It's a vibe, and we got it going on. Join us on this Feed Your Fire podcast episode as we go on an exploration and talk through how to change our energy...shifting what we take in from the world and transforming what we put out into it. And we'll do this over a delightful plate of french fries that is sure to make you happy.
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Episode Transcript:
Hello, and welcome to Feed Your Fire. I'm Kim Baker, founder of Kim Baker Foods. Today, we're gonna talk about changing our energy, moving past the slog into something that feels vibrant. And this is best done together because energy transfers, and it's affected by our surroundings. So we're gonna pair this discussion with a food that everyone finds fun.
Just this past weekend, we were celebrating my son's 16th birthday. We had a group of these 15 teenage boys, a party bus, music blasting, fire pits, cornhole, food. They had a blast. And just watching them, I did too.
Days later, my son was still joyous. It got me thinking about how the energy that we take in affects the energy we put out. And so we have to be really thoughtful about curating that environment. Every emotion has a measurable frequency. And just like we can transfer heat from person to person when we touch, we can transfer emotion from person to person when we're in proximity. Think about that for a minute. Are you surrounding yourself with the emotional energy that you want to absorb? And is what we're feeling the contagion we want to spread?
There are scales that measure the frequency of each emotion with things like shame and fear being at the very bottom, and love, joy, and peace at the top. Now, the trick about these emotions is that they get stored, not just in our minds, but in our bodies. And so, the things that we feel today can affect us for decades, positively or negatively.
And in order to change something, the first step is to see it. As I was thinking about this, I realized that most of my feelings are not based on experiences, they're based on memories of experiences. And that's a critical distinction, because memories aren't facts.
They're stored pieces of information that have gone through a filtering system. And that filtering system is based on personality, context, other memories. It's like a Snapchat filter, and it's full of distortions.
And while storing those memories can be an important protective mechanism, can create wisdom, depth, and resilience, they can also affect our emotional energy in ways that are less useful. And while we don't necessarily need to forget, we can adopt a new filter, one that's colored not just by our past, but by our hopes for “the future. Do you think that's possible?
As I was celebrating my son's 16th birthday, I was brought back to his first, which was celebrated with dramatically different emotions. We had had a big party in New York with extended family, and he was wearing this little white linen jacket, taking a few little steps with his hands supported. My parents drove back home with me so that it wasn't just my son and I on his actual birthday.
I strapped my son into a baby carrier, and we walked in the park. The dogs beside us on leashes, I made us a chocolate cake, and he wore one of those triangle party hats. And we had the love and support of my parents around us.
Now, a few years ago, had I told that story, I would have included other details. But those other pieces of information weren't constructive to our future. And so I could know them and see them, and choose to filter them out of my narrative. I'm not pretending there wasn't more to it. But I'm focused on the parts of the story line that create the energy within me for the life that I “want to live. The rest isn't forgotten.
I've just chosen to de-emphasize it. Pouring love, compassion, and peace over the memory, so that even in its whole truth, it supports our well-being, which is what's most important in our fulfillment. So if the filters we apply to our memory affect our energy, we have the option to adopt a new filter.
Not to repress the memory, but to engage with its more positive parts, to empower ourselves, which is at the very top of that emotional scale. And with that, we're going to prepare a food that consistently ranks among favorites. I've always had this fantasy to open a restaurant that has salads and French fries.
It's like a yin-yang kind of balance. Good nutrition with a little bit of indulgence. That's my favorite kind of pairing.
In culinary school, we spent a fair amount of time making French fries, perfecting how to cook them. And then, as I've mentioned to you, when I did my externship, I was the fry girl. And that restaurant, Maple and Pine, had the best French fries. So I feel pretty well studied on this topic. If you don't have a deep “fryer, get a big pot and fill it halfway with oil. French fries cook twice, first at a lower temperature, and then again at a higher temperature.
So heat up your deep fryer or your pot of oil to about 300 degrees. Most of the time, when you cook potatoes, you rinse them. But with French fries, it's best to keep the starch. If you cut them too soon, they'll start to oxidize. So there is a little bit of a timing game going on here. When I make French fries, I dredge them in a flour and cornstarch mixture.
Then I season with some salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika. And I don't bother peeling my potatoes. I use russet potatoes that have been scrubbed and washed clean, and I cut them into slices. Then take each of those slices and cut them into strips. We would call these batons. If you like skinny fries like at McDonald's, make those strips thin.
I'm not super calibrated. I actually enjoy the diversity that comes with a plate of fries where some are a little bit thicker or thinner than others, and I get to pick out my favorites. Once you've cut up your potatoes, pop them into that flour mixture and coat them well.
That will help them from oxidizing while you're cutting the other potatoes. With your oil hot and your potatoes sliced and dredged in that flour mixture, place them into a frying basket, being careful to shake off any excess flour before you put them in. Then drop the basket into the fryer and let them sizzle.
We don't want any color on these potatoes. This is called oil blanching, and it gives the potatoes a chance to cook through during this first round at a lower temperature. So after about two or three minutes before the potatoes have started to turn brown, remove them from the oil and place them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
Repeat that for any additional potatoes that you've sliced up. Once all the potatoes have been cooked through once, turn the heat up on that oil to get to about 425 degrees. Then we're going to drop them in that hotter oil one more time.
And this is when we want color. We want them to turn golden brown. And when they do, take them out, “place them back on that sheet pan with a clean piece of parchment paper or paper towel and sprinkle them generously with salt.
And now, no matter what your day has been like, be prepared to be in a good mood. When my son was younger, we used to have french fry parties. Before the first day of school, we'd invite some families over, and we would have this feast with french fries being the spotlight.
Talk about a good vibe. The french fry is a perfect example of how our emotional connection with something can evolve. It took french fries about a hundred years to take off in America, only for them to become a staple in American cuisine.
I don't feel so bad after that if it takes me a few years to process some of my experiences. And if you look at the hierarchy of our emotional frequencies, you'll see that what's in between low-level fear and high-level love and peace are things like courage and acceptance. And though this scale isn't a process, there is a continuum.
And practicing things like courage and acceptance might just help bring you closer to the vibe that you're looking for. And if joy is what you seek, I highly recommend you start with a plate of these fries. Until our next episode, I say so long.
Feed Your Fire, where food nourishes growth