About the Blog: In Simply Me, I will share my experiences as I cook through all the recipes in Simply in Season. Through this process I hope to discover simple ways of preparing local, healthy foods and learn more about nutrition, sustainability, and how our eating choices impact the world.

I’m not professionally trained, although I have taken a few classes here and there. I didn’t grow up cooking. I also don’t know all there is to know about ethical/sustainable/organic food, but I’m interested in learning. So while I don’t have all the answers, I hope you’ll join me in this learning adventure. The good news is that if I can do this, anyone can!

I’ve been at this blog thing for several months now, and I have discovered the joy of cooking. One nice thing about cooking through a specific cookbook is it helps provide direction. There are SO many great recipes and cookbooks out there, I was suffering from too many recipes paralysis. Now, it’s easy enough to see what vegetables I need to use up from my CSA and find recipes in SiS that use them. I love that most of the other ingredients are very basic and things I have on hand, and that the recipes encourage mix and matching, so that as I get more comfortable cooking I can add my own creativity to the recipe. I’ve discovered that I don’t measure as much, using my own judgment instead of measuring out the herbs and spices. These are things that I had always wanted to learn, but couldn’t quite find any articles or cookbooks to help me do that. I guess it’s true what they say, experience really is the best teacher!

My husband loves that I’m cooking more, although he is a great cook himself, and often gives me lots of great ideas for improving the recipe once I’ve made it once or twice.  It DOES take effort to cook this much. But the blog has made it fun, and I’m learning tricks to make things go faster (like planning and shopping ahead, for example, or doing the prepwork for a few recipes at once).

About Me: I work full time at a job I love, doing public relations for an international relief and development organization. I have a great husband whose hobbies include homebrewing and triathlons. Our “kids” include two Italian Greyhounds and two cats.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Do you have a deadline?

Yes, I want to finish all the recipes by the end of August 2010. Someday I do hope to complete the trilogy.

Where do you get your groceries?

From June-October I get my vegetables from Trillium Haven CSA, supplemented by the Fulton Street Farmer’s Market.

In the winter, I get produce from a winter CSA (Eater’s Guild), Artisan Food Express, and when it works into my schedule the West Michigan Co-op.

I get my milk, eggs, chicken, and occasionally cheese and other meats from Grassfield’s.

I occasionally get beef from Byron Center Meats, or venison when my husband is able to shoot a deer.

I get whole grains and other staples in bulk from Harvest Health Foods.

Everything else I get as needed from Meijer’s, a locally owned grocery store, or Sam’s Club, which I realize is part of the Evil Wal-Mart Empire. But I do what I can, and try to buy as locally as possible.