Posts Tagged ‘food’
This vs. That: Baby Food
Feeding our children sure made me take a second look at labels and what I was putting into their mouths as well as our own. How about you? This month I’m listing some differences between buying your own fresh food to make/create baby food at home vs. purchasing the packaged food you find at the stores. One principal to remember when eating any food is the order of nutritional value: Fresh food has the highest nutrient content, frozen is next best, and canned/jarred food has the lowest value of nutrients. Yours and your children’s health will reflect the choices you make in the nutrient content of the food you eat/prepare.
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Creatives Near You: Ali [Gimme Some Oven]
Meet Ali. When she’s not busy with her musician career (worship leader, musician, arranger, choir director) she’s busy writing and taking photos of her yummy recipes on her cooking blog; “Gimme Some Oven”. Ali’s the type of girl that loves people and any excuse to entertain. She grew up with a family of entertainers and creatives that cherish family and believe there is nothing like a good meal around the dinning room table. Believe me I’ve had the pleasure of sharing some of those meals with her family (including AMAZING homemade cheesecake) and in college you could always avoid the school cafeteria by “stopping by” Ali’s apartment around dinner time! 
Q1. How did you get started cooking?
I had the great luck to grow up in the kitchen alongside my mom, who is and talented, creative, and very resourceful home cook. She had dinner on the table for our family to enjoy together most nights of the week, and instilled in each of us an appreciation for healthy, well-balanced meals (always followed by dessert!!).
But for better or worse, I didn’t really develop my own passion for cooking until college. It was there that –- after the novelty of all-you-can-eat fried food and ice cream wore off -– I was finally motivated to learn the basics!! Thankfully, I had plenty of willing taste-testers around. (Quickly learned that college students will come over instantly at the mention of homemade food!) And while my roommates would affirm that there were definitely plenty of hilarious cooking disasters along the way, it was a blast and I learned a ton those years.
During that time, I also discovered what an absolute blessing it is to have your home filled with friends, enjoying a meal you have prepared. I still think there’s nothing better. 
Q2. Define what makes a meal great?
I love-love-love exploring new restaurants, especially in Kansas City. But without a doubt, homemade meals will always be my favorite.
As for what makes those meals “great”, I most enjoy meals that are good all around – good for you (fresh, healthy ingredients), good for your schedule (which in my world usually means 30-minute meals!), good for your community (buying local when you can)…and occasionally, good for your sweet tooth (YUM). I also gravitate towards ethnic foods, so anything with lots of spices/herbs is an extra plus in my book.
Q3. What has been the most rewarding part about blogging your food adventures?
When I began blogging, my main hope was just to create a nice “little” archive of my favorite recipes, and maybe learn a little about photography in the process. (And I thought it would be a plus if my family or a few friends tuned in!)
Little did I know how quickly word spreads on the Internet, and what amazing and encouraging readers I would soon connect with from all over the world. To this day, it still boggles my mind people from all over the world tune in to my little site. It has been so fun getting to know them!
But I’d have to say that I think that the best “reward” of blogging (that still surprises me whenever I hear it) is having someone tell me that they made one of my recipes. Such a humbling honor.
Q4. What advice do you have for others interested in starting a food blog?
Life: 2011 Resolutions
So here we are 2011 and loving it! We have so many wonderful things planned, wonderful dreams dreamed, and we can’t wait to see them come to life. We’ve had quite a holiday season…Since Christmas new ideas, fresh thoughts, and more crazy than you can shake a stick at…So here is a look at what you missed and a few thoughts on New Years…I’ve called this post resolutions, but it may be more of a bucket list for 2011.
Family Style: Thanksgiving Sweets
The holiday season is upon us and Meg and I love to spend it with family. Luckily our families live close enough that it isn’t much of a problem to spend a weekend with them. So this past weekend we joined in the annual Ewertz, McClellan, Self, Thanksgiving candy cook-off. I don’t know that there is a winner as much as their is a whole weekend of fun and family! We wanted to share this with all of you and a recipe for the famous Auntie P peanut butter balls! Enjoy!
GCD: Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!
Winner, Winnaar, Sieger, Ganador, Zwycięzca, vencedor, výherce, gagnant, vincitore, νικητής, sigurvegari, 수상자, vinneren, 勝利者…The winner of our new kitchen line is announced!
Hawaiian Farm Girl: Week 3
Whether it’s with the plants, animals, WWOOFers (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), or maybe former ideas on what you thought you knew about Hawaii, organic gardening, or life for that matter…the philosophy here on the farm remains: “out with the old and in with the new”.
LIFE: 2010 Summer Wrap Up
It will be a year this December since we started this adventure called Green Couch Design and sometimes we can’t believe that we are here. Two crazy twenty somethings, that used to be balls to the wall in the big city. All talk about moving out to Portland Oregon and setting up shop in a downtown loft. Don’t get me wrong we still love Portland and a downtown loft sounds pretty good sometimes. But then I’m sitting here listening to the serenade of crickets and owls, with stars I can actually see over my head. And damned if I don’t love sitting in my rocking chair with the morning sun rising in front of me. We laugh that we’ve become two old young people, but I think we may just be starting to find what we came out here to find…A simpler life.
Canning With Grandma Part 3: Chunky Tomato Salsa
If you’re ever invited to dinner with the Lopps 9 times out of 10 we’ll probably be having tacos, taco salads, fajitas, tostados and any other way we can throw meat on a tortilla. Of course no Mexican dish is complete without salsa and since I can eat salsa by the spoonfuls I’m canning salsa like a squirrel hordes acorns for the winter! 
Canning with Grandma Part 2: Pickles
Cale loves Kosher Dill pickles. Unlike the the sweet Bread-and-Butter Pickles he likes the old school sour ones and eats them like french fries. As a fun surprise and a way to save the mound of cucumbers growing on my kitchen counter I decided to grab Grandma’s expertise and try my hand at pickling!
Canning with Grandma Part 1: Plumb Jam
To Jam or Jelly that is the question? For me (Meg) it personally came down to two arguments; convenience and preference. Similar to yogurt with fruit chunks, jams tend to include pieces of the fruit instead of a more blended texture. Since jelly is made from extracting fruit juices, most people prefer making jelly with seed based fruits, like blackberries, to ensure there are no seeds in their jelly.
Personally, I happen to like fruit chunks (call me weird) and my Grandma thinks it’s a little easier to boil down the fruit and sift through a food strainer/sauce maker instead of extracting the fruit juice with cheesecloth. In other words, we went for the plumb jam.
High class design in overalls. It's the simple life of a farm through the eyes of a couple of crazy designers. We call ourselves Green Couch Design and we are Bringing Design Home.
