The Simple Songbird

The Simple Songbird

Today, the Rad Recipe Spotlight is focused on The Simple Songbird.

Katie is a high-school choir teacher from Connecticut with many interests including food, cooking (and eating) and blogging. She also has an interest in music, gardening, crafts and fitness.

In addition to food, cooking and recipes, Katie blogs about her challenges with weight and fitness as well as her final successes.

The blog is well documented with very good photos especially the recipe illustrations. These recipes both look and sound like they may be really delicious.

Muffins

Following is the interview by email we had with Katie.

KatieRR: What is your first name?
Katie: Katie

RR: What is the name of your blog?

RR: What is the URL or web address?

RR: How long have you been blogging about food?
Katie: With my current blog, about 8 months.

RR: Why did you decide to become a food blogger?  
Katie: For most of my life, I struggled with my weight.  I was very overweight from elementary school through college. Growing up, my family ate out a lot and hardly ever cooked at home. I didn’t learn how to cook until 4 years ago, when I first moved out on my own.  I fell in love with cooking.  Learning how to prepare my own meals and falling in love with working out helped me lose 65 pounds and gain new insight into the importance of eating “real” food and taking care of yourself. Although my blog is not 100% focused on food, it makes me happy to share my love for cooking on the blog.  I hope that it inspires some people to try cooking healthy meals at home more often.

RR: What difficulties have you faced and overcome in becoming a blogger?  
Katie: I have tried to start many blogs in the past that were short-lived.  I have so many different interests, that it is hard for me to focus on just one. I love cooking, fitness, crafts, reviewing restaurants, photography, and writing in general.  I would start a new blog with lots of energy, only to see it die out within a month or so.  I have a very busy work life, so having a blog that only focuses on food was out of the question–there was just not enough time to cook that much and try that many recipes!  I started The Simple Songbird with the vision of it encompassing all of my different interests, instead of just one.  So far, it has worked really well for me and I have enjoyed the process.  Now blogging is fun instead of stressful, because I don’t feel the pressure to focus on something extremely specific.

RR: Which, if any, food personality (blogger, chef, tv) that you try to emulate?  
Katie: My favorite celebrity chefs are Ina Garten, Tyler Florence, and Alton Brown. I love how Ina & Tyler serve up rustic, classic recipes that always have a twist to make it feel special.  I think Alton Brown does a fantastic job of explaining the science of cooking–which is really important for aspiring chefs to understand.

RR: What is the mission of your blog?  
Katie: With this blog, I seek to explore life as people really live it–not focused on one thing all the time, but exploring all of the different interests that we all have.  I seek to keep things simple and focus on the positive.

RR: What is your blog’s specialty?  
The Simple Songbird’s tagline is “life | food | fitness | hobbies | love.”  These are the things I write about every week.  My personal adventures in Connecticut, experiments in the kitchen, the ups &
downs of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and the joy of my many hobbies like sewing and crochet.  I approach all these things with a whole lot of love!

RR: Would you like to feature a particular post or recipe?  
Katie: This is a link to my “farm fresh pizza.”  http://www.thesimplesongbird.com/2012/10/15/recipe-farm-fresh-pizza/

RR: What camera do you use for your food photography?  
Katie: I use a Canon Rebel XS with the kit lens, and sometimes my 50mm/f1.8 lens.

RR: What one main tip would you give new bloggers?  
Katie: People will tell you that you have to stick with one very specific topic for your blog, or it will fail.  This is simply not true.  The most important thing is to find a format that fits who you are–otherwise it will always feel forced.  Write well, take decent photos, and engage via social media as much as possible–I love twitter because it allows you to connect with people in a more immediate, conversational manner. 

 

Posted in Blog Scene News | Leave a comment

Jen’s Favorite Cookies

Jen's Favorite Cookies

Today, we shine the Rad Recipes spotlight on Jen’s Favorite Cookies, a blog that focuses entirely on the cookie.

Being an avid cookie-freak, I really enjoyed browsing through tons of mouth-watering cookie recipes. The photos are great and add to the appeal.

Jen's Blog HeaderI love Jen’s blog layout especially the cool header with the cookie-jar. The carousel is absoloutely fascinating and I have to find out how she did that.

Following is the interview by email we had with Jen.

JenRR: What is your first name?

Jen: Jen

RR: What is the name of your blog?

Jen: : Jen’s Favorite Cookies

RR: What is the URL or web address?

Jen: http://www.jensfavoritecookies.com

RR: How long have you been blogging about food?

Jen: about 3 years

RR: Why did you decide to become a food blogger?

Jen: It started on a whim,really, to give me an excuse to do some of my favorite things, which are writing, baking, and using social media. It has grown into something else over time.

RR: What difficulties have you faced and overcome in becoming a blogger?

Jen: It’s difficult to learn to do it well. There is a lot to know about creating recipes, photography, techinical aspects of blogging, writing, marketing, social media, and more.

RR: Which, if any, food personality (blogger, chef, tv) that you try to
> emulate?

Jen: I really strive to create a blog that shows my individuality and my own personality. I have been influenced by many, but I don’t really try to emulate any of them.

brown sugar cookies

RR: Give us a sample recipe.

 Jen: Here’s one I like. Pumpkin Swirl Sugar Cookies

RR: What is the mission of your blog?

Jen: To give people a place to escape everyday life for a few minutes, and to provide great dessert recipes.

RR: What camera do you use for your food photography?

Jen: The camera I use is a Canon Rebel that I bought used from my neighbor about a year ago.  It’s kind of old and pretty well used, but it gets the job done!

RR: What one main tip would you give new bloggers?

Jen: I think photography makes the biggest difference between excellent food blogs and the less-than-stellar.  It’s the gorgeous photos that convince people to visit you in the first place, and it’s the gorgeous photos that convince them to stay for a few minutes once they’re there.  I work on photography every week, and I believe it’s an essential skill.

RR: Anything else that you would like to mention about yourself or your blog?

Jen: I have one hard-and-fast rule, which is that if I cannot find the
ingredients in my local grocery store, I don’t use them.  I’m fortunate to have a really nice store near me, but I realize that this isn’t the situation for everyone.  I have vowed to never blog any recipes that requires a trip to a specialty store!

Posted in Blog Scene News | Leave a comment

The Features of Moroccan Cooking

Moroccan Cuisine

From Wikipedia

“Moroccan cuisine is extremely refined, thanks to Morocco‘s interactions and exchanges with other cultures and nations over the centuries. Moroccan cuisine has been subject to Berber, Moorish, and Arab influences. The cooks in the royal kitchens of Fes, Meknes, Marrakesh, Rabat and Tetouan refined it over the centuries and created the basis for what is known as Moroccan cuisine today.”

Moroccan recipes are full of taste, shade, and aroma. The key can be found in the fact that most of Morocco’s cuisine is natural, free from bug sprays, and not genetically customized. These days where you can appreciate a bananas from Ecuador, a apple from Atlanta, and a Kiwi clean fruit from, well, New Zealand, all in one sitting. Morocco’s regionally expanded produce make its recipes stand out as clean vegetables and do not travel far before they are sizzling on your dish.

Unlike any other nation, you’ll discover seasonality to impact what is and is not available at a given season. The early summer to delayed springtime months proffer the best clean fruit, such as berries, cherries, apple masks, melon, and especially tomato vegetables. As fall comes around, more dry clean fruits and vegetables are prepared. You may enjoy  such things as figs, pomegranates, and other fruit (which are also expanded in Meknes for the nation’s plentiful wine exports). Whatever the season, nuts, peanuts, apples, crush, pumpkin, fava legumes, peas, dried beans, eggplant, lovely peppers, and lemon are available.

Italy and France have left behind recipes that have been implemented and tailored by Moroccans. One such dish you will definitely experience on the food selection menu is couscous. Couscous is the nationwide Moroccan bowl and contains a large quantity of spices and herbs, various foods, and vegetables that are all steamed together. If consumed at a Moroccans’s home, don’t be surprised if they dig in with their hands. Typical is to form couscous paintballs and pop them into the mouth like a gumball. Also common is the habit of those eating near you to keep adding food to the serving area straight in front of you. Be advised to pace yourself accordingly.

Finally, one of Morocco’s most dining pleasures is the tagine. A tagine is both the pot the food is prepared in and the food itself. Cooked over a bed of hot coals, a tagine is a conical ceramic usually containing various foods (lamb, meat, or goat, prepared with an range of local vegetables. All types of tagines are available and a given area might have its own special bowl.

Some of the best tagines are to be had in the southeast areas as well as in the hills. Dining places will often have a tagine on the menu and curbside areas will always have a few food choces prepared for your pleasure. The best tagines, however, are healthy because of their spices or herbs such as paprika, vegetables, cumin, and beans. Many high-end restaurants may not serve the most common recipes you’ll find in a Moroccan home, but will often come up with exciting blends to entice the taste, such as lamb and lovely tomato and nuts, or the frequent poultry and olive tagine frequently are offered as well.

No matter your choice, enjoying Moroccan recipes is a gourmet’s heaven in each route you turn. From Marrakesh to Fez, down to the Sahara Wasteland and over the High Atlas Mountains, Moroccan dining is a true pleasure for those looking for delicious journeys.

Posted in Cuisines | 6 Comments

World Food News

Posted in Misc. | Leave a comment

What’s Happening in Food Blogging

Posted in Misc. | Leave a comment