I’m a 26 year old living (and eating!) in sunny Southern California. I created this blog to show how easy, wholesome, and inexpensive it can be to cook your own meals.
This blog is about what I eat and what I cook.
My food is pretty straightforward, because I try to cook dinner from scratch every night. And usually I’m out of the kitchen within an hour or so, because while I enjoy cooking, I enjoy eating more.
I think the most important thing to remember when cooking for yourself is to RELAX! Food shouldn’t be stressful, just tasty!
I learned to cook not by set recipes–although I love cookbooks for inspiration– but by poking around in the fridge and cupboards and figuring out what would taste good together. I don’t cook with pretentious ingredients, and don’t fuss over garnishing my food, but I eat well every single night of the week.
My dad is an amazing cook and taught me to smell and taste everything that you put in the pan before adding it, which is one of my favorite cooking tips. Even if you’re following a recipe to a T, smell the herbs and spices as you add them, you’ll really get a sense of why the flavors go well together and you’ll be able to play around with them in future meals!
My mom is a great baker. Her apple pie is absolutely legendary– not just in our family–everyone that tries it raves about how great it is. The recipe is pretty basic, but I’ve never come close to making it as great as her. She taught me everything I know about baking, but to be honest, I usually leave that stuff up to her because I’m terrible at measuring. I just get so impatient!
I hope you enjoy my ramblings about the things that I make. I’ll be sure to post about the successes and the failures, and I hope you’ll laugh along with me while I cook!
Questions?
Email me!
JessieBeaEats@gmail.com
Jimmy is NOW waiting for me to make him some of that legendary Apple Pie. I do love to bake, I will get some recipes together for you soon to post.
Love oxoxoxo’s
Mom
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Love it, dude! Super awesome that you’re doing this! I’ll submit my own vegan recipes sometime soon too!
brandon
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Never get tired of looking at this. It’s so interesting. I’ll send recipes soon, I promise!
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Hey Jess! Your sister sent me the link to your blog. It appears that you and I have a similar passion for cooking as well as posting and sharing it with the world. I have been posting my pics on Facebook, my blog (www.jbenjamclothing.blogspot.com), and on Twitter (jbenjamin82). A lot of my dishes that I post are usually from dinner. I have always loved cooking and just like you get inspiration by looking at recipes but mostly envision how things can go together. I will be sure to revisit and see what new things that you have and the fun that you are having while cooking. I love your pics. The colors are so vivid. What kind of camera do you use to take your pics? Well until next time.
J. Southee
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Jessie Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Hey! Good to hear from you! Great to hear that you like cooking and don’t necessarily use recipes either, sometimes meals come out weird, but it’s always fun at least
I like your site, I haven’t seen it before so I’m glad you told me about it.
In terms of my photos, I use a pretty basic Nikon Coolpix point and shoot camera, nothing fancy. The trick I have learned is to never use the flash, always use natural light if possible, and get up super close to whatever you want to take the picture of (don’t use the zoom). If your camera has a “macro” setting, use it! It’s that little picture of a flower that most digital cameras have. Hope that helps!
Thanks for looking around!
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Hi Jessie, I thouraly enjoyed our visit for the last 3 weeks and I espically like the fact that you enjoy cooking like you do. It makes having you here so much fun and easy on me as I worked and didn’t have to plan meals. Looking forward to seeing your Blog and the pics of our interesting dishes. We sure had some GREAT ones!!
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Those cookies you made for Dan sound DELICIOUS. I’m going to make them this week!
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Saw this on Help a Reporter and thought of you – send them an email…never know:
19) Summary: Food Bloggers willing to share recipes and stories
Name: Dawn Billesbach (Published book)
Category: General
Email: query-cls@helpareporter.com
Media Outlet: Published book
Deadline: 07:00 PM EST – 30 June
Query:
Calling all food bloggers who want to share their stories and
favorite recipes. Book is in early progress. Great press. All
submitters will be credited and notified of publication. Email
me if interested in sharing.
Back to Top Back to Category Index
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Jessie Reply:
September 29th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
I’m sorry I just noticed this comment! (Stupid Bar Exam) Thanks for thinking of me, though! If I hadn’t missed the deadline by 3 months it would have been right up my ally.
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Hi Jessie,
I really enjoyed reading over your blog. I made a vegetarian Chili recently for my niece. I thought it was very tasty. I truly like eating vegetarian. If I could only convince Andy of that. Had dinner with my sister and her family last night. Her daughter Tara (Mike’s niece) is a vegetarian and she brought vegetarian lasagna, it was really good.
Talk to you soon.
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So glad I got to meet you this weekend! Hope you had a safe trip home — and have gotten over the food & wine coma that is foodbuzz fest!
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Jessie Reply:
November 9th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Glad to meet you too! Slowly coming out of the foodbuzz coma
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Jessie Reply:
November 9th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
Glad to meet you too! Slowly but surely coming out of the coma
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Cool website Jessie! Got if from your mom! I love to cook too—and without recipes. Just got back from the Penguin Publishing wearhouse sale with 5 new cookbooks—strictly reference material!
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