S01E09- Steve Kleinedler and the Clue of the Double Jinx Salad

Welcome to the show that turns obscure recipes into awesome conversations, Cookbook Obscura! This week, the gang welcomes Steve Kleinedler to help us find the Clue of the Double Jinx Salad! We talk about chemical spills, the dangers of pineapple, weird food combos, and MORE.

Steve Kleinedler is an editor and improviser raised near Flint and currently living near Boston, with stops along the way in Chicago and Philly. Steve teaches with ImprovBoston, performs occasionally in The Pickle at Union Comedy, and performs even more sporadically as one-half of Sad Trombone (along with Ralph Andracchio). 

Want more weird recipes in your life? Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button and share this show with your friends. Wanna see what we’re eating? Then check out our YouTube channel for the complete video of this episode and our Insta for the recipe and behind-the-scenes clips.

And now... Let's eat!

Steve Kleinedler Facebook
Steve Kleinedler Twitter
Sad Trombone
ImprovBoston
Union Comedy
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries
Centralia, PA
Are There Drugs That Interact With Eating Fresh Pineapple? (Livestrong.com)

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Transcript

The Cookbook Obscura Podcast
Season 01
Episode 09
Steve Kleinedler and the Clue of the Double Jinx Salad

[MUSIC INTRO PLAYS]

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh boy howdy it's time to eat some more questionable food with questionable people. It's Cookbook Obscura... the show that's all about eating what we all fear the most, the truth. And also terrible food combinations. This week we're sitting down at the table with Steve Klinedler. Steve is an editor, improviser, instructor director, and perform sporadically with yours truly. In this episode, we're talking about chemical spills, the dangers of pineapple and truly horrible food combinations. It's going to be a wild ride folks. Want more weird recipes in your life? Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and share the show with your friends. Want to see what we're eating? Of course you do. Check out our YouTube channel for the complete video of this episode, as well as our Instagram for the recipe and behind the scenes clips. Alright folks, let's eat!

Aubrie Williams  
I think this is the worst 

Ralph Andracchio  
Really? The leaning chimney cones because there's no meat in this.

Aubrie Williams  
So food dye gets me like when stuff is not a natural color like that ketchup that they turn purple and green like I couldn't eat it and like I know it's just ketchup and food but I'm like this is... I don't like the way it looks. I'm not gonna put in my mouth.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, it's the texture more than - I haven't had a pear in forever. So 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, same 

Ralph Andracchio  
Pair of what? I don't know. So....

Aubrie Williams  
We're starting off with a bang

Ralph Andracchio  
Starting out with a bang. And Aubrie and I are in the same room tonight which is weird 

Aubrie Williams  
Movie Magic 

Ralph Andracchio  
Movie magic. It's - I'm green screen. I'm CGI. She's real.

Aubrie Williams  
This is a hologram of Ralph

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, I'm all chat GPT tonight and so. Yeah. Because your your smoke detector, right?

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, it tends to when the battery's low, it starts chirping and it goes off, like twice a minute and it's just like and then like, and very loud and right above my room. So I thought it would die. It usually dies down within a few hours but it was going strong and I couldn't take chance. So

Ralph Andracchio  
I do want to say please replace your batteries because it's the safety device

Aubrie Williams  
That's that one it belongs to Wendy. She's not here today. So 

Ralph Andracchio  
Covering our bases. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yes, the rest are working and well.

Ralph Andracchio  
If I had a pitchfork we could be American Gothic. But yeah. I'm the spitting image of that guy. If anybody says Who is your celebrity doppelganger? That guy from the American Gothic painting is me. 

Aubrie Williams  
That's great. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Put me in some overalls.

Shannon DeVido  
He's pretty famous, so I feel like that's kind of a win.

Ralph Andracchio  
And that was his daughter, right? It wasn't his wife.

Aubrie Williams  
I have no clue.

Ralph Andracchio  
I think maybe we can ask our guests when they come on.

Aubrie Williams  
They'll know.

Ralph Andracchio  
All right. Let's dive into it, shall we? Yeah. So again, another big get tonight. I think yeah, we're on a streak with getting the big - the heavy hitters. Our guest tonight they are an editor, improviser, director, teaching currently with Improv Boston, performs occasionally in The Pickle at Union comedy and performs even more occasionally as one half of Sad Trombone with this guy right here. We can talk about that a little bit later. Please welcome to the show Steve Klinedler is here.

Steve Kleinedler  
Hello. Hi. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Hi, Steve. 

Steve Kleinedler  
You didn't give me enough time. I tried to look up on the internet about American Gothic.

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, please check me 

Shannon DeVido  
You didn't just know?

Steve Kleinedler  
No, I did not just know.

Ralph Andracchio  
I'm surprised

Steve Kleinedler  
I - I have gaps in trivia like anyone else. Ralph, weren't you an art major?

Ralph Andracchio  
I am and that's why I knew that much about American Gothic but that's where it ends. I do not know for sure what the relationship was in the painting. If you were playing bar trivia, what would be your knowledge you know hub? 

Steve Kleinedler  
Probably geography 

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh

Steve Kleinedler  
Facts figures about that. Oh, God, one of the worst dates like when I was in my early 20s I just upped up I didn't go on dates but I went on this date once and this guy realized I was like, I knew capitals. He spent the next 30 minutes I think he went through every country in the world because he thought he was gonna get me and he kept like throwing out the names of all these countries and I'd be like this that the other thing it was, you know, after 10 you think he would have given up but no, it went on and on and on.

Ralph Andracchio  
Did you guys still hook up after that?

Steve Kleinedler  
I don't remember if we'd done it before or after but at some point we did yeah. 

Aubrie Williams  
During. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Oh Tripoli ah

Aubrie Williams  
At that point. Could he have like asked you and not known and you told him anything because like back then like, are you certian that guy knew all of that?

Steve Kleinedler  
Yeah, well, I think I could have made it out. But it it was just ridiculous.

Ralph Andracchio  
And things started changing very rapidly in the 90s when the Soviet Union...

Steve Kleinedler  
Oh, yeah. 

Ralph Andracchio  
So yes, 

Steve Kleinedler  
that was a large chunk of my job for quite some time.

Ralph Andracchio  
That's right. Do you want to share what you used to do?

Steve Kleinedler  
In a former lifetime I was a dictionary editor and I did that for about 30 years. And so you know, as Yugoslavia and the former USSR slowly broke up over time, because it wasn't like all at once. It was in bits and pieces, especially, especially, Yugoslavia was like region by region. So every time there was a change, of course, in a wider range of dictionaries we had to make these edits and it went on for like over a decade. And then you know, there's the euro and then Pluto is a whole nother story,

Ralph Andracchio  
Poor Pluto. Still not over that. 

Aubrie Williams  
I know

Ralph Andracchio  
Became a - it became a - was discovered, became a planet, and then got demoted from being a planet and it hasn't even made one full revolution around the sun. 

Steve Kleinedler  
No, it has not 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah

Ralph Andracchio  
It's like third of the way around so far. 

Shannon DeVido  
He's trying 

Ralph Andracchio  
Right? He tries so hard.

Aubrie Williams  
Hang in there Pluto. It'll be ok.

Ralph Andracchio  
And I like your I said it before. I'll say it again. I liked the tile in your kitchen. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Oh, thank you. It's funny because when I moved into this place, it hadn't been touched since the 60s. This building was built in the 60s and I was originally going to redo the kitchen. And then the pandemic happened and I did a lot more cooking - hey tie in - I did a lot more cooking and it really changed. Like what I wanted out of a kitchen when I had it redone and it's like I actually might spend some time in here. So I did it. In a way I like

Ralph Andracchio  
oh so you you had it. You picked out the tiles you did a lot of that stuff yourself. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Yeah

Ralph Andracchio  
That's awesome. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Did you put the tiles in yourself?

Steve Kleinedler  
I most certainly did not.

Aubrie Williams  
I'm with Steve on that one.

Steve Kleinedler  
You'll see how well I can balance an olive on top of a pear.

Aubrie Williams  
Oh no. It's it's an impossible feat. No one had mine was there for like a second and then just tumbled. 

Steve Kleinedler  
I haven't done it yet because I...

Ralph Andracchio  
Did you prepare everything or are you waiting 

Steve Kleinedler  
I prepared everything. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Ok. Are you going to build it as we talk?

Steve Kleinedler  
Sure. It's my bowl of lettuce leaves. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Wow. All right.

Steve Kleinedler  
I've got nice lettuce for this. It's about the nicest thing.

Ralph Andracchio  
It's the nicest thing I own is this lettuce.

Steve Kleinedler  
This was the cottage cheese, mayonnaise, and the green food coloring.

Ralph Andracchio  
I want to ask. I want to ask you and Shannon Why did they have us add mayonnaise to already like creamy cottage cheese?

Steve Kleinedler  
I suppose we'll find out when we taste it.

Ralph Andracchio  
Is it a taste thing? Is it a texture thing? Is it like gluing the halves together thing

Aubrie Williams  
it didn't do its job if that was the point of it.

Ralph Andracchio  
I don't understand. 

Aubrie Williams  
They fell apart almost immediately.

Ralph Andracchio  
And you're not a mayonnaise fan, Steve.

Steve Kleinedler  
Oh, I detest mayonnaise. This is the first time I've ever bought in mayonnaise. I am team mustard all the way.

Aubrie Williams  
Oh yeah. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Okay. Would you not never have mayonnaise on anything?

Steve Kleinedler  
I I don't even like aoli which is fancy mayonnaise. i It's It's I don't like all oil in it. I don't know. I'm going to tilt the camera down so you can 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah. 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh, yeah. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Preparation. Alright. I've got three if they stand up.

Ralph Andracchio  
Did you hollow the middle out?

Steve Kleinedler  
No, I bought I'm pre hollow.

Ralph Andracchio  
I did too. Yeah.

Shannon DeVido  
Oh, you guys are smart. 

Aubrie Williams  
That's my problem. It didn't tell you the hollow if you had a regular like us an actual pear you peeled so mine just kind of 

Steve Kleinedler  
look at them 

Aubrie Williams  
destroyed themselves. 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh, Steve that's impressive

Ralph Andracchio  
That is imresiive actually

Steve Kleinedler  
here comes the olive. Oh god. This is - how an olive? An olive? 

Aubrie Williams  
No I don't understand. 

Ralph Andracchio  
I don't know why 

Shannon DeVido  
None of these ingredients go together. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah.

Aubrie Williams  
So today audience at home today we're cooking. We're cooking a thing called The Double Jinx Salad. This is obviously not a salad as you can see Steve making it right there. Although it is on a piece of lettuce. So this recipe calls for four peeled Bartlett pear halves, fresh or canned. One teaspoon mayo, one cup cottage cheese, green food coloring, even though the inside of a pair is white. The outside is green. If they told you not to peel it. The green might make more sense because it would look like a full pair. And then you'd be like ah and two green olives to daintily put like hats on the top.

Ralph Andracchio  
Which makes no sense. 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh my god Steve that looks beautiful! See, if they - someone could bring that out at a restaurant like 

Ralph Andracchio  
and I'd be like Oh, what's this? 

Aubrie Williams  
I'd be like take it back 

Ralph Andracchio  
Compliments of the chef.

Steve Kleinedler  
If the inside were like cream the type of cream they put in a Boston Cream doughnut or something. And the olive was like a BonBon

Aubrie Williams  
that would be good. Yeah. If it were all desert foods.

Steve Kleinedler  
Olive, mayonnaise, cottage cheese and um... so I that was it held its shape pretty well. I'd say this is kind of like on Top Chef when they show you the close up 

Ralph Andracchio  
right?

Aubrie Williams  
That's really impressive 

Ralph Andracchio  
That's food porn right there. 

Aubrie Williams  
And it has like a little divot for the olive which is a nice little - Ralph did a deconstructed...

Ralph Andracchio  
I deconstructed mine and I just did it like the half's laying down 

Aubrie Williams  
they look like bigger. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, they look - it's it feels and looks like a deviled egg but with pears.

Steve Kleinedler  
So can I say something about the food coloring? 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yes, 

Steve Kleinedler  
I went to the store and I couldn't find it because what I was looking for were those little plastic containers with the triangular teardrop tops. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yes, 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh yeah. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Remember those?

Ralph Andracchio  
Yes. They don't use them anymore? 

Steve Kleinedler  
This was in a box. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, 

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, you can't just buy it by themselves?

Aubrie Williams  
No, they're usually you can buy the gel food coloring by themselves. Sometimes. You cannot buy the liquid

Ralph Andracchio  
That shows you how long it's been since I bought food coloring.

Aubrie Williams  
I bought mine today and they didn't have green. So I had to buy a box of Red, Yellow and Blue. So I just put even dots of yellow and blue

Ralph Andracchio  
Everybody. This is a science show as well.

Aubrie Williams  
Color wheel. This is a science show.

Ralph Andracchio  
We're doing it all 

Aubrie Williams  
Cheers. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Did we want to dig in while we're talking 

Steve Kleinedler  
Ugh, sure. One at a time. I don't know. I... 

Aubrie Williams  
No I say we - I mean - go 

Ralph Andracchio  
And this is not diet food too. Like you think reading it like oh a lot of healthy stuff.

Steve Kleinedler  
Now we have to do it so that the olive and mayonnaise and the pear are all in one bite. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Alright I'll have it all in my one 

Steve Kleinedler  
Shannon will you count to three for us.

Aubrie Williams  
Shannon is going to vomit 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah

Shannon DeVido  
One. Oh God. Two. Peace be with you. Three. Oh no. Steve's gonna throw up Steve is absolutely gonna throw up.

Steve Kleinedler  
It's the olive that makes it... And I like olives.

Ralph Andracchio  
The olive is not necessary.

Aubrie Williams  
The olive is too... I love olives but the olive in this is too much. 

Shannon DeVido  
Maybe you're not supposed to eat the olive. 

Aubrie Williams  
It's just a garnish. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Just to garnish?

Shannon DeVido  
Yeah, it was just like a hat. 

Ralph Andracchio  
See just the pear and this stuff is not bad actually.

Steve Kleinedler  
I'm not a big cottage cheese fan. It's fine. It's really the olive that set it off.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, no, thank you. 

Aubrie Williams  
The olive was like overpowering, which you think would have been a good thing for this recipe but it wasn't oddly enough.

Ralph Andracchio  
If you do this at home, don't eat the olive. Don't worry about the olive don't look at the olive don't buy the olive.

Shannon DeVido  
Pears are good.

Aubrie Williams  
I'm eating mine like a sandwich because it's a real pear and it's...

Steve Kleinedler  
Oh are you using the lettuce as like a lettuce wrap? 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh, I could let me 

Ralph Andracchio  
But then you're gonna eat lettuce with it too. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, this is even worse.

Ralph Andracchio  
This is not what God intended. God's God's eyes have been averted from this show.

Aubrie Williams  
I'm just gonna do this so I don't get as much green cottage cheese on my hands because I forgot to get a napkin.

Steve Kleinedler  
Well, that's a different mouth feel.

Ralph Andracchio  
No, I like the pear - the canned pear because it's a little mushy.

Aubrie Williams  
Oh no, the lettuce makes it way worse.

Steve Kleinedler  
What year was this cookbook from? 

Aubrie Williams  
1978? 

Shannon DeVido  
Not long enough 

Aubrie Williams  
it's a kid's cookbook too which is wild because like no kid I ever met would eat like mix cottage cheese mayonnaise like I guess this looks like a fun it's like gross looking like it looks like a fun experiment for kids. 

Steve Kleinedler  
What is the image supposed to evoke? Like if I had two little things I could put eyes on it and be like a a hungry monster

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, it does seem like very good like with the olives but then like no kid would eat this. So like, and at that time like you couldn't waste your food like that was you know

Ralph Andracchio  
what, what story was this inspired by

Aubrie Williams  
The Double Jinx Mystery, which I have not reread yet so I can't really I can look up a synopsis on my phone. But none of them makes like this clearly wasn't in the book. I hope

Steve Kleinedler  
That's not Nancy Drew. Is it? 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah. So all all of these recipes are named after either Nancy Drew books or characters in the Nancy Drew series. 

Steve Kleinedler  
What was the recipe for Ned? 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh, we Ned's Potato Pancakes was our last one we did actually. Yeah. And Ned for those who do not know or have not listened to the last episode, Ned is Nancy's boyfriend who they always call her friend. And they're like, he takes her out on dates, Ned's her friend. It's just like...

Steve Kleinedler  
I assume we've talked about George, you've talked about George? 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, we have Timaree on that was our latest we released was the George's Keep in Shape Grapefruit in quotations. "keep in shape."

Steve Kleinedler  
You said this is 1978.

Aubrie Williams  
Yes, I believe so.

Steve Kleinedler  
That's interesting, because that year on network TV they had the Hardy Boy Nancy Drew Mystery Hour. 

Ralph Andracchio  
I remember that 

Steve Kleinedler  
with Parker Stevenson and Pamela Sue Anderson and Shaun Cassidy. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Wow

Steve Kleinedler  
It has a fantastic theme song. I encourage you to look it up on YouTube. The opening credits were amazing.

Aubrie Williams  
Oh my God, I'll look it up. I've never heard of this but I'm gonna we should put it in the show notes if we can find it. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Parker Stevenson wasn't he married to Kirstie Alley for a minute.

Steve Kleinedler  
I think he was for a while. He also played the lead in a very unusual adaptation of A Separate Piece.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, he was. He was in a it was Isaac Asimov show, right based on a book by him or someting... Probe. Right? 

Steve Kleinedler  
Oh that was a separate thing A Separate Piece is that book everyone read in eighth grade about the kid who falls out of a tree,

Ralph Andracchio  
A Separate Piece?

Aubrie Williams  
What does that? 

Steve Kleinedler  
Yeah I don't know, it was a book like it's set in a New England from school and it's really coded because the kid is gay, but they never quite say it. And his friend a little freaked out and jiggles this branch and this kid falls and like fractures his spine. But it's all subtext you never ever, ever it never ever says gay and like I reread it as an adult and I'm like, Oh my God. 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh, no. Wow. So much probelmatic

Ralph Andracchio  
Did they use the Friends of Dorothy line or like light in the loafers or

Steve Kleinedler  
No, he did wear pink shirts. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, there you go 

Steve Kleinedler  
And I think it was supposed to be a sympathetic portrayal. I don't know.

Ralph Andracchio  
Well, how sympathetic could you get back in the 70s? 

Steve Kleinedler  
Exactly.

Aubrie Williams  
This is true.

Steve Kleinedler  
Yeah. Nancy Drew Hardy Boys. They would alternate weeks and then towards the end of the season, I guess it wasn't doing well. So they merge the two and they the three of them would do things together.

Aubrie Williams  
Oh my god. I love that. I want to look it up. I'm interested. I wonder like, if it's as crazy as this cookbook is like, I wonder

Steve Kleinedler  
It's gotta be on YouTube. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, cool.

Ralph Andracchio  
What was her name? Pamela Sue... 

Steve Kleinedler  
Martin. Did I say Pamela Sue Anderson? 

Ralph Andracchio  
Pamela Sue Anderson, that's what you said? 

Steve Kleinedler  
Pamela Sue Anderson is Mary on Little House on the Prairie. Pamela Sue Martin.

Ralph Andracchio  
She was in Dallas, right?

Aubrie Williams  
Oh my god.

Steve Kleinedler  
Yes. Yeah, she went on to do Dallas.

Aubrie Williams  
Shannon and I are like...

Steve Kleinedler  
This is essentially Ralph's and my show. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah this is... When you have two homosexuals who grew up on television. This is all that's all we talk about. 

Aubrie Williams  
I love it. I love it. It's so good. 

Ralph Andracchio  
I'm gonna eat another half of this because it's actually not...

Steve Kleinedler  
The pear part is fine. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Pear part's great.

Aubrie Williams  
See, every time I take a bite, I get that cottage cheese mayo combo and it's not

Ralph Andracchio  
well, so yours are fresh, like crisp ones. And mine's like a soft, canned pear. So I think I think at home if you try this use the canned pears.

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, 

Ralph Andracchio  
it tastes better. 

Steve Kleinedler  
And it's easier to assemble. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, 

Steve Kleinedler  
I mean the canned pears tastes like they come out of a fruit cup.

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, no, that seems more enjoyable. And Ralph's Ralph's looks like ambrosia on top that like 

Ralph Andracchio  
I'm a sucker for ambrosia. I know you don't like it, but 

Aubrie Williams  
I no I like ambrosia 

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh you do like Oh, okay. I though you said you didn't like it. 

Aubrie Williams  
I don't like what we're making. I do like ambrosia

Steve Kleinedler  
Look at the interior. Yeah, this was marshmallow yellow?

Shannon DeVido  
That does not... that looks like an infection, Steve. You need to go to your gynecologist immediately because there's something happening with your pear. And I don't want to say it but I'm not a doctor. But I'm just saying yeah, your your GYN may diagnose that differently.

Aubrie Williams  
Get some antibiotics in ya

Ralph Andracchio  
And also I bought the a little cottage cheese like single thing and it had strawberries on top and I mix those in so it actually has a little bit strawberry in it. Yeah, it makes it taste really great.

Steve Kleinedler  
Yeah, I saw that and I thought about it and I thought it would be cheating.

Ralph Andracchio  
No, you can use - there is no cheating. You can do whatever. I mean, if you want to be a purist and follow the recipe great, but, I think we've done this enough that we know when to...

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, one of us is going to be a purist. So don't try and be a hero. You know, I I'm the reason for this book. So I'm usually the purist or I have to do a variation that's like very, I don't have to I just am like I feel like the internet wants to know so

Steve Kleinedler  
I'm very lucky my mother never ever subjected subjected me to stuff like this. I just think she was a fabulous baker and a fabulous cook. And most of our I mean a lot of our desserts were Czech stuff that you know she learned from her relatives. So I was eating, you know, these poppy seed cakes and these kolaczki and just I mean she made cake too, but like I had a lot of Czech baked goods.

Aubrie Williams  
Oh, that's awesome. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, that's what I was going to ask if you ate a lot of Czech food growing up.

Steve Kleinedler  
I did actually the one the only thing and she's gotten much better. The only thing that my mom didn't really do well in the 70s. And this is true across the country is in the 70s Everyone boiled vegetables to an inch of their life. Remember that? Like I love asparagus it turns out but like when it's been boiled it becomes it's like slimy

Aubrie Williams  
not as gross as this.

Steve Kleinedler  
So aside from over boiled vegetables, everything else was really really good. You know, we grew up out in the country and we got our meat from a farm around the corner we would order half a cow. It would go to a butcher the cow, the cow would go to a butcher on its own volition. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Bye, everybody 

Aubrie Williams  
sign this waiver.

Steve Kleinedler  
And you know, and that's what the basement freezer was for and you know, you wouldn't have to buy meat for a year. You'd just buy half a cow and my dad had a huge garden out back. So we always had a lot of fresh vegetables.

Aubrie Williams  
Oh, that's the life. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Wow, you grew up pretty healthy. Do you have any do you have any kind of like, snacks growing up?

Steve Kleinedler  
I mean, yeah, I mean, we had Doritos, and so we weren't allowed to have sugared cereal. I think the big set I think I know I know that. Yeah, I think the big difference for people my age, I turned 11 or 12 in 1978 which is when the whole Archer Daniels Midland thing with the corn and the high fructose corn syrup started taking over, so up until I was 12 there wasn't a lot of HCFS in my diet because it wasn't a thing yet. And I that probably has some effect on how I you know, perceive sweet foods and why I don't mind savory foods maybe I don't know. On the other hand, I grew up two miles away from a Superfund site. So there was a lot of toxins around and also in Michigan. There was fire retardant in the cattle feed in 1972 or 73, where all of these PDBs got into to meat system, which I think it's called Bitter Harvest. There's a made for TV movie with Ron Howard where he plays the farmer whose cows all got sick and then all this meat made its way into the system. So there are a lot of like, between the toxic waste dump and that a lot of people I grew up with have like autoimmune problems, reproductive problems. You know, my neighbor across the street where I grew up with, you know, passed away when we were 40 from lupus and she's not the only person. Yeah, it's it was so yeah, my family ate fresh but I grew up near a toxic stew of stuff.

Ralph Andracchio  
Jeez Do you think that you are you afraid that you have anything to worry about like biologically Do you think you dodged a bullet?

Steve Kleinedler  
I think I mean, I guess anything could happen in a moment. But for the people I know where it manifested itself and it manifested pretty early. And it's I know it's just a genetic random draw. I mean, there's the the people there's a there was really a cluster directly around the dump they had to they had to block off a lot of roads when they shut down the dump and took all the sludge to Ohio. And, you know, you know who the head of the EPA under Reagan was at the time? 

Ralph Andracchio  
No, 

Steve Kleinedler  
Neil Gorsuch's mother.

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, wow. Played by Pamela Sue Martin in the made for TV movie. 

Steve Kleinedler  
I'm really sorry to get so serious.

Ralph Andracchio  
No, that's how do they how do they figure out if something needs to be cleaned up? Do they look at like, oh my god, people are getting sick around here. We should look into it.

Steve Kleinedler  
Oh, yeah. I mean, there was there was a dump which was illegal and there was also an incinerator and people were having problems and it leached into creeks that you know, I mean, people were getting sick, right. There is a there is a National Geographic cover from the early 80s of some someone in a radiation suit, poking sludge and on the cover and that's two miles from where I grew up. I think I've got on my phone. 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh my gosh, 

Steve Kleinedler  
you know, it's it was a rural area, but it was close to Flint, Michigan and you know, the companies and everything just dumped their crap all over and that's it. Oh, here we go.

Aubrie Williams  
Unortunate and scary. 

Shannon DeVido  
It's really cool that stuff has changed and gotten better.

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, yeah. 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh my god. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Yeah. Just up the road for me. It's also unfortunate because I grew up west of it and the winds usually went to the east so like I didn't get exposed. I don't think to the incinerated stuff as much as other people did

Ralph Andracchio  
God I remember I have a family who used to live in Centralia where the if anybody doesn't know in central Pennsylvania there's a town called Centralia and back in the 60s I want to say they had a somebody was like burning trash or something. Next to an open part of the mine. They used the coal mine in there and the coal caught on fire and then it just spread under the town so the ground is actually on fire in Centralia and people had to move I think like one or two people are left living their 

Steve Kleinedler  
Still burning 

Ralph Andracchio  
still burning today. I think part that's partly based what Silent Hill is based on like a lot of the a lot of the aesthetics of Silent Hill are kind of based on yeah, see tangentially based on that.

Aubrie Williams  
They have like graffiti highway is right. Like the big Yeah, the big thing graffiti there all the time, but no one lives there.

Steve Kleinedler  
The three of you all grew up in the Philly area right? 

Aubrie Williams  
Burbs. Yeah, 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah. 

Steve Kleinedler  
I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of stuff hidden in the weeds out there. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, sure. Yeah, I remember go and driving with my dad to the incinerator to drop off trash and like being fascinated by all the fire and smoke and yeah, so I'm sure Yeah, and back in the late 70s and 80s. We didn't we didn't have as many regulations in place. So, I'm sure I got exposed to a lot of stuff that I shouldn't have been.

Steve Kleinedler  
It's like times Beach, Missouri, where on a hot summer day, all the dirt roads to dust would you know dust up and so they spray dioxin on the road to keep the dust down. They that's another town that got ghost town they had to move everyone out. Insane that happened in the 70s or 80s. And of course Love Canal. 

Aubrie Williams  
What is Love Canal? 

Steve Kleinedler  
Oh, wow. That's one of the first big toxic problems that it's I think it might be Belfor Superfund site. It's in upstate New York. I think they built a school on top of an old dump or next to one or something and they had to clean it up

Ralph Andracchio  
That tracks 

Aubrie Williams  
But Love Canal just seems like something completely different. Shannon you didn't know it either. Right? 

Shannon DeVido  
No, it sounded really fun. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, it sounded like romantic and nice

Shannon DeVido  
Oh, welcome to The Love Canal. 

Aubrie Williams  
Like that ride the Tunnel of Love

Steve Kleinedler  
Nope

Shannon DeVido  
just find your third eye on the other side of this canal. You're welcome

Ralph Andracchio  
I mean, I'm I mean I used to drive and ride in the back of the station wagon in the in the carbon monoxide seat. We used to call it right because you you would face backwards and then all the exhausts.

Steve Kleinedler  
That's right, which is also if you got caught short in traffic, you'd be totally smushed, but that's where my siblings sat. 

Ralph Andracchio  
yeah, that was the fun one because the your mom and dad couldn't see you.

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, I think at one point there was like just the like seatbelt across everyone like in the old old version 

Ralph Andracchio  
there was - like I remember just the lap. Yeah, the lap belt 

Aubrie Williams  
like yeah,

Steve Kleinedler  
my very first car I remember was my dad's 64 corvair and there weren't seatbelts in back. Just yeah.

Aubrie Williams  
It's wild. Yeah. Hey, we survived a lot guys. Moral of the story we're still here. Where's Yeah. Shan What are you eating while we eat this delightful.

Shannon DeVido  
Oh, yeah. Thank you so much for asking. Um, I am not eating this. This segment is called Shannon is the Worst Cook of All Time. Now, I also looked at the ingredients and I'm allergic to all of them, which is what I tell restaurants when I don't like something. But I did I did come up with a story. So I tried to make a fruit salad once and I wanted to put pineapple in it so I the cheaper option was to buy an entire pineapple completely whole. And so I got it home and I the only thing I can cut with a knife is tension - Hey guys - so I had like I had my aide had to help me do it and so I I don't have the proper utensils because then the worst of all time and so, um, we used a serrated dinner knife and I looked up on YouTube how to do this long story short, we ended up at urgent care and I'm not allowed near salad anymore.

Aubrie Williams  
Oh my gosh. Well, I'm glad everyone survived that as well. 

Shannon DeVido  
There was a lot of cuts on her hand and she just needed to get some stitches.

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah. Holy Toledo a serrated knife with a pineapple sounds very dangerous. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Pineapple skin is super tough. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah

Steve Kleinedler  
like I don't even know how do you do you need like a machete?

Aubrie Williams  
No, you just need a very sharp kitchen knife but you need a you need like a like us non non serrated blade or whatever the i term for that.

Shannon DeVido  
There's like a pineapple coring like there is yes. Like there's an actual varies I watched a lot of YouTube videos on it. There are actual like devices you can purchase on Amazon or anywhere that you buy Kitchen Kitchen utensils that you can actually core a pineapple with but I was in college and I don't know how to cook so all I had was I you know let's be real. At least I didn't give her a plastic knife which is probably what I thought of to begin with 

Ralph Andracchio  
right 

Aubrie Williams  
fair. 

Shannon DeVido  
Cuz that's most of my utensils.

Aubrie Williams  
I have a plastic knife right here. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Pink for Barbi 

Aubrie Williams  
Pink for Barbi

Ralph Andracchio  
An easy way to eat pineapple if you core it. All those little sections on the outside you can just pick them off and eat them. It's like corn. So you don't you don't have to go crazy. 

Steve Kleinedler  
It's kind of like a clove. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah. You don't have to go crazy taking the skin off. You can just pop them off.

Shannon DeVido  
That was not in the YouTube video.

Ralph Andracchio  
Look it up. 

Aubrie Williams  
I've never done that. Yeah, that's interesting

Ralph Andracchio  
also, oh go ahead.

Shannon DeVido  
No, I was I've just amazed by this new revelation 

Ralph Andracchio  
and also that's why pineapple burns so much like sometimes it hurts the pineapple is because of the the acids or certain kind of acid that's in pineapple. It breaks down the mucus in your mouth. So while you're eating pineapple The pineapple is also eating you

Steve Kleinedler  
Pineapple also counteracts a lot of medications. There's a whole slew of medications where if you take you can't have pineapple, 

Ralph Andracchio  
Really, 

Steve Kleinedler  
Yeah. You didn't know that? 

Aubrie Williams  
No, 

Steve Kleinedler  
it's probably one of the major foods. There's a lot of different medicines where you cannot have pineapple with because it it renders the medicine useless.

Shannon DeVido  
Name one 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah.

Steve Kleinedler  
I'm gonna look it up right now because this is actual News You Can Use. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, right.

Aubrie Williams  
We'll put this in the show notes for sure. That is...

Ralph Andracchio  
Why does pineapple hate us so much? it digests our mouths while we eat it. It counteracts our medication.

Shannon DeVido  
It's prickly on the edges like it is trying to tell us not to eat it right. Hey guys. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Hey, listen

Shannon DeVido  
I'm not a fruit you should eat. And instead. Humans are like no, no, no. We're gonna do it anyway. We do because we're a bunch of jerks. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, we love a challenge and they usually kill us. So

Steve Kleinedler  
according to this random website, which cites something at Penn State, fresh pineapple should not be combined with amoxicillin or tetracycline antibiotics. It increases the side effects of these modifications. Yeah, it increases the amount of medication absorbed by the body. Wow. And then, when combined with medications that slow or prevent blood clotting, such as anticoagulant or antiplatelet drugs, it can significantly increase your risk of bruising or bleeding.

Aubrie Williams  
Do they print that on like the like 

Steve Kleinedler  
Pineapples? No. 

Aubrie Williams  
They should say that on the medication right? like I would love to get get a bottle of like pills and it's just like, warning do not eat pineapple

Steve Kleinedler  
I think they do with some I mean, I you know, it's just, I guess you're supposed to know not to give your dog grapes or chocolate but 

Aubrie Williams  
yeah I feel like I've gotten amoxicillin like recently enough to know that it was not on there.

Shannon DeVido  
I've taken a lot of amoxicillin in my lifetime and that is not on there.

Aubrie Williams  
I don't eat enough pineapple to be that concerned.

Steve Kleinedler  
It's also pineapple juice.

Aubrie Williams  
I also don't I'm not a big 

Ralph Andracchio  
I should actually tell Dan that because he likes his pineapple juice. But he's not taking medication right now.

Aubrie Williams  
He's on the amox tell him. 

Ralph Andracchio  
I don't think he's on anything right now. It's high on life, 

Aubrie Williams  
high on life. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Does Dan eat any of this. You make Dan eat any of this?

Ralph Andracchio  
No, he refuses now he's smart. He refuses? Yeah, no he's not gonna 

Shannon DeVido  
Him and Shannon are the only two smart ones. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, no, we're not. We're not doing he's smart. I think it's time for some questions. Yeah. 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh yeah. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Let's do the Rapid Fire question portion of Cookbook Obscura. Steve I have the first question. If you could cook with a famous person dead or alive? Who would it be?

Steve Kleinedler  
I thought actually, I actually thought about this a lot. And I kept coming back to an answer that might be obvious but her depth and breadth of so many cuisines is so expansive. I would honestly say Padma Lakshmi. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, okay. 

Steve Kleinedler  
He, she knows food. She knows food very well. Her writing is fantastic. You know, she's starting a new show up. I think the the, a lot of people are experts in a lot of kinds of food, but I feel like she's got a very broad base. You know, kind of like, you know, perhaps like Anthony Bourdain, although I'd still rather eat with her than Anthony but nothing against Anthony Bourdain. I think I just have a better meeting.

Ralph Andracchio  
I thought you were gonna say Julia Child with that introduction. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Really?

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Um, I, my knowledge of her is colored by the pop culture and I'm not a super huge fan of French cuisine. 

Aubrie Williams  
Okay, 

Ralph Andracchio  
fair enough. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Fine, but it's not like a favorite.

Ralph Andracchio  
Right? Yeah. All right. Well, Padma if you're listening. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah. Padma 

Steve Kleinedler  
We'll connect you with Steve. We'll make this happen. 

Aubrie Williams  
Get a dinner on the books. 

Shannon DeVido  
Oh, wait. Um, Steve. What is your favorite kitchen utensil? Is it a pineapple corer?

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, we have visuals.

Steve Kleinedler  
Oh, shoot. I was gonna put it. Where is my egg whisk? Ah. I love like, this is the batter thing. Where the hell did my egg whisk... oh there it is right in plain sight. 

Aubrie Williams  
Beautiful. 

Steve Kleinedler  
There's something about whipping up eggs in a bowl with this thing. It's just Yeah, it's a really. You see it change the egg immediately. You can just make it for scrambled. You can do it into a merengue. I do know and it's just twisted. coiled metal I think it's a fantastic implement.

Ralph Andracchio  
Ah hard to clean.

Aubrie Williams  
Very hard to clean.

Steve Kleinedler  
I just throw it in the dishwasher. 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh, smart. That's the best one

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, that's cheating. So no, no food, not food processor. No, no, like stand mixer that

Steve Kleinedler  
I don't have a stand mixer. At the beginning of the pandemic, my mom sent me a hand mixer because I was started making like cookies and stuff. And I actually do use it. But I don't have a stand mixer because it's usually with a stamp mixer. You're making large quantities. You know, as it is I end up giving half of what I make to my neighbors or taking into work or whatever.

Ralph Andracchio  
You're the good neighbor that people like to live around. Yeah. Because he gives free cookies. 

Aubrie Williams  
Ah, that's so perfect. 

Ralph Andracchio  
I still remember the whisks that had the crank on the side. 

Aubrie Williams  
Me too. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Yes, my mom had one of those.

Ralph Andracchio  
I love those. I'm dating myself but I don't care.

Steve Kleinedler  
I think I used to just sit and spin with it. You know?

Aubrie Williams  
That was that was CrossFit. That was the CrossFit in the 60's

Steve Kleinedler  
Also this thing and go like

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh yeah, well, yeah,

Aubrie Williams  
you should do well, you should start a gym Steve where it's just all like antiquated kitchen utensils. Yeah?

Steve Kleinedler  
use little corn on the cob things for like tensile strength.

Aubrie Williams  
Beautiful, beautiful. Alright, question three. If someone cuts you what sauce would you bleed?

Steve Kleinedler  
I went a little broader with this. It would be more it would be more of a mustard or a vinegar. 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh, okay, 

Steve Kleinedler  
because I put mustard on everything. 

Aubrie Williams  
I love mustard. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Growing up, sometimes we put mustard on pizza. I'd say the pizza where I grew up the sauce was much more vinegary anyway and there was more of it. 

Aubrie Williams  
Okay, 

Steve Kleinedler  
but like we would always put vinegar on or pizza and sometimes mustard. I would put mustard on corn. I eat french fries with mustard. I just really like... but then I also like you know like soy sauces and tamari and like all the vinegary things but mustard definitely and regular French's yellow mustard. You know, I don't really like the fancy winy ones just give me

Aubrie Williams  
just yellow straight.

Steve Kleinedler  
Yep, vinegar water mustard seed. Salt. Turmeric. Paprika.

Aubrie Williams  
Nice Great.Yeah, 

Ralph Andracchio  
we we make our own when we have chicken nuggets or chicken tenders. We'll make honey mustard. So we'll we'll we'll mix them as well. Like we'll do it ourselves. We won't buy it so it's nice to you control because I like I like it to be a little bit more savory and not as sweet. It's nice to have the little touch of sweet in it. 

Aubrie Williams  
Oh nice. 

Ralph Andracchio  
But I agree. I like mustard. I don't put it on as much stuff as you do, but I am a fan of mustard

Steve Kleinedler  
speaking of this, like now they have those like mustard mayonnaise combinations and ketchup mayonnaise combinations. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh no

Aubrie Williams  
Hard pass. 

Shannon DeVido  
No, 

Ralph Andracchio  
no, 

Aubrie Williams  
I don't hate those things. separately. 

Steve Kleinedler  
Oh, chop?

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, no. No. Next question. What's your favorite family recipe or dish your family always made?

Steve Kleinedler  
Um, there are a lot Oh, I should have had this. My mom makes again. My my my my folks are American but they're Czech and my mom was raised speaking Czech and she makes the old fashioned you know stuff. So I am on my phone here a picture of my mom's roast pork with with dumplings. And it's, it's just fantastic. 

Aubrie Williams  
That sounds good. 

Steve Kleinedler  
And then you know, when? When I was much younger, you know my family. My dad has five brothers and sisters and we all grew up with each other. And so I saw my cousins all the time and like every potential holiday from like Labor Day to flag day we would get together and you know, grandma made food. So I had a lot of this growing up. Uh huh. Here we go. So, this is my mom's dumplings with gravy. 

Aubrie Williams  
That looks good. 

Steve Kleinedler  
It is so good.

Ralph Andracchio  
Is there anything in the dumplings? Or were they just 

Aubrie Williams  
They're just straight 

Ralph Andracchio  
just straight up dumpling

Steve Kleinedler  
Or dumplings or you know, I think I think there's egg in it. There's some dumplings made with egg. I don't know if that's

Ralph Andracchio  
Right. But it's not like a ravioli that has something like a regular.

Steve Kleinedler  
So whenever I go back to the Czech Republic, I always make sure to get at least one of those.

Ralph Andracchio  
How often have you been back?

Steve Kleinedler  
I've been there 14 or 15 times. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Wow. Frequent flier

Steve Kleinedler  
On the downside I've never been anywhere else.

Ralph Andracchio  
Hey, some people have never been out of the country. 

Aubrie Williams  
True. True. 

Ralph Andracchio  
This guy so you're 15 up on me 

Shannon DeVido  
Never even been to Canada?

Steve Kleinedler  
Never even been to Canada? 

Ralph Andracchio  
No,

Aubrie Williams  
How did we not know this about you? We're taking - kidnapping you and taking you to Canada. 

Ralph Andracchio  
I would like to go to 

Aubrie Williams  
Shan and I are going to kidnap you and we're going to drive you across the border and then straight to

Ralph Andracchio  
Please. Just don't tell the border guards that you're kidnapping me.

Aubrie Williams  
We won't 

Shannon DeVido  
You have to disclose that stuff. They asked those questions 

Ralph Andracchio  
Do ya?

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah. Are you kidnapping a full grown man? That's the first one they ask.

Shannon DeVido  
They usually, but it's two women, so they'll be like yeah, probably deserved it.

Aubrie Williams  
We'll get away with it.

Steve Kleinedler  
Thelma and Louise but it's Ralph.

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, he can't leave the country.

Shannon DeVido  
Oh, man. All right. Um, what is your favorite food holiday that it's not Thanksgiving.

Steve Kleinedler  
I'm funny. It wouldn't have been Thanksgiving anyway because I'm really not a fan of Turkey. 

Aubrie Williams  
Okay. 

Steve Kleinedler  
I would have to say probably woof. It would come down to Easter back in a certain time segment, because it was usually ham with all of this stuff, but also um, God, like, like I said, seven or eight or nine holidays a year my family would get together and like eat so and it was all usually variations on some of them. I think Easter probably had plus Oh, yeah. Easter had also the jelly beans and the chocolate eggs and everything else. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah. Double whammy. 

Steve Kleinedler  
But yeah, Thanksgiving is actually one of my least favorite food holidays.

Shannon DeVido  
I agree. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Really? 

Shannon DeVido  
Yeah.

Ralph Andracchio  
Even if you put mustard on everything.

Steve Kleinedler  
Oh, I sauce it up. I put you know,

Aubrie Williams  
Mustard on your stuffing. Kidding

Steve Kleinedler  
um, I would do that. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah, that might be good actually. Because it is just like bread 

Ralph Andracchio  
It's just bread. Yeah. 

Aubrie Williams  
And a pretzel with mustard is delightful. So you know, it's not too far.

Steve Kleinedler  
I'm opening up avenues here. 

Aubrie Williams  
Yeah. Try that in the next few days. The more you know,

Ralph Andracchio  
Steve, we're careening towards the end of the the episode 

Steve Kleinedler  
This was fantastic Thank you.

Aubrie Williams  
Thank you for joining us

Ralph Andracchio  
final final plugs. This is your opportunity to tell people if they want to follow you and become friends, drive to Boston and visit you.

Steve Kleinedler  
Excuse me. The first plug is yours. Our show in Baltimore. Yay. What it's the it's a Friday in August. For the for Thank you. Yeah. Baltimore improv group. So if you're listening to this in the Baltimore area, check us out. Where's Axis of Evil performing? 

Aubrie Williams  
Right here on this podcast.

Shannon DeVido  
Also we changed our name 

Steve Kleinedler  
Changed your name? 

Shannon DeVido  
Well, yeah, because we thought that that was offensive.

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, right.

Shannon DeVido  
I don't remember what the new one is.

Aubrie Williams  
Threevils Company.

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, Threevils Company. Yeah.

Aubrie Williams  
We should just change it back guys. I think that I started will be started that was probably me because

Steve Kleinedler  
In my calendar I for this tonight I put Pod Axis of Evil.

Shannon DeVido  
Perfect.

Aubrie Williams  
Cool. Yeah, we'll change it back for that. Honestly.

Ralph Andracchio  
What else anything else you want to?

Steve Kleinedler  
Um, I guess because I guess if people are in the Boston area, they can see me perform sporadically at Union Comedy in The Pickle, which I'm on the schedule at once every six weeks which is perfect. And I'm teaching classes at Improv Boston. So if you go to that website and want to take an improv class in Boston, I'm usually teaching level 301 or 401

Ralph Andracchio  
And just just to buttress everything and plug Steve a little bit he's been doing this forever and he's brilliant. He's a brilliant teacher, brilliant director, brilliant. performer, excuse me, the peaches are coming back up. Pears are coming back up. Brilliant everything. So please, if you have a chance learn from him. I'm very lucky to be in a duo with him and get to perform with him. So if you're in the Boston area, you do improv you want to learn from the best. Go to Steve Klinedler  you're very welcome.

Steve Kleinedler  
I love performing and playing and talking with all of you. You are all fantastic. I really

Aubrie Williams  
Oh, we miss you. 

Ralph Andracchio  
We miss you.

Steve Kleinedler  
I miss Philadelphia a lot. I won't lie. I really do. 

Aubrie Williams  
Come visit. 

Steve Kleinedler  
I will. I was there six times last year and I haven't made it this year yet. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Not enough.

Aubrie Williams  
We won't make you any food. 

Ralph Andracchio  
We won't make you pears. All right, everybody. Thank you for listening to another great episode of Cookbook Obscura. Thank you Steve. Thank you, Shannon and Aubrie. And please remember to eat responsibly, and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai