Marla Meridith Talks About Family Fresh Cooking and More

Marla’s Maple Cranberry Bourbon Martini

Ever wonder who’s behind those wildly successful food blogs? You know the ones that leave you salivating over every dish and make you yearn to recreate the same in your own home? Well, click on the play button below to hear what Telluride local Marla Meridith says about her blog, Family Fresh Cooking, a popular website/blog that enjoys a large following on virtually every platform of social media.

“I work hard to make it very visually appealing,” Marla told me during a recent Travel Fun interview when talking about how she became a food stylist/professional photographer/blogger practically overnight. “A lot of the food bloggers are self taught and workshop driven,” Marla continues when talking about her blog that features mostly original recipes and all her own photos. Indeed, Marla takes whole foods and makes them shine. In our interview she chats about two seasonal favorites: her Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake and Maple Cranberry Bourbon Martini, recipes you’ll want to prepare for the holidays.

Marla Upland Bird Hunting in Colorado

In the second half of our chat, Marla talks about her connection to Telluride. “I knew the second I saw this place, I had to live here some day,” Marla says, a sentiment echoed countless times over by people that have moved to T-ride. Marla, in fact, often features Telluride in Family Fresh Cooking, which is really more of a lifestyle blog. There she might cover Telluride restaurants, travel to the mountains or discoveries such as her new-founded passion for upland bird hunting, a surprising hobby for such a demure little gal. But as many people find out fast, the West brings out a fierceness of spirit in people that they never knew existed.

If you’d like to know more about blogs, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter in general, I encourage you to tune in to hear what this  social media diva has to say about connecting with your audience. “You can’t expect people to love you without getting to know them first,” Marla explains. That’s just one tip you can glean from this dynamic lady that knows how to cultivate a large following.

As for Thanksgiving, Marla plans to keep it simple and very community oriented by volunteering at and attending the Thanksgiving Community Meal, an annual feast open to all, hosted by Alpine Chapel in Telluride. There’s nothing like the good old fashioned way of connecting with people, even for this social media force extraordinaire.

Marla and Me in the KOTO Studio

Click on the play button below to listen to my half-hour interview with Marla Meridith from Family Fresh Cooking.

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