Today we’ll meet a lovely young lady with a desire to cook quality food (like the Rosemary Thyme Spread in the photo above) for her family of seven: her dad, mom, three sisters, one brother, and herself. She’s not only multi-talented and generous with those talents, but as a bonus, she also has quite the lovely name. Everyone, meet Erica.

Erica Lea Berge, or simply ericalea here at Tasty Kitchen, describes herself as “a twenty-year-old Christian home school graduate with a love for cooking and photographing food.” She’s being modest. One look at her blogs—her cooking blog at Cooking For Seven and her personal blog at Erica Lea—and you’ll see just how varied her skills are. She has posts about crafts, including knitting, sewing, and patterns. As someone who still can’t wrap her brain around the fact that two needles, some yarn, and time spent sitting on a comfy chair can produce a nice sweater or scarf, I was duly impressed.

Erica lives in Northern Minnesota, and loves very part of it, bitterly cold winters and all. She credits both her parents for influencing her in the kitchen. From her mother, she learned how to cook simple, comforting food without using a recipe. And her father helped instill in her a love for different, interesting flavors and the willingness to try something new. As you can see from her recipes, like the various soups and sides that she’s shared with us, the combination of simple and interesting is really a defining feature of her dishes.

Center photo: Sausage Potato Soup. Clockwise from top left: Maple Cornbread, Coconut Oil Potatoes, Thai Coconut Rice, and Creamy Butternut Squash Soup.

 
 
 
Erica insists that quality not only means that a dish is delicious, but it should also be nourishing as well. She says: “It is my belief that irresistibly scrumptious and healthy are not mutually exclusive.” (To see that belief in action, just look at the Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread in the top left below, and the Maple Pecan Banana Cake below it, both made with whole wheat pastry flour.) That said, she is the also first to admit that she does also occasionally splurge and eat or cook something completely unhealthy. But for the most part, she tries to keep things natural and use whole foods as much as possible without obsessing about it, which is something she learned from her dad. Just look at her gorgeous Chocolate Almond Biscotti and Macadamia Nut Brownies below.

 
 
 
She and her younger sister run a small-scale cleaning service for individuals (mostly elderly, she adds) who live on their lake. When she’s not in the kitchen, she loves to read, ski, play the piano, talk with her sisters, and watch a good movie. Her photography, which is gorgeous, has slowly started bringing in some remuneration as well. (By the way, “remuneration” was her word, which scored major points with the hack writer putting this post together). Her creativity really shines through, I think, when you look at the different homemade ingredients and condiments in her recipe box.

Clockwise from top left: Homemade Pizza Sauce (which she never purchases from the store anymore), Pizza Dough (made from 100% whole wheat!), Smoky BBQ Sauce, Breakfast Sausage Spice Blend (she has a sweet version as well), and Whole Wheat Pasta.

 
 
 
In addition to seasoning blends to make your own breakfast sausage, Erica also has quite the healthy collection of breakfast recipes. From homemade granola to whole wheat muffins and baked oatmeal, her repertoire truly shows the care that she puts into preparing nutritious meals for the family.

Clockwise from top left: Surprise Muffins (use your favorite jam for the surprise!), Homemade Granola, Whole Wheat Apple Muffins, and a nice warm, hearty bowl of Fruit on the Bottom Baked Oatmeal.

 
 
Now let’s learn even more about this inspiring young lady, and ask Erica a few more questions.

 
 
Q: What do you enjoy most about cooking?
A: I love it when I change a recipe to make it healthier and nobody notices.

 
Q: Any favorite chefs or food celebrities? Who inspires you?
A: My grandma is the best cook I know. But my dad inspires me to try harder. He is my greatest critic.

 
Q: Complete the sentence: “I panic when I realize that I’m out of …”
A: Whole wheat flour or butter.

 
Q: Do you have a most memorable kitchen flop ever?
A: One Sunday, when company was over, we decided to make a quadruple batch of pudding. I inadvertently substituted baking powder for cornstarch and the result was absolutely disgusting. Not only did it smell terrible, it curdled into tiny yellow balls.

 
Q: What ingredient or technique/method gives you the most trouble?
A: Making pie. How does Grandma do it?

 
Q: What is your favorite kitchen tool?
A: Our new Henckels bread knife. It cuts like a dream. But the santoku is a close second.

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Thanks for answering our questions, Erica! You are quite the inspiring young lady. It’s such a joy to have you here!

 
To see more of Erica’s amazing recipes here at Tasty Kitchen, check out her recipe box. Maybe ogle the photos a bit. Then head on over to her blogs Cooking for Seven and Erica Lea for even more recipes, beautiful photographs, crafts, and everything else that she generously shares with everyone.

 
If you’ve ever needed to search Tasty Kitchen for gluten free recipes and have been pleasantly surprised to see how gluten free eating can look so gosh darn mouthwatering (as in the case of the Double Chocolate Orange Torte pictured above), then chances are, you’re familiar with Elana’s recipes. And if you never thought there’d ever be any mention of the mafia in a Tasty Kitchen member profile—and I’m not referring to those suits who supposedly show up at your door to settle “sauce vs. gravy” debates—then chances are, you haven’t read Elana’s story yet.

Today we’ll get to meet another one of Tasty Kitchen’s most prolific members: elanaspantry. Elana has always led quite an exciting life, from bartender to entrepreneur, venturing out as an environmental consultant and starting her own company Ecosav. She was involved in setting up waste management and recycling programs all over New York City and the Eastern Seaboard, cutting their clients’ costs by a considerably percentage. She says, “I was threatened by the mafia … still, it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed helping companies do their share for the environment.”

And you thought I was kidding about the whole mafia bit, weren’t you?

Elana goes on to explain that, just at the peak of her success, she suddenly found herself raising a small family in New York City. Except, it wasn’t what she wanted; she wanted to raise her sons in the same kind of simple environment that she knew growing up in Northern California. And so she and her family moved to Colorado, with Elana already looking for a new venture to embark on that was relevant to her new role as a mother.

When Elana and her son were diagnosed with celiac disease, she took on the challenge of cooking gluten-free food that was delicious enough to make her husband look forward to coming home for dinner. What we are enjoying from her now is a result of her passion for making food that isn’t just good for the body but actually tastes good, too. And if you need any more convincing, just take a look at some of these desserts.

Clockwise from top left: Lemon Rosemary Mini Muffins, the incredibly intriguing Cabernet Sauvignon Cookies, delightful little Lemon Lavender Cookies, a festive Gluten Free Pumpkin Cinnamon Cheesecake, and some seriously decadent Chocolate Espresso Power Bars.

 
 
 
Elana’s favorite ingredients include almond flour, agave, and vanilla, and you’ll see that many of her recipes above use them. But Elana’s repertoire doesn’t just include gluten-free desserts. Her entrees and soups are just as delectable, and it’s no wonder that even those who aren’t on restricted diets ask her for her recipes.

Clockwise from top left: Salmon Kabayaki, a delightful Coconut Chicken Soup, a simple yet flavorful Grilled Chipotle Orange Chicken, and a grain-free Chicken “Noodle” Soup with zucchini noodles.

 
 
 
Cooking gluten-free full-time also means you have to find acceptable substitutes for common ingredients, condiments, or sauces. Although she lives within walking distance of two organic grocery stores, that hasn’t stopped her from fashioning her own homemade versions of a few kitchen staples, as seen below. (She also has an awesome Creamy Onion Dressing and Tangy Peanut Sauce that are a hit with her sons.)

Clockwise from left: Kale Almond Pesto, Roasted Chicken Stock, and Marcona Almond Mayonnaise.

 
 
 
Of course, this former bartender also has some awesome drink recipes in her recipe box. From a simple and comforting Hot Homemade Apple Cide, to a creamy Pina Colada Smoothie or a unique and surprisingly refreshing Ginger Cilantro Green Shake, you can certainly see that’s she’s just as interested in keeping the body clean as she is committed to keeping the environment clean.

 
 
 
Speaking of keeping the environment clean, she may have moved to Colorado and transformed herself into a cookbook author and food blogger, but she does still run an environmentally sound household. She composts and recycles, makes her own cleaning products, and has recycling bins in just about every other room in her house. She cheerfully admits that her family thinks that she’s crazy, but adds that she doesn’t mind. “Life is good,” she says.

It certainly looks good from here.

And now, it’s time for the best part of these posts, which is when we get to ask our guest of honor some questions. Let’s get right to it!

 
 
Q: What do you enjoy most about cooking?
A: Eating. And after that, it would be hanging in the kitchen with my children—they very often come to help out.

 
Q: Any favorite chefs or food celebrities? Who inspires you?
A: Bubby made the most amazing matzo ball soup; she is my inspiration.

 
Q: What is the strangest food or food combo that you really, really enjoy?
A: Toasted seaweed (nori) for breakfast.

 
Q: What ingredient or technique/method gives you the most trouble?
A: Everything. Though I have not ever made anything with yeast and rising time. I refuse.

 
Q: What is your favorite kitchen tool?
A: My Vita-mix. We make smoothies all day.

 
Q: Give us one of your favorite kitchen tips that you wish you’d always known.
A: Store everything in glass jars. They’re cheaper, prettier and utilize vertical storage space.

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Thanks for answering our questions, Elana! Aren’t you glad we didn’t ask you about the mafia? I did consider it, but decided I wanted to live to see the end of this post.

 
To see more of Elana’s amazing recipes here at Tasty Kitchen, pull up a seat and browse her recipe box that’s packed with all sorts of wonderful goodies! And do visit her blog, Elana’s Pantry, for more of her recipes, as well as information about her cookbook, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, which was heralded by the Denver Post as “One of the Best Cookbooks of 2009.” She also offers cooking classes in the Boulder, Colorado area, and you can find all the details on her website.

  Look, another boy! And this one brought some outrageous Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls with him. Which makes him both incredibly creative and evil at the same time. I think we’ve waited long enough to be properly introduced to the man behind those decadent rolls. Everyone, meet Vince, known ’round these parts as cookingventures. One look […]