About

Spooning the Dish, est. June 2013

Welcome to Spooning the Dish.  I'm Tavia Tindall and I write about cooking and baking as well as travel.  My efforts are inspired by vintage sources and influenced by my very minimal budget.  The blog name comes from my love of eating and storytelling.  When someone is "dishing" me a good story, I find myself eating it up with a spoon (metaphorically speaking).  Example:  if I tell you something, you'll tell me something.  As we dish, we might scarf a banana cream pie using spoons, forks, or sporks.

Years ago I started collecting vintage cooking pamphlets, cookbooks, and discarded recipe collections. Thrift stores and garage sales often have piles of these pamphlets shoved in Rubbermaids or stacked next to virginal fondue pots. One day I took notice and read some.  They were hysterical, sentimental, and cheap, so I bought a few.  It didn't take long before a few turned into an obsessive, compulsive addiction.  I began scavenging for them on a regular basis with a scope that had widened to include old cookbooks and recipe files stuffed with handwritten notes.  My collecting began without any clear idea as to what I intended to do with all these recipes or why I was on a mission to save them.  I simply wanted to read them and imagine whether the recipes could be great or wonderfully ridiculous.  A purpose for my madness slowly evolved as I decided to cook from and write about the collection. When I'm not baking or cooking from musty tomes, I love to find hidden eats in unassuming places.  Food culture is intriguing from coast to coast, in small towns and in big, and there’s nothing I like better than reveling in an eating experience.

I grew up on an acreage in rural Southwest Wisconsin where my non-hippie parents grew an abundance of fruits and vegetables.  There I developed an early appreciation for fresh foods and classic home cooking.  When I was in my 20s, I moved to Seattle, and spooned dishes city wide.  Seattle harbors amazing eats and introduced me to tastes I'd never experienced before.  It was an epic love affair.  I’m now in my 30s and living back in the Midwest.  I came back because I secretly longed for deviled eggs and jello salad, but now that I'm back, I long for grilled salmon and crab cakes.  Spooners are never satisfied.  Cooking from this collection connects me to life: past, present, and future no matter where I live.  I also love the challenge of taking old recipes and adapting them to my present.  I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't eat much meat and I prefer cooking with fresh, seasonal, & local ingredients as much as possible.  

As for my street credentials, I have a degree in journalism, have worked in both the legal and medical fields, am currently an elementary teacher, and have no experience or training as a chef.  That said, I can boast of my regional reputation as an excellent pie maker.  Mostly I'm a food lover and curiosity seeker who suffers from chronic nostalgia.  

All content and photos on this site are protected by copyright and cannot be used without permission. If you would like to feature any of my photos or writing on your site, please contact me by clicking here.

Enjoy,

Tavia