, I'm obsessed.
[15:12]I mean, there's huge careers out of it.
[15:14]So maybe something in the future towards that.
[15:17]But amazing.
[15:18]And do you find time to read either of you?
[15:21]I have a 15 month old.
[15:23]So it's very difficult.
[15:24]Well, it's really less like right before bed.
[15:27]You probably, I mean, you've been doing a lot of reading.
[15:30]It's just, you know, duck, duck, move.
[15:32]Yeah, all of a sudden, you know, and wheels on the bus.
[15:37]But which is it, I will say, the greatest,
[15:41]her daughter's guy is just the happiest baby.
[15:46]And she really does enjoy being read to,
[15:48]although I'm, there are few kids who don't, I guess.
[15:51]But because she's my granddaughter,
[15:52]I think she's just the most attentive.
[15:54]And look, it's fun.
[15:56]She's taking it anyway.
[15:57]But yeah, I do read.
[15:58]I like, I love reading.
[16:00]My mom was a voracious reader.
[16:02]And I think I inherited.
[16:04]Plus I wasn't a very athletic kid, you know,
[16:08]chunky and, you know, athletic.
[16:10]So my escape was was the New York City Public Library
[16:14]and reading.
[16:15]So I, yeah, I still do.
[16:17]I love, I love.
[16:19]I just finished Colson Whitehead's manifesto
[16:23]and just read, you know, Eric Larson's,
[16:26]the demon of unrest about the run up to the Civil War.
[16:30]So yeah, I love it.
[16:32]Amazing.
[16:33]How about you?
[16:34]Have you read anything great?
[16:35]Oh, aside from your cookbook.
[16:38]I am reading a book right now.
[16:39]It's called Like Mother, Like Mother.
[16:41]And yeah, it's really good.
[16:43]It comes out October 29th.
[16:45]And I just saw news yesterday.
[16:47]It's like adapted for it's being adapted for a movie.
[16:48]And I was like, oh, no, but I thought I like discovered that.
[16:52]But it's good.
[16:53]Susan Meister or something.
[16:54]Yeah, but a family.
[16:56]Actually a family in news, the woman,
[16:58]the matriarch was head of the equivalent of like
[17:01]the Washington Post fictitious, but anyway, whatever.
[17:05]Do you two have any more collaborations planned?
[17:07]And are there fun things in store for people who come out
[17:10]and see you on tour?
[17:11]Well, this act, the most part of it, I was saying.
[17:14]Yeah, it is kind of funny because I think it goes both ways
[17:18]in a sense that you see your kids as your kids.
[17:22]And I think as kids, you see your parent as your parent.
[17:25]And you know what each one does.
[17:27]But usually there isn't a nexus of the two.
[17:31]So we've already done this.
[17:33]You did the Charleston wine and food festival.
[17:36]And I think, even though Courtney's done stuff like this,
[17:40]I think it was a bit of a shock tour
[17:42]that I have to deal with me.
[17:44]And I have developed a lot of patience.
[17:50]Yeah.
[17:51]And then you have a bunch of people in you
[17:52]so you have to hide it inside.
[17:54]So this doesn't know.
[17:57]This is what the problem is.
[18:00]She doesn't know what I'm going to do.
[18:02]Because I don't know what I'm going to do.
[18:04]It's kind of improvisational theater.
[18:10]So I think by the end of this, we're either
[18:14]going to be really, really close.
[18:16]Or she is going to want to kill me.
[18:20]She's going to pay somebody.
[18:22]This is going to be, oh, you have a total point of money.
[18:26]Are we taking bets?
[18:27]I might want to put my money one way or the other.
[18:29]But I don't know.
[18:30]I don't know.
[18:30]The girls.
[18:31]Yeah, it's early.
[18:33]My husband is wondering, because we were chatting right
[18:35]before this.
[18:36]When you say, oh, and I'm sorry, you've probably
[18:38]been asked this a thousand times.
[18:39]But the whole neck of the woods thing.
[18:43]How did that come about?
[18:44]And do you get tired of saying it?
[18:46]And all of that?
[18:47]No, no, no, no.
[18:48]It was when I first started filling in for Willage Scott
[18:51]on the Today Show, I was saying like the first couple of hits
[18:55]and I was saying a different thing.
[18:57]And the director got in my ear and he said,
[18:59]listen, you've got to say the same thing
[19:03]every time, because that's the only way stations know
[19:05]to cut away to know what that cue is.
[19:09]So my mother's father used to say, oh,
[19:13]grandson, what's going on in your neck of the woods?
[19:16]And so I thought, OK, I'll go with that.
[19:18]Kind of an homage to Pop Smith.
[19:21]Oh, that's so nice.
[19:22]And of course, your book is no much to your family members
[19:26]as well and the whole dedication in the beginning.
[19:29]And it's so nice how you're bringing in everybody who
[19:32]kind of made you both who you are.
[19:34]It's really lovely.
[19:35]Well, you know, you are, you know,
[19:39]the wiring's been put in by all these people,
[19:42]but then different circuits are added by family and friends.
[19:46]And so you'd like to kind of remember those people,
[19:51]give them their props, you know,
[19:53]like in Courtney's side of the family as well.
[19:56]And my wife, Deborah, is a lot of these folks didn't
[20:00]a lot of the, the, the matriarch didn't write stuff down.
[20:04]And I also think some of it was, I'm not going to tell you this is my,
[20:09]oh, it's this and that and then yeah, but how much, you know, I look it in.
[20:14]So, you know, but I really am grateful that because this book would not really
[20:19]seriously would not have happened if it hadn't been for court these
[20:22]persistence because I was like, I'm fine, whatever.
[20:25]because she would, I, when I look back at it, you were, I, I was fairly
[20:29]obtuse about her hence.
[20:34]Enemy during the pandemic, she says, you see, because my son Nick and I were
[20:37]doing this thing, what we're cooking and all these people are, you know,
[20:41]responding and then keep asking about a cookbook, you should do a cookbook.
[20:44]Then it was like, we should do a cookbook and I'm like, okay, and it was like,
[20:49]just going over my head, you know, finally, she said,
[20:52]I mean, it sounds like you're pretty lucky to have Courtney is my
[20:56]different conversation.
[20:58]And I feel like I'm running the show.
[21:02]Yeah, there's this, that's, that's the thing I, I mean, I'm fairly
[21:10]hands-on in some things, but there are other things I'm very lazy fair about.
[21:13]And just kind of like, I don't know what ever and so, and so, like,
[21:18]dinner time, you know, my wife Deborah will say, what time, I'll say,
[21:21]what time do you want to have dinner?
[21:22]And then she'll say, no, what time do you want to have dinner?
[21:25]And I know that at the end of the day, it's going to be what time she wants
[21:29]to have dinner.
[21:30]It's always the same.
[21:31]And it's the, that's the biggest argument in our house is, is dinner time.
[21:36]And so I'm like, okay, just tell me what time you want to eat.
[21:40]It's, it's almost, it almost becomes a role reversal of the old trope
[21:45]about the, the little woman at home waiting to make dinner, you know, I'm
[21:48]waiting to, because I'm one of these people.
[21:51]I like to, I want, when we sit down, I want it to come off the stone.
[21:58]I don't want it just sitting.
[22:00]Or it's, it's why I'm timing it.
[22:02]This is why I asked you what time.
[22:04]And then, you know, it's not, and then, you know, it's just, it's just, it's just
[22:10]and then Deborah gets hangry and we get in a fight.
[22:12]That's just, anyway.
[22:14]More than you, but I know I relate to that.
[22:16]I mean, I feel like sometimes I ask my husband what he wants for dinner, just so
[22:20]he can say something so I can decide to disagree with it, right?
[22:23]Like, oh, you do?
[22:24]Yeah, you want that.
[22:25]Yeah.
[22:25]Actually, no, let's do this.
[22:28]So it's like, well, why don't you just tell me what you want?
[22:30]I don't know.
[22:31]I mean, why don't we, then we can, we can move on.
[22:33]I don't care.
[22:34]Well, at least it's nice to know what happens to everybody.
[22:36]So yeah, so there's that.
[22:38]Okay.
[22:39]Last thing, like, do you have any advice for people out there who want to try
[22:43]writing a book?
[22:45]That's a well, you, you really, you should really want to do it.
[22:49]Yeah, I mean, but, but why you want to do it?
[22:54]You know, it's, it's, I don't know.
[22:57]I just think that if there's something, they say right what you know.
[23:02]And you know, Courtney's a chef, she knows what she's doing.
[23:05]So that makes it a lot easier.
[23:09]And have a great team.
[23:10]Yeah.
[23:10]It's not just us.
[23:11]We had a great team also helping with everything behind the scenes, you know, because
[23:14]I feel like if you don't have a good team, sometimes there's arguing and back and
[23:17]forth and we got along with pretty much everybody.
[23:20]Yeah, the folks at Legacy Lit were lovely.
[23:23]And Courtney found the photographer Amy Roth who was terrific.
[23:26]And by the way, you know, I wrote a couple of cookbooks like only five years ago.
[23:31]At back then, the format for cookbooks was, you know, you had your recipes.
[23:36]And in the middle of the book, there maybe was three or four pages of photos.
[23:41]Like the select number of recipes.
[23:43]Well, fast forward to today, you got to have a photograph for every
[23:47]recipe.
[23:48]And so not only did Courtney design the recipes and write them, but she also styled all the
[23:54]food for photographs and which look fantastic.
[23:58]They do.
[23:59]It looks mouthwatering.
[24:00]Really, the whole thing.
[24:01]It makes me very hungry just to just to look at it.
[24:05]And what the other thing that's kind of sweet is that Courtney's
[24:09]pallet and even as a kid, she had a very Courtney ate what we ate.
[24:13]You know, we didn't do a lot of, I mean,
[24:16]but like mac and cheese like racking.
[24:17]And she like chicken nuggets all that.
[24:19]So, but that's not what we would eat.
[24:21]You know, this is more like if we went out, she might do that.
[24:24]Sushi.
[24:25]Yeah, she's eating sushi three years old.
[24:27]She had her own chopsticks at the local restaurant we had.
[24:30]And what's interesting is her daughter, Skye, has a fairly more savory pallet than sweet.
[24:36]Yeah.
[24:37]You know, she likes like we were in a diner in Jersey and I gave her half a lemon and she just kept
[24:41]sucking.
[24:42]They didn't really see you like kids.
[24:45]Kids will do anything.
[24:47]Yeah, and that's the thing.
[24:48]If they don't know what they don't like at this point,
[24:52]they just err it.
[24:52]Eat this, you know, and that although the only thing that I've noticed
[24:56]is it would broccoli.
[24:57]Yeah, she's like the top.
[24:58]She doesn't like the tops.
[24:59]She likes the tops.
[25:00]She likes the tops.
[25:02]Yeah.
[25:02]So bad.
[25:04]Time for Skye to, you know, go up to the leaves of this little tree of.
[25:08]Yeah, I'm looking forward to her again.
[25:11]Getting her that first little kitchen set, you know, with every kid to have, you know.
[25:14]I'll show love that.
[25:15]Oh, well, maybe a cookbook next for, you know, how to cook with your kids or something.
[25:22]Well, if we do that, I'm going to put you through.
[25:24]We'll give you an idea.
[25:24]We'll give you an idea of an idea.
[25:26]Please do.
[25:26]I'm in the acknowledgements.
[25:28]That's all I need.
[25:28]Just to know.
[25:29]Okay.
[25:31]Well, thank you so much to both of you for taking the time.
[25:34]I hope that the rest of the day goes well and I am excited to watch as you go all over and
[25:40]market this book. It'll be fun to watch.
[25:41]Thank you so much.
[25:42]Thank you.
[25:43]Thank you.
[25:43]Okay, take care.
[25:44]Bye-bye.
[25:47]Thanks for listening to mom's Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[25:50]If you love it, please leave a review and follow us on social at City Owens and at City Readers.