Guest Bloggers:
Brad (Brooklyn) is Sasha's husband. Brad points out that he has the great privilege to enjoy all the meals that Sasha prepares. As a resident sous chef, he often helps Sasha cook their meals. He has also developed his own speciality dishes, which include braising meat, risotto, marsala dishes, Greek cuisine, and barbeque grilling. Brad was born in Brooklyn, and grew up in Long Island. He studied ergonomic design at Cornell University, and now works as a Facilities Management specialist for an architecture firm. In his spare time, his interests include sports, music, concerts, travel, politics and spending time with family and friends.
Eric (Jersey City) works as a 3d Animator for ABC, and loves cooking at home. Growing up, both his parents always cooked a great deal and he ended up cooking quite a bit for his 4 younger siblings when he would watch them. During high school and college he held jobs in about 5 different seafood restaurants in Mystic, CT. He started out as a dishwasher/prep chef, then moved to being a bus-boy, host and waiter. He loves good food and loves knowing that he can provide good food for himself and the people he cares about. He currently resides in Jersey City, NJ with his girlfriend, Jenn.
Molly D. (Seattle) has a great pantry in her house in Seattle and enjoyed cooking in her apartment in Denver, but she's proudest of the kitchen she cobbled together in her two-room apartment in Philadelphia using an Ikea workbench as a counter, open shelving for the dishes, and a screen to separate the food from the bed. Now she shares a big kitchen with her dishwashing husband and an omnivorous cat, with two more cats appearing when she opens cans. The biggest influences on her cooking are her restricted diet and her childhood in Honolulu, so her recipes are usually low in gluten and sugar and her kitchen is stocked with nori, Chinese sausages, short-grain rice, and chili sauce. She loves Seattle's abundant summer produce and crisp fall apples, and during the rest of the year she distracts herself from the gray drizzle by making local-style Hawaiian comfort foods.
Michelle (Toronto) is a world traveler, former chef-in-training, and avid salsa dancer, Michelle lives in the heart of Toronto and loves to spend her weekends with family, experimenting in her kitchen, or exploring Toronto's amazing and diverse neighborhoods.
Christina (Budapest & Washington D.C.) is a native Washingtonian who spent her twenties at the Washington Post, writing about movies, theater, restaurants and travel for the Weekend, Travel and Sunday Source sections. In late 2009, she moved to Hungary to join her English-teacher boyfriend who is teaching high school here on a Fulbright grant. They live in a tiny village called Nagytarcsa just outside Budapest, and Christina tutors English part-time, studies Hungarian and writes travel articles as a freelancer. Cooking has long been a hobby and a stress-reliever for Christina, and here in Hungary she loves exploring local markets and grocery stores, learning about Hungarian ingredients and dishes and sampling Hungarian wines. When she returns to the States in late 2010, she is excited to share some of her favorite Hungarian dishes with family and friends.
Charlene (Philadelphia) writes from Philadelphia, PA, where she's lived since 2002. She grew up in Rochester, NY (home of the famous garbage plate) and later majored in history at Haverford College. A librarian with an interest in special collections, Charlene also enjoys organizing the new home she shares with her fiancé. Her favorite dessert is the red velvet cupcake from Brown Betty Dessert Boutique, and the one kitchen gadget she cannot live without is her onion goggles.
Amasea (Sun Valley, Idaho) is another Haverford College alumna, a newspaper journalist in the Sun Valley area of Idaho, where she lives with her fiance, a high school math teacher. She has long been interested in gourmet, intriguing food (her mom says that when they went to the Teahouse In Stanley Park in Vancouver, B.C. when she was 5 years old, she ordered the oysters -- and ate them all) and enjoys sampling ethnic cuisines and trying them at home. Local, sustainable and organic are important to her, and she supports local farmers by ordering weekly through the Idaho's Bounty food co-op. Of course, journalists and teachers don't make much money, so she also shops frequently, but selectively, at stores like Grocery Outlet and Costco. Although she doesn't have much room to garden, she enjoys growing her own fruits, vegetables and herbs, and preserving them (supplemented with purchased produce) through canning and freezing, using techniques her mother taught her during her childhood with a big garden on Whidbey Island, Washington. Her hobbies include crafting (especially cross stitch and quilting), reading, playing Wii and board games like Go and Ingenious, not getting outdoors often enough, and snuggling with her cat and her fiance's dog.
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