Harry Weidner: 0:04

All right, welcome back to our tangled minds.

Jack Weidner: 0:09

Welcome back to our tangled mind, Harry

Harry Weidner: 0:11

Weidner.

Jack Weidner: 0:12

I'm Jack Weidner and we're back

Harry Weidner: 0:16

after Thanksgiving.

Jack Weidner: 0:18

Woohoo, we

Harry Weidner: 0:19

had a great Thanksgiving

Jack Weidner: 0:21

uneventful.

Harry Weidner: 0:21

really honestly uneventful. Nothing too crazy happened.

Jack Weidner: 0:26

Really all you can ask. Yeah, it

Harry Weidner: 0:27

was nice to come home. It was nice to come home. I don't it had been a long time since I was home. Like many, many, many months, so it was nice to go back. And now I'm back in Boston, you say

Jack Weidner: 0:41

that, like you think you're better than me? Think you're better than me? Because you're up in Boston?

Harry Weidner: 0:44

No, no, no, no, no, no,

Jack Weidner: 0:46

you don't come home a lot. Well, it's

Harry Weidner: 0:47

just like it's far away. It's far. Oh, Mr.

Jack Weidner: 0:51

Big out of Towner coming home the grace of the peasants with his presents. Wow. Whoa, big Oh. Does it feel different? Coming back to town from the big city?

Harry Weidner: 1:07

No, it doesn't feel that. Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't feel different. It feels like going home. My perspective on going back is I always think it's going to be relaxing. And then it's never relaxing.

Jack Weidner: 1:20

Our house is not relaxing at all. So

Harry Weidner: 1:23

it's absolutely chaotic. And I think the crazy influx of everyone going back. It's like there's this. There's this pressure to see people and do all these things. And so it's never relaxing. I think my life is more relaxing here than it is back at home. But it is always nice to go home. And I loved seeing mom and I think she appreciated the fact that we were both home for the holiday. And

Jack Weidner: 1:46

yeah, oh, it's great. Mom doesn't get to see us both together a lot now or so. Should we talk about what time we ate Thanksgiving because that was kind of nuts.

Harry Weidner: 1:56

Yeah, I mean, we

Jack Weidner: 1:58

started eating at nine o'clock at night.

Harry Weidner: 2:00

I was pissed. I don't I don't know if you can tell. I thought I was really curious. I was.

Jack Weidner: 2:05

Yeah, you were like you were so like, sitting next to you. You were so tense. I was just tired when he you're like, I want to eat these mashed potatoes I don't want to go to

Harry Weidner: 2:14

I was so tired. I operate on different hours these days. And the combination of going to Philly, and then staying up late every night. Just didn't do me. Right. So I needed my routine and eating it. Eating Thanksgiving dinner at 9pm was just like the worst thing that could have had well, not the worst thing but it was it was not good. I didn't have fun.

Jack Weidner: 2:39

I never got the full story. Did we just not thought the turkey or I don't think I

Harry Weidner: 2:45

don't think anyone thought it through. I don't think anyone was like, Yeah, we should we should thaw the turkey or? I don't know. Is that what Yeah, I'm pretty sure. And no one was in a hurry because I wasn't. Yeah, no one was in a hurry to do anything. Well,

Jack Weidner: 3:03

I mean, God forbid you're not in a hurry on things. Well, here's like, if we're gonna do something we're gonna do it right. We're gonna do a proper.

Harry Weidner: 3:11

I don't know, I don't think we should have eaten at 9pm. But if we do that next year, I'll I

Jack Weidner: 3:16

thought it was nice. I thought it was casual. No one was smooth that food was

Harry Weidner: 3:20

let's move that back, like three hours. Let's move that up three hours.

Jack Weidner: 3:26

You can't have a non stressful I don't think I'm I think if you move it up, people are stressed. Because no one gets up as early as you do. So then like, all that time, you have to get up that much earlier. And that makes people be stressed. No. Do you put a timeframe on it? No,

Harry Weidner: 3:43

if you prepare properly. It should be done on time

Jack Weidner: 3:50

that you ask people to you asking our family to prepare properly is not going to happen that puts stress on I don't

Harry Weidner: 3:57

know. We'll see how we'll see how Christmas goes.

Jack Weidner: 4:01

Well, I'm cooking Christmas Eve. So well. What

Harry Weidner: 4:03

was this? What was this big thing about us doing? It? We don't need to get into it here but oh,

Jack Weidner: 4:09

we I can't even I and then you ask you ask follow up questions. And she's like, well, we'll talk you know, I don't know. We'll talk about it later. It's like what do you talk like me? You're changing the whole thing. Well,

Harry Weidner: 4:24

so for everyone listening Welcome to our family drama.

Jack Weidner: 4:29

Really is like I don't think we actually get

Harry Weidner: 4:32

what's happening at any given time. And and that's what Jack and I are unpacking right now, but it was nice to see you over break. Anything and nothing interesting Thanksgiving Eve. Not much to debrief from their blackout Wednesday.

Jack Weidner: 4:51

Is that what they call? Yeah, some

Harry Weidner: 4:52

people call it blackout Wednesday. I don't know. I think I'm over it. I'm done.

Jack Weidner: 4:58

I had half awake clock

Harry Weidner: 5:02

Yeah, I

Jack Weidner: 5:04

I'm curious what you want to

Harry Weidner: 5:05

talk about food. I don't have anything to talk about. I thought you had things to talk about because you like food more than spoilers suggest Jack and I are talking about food today. Because we talked about coffee last week. And and I thought it would be a good, good idea to talk about food. What that means I'm not quite sure. And find out. Yeah, I always think of Jack is someone who likes food and appreciates food and likes cooking food and thinking about food. You had your days where you were really obsessed with chefs and

Jack Weidner: 5:40

all of that. I still I still.

Harry Weidner: 5:43

You loved your cookbooks. And so I just kind of wanted to still do talk about your relationship with food.

Jack Weidner: 5:52

My relationship with food, I love food. I think food is one of the best parts about living.

Harry Weidner: 6:01

Okay, that's

Jack Weidner: 6:02

like full stop. I don't know. I mean, I think I got it. I wanted to start. I don't know why I always wanted to start cooking. I mean, to like, take it back to Thanksgiving. I remember when I was a little kid, I always wanted to be in the kitchen, with my mom making food. I was wanting to help cook family meals, especially Christmas Eve. For those listening that don't know, our family does the Italian American tradition of the Seven Fishes where you have this huge time feast with pastas and different kinds of seven different types of quote unquote, fish, but it's really just seafood. And I really I just wanted to help, you know, I was obsessed, like my grandmother has this box of old recipes that were handed down and collected from different friends. And it was just fun to be in the kitchen. And that I think when I was in high school, I started cooking more on my own to the chagrin of my mother because I make a mess in the kitchen. And my mother, if you use the kitchen, my mom just like it, she loses her mind. She can't handle pots being used. You get a crumb somewhere. And she's like Jack Weidner. John David, we do not eat in this house. And you're like, alright, mom, like, I promise I'll clean it up. And then like, so I started to, you know, experiment with things or start watching videos. And we're at a really great time in cooking right now where you can go online and learn a bunch of things about cooking. And I read what really transformed my relationship with food was reading this great cookbook, but we can talk about cookbooks later. And then I just started, you know, playing and playing and now, I love food, I love to go out to eat. And that's for a bunch of different reasons. But what's your history with you? We're never really interested in the kitchen at all. No, I'm

Harry Weidner: 7:49

completely uninterested in the kitchen. Not to say that I don't like to cook, I did get into cooking, like, over COVID A little more just because I have nothing better to do. But I think my relationship with food for a long, long, long time, that has just been like, How can I eat as healthy as possible as quickly as possible? And that that's like, that's how I've built my career.

Jack Weidner: 8:15

When did that start? Why do you think that started, I

Harry Weidner: 8:17

don't know, it started when i i So I would just eat whatever. And then at some point, maybe in high school, sophomore, junior year, it doesn't matter. I got into fitness and working out and eating healthy. And that sort of set me off. Honestly, on an an unhealthy relationship with food, I would do like measure my calories and count my macros, and that whole thing, and I had the kitchen scale, and I would weigh everything out. And that sort of transformed my relationship with food to just very transactional. And I'm going to treat these as numbers and I have to hit you know, this certain calorie count, and hit the protein and taking whatever and I don't know, it became too mechanical for me. And at some point, I was like, Hey, you gotta stop this. Like, this is getting almost obsessive. And so then I had done that for such a long time. That now I kind of understand how many calories I mean, because I don't think it's a it's an unimportant thing to think about. Like, I think shirts, it's good to know.

Jack Weidner: 9:33

There's validity to what you're eating. There's it can be very healthy to know what you're eating and what kinds of calories you're intake. Yeah. Or how many calories and what types of nutrients you're in taking.

Harry Weidner: 9:45

I still maintain that. But then in college, my diet became like meal prep, eat and then go on to the next thing food became very like no passing thing. It was like How can I quickly make of something

Jack Weidner: 10:02

you did to survive? You're like, I have to wake up tomorrow, how do I eat food,

Harry Weidner: 10:07

and it still in a way is like that I've I've lasered in pretty much everything that I eat in a day to be the healthiest, fastest and easiest thing to clean up. And so very much unlike you. I like don't spend a lot of time thinking about food.

Jack Weidner: 10:34

I think about food a lot I do. And I think for me, one of the most obsessive things about food is that I love thinking about food as a means of connection between people. I was gonna ask you about the food. Yeah, so fruit food for me is not just, you know, like putting things in my mouth. It's, I think about the tastes that I'm cooking with and how this is going to play with this and how you know, you need a little bit of acidity, if you're going to do a little bit of sweetness, or if you are cooking, little savory, maybe add a little bit of sugar, like how can I use nutmeg in a pasta dish, which is all very technical and fun for my like, science part of my brand or whatever. But I think for me, it just boils down to I love cooking for people seeing that reaction, getting to share a table with someone like it's a means for conversation. I love thinking about the cultural aspects of food. Like I love cooking Italian food. And I think that stems from the fact that you know, our mother's family is Italian and I grew up surrounded by those recipes. But I wanted to know the story of it. And I wanted to know, how were Italian immigrants changing the way they thought about food when they got to this country. You know, a lot of people a lot of Italians in New York, when they got here, they would order salt from the Mediterranean and they'd have it shipped over because the salt in America wasn't enough or you know, the idea of fresh produce, like the way people center their lives or on food as it changes as they move in as new ingredients become available. And that narrative is also very interesting to me. So I think there's so many layers to food, there's the art of cooking, there's the study of where what you're eating comes from, there's the community aspect of Are you are you going to the farmers market, are you buying local ingredients, and then there's, you know, there's a lot of different things that I'm obviously interested in with food, like inequality, and, you know, there's a lot of different layers that I can unpack. And I think I think about food so much, because when I'm, you know, one of my favorites, you know, if I'm gonna if I want to talk to someone, oh, let's go have a bite to eat, come over to the house. I'll cook you something. It's a way to share myself and to share stories. And I think that started because you know, if you read if you've watched enough Anthony Bourdain, if you listen to Jose, Andreas, if you do at XYZ things if you have a restaurant you love for me, like it's that kind of idea behind everything is infectious. And I'm curious why you and I don't share the same relationship with food. And I wanted to ask you, do you think your relationship with food changed when you were sick? No. Okay.

Harry Weidner: 13:17

No, I think that my relationship with food changed. When I started taking, I really do when I started taking my health more seriously. And when I started thinking, like, I like exercising, and I like working out and I want to maximize that. Because there was no that might Yeah, there there. The gap between my illness and there was a large gap. There was a big gap. And so I don't think that really played into it all that much.

Jack Weidner: 13:56

But so then my my other Oh, go ahead, I'll

Harry Weidner: 13:59

give you

Jack Weidner: 14:01

pretty sure because I Okay, um, I was gonna ask like what your relation. So I talked a lot about how food for me is a very, it's about community as much as it is the art of cooking itself and who you're feeding and where those ingredients are coming from. To me, I look not to get really like, you know, just whatever. But um, the dinner table is almost like a very sacred place for lack of a better term where I love, like surrounding myself with different people and talking to them. What is the dinner table to you? What like we just had a family meal. You said you were tired and annoyed the whole time like what does it mean to sit down with people? Do you sit down with people a lot with that relationship with food that you're just like yeah, nutrients and my

Harry Weidner: 14:46

I don't sit down with people a whole lot. And I don't know if that is the nature of my situation where I am right now. But I don't do that and I don't think about food the way you do. at all, as far as the dinner table being a place to connect with people, I can appreciate that and and I understand that. And I value that to a certain degree. But the food again takes sort of a back a back burner role.

Jack Weidner: 15:21

Well, I think we're uniquely situated that our family already positions so much around food. Yeah, we always collect in the kitchen. There's always food out. That is there is an app like we do and Apostolos like no one's business, you know. And we like, it was like, oh, let's sit while we finish up cooking the adults who have a glass of wine. Now we have a glass of wine. Like that is all I think, very collected around food. We always have bread in the house, there's always a boom, we'll just get out, you know, the gorgonzola cheese will have this. And it's just like, we're going to sit we're going to talk. Like, yeah, we had 60 different conversations in that kitchen before Thanksgiving, I think. But that was also around food. And our family, and I will say like, being introduced to other people's families, I don't think they do that. I think we're kind of I feel lucky to have had that experience growing up.

Harry Weidner: 16:19

I agree with that. I guess I just don't think about it the way that you think about it. Yeah,

Jack Weidner: 16:26

I guess because like I look at the food is bringing people in, you know, it's like, I think food is very powerful in the human psyche. Like, if you want to cheer someone up, you know, what do you feed them. If you want to show someone you love, you give them food, if you want to help someone survive, you nourish them with XYZ thing, if you want to hurt someone in like a very serious sense, you deprive them of food, you know, food is a very powerful thing. You can insult someone with the food that you make, you know, like knowings if someone if someone's gluten free, and then you make a whole meal, and you have nothing for them, like that hurts them because you've somehow insulted who they are as a person and how they eat. You know, and I think it's like just something that I think about where you can try so hard to accommodate everyone, which I think we're very lucky because our family does, you know, it's just like everyone's welcome in the kitchen, come through, you know, we're gonna have food for my gosh, when we were kids, mom would cook for like, 60 people, there'd be three of us. And it's like, you feel very comfortable inviting your friends over because you know, Mom's gonna make enough food. Like, come on.

Harry Weidner: 17:37

Yeah, she did. She always over cooks. And

Jack Weidner: 17:41

now I over cook, which is a pain. Yes, but anyways, I mean, that's a different thing.

Harry Weidner: 17:47

I love people who do that, like I'm sitting next to a Tupperware that I that I've had to return for months. And I'm sorry Ashlyn that I haven't done it yet. But I will bring your Tupperware back from the butternut squash pasta that you've made, and it was delicious. That sounds so good. So I appreciate those things. I just don't know. I

Jack Weidner: 18:07

mean, I don't think you have to, I just think I can't look at food and not think about that. Yeah.

Harry Weidner: 18:13

So I'm gonna ask you a question. Because I know you think about it these days, especially is how do you balance like the pleasure of eating with health considerations?

Jack Weidner: 18:25

This has been tough in something that I found a little easier. And I think not to sound like old man screams at cloud but I think social media has made this really hard. Because on one hand, you have these like very fit influencers being like, you can't be concerned about what you eat, like you just have to like enjoy your life, blah, blah, blah. And my friend was saying like, Oh my gosh, this influencer went to Italy. And she lost, you know, like 20 pounds and she wasn't concerned about what she ate. And I was like, you have to think about this. You can't hold yourself to that. You know, standard because Italy The portions are smaller, they're walking more, you know, you're eating different kinds of foods and different kinds of ingredients. Like if she did that knock Austin Texas, like we could have a conversation. But you know, it's like a different thing. So I think I'm good and I say that caveat because I don't want what I'm about to say to come off like annoying Yeah, but I've really tried to focus on how to use minimal ingredients, fresh ingredients, and then I'm very privileged in a position that I can afford to do that. But also just like thinking about what is healthy for me and how to make that tastes good. I've spent a lot of time playing with how to cook vegetables make this and that vegetarian. I don't cook with butter anymore. You know, I love to eat olive oil. So it's like, is a not focus on limiting myself as much as I'm focused on How do I make what I know is good for me taste amazing with what I'm given. And a book that really helped me do that is called salt, fat acid and heat by Sameen. Nos rat, I'm sorry if I butchered her last name, but it was just focusing on four different elements of cooking, and how you can boil that down and make everything taste really good. You know, what kind of salt are you using is a big thing. And you know, how do you roast veggies so that they taste amazing, you know, brussel sprouts, people used to boil them, and they were gross. And now we roast them. And they're amazing. Yeah. And how do you just play with simple ingredients to make simple things taste awesome. Like you add a little bit of lemon to vegetables get out of here that is delicious.

Harry Weidner: 20:50

And I think that's interesting that we've come to the same. A similar end on that because I have I have my meal. And my dinner. I'm not kidding. Almost every night is quinoa, a vegetable and a protein. And it's like, I could

Jack Weidner: 21:07

never eat the same thing every nice. But

Harry Weidner: 21:09

it's just like, so healthy. Yeah, it's, it's easy, and it's quick. And I've perfected my like, protein recipe. Like if I'm doing chicken or turkey like I just have it nailed down. And it's, it's as fresh as I can get it. And minimally processed. I think that's something I've been thinking a lot about. Recently, like, yeah, reducing the processing of my food. Even Yeah, even like a protein bar, like I'm trying to go for lower processing on that, because I don't know, everything's told me that higher processed foods are bad for you.

Jack Weidner: 21:56

We live in kind of a scary world where I think we all know that a lot of the stuff we eat is processed, it might not be good for us. We don't know how it's impacting us yet. And they're still gonna, like give us like, really, you know, highly processed stuff. But I don't think we know how it's impacting us. But we think I think we think we should stay away from it. I don't know. Yeah, it's interesting. Or the grocery store, like organic doesn't mean shit. But no, I, you know, like, where's the middle ground? I have a lot of gripes with organic but I was just gonna say like your meal. I don't mean to knock your meal. Like it sounds delicious. And I eat qinhuai A lot. Like I always have Kangwon my pantry. I just don't think I could eat the same thing. This is why I can't get in the meal prepping. I can't plan what I want to eat. On Friday on a Tuesday. I just can't. Because for me again, like food is still like even though I want to eat healthy. It's like, you know, what am I feeling like? Are we going to celebrate? Like, what if something comes up? Like what if someone gets a promotion? Like, should I have them over? What's their favorite meal? So I like to keep it a little loose. I plan meals like two days at a time. Yeah.

Harry Weidner: 23:01

I want to put out a disclaimer that like yes, I used to be very like obsessive about how many calories I ate and yada yada. But now I'm not like I really don't care about that. All that much. Like if if it's someone's birthday, and they're celebrate like I am. I'm not like, dead set on eating all this stuff. I know, oh my god. Yeah, I love that's a very Gakken I before this podcast, we just started. I love chocolate chip cookies more than anyone else in the entire world.

Jack Weidner: 23:33

It's so annoying, because if you look at Harry, especially after he's run a half marathon, you wouldn't look at him and go, that man can put away dozens and I mean, dozens plural of chocolate chip cookies in a single sitting. Yeah, like you put cookies away like no one's business. I just

Harry Weidner: 23:56

hammered. I hammered happened. Mom sent me home with food.

Jack Weidner: 24:01

I wanted something so bad. I

Harry Weidner: 24:05

erased that. I got back to box. And it was just sitting on my counter. And I was like delicate, very good. And I inhaled it

Jack Weidner: 24:14

was awesome. This is our grandmother's carrot cake that she makes and it's it's a pretty good tag. Yeah. Okay, anyways, while we're making disclaimers, I do want to talk about the point of privilege that I think and no one wants to hear this, but I have to say it the way we talk about food. And I think what we take for granted is we come from like, an extreme point of privilege. It's like we all want to say don't eat McDonald's. But for some people, they have that the way the system works. They don't have to, but that is an easy and like economic decision that they can and there's this stigma against canned vegetables, which really doesn't have that much. There's not a lot If any significant nutritional difference between fresh and canned, they've done a lot of research into it, but I think like to be able to be like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna go to the grocery store. Fresh stuff is like, that's comes from an incredible point of privilege. And I think, you know, we need to, to help other people, I think you need to erase the stigma, and then acknowledge, and then see what can be done differently. You know, how do you live your life? Or at least being conscious of that? Yeah. So that's very important to me. Because, again, like, you can't share it, you know, it's like, don't eat McDonald's. We have there's an obesity epidemic in this country, but it's like, what have we done as a society to lead people towards that? Is that their fault? Or is there a much larger problem in the system? Yeah. And I think you can't talk about food without that being openly discussed.

Harry Weidner: 25:48

Thank you. I just bouncing off that one second. Okay. You've heard about, like, semi glue ties, like ozempic. Okay, how? Yeah. So how is that going to change the entire infrastructure of food consumption? If I don't know, okay, I haven't actually thought about it. And I just started thinking about this, because I think it has massive public health implications. And so if you reduce the rate of obesity in the US by ozempic, and you reduce the cravings that people have for these processed, highly processed foods that are really not healthy for you, which ozempic does, then you have less cardiovascular disease, less diabetes, and then you have more money to spend in the healthcare sector on preventative measures, because you're not treating these chronic conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. And so that helps there. But also, how does that change the landscape of fast food in America? Because fewer people are craving these McDonald's or, you know, talk about or things like that. And then will that force them to offer healthier options? Maybe?

Jack Weidner: 27:10

Yeah, I don't know. That's really interesting. I think that the other part of it that I'd be interested in is the cost. Like, I think a lot of people go to McDonald's, not because they liked the taste as much as it might be cost effective for them and

Harry Weidner: 27:21

their family. Right. And long term I'd

Jack Weidner: 27:24

be curious to write I'd be curious to see long term. how that changes. Yeah.

Harry Weidner: 27:31

So I was just thinking about that. And I think that in the next 20 years, if access to the semi blue tides increases at a relatively affordable, that's

Jack Weidner: 27:45

my question, like, will the people that need it have access to it, I guess, is a public health question that I have no knowledge of, but I've just, you know, in the history that 10 The the people that need some of the medicine most tend to not have access, they're the ones who can't

Harry Weidner: 28:00

get it. So I don't know. But I think that there is to make change. I don't know why we're talking about this right now. But to make change. Yeah.

Jack Weidner: 28:13

If he was gonna be food, so this is okay,

Harry Weidner: 28:15

to make change. On the policy level, you almost need an economic incentive. And I would say that the economic incentive of saving billions of dollars in the healthcare sector could convince people to make this drug easily accessible, so that we reduce that burden. Yeah,

Jack Weidner: 28:39

no, I think that that's a really good thing. I think what I think the danger is, and this is something that I don't fully understand. But the the lobbying ability, I think what you're at is like, who can lobby more? Is there going to be like, appealing to logic with how much money you're gonna spend on public health? Or is it going to be the incredible amount of money that the agricultural industry has, like, beef and the beef industry has in this country and what the fast food market can do and everything, so I think that's a really interesting thing. I'll be excited to see what happens. Yeah,

Harry Weidner: 29:21

I think the next 20 years, I think the next 20 years are gonna be really interesting.

Jack Weidner: 29:26

I think the next 20 years is gonna be interesting for a lot of reasons. Yes, certainly one of them. I wanted to ask you so I taught I've alluded to how I grocery shop, and it drives people insane. How do you grocery shop i and then I'll, I'll tell you.

Harry Weidner: 29:40

Every Sunday I go to Trader Joe's with Riley and Aaron and sometimes Johnny and I am so efficient. I don't think anyone would be surprised that how efficient I grocery shop because I shocked I eat the same thing, like every week, and so I know exactly where the things are, and I know exactly what to grab, and maybe I'll grab something fun that catches my eye. But really like, I am in and out, you probably browse,

Jack Weidner: 30:10

or you're gonna tell I am the exact opposite. Yeah.

Harry Weidner: 30:14

You're gonna tell me that you go a few times a week. Yeah, and yeah, I do. I figured,

Jack Weidner: 30:21

I go with I go with a list. And I sent it. I said, So what are the grocery store with the list ones? It said protein veggies, olive oil. That was the list. Because I go, and I don't, I don't plan my meals ahead of time I plan my meals at the grocery store. Because I like to see like, what looks good, because I don't like being like, Oh, I'm gonna have brussel sprouts tonight. And I go there and the brussel sprouts look shitty. You're up creek without a paddle? Right? Yeah, no, I know. I don't want that to happen to me. If I go and I'm like, Ooh, how does the eggplant Look, maybe I can do something with this. I know I have sauce in my pantry. I can make like a quick. You know, like sauteed eggplant, mix it with a little sauce. I know, I always have pasta. And then I'm like planning my meals at the grocery store. And I'll go like a few times. So like, I'll buy fish, but I'll cook it that night. Maybe keep a little frozen. Keep some bread frozen. I like to keep staples in my pantry. I always have garlic. And I always have garlic and onions. Always have garlic and onions and then like a few staple things in my pantry like some grains, pasta. And then I like to buy like veggies and a meat onto a few days at a time. It drives people Berserk because they're like, What are we here for him? Like, I feel like it's like so like, view? It's like, it'll I'll know when it hits me. But it is because it's like, you know, what, if you want to have fish and they don't have fish,

Harry Weidner: 31:54

then what are you going to do? Then you don't know if you have to pivot anyways. So

Jack Weidner: 31:58

I prefer Yeah, but I I prefer to not have to pivot and just go in open minded anyways. works.

Harry Weidner: 32:06

I guess what I've boiled this entire conversation down to is that yeah, I don't place a high value on food, because I place higher value elsewhere. And that's not good nor bad. But that's just no, it's I choose to spend my time and energy. And so if I can offload the time and energy that I spend thinking about food, I can put that somewhere else in my life where I get more fulfillment, and you get a lot of fulfillment out of food, and I get less.

Jack Weidner: 32:36

And I Yeah, and I put my money there. It's like it's it's you know, you always say you don't yuck someone else's. Yeah, I think we need to start doing that with how people spend their time and money. Because that's included in the use. Now I know but not for a lot of people because they'll be like, used to grocery shop at this place that places two weeks blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They don't have blah, blah blah.

Harry Weidner: 33:00

No, I'm a big fan of just letting people live the life that they want to live in your life. Yeah, that's what it's about. I want to ask you what is your guilty pleasure food? Because I don't know the answer to this.

Jack Weidner: 33:13

I don't even know if I know any more. Guilty pleasure food. Oh, right now it's definitely that new key that I do with the gorgonzola crate. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's yeah, I started doing it with just like, I'll like steam it and gorgonzola or steam that the key that I just like, for those listening, my guilty pleasure food is I take like, pre made prepackaged gnocchi, and then I will saute it just like let it kind of crisp up in a pan with some olive oil. I will steam it and a little bit of white wine. Once it gets like crisp. And then I'll toss it with some gorgonzola, crumbled cheese. toss it all together. It's kind of like creamy, coats it and then you can just like eat it.

Harry Weidner: 34:01

Yeah, really good. I will say it is very good. And I like yeah, when you make that pretty good. Is there anything else that we should talk about food wise?

Jack Weidner: 34:12

I don't know. I just got the coolest cookbook. I went to see the author talk at a cookbook event. This is so nerdy. I'm gonna nerd out for a sec. It's called portico and it's called cooking and feasting and Rome's Jewish kitchen. And this chef and cookbook author, went into Rome to the Jewish into the historic Jewish Quarter. And she learned about the Jewish tradition of food and it has all these wonderful recipes on how British Jewish community that was really isolated and I don't want to say oppressed but they were cut off from the main community and looked at as lesser is very common in minority stories, but how they kind of thrived and a lot of like the wonderful food that I think we think of with Italian culture like Fried, mozzarella, fried artichoke, and just like really great recipes, and they're all in here as as well as the history of the Jewish population in Rome. So it's a really cool cookbook. And that's what I like about food. You know, we get some great recipes that I can have people over for like a Hanukkah meal. And they can and then I also get to learn about whole culture that I wasn't really familiar with. So it's so cool. And she's so cool. She's so nice. She said my book. Wow. And appetito Yeah, so she was great. It's really cool. Because like fried egg plant is historically yummy. She talks about that being historically Jewish, because it's a poor vegetable that the Jewish population had access to. So they fried it. People love fried eggplant, that's an Italian American staple. And I I didn't know the history beforehand, and you learn about it. It's so cool. And now you know, it's awesome. The more you knowledge weighs nothing Carell, you can

Harry Weidner: 36:05

thank you.

Jack Weidner: 36:07

Yeah, sorry. No, no, no, I think I got a nerd out a little bit. All right. Thank you for listening.

Harry Weidner: 36:18

Get it together. All right.

Jack Weidner: 36:22

Thank you for listening and seeing how this mess unraveled. Sorry for nerding out there at the end. I don't know how much hair is going to keep but I hope it was a little bit. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, you want to talk about food with us. You want to be on an episode, email us at our tangled minds@gmail.com You can also text us but I really want an email. Thank you to the people that have emailed us. We're gonna do an email episode here one day, and thank you so much. to CMS continues