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Dishing with Stephanie's Dish

Dishing with Stephanie's Dish

Von: Stephanie Hansen - @StephaniesDish
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I talk with Cookbook authors and Makers obsessed with food

stephaniehansen.substack.comStephanie Hansen Kochen Kunst Lebensmittel & Wein
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  • Dishing With Stephanies Dish

    Dishing With Stephanies Dish
    Jul 10 2026
    My guest is Kurt Johnson Co-author of The Moon Tavern, A Culinary Love Story With Recipes. The Moon Tavern takes the reader on a romantic and culinary journey through the Islands of Croatia, where dark family secrets are revealed, quirky friends and relatives are found, and love is discovered.Vesna, or Ves, is a cookbook writer from Minneapolis who travels to the remote, exotic island of Lastovo off Croatia's Mediterranean coast to reconnect with her biological grandmother. She'd been adopted as a young child after her parents died in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. Ves is also fleeing a frayed relationship with her live-in partner, Reed.In Lastovo, she meets Dinko, a single, handsome, and wealthy vineyard owner, and his cute daughter Mia. With his help with the translation, Ves discovers her biological family's history and the dark secrets of what happened during the war. Romance, travel, and cooking ensue. She ultimately learns what matters most to her: simplicity in life, closeness with family, and someone to share love with. And, of course, food!Stephanie [00:00:00]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie’s Dish, the podcast where we talk to people in the food space and other spaces. All the spaces of all the fun things. Kurt is my spouse, Kurt Johnson, and also the co author of the Moon Tavern, a culinary romance with recipes. It is a fiction book that is available on your bookshelf now. Welcome to the podcast, Kurt.Kurt Johnson [00:00:22]:Hi, thanks for having me.Stephanie [00:00:24]:Thanks for having us. The idea that we should work on a book together. I am, as many of you listening know, a cookbook writer and my husband is a fiction writer. And somewhere along the way, we decided that maybe it would be good to collaborate together. Kurt, was it you or me that had the idea first? I think it was you.Kurt Johnson [00:00:42]:Yeah, probably. I was kind of done with my past book writing about Las Vegas and looking for something different. And we’d been traveling a lot, so going to Croatia, going to Italy, going out west, going to Turkey. So I wanted to incorporate travel with a novel, and I also wanted to incorporate food. And so I thought this would be a lot of fun. Since we’re traveling together, we have those shared experiences and you have the food experience and the food writing experience. So I thought it’d be a fun collaboration. And I’ve always liked the idea of love stories.Kurt Johnson [00:01:18]:Even my thriller books in Las Vegas had kind of a love story element. And it adds a dimension to a novel that, I don’t know, makes it cohesive, makes it pull together in an emotional arc that’s kind of fulfilling in the end.Stephanie [00:01:33]:Do you think you’re a romantic at heart, or what is it about romances that are fun to write for you?Kurt Johnson [00:01:39]:Maybe I’m a romance at heart. I may be more stoic than that, though. I just. I like the idea of seeing people get together, seeing people enjoy the same interests and finding people that can fall in love. Of course, that’s always the fun part. The hard part is once you get married and move on from there and have to deal with kids and daily life and work and all the other things that go with living life. And that’s not that much fun to write.Stephanie [00:02:07]:Yeah, exactly. We as a couple, I think I can speak for me and you maybe on this one. We’ve always had great experiences traveling. We are good traveling companions. We like the spirit of adventure. Did you know that Croatia would be the spot for the first fiction endeavor?Kurt Johnson [00:02:24]:Yeah, that was a given since we’d been there five times and four times running a sailboat and visiting the islands. And as you know, Stephanie, I’m just enamored with those islands, I think they’re so beautiful. And there was one island we discovered out there, Lastovo, which is the furthest island out. So a lot of the sailors and tourists just never get there. They stay closer to shore. So, you know, going out there the first time, this beautiful bay of Zachlopedia, where, you know, it’s a, it’s a protective cove which is beautiful turquoise water. And then taking the dinghy in, and then you walk up this path, I think it’s about a two mile hike. And then you go over this ridge and this 16th, 15th century town opens up.Kurt Johnson [00:03:10]:You know, at one point maybe it had 10,000 residents. And, and it, it, when we first saw it, I don’t know, 10, 15 years ago, it was abandoned. So it was a ghost town of 15th century buildings and churches and apartments in this beautiful valley of lush green foliage. So that’s very picturesque. We had an incredible meal there of just simple anchovies and blitfa. And for you, for you people out there that don’t know, blitfa is ubiquitous in Croatia. And it’s, it’s just spring potatoes with Swiss chard, but it’s served with everything.Stephanie [00:03:52]:It is served with everything. And ...
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    21 Min.
  • South Africa on Safari is our next group trip Destination

    South Africa on Safari is our next group trip Destination
    Apr 24 2026
    Original Episode Transcript FollowsStephanie Hansen:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie’s Dish, the podcast where we talk to people in the food space. And also today, we’re going to talk travel, because whenever I travel, food’s always a big part of it. I’m here with my friend Michael Kenny, and he owns the travel agency Defined Destinations. And Michael and I met and have gone on a number of trips. We’ve gone to Croatia together. We’re just about to embark on Turkey. We are also planning a new trip that we just launched, that is a trip to South Africa. And a lot of times the best way to get people excited about these trips is to talk about them.And Michael does more than that. He scouts them out for me first. So, Michael, you went to this trip?Michael Kenney:I did. I’m your personal scout, but I love it. There’s not a. There’s not a better deal than being able to do that and then going on with you and Kurt and with everybody else. So we’ve had some fun adventures. But, yes, I recently got back with my family. We went scouted this South Africa trip out, or Southern Africa, I should say that we visit four different countries. And it was.I’ve been on a safari before, but it was in. In Kenya, which was fabulous as well. But this is a whole different experience. So I brought my wife and my two kids, and we had one of the best experiences, from seeing Cape Town to Johannesburg and then all the wildlife, different lodges and on boats. So we do all these different sorts of transportation and see four different countries. And it was unbelievable. I came back really, really excited. I was excited in the beginning, but having gone on it and then really first experiencing it firsthand was phenomenal.And. And I knew you and Kurt would love it. And of course, everyone that follows you as well. It was just. It’s really a trip of a lifetime.Stephanie Hansen:So we put the trip out there. It is a more expensive trip, and we had a limited number of seats we had that could join the trip. And, you know, I’ve never done a trip that is on the higher end like that in terms of expense. And you’re just. You have a lot of in flight situations within the country. You have a lot of different lodging situations. There’s a boat, like, in order to do all the things we wanted to do, there were a lot of moving parts.Michael Kenney:Yep.Stephanie Hansen:So we put the trip out there and it sold out, like, right away. Right. So then Michael was like, okay, do we want to try and do another one? And of course we do, because I want you guys to have as many of these experiences as we can put together. Because I think traveling this way is great. I love traveling in a group for destinations that maybe I’m not comfortable in fully by myself. So Michael has secured another trip, a second round that is the same itinerary, but they leave. I think it’s a day later.Michael Kenney:Yes. And let me just touch on that. You hit some good points in there. Yeah. One reason the trip, it’s, it’s. It’s definitely at the highest price point we’ve ever offered a trip. But I think if you’re going out there and you’re shopping in African safari, you see that as well. So the value is there with all the different.Essentially all the meals are included where we’re at on, on this trip, the inner flights inside the countries as well. From a couple smaller bush planes to the larger flights that go from Cape Town to Johannesburg, Johannesburg up towards Victoria Falls, etc. Those are already included in all the transfers. And this is a different trip too, Stephanie, because it’s not like a typical motor coach group that you’re going with all these big lodges and motor coaches coming in. This trip is. Can only take 16 people. It’s not because we design it that way, it’s the ship only handles 16 people. So if you go on our website, you take a look at it, you’ll see this small intimate cruiser on this river slash lake, Lake Kariba, which is part of the Zambezi.Stephanie Hansen's @StephaniesDish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Michael Kenney:And in the game lodge that we stayed at too for four nights as well there, there’s only eight cabins for 16 people. So it’s a real intimate experience and it will only be for our group. Same thing for your departure on May 8 and the 1 that we still have, there’s only. We just sold one another cabin online just, just now. So there’s four cabins left May 9th through the 25th of 2027. Same thing is gonna be true for that. It’s only gonna be our group as well. So there’s no other groups going to be in, on, on the ship and then in the lodge too.Michael Kenney:So it’s a real small intimate experience and it’s just real, real lovely.Stephanie Hansen:Can you walk us through like some of the high points having done this trip?Michael Kenney:Yeah. Oh, what ...
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    21 Min.
  • Cookbook Author Sarah Peterson, "Vintage Dish and Tell" and I talk sandwich loaf and the keepers of family recipes

    Cookbook Author Sarah Peterson, "Vintage Dish and Tell" and I talk sandwich loaf and the keepers of family recipes
    Apr 11 2026
    Welcome to "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish," the show where we dive into the stories of people passionate about food, family traditions, and the recipes that connect us all. I'm your host, Stephanie Hansen, and today, I'm thrilled to sit down with cookbook author Sarah Peterson, whose new book, Dish and Tell: Recipes from the Heart, celebrates the beauty of vintage family recipes and the memories shared around the table. Dish and Tell: Recipes from the Heart highlights celebrated dishes from Peterson’s recipe box—and collects stories from other passionate home cooks who opened their kitchens to share their own tried-and-true recipes. Peterson takes readers along as she visits, cooks, and bakes with friends old and new to present a smorgasbord of family favorites. She serves up stories about the people behind the dishes and offers special tips and tricks from the keepers of these recipes.Whether you're an avid home cook, a lover of kitchen nostalgia, or just here for some culinary inspiration, get ready to hear heartfelt stories, tips on cookbook writing, and a delicious conversation that will leave you hungry for more!Original Episode Transcript Follows:Stephanie Hansen [00:00:02]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Dishing with Stephanie’s Dish podcast, where we talk to people in the food space who are as obsessed about food as we are. And today we’re talking to the cookbook author Sarah Peterson. She is the author of Dish and Tell Recipes from the Heart. I’m going to hold up her book so that you guys can see it. It looks so cute. It’s pink. Sarah, I am really excited to talk to you because I don’t normally get to know people sort of along the whole journey of them writing a book and then seeing it released into the world. But that did happen with you and I.Sarah Peterson [00:00:37]:Yes, it did. We’ve known each other a little while, or at least I’ve known you. I’ve followed your career, and so it’s been really great to have you to consult with a little bit, and you’ve really been a mentor to me throughout this process.Stephanie Hansen [00:00:50]:Well, and I think for you, coming from the PR world, which was where your background was, and then taking it into a cookbook, I’m seeing so many, like, similarities of how you’re approaching things, and I think it’s just super smart, and I can’t wait to talk to you. So can you just give the viewer, the listener, a little bit of backstory about the book and why you wrote it and why it’s special to you?Sarah Peterson [00:01:17]:Yes.Stephanie Hansen [00:01:18]:So.Sarah Peterson [00:01:18]:So about five years ago, maybe more, I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my career. I’d been in PR a long time, telling other people’s stories, writing in the voice of other people. I wanted to do something of my own. I had this love of everything vintage. I’m very nostalgic. I love any opportunity to, like, go back to my grandma’s kitchens in my mind and, like, imagine them in their homes. And so this idea started brewing about, you know, what if I blogged about family recipes and shared some of these handwritten recipe cards, recipe boxes, my love of vintage. So I started with Instagram first, and I was posting a little bit, and then I.Sarah Peterson [00:02:00]:That kind of evolved into a blog, and that just really grew and grew, and it was just not my own family’s recipes, but other people’s families, too. Like, I started to just talk to my friends and my neighbors and ask them what are the recipes in their families that I’ve been handing down through the generations that are really close, you know, to their hearts, and started to share those stories on the blog and then thought, well, this could be a book. A book is daunting as you know, to write, but I had some encouragement from my dad and some other people and just pitched it to the Historical Society, and I’m just so grateful that they decided to publish it.Stephanie Hansen [00:02:37]:And what we’re seeing in terms of trends for cookbooks is cookbooks that are AI proof, In other words, cookbooks that have a real narrative point of view on a story. And this book seems like it is exactly that and more. Did you feel uncomfortable or were you nervous about, like, being the keeper, the seed keeper, as it were, or the storykeeper of these stories and how you would translate them into an actual book?Sarah Peterson [00:03:07]:Yes. You mean for, like, other families? Yeah, absolutely. And I think what gave me maybe a little bit of confidence is that something that I had done in my career as a PR person and in one particular project for a client, I was tasked with shining the spotlight on small independent restaurants and the special role that they play in their communities. And so I had this chance to really interview them and tell their stories and talk about how they were making a difference in their communities. And so I was thinking about what I wanted to do ...
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    30 Min.
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