For this week’s Food Blogger Spotlight, we’ve got a writer who’s been published far and wide: Cheryl Sternman Rule. Her work has appeared in many popular glossies, such as EatingWell, Body + Soul, Cooking Light and Vegetarian Times, though we can get our daily dose of her lovely prose at 5 Second Rule. And guess what? This lady also takes her own food photos, which you’ll see throughout the post. Holy multi-talented, Batman.

In addition to her prolific freelance writing, Cheryl is currently hard at work on her first cookbook, RIPE: Satisfy your lust for fruits and vegetables with 75 fresh recipes and hundreds of additional combinations (Running Press) with photographer Paulette Phlipot. I can tell you one book I’ll be preordering as soon as it’s available!

Please welcome Cheryl, and say hello in the comments.

We all have staples that we couldn’t live without. What three ingredients do you *always* have in your kitchen and why? I’m not talking snacks like chips and hummus, but rather ingredients you use all the time in your cooking.

I’m going to avoid the obvious answers like olive oil and kosher salt, because even though those are absolutely essential and I would weep giant, pathetic tears were I without either, I’ll go with these three instead: coconut milk, nuts, and rice.

1. I heart light coconut milk and use it in both sweet and savory dishes. I make coconut cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting, stir coconut milk into oatmeal with a dash of cardamom and whisk it into Thai-style curries with halibut or chicken. Say the words coconut rice pudding to me and I might kiss you on the mouth.
2. Other nuts. My older son hates nuts, and that, with his always sunny disposition, makes me wonder occasionally if I’m really his mother. I go gaga for pistachios and cashews, regularly throw pine nuts atop pasta and use almond meal in a good 25% of my baked goods. Keeping walnuts out of my brownies in deference to my son’s aversion has been a true testament to my maternal love for him. Happily, my younger son likes nuts, so the balance in my house was somewhat restored with his birth.
3. Rice. For some people, comfort food means buttered noodles or mashed potatoes; for me, it’s a big bowl of rice. I don’t care if it’s wild, domesticated, black, red or white, I feel completely full and cared for when I eat a big bowl of rice. Top it with a mess of sautéed vegetables, or garlicky beans, or both, and I’m a happy girl.

Imagine you moved to the smallest apartment possible – a shoebox, really – and you only had room for a single cookbook. Of all your cookbooks, which one would you keep? Why do you love it so?

That’s a really unfair question, and I’d like to complain to the management. If you really forced me to pick just one, I’d go with Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I’m not a vegetarian myself (though I do eat that way roughly 2/3 of the time), but I find his book to be a terrific resource. No frills, just good ideas and useful information. I really wish I could plug some friends’ books here, but you probably won’t let me (Almost Meatless! The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook! Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey! Modern Spice!)

When you’re looking for new recipes (or creating one of your own), what is your number one priority? What makes you pick one recipe over another?

If a recipe takes up more than one printed page, I’m likely to pass. With two kids, an active freelance writing career and a blog that requires daily food and water, I just can’t get involved in stretching my own phyllo. I don’t dumb things down with two-ingredient recipes, but I try to keep reality in mind while maintaining a commitment to fresh ingredients.

Blogs have the potential to be so many things, from personal journals to outrageous adventure reports. What is the most important thing you put into your blog, and what is the most important thing you get out of it?

Hmm, the most important thing I put into my blog, honestly, is editing. I can be very longwinded (see?), and as a writer I truly believe that less is more. My blog’s title – 5 Second Rule – forces me to keep my rambling in check. If your blog were called “5 Second Wasabimon,” these replies would be a lot shorter.

The most important thing I get out of 5 Second Rule is community. It sounds cheesy, yes, but I feel like I’ve created an authentic community in that space and the give-and-take from my readers brings me a tremendous amount of joy. Oh, great — now I’m all verklempt.

Thanks for sharing, Cheryl. Didn’t mean to make you cry.

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Here are some favorite posts from Cheryl’s Blog, 5 Second Rule:

• Garbanzo Bean Salad with Red Curry and Tomatoes
• Manchego Walnut Pesto
• Fresh Figs with Honey, Balsamic, Goat Cheese and Pistachios