Hello! Welcome to Kettle and Kale. I love searching for delicious vegan food, whether that be abroad or in my own kitchen.
My name is Mel and I am a northeast transplant putting down roots a bit further south with my husband and fur baby. I am a lover of tea, electric kettles, and playing Christmas music year round. I am also a vegan, and it is the dog’s fault.
I have always been a food lover. I spent my entire childhood doing homework at the kitchen counter. I would watch my mother cook and take notes from my grandmother about how to make the perfect eggplant parmigiana. From a young age, I understood that it is food that brings people together.
I had no designs on a vegan diet whatsoever, and then I brought a certain fuzzy curmudgeon into my life: Marcus the Dog. A few months after welcoming Marcus into the family, it happened. I was cooking at the stove and Marcus took up his customary position at my feet. As I turned a chicken cutlet, it sizzled in the pan and Marcus looked up at me. It was as though he was saying, “go ahead, Mommy. Please drop that piece of chicken on the floor because nobody is going to miss it and I want it oh so much. Please!?” Somehow, in that moment, I had a realization:
Why was it okay for us to eat chickens, but not to eat dogs?
For a moment I questioned my sanity, but I had made a vital connection between the dog at my feet and the chicken in the pan.
I was so excited that I blurted “I am becoming a vegan!” to my husband the second he came home from work. And so I was a vegan, just like that: without question or reservation. It has been a couple of years, and I could not be happier!
It was originally my intent to set up Kettle & Kale exclusively as a vegan travel blog, to show people that you can travel the world and still partake in incredible cuisine worldwide. However, I learned all too quickly that my wallet does not exactly allow for that type of blog, so I am expanding to include the vegan eats in my own backyard.