Featured Food Blogger Friday: Panini Happy

I eat a lot of sandwiches, but you’d never know it because I don’t blog about them. And I don’t blog about them because, well, I don’t photograph them very well.

Kathy Strahs, on the other hand, knows a thing or two about snapping mouthwatering shots of sandwiches. Since she started her blog. Panini Happy, in January 2008, she’s been grilling up paninis. Kathy was inspired by the panini press that her sister gave her the previous Christmas, after she saw it featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things.

This week, I had the opportunity to chat with Kathy about all things panini- and food, blogs and everything else in between.

MC: Why did you decide to start Panini Happy?
KS:  I received a panini press as a gift from my sister and it occurred to me that there might be a lot of people out there like myself who could use some ideas for what to do with the machine. Also, I’d just given birth to my daughter a few months earlier and was looking for opportunities to keep myself current with the online media world (my former corporate life) while I was at home with her. So one day I put up my first post, called the blog Panini Happy, and aimed to become one prolific paninista. That was in January 2008.

MC: How would you describe your cooking style?
KS: I cook like someone who enjoys eating. I like good food. Often it’s healthy, sometimes it’s not. I tend to keep things pretty simple – especially during the week – but I like to go all out on the weekend, with meals that might take most of the day to prepare. I prefer to cook from scratch with fresh, unprocessed ingredients; organic where it makes sense.

MC: What is your favorite panini?
KS: My current favorite sandwich is the one I just made with cabernet-braised short ribs, balsamic onion marmalade and aged cheddar on sourdough. A local restaurant in La Jolla makes it and I heard so many good things about it that I had to give it a try. The flavors are incredible.

MC: Where do you get the inspiration for your recipes?
KS: I’ve found inspiration pretty much everywhere. Sometimes I’ve had salads that I think will translate well into panini, like the Duck Confit, Strawberries & Fried Goat Cheese Panini I made a few months ago. Other times I’ll just sit and think about flavors that go well together and textures that are enhanced by grilling. That’s how I came up with my Gingerbread Blondie S’mores Panini with dark chocolate, marshmallow cream and clementine zest. I also receive lots of great ideas from readers, which I try to feature on the blog as often as I can.

MC: Would you describe yourself as a cook or a baker?
KS: I really love both cooking and baking. These days, with an infant and toddler to keep up with, I’ve been opting to bake a little more often than cook. It’s easier for me to leave something in the oven to roast on its own for 30 or 40 minutes than to stand at the stove for the same length of time.

MC: If you could have dinner with one famous/celeb/well-known chef, who would it be?
KS: Gordon Ramsay. Can you imagine the service we’d get in a restaurant?!

MC: What is one piece of advice that you would offer a brand new blogger?
KS: Get plugged in with the food blogging community. There are a lot of ways to interact with other food bloggers – following and commenting on blogs, following folks on Twitter (you can follow me @paninikathy), participating in the community features on Food Blog Forum, attending conferences like BlogHer Food. I’ve met so many fun people with a shared interested in food through blogging.

While you’re getting to know other bloggers and gaining their perspectives, just remember to stay true to yourself as well. Write about what you’re interested in writing about. Run features on your blog that you think your readers will enjoy. There will always be someone with an opinion about what bloggers should or shouldn’t do. Do what makes you happy. Ultimately, it’s your sandbox, you make the rules.