About

I first heard the word nosh from my dear and wonderful late father, a New York native and always the most influential foodie in my life. He used to describe it in the context of "noshing on a bagel and schmear while walking around New York." I fell in love with that word, even though I probably will never live in New York and hardly ever nosh (I'm too afraid of choking.)

The word nosh itself is from the Yiddish word nashn, which means "to nibble on." Isn't that friendly?

Frugal Nosh combines three things I'm passionate about: a love of food, a love for sharing food with people, and the ideals of frugal living – the word frugal actually comes from the Latin words frugalis and frui that mean "virtuous" and "to enjoy." We are here on earth for such a short time, and I hope to show how easy and how worthwhile it is to live generously, eat well, and spend wisely the dollars we have been given.

I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man. Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

I grew up in the northern part of California's Central Valley. It still has the most exceptional Mexican food and the freshest produce that I've ever tasted in my entire life.

Frugal Nosh was born when I lived in Los Angeles, with its deplorable public transportation and steep prices - and also its metropolitan jumble of Middle Eastern, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean flavors (among others), most of which I'd never tried before. I explored the food truck phenomenon, wrote about deals and specials and ways to score free food, and found amazingly affordable foodie gems that I almost was too selfish to write about for fear my favorite secret haunts would become overrun.

And then I got married, was laid off from my L.A. newspaper job, and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and my father passed away - all in less than a year. Frugal Nosh had to go with the flow and change as well. Now it is more open and honest, more focused on how to cook delicious things at home than eat delicious things in restaurants, and definitely more aware of the brevity of life - why wait to host that cocktail party with your friends, invite those new neighbors over for dinner, be generous to those who have less than you? This is a blog about all of those things.

Kelsey Ramos-Conroy is a freelance web producer, a happy newlywed, and an avid climber, skier, hiker, cycler, swimmer and, of course, eater. Contact her here.

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