Podcast

Ham Radio: Cooking with Amy Thielen

Arts, Food

In Northern Minnesota, food isn't just about what's on the plate. It's about how we show up for each other and the stories we tell. Ham Radio: Cooking with Amy Thielen is an hour of authentic conversation, listener call-in and recipes to share. It’s cooking from here, for the people who live here, and for anyone hungry for something real. Hosted by James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Amy Thielen, with producer Heidi Holtan, this KAXE / KBXE radio show and podcast celebrates the creativity and resourcefulness of rural home cooks. Each episode features a rogue band of culinary visionaries — from northern neighbors and foragers to cookbook authors and food thinkers from across the country.Made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund of Minnesota. Scroll down for our Community Recipes!

Episodes
16
Releases
Weekly
Typical length
27 min
On air since
2025
Latest episode
1 month ago

Episodes

16 episodes, newest first

  1. Slice of Ham (Radio): Fall disasters and rendering your own lard with Amy and Heidi

    Show notes

    Minnesota James Beard Award-winning author and chef Amy Thielen along with KAXE Director of Content and Ham Radio sidekick Heidi Holtan divulge their mistakes in the garden and the kitchen this fall.

    44 min
  2. Slice of Ham (Radio): Sloppy Joe wars, apple cider and giant cabbages with Amy Thielen

    Show notes

    KAXE's "Ham Radio" host, cookbook author and James Beard award-winning Amy Thielen weighs in on sloppy Joes, fall harvests and recipes in Northern Minnesota.

    27 min
  3. Slice of Ham (Radio): Jeremy Messersmith seeks blue ribbon glory at the State Fair

    Show notes

    Minnesota musician Jeremy Messersmith and Ham Radio host and James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Amy Thielen talk bars and cookies and food competitions.

    18 min
  4. Slice of Ham (Radio): New MN cookbook spotlights comforting family recipes

    Show notes

    Minnesota cookbook author Sarah Peterson brings to light recipes and connection to family and friends in "Dish and Tell: Recipes from the Heart."

    22 min
  5. Slice of Ham (Radio): Amy Thielen's got a clogged sink problem

    Show notes

    Amy Thielen is a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and cohost of "Ham Radio: Cooking with Amy Thielen" on KAXE. She lives in the rural Minnesota town of Two Inlets, where she occasionally has issues requiring her to wash dishes in the bathtub.

    22 min
  6. Slice of Ham (Radio): From Minnesota to the Borderlands: Amy Thielen and Hank Shaw in conversation

    Show notes

    Minnesota James Beard Award-winning authors and chefs Amy Thielen and Hank Shaw talk about the new cookbook "Borderlands: Recipes and Stories from the Rio Grande to the Pacific."

    25 min
  7. Slice of Ham (Radio): Cookies become our holiday currency, according to Amy Thielen

    Show notes

    Amy Thielen joined the KAXE Morning Show for a live conversation about holiday baking traditions.

    20 min
  8. Amy talks sloppy Joes, apple cider, giant cabbages on the KAXE Morning Show

    Show notes

    "Ham Radio" host, cookbook author and James Beard award-winning Amy Thielen weighs in on sloppy Joes, fall harvests and recipes in Northern Minnesota, and Heidi and Amy share plans for the future of "Ham Radio"!

    27 min
  9. Preserving Summer Through Memories, Recipes and Community

    Show notes

    In this episode of Ham Radio: Cooking With Amy Thielen we are all about the summer kitchen.Guests include Alena Levina, one of the contributors of the new cookbook Kitchens of Hope: Immigrants Share Stories of Resilience and Recipes from Home. Alena gives us her family recipe from Belarus: Holodnik, or Summer Beet Soup. It's our Community Recipe: kaxe.org/community-recipe-holodnik-summer-beet-soup-ham-radio-amy-thielen.We're also thrilled to bring you a conversation with newly awarded St. Paul chef Karyn Tomlinson. She just won the James Beard award for Best Chef of the Midwest. Her restaurant is Myriel in St. Paul, and she features local produce from farmers in her hometown of Dassel.So many texts and calls came rolling in this week: from Mikki's gazpacho, Iris' ratatouille, Steve's watermelon Coke and carving a watermelon in the shape of a beautiful basket, we loved every single second of it. Hope you enjoyed the first season of Ham Radio: Cooking With Amy Thielen. Tell others about us, pass the word and send us your memories and recipes! Ham Radio features original licensed music — "You Know How I Like It" by Jeremy Messersmith.Made possible by the Minnesota Arts & Culture Heritage Fund. Support KAXE by becoming a member today: https://donate.nprstations.org/kaxe/donate

    1 hr
  10. More Than A Recipe: Do You Cook by the Book or Off the Map?

    Show notes

    Has cooking changed? Do we expect more out of recipes these days? That's our topic this week on KAXE's Ham Radio: Cooking with Amy Thielen. Amy talks with Natasha Pickowicz, author of More Than Cake. She weaves 100 recipes with delightful and surprising recipes and stories to celebrate how baking can connect. We'll also talk about the cookbook she is currently working on about Hot Pot, and find out if savory recipes are different than sweet.We also get a chance to meet Nick Torres. Nick is a food photographer and stylist who worked on Amy's first cookbook The New Midwestern Table. Nick shares a recipe from home in Ohio involving a man named Chewy and some giant coolers. This week's community recipe is Chewy's Beer Cooler Chicken.And we talk about whether and how to eat Minnesota fresh fish — including the giants of Lake Country, muskies.Long before restrictions catch-and-keep size restrictions, Minnesotans did in fact eat muskellunge, and here’s the evidence: a recipe for a Ten-Pound Baked Muskellunge, from one of Amy's favorite cookbooks, Food on the Frontier: Minnesota Cooking from 1850 to 1900 by Marjorie Kreidberg.Ham Radio Features original licensed music — "You Know How I Like It" by Jeremy Messersmith.Made possible by the Minnesota Arts & Culture Heritage Fund. Support KAXE by becoming a member today: https://donate.nprstations.org/kaxe/donate

    1 hr
  11. Harvest Abundance in Minnesota: Gardening, the Advanced Class

    Show notes

    When the garden or farmers market gives you everything at once, the best way to handle it is to return to the fundamentals: roast, grill, bake, pickle, can, dry, freeze and sauté. These aren’t just methods, they’re survival tools during harvest season. Especially grilling. Because it’s summer. And everything tastes better with a little char and a lot of butter.This week, Amy and Heidi talked to Erin Haefele of Green Scene in Walker, Minnesota, "a charming food haven nestled in the heart of rural northern Minnesota where small-town warmth meets big-city sophistication." Erin inspires us with simple preparations to deliciously fresh garden ingredients. And we hear from Amy's friend Beth Friedrichson from Wisconsin, who gushes about dilly beans and life on the farm with chickens and alpacas.Lots of folks phoned in to talk about their harvests, whether it was peonies in Stillwater, garlic near Detroit Lakes, urban front yard CSAs in Minneapolis, potato varieties in Deer River or stuffed grape leaves in Chicago, you had a story to tell. Share yours! This week's community recipe to cook along with us is Onion Pie: kaxe.org/community-recipe-onion-pie-ham-radio-amy-thielen. Give it a try and send us your reactions and photos at comments@kaxe.org!Ham Radio Features original licensed music — "You Know How I Like It" by Jeremy Messersmith.Made possible by the Minnesota Arts & Culture Heritage Fund. Support KAXE by becoming a member today: https://donate.nprstations.org/kaxe/donate

    1 hr 2 min
  12. Friends and Family: Cooking for Company

    Show notes

    This week's show is about having people over — sometimes, a LOT of people over — and how to feed them all, generously, without losing your mind, hiring help, or breaking the bank.We'll call it an audible potluck, with tales of Pennsylvania Dutch country family reunions from Chef David Kinch and his Park Rapids area cousin Bill Dinger, and our favorite theme song-writing Minnesota musician Jeremy Messersmith talking about hosting communal food parties built to pair with his performances.We heard from Megan in Meadowlands who kept the pig roast and Czech family traditions of kolache going in a community celebration. We heard from a listener from the U.P. of Michigan who makes porketta before hockey practice and Tammy told us about trying last week's Bran Crispbread recipe.This week's community recipe to cook along with us is Rum-and-Coke Shaved Ice: https://www.kaxe.org/community-recipe-rum-and-coke-shaved-ice-ham-radio-amy-thielen. Give it a try and send us your reactions and photos at comments@kaxe.org!Ham Radio Features original licensed music — "You Know How I Like It" by Jeremy Messersmith.Made possible by the Minnesota Arts & Culture Heritage Fund. Support KAXE by becoming a member today: https://donate.nprstations.org/kaxe/donate

    1 hr
  13. More Time Than Money: Resourcefulness and Creativity in the Kitchen

    Show notes

    This week, Amy and Heidi meditate on the theme of "More Time Than Money" — a show about making do with resourcefulness and creativity. They'll talk about incredible recipes that take time and skill, but not necessarily a lot of money. This week's community recipe to cook along with us is Bran Crispbread: kaxe.org/community-recipe-bran-crispbread-ham-radio-amy-thielen. Give it a try and send us your reactions and photos at comments@kaxe.org!

    1 hr
  14. Risky Business: The delicious science behind cooking with lye and more

    Show notes

    This week, Amy and Heidi's adventures in the kitchen feature cooking with lye, pickling lime, Hawaiian taro and some other semi-hazardous ingredients.

    1 hr 3 min
  15. Why are we doing this show? Amy shares her inspiration for 'Ham Radio'

    Show notes

    "Ham Radio: Cooking with Amy Thielen" is a new program featuring James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Amy Thielen of Park Rapids, Minnesota.

    21 min
  16. Trailer: Introducing 'Ham Radio'

    Show notes

    Coming May 23 and hosted by James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Amy Thielen, with producer Heidi Holtan, this KAXE / KBXE show celebrates the creativity and resourcefulness of rural home cooks.

    1 min