about

About the weekend gourmande

The weekend gourmande is about working towards a balanced food-lifestyle, while embracing the joy of cooking and eating. If food speaks to you, and you take pleasure or interest in cooking, eating, reading about, looking at, or thinking about food, then I hope that you will find something here that will speak to you.

This blog tracks my ongoing efforts to document the recipes and progress of the following plan:

1 Practice eating simply, healthily, and well, at least 5 nights a week (theoretically, worknights).  As a preschool teacher and a part-time blogger, this realistically means that I will sometimes cook less-than-blogworthy meals, sometimes repeat successful menus, and will not update daily.  But I will strive as much as possible to make my everyday cooking simple, healthy, and exciting and post my successes (and perhaps failures) here.

2 Once or twice a week, indulge in a feast (usually on the weekend).  This may mean richer preparations, it may mean an added desssert, or it may mean something of grander, dinner party or special occasion proportions.

Recipe posts on the blog are catalogued using tags based on subject/main ingredient (see tag cloud in the sidebar), but also either as “everyday” or “weekend” recipes. If you’re looking for a recipe that is more feast than it is every day meal, browse the posts tagged as weekend.  If you’re looking for ideas for a tasty, simple meal, check out the everyday section. Or, hit up the recipe index to browse around in other ways.

About the weekend gourmande kitchen

Here are a few things to know about our kitchen, as it stands:
1) We do not have a dishwasher. Once in awhile this affects my choice in methods, i.e. my preference to make things one bowl even if they are written as multi-bowl in someone else’s recipe.
2) I do not have a kitchen aid (yet), and feel just a tiny bit resentful when I read recipes that assume you have one and do not provide alternate directions. You will not find me sharing recipes that require a stand mixer (although some recipes do rely on an electric mixer), and more often than not I prefer to use a wooden spoon or whisk.
3) We do have a food processor, and I sometimes use one in my recipes. I do try to suggest alternate methods when possible, and usually you can use a blender or your knife skills to achieve a similar effect (with some exceptions).

About me

I live, cook, photograph and blog in an apartment I share with my camera advisor, recipe guinea pig, tech support dude, and all around cool partner in crime, Stephen.  Stephen enjoys beer, bacon, cauliflower, cookies, and almost anything that can be eaten with chopsticks, but is generally not a fan of fruit (a crime!) or eggplants (this one’s mutual). We live in Oregon, where I teach preschool by day and try to cook as often as I can by night. I love trying new recipes and ingredients (check out my kitchen firsts series), but I still revel in a few culinary ruts, and either way can often be found neglecting other responsibilities in favor of cooking. I enjoy cheese, zucchini, avocados, and all kinds of fruit, but I tend to steer clear of bell peppers, cilantro and beets.

All photographs posted here are, unless otherwise noted, property of theweekendgourmande.