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.
Ali, I made the No Knead Bread and want to know how i can get tithe “mouse holes” in my loaf.
Thank you so much from Las Vegas for sharing all of this! ?
Hi from Puerto Rico! I randomly found your website when I was looking for a Scalloped Potatoes. After doing the recipe, which was delicious, I started reading and browsing your website. I have to tell you that I’m so happy I found your blog. In this quarantine I have cooked so many new things and I’m always looking for new things to cook. Definitely I will be doing more of your recipes. Keep you posted on the outcome. ??
Just found you when I was looking for a fried rice recipe. All recipes before yours that I have made have always been lacking. I was making the grilled chicken teriyaki from Cook’s County last night and wanted fried rice to accompany that dish. I followed your recipe to a T. Made rice at noon so it could get cold. You said the key to the recipe is the butter, cold rice (I am always in a hurry and my rice has never been cold) the sesame oil and the oyster sauce _ you were right. The dish was perfect. I signed up for the your email. Now if your Caesar salad and shrimp scampi turn out like the rice oh how happy I will be. Will go out there to look at yours soon.
Thank You
Karen from Salisbury NC.
Hi Ali, I’ve been following your blog for awhile and I have really enjoyed your posts. I have a 14 year old daughter who has loved cooking & travel, and she is currently looking into different career paths. She has dyslexia and school has always been a struggle when it comes to reading and writing. Thankfully with modern technology, she can have anything on the web read aloud to her and there is great software for speech to text. So the world of learning is at her fingertips. I was wondering if you would ever consider answering some of her own personal questions about your journey to creating this blog about food and travel and some of the obstacles you’ve overcome while you have been on the blogging adventure. Thank you for considering.
Ali,
So enjoy learning about you and how you began this site. I am a recent “fan” of this site. Your advice on how to cook a delicious chicken breast has changed my family’s dinner time! Tonight we are trying the Moo Shu Chicken….the directions, tips and videos are exactly what I need.
Sometimes I would like to cancel dinner time, but know that isn’t possible. My family wouldn’t go for that ……
Then I look for recipes, end up at your site and get excited about cooking again.
I hope you are well, especially in light of COVID-19. Many people are cooking much more at home now. When friends ask what to make I start them with your chicken breasts, the recipe/ideas that got me started.
Thank you so much!
?❤️?
Hola!
So, I just stumbled across your blog looking for a Jambalaya recipe. It looked pretty good and am now set out to make it here at home best I can from where I live (and during the covid lockdown). I then looked here on your “About” and got a real kick. In short, my girlfriend and I are from the states, Florida, but she is from Puerto Rico originally. In 2017 we followed a crazy dream and moved to Spain as well! We came to start our own restaurant and have one now on Mallorca! We initially moved to Asturias and rented a restaurant there for about a year and a half and we decided to move to a more warmer climate as Julia could not take the winters in the mountains being an island girl. So, from one expat to another, hola neighbor!
As a side note, I’d be curious if you have some versions of these recipes based (or tweaked) to what we can get here. I can get a lot of things from the big market in Palma, but for instance, I have yet to find Andouille and use chorizo criollo. And for the restaurant we have altered many recipes trying to use as many local ingredients as we can to blend them into a “local” version. We cook with Sobrassada a lot as well.
Un Abrazo,
Matt y Julia
I’m impressed. I usually grab and go off allrecipes.com or other, but I went outside my comfort zone and found you… nicely done here. Keep it up!
I laughed riotously, with joy, when I first saw the name of your blog! What an amazing adaptation, lol!
Thank you for your eclectic taste, and excellent tips and tricks!
D
Love your blog! I discovered it when searching for enchiladas which I made last night and they were delicious (with the homemade sauce)! Just read about you living in Barcelona – one of my favorite cities in the world! So much to discover and enjoy there – la boqueria – one of my favorites! Keep on sharing your great recipes! Gracias!