Cooking Panel: Meet the Panelists!

Fall is in full swing. It snowed yesterday you know? I've bid adieu to my grill and have moved back inside for some cool weather cooking. I am ready, and I am chatty. Chatty about recipes, utensils, cookbooks, and produce. So to satisfy my craving for kitchen talk, I've decided to gather a group of lovely blogland ladies for a panel series on cooking. Yay!

Don't you love panel discussions? Any time I attend an event that features a panel discussion I. Am. There. This particular discussion will take place on Saturdays during the month of October. I'll be posing a question and asking each of these ladies to chime in. Before we get started with the questioning...I'd like you to meet our panelists. Introducing:

Jaime: our panel's health food expert. She was the first person I ever knew that actually drank those green veggie drinks in the morning (we were college roommates); and, she was always getting excited about “exotic” foods that I knew nothing about. I always considered Jaime to be the most adventurous cook (out of ten roommates) as she would whip up apple pies from scratch after finding apples on a neighborhood tree. If you need a farmer’s market buddy, Jaime is your girl. She knows how to spot quality produce and she is conscious of everything that goes into her body. She lives in Iowa and works as a professor while her husband goes to med school. She is passing on her impeccable food sense to her little girl (with another baby on the way!) and writes about mothering and food on her two blogs Joyful Mothering and Jaime’s Healthy Desserts.

Makenna grew up with me in small town Idaho. She has lived in Utah, California, and Boston, and now calls South Carolina home. She has two adorable curly haired sons and a husband who frequently lets the world know that she is “an amazing cook.” Makenna has a knack for embracing the life and culture around her and her “days off” are spent sight-seeing with her family and investigating all of the wonders that Chucktown has to offer. She is a true hostess and it would be a shame to turn down any invitation to dinner at her house. Someday, she would like to go to culinary art school; and, I am convinced this girl is destined for cooking greatness.

Michelle posts her inspiring thoughts and beautiful pictures of her food, crafts, and family on her personal blog Chez Moi. She posts her recipes on a sister site Recipes: Chez Moi. She is currently traipsing the streets of Paris with her husband, her three children, and her camera. While her husband oversees study abroad students, she is traveling mama extraordinaire exposing her children to more of Paris than seems possible for one woman. Her Fridays are spent strolling the city solo and sharing pictures with her readers that make them feel like they’ve just stepped out of their hotel room in France. She is a woman who truly appreciates the finer things in life such as raspberries bathed in cream, onion quiche, and butter.

Rachel is the one I call if I have a food question of any kind. What is the difference between a yam and a sweet potato? What should I do with this asparagus and these shallots? What kind of Balsamic should I buy? Rachel knows the answer. She is a veritable font of food knowledge. But that’s not the only reason you are going to love hearing what she has to say about cooking. Rachel cooks intuitively and rarely uses recipes. She can do amazing things with Brussels sprouts and her desserts never disappoint. She works full time as a dialysis nurse so when she is too busy to cook, she and her husband also enjoy checking out many of the fantastic restaurants in the Denver area. You can read more about Rachel on her personal blog.

Sarah is the author of Redhead Recipes where she shares her delicious recipes, beautiful pictures, and sage culinary advice for all of us to enjoy. She also regularly posts about what foods are in season, and uses seasonal foods in many of her recipes. She began cooking at a young age and now enjoys adapting old and new recipes and “experimenting” in the kitchen. Her sister describes her as “a true gourmet,” and I have to agree. When she is not cooking (though she may be dreaming about it), she is working at a labor and delivery nurse AND going to school. She is a proud new mama to a lovely little girl and says that her husband is her best critic for her recipes.

Staci has the mind of an engineer and it shines through in her cooking. Her recipes are fast, efficient, full of flavor, and satisfying. This is no surprise when you consider the fact that she is the mom of three growing boys and the wife of a husband who appreciates good food. Also…she is my cousin. Therefore, I know that she grew up eating decadently creamy soups, gooey cinnamon rolls, and plenty of butter. The girl comes from good cooking stock. Staci keeps a good supply of food storage and has taught classes on how to actually use it. She works as an environmental engineer in the moments between shooing her kids down from the roof. She writes about her “adventures" raising three boys at Consider My Monkeys.

*Stop by tomorrow to read about our first topic: The well stocked kitchen.