Naturally Ella | The Dinner Special podcast

102: Erin Alderson: Moving From Fast Food to Healthier Eating

December 23, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Naturally Ella

On her blog, Naturally Ella, Erin shares seasonal vegetarian recipes that are pantry-inspired and favorite recipes that are simple, fresh and exciting for her family. She’s written two cookbooks, The Homemade Flour Cookbook and The Easy Vegetarian Kitchen.

I am so happy to have Erin Alderson of Naturally Ella here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Erin’s.)

On Her Journey From Fast Food to Fresh and Seasonal:

It’s definitely been a long journey, but one I’m glad I took. Through high school and part of college, we were a middle-class family who was always on the go. Had a lot of activities after school, during school and it just seemed like we never really had time to cook. Looking back I think we probably did have time. But like most people it’s just convenient to eat out and grab food as we go.

It wasn’t until in between my freshman and sophomore year of college that my father had a heart attack and had a quadruple bypass. He survived it all but it was definitely a wake-up call for my entire family. After that we changed our diets and we haven’t looked back.

On Getting Started to Eating Healthier:

Baby steps. Definitely baby steps. Instead of eating out every day I’d eat out three times a week. I just stepped back slowly but surely. There were things I didn’t like at first. I didn’t always eat a lot of vegetables as much as I should have. It took time. It took time to really grow and get the process down.

I thought it might have been easier than I expected. I definitely had it built up in my head thinking that, “Oh, I’ll be able to do it. It won’t be that hard.” But it definitely was a day-by-day experience and there were a lot of temptations and challenges around every corner.

I feel like a lot of time people think, “Oh, health food. That must mean salads.” And really I don’t know. I love eating whole grains I do a lot of noodles. Again everything in moderation. You can have a lot of fun with it.

On Some Good Resources for Starting to Eat More Healthy:

I think blogs are awesome. A lot of the healthier food blogs because there’s just so much inspiration. And a lot of times those I feel like are recipes that people can really dig into.

Any of the Michael Pollan books are really a kind of good, swift kick in the rear. Because you read them and think, “Okay. This is why I should be doing this.” Mark Bittman is also a good resource. I think he’s the one that has the cookbook, How to Cook Everything.

I feel like those books can really be go-to references. They don’t have to be something that you read cover to cover. It’s just something that you can say, “Hey. I feel like trying this.” And you can go and dig into it.

On Her Blog:

Originally I started as a healthy baking blog way back in 2007. This was towards the beginning of my healthy eating journey and I wanted to share. For whatever reason I thought blogging sounded like fun even back then.

But I soon realized I didn’t like baking. And I fell in love with cooking. And that really took hold when I joined a CSA. And it was one of the ones where I could go out and pick. Every week I’d go out to the farm and I’d get to pick the produce that was ready. So I was getting my hands dirty.

It just really felt like connecting me to my food more. And forcing me to… instead of making a list of recipes and then going grocery shopping it was forcing me to say, “Okay. This is what I have. What can I make?”

It definitely opened my eyes to different varieties of things. I tried new things. Like kohlrabi was something that I would have never bought at the store but because it was there I tried it. And you learn about it and while sometimes at first you don’t like it. You can try it a different way and prepare it a different way. I think it’s a lot of fun.

In fact in the early days I would come back from the CSA and photograph everything. And I’d say, “This is what I got from the CSA this week.” And then the recipes would be based on that. That’s when my blog really turned seasonal.

On Essential Pantry Items for a Healthier Diet:

I always say that people need a couple, two to three, different kinds of grains. If you’re a grain-eater. Obviously I know there are some diets out there that people don’t eat grains. But for my purpose I’m going to say a few grains. Quinoa’s always a nice one to have because it’s quick-cooking. I love brown rice. That’s a good base for things. I usually have some millet and oats on hand.

And then you need some legumes. I love black beans, chickpeas and lentils. I usually have one of each of those. When I say pantry-inspired, those are really the items that I’m thinking of.

On Her Cookbooks, The Homemade Flour Cookbook and The Easy Vegetarian Kitchen:

The first one the publisher actually reached out to me and said, “Hey, we think that you would be a really good fit for this concept we have. Would it be something you’re interested in?” At first I’m, “Oh my gosh!” I’ve talked about milling flour. I had a lot of grains but I’ve never really put the two together. The more I thought about it, I was like, “No, this is a really good extension of my brand because a lot of times these are the ingredients I have in my house anyway. So what a cool way to show a second use for them.” So that concept was interesting for me.

Then the second book was an idea that I had been playing around with for a while. Because it kind of goes back to that seasonal, “I have these things, what can I do with them?” And so for The Easy Vegetarian Kitchen, it’s 50 base recipes that you can build upon with whatever you have. And so I keep it really open-ended but I do give some examples of what to do per season.

On Being in the Kitchen as a New Parent:

I don’t blog full-time. I have never actually blogged full-time. Naturally Ella has always been my secondary thing that I do and I’ve kept up.

But as of January it’s going to be my full-time because with having Mack around I’ve found that I can’t continue to do about three different jobs. So I’m going to focus solely on the blog. I have been spending quite a bit of time in the kitchen. Primarily during nap times and on weekends when my husband’s home.

But he actually loves being in the kitchen. I put him in the bouncer and I set him up on the kitchen island. And he loves to watch and really enjoys just being there. So that’s nice. It’s been very helpful.

My husband and I’ll even put food up to his nose and say, “Hey, this is mint.” And there was one time that he accidentally got parsley in his mouth and that was a really funny experience. Because he was, “Wait a minute, what is this?” We’re really looking forward to when we can start solid foods and have him experience all of that.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

We don’t have cable. We only have antennae. AI still watch shows like MasterChef. I love Junior MasterChef just because I love seeing the eight-year-olds and the 10-year-olds just get in the kitchen. I think it’s really inspiring for kids to see other kids be in the kitchen. And hopefully grow a generation that’s used to cooking.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I love blogs. I’ve met a lot of friends through blogging. But the blogs I’m loving right now, who are doing some really creative vegetarian cooking, are, The First Mess, With Food + Love, Cookie and Kate, Love and Lemons. I’m sure there’s about a dozen more I could name, but those are the four that I really love.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

So on Instagram, I love following The Fauxmartha. She has a two-year-old at home who sometimes you see little hands in her shots. And I just love that.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

I have a giant stoneware bowl that is made from a company where I used to live. And it’s a pottery place that’s no longer in business. I just love it. Because I feel like you can’t buy bowls like that anymore.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

Oh. So many. I’m going to have to say goat cheese. For the longest time I was scared of any cheese that was white because I thought it was goat cheese. But now I love it.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

First and foremost, The Vegetarian Flavor Bible is pretty much how I develop recipes. It’s so great because you can look up an ingredient and get other ingredients. And I love both of The Sprouted Kitchen’s cookbooks. There’s a new cookbook out called, Rose Water and Orange Blossom. That’s a Mediterranean/Lebanese cookbook and it’s just wonderful.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Yo-Yo Ma did a collaboration with a few bluegrass artists. And it’s called, The Goat Rodeo Sessions and it’s my favorite one especially this time of year. It gets me in the mood to get in the kitchen and cook.

On Keeping Posted with Erin:

Instagram. I am all about Instagram these days.

082: Melissa Coleman: Tried-and-True Over Adventurous Foods

October 5, 2015 by Gabriel 4 Comments

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The Fauxmartha

Melissa admits to having a severe sweet tooth, and on her blog, The Fauxmartha, is where she shares her tried-and-true recipes that she brightens up to suit each season. She confesses to being an over-sharer, and believes that when you find something that works, and works well, it must be shared.

I am so excited to have Melissa Coleman of The Fauxmartha joining me on the show today.

(*All images below are Melissa’s.)

On Cooking:

I came out of the womb loving food. My mom said I was four years old, sitting at the breakfast table, and she said I would be asking what we were having for lunch and dinner while eating breakfast. And she always told me, “Melissa, eat to live, don’t live to eat.” And I still live to eat and I eat to live. I love food.

So it started with a love of food and as I grew up, probably even as a little girl I would go over to my neighbor’s house and make cookies. I even loved to bake as a young girl and then in high school, as soon as I could kind of clean up my own messes, my mom would tell you otherwise, but I started baking in the kitchen and experimenting with all sorts of crazy stuff. People were so nice to try my stuff. And that just kind of continued.

Once we went to Chicago and I was on my own, married, three meals a day, I needed to somehow prepare and I liked knowing how to do things. I liked knowing the science behind things, I liked knowing how things work and I think that’s kind of what fuels cooking: how does this work? How does baking soda work with liquid in the oven, at what temperature?

In college, I think I was probably the only one doing this, I was watching Martha Stewart on the weekends, that was really cool. And then that fuelled the interest, and she talked a lot about theories behind stuff, so I learned enough to be able to talk about it. And then one Christmas I asked for, I think it was King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Cookbook, it was this huge thick cookbook. I think it was a pale pink. I read that thing from cover to cover. I learned about wheat and the germ and the endosperm, and everything. I learned how wheat is bitter and how to cut the bitterness.

I liked food so much I had to watch myself, so when I baked I tried to use wheat flour and then tried to lighten things up for a long time. I still use a lot of wheat flour now. But I guess I would attribute a lot of that knowledge to the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking bible. It’s chunky, it’s thick.

I have not read through it in a really long time. I’m sure a lot of bloggers, and just home cooks in general experience this. You make a lot of other people’s stuff at first, a whole lot, until you begin to learn what the ingredients do together, and what you like. And so now I have my cake recipe, or my bread recipe, or my muffin recipe, like a base recipe, and then I tweak it from there. So they are my recipes, but it’s a long heritage of people and books that I learned from.

On Her Passion for Food and Cooking:

I always liked to create even as a kid, and I think that’s a little bit of what food is for me too, it’s creating. But my background is in design, so I’ve been a graphic designer for a long time. When we moved to Chicago I had a design job and I liked it for a while, and then I didn’t like it for a while, and I just kept thinking. I had these long drives to work and I would just think, “There has got to be a way to merge my two loves. There has to be a way to merge design and to merge food.” And at that point I was always blogging, and I didn’t really know that those two were so inter-connected. The way I think about food, the way I think about recipes and writing the recipes is the way I think about design. How do I communicate this in a really simple but beautiful and real fashion?

I talked to a couple of other people who were struggling to figure out what do I do? I don’t even know what I want to do. And I always tell them, “Just play.” And that’s what blogging was and cooking was for a really long time, and probably still is in a lot of ways. But just play, and natural things come out. And that’s what it was for me.

On Not Being Creative or Adventurous with Food:

(Who she thinks is creative.) It’s Molly, Molly Yeh. She’s just so fun in the kitchen. She has fun with her recipes. She’s playful with her recipes. She plays, she really plays in the kitchen. I like her approach and it encourages me. Also, through the years, I’ve followed Turntable Kitchen and I like the spices that they use in recipes. They turned me on to cardamom and so did A Sweet Spoonful. Her granola recipe, marge granola that she makes, she uses cardamom. So things I wasn’t used to trying, I never grew up with, looking at their recipes, and making some of their recipes encouraged me to add those things into mine and explore a little bit.

So I’ll just tell you a little bit about my embarrassing story that happens over and over again. I get to a meal. I am with other people who would call themselves foodies and food enthusiasts, and they bring out a plate of burrata cheese and I’m, like, “Oh no, not cheese.” A big pile of cheese turns me off big time. It’s a texture issue, and it’s a mental issue. I kind of have the palate of a child. But it’s embarrassing every time, and every meal.

I went to an event the other week and at multiple meals I had to talk about my distaste for cheese, or I had to tell them I like mild cheddar cheese. I like Parmesan, I like a certain Feta that I can get at my co-op. It’s super-duper embarrassing, but I’ve learned to own it. It’s like, I don’t like cheese. And that’s okay, and I like to bake, and that’s okay. So I think just figure it out, just own it.

My husband has taught me that. He tells everybody before we go over to their house, “She likes this and she likes that.” I’m like, “Don’t tell them that, that’s so embarrassing.” But it helps. It’s not awkward. It’s way less awkward. So just own it.

On Her Tried-And-True Recipes:

Most of the times, it’s the food that we make over and over again. I find myself with blogging, I try to think of recipes sometimes for my blog, and I’m like I should just post the recipes we make. And I need to figure out how to articulate this recipe. But we make a lot of bowls, like food and bowls which start with a grain and some vegetables and some kind of protein which is usually beans for us and then a sauce, and it’s the things that we make over and over and over again. I almost want to delete any recipe that I’ve only made once. Because most of the recipes, we make them. My blog is my resource, that is what I cook from. And then I add new recipes that we make.

A lot of the inspiration has come from things that we have eaten out, or some of our favorite things that we have out, how can we make them at home? And, probably, how can we make them better and cheaper ourselves? And that’s kind of where they come from. We’re just pretty basic people, like when I am thinking up meals for the week, I start with a grain and then build the recipe around that. I either start with a grain or I start with the vegetable drawer.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

None. None. None. I used to. We’ve just gotten Hulu. We were no cable people for a long time. I watch Rick Bayless sometimes on PBS because we can stream it through an antenna.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

A new one to me is Renée Kemps; her photography is beautiful. I go to her site to just bask in the photography. And then Love, Cake. She is actually who I base my scone recipe off of. Her recipes are so good. It’s a baking blog. I think she even has a culinary background. Her photos are beautiful. Go to Love, Cake.

We make a lot of bowls, and they can get kind of mundane and redundant, so I go to Pinch of Yum because Yum has all the sauces in the world. They are quick and easy and they come together in no time, so go to Pinch of Yum for your sauces.

We eat a lot of vegetarian foods. We are not vegetarian, although people think we are, so I go to Cookie and Kate and Naturally Ella and A Couple Cooks for inspiration on that front.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

So, I’m a Pinterest delinquent. I’m barely on Pinterest. Facebook, I follow Cookie and Kate again. I love her recipes. She has roundups, which are so nice, because I just need a lot of ideas.

I like FoodieCrush on Facebook, she also has a ton of ideas. She is fun and playful.

Instagram is my time suck. I spend all my time there. I love Instagram. Again, I love Renée Kemps; her stuff is beautiful. Gosh, she’s the one that stands out the most to me. I love her stuff right now.

And then Snapchat, I am not going to join. I have to save my time somewhere. I spend it all on Instagram, so…

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

I am going to go with treasured; it’s not unusual, it’s very every day but it’s my chef’s knife. I have used it so much; I use it multiple times a day. The handle is starting to chip away, which it shouldn’t. It’s never spent a day in the dishwasher, but I use it so much that it is well loved.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

I would say I am working on cheese. Feta; I like certain Feta. It’s got to be pretty fresh.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Whole-Grain Mornings, it’s by Megan Gordon, I mentioned her earlier. I love that cookbook. It’s like a handbook for brunch, which is our favorite meal. And then naturally I love Erin’s new cookbook, The Easy Vegetarian Kitchen. It’s like a really resourceful vegetarian handbook, seasonal, so she’s got a base recipe and then how to make it across the seasons. I’d say those are the two dirtiest books in our house, which means they are well used and well loved.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I listen to Sylvan Esso. I don’t know if people know of her. We listen to her over and over again. Her song Play It Right is kind of a little too mellow, but it works for me, and my daughter walks around the house saying, “Play it right, play it right, play it right.”

On Keeping Posted with Melissa:

I am so simple. I find the one thing that works is Instagram. You can find me there always.

066: Andrea Bemis: Farming and Preparing Fresh Meals

August 10, 2015 by Gabriel 4 Comments

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Dishing Up the Dirt

Andrea and her husband are the proud owners of a six-acre organic vegetable farm called Tumbleweed Farm in Oregon. Her blog Dishing Up the Dirt is a way for her to document the meals made with the produce they’re growing and to inspire us to prepare fresh meals for ourselves and loved ones.

I am so happy to have Andrea Bemis of Dishing Up the Dirt here on the show today.

(*All images below are Andrea’s.)

On What Drew Her to Farming:

My husband grew up on a organic farm back East in Massachusetts. I did not have desires to work on a farm growing up so it happened organically. About six years ago, we decided to quit our day jobs. We were just working pay check to pay check, not doing anything that we felt was very important and decided to roll up our sleeves and go work on this organic farm back East in Massachusetts. And dove right in, head first, which was awful and great at the same time.

I did not realize how much work went into producing food and I didn’t grow up cooking or eating the types of vegetables that we grow. And now, it’s gone full circle and I absolutely love it. We’re going through a heat wave right now so I don’t love it but it’s gone full circle. I’m really proud of what we do.

I had this vision that it would be really romantic and it would be slow paced and we’d just pluck vegetables from the ground and it would be really lovely and it’s not. It’s go, go, go but it doesn’t matter if it’s 90 degrees out or 20 degrees out. Things need to get done. So that was an eye-opener.

On Their Farm:

The one thing that is different is it does not rain in Oregon in the summer which is ironic because Oregon is such a rainy state, but from June until October, we have to irrigate like crazy. Back East, almost every afternoon, we got a rain shower which is great. But aside from that, growing-wise, we can grow pretty much the same vegetables as we did back there. Our seasons are a little bit shorter here because in Parkdale, Oregon, we’ve got a little bit of elevation.

It’s a little different everyday but I guess I could start out with this morning which started at 5:00 a.m. running out with the toothbrush still in my mouth to yell at a couple of deer that were eating our strawberries. We’re on deer patrol all the time. The days typically start around 5:00, have coffee and go over a list of what needs to get done.

Tomorrow is the CSA day so today we’re prepping, trying to stay up with irrigation, planting, weeding. We do succession planting so we’re always planting all the time for 20-something days, so we’ll be planting.

We continue to plant but tomorrow is our big day, we harvest starting at 4:00 in the morning because we take our crop up to Portland. So Tuesdays are always a really long day. It depends on the day. We’re just at the farm if we don’t have restaurant deliveries or CSA deliveries. Then we try and stay on top of farm chores and keeping things happy and healthy and a lot of irrigating and weeding.

When you’re away from the farm, it’s scary because you’re away and anything can happen and so you have to make up for the hours that you’re gone when you’re back.

On What They Grow on Their Farm:

We do a combination of 50 different varieties of vegetables. We do all the really common and uncommon spring vegetables. We do basically anything that we know is going to do well and that we know people are going to be pumped to receive. So we don’t grow anything too crazy but we grow things that we know we can sell easily, and people want, and that they’re going to do well for us.

We’ll always grow kale. It does really well. It’s a pretty easy crop to grow. If there’s a really hot trendy food out there we might try a small little plot of it. But for the most part, we keep to the same vegetables year to year unless we have a huge crop failure and some things don’t seem like they’re going to ever work for us, then we won’t grow that. We stick to pretty much the same vegetables year in and year out.

On Growing Produce for Beginners:

My first piece of advice is to grow things that you would want to eat. I have friends who end up growing a bunch of bok choy. And they’re like, “I don’t know what to do with this. I don’t even think I like it.” I’m like, “Well, okay.” I would say pick a few things that you like to eat so if you want to have a lot of salads, lettuce is pretty simple.

My folks have done this. Letting things sit for too long. Things can turn bad pretty quickly especially in the heat. So even if something didn’t totally size up, I would grab it. I think people sometimes will let things go too long. Pay attention and think of the farm as your baby. I don’t know what people’s situation is but it’s like if something looks like maybe it needs water. If you already watered and it’s wet, don’t water again. You can over water, you can underwater. So pay close attention to your garden.

Crop rotation is pretty important just because each crop takes different nutrients from the soil so it’s good to move things around. But it’s not the end of the world. We typically have a map of our farm. We try and rotate things on a 5-year rotation. That’s ideal.

And diseases can spread a little more easily if you’re planting the same place over and over.

On a Resource for Those Wanting to Learn More:

My favorite book for beginner farmers or gardeners is The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman. We still reference that. It’s an easy read but it’s also informative and I recommend that to anyone that’s trying to grow vegetables for the first time.

On Writing Her Blog:

Our CSA, we have a 50-member CSA and 90% of these people are members because of the blog. We don’t know them but the blog, it’s turned into like a job.

I want people to be pumped with their vegetables. Even if they’re not supporting us personally I want to inspire people to go to their local farmers market and cook up vegetables that really are in season because I’m a big supporter of small farmers. I think that they are making a big difference and it’s really hard to make a living. So if more and more people support farmers then the world would be a better place.

The cooking and the recipes can be challenging at times if the day has been super busy but I typically come in about an hour before my husband does to cook something, take a few photos, and depending on what it is, I’ll either keep it warm somewhere and go back and finish evening chores, or get a salad or something. We’ll eat it a little bit later.

I’ve been doing this for five years. We’ve nailed this system. And then at night, I’ll just do a little blog post, they’re pretty simple, not too crazy. I don’t know why people are really surprised that I just create the time for it, it actually is a nice little break from the fields.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t watch any right now.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I like reading Naturally Ella. She’s got some really beautiful photos and great recipes and they’re really simple too. I think her goal is pretty quick, easy, no fuss recipes.

I like My New Roots a lot. Her recipes definitely take a little more time but I think the photography is great.

Cookie and Kate is another good one that I like.

They’re all vegetarian food blogs but they’re pretty inspiring.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook that make you happy?

Instagram is the only one that I really use and I follow a lot of farms on Instagram but as far as food ones go, Dolly and Oatmeal. She’s got some really great photos. There’s a local girl and her blog is Local Haven and she’s got beautiful food photos.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

A bottle opener. That and maybe my immersion blender. I use my immersion blender every single day for making sauces.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

Maybe mustard. I love mustard and I used to hate it.

I think it was too many bad hot dogs when I was a kid with mustard on. Now I love mustard.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I’m not reading a ton of cookbooks right now. But I subscribe to Food & Wine Magazine and Bon Appétit and it’s like Christmas every month for me. I get really inspired by both those magazines. And Real Simple magazine too so those are my go-tos and it’s nice to have subscriptions to them because they’re a highlight to the month.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

For me, when I’m cooking, it’s more like a wind down time so it’s nothing too crazy. I guess right now I’ve got the Gillian Welch station on my computer and she’s just nice and mellow.

On Keeping Posted with Andrea:

Well, DishingUpTheDirt.com. I post there three times a week. And then otherwise, I’m on Instagram, that’s my only social media that I’m on quite a bit, I love it.

020: Ileana Morales Valentine: Grow Closer by Cooking and Eating Together

April 1, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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A Little Saffron

On her blog, Ileana documents the food journey of her and her fiancé (now husband), Danny, and all the stories behind their meals. Besides writing for A Little Saffron, Ileana pens a column for the Tampa Bay Times called In Our Kitchen, which is based on the blog, and she’s also written for the Associated Press and the Miami Herald.

I am so delighted to have Ileana Morales Valentine of A Little Saffron joining me on the show today.

On The Idea Behind Her Blog:

I think it was brewing for a long time. In college, I was studying, you could say, studying food blogs, just obsessively looking at them. Then, I moved to Tampa and met Danny and I think it took me a year just to settle on the name. It was easier to start cooking more regularly when you have someone else to cook for, so it just started from there. He was really encouraging and I just started one day.

On Being a Writer and Her Inspirations:

Growing up as a kid, I always loved to read. I was a bookworm. When I was really little it was Roald Dahl, stuff like that, and then I got into teen stuff. I’m trying to think of one writer. I’m so terrible at picking favorites, but if I focus on food writers, one person I really love is Molly of Orangette.

I think she has an incredible knack for writing about such everyday things, but it’s from her perspective and it’s so interesting. I’ll read anything she writes.

The focus on food came in the last few years. I’ve always been someone who loves to eat. I think maybe that’s where it comes from. I was a chubby middle schooler. I’ve always loved food. Then when I went to college I had to start cooking for myself. I was a vegetarian too so I really had to pay attention to what I was doing, go do groceries, and it sort of started from there.

On Her Passion for Food:

The women in my family take pride in what they cook for sure, but they have their staples that they stick to. They don’t have a ton of cookbooks the way I have. They don’t have a cookbook problem at all. They just have their tried and true recipes, which is great too because then I can request that when I go home. I could ask my grandma, “Can you make arroz aguado,” or one of the other things she makes. It’s great.

I always loved to eat but growing up we mostly stuck to Nicaraguan Latin food. I grew up in Miami so that was pretty much what we stuck to, but once I left for college, I was in Gainesville, such a vegetarian-friendly town, I tried things like tempeh and tofu. It was a whole new world.

On What Cooking Means to Her:

My mom cooked, especially when I was growing up–I’m the oldest–she cooked all the time and there was always a homemade meal on the table. It wasn’t a dinner unless it had rice. It’s not a full meal without rice.

Food was important. My mom has a ton of plates and utensils because there are constantly people over at the house and it’s constantly around the food. It’s just a ridiculous amount of food.

When Danny came to my parents’ house the first couple of times, they just overwhelmed him with food. That’s how they show their love and to show you’re welcome here.

For Danny, who grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, his dad has a garden and seems to be kind of into food. He has a little cooking journal. His mom is very focused on working out, a high protein diet, but he grew up eating things like meatloaf and stuff that to me is very foreign, but very American classics like that.

I think we both are very good eaters and are so excited about trying new things. I think the interesting balance is that he’s such a stickler for the recipe and I try to tell him all the time, “A recipe is a guideline. You can improvise. If it calls for a scallion, you can use another kind of onion-y thing,” but he just wants to stick to whatever the recipe says.

On a Kitchen Disaster:

One of the kitchen disasters that comes to mind is–this was in our first apartment together–he was making some kind of spicy pork. We had been up late. The movie There Will be Blood is tied to this because we were watching it. It’s such an intense movie. At some point, Danny just took over the meal. I was like, “Okay. I’m tired. You’re going to exactly follow the recipe. Fine.”

It’s after midnight and the thing is still not done.

We finally sit down to eat it and it’s painfully spicy. You cannot even eat it, so I think I ate a cracker and went to bed.

Turns out he should’ve bought the Guajillo chilis. He got the only ones that were available at the store, these tiny little red ones. If it’s a tiny little red pepper, that’s your first clue. Don’t put the whole thing in there.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Definitely Ina Garten, Extra Virgin, Bitchin’ Kitchen, probably some others but those come to mind.

What are some food blogs or websites that we have to know about?

Definitely Food 52. I think it’s beautiful and smart and has so much great content on there.

Orangette. Molly Yeh. She’s just incredibly creative. She had a gummy bear sangria on there the other day. She’s just insane in a very good way. Two Red Bowls, I really like. She has beautiful photography and some very cool recipes from her background, her perspective, which is interesting. Local Milk has really beautiful photos and recipes as well.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter that make you happy?

On Instagram I follow Food 52, Jillian Guyette–she has a food blog. She has a really beautiful aesthetic. It’s very minimalist, and she cooks a lot with her fiancé, so I kind of relate to that. I like her stuff a lot.

On Twitter, I really like Naturally Ella. She’s funny. Who else? Kristen Bell–not food related–but since Veronica Mars, I’m forever a fan girl, and her husband Dax Shepard.

What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

Canned beans. For me, I grew up eating beans and rice. That’s my comfort food. While I love beans made from scratch, I don’t always have the time to do it, and if you have a can of beans you can make dinner.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

Garlic.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

One that I got recently that is excellent is from my friend Molly Gilbert. She blogs at Dunk and Crumble and the book is Sheet Pan Suppers, which is a really brilliant idea. I love the oven, just to throw it in there and let the oven do most of the work.

She has a lot of really smart recipes in there. There’s one where you’re using the polenta that comes in a tube, which I don’t usually buy but I got for the recipe, and you put sausage and bursted grapes in there and thyme and it’s so good and it’s on one sheet pan.

So that’s definitely one, for sure. It’s so great. Then anything Ottolenghi. His book Plenty is constantly inspiring. I don’t necessarily make all that stuff, especially not on a weeknight, but it’s a lot of inspiration in the book.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I actually love cooking to Brazilian music, like samba and stuff like that. Brazilian music is great background noise.

Keep Posted on Ileana:

Instagram and on the blog, ALittleSaffron.com.

On Her Journey From Fast Food to Fresh and Seasonal:

On Getting Started to Eating Healthier:

On Some Good Resources for Starting to Eat More Healthy:

On Her Blog:

On Essential Pantry Items for a Healthier Diet:

On Her Cookbooks, The Homemade Flour Cookbook and The Easy Vegetarian Kitchen:

On Being in the Kitchen as a New Parent:

The Pressure Cooker:

On Keeping Posted with Erin:

On Cooking:

On Her Passion for Food and Cooking:

On Not Being Creative or Adventurous with Food:

On Her Tried-And-True Recipes:

The Pressure Cooker:

On Keeping Posted with Melissa:

On What Drew Her to Farming:

On Their Farm:

On What They Grow on Their Farm:

On Growing Produce for Beginners:

On a Resource for Those Wanting to Learn More:

On Writing Her Blog:

The Pressure Cooker:

On Keeping Posted with Andrea:

On The Idea Behind Her Blog:

On Being a Writer and Her Inspirations:

On Her Passion for Food:

On What Cooking Means to Her:

On a Kitchen Disaster:

The Pressure Cooker:

Keep Posted on Ileana:

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