About Kitchen Parade

Kitchen Parade is the food and recipe column written by Alanna Kellogg, a second-generation food writer and a home cook in a home kitchen in suburban St. Louis. It features fresh seasonal recipes for everyday healthful eating and occasional indulgences.

Kitchen Parade is the food and recipe column written by Alanna Kellogg, a second-generation food writer and a home cook in a home kitchen in suburban St. Louis. Kitchen Parade features fresh seasonal recipes for everyday healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Alanna also writes A Veggie Venture, the food blog about vegetables.

But Of Course, There's More to the Story

A Mother's Legacy

My mother started Kitchen Parade in 1959 for the weekly newspaper serving my hometown, a Minnesota-Ontario border town of just 1600 people. Mom was a young wife and a new mother then, also a home economist and city girl finding her place in a small town.

For twelve years, she wrote the column week in and week out and only stopped when our family moved away.

When my parents returned twenty years later, Mom was tickled when local cooks would stop on the street to welcome her home and add, “I got my favorite recipe for such-‘n’-such from your column.”

Decades after Mom's column ended, people still shared, "I made your mother's such-n-such just last week."


Kitchen Parade's column heading between 1959 and 1971, when my mother wrote the column.

That's Kitchen Parade's column heading between 1959 and 1971, when my mother wrote the column.

That man with his nose in the newspaper? That's my father. Those two "boys"? Ooops, they represent my sister and me. The dog? She looks pretty much like our sweet border collie named Rusty.

But how my mom is depicted with such an unstylish kerchief is incomprehensible for she had a genuine flair for fashion.

How Kitchen Parade Became Mine

Now my father, my sister Adanna and I all remember that during Mom's Kitchen Parade years, meals could be, errr, interesting at our house.

But I believe it was the rich mosaic of Mom’s cooking that instilled my appreciation for simple food prepared well.

After my mother’s death in 2002, I read her columns for the first time and discovered that she was a woman ahead of her time, counseling teenage nutrition and advocating fresh food years before the topics became common.

Moved by both grief and admiration, I felt called to resurrect her column in my own style under the Kitchen Parade banner.

And as mothers and daughters and life come full circle, now people stop me on the street and in the grocery store and leave comments online to say, "I made your such-n-such this week!"

The Oldest Food Blog on the Internet?

  • In 2009, I marked the 50th anniversary of my mom's first column by collecting her recipes in one place in Kitchen Parade by Shirley.
  • In 2019, Kitchen Parade celebrated its 60th anniversary.
  • By 2022, I'd written Kitchen Parade for twenty years!

No wonder I sometimes joke that Kitchen Parade is the oldest food blog on the entire internet!

Where You've Seen My Writing

  • Since 2002, right here at KitchenParade.com
  • Since 2005, at A Veggie Venture, my food blog about vegetables
  • A weekly column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  • A weekly column for the Webster-Kirkwood Times & the South County Times
  • Occasional contributions to St. Louis' monthly food magazine Sauce
  • A weekly contributor to BlogHer
  • A bi-weekly column for small-town newspapers across Missouri
  • A weekly column for the Baudette Region, my hometown newspaper

I Food Blogs



I also write A Veggie Venture, the month-long project that took on its own life back in 2005, one of the very first food blogs. For an entire year, I cooked a vegetable in a new way every single day and along the way was dubbed the veggie evangelist!

Now A Veggie Venture is the award-winning home of 1000+ free vegetable recipes, including the famous Alphabet of Vegetables, vegetable recipes for every course and Weight Watchers recipes.

From Asparagus to Zucchini, seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special, A Veggie Venture is my food playground, a true "food blog". All these years later, I remain 100% excited by vegetables!

Not only do I write my own food blog, I also read many hundreds of other food blogs from all across the world. Such creativity! Such passion! Such skills!

All These Years Later? The Real Credit Goes to YOU

You Are My Inspiration

The online audience for Kitchen Parade has grown many-many-many fold. Thank you, readers!

It thrills me that so many cooks are inspired by simple recipes made from whole and wholesome ingredients. Your notes, your e-mails, your comments, your pins, your shares, your likes, they truly inspire me.

I wake up every morning thinking about what you might want to cook today, tonight, this weekend.

With Kitchen Parade, my goal is to inspire both new and experienced cooks, even as I learn more about food and explore new recipes, ingredients and techniques. Here's what to expect from Kitchen Parade.


  • A familiar, over-the-kitchen-table writing style
  • Recipes made from easy-to-find and "whole" ingredients
  • Long-time favorite recipes from family and readers
  • Tried-and-true recipes, often with an unexpected or unusual touch!
  • Recipes tied to the seasons, holidays and family festivities
  • Kitchen tips for busy cooks, or cooks new to the kitchen
  • Nutrition information and Weight Watchers points
  • Product and cookbook recommendations only when I really love them myself
  • A super-organized Recipe Box, so that it's quick-quick to find just the right recipe

Here you may count on: fresh and seasonal ingredients; classic recipes, though often with a twist and often simplified; real ingredients, especially pantry ingredients; an emphasis on getting supper on the table; plus recipes for special occasions.

So, Welcome ...

Poke around the Recipe Box, see what looks good for a Quick Supper or look for ideas on what to make with some leftover buttermilk, say, or an abundance of sweet potatoes, say, or decide what to make for a Scandinavian feast, say, or what to make for a vegan houseguest, say.

If you like what you see, come back for new recipes about once a week plus a newsletter on Sundays.

Or better yet, sign up for a free e-mail subscription so you'll never miss a single recipe.

For more information, check the FAQs.

... And Many Thanks

Many thanks for visiting, for reading. I hope you'll come back often.

And if you have a favorite recipe Kitchen Parade's readers might like, just drop me an e-mail, you'll find my current email address in the FAQs. I do love hearing from readers! Often, your comments and messages make my day!


~ Alanna 1/1/24

© Copyright Kitchen Parade
2002 – 2024

Alanna Kellogg
Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

Comments

  1. Anonymous5/11/2008

    I just want you to know how much I enjoy your food column ... and the unusual recipes you publish. I find them very different, yet very good, and not exotic.

    In fact, I copy them, then after trying them myself, launch them far and wide to Denver, Tuscon, Kansas City, Florida.

    Thank you for being so generous with your kitchen knowledge. I look forward, every Friday, to your next contribution.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous3/22/2009

    Hi Alanna,

    I love to cook and I love your site. I am a weight watcher and I love the fact that you list the point values of your recipes. Thanks so much for the great selection on your site.

    I wonder if you can include some Indian recipes. I enjoy trying new cuisines such as Indian, Thai, Mexican etc.

    Also if you could include higher fibre ingredients such as spelt, kamut etc.

    Thanks again!
    Best,
    Roberta from Toronto Ontario Canada

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Roberta,

    Thank you for the kind words! You might check out this section for international recipes, you'll find a few ideas for recipes from other countries. I'm careful about them -- ingredients can be hard to find. I'm lucky to have a huge selection very nearby -- I bet in Toronto, you do too -- but not everyone does.

    Thanks for the ideas re spelt etc -- I've not 'nailed' them myself and again, there's the question of availability. Still - grains are a major priority to work on this year.

    All the best,

    Alanna

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rosemarie6/17/2011

    Amazing! I just "happened" onto this site when I was searching for a list of Weight Watchers power foods that I could print and keep.
    What a wonderful site this is! I'll be visiting very often.
    Thanks so much for such a wonderful site where people can come to check out a host of great recipes to try. You're helping us all get/stay slim!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous2/01/2012

    Just tuned in recently and signed up for your newsletter. I'm a WW Lifetime Member who has fallen off the wagon. I appreciate all the WW support information and recipes you have available. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I found your site on Food Blogs. Love your post and signed up for your feed. Can't wait to learn more about you and your food.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Alanna, I have been collecting recipes for 60+ years and a close friend started the favorite food in the the parade section of the post dispatch back in the 50ties.,, I I still use many of these recipes. My two daughters were featured and so was I on different Sunday's . Some of the old ones are still the best and I still use them. I live in Florida now, but remember Saturdays at soulard market and going home to pickle and use the produce . Great days. I don't miss the snow and cold, but I do miss Missouri tomatoes and great Midwest life. Your blog is a joy, thank you,m

    ReplyDelete
  8. Marilyn ~ Thanks so much for your kind words, I so appreciate your writing. Today is one of those cold and snowy days you don't miss but those summer tomatoes are only, let's see, five months away!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I very much enjoy both your columns- thank you👋👋

    Blessings,

    ReplyDelete
  10. Pat ~ Thank YOU, it’s my privilege that you follow both my sites.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I enjoy & try your recipes (breads being my favorites). I am 87 & a native Missourian. If you have been to the Lake of the Ozarks you know where I live. Have lived & worked in St. Louis (years ago). Keep the recipes coming.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous8/02/2017

    would like know if anyone has the recipe for a oven-baked bacon on low heat and you could aslo make into jerkyto. It was in the parade mag a few months ago.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Maralou ~ Thanks for the kind words, so glad you’re inspired by my recipes -- and still cooking!

    Anonymous ~ So this is “Kitchen Parade” not “Parade Magazine”. You’ll have to search their site for your recipe. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Alanna,

    Just looking at some of your recipes. All the recipes I have tried are delicious ... we think of you when we are cooking.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. But I also love hearing your reactions, your curiosity, even your concerns! When you've made a recipe, I especially love to know how it turned out, what variations you made, what you'll do differently the next time. ~ Alanna