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,
I ran across your, ” The Big Reveal”, while shopping for cabinets at Nebraska Furniture Mart. Your kitchen makeover is impressive. I realize you are in Kansas but maybe you can give some insight into how you and your contractor interacted, since it’s apparent you bought a lot of the supplies and appliances yourself shopping around at different locations. We remodeled a bathroom and were pretty good at buying our own materials, but the contractor was not happy. We are getting ready to remodel our bathrooms and kitchen and would like to make this a more enjoyable experience. I really appreciate your web-site and will look to see if we can use any of your recommended vendors. Our daughter is a homeschool Mom and tells the funniest stories about her experience. I told her she would be good at blogging. She has a close knit circle of about 400 friends that she stays in touch with.
Cheers,
Pieter Kempff
Hi Pieter! We actually did the crazy thing of self-contracting the project (which I don’t recommend — so confusing!), but totally recommend all of the vendors that we used. NFM was also awesome to work with. Hope that helps! :)
Made the Kale Caesar Salad over the weekend for guests and it was a hit. Love the dressing – made it exactly as written and it was a winner. Thank you!
Awesome Barbara — we’re so glad to hear that! :D
Hi Ali, I was looking for a recipe for potato soup and came across your blog. I love the comment you made about just being at peace and aware of that sense of well being. So wise and wonderful. I wish I had known that when I was 30. So I am thrilled to have found your blog, good recipe’s from a wise young woman
Ali,
I tried your Best Chicken Enchilada with Red Enchilada Sauce. While I did make a mess in the kitchen, my fourteen year old son LOVED the dish and my spouse raved. My spouse thought the enchiladas were restaurant quality. This recipe is going into our favorites book.
Wanted to write and thank you for sharing it. (Matt Toll from Baltimore, MD)
We’re so glad you and your family enjoyed them Matthew! Thanks for taking the time to comment. :)
Hi Ali,
I stumbled across your blog from one of my other favorites, Brown Eyed Baker, and I love your recipes. I live here in KC too and would love to know if you have any great recommendations for restaurants, etc? I have my preferred ones of course, but would love any ones that you can suggest as another food connoisseur . :-) Thanks!
Hi Missy! I know Ali loves Beer Kitchen, The Farmhouse, places at the River Market (Burrito Bros, Bo Lings, Carrollo’s, Beignet), McCoy’s Public House, El Patron Cocina & Bar, Julep, Westside Local, Quay Coffee, Thou Mayest, and Il Lazzarone. Hope this helps! :)
Hi! I recently came across your blog through Pinterest as I was searching for a recipe and then realized you’re a fellow Kansas Citian! Anyway, another blogger/real-life friend and I are planning a KC blogger meetup and we’d love for you to join! I couldn’t find your email address anywhere on here, but if you want to drop me an email with it (sarahbsides at gmail dot com), we’ll add you to our list!
I am new to Pinterest and cooking, I’ve been in “menu pause” for sometime now, but am getting the itch. For people like me and also for the ones whose cooking ideas have gone stale, some ideas to what to serve with the different entries might help, at least it would me.
Your web page and information is Great. I bookmarked your page and can NOT wait to maNe some of your recipes. Thank you
Thanks Tom! We hope you enjoy whatever you decide to make! :)
I just discovered gimmesomeoven and absolutely love your recipes. (Already planning on the enchiladas with your homemade sauce.) It’s so frustrating though that the ads almost ruin the experience. In this day of mobile devices, (I have a latest generation samsung android ) I really can’t understand why a site should be so slow because of ads that I will NEVER click on, (mostly because by clicking, I’m saying that it’s okay to ruin a site with those very same ads). I really hope it improves on your site, as you have one of the best recipe collections I have found….on par with Ree Drummond! I love to cook, especially Mexican food. I am a transplant from San Francisco to Montreal, and the only way to get good Mexican food is to make it myself. Just finding the ingredients is a huge challenge. (3 years to finally find corn tortillas!) So, thank you so much for awesome recipes, I will be back, but with a bit of aaarrrrggghh when those pages take forever to load. Cheers and happy cooking!
Love your recipes they are amazing and great instructions. Do you have a recipe book out? Would love to get it!
Thanks Rosie, we appreciate that! Unfortunately no, we do not, but stay tuned as who knows what will happen down the road! :)