Homecooked Magazine

Today I'm talking with Mike at Homecooked Magazine. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking to Mike McCormick at Homecooked Magazine. Good afternoon, Mike. How are you? Good afternoon. Doing great. Thanks for having me. Are you in Oregon? Is that right?

00:24
Yeah, our company is based in Oregon. I'm just south of Portland, our warehouse and a lot of our team is in Eugene, but primarily in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Oh, I've heard it's beautiful there. It is. And, you know, we get a lot of grief about the rain, but honestly, you know, most of the year it's pretty, it's pretty tough to beat. I've been around lots of places and I keep coming back. So. Nice.

00:49
Okay, well, tell me about yourself and about the magazine. I see that it's very new. Yeah, so I've been in publishing for about eight years. We have three magazines. One we started in 2016 called Quilt Folk. And so I've been in the magazine space for a number of years, but Homecooked is really very new. In fact, we officially launched December 1st. So it's about, you know,

01:20
month and a half old, but we've been working on it for well over a year. Okay. And how did it come about? Whose brainchild was it? Yeah. So, like I said, I've been publishing for a while and had had the idea for Home Cooked for a number of years. And really, the idea was pretty simple. We just wanted to try to create a print magazine that sort of embodied everything we loved about.

01:48
home-cooked meals, we wanted to try to put that in print. So of course, the tastes that are familiar that we love, but also the faces and the people and the conversations, the plates, all the little things that go into making home-cooked meals feel warm and special. We said, well, can we recreate that in a print magazine? And so that was the simple kind of genesis of an idea. And then of course, it's just a lot of work to try to...

02:17
to make that happen and we've got a great team of people who love print. So our company is fully committed to print magazines, which I know is a little bit different in this sort of era. But that was the idea. And we felt like we've been doing this for a while. We had a business model that kind of made sense. And so I felt like the right time to kind of dive in. Okay. So here's the question that I was left with after I looked at your Facebook page and your website. And I'm...

02:46
I may be playing a little bit of devil's advocate here, but I don't think so. A lot of people these days don't cook anything from scratch. They don't use their beautiful kitchens for anything except a show place to have their friends come over and have a cup of tea or a drink of wine. And so why did you think there was a market for this magazine?

03:12
Yeah, I think that definitely what you said is true, but I think it's a big world and there are a lot of people who use their kitchens in pretty interesting ways. And if you just look at my family or my friend group, we've got people who kind of run the gamut. And so, you know, it's a big enough space. Everybody eats food is kind of a cultural touchstone for all of us in one way, shape, form. And so the idea with Home Cooked was...

03:41
It's not just for people who make everything from scratch or for people who maybe do it all the time, but it's for people who, like I said, appreciate a home-cooked meal, whether you're the person making it or enjoying it, all those kinds of things. And for that, I mean, there's just, I don't know, there's so many people who can resonate with that idea. And with home-cooked, it was kind of like, how can we create a big enough table where...

04:07
everybody feels sort of welcome here, whatever their relationship to cooking or food is, you know? Okay, that's a valid answer. I just was very curious because my kids are all grown. My oldest is 35, my youngest just turned 23. Oldest is a girl, the other three are boys. And one of the rules in my house, I've mentioned on the podcast before, is that they all had to know how to cook a dinner and a dessert that they would be proud to serve their friends.

04:36
before they moved out. And I cooked from scratch all the time with them growing up and they kicked in, they helped, they joined in. And every single one of them really does enjoy cooking from scratch. And I've been told that I was kind of weird making that a requirement. The other requirements were that they could do their own laundry and wash their own dishes because you know, being a human is important.

05:01
I can tell you from my experience a little bit, and this might surprise you or not, but I was really fortunate. I grew up on a 10-acre berry farm. For a long time, we lived in a teeny little house there until I was 14. We didn't run the farm the whole time, but we did on the second half of that. From the time I was about nine years old. My mom was a really good home cook, I would say.

05:31
didn't make fancy meals. They were simple, usually like protein, like mashed potatoes and green beans or something like that. But nine nights out of 10, there was something home cooked on the table and maybe that 10th night we would get takeout or something. But she was a great, great home cook. And so I was the benefactor of that. I enjoyed that, but I myself didn't pick up cooking and still to this day.

06:01
really don't. When I was 18, I had the great joy of chasing my dream as a professional baseball player. I was drafted in high school and the week of my last final exam, I left for West Virginia and spent the next five years traveling the East Coast playing baseball. So I left this farm and this life and this wonderful mother who…

06:29
made meals that I kind of took advantage of, or took for granted I should say, to a place where I was eating out basically 99% of the time. Whatever was open at night, it could be a waffle house or Applebee's or a gas station or something like that. So it made me really miss and appreciate what I had growing up and also later in life. It was one of the things that I kind of…

06:58
long for and missed during those years playing baseball. So I didn't pick it up, but I appreciate it in a totally different way. And then fast forward, I ended up meeting my wife a few years later who comes from a large Italian family. And every Sunday we do family dinners where big meals are made and there's crazy cousins and chaos and noise and all these things. But it's a really important tradition to them. And now I get to.

07:26
kind of benefit from that as well. So I'm embarrassed to say that I'm not a cook, but I'm somebody who appreciates food and what it means for families. And I've been very blessed to have a number of women in my life who make great food. Awesome. Italian food is the best. It's so versatile and you can make so much of it and feed so many people at once. I just, I think it's great. Okay. So food is...

07:56
Food is wonderful. I have been sick for the last week, and food has been very boring to me because it doesn't taste like much. And I'm very much looking forward to the first meal I have next week, where it tastes like food again. And it reminds me every time I come down with something that messes with my taste buds, that food is an event. It should be something that is honored and cherished as you eat it. And so food brings people together.

08:26
And when people ask me about why I wanted to cook from scratch, why I learned to cook, it was because if you eat out all the time, it's expensive. But if you learn to cook from scratch, it costs you less money to eat better food. And we had a family of six, my husband and I and the four kids. And trying to keep those little boogers fed was a trick. It's a lot of work to

08:55
meet everybody's desires on what they want to eat six nights a week, you know? For sure. And so when people are asking me questions about, you know, my husband lost his job or I lost my job, how can we cut corners? The first thing I tell people is learn to cook. And also, there's real satisfaction in making food from scratch yourself and sharing it with people you care about. Because

09:24
They're benefiting from what you made, but you're benefiting from the giving of it. And so when I saw your magazine, I was like, that is such a beautiful idea. And your magazine isn't just recipes, it's the stories of the people who are doing the cooking. And I looked at your description on your website of the different featured people and such great stories. I mean, you said,

09:52
I read something that you guys make sure that you send your writers and your photographers to the place to interview the people in person. And that must be so much fun for them. It totally is. And to your first point, I mean, food is definitely a love language for a lot of people. And it's the way that people express creativity. It's the way that they get to your point. There's a practicality to it too, whether you're feeding your family.

10:20
looting new skills or just seeing the joy on someone's face when they taste something for the first time. I mean, there are so many moments and powerful emotions wrapped up into, you know, great meals and great recipes and food. Um, and the thing is everybody has that experience to some degree, almost everybody. And so when we look at our magazine, you know, we're not just talking to people who are chefs or work professionally in food. Some of them do, but most of them are just kind of everyday people.

10:50
who have a great recipe that brings them joy, it brings their family joy. And now we're able to kind of share that with the world. But in doing so, rather than just sharing the measurements and the ingredients and the X's and O's, we're traveling to their home and we're sitting down with them for three, four, five, six hours, whatever it takes, and we're getting their story. We're shooting them in their space with their kitchen, with their family, oftentimes.

11:18
And so it's just trying to catalog that and document that and make it the most compelling, shareable recipe that we can for the rest of us to benefit from. And so yeah, the magazine's made up of all kinds of people. Each issue is 164 pages, zero advertisements, usually 15 or so recipes, give or take. And the other fun thing about it is...

11:46
We can do this because rather than sending our crew all over the country at once, we focus on a particular region. So issue one, which is available now, is the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts. So we'll spend 10, 12, 15 days with our crew there documenting that region and talking to 15 or so home cooks and then every issue at some place new. So issue two, which comes out in March, is Austin, Texas.

12:17
very different people, different kinds of food and recipes, and that kind of makes every year a little bit unique. How do you find the people that you're gonna go talk to? It's harder, it was harder at first because nobody knew who we were, and when you're dealing with home cooks, they're not always people who are posting and talking about food online, but there was some of that early on where we were just doing a lot of sort of internet sleuthing.

12:46
like the better term, a lot of research, a lot of word of mouth, and kind of getting a foothold at a place and then asking around and trying to find folks who had a story they wanted to share. So that was kind of early on. Now that we've started to establish a readership, we can start to get reader submissions, which is really helpful. And that's kind of how we see it growing ultimately is that as the community grows, people will

13:14
our next kind of stops in that way. Okay, that makes sense. Um, so do you have a certain meal that's a favorite of yours that your mom made for you? Yes, I have many. There's, there's one in particular. Very simple. She called it chicken Eden aisle, but it was like rice, chicken and like cream cheese sauce.

13:44
And I always had green beans with it. And then on the top, she would take like, um, dried beef, like that you get in a little jar at the store and she would like, uh, crumple that over the top. And. You know, I never had it anywhere else. I've just, she'd make it every month or so. And I was always excited as a kid. And so fast forward that first year that I was playing baseball in West Virginia and I was pretty homesick. My host mom. And.

14:13
For those who don't know, a lot of young professional baseball players are 18, 19, 20. So you'll get assigned a host mom or dad or host family who will kind of just look after you a little bit. I was still living in a Super 8 motel, so I was still on my own, but I had a host mom there. And we grew to become really, really good friends. And actually, my mother and my host mom still to this day, however many 15 years later, are still very close.

14:40
But that first summer when I was feeling homesick, she broke my mom. She said, hey, I wanna make Mike something that kind of reminds him of home. What would you suggest? And so she made that dish for me. And I remember after the game, coming out of the locker room and clubhouse and she had it in a little bag, keep it warm. And she opened it up and immediately it looked like my mom's, tasted just like my mom's. And it was just an experience I'll never forget because again,

15:10
I was 18, which is still pretty young, and I'd never been away from home for more than a couple nights. So that recipe always kind of holds a place in my heart, particularly just because I got to have that experience with my house mom. It was pretty cool. That is so sweet. I teared up while you were telling me the story. I have a story, but it's not mine. It's actually my husband's. My husband is the bread baker in the house.

15:37
He does the yeast threads because I kill yeast every time I try to do yeast threads. I don't know why. And there was this recipe, it's for Parker House Rolls. And he got the recipe from his mom who had gotten it from her mom. And he was like, I want to try making these, but they seem kind of fiddly. And I said, well, what's the worst that happens? They end up in the trash? Go ahead, try making them. And he made these rolls and they're basically like a

16:06
like a twist and they're pull apart rolls. And they're really yummy. They're really soft on the inside. And he made a batch for us and we tried them and we love them. And I said, is it the same as what your grandma used to make? And he said, it's the same as both my grandma's used to make. And I said, both your grandma's? And he said, yes. He said, the recipe actually came from dad's side of the family, but then it got put in the church cookbook. And.

16:36
my mom's side of the family adopted it. So both grandparents would make these rolls. And so my husband and I handled them dinner for Christmas dinner one year, and he made these rolls and brought them with everything else. And my husband's dad saw them and said, Are those the Parker house rolls? And my husband said, Yes. And

17:04
My father-in-law didn't even miss a beat. He didn't even wait. He just grabbed one and tried it. And his eyes filled up with tears. He was like, just like my mom made. And I just watched this happen and I teared up. I was like, I had nothing to do with making these roles and I'm teary. I can't imagine how my father-in-law is actually feeling on the inside right now. So that's an incredible story. And to me that those are the kinds of stories we want to try to tell with

17:33
you're getting the recipe, but you're getting that backstory. And, um, like if I, as an example, I had that recipe now and we shared that around the table and someone said, Hey, where do we get this recipe? We'd say, well, I got it from a home cook, but there's this woman and her family. And I would immediately dive into the story. And one of our beliefs at home cooked is that, um, recipes with a story just tastes better and I think that's true. I think it's true. And, um,

18:02
I think it'd be true about that. It's an incredible story. Yeah, I was blown away at my father-in-law's reaction because he's not the most effusive or emotional guy ever. I mean, he's very nice, but he's just not the kind to tear up at things. And I just remember watching his face just melt, you know? And it was so funny because he's also very... He's very...

18:31
proper, I guess is the word. And so when he just took one and tried it without even, there was no hesitation. It was just, I've got to do this now. And it was so out of character for him. I just, I was laughing and teared up at the same time. It was really funny. So yeah, food is, food is weird. Um, they say that, that memories are really tied to scent and sound, but

18:59
But scent has a lot to do with taste. If you can't smell, you can't taste. A thousand percent. Yeah. So it makes sense that food would be such a trigger for people. And I think that's why, you know, a magazine about food potentially has the opportunity to resonate as well because it's very much a sensory experience and you're kind of getting it from all directions. There's the kind of, even there's that emotional cerebral

19:27
thing that's going on within you. You're also smelling, you're seeing, you're tasting, obviously, all of these things. And it's not that unlike when you're experiencing that in print. I mean, our magazines have a very tactile, it's called a soft touch laminate cover. And the pages are this really high quality uncoated sheet of paper. And there's no ads, so you're going through it very uninterruptedly.

19:57
And it's an experience. That's the way we tried to do it. And there's even a smell and some people hate it. Some people like it, but just from the print and the ink and whatnot. And so, I don't know. I think that food, magazines, things you can sit down with, things that you could take your time with, things that trigger stories and emotions and things for you, those are all powerful. They're always going to have a place in our lives.

20:24
Absolutely. And we're so gadget focused these days that having an actual book or magazine in your hand where you're actually turning the page, you're not swiping the screen is, is a really nice experience now and then to have again. Um, the other thing that I was going to say is it's the same thing with cooking. If, if you're going to sit down and read an actual magazine in your hands, you can't be doing anything else.

20:54
And cooking, you can't be doing anything else. It's the most, it's one of the most focused activities that there are available to you is cooking. Yeah, we look for those opportunities. I mean, I mentioned we have a quilting publication that's been around for eight years. We're on issue 33. We do a lot of different things with that company, but quilts and cooking are not that unlike one another in the sense that people do it for themselves. They do it.

21:22
for artistic reasons, they do it for other people, they do it to show love. But it's also something that you can get a sense of mastery of, that you can get better over time. And to your point, you can do it and it's pretty consuming. It's like something that can sort of take you away from whatever else is going on in that day and get you in that sort of zone or in that flow state. And I think people obviously have things that help get them there, you know, individually. For some people it's different things. My brother, it's...

21:52
gardening and he's like a real small scale farmer to this day. That's something that he can do. And so we have these things, whether it's food, cooking, quilting, reading, writing, whatever it is. And again, those things are always going to have a place in our lives. And with the thing with screens, I mean, we obviously are all on screens all the time, now more than, more than ever. But we also consume things.

22:20
all day in different ways. It's not always online. We can listen to the radio, we're watching TV, we're talking to neighbors, we're reading a book, whatever it is. And so this idea that magazines, I've heard about print is dead or these kinds of things, it's just changing. And as publishers, we're trying to respond and make them almost like...

22:49
re-birthing them, I guess, for the new era a little bit. I mean, we have this great opportunity to figure out what do magazines do for us and why were they so important for so many years? And, you know, what can we do now to kind of usher in a new sort of time for print? Yes, and print isn't dead. It's just expensive. True. Well, paper is expensive. Printing is expensive.

23:18
And certainly the way that we gather stories is expensive. It'd be a lot easier to kind of phone it in, but expensive also is a little bit relative. I mean, it kind of depends on, is the reader getting the value that they, they feel like they're getting value and what does that mean for them? And what are they willing to kind of pay for that? So we just think about what's the best way

23:47
possible thing that we like that we can put out and we just hope that that resonates with enough people who find it valuable that they're willing to kind of pay what it takes to produce because that's really what it is. It just takes a certain amount of capital to be able to produce a high quality magazine these days. Yes, exactly and that's why I do a podcast because I'm curating people's stories too but it doesn't cost me hardly anything to do.

24:14
and I really enjoy doing it. And it's been really, I mean, we're not done yet, but it's been really wonderful talking with you about this because I really used to love magazines. And I think I have four subscriptions that come in right now. And I don't think I've looked at but one of them in months because I've been busy with other things. I have a whole stack that I need to get to. And you're reminding me that it might be smart to take a day and sit down and go through those and be like, oh yeah, this is why I like magazines.

24:43
Well, I should ask you, what do you think it is about that stack that you've got there? You said you've been busy. Why do you think they've sat there? Hardly because I tend to read underneath the rims of my glasses because I refuse to get bifocals. And so for me to sit down and read a magazine, I have to be committed to sitting for a while because I'm switching my eyesight thing.

25:12
is hard. Like, you know, if I'm going to read a magazine and I want to sit down and read it, and I want to read it quick, because I read fast anyway, and I will read like two articles and then stand up and walk around and look further away because otherwise I'm going to be blind. But I don't know, I just, I feel like it's a guilty pleasure to sit down and read a magazine for some reason. I think, I think you're not alone in that, you know.

25:40
It is true. I mean, there's so many things you could or should be doing throughout the day, that this idea that you're going to sit down, like you said, change your glasses or do what you're going to do, and then have this sort of indulgent moment where you get to just sit and, and, and read for a while does feel like one of the first things that can get sort of skipped. And I think that just comes back to like, just a little bit of habits, you know, like, um, I think that we're, we're trying to make the case that

26:10
whether it's our magazine or others or a book or whatever, that there are some of these things you can cultivate in your life that they've always been important, they're still important. I think we've abandoned them a little bit largely culturally and I think we're gonna find our way back to it. I mean, just because it's important for you to take some time during your week that is indulgent or that feels like some new time. And of course you have a lot of options to do that, but.

26:37
If you find a topic or a magazine or a writer who optimizes that time for you most, you walk away and you feel joyful or empowered or inspired and it stays with you. I mean, that's something you're going to do more and more of. Yes, because endorphins are a wonderful thing. The more that you get them, the more you want them. And magazines will do that. If you read a really good article, you'll feel better and then you want to read more good articles.

27:06
The other thing I wanted to say about your magazine is I obviously don't have a copy of it. I haven't gotten one. I haven't ordered one. But I was looking at the photos that you have of it and it's really pretty. And I'm guessing that it's going to be one of those magazines that people will have on their coffee tables when they have friends over as people used to do. That's definitely the idea. And I thank you for saying that. And that's not just big.

27:34
because it's beautiful, but it's the same reason why we make food beautiful or anything else. I think we are aesthetic creatures. We like that. It's inspiring. It's reflective of the way we would like to live. So I think something should be beautiful. That's the whole, the medium is the message thing a little bit. I think when you say, hey, this magazine is about something I care about.

28:01
It's beautiful, it's been created with joy, and I'm gonna put it on my coffee table. I think that says as much or more, more about you, the reader, than it does our magazine. I think people just want to be around that, whether we know it or not, and the more we can kind of connect to that in our lives, like the more joyful we can be. Yes, and I also noticed, I think, that it's sort of a sage green theme. The verse.

28:30
This issue, yeah. So that'll change every issue. And so, as I said, it's region to region. So we have Pioneer Valley and that's actually like an asparagus green because that part of the Pioneer Valley was like the asparagus capital of the world. And so it was kind of fitting. Okay, that makes sense. I just happen to love that color very, very much. My kitchen in the old house that we lived in was sage green.

28:58
I painted it sage green because I love that color so very much. So of course as soon as I saw the color of your magazine cover I was like, ooh, what is this? Nice. Yep. So you happened to hit one of the things I love the most and you had, you didn't even know I existed and you picked my favorite color. So I'm very impressed. Well, I think we need to get you a copy of the magazine then. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So we have like a minute left. Is there anything else you would like to share?

29:29
I just think if anyone wants to try Homecooked, we have a 100% money back guarantee with anything that we ship all the time. We want you to love it. And so if you give it a try, you can use, we actually create a coupon code just for this podcast. So if you just use Tiny, I think it gives you $15 off your first year. And it's an exciting time to do so. You'll get Pioneer Valley.

29:57
Issue one right now, it's shipping. Issue two, Austin will ship March 1st. And then we've got a great lineup for the rest of the year. So you're really getting five magazines for the price of four and saving 15 bucks with coupon code tiny. And just let us know if you love it. We'd love to hear from you. If you don't like it, we'd also like to hear from you. We hope you do. But I just super appreciate you having us on and hope people will check us out. I'm thrilled that you took the time to talk with me. I appreciate it so much. Is the code?

30:27
All small letters, all capital letters, what is it? You can use either. Capital, none, should all work. Awesome. All right, Mike, thank you again for your time today. I really do appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Have a great day.