Your Omaha Public Library card gets you New York Times Cooking for free. Courtni Kopietz, marketing manager for Omaha Public Library, explains how the 24-hour pass works and how she batches a whole recipe day out of one. She also previews a food-writing workshop for kids, and her pick is Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography. Plus Topher's search for one simple fact: how long to roast a turkey.
This week’s book
Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever. More than 90 of Anthony Bourdain’s colleagues, friends and family tell his story, his career and what he meant to them. Courtni’s tip: get the audiobook, so you hear them “literally in their own voices.” It’s also in print. Find it at Omaha Public Library.
New York Times Cooking with your library card
An Omaha Public Library card gets you free access to New York Times Cooking, along with the Times itself and NYT Games and the Crossword. Each code unlocks 24 hours of access, so when it runs out, go back and check out another one. Courtni’s move: save it for a recipe day and print the recipes you want to keep to PDF.
- Get your New York Times access from Omaha Public Library (look for New York Times Cooking)
Food writing workshop for kids
Kids ages 8 to 12 can bring a family recipe, or one they love, and explore how food connects to memory, identity and storytelling. Taught by Zedeka Poindexter, executive director of Nebraska Writers Collective, at the A.V. Sorensen Branch, 4808 Cass St., on Thursday, Nov. 5. Registration is required and the workshop is capped at 15. Call the branch at 402-444-5274 to sign up.
Links from this episode
- Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography at Omaha Public Library
- Newspapers, magazines and New York Times access at Omaha Public Library
- A.V. Sorensen Branch
- Nebraska Writers Collective
- Get an Omaha Public Library card
Off the Shelf airs Mondays at 8:44 a.m. and 4:44 p.m. on KIOS 91.5, Omaha Public Radio. More episodes.
Transcript
Transcribed automatically and lightly corrected.
[0:01] Topher Booth: Nearly 4,000 years ago, someone in ancient Mesopotamia pressed a recipe for stew into a clay tablet. Just the stew. No life story. Today, if you want to know how long to roast a turkey, first you need to hear about the blogger’s grandmother’s farmhouse, the autumn they learned to love themselves, and 14 photos of the same pie. Your grandma’s recipe card never did that. It said “bake till done” in cursive, with a butter stain for a signature. I’m Topher Booth, and I finally found the jump to recipe button. This is Off the Shelf. With the holidays coming, we’re talking recipes this week. Courtni Kopietz from Omaha Public Library is back to tell me your library card gets you into the New York Times recipes, plus a book about Anthony Bourdain and a new program for kids to tell stories through food.
[0:49] Courtni Kopietz: Yeah, one that we’re really excited about on the horizon is this writing workshop for kids on food writing. So we host a lot of writing workshops in collaboration with Nebraska Writers Collective. It’s all their teaching artists who are leading these programs. And this one is specifically for kids and about food. So they’re invited to bring a recipe, like a family recipe or something they really enjoy. And they’re going to explore the connections between food and memory and identity and storytelling. This one is being taught by Zedeka Poindexter, who’s the executive director of Nebraska Writers Collective. She’s a really talented artist herself, and we’re excited to have her here. So this will be a November 5th event at A.V. Sorensen Branch for kids between the ages of 8 to 12.
[1:33] Topher Booth: Is there a limit to how many folks can come to this, or is this just open for anyone?
[1:37] Courtni Kopietz: Yes, there is registration required. A max of 15 people will be part of the workshop. So you’ll get really a lot of one-on-one attention from the teaching artist. So I’d advise folks to call the branch to sign up for a spot.
[1:49] Topher Booth: Tell us a bit about what people can access through New York Times and why that plays into the holidays.
[1:53] Courtni Kopietz: Yeah, the New York Times access is one of the most utilized features from our patron population with your library card. So you can get free access to New York Times news, storytelling, as well as the New York Times Games and Crossword. But what I love the most and take the most use of is the New York Times Cooking access. We have a lot of family favorites when we come together, especially this time of year. But my family loves to experiment, too, whether it’s a totally brand new recipe or a new twist on something that maybe we’ve made before. And so New York Times Cooking gets you access to all of that fabulous recipe content. You can explore by holiday, by meal type, certain ingredients that you know you want to include. I often use it a lot. Like, I have these three vegetables in my fridge. What can I use? Is there something fancy I can make out of it, or inventive, and learn something new? So one thing to note, like, with all of these access points, you basically get a code to access it for 24 hours. So if you’re a daily user of the New York Times, some folks find it inconvenient to come through and, like, re-log in through the library every single day. But ultimately, I love to do it and, like, batch a whole bunch of content at once. And like, this is my recipe day, I’m going to log in and print to PDF all of the recipes I want to save for myself and explore as needed. But I also love a daily puzzle, too. So it’s a really great resource to get with your library card.
[3:19] Topher Booth: All right. So the book recommendation. You know, food, it’s like, oh, what’s your favorite recipe book? Or are you thinking of something a little more...
[3:25] Courtni Kopietz: It’s kind of like a food culture rec that I have today. So the new Anthony Bourdain movie, sort of biopic that came out, origin story. I was inspired to delve into some of the works that he authored and also just things about him. And one of my favorite books that I read was called Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography. And so this was published after his death by the people who know and love him. And I love an oral history. And so this, I would highly recommend listening to the audiobook. It is available in print. But what this woman did, who’s very close in Anthony Bourdain’s life, she interviewed more than 90 of his colleagues, friends, family, and all of their voices are heard in the audiobook telling the story of Anthony Bourdain and what he meant to them, his career, his life. And it was just so great to hear it through all these various perspectives, and literally in their own voices. So it was an incredible way to sort of launch what I’m calling my Anthony Bourdain curriculum era, and learning more about him as a chef, as a travel writer, and kind of cultural figurehead in some ways.
[4:40] Topher Booth: That’s Off the Shelf. I’m Topher Booth. Find this week’s book and links to everything we talked about at KIOS.org. Maybe a little bit of scrolling required. New every Monday on KIOS, Omaha Public Radio.
[4:54] Topher Booth: Before we go, I’m still trying to find out how long to roast a turkey. First site I looked at, before the recipe, I learned the blogger found her calling at age four, when a single cranberry rolled across a diner floor and stopped at her feet. She took it as a sign. Cooking time? Not listed. But the cranberry is doing great and has its own blog now. Second site I looked at: just the basics. It opened with a word about salt. Salt has been with humanity since the dawn of time. Salt built empires. Salt is the sea. Twelve paragraphs in, I can confirm that there is salt in my tears. Third site had a jump to recipe button. It jumped me to his cat, Biscuit. Biscuit’s adoption story, Biscuit’s thoughts on nutmeg, Biscuit’s Instagram. Biscuit has never roasted a turkey. Fourth site, scrolled as fast as I could. I still landed on her great-great-grandmother, who crossed the ocean with nothing but a wooden spoon and a dream. Then the spoon’s story. The spoon had a hard childhood. I’m not proud of it, but I cried for the spoon. Well, I guess we’re having ham. Next year, I am absolutely asking a librarian.
