Nicole Taylor digs into vegetables with Deborah Madison on this week's installment of Hot Grease. Deborah recently authored the veggie-focused cookbook Vegetable Literacy, and is here to share some great recipes with Nicole's listeners! Tune in to hear why vegetables are a huge part of every diet, whether or not you are a vegan or vegetarian. Hear about corn's versatility, and how you can incorporate different corn varieties into your kitchen. Later, Nicole and Deborah touch on Southern peas, and how they can add earthy flavors to any meal. Hear about peas' origins in North Africa, and how they are used in many Mediterranean dishes. Peas, peanuts, asparagus, and more- you don't want to miss this week's Hot Grease! Thanks to our sponsor, White Oak Pastures. Music provided by The California Honeydrops.

"We all need vegetables- you don't need to call yourself a vegetarian, or a vegan. Vegetables are part of our world." [2:30]

-- Deborah Madison on Hot Grease

This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined by J.M. Hirsch, Food Editor for the Associated Press. Get an insiders view on how food media has grown over the last decade and how Americans are starting to care more about their food and where it comes from. Hear J.M.'s thoughts on culinary education, food stamps and the sustainable food movement. How can we get people back in the kitchen and away from processed foods? Tune in and find out! This program was sponsored by Hearst Ranch.

"It is possible to eat really well without blowing the budget. Often, there's a knowledge gap. Those of us who best know how to make a food dollar stretch are the people who least need to to it."

"Once people get back in the kitchen and start cooking, basic skills will be learned and come back."

--J.M. Hirsch, food editor for the Associated Press on Straight, No Chaser

On this episode of A Taste of the Past, Linda Pelaccio is talking with cooking instructor, author and founder of LaVarenne Cooking School, Anne Willan. Anne's cookbook, The Cookbook Library, includes cooking instructions from four centuries of recipe history. Tune in to hear about cooking instructions from all over Europe throughout the ages, the history of dining utensils, and the role of illustrations in cooking manuals. Hear about some of the difficulties involved with recreating dishes from the 15th or 16th century. Anne has collected over 5,000 cookbooks, and you can find some excerpts of these gems of cookbook history in The Cookbook Library! This program has been brought to you by White Oak Pastures.

"It's wonderful because the whole of Europe was interested in writing down and recording what they were eating." -- Anne Willan on old cookbooks, A Taste of the Past

"The oldest recipes were the most difficult to recreate because hard to know just what ingredients tasted like and what people were getting, so it was kind of a bit of a guess. What I wanted to do was to present something that's feasible in a modern kitchen." --Anne Willan on A Taste of the Past