Food Writing and Why I Love It So

In college, my roommate was studying Culinary Arts (he's now the Chef De Cuisine of the Green Zebra in Chicago) and encouraged me to take a culinary fundamentals class. I was hooked. I loved everything about it and decided to take Culinary Arts on as my minor degree, with the goal of becoming a food writer once I graduated. It seemed like the perfect fit for me and I just knew it was gonna happen.

Along comes graduation in 2009, right as the reality of the recession was setting in across the nation. I started applying to the jobs I wanted, where I could write about food. After some time I started applying to jobs I would enjoy. Writing jobs, not necessarily about food but maybe I could get there. More time passed, and I found myself applying for jobs I could do, because I felt trapped in my current circumstances. At the time I was managing a cell phone store, and I even began applying for other retail managerial positions, simply because they were a step up in pay and we were expecting our sweet little Greta.

It was a frustrating time, but out of it came some great opportunities. It was during this time I applied for a conference planning position, which ended up being my first real job out of college. And what started as a conference planning gig eventually turned into a position in digital marketing, which is the field I'm in now and is something I never knew I'd love so much. But food. Food has always stuck with me and that dream of being a food writer (on a more grand scale) remains.

To me, food has always been about relationships. When I was an awkward teen with no friends, I spent hours in the kitchen with my angel mother. She made it her priority to cook dinner for our family of 10 (I'm the youngest of 8 kids) so we could sit down and talk to each other over a home cooked meal. And even though the food we ate was simple, (had to stretch those teachers' salaries) it was always more about the people around the table. I think this is one reason why Jules and I enjoy having people over as much as we do, and why I love to share my recipes. Because even though you all can't sit around our table, I love the idea that we can still have dinner together in a way. And I love to share my food with as many people as possible.

Well, along those lines I have some exciting (for me) news. I've been asked to join the Char-Broil Allstars team!

What does this mean, exactly? Well, I'm a contributing blogger to the Char-Broil LIVE blog. Every month I get to share a post on their site and talk about food, specifically grilling (my favorite kind of cooking). I've been using Char-Broil grills for years now and our long time readers already know I think they're the best (Tru-Infrared, baby). So this is a great partnership for me, and I hope it becomes helpful for you, as well.

My first post as a Char-Broil All-Star has gone live today on their blog. I'm super excited to have another audience to share my love for food with, but I'd love for you all to read it as well. They really want to help people enjoy the experience of grilling, and not just give them recipes to follow, which is what I'm all about. I hope you'll join me over there once a month, as well as here on our blog (yes I'll still be posting here) as I continue sharing something I love to do.

Today I wrote about grilling winter vegetables and how to make these super delicious Brussels Sprouts:

Bonus: as a reader of our blog, I can pass a 15% discount to you for anything Char-Broil. Grills, tools, smokers, fireplaces - you name it. So with Spring coming up, head on over to their site and take a look and use promo code B15CLJ upon checkout.