A Week of Dinners: Jules Nelson

Jules Nelson is a Licensed Massage Therapist in New York City. She lives in The Bronx with her boyfriend Joey and their bulldog Chorizo. “Currently, our world is going through a shift, and although most of us are now without work, I’m trying to look on the bright side and one of those is cooking! I get to cook all day if I want…it’s bringing me happiness to feed me and my little family.” The first feature in our new ‘A Week of Dinners’ series, Jules shares her signature dry rub recipe, her favorite dish to bring to a holiday party, and five weeknight meals…

I love watching your cooking stories on your Instagram! How do you come up with all your recipe ideas?

I’ve always loved food. Obsessed over it, really. Normally when I think of what I want to cook, I’ll google it. Scan a few recipes and find the common ingredients, and add my own touch to it. 

Honestly, weed plays a big part in my ideas for recipes and my cooking. It definitely helps me settle down after work, and my brain gets going about what food I want to cook and then I just get up and do it! My old roommate and I used to spend hours watching The Food Network. That’s really where I learned a lot of my skills and tricks.

I used to get lost on food pages on Instagram. But, at the same time, Instagram and the internet can be such a toxic place full of filters and only showing people what you want them to see. Comparison syndrome is real and it fucks with our mental health. Even with food, there is fancy lighting equipment and bright filters — that’s not real!

So I took a break from Instagram. It was really nice. But I missed posting my food. I only posted about food occasionally on my personal Instagram account, but I got such a positive response from friends that I decided if I was going to go back to Instagram I was going to make a food account. And not just any food account, I wanted it to be authentic. No filters, no restaurants, just my home cooking. Sure, I’ll stand by the window to get the natural light, but we should all be doing that as humans anyway. Food is the world’s universal language, and I’m always happy to learn more!

On trying new recipes even if they seem intimidating…

I love Chrissy Teigen. She an authentic, I-don’t-give-a-fuck type of chick. And she’s funny. If you read her cookbook Cravings, you’ll laugh through most of it. In her book, there’s a chapter called “Things that Intimidate People, but Shouldn’t” and this Branzino is in that category. I’ve cooked plenty of fish but never a full-faced fish.

I picked up two from our local seafood spot. They cleaned it up for me, and I was ready to give this a try. Honestly, the second I started lathering this babe in oil and garlic, it felt like I’d been doing that forever. There’s lots of garlic, lemons, tomatoes, rosemary, and sage. That’s it. It’s so beautiful and colorful and tastes like a dream. Eat it with anything but I recommend some coconut rice and sweet potato.

On a recipe of one’s own…

It may be the Sagittarius in me, but I don’t follow recipe directions well. I need to make something my own. And I can never give someone an actual recipe because I don’t have them. But I love this dry rub so much that I know the spices backward and forward, and I am happy to give it out to whoever asks. I put my name on this because it’s my favorite creation, one that I use over and over again. 

Jules’ Dry Rub Recipe

• 2 tbs onion powder
• 2 tbs garlic powder
• 2 tbs garlic powder
• 2 tbs cayenne pepper
• 1 tbs smoked paprika
• 3 tbs dark brown sugar
• 1 tbs red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp salt1 tsp black pepper

This is easy to change up. For example, you can lower the cayenne if you’d like less spice. I would say it’s best on chicken, or maybe some fish, or steak, or veggies, or put it in sour cream for a dip… augh just take a bath in it!

Personally, I like to marinate chicken wings for at least 24 hours, but dry rubs don’t often need that long. Feel free to marinate for as long as you want or just throw them right in the oven after you’ve massaged them. I bake at 375F until I can smell them, then turn them over and finish the second side. Put them in the broiler to crisp them up (this step will change your world). Also, a great dip for these is sour cream with chopped green onions and some salt and pepper.

On loving meat but also making (and loving) vegan dishes…

I love meat, but I’m not afraid of vegan food or vegan meats. There are so many choices nowadays that are delicious! Beyond Meat is a great one and it’s what I used in this vegan meatloaf.

I made this by sautéing onions, garlic, and some bell pepper. Then, I combined that with the “meat,” breadcrumbs, and some spices. (You can add an egg too if you’re not vegan.) Form it into a loaf pan and smother it in some sauce. Traditionally, people have used just ketchup in meatloaf, or bbq sauce. I use both, plus dark brown sugar. It makes this sweet and salty glaze that you’ll want to swim in. Poke a couple of holes in the top of the loaf to let the glaze drip into the meat, then bake it! I like to serve this with sautéed veggies and sweet potato mash.

I’m always trying to think of ways to eat more veggies. Even if I make a boxed mac n’ cheese, I’ll add some roasted veggies for color.

A dear friend of mine is vegan and we’ve made some of the best damn mac I’ve ever had. This version is so simple. Cut and roast one butternut squash with one onion and some garlic in coconut oil until soft. Once it’s cool enough to touch, add to a blender with coconut cream, whatever seasonings make you happy, and some vegan Flavor God cheese seasoning. Once blended up, pour that creamy fucking goodness over pasta and it’s a literal burst of dopamine. Eat it as is, cover in bread crumbs and bake it — this dish is delightful.

What pantry staples do you like to keep on hand at all times?

Aside from all my spices, some pantry staples I always have are onions, garlic, lemons, olive oil, flour, and sugar. Hopefully, there will never be a time when those items aren’t in our kitchen. If I had a personal phrase it would be, “Grab garlic and onions!”

On cooking with your partner (or not)…

Joey and I don’t often cook together. It’s not because he’s not a great cook — he is! — I’m just, as any dedicated cook would say, controlling. It’s all gotta be perfect and done my way, but he’s very patient and usually just lets me do my thing.

When Joey wants to cook, he’ll do whatever it takes to keep me out of the kitchen. I’m not allowed to help because soon that turns into me taking over, and that defeats the purpose. But we definitely bounce ideas off of each other.

Sometimes Joey puts in requests, and one request was French Onion Soup. He’d definitely had it in his mind for a while because the summer before we bought some vintage ceramic French onion soup bowls.

This dish is a delight. The smell of cooking onions is the smell I wanna smell before I die — it’s so good! When I was making this and the onions were cooking down, I realized we forgot to buy the bread. French onion soup has to have that piece of bread that soaks up the juices and holds the cheese in place.

So we turned to our mini waffle maker that looks like a toy but makes the perfect waffle, and I used a mason jar lid to form the waffle to fit the ceramic bowl. I definitely recommend this — the sweet onions, the hot broth, the salty Gruyère cheese!

Do you have a go-to dish that you like to bring to holiday gatherings?

My favorite dish to bring to a holiday party is my mama’s sweet potato casserole. It’s mashed sweet potato loaded with butter and covered in a brown sugar buttery pecan glaze topping. [Editor’s note: I’ve had it a few times. It is insanely delicious.]

Thank you so much, Jules! Your cooking and kitchen experiments are an inspiration.

(Photos courtesy of Jules Nelson.)