Olive Oil Divine Podcast

From Breakfast to Dessert: Culinary Secrets with Olive Oil Divine

• Greg & Shirley Mueller • Episode 9

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Let's Get Cooking At Home With The Muellers!

Ever wondered if you could put olive oil in your morning coffee? Or how a dash of balsamic vinegar might transform your vanilla ice cream? Get ready for a culinary revelation as Greg and Shirley Mueller, the passionate owners behind Olive Oil Divine, welcome you into their kitchen for an intimate cooking demonstration that will forever change how you think about these pantry staples.

The magic begins with Shirley's breakfast innovations – brushing butter-flavored almond oil on bread before toasting (something you could never do with real butter!) and crafting vibrant fruit salads elevated with strawberry basil balsamic and champagne vinegar. Her practical tips extend to perfect bread dipping combinations and surprising dessert applications that showcase the versatility of premium balsamic vinegars. The black cherry balsamic drizzled sparingly over vanilla ice cream creates an unexpectedly sophisticated flavor profile that's absolutely divine.

Greg takes over with equally impressive culinary tricks, from transforming Greek yogurt into a creamsicle-inspired breakfast with blood orange olive oil to spicing up pimento cheese with ghost pepper balsamic hot sauce. He confidently debunks the myth that you can't fry with olive oil, demonstrating the technique while explaining the simple rule: high heat is fine for short durations, just don't let it smoke. The demonstration culminates with perhaps the most surprising application – adding butter-flavored olive oil to coffee for a subtle richness that enhances each sip. Throughout, the couple weaves in practical health information, noting the benefits of incorporating just two tablespoons of quality olive oil and three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar into your daily diet.

Ready to revolutionize your kitchen routine with these simple yet transformative techniques? Visit Oliveoildivine.com to explore their exceptional selection of olive oils and aged balsamic vinegars, or stop by their store if you're local. Your journey to becoming a kitchen hero starts with these accessible, flavorful upgrades to everyday dishes!

To learn more about Olive Oil Divine visit:
https://oliveoildivine.com/
Olive Oil Divine
2517 N. Roan Street
Johnson City, TN 37601
423-707-7087

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Olive Oil Divine podcast, your go-to source for culinary inspiration. Join Greg and Shirley Muller, owners of Olive Oil Divine, as they share tips, stories and insights to make you a kitchen hero. From authentic extra virgin olive oils to rich-aged Italian balsamic vinegars, We've got everything you need to elevate your cooking. Live divine.

Speaker 2:

Step inside the kitchen of Greg and Shirley Muller, where they walk us through a room that's equal parts pantry and playground for these food lovers. Welcome back everyone. Skip Monaco slash producer back in the studio with owners of Olive Oil Divine, greg and Shirley Muller. Greg, shirley, how's your week been so far?

Speaker 3:

Hey, it's been great and welcome to our kitchen.

Speaker 2:

Oh well, thank you. I am super excited today to be in uh in the famous kitchen of greg and shirley muller, and I hope, uh, assuming greg is behind the camera- greg is behind the camera all right. Hey, greg, hope you're doing well. Peachy, peachy, all right. Well, speaking of peachy, uh, like I said, I'm super excited to uh get a tour of your kitchen and see the masters in action. So if you don't mind, let's get the show on the road.

Speaker 3:

I'm ready, skip. We decided to do some simple things this morning with our oils and vinegars. A lot of people come in and ask questions, so one of my favorite things to do with a butter flavor almond oil is to add it to my toast. But the best part is, all I have to do is take a brush. I'll just take a basting brush and I just cut it all over the toast. Really well, just lightly brush it with butter and the best part part about this stick it in your toaster. You can't do that with butter and then I just wait for it to pop up my next thing I also wanted to do is a fruit salad.

Speaker 3:

you know skip. You asked me what I use champagne for. Well, just a little bit of balsamic over my fruit and I like to take our strawberry basil balsamic because it's really good over fruit and I just take a tablespoon of that, I just put it in my little tasting cup. Now champagne, you don't need a lot, so I just take a teaspoon of the champagne.

Speaker 3:

Almost looks like a shot glass. Yeah, I like shot glasses to do this with and I just mix it in, drizzle it right over the fruit and guess what I'm going to do? Skip, I'm going to have a bite of fruit.

Speaker 2:

You're going to torture Greg and I. That's what you're going to do.

Speaker 3:

Delicious.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I bet it's good, and that was strawberry basil, you said.

Speaker 3:

Strawberry, basil with champagne vinegar, and I like to use a variety of seasonal fruit Cherries, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, cantaloupe. It really depends on what fruit is in season and you can go with any fruit you want to go for it. That's one of my favorite ones to add over the fruit. Now let's talk a little bit about bread dipping. That's another popular thing that people come in and ask me for. So I just take Tuscany bread dipping and I use a good any good loaf of bread or you can also make sourdough bread is really good with it and I take a teaspoon of seasoning, just set it right in there. Now the oil and vinegar I just choose how much I want to use, but I just make sure I have enough in there to cover the seasonings really well. Just to make sure I have enough in there to cover the seasonings really well. Now you can eat it with either just an oil and a seasoning variety, or you can add the balsamic vinegar to this.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

Now look how pretty that is. Oh yeah, but you can also just use the bread dipping seasoning with the balsamic too.

Speaker 2:

You don't have to have all three in a combination. Oh, that looks amazing.

Speaker 3:

Toast popped up let's go back to the toast now. My favorite thing is you cannot put that in with real butter in it in a toaster, because it would melt down in the toaster and smoke would come out. I have toast. If I want to add a protein, I'll add just a little bit of peanut butter over that as well.

Speaker 2:

Oh wow now, wow Now. This just isn't right. You guys are getting to try everything. Not fair.

Speaker 3:

Now the best to last.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

Ice cream. I love a good vanilla bean ice cream, but I like to top it off with a balsamic. Really, I'm using the black cherry. Oh yes, and you don't want a heavenly heavy drizzle it, you just want to lightly add some balsamic. See how thick that is wow, I've never heard of that which Greg probably would have used a little more, but I like just a little bit of balsamic on it.

Speaker 2:

Delicious, oh wow, and you said that was black cherry balsamic.

Speaker 3:

Black cherry.

Speaker 2:

Oh, wow. Now, black cherry is my favorite ice cream, so I think I would love what you just did.

Speaker 3:

And I'll give you another tip you can take that black cherry and mix it in with any barbecue sauce and put it over the ribs. It's just delicious. It makes you go wow.

Speaker 2:

I bet I bet. Well, quick, quick question on the fruit drizzle. My wife eats a lot of. She does a lot of shakes where she makes a smoothie with fruit and you know almond milk and that sort of thing. Could you use some of that champagne in a smoothie as well?

Speaker 3:

You sure could, and one of the things I do when I do smoothies once I get all of my smoothie mixed in, I will take because I don't want to blend it in the in the blender when I put it in a cup I will take two tablespoons of olive oil and drizzle over that smoothie and then I will gently stir it in because I want those health benefits. And if you find, like we have the zoe, that's really high in polyphenols and it has that peppery taste to it, if you put it in your smoothie it actually helps you to be able to take it better. You don't get that pepperness flavor as strong and I don't put it in a blender because it actually will separate those properties, so you're not getting all those health benefits. So I just drizzle it over my smoothie and then I spoon it in.

Speaker 2:

Okay, very good to know. My wife makes one every day. But I thought, hmm, we might try a little olive oil or balsamic in there.

Speaker 3:

You could do balsamic, you could do an oil. It's really your choice of what you're looking for. Balsamic has health benefits too. You just take three tablespoons a day. Your oil is only two tablespoons a day.

Speaker 2:

Gotcha, gotcha, very good. Well, what else we got? Or is it Greg's turn?

Speaker 3:

It is Greg's turn. I want to turn you over to Greg.

Speaker 2:

All right, all right here, we'll make the swap really quickly. Okay, we'll make the swap really quickly Okay. All right. So now we've got the master in front of the camera and the master behind the camera, so not to trash anybody. So, greg, what do you got cooking for us?

Speaker 4:

Well, shirley started us off on a breakfast note with her toast, so you know, one of the things I wanted to show you Skip that I do is my daily yogurt in the morning. You know you can take olive oil my favorite is the blood orange and mix it in with your yogurt to get a nice yogurt with olive oil. This blood orange with the vanilla yogurt makes it taste like a creamsicle. Remember those creamsicles when we were growing up? Oh yeah, see that beautiful one Now, believe it or not, it just takes a little bit of stirring and that will eventually see how this just disappears. It's blending in nicely.

Speaker 2:

Is that just Greek yogurt?

Speaker 4:

That's just Greek yogurt. This is vanilla. I like the vanilla with the blood orange Doesn't take long, magnificent Blood orange. This is my breakfast, shusie, I'll take some of that fruit that Shirley has and put in there occasionally, oh nice.

Speaker 4:

But yeah you can take any flavor and put it in with your yogurt. Obviously, you want a fruity flavor, maybe the lemon or the lime. The blood orange is my favorite. The vanilla would be good if you want a really vanilla-y yogurt. So don't be afraid to do that Now, after breakfast. Of course, you know who doesn't like to have a snack in the day. One of my favorite snacks is pimento cheese. You like pimento cheese? Love pimento cheese? Oh, I do too, but I love it spicy. So I like the uh, our balsamic hot sauce that we have. This is just the plain, but we have several different flavors. I'll just drizzle a couple drops of that. It doesn't take much, because this is extremely hot. This is ghost pepper.

Speaker 2:

You do like it hot, don't you? Oh yeah.

Speaker 4:

Now you can take. You can take, you know, you can take the chipotle if you don't like it so hot. Actually, I like this in the pimento cheese as well, because it adds a little smoky flavor to it. But really great, that's perfect. Wow, picks it up a nice notch.

Speaker 2:

You guys are starving me.

Speaker 4:

That's good for breakfast too. I'll have to remember that that's good for breakfast too. I'll have to remember that, speaking of breakfast, we can go back to the egg and the oil. People say you can't fry with olive oil. I'm gonna show you that you can. Okay, so while I'm letting the stove heat up for just a minute, I'm gonna get my coffee going, because we're gonna use some coffee with olive oil also.

Speaker 4:

So we'll get that going. But if you're gonna fry with olive oil, you can fry at a high temperature for a short period of time. Just don't smoke it. If you see it start smoking, take it off. But it's perfectly fine to fry with an egg Skip. We may have to pause.

Speaker 4:

You're good, okay, we'll go ahead and get the pan up to temperature. Some people like to go ahead and bring the heat up slowly, but you know, if you don't an egg it doesn't really matter, it's still not gonna burn it. But I've got this on medium-high. Wow, smell that chipotle.

Speaker 2:

Oh boy, you can see it start to sizzle there that eggs cooking up nicely and you gonna have it over easy over easy.

Speaker 4:

I'm not the best egg cooker surely easy cooks my eggs but I can get the job done. It may not be pretty, but it sure tastes good, that's all that matters. So you know. You see, it's not burning, it's not smoking. I've even got it on high right now. Just watch your temperature. Don't leave it on high for a long time and you'll be fine with it.

Speaker 2:

Let's see if I can flip this without breaking that magnificent, beautiful yellow man. If we only had smell-o-vision, we could see what that I bet your kitchen smells amazing.

Speaker 4:

Oh, it's delicious, Can you?

Speaker 2:

hear that sizzle. Oh yeah, all right, yeah, so what temperature are you cooking on?

Speaker 4:

Well, right now I've got it on just one degree below high. You just got to watch it. You can't walk away from it because it will burn if you're not careful with it, so just stay on top of it. And there we've got a nice over easy egg. With chipotle olive oil.

Speaker 2:

Oh boy, Let me grab my spoon here oh yeah, gotta do the taste test here.

Speaker 4:

Hey, hey, I got an idea. Let me grab one of shirley's pieces of toast oh wow, stealer toast look at that sopping it up delicious.

Speaker 3:

Oh, wow, wow, can't forget the coffee the coffee's ready.

Speaker 2:

did you know you can put Mm-mm-mm. Delicious, oh wow.

Speaker 4:

Wow, can't forget the coffee. The coffee's ready. Did you know you can put olive oil in coffee?

Speaker 2:

I did not know that.

Speaker 4:

I like the butter olive oil. Just drizzle a little bit in there.

Speaker 2:

See how it sits on top Now every time you take a taste, you'll get just a slight taste of butter. It's wonderful.

Speaker 4:

I would imagine that's good for cholesterol too.

Speaker 2:

I would think it's not going to hurt.

Speaker 4:

That's what's most important. So Skip, there we go, we can fry, we can cook, and my coffee thief is stealing my coffee, I guess because I stole her toast.

Speaker 2:

Well, of course, of course.

Speaker 4:

Come eat with us anytime Skip.

Speaker 2:

Wow. Well, everything that you guys did looked absolutely delicious and, like I said, I wish we had smell-o-vision, because I'm sure it smells incredible as well, but it was great to see you guys. Thanks for sharing some recipes with us. We'll have to do this again sometime.

Speaker 4:

Oh, it's fine, we love it. We love to cook.

Speaker 2:

All right, well, greg Shirley. Thank you so much, shirley. Great job on the camera.

Speaker 3:

Thank you.

Speaker 2:

Have a great day you too, and we'll see you soon, okay thanks for tuning in to the olive oil divine podcast.

Speaker 1:

Don't forget to visit us online at oliveoildivinecom for our exceptional olive oils, aged balsamic vinegars and more. If you're local, stop by our store and discover how we can make you a kitchen hero. Until next time, live divine.