Best of Julia Sweeney: Nanaimo Bars

If waiting two whole weeks for a new episode of Your Last Meal is way too long, we’ve got something to tide you over.   On the weeks we’re not releasing a full-length episode of Your Last Meal, we’re airing The Leftovers: audio left on the cutting-room floor, interviews that host Rachel Belle really wants to do that don’t fit into the show’s usual format and, as you’ll hear today, a speed round with last week’s guest.      Which means you will now be getting a little taste of Your Last Meal every single Thursday!    Today’s episode features a never-before-heard interview with Tom Papa; comedian, writer, and sourdough-obsessed bread baker.   If you missed last week’s full interview with Tom, you can listen here.  Thanks to Visit Kitsap Peninsula for sponsoring this episode! Watch Rachel's new TV show, The Nosh with Rachel Belle on Cascade PBS!Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tom Papa is a bread nerd. The comedian, author and podcast host is quick to point out that he got obsessed with baking sourdough bread long before the pandemic sourdough craze. He loves to talk about sourdough, read about sourdough and, of course, bake and eat sourdough. So host Rachel Belle chats with the owner of a Seattle bakery that uses a sourdough starter that’s more than 150 years old. Pasta with butter and Parmesan may be the meal of choice for picky American children, but in Italy the simple, comforting dish has an entirely different context. Rachel calls Katie Parla, a Rome-based food and beverage writer and cookbook author, to learn more, and in the process learns the history of fettuccine Alfredo. Follow along on Instagram! Watch Rachel's new Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle!Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

By the end of this episode, you'll feel like the charming, hilarious and down-to-earth Julia Sweeney is your best friend! Julia and host Rachel Belle discuss everything from her true love of eating alone (and how that makes her husband feel) to the 60th birthday gift she gave herself: never dieting again. Julia wants to cap her last meal with Canada’s favorite no-bake, layered dessert: the Nanaimo bar! Rachel chats with Joyce Hardcastle, the contest winner who created the city’s official recipe back in 1986, and with the current mayor of Nanaimo, about the history of the bar and how ubiquitous it is in the Vancouver Island city it was named after. *This is a replay of an episode from 2022. Rachel lost her voice & hopes to be back with a brand-new episode next week!* Subscribe to Your Last Meal on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Follow along on Instagram! Watch Rachel's new Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle!Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tune in to The Nosh with Rachel Belle on April 5 at 8:50pm PST on Cascade PBS, channel 9 in WA and BC, or catch it anytime from anywhere online at www.cascadepbs.org (just scroll down a tad to the Local Originals) Do delicious bagels actually exist in Seattle? What’s the story behind the city’s first non-alcoholic bottle shop? These are just a couple of the topics Rachel Belle digs into on season one of The Nosh, where stories about the outdoors, art, culture and community are told through the lens of food and drink. On this episode of The Leftovers, Cascade PBS podcast producer and Northwest Reports co-host Maleeha Syed hops into the interview chair to ask Rachel about the show. Rachel spills some behind-the-scenes tea and talks about why hosting her first TV show in her 40s has special meaning. Subscribe to Your Last Meal on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Follow along on Instagram! Thanks to Visit Kitsap Peninsula for sponsoring this episode!Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vanessa Lachey’s first book, Life from Scratch: Family Traditions That Start with You is rooted in a deep and vulnerable place. Vanessa’s mom left when she was a little girl, depriving her of motherly advice, care and the Filipino food she craved. It took decades, but the actor and TV host finally felt empowered to stop mourning what she’d lost, and start creating her own special traditions for her young family – including a chicken adobo recipe her husband, 98 Degrees singer & Love Is Blind co-host Nick Lachey, loves. Vanessa and host Rachel Belle discuss how she secured a place in the Guinness Book of World Records (it’s food-related!) and why her family celebrates the holidays with a dish called Wiener-Bun Surprise. Vanessa loves lasagna, so obviously Rachel had to talk about America’s favorite curmudgeonly, lasagna-loving cartoon cat, and she digs into the etymology of the comforting Italian casserole. We’ll also learn about Lasagna Love, a nonprofit started during the pandemic. Rachel’s favorite lasagna recipe! Follow Rachel on Instagram and sign up for her newsletter!Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If waiting two whole weeks for a new episode of Your Last Meal to drop is way too long, I’ve got something to tide you over.  On the weeks we’re not releasing a full-length episode of Your Last Meal, we’ll be airing a new segment called The Leftovers: audio left on the cutting-room floor, interviews that host Rachel Belle really wants to do that don’t necessarily fit into the show’s usual format and, most often, as you’ll hear today, a speed round with last week’s guest.    Which means you will now be getting a little taste of Your Last Meal every single Thursday!  Today’s episode features a never-before-heard interview with Gavin Rossdale, singer and guitarist in Bush, one of the most popular grunge bands of the 1990s.   If you missed last week’s full interview with Gavin, you can listen here.  Subscribe to Your Last Meal on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Follow along on Instagram!Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gavin Rossdale, frontman for the grunge band Bush (anyone else have his photo on your wall in 1994??), loves to whip up big meals for friends and family in his L.A. home, but it’s nostalgic dishes from his British childhood that make his heart sing. Gavin grew up in England, eating traditional Sunday roast dinners. So host Rachel Belle chats with British food historian Dr. Neil Buttery about Britain’s favorite meal: How do you get the crispiest potatoes? What is Yorkshire pudding? We cover it all! And Gavin reveals which non-edible items you can find in his huge walk-in wine refrigerator. Follow Rachel Belle and YLM on Instagram!===================================== Here is Dr Buttery's favorite Yorkshire pudding recipe And one of his favorite roast potato recipesSupport the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do Super Bowl champions do after they retire from football? If you’re Seahawks legends Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor, you open a restaurant! Host Rachel Belle interviewed Kam and Richard back in October, at the grand opening of Legion Sports Bar, their “elevated soul food” restaurant named after the Legion of Boom, the nickname for the Seahawks’ legendary defense backfield. The guys talk about how they eat now compared to when they played football, and Sherman’s mom, Beverly, tells Rachel there is one food her son won’t eat unless she makes it. Then we check in with the Seahawks Performance Kitchen, where head chef Stuart McNabb and dietitian Andrea Vanderwoude are responsible for strategically feeding the team three meals a day, five days a week. Follow along on Instagram!Sign up for my newsletter!Become a Cascade PBS member!Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seattle’s Amanda Knox spent four years in an Italian prison for a murder she didn’t commit, while studying abroad in Perugia. Amanda joined host Rachel Belle on stage in Seattle for a live podcast recording where she was invited to share her experience, in her own words, after years of being misrepresented and mocked by the international press.   Amanda talks about what prison food was like; why she chose Italian food for her last meal despite her traumatic experience in the country; and how foraging for mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest helped with her recovery. And so much more!   Amanda is incredibly thoughtful, smart and funny – it’s truly a fantastic conversation!  Follow along on Instagram! Sign up for my newsletter!Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a kid, Moshe Kasher (Subculture Vulture, The Endless Honeymoon Podcast, Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy From Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16) led a double life. Most of the year he lived with his deaf single mother in Oakland, Calif., eating carob chips and other classic hippie foods, and in the summers he stayed with his deaf father, a born-again Hasidic Jew in Brooklyn who ate a strict kosher diet.   Moshe loves to rank things. In this episode, he ranks the world’s worst desserts and the best way to drink a Diet Coke. So host Rachel Belle and producer Isaac Kaplan Woolner do a side-by-side taste test, sampling Coke in a glass bottle, a can, a plastic bottle, a fountain soda and from a bar gun before compiling their own rankings.   Are Tofutti Cuties Jewish? Do you even know what a Tofutti Cutie is?? Tablet Magazine’s Esther Werdiger pops by to share the history of the little non-dairy ice cream sandwiches that both Moshe and Rachel grew up eating.   Not only is Moshe extremely funny, but he’s super-warm, a generous conversationalist and extremely quick witted – I think you’re gonna like this episode!  Follow along on Instagram! Sign up for my newsletter!  Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.