I want to know more about you out there. Who are you? How did you find me? What do you like about the site? What would you like to see more of? What other food blogs do you read? Do you have a website of your own? (And if so, please add a link!) Tell me about yourselves – I truly look forward to reading your replies.
Have a great weekend – I hope it’s filled with sunshine, loved ones, and good things to eat and drink.
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I have been reading your blog for some time and the thing I love most about it is how you use so much fresh produce and create beautiful, wholesome dishes. The photos are just lovely
Hello, my name is Cristina. I’m a student at the local culinary school studying Culinary Nutrition. I’ve been following your blog for about six months. I saw it on a list of food blogs from a different site and followed the link because I thought it was a great title. I was excited to find that you were also living in Providence and that the food you made and the way that you wrote about it were both inviting and inspiring. I really like your style and your beautiful photographs. Most of all I like that I can relate to most of your posts about food/events/restaurants/markets because I know them, too!
I’ve recently started my own blog: quenepa-fruit.blogspot.com. My camera’s photo quality leaves a bit to be desired but I still wanted to write about food so I just started making drawings to go with the text. Cheers!
I don’t know how I first came to your blog, but you’ve been in my reader for a while now. Like others who commented, I particularly enjoy your photography and focus on fresh products. FOODalogue just celebrated its first anniversary and I wrote about the food blogging experience which while not without its share of technical frustration has been a very satisfying endeavor.
I started reading maybe a year ago… my Mom requested a dish with broccoli rabe for her birthday dinner. I stumbled upon your Orchiette/Broccoli Rabe/Chicken Sausage post. I made it, she loved it!
I’m a Librarian, doing Teen Services in a public library in New Jersey. I love food, so naturally, I love your blog!
Hi, I’m a lurker and long(ish) time reader. I found your blog when I was pregnant with my daughter (2006) and dealing with insomnia. Food blogs were my late night reading during that time. I’ve followed your blog since. When you moved to RI I started checking in for blog updates daily. I’m in CT, very near the RI border, and it felt like you were suddenly my neighbor. Strange how the internet makes you feel like you *know* someone…strange in a creepy sort of way, I suppose. Anyway, with two young children (1.5 and 3.5) I don’t get as much time to stretch myself in the kitchen as I’d like. Reading your blog keeps me inspired, and keeps me in tune with my “simplicity is best” mantra.
My children are big bean eaters. “Beaners” are the boss in these parts
We’ve tried several of the bean recipes you’ve posted and all have been hits. Thank you.
Thanks for opening this meet-and-greet up in the comments. It’s an interesting read.
Jenn
Hi! I’ve been reading your blog (via RSS feed) for about two years– maybe since you started it. I’m not sure how I found it, but it’s survived many times of paring down the number of food blogs I read. I love that your pictures are gorgeous (with a food blog of my own, I know how hard that is!) and that you make creative food for omnivores. I also love how you and your husband work together– it’s amazing to find someone you can be compatible with in life and in the kitchen. It’s also very impressive that you can keep up such a professional blog but still have a life and job (I’m a graduate student and can barely keep up my own, very amateur, site).
I might like to see more actual recipes… just because your dishes look so good and I would like to try them myself!
Thank you so much for creating such a wonderful site.
I can’t recall where I found your site, but I have been a devoted follower ever since. I am also a food blogger and I just love gaining inspiration and camaraderie from your posts. It makes me feel like part of a larger food blogger community.
Greetings from a frequent stalker. I love your blog. I found you though Pithy and Cleaver, although I have no idea how I found them! My favorite part of you blog is when you do ‘Weekend Eats”. The photos are lovely. Please keep up the excellent work. It inspires me to go out to my garden and make different dishes. Thanks!
So enough about me… what do you think about me? ; ) Sorry – couldn’t resist.
Love your site. I always come here when I need some foodie inspiration for my weekly dinner menu. Even though our seasons are opposite (I’m in New Zealand.), I appreciate how you make the most of what is seasonally available. I don’t mind the lack of actual recipes, just looking at the ingredients is enough for me. Keep up the excellent posting.
I’m Christine. I’m an attorney in Philadelphia who loves to cook. I have probably been coming to your site for about two years now. I’m not sure where I found you, but would be willing to bet that it was in procrastinating at my last job and clicking through other foodblogs that I read and love: smittenkitchen.com, orangette, glutenfreegirl, simplyrecipes, 101cookbooks, achickenineverygrannycart, and the list goes on. Those listed and yours are the most frequently traveled.
I think I stay because your pictures are gorgeous, whatever you say is heartfelt, and you never fail to inspire a recipe. I actually like the barebones approach you take for recipes, since that’s generally what I do too, so I relate to it. The only thing I could think of to improve the site, is to finally give us Mike’s grilled pizza recipe.
Kiss the kitties for me. – Christine
I’m Krissa, and I found you through Mihow. My parents live in Providence and I was sort of charmed to see someone move to this awesome little city, plus, you make good food look delicious! Which I like. For a long time, I was blogging, and then not blogging, at petithiboux, but somehow general life blogging was starting to feel onerous; I think I’ve changed a lot from the younger woman who started that blog and I was really struggling with how to use that space. So lately I’ve been toying with someplace new, and your photos and philosophy have been serving as a bit of an inspiration!
Otherwise, I don’t read a lot of food blogs, although I love Deb from Smitten Kitchen and have the pleasure of calling her a friend (and someone to run to with a pie emergency that one time). The rest of the time, I’m working part time at an Alexander Technique school, I’m in school for library science and playing with my dog, mostly.
Hi Jen,
My little family lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. My husband and I write a food blog: http://www.brooklynsupper.blogspot.com/ We focus on seasonal eating, and vary between difficult and simple recipes.
I have been reading your site for about a year. I love all the seasonal cooking and recipe inspiration. Can’t remember how I found you. Other food blogs I love are Orangette, the Blue Hour, and Smitten Kitchen.
I have been reading your blog for over two years. It is always with great anticipation that I click on the bookmark and hope that you have added to the blog. I love your recipes and your commitment to working with fresh local goods. I read for the pure pleasure since my husband and I are in Shanghai for a two or three year furlough and I cannot replicate many of the dishes you suggest.
Hello! I’m Jini and I’m a doctor living in Leeds in Northern England. I don’t have much time but love cooking for friends and baking and eating out. I love exploring new cuisines (am currently investigating Vietnamese food!) I first got into food blogs at medical school as a way of distracting myself from studying (!) and found you by following a link from a link from a link… you’re now a permanent fixture on my list as I love your photos and stories!
I also love Smitten Kitchen, Chocolate and Zucchini, David Leibovitz and Traveler’s Lunchbox!
I am an elementary school librarian in NYC, where (among other things) I maintain the collection of children’s cookbooks for New York’s school library system, through a program called Cooperative Collection Development, which is a network of specialized collections within school libraries. Our family joined a CSA farm share, which delivers produce to our local park weekly. I check in to your blog for inspiration. I am developing a blog devoted to our library cookbook collection, where families can post reviews and comments about recipes they tried from the books. I can’t remember how I found your blog, but I’m glad I did! (BTW, I also have a son at Brown U., so I feel linked to you through the Providence connection. )
Well, I can’t even remember how long I’ve been reading your blog but its definitely been a long time! I think I found you through someone elses blogroll. I love your pictures, they always make my mouth water and I usually have to make sure I’m armed with a snack when I read! I’m a food blogger myself, as you can see from my link.
Another lurker emerging with overdue thanks for such a lovely blog. I particularly enjoy your writing about food/wine/cocktail combos and your ambition around planning quality meals during the week.
I’m been blogging from Paris for the last two years, where I’m lucky enough to have fantastic food and wine sources right around the corner.
Best wishes for an enjoyable rest of summer!
not sure how I initially came to find your blog, but I lived in Providence for seven years and then found myself in Brooklyn, the reverse of your move, and I was missing a lot of the places that you featured, especially the hope st. high school farmers market, and the cheese shop. I like to see what you’re making. It takes me back to Providence, just looking at your creations, and that makes me happy. I appreciate your posts very much.
I probably landed on your blog when searching for a recipe… I subscribed because your recipes are always right on (and when you don’t think they are, you say so, which proves you’re human), your writing is engaging, I always learn something new here (I leapfrogged two chickens this morning), and your photos are just so danged pretty.
I also read The Second Pancake, Laurel on Health Food, Sassy Radish, and The Traveler’s Lunchbox, among others.
Cheers!
You have had pictures of vegetables and eggs from Zephyr Farm, my sister’s farm. Got your link from her. I love to cook and I like to see what you are cooking on your blog. You have a beautiful website. I tried the egg yolk raviolo at home. They are the rage at some of the resturants in chicago. They turned out well for me – but not getting too much pasta dough at the edges is tricky. I hope to make them again when I am on the east coast with my sisters eggs. Thanks for sharing.
i found you via richeeses and come back for the salivatingly stunning photography and to know where you find your food in a city i once enhabited.
Hi there! I’m Lauren, a recent college graduate learning how to be a domestic goddess. I work in criminal justice, but food is my number one passion. I can’t even remember how I stumbled upon your site, but I now read it religiously. I love your use of local food; I’m struggling to force myself to shop only at farmers markets. In addition to your blog, I read Smitten Kitchen. I have a blog where I chronicle my transition into adulthood, but won’t link it because it’s not ALL about food.
Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful food and life with the world.
Hi Jen,
I’m Denise from Philly. Been reading your site for 2+ years. I found it through StumbleUpon, one day you just came up on my screen. Your food philosophy is much like mine. I have no recipes, just combinations that replay themselves very often with many variations. My background is Italian, I cook a lot of Mediterranean-style foods as a result. I was also taught to cook by sight, smell and hand.
I’ve made a lot of dishes inspired by your posts, including your grandmother’s chicken tacos, posole, and a really awesome curried pumpkin soup. Mostly I look here for inspiration in my own kitchen, when a traditional pasta or lentil dish seems to make my plate a little dull.
Don’t know where I’d be without this site and others. I’m a big fan of Mark Bittman’s NYT blog Bitten, 101kitchens, and I’m constantly on the FoodGawker blogroll looking for photos of inspiration for new kinds of savory foods (though that site is often sugar-laden).
I can say though that yours is the blog I keep coming back to over all others, mostly for its simplicity and to share in your bursts of inspiration. I’m so glad an internet program randomly helped me find your site. And so is my significant other, whose belly is every so often filled with bites straight out of your kitchen, but with my own twist.
Hello
I have been reading your blog for close to two years now. I love your pictures and the way you create your meals. I appreciate your sincere approach to cooking and to your marriage! Its nice to hear about two people enjoying their lives together through food and drink just like we do in our house. Thank you for all the wonderful meals that you have shared with us via the internet!
I began reading your blog this spring, and found it while perusing a couple other cooking blogs. I just graduated from college and am spending the next year in a small town in Alaska, where I grew up. I enjoy photography, and have just started to photograph food. Like you, I love a great farmer’s market. I love your blog and always look forward to seeing your new creations. Keep up the good work!
Hi – I’m Jessica, a lawyer living in Brooklyn. I think that I have been reading your blog between one and two years, and I LOVE it. I love the photography and your meals often inspire me to combine similar ingredients and flavors. Sometimes I am sad that you don’t include recipes, but mostly, I am thrilled to hear generally what you did to make such gorgeous (and I imagine delicious) food. And, I love that when you feel that some success you had truly calls for a recipe, you share it with us. Like a rare treat! Also, you should know that when my husband and I pull together a particularly tasty and pretty meal using fresh seasonal ingredients, he will sometimes say to me, “so, it’s almost as good as those people with the website from Rhode Island, right?” haha. We aspire to your food awesomeness. Keep it up!
I first found your site from a mention by another blogger that I follow http://kateofalltrades.blogspot.com/ and fell in love with it instantly! I am a food packaging designer in the California Bay Area (www.coroflot.com/girasol_design) and constantly need inspiration. Your photos and love of food are often the perfect spark I need to get the creativity flowing. I am also surrounded by foodies at work – ie my boss and all the R&D chef’s. I loved being able to share your site with my boss who was impressed I followed a site he hadn’t heard of yet and he loved the site.
Hi Jen, My name is Jim, living in Rochester right now, but a veteran of Providence where I went to school and worked at Al Forno for a little over a year. If you haven’t been down to the restaurant, I encourage you to try it! I still cook, eat and drink as if I were in the business, and your blog and documented meals spur me along on those nights where I can’t decide if I should get in the kitchen or order in. You’ve kept me creative and working hard to create some new and fun meals even when I’m feeling tired – all I do is look over your beautiful pictures and it’s all I can do to get home and start creating!
Keep it up!
Jim
Hi Jen. I think i’ve been reading your blog for about a year. I’m not sure, but i think i found you when a fellow cat-loving friend posted a link to one of the pictures of Dub in your Flickr album. I looked at all your cat pics, the story of Dub and his siblings as street kittens, etc….and then got hooked on your food blog. I very much like your approach to eating and cooking and your superb food photography; i also love your cats
. Because i have limited time (and so many blog interests), i only follow a few food blogs…yours, smitten kitchen, and an excellent one local to me http://www.laughingduckgardens.com/ldblog.php/. I know it’s a lot of work to maintain the blog but i hope you’ll keep it up!
quite simply – you’re the best there is
hands down
the most authentic food i could ever wish for
so, just don’t stop doing what you do…
I added your blog to my reader awhile back and I’m not sure how I first arrived at your URL, but I’m happy I did. I adore your writing, photos and the approachability of your recipes. I live in the Boston area and work in marketing. I write a blog, Palate-to-Pen, which is where all of my true passions are fed.
Hi – Another long time reader, first time commenter. I’m not sure how I ever stumbled upon your blog but I’m happy I did! You have inspired me to seek out food that is fresh and local -first at a farmer’s market in Brooklyn where I live and more recently, this summer, via a CSA that my boyfriend and I joined – and to cook and appreciate food that is prepared with seasonal ingredients. I no longer buy asparagus at the supermarket in January just because it’s there! Thanks for the beautiful food, photos and inspiration.
I am a long time lurker, and this is my first comment. I don’t know how I stumbled upon your blog, well over a year and half ago, or maybe closer to two plus years. I check yours just about daily – it’s the first thing I look at when I have down time. I love your food. You don’t know how many conversations I’ve had with my husband that starts with, “The woman from Last Night’s Dinner did…” and then we race to the computer so I can show him the photos. The photos are amazing, as well. You have provided me with inspiration when cooking meals, I have gotten more creative, and feel more at ease trying this or that, rather than sticking to a standard recipe. I hope you keep it up, because I am always delighted when you have a new post! I don’t have a blog, I am just an inspired reader, and you have fostered my cooking more than you will ever know. Cheers!
I’ve been reading your blog for a couple of years and as most everyone else commented, I love it
What I particularly enjoy are the ways you speak about and photograph flavor combinations. I have often come to your blog when I have a particular ingredient and I’m not sure what to do with it.
I live in San Francisco and we’re pretty much all over the local, seasonal eating and it’s nice to have that echoed 3,000 miles away in a blog like yours.
Thanks for all the inspiration!
Hi
I can’t remember how I found your blog, but I just love it! My husband and I have been inspired by so many sources, including Last Night’s Dinner, to start eating more locally. We joined a CSA recently and love it.
I have a blog, Amuse Bouche (http://happy-mouth.blogspot.com)…I post recipes, pics, and musings on food.
Keep it up, I really enjoy reading LND!
I can’t remember how I found out about your blog, however it is one of the few I always read. I love the wonderful pictures of your food and it is inspiring to create similar recipes of my own. I love going to Farmers Markets and trying to source the best food possible no matter where we happen to be (we have an RV and travel quite a bit).
I always get so hungry when I read your blog. Keep up the fantastic eating and cooking.
Hello,
I have been lurking on your blog for a couple of years. I don’t remember how I found you (maybe Orangette?) Anyway, I am a raw food vegan and would not make most of the things you show here, but the pictures are absolute food porn and I love drooling over them anyway. Your blog has been the highlight of some pretty boring classes I took the past two years to get my Master’s Degree. In addition I am right on board with your slant towards sustainability and localvorism. Love ya!
I can’t recall how I came across your wonderful blog but it was about 2 years ago now. You are THE best & are my “go to” person, not only for inspiration from the amazing meals you create for you & Mike, but to get my “kitty fix” from your great photos!! All three of your furry-purries are adorable, but I have to admit that Kirby is my favourite. He steals my heart because he reminds me of my beloved Sparky, who was my faithful companion for 17 years!
I live in Vancouver, Canada. Living on the West coast, we are fortunate to enjoy incredible fresh local fish & shellfish. Because of our mild climate & living within 100kms of the Fraser Valley, we have an abundance of small farms that support our many Farmer’s Markets with their produce, artisan breads & cheeses, lamb, beef, pork, chicken & rabbit. I am totally spoiled, but incredibly grateful for having so much to choose from every week, year-round!
I am a self-taught cook, from a family of food lovers strewn across Canada & the USA. When we’re fortunate enough to all get together, we joke about how we discuss lunch & dinner planning as we’re eating breakfast. Having been raised with very little processed foods, I tend to cook a lot like you & therefore look forward to the posts of your amazing meals!
I really appreciate the time & effort it takes to be as faithful as you are in writing your blog , especially on those days when you feel less than stellar. Thank you for sharing with us!!
I just wanted to say that I’m not sure how I found my way to your blog, but I’m glad I did. I love your ideas and pictures and look forward to catching up on reading here a few times a month.
While I don’t eat as well as you do anymore, after having a baby, it does give me something to forward to again in a year or two and it’s nice to know other people feel the way we do about food!
I stumbled across your blog last year…I’m not entirely sure how…I was living in France at the time as part of my studies and I think that I was perusing chocolate&zucchini and started jumping from link to link of food blogs and voilà! I really enjoy checking in with your blog every Tuesday now that I’m back home in Sydney, as someone who is very drawn to baking and has a super sweet tooth I love looking at your meals as a reminder of how delicious savourey food is and for inspiration about what to do with it! Im studying law and french (1 semester to go) but I would really like to bea baker/pastry chef and work in a lovely café or bakery somewhere because I love how food brings people together and am very passionate about good, healthy food for the heart – nutrition is so important but so is mental health and I think food, in the way it is created and shared can tend to both.
your blog definitely helps mentally from a distance. (I need to find a man that can shake a shaker and muddle my world!)
I have started a little blog as a creative outlet but as a full time student I am afraid I am très neglectful and need to lose the bad habit I have for forgetting my camera! You are also an inspiration when it comes to blogger duediligence!
love it! you’re ace!
Hi, Jen. I’ve been reading your blog for almost 2 years now. I can’t remember how I found it, but I’m so glad I did. I’m a mother of 2 who lives just outside of D.C. in No. VA. You’ve inspired many meals in our home…thank you!!!
Jen, I actually can’t remember how I first found your blog but it instantly captivated me by the photography and the way you describe your experiences with food (finding, cooking, enjoying, thinking about it). After reading a few posts I realized that you were shopping at my own local farmers’ market in Providence, which added to the appeal. I ended up reading the whole blog from the beginning like a novel, and I always look forward to your new posts. I love the kinds of things you eat and I find the way you approach cooking very sympathetic.
I read a very few other food blogs (of which the one I like best is Desert Candy) but what I like about yours (and Mercedes’) is that you have no “attitude”; you’re not trying to show off as a food expert or prove your chops. There are those subtle marks in some writers that say “I want you to notice how competent I am” whereas your writing always sounds earnest and engaged and intellectually direct. Lots of people can take lovely photos and eat wonderful things and think up inspiring recipes, but it’s so rare and delightful to read writing that makes you like the person doing these things and feel as if you’re enjoying the conversation.
As for what I would like to see more of—what I really want is just more of what you’ve been doing, and I really hope it can remain interesting and fresh for you, because it certainly is for us!
Hi!! I live in Indianapolis. I do not remember where I found your blog, but it was love at first sight. Your photos are amazing. I love to peep in and hear your latest tasty ideas and feel-good stories about family and cats! Thank you for keeping this blog.
I am a scientist living in Stockholm, Sweden, I came across your blog when living in Toronto, Canada and getting introduced to North American (food) culture (I am from Denmark). I have read it faithfully ever since and I love your posts and photos, I wish I had the same access to Farmer’s market and delicious food as you do!!! I love many of your “recipes” and use them to get ideas about what ingredients go well together, you also made me less afraid of poaching an egg, thanks a lot for that!
I read:
Orangette
ugonnaeatthat.com
smittenkitchen
food and thoughts
chowhound (not really blog, I know)
I know from some of your posts that you have had a couple of down periods on your blog, but I would just like to take the chance to say that I love your blog and I would be sad to see it ever disappearing!!
Hi Jen,
I found your blog via CookEatFret. Claudia is the Thom Yorke of food, in my humble opinion. I have been reading for more than a year now. I love your photography and food choices. They’re so colorful and pleasing to the eye. Thanks for your beautiful posts.
Hello Jen,
I’m a Stay at Home Mom down in Texas… I found your blog when I researched Clean Eating and Organic Foods. I have been following it ever since! I have tried several of your dishes, and the lack of recipes has pushed me to experiment with my cooking. That has given me the confidence to try lots of new things and start to cook with instinct. I love your food ideas and photography. You continue to inspire me and my family and I thank you for it!
Hi Jen,
You must know my powerful admiration for your cooking, photographs, and website by now! I don’t even remember the first time I found your blog, but it feels like it’s been a part of my daily routine forever.
Like another commenter, many food-related conversations with my fiancee start with something I’ve read or seen from you, something new I want to play with. You are a constant inspiration.
Your food is love, pure and simple. How else would anyone pour so much of her extremely busy self into such a labor intensive endeavor – on a daily basis?
Your passion shines through.
Well, I’ve been following your website for a long time, I love the photography, the simple text, and the kind of food you cook…
I have left a few comments in the past, but I was not a blogger and felt that leaving comments was a “blogger thing”.
Ironically enough, once I became a blogger (less than 2 months ago), instead of posting more comments, I feel even worse about it, as if I would be commenting to show my website. Go figure.
ANYWAY, I admire the effort you put into your site, particularly now that I have a little better idea of the work involved
I wish I knew how/where I found you. I’ve been reading your blog since 2007, and at one point that year had it posted to my facebook page. I adore your food, your voice, your pictures. It’s written kindly and without pretension, something that chafes me often about other food blogs. It always feels kind of like home to me.
I’m 22 and moved to Williamsburg last year. Diner is, by far, no question, my favorite restaurant in the neighborhood… maybe even in the five boroughs. We spent my roommates birthday, and every other important meal. I hope you and your husband are happy and well in RI. Thanks for taking the time to write. Lastnightsdinner has really shaped the way I think about and enjoy food.
Hi Jen,
Like many others, I can’t remember where I first found your blog, but I do know that I’ve been a devoted reader ever since. I love your focus on fresh seasonal ingredients, and of course your amazing photography!
I am a recent law school grad and soon to be lawyer living in Manhattan, and I love experimenting in my tiny (we’re talking minuscule) kitchen. I also read smitten kitchen, orangette, nosheteria, the wednesday chef, joy the baker, david lebovitz, and many (many!) more.
Thanks for all of the great recipes and inspiring photos!
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