About Ali
Hey! I’m Ali, and I am so happy that you found your way here to Gimme Some Oven.
I created this little corner of the internet to celebrate life around the table and the good food that bring us all together. Here in our house, we gravitate towards recipes that are quick, easy, seasonal, (mostly) healthy, and big on flavor. So whether that’s whipping up a quick stir-fry or batch of cozy wild rice soup in the wintertime, blending up some refreshing gazpacho with sangria in the summertime, making our millionth batch of tacos and margs on Tuesdays, or baking up a warm batch of cinnamon rolls and eggs benny for sunny weekend brunches — my heart is never more happy than when my table is filled with good food and good people gathered ’round.
If that sounds like your style too, you’ve got a kindred spirit right here. ♡
A bit about me.
When I began this blog back in 2009, I was working as a full-time musician by day and cooking up a storm by night. Now, I have the privilege of doing all of the recipe-developing and writing for this site as my full-time job. And more than a decade into blogging, I can honestly say that I still absolutely love it. Seeing the recipes that I create here in my tiny kitchen show up on your tables around the world makes my heart deeply so happy, and I work hard to be sure that this site continues to be a trustworthy resource for you to turn to.
Beyond the blog, I’m a born-and-raised Kansas girl who’s currently living the expat life for awhile in Barcelona, Spain. We try to make the most of those crazy-cheap RyanAir tickets and travel on the weekends around Europe as much as possible. But when we’re home, you can find us soaking up sunny terraces with friends, taking the pups for long walks along the shore, enjoying endless tapas and glasses of vermut, and just enjoying our cozy little apartment here in the city center.
To follow more along with life and reflections behind-the scenes, feel free to follow my personal Instagram account. And for anyone interested, I also share there about our infertility and IVF journey too.
A bit about my food philosophy.
So what kinds of recipes will you see here on Gimme Some Oven?
Short answer: a little bit of everything.
The food that I share on the blog is the food that we eat here in our home. And as an omnivore married to a vegetarian, the majority of the meals in our house are now plant-based. (So some of you long-time readers may notice that meat dishes have become less common on here.) One of the things I also love about living in Barcelona is that the markets here are strictly seasonal — as in, you couldn’t find fresh watermelon or tomatillos here in December if you tried — which has been great extra motivation to cook with seasonal produce as much as possible.
The majority of our meals during the weekdays fall in the 30-minutes-or-less category. But I also love cozying up with a hot cup of coffee or a glass of wine on the weekends and diving into recipes that require a bit more time, like our favorite Swedish cinnamon buns or Spanish paellas or DIY maki rolls for “Sushi Sundays.” You may notice that we also have a major weakness for Mexican food, noodles of all kinds, soups and various kinds of cookies around here. And while most of my recipes are on the healthier side, I definitely also enjoy indulging in some indulgent sweets and comfort foods on occasion.
So as always, please always feel free to take whatever recipes you love on here and leave the rest. And if you ever have specific recipe requests, don’t hesitate to let me know because I love to cook what you’re craving!
Thank you.
More than anything, I just want to say thank you so much for being here, and I hope that this site can play some small part in making your days a little brighter and tastier. Cheers, everyone. ♡
Love,
Ali
I’m very interested and excited to try your recipe for Peruvian Chicken and Rice soup. First of all, I love making soups of all kinds from any country. But most of all I’ve always had an interest in Peru. With that, I’ll come back here to share my thoughts.
Hi Ali–
I don’t really sign up for food blogs, although I DO look for recipes. But I am excited to find that you have a vegetarian (like me) in your house, married to a meat-eater. :o) And that most of your recipes are plant-based, even though you like the occasional indulgence.
Wishing you the best, and I’m glad I discovered you. <3
Cheri
Just spent a couple of weeks in Spain (including a few days in Barcelona, of course.) I’m so jealous. This next might be getting a little too personal: how do you stop being a musician?
Hello Ali! I am relatively new to your site, but I have already seen several recipes that look delicious and I am anxious to try them. Thanks! Best,Mike
Hi Ali,
I wanted to let you when I try to print it usually makes around 20 pages. |Could you please try to make it more like a 2-3 page recipe. It would make it helpful.
HAPPY~HOLIDAYS,
Cris
I just printed the recipe and it was 2 pages,not even.
Thanks for the brining tip for chicken, so easy. My roasted chicken came out so tender and delicious. Enjoy your blog and the plant based recipes.
We are loving the Healthy Banana Muffins. I’m wondering if you ever tried baking a cake or banana bread from this recipe. If so, how big a pan and for how long did you bake them? Thanks
Great recipe! I adjusted it slightly for gluten free flour. I also substituted ham for bacon and shallots for spring onions. My cheese was a sharp cheddar/gruyère blend. I used heavy cream instead of buttermilk. The scones came out beautifully with an egg wash and sprinkle of cheese on top! I wanted to thank you for sharing so much of your cuisine and from Spain no less! Quick question: would they have been fluffier, and/or flakier had I used buttermilk? The dough was slightly dry and crumbled some when I rolled it out. But, for my first try, and after a slight adjustment rolling and layering, the scones were tasty, flaky and enjoyed by all! Thanks again. ¡Muchas Gracias!
Living the life you described over in Spain and sunning on The Terraces, I felt a pang of not being fulfilled over here in Oklahoma… anyway I like your recipes and I love your story of hanging out around Barcelona. Thanks for sharing
There are so many more recipes to explore, but they are great, thus far!! Thank you!
I like to have the Recipe Variations/Additions when I print a recipe, so end up having to cut & paste into a document rather than just straight printing from the page. As you go back through your pages to update, could you have those available in the print the recipe function, please? Could be part of the “Notes” section.
I am baking gingersnap cookies for the first time ! I’m so happy I stumbled onto your recipe and for some reason feel a connection to you.
I have never ever written to a recipe creator or blogger. Your lifestyle sounds intriguing to me so I may just follow up trying some of your other recipes.
Do you have an easy bread recipe to follow? I’m currently trying to embrace baking bread and I’m starting with my first easy recipe that doesn’t require needing and is only like 3 ingredients. Hopefully it’s a recipe I’m successful with that I can teach my 4 year old Granddaughter to make. Thanks again, Suzanne Villa
Ali
For the High Protein Chicken Chili, I need to cook it in a Crock Pot based on my current living conditions. What suggestions do you have for accomplishing this feat? Jenny and I hope you guys are doing great and I am very jealous on the move to Barcelona. That is the life for me.
Ali I am so so happy to have found you! I made your Roasted Tomato Soup tonight and it was by far the best tomato soup I have EVER had!
I will for sure be following you regularly now, thank you so much, Sara
From wintry Canada where warm yummy tomato soup is the perfect end to a day of shovelling snow.
I love all of the wonderful recipes! Thank you for sharing them all! I was also wondering if you needed prayer for anything. I would love to pray for you! Thanks again!
In God’s Love,
Julie Lannin
I can’t seem to find your Ginger Tom Collin’s cocktail recipe and would love to try it out. Would you be able to send it to me please?
Thank you! Jen
Ingredients in your crockpot, potato soup make it not suitable for freezing?
I’m disabled, elderly and live alone.
Not being able to freeze any of it is a real issue for me.
Greetings!
My friend sent me few recipes from your email about the
salads. I really enjoyed to learn how properly to make a good
salads. You have a nice and easy recipes. We live in San Diego.
I also have two adorable Shitzys. I like your picture with your
pups and your husband.
I would like to follow your blog and continue to learn more
about the cooking.
All my best Tanya
I weigh all my ingredients, and some of your recipes are way off when you print the number of grams in a cup of flour. For example, the Gingerbread cake has 184g for 2 cups of flour. This is wayy off the standard. It should be 240g of flour.
Do you plan to update your recipes to show the correct conversion. I don’t want to waste ingredients guessing which one you mean.
This recipe was spectacular, thanks.
Do you have a cookbook that you have written?
I love your Enchilada recipe, but your website is so awful to use. Have you, yourself, been on your site, using it as a user would? The ads are terribly layered on top of each other. You can’t take any actions like, “Jump to Recipe” until the video ad runs. I see three ads (one video) at all times, on every page. It’s hideous, and if was just ugly, OK, girl’s gotta get paid, but it negatively impacts the user experience by “freezing” all my actions until the video ad is ready to release me. Of course the “x”‘s on the ads don’t work, as you know.
Dear Ali,
What a lovely lady you are and your recipes are delightful!
I’m so glad to have found you ❤️👵🏻
Love
Honey
I do enjoy Mexican foods. However, I have to avoid salt, so I will eliminate salt from any recipe. I also do not drink any form of alcohol due to high Blood Pressure and I do not like really spicey foods, so I will eliminate jalapenos. I have never had green chilis, so I don’t know if they are spicey, so if a recipe calls for them I will taste test first. Sorry to be such a pain, but I am very limited in some areas of food. I live alone and do all of my cooking myself to avoid any of the above ingredients. I would love to see a recipe for scones from Scotland which I visited and muffins with fruit. I lived in Germany for four years as well and would love to see a recipe for Yaeger Snitzel.
Hi..my name is Sherie and I just met your lovely father
-in-law ..Howard today at some of our friends here in Michigan! It was so fun when he found out that I have followed you for ages and love your recipe! Bon appetite! Sherie Thomsen
I love your attitude!
Added tequila to a mojito tonight–a mint margarita!
Love all of your ideas!
I made a batch of your Jambalaya and hesitantly shared it with three friends who are Cajuns, originally from Louisiana… and they have eaten a lot of good Cajun food. They loved it and I did, too. I’m here in Corpus Christi, Texas right on the Gulf of Mexico and so we have ready access to fresh shrimp. Additionally, I use all natural smoked turkey sausage and fresh bay leaves from our backyard. A friend on a strict weight loss diet tossed the diet to eat your Jambalaya, and said she will do so again… when I make the next batch. Thanks again.
I’m just curious why you don’t take the time to answer questions asked by viewers?
You are truly an inspiration,❣️ God bless you and your little family 🙏🏼 and thank you for real food real fast 😋
In 2013, I found your Medley Muffin recipe. Since then, I’ve made it literally countless times for my family- it’s one of our favs! This morning I looked and can no longer find the link. Would you please share that recipe with me one more time so I can write it down? Thank you for co considering the request.
So happy I discovered your site! looked at it in passing a few times, finally took the time to look closer. In short, I like your style Ali! Enjoy your time in Spain ❤️🌄