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Kristin Porter of West Des Moines has parlayed her love of food into a blog, IowaGirlEats.com, which attracts readers around the world.
If you’re a foodie, you can get your recipe fix in a variety of ways. There are cookbooks, magazines, newspapers, and enough websites to keep you glued to your computer for hours—such as bhg.com, epicurious.com, allrecipes.com, cooks.com, and cookinglight.com. There are TV programs, such as Cook’s Illustrated, Chew, Rachael Ray, and all the shows on the Food Network.
And, in the past couple of years, there are blogs, where you can get up close and personal to so many interesting people with fun things to say. One of those bloggers is Kristin Porter of West Des Moines, a young woman on a mission to share good recipes. Her mantra, as indicated at the top of the blog, is direct: Eat well. Run often. Travel far.
As the blog explains, “I eat as well as one can with a massive sweet tooth, run as often as I can despite the finicky Midwestern weather, and am more often than not thinking about the insanely cool places I want to travel to!”
Her passion for food began with her parents, Shirley and Keith Wise of West Des Moines. “We ate as a family five nights a week at 5:30 p.m., and my mom cooked every night. I watched and learned and experimented,” Kristin says. “It’s just part of me.”
On top of her day job in marketing, she started her Iowa Girl Eats blog a couple years ago. It’s no surprise that her engaging approach attracts readers all over the United States, along with followers all over Europe and from spots such as Japan. “I aim to have a consistent voice, often asking readers a question,” she says. Her fresh and easy banter also might include mention of a good sale at Old Navy. Recently she itemized 30 things she would like to accomplish by her thirtieth birthday in a couple years.
One of her favorite cooks to follow is Ina Garten, star of Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network. “She just takes a basic approach to food and to cooking. She appreciates classic flavors, and she doesn’t use a lot of ingredients. I think we have very similar cooking styles.”
Kristin aims to blog every day of the week, offering readers a suggestion for dinner for that night or an upcoming one. Inspiration for recipes comes from a variety of sources, from other blogs, and to what’s on sale at the grocery store that week. If she adapts a recipe from a specific source, she gives credit. Her work has brought some freelance writing assignments and some local TV gigs. She is serious about the photography that she puts on the blog, often giving step-by-step photo instructions for a dish and photos of the finished product.
Her husband, Ben, the obvious recipient of her food preparation, is a good sport, Kristin says. “He’s always willing to try something and will give me an honest assessment. He’s more of a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, but he’ll try anything once, including tofu.”
Kristin loves to travel and to explore the food idiosyncrasies of a new area. She enjoys taking her readers along for the ride when she and Ben hit the road. She especially loves Asian cooking, using seasonal ingredients, and has a passion for—are you ready?—Brussels sprouts.
Kristin and Ben enjoy casual get-togethers with friends, which often are potluck buffet gatherings. “Hosting a real dinner party would stress me out too much. Besides,” she points out, “I would want to be talking to everyone, not fussing in the kitchen.”
She is a graduate of Valley High School in West Des Moines and of the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and worked in Minneapolis for a time before returning to the Des Moines area. You’ll likely find her shopping at Hy-Vee, Trader Joe’s, or at farmers’ markets in season.
She knows many people like to start with a clean slate with their eating habits at New Year’s.
Her suggestions are full of good sense:
- Eat breakfast every day. Try to have three balanced meals.
- Avoid drive-through pick-up foods.
- Eat at home. You’ll have a better chance of making good choices.
She offers a couple healthful choices to get you started. Find recipes from Kristin on the left-hand sidebar above. |
