522: Cinnamon Sticks

Molly 0:04

I'm Molly and I'm Matthew and this is spilled milk The show where we cook something delicious eat it all and you can't have any Yeah you did it I today we're talking about cinnamon sticks. Yes, it is almost Christmas when you're listening to this. Yeah, it is not even Halloween when we're recording this Do you

Unknown Speaker 0:21

remember? Have you seen the movie almost Christmas where a kid goes on tour with Santa. Please it's a real thing. It's almost famous where the kid goes away and water right Right. Exactly. But it's still water right?

Molly 0:39

Still water. Yeah, you're right. It's a sweet water. This week water is a bar in Mill Valley, California.

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:45

But also sweet water was a Seattle band.

Molly 0:48

Oh, it was Yeah. Wow. Sweet water. Mud, honey.

Unknown Speaker 0:51

Yeah, lots of sweet and marine River. So yeah, so I'm imagining like a version of that movie only it's like a kid who's really into Christmas and gets to go on tour with Santa I bet

Molly 1:01

this is this has elements of the polar polar where the kid gets to ride but

Unknown Speaker 1:06

what doesn't happen the Polar Express that would happen in this movie is that the kid gets to Fox some Santa groupies. Oh, yeah, cuz that's what every kid wants. Christmas grows I know when I say kid like this is like a 17 year old kid like I don't mean like a child.

Molly 1:22

Oh, and so part of the premise is that this this kid quote unquote doesn't believe in Santa anymore. Oh,

Matthew Amster-Burton 1:30

he believes a believer. Oh, I forgot to mention that. This is a porn app.

Unknown Speaker 1:38

Oh, okay. Okay, is this a porno that that he wrote? It's uh yeah, I'm shopping this Okay, it'll be coming to you before Christmas. Everybody get ready okay, almost Christmas yes the name of the movie

Molly 1:54

All right, so this episode apparently was suggested by me

Unknown Speaker 1:58

I think it was Yeah, okay well here we go at some point like we decide like you suggested and I agreed that it was really important to do a cinnamon stick episode for the holidays Oh,

Molly 2:07

I go me Yeah, good job me. You said you started out by saying it's almost Christmas. It is it's almost Christmas and maybe you have been using some cinnamon sticks lately. Okay, you're not gonna believe this? I used a cinnamon stick on Sunday I used to cinnamon stick last night okay yeah wow okay, so we're really we really are like the spirit has touched us Okay, well let's not talk yet about what we use cinnamon sticks for okay, but first of all let's go down memory lane and talk about what we have used cinnamon sticks for in the past or maybe what our parents have Okay, why don't you start Okay, so these were always in my parents spice cabinet and I remember them more for like their packaging than for their actual use sugar the little like the white metal tin that some spices came did have like a plastic flip up lid yeah that was either blue or red those those still format those cans I don't think they're very common anymore but like i i feel like i recently like within the last year or two bought like a storebrand spice that came in one of those cans. I currently have some smoked paprika that's in one of those cans and I have some Old Bay in a nice actually I think the old bait may be in a plastic tub but it's made to kind of look like the tin I'm looking over at my spice shelf to see if I have one I don't think and look at it. Okay, stand up. closest I have is a little can of saffron, but that's a classy looking Okay, that's not a tin anyway, so yeah, I particularly remember the sound of the cinnamon sticks when you would pick them up in their little metal tin and how they would rattle around in there.

Unknown Speaker 3:45

Oh yeah. Most of the other spices were very silent. There's a noisy silent silent spice Yeah, it's one of the Spice Girls was was kicked out of the band for obvious reasons.

Molly 3:59

Actually, she became a Christmas icon because she's she's an essential ingredient in silent night.

Unknown Speaker 4:05

spice. Yes. All right. They had their their their their Christmas number one song silent spice. It was sung by silence spice. Yeah, it was acapella because the rest of the band, you know she'd left the band. Wait, when you say acapella. You mean? Like there was no sound at all? Is that what you think? I felt

Molly 4:25

like, there was no instrumentation. Okay, but Oh, because because she was she's like the band. Oh, okay. And she had played all these because she couldn't sing because she was but but I mean like that also implies that she didn't make any noise by like playing the triangle. This is getting confusing. I don't understand why they hired her in the first place. I gotta say. Anyway, so I feel like the occasions when my parents used cinnamon sticks were few and far between. Yeah, same here. I think I remember a time Am I making mulled cider? Yeah, like maybe once I yeah, that definitely happened. Like I think maybe sometimes we would like have people over and it would be like a party. Yeah, I remember that too. And, and there might be like some spiced cider. I don't know if I'm remembering a real thing that happened a thing that happened in a hallmark movie or a thing that happened at someone else's house. Yeah, it's those are the different three classes of memories. Okay, well anyway, yeah, so I think that they probably went into some sort of beverage at some point. Yeah. And I'm also thinking that my mom occasionally made poached pears. Oh, okay. And I can't imagine a cinnamon stick being in the poaching bro. Yeah, but then again, so the poached pears that my mom did that I really remember. Well, so she did a red wine poached pear. That sounds classy. Doesn't this sound like so 90 It really does. You know what I'm talking about the other day Sorry to interrupt speaking of so 90s remember car braas people would have like like a black kind of like vinyl like yeah, strapped onto the frame. I always referred to them as shower caps. Okay, yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah. And like this was they were so ugly and this was a real thing that lots of people put on their car for I don't think any real reason no but was the idea like to put tech year No, he didn't even protect your bumper. No, I have no i did your grill it pretty. I guess it protected your grill like it kept maybe it kept like bugs out of the out of the grill. Who cares?

Unknown Speaker 6:35

I got so many bugs in my grill I think like it was it was like I think like a pure fat because like I think people got them because they saw that other people had gotten them. Even though they made no sense. What

Molly 6:45

also was the point of so do you remember like Max Headroom? You had the glasses that had like, like those kind of lights lit Yeah, those slits You know, I think first appeared in the back windshield of cars like Camaro, Corvettes. And what the heck was the point of those were they like anti reflective?

Unknown Speaker 7:07

I think the point was like, if you can see through the back window, then your car is in danger as in. Oh,

Molly 7:12

that's a good point. Right? I can I know. This morning driving over here. I was thinking this car would be so much more fun. Even if it had windows. No windows at all. Yeah. Okay, can I can I continue? Yes. So my mom had like a red wine poached pear and I can definitely imagine a cinnamon stick in there. The poached pears of hers that I really remember though these I don't think had cinnamon sticks, but I'm going to tell you about Oh, anyway, it was a poached pear. I don't remember what it was poached in. That's kind of important. Then she would dip the entire thing in chocolate. Oh, wow. And there is a photo of my mother somewhere. Peak, I think late 80s or early 90s. She's wearing a fur coat. And she's holding a tray. It just got cancelled. She's holding a tray of these chocolate cover like whole pairs that are covered in chocolate whole peeled pears covered in chocolate dipping fruit in chocolate is like as 80s as a car. Right? Yeah, right. Like we dipped our fruit and chocolate. We dipped at the front of our cars in vinyl. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's one in the same. Yeah. Delicious. What about you? What about your Was that good? Okay, well, two questions. Was that good? It was poached pear dipped in chocolate was good. How many different poached pears did she have in the repertoire? I'll ask her later today, but I think she had two pairs. Yeah, I think she had two poached pears. I also want to add that in this photo of her with the poached pears, she's wearing red lipstick she has her hair down and it's like naturally wavy. And I think she had red nail polish my mom at that time had long nails Wow. And she always had them like you know painted some bright color shows sounds like like a like an 80s like music video. Lee was she I always felt like she looked a little bit like like a less sexed up version of one of the Robert Palmer girls Oh yeah, that's that's what I was thinking. Yeah, like dark hair. You know intense lipstick nail polish. Yeah, yesterday, I learned that a friend of mine had never seen the November rain video and I said I know what we're doing for the next nine and a half minutes and it really changed his life. Oh my god. How was the like the the tongue slip the the Stephanie Seymour and Axl Rose kiss everything in that video is perfect. And her wedding dress? Yes. We'd like it's like the mullet wedding dresses like short in the front? Yeah. Yes. Going outside the church, which then becomes a tiny temple in a desert and he's playing his guitar solos. My friends comment on that was slashes deep knee bends are really making by Making me feel my own senescence. Oh, wow. Nice. Yes. Yeah, I was very impressed. Okay. Okay, Matthew, what about your memory lane? I also like I could not tell you like what is something that we actually use cinnamon sticks for besides spiced cider? I do remember like seeing them on the spy shelf and thinking oh, that's one of the special spices and I hope like someday I forget to use one of those. Like, what were the other special ratalie spices that were not silent spice? nutmeg. Yeah, except i have to say i never my parents always had ground nutmeg. I don't know if we actually had I other whole spices. Yeah, I didn't encounter a whole nutmeg until I was I think like living on my own. Yeah, no, that that that was like a defining moment. Oh, it was I've never bought ground nutmeg ever since because I'm such an asshole. Yeah, I think I'm the same. Yeah, maybe we had whole clothes. Well, yeah, everybody's got to have whole clothes. I mean, what else are you going to stick in your oranges? That's right. No, I would never eat an orange with that sticky 300 whole clothes. Speaking of which, Matthew again sorry listeners we're recording this episode on September 30. But why do you have to peel the curtain? so looking forward to all like so Matthew? Do you remember this about me? This is something I've only learned about myself in the last like five to eight years. I love the lead up to Christmas

Matthew Amster-Burton 11:31

Yeah, I do know this about I

Molly 11:34

like my spouse is continually surprised because I'm not a big like holiday or birthday person. Do you deal with your mom or do you have like a Google Doc started for what you're going to put in your Christmas cookie tin? Not yet. Okay, not yet. But I get so excited about like cutting down the tree putting up the tree wait Do you always do you go to a Christmas tree farm where you cut your own tree or do you just steal a tree we have so as you may remember part of our yard is literally like a Pacific Northwest jungle that just the other day I was saying to ash like I don't even know why we tried to tame this like nature just wants to be nature Yeah. Anyway but so two out of the last five years we have been able to cut down a volunteer from our yard I did I didn't know this at all because it like I mean everyone if you've been to Seattle you will know what I mean. Like if you give nature no chance it is gonna grow something massive true like

Unknown Speaker 12:37

a lot of people live in places where they look around and like my wish we had more trees and greenery and Seattle like trees are like a past

Molly 12:43

yeah trees are like if you don't properly maintain your one square foot of yard or whatever is soon it's going to be completely overgrown with stuff we grew a couple volunteers I mean they were small Matthew but they were like, like I love Charlie Brown Christmas Charlie Brown Christmas trees and one of them was growing too close to another tree so that was perfect. We needed to cut it down anyway, the only problem is the trunks of them were like so narrow that they don't fit in any Christmas trees to hand and so we wouldn't hold it up for a few weeks the two years that we did this we had to like really figure out how to stand this thing up because it was just it was not going to work in any Christmas tree stand so Okay, so first of all do how did you stand it up? One year we took a like half gallon mason jar and filled it with rocks and then the tree up another year we did successfully find a stand for like mini Christmas trees but even but then the stand was very tippy it's like too shallow if you have your sights on a victim for this year are you gonna have to go commercial we're gonna have to go commercial so the the the other few years recently that we have not had a volunteer that we could cut down. We have gone to a Christmas tree farm like an hour or so away from here. And it's always really fun. I mean, it's muddy and it's cold and it's rainy. I remember all of this from childhood, but it's like so delightful. I mean, what else are you going to do on a winter weekend in early December? Yeah, this all this is going to be a B plot in the movie. Oh, okay. Anyway, yeah, so we cut down our Christmas tree. We we always decorate the tree we always cut snowflakes. Oh yeah. There's always cookie and candy making. I don't really like present wrapping but I get through it. What else do I enjoy about Christmas? Oh my god. So many pine scented candles. Pine scented candles got but then Christmas morning comes and I'm like, wow, like I just I don't care about actual Christmas. Oh, it's not very patient. For you, oh god, it's all about the anticipation. Yeah, I can't understand that. Yeah, I like I like actual Christmas too. Okay, like I feel listen to Christmas music not I'm not the one who puts on Christmas music except that I love the Bad Religion Christmas album Christmas songs. So good. It's a it's a punk rock Christmas album. feel great about nonclassical Christmas. I understand what you mean. And generally I think I agree but this one is just done so well and they're like my favorite band so my spouse loves Mannheim steamroller. No, I love man steamroller which is not classical. But my spouse loves a Hanson Christmas Of course like it is a profoundly important part of their childhood their love for Hanson It was one of the few bands that they were really allowed to listen to as a child Oh wow. And ash and their sister love the Hanson Christmas music and I I'm trying I'm really trying but I kind of don't want to be trying

Unknown Speaker 16:02

is Hansen one of those bands that like seems like innocent on the surface. But if you've read the lyrics closely, okay, great.

Molly 16:10

No, no. In the time since I have known ash they have gone to a Hanson Christmas concert. It's awesome with their sibling that I

Unknown Speaker 16:19

love that you do like I don't know my spouse. No, I don't I don't want to go myself. But like that seems like like it must have been such a such

Molly 16:28

a thrill for them. They were beside themselves. They were so excited. Is there is there a Bieber Christmas album? Not that I'm aware of. But I'm gonna know very soon should we make a Christmas album? Probably. Okay. Okay, like with all all songs based on in jokes from the show? Yeah. Can I say what my favorite Christmas albums are? Yeah, please. Okay, so I really love john Fay. He's Christmas albums. Okay, I know who that is like a classical guitarist. He has two Christmas albums I think. I mean I find them like staggeringly beautiful. I can't get enough of them and then I also love of course, Charlie Brown Christmas.

Matthew Amster-Burton 17:10

Yeah, we often have the Aimee Mann Christmas album on which is very good. Oh, I don't know that one. I think it's called another drifter in the snow. Oh,

Molly 17:19

okay. If I searched Amy man Christmas but I find it vague probably. Yeah. Okay. What makes like cool musicians do Christmas.

Unknown Speaker 17:28

Oh, they want to earn money. Oh, capitalism. Yeah, okay. Well that's what makes Christmas anyway I think in the case of Bad Religion it's that they wanted to do a bunch of like mostly like very religious Christmas songs like totally like in their style, but like not in a joking way at all and just see if that was kind of fun. And it was cool. Great. I'll try it. Alright, so very skeptical. Yeah, I don't know. Like do I like the run up to Christmas? Like I think of myself as being too curmudgeonly to appreciate that but honestly, I think I kind of do

Molly 18:02

yeah, okay, what's what's the thing that you are most looking forward to at this point? Well, I'm the stocking stuffer okay so so it's like it's it's securing the stocking fillings that is always fun securing the stocking fill and like who feels you're sucking?

Unknown Speaker 18:19

You know, the the other members of my family. Okay, but you do the two of them. Okay. Yeah, no,

Unknown Speaker 18:24

I don't feel my own stocking. That would be just checking. Okay, that would be like what I did when I met my clone. I think that might have been something we talked about before. Yes, that started I'm feeling my own stocky something that you would see in the movie almost Christmas.

Molly 18:46

Like I like going to watch in my head like finding a bunch of cool stocking stuff. Oh my god, I should go through this year to get Christmas stuff for June. Yeah, dude, that's a good idea.

Unknown Speaker 18:55

And like picking picking like wife, Laurie likes likes getting some socks in her stocking.

Molly 19:03

Yeah, and I don't even mind wrapping presents. It's always satisfying when they look really good. Yeah, I mean, no mind never do but like it's okay. It's also satisfying to see them accumulate under the tree it is Yeah, yeah. You know what I always like when a box of presents comes from a relative and I get to open it and suddenly there are a lot of presents under the tree that we didn't pay for. Yeah, it's that's the best I always like that part. Let's talk about cinnamon sticks. Alright, what are cinnamon sticks? Yeah, they come from Do you have to find them in your yard? So I actually learned some things doing okay. I think I'm going to as well I haven't really looked at the agenda. Well, I think that you know, maybe other people knew more about cinnamon sticks than I did. I think some people do, but some people know less. I knew that it was a type of bark. Yeah. Anyway, here, let's talk about what I learned from Wikipedia so cinnamon is a spice obviously and it's obtained from the inner bark of several evergreen tree species from the genus cinnamomum. Would that be Santa mama I yeah I think Sanam no I said toffee Okay, we you know we did a cinnamon episode it was a long time ago it was Episode Number 249 I wonder what we said about cinnamon then I maybe should have listened to the same stuff but it's okay like most most of our listeners probably haven't listened to that episode. Great. Anyway so I think cinnamon cultivation is kind of interesting. So we're going to talk about here Yeah, do you think I'm the only one who thinks no saying Okay, I'm gonna I'm think I'm going to be the second person who does Oh good. Okay, so when a cinnamon tree so again like these, this is an evergreen tree and there are some different species of this genus that are used to make the spice we call cinnamon What does it

Unknown Speaker 20:56

look like? Does it I mean, when you say evergreen tree like does it look like a pine tree kind of or?

Molly 21:02

It doesn't because it grows in places that are hot, hotter than here like you know, Sri Lanka front. Okay, so I don't really remember what it looked like when I looked at the pictures if you like walk up to it and sniff it does it smell like cinnamon? You would think it does. I don't know. I would like to try it. Okay, corporate retreat. 2020 cinnamon tree farm. Okay, cut down our annual cinnamon tree. So when a cinnamon tree is about two years old, it is coppiced meaning that it's cut down nearly to ground level.

Unknown Speaker 21:36

Okay, okay, I knew about this because I'm going to jump can we do a new segment that we're going to call mini Mr mini etymology or maybe mini Mr. Adam ology. Or like mini me stir Annamalai TV stir? Okay? That's what it is. Okay? A coppiced wooded area is called a cops. Now that word fancy book

Molly 22:04

I always figured that a cops was just a like a grove. Yeah, I

Matthew Amster-Burton 22:09

thought so too, but it comes from coppiced.

Molly 22:11

Okay, so let's let's learn about why they cops Yeah, trees. Okay,

Matthew Amster-Burton 22:15

I don't know it just seems so mean.

Molly 22:16

So what happens is when you coppice trees, it causes the plant to grow like a bush. So basically what it means is that lots of new shoots emerge from the stump Okay, as opposed to just like you know, let's say one trunk with branches coming off of it. You get lots of little shoots that come out of one stump

Unknown Speaker 22:38

Okay, okay, is that is that like the trees way of like saying like fuck you for cutting that down when I was two years old and like all of those shoots or middle fingers I wish that would happen with the volunteer Christmas trees we cut down every so what you didn't coppice them correctly.

Molly 22:54

That's true. I think they weren't the right age or something. Can any tree be coppiced? Probably not probably not It seems to me that certain trees I can't imagine sending up little like little shoots I like how I said that is if I thought we were going to come up with the right answer Yeah, surely by deduction. Also I just said that I can't imagine certain trees sending up little shoots while I'm not sure where where else I think trees come from you have

Unknown Speaker 23:17

a no drops sky. You have to be really careful when you got in your yard.

Molly 23:24

Okay, anyway, so it's these young shoots that are used to make cinnamon Okay, and once they're cut down the shoots are stripped of their bark while they're still fresh. And so the inner bark is still like damp kind of Yeah, I can see that and after that outer bark is removed and I think it's at least in the production of certain types of cinnamon the outer bark is discarded I believe. But anyway the the remaining branch that like inner bark is beaten evenly with a hammer to kind of loosen the inner bark which is then pried off in long rolls How did you figure this

Unknown Speaker 24:06

out? Like this you know people say like you know like how did so you know who first decided to eat an oyster but that's just like I found an oyster I was hungry. Like maybe it looked like a little weird but how did someone figure this there must be okay first of all there must have been an aroma that drew them in

Molly 24:23

right and i think that they will so hold on well we'll get to talking about the outer bark in a second. Okay, so But anyway, once so the inner bark is pried off in these rolls right and it is then dried and as it dries it naturally curls into what are called quills we also call them sticks. Oh wait so so those aren't like hand rolled Merino it naturally know that at all. Yeah. And then so what we know as cinnamon sticks are cut as like once it's dried. What I want to talk about actually is a little bit of the differences between Like these different species of cinnamon tree okay so different types of cinnamon vary in their like texture and the texture of her stick as you may have noticed so say lawn which is often called which is like Sri Lankan cinnamon it's also sometimes called True cinnamon yeah it is the the cinnamon bark is thin and has a kind of more crumbling texture okay and that's because it's made from only that very thin inner bark okay okay but also because of something inherent to the the actual like Ceylon cinnamon tree right okay now other types of cinnamon for instance kaseya which is a different species actually from Ceylon cinnamon but it's it's like the most commonly it's all right and so the thing is that kaseya if you have a stick of kaseya which I do in my hand great it is going to be tougher because all the layers of the bark are used in making it Do you think I could break this with my hands possibly but it's going to be really difficult Yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 26:13

can tell I could but I'm afraid like a spite like a sharp bet is gonna go flying off Yeah, and we don't the show doesn't provide health insurance. So Okay, there we go. It was okay, we survived. So really, it's pretty hardy

Molly 26:26

apparently is really good if you took a stick of Ceylon cinnamon so again, like what is often called Sri Lankan or true cinnamon that you could probably grind up pretty easily at home and get a pretty fine grind. On the other hand kaseya being tougher and denser is going to be much harder to grind at home or and harder to grind evenly let's talk about this Okay, so you've done this are you oh it's spice grinder time. This says Garam Yeah, so I I make my own garam masala Yep, I always throw in like a length of cinnamon stick and just grind into my spice grinder. And it's Cassius cinnamon and it's not like super powdery finely ground but I don't think you'd notice any cinnamon chunks in there so yeah, that's really good. Oh my god. Yeah, so it's cinnamon, cardamom bayleaf chili Cayenne well so you know honestly, I'm a little bit confused even after doing this research because what I have often been told is like the really good cinnamon is Saigon cinnamon or Vietnamese cinnamon yes that's what I usually buy from penzeys spices okay and I wonder it is that like the same species as Ceylon are definitely a Cassius cinnamon oh it's still a cat yes cinnamon Oh, so I think like I don't think that Ceylon or Sri Lankan cinnamon is like better Okay, it's like yeah, it's kind of like you know the original thing that was called cinnamon baby I also think that a lot i don't think i don't mean it's worse either. It's just different it's more delicate flavor I think that a lot of us particularly in like American baking that tends to use a lot of cinnamon Yeah. I think that a lot of us might find that Ceylon cinnamon was almost like a little too soft for what we're looking for in cinnamon flavor I wonder like if there are if there are like recipes that like are designed to specifically highlight the the milder like rounder flavor of the Ceylon cinnamon I imagine there are I would think so. Who knows like because I mean I assume it's probably like in Sri Lanka, it's probably used in cooking a lot and like you know, there have certainly been times when I've made like a curry or like a biryani or something yeah, where like I thought it was too soon if I made it with Cassius to cinnamon forward and of course I could have used less but I wonder if like those recipes are often designed with Ceylon cinnamon in mind.

Unknown Speaker 28:55

Oh, that is a really interesting thought. Yeah, and I don't even necessarily like recipes that are like written for an American audience but like that the original version of that dish would have been made right with Ceylon cinnamon well,

Molly 29:07

and I wonder too, if Yeah, I mean, if the Ceylon cinnamon would have been more appealing to you in the dish, yeah, I like order so I've never I've never like ever bought the salad. No, me neither. Okay, well so Matthew I did put a photo here in our agenda of some cinnamon quills or cinnamon sticks with Ceylon cinnamon here you can see it almost looks a little bit like what are those like little wave rolled wafer cookies? Oh, he should lean No. No euroline maybe spirulina. spirulina. Yeah. Anyway, like pure lean, but it it really looks like crumbly on the inside. Whereas the the the one that is kaseya definitely looks tougher, thicker. It looks like a piece of bark. So Anyway, I want to talk more I want to hear more from mini Meester etymology. Okay? I wonder like before we get too many Mr. Leighton Meester his little brother um, what was I gonna say? Oh I have no idea right so do you think they were like that? They tried a bunch of barks and we're like this is the good one

Unknown Speaker 30:24

I'm sure you know they probably like cheese plated them they probably cheese like come like everyone come around we're having a bark days day.

Molly 30:33

Yes. Yeah, well so well this is actually not a mini Mr. entomology This is just a straight up Mr. Etymology. Okay. This is the big guy. Yeah. So, early modern English, use the names canal and canalla for cinnamon, which are similar to the current names of cinnamon in several European languages. Sure. So in French it's canal canela in Spanish. Yeah, that sounds right. And they're all derived from the word Canella, which is Latin and it's so here's what's cool. Canella in Latin, is a diminutive of kana or Connor. Which means tube for the way that bark curls up as Oh, I wonder I'm trying to think if there are any words like remaining in English that that are like tube related and have that root aniela What's that? Was that something you just said? No, it's some sort of medical term Okay, like I think it's the oxygen thing that goes in your nose There we go. I'm pretty sure hang on let me just I'm going to fry up canister.

Unknown Speaker 31:32

Oh wait, can is Can't Wait is that but is that the same? I mean, it seems like it probably is.

Molly 31:41

A kanila is a thin tube that doctors insert into a person's body cavity such as their nose or a vein. Did they Yeah, just because they're mean yes. Are they also the ones going around cutting down these two year old trees? Yes, yeah doctors um this is very interesting Yeah, but I feel like we can't seems to it seems too easy like are we gonna stop and look it up or I'm gonna look this up the root of shy look up like etymology of can yeah tamala

Unknown Speaker 32:11

g of can day Hello Hello Do you have Mr etymology and again

Molly 32:18

interesting is it different This seems not quite right i mean what website you're like yeah it's like Mr. Etymology calm because that's a fake website that Oxford languages I think that is can is in to be able etymology of eight can etymology of a can. Okay, generally a small cylindrical sheet metal vessel used to contain liquids preserves etc that's what I use them for. So it comes from the Old English can see a n n e this looks like it's going in toward Anglo Saxon Okay, is that different from mine probably an earlier borrowing from late Latin kana container vessel from Latin cannot read but is that yeah yeah I've read as a tube Yeah, yeah. Okay cool so that was Mr. Etymology just went on a journey wow back with the goods in a can I'm speaking of the goods how do you use your cinnamon sticks so I don't use them very often but I mean it does seem like we go through like a few of them every couple years and then have to order more so like I do I probably most often grind them into homemade garam masala or put them in in a biryani specifically we're like okay, you know, it's gonna be made with like a few whole spices that are gonna get either picked out or surprisingly bid down upon Oh, I love that. I use a cinnamon stick in my favorite mulled wine recipe Okay, which didn't we do a mulled wine? Yeah, and that was when I first found this recipe online it's actually like a combination mulled cider and mulled wine. I remember that remember it's a tea it uses a really like light bodied red wine and apple cider. And it is delicious. We'll link to it in the show notes and I highly recommend making it it is so I am not usually a mulled wine person because I don't love the flavor of like a bigger bodied red wine that's heated there like spices and stuff but but this lighter red wine with the apple cider. Oh so good. I'm gonna make this like this very holiday season. It's so good. It's really so good. We should sit around and sip cider we should you put on here. Oh, I want to sit around and sip cider. That's I didn't pause to appreciate that image long enough. You're welcome. You put on Moroccan dishes like tea jeans or stewed meats. Absolutely. This is something that I always tell myself like I want to learn to cook like jeans and have not done so. And I think we need to do an episode episode on this. Like get a guest who's like a Moroccan cookbook author. I think we absolutely should. do that because I would love to learn more. Or I yeah, I would love to have like a standard recipe for a great maybe like lamb touchy. Yeah, that sounds really good. Let's Let's aim for that this winter All right, okay, you know what about rice pudding? I think a lot of rice puddings call for a cinnamon stick I've never made rice put you have. I've certainly eaten rice pudding and it's always pretty good but like I like my rice pudding pretty plain. I'll be honest, I put a vanilla bean in mine. Okay, that sounds good. That's pretty much it. But I do I have encountered recipes that use vanilla beans are a thing that we've occasionally had on hand and like never used Oh, there are certain places that I really like using vanilla beans particularly. Okay, so there's a roasted rhubarb dish that I make. Oh, you know, it's like basically rhubarb in a Dutch oven with some liquid. I think it might actually be white wine or rosae a little bit of sugar and vanilla bean that's delicious. Also, my friend Jess fector used to have a blog and introduced me to the idea of roasted apricots done in a similar way. Okay, you roast them in like a kind of sweet white wine with vanilla bean. Speaking of apricots this morning I was asked by a teenager the show December tots D to help open a box full of cheese it's and I kept like reaching for like a corner like a flap on the box there and they were like no not that one that's not the official way to open the box. And I'm like next time Next time you ask me to open a box I just gonna rip it in half like a cartoon strong man. And and wait for the show Laurie said oh you mean like how Mali rifts Afrikaans and

Unknown Speaker 36:50

yeah, so you have a reputation around here? Yes. As like a fruit murder. Oh. And she doesn't even know that you didn't even see me You cut down trees in your yard with extreme prejudice.

Molly 37:03

Yeah, hold on. I'm not done. Yeah, I believe there is a cake recipe in a homemade life that is just a simple like white cake that I put vanilla bean in and that is delicious. I mean, vanilla bean is so expensive and yet at the same time, if you shell out for a couple of them and keep them well sealed, you can keep them for a very long time. Okay. I mean I yeah, I mean, they lasted a really long time at our house because we never used Yeah, I have found that they keep really nicely in a mason jar that has a good seal. Okay, they stay nice and pliable. A mason jar that's full of rocks and has a small Christmas tree. Exactly. Anyway, but it's really nice to have around. I mean, I definitely liked the idea and I think maybe sometimes watts will use them in making ice cream we went through a homemade ice cream phase or if you're doing anything that I hope will recur, you know, when I was in my early 20s and like, more intensely Franco philic I did more like tarts and things like that. And I made like pastry creams and always needed a vanilla bean for that. Yeah. Okay, um,

Unknown Speaker 38:14

pastry cream is so good. Like I know they make it all the time on Bake Off. So good. Why don't we use that stuff? Yeah, like I was thinking about making homemade eclairs which I know like there there would be problems but

Molly 38:27

Oh, but but making puff or making shoe pastry. Making shoe pastry is really quite easy. Yeah, no, I know. Watson tosti took a cream puff class recently from a friend of the show Sunoco. Sekai and and they made it it was it was delicious and it seemed like it wasn't very hard. Oh, fantastic. I think that maybe I will make Yeah, what about would you ever serve a mug of like hot beverage weather hot cocoa cider? I would serve on whatever with a cinnamon stick as a replacement for a spoon. Or what if what if like someone came to your house? He said Can I interest you in a mug of hot beverage? I think I've actually said that one before I don't think I've ever done this like used it as a stirring stick but it seems like something that would be done like in a in a comic or a TV show? It seems like something that would be it would be like a food styling or fruit

Unknown Speaker 39:20

salad thing like like this like here's how we're letting you know that this is like a seasonal hot trick. Yes.

Molly 39:26

I mean it's it is probably good. It seems like a waste of a cinnamon Yeah, I guess so. And I also I don't understand sprinkling cinnamon on top of like, like yeah, espresso drink, although I generally agree but for a short time there was this like super Italian cappuccino bar down by the Art Museum. Did you ever go to this place downtown? No, it wasn't there very long. And they really like the cappuccino was their specialty drink and they were like, you know we do this Italian style and if you don't like it go somewhere else and they did spray called little cinnamon. Have you ever had I think it's the cafe Nico at the cafe de Matthew after we taped this we should walk down and get cafe Nico's. I think we can do this all right. Anyway. Yeah, I don't think I want to serve a cinnamon stick it okay, but I want to see it on a TV show. Of course it's not Christmas if you have not seen it. There's gonna be a lot of that in the movie almost Christmas. Matthew, Do we have anything else to say about cinnamon sticks? I do not. I think we found so much more than I thought we would find. Yes. I learned them in state. We learned something about cans. Like Did you think at this point in your life? You were gonna learn something new that you never realized about can No, me neither. No. Let's go on to sex. Okay, would you like to read our spilled mail I would love to. So our spilled mail today comes from listener Carly Carly says I would love to know if you could only buy five pantry items for the rest of your life. What would they be? Thanks. Hold on. Wait by pantry items. Do we mean shelf stable? I think shelf stable or like long time in the refrigerator. Okay, okay. Um, I did not prep for this at all. So I didn't do it on the fly. All right. Okay. Diamond crystal kosher salt. Oh, I gotta go with that. I gotta take that too. Can I just copy? diamond crystal kosher salt. A salted butter rolled oats. Interesting. Yeah, okay, rolled outs. Man this is really tough it is I think I'm going to go with some kind of being okay, I'm just gonna put a bean I mean maybe garbanzo but I'm just gonna stick with a bean and then you go ahead Okay, so like con for our pantry items distinct from from like condiments and flavorings. Are those two those overlap? Because like I definitely putting soy sauce number one is that if that doesn't pan out? Yeah, that's the entry item. kosher salt. I'm gonna have to do that too. Okay, bread flour. Oh, okay. Okay. Because like usually like you know, I like making like pizza and bread flour stuff. Okay, all purpose would be fine to have it's good quality. Okay, all right. No, no, no looking around this off the top of my head. I am going to say Sichuan is dovan Jang chili bean paste. Okay. Oh, that's a strong I'm also up to four. Now. I figured out my fifth one. Okay. Olive oil. Olive oil. Yeah, I'm gonna say I was gonna I was gonna like just like cheat and just go peanut oil, but like, okay, so really like these are my only five pantry ingredients. This is really tough. Okay, so I already got something spicy. I need a vinegar. Oh, you're right. You something. Yeah. I'm gonna say rice vinegar.

Unknown Speaker 42:41

Okay. All right. All right. So it's really Yeah. Can we combine our two pantries? I think we could but we'd have to get married

Molly 42:52

to come down pantries still can't get married. I do not believe in combining pantries. Matthew, do you have anything you're excited about this week aka now but wow.

Yes, I do. If you came to our most recent in person live show which was like I don't know 2020 months ago, you saw hilarious Seattle comedian de bois George J. It because she opened for us at that show. She's one of my favorite stand up comics and she has a podcast that is currently kind of on hiatus but I'm I'm hoping that if I just like put it out there like it will encourage her to to restart it. It's called dank moms and she co hosts it with another comic as Shannon co Yano and the premise of the show is just to single moms get high and talk about whatever and they are both incredibly hilarious people and so it is always a ridiculous ad fun conversation it's just like it's pure joy. Oh, that sounds great. dank mom's podcast wherever you get podcasts Awesome. Well our producer as ever is Abby sercotel app please rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. You can also you know what we would love to hear from you what your five pantry ingredients are? Yeah, you know five Okay, so the phrasing is if you could only buy five pantry items for the rest of your life. What would they be? Yeah, go tell us on Reddit comm slash are slash everything spilled milk? Yeah, maybe maybe. Producer Abby will start a thread for this if someone else doesn't get to it first. Okay, and until next time, thank you for listening to spilled milk.

Unknown Speaker 44:33

What sad Spice Girl song. Want to be if you want to be my lover, gotta get with my cans. Oh god. You want to be my lover you gotta get with how my cans is pretty good. It's

Molly 44:48

ready. Good. Okay, I'm Molly weisenberger. Silence Mize from now on. All right, I guess we started the show. Okay, great. Do you remember when we tried to record the other day and I I'm totally messed up the intro because I couldn't remember what it was. Yeah, it was great. Do you remember when we recorded fake ads? Oh god that was really yeah I don't remember was always one where you could like there was it was like a True Confessions line where you could call the past Yeah, what was it called? Oh, it was like 119 100 phone you

Unknown Speaker 45:28

like something that was trying to be phone eular phone you back to back to the year that was it. Okay, great. We got it. Wow, what was the we were so proud of that if it's whoops, the other one? Ah, I don't remember. Okay. All right.