Learn how to cook—try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun! ~Julia Child
I love food blogs. I have an endless list carefully stored in their own folder on my computer. Cooking has always been a huge passion of mine. A passion my eating disorder slowly killed over the years. When I was in recovery I rediscovered my love of cooking. Cooking helped me to feel alive again and it reconnected my body with my soul. Enjoying food is not only normal, it’s a necessity of life, belonging to the art of living.
So why visiting food blogs when there are cookbooks? Food blogs aren’t just a place where people share their recipes. They have become places where people challenge you to go beyond your safe ways of cooking meals and where they share personal stories, accompanied by breathtaking photography. They show the art of cooking and life.
I have created a list of my 7 favorites. Hopefully these writers and recipes will inspire some of you to step out of your comfort zone and learn how to actually enjoy cooking. Cooking can open your heart and wake up your creativity. Try an ingredient long banished from your safe list, but most of all, I hope they inspire you to enjoy your kitchen as much as they inspire me. I guarantee they will all give you a grumbling belly.
Local Milk
Based in Tennessee, Beth’s Local Milk is one of the winners of the Best Food Blog Awards the prestigious Saveur magazine hosts each year. Stunning photography of gourmet meals accompanied by her inspirational musings. Beth is an amazing creative writer , poet and talented cook. I guarantee you can’t get enough of reading her stories. In Beth’s own words:
“My work & recipes are inspired by the perfection of imperfection, the sacred in the mundane, and living in the present.”
Smitten Kitchen
Deb Perelman makes food with love in a tiny 42 square-foot NYC kitchen. Her recipe index sorts more than 800 recipes to date, by ingredient, season, meal or occasion. She makes amazing cakes entirely from scratch and offers you tutorials on everything you can think of. Did you know how to poach an egg?
Cake Spy
“The act of creating food becomes this bigger experience than just eating it. It becomes an act of love that you can give to yourself and others. ”
Cake Spy a.k.a. Jessie is a dessert detective dedicated to seeking sweetness in life. After suffering for an eating disorder for many years, Jessie now is an eating disorder activist donating a portion of her profit to awareness and treatment. Besides bringing the world of sweetness into kitchens, she is a passionate writer and illustrator.
Psst, want to know more about Jessie? Check out her interview on The Recovery Warrior Show!
Joy the Baker
Joy’s philosophy is that everyone loves dessert and let’s be honest, who doesn’t? I love all her recipes and I’m obsessed with those including chocolate, peanut butter or a combination of both. I made many of them and I’m looking for a good excuse to start baking again. Joy has a great sense of humor and an engaging and refreshing writing style, which keeps you giggling all the way through the recipes. I am sure you’ll be an instant fan as well!
I am a Food Blog
Meet Stephanie Le, a girl from Canada and winner of Saveur Magazine’s Best Food Blog Awards 2014. Her homemade meals are fearless, easy and just as crazy-good as they look. She makes recipes with a twist everyone can cook and even published her first cookbook this year which she named ‘Easy Gourmet – Awesome recipes anyone can cook’.
Not Without Salt
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear about Seattle? To me it’s rain, Grey’s Anatomy and Sleepless in Seattle, my one and only old time favorite movie. Oh I need to watch that one again. However, Seattle is also the city where you can find Ashley Rodriguez, the woman behind Not Without Salt. Moving up north from Beverly Hills she now combines her cooking with raising 3 young children. She is an incredibly talented pastry chef. Ashley still “dates” her husband, which even became a series she shares on her food blog.
The Year in Food
Kimberly Hasselbrink’s invites you to look at ingredients differently and let their colors inspire you. Based in San Fran, Kimberley employs aesthetics, flavor, and texture to build incredible yet unfussy dishes. Her cookbook ‘Vibrant Food’. Her passionate way of cooking can really restoring your relationship with food.
Do you visit food blogs and what are your favorite ones? Sound off in the comments below.
