a kitchen chat with joanna goddard
plus 10 questions to ask your Valentine’s date!
Hi, happy Wednesday! We have a Valentine’s treat in store for you today.
We are kicking off a new So Into That series called Kitchen Chats! My favorite part about cooking a meal for friends is that moment when you pull a friend or two into the kitchen to chitchat while you finish prepping the food. That’s the vibe we’re going for with this series. It also harkens So Into That the podcast (if you listened, you’ll recognize some of my questions).
I’m so excited to introduce our first Kitchen Chat guest, my friend
! I know a lot of you already follow Joanna through her women’s lifestyle site Cup of Jo. If you’ve never checked it out, I hope you will — reading it feels like you’re sinking into a soft couch with a friend, cup of tea (or glass of wine/skinny marg) in hand. Joanna is also the founder of , the #1 fashion/beauty newsletter on Substack, which features life advice, dating gossip, travel guides, and fun finds (from people like Catherine Newman, Ashley Ford, and me!).It is one of the Substacks to which I am a paid subscriber — I devour every single post fervently, the moment it hits my inbox. 10/10 recommend subscribing to
— read my chat with Joanna to see why!
CARO: Joanna! Thank you SO MUCH for being our first Kitchen Chat guest.
JOANNA: I love this new series because I’m always the friend sitting at the counter, telling stories and sharing gossip. I’m a famously bad cook, but I’ll bring good wine and cheese.
CARO: Good wine + cheese = the perfect ingredients for a kitchen catch up. So tell me, what are you so into right now!?
JOANNA: My kids and I are into a game called You Think You Know Me, where each card asks a question about the person you’re sitting with — say, about their favorite podcast or pizza toppings. We leave it on our coffee table and play with friends who stop by. Also, we’re working on some fun Big Salad posts about how to make friends as an adult and 10 things I’d tell someone who’s getting divorced, as well as beautiful house tours.
CARO: Just added that game to my cart, I love a good questions game. I always look forward to Big Salad landing in my inbox Friday afternoons and can’t wait to read the post about making new friends as an adult. I’m a kindergarten mom this year and, wow, it’s been such a big year for new friends in my life. My six year old is like a friendship matchmaker. OK, now what’s something you’re OUT on right now?
JOANNA: Natural wine. I know it’s cool but it’s always so sour!
CARO: Proud of you for that bold, bold admission in this natural wine obsessed world. Now I want your recs! What’s a book, podcast episode, or show you read/watched lately and loved?
JOANNA: Long Island by Colm Toíbín absolutely gripped me. The novel — which is a sequel to Brooklyn — follows an Irish mother in New York who is having trouble in her marriage. She then goes back to Ireland for her mom’s 70th birthday and runs into an old flame. It was one of those books where you stay up late reading, even though your eyes are closing, because you need to know what happens next.
CARO: I cannot wait to read this! Just reserved it on Libby. What would you be wearing to dinner at my house tonight?
JOANNA: What’s the weather in Carmel today? I’d probably pull on a trench from Sézane or a cute sweater from Kule. Comfort first, always.
CARO: Always. I’m wearing this Kule shirt right now! Tell me about an IRL LOL (something that made you laugh out loud in real life recently):
JOANNA: My two boys make me laugh all the time. My son Anton called out from the bathroom last night, “I’m doing the best hand wash ever.” When I asked what made it great, he answered, “It’s just tough.”
CARO: Oh my gosh, yes. My boys make me laugh so, so much. The other day I was getting dressed and my four-year-old walked into my closet while I was naked. He said “mom don’t worry I will NOT laugh at you even though I can see your pa-china and pa-chinas are *pretty* funny.” I could not stop laughing.
I love peeking in my friends’ pantries for recipe inspiration. Once a jumbo can of pinto beans I spotted at my friend Jillian’s house led to this recipe! What’s a pantry staple you are never without?
JOANNA: Ruffles and onion dip, the best snack ever and a staple of my Midwestern upbringing.
CARO: Wow, it’s been way too long since I ripped open a packet of Lipton’s Onion Soup mix. Thank you for bringing this back into my life. Do you listen to something while you cook? If so, what?
JOANNA: Right now, I’m into Chappell Roan, and sometimes my kids turn on the Spotify playlist for “cool jazz,” which makes me laugh. It feels like we’re in a cheesy bar or hotel elevator, but the vibes are good.
CARO: George always turns on the Spotify playlist “Italian cooking music” when he’s in the kitchen, and, same. Cheesy but good vibes. What do you cook when you don’t feel like cooking?
JOANNA: Our go-tos are coconut chicken soup or chicken parm meatballs. Anything my kids eat, I’m thrilled with.
CARO: Oh, these both sound so cozy and delicious. I can’t wait until my big boys will eat soup someday! Right now it’s a hard pass from them. Valentine’s Day is in two days! What’s your favorite way to turn a home-cooked meal into a special occasion?
JOANNA: We light candles and use cloth napkins, which feels special. Or I let the kids sit on the sofa, and we watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine together, which is what they love the most!
CARO: I feel like anytime we sit somewhere that isn’t the dining table it feels special! My kids love a “floor picnic”. Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day with your sons? If so, how?
JOANNA: We historically haven’t done much for Valentine's Day, but a Big Salad reader just shared the idea of sticking Post-It notes with sweet nothings all around the house. I want to try it with my kids this year.
CARO: Oh that’s really sweet. I know you have a new boyfriend and am so happy you are so happy! What’s been your best date so far with Freddie?
JOANNA: Aww, Freddie, I’m so crazy about him. I wasn’t sure if I’d find love after my divorce — for a long time, I felt allergic to even the idea of dating — so I feel so lucky to have connected with him. Freddie’s also a great intuitive cook; he loves poking around in the cupboard and fridge and figuring out what to make.
It reminds me of something a friend said about meeting his husband: “I was looking for someone to cook for, and he was looking for someone to cook for him.”
Freddie and I have gone on a bunch of fun dates, like meeting at bookstores or taking winter walks or going to Dave & Busters lol, but one I especially enjoyed was my birthday party last month. It wasn’t a huge milestone — I was just turning 46 — but we decided to invite people over for homemade chocolate mousse, and it ended up being such a magical night. When I was little, I sort of thought life fell off a cliff at age 40, but this might be my favorite decade yet, and I’m excited for all these next chapters.
CARO: Thank you so much for your time, Joanna! I hope we can have an IRL kitchen chat soon!! xx
JOANNA: Thank you so much for having me!!! xoxo
A few Big Salad posts I loved:
I’ve talked about my love of playing question games during group dinners and dates with George before. Here are some fun questions to ask your significant other (or sister, best friend, or mom!) over dinner — perhaps your easy-but-fancy steakhouse dinner? — to help you get away from the logistical chat that can often happen (I’m picking the kids up Thursday, I need you to drop off snack at tee ball on Monday, have you gotten your sister a birthday present yet…).
Here are some questions from our team — and you all! Thanks to everyone who shared an idea in the chat, and check out the thread for more fun ideas.
You all have shared so many good ideas in response to the clean kitchen reset we sent out on Monday! One of my go-to brands, Aunt Fannie’s, reached out wanting to share some clean-kitchen love with What to Cookers, so we are giving away Aunt Fannie’s Kitchen Cleaning Bundle (pictured above) to 3 lucky WTCers! To enter to win, comment on this post by next Tuesday, 2/181. You can share a conversation-starting question you love, a clean-kitchen tip, or even your favorite Cup of Jo or Big Salad article, thing you’ve learned, or quote, if you too are a Joanna fan girl.
What to Cook launched in December 2020, which means there are more than 200 recipes in the archives. To help you cook through them, let’s revisit what we cooked this week over the last few years.
1. 30-minute honey gochujang glazed salmon and broccoli bowls, 2024
I made this meal on repeat for MONTHS after I developed it. As George put it: “I’d like to eat that at least twice a week for the rest of my life.”
2. crunchy refried bean tacos, 2023
This is the recipe inspired by
’s jumbo can of pinto beans! It’s an absolutely delicious vegetarian taco, plus you could make the magic green sauce from it to go with any other quesadillas, tacos, flautas, nachos…3. smashburgers and fries, 2022
If you’re in more of a diner dinner mood than a steak house dinner mood this Friday, make smashburgers for a Valentine’s Day date at home instead!
4. 15-minute peanut veggie noods, 2021
A cult-classic WTC recipe. I still make this meal all the time when I absolutely do not feel like cooking.
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kind of a cleaning hack, kind of a parenting hack: my 9 year old always leaves her toothbrush, hairbrush, hair ties, and other random stuff on the bathroom counter in the morning when she's done getting ready for school. I've asked her 100+ times to put her things away when she's done with them. Earlier last week, I noticed she did it without being asked, so I wrote her a little note thanking her and complimenting her responsibility and stuck it in her bathroom drawer. She's cleaned up her bathroom stuff every day since!
Not me reading the SL too quickly and thinking this was a kitchen chat with Joanna Gaines 😅 TBH I like Joanna Goddard more!