Hi! I’m Ali, and I am so happy that you found your way here.
I created Gimme Some Oven to celebrate life around the table, with recipes that are simple, fresh, and full of flavor. With two littles underfoot these days, I know how relentless the dinner grind can feel. My hope is that this space can offer a bit of inspiration for everyone — and make everyday cooking feel a bit more fun.
So whether you’re throwing together a quick weeknight dinner, hosting a cozy brunch with friends, or just craving a warm batch of cookies, I hope you’ll find recipes here that feel doable and delicious.
Cheers!
About Ali
About Me
When I began Gimme Some Oven back in 2009, I was working full-time as a musician by day and spending my evenings cooking, photographing, and sharing recipes just for fun. Over time, that creative outlet grew into a full-time career — and for more than a decade now, I’ve had the absolute joy of writing and developing recipes here on Gimme Some Oven.
Even after all these years, it still feels like magic to create a recipe in my kitchen and see it come to life on tables all around the world! Your trust in my recipes means the world to me, and I work hard to make sure each one is thoughtfully developed, thoroughly tested, and truly worth making — the kind of recipe you’ll want to return to again and again.
Beyond the blog, my husband and I are now settling back into life in Kansas City with our two young boys after spending six wonderful years living in Barcelona. My favorite things include sunny days, an excellent plate of nachos, lingering around tables with good friends, and always dreaming up our next adventure. I occasionally share more about life behind the scenes here if you’d like to follow along.
About Gimme Some Oven
So what kinds of recipes will you find here?
Short answer: a bit of everything.
The recipes I share here are the ones we’re actually making and eating in our home. My husband is pescetarian, our boys are still a bit veggie-suspicious, and I enjoy a wide range of foods — so our meals reflect that mix. We do our best to cook seasonally, and most weeknights are all about quick, flavorful recipes that come together in 30 minutes or less. But I also love slowing down on the weekends with a cozy cup of coffee and baking our favorite 1-Hour Cinnamon Rolls, or inviting friends over for a big pot of chili with homemade guac and margaritas.
You’ll notice here that we’ve got a soft spot for Mexican food, big bowls of soup, noodles in all forms, and cookies of just about every variety. While most of my recipes lean fresh and lighter, you’ll also find your fair share of fun treats and comfort food favorites — we’re all about balance!
My hope is that you’ll find recipes here that work well for real life, whatever that looks like for you right now. And if there’s ever a recipe you’re craving, I’d love to hear from you!
My Favorite Recipes
FAQs
I can’t take the credit. 😉 The name actually came from my former bandmate, Jay, who tossed it out during a rehearsal years ago when I mentioned I was thinking about starting a food blog. It made us all laugh — and it stuck! Now it feels like a fun little reminder of my past life as a full-time musician.
You bet! Every single one of the 2000+ recipes on this site has been developed and tested in my own kitchen. I now have a team of recipe testers who join me each week to test old and new recipes to help ensure they are as clear, reliable, and delicious as possible. We want each recipe to be the best it can be when it reaches your table!
The best way to ask about substitutions is to leave a comment on that specific recipe post. That way, we’ll be sure to see it, and other readers can benefit from the answer too.
Yes! We’re constantly retesting, updating and rephotographing older recipes to make sure they’re as reliable and delicious as possible. Whenever we make a significant change, we do our best to note it clearly in the recipe notes so that you know what’s been updated.
No. We made the decision back in 2018 to stop publishing sponsored content on Gimme Some Oven. While we were grateful to partner with brands we genuinely loved in the past, it’s important to us that readers know all product mentions are now completely unpaid — just things we personally use and recommend.
This is probably the most-asked question we receive. Sorry, not yet! I keep putting it off, but someday I look forward to finally writing one. 💛
Giving Back
While we love creating and sharing recipes here, we also recognize what a profound privilege it is to have consistent access to fresh food, clean water, and a safe place to gather around the table. Not everyone has that — the statistics are sobering, and they remind us how important it is to keep working toward change.
That’s why we donate a portion of our profits to support three organizations working to fight food insecurity and expand access to nutritious food and clean water around the world. Every time you visit this site, your pageviews directly help support that work too, and we’re so grateful. We’d love for you to learn more about these incredible organizations and consider supporting them in whatever ways you can too.
It’s our hope that this space not only inspires delicious meals, but also plays a small part in supporting communities far beyond our own kitchens.
TWP is a community-led initiative in Mali focused on developing economic opportunities for women through organic food production, access to clean water, and a commitment to environmental stewardship.
Cultivate Kansas City is a locally-grown nonprofit working to grow food, farms, and community in support of an equitable, sustainable and healthy local food system for all.
World Central Kitchen is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.
Hi Ali great recipes, all look yummy. I am in process of slow cooking your wild rice country soup. It is looking yum but I am a bit concerned. Can I freeze the soup once the roux or coconut milk is added as it is a batch too big for my family to eat in 4 days so would l like to save some. If you could answer this today it would be so appreciated as don’t want to spoil it. Thank You
LAURA
I grew up in a large family where everything good happened around the dinner table. My mother was a war bride and emigrated from England to the US in 1945. She knew nothing about cooking and my father insisted she learn from his mother. Well she did and she became a great cook, not gourmet at all but delicious down home food (think meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, pork roast with all the trimmings, shepherds pie, beef stew, pot roast with vegetables and potatoes). I learned from her and kept up this tradition and now both of my grown children also love to cook. If fact, I told my son ‘if you like good food you had better learn to cook’ because so many young women don’t cook anymore. Now he and his wife cook together! I hope to learn new recipes from your blog and plan to try your Cajun Alfredo dish and also the Pad Thai as my husband and I are huge fans of Thai food. I will also share this Pad Thai recipe with my son-in-law who is GF as he and my daughter also love to cook and they love Thai food!!!
Omg, I googled “butternut squash “ and you appeared. Well not you but your blog. I instantly was interested. Not with just the pictures and recipes but you’re personality! So genuine and cute! And, while your love story is romantic, you had me at “our two pups”!
I’m not married and have no children, but I love to cook and am raising two sibling brother boxer pups. They are double trouble but double love as well!
I can’t wait to try your recipes! So many recipes and I’m so excited with your variety! So happy to meet you Ali! Oh, btw, I’m Cecilia and my boys are Matteo and Tito.
Ali! My wife googled your Autumn Wild Rice Soup recipe yesterday, and I, the hubbie, cooked it last night, first attempt, for us and our son and his wife, and all I can say is….GIMME SOME OVEN! Just discovered your blog, and love the holding it down timewise to @ 30 minutes recipes. I didn’t feel overwhelmed by ingredients either, peeling, dicing was minimal, and I doubled the baby bellas because I love mushrooms. The soup was a HIT and I told all my foodie family about your blog. I’m vegetarian as well (like your man) and have had to compromise this last year due to change of jobs. But with amazing soup recipes like yours, I think I found the path back to hearty eating. p.s. That was my first successful roux, EVER.
Thanks and God Bless You! -Stu, Macon, Georgia
Hi Ali. I was looking online for a smoothie recipe to make in my newly unwrapped Christmas present, and I found you. Congrats on your move to Spain – how exciting is THAT! Enjoyed the last 30 minutes reading about you, and will make sure to bookmark GimmeSomeOven!
Hello Ali,
I came across your blog when I did a Google search for molasses cookies. I enjoy reading your blog. Thank you for sharing your recipes including well detailed tips & why they’re a good idea. :) I wish you, your husband, & dogs a Happy 2019 & beyond! :)
I love your recipes When your gumbo post mentioned the HenHouse, knew you are a KC girl – me too tho currently in Chicago. Nothing like KC bbq, Stroud’s, Princess Garden (if it’s still there?) -love it all. Makes me want to go home! There is great food here too, but it just isn’t home.
I love the variety of your recipes and have used quite a few. Always love them, the variety and spices. I thought I had used one which I can’t find though. My family is asking for it again. It was made with chicken, coconut milk and was the best. My son thought it was brazilian chicken
Love your style of cooking. Easy fresh fun. So glad you are in Spain so you can the European touch to so many dishes.keep up the good work. Oh I can actually find all of you ingredients in my local store
Ali, I tried wants to send you a suggestion about all of your travels have been spent many days in Barcelona while traveling around the world we made two trips up to Andorra which may not sound like the most exciting place in the world but it was so interesting and so much fun the religious center up there will knock your socks off with the history behind it we happen to go up on good Friday and it was sleeting in just dreadful but if you recall there’s always the story of bad weather on good Friday be sure to go to Andorra it’s also a great shopping place people from France an all over come up there because it’s Textfree haven that’s supposed to say tax TAX