A Quick Bite with Joanna Grzeszczak

Earlier this week, Ceri, Laura and I were chatting about some of our favourite bloggers. Laura mentioned how awesome Joanna Grzeszczak is — how beautiful the Montrealer’s site, Lazy Mom’s Blog, is, and how much she was impressed by her gorgeous photography. I personally love her pinterest bio: “Blogger, kitsch artist, imaginative cook, nonchalant baker, positive body image advocate, crazy cat lady, decoration freak, and a passionate mom of two.” Plus, there is the fact that she has three “z’s” in her last name, which I find too cool. I spent some more time on her blog and really felt inspired by her messages. As a busy mom, I can particularly relate to her tagline, “far from perfection and not trying to have it all,” and appreciate her approach to mindful living, something I need to spend more time on. Her parenting advice and fun, age-appropriate kid activity suggestions are bang on in my books. After a few hours getting lost in her site (again) I realized that I really want to get to know her better! So, I reached out to her to see if she’d like to answer SPC’s Quick Bites. Thankfully she said yes. And after working and spending time with her this week, albeit it virtually, I am very thankful to have met her and hope we stay connected. Read on and I think you’ll see why.

Sweet Potato Chronicles: What’s your earliest food memory?

Joanna Grzeszczak: My grandma making her famous chocolate cake, and letting me lick all of the spoons!

SPC: How did you learn to cook?

JG: My mom always enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen, and we would go together to the local market and then cook seasonal recipes together. Food was also a big part of every holiday and every family gathering. So I didn’t really learn to cook, it was just natural in our house to prepare fresh food daily.

SPC: What do you like best about cooking?

JG: I love the creative process. I love experimenting with textures and flavours, adjusting new recipes and trying new things.

SPC: Do you like to cook solo or with others?

JG: I’m mostly a solo cook, since I’m very spontaneous in the kitchen and therefore rather annoying t cook with. I don’t like following the recipes so every time I would be cooking with my husband he would rally get frustrated with me 😉 Now we prefer to serve each other food.

SPC: Do you have a sweet or salty tooth? What’s your guilty pleasure?

JG: Honestly I have both, so a salty pretzel covered in milk chocolate is my definition of perfection! :

SPC: How has parenthood changed the way you cook?

JG: I love spices, and after my trip to India in my early twenties I used to add really a lot of spices to my food. But babies don’t really like spicy food that much, so I had to cut a bit on that.

SPC: Do your children join you in the kitchen?

JG: They love helping me with baking (aka licking the dough) but recently my four year old likes to cut and mix whatever I give her. So obviously it creates more mess, and it takes twice the time, but I suck it up imagining how she’ll cook for me at ten 😉

SPC: What do your kids not eat that you wish they would?

JG: My older daughter Lili will find the tiniest piece of onion and will whine about it for hours, while my younger one Rose, will pout over mushrooms. But I can’t imagine cooking without onions nor mushrooms, so they just have to deal with it.

SPC: Are there rules at your table? (Clean your plate? Eat your vegetables or no dessert?)

JG: If there is dessert, then finishing all the veggies is a must. But the rest of our rules are rather normal; don’t eat your sisters food, don’t pour your water on your (or your sisters) plate, don’t feed the cat and don’t eat what the cat haven’t ate from your hand..

SPC: What’s your go­to­late­home­from­work­on­a­weekday dish?

JG: I work from home, so some days I’ll cook in the morning, and some I’ll wake up at 5pm realizing I have no dinner plans. So when that happens I just make some hearty, clean-­the­-fridge type of soup and call it my grandma’s traditional Polish soup!

Joanna Grzeszczak of lazymomsblog.com