I’ve been writing fiction full time for almost a year now, and even though the past twelve months have been crazy, I love it. I am incredibly blessed and lucky and living the dream. (Okay, throat cancer wasn’t exactly in the plan, but I survived it, grew from it and am ready to move on.)

But as a creative, something inside me balked when writing became my job. It’s my passion and my joy and when it became something I had to do to make a living, part of me rebelled. I wrote nonfiction for years, and fiction was my plaything, my outlet, the thing I did to have fun. Not that I don’t still enjoy it and have fun, but I needed something else, something where the stakes weren’t so high…

So I began cooking as a creative outlet.  I’ve always cooked, but like many other moms, I felt like a line cook taking into account everyone’s likes and dislikes, which prevented me trying anything new. Now that the kids are grown and my husband has developed a palette, I’ve taken cooking to a whole new level.

Italian and Mediterranean foods are my favorites to cook, though I’ve tried my hand at some amazing French dishes, and made an incredible chutney for Christmas. I have become a Food Network and Cooking Channel junky and most of the shows on my DVR are cooking shows.

Lately, I’ve been exploring foods that come from the same era as my Summerset Abbey Series, as well as recipes from the twenties which Born of Illusion is set in. At some point, I will link to some of those recipes, but today I want to share my list of chefs and cooking programs that are on my must watch/must follow list!

Alex Guarnaschelli  @guarnaschelli

Giada De Laurentiis @GDeLaurentiis

Aaron Sanchez @Chef_Aaron

Amanda Freitag @amandafreitag

Geoffrey Zakarian @gzchef

Anthony Bourdain @Bourdain I actually have a mad crush on Anthony … he writes, cooks, smokes, drinks, what’s not to love?

Andrew Zimmerman @andrewzimmern

Ree Drummond @thepioneerwoman

My favorite cooking shows are:

 

On the blog: When writing became @teribrownwrites job, cooking became her creative outlet.  (Click to Tweet)

What do @andrewzimmern @thepioneerwoman  & @GDeLaurentiis have in common? They are @teribrownwrites fav chefs!  (Click to Tweet)