Blogging cooks

Photo by Robert Couse-Baker courtesy of Flickr
(Creative Commons)

The following article first appeared on Apartment613 on April 27.

The Ottawa blogosphere is filled with blogging chefs who post their culinary secrets online. To showcase this celebration of cuisine, this week’s column will focus on local cooking blogs. Sites that primarily contain restaurant reviews and/or discuss culinary subjects in general will be covered in a future story.

Before proceeding, however, I would like to give a shout-out to foodiePrints, who compiled this great list of almost 150 food-related blogs. While some of these sites are dormant, most are active and provided me with a strong starting point for this post. (Note: foodiePrints also has recipes).

Cooking blogs

Double Trouble Kitchen Edition is written by Eleanore and Emily, two economists who love to cook. Eleanore is a marathoner who prepares balanced and nutritious meals, while having a soft spot for chocolate. Emily’s culinary repertoire includes traditional Chinese dishes and decorated desserts.

Tea for Two Sisters is also written by a duo, this time sisters Christine and Lucy, which showcases their cooking and photographic skills. Two Vegan Sisters, meanwhile, is managed by Tracy and Sarah.

Another collaborative blog is TBBs, created by six women who met while completing a residential décor program. While the site contains posts on wine, food travel, love, design and shopping, it also has cooking tips.

Kelly Brisson of The Gouda Life is well known in the local blogosphere for her excellent recipes. Her cooking suggestions include creative dishes like this recent post for caramelized fennel, roasted garlic and tomato soup with lemon.

Asha of beFOODled says that she likes to document her food adventures, be they successful, complete failures or moments of pure befuddlement. For its part, the blog Dude COOK! not only has a great name, but also shows the average busy person that they do have time to cook.

Sheltered Girl Meets World and Eaten Up, two blogs previously mentioned in Tour de blogosphere, are also worth checking out.

Handmade is an interesting site from freelance illustrator and animator Cara Rowlands, who combines her drawings with recipes.

One blog that I follow regularly is culinarilyinclined, which offers numerous suggestions. Recent posts include recipes for jam-filled doughnut muffins, baked artichokes, and baked eggs over sautéed mushrooms and spinach.

La Cuisine d’Hélène, which I reviewed on my personal site, is an excellent source if you want to expand your cookbook collection.

Sybaritica, which I also reviewed on my personal blog, is written by lawyer C. John Thompson. Despite living in Nunavut, (yes you read that right), he blogs regularly about Ottawa restaurants when not posting his interesting recipes, many of which manage to use tropical fruits.

Other sites worth checking out include the wonderfully named blog Bacon Avec Bacon, as well as these sites: Food Gypsy, Mon Food Blog, The Lemon Kitchen, AKsKitchen, Barrhaven Bites and Eat, Drink and be Murray.

Other blogs where I have seen recipes include Simply Fresh, Happy Mouth, Otownmommy, In a Nutshell, Thrive, Ottawa Valley Moms, a peek inside the fishbowl, Earthward by blogger Valerie Ward, and Meaghan to the Max, which I reviewed on my blog.

Zahlicious by Laura Zahody also has recipes, although the blog does not appear to have been updated since late-February. (Update: Shortly after publishing this post on Apartment613 Laura posted a new recipe online).