Today, we have our very first male Blogger Spotlight!  I’ve been following Kevin’s blog – Closet Cooking – for years now.  In fact, I think we both started blogging around the same time!  I love how diverse all of the recipes are on Kevin’s blog.  You will find everything from Mediterranean to Korean to good old comfort food.  You can tell he is very passionate about food, and it shows!  Welcome, Kevin, and thanks for sharing with us today!

I had never really paid all that much attention to food and eating was just something that needed to be done. That all changed a few years ago when I came to realize that my meals were boring and that I had been eating the same few dishes over and over again for a long time. I had had enough and it was time for change! I dove head first into cooking and the world of food and to my surprise, I found that I really enjoyed it! Since then cooking has become my passion and my obsession in my quest to never eat a boring meal again! Now I spend my free time searching for tasty new recipes, concocting my own and making them in my closet sized kitchen. I share those recipes with you on Closet Cooking as I chronicle my adventures with food in search of flavour. (from Closet Cooking)

What inspired you to first start writing your blog?
When I realised that I had been eating the same handful of meals over and over again for years I started looking for recipes online and stumbled across some food blogs. The photography on those food blogs was amazing and I realized that the authors were just regular people and that anyone could do it if they wanted. After that I started photographing the new meals that I was making and after a few weeks I started my own blog to chronicle my adventures in food. I quickly found that I enjoyed food blogging and everything took off from there.

What kinds of posts are your favorite to write? What do your readers seem to like the most?
I like to post about recipes that use seasonal ingredients and I like to try to keep things on the healthier side. My readers seem to prefer things like hot cheese dips, grilled cheese sandwiches and desserts.

Where do most of your recipes come from?
My recipes come from a number of sources including writing my own recipes from scratch, inspiration from other food blogs, food sites, magazines, restaurant menus, etc. When writing recipes for dishes well known dishes I tend to look at a lot of different versions of the recipe and make my own using bits and pieces from a number of them and then I add my own customizations.

Do you plan a weekly menu? If so, what inspires your menu?
Yes, I plan a weekly meal. I like to have all of the next weeks meals planned out down to when I am going to finish off the leftovers and I like to have the recipes all written out so that I can get all of the groceries on my weekly grocery run. My menu is often inspired by what is in season locally or by what I have on hand that needs to be used or by special events.

What is your favorite kind of food to make?
I am all over the place here and it is constantly changing. Right now I am obsessed with grilled cheese sandwiches and not to long ago it was Korean cuisine and before that, Greek, etc.

What is your favorite recipe posted on your blog?
That is a really difficult question as there are so many that are my favourites. Off the top of my head I would have to go with some of these:

Jalepeno Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwich

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First off, I have to thank today’s Blogger Spotlight – Jackie from La Casa de Sweets for jumping in as the spotlight today. The original blogger I had scheduled for today had a family thing come up, and I went to Twitter yesterday morning and called out for a volunteer. Jackie was the first in line! (And another huge thank you to all of you who were so willing to help – I hope to feature you all in the future!!) Welcome, Jackie – I’m so happy to have you here today, and to get to know you better!

My name is Jackie, and I’m the recipe creator and food photographer behind La Casa de Sweets. I love to bake, anything and everything! Chocolate is the best (a Spanish invention, of course!), but I love all sweets!

I’m a charity fundraiser baker.  What does that mean, you ask?  Well, it means I bake and blog to raise money and awareness for a very special cause: childhood hunger.  I work with companies and people to raise money to fight childhood hunger in America and around the world.  Raising money for groups like Share Our Strength and ADRA is what keeps me a happy baker and blogger!

I’m a busy wife, mother, daughter, sister, middle school teacher (taking a break to raise my daughters!), Seventh-day Adventist, child of a loving God.

I’ve got the most loving, talented husband (my high school sweetheart!), and the two most precious little nenas (ages 2 and 1)–our dream come true!  They keep me busy, along with my spirited Puerto Rican family.

What inspired you to first start writing your blog?
I’ve always loved to bake. I’ve been baking since I was in middle school, and I never seem to stop! With so many people asking me for recipes, I thought the best way to do it would be to start a blog. And it’s been such an exciting first year as a food blogger! It’s so great to connect with people! I’m a charity fundraiser baker and blogger, which means I bake and blog to raise money for charities that fight childhood hunger in America and around the world. During my first year, I worked with companies and other bloggers to raise money for the famine in Africa, and for Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry. It’s so inspiring to know that what I’m doing is helping hungry kids everywhere.

What kinds of posts are your favorite to write? What do your readers seem to like the most?
I love writing all kinds of posts, but my favorite ones are holiday posts. There’s something about reaching out to people and sharing your favorite food memories, especially during the holidays. Christmas recipes are my favorite to eat and blog about!

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There are a few blogs out there that I absolutely love because they are full of food that I would make over and over again for my family. Today’s Blogger Spotlight – Stephanie from Plain Chicken – is one of those blogs. I would love to follow behind her and cook pretty much everything that she makes! She makes real, down to earth food, and that is my favorite kind of food. I’m so glad that she is here sharing more about herself today with us!

My day job is as the Controller at a telecommunications company in Birmingham, AL (a.k.a The Ham), but my passion is cooking and baking. In addition to the blog, I also write a weekly food column for the Birmingham News.

I met my husband in college at Auburn University. He was my downstairs neighbor our Freshman year. We’ve been married for 16 years and have three beautiful cats – Sherbert, Jack and Fluffy. They make weekly appearances on the blog. We love to travel; I can’t stand to be at home too long. We love to eat, drink and shop and pick our travel destinations accordingly. Our favorite places are Vegas, Orlando, Chicago & NYC. We hope to travel to Italy soon. We spend our weekends in the Fall going to Auburn football games and watching an unhealthy amount of college football. It’s a way of life in the South!

What inspired you to first start writing your blog?
It all started a just a way to keep track of recipes. Friends would ask me for a recipe and I never could remember where I got it from. I started the blog to keep track of everything, and it just grew from there.

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I have another fairly new to me blog as today’s Blogger Spotlight today – Caroline Edwards from Chocolate and Carrots. I came across Caroline’s blog a little while back, and have been hooked ever since! Gorgeous photos and foods made a little bit better for you – what else do you need? I’m so happy Caroline is sharing here with us today!

I’m Caroline — a food blogger and photographer from South Carolina. I’m 25 years old, married my high school sweet heart and we’re expecting our first child in May 2012.

I’m so excited to have today’s Blogger Spotlight here with us today. Sylvie Shirazi, from Gourmande in the Kitchen, is – in my opinion – one of the best food photographer/bloggers out there. Her photos of food are just amazing. Her blog is one that I could seriously look through for hours, just drooling over the gorgeous food.  Her love of real food and ingredients is displayed so beautifully that it makes you want to get right into the kitchen.  I’m so glad she is sharing here today!

I’m Sylvie Shirazi, the author, photographer and food lover behind Gourmande in the Kitchen, where I share simple, wholesome, real food recipes that celebrate the joy that good food can bring to our lives. I hope to inspire others to embrace real foods, follow their instincts, and find a sense of confidence in the kitchen as well as behind the camera. Join me as I pursue life with a camera in one hand and a fork in the other!

What inspired you to first start writing your blog?
I’ve been drawn to food and cooking from a very young age. As a child, I spent every summer in France with my maternal grandparents. Those summers were filled with some of my most cherished memories and each meal was lovingly prepared with fresh ingredients we bought almost daily from the local merchants.

Sylvie with her grandparents

Food was the center of daily life; when one meal was finished, we immediately planned and anticipated the next. I think that experience is what drives me to the kitchen, then and now, and served as my inspiration to start blogging.

Where do most of your recipes come from?
Most of the time when I’m cooking it’s based on what I have on hand or what I’m in the mood for. I look through recipes to get inspired but I rarely follow a recipe exactly as it was written. I turn to my grandmother’s well loved recipe cards first but I also like to checkout cookbooks from the library, and make notes of what flavor combinations I find interesting so I can try them. It’s a good jumping off point.

Do you plan a weekly menu? If so, what inspires your menu?
No I don’t create a menu but I do make a list of potential meal ideas based on what’s in my fridge or what I see at the market. After that I play it by ear based on what I’m in the mood for on any particular day.

What I crave changes daily (sometimes hourly) based on my mood and my source of inspiration, but I am most often drawn to fast, simple meals that include lots of fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and cheeses.

What is your favorite kind of food to make?
The food I make is the food I crave: uncomplicated, flavorful, comforting to eat, with a focus on quality ingredients and minimal preparation that let the natural flavors of the food shine.

For me homemade food isn’t fussy or pretentious; it’s simple, it’s real and it’s made with love for those we love. My motto is: cook simply. I don’t think you always need a lot of time or a long list of ingredients to make satisfying and delicious food.

What is your favorite recipe posted on your blog?
It’s hard for me to pick a favorite because they are all special to me, but these are a few I go back to time and time again:

Spiced Rosemary Roasted Nuts

Chocolate Hazelnut Milk and Honey Cinnamon Cashew Milk

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Seriously – Utah just has some top notch bloggers. Today we have another Utah blogger, Krista Dearden from Budget Gourmet Mom. I can’t remember how I first came across Krista’s blog, but I’m so glad I did! I can totally relate to so many of her posts because she is a mother of young children (although she has all boys – I don’t know how she does it!!). I love her cooking style, and I’m so glad to be featuring her here today!!

As a wife and the stay-at-home mom to four boys I have my hands full! When I am not making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or cleaning up the mess from them I am writing for my blog, Budget Gourmet Mom. We may eat on a budget but that doesn’t mean it can’t be gourmet food.

Where do most of your recipes come from?
I really enjoy creating my own recipes and those are what I try to share most of the time. I don’t mind sharing recipes that I have found and there are quite a few on there but playing with flavors is my creative outlet.

Buffalo Chicken Tacos with Celery Slaw

What is your favorite kind of food to make?
I absolutely love to bake. Hands down. Sometimes I think I should have just created a baking blog because of all the treats I make {and eat}!

What is your favorite recipe posted on your blog?

This is pretty tough because I have a few that are favorites for different reasons but as of late my favorite {that I crave daily} is my Triple Chocolate Hot Mess Cake. How can you resist that!? Read the rest of this entry »