About

Who are you?

I’m Anna Palecek, the writer behind Our Life in Meals. The other person you’ll meet here is my husband, Jan, wildland firefighter and forest ranger by day, culinary whiz by night. (Just to make things difficult, our names are pronounced “yawn,” and “ah-na”—what you get when you have Czech/Czech and Swedish/Spanish parents, respectively.)

What’s the story behind the blog?

This blog began when I created a collection of my photos, titled them “Our Life in Meals,” and shared them with family and friends. After viewing the pictures from a month-long road trip we took across the Southwestern states, one friend commented, “There are more pictures of the meals than the monuments!” That pretty much sums up the way we live.

Considering the enthusiastic response, I wanted to share more of our food adventures, both at home and on the road. I initially thought I’d catalog our culinary experiences from the safety of the bar-side of our kitchen countertop and stay out of Jan’s way. But as I watched from the sidelines, my own interest in cooking grew, and so did my need to share the experience.

Are you chefs?

Neither Jan nor I are trained chefs, though Jan has had many years of cooking experience, along with several college nutrition, food preparation, and food safety courses.

Cooking can be a challenging task for me and I’ve always preferred the precise and methodical techniques of baking. But for Jan, who possesses a healthy dose of mad-scientist experimentation and relishes rebelling from a recipe, it’s a way for him to unwind at the end of the day. As soon as I learned to relax in the kitchen and accept that not everything had to be perfect, cooking started to become fun for me too.

Preparing meals together has come to mean so much more than just two very different people coming to a compromise, or about the end results (though it’s almost always amazing). It’s become our way of having fun, being healthy, saving money, sharing with others, and enjoying life to the fullest.

What’s your food philosophy?

Through some life experiences, we’ve both learned what’s most important in life, and yes, that includes good food, preferably shared with people you love. Life’s too short not to enjoy what you’re eating!

Also, that you don’t need to be a trained chef to eat amazing food, all it takes is a desire to learn.

E-mail at ourlifeinmeals@gmail.com