Taste Buds With Stephanie

Stephanie finds award-winning Shepherd’s Way Big Woods Blue Cheese, Utecht Home Grown thick-cut bacon, juicy tomatoes, and a new Taste Bud at the Burnsville Farmers’ Market. Come back home to her kitchen to make some epic farmers’ market salads.

In this Taste Buds episode, Melissa Peterman and Stephanie Hansen head to the Minnesota State Fair, where they have an epic ride down the Giant Slide and try the new Quench’d Lemon Sorbet. They also visit the Corn Roast and make friends at the Hamline Church Dining Hall, where they check out the new Holey Hamloaf Breakfast Sandwich. The grand finale is Melissa trying a Gizmo for the first time (one of Stephanie’s all-time favorites).

Stephanie learns the science behind small-batch ice cream with Ashlee Olds, owner of Sweet Science Ice Cream. Somewhere between tempering egg yolks and mixing the perfect bite of cookies and cream, she learns an important lesson: handcrafted ice cream is a lot of work – but it is so worth it. Join Stephanie back in her kitchen afterward for an ice cream pie recipe that’ll give your muscles a rest.

It is fall harvest season and to mark the occasion, Stephanie invited her Weekly Dish radio partner, Stephanie March, over for a fall dessert faceoff. March is also the senior editor for food and dining at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, so she’s a bit of a foodie and dazzled us with her family’s beloved Oma’s Pound Cake recipe. Stephanie, a self-described “eater,” opted for an infamous favorite from the Weekly Dish archives: Mountain Dew Apple Dumplings. Eye rolls aside, it’s still the #1 requested recipe from Weekly Dish listeners.

The chill in the air can only mean one thing: apple season! Stephanie visits Sweetland Orchard to taste their apples and popular hard ciders, including Cherry Rhubarb, Northern Spy, and Scrumpy Original. Sweetland also creates iced ciders through a freeze/thaw process during winter. We tried a variety of Borealis Winter Reserve, as well as Pommeau, a newer item for the orchard. The donuts, chickens, and pigs were quite a bonus, too.

Stephanie preps for a Halloween party with Vanessa Drews, owner of Cheesecake Funk. Vanessa’s made-from-scratch cheesecakes feature mounds of whipped cream and memorable flavors that captured the attention of Prince at Paisley Park. In this episode, she whips up a pumpkin cheesecake that is scary delicious. Create your own killer Halloween party with one of Vanessa’s cheesecakes, Stephanie’s savory stuffed pumpkin, and boozy crockpot apple cider.

Stephanie visits James Beard Award Winning Chef Sean Sherman at his Indigenous Food Lab in the Midtown Global Market. Sean is also on the TIME 100 Most Influential People of 2023 list, and recently won the Julia Child Award. He shares his knowledge of indigenous foods with Stephanie while cooking bison tacos, and offers his advice for families looking to honor Indigenous communities during the holidays. While at the market, Stephanie purchases Red Lake Nation Wild Rice and heads home to create a wild rice stuffing made entirely of Indigenous ingredients.

In all her years of home cooking, Stephanie has somehow avoided roasting a Turkey. The job usually falls on her husband, Kurt, but that’s all about to change because Stephanie is hosting her first Friendsgiving. Wielding a 16-pound bird and several ounces of ambition, Stephanie prepares her first-ever turkey, whips up macaroni and cheese, and makes orange cranberry sauce for her foodie friend, Joy Altmann, and Jason Matheson and Jeff Orcutt from The Jason Show.

It’s holiday cookie season and Stephanie is learning from the ultimate cookie queen, Sarah Kieffer. With four cookbooks under her belt and a massive social media following, Sarah has become a go-to resource for foolproof recipes. In this episode of Taste Buds, she shares a simple way to make three kinds of cookies from two batches of dough. She also has a few tips and tricks for achieving crispy edges and fudgy centers in your cookies.

Stephanie Hansen and Ian Lowther visit Red Nose Room at Red Cow Uptown as it's decked out for Christmas and cocktails (or mocktails). Stephanie is also serving up a creative holiday gift – homemade Irish Cream, and cheesy appetizers like Gruyère Cheese Puff and Goat Cheese Log in this latest episode of Taste Buds.

Who says Dry January can’t be filled with fun? Stephanie explores the massive mocktail selection at Minnesota’s first non-alcoholic bottleshop, Marigold, and samples vibrant and festive food pairings with Chowgirls Catering. Create your own mocktails at home with the recipes featured in the episode.

Stephanie Hansen is cooking three kinds of spicy wings – including a vegan wing – and bacon jalapeño poppers with Henry Lake, sports talk host on WCCO Radio and host of One on One with Henry Lake on FOX LOCAL.

Stephanie Hansen explores the tropical flavors of Sri Lanka with Chef Heather Jansz, also known as The Curry Diva.