Unmi Abkin is a James Beard-nominated chef and co-owner with her husband, Chef Roger Taylor, of Coco & The Cellar Bar, a restaurant named after their daughter. It's located in Easthampton, Mass., which also is home to The Treehouse Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to ensure that children who experience foster care find lifelong families in supportive communities, enabling them to lead fulfilling and productive lives.
Unmi puts on a fundraiser for Treehouse every year, although 2020's event went virtual because of the pandemic. It's now a series of 15 videos of chefs preparing dishes geared for home cooks. Luckily for everyone who's interested in making great food, the videos will be accessible indefinitely on https://www.stirupsomelove.com/.
Unmi and Roger's video shows you how to prepare Honey Miso Noodle Salad, a customer favorite at Coco's and one of their daughter's favorite dishes as well. In other videos, you'll learn how to make Pasta Carbonara, Salad Niçoise, Highbrow Sticky Ribs, Cod Cakes with Remoulade, Salsa Verde with Chicken and Rice, Ricotta Dumpling Cacio e Pepe, Focaccia, Jambalaya, Eggplant Italiano on Ciabatta, Pork Mofongo, Chicken Scarpariella with Sicilian Zucchini, and Pan-fried Hake with Creamed Corn. You'll also learn how to decorate a cake and make the Best.Popcorn.Ever.
Whether you purchase one video ($20) or all 15 ($275), you'll be supporting restaurants in Western Massachusetts and, of course, The Treehouse Foundation.
Best of all, this is only Season 1. Unmi says they're already planning another series with more tantalizing dishes stirred up with love.
Unmi Abkin is a James Beard-nominated chef and co-owner with her husband, Chef Roger Taylor, of Coco & The Cellar Bar, a restaurant named after their daughter. It's located in Easthampton, Mass., which also is home to The Treehouse Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to ensure that children who experience foster care find lifelong families in supportive communities, enabling them to lead fulfilling and productive lives.
Unmi puts on a fundraiser for Treehouse every year, although 2020's event went virtual because of the pandemic. It's now a series of 15 videos of chefs preparing dishes geared for home cooks. Luckily for everyone who's interested in making great food, the videos will be accessible indefinitely on https://www.stirupsomelove.com/.
Unmi and Roger's video shows you how to prepare Honey Miso Noodle Salad, a customer favorite at Coco's and one of their daughter's favorite dishes as well. In other videos, you'll learn how to make Pasta Carbonara, Salad Niçoise, Highbrow Sticky Ribs, Cod Cakes with Remoulade, Salsa Verde with Chicken and Rice, Ricotta Dumpling Cacio e Pepe, Focaccia, Jambalaya, Eggplant Italiano on Ciabatta, Pork Mofongo, Chicken Scarpariella with Sicilian Zucchini, and Pan-fried Hake with Creamed Corn. You'll also learn how to decorate a cake and make the Best.Popcorn.Ever.
Whether you purchase one video ($20) or all 15 ($275), you'll be supporting restaurants in Western Massachusetts and, of course, The Treehouse Foundation.
Best of all, this is only Season 1. Unmi says they're already planning another series with more tantalizing dishes stirred up with love.
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[Music]
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hello welcome to
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at home radio a podcast about feeling at
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ease where we are
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being comfortable or at home with
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ourselves
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makes it easier to relate to others
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which can bring incredible meaning
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and delight to our lives and make us
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want to spread the love around
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i'm kate thomas and speaking of
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spreading love
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my guest today is unmi abkin a chef
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and restaurant owner who created a
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fundraiser called stir up
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some love it benefits the treehouse
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foundation
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a nonprofit that supports adoptive
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parents and their children
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before we get into the details of the
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fundraiser let's have
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unmi say a little about her life and why
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why she's passionate about children's
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causes would you mind doing that unmi
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oh yeah i'd love to do that um so i'll
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tell you a little bit about myself
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and then you will understand why i am
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such a i am so connected to
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treehouse um i was an orphan
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and i came from a background of
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instability and insecurity
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and i still struggle with those same
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issues that the children and
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families that treehouse work to overcome
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every day
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i remember eating from garbage cans
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being homeless and very ill
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with nowhere safe to rest and recover
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and i remember you know the sense of
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self-doubt that can haunt children who
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have lost their place in the world
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and need help love and commitment to
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help them find their place again
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you know i on my visit my first visit to
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treehouse
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i felt two very powerful emotions
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one was i felt that same sorrow that
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never leaves you completely and
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followed by a sense of tremendous
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gratitude
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that a place exists in western
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massachusetts
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that helps address the problems that can
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cut
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foster children orphans to their core
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um and you know the importance of
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treehouse is that there is support
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and love and understanding for
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both the adopted parents and the
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children
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um what i find is so many parents
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are not adopted parents are not
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prepared to deal on their own with the
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unique needs of children
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you know many have gone through so much
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trauma
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and i want to just um share
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an experience of mine that highlights
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the importance of the work treehouse is
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doing
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um i was six when i was adopted
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and there was a little girl at the
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orphanage who was
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adopted before me and
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i was very looking forward
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to being able to see a
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familiar face you know because i'm
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korean
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and i was raised in south korea
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i've never really
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experienced being around foreigners
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you know and in an orphanage um
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the gates would open and the foreigners
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would come in
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and um and all the children would go out
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because they wanted to be adopted
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and it's very scary you know not
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knowing where you're going so i
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found out this little girl was going to
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be living in the same neighborhood
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that i was moving to um
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and this was when you were done i was
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adopted
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i was adopted in korea oh okay i was in
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an orphanage
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um i was put in orphanage when i was six
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and um my parents my dad
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um was working for the embassy
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and um they had adopted me there and
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then we lived there for a couple of
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years in this
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embassy neighborhood um and
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they were american though they were yes
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yes yeah
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my dad is well i have a very
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interesting um multicultural family
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i'm korean um my father
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is a jewish susan
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and my mother is mexican and her whole
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family is from mexico
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so as a little orphan you know you've
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seen
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these two different people i've never
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seen people like that
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so i was very very relieved
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that there was a girl that i knew
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and so soon after i
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moved there with my new parents i found
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out that she had been sent back
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no and
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you know her family simply didn't have
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the tools
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necessary to cope with the challenges
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for caring for a child with
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a lot of trauma
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and what's amazing and why i support
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support
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tree house is that they provide the
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support
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that foster and adopted parents need um
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to deal with these challenges and are
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able to take care of you know
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create a home and you know a loving
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environment
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um and they go beyond that they're all
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it's the intergenerational
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um model so there are
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you know there are beautiful townhouses
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um for the families and then there's
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also
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townhouses for seniors
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who move there and they're like the
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grandparents
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so you know if the parents want to go
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out to dinner
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there's grandparents there wow you know
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if the
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kids want to just hang out with their
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grandma
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they can go to their townhouse
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so and if they need support there's
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a community there to support them so it
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really
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has um
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it's an incredible model and it works no
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kidding
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it's just uh it's well it uh um
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i understand that it's been it's won
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many
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national awards and it is a nonprofit um
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and um and that perhaps they're
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they or at least they're talking about
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expanding to other places
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and this model is just
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it's very it's holistic it also provides
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a real family
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and uh the children that come out of
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you know going through true house
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there's you know they go to college but
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then they could come back
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and they have a place to come to that's
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wonderful
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um and my our restaurant my husband and
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i own a restaurant
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it's actually named after our daughter
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coco
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we we have a fundraiser
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for the treehouse foundation every year
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this year we weren't able to um
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have our fundraiser so we just usually
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yeah with this creative idea
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so it's usually an in-person fundraiser
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but now with the pandemic
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you're doing this other thing um so
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so stir up some love what is it and
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i i understand it's for home cooks so
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it's a
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video series so tell us more please
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well stir up some love is our first
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um season um
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is there are 15 chefs
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and we each chef
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has brought in their you know you go
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into their kitchen
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in the restaurant or the home and
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recipes
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you know range from fan favorites
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um or if you want to learn how to make
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you know no need bread bread that you
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don't need to need
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um it's a variety of different recipes
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and
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there's just a lot of wonderful
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family-run restaurants in this area and
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you know you put the you put the video
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on and you get to see
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your favorite chefs doing what they do
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because you can't do it in person
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anymore
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right and for anybody around the country
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anybody
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anybody across the country yes can um
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just check this out
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learn how to make for focaccia i know that
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was one
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that i was um thought we'd tune into
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um what is your episode about
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our episode is um we teach you how to
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make
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one of the most popular dishes i've been
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making it for
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25 years it hasn't left the menus
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no it just keeps coming back um
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it's called honey miso noodles and there
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are fresh mermaid noodles that are
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tossed with um lots of
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you know different seasonal vegetables
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and
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um it has
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it you know the dressing is made with
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miso and some honey um
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ginger and the
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it's very light and sweet and tangy
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and salty all at the same time sounds
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lovely
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sounds really really good so um
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and i can't remember i looked up um i
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looked up stirrupsomelove.com
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which is how you can access these
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episodes
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and um i don't remember the other
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ones but there were a whole bunch that
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sounded really
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good and um that i'd like to check check
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out
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and what what people can do what viewers
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can do
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is they'll read a little bit about it
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see who the chef is and what the
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the recipe is and see if that's what the
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the one that they want to
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to watch and then they can either just
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choose one for 20
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to watch and um or they can choose the
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whole
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kit and caboodle and um for
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another price whatever that is i i can't
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remember it was
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200 and some dollars 200. i think it's
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275 dollars
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and then um the money this is
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what's really wonderful you've got this
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smorgasbord of chefs
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who invite viewers into their homes and
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restaurants
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and fling open their pantries i'm
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getting this from the website
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and and they're making 15 tantalizing
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dishes dishes and then
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they they give you easy to follow
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demonstrations using
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everyday ingredients i i think that
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sounds wonderful
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yeah this you know it's helping
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a community and it's also helping
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helps foundations
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fundraisers yes and you know it's also
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for us
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as cooks in this valley um
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it's such a treat to be able to see our
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peers doing what they do best oh yeah
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and you know clearly the pandemic has
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not been easy on restaurants
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anywhere oh my god my goodness it's been
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we've been hit so heavily by
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this pandemic yes so why
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are you doing this i mean i know you
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want to do it to support the treehouse
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you
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and 50 percent of
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the donations go to the restaurants and
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50
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go to the treehouse foundation which is
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great
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but maybe the question really isn't why
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but how did you convince other
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restaurateurs to do this
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when everybody's had so much to deal
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with anyway
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you know i think that it provided
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hope um it also
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lets everybody know that we're in this
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together
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um and i'm going to get a little teary
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but
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the support of the community has been
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amazing
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yes yes and
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it just gives us hope and it just brings
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the restaurant community is a very
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tight-knit
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loyal group of people
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and it's you know we're supporting
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each other
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just knowing that there's people out
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here
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who are thinking of us and even a small
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donation
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it's not just the money it's the
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the lord the love isn't it
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spreading that love
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i like that well you and your husband uh
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roger
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taylor who's also a chef
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you created a cookbook so do you want to
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talk about that too yeah the cookbook
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is we wanted to
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introduce um different asian ingredients
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and food from different parts of asia
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it's an introduction
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so makes it very accessible for
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people to make for example
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kimchi traditionally you make kimchi
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and you know you season it you salt it
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um and then you let it sit and you know
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across
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in a container and let it ferment and it
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usually takes about two weeks to get
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a really good kimchi that's through
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natural fermentation
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um but we thought hey you know
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what if somebody just wants to quickly
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put together
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a kimchi um so we came up with a recipe
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that you can make in
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half an hour so it's more like
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a it has the flavors of kimchi
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um but not as pungent so that's kind of
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reflects
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most of the recipes in our cookbook
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okay and the cook is called curry and
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kimchi
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there's um a different couple of
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different curry recipes
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lots of salads and most of the dishes
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you can do
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very quickly and with you know not too
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many ingredients
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that's great and is the book available
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now
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or is it available for pre-order oh no
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it the book came
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out um last
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oh last spring oh okay oh no i'm sorry
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no last fall
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it came out oh okay yeah and uh we were
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named uh one of the best books of 2020
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by npr great congratulations
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thank you but we do have a very
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blurb from alice waters who is a
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very famous chef out of california yeah
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have you heard of the restaurant chez panisse
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oh yes
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i i think i'm very lucky plenty of
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people who aren't in restaurants have
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heard of her
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and the restaurant oh yeah she's amazing
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so yeah we got we had some really good
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reception and you know what the
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really wonderful thing about it and i
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know it's a success
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because people come up to me and say you
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know what
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i can do it i can make your recipes
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you know there's oh there's cookbooks
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that have they're amazing
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it's very hard to make the dishes so you
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can just
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look at it and just imagine what it's
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going to taste like
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but our cookbook is so simple you can
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just you can make it at home
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and um people you know come up and say
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they do that's wonderful i i
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am glad to hear that so it's available
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on amazon
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barnes and noble
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amazon you could order it
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from any a lot of
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major stores and it was a collaboration
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with my husband my daughter and me
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that's so there's so there's yeah there
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is
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um so there's a lot so it's mainly
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all the dishes are asian influence
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except one no i'm sorry except
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two because we had to put it in there
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our daughter
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really insisted um one is
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mac and cheese okay
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does it have an asian twist
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you know he's asian it is always
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asian you know you've got green thai
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curry you have
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vegan curry you have you know pad thai
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you have general sauce and then you have
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mac and cheese
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all right well mix it up
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good for cooking you have to put the mac
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and cheese in there because it's good
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for kids
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and the honey miso noodle salad is
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there too because of her
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well she loves him and honey miso
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noodles but
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she do suggest that and i said did that
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work this is asian
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but i will and then she said you have to
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put the mac and cheese
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well she definitely has her opinions
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doesn't she yes
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yeah that's great well i you know wish
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you
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lots of luck you know hanging in there i
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know that your community is supporting
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you during this time
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the stirr up some love fundraiser
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sounds wonderful
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and we'll have you know links to that
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and again it's
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stir up some love dot com anybody can go
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to that
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and the videos will be available
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at least through this year if not
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indefinitely right i think it's going to
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be available indefinitely
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um there's uh our episode is coming
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out tomorrow um and then there's a ours
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is the second episode
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and that's the first one 24th that comes
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out
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yeah tomorrow yep okay
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and um and then there will be
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so that's the second one so there'll be
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13 more
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yes they're all different they're all
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different um
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they're all very different which is nice
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was it
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one how to decorate a cake or something
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was it
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yes this amanda from small oven
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and that's what she does she has a
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really wonderful little bakery
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okay very good well this is
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terrific um much luck and love to you
19:47
i hope that it works very very well
19:50
raising
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some funds to support the restaurant
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community and the treehouse foundation
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yes thank you and i hope you enjoy the
20:01
video
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yes i i most certainly will i have no
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doubt so
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thank you for being here thank
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you okay
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have a nice day thank you this is kate
20:11
thomas with at home radio
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until next time let's stir up some love
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[Music]
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you