food blogger

Cookie Cravings Print and Digital Cookbook Giveaway

Chocolate chip or sugar, dipped in chocolate or stuffed, there’s hardly a cookie combination that hasn’t yet been discovered. Or is there?

I love coming up with new ways to share my love of food with others. That’s why I created Foodie Crush digital magazine—which by the way you still have a few more days to submit your favorite frozen treat recipe for the summer edition. I love concepting new and different ways to package recipes that makes my mouth water and stomach growl.

Food bloggers are some of the most inventive recipe developers in the world of cooking. And when it comes to cookies, Maria’s inventive combinations are at the top of the pack.

I recently teamed with Maria to create the e-cookbook Cookie Cravings, sharing 30 of her favorite cookie recipes with you. Some cookie recipes are new and some are revisits from her blog Two Peas and Their Pod. All of the recipes feature new photography and new behind the scenes stories.

I mean take a look at this Cinnadoodles recipe for sweet sakes.

Thank you to all who have purchased the e-cookbook digital package. And if you haven’t yet, you can purchase here. We loved providing delicious recipe for you and your families and your comments have been amazing!

And now at your request, we’ve added two more purchase options: You can now buy Cookie Cravings for your Amazon Kindle at the amazing introductory price of just .99—but only for the next week before the price goes up. And If you’re still craving the lovely printed page, we are offering a full-color, printed cookbook option for sale on Blurb.

And to thank you for your support I’m sharing the digital and the printed version of Cookie Cravings with you. It’s time for a giveaway!continue to the recipe… about Cookie Cravings Print and Digital Cookbook Giveaway

Interview with Lori Lange of Recipe Girl

“I have a recipe I want to make for all of you, it’s delicious and perfect for a barbeque.” That was the plan my new friend cooked up as we were scheming about our weekend menu for our group vacation.

And then she dropped the bomb.

She let us know that she isn’t much of a cook, (warning, warning!) but that she was really starting to get into cooking (okay, she might know how to boil water) in part thanks to a food blog that had she found (cool, she wants to learn,) inspired by its simple ingredients and approachable recipes (NOW, we’re feeling better about things!)

So when she showed me the recipe for Watermelon and Avocado Salad I chuckled as I once again realized the influence and reach food blogs have on cooks of all sizes, levels and tastes. The printout had Recipe Girl’s logo splayed across the top. Lori had done it again.

A former teacher, Lori Lange—aka Recipe Girl—has been influencing home cooks across the world wide web. She creates and delivers recipes that inspire novices and veterans alike with original takes on favorite standards like Pop Rocks Brownie Bites to Pork Stew with Clams and Spicy Red Pepper Sauce.

But what draws droves of readers and passionate followers isn’t just the fact that she’s judged the Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cook Off alongside everyone’s fav home-cookin’ maven Paula Deen or that she’s a favorite speaker at conferences like BlogHerFood and next week’s TechMunch Boston.

No, what makes us all keep coming back for more is Lori’s easy writing style and step by step instructions. Add those talents to her awesome round-ups and theme menus (100 Best Chocolate Chip Recipes anyone?) and Recipe Girl is a daily destination for thousands.

So, what more could she possibly give us? How about a junior Recipe Girl in the form of Recipe Boy. Fans were tickled to hear of Lori’s birthday present to her son Brooks, a food blog all his own, a spot to showcase Grandma’s Cinnamon Toast and Twix Bar Cheesecake Pie. Looks like the passionate cook doesn’t fall far from the tree.

We wanted to get to know Lori beyond the blog and we’re sure you do too. Thanks Lori for being our foodiecrush!

1. Describe your blog in 3 words:
Simple, pretty, delicious

2. If you could be one food blogger other than yourself, who would you be?
Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman. There’s something about living on a ranch and cooking for your cowboy that sounds ultra-sexy to me.

3. Which 3 blogs do you follow/are obsessed with/can’t live a day without?
Kevin and Amanda Gorgeous, gorgeous photography and tips and a variety of fun content.
How Sweet It Is Jessica is a gifted writer, and her recipes are perfect. It’s like she’s reading my mind and knows what I’m craving.
Picky Palate If you’ve ever met Jenny, you know that she is super sweet, and she comes up with the best family-friendly, easy recipes. I always love popping in to see what she has created.

4. What is the one kitchen tool you could never give up?
My rubber spatulas (I have like 15 so I am never without a clean one). They’re good for everything- cookie dough, scrambled eggs, and digging smudges of peanut butter out of the jar. And zesters too. I zest everything.

5. What dish are you obsessed with mastering that you just can’t get quite right?
Steak. I just can’t do it. I need “Steak 101” big time. (editor’s note: check out Vivek’s Steak 101, it’s my fav way to cook the red meat.)

6. What did you have for dinner last night?
Spicy chicken tacos with fresh corn and guacamole, and a cool, crisp chardonnay.

7. What’s one secret talent outside of the kitchen nobody knows about you:
I sing a pretty decent karaoke. Mostly chick songs, but I love to sing everything.

8. You’re happiest when cooking/eating:
When my family and friends are around. I don’t really want anyone helping me in the kitchen (in fact, stay out of my kitchen please!), but I love entertaining a full house, and cooking all day is fun for me.

9. Food seems to be a way for you and your family to come together. How did you instill such a love of food, cooking and nutrition in your son (it’s such a challenge for so many of us!) and can you tell us how it led to the creation of your son’s own blog, Recipeboy?
My son Brooks has watched me cook since he was a baby. He has always seemed to take a natural interest in the process of cooking, asking questions about what I’m doing and why, and he’s much more adventurous about tasting new foods than most kids. When he was 5, I encouraged him to begin entering cooking contests. He did. He likes winning and continues to enter. A couple of years ago he started asking about RecipeBoy.com. When he was 10, we felt he was ready so we bought it for him for his birthday… had it designed and everything. He’s super motivated and excited. I’m loving that, of course!

10. The one secret ingredient to your success is:
Loving every bit of what I do. I work very hard and put my heart and soul into everything I do for my site- 24/7 for the last few years. I’m exaggerating on that 24/7 part, but only a little (a supportive family helps too!)

photo > foodiecrush

Try one of our summertime favorites from Recipe Girl for yourself: Baby Frisee and Beet Salad with Goat Cheese made with fresh-from-the-farmer’s market beets glazed with fig jam and spiked with honeyed goat cheese.

photos courtesy Lori Lange

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Rachael Hutchings of La Fuji Mama plus Peko Peko Giveaway

Germany. Paris. Hungary. Malaysia. Tennessee. Japan. So Cal. Slovenia. Italy. China.

The influences from travel and living abroad for Rachael Hutchings, author and creator of the popular blog La Fuji Mama, reads like the passport of a member of the United Nations assembly. Thank goodness, because her recipes do too.

Spanning the globe of culinary influences, you’ll find Rachael mentoring a young blogger about a fav Japanese comfort dish: Oyakodon and next posting an homage to her family’s history with her grandmother’s traditional German recipe of spaetzle and lentils.

Rachael’s recipes, varied and catering totally crave-able, sound delicious to adults but what’s the tactic when serving up non-standard american fare to your picky four year old who adamantly and defiantly declares “its-green-or-fishy-and-it’s-gross”?

Well, don’t expect this food blogging mama to let her kids subsist on nuggets and mac and cheese for every meal just because they might have to try something “different” for dinner. Rachael’s passionate mission is to “bring world flavors to the family dinner table” and with her rule of “try it just once”, she’s a model for parents around the globe to encouraging healthy—and varied—eating habits in their children and families worldwide.

And now there’s another mission. A mission that has been massively influenced by Rachael’s two-time residency in Japan, and the heartbreak and tragedy of thousands of people, thousands of families, that continues to exist while the rest of the world moves forward.

The earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan is now well-documented. The real-time video of flooding and devastation of Northeastern Honshu where water and debris claimed everything in tis path will never leave our memories.

In a tribute to those Japanese that fell victim, and in an effort to help the rest who are rebuilding their lives, Rachael joined forces with Stacie of One Hungry Mama and Marc of No Recipes and assembled over 70 contributors to generously donate their time and talents to create Peko Peko, Family Friendly Japanese Cuisine.

Peko Peko contains 50 family friendly Japanese recipes from some of your favorite foodie bloggers like Steamy Kitchen, Zen Can Cook, Cookin’ Canuk, and Silvana’s Kitchen among others. 100% of the profits of this book go to the foundation GlobalGiving Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. And thanks to their philanthropy, cooking is doing good things.

We wanted to know more about Rachael, her passion in co-creating Peko Peko and what else inspires the culinary travels she creates for her readers.

Thanks Rachael for being our foodiecrush!

1. Describe your blog in 3 words:
International recipes & chocolate. I have a confession to make. I was drawing a total blank on this question. 3 words? Sigh, I guess I’m too verbose. So I have to give Amy Sherman of Cooking with Amy all the credit, because she came up with them when my brain wasn’t working.

2. If you could be one food blogger other than yourself, who would you be?
My friend Rachael White who writes Tokyo Terrace, because she lives in Tokyo, a place I miss dearly, she’s an incredibly talented, sweet, and generous person, and her name wouldn’t be all that hard to get used to!

3. Which 3 blogs do you follow/are obsessed with/can’t live a day without?
It’s too hard to narrow it down to 3! Hmmm, how about I share 3 that have had the biggest impact on me recently?
– Eating Rules by Andrew Wilder
– Flanboyant Eats by Bren Herrera
– Indian Simmer by Prerna Singh

4. What is the one kitchen tool you could never give up?
My favorite wooden spoon—I use it for everything!

5. What dish are you obsessed with mastering that you just can’t get quite right?
The perfect chocolate truffle tart. I think it’s going to take a lifetime of practice to get it right. At least that’s what I’m going to tell anyone who questions why I’m making a chocolate truffle tart for the ten trillionth time. Also, homemade soba noodles. Making perfect soba noodles is an art. I’ve taken several classes from Akila Inouye, an incredible soba master who runs the Tsukiji Soba Academy in Tokyo, and I’m addicted to the process, but have a lot still to learn!

6. What did you have for dinner last night?
Homemade miso soup with tofu, wakame, and shiitake mushrooms; steamed brown rice with a ground pork miso sauce; grilled peaches with strawberry coconut ice cream.

7. What’s one secret talent outside of the kitchen nobody knows about you?
I play the piano and the French horn.

8. You’re happiest when cooking/eating:
With my family and friends.

9. There were nearly 70 contributors who donated time and resources to create Peko Peko for those in Japan who have suffered an astonishing tragedy. From both this experience and your fellow contributors, how did Peko Peko change and influence your own life?
For me it gave me a way to turn my energy away from sitting glued to the TV watching the footage of the devastation to a more positive outlet. This book gave me something meaningful to do. This book was meant not only to raise money to help the relief efforts in Japan, but also to be a tribute. I think we accomplished that, as I truly feel that we all gave a piece of ourselves to this book. I was touched by the incredible amount of time that was given to this project by so many people. Our book designer, Rieko, made the book more beautiful than I could have ever imagined, donating more hours than I’m sure most of us would guess. Our logo designer, Ayaka Ito, came up with a logo that still pulls at my heart every time I look at it. If you haven’t figured it out, it’s the Japanese flag, but instead of the normal red circle on the white flag, it’s a drop, which could be interpreted as a tear, or as blood, or as the tsunami waters washing over the flag. Some of our contributors have strong ties to Japan, while others used the invitation to contribute as an opportunity to learn something new. I was so touched by each recipe that came in, representing the talent and love of so many talented people.

10. The one secret ingredient to your success is:
Always be you, and never be ashamed of who that person is. There is no other person exactly like you, so if you spend energy trying to be like someone else, you are wasting the opportunity to be the most incredible you there is!

We think Rachael’s pretty incredible herself with her charitable acts and family focus. And thanks to the evidence above, we know she’s pretty fun to be around too.

And now for the PEKO PEKO COOKBOOK GIVEAWAY
Get a copy of Peko Peko for your own. Yes, you should definitely buy Peko Peko charity cookbook for yourself and we’re buying one too.

You can also enter to win our copy, and if you win, share the spirit of love it was created in and give one to a friend so you can both cook your way through Japan and pass along the spirit the book was created in..

HOW TO WIN
1. Go to Facebook and like Peko Peko and FoodieCrush magazine
2. Enter a comment below and share your favorite Japanese foodie dish plus that you’ve liked us on Facebook

Good luck, and domo arigato. (bow)

photos courtesy La Fuji Mama

Thanks for reading. If you liked this post, please subscribe to foodiecrush and follow me on twitter and facebook

Helene Dujardin of Tartelette plus Photo Workshop Giveaway

You see it immediately in the photographs of the recipes she creates. Photographs that are effortlessly styled, that convey a simplicity that sweetly echoes her deliciously fresh and never forced rustic flair. It just organically shines through: Heart and soul.

As a former pastry chef, Helene Dujardin brings that heart and soul to the table. A self taught photographer and stylist—recently named Saveur.com’s 2011 Best Special Interest blog thanks to a gluten-free focus—Helene imparts her French roots, memories and traditions into her warm and welcoming writings, photos and recipes on the award winning blog Tartelette.

Helene’s recipes trend toward the sweet rather than savory with tempting takes on sweets such as Roasted Apricots and Lavender Panna Cotta and Plum Raspberry Cardamom Crumbles. In my mind (and I’m sure for many of her readers) Helene’s recipes and musings create the illusion that if we shared the same neighborhood I might catch her at the weekend farmer’s market where she’d be searching out fresh, seasonal produce, visiting with vendors and friends and then bicycling back home on her old-school cruiser, her bike basket overflowing with fresh produce and a bottle of wine.

She’d be off to create a quick Blackberry Apple Galettes and Burnt Sugar Ice Cream, a dessert that perfumes her home, tempting neighbors to drop in to enjoy an afternoon sweet and a chilled glass of fresh lemonade in the backyard, under the pecan tree.

Ahhhh, tranquility with a touch of romance.

But behind the tranquil Tartelette there is a woman who doesn’t quit moving, who has her hands in multiple projects and is generous to offer advice and friendship to fellow food bloggers and followers. After photographing several cookbooks including Deliciously Organic, Tart Love and Basic to Brilliant, Y’all, Helene is now sharing her expertise as a food photographer, stylist and teacher in her recently released book Plate to Pixel, Digital Food Photography and Styling.

We wanted to get to know Helene beyond the blog, to see if our romanticized perceptions of her life were notions or reality.

Thank you Helene, for being our foodiecrush!

1. Describe your blog in 3 words:
Nostalgic. Heartfelt. Storytelling.

2. If you could be one food blogger other than yourself, who would you be?
My friend Anita from Married With Dinner. Because she’s smart, generous, honest. Now, Anita is part of a trio I call “the three muskeeters” because they hold me tight and are the embodiment of authenticity. So ideally, I’d love to be 1/3 Anita, 1/3 Jen and 1/3 Jeanne

3. Which 3 blogs do you follow/are obsessed with/can’t live a day without?
Décor 8 by Holly Becker
A Photo Editor by Rob Haggart
Ordinary Courage by Brené Brown
Lots of style, lots of photography and lots of soul. Not necessarily obsessed with but definitely checking every day!

4. What is the one kitchen tool you could never give up?
My chef knife. Shorter blade from my days back at the restaurant to fit my small hands. Close second would be my whisk.

5. What dish are you obsessed with mastering that you just can’t get quite right?
My dad’s Osso Bucco. That’s his signature dish.

6. What did you have for dinner last night?
It all came from the farmers market here in Charleston: pork chop I get from my friend Jason’s company Meathouse, oven “fried” green tomatoes and field peas salad (heirloom tomatoes, avocado, field peas, vinaigrette). Truly, I have embraced my Southern home!

7. What’s one secret talent outside of the kitchen nobody knows about you:
I have the biggest memory bank you’ll ever find. I remember everything. Hands down seriously. It’s a bit of a curse a times because I can’t avoid a situation by simply saying “I don’t remember.” Ok, so it’s not a real talent. How about this? I can’t sit still and just watch TV so I have my cross-stitch next to the couch and cross-stitch away whenever we watch a movie or the news.

8. You’re happiest when cooking/eating:
For the people I love.

9. In your book, Plate to Pixel, you educate the reader about food photography and styling. What is the one technique in food photography or styling you find yourself surprised that you use again and again?
Honestly? All. Everything. Not necessarily together and not always all the time. Seriously though, whether it is camera modes, settings, capturing light and using it, composition or styling, photography is a series of decisions about what resources or techniques you are going to use to help you create a story with a picture. I guess you could say that my one technique would be to focus your sensibility on the story or the person(s) behind the recipe/dish.

10. The one secret ingredient to your success is:
Pour your heart out in everything you do and keep negatives away.

A great note to end on, thanks Helene! And now…

In addition to writing a book, photographing a few cookbooks and writing her blog, Helene teaches hands-on photography and food styling workshops across the country. (also here and here)

Which leads us to our super exciting announcement!

Helene and her students at the Ace Photo Camp in Santa Fe

Helene will be in Park City, Utah where she’ll be leading a workshop on food photography for attendees of the Evo Conference 2011 on Friday, July 8.

But on Wednesday July 6, in celebration of the release of a her book Plate to Pixel, Helene will be leading a food photography and styling workshop here in Salt Lake City, Utah. FoodieCrush is thrilled to sponsor this event and is giving you the opportunity to learn from her in an intimate venue, limited to just 12 students, your cameras and Utah’s gorgeous natural light. And one lucky reader just may get to do it at no cost–FOR FREE!”

You’ll spend the afternoon with Helene and just 12 other students, receiving personal instruction on how to improve your own photography and ultimately, your blog.

To get the class description and reserve a spot, just e-mail [email protected]. Workshop spots will go fast so don’t dilly dally in making your decision.

But, if you don’t happen to make the cut…

We’re giving away ONE FREE SPOT for a lucky FoodieCrush and Taretlette fan. To enter the contest to win the free workshop spot, you must do these two things:

1. Like FoodieCrush magazine and Tartelette on Facebook

2. Leave a comment on this post and tell us why your photography needs Helene’s help.

If you purchase a ticket and win the prize, we’ll refund your money for the original ticket and open the spot to the next in line. Its a win-win all around! Good luck.

all photos courtesy of Helene Dujardin

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