Café Cyan

Crystal Grobe is a local food writer who truly enjoys making new dishes using fresh and local ingredients. She created Café Cyan in 2006 as a means by which to share recipes and inspire others to try new foods. Although she likes trying new restaurants for inspiration, the best dishes come from her own kitchen. She enjoys cooking with her husband, Ryan, and sharing not only new dishes they’ve tried, but their adventures with food. In early 2009, she created a second food blog at WCCO called Bite of Minnesota, which focuses on local food in Minnesota and the surrounding area. Although she is are not a vegetarian, healthy food is important to Crystal and she tends to experiment with many vegan and vegetarian recipes. Food is a passion and Crystal does her best to try to spread that passion around.

What inspired you to start the Café Cyan blog?

I started Café Cyan because I was inspired by other bloggers who were beautifully documenting their meals.  For years I had been keeping track of dinners in my planner, but felt the visual of having it recorded in blog form would be such a better way to keep track of what we were eating and share it with others.

How has blogging changed your life?

Blogging has been a fantastic outlet to express my creativity and passion for food and has opened so many doors to new friendships, career paths, and ideas.  I never imagined the name Café Cyan would be known by anyone outside of my family or that I’d be introducing myself as Café Cyan at social events (although I think Twitter is responsible for that one).  I lost my corporate job over a year ago and because of blogging, my life never skipped a beat.  I immersed myself in blogging at Café Cyan, WCCO, and Twin Cities Food Finds and I’m having a blast!

What was one of the first things you learned to cook?

The first thing I remember cooking is rice.  As a kid we always had rice in the house and I would create different rice dishes using whatever we had in the pantry and fridge.  A favorite of mine was rice with teeny tiny broccoli florets and lemon pepper spices.  In college I moved onto spaghetti (from a box!).  My dorm mates loved it.

Without taking into account nutritional needs, if you could eat one food everyday, what food would you choose and why?

Pizza!  I love pizza and eat it way too much already, but there’s just something about cheese, tomato sauce and carbs that keep calling my name day after day.  Plus, there are so many things you can do with pizza and if you put enough veggies on it, pizza can be somewhat healthy, right??

What other blogs do you enjoy reading and why? Who are your favorite local Twin Cities bloggers?

Nationally I read a couple of reality TV blogs: B-Side and Reality Blurred, but food related has to be 101 Cookbooks, Vegan Yum Yum, & Get Sconed.

Locally, I love reading Food Snob as Catherine is one of the bloggers who inspired me to start blogging.  She’s honest, down to earth, and makes great food.

I also read Fork, Knife & Spoon.  Kate is a friend of mine who does beautiful photography.  She doesn’t blog as often as I’d like (hint hint), but I eat it up when she does.

Not to be confused with Food Snob, Food Snobbery is My Hobbery is another great blog.  Liz does a lot of canning and preserving and has some great ideas.

For recipe inspiration and ideas, I also visit Swell, Rhymes with Vegan, and Green & Lean.

What do you love the most about the Twin Cities / Minnesota and why?

Oh my gosh, what’s not to love?  For the longest time I tried to escape the Twin Cities, but kept finding myself back here.  Blogging helped me embrace all that we have to offer and the Twin Cities offers a lot!  We have gorgeous seasons, plentiful farmers markets, and innovative people and companies.  It is a wonderful place to live.

What is your biggest blog-related goal for 2010?

I need to redesign my blog and add some neat widgets.  I can’t seem to figure it out on my own, so I need to find outside help.