Have you met Jenn and Don, the couple behind foodiePrints? If not you should! They've called Hintonburg, Ottawa home for the past seven years and are some of the most prolific bloggers out there - blogging since December 2006, they keep a fairly aggressive schedule, posting up to 6 times a week! And they both have full-time day jobs!
foodiePrints was born from Don wanting to simply share a recipe with colleagues. He was concerned that many emails might eat up bandwidth, so he bought a domain name, found some webspace, and threw up a content management system. Not long after this, he started to realize that Ottawa prepares and serves great food - foodiePrints started to emerge... Later, Jenn joined him on this journey and in September 2010, Claire joined the team as foodiePrints' wine blogger, with her first piece on British Columbia wine. Since then, Claire has have traveled the world in a glass for foodiePrints: from BC to Nova Scotia, from South Africa to South America and more!
Whilst Don is the primary food blogger and Jenn does most of the food piece editing they both share the task of taking pictures of the foods they eat and cook. Speaking of cooking - look at this:
Duck Wellington with Mushroom Conserva Duxelles and Prosciutto served with Parsnip Mash and Sweet Peas - a St Valentine's Day suggestion. Wow.
So wine, food they cook, food they eat at restaurants and events and even food they receive - everything is photographed and blogged. Jenn, a teacher, sometimes even gets sweet treats from her students - like these...
Vanilla dipped gingersnaps - now there's an idea.
Don's inspiration for cooking came from his parents who instilled in their children a love for earth to table eating. They had a garden in the backyard growing up and he and his sisters learned what vegetables taste like when not shipped for hours in refrigerated trucks. Don's family also shopped in ethnic and farmers' markets, opening his eyes to different foods from a young age. But Don did not really start cooking until he met Jenn. Though he was well-schooled by his mum, he didn't start practising what he had learned until Jenn was on the scene - and as he puts it "If you can help it, you aren’t going to heat up processed foods for someone you love. It grew from there. Eventually, I began preparing larger and more complex meals and started to enjoy it." Jenn also grew up watching her mother cook and bake from scratch. Years of watching her parents lovingly tend to crops and plants in the garden also contributed to her love of cooking and inspired Jenn to make her own interpretations of foods she grew up eating and attempting new dishes, like their foray into Charcutepalooza last year.
I love that amongst all the beautiful food they cook and eat, there is also a category called Disastrous Eats. Personally I am all about bloggers showing reality so I appreciate Don and Jenn posting recipes like this "pie with cheese" that absolutely did not work. It might not make for the nicest meals for them but it makes for entertaining reading for us!
Of course, living and eating and drinking in Ottawa, Don, Jenn and Claire are the experts on where to go - if you're heading there you'll definitely want to check out their Guide to Downtown Ottawa.
Do yourselves a favour and check out foodiePrints. Follow foodiePrints on Twitter or Facebook and follow Claire on Twitter.
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Amazing blog. Just stopped by to visit.
I’ve met Don and Jenn and Claire and they are three of the most genuine people I’ve come across, not to mention writers of one of the finest food blogs to come out of Ottawa. So happy that they are the featured blog member(s). Very well deserved.
Wonderful post, Mardi! I agree that Don and Jenn (and Claire!!) are wonderful. Their recipes are so well thought out and always interesting to read (and look at!).
Love that they are getting some attention from FBoC.