Dishes & Devotions makes every day delicious

The Canadian Agri Food Policy Institute is driving bold policy solutions for resilient Canadian agri food system and building a stronger future for Canadian agriculture. Visit capi-icpa.com to discover how. Well, it is Christmas time. So there's a lot of cooking going on and there's also you're looking for some late, last minute gift ideas. I got a good idea for you. Just joining us right now is a great friend of real agriculture. She is a writer, author as well speaker and a contributor to RFD tv. It is Tammy Arender. How are we doing today, Tammy? Shaun, it's good to be with you. I am doing fantastic. Now, you have interviewed me many times on RFD TV in the morning. So this is a bit of a switch of seats here. I'm looking forward to this. So you've got a new book out. The book is entitled Dishes and Devotions Make Every Day Delicious. Sounds very, sounds very yummy, to be honest with you. Tell us about what inspired you to write the book. You know, it's one of those things. It's been about 10 years in the making and about 18 months of diligent. Okay, we're going to make this happen, all right. Because I had a publisher friend and actually I say friend, I didn't know her. She reached out to me, she started following me and my little taste of tallulah. And I put that in quotation marks because Tallulah, Louisiana, is where I grew up. It's the farm I grew up on. My dad was a cotton and soybean farmer. And so a lot of what we ate came either from the garden or I also joke that if it, if it crawled, flew or ran across our yard, we shot it, put it in a skillet, put gravy on it, had a cornbread and it was a great meal. We loved it. But so she started following me and then reached out to me and just said, you know what? You really need to do a cookbook. And then I really got into baking and tweaking recipes and things like that. And I thought, I don't know if that's in me. But then she said, yep, you've got a storey to tell. And that's kind of when the light bulb moment went off, that if I was going to do a book, it was not just going to be a collection of recipes. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a Louisiana girl. So I came out of the womb knowing how to cook okay, and cook well. I wanted it to be my storey, the storey of growing up on the farm, how important agriculture was to us and how important it is now. And, you know, long before the farm to table movement, you know, came along. So I wanted it to be the storeys that lifted up my dad and farming and agriculture. But faith is very important to me and so I wanted to be able to have devotions as part of it because I've learned a lot of life lessons in the kitchen. All right, Number one being patience. Right. If you try and rush a recipe, especially in baking, it's not going to have a good outcome. I've had many a biscuit turn into a hockey puck because I wanted to rush it. All right. So anyway, I just wanted to give tips, I wanted to give inspiration and I wanted to lift up the industry that lifted me up and that was agriculture. Yeah. And the kitchen and cooking is really a way to connect people. Right. And in a time where it's a fast paced world and nobody's got time for really anything, and attention spans are like seven seconds. This is kind of a, you know, I kind of see a bit of a movement and a bit of a throwback to, like, just take the time. Let's hang out in the kitchen, let's do this. And we're not only going to share a great meal, but we're going to share storeys and we're going to have a conversation and really get back to kind of that idea of mingling. I think cooking really provides that opportunity. Shaun. I wanted to bottle that feeling that I had sitting around the table eating food that we grew. I didn't know we were eating cheap. I didn't realise that other families were driving to restaurants and going to eat out. We ate well. But it was more importantly about the discussion and the conversation around that table. That's where we connected. That's where we found out how our day went. That's where we found out where the challenges were and what the answers were to that challenge. You know, that's when I knew my mom and dad loved me. They wanted to know what happened during the day. And so I really want us to get back to that. Yes. Do I want this? I want this cookbook to give you some great recipes and especially some Louisiana recipes. Right. But I also want it to be that opportunity where you get in the kitchen and then come together around that table and have that conversation. Say, hey, tell me what's going on in your life today. Give me the highlights and the low lights. What is it about? I've been to Louisiana a couple times and the food is fantastic. From your perspective, growing up there and being passionate about the food that comes out of that region, what makes it so special? You know, we can always say that, number one. Laughter. You know, a lot of people say, well, everything's made with love in Louisiana, and it is. But one thing my daddy taught me is that he wanted to tickle my taste buds, but he also wanted to tickle my funny bone. I think laughter in Louisiana should be a food group, all right, because they're just funny storeys. And my daddy was a storyteller, and that's where I got my storytelling from. And. And then, Chris, I talked a lot. Talking nose off a moose. I swear my mama prayed, Lord, I hope she gets paid for talking. And. And so. And so I do. But so I tried to kind of wrap all of those things and. And also give people what makes Louisiana food special. Now, interestingly enough, Shaun, my book. And this is crazy, I'm not saying this in a braggadocious way, but. But my. My cookbook is number one on Amazon in the Cajun and Creole cooking, food and wine category. Nice. What is ironic about that? When I cook my Cajun food, like, there's recipes in there for shrimp and grits and. And crawfish etouffee, you know, and things like that. But I'm really a baker and a pastry girl. But my chapter on Cajun cooking is called the Softer side of Cajun Cooking, because they want to yank my Louisiana cord, because I'm not a fan of cayenne pepper, because my deal is if it's going to burn your mouth and set your mouth on fire at the first bite, it's ruined the rest of the meal. So I want you to have something that's authentically Louisiana, Cajun and Creole, but that you can enjoy the entire meal and you can feed it to your kids in. As you said, the book is not just about recipes, but it also is about storeys. But I want to ask you, what's your favourite dish that's in the book? You know, my go to dish and I tell people when I go out to eat, because a lot of people, whether I was living in Nashville or, you know, you and I both have covered these big conventions and a lot of fun cities, you know, outside of New Orleans. And when people want to order things like shrimp and grits or gumbo or red beans and rice at a restaurant that is not in Louisiana, yeah, I won't do it. And I know, again, that sounds like I'm snubbing my nose, but I'M like, I know I can do it better. Most restaurants and most people outside of Louisiana who say, oh, I can cook a Cajun dish for you, what they do is they pile a lot of cayenne pepper in there, make it spicy and they call it Cajun. And that's really not, you know, matter of fact, Emerald Lagasse and I, we've been in the same kitchen together and we both agreed that there is. It's not about cayenne pepper, it's about a marrying of flavours. And so my dish, my go to dish, when people come to my house or especially when I was living in Nashville, everybody wanted me to come to their house and do a Cajun. Especially around Mardi Gras, Cajun stuff, supper and Cajun dish. And so my go to was always my shrimp and grits. Oh, nice, nice. It's, it's interesting you mentioned that you are a baker as well. Are there some baking recipes in the book? That's really how this got started. That publisher I was telling you about, she became obsessed with my Taste of Tallulah Instagram page. And again, sometimes that's all about photography because you have no idea how it's tasting. You just say, oh, she, she had a presentation on a plate that looked really great. But here's the crazy way that I got started because I was such a tomboy growing up, Shaun. I mean, I was a daddy's girl. I was on the combine, I was on the tractor, I was packing cotton. You know, again, I'm, I'm old as dirt. So before the machinery came around to pack the cotton in the trailer, my sister and I would actually go play in the cotton after school. We thought we were playing and having fun. What we were doing is we were daddy's helpers packing that cotton down so that he could get more cotton in right before it went to the gym. And so, so we were having fun growing up that way. And so I didn't spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I didn't learn how to bake at my grandma's apron. It was a cold, wet, rainy day. I was living in Baton Rouge and again, I was an outdoors girl. I was either riding horses or Harleys after I left the farm and I couldn't get outside giving a homemade melt in your mouth yeast roll, you know, And I thought, well, instead of going to a restaurant, I'm going to try and make it. I had one of her, a cookbook with her recipe in it and called Brushy by you because we had this Little bayou that ran through Tallulah and it was called Brushy Bayou. And Shaun, I ended up that day making the best loaf of bread I'd ever put in my mouth. And that was the light bulb moment probably about 25 years ago that I said, I not only can follow a recipe, but I bet I can tweak a recipe and make it. Make it tamified and, you know, like I say, tickle Tammy's taste bud. And that's how it all started. Because, yeah, as a kid, I was not in the kitchen. I was a tomboy. I was hunting, I was fishing, I was riding a tractor or a horse. Yeah, great stuff. We've been talking to Tammy are under. She is the author of a book you need to cheque out. Dishes and Devotions Make Every Day Delicious. If Tammy wants to. If Tammy, if somebody wants to get their hands on this book. And I encourage everybody in the RealAg Radio and Rural Radio 147 audience to please get yourself a copy. How do they do that? You are so sweet to say that. I do want this to be a keepsake for folks. It is available on Amazon right now. You can also go to Tammy rn. And I realise a lot of people can't spell are under, but it's a word R like R U Shaun Haney. A R E N D E R. I also have dishesanddevotions.com and there's a link there where you can buy it as well. My heart, Shaun, is that people and this actually gets me really emotional, I want them to have an appreciation with this book, not just for good food but but for time with family to appreciate agriculture and farming and what that means to America and how every single day when we wake up, we ought to thank God and thank a farmer like it. Tammy, thanks so much for joining us here today. It is great to see you. You're a great friend and appreciate you joining us here today on Real Life Radio. Love you more than my KitchenAid mixer. Wow. And that's a lot. Okay. It's a lot.