Homemade Recipes & Handcrafted Joy

Welcome to a modern foodie blog devoted to homemade recipes and handcrafted joy! Here, you’ll find kitchen creations, hospitality tips, healthy eating encouragement, food fun for the whole family, product reviews, restaurant recommendations, and so much more – all tinged with a healthy dose of reality and just a pinch of sass!

Our family, like yours most-likely, is always on the hunt for deliciousness. But we are pursuing so much more than just that. We chase after joy anywhere we can find it and delight in making memories. We are always up for a good laugh! And we desperately desire to make a positive impact on the world around. From this standpoint, I’m excited to open my kitchen to you; to share the cooking tips and tricks we’ve discovered, our favorite food combinations, and which homemade recipes are occupying our table. Plus, our passion for living an intentional life.

Basic Ingredients

I got my start in the blogging world over a decade ago, owning a successful financial stewardship blog and managing several social media sites. Now, when I’m not in the kitchen or behind the computer, I teach literature to high school students and dabble in marketing/communications where needed. My husband and I have been married for over 15 years. We have 3 precious small people who (still) proudly claim us as their parents: Bea, Gia, & Ellis (or at least, that’s what they’ll be called here *wink*).

This blog goes beyond the scope of just me sharing my joy of food and hospitality; it is also an outlet for one of my deepest passions: writing. The Lord has instilled in my heart a yearning for the written word that I simply cannot ignore; lest, I fear, I might spontaneously combust. In fact, that was one of the driving reasons why I started blogging in the first place, all those years ago. I wanted to write. I also wanted adult interaction. We had just given birth to our first child and moved 600 miles to an area where I knew no one. So, yeah, a desire to write – and the need to keep my mind afloat amidst all the spit-up and diapers! #StayAtHomeMomsUnite

Food for Thought

Some of my earliest memories in the kitchen involve homemade french toast and my mom’s cut-out cookie recipe. Like so many, my journey in the kitchen is a complex and nostalgic one. I pray that you’ll find remembrances of your own childhood kitchen experiences in the posts on this site. I also pray that you’ll find inspiration for modern, homemade meals that meet the needs of your whole family, whether those be memory-making experiences, food allergy recipe challenges, or a desire for experimentation (that won’t blow the budget or burn the house down).

Homemade Recipes

Alright, let’s pause for a hot minute and get real. We love homemade meals and trying new recipes, but we have three kids and a normal life. Eating together around the dinner table more often than not is a ‘must’ in our home. Because of food allergies, we can’t (and therefore don’t) eat out much (like less than once a month). However, we do strive to eat healthy(ish) meals prepared in our kitchen – even if they’re not often terribly fancy, like Chicken Tacos in the crockpot.

That being said, my husband and I desire our children to have well-rounded pallets and a taste for discovery; joy in trying new things. Recently, we’ve been trying to make at least one homemade new recipe a month. I’m all about Asian cuisine right now (even got a swanky new Japanese cookbook for Christmas). This makes it easier – because we have a “genre” or similar techniques/flavors from which to pull. In addition, we often look for new-to-us food items at the grocery store, farmers market, or at a restaurant. For example, we bought a packet of Indian Tandoori chicken seasoning this week, something we’ve never made at home! We’re all excited to try it out.

Sift & Whisk

Through the years, I have learned (finally!) that experimenting with flavors and cooking homemade recipes doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t need to take two day’s worth of prep. And it definitely doesn’t need to require you polishing the silver. It should start with joy: finding happiness in time spent together, in creating, and in opening your heart (and sometimes your home) to new people and new experiences.

Food can be the starting point for so many virtues: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and even self-control (!!). It can also be the catalyst which allows you to be known as gracious, hospitable, and creative. In the modern age, it is necessary to find ways of doing these things that are manageable for your family. Which is something I hope we can reflect on the pages and in the homemade recipes you find here.

Handcrafted Joy

As our lives have become busier, we’ve discovered easier ways to embody these virtues around a table of food. Sometimes that means meeting friends for dinner at a restaurant, instead of having them over to the house. Or prepping meals for busy nights in advance, instead of stressing over the rush of a homemade recipe from scratch. Or buying prepackaged seasonings and sauces to experiment with before diving head-first into a new cuisine fully homemade or going broke on ingredients for a complicated, new recipe.

At the end of the day, the food and experiences we share should really be defined by the people present and the atmosphere in which they exist. Focusing on those two things really does make the homemade and handcrafted part of each recipe and meal much easier. And much more worth the (sometimes added) effort.

The Table of the King

Like so many others, the Lord took my plans and He established my steps in ways I could have never predicted (Ps. 16:9). From inner-city missions to event coordination; from a SAHM with creative and interesting side jobs, including blogging & social media marketing; and now to an added part-time career being an educator, He has led me along a path of growth and development which are culminating, I hope, in a great purpose! A purpose, which I pray, will leave His name in bright lights, even if mine is wiped from history in a few years. Or a few clicks.

One thing has always been sure: the Lord is concerned with me. And in response, I am striving to always be about the desires of His heart and His kingdom. Friends, if you don’t know the God I do, I welcome you to investigate Him. Search Him out. Test what He claims is good, and hold fast to it. From tear-filled nights to mountain-top experiences, He has yet to not meet me where I am, regardless of my sin-soaked exterior. I’d bet my life on the fact that He’ll do the same for you; chances are, He already has, you just may not have recognized Him there.

An Invitation to Dine

In this online space, I hope to share with you my kitchen, my family, and my heart. And maybe a bit of my cheeky personality. I hope that soon our favorite homemade recipes will be your family’s favorite kitchen recipes. And that, even through the screen, you can share in the joy, warmth, and purpose that surrounds our house. Can’t wait to break (virtual) bread with you and chow down together!