The Empty Nest Kitchen

Mastering Handmade Pasta with Laurie Boucher, Pastapreneur

• Christine Van Bloem • Season 1 • Episode 4

Share episode

Laurie Boucher calls herself a Pastapreneur, but I call her the Pasta Queen. Laurie's dedication to all things pasta on her Instagram account, @BaltimoreHomeCook, will leave you not only hungry, but ready to make your own pasta!

A former attorney, Laurie has jumped into pasta-making full steam ahead. You can find her delicious hand-formed pasta at Cafe Campli in Baltimore or her Sardinian pasta tools and pasta art on her Etsy page, PastaArt.



Christine Van Bloem: Well, today I am again thrilled because I have the pasta queen with me. I have Laurie Boucher and you would find Laurie at BaltimoreHomeCook on Instagram. And Laurie, good morning. Hello.

Laurie Boucher: Good morning. Thank you for having me.

Christine Van Bloem: Oh my gosh.

Laurie Boucher: title. I love it.

Christine Van Bloem: I know Laurie did not give herself that title. I gave her that title because if you are interested in pasta, and I mean it, if you are interested in pasta, Laurie's your girl, man. She is the one. And I discovered Laurie initially because I saw this Instagram coming across that just seemed so cool and so pasta driven and mama loves a carb.

So I had reached out to Laurie, this was back when I owned the kitchen studio, and said, hey would you ever be interested in teaching a pasta class? And because Laurie is nothing if not adventurous. She was like, heck yeah, I'll totally do it. And I came to her house and she was so sweet. And it just kind of went from there.

Laurie Boucher: That was really a fun day. I still have that memory. It was just a blast cooking with you that day. And you are actually one of the very first people that took a chance on me to allow me to come into your business to teach. So behind the scenes, I was trying to, Oh gosh, I'm going to have to get all this together because I'm locked in now,

Christine Van Bloem: Yeah.

Laurie Boucher: but we did it.

We did it

Christine Van Bloem: Isn't that how it goes so many times? I remember reading like a Martha Stewart book. Oh my gosh, probably 30 years ago. And she was like, say yes to everything. I was like, and now I I'm a, I'm kind of judicious, but I do try to say yes. And it's stuff like that that makes you branch out into new things, right?

Laurie Boucher: right. And it's. saying yes to things that maybe create a little anxiety or something that's out of your comfort zone that actually lead to the most growth. So I am just, yeah, I will say yes to something and then I worry about it on the back end, but I always seem to pull it off. So, you know, it's, it's a great confidence builder if you're not someone who's been in this particular field, like me, from the, from the get go.

Christine Van Bloem: Yeah. So, okay. So this brings up one of. the more fascinating things because you have, you've always loved pasta, but pasta hasn't always been your job. What was your job before Pasta Queen?

Laurie Boucher: Oh my goodness. So my profession, most of my life was as an attorney from a very young age. I knew I wanted to be an attorney. I don't know how that was. I don't have any attorneys in my family, but during high school, I remember going to the courthouse after school and just watching trials. And I remember I contacted a lawyer and said, can I just come in and see what you do?

So I had a pretty dedicated path from an early age. So I moved here in 92 to Baltimore. I had my first legal job and I practiced for almost 30 years.

Christine Van Bloem: Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I mean, these are not careers that really go together.

Laurie Boucher: Not at all. Although I will say that even though it seems like such a dramatic jump, I have really leaned into a lot of my skills as an attorney to make my way through the culinary career.

Christine Van Bloem: Well, and, and I have to say too, I mean, where a lot of food people lack is on the contracts and the communication and, you know, food people are into the food and I, I remember when you sent me your first contract or something and I was kind of like, man, she knows what's what. That's amazing. I was so jealous.

I was so jealous. It just seemed like you had it all together. Yeah,

Laurie Boucher: it appeared that way, but I'll tell you, I learned some hard lessons in the very beginning. The number one thing was really to have a lot of your details in writing. Whether it's through a formal contract, Or just an email, just really covering things so people know what to expect, what their expectations are of you.

Again, I had a couple of, a couple of rough spots in the beginning, just learning the culinary culture and how very different it was from the legal culture.

Christine Van Bloem: I have to I have to say I do think that sometimes people take advantage of culinary folks because it's not, you know, we're not contract driven, we're not all of those things. And a lot of folks get into food because, you know, They love to provide, right? Food, food is love. My therapist will probably say, no, it's not.

But you know, the, the act of making food for someone and providing for them and giving them wonderful service and giving them a wonderful experience, that's really at the core, even your most gruff. Restaurant chef, I think deep down has that in their in their heart or else they wouldn't be doing it.

Laurie Boucher: Right, and you know, I won't go into detail, but I, one of my very first experiences, and I'm glad it was one of my very first experiences because it became the last, was when I was asked to do a team building pasta class, and it was very early on before I really started teaching professionally, and I remember You know, suffering from the imposter syndrome and also being so grateful to have this opportunity.

And I didn't want to scare people away with Laurie, the lawyer. So I did a lot of things verbally and I ended up not getting paid. And it was a very good lesson. But again, Good it happened on the front end, it has never happened again.

Christine Van Bloem: Yeah, i'll tell you I I get paid I get I mean that is It's a thing I, well, that's something I really applaud about you, but I wanted to ask you a question. 'cause I remember in that whole vein of helping and giving and loving and sharing and all that, don't you do something with lasagnas?

Laurie Boucher: So, I'm involved in a few charities where I donate a product or my time. And the one you're referring to is We Are Lasagna Love. They do have an Instagram presence. It's a really great charity for someone who has sort of a chaotic schedule, doesn't want to be on a rigid, you know, every Monday, you know, from a specific time period, etc.

So you basically can find them in your city and you're making lasagnas for people. So you can dictate how often you get matched, how often you How far you would like to drive, so I have a certain parameter of how far I will drive to do this. And it's a great charity, so, you know, you get to practice your pasta skills, and you're providing a meal for people that otherwise wouldn't have a home cooked meal, and they're all so grateful, and it's probably the easiest thing to do.

I

Christine Van Bloem: I mean, what? Lucky ducks to get lasagna from you. I mean, come on. Cause okay, let's get in to the making of the pasta because you, I'm telling you, you know, your pasta. First of all, your Instagram is fantastic. It is, it is so good. And again, you can find Laurie at Baltimore Home Cook on Instagram, but you were recently doing a project with like an A to Z or are you still doing that?

Laurie Boucher: still doing it, so what I decided to do for this year was I'm very interested in more esoteric pasta shapes that are not as familiar to most people. So I wanted to challenge myself to sort of try to find those things and share them in my community. So it's pasta A to Z. And, you know, some of the things are probably recognizable to people who make pasta a lot, but I've had plenty of people that had no idea of certain shapes.

So it's kind of nice to introduce them to things that are a little more traditional or regional in Italy that you wouldn't find in, in the States or in a box. So that's been pretty fun. I think I am up to C. I keep thinking I'm going to get to D, but I just today found another C shape that I'll probably make today. So

Christine Van Bloem: Do you make

Laurie Boucher: there you

Christine Van Bloem: every day? Do you make it every day?

Laurie Boucher: Not every day. I make pasta probably four to five times a week, I would say. And part of that more recently since the beginning of the year is I'm helping with pasta production at a small cafe Cafe Camp Lee. So I worked with them sort of informally for a bit beforehand more so because I wanted to see what the culture was like at the restaurant, whether the schedule would fit for me, because I've got a lot of other things going on and it's just been a perfect match.

They offered me a position the beginning of the year and it's awesome. I mean, there's not many places where you can actually get. You know, hand formed, fresh made pasta, believe it or not.

Christine Van Bloem: yeah, you know in my hometown here in Frederick There are a couple of places that I go where they make it from scratch. They're doing the thing. It's such a difference I love it so much

Laurie Boucher: I love fresh pasta, too. Now, that's not to say that I don't, on occasion, like a packaged pasta. There's a lot of good brands out there, and sometimes I just want to, you know, pull something out of my cabinet and, and make it. I don't want to bother, and I don't want to fuss. So, there's room for all the pasta.

Oh,

Christine Van Bloem: Yeah So you when I came to your house you had I don't think you had the one with the dye the Where you make the dough and you push it through. Do you have one that

Laurie Boucher: extruder.

Christine Van Bloem: Yes. Excuse me. My words are failing me today. Not enough coffee yet.

Laurie Boucher: Yeah, no, no, no. So yeah, I sort of have an embarrassing number of pasta machines, but it's because I teach with them. So, I have an electric machine from Imperia, which is awesome. It's sort of a hybrid between a home, small commercial model. I also have an extruder, from Arco Bolano Pasta Products and it is one of my favorite kitchen toys because there's so many different dyes you can use.

It's relatively easy to use. It uses simple ingredients and then of course I have my tabletop clamp to the table manual pasta machine by Marketo and I've had plenty Gosh, I've had mine probably for 30 years. And I use those when I teach because I try to teach with things that are not too expensive, that are readily available.

And buying a tabletop machine for maybe 50 is completely different than buying something that's electric or, you know, an extruder.

Christine Van Bloem: Yeah, I, so I taught pasta before I found you. I can, I can knock out a decent pasta and it was always so much fun to do with the group and we would use the, just the attachment, the pasta roller for the KitchenAid mixers and I

Laurie Boucher: Which is great.

Christine Van Bloem: It's great, it's great for if you are a home cook and you are just feeling the vibe and you're doing pasta occasionally and it's fun because Unpasta related, I would use the pasta roller with bread, with like Pepperidge Farm bread.

Did you, have you ever done this? You

Laurie Boucher: I've used it for, to make some Southern pastries where you needed an actually a very thinly sheeted piece of dough. So I've used it in the pastry world.

Christine Van Bloem: this is hilarious because you, I think we did this back in culinary school, that Pepperidge Farm white bread is a really nice, it's a more dense white bread and we would use it for different canapes and things that we were making, but if you cut the crusts off and you run it through a pasta roller, I mean for heaven's sake, you can also do it, I know,

Laurie Boucher: you are blowing my mind

Christine Van Bloem: I know, it's so cool.

You could do it with a rolling pin too, but it's so much more fun because you just do the whole loaf and you just shoom shoom shoom them through the pasta rollers and they come out really thin and flat and then you can fill them and roll them and then we would bake them off or sometimes we would fry them and You, I know.

Culinary school is the best. It's so much fun because you play around. You're just, you know, you don't know what you're doing. Oh, and that just, look at me with a natural segue, Laurie. So you also, and this is, I just think you're so cool. You are going, you're finishing culinary school, but you've already gone through one.

Laurie Boucher: One of the

Christine Van Bloem: Degree sort of thing. Laurie just can't get enough education.

Laurie Boucher: I love school. I've always been a student. So when I started it was sort of a weird thing back in 2016. It was sort of in my mind that at some point in the next four to five years from that date, my kids would both be, they're a year apart, they would be, Graduating high school and moving on. So even back then, I was sort of thinking.

I don't know if I want to be practicing law for another 10 years because been there, done that, I was getting a little bit burned out. And I had always wanted to go to culinary school, but I wasn't quite sure could I fit it into my schedule with everything else going on. So I ended up taking one course, loved it.

The school we had locally in Baltimore shut down. But fortunately, someone steered me to Anne Arundel County. So I attend HCAT, which is Hotel Tourism and Culinary Institute, which is part of Anne Arundel Community College. And I originally registered as a culinary arts student because I don't have a sweet tooth.

I don't really eat a lot of that stuff. And I just, I thought, you know, savory all the way. Midway through that program, I had to take a mandatory foundational pastry class and I was dreading it. And lo and behold, there was something about the formulas, the precision, the chemistry, something clicked and I just fell in love with it.

So I decided I'm going to finish the culinary arts, which I did in 2020. I immediately Went right into baking and pastry, and I'm currently now, spring of 2024, taking my very last class. It's chocolates, and then I will be finished and have both degrees. It's been such a great journey, but as my pasta work has ramped up, trying to get to school for a lab class and doing All the necessary homework, all of it.

It's just, it's a lot, but I love it. It is a great program. I have learned so much and I feel like now, even with the baking and pastry, I've got a couple of things up my sleeve that if necessary, I can pull out. So it's been great.

Christine Van Bloem: And I, and I love, this comes back to kind of that foresight. And one of my previous guests Heather Tidings, who is a therapist and a life coach and all that, has said that, you know, Her clients that have had the most success have planned ahead kind of for when the kids are leaving because I mean, you're like me.

You love your kids madly, right? But we want them to grow. We want them to grow. We don't want our kids to be 47 and living in the basement, right? We want them

Laurie Boucher: I don't want them 25 and living in the basement.

Christine Van Bloem: Agreed. But we want them to go and have their own wonderful lives and we want to be part of it. But it is that, that planning for your empty nest so you're not left, you know, kind of shocked and stunned and waiting.

And I mean, boy, you just barreled into making sure you were busy, didn't you?

Laurie Boucher: It, you know, it seems like it was a barreling, but it wasn't. It wasn't a real set clear path. I just knew that I was very interested in food. I had always been a passionate home cook, but my kids are so close in age that I knew that it would be almost overnight and they would both be gone. And with COVID, that's actually what happened because my son who was set to go to college pretty much spent his first year here, which was great in some ways, but also very sad and disappointing for him.

But then when the next year rolled around, both of them went off. So I had to have sort of a plan in, in my head. And Yeah, I mean, I have plenty of friends who I think are right now in the middle of I'm not sure what I want to do and the thought of going to school or getting training, you know, I don't know.

I guess I'm lucky that I've always sort of, I have endless inspiration and interest and curiosities and it's led me. down so many different paths that, I mean, I'm never bored. Like, I, I, you will never hear those words out of my mouth. Never. So I'm just lucky that I found something. And going to culinary school wasn't actually what got me into the pasta, but it did help me with some of the tools to, you know, figure out, can I, could I do something like that?

And how would it look like? So I had a lot of resources at school that were, you you know, behind me and so helpful with their advice and things like that. So it sort of organically, you know, steered me down a pasta path.

Christine Van Bloem: I love it. And, and I would say, I always recommend to everybody to go take a class in something.

Laurie Boucher: Absolutely.

Christine Van Bloem: I'm like you, lifelong learner, right? Like, I, there's so many things. Heck, podcasting. I'm learning

Laurie Boucher: Right.

Christine Van Bloem: Thanks for being a guinea pig, I appreciate it. But I will go take a class in just about anything. I, I just joined a a sewing club that I can learn how to make my own clothes.

Laurie Boucher: and I, I think that's awesome. When I moved here, I was taking a pottery class, a watercolor class. I actually learned to sew because my daughter at the age of 13 wanted to learn. So I remember getting sewing for kids. On Amazon, I had to teach myself to help her and she ended up just sort of going off and having her own business at the age of 15.

So I can sew a nice little bag. I can sew a tote bag. I'm nothing like what she can do, but yeah, knitting, I mean all kinds of crazy stuff. I've got a whole room that's got like evidence of all my little interests all over that that I pick up when I feel like it or not, so.

Christine Van Bloem: have, my basement is a graveyard of craft supplies, right? Because I'm convinced, Oh, you know what I want to do? I want to get the little letters and I'm going to emboss spoons for cheese. No, I'm not, you know, Oh, I'm going to make all this clay jewelry. No, I'm not. All of these things, you know, it's just there.

It's stuck everywhere, like under the couch and all that. Yeah. Yeah. Before we got started today though, you were showing me something that you've been making that I'm like, I want one now out of the bakeable clay.

Laurie Boucher: Oh, so, well, I do, I have an Etsy shop. It's called Pasta Art and the way that came about and I, and I don't want to bore you, it's a little bit of a long story. But I'll, but I'll, but I'll keep it somewhat short. So when I started my Instagram and was really getting into the different accounts that showed pasta, I started noticing that there were certain people in Italy that were using these beautiful solid brass rollers that gave a very decorative edge to both pasta and pastry.

And so most often, if you're going to do something a little decorative and pastry, you would get a fluted pastry. a cutter. So I had never seen anything like this and I spent probably six months reaching out to almost every account where they were featuring these things asking them for a source and no one would share it with me and that drove me crazy.

Christine Van Bloem: crazy.

Laurie Boucher: It does make me crazy. You know, if it was something that was proprietary, I understand, but it, it's, it's a little pet peeve of mine when I see something beautiful. Instagram and someone doesn't want to share. And I'm not saying that that's not their right to keep it to themselves. I'm just saying that it annoys me.

So I spent a summer in Italy when I was in law school and I reached out to a friend of mine whose parents are from Sardinia. And I said, you know, like, how do I feel? Find out and he couldn't really help me. So I basically just with Google translate, just did a deep dive, found an artisan in Sardinia that said he could supply these tools for me.

And meanwhile, I don't speak a word of Italian. He spoke no English. And the day I wired my initial payment to Italy, I thought my husband was going to fall off a chair, you know? And he's like, for someone who is an attorney, who needs things in writing, like, Are you kidding me? And I said, you know what? I think it's going to be okay.

So that was probably five or six years ago. I put them on my Etsy shop. I made them reasonably priced. And I think I have sold maybe over 600 to date to all over the world. I've sold them in Japan, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, I mean everywhere. And so I keep reordering it because people love them. So so I was very happy that I was able to, to share something that I, I figured it out.

So I was very happy about that. So I started my Etsy shop with that. And then how I came about making pasta themed key chains and ornaments and jewelry. It was just something that I was sort of playing around with because I sort of wanted a product that, you know, I could put on my key chain and I couldn't really find anything that was in the material that I wanted.

I wanted something that really replicated pasta that had a little bit of bend to it. Wasn't something that was ceramic that would break if it would fall. So I, again, deep dive, figured it out, and so now I sell keychains and pasta jewelry, necklaces, earrings, and just all this crazy stuff. And I, again, one of those things my family, I think, thought I was crazy, but People like the stuff.

If they're a nerd like me, a pasta nerd, they buy the ravioli earrings and they wear them.

Christine Van Bloem: No, I want, I want a keychain. I'm ordering a keychain. And that's, so your Etsy shop is called Pasta Art.

Laurie Boucher: it's pasta art and it's also linked in my Instagram, BaltimoreHomeCook, so if you go to the link tree on my Instagram it takes you to Everything that I do in the pasta world from classes to the jewelry to the cutters to all of it.

Christine Van Bloem: And where are you offering classes now?

Laurie Boucher: So I started teaching privately back in 2018. You were one of the shops where I started. And so I was really working for businesses and what I branched out to doing was securing locations that didn't really have any hands on pasta classes. So I work larger groups and at different breweries and wineries with a partner, Chef Frank Granito.

He is someone non traditional like me. In his second career, we crossed each other's paths in culinary school, and I still remember the first time I met him. He was participating in a team challenge, and I was there assisting someone with a pasta dish, and Everyone was like, don't you guys know each other?

I mean, you're kind of like the same age. And I thought, what? I had never seen him before in my life, but he's Italian American like me. We get along so great. We've been doing this for about three years. So we offer classes in Baltimore at Moptown Brewing. We actually are starting off at Unioncraft, which is off 83.

So we have our first class there on April 28th. I do other teaching. It's not really group classes. I also do some pasta instruction with Groundwork Kitchen etc. So I, yeah, but those group classes, I also do them for team building so people can either buy out a class that's already scheduled or They call me.

So I've done them for T Row Price. I've done them for MedStar the Bryn Mawr School where my daughter attended. So yeah, so, you know, if you want to learn how to make pasta, however that looks, a small group gathering at home privately or a team building, I'm your pasta gal.

Christine Van Bloem: Yeah. And you, are you doing the Southern Handformed Pasta?

Laurie Boucher: So typically in the larger groups where we have 15 to 16 people, I do stick to the southern hand formed pasta shapes. Number one, because it's very easy to learn. You don't need a pasta machine. You don't need any eggs. You don't need any fancy tools. So most

Christine Van Bloem: simple dough.

Laurie Boucher: It's a very simple dough to make and people love it.

I used to teach it as a parent and me class at the Baltimore chef shop and, and people love it. It's very easy. So I will do the Northern style pasta, but for smaller groups because that's a lot more hand on learning. It's typically a longer class because of the type of dough you're making, the equipment and things like that.

So,

Christine Van Bloem: What's the difference? I know this Southern is basically flour and water and you're using special flour. What's the Northern?

Laurie Boucher: So, the biggest difference, to simplify it, when people ask me that question you know, pasta is really nothing other than, as you know, flour and some type of liquid. But, those two things can be so different. The flour alone is just a whole different conversation. There's so many different types of flour you can make to use pasta.

You can combine them. So, usually in Northern Italy, they're using a soft flour. Soft Wheat Flour, which is a lower protein than what they use in the South, which is a durum flour, semolina type flour. So, in the North, you typically would have eggs to enrich that pasta dough with the protein. The reason that you can use all purpose flour to make an egg dough is because it mimics the softness of the flour that you will find in Northern Italy.

So, the double o reference is really not a good idea. Fancy type of Italian flower, double O just refers to how finely something's milled. So I think a lot of people get very confused and they think they need some expensive double O and they don't really even know what that means. It's not a fancy expensive flower.

It can be. But you don't

Christine Van Bloem: It can

Laurie Boucher: to make pasta. If you're making pasta once a month, you don't need to invest in all kinds of crazy flour.

Christine Van Bloem: but if you're making pasta four or five times a week, Like

Laurie Boucher: So I will, I will buy different flours. I like to buy locally. So My Grash Farms is a mill in Baltimore County. I've purchased a lot of their different flours. I also will purchase grains. I mean, I am a pasta nerd. I will mill my own grains here. I have a little NutriMill where I, We'll create flour. In fact, I'm doing that today for a flour.

I need to have some corn flour for this recipe. So you basically just throw in a handful of popcorn that you would get in a bag and mill it down to use in your pasta dough. So all kinds of flour. Again, whole different discussion, but it's fun and it's fascinating. Yeah.

Christine Van Bloem: Oh my gosh. Alright, so now I have noticed, because you make pasta with, I mean, you go crazy with different liquids and different add ins, and I know you've been making, is it a pasta with Calabrian chilies that I've been seeing lately?

Laurie Boucher: So I just posted that on my Instagram. So really the liquid component of pasta, again flour and some type of liquid I've experimented with so many things. So you can use eggs, you can keep it completely vegan and use a vegetable puree. So if you wanted to naturally color something green you could either mix something like a parsley or a basil or a kale with egg or you could just Use a puree on its own and use that as the liquid component.

I've used heavy cream, I've used aquafaba, which, as you know, is a fancy word for chickpea liquid out of the can. Many times I will add in the Calabrian chili paste as a condiment, and I also like to use harissa for just a little kick, and you basically just blend it with the eggs and then use it in the same proportion to make your pasta dough.

So, what you get is a beautiful Pasta textile of very natural color. I don't use anything artificial when I'm making pasta. And you know, the, the taste doesn't really come through. It's not like you're going to have a mouthful of fiery pasta, unless of course you add more Calabrian chili paste on top, which I will do because I love spice. But it's more just to give you the visual appeal. So is it traditional? No but I do feel that I have a very big appreciation for the traditions of pasta making, but I also feel like there's a whole world of creative aspects. And you know, some people are very firmly in one camp or the other, and they vocalize that on Instagram, and that's another little pet peeve of mine, because I feel like it's just food.

Come on, it's supposed to be fun. Why can't it be creative? And You know, you don't have to follow me. I shouldn't say that, but you're gonna get both worlds on my page.

Christine Van Bloem: well, that's it. And, and I think some people do they are sticklers for, well, it has to be this tradition. And Laurie, you have spent so much time doing pasta. Holy bananas. I mean, you have really put your time into it. And if you're someone like I, I grew up with, well, we grew up in an era.

where the food was very different from today. And I didn't, I always wanted, like, I just wanted to be a little Italian or have a little something. I am the least interesting person genetically, I tell you. And it's like, you can't, no, no, no, I really am. I'm fascinating, but genetically it's just, it is white bread and potatoes.

Okay. That is who I am. So when you get into something and you really spend a lot of time educating yourself and spending time doing it, I'm always very clear to say this is not an authentic. whatever it is, because that's just, I could never do it, right? I could never give you an authentic anything other than potatoes and squished Pepperidge Farm bread, which

Laurie Boucher: which that's on my list actually. It's on

Christine Van Bloem: I tell you, it's very

Laurie Boucher: I'm trying it

Christine Van Bloem: you can make great little desserts out of it. You can do like a sweetened cream cheese and then rolled in cinnamon sugar. My friend, Carrie, my best friend, she used to show me how to do that. And you're basically making like kind of a little egg roll y. Pastry thing. And now with air fryers. Oh my gosh, you can totally do that.

Laurie Boucher: My son got me an air fryer and I need to take one of your classes on how to use it because that thing is sitting in my laundry room. I have no idea how to use it successfully.

Christine Van Bloem: I think when the air fryers came out, it was a total gimmick, right? It's because what is it? It's essentially a convection oven. It's a little tiny convection oven. But what I will say is my air fryer, instead of having the basket, has two racks, two like wire shelves in it that come out and I love it, especially during the summer because I don't turn my oven on.

It heats up in about nine seconds and it's just. It's very easy to use. I mean, last week I, oh my gosh, I can't even believe, I air fried half a pound of green beans and ate

Laurie Boucher: Oh my gosh. I saw that. And that would've been my ideal lunch.

Christine Van Bloem: I'm telling you, and it was, Laurie, it was salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. And that was it. And I just tossed it together and Spread it out.

It's really important when you're using an air fryer, and this is why I like the two shelves instead of the single basket. I spread them out so they weren't touching. It's really important whenever you're roasting anything, whenever you're air frying anything, it's not touching and then the air can circulate all around it.

And they got the brown spots and they shriveled a little bit. And that is not, I don't even know who I am anymore, because that is not like my kind of lunch. Oh my gosh, I ate every single darn bean. They were

Laurie Boucher: Oh, I'm a veggie girl. I don't eat a lot of fruit, but I would eat veggies morning, noon, and night. I

Christine Van Bloem: my gosh. I love that. Well, I'm trying. I'm trying to be a

Laurie Boucher: You're doing it.

Christine Van Bloem: I'm trying. All right, so let me ask you one last question. It's a regular weeknight, what's for dinner?

Laurie Boucher: Am I by myself or am I with my family?

Christine Van Bloem: I'm going to say you're by yourself, or maybe it's just you and your husband.

Laurie Boucher: If it is just me, I am eating pasta. I am eating pasta. It's my comfort dish. I love it. I always have some in the freezer. I just, you know, a basic bowl of, you know, semolina water pasta and some tomato sauce with a little pesto on top and I am a happy girl. That's, that's what I eat.

Christine Van Bloem: See? I, you live it. You live the pasta to your core. I

Laurie Boucher: So yeah, it's you know, you know, when my family's here, you know, I think a lot of people, when they see how much pasta I make, I do give a fair amount of it away. I've got friends and neighbors who like pasta and I couldn't possibly eat everything that I make. But I think with it just being my husband and I right now it's probably once, maybe twice a week is my.

My limit that I'm allowed to serve pasta. But I'll sneak it into soup. I'll make a lot of semolina pasta. I'll sneak it in my soup, put it in a mac and cheese, you know, so there's ways that I get it in. But honestly, this is something a lot of people don't know about me. I actually have a little bit of a gluten sensitivity.

It's not an allergy. So I do have to watch how much of it I eat and how frequently. So there you go. It's crazy.

Christine Van Bloem: Oh my goodness. Alright, so I am going to put all of Laurie's information in the show notes. I always feel so fancy every time I say that.

Laurie Boucher: It is fancy. I love that you're doing this and I love that your direction is to focus on empty nesters, because I feel like it's a time of life for women, especially if you are devoting yourself to your family, which most of us moms do and we happily do it. But it can be a very eye opening experience when they're gone.

And so it's nice to see and talk to people and read about the people that you've been interacting with. You know, how do they do it? Why do they do it? You know, where do I start? Because it can be very intimidating for someone who's been, you know, either, you know, Out in the workforce with a family or at home, you know, working with the family and then, and then what?

What's my next job? What's my next career? What's my path and how do I get there? I think it's a real thing. It's a, it's a challenge for so many women.

Christine Van Bloem: Well, it is and you know, you also entered this this stage of Invisibility, right and I've seen younger women say oh, I won't be invisible and it's like oh, honey It doesn't have anything to do with you. It's it's I mean you can be the Peacock, and it won't matter. Your people look at women of a certain age differently, and they see through us instead of seeing us, right?

And they no longer see our value quite as much as they did when we were younger. And I just think, I know so many fascinating, really interesting, accomplished, And I wanted to devote some energy to the empty nesters because it is a big transition time and I think that You know, this is the time where people can start to give up and I refuse to do that.

I want a big life. I want, I want to eat all the pasta. I want to have all the fun and I mean, I'm tired so I want to be in bed by nine, but

Laurie Boucher: Maybe eight.

Christine Van Bloem: all right, I've done eight. I've done eight, but you know, I just, it's such a great time and I think if you embrace it, you have more time. Time's the operative word, right?

So, Laurie, now you have all this time to make the pasta. You have all this time to experiment with the pasta. And when you're running kids, hither and yon, and, you know, I worked really hard to go to my kids events and support them and do all of that. So now you have this giant gift of not being, I mean, everything hurts all the time.

But not being further down that road and still being active and being excited to do stuff and I just think it's a neat time. I, I

Laurie Boucher: It is. And, and, you know, I'm lucky because I have a very supportive husband and kids and family. And I know that not everyone has that and everyone's situation is different. So having a group. You know, what you're trying to cultivate of women that are sort of on the same path and, you know, somehow connecting people and sharing stories is so important because not everyone has that kind of support.

So I think it's great what you're doing. I think how you have pivoted and You know, I know you share a lot on your Instagram, but some of the challenges you have overcome would have probably I don't know what would have happened to someone else. So, I love your energy. I love what you're doing. I can't wait to see how it develops.

If you ever do anything in real life and get like an Empty Nester Club Wine club or maybe we'll do a big pasta dinner for everyone. I think that would be so much fun. I know I can't even imagine how how far you're gonna take it, but i'm in whatever you're

Christine Van Bloem: Oh my gosh, I love it. Well, I just, you know, we all go through challenges, so whatever, but I'm, I'm on the other side of it, so it's a little easier to, you know, take that deep breath and, you know, okay, I'm gonna tell you my dirty little secret. Every time I drive by the building, where my business was for 15 years.

I, I may make an inappropriate gesture toward the building. I'm so petty. Not to the person who's in the space now. I talked to her, I said I don't do it to you, but I

Laurie Boucher: representative of everything in that time and COVID and the challenges, but you know what? Without that door closing, you wouldn't get to experience this whole new thing you're doing. And I think it's exciting change and evolving and, you know, you probably would have been just as successful staying there and happy and doing it, but you're, you're just have an opportunity to do something different and you're, you know, taking that gift and doing it.

And I just think that's great. So,

Christine Van Bloem: I'm a lucky girl. Lucky

Laurie Boucher: are.

Christine Van Bloem: I know it. I know it. So, all right, Laurie, you are, you and I could just talk to each other forever,

Laurie Boucher: I know. I know.

Christine Van Bloem: So I will say thank you so much for coming on. You are a just sunshine on a cloudy day. And I love your story. I just, making that big career switch is such a big thing and I love how you have embraced pasta life.

So thank you so much for joining me.

Laurie Boucher: And thank you for having me.

Christine Van Bloem: Awesome. Thanks, Laurie.