Three women bringing their adventures back to our kitchen

People who love to create and explore are often incredible writers. They need to be, they rely on their ability to convey what they are experiencing to us in mere words. They weave their magical web to draw us into the beauty of their food or location and when we find ourselves trapped in their experience, we have no desire to escape.

Food writers are often wanderers. Taking the road less traveled in search of inspiration and great food. This story is about three such writers. All these women started with blogs, authored a cookbook and are hitting the road to bring adventures into our kitchens.

Ashley Rodriguez is the voice behind Not Without Salt and author of Date Night In: More Than 120 Recipes to Nourish Your Relationship. She is taking to the great outdoors with a camera to capture her next culinary adventure. Kitchen Unnecessary‘s goal is to impart the magic of cooking seasonal ingredients outside all year long. The weather be damned, Ashley and her guests will take you out of your comfort zone to show you how to embrace cooking outdoors. In each episode, they prep, plan and prepare a seasonal and local menu that you can recreate yourself. “Cooking outside with seasonal and local ingredients we do not sacrifice taste or technique but we add a whole new layer of experience and create memories that last long after the food is gone,” she states.

Kitchen Unnecessary is launching the first episode of this fascinating series at their new shop in Seattle on February 3. The inaugural episode follows Ashley as she meets up with author, local and international wild food legend, and the VP of the Pacific Northwest Mycological Society, Daniel Winkler. Together in a rain soaked forest they search for mushroom gold; the chanterelle. They set up a small campfire in the woods and cook together a meal that features all the flavorful fungi they found in the woods. They learn how to make a simple, warm cocktail in the woods as well as a warm mushroom salad, pizza in a cast iron pan and make Fondue in a pumpkin topped with the prized chanterelles.

Follow Ashley on her adventures at Kitchen Unnecessary on Facebook. Her first episode will be live on February 5th on the website and on YouTube. Subscribe to their YouTube channel so that you won’t miss an episode. 

James Beard Award winning cookbook author Meike Peters is one of my favorite people. When I first opened Eat in My Kitchen before the book had even hit the shelves I called it when I said it is would be worthy of the serious accolades and awards it would garner. I’m the cookbook psychic (check out my full review here). Meike’s website Eat in My Kitchen is where her success story began with fresh, exciting recipes made in her Berlin kitchen with influences from her mother and her boyfriend’s native Malta reflected in her dishes. 

Meike visits kitchens around the world in her Meet in Your Kitchen series. “Meet in your kitchen is an insight into someone’s life through the eyes of their kitchen. For these features I visit artists, cooks, farmers and food lovers in their kitchens and creative spaces to talk about their passion for cooking and their work. We cook and bake together, share a recipe and discuss the inspiration, memories and habits they foster in their kitchen,” she states.

Follow Meike on her adventures on Facebook and at her site linked above. Meike is working on a second cookbook due out in 2019. We will bring you more details as they are available. 

It is no secret that I adore Feride Buyuran and her book Pomegranates and Saffron as I have written about her several times here at Eat Your Books and my full review of her cookbook is linked here. Besides her book and her website AZ Cookbook, Feride also shares cooking videos on her YouTube channel. Feride’s food is always gorgeous, fresh and delicious. 

Her new adventure is a tour entitled Cuisine of the Caucaus scheduled for July 2nd through the 17th. If only I could go on this excursion which promises to be completely amazing, it would be a dream come true. Check out Feride’s book, website, Facebook page and YouTube channel – you won’t regret it. If you go on the tour, please come back and share all the details even though I will hate you forever due to an abundance of jealousy.

Check out these three amazing women and follow their story. You will be the better for it.

Photographs courtesy of the writers’ respective websites.