Grazing on Green Kitchen Stories
To blog about another set of bloggers, the act is usually carried out when you’re truly inspired. First thing’s first, let’s put it plain. I love Instagram, along with millions of you out there. I won’t say I’m addicted but that I have a healthy connection with the enabling app. Other than my love for photography it was through Instagram that I connected with my makeup artist role model, UK Celebrity pro Lisa Eldridge, who liked and commented on two of my blogged makeup looks, and then I suddenly placed in one of her online contests a couple of weeks later and my face actually appeared on her website. A couple of months after she sent me beauty prizes. Now that I recall all that, it is still quite surreal for me…it’s amazing how a mobile app opened that window. Instagram hosts a multitude of eye-catching personal portals to this wide, wide world of amazing people. While engaged in beauty I also follow lots of other inspiring individuals who like to present good food. One of the best presented online IG accounts I ever chose to follow was Green Kitchen Stories (@gkstories), behind the handle is Stockholm based couple David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl. There are a lot of food-inspired IG accounts but I do believe it’s mainly because of them that so many are presenting the healthy meals on their table from a bird’s eye view. I’m so glad we have our own copy of this now.
I wasn’t aware that team @gkstories were already famous when I followed them early last year. Online popularity bloomed for them between 2011 and 2012 when they started a cooking blog focused mainly on creating easy vegetarian dishes ( vegetarian = veggies, seeds, fruits dairy and eggs sometimes). In 2013, they published their first book The Green Kitchen. Because of their creative food success, they’ve gotten to travel a lot, I think they were recently in Australia. I haven’t kitchen tested this book yet, but it’s the first cookbook I read from the start all the way to the dessert tail right after we got it at Fully Booked, probably because of all those beautiful photos, short processes and simple words. The only challenging aspect is a couple of the ingredients they source (looks like I might be beaching myself at Healthy Options, the weekend markets, and/or Santi’s). I can’t wait to try the recipes this coming week. The book contains a list of the pantry ingredients they use on a regular basis, a collection of basic methods, recipes for breakfast, light meals, entrees, to-go picks, desserts, and drinks. It is also full of breathtaking photos and that for me is the fresh cherry on top. This one isn’t in the book but is a recent one from their site.
Beet, Apple, Quinoa, and Sprout Salad, photo credit: greenkitchenstories.com
This book would be wonderful for making lots of fresh food and drinks in the summertime. Lots of you know that I also love to cook and bake occasionally so I’m hoping to kinda cook my way somewhat through their book, but not everything perhaps due to availability of ingredients. I don’t do it everyday (I should) though I believe I just might have a knack for it (‘coz some people attack my food ’til it’s gone) and I will admit I’m not afraid to try complicated dishes. I also have an appreciation for simple healthy preparations you can toss together with hands. I think a notch up versus my appreciation for Instagram is my love for the edible plant world: herbs, fruits, fungi, legumes, and vegetables. I’m not vegetarian but I love eating them, making salads, and cooking with them. When it comes to cooking there are tons of food blogs out there but there are a handful of gems with great culinary quality like GK Stories. A few years ago and up ’til now I still like Jennifer’s Tiny Urban Kitchen blog for the Asian side of food prep and appreciation. Jennifer’s also brilliant because she’s sort of like a former chemist turned food fanatic (featured by CNN Eatocracy awhile back). She also loves to include creative culinary ventures using characters like Totoro in her food.
