And dailyfoodplates is my little corner of the internet!
I launched dailyfoodplates in the spring of 2015 while I was still teaching third‑grade math in Portland, Oregon. I’d been swapping recipes with friends for years, but the pandemic gave me the push to turn my notebook scribbles into a real site. My first post was a simple tomato‑basil pasta that I made for my own family, and I posted it with a photo taken on my phone. I never imagined that a single recipe could spark a community.
Fast‑forward to today, the blog reaches about 150,000 unique visitors each month and counts 12,300 newsletter subscribers (the list hit 5,000 in March 2021 and has been climbing ever since). In 2022 I released an e‑book, “Everyday Plates,” which has sold over 8,000 copies and landed on the top‑10 list in the “Home Cooking” category on Amazon. I’ve also added a weekly video series on YouTube, where we now have 45,000 subscribers and an average of 3,200 views per episode. The site feels more like a gathering place than a blog, and I love reading every comment that rolls in.
I live in Asheville, North Carolina, with my husband Mark and our two kids, Lily (7) and Noah (4). When I’m not in the kitchen, you’ll find me on a nearby trail, tending to the rosemary and mint that grow in our backyard, or listening to a live jazz trio at the local coffee house. My favorite kitchen tools are a cast‑iron skillet, a hand‑cranked pasta maker, and a trusty wooden spoon that’s been with me since college.
One quirky habit I have is that I always start a new recipe by chopping an onion and then humming the first few bars of “Take Five.” It’s my little way of turning everyday cooking into a mini‑performance.