SPEAKER_00 0:49

The the best emails I get are from people who thought that part of their identity was gone. You know, they're the one that cooks on Memorial Day. They do all the grilling for, you know, Fourth of July. And now they thought they'd never be able to do it again. And somehow they find the blind kitchen. And so it it gives people that part of their identity back.

SPEAKER_09 1:15

Time to fire up that grill. From smoke pork to smash burger, outdoor cooking just tastes better. This is the Okie Smoking Podcast. And here's your host, John Barry.

SPEAKER_06 1:34

Welcome back to the Okie Smoking Podcast. Today, October special guest, the uh chef as well as executive chef and the founder of the Blind Kitchen. Her name is Deborah Erickson. She was one of the only blind students in her class, a former instructor with Oregon Commission for the Blind. Uh, how are you doing today? Uh, welcome in.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

I'm doing good. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_06 2:00

Now, uh, so how did you get the ideal for the blind kitchen?

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Well, I am blind myself, and I like to teach. And I graduated from culinary school in 2019. And in March of 2020, and so I was teaching at the Commission for the Blind, teaching legally blind adults how to cook safely. And then COVID hit. And so I found myself at home for a year and a half, uh, not able to do teaching. So I went ahead and organized all the different things I'd learned. And grilling was part of what we had to cover in and you know, all types of fabrication of meats and things like that. So I knew a lot about um adaptive cooking tools if you do have vision loss and you want to grill. And in fact, we have a grilling collection on the websites. Quite a few tools have to do specifically with outdoor barbecuing, grilling, smoking.

SPEAKER_06 2:57

And are those tools different uh that you need for the grill or for just a regular indoor oven and stove or different?

SPEAKER_00 3:04

No, outdoor grill. So if I'm cooking indoors, if I'm broiling or something in my oven, I have a certain pair of gloves. There's a different one for outside because your arms are over directly often over the heat source. Um, in the kitchen, you can avoid putting your hands in the oven, but you can't outside putting because it's going to be over the coals or over the flame. So there the tools are specifically for outdoor grilling and barbecuing. Some of them.

SPEAKER_06 3:31

Right. Because I know if you're using the oven, you can just gently, you know, maybe pull it closer to you and just reach in and grab the pot or pan without actually going over the fire. And on the grill, uh, you don't really have that option.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

You're exactly right. That's why the gloves are different.

SPEAKER_06 3:49

Gloves have to be longer. What if uh uh you have uh some kind of a sear searing up or something, you know, sometimes the fire can get a little too hot. Uh is is there a way for you to identify that?

SPEAKER_00 4:03

It definitely can. You can hear it usually, and certainly you can feel it. And so then you you would have the controls marked, and it's very easy to do it. They're called bump dots, and you put them in predictable places, like maybe at 300, maybe at 350, maybe at 400. And that way when I if I'm doing it, depends on your controls, but if I'm doing a dial, I I have to know where the tip of the dial is pointing to, what whether, and it usually forms a point, they're almost all manufactured that way. And so if I want the 350, I'm gonna go until it lines up with that second bump dot that is located on the grill itself. So that's how I control the temperature. And so if I need to bring it down, I I bring it down. And the other thing is that uh there are a very small amount percentage of people who are legally blind are completely blind. It's a very, very small portion. Most people do have light perception. So if the light gets brighter or flame, as you're talking about, we do have some visual information. It won't be as clear as yours, but it'll still be information that's useful to us to help us make sure we can keep doing what we still love to do.

SPEAKER_06 5:13

Right. And I assume you would use your you would listen and you could probably start to hear it ramp up, you know, because when you get the you you do have some flame noise coming out of it that you can detect, and of course the heat of it uh as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Sure. You would use all three of those senses if and and whatever vision you if you're lucky enough to have some.

Origins of The Blind Kitchen

SPEAKER_06 5:33

What are some of the more common fears that you would uh suspect someone visually impaired would have when cooking in the kitchen or on the grill?

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Okay, so for the grill specifically, I mean we could talk about preparation, cutting, and people are afraid of cutting themselves and burning themselves, of embarrassing themselves by looking messy or you know, uncoordinated, or also by producing unattractive food for their guests. You know, I'm handing you a plate of food, I can't see it. But for grilling, I I I do want to stick to that. It's mostly fear of burning yourself or fear of not being able to manipulate the food on the grill, not to know when to do it and not to know how to do it. So I'll tell you about some of these, some of the information I'll be giving you is based on um tools, and some of them are just strategies. So another fear people have is making people sick. And, you know, because we undercook the food, like especially poultry or or seafood. So there is a tool out there that was not made for blind people. It's called a talking thermometer, and mostly it's taught it was created for nighttime grilling when you can't see the display very well. Most of these have a backlight on the display, but it's still very hard for a lot of people to see at night. And so that's why this talking thermometer was created. And you can toggle between Celsius or Fahrenheit, and all you have to do is push a button, an educated guess as to how close in the center it is, but it it's an educated guess when you're doing it, even if you can see perfectly well, you can't see into the meat. But you put it and then you press the button, and it'll tell you if your chicken's at 165 or not, whether it's safe to consume. Because most of us, if we are afraid of making our family or friends sick, you're gonna overcook the food to be safe. But this talking thermometer lets me cook, get the same information you're getting through your eyes, through my ears. So plus, I if if I do have, you know, any vision loss, or if if it is dark and I can't see well in the dark and I gotta get my face close to the display, um, now my eyes are near the food, my nose is, my mouth is. It's it's not a safe place to be. So if you can get the information through your ears, I think everybody should do that.

SPEAKER_06 8:02

Right. And and like you said, it's a kind of an a guess of where you're going. And even when you can see it, you might want to put it in a couple different locations of it because when you read it, you may get a different temperature and you could put it, you know, in a couple of different locations and make sure that it's cooked thoroughly in multiple locations if you're cooking a bigger item uh on the grill.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

No, you're exactly right. Because you want to, it's the thickest part closest to the bone of that cut of meat is gonna be the last part to cook. So you want to make sure that you you're getting it into the right spaces, but absolutely multiple probings are are important.

SPEAKER_06 8:40

And you mentioned uh that that uh talking thermometer is made for everyday people at nighttime rather than those visually impaired. Uh which of the tools would you say are actually for maybe everybody, not even thinking of those that need it in that that manner?

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Okay, for grilling specifically, I think all of them are made for uh the general population. They just lend themselves well to cooking with vision loss. So I'll I'll tell you about another one. Uh a problem. So flipping a hamburger, flipping a steak, it it can be difficult if you have vision loss because you you it's hard to slide it underneath and get it. So number one, I've got the grill gloves, and I'm sure you're familiar with these. They um they come up your arm, up your forearm, you know, like probably six or seven inches, and they have a thumb and four fingers, and they're made of cloth, but they're covered with silicone designs. So that way that silicone helps protect you against the heat, but it keeps the flexibility. Have you seen gloves like that?

SPEAKER_06 9:51

Yes, yes, I've seen what you're talking about.

Adaptive Grilling Tools for Vision Loss

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Yeah, so those are really good because they give you tactile, but trying to get, let's see, that piece of chicken flipped over and knowing for sure that you flipped it over, it it's hard to do if you can't see it. So we have something called a double spatula, and it's made out of stainless steel, and it's basically if a spatula and a pair of tongs had a baby, you that this is what it would look like. So you slide it under, and then there's a second, so that rectangle is about four inches by three inches on the bottom. The rectangle on the top is is smaller, probably about one inch by two inches. So when I get under that stake, I can use my grilling glove or I could use a fork to hold it in place so I can slide it underneath and know for sure I'm underneath it. Then I gently push down with the littler spatula on the top. They're attached, they don't come apart. And now I can pick it up, know that I have it on the platform, and then turn it over 180 and put it back down, and I'll know it's gonna be almost in exactly the same place because I haven't moved my hand anywhere. So that's something that also isn't made for, and there's a lot of different versions of it on the market, but I like the one that has the smaller rectangle on top because it makes it easier to deposit that hamburger or that pork chop once you put it down. Another thing that I think is really useful, not made for the blind or visually impaired, but it's called a skewer, a double skewer. Because if you're cooking, let's say you're using bamboo skewers or or metal skewers, and you run like let's say a for the the hardest one, let's say we have like a row of cherry tomatoes. So they're round. As they cook on the grill, they you know, the they get hotter, the moisture gets released to steam, it makes the hole bigger that the the the is it's being punctured through. So when you go to turn it, it it can turn uselessly in the center, and I really can't know. But ours have two prongs coming out of them. It has a handle and then two, I think they're about eight-inch prongs. So when I stick those same cherry tomatoes, I make sure they go through. They now it's hitting on two holes. There's no way I can't turn that 180 degrees. It can't roll uselessly. And so that also re works really good for like other foods that roll. So I can put sausages or hot dogs, impale them, and then have them be a little distance apart so that they can, you know, the air, the heat can get in between them. And I can put, depending on how thick the sausage or the the hot dog is, I can flip four of them at the same time and know that I've turned them 180 degrees, and they're not going to roll between the the grate or anything like that.

SPEAKER_08 13:23

I'm here with SpinQuest, where you can play and win from the comfort of your own home with hundreds of slot games and all of the table games you love with real cash prizes. Right now,$30 coin packs are on sale for$10 for new users. It's all at SpinQuest.com.

SPEAKER_05 13:42

That's S-P-I-N-Q-U-E-S T.com. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Voidware prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

Now with McDonald's McDouble, it's only$2.50. So you can get your gym games on or just get lunch for only$2.50. Get more value on the under$3 menu.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

Limit time only. Price time participation may vary. Prices may be higher for delivery.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

But it's gonna work out. So again, this was not something made, but it just lends itself well to us.

SPEAKER_06 14:14

Yes, because I can relate to I do grill a lot, and you do have we have flat tops and things, or it's unlevel, and you put it there and everything rolls, and you know, trying to always move it to the right spot. Uh so that that's a great way uh to make sure it stays where it's supposed to. You have an entire grilling barbecue and kitchen kit here, and there's those double prongs. Is there any one of those that's the uh is the most popular one going to be the talking thermometer there or the gloves?

SPEAKER_00 14:45

The gloves, the talking thermometer, and not surprisingly, there's something called a corn cob cleaner.

SPEAKER_06 14:51

I'm looking at that.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

It is so cool. And again, not meant for the blind or visually impaired, but it it's good for so the other thing is is the population is aging, and with aging often comes with some sort of vision loss. It's different for everybody, but there are a lot of people that enjoy outdoor grilling, and then once they lose, you know, macular degeneration or or advanced glaucoma, they don't know how to get back, and that's what this is about. But the other thing that comes with aging sometimes is teeth problems. Like you can't really eat a, you know, a corn cob anymore. So after you've grilled the corn, or you can do it when it's raw too, it depends on how you want to eat it, but you put what it is, it's a long tube, and it's only got four pieces in it to it. You put the corn cob, you you uh husk it, and then you get the silks off, and then you put it in, and now it's sticking up inside that tube straight up. The point of the corn is pointing towards the ceiling. There is a tube, a steel tube that has jagged little teeth on the bottom. They're sharp enough to get the corn kernels off the cob, but they don't they aren't sharp enough to pierce your skin. So you just put that on the top. This now the corn is being held upward, you push down, sometimes you need to turn a little bit. All of the corn kernels come off and that they stay in the tube, as do the starches that squirt, because that can be a real messy job. And I remember when I used to be able to see, I grew up in Indiana and we had to do a lot of canning of corns and stuff like that. And I remember it was easy to leave half of a corn kernel on there, you know, for a whole row. This thing does it for you really quick, really easy, and really cleanly. So, so that's a that's a popular tool.

SPEAKER_06 16:43

I know when you first started, is barbecue and grilling, which is uh really cool that you do that. Is it something that developed maybe people requested, or uh how did you all of a sudden decide a barbecue kit is something uh to go ahead and add to your collection?

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Yeah, it was it was requested. One guy looked at my library and I have things on dining out, I have things on different cooking methods, I have things on labeling things, and how do you identify things? And he said, You this is a great website, but you don't have anything on barbecuing or grilling. I was like, oops, you're right. And so then I started. My brother also has the same eye disease I do, and he grills all the time. He's into Suvide and all that kind of stuff. So he was was one of my original testers because he's he's very good at what he does. So that's that's yeah, it was a it was a request and it's quite popular.

SPEAKER_06 17:40

So it's kind of evolving over time because you know, in our our motto here is outdoor cooking just tastes better. We just uh love to do this everything outdoors. And then as you uh get more people involved, feedback, comments, and those kind of things, you kind of fine-tune it as you go along.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Exactly right. It it's that feedback that helps make you better. And am I is that double spatula good for people? You know, maybe the handle's too long, maybe the handle's too short, maybe it shouldn't be stainless steel. But so far I've been getting really good feedback for these tools.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Stay with us.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_06 18:19

Hey y'all, it's John from the Oki Smoking Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

And I'm Dolores.

SPEAKER_06 18:24

We wanted to tell you real quick about something we've been loving in the kitchen lately, the once-for-all meat slicer.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

This slicer was a game changer. You guys, it's perfect for slicing a beef jerky, thin cuts of carne and saw.

SPEAKER_06 18:39

But what I really love is it's a feast for making smash burgers. You can slice and grind your own meat fresh and fast.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

We even put together a video and a website so you can go to it to see it in action. Just head to okesmokin.com slash slicer. That's o-i-es m-o-k-in.com slash s-l-i-c-e-r. For the details and links if you want to grab one yourself.

SPEAKER_06 19:10

That's Okie Smoking.com slash Slicer. Go check it out. Yeah, I was also looking, you have several recipes. Uh, like the way they're laid out. I was looking at a couple of them that I would definitely try myself and uh the way they go. But I also caught my eye there, you actually have some barbecue sauce.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

I do. And that was based on a recipe from Christine Haas. She is a blind cook that won the third season of MasterChef. And so I was trying to recreate some of her recipes in her book, and that's where that one came from. So that's got a special place in my heart. And any kind of uh rubs or any kind of sauces, you can always tweak it. If you want it smokier, you could add more smoked paprika, or you could add liquid smoke. If you want it sweeter, you could add more brown sugar or or honey or however you want to make it your own. But these are the recipes on this website are a good start.

SPEAKER_06 20:10

Now, do you have any favorite grill recipe yourself or uh barbecue stories?

Safety First: Temperature Control Solutions

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Barbecue stories. Well, yeah. Um one of the things I was learning on is I had a I so I always have a work tray, which is a tray that keeps everything in in one place for me. And then I had I had the grilling gloves, but I had a cloth. And the cloth, I had it over my shoulder while I was working, I was wearing an apron, and somehow the cloth came off and it started on fire. And so that that was a little bit scary, but that's how I came up with the grilling clips, that they are uh about four inches long, and they have an alligator clip on one end and an alligator clip on the other end made out of stainless steel. So now I clip a cloth to my apron or to my clothing, if that's all I'm wearing, and and it moves with me, which is nice too, and it's never gonna end up in the flames. And the other thing I do is my grilling gloves. It's really easy to put those down and then they move as you're doing things. But you I use the those grilling clips, glove clips to they attach to my apron and then they attach to the gloves. So they're they move around with me wherever I go. So I've always got them.

SPEAKER_06 21:27

Now there was something else I saw on here that that I actually want. I'm gonna probably get these, and this would return pertain to anybody grilling or cooking indoors alone. And I actually have a couple of cuts right now on my finger. Last time about a week ago, I was cutting and I I pricked my finger a couple of times. And you've got I see these chain mail or their uh uh gloves that you can wear when you're cutting, so you don't have to worry about cutting yourself. Because uh when you're grilling, a lot of times you'll be prepping chicken in cubes, uh slicing up onions to throw on, smash burgers, whatever you're doing. And uh are those pretty uh uh something you'd recommend not just uh visually impaired, but anyone to really have?

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Oh, absolutely. And the way I learned about those, I was working in a commercial kitchen. I was the only blind person there, the only blind cook, but the the insurance company required all cooks to wear them before I'd ever gotten there, before they even knew they were gonna have me apply. And so um all the cooks had to wear them. They're they have chain mail is a good word, but these are much thinner than that, but they're a level five, which means there's they're flexible, um, but they but they they they're not gonna be really bulky, like the the heat gloves and the grill gloves are quite bulky. They're they're gonna be thicker. So the other thing that thing is good for is remember, I was telling you I need to make sure if I'm if I'm cooking like a a chicken uh a chicken breast or anything, I need to have that thermometer tip it at least at one point in when I'm probing it, and I do do it multiple times, is that I want to have it in the thickest part of the meat closest to the bone, depending on how it applies. I that cut glove is not expected to protect me against heat, but it does. It's better than my. Skin. So I can put that cut glove on. And now I've got more flexibility, more tactile information, and I can actually touch that meat and for just a couple seconds, because eventually the heat's going to get to me. It's not meant to protect. But that's the other good use for that. So like when I'm flipping that hamburger I'm talking about, I'll put that glove on my left hand so that I can hold the hamburger and then put that underneath it. And then I know I've got it on the platform. It just gives me more tactile information, even if the food is hot.

SPEAKER_06 23:54

So what you're saying is I we have like a blackstone griddle, a 22-inch griddle that you heat up. And sometimes while we're cooking on it, we can cut additional food on it. Now, not directly on the the uh griddle itself, but we have a kind of a heat resistant, it's it's kind of like a cutting board, but it's it's got feet, gets on top of it, and you can cut with that. So if you had those gloves on, and on that cutting board, you're kind of close to the griddle. They're gonna protect you from the heat and cutting yourself kind of all in one.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Ooh, I'll have to check that out. That sounds like something that would be useful.

SPEAKER_06 24:32

Yeah, because you'll you can get on there and say you want to dice up some additional onions or something, and you can do it right beside there and just go ahead and slide it right onto the uh to the griddle food and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Without messing up your nonstick surface, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_06 24:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Yeah, so uh just um a little kind of fun tip here. Uh have you ever seen a George Foreman grill?

SPEAKER_06 24:55

Yes, I think we may even have one.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

So that is hugely popular with the blind community, mostly because, well, usually they only have one temperature. Some of them have more controls, but they um usually are at 350 um and it's preset. So we don't have to worry about the dials or controls when it's plugged in, it's on. And if it's heated up, it's 350. But it the other nice thing for a lot of people is is you don't have to flip the food. It closes up like a suitcase. And so that's a real popular thing that I've used, especially with with people that wanted the grilling experience per se, but they they were afraid of of cooking over an open flame. And they're, you know, it's not for everybody. And it is intimidating uh until you do it a few times and and realize that you really aren't gonna get burnt. Um, that that's a that's a really good tool. And I wanted to also tell you something that you might like to. So I in culinary school I learned this. They have something out there called finger cut in a first aid kit. So we sell these little first aid kits with with band-aids. The problem is if you just cut yourself- You know what?

SPEAKER_08 26:08

It sucks to be bored. But when I get on my phone and play real casino games on spinquest.com, the time flies by. That two-hour wait at the DMV seems like 10 minutes. Play your favorite spots, live blackjack, live craft with a live dealer. New players,$30 coin packs are on sale for$10. Play spinquest.com and you'll never be bored again.

SPEAKER_05 26:31

SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Voidware prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With rss.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode, and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this. Even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at rss.com.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

You know, just a little bit, and you just want to put a band-aid on it. When you're cooking or grilling, your hands often get wet, either from the steam or from the sweat, or you know, from washing your hands. So if you can't see, especially, or if it's dark outside, that rubber band could fall down into the food or the band-aid, and you don't even know it's there. So what this does, it's a it's kind of like, I'm just gonna say the word, it's you put the rubber band on or the band-aid on, and now it your finger's dry, it's on, but now you want to get back to cooking quickly. You put it's kind of like a finger, finger condom. That's the best way to that it unrolls over your finger and it's tight. It's uncomfortably tight, but that's so that it holds on, that you're not gonna lose it. And that enables you to keep that band-aid on and get back to cooking really quickly without wonder worrying about that band-aid falling out.

SPEAKER_06 28:05

Oh, real cool.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Yeah, it's it it it it it is a good one.

SPEAKER_06 28:10

Now you have all these adaptive tools. Now, do you uh also do any classes or uh uh coaching or anything like that, or you pretty much just uh give the product to help uh those that need it?

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Right. The the products are the main thing, but I also do workshops and and public speaking um for people, and I also do like presentations at conferences to just help get the word out and let people know that it's there.

SPEAKER_06 28:36

And if someone was uh per se into grilling or something, what is the one advice or what how what would you recommend to them?

Grilling Techniques and Specialized Equipment

SPEAKER_00 28:46

So it depends on their skill level and their comfort and their vision, but there's another tool I didn't tell you about that I think people will like, and it's called the grill basket. And basically, I think it's about 16 inches wide and 12 inches tall and about one inch deep. And it's literally like a suitcase, but it's a grill basket. It's it's the you know, the the I can't think of the right word. It's it's grilling material. You put it in, it's gonna be exposed to the flame or the heat source, whatever your heat source is. Um and and then you can put like four hamburger patties in there, or you can put four small petite steaks if you want to put them in there. And then you close up the basket and you lock it. But now remember, air and heat can get all around this basket. And so you cook it for the amount of time you want for your steak, maybe four minutes on one side, depending on the thickness and how cold it is at the time you put it on. And then you can flip it over. All four of them are contained within that basket, and they all flip at the same time. So that's a pretty handy one to have too, where you the food is contained, you know where it's at, it's predictable, and and and that's a pretty good tool that for people to have, especially people that are just beginning, that aren't wanting to be chasing their food all over the grill if it rolls or something like that.

SPEAKER_06 30:10

So you could flip it all at once, you ain't got to do them individually, getting them misplaced, knocking one off, or anything like that. And you said people just getting started, uh, that would be very helpful for. Do you think uh most of the people uh are you uh helping those that are very new and and beginners uh trying to cook a blind, or are these intermediate, older, uh, more experienced people?

SPEAKER_00 30:36

I'd go intermediate to more experienced because if you lose your vision, grilling's probably not going to be the first place you go to for a new hobby. But most of these are people that were able to see and love doing it for their friends and family. And now because of vision loss, age related or otherwise, they they don't know how to get back to it. How can I possibly, like you were talking, those flare-ups of the flames? What how how if I can't see it, how am I going to control it? Uh and so these tools help them give the confidence that they can do it. And you you get into it slowly again. But you know, the the best emails I get are from people who thought that part of their identity was gone. You know, they're the one that cooks on Memorial Day, they do all the grilling for, you know, 4th of July. And now they thought they'd never be able to do it again. And somehow they find the blind kitchen. And so it it it gives people that part of their identity back. And and that's a good, good thing to be to hear because I I I like to do things that I used to like to do when I could see better. Of course, I can't drive, but I can cook, I can do other things. So that's that so I would say most of the people that purchase this are either people or agencies that teach people with vision loss how to cook, or people that used to be able to cook and now want to get back to doing what they love to do.

SPEAKER_06 32:07

Have already been enthusiasts of cooking or grilling or ever what it is they're doing, and unable to and are looking to be able to bring that passion back.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

Exactly right. I mean, think about yourself. You obviously have a passion for this. And if you were to lose your vision, you you'd lose a big piece of who you are in terms of grilling.

SPEAKER_06 32:27

Now you mentioned uh people can email you. Well, uh, could we go ahead and uh what? Do you want to give out your email or information website?

SPEAKER_00 32:35

Sure. So you can go to the blindkitchen.com and it's got a lot of detailed descriptions, and it's a very easy website to navigate because we use screen readers and magnifiers. And if we have pop-up ads and different things going on, it's it makes you insane. So it's a very clean website. And you can write to me at info at the blindkitchen.com. And if I don't know the answer, I'll ask my brother because he knows a lot more about it than I do.

SPEAKER_06 33:02

And is there anything you're working on now? I mean, you know, we talked about how you originally uh started and then grilling was a was a suggestion or a uh recommendation, or you need to be able to help me do this. Is there uh new things evolving that you haven't done yet that uh the future, what is the future of the blind kitchen?

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Well, the future of the blind kitchen, I want to create a community around it, kind of like you've done, you know, where people can come to one place. I don't know if that looks like a podcast or if it looks like a cook-along or whatever, um, something like that. But yeah, the idea is to is to create a community. But the next thing for barbecuing and grilling is I want to get Sou Vidia up there because that is the one of the safest ways to cook. You know that chicken is 165 or 162, whatever you chose to to put that in when you put it in the in the water, the uh vacuum-sealed bag in the water. And so it's one of the safest ways for blind people to be able to cook. It's already, you know, you already know it's safe to consume. You've programmed it to where you want it, to what makes sense. And so I really think that would be a valuable technique for people with vision loss. And so I'm gonna push that, push that out when I can. But that requires purchasing equipment, or there's actually wands out there that you can get, but not many of them are accessible visually. So I it it's gonna take a bit of expense of me getting different tools to find out which ones are gonna be the most accessible for people with vision loss. And I I cater to the most blind person in the world. I I don't I want anyone that visits my website to be able to use any of the tools that are on it. It's really important.

SPEAKER_06 34:57

Of course, uh you've been doing all this blind yourself for the the duration of this whole project.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I I the blind kitchen was nothing. I I was I've been a teacher in the past, a teacher of adults. So when I did lose the most the most of my available vision, um, I didn't know what I wanted to teach. I knew I didn't want to go back to teaching what I was teaching because I thought it'd be frustrating. Uh and I so I was in a cooking class and my dear friend I was, I said, this is fun. I enjoy this. And uh I yeah, maybe I could teach cooking. And then immediately I said, I can't, I don't know how to cook. I don't know how to teach cooking because my mom, I'm one of 12 kids. So my mom didn't have time to put each of her seven daughters in front of the stove. So my contributions to dinner were like peeling 10 pounds of potatoes, setting the table and cleaning up. So when I raised my family, I got things out of boxes and cans. I could follow instructions and, you know, macaroni and cheese or hamburger helper, but I I really had no love for cooking and no, no real interest in it. But when I when that light bulb went on in my head at at the Commission for the Blind, I said, what's the best way to learn how to teach cooking? And to learn it is to go to cooking school. So I had planned to just teach after I got done with that. That would just make me a better teacher. And then, as I said, when COVID hit, that's how the blind kitchen came to be. I I was looking for a way to still be able to reach people, even if I couldn't teach them in person.

SPEAKER_06 36:34

So the culinary school is kind of what sparked you into uh cooking as as you do now.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

A hundred percent. So Chef Earle and Chef Aaron, Chef Earl loves barbecuing and and he's he's from he's from I think North Carolina, and he is excellent at it. And they had a big giant green egg. I had never seen one before, and they allowed me to to experiment on that. So no, they definitely that it was absolutely and growing up in Indiana, girls didn't barbecue. The girls stayed in the kitchen and did the salads and got things ready, and the men did the barbecuing and took all the credit for everything. But but it just wasn't a female role thing to do. So culinary school really did spark it in me. It's like, oh, this is fun.

unknown 37:23

Yeah.

Popular Products and Customer Impact

SPEAKER_06 37:24

Right on. Uh I was sitting here and I was thinking because you uh there's something that I use frequently that uh would be uh I would think for help for those uh blind. And it is because when you're cooking, sometimes we'll cook something for not just minutes or even an hour, but several hours. Yeah, half of a day. So we have I use a device that would actually be helpful for for this, and I use it just so it will alert me if the temperature gets too hot, if the temperature gets too cold, and it has an alarm that goes off, and that's for just you know regular people like me. But something like that would most definitely come in handy because you know you can go take a nap and you can just have an app on your phone and it'll it'll start buzzing, and it'll say, you know, what it doesn't do is it doesn't say what you have to do is click on it and you look at it, and it will tell you the temperature is uh the fires went out in the grill. You need to check it. Uh wow. Everything is done, um, or uh it'll give you information about you can determine how far along a cook is gone, how hot the s uh the the fire is. But it would be cool uh in this case is to if it were to actually not just you know set an alarm and you gotta click on it to look at it, but it actually told you, you know, spoke out, and maybe there is a way, I don't know. But if it were to speak out to you and tell you what you need to know, that would be something real beneficial, I think.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

I think so. Can you tell me the brand name or not so much?

SPEAKER_06 38:59

Sure. It's uh the one I have is Weber.

SPEAKER_00 39:02

Weber, the Weber one. Okay, there's another one I've heard of called iMeet.

SPEAKER_06 39:07

I've heard of that one too.

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Okay, and and it they so the question about these are, and I I you're you're right, I need I need to look into this. Are they accessible to screen readers on your phone? Because my phone, I use it with a blank screen completely, and it I use swipes and gestures. And some apps are very accessible and others aren't. So I, you know what, I'm gonna order. I'll probably order both brands and see if they're accessible. And if they are, you're right. That would be an excellent, excellent addition.

SPEAKER_06 39:38

Yeah, that is something I don't know about the accessibility, but it would be something if it's not that should be requested or told that it needs to be, uh, because that would be a definitely helpful tool. The one I have is actually a Weber Connect and a Weber Connect. Yeah, you can actually uh connect it or you you basically charge it and use you can connect it to Wi-Fi. You can even monitor it away from your home or in your home. Uh but when it's sitting there, you can have a probe inside your grill, so it'll keep uh it'll keep known, you'll be able to continue to know the temperature in the grill. And you can also, it has three others that you can put in, you know, a chicken, a piece of pork, and it will each probe tell you the temperature of each one. You can look at your phone and determine what the temperature of each piece of food is, as well as the temperature inside the grill. Uh, but what I don't know that it does, I haven't tested it, is whether or not it would speak it to you, or if there was I don't know of any way, but that would be something I think would be helpful. Uh I agree. Because something like that, if if I was unable to see it, it would be something that would uh definitely affect my ability or ways, or you know, I cook things for 18 hours and you just leave and it'll alarm will go off if something's going wrong.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Oh wow. That would be very helpful. Now let me ask you a question. So the probe is in the meat, or the four probes are in four different meats. Is it uh I get is it tethered? Is it the wire hooked to to your phone? I mean, like is there a platform?

SPEAKER_06 41:20

The the the the Weber Connect one actually has and you can use uh pretty much any, it is a wire. So each uh you've got a device that you set next to your grill and it has four probes that you put the wires in, and you can put it in say probe one and you can put it in a meet. You can put it in probe two, you can put it in a different meat or a different location of the same meat. Then they have specific probes to where you can put a third one in and it just snaps on the grill and it just kind of lays there like a temperature probe so you can monitor the actual temperature in the grill.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

Oh wow, okay, yeah, that would be helpful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 42:02

I'm not sure about the eye meat one. I've just heard of that. There are some, I know there's meter and and a couple others that don't have a wire. You just plug it directly into the meat, and some of them will actually the same probe detect the temperature in the meat and the temperature outside the meat because it's got a temperature outside of it, and something like that might even be better. Uh as I wouldn't be experienced to say for sure, but both of those are pretty uh pretty good devices. And if it was just uh just something to think about that I thought that I'd thought of.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah, it would be important to know if uh if you're you ran out of propane.

SPEAKER_06 42:42

And a story about uh I don't know, it's been several years. We had a lightning storm come through. I'm here in Oklahoma, so we're subject to storms all the time. And uh the uh at that time I was using a pellet grill, so the electricity needed to run, and I have a pellet grill, I have a charcoal, I've got about five or six out there. And uh lightning came through and it had kicked it off. At that time I didn't have the Weber Connect or anything, and I was in bed, wait uh put it on at say 10 o'clock, slept right through the storm, woke up at six in the morning, seven in the morning, it hadn't even cooked. At some time during it triggered it. That was uh a 15-pound brisket. Uh like you said earlier, you don't want to get sick. We ended up tossing it because we didn't it didn't look like it'd been cooked that long. It could have been sitting there for hours.

SPEAKER_00 43:35

Uh right, at room temperature, back and everything else in there.

SPEAKER_06 43:40

So those are definitely good devices. And once again, like we we talked earlier, are really good for anybody in multiple situations.

SPEAKER_00 43:49

So yep, for sure. We have another device that's kind of interesting. I'll just that's kind of the same thing. So it's for indoors, it's for boiling, and it's called a boiler disc, and it rattles when liquid is boiling in a pan. So I it's not meant for people that can't see, but it's nice for me to know I can hear when the water starts to boil. So if I'm gonna poach something uh or steam it, I can start the timer when I hear it. And I'll know exactly, and I don't have to take the lid off and lose the temperature. And so um, if I'm doing something like tamales or steaming something, if I don't hear that thing rattling, I know it's a problem because that means I've run out of water. So it's kind of the same concept, you know.

SPEAKER_06 44:32

No, you yeah, right. You everything's dried up.

SPEAKER_00 44:34

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Future Plans and Community Building

SPEAKER_06 44:37

Now, sometimes you will also want to cook something. How how would you go about uh because we were cooking uh I actually when I say outdoor cooking, we we do it all up. I I baked a cake recently and put it in a pan, put it on our grill outdoors and had it drill up. But you've got to put a lot of uh we had to put different ingredients in it and everything. Is there an easy way for you to be able to determine, you know, that that that would be hard for me because you gotta put a couple tablespoons of this and and that. How are you able to uh put a recipe together uh easily?

SPEAKER_00 45:13

Yeah, so uh it we have several tools. So one of them, if we're talking like oil, you need uh it's often it said put two tablespoons of oil into the cast iron pan or whatever. And we have thing, a thing called an auto measure spout, and it goes on top of a bottle. It's got to fit the bottle snugly. But I I use wine bottles, empty wine bottles, and then I put the oil in there, and then I turn it upside down over the bowl or the pan I want to go in, and it'll dispense exactly one tablespoon of liquid, and then it'll stop automatically, even if I'm holding it upside down. They're meant for liquor bottles. Have you if you go into bars, you see they have so that the bar the bar manager can control his costs? So they have different amounts that they dispense, but the most helpful one was for um one tablespoon for us. I'm looking for a teaspoon one, but I guess nobody wants one teaspoon of alcohol, apparently. It's not a size.

SPEAKER_06 46:12

Wow. Uh alcohol uh item turned into that. That that's pretty cool. That's you know, because I know when I turn it upside down, I put a lot more in one tablespoon. So that'd be real nice to have.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

Yeah, it just so it measures it for me, is the bottom line. But we have other measuring cups and spoons that like if it's a third of a cup, it has three dots on the stainless steel handle. If it has four, then it's a quarter cup or a quarter teaspoon. But the nice thing about the liquid ones is they are shaped like ladles. So when you're transf when you're pouring the liquid and you're transferring it, you you make sure it's underwater. Like if I let's say I'm doing um let's say hot sauce and I need a quarter teaspoon. That's a terrible thing, but let's say I need a ha a teaspoon of hot sauce in this particular sauce that I'm doing. I will take find the one that has one dot on it. Now I know it's a teaspoon, and I put it in this little pitcher, and then I overflow the cavity of the spoon with the with the liquid. Not the little pitcher, but the cavity of the spoon. So that way now if I lift it up and I'm lifting straight up because the handle's towards the ceiling, lifts straight up like a ladle, and I don't hear anything drop off. I know I have exactly a level teaspoon there. And then I can deposit that into the recipe. And now the overflow that's in that little pitcher, I have a funnel that we send with it to, and you can just pour the the overflow back into the bottle using the funnel, and you're you haven't wasted anything, and you know your measurements are accurate. So there are ways to do this.

SPEAKER_06 47:47

Okay, so it it it measures it and then you don't waste anything and put it back. Now, for me myself, I would be the guy because I'm just crazy spicy, crazy. I would put it in there and say, I just go ahead and throw the rest in too. I took it on a double the notch, so I'm I'm very bad about that. Something says uh put in uh uh you know what what's that one uh cayenne peppers? I'll say nah, let's throw some habanero in instead.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

So you're you're more of a I'm I'm Irish. I I'm trying to increase my spice meter because my mother's spiciest sauce was ketchup, so I'm still trying to educate my palate to be able to handle them.

SPEAKER_06 48:27

And uh cooking, it's a pretty good community. I've made tons of barbecue friends, we're just cooking people, and and we kind of just have a a I have a ton of online friends uh from doing this, and it would be and that's something that uh are you trying to evolve into a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 48:46

Oh yeah, oh yeah, absolutely. That's talking about cook-alongs, you know, things like that. Because the other thing, I'll I'll put that out there, is when you if you have vision loss, it gets really hard to get to places, especially, you know, transportation is always a barrier. And then, you know, you're in a place you don't know where's the bathroom, you know, it's a lot of people become socially isolated because it it it life does become more challenging. It's not impossible, but it there are problems to be solved that you didn't used to have to solve. So if I could get a community going, whether it's around barbecuing or making pies or you know, whatever, or cook-alongs or cooking contests, I I I think a lot of isolated individuals would find a lot of pleasure in that and connecting with other people with vision loss that want to cook as well.

SPEAKER_06 49:41

What an amazing conversation. Uh, The Blind Kitchen. That was Deborah Ericsson. You can visit her website at the blindkitchen.com. You can email her at info at the blindkitchen.com. Be sure and check her out and keep on firing up that grill.

SPEAKER_09 50:04

Thank you for listening to the Okie Smoking Podcast. Episodes drop every Monday. Don't forget to follow this podcast, or you might miss out on some delicious creations. You can also find us on our website, OkieSmoking.com, and on YouTube and other social media platforms. Until next time, keep firing up that grill.

SPEAKER_06 50:35

There's a brand new feature available on the Okie Smoking Podcast. And it involves you. That's right. Send me and Dolores a text. And it's never been easier. Simply scroll down to the show notes description and you'll see where it says. Send John and Dolores a text message. Click it. Talk to us. You're probably using your phone anyway, so do it now. Can't wait to hear from you.

SPEAKER_07 51:09

What's up, baby? It's Bretsky, and I'm here to tell you that spinquest.com is giving out free sweet coins. All you gotta do is purchase a$10 coin pack, and guess what? They're gonna give you the coins from a$30 coin pack that lets you play all your favorite games like Blackjack, Wanted Dead or Wild, and we're talking real cash prizes, baby. SpinQuest.com.

SPEAKER_05 51:33

SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Voidware prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.

SPEAKER_04 51:39

You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're in a podcast, chances are you have something to say too. With rss.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at rss.com.