Hey friends, it's Kevin Pang here.

Look, there are so many food magazines and recipe websites out there.

I'm going to try to convince you that America's Test Kitchen is different.

We spend nearly $11,000 to develop every recipe, and that's an actual figure.

Like our Texas Smoke Beef Frisket, for example.

That took us two years and 500 pounds of beef just to nail down.

So if you want to give our site a test spin, I'm happy to give you 14 days to poke around

and try our ATK recipes.

Go to ATKpodcast.com, and I'll set you up.

Alright, here we go, onto this week's show.

I hear a lot of jokes about living in the Midwest.

That were corn-fed jello salad chompers, whose idea of soup, especially if you're from

Wisconsin, is beer plus cheese.

And you know what?

It's all true.

And frankly, having been a Midwesterner for 20 years and now raising a family outside

Chicago, we've learned to embrace our eccentricities as Midwest charm.

So I was a journalist at the Chicago Tribune when I first met reporter Courtney Crowder,

who was an intern back then.

She's also from Illinois.

But in 2015, Courtney took a journalism job at the Des Moines Register.

She's now one of the most recognizable bylines in the state of Iowa, where she's the

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