Baking never really felt like a special thing in and of itself to me; what felt special was bustling around the kitchen in our home back in Utah with my three sisters sitting at the bar where one of our brightly-colored portable stereos we got for Christmas was playing a Spice Girls CD as we argued together over who was going to lick the bowl. Many years have passed since those days, and embarking on adventures in my own kitchen has helped the exercise of baking become a special thing to me. My sisters aren’t clustered together nearby on their barstools chittering away, but when I open my pantry to pull out my containers of sugar and flour, I picture them asking what I’m making and pelting me with requests or ideas. Blending medleys of spice and sugar and salt has become a precious labor abundant with comfort and sprinkled with nostalgia, and I cherish every opportunity that I am granted to bake for the people I love in the unique manner that can only be expressed by creating magic for them with my own hands.

Baking has taught me the art of improvising and the grace of starting over. When I do make a mistake from an attempt at over-optimizing my skills and it annihilates what I’ve been working on, it can be devastating. But after I’ve accepted my defeat before promptly launching the offending result into the trash, I do my best to remind myself that failing has made me a better baker. That’s when I open the pantry door to retrieve my containers of flour and sugar once more to start over.

Since baking with my sisters in my childhood home, I’ve started over a lot between the many facets of my life, and I’ve found that most things are worth doing more than once to get right. This blog originated in thanks to my start-overs; my failures, my fiascos, my abominations. But along with all of my cultivated disasters have blossomed my successes, my determination, and my perseverance from a tiny place in my heart that brings me joy from harmonizing ingredients and sharing them with people around me. This blog is a celebration of those persistent efforts—a mixture of failures turned into triumphs.

I’m not a professional, but I’ll share what I can with you, too. Here you’ll find baking tips and helpful knowledge, recommendations, and my own recipes for eats of all kinds – gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, savory cooking, cocktails and mocktails, and more, because there’s so much more to be done in your kitchen than just baking. I have found that when perusing recipes or cookbooks and watching baking or cooking shows of any kind that methods and references to certain practices are often used that the layman baker might not have a full understanding of; there are so many things I’ve learned in trying recipes that I didn’t know off the top of my head or were new to me altogether, and I know all too well that reading a recipe that has an expectation of the reader already carrying a certain level of knowledge can make it seem intimidating.

This blog aims to break down professional baking methods and practices into simple instruction so you can follow along without having to do an additional search for things like what does it mean to cut in butter? or what does it mean to season your bread pan?; helpful methods that are common and often simple in concept, but maybe it’s your first time practicing them! There was a first time for myself as well, which is why this space is dedicated to explorers in the kitchen, whether you’re a seasoned baker or just starting out.

I started this journey with care to help others embrace the art of baking with my thoughtfully-curated collection of seasonal recipes, each infused with timeless flavors and homemade charm. Now that I’ve said all that, let’s bake something.

Where to start?

• You can read about how this project got started here.
• You can read my first recipe here.

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some of my favorite things