101 Cookbooks, a Gem

I'm a pretty avid blog reader. I've been blogging for years on different sites so it's only natural that I enjoy perusing other people's musings as well. Every once and a while I'll find an amazing blog written by real people who don't make me feel like they're pro bloggers or part some some blogging conglomerate. Heidi of 101 Cookbooks is one of those bloggers.

She is a professional cookbook writer though, her books Super Natural Cooking and Cook 1.0 are filled with natural healthy recipes and amazing photography. Her blog is no different.

As I try my hand at regular blogging I look to these impressive writers for things I can incorporate into my own culinary blog.

From Heidi I've learned that there are three elements to a perfect food post.

First, you must include a gorgeous photograph, she suggests taken in natural light, of the ingredients, a finished product or a step in the process of making the recipe. Heidi's photographs are fresh, bright and clean. Somehow, I'm assuming this is where the natural light comes in, because her pictures are soothing to the eye while the colors pop in every single one. It's somewhat similar to the visual style of Giada's Everyday Italian Show on Food Network.

I hope she doesn't mind, I had to give you a sample of her wonderful photographs.

Second, you must include the most charming stories to go along with the recipe. With Heidi she gives you a glimpse into her life that seems filled with love, friendship and food. Every recipe has the background of how she came up with the recipe, or who taught her how to make the dish or what the food reminds her of and makes her feel. Though I have never actually heard Heidi's voice, her narrative writing style makes it easy for every blog to feel like I can actually hear her speaking as I read them.

Third, you must have amazing recipes that use amazing ingredients. You can tell her love of food from the description of different ingredients that most every day cooks may not have tried. Everything from black Japonica rice to clandestinely delivered fingerling potatoes, she takes them and put them into the perfect simply delicious dishes.

More than anything, between everything else I have to juggle in my life, every time Heidi blogs a new recipe her posts give me a light hearted feeling that always reminds me of a few of my favorite things: food, photography and writing.