...i read cafe johnsonia

I read a lot of blogs. I love seeing your recipes, photography skills, craft ideas and more! Some of the blogs I read are just too good to not share. This post is the first of a series I will be doing to introduce you to my favorite blogs and their authors.

Enjoy!

If any of you have or know of a blog that you would like me to feature, please email me!

Please welcome, Lindsey from Cafe Johnsonia!

Your name: Lindsey Johnson
Your blog: Café Johnsonia

Links to 3 of your best blog posts:
Making Croissants 101
How-To: Lasagna Bolognese
La Palette's Strawberry Tart

Thank you for being a Sherbet Blossom Featured Blogger! Why don't you start by introducing yourself to our readers.
I am a (twenty-something) SAHM/Blogger to three kids—Lilly (4), Fritz (2.5), and Babetta (7.5 mos.) I’m married to a great guy named Fred. We moved to Utah last August after living in the NYC suburbs for a long time. Besides blogging and cooking, I love photography, reading, watching spy movies or TV shows, listening to They Might Be Giants, and playing with my kids.

How did you arrive on the blogosphere? What made you interested in blogging?
My best friend had a blog she started back in 2005. I had no clue what a blog even was. I had heard the word before, but honestly had no clue. We didn’t have the internet at that point. I would walk down to our village library and check my e-mail once a month or so. Then one day I looked at her blog.

I ended up persuading my husband that we needed the internet. He was in grad school and money was tight. I traded in my cell phone for cable internet in February of 2006 and never looked back!

I started a personal blog called Cafe Johnsonia where I wrote about being a mom, the woes of pregnancy, and occasionally posted a recipe or two.

One of the first food blogs I read, What I Made For Dinner, made me realize that I could have a food blog, too. So I started a blog called “Just Recipes” as an appendage to my family blog and a repository for my recipes. I didn't even post pictures at that point. Then I got a new camera, so I started taking pictures of what I was cooking. My blog evolved slowly. I never really thought anyone would read it other than a few friends. Last year I changed the name from Just Recipes to Cafe Johnsonia and went from there.


Can you give the us a "sneak peek" into what's coming up next for your blog? Any new events, giveaways, interviews, etc.?
Hopefully there will be a few giveaways coming up within the next few weeks. I'm going to be doing a week dedicated to Food Storage. And I’m also trying to start doing more local reviews of restaurants, bakeries, and stores since I’m getting reacquainted with Utah. Hopefully that’s as fun for my readers as it will be for me.


I see that you write a lot of your own recipes. How did you gain your fabulous cooking skills/knowledge? Did you go to culinary school? Are you self taught?
I haven’t gone to cooking school….yet. That’s a hope for the future. Basically, I’m self-taught.

I started cooking when I was as young as five or six years old. I was fascinated by it. I watched my mom and my grandmothers. It struck a chord with me somewhere.

My talent for cooking really blossomed when I moved to New York. I worked as a nanny for a family who really enjoyed cooking and baking. They made all sorts of foods that I had never seen or heard of before. I love it. They also introduced me to the many specialty food stores in New York. They pushed me into it even further by buying my beloved 6-quart KitchenAid mixer as a present, and signing me up to take a cheesecake class at the Institute of Culinary Education. (So, I guess technically I’ve taken one cooking class.)

My husband continues to be my greatest inspiration and muse when it comes to cooking. He tastes a lot of my failed attempts and helps me figure out what to do differently the next time. We’re a great match.

My husband’s aunt gave me Harold McGee’s book, On Food & Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen, which is the perfect book for me. It combines food and science in an easy-to-understand way. That book is a good substitute for cooking school because it gives you a basic knowledge of why food behaves a certain way when it is cooked or frozen, or whatever. A basic knowledge of food science helps prevent disasters in the kitchen, though I still have a quite a few. I've probably read that book 5 or 6 times.

Also, I read cookbooks like novels. I’m always looking at three or four versions of a recipe before I get started. Usually I’ll glean what I can from the recipes and come up with what I’m looking for.

I don’t watch TV very often, but when I do, I love to watch the cooking shows on PBS. (We don’t have cable, or I’d be glued to the Food Network all day long.)


Your photography skills are FABULOUS! Any tips on how to take good food pictures?
You don’t need a fancy camera to take good pictures. But, if you can afford to buy a digital SLR, get one. They do take better pictures.

This is always my advice about photography:

-read the manual that came with your camera
-use natural light whenever possible (I hate using a flash)
-look at the work of photographers you like to get inspiration—magazines, blogs, etc.
-practice, practice, practice
-get a good editing program and learn how to use it (Picasa is great and it’s free!)
-if you have a digital SLR, buy a 50mm f/1.8 lens, it’s cheap and it will change your world


Thank you so much, Lindsey, for your time and your great blog! I will be anxiously awaiting those food storage posts!