Saturday, February 2, 2013

Vote for TCV on TheKitchn.com for The Homies!

*Please VOTE HERE for TCV for TheKitchn.com's Best Recipe Blog award. This is the finals, y'all! Everyone is allowed one vote by 2/13; tell all your sweet friends!

People often ask us how we come up with ideas each week for the blog. The truth is that we put so much time and effort into creating recipes in our home kitchen. That's what we do for fun, and we really enjoy it! We have a huge blackboard in the office where we write ideas as inspiration strikes, and then we work to figure out exactly how to put each recipe together in the easiest, tastiest way possible. Then we jump in the kitchen and start cooking. That's really our favorite part: something may work out surprisingly well the first time (this is rare!) or really need a few more tries in order to get it right. As we cook, we keep track of ingredients, techniques, and quantities on our iPhone -- or one of us calls out this stuff and the other one writes or types it. Next, when we're happy that a dish is ready to be shared, we put the plates together and photograph the result using a small homemade system of light modifiers that we always seem to be moving in and out of the dining room. The final step is writing it up, proofing it, and posting it here on The Chubby Vegetarian Blog. We are always so curious to see what people think about our food and to find out which recipes become loved enough to be used often in others' kitchens.

We have gone through that process over 700 times and come up with vegetarian versions of gumbo, chicken-fried portobello mushrooms, spicy curries, pasta carbonara, meatballs, delicious pimento cheese, inventive salads, and rustic desserts. We aim to help you move vegetables from the side dish to the center of the plate. We want people to know that meatless meals can be delicious as long as each plate is approached with some creativity and ingenuity. The photos and recipes you see here are not food-styled or set up; all of it is our actual dinner or lunch or breakfast. Since we're home cooks who never had any formal culinary training, we know you can make these dishes, too.

We would love to know how you figure out your own recipes! Please comment below and we can compare notes. And if you're moved to do so, please vote for TCV.

9 comments:

The Yogi Vegetarian said...

I have voted for you guys! Your contribution towards promoting vegetarianism is amazing, and I hope you win :)
I wrote a post on my blog last year about the whole process of creating and writing up recipes, hoping that it would inspire others. My main tool is my notebook, which I write in as I cook, or write down what my husband tells me as he cooks. I write my ideas in the blog drafts or the notebook. Our testers are the kids; if they don't like something (within reason), then we think twice about publishing it!

The Chubby Vegetarian said...

Thank you! & love this: you are so right in that if the people around you aren't excited about it, or for us, if it languished and doesn't get eaten it, it is back to the drawing board on the recipe!

We're gonna go back and read your post on this topic for sure.

TCV

The Yogi Vegetarian said...

Thanks; you'll be one of the few people who did read it!!! The link:
http://theyogivegetarian.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/how-to-create-your-own-recipes-and.html

Green Morning said...

Just voted! You're the best :)

The Chubby Vegetarian said...

Thanks YV and GM!! It is great to have your support.

TCV

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the demo last night at Whole Foods, you both did great and the food was wonderful too.
We put together a few votes at CrazyBeautiful for the win. See you around...

All the best,

Chad

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the demo last night at Whole Foods, you both did great and the food was wonderful too.
We put together a few votes at CrazyBeautiful for the win. See you around...

All the best,

Chad

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the Engine 2 cooking demo at Whole Foods last night, you both were great and the food was wonderful too. We put together a few votes for youz guyz for the win and will post on our FB sometime today for some additional support.

All the best,

Chad

The Chubby Vegetarian said...

Vote again in the finals, y'all!

http://www.thekitchn.com/best-recipe-blog-the-homies-2013-183570