Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Organic Kitchen

Ann Marie Michaels -

Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week, we travel to Valencia, California to tour the kitchen of Linda Spiker, author of the blog, The Organic Kitchen.

What’s a Real Foodie?

A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.

We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.

We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.

This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Organic Kitchen

Blog Name: The Organic Kitchen
Blog Author: Linda Spiker
How Long Blogging: Since Fall 2012 but got serious about it six months ago!
House or Apartment:House. We have lived here 13 years and remodeled the kitchen about seven years ago.
Size of Kitchen: 250 square feet
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: Where do I start? I love my huge island which is where my students work when I teach classes. The island is also the gathering place when we have family dinners. I know it sounds funny but I love my cabinet knobs. They are a beautiful amber color and light up when the sun hits them just right. But the best thing about this kitchen hands down is the view! We live on a manmade lake in Valencia California and love eating in the backyard!
Things You Would Change:  I have always regretted not hanging chandeliers above the island…that is on my list of things to do!
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: Can’t live without my Wusthof Chef’s knife, my microplane and hand held juicers. Big toys…my blender and my juicer.
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: Interestingly enough, now that we are empty nesters cooking itself is the challenge! It’s just easier for the two of us to go out. So I go the store first thing in the morning before yoga and buy what we need for dinner. It keeps me on track and I don’t ‘run out of time’ like I would if I waited until later to shop.
Current Family Favorite Meal: Has been and always will be my Roasted Apricot Chicken with Herbs De provence! It’s made in one pan, 15 minutes of prep and it is absolutely delicious!
Favorite Cookbooks: Mine of course and [easyazon-link asin=”0761138994″ locale=”us”]Food to Live By: The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook[/easyazon-link] by Myra Goodman.

Let Us Tour Your Kitchen

Are you a real foodie? Do you have a kitchen that you’d like to see featured on CHEESESLAVE?

Please email me at annmarie AT cheeseslave dot com. Either send me a link to a Flickr set or email me your photos (minimum of 5, but more is better). Note: Please send me LARGE photos. Minimum 610 width. If they’re too small, I can’t use them.

Oh, and please send the answers to the above questions (at the very top of this post).

As much as I’d love to include all the photos I receive, I can’t guarantee that I will use your photos in the series. I’m looking for creative, good quality photos.

Some ideas for photos:

  • Show us what’s in your fridge or what’s fermenting on your counter
  • Take some snaps of some of your favorite kitchen gadgets, or show us how you organize your spices
  • Got backyard chickens? Send some pics!
  • How about a lovely herb garden?
  • Kids or pets are always cute!
  • Try to include at least one photo of yourself, ideally in your kitchen

And no, you don’t have to have a blog to be included in the tour.