(upbeat music) - [Reporter] Tonight on WPBS Weekly, Inside the Stories, we visit the Masonic Medical Research Institute in Utica where women are making history and breaking barriers in the field.

And with Easter around the bend, no doubt Easter baskets will be full.

We'll visit a chocolate maker that kicks it up a notch to meet the need.

Also, you've never had sloppy Joe's like this before.

We're back in the kitchen with Johnny Spezzano of The Border with local Chef, Casey Morse.

Your stories, your region, coming up right now on WPBS Weekly, Inside the Stories.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] WPBS Weekly, Inside The Stories, is brought to you by.

- [Narrator] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-in clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26, across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and Healing close to home, when you need it most.

- [Announcer] North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

(upbeat music) - We are the North country.

We're protecting one another like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North country strong at Claxtonhepburn.org today.

- [Narrator] And the Dr. D. Susan Badenhausen and Legacy Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation.

Additional funding from the New York State Education Department.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone and welcome to WPBS Weekly Inside the stories.

I'm Michael Rickey.

For centuries now, women have been working to overcome obstacles in male dominated industries.

Tonight we introduce you to two women who have not only overcome this obstacle in the field of science, but are paving the way for other women looking to do the same.

As we celebrate women in history this month, our Joleene DesRosier has more.

(audience cheering and applauding) - I love my job, I love everything about science.

- [Joleene] Maria Kontaridis is a scientist and executive director at the Masonic Medical Research Institute in Utica, New York.

It's a research facility that focuses on neuroscience, cardiology, and autoimmune diseases.

- What got me interested in science was starting really in classical archeology.

I ended up double majoring in classics and chemistry because I wanted to learn more about carbon dating.

And I ended up loving chemistry in a way that I wanted to help people from a distance.

- [Joleene] As a female scientist in a male dominated field, Maria found there were numerous challenges.

- Science was and remains, I think very much a man's world, especially in cardiology.

I think that is slowly changed over time, but certainly when I was starting out, I was the only female in a lot of situations.

Certainly the only female who was assertive, otherwise known as aggressive sometimes.

But it was a very challenging but very exciting time to do science.

- [Joleene] Maria is one of a growing number of female scientists.

Something that used to be somewhat of a rarity, but thanks to Maria and others like her, more women are finding rewarding careers in science.

- So I love to mentor young women.

I think it's an important aspect of the job to be able to recruit and build women's careers.

I'm very excited at what potential they have to be successful in the future and they themselves then take on mentorship and leadership roles.

- I was always really interested in knowing why things were the way they were as a child.

I didn't really have an easy time academically.

I actually dropped out of high school at 16 without graduating and I was really quite lost in what I was going to do with my life.

So I enrolled in the local community college and I studied applied sciences there.

So I then went on to study immunology at the University of Edinburgh and then I did my PhD at the University of Aberdeen in Autoimmune diseases.

- So I was the first person in my family to get a degree.

My parents, they barely finished like middle school and I saw the first one.

But hopefully other people are gonna be inspired by that.

And also pursue that as well because it's very hard to have like a good education and actually see that they're that like pursuing that can actually change your life.

- [Joleene] Coming up through the ranks.

Women scientists frequently deal with discrimination and intimidation.

- So there was one incident I had during my PhD where I was speaking to someone at a conference and I overheard a senior male academic say to someone else, university wasn't made for people like her.

And that was really upsetting to know that someone you look up to thinks less of you because of things that are completely outside of your control.

And it was at that point I am a little bit petty where I kind of stood there and went, I'm gonna do it.

And I don't care what you think of me or what you say to me, this is on me.

- [Joleene] Discrimination is only one obstacle frequently facing women entering the field of science, economics and logistics often factor in.

- Yeah, I think the first and the biggest one, thinking like how Brazil is, was the financial, because my family, they didn't have any, like they were working for the minimum wage and like having like a daughter saying that she wants to go to college and it was like a full time as well.

And it means like one less person in the house working to support.

So I think what that one was, the first and the main one.

- [Joleeene] Women have discovered that they can play a pivotal role in the progress and sustainability of the world through science, technology, and innovation.

They're helping to change the stereotypes that have restrained women in many types of workplaces, not just science.

- I see that the women today are much more likely to take on leadership roles.

They don't feel this challenge of being a mother solely or just taking care of a family.

They see their life as a career and being, having that be a part of who they are as a whole.

- I think what drives me like every day to come to work is like the passion that I have for what I'm doing.

I love to see something for the first time and being the first one and like think how that knowledge or that experiment result is going to correlate with other results we have in the lab.

- Expect the coolest job in the world.

Part of our job is generating new knowledge.

There is something absolutely incredible about doing an experiment in your lab, sitting down to analyze the data and going, I am the first person in the world to know this.

And that is really inspiring and touching and also humbling.

- With Easter just a hop, skip, and a jump away, what are you doing differently with your Easter baskets?

If you said adding more chocolate, we concur.

And to entice you away from commercial choices, producer Eric Cleary takes us inside a local chocolate maker store to show you how it's done and to share the volume of chocolate needed to take care of hundreds of customers this Easter.

(upbeat music) (crowd murmuring) - [Speaker] We've been around sweet as can be since 73 is is the motto on the shirt.

- [Eric] Founded in the 1940s by the Stone family, Stone's Candy has been a staple in Oswego ever since, serving up sweet treats to the community.

In 1973, Polish immigrant Jan Stankiewicz purchased the store from the Stone family and shortly after his passing, the store once again changed hands and co-owner Jeff McCroy is part of the candy crew, continuing the traditions Stankiewicz put in place.

- We bought the store six years ago that we bought it from a woman named Marg Stankiewicz whose husband Jan came over from Poland.

He was a true chocolatier.

He loved chocolate, worked with chocolate, had a job at Nestle's, but used his skills up there and refined his recipes, which are the recipes we still use.

We've got the old fashioned binder, which with typewritten recipes that Jan did.

Jan tweaked and tweaked and he was quite the character, a true chocolatier.

He passed away.

Marg, Marg still ran the store.

Then finally Marg put the store up for sale and we bought it.

So a lot of these old things, there's a lot of old reminders.

I knew Jan, not everybody knew Jan.

I knew him not from the chocolate store, but I just knew him from being around Oswego and stuff.

So a lot of things around here have Jan's little touches and stuff.

We've got an old plastic hat back there that somebody gave him years ago.

So we owe a lot to Jan with his little recipes.

- [Eric] Microbe and his fellow co-owners may have moved from the original location, but they still keep certain traditions alive, such as making their own chocolate.

- Yes, we make our own chocolate.

You refine, you refine chocolate, you have to buy it, you have to get a bulk piece of chocolate.

But then you put your own little recipes in, you put your little touches in is why different people's chocolate tastes differently.

That, and that's where Jan came in.

You know, you start, you don't start with cocoa right out of the gate, you know what I mean?

You start with like, a template of chocolate and then you add your own touches to it, whether it's salt, which we don't like to do with the salt, little sugar, little this or little of that.

That's where Jan's recipes come in.

- [Eric] Microbe adds that the chocolate side of things really ramps up for the Easter season.

- Easter time it picks up considerably.

It, the holidays help your business extremely well.

But Easter's early this year, Easter's a little bit early, so we're gearing up this, it's early March and we're gearing up now where we'll see, we'll see steady store customers.

The two weeks before more probably double and then the week before we'll probably see triple and our hours expand.

We do a lot of chocolate bunnies.

We do a lot of chocolate bunnies.

We do baskets, not specific baskets.

We do general baskets because it just, it's time consuming.

But the amount of baskets we do increase is like, okay, it's this much for this basket, this much for this basket.

And we try to say, you know, put some heart into it, you know, go to the candy store, not the gas station.

You know, do that for baskets, bunnies.

The popcorn bunnies and the chocolate bunnies are really good.

And we do like chocolate crosses.

We have a last supper scene, try to, the religious part of Easter, which that's what it's all about.

So we make, we have molds there where we incorporate our chocolate into there and we do that.

- [Eric] To see more of Stones Candy's sweet treats, they are online StonesCandy.com.

For WPBS weekly in Oswego, I'm Eric Cleary.

- We're back in the kitchen tonight with Johnny Spezzano of the Border radio station.

He catches us up with Chef Casey Morse to share a sloppy Joe idea that will satisfy all of your March Madness guests, take a look.

(upbeat music) - Hey, come on.

(exciting music) Hello, my friends, it's Johnny Spezzano, and this is Johnny on Fire, where we take amazing everyday recipes and cook them on fire.

My guest is Casey Morse.

How you doing, Casey?

- Great, how are you?

- Welcome to my kitchen.

Now Casey's a local chef.

She's a graduate of the CIA, which is not Central Intelligence Agency.

What is it?

- The Culinary Institute of America.

- Which is pretty cool.

- [Casey] It is.

- [Chef] It's a very well renowned school and she's also a former food service director, which this leads into, what are we making?

- We're making sloppy joes.

- All right, so let's talk about our ingredients, Casey.

- Yep, we have our beef.

There's some Worcestershire.

We have chili powder, some fresh mustard, which I use instead of dry.

- We're also gonna make, we got some onion, and pepper, but we're also gonna make a coleslaw.

- Oh yeah, so coleslaw, I'm gonna do a little different, we have some pickled juice and instead of our vinegar you can also use, which is really fun.

If you're looking, if you like spicy, you can use your pickled jalapeno juice or Peperoncino juice.

I'm just going outside of the normal lines of the vinegar, so.

- We're gonna visit that in just a little bit.

Let's get started.

We got a pan back here, starting to heat by the wood fire stove.

And we're gonna add the ground beef.

So put it right here.

Throw right it over, right here.

We threw a little bit of olive oil in.

- Yep, a little olive oil.

Got your pan nice and hot first.

And we're gonna brown the beef.

- [Chef] Wow, that pan, you can hear it sizzling, all ready.

- [Casey] The important part.

- [Chef] All right, so of course March madness season.

Slide it right in there.

And with all that, you want something good to have around the tube when you're watching basketball.

So why not Sloppy Joe's?

So, okay.

Well Casey, of course, being a graduate from the CIA, I bet your kids love how you cook for them.

- Oh yeah, my kids are a little spoiled.

I mean, they like Sloppy Joe's, but my son did recently go to a sleepover and request salmon, risotto, and Brussels sprouts.

So there's that side of it as well.

- [Chef] Wait a minute.

Most kids want chicken fingers and french fries.

- And french fries and mac and cheese.

- [Casey] They don't like the orange.

- [Chef] You make your kids risotto.

- Yeah, I love risotto.

Don't we all?

- [Chef] I do.

- It is like mac and cheese.

There's still butter and cheese.

It's just Arborio rice.

- I love it.

So let me ask you, as you're cutting these delicious peppers up.

Is is that like 101, class 101?

When you go to the CIA, os cutting principles?

- It's all, the curriculum has changed so much.

But yeah, you go through skills first and there's a lot of cutting and fabrication, meat.

- I feel like this intimidates some people.

- This isn't beautiful cutting.

We're just, we're making sloppy joes here so it's not like.

It's sloppy right?

- [Chef] Okay, she's gonna go.

- [Casey] I'm gonna stir these a little bit.

- [Chef] Stir the ground beef.

- [Casey] So they don't brown it or don't burn it too much.

- You know what we're gonna do?

Let's put it right.

Let's do this.

- Sorry.

- Put it right on the fire.

I like it a little crispy.

- Oh, you can do that.

- Here let me have this, let me have this here.

All right, put it.

- I will let you.

- We're gonna put it right, right up on there.

- [Casey] You're a pro with that.

- All right, it's right up on the wood and the coals and everything.

We'll let it brown up nice.

- [Casey] Perfect, it'll be beautiful.

- So, all right, we're talking onion.

We're talking pepper.

- So I'm using red pepper.

A lot of people use green pepper.

I just like the sweetness from the red.

Green pepper will show a little different color in there if you want to.

- The green peppers are almost a little bit bitter.

- Yeah, I'm just not, it's not my favorite.

You could use jalapeno if you wanted it spicy.

You could use yellow too, just for color, whatever.

So yeah, we're gonna do pepper.

We're gonna do one onion.

(knife chopping) Yeah.

- Look at this, chef skills right here, yeah.

Crew right now is amazed at what you're doing already.

- [Casey] Oh, thanks.

- This is what it's like having knives at home also with your family and not your nice pretty chef's knives.

They're a little bit used and abused.

- It's okay.

All right, so we got our pepper, onion.

And now the garlic.

- I got a couple big ones.

I would do six but I'm gonna.

- [Chef] So you're smashing the garlic.

What's the idea behind smashing the garlic?

- [Casey] It helps it not go all over the place when you try and chop it.

So if I was not to smash it and start banging away at it, it's gonna fly all over, so kind of.

- [Chef] What if you just rake.

- [Casey] It keeps it under control.

- [Chef] Great, let me see it.

- [Casey] You do.

- What if you just did this, you ready?

- It just scares my knife, but it's okay.

(Chef laughing) That works.

- [Chef] Now look at it.

- Yeah, look it's beautiful.

- [Casey] Look what I did.

- It just, you did.

That's what I do when I'm home and there's not people around where.

You know, they jump and get startled and.

- I mean, you can use a garlic press.

No one's judging here.

We're making sloppy Joe's.

- [Chef] All right, so.

- [Casey] So.

- [Chef] Pepper, onion, garlic.

- [Casey] Garlic.

- Now do you add this to the raw meat?

- No, so we're gonna brown the beef, let it, drain it out a little bit.

- [Chef] It's kind of gross if you add it to the raw meat, right?

- [Casey] Yeah, or you could do it first.

I mean, if you're making it at home, you don't want to dirty a bunch of dishes, you can put this in first, then ground the beef or put, brown the beef in there and it's like less dishes.

- [Chef] Right.

- So.

- [Chef] It's a good idea to brown the beef separate.

- [Casey] Yeah, it's helpful.

It just makes everything cook evenly.

- [Chef] We have members of the crew and they don't like raw things and meat.

And beef and all that stuff.

- [Casey] That makes sense.

- So they bring that up.

So, all right, so we see how it's doing.

Let's check the beef out.

- New spoon.

- [Casey] Thanks for handling that pan.

- Wow, look at that.

- All right.

So we're gonna take some of it out, or all the beef, but not all the fat.

We just wanna let the beef kind of rest and use this fat to saute our veggies in.

- [Chef] Oh, I see what you're doing.

- [Casey] So I'm not adding any more oil.

I'm not adding any more, oops, butter or anything.

We're just kind of utilizing the fat that we already have, which I did pick.

- [Chef] Don't burn yourself.

Take your time.

- Oh, I have man hands.

Yeah.

- [Chef] When you work around the hot all the time.

Yes.

- I know with the oven.

I actually, I think there's a burn right there.

- Yeah, that's a good one.

Mine are on these sides from the inside of the pan.

- [Chef] Yeah it happens.

All right, so.

- We're gonna go ahead and add these veggies And saute these up in there.

Nice and hot and fast.

- Get them even.

There you go.

Perfect.

- [Chef] It Shouldn't take no time at all to do this.

- Right.

(upbeat music) - So while that's cooking, we're gonna make some coleslaw.

- Yes.

- Are we gonna put it underneath the, there's a local diner, Long Ways.

And they always put coleslaw under, under the sloppy joes or the beef barbecue.

- It makes sense.

It keeps it under control.

- It gives you something crunchy.

To chew into.

So you may wanna try that at home.

Maybe not.

All right, what is this thing?

- So this is a mandolin.

This is a great tool.

It's also pretty dangerous.

So if you're using it at home, I was taking down a few good men in my, in my profession.

So you just gotta keep your fingers out of the way.

But it does get you a nice even cut.

And then, I mean, you can do it by hand as well.

You can buy pre shredded.

There's no shame.

We're just doing this here.

'Cause I had it at home.

- I love coleslaw, especially fresh coleslaw.

- And as we get down to the ends, I don't like to cut my fingers off, like I said.

So I save it.

We use it for soups later, something like that.

But for now.

Keeping my fingers safe.

Do a little bit more.

We're gonna add that right into our bowl.

- [Chef] You can use that mixing bowl right there.

Ooh, coleslaw.

- So we're gonna keep it simple.

I'm just doing carrots in this.

And then a little bit of, this is Johnny's.

- [Chef] Yeah, it may not be the sharpest.

- It's okay, it's gonna get it in there.

- Yeah, so keep it nice and fine.

So a little carrot, a little cabbage.

- [Casey] Cabbage.

- [Chef] And you said you're gonna do something different.

Now most normal recipes include an apple cider vinegar.

- Yeah, apple cider vinegar or white, just regular white vinegar.

I'm gonna use a pickle juice because it already.

- [Chef] What.

- It adds like this nice briny flavor and like thing that people are kind of accustomed to.

Who doesn't like a good pickle, right.

So we're gonna add this in a little bit.

And I don't measure anything with my coleslaw.

- [Chef] Well you're a true chef.

- [Casey] I do it to taste.

- [Chef] You need it.

- And yeah, so just kind of do it by look.

A little mayo, a little pickle juice.

This is celery salt.

Just like grandma made it.

All right, black pepper.

And not too much salt because of the brininess of the pickles, but we're gonna add some just in case.

- All right, so Casey Morse, when you go to the Culinary Institute, is it, how long do you go for?

- So there, it's, like I said before, it's changed so much since I graduated.

So when I went, it was, there was two year, or four year program.

And then, so I went for two and I did the manager in training program after, which was super helpful for me.

But yeah, there's, it's just all different facets of the culinary world.

- And what was your favorite thing that you learned while there that you remember?

- [Casey] The favorite thing I learned was working under different chefs.

So you changed a different class every three weeks and you worked for a different chef.

So it's like getting fired and getting rehired and you learn all these different ways to cut an onion or saute vegetables or some people were really adamant about not no waste or how beautiful the plate looks.

And it's just so interesting to me.

- [Chef] I'm having.

- [Casey] Especially as a business owner, to like take all of those different ways and then, you know, make it your own and the different values each chef had.

- [Chef] That's so cool.

- [Casey] So that was really important.

- [Chef] I'm envisioning Gordon Ramsey coming in and screaming.

- [Casey] There were those, there were knives through the ceiling, cutting board thrown.

But there were also those chefs that were just super, super great mentors that I'm thankful for.

- [Chef] I love this.

All right, we got our coleslaw.

- [Casey] So we got our coleslaw.

- [Chef] Are we done with that?

- I think so, yeah.

That's good.

- We need to take a look at our sloppy Joe.

- Yeah, let's take a look.

See how they're doing.

All right, let's find out.

(exciting music) Look at this, wow.

- Ooh, it looks good.

- It's bubbling.

- Beautiful, we're gonna add a little bit of hot sauce.

This is a Chipotle, for a little extra smoke.

Just a little kick at the end.

- Like it.

- [Chef] All right.

- I'm gonna plate her up.

So I did add, I did bring some cilantro and jalapenos.

'Cause like I said, I like it spicy.

So we're gonna add those right in on top for a kind of nice garnish.

And since it is like March madness right now.

- [Chef] Yes.

We need a beer.

- Yes.

Also, this is a really fun, like new trendy thing to do is like a sloppy Joe bar instead of like your taco or nacho or burger.

Like this is a great way, not expensive to make a fun dish for everybody.

And you can change your toppings.

So like we're doing this pickly, messy.

- You know, I like a cole slaw that you put pineapple in.

We've had that, it's really good.

- And like, that's what's fun about all the things we're doing right now is that you can do it any way you want.

This is just the way we're doing it today.

So I'm gonna add some jalapenos, new, fresh, or pickled.

And then.

- [Chef] Okay.

We'll do a couple more over here for us.

I'll let you do a good job (indiscernible).

- [Chef] Okay, I get to build these.

- [Casey] You get to.

- [Chef] These are gonna look real amateur.

- Well these are messy and cilantro, 'cause it's like clean and fresh and super nice.

On top of those jalapenos and pickles.

We got all the flavors going.

- [Chef] Okay.

- Oh, here, look at us.

This is like lunch lady style, Johnny.

- [Chef] I love it.

No, I never had lunch like this.

Never had lunch like this.

- One more, okay.

- Man, these are elegant.

You take that.

Now are we gonna do any over the top or not?

- [Casey] I don't think so, I mean, and it's true, sloppy, but, there.

- That's to make it real sloppy over the top.

Oh my god.

- [Casey] I know.

- [Chef] These look good.

All right, let's take our first bite here.

Now I could also pick it off, but I'm not gonna.

'Cause I'm not (indiscernible) so I'm gonna look.

- [Casey] You're a true gentleman.

- I'm gonna look fancy.

Okay, here we go.

- All the flavors.

- All the flavors.

- So good.

- [Chef] Let me do one more with a jalapeno.

- [Casey] I know.

- The cole saw makes it/ - [Casey] Yeah, crunchy.

- [Chef] Doesn't it?

- [Casey] Yeah, it has that crunch.

- [Casey] Acid, yeah.

- [Chef] All right, one more bite.

Like Casey said, you don't have to measure everything.

Have fun.

You'll, you know, you learn by doing.

Experiment.

Try new flavors and get sloppy.

And happy March Madness.

Thanks for watching Johnny on Fire.

We've had a lot of fun here today.

If you wanna learn more about some of the great recipes, including this one, go to WPBSTV.org and look for Johnny On Fire.

You can also check out my dinner at Johnny's podcast.

We will see you next time.

This is my favorite part of the episode.

- [Casey] Oh yes.

- [Chef] Where we get to eat.

- Thank you.

- Thank you, Kasey, for coming in.

- Yeah, thanks for having me.

- And everybody enjoy.

(upbeat music) - If you're looking for more great fire grilled recipes from Johnny, visit WPBSTV.org and scroll through our library.

And if you'd like to be a guest on this segment, drop us an email at WPBS Weekly at WPBSTV.org.

Make sure you include your name and of course, your fire grilled recipe idea.

Well, that does it for us this Tuesday night.

Join us next time for a fresh look, inside the stories.

Northern New York will be able to see a lunar eclipse on April 8th.

We'll tell you what causes them and what you can expect to see.

And pet owners may find more of these unsightly creatures this season on Fido, we'll tell you what you need to do to prevent ticks on your furry friends this spring.

Also, when it comes to adding references on your resume, how should you go about it?

Canadian job Coach M. Michelle Nadon tells us what the market is looking for today.

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we'd love to learn more.

Drop us an email at WPBS Weekly at WPBSTV.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for tonight everyone.

On behalf of the entire crew here behind the scenes at WPBS, I'm Michael Riecke.

Have a great night.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] WPBS Weekly, Inside the Stories is brought to you by.

- [Announcer] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-in clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and healing close to home, when you need it most.

- [Announcer] North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- [Narrator] We are the North country.

We're protecting one another, like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North country strong at ClaxtonHepburn.org today.

- [Narrator] And the Dr. D. Susan BadenHausen Legacy Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation.

Additional funding from the New York State Education Department.

- [Casey] I got a couple big ones.

I would do six, but I'm gonna - [Chef] So you're smashing the garlic.

What's the idea behind smashing the garlic?

- It helps it not go all over the place when you try and chop it.

So if I was not to smash it and start banging away at it, it's gonna fly all over.

So kind of, it keeps it under control.

.

[Chef] What if you just, great, Let me see it.

- You do.

- What If you just did this, you ready?

- It just scares my knife, but it's okay.

(both laughing) (upbeat music)