Hi, I’m Mary, a professional cook and baker, and an amateur gardener, living in New Jersey, USA. Years spent in professional kitchens taught me the importance of having the freshest ingredients available, and growing my own food allows me to bring those flavors home. My Substack, The Cozy Vegetarian, came out of a desire to share my recipes for plant-based seasonal comfort food. Substack has been a perfect creative outlet for me, as it combines my love of cooking, baking, gardening, and community.

How long have you been growing your own food and what does your garden look like today?

While I’ve always grown basics like tomato plants and herbs, I started gardening in earnest in 2016. I was living in Missouri at the time, in a rental property that would not allow me to plant anything in the ground. I learned everything I could about container gardening, and was able to grow a wide variety of vegetables in pots on my patio. Although I now own my home and can plant in-ground, my yard has many areas where the sunlight changes from full sun to shade depending on how leafed out the trees are. So while many of my plants are grown in-ground, I still do quite a bit of container gardening. I use grow bags now, however, as opposed to large pots. Grow bags are much bigger and allow roots to grow deeper than they would in pots. I love it because I can move the bags around depending on how much sunlight a certain area of my yard gets. It also makes it a lot easier to keep weeds out of the veggies!

Many people will say that certain vegetables should not be planted together, or that plants need a certain amount of space between them. But as a true chaos gardener, I tend to take that advice with a grain of salt. I don’t have the luxury of a large, flat spot in full sun to install a dozen raised beds. My home is very suburban, and I have neighbors close by on all sides. The shade from the neighbors’ trees limits where I can grow, and the lawn slopes and is quite uneven. Since my growing space is limited, and I grow a large variety of vegetables, things get planted wherever there is a spot. It doesn’t make for the most aesthetic garden beds, I will admit! But I’m growing food for a purpose, not an aesthetic. I save the decorative form for my flower beds.

I have always grown culinary herbs, but in the last few years I started branching out into medicinal herbs as well. I am certainly not an herbalist, but I know how to make some teas and salves. Herbs grow so well, and they require very little care. I can grow them in one of my part-shade garden beds, since they’re not as particular about their sunlight needs.

I am a big believer in interplanting flowers with vegetables to improve yields. Many plants, such as squash, cucumbers, and melons, need pollinators in order to grow fruit. Berries too, as bees help the fruit become large and plump. I have several native pollinator beds around my property, and I use them as highways to guide pollinators to the vegetable beds and berry patch. My raspberry and blackberry bushes are always swarming with bees, and I get a huge yield from such a small space. I also plant flowers like nasturtiums and marigolds, not for the pollinators, but because they act as pest deterrents by attracting beneficial insects that keep pests in check. I have found that gardening works best and is most rewarding when I work with nature rather than against it.

What varieties of vegetables and/or fruit do you grow?

Often it depends on my needs that year. I home-can and preserve quite a bit of food every year, so much of what I grow depends on what I need. If I need to replenish my tomato sauce supply, I will grow some Amish Paste tomatoes, which are larger and produce a better yield than the more popular Roma tomatoes. Similarly with cucumbers. If I am running low on pickles, I will grow pickling cucumbers in addition to standard slicing cucumbers. But there are some must-haves. I always grow garlic, tomatoes, and greens. I love greens, and eat them daily if I have them. I grow Swiss chard, spinach, kale, lettuce of all varieties, mustard greens, and turnips for both the roots and the greens. I also grow celery every year. I am not much of a fan of celery, but I have found that homegrown is less bitter than store-bought.

As for varieties, I look for those that will grow in my sandy, acidic soil. While New Jersey is known as the Garden State due to its vast expanse of farmlands, the area I live in is called the Pine Barrens. Barrens, because the sandy, acidic soil is not hospitable to much outside of pine trees, mountain laurel, and blueberries. My soil has been amended with compost for years so it is much improved, but it can still be difficult to grow in. As such, I tend to lean more towards hybrids than heirloom varieties. Hybrids are specially bred to have certain disease resistance or grow well in poor soil. One day, I hope to have my soil amended enough to grow heirlooms and collect seeds for growing in future years, but for now, I need the extra insurance of hybrid varieties. I start most of my vegetables from seed, so I look to see what varieties different seed companies are carrying each winter when I place my seed order. If a variety ticks all the boxes of what I am looking for, I give it a try! But I have found that Tango celery and Music garlic are top performers, so I grow those varieties every year.

What food do you grow that you are unable to find in the shops?

Garlic scapes and early green garlic are two treats I look forward to each year. They are an added bonus of growing garlic. Green garlic is garlic that is harvested in the spring, before the bulbs start to form. They look similar to leeks, but have a mild garlic flavor. Garlic scapes are the flower stalks that grow out of hardneck garlic. They get cut off before they flower, so the plant will put its energy into producing a larger bulb instead of going to seed. Garlic scapes are wonderfully fresh and crunchy, with a nice garlic punch. They are especially good in vegetable risotto.

This year I’m growing Jersey Yellow sweet potatoes, a variety grown here in New Jersey since the 1700s. It’s like a cross between a russet and a sweet potato; it has a dry, white flesh but a nutty, mildly sweet flavor similar to that of a sweet potato. Another favorite is Autumn Frost winter squash, a lovely variety named for its unique appearance. It has a deep orange skin that develops a translucent white overlay, so it looks as if it is covered in frost. It tastes sweet and creamy like butternut squash, and stores for months. I grow pattypan summer squash and harvest tomatoes while still green, and both of those get sliced and fried. If you’ve never had fried green tomatoes, you are truly missing out! I fry my pattypan squash the same way I fry my tomatoes. You can find my recipe here. Specialty herbs are probably the hardest to find in shops or at local farmstands. Culinary herbs like pineapple sage, lemon balm, and orange thyme, and medicinal herbs such as arnica and feverfew. I grow a wide variety each year, and I love the unique flavors they add to a dish or the healing balms they make.

What has been your biggest growing success and/or disaster?

My biggest success has been growing luffa squash. If you’ve ever wondered where the loofah sponges you use in the bath come from, they come from squash! Luffa is a tropical gourd that requires a very long growing season and takes about a month to germinate. I live in New Jersey, in zone 6B/7A, so definitely not tropical. (If you live in the US and are unsure of your hardiness zone, you can find yours here.) My last frost is usually mid to late April, and my first frost is usually late October to early November. While I technically have a 6-month growing window, it is not warm enough here to plant out warm-weather crops like squash, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant until mid-May. By mid-October, though it might not frost, it is quite cold and the days are very short, so nothing really grows past the end of September. Luffa takes 5-6 months to grow to maturity, so I barely have enough time in my growing zone. When I grew Luffa, I started it indoors so it could germinate before planting out. The time to maturity listed on seed packets is after germination or transplanting. Since I transplanted seedlings, they needed 5-6 months to reach maturity. If I had planted seeds outside in the spring and waited for them to germinate, they would need closer to 7 months, because they take about a month to germinate. So by starting indoors, I extended my growing window. I was able to harvest just before the first frost came, and I ended up with a bunch of luffa sponges that can be used in the bath, kitchen, or wherever they are needed!

My biggest disaster is somewhat of an ongoing thing, centered around garden pests. On my rental property in Missouri there was no fence, and the deer would come and eat everything I grew. Just last week, I had seedlings out on my porch for fall planting, and a groundhog came along and ate them all. I’ll have to start some seeds again and see if they’ll be ready before our first frost, but I doubt I’ll get much this year. Every year I have a great crop of summer and winter squash growing, and squash vine borers destroy them. Last summer, I successfully cut them out of my pumpkin vines, but they took down all the summer squash. This year they took everything, save for one zucchini plant. I’ve tried all the tricks, but they are incessant here, and it is so hard to find and kill them all. I don’t use pesticides in my garden, so anything I use to kill bugs has to be chemical-free. But there is one saving grace: I am lucky to be surrounded by dozens of local farms, so anything that I am unable to grow, I can easily pick up at a nearby farmstand.

Which crop do you grow every year, and what is your favourite dish to make with it?

Tomatoes. Several varieties of tomatoes. I always have at least one cherry tomato plant that I can snack on while I’m outside, or add to salads. I also grow slicing tomatoes, and that variety will vary depending on how I’m feeling that year. Sometimes I’ll grow a deep purple variety like Black Beauty or Cherokee Purple, and sometimes I’ll grow a standard slicer like Beefsteak or Better Boy. But I always have several Amish Paste tomato plants. There is nothing cozier to me than a pot of tomato sauce simmering on the stove on a cold winter day, so I grow plenty of Amish Paste tomatoes to preserve for year-round use. I use my home-canned tomatoes to make tomato sauce. It’s a recipe handed down to me from my grandmother, who was a phenomenal cook. My grandfather, her husband, was Italian, so she learned to make tomato sauce just the way he liked it. It’s great as-is on spaghetti, but even better in eggplant parmigiana.

How do you plan your meals around the produce you grow?

I don’t meal plan around fresh produce as much as I grow with preservation in mind. Every winter, after the start of the New Year, I sit down and plan out that year’s garden. I inventory my food stores and determine how much of each item I will need to preserve that year. Not everything gets preserved however, and I certainly cook with my produce throughout the growing season. I don’t necessarily plan around it; I tend to just see what’s ripe, and if I don’t have a preservation project in mind for it, I eat it. Often, I make salads. I love to make warm salads, where I roast or grill some of the vegetables, and serve them over tender greens with a fresh herb vinaigrette. I also love to make veggie hummus wraps; they are great on a hot day, and surprisingly filling.

How do you manage a glut of produce? What do you make?

Since I do a lot of canning and preserving, I often plan for a glut of produce. If I grow 50 pounds of tomatoes, I can make enough tomato sauce to last the year. I get about 40 heads of garlic a year, and I will mince that up in the food processor with a little olive oil, scoop it out with a small cookie scoop onto a sheet tray lined with freezer paper, and freeze it into little balls that I can then throw in every recipe that calls for garlic. But if I have a wide array of veggies, I will make a nice vegetable chowder. I keep winter squash like butternut and Autumn Frost in storage in my basement to cook with throughout the winter, but I use my pumpkins to make homemade pumpkin puree. I store it in the freezer in 1-cup portions, and thaw it out when I’m ready to bake. It makes a wonderful pumpkin pie, like this old-fashioned one I like to make for Thanksgiving. Herbs get processed as well, since I use so many in my cooking. I harvest and dry herbs in the spring and summer, so my pantry is well-stocked for the winter. Harvesting and drying herbs is one of the easiest and most rewarding garden tasks. I’ve written a post about it here.

Do you have a compost? If so, what is the best way of getting the most out of composting and do you have any tips?

Unfortunately, I do not have a compost. In my county, compost piles must be at least 20 feet from a shared property line, and since I have neighbors on all sides, the only place I could put a compost pile would be directly outside my door. I have a local hardware store that sells fantastic bagged compost at a very good price, so that’s what I use. I amend my soil with compost twice a year. Once in the fall after all the plants are spent and the beds have been cleaned out, and once in the spring a few weeks before I start planting. However, in the fall, I do a little bit of “composting in place”. First, I clean out my garden beds. Then I take any compostable food scraps and spent plants, cut them up, and place them on the beds. Then I put some compost over them. After the leaves have fallen off the trees, I cover my garden beds with leaf mulch and add a little more compost on top to hold them in place. It’s sort of like lasagna layers. All that organic matter will break down all winter, and in the spring the soil will be well fed and teeming with worms and beneficial life. In the spring, I add more compost a few weeks before planting, and by the time I plant out my seedlings, I have wonderfully rich soil.

What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to start growing their own food?

Grow a garden that suits YOU. If you try to grow someone else’s garden, you will be disappointed. There is a lot of aspirational content online about what a garden “should” look like, and what “must” be grown. Throw all that out the window and create the garden you want. If you don’t like tomatoes, don’t grow them! If you don’t really even like vegetables, and instead prefer fruits and herbs, then grow some berry bushes, fruit trees, or an herb garden. If you don’t have any sunny spots in your yard, then grow things like lettuce and herbs that require less sun. If you don’t have a yard at all, grow some of your favorite things in pots out on a balcony or in a sunny window. If you don’t have a sunny window, grow your favorites in pots under some grow lights. Embrace your needs and your space, and create something that suits them, not something that tries to be someone else’s social media masterpiece. You will find true joy in gardening if you create something that is authentically you!

Many thanks to for sharing her Vegetable Garden with us. If you found this article interesting, subscribe and read more at The Cozy Vegearian.

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A: I live in a small town in the Hudson Valley of New York. Our house is nestled up in the woods, which I love, but we’re also about an hour and a half train ride from New York City. I’ve been in the food industry for over twenty years, starting when I went to culinary school in my early twenties. I’ve worked in many different capacities (recipe developer, culinary instructor, food stylist, video producer, blogger) and have written several cookbooks, but I feel like I found my soul’s calling with Mind, Body, Spirit, Food, which I launched in 2023.

In my newsletter, podcast, and in my Mind, Body, Spirit, Food cookbook, which came out in January 2026, I explore how we can nourish all of ourselves—mind, body, and spirit. I offer tips for finding more presence, ease, and freedom as cooks and eaters, and I also share weekly new recipes (all of which are naturally gluten-free, as I can’t eat gluten). My mission is to help us (re-)discover the inherent pleasure in feeding ourselves, in all ways.

Can you please describe the layout of your kitchen, how much of a role it plays with your family, and when writing for your publication ‘Mind, Body, Spirit, Food?

A: When we decided to move to the Hudson Valley in 2011, I looked at close to forty-five (!) houses, but when I stepped into the kitchen of our current house, I knew I finally found our home. The kitchen is truly the heart of the house—it opens to the living room and dining room and is where we spend the majority of our time as a family. We lived in the house for nine years before we finally decided to renovate the space (while it looked okay from the outside, the kitchen had a ton of issues—you can actually watch the renovation process and see the before and after in this video).

Since we had lived in the space for so long, when it came time to renovate, I knew exactly what I wanted, down to which drawers would hold what, which made the process so much easier.

I do my writing and host my podcast in a little office in our attic, but the rest of my work happens in the kitchen. It’s where you can find me experimenting and testing new recipes, and it’s where I shoot all my recipe photos and videos, including my cookbooks. It’s also the official “homework zone” for the kids, and it’s where our guests gather when they come over, inevitably nibbling on this marinated feta around the kitchen island.

What are your most used kitchen gadgets that you cannot live without?

A: My chef’s knife is hands-down my favorite kitchen tool. While I used to be a die-hard Wusthof girl, I was gifted a Misen knife about five years ago and surprisingly it quickly became my favorite everyday knife. It’s just the right weight for my wrist and holds a fabulous edge (it also has a great price point). Another tool I couldn’t live without is my inexpensive kitchen scale, which not only makes baking so much easier (no messing with measuring cups!), but it’s also far more accurate, which is especially important for gluten-free flours. I also have a strange adoration for my mini liquid tablespoon measuring cup, which I use almost daily to measure things like olive oil, vinegar, citrus juices, honey, etc (again, no messing with measuring spoons!). Finally, I have to give a shout-out to my slow cooker and my food processor since I wrote entire books about them!

You had a successful blog for many years and like some other food writers, you moved over to Substack. Can you tell us what made you do this and what it was like to leave a website behind at a time when it was making its highest revenue from ads?

I have a blog called FromScratchFast which was my primary business for close to five years. While the recipes were “free” (and still are—the blog continues to live on, although with minimal attention), they were flooded with ads to fund the content. In relying upon ad dollars, however, I had to make sure that viewership was high (you only make money off of ads that people see), which in turn meant that search engines such as Google had to like my content.

But search engines have become increasingly specific about what kind of content they rank, and each blog post took an immense amount of research into SEO (search engine optimization) strategy and keyword placement. Eventually, it got to the point where my posts were written using a specific structure with specific words, and I started to feel like a robot. It wasn’t until I had a full-body shutdown, getting inexplicably sick for several months, that I realized how truly unhappy I was. I took some time off to heal, during which I realized that I needed a change.

Ironically, I had saved the term “Mind, Body, Spirit, FOOD” in a doc on my computer the year before, not knowing what I would ever do with it. During that healing stage I had a conversation with my husband, and that title came up again—it felt like a lightbulb going off. I instantly knew it was meant to be the seed for my next venture. Instead of going the blog route, however, I decided to move to a subscriber-based newsletter on Substack, which took a lot of courage, as I had never asked my readers for direct support before! I officially launched the newsletter in January 2023 and am so grateful I took the risk. Substack has become an incredible ecosystem to create meaningful, authentic content, as well as to connect much more deeply with my readers and with other writers.

You have a podcast series which you started in early 2023, can you please tell us about that and what prompted you set this up? How do you find such interesting guests?

When I decided to launch my newsletter I also decided to launch a podcast, almost on a whim, as I was craving human connection and engaging conversations (blogging often felt like a one-sided exchange). A friend recommended an audio engineer, my husband (who’s a musician) helped me set up a microphone, and I pretty much just got started without much thought. My first guests were people I knew, then I slowly started to expand to writers, thinkers, recipe developers, and chefs that I admire (I find my guests right here on Substack or through direct inquiry via email or social media).

In the show, we explore cultural influences around food, and how food connects us (and sometimes disconnects us) to our minds, bodies, spirits, food, and our communities. We also talk about recipes, cooking, entertaining, and more. I’ve been blown away by the generosity of my guests and the conversations we’ve had. The podcast has helped me to grow in ways I couldn’t have imagined, and it’s now one of the most fulfilling aspects of my work.

How would you describe the regional cuisine where you live? Are there fresh food markets or farmers’ markets available?

The Hudson Valley is bountiful with family-owned farms, and I feel incredibly lucky to have ample access to local produce, meats and fish. There’s a fabulous farmer’s market every Saturday in Cold Spring (where I live), and we’re also part of a local farm share (Laughing Fork Farm). We have our own garden as well, so in the summer we’re veritably over-run with fresh vegetables (it’s a challenge I actually love, as it forces me to get creative in order to reduce waste—tonight my mission is to use up a head of broccoli, Napa cabbage and a honeynut squash… let the cooking games begin).

Our friends own a butcher shop down the road called Marbled Meat Shop, which sells locally raised meats (and makes killer sandwiches), and we’re near Glynwood Farm, which has a beautiful farm store. We’re also within a few miles of a great fish store (Cold Spring Fish) and an ice cream shop (Sweet E’s), so I’m totally spoiled.

Is there anything about your kitchen that you would like to change or improve on?

When we renovated the kitchen we kept the general layout the same in order to save on costs, but since we opted for a larger stove, it meant that we had to go for a smaller refrigerator. While the fridge looks big from the outside, the shelving space inside is actually super tight. We therefore had to buy a second cheap fridge for the basement storage room in order to have enough space, and I’m constantly running up and down the stairs for ingredients or beverages. I try to look on the bright side (it keeps me active!) but there are times when I wish I had a dumbwaiter (or, perhaps a butler?) to ferry me up ingredients.

What tips can you give us that will help keep our kitchens neat and tidy and easy to manage?

One of my favorite things about my kitchen is my “appliance garage.” It’s basically a cubby on the counter that holds my Vitamix, food processor, and stand mixer, the three appliances that I use most. Each appliance is plugged in, and I just need to open the door and slide it out. When I’m done, I can slide the appliances back into the “garage” and shut the door, giving the counter a clean, uncluttered feel (you can see it in the video).

Note from Lynn: Nicki’s, must watch, video is an interesting before and after viewing of her kitchen renovation. The “appliance garage” is a wonderful storage idea. So too is the idea of using glass jars and storage containers.

From a cooking standpoint, my biggest tip is to clean as you go. I’ve found that if my cutting board is tidy, then my head feels twice as calm—cooking then feels less chaotic and more pleasurable. I try to wash dishes as I cook (or at least pile them in the sink) and keep my cutting board clean of scraps. I have a ton of little mise-en-place glass bowls, where I’ll arrange prepped ingredients so that once it’s time to get cooking, everything is ready to go.

Also, when we renovated our kitchen, I finally invested in some large glass jars and storage containers for my dry goods and flours (as a gluten-free cook, I use several different GF and nut flours). They used to be piled in their bags in the pantry, where they would occasionally rain down on everything, making a mess. The jars make it far easier to access what I need and help keep the pantry clean (and they look lovely).

Finally—and this is an important one—if you live with other people, put them to work!! My husband is the master dish washer in my house since I do most of the cooking, and the kids are responsible for cleaning the dinner plates and helping to tidy up after we eat.

How many cookbooks do you have and do you have any favourites? Can you tell us something about the cookbooks you have written?

I have written four cookbooks. Each one reflects a particular time in my life. My latest book, Mind, Body, Spirit, Food: Adaptable Recipes and Grounding Meditations for Preparing Meals with Joy and Intention (2026), is my most personal. I share simple practices for bringing more intention and ease into the kitchen, along with how those practices shifted my own relationship to cooking—from stress to self-care. The recipes—spanning breakfasts, starters, main dishes, and desserts—feature variations, allowing you to tap into your intuition and use up what you have on hand.

Build-a-Bowl (2018), my second book, was written when my youngest was a toddler and we found ourselves eating down to her palate and preferences. I was craving more dynamic flavors, so starting serving build-your-own-bowl dinners, featuring a whole grain, vegetable, protein, and a flavor-packed sauce. Everybody could build their own bowls (or, in the case of my toddler, get little piles on a plate), and my husband and I were able to enjoy vibrant, beautiful dinners again.

My next book, Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker (2019) was written when the kids were a bit older and started to get involved in a lot of different activities. Suddenly, the dinner hour was tight, and I turned to my dusty old slow cooker in the basement for help. I was initially skeptical of the slow cooker, having grown up on mushy crockpot meals that were mostly made with canned ingredients, so I challenged myself to create recipes using fresh foods and vibrant flavors. I fell in love, and the book was born! With school starting I’ve actually been cooking from the book a ton recently (this week I made the Thai style Massaman curry and the slow cooker applesauce).

My first book was The Food Processor Family Cookbook, which features recipes that rely on the food processor for ease and efficiency. I wrote this book when I had a new baby and five-year-old, and was constantly using the food processor (including for making baby food). While I love the recipes in the book, I have to be honest in that the publisher was a disaster to work with (they were recently bought out), so the layout is not what I would have chosen (although, thankfully the book has still sold well).

Do you have a favourite recipe that you would like to share with us?

We still make build-your-own bowl dinners several times a week, and these Spicy Salmon Rice Bowls are probably the family favorite. They feature tender tamari roasted salmon, sushi rice, avocado, cucumber, and not one but two killer sauces.

Have you had any kitchen disasters that you can share with us?

When I was just out of culinary school my husband and I had some musician colleagues of his over for dinner at our Brooklyn apartment, and I cooked up a feast. As I was finishing up the meal prep I nicked my finger and put on a band-aid. When dinnertime rolled around, the last things I had to do was toss together the watermelon and arugula salad and carve the steaks. Once we sat to eat, I realized with HORROR that my band-aid was missing. I fled into the kitchen to try to find it, but it wasn’t anywhere. I was way too embarrassed to say anything, so just kept eyeing people’s plates throughout dinner to see if it ended up in the food. I still have no idea if somebody found it in their salad and was just too nice to say anything… (oh, the mortification!). My husband and I have had many good laughs about this over the years (although, we’ve never invited those colleagues back…).

Thank you so much for sharing your kitchen with us, Nicki.

Visit and subscribe to her publication. Mind, Body, Spirit, FOOD

Read more in the Q&A series, and if you would like to share your kitchen with us, get in touch Thefoodstak@gmail.com

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Julia: I was a Foreign Correspondent for a British national newspaper in Moscow when it was the USSR, then Washington DC, then Brussels. Now I live in London, which has become probably the best food capital in the world. In Moscow, any kind of food was hard to come by. So I launched ‘Capital Gains’, a weekly newsletter which was probably one of the first anywhere on what produce I was finding on street corners driving between interviews and press conferences and how to cook unfamiliar ingredients. The US Embassy distributed it to the foreign community. They called me one day to say the Kremlin wives had asked to be put on the mailing list. If they didn’t know where to get stuff then finding food was an even bigger challenge than I thought!

Landing in DC straight from Russia, I realised how much easier it is as an ex-pat anywhere to settle in if you can locate familiar foods from back home, particularly if you have family. So I created eatWashington.com, a web site that along with chef interviews, their recipes and food news, told readers where to get ingredients from global cuisines locally and what and how to cook with them.

The ‘Julia’ on the framed kitchen cloth is the other one…

Tabled is a continuation of that. It’s published weekly with a recipe and includes the history of the recipe’s main ingredient, or an anecdote around discovering a dish it contains. Ant egg soup in Laos? Eat it before the ants climb out of the bowl. Tabled also aims - I hope without beating the reader over the head - to shine a light on what goes on in what I’ve dubbed Big Food Biz and how our health, animal health, and the health of the globe is affected, often adversely, by its profit-focused strategies.

Q - Can you please describe the layout of your kitchen, how much of a role does it play with your family, and when writing for your publication ‘Tabled’?

Julia: In DC, I had a huge kitchen where everyone hung out. Now I live in a small Victorian worker’s house in London where floor space is really limited. So I converted the 4 feet by 12 feet basement that originally stored coal into a galley kitchen, and bashed a big hole in the walls of the dining room above so friends can lean down and talk as I cook. I actually find my galley kitchen much easier to work in. I never move more than a couple of feet and I love the fact that though the space is too small for anyone but me, they’re cheering me on from above.

Q - What are your most used kitchen gadgets and kitchen gear, that you cannot live without?

Julia: I’m not a huge gadgets fan. They need fiddly disassembling to wash them and take up space I just don’t have. When I travel, I never see gadgets in village kitchens or hawker stalls. In South East Asia I learned how a heavy meat cleaver can easily mince up meat and finely chop hard-skinned vegetables like gourds. When, much younger, I ran away to Greece, I only took a chef’s knife and a mouli legume - a metal hand-operated food mill. I used its largest disc to grate cheese, its medium disc to turn it into a sieve, it’s smallest to grate garlic.

My favourite spatula is a clean finger. One of my most used knives is a small serrated one with a plastic handle I bought for under a dollar in Greece. After 20 years, it is still so sharp I have to be really careful using it.

Q - How and why did you become interested in the food industry and why did you want to write about it?

Julia: When I arrived in the US, I filed for a UK national newspaper and wrote on food for the Washington Post, Gourmet Magazine and a local newspaper group. Then UPI (United Press International) made me their Food Writer and I became interested in the politics of food. Our curiosity about food is voracious, and the internet provides unlimited access to recipes. But we’ve only recently become aware of the influence of the industrial food complex and the nutritional and environmental problems associated with much of what we eat. I had been shocked to discover that High Fructose Corn Syrup whose use in Europe is negligible, is present in pretty much all American packaged and processed foods. It’s sweeter and cheaper than other sweeteners and corn farmers are heavily subsidised. Also, the labelling of ingredients in the US is far less stringent than European regulations. Consumers have a powerful voice. Change what we choose to buy and we could change what manufacturers try to sell us.

Q - You have won several awards for your writing. Can you please tell us about them?

Julia: I’ve written three cookbooks, each of them containing the recipes that I write to appear in the Bruno, Chief of Police crime series by Martin Walker. It’s set in the Dordogne, South West France, home to duck, truffles, walnuts and goat’s cheeses. What I became tired of in the cookbooks I was sent as a food writer was the perfection of how the dishes all looked. I’m not a professional chef, just a home cook. So when it came to photographing my recipes I insisted there should be no food stylists. I sent each dish to the photographer straight from my stove. Edges charred in the oven? Edges were charred in the picture. Readers say they’ve found this a relief.

The Bruno Cookbook and Bruno’s Garden Cookbook, published by Diogenes, both won Gourmand International’s World’s Best French Cookbook. It’s the only competition for food and drink content from publishers across the globe. Bruno’s Cookbook was published last year by Penguin Random House in the US and Quercus in the UK. I’ve also written a cookbook, not quite ready for publication, on the food of Sri Lanka.

Q - How would you describe the regional cuisine where you live ? Are there fresh food markets, or farmers markets available?

Julia: I live in an area of London with a traditional Cockney street market selling fresh fruit and vegetables every day but Sunday. It’s bordered by Middle Eastern stores, a great butcher, and two well-stocked fishmongers. There’s also a huge supermarket by our best chain. I have two small farmers’ markets within walking distance and Borough Market, London’s largest farmers’ market, is an easy Tube ride away. If you don’t go at the weekend it’s a paradise for food enthusiasts.

Q - Is there anything about your kitchen that you would like to change or improve on?

Julia: I wouldn’t mind a large American refrigerator. I only have space for a tiny under-the-counter fridge. But I really enjoy shopping a couple of times a week at my local street market whose ‘barrow-boys’ make you feel you’re their favourite customer. In my DC kitchen, the generous storage space I had made me stuff it to the brim, so the ingredients that got pushed to the back of the cupboards seldom saw the light of day before they rotted and had to be thrown out. 30 to 60 percent of household food in the US is binned, 25 to 30 percent in the UK. Now with very little storage, everything is in reach and eaten.

Q - What tips can you give us that will help keep our kitchens neat and tidy and easy to manage?

Julia: Whether you have the space or have to depend on storage boxes, keep your ingredients and spices together by cuisine so accessing them is quick and easy. Decanting standard ingredients like flour, pasta, dried beans and rice into storage jars makes cooking so much easier than opening folded paper packages. You’ve heard this before, but wash up as you go! A stack of dirty dishes quickly puts you in the weeds. I got a catering company to build me a very deep steel sink for both my DC and London kitchens. Dirty pans stacked in it don’t get in the way and can’t be seen. I also have long-handled hospital faucets which I turn on and off with my elbows when my hands are sticky with pastry.

Q - How many cookbooks do you have and do you have any favourites? Have you written any cookbooks?

Julia: Being a Food Writer was like Christmas! My local mailman would regularly stagger to the door with sacks of cookbooks. I’ve now weeded the hundreds down to around 60, of which I probably refer to ten on a regular basis. But I suspect for any cook it’s a rare cookbook that contains more than one or two recipes you go back to again and again. I have an exception, though. It’s my mother’s cut-and-paste book of recipes she clipped from newspapers and magazines.

For a cookbook to read in bed, I love Home Cooking and More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin, the novelist who wrote on food for Gourmet Magazine. I’ve written three cookbooks related to the Bruno, Chief of Police crime series, and a Sri Lankan cookbook still due for publication.

Q - Do you have a favourite recipe that you would like to share with us?

Julia: Narrowing down a favourite recipe to one is a challenge! But this cookie recipe covers so many bases - good to give as presents, good to go with ice cream, good to have with a cup of tea or coffee. I was brought up on it. I think my mother probably found it on the back of a bag of sugar or flour.

Q - Have you had any kitchen disasters that you can share with us?

Julia: One hot DC summer, I made gazpacho for a big alfresco lunch from the traditional Spanish recipe that includes bread, which turns the soup a pale pinky-beige. I poured it to chill into some empty glass bottles. I also made some Vietnamese iced coffee for the end of the meal and poured that into other glass bottles. When everyone was seated outside, I decanted the bottles into a large china bowl and carried it out to serve at the table. It was only when the guests began to sip the soup and choke, I realised I had blended the gazpacho with the sweet iced milky coffee.

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Thank you for sharing your kitchen with us . Visit and subscribe to Julia’s Newsletter. Tabled

Read more interviews and Q&A series.

If you are a food writer and would like to be part of this Q&A Kitchen series, please email Lynn. Thefoodstak@gmail.com with the subject header Q&A Kitchen series.

What do Recipe developers, food photographers, cookbook literary agents, food travel writers and restaurant reviewers have in common? A passion for writing about food.

Many things connect people, but nothing more than food. We write about it in different voices, some with romantic prose about taste, texture, and aroma. Others centre their writing around food location, variety and origins. Others stay closer to home and write about locally grown produce, and publish recipes they have developed.

Who Writes What

In this new section of FoodStak - ‘Who Writes What’, I will be having conversations with food writers of all kinds. We will discuss what drives them forward, and the impact and influence they have on others. Where did their passion for writing come from? Who and what were their earliest influences?

Food Writers on Substack

Below are just a few amazing writers on Substack. Each one has their own writing style and connection with food.

(Let’s Get Lost) - ‘a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences.’ I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

( Smashed ) - ‘a freelance writer and author specialising in food, drink and travel. I've been writing about restaurants and chefs for the national press for over two decades.

( Abundance ) - ‘a writer, cook, gardener, walker and photographer.’ I write about life, mostly through food and everything connected with it. I’ve written over a dozen books, winning 14 writing and 4 photography awards, including Food Book of the Year twice, and Garden Book of the Year twice.

( Not So Secret Agent )- A senior literary agent ‘I share my opinions on the publishing industry, with a specific focus on the nuances of cookbook publishing.’

With a wealth of food writers on Substack, it’s not hard to find a favourite writer. But what goes on beneath the surface of recipe testing, restaurant reviews, publishing cookbooks and articles?

I intend to find out and share these conversations with you.

Leave a comment

Hit reply or leave a comment with the name of a food writer who has influenced the way you cook or write about food. Did their passion for food writing encourage you to create your own publication and even publish a cookbook?

Until the next time.

Lynn H.

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My name is Lisa and I am an avid baker with a passion for sharing recipes for baked goods that use natural sweeteners. My husband and I started our homestead in southeastern Pennsylvania in 2021. When we moved to our new home, the land was just grass but we have been hard at work planting fruit trees, berries, vegetables, and herbs; and raising chickens, sheep, and bees.

How long have you been growing your own food and what does your garden look like today?

I started growing my own food in 2021 when we moved to our current property. We started with just a few raised beds and have expanded from there. We also planted a little orchard with various fruit trees and we have turned the front of our house into an edible garden with blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry plants.

What varieties of vegetables and/or fruit do you grow?

We grow quite a variety and we usually change up the rotation a little bit each year, but some of the mainstays are potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, zucchini, broccoli, cabbage, and peas.

What food do you grow that you are unable to find in the shops?

We just started growing sunchokes this year, which isn’t something I can find in any grocery store around us.

What has been your biggest growing success and/or disaster?

We have had quite a lot of success and each year our harvest grows bigger and bigger. Potatoes and onions are a couple of our favorite crops to grow because you are almost guaranteed success with those and then you can store them and keep eating them for months after harvest. We haven’t had a disaster really but weather, weeds, and pests are always challenging to deal with - this year has been especially humid so we have had to deal with some fungal diseases that have never shown up before in our garden (like corn smut).

Which crop do you grow every year, and what is your favourite dish to make with it?

We grow berries every year - it’s hard to pick one favorite dish but I love to use the berries in my baked goods so you’ll find a lot of berry-related recipes on my substack/website like mixed berry coffee cake, strawberry cookies, and strawberry muffins. We also grow zucchini every year and I love to come up with creative ways to bake with zucchini so you’ll also find quite a few zucchini-related recipes on my substack/website like zucchini chocolate chip cookies and zucchini brownies.

How do you plan your meals around the produce you grow?

We don’t really plan our meals too much in the summer since we tend to just cook what we have on hand (and what is closest to going bad). So we tend to make dishes that are easy to incorporate a lot of vegetables into like stir fries and hashes.

How do you manage a glut of produce, what do you make?

One of my favorite recipes to make with a glut of produce is okonomiyaki - a Japanese veggie pancake dish. You can switch up the vegetables you include and my favorite combination is zucchini, cabbage, and carrots. I don’t follow a specific recipe (but you can search online to find one) - it’s just generally the vegetables combined with flour and eggs though.

Do you have a compost? If so, what is the best way of getting the most out of composting and do you have any tips?

Yes, we have a compost system we made using wooden pallets and it’s divided into 3 sections so we can let one of them rest and still be adding to the other 2. My top two tips are to make sure you are turning your compost pretty regularly and to also make sure you are watering it every now and then.

What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to start growing their own food?

Only grow what you want to eat! A lot of people say this but it’s very true - it’s not worth the time to grow something that you don’t absolutely love eating, so don’t aim for a large variety of produce but really just the produce that you actually want to be eating all season long.

Thank you for sharing your vegetable garden with us . Visit and subscribe to Lisa’s publication The Naturally Sweet Life.

Read more interviews and Q&A series.

If you are a food writer and would like to be part of this Q&A Vegetable Garden series, please email Lynn. Thefoodstak@gmail.com with the subject header Q&A Vegetable Garden series.

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As you have mentioned, my name is Martin, and my Substack publication is called Great Bakes.

I’ve loved baking ever since I set the microwave on fire, making a “biscuit” as a wee youngster.

Luckily, I’ve learned a lot since then. I am a home baker and cook, taught by dozens of blogs, a vast cookbook collection, my local public library, the people around me, and what grows around the Great Lakes. I used to be afraid of baker’s math, measuring, kitchen thermometers, and latticing pie crusts. But now I’ve figured out how to do it…and I’m still learning.

Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana—a nice, very average, mid-sized city—I grew up in a loving family surrounded by cornfields, Amish farms, and a distant relative’s apple orchard. As Hoosier now based in Chicago, my baking combines my Great Lakes roots, my multicultural urban home, and my goofy, think-outside-the-box attitude.

I was a huge fan of the Great British Baking Show, so I decided to audition for the American spinoff and got the wild opportunity to be on the show’s sixth season, which aired on The Roku Channel in May 2023. They flew us to England, where we baked in the iconic white tent for judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith. To my surprise I managed to come out on top! That win propelled me to keep on baking and follow my dreams.

I’ve always relished writing and talking about food, especially baking, so I took this opportunity to share my recipes with the world. I started here on Substack just over a year ago, and I’ve also written for the Chicago Tribune, Food & Wine, and other fantastic publications.

Can you please describe your kitchen lay out and how much of a role it plays with your family and when writing and testing recipes for your ‘Great Bakes’ newsletter?

I live in a 100-year-old Chicago Bungalow, but I have a decently sized kitchen for a small older home like ours. It’s a simple U-shaped counter with a sink, a slide-in range, and a full-sized and decent storage. Of course, I need more storage.

There are two cupboards where I keep some ingredients and a spice-rack cupboard next to my oven, but no actual pantry. The basement has one closet that serves as my pantry, stores many of my baking supplies, and another with more baking-related stuff (my grain mill and dehydrator have to live somewhere).

My kitchen is somewhere between very organized and mildly chaotic. Yes, I have some drawers stuffed to the gills, but I always completely tidy my workspace and get out all of my ingredients before testing recipes (or cooking dinner).

This utilitarian kitchen got me through the preparation for my turn on the Great American Baking Show. I would block off part of the countertop so that I only had as much space as I thought we would have while on set. But during practice, I dirtied so many dishes that I would pile them on the floor in another room.

Nowadays, my kitchen is calmer and more organized, but still busy. It’s my office. Because of my wretched handwriting, I always type up recipes. I’ll print them out (yes, on paper), and take them to the kitchen to test them and edit them. During Chicago’s too-brief summer and fall, I buy way too much local produce, so there’s always some sitting on the counter, plus probably some jars of homemade jam cooling and maybe a loaf of bread rising.

What are your favourite and most used kitchen gadgets?

1. My kitchen scale: No contest. It lives on my counter and is used to measure everything. I gave up using volume measurements for anything less than a Tablespoon. You want volume metrics from me? Sorry.

2. My stand mixer: Although I love a one-bowl, stir together recipe, I use my stand mixer for anything that it works for. Whipping cream, kneading bread, making cakes. It gets so much use that it just lives on the counter.

3. My (new!) oven and stove. It’s the most important appliance in my kitchen. My old oven just kicked the bucket, so I got a new stove. I switched from a gas oven and stove to an electric oven with an induction range and couldn’t be happier.

How did your passion for baking come about? Did anyone or anything in particular, play a role in this?

I was raised to enjoy good food and I was a curious and adventurous eater. My folks aren’t pretentious eaters, but they raised their kids to know good food and try new things. We always bought our sweet corn from the roadside stand and got the best apples from a distant relative’s orchard. When on vacation, we tried to find the best local fare and rarely went to big chain restaurants.

My mom says that I always “played with my food,” whether that meant sprinkling a sliced pear with ground nutmeg or adding garlic and parsley to her chicken soup without permission.

I was always a decent cook but not a great baker. I didn’t like to follow directions or measure things precisely. Then, about ten years ago, I thought: I bet if I actually followed the recipe and measured things, I could be a good baker. That strategy worked, and I got hooked. I started by making simple no-knead bread, then branched out to practically every baking discipline. Name a type of baked good, and I’ve probably made it before. Yes, I have made phyllo pastry. (And I won’t be doing that again any time soon.)

How has winning The Great American Bake Baking Show influenced the way you cook and bake now?

It mostly gave me confidence, both in my abilities and in my flavors. It honed my baking voice and told me that I’m good at this thing that I love to do. I knew that I was a better-than-average baker and an adventurous one, but I didn’t think that anyone might want to bake one of my recipes or that I had much to teach home bakers. But I do! I love to write recipes and nerd out about things like grains, fruit varieties, and techniques.

It also taught me that I prefer simple, flavorful bakes. Yes, I can make an opera cake, a croissant, and a croquembouche. But I’d rather make a seasonal fruit galette, a hearty loaf of rye bread, a no-bake cheesecake, or a glazed lemon loaf cake. It was fun to be pushed to bake wild, extravagant creations, but I want something that won’t take all day or require me to pile up dirty dishes in another room.

The show also pushed me to question my baking style in another way. I never thought I had much of a baking or food heritage, but then I fell in love with German baking which taps into a strong German family heritage. I think that Germany has the best bread in the world, and I recently took a two-week crash course in German bread at the Akademie Deutsches Bäckerhandwerk.

How would you describe the regional cuisine where you live in Chicago? Are there fresh food markets or farmers’ markets available? How much does it differ from where you grew up in Indiana?

I adore Chicago because it’s both Midwestern and global. Unlike what many people say, Chicago is more than meat-and-potatoes cuisine. I can walk to restaurants that serve Serbian, Vietnamese, Thai, German, Mexican, Kyrgyz, Korean, Ethiopian, and much more. I can hit fine-dining spots and innovative new eateries. Most of all, I have access to so many glorious bakeries. My hometown had some great food spots, but not the array of choices I have here. I also adore the various grocery store options in Chicago. I can find almost any ingredient I can think of within a 20-minute drive.

I can walk to a farmers’ market and buy the most gorgeous fruit from Michigan (tart cherries, beautiful peaches, perfect apples, and more), cheese from Wisconsin, and all sorts of fresh produce. We also have fantastic local grain farmers and millers, and I buy a lot of locally grown-and-milled organic flour. The produce here is similar in Indiana, except the Hoosier sweet corn is better and fresher. I still ask my folks to bring up corn from the roadside stand when they visit in the summer.

What is the one thing your kitchen is missing that you would love to have?

I’d love more storage space in my kitchen! I have to walk down a flight of stairs to the two closets I use for my pantry and baking-stuff storage, which are both overflowing. I took up a ceramic hobby a couple of years ago, so my collection of handmade ceramics (by me and others) has ballooned. For almost a decade, I only owned one cake plate. Now I have four, including one that I made!

What tips can you give us to help keep our kitchens neat and tidy and easy to manage?

1. Tidy up before you start. Before you embark on a recipe, clear away the clutter, put things away, empty the dishwasher, and calm your mind. I think about my time on the Baking Show. We always started with a clean bench (a huge thanks to the folks who cleaned up after us), and our ingredients set out for us. A tidy station helps avoid chaos and stress, which, for me, means fewer mistakes.

2. After baking, you can use the residual heat in the oven to dry some of your dishes. After you wash your dishes, instead of drying them off, put anything oven-proof, especially baking pans, into a turned-off oven that still has a bit of heat left. If the oven is still warm, they’ll dry out quickly.

3. Don’t buy a new gadget/pan/etc. unless you think you’ll use it at least three times. If I see a recipe that calls for an odd pan or gadget that I don’t have, like a mini-muffin pan, then I won’t make it right away. I’ll wait until I come across (or think of) two other recipes that use that item, and then I’ll make the purchase. That way you don’t have a kitchen full of single-use items.

You describe yourself as a ‘huge nerd about food and baking’, with a large cookbook collection. Do you have any favourites? Have you written any cookbooks?

Absolutely! I have a huge collection, and I’ve read even more. I read cookbooks and other food books cover-to-cover. I’ve read Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking thrice. Some of my most-reached-for baking tome books are Dan Lepard’s Short & Sweet, Stella Parks’s Bravetart, and Jeffrey Hammelman’s Bread. I’m in love with fellow Substack-writer ’s new book Sift. I usually have a handful of cookbooks from the library sitting on my side table.

I’m a big fan of German bread, and I have seven cookbooks on that subject that I brought home from Germany, in German. (And I don’t speak much German.) To keep my cookbook collection manageable, I’ve even started buying digital copies of cookbooks.

I’m excited to have published my first cookbook with a Chicago-area publisher, Agate Publishing. More details about the book and where to buy. I’ll be writing about writing that book in my newsletter, Great Bakes. I have ideas for at least two other books, too!

I also write regular columns for Food & Wine, where I nerd out about topics or ingredients that interest me.

Do you have a favourite recipe that you would like to share with us?

I just adore this simple, ultra-fluffy, one-layer Whipped Cream Berry Cake topped with a lemon verbena whipped cream and a mess of fresh berries.

Thank you for sharing your kitchen with us, . Visit and subscribe to Martin’s Substack publication Great Bakes

All images are copyright of Martin Sorge.

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Who Writes What looks beneath the surface of recipes, cookbooks, and restaurant reviews. It explores the obsession required to write about food.

Writing for a community is different from writing for search engines. It can be poetic and descriptive, but this can be stripped away when writing for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

AI has its place in the world, but it cannot taste a juicy ripe apple from the orchard, or tart Rhubarb plucked from underneath a terracotta forcing pot.

When I retired from cancer care at the Mass General Hospital here in Boston, I became aware my friends were either overwhelmed about what’s nourishing to eat or had gone down the path of restriction. They were omitting gluten or dairy or jumping onto the Whole 30 diet bandwagon. I became very attuned to how food mythologies had taken the joy and connection out of a good meal.

I, myself, have an insatiable appetite, and with my husband and two children in their 20’s, we’ve made lasting memories cooking together and exploring the world through food. I’m 64 now. As both a pediatric and adult cancer survivor myself, having faced serious illness, I wanted to share the balanced eating that both allows me to celebrate life and keeps me in good health.

When away from work and science, I was a weekend leisure cook fortunate to be able to take classes from early career restaurant chefs here in New England like Ken Oringer, Cara Chigazola Tobin, Michael Schlow, and Melissa Kelly. I’d spend Saturdays cooking 5-course meals for friends and family and plotting food pilgrimages. Food writing was a natural progression. I write ‘palatable’ magazine-style stories following my own curiosities about global foods, food zeitgeist, gem destinations, and emerging nutrition science, always weaving in something valuable, especially recipe strategies, readers can apply in their kitchens.

I believe truly that eating for prevention of dementia, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer (now rising sharply in our young people) can jive with eating creative and adventurous food. I felt I could use my research skills to help build the nutrition literacy folks wished their physicians had more time to support. I show how to focus one’s efforts when shopping, sourcing, and adapting restaurant-quality cooking at home, helping folks become more intuitive and intentional over when to moderate and when to indulge.

When I began oncology care in the 1990’s, a colon cancer diagnosis before age 50 was rare…that’s no longer the case. Type 2 diabetes and hypertension were diseases of adults… not ten year olds. I want readers to know it is possible to eat to reduce risks of chronic disease without sacrificing the pleasures of food.

Because these are primal ways we come to care for ourselves and our families, I called my Substack Eating and Feeding —- it rings of how we come to know each other’s cultures and how we foster the next generation.

What kind of fridge do you have?

I’m a side by side girl. I have two 7 foot columns, one fridge and one freezer side. I prefer this which keeps more at eye level over a top/ bottom arrangement. Much of what I buy is fresh and perishable. I make sauces from scratch, so I don’ t need a lot of real estate for open bottles of dressings and barbecue sauce. My fridge has got an irascible personality all its own; it’s been whining and purring in the heat of this summer. I called my repairman, Percy, and, of course, it went completely mum when he arrived. I’m hoping it won’t fail me. It’s full of produce that I pick up at the farmer’s markets or get in my CSA box. Here in New England, we limp through the Spring mud season awaiting the short growing months for stone fruit, pole beans, leafy greens, and my favorite Silver Queen corn. The rest of the year, the diversity of produce found in supermarkets is very uninspiring, so I’m like a kid in the candy dime store when all those heirloom tomatoes are peak.

How often do you food shop? Do you buy in bulk - if so, what do you buy?

The week the pandemic hit, as a doc, I was able to forecast the situation. I immediately bought a freezer for the basement which has been a game changer for turning out meals more easily. I batch cook dinners and portion baked goods (that’s my downfall,) I bake and freeze lower sugar muffins and freeze desserts guests bring as gifts when I‘m entertaining. Storing them out of sight to defrost a piece at a time keeps me out of trouble.

I’m not a fan of bulk buying, but I’ve become more disciplined about food shopping to keep down trips to the store. There’s a terrific New Yorker cartoon by Harry Bliss ——the police are investigating the scene of a lethal accident at Costco…

A gargantuan jar of ‘all natural’ mayonnaise has rolled off a pallet shelf flattening a sobbing wife’s middle-aged husband, the pastor already arrived to administer last rites. That snapshot says so much…

I find buying in bulk usually ends up fighting goals of balance and moderation. You feel compelled to use what you’ve purchased. Plus, bulk foods by nature tend to be made more shelf stable with additives. Supermarkets are highly structured to promote impulse buying. I’ve taken to click and pick up shopping. Loading my cart virtually allows me to spend more time comparing ingredient labels, sodium content, and price (and spares me coming home with the extra stuff I never intended to buy.)

Much of the Eating and Feeding messaging is about creative uses for produce, fish, and whole grains and a little less meat. My principles are grounded in the EAT-Lancet recommendations for health, an evidence-based pattern of eating to reduce chronic disease and to respect the sustainability of agriculture, husbandry, and fishing.

Weekly, I buy fresh produce including plenty of greens and herbs to stock my drawer. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels, and cauliflower and beets, turnips, and radishes can last to the end of the week kept uncut. I keep a supply of baba ganoush, almonds and walnuts, and marinated herring to snack on. The pantry is always stocked with various vinegars to brighten vegetables; fish sauce, low sodium soy, and shaoxing cooking wine; pomegranate molasses, and capsicum spices like Aleppo, Kashmiri, and chipotle to keep things interesting. I stock up on whole grains, dried spices, and dried fruits and always keep beefsteak or cherry tomatoes on the counter. That lets me turn out dishes like Fasolakia Ladera (Velvet Green Beans Simmered in Olive Oil with Tomatoes) or Bulgur Tabbouleh with Cucumbers, Mint, and Dried Cranberries, regulars in our rotation, and get creative like with Za’atar Chicken with Mushrooms, Farro, and Roasted Grapes (that was delicious!) with what I have on hand.

What is the most used ingredient that you always have a good supply of?

You can always find a container of Greek yogurt in my fridge—-that and lots of fruit- cherries, berries, clementines, grapes, plums, and kiwis- to snack on!

Yogurt really is a privileged food in terms of health which I’ve written about in Will eating yogurt make you live to 100? If not my breakfast with blueberries, it boggles me how many uses I find in dishes like Turkish Poached Green Eggs in Hot Garlicky Yogurt (Cilbir) or Chermoula-Roasted Cauliflower & Yogurt Sauce. I can rapidly assemble Pear, Blueberry, and Cardamom Yogurt Parfaits and it’s my preferred fat with plant oils when baking Golden Chai and Summer Squash or Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins for the kids. The acid adds great leavening and tenderizes the crumb. For easy entertaining, a dollop of labneh (made from straining 2% Greek yogurt) tops my Swiss Chard Torta di Bietole with Dark Cherries or Roasted Beets with Labne and Pistachios. My son loves a big, gloppy spoon of it over braised kale or eggs with fresh herbs. Yogurt is definitely the hardest working item in my fridge.

What is the oldest item/ingredient in your fridge, and what did you originally buy it for?

I have a tub of active dry yeast way in the back on the top shelf. My college-aged daughter bought it 2 years ago to teach my son how to bake when home on break. I have such sweet memories of them dancing around the kitchen together baking challahs and popovers. I feel I’ve done my parental duty teaching them how to enjoy cooking for themselves and to share the moment. Every empty nester will understand why I haven’t brought myself to throw it out. (Apparently, yeast is best stored in the freezer, but you can try blooming it even after six months.)

Do you meal plan? If so, would you please share your secrets with us?

There can be so much emotional inertia to meal plan, but once you get over the hurdle, like exercise, the rewards are great. I’ve written about how ‘think ahead’ strategies can de-stress your evenings and save your relationship. I make a general plan as I shop online targeting at least two meals each— fish, plant, and poultry—weekly. To get buy in from my crew, my ‘healthier’ cooking had to compete with their favorite take out foods, and I think we’ve had nearly ‘restaurant’ quality meals at home. When my younger went off to college, I had my glory when he conceded at Thanksgiving break, “I didn’t realize how good the food is here.”

For ease, I batch cook and freeze components of meals like chicken for stir fry, oven-baked eggplant slices, and sauces that can become building blocks for a variety of meals. I feel planning ahead can make best use of ingredients with less waste, especially when perishable produce is my mainstay. I’ve written menu plans for solo households and busy college kids that build each meal on last night’s prep. I’m very much an improvisational cook who will repurpose leftovers to stretch one meal into several.

What is the most expensive item in your fridge, and what do you use it for?

I read in Nancy Singleton Hachisu’s memoir/ cookbook, Japanese Farm Food, that her preferred shoyu is an unpasteurized, artisanal “live” brew and became obsessed.
Using certified organic and traditional fermentation practices, Yamaki Jozo ages soybeans and mountain spring water for two years in cedarwood kegs. Here in the US, the Yamaki Nama Shoyu is distributed under the Ohsawa label. I visited Harie, a mountain village of ‘living waters’ in Japan a few years back which left an indelible impression on me. The Japanese conception of satoyama (里山) respects the area between mountains and arable land as a shared resource for people, animals, and nature to equally thrive. You see this in the care taken to produce rice, vegetables, and source food in Japan which, ultimately affects flavor, so different and more complex than commercially-produced food. I’d much rather spend to support small family producers, regenerative farmers, and artisanal bakers who do food with care than on caviar and champagne.

Which items would you advise people not to keep in their fridge and why?

Perhaps a list:

Fresh herbs like basil and mint sit in a tall glass of water, stems down, on my kitchen counter to preserve the aroma (I refrigerate cilantro and parsley because of the high rate of foodborne illness like cyclospora); Winter squash gets sweeter over three weeks at room temperature as starches break down, potatoes in the refrigerator can result in increased acrylamide during cooking, these go like onions and garlic in a dry, dark spot to avoid sprouting; chocolate in the fridge loses moisture turning chalky; never avocados because these are never ripe from the market; and I’d never spoil a summer peak tomato’s umami by placing it in the cold.

How do you organise your fridge? Is it chaos, or a place for everything and everything in its place?

An organized fridge gives such a sense of peace and calm. But, I assure you, mine doesn’t always stay so orderly. If you were here, it would look like an infinite ‘loop’ video of me attempting to organize —-dairy top shelf (nearest expiration dates forward); eggs and leftovers second shelf, fruit (the heavy stuff) first shelf—-while the husband and kids wreak havoc (or leave empty containers) torpedoing my efforts. The bottom-most drawer is for raw poultry, beef, and fish. I am a bit immunocompromised, so we take extra care to avoid cross-contamination, and we keep eggs away from raw produce as shells can harbor salmonella. But, I’d advise anyone to take these precautions.

What are your top tips for storing items in your fridge and keeping it tidy? Do you use storage containers?

I generally remove food from packaging and deli wrap before storage in the fridge. I worked with The Silent Spring Institute, an environmental toxicology group focused on reducing breast cancer risk, so I often write about reducing endocrine disruptor and other exposures. Time in packaging increases opportunity for leaching of antistatic agents and grease-proofers that typically contain perchlorates and PFAS forever chemicals with potential to migrate. I’ve shifted to storage in glass, and I really like these silicone ‘bowls’ (photo above) for produce. Their wide mouths make it easy to grab fruit for snacking, and they do well in the dishwasher. The data on microplastics and human health is emerging. I’ve written about why I chose paper composite for my microplastic-free cutting board swap, and how to think about microplastic ‘health’ claims. I’ve been encouraging the kids to be aware that cans of seltzer are lined with plastic polymers and to drink from their stainless water bottles or buy seltzer in glass when they can. We live immersed in a plastic-world, so we can’t eliminate them but we can be smart about when they are worth the convenience.

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A blackcurrant bush grew near the scary spider web covered rain barrel in the back garden, but I couldn’t stop myself from picking the tangy sour berries. I can’t remember ever not being interested in food growing; I could spot a fruit tree from a distance and I loved running my fingers through the patch of mint, and picking Alpine strawberries that hid amongst the flower beds. From growing food, to meeting farmers, questioning where our food comes from, and what we eat has been a steady journey. That’s the basis of my Substack; Writing about food through the lens of where it comes from and how it gets to us — the farm, the market, the supply chain, history, the seasonal reality.

Once a month, my publication, Queen of Markets has a roundup which includes what’s been happening in the community garden where I’m based, what we’re growing, picking, sowing.

How long have you been growing your own food and what does your garden look like today?

I’ve been part of Harmony Gardens in Tottenham, North London for around three years. I brought my personal philosphy; why grow anything boring that’s cheap to buy. Harmony Gardens has around 45 raised beds, an orchard avenue, a children’s garden with pond and fruit trees and a ‘leisure’ garden. We also have a poly tunnel in need of repair. Like everyone else, we’re subject to visits from foxes, molluscs, cats and human predators, who take it in turns to dig over beds, help themselves to produce and pull down nets.

What varieties of vegetables and/or fruit do you grow?

Anything that’s different, difficult or expensive to buy, a delight to grow. A simple example; golden beetroots. From supermarket experiences one would think that all beetroots are deep purple. There are bright yellow, white and stripy varieties too.

We’re aiming to grow as many perennials as possible. They develop deep root systems, replenishing the soil much more than an annual will and are better for droughts as ideally, they’ll be more resilient. Sadly many seedlings have died this year; the heat and drought has been too much for them.

Last years two year old white sprouting broccoli finally took off, giving us heads that looked like cauliflower.

This year we’ve planted over two hundred types of vegetables and edible flowers, planted a new herb bed with more interesting varieties; society garlic, violet cress, Korean mint, mountain mint, ginger rosemary, orange thyme, lemon verbenna, anise, cola plant, hysop and more.

Our apple and pear trees were donated to us, many without labels so it’s guess work what they are. We have red, black and white currants, red and green gooseberries, goji berries…but for some reason our rhubarb keeps failing^.

Last year we planted pea beans; a cross between a pea and a climing bean; they grew so well they’ve been planted again this year, performing much better than peas.

Collard greens, summer and winter squash, melons, aubergines, cucumbers, a range of chillies, Welsh onion, celeriac, globe artichokes, Jersey kale, red rubble kale, thousand headed kale…

What food do you grow that you are unable to find in the shops?

As above; white sprouting broccoli, golden beetroot, ruby kale, cucumbers that actually taste of something, patty pan squash, Grandpas’ cress, mangelwurzel, Welsh onion, kai lan, great tasting lettuces, rare tomatoes; anything that’s out of the ordinary.

What has been your biggest growing success and/or disaster?

Cime di rape; I love it, but if you don’t know what it is, it takes a little convincing. Difficult to find outside of Italy and farmers’ markets or specialist grocers, it’s one of my hungry gap favourites, a crop that’s a cross between turnip greens and sprouting broccoli with a hint of bitterness that pairs well with strong flavours. If planted in the wrong season, or the right season with the wrong weather, it’s likely to bolt very quickly, as it did this year, so we’ll be planting more in late August. Celtuce; a cross between lettuce and asparagus. We over sowed in one go this year, and we were late harvesting which means it was too bitter. I’ve just resown it for an Autumn crop.

Disasters; just one? I planted globe artichokes a few years ago and patiently watched them grow their first leaves, get stronger, taller, send up buds, only to find out that they weren’t globe artichokes, they were cardoons. I wrote about it HERE.

Which crop do you grow every year, and what is your favourite dish to make with it?

Everyone at the garden loves beetroots; not everyone loves the tops but I personally think it’s a crime to throw them away if they’re in good condition. I adore pink soup in the summer and sometimes add in the sautéed stems. If you read my interview with Anna Ansara, I shared two of her delicious summer recipes here, for beetroot, and tomatoes.

How do you plan your meals around the produce you grow?

We don’t grow enough to give us all a veg box for the week; it’s an added bonus. In the winter we have lots of chard, kale and cime di rape. Peak time like now, when tomatoes, cucumbers and summer squash are abundant, is one of the best times of the year. Tomatoes are too good to cook; I will make a quick gazpacho if I have all the ingredients to hand, a simple tomato salad, or an uncooked tomato sauce.

I freeze a few berries at a time until I have enough to make a granita or sorbet such as this one (scroll down to end of article).

How do you manage a glut of produce, what do you make?

At the moment our glut is beans; they’re popping out all over the place and we often don’t find them to pick until they’re too old to be cooked quickly. Then I love cooking them slowly until soft in an onion, garlic and tomato sauce spiced with cinnamon and cumin, maybe mint, and serving room temperature.

Do you have a compost? If so, what is the best way of getting the most out of composting and do you have any tips?

We have four compost bins and a hot box and we never have enough compost. Soil is everything; the right soil for the plant, and for seeds. Use seed compost not multipurpose when planting seeds otherwise the nutrients in multipurpose will send your seedlings shooting up; making them leggy. We make teas from nettles and comfrey too and don’t use any chemicals apart from the occasional ‘organic’ slug pellets; we’ve tried most everything else; it’s them or us. Mulch, use green manure, do everything you can to look after your soil.

What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to start growing their own food?

Pick something that’s different, unusual, and expensive to buy. It depends upon the size of your garden or plot. If you have the space; cime di rape is a great winter into hungry gap vegetable. Buy seeds from small independent seed nurseries and don’t be afraid to complain if most, or all your seeds fail. Look out for seed swaps in your neighourhood and if you want to collect your own seeds; I recommend taking a look at The Real Seed Company’s advice page.

Succession planting is key if you don’t want a huge harvest all at once. Sow a few seeds every few weeks.

Many thanks to Cheryl for telling us about her community garden.

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Will: I’m 55, live in north London and I write for a living, mostly technical stuff, although I used to do a lot more food writing and reviews. I went vegetarian after the mad cow disease outbreak in the UK, waking up one morning to witness piles of cows being burnt, in scenes that shocked me to the core. I also grew up with vegetarian sisters, who did little to encourage my transition, other than allowing me to taste (steal) their food. I think I went vegan about six or seven years ago now, I didn’t make a note of my transition, it kind of happened naturally, as I became more aware of the horrors of the meat industry, the dairy industry and the need to eat better for the animals, the planet and my health.

My Substack, Plant—Based Planet, started in 2024, as a chance for me to share my rambling thoughts, tips, tricks and recipes I’ve picked up over the years. I hope it encourages people who might not know anything about plant—based eating to try new and exciting dishes. I try to always include recipes that are accessible, easy and tasty, from all over the world. The term ‘foodie’ has become cliché, but I’d happily put myself in that camp.

Q: Can you please describe the layout of your kitchen, how much of a role it plays with your family and when writing for your ‘Plant Based Planet’ newsletter?

Will: We moved into a tiny one—bed flat on the edge of Primrose Hill after COVID. It’s within a 1930s block of flats, which other residents seem to refer to as a ‘Mansion Block’, making it sound much grander than it is. Being built in that era, it feels like the kitchens were built to accommodate ‘bachelors’ who just wanted to make tea in the morning, and rarely cooked. Our kitchen is just 10ft long and 5.5ft wide — I’ve got mates with bigger cupboards!

Which leaves me with a frustratingly small space to cook in. My partner, luckily, is tiny, but even so, it’s rare that we can both be in the kitchen at the same time. We generally take it in turns to cook dinner, and keep well out of each other’s way!

Our landlord, thankfully, upgraded the space last year, so we now have lovely new cupboards, a tiny (unused) dishwasher, and some cool under—unit lighting.

For me, the kitchen has always been the heart of any home, and my favourite thing over the years is spending time around the kitchen table at friends’ and family’s houses.

It’s a linear space, which is useful for organised cooking — Fridge freezer, microwave, hob, sink, all in a line.

Q: What were the influences behind you becoming a Vegan? Can you please tell us something about this lifestyle and suggestions on how others can begin their own Vegan and Plant Based journey?

Will: I touched on this above. I worked in a meat packing factory as a student, and that leaves some trauma, I think. My sisters were vegetarians, growing up in the 80s, so as a hungry teen, I used to eat my food and then try theirs, too. As a young reporter on a local paper, I reported on veal crates being flown into a local airport, and during protests at the airport, a young protester was run over by a lorry and killed. This affected my stance on the meat industry too. And then, having spent my adult life as a vegetarian (since around 1989), I discovered the path to veganism through reading, research and all the great movies on Netflix that everyone has watched — like Earthlings, Forks over Knives, Cowspiracy, etc. This woke me up to the hideous reality of how animals have simply been commoditised for consumption, and how meat seems unhealthy, unsustainable and inherently cruel. I now feel like I can look pets in the eye without guilt.

If anyone is considering going vegan, I’d do some research, link up with Veganuary and the Vegan Society, for example, and spend some time on social media following any of the thousands of fantastic cooks and vegan activists there. Honestly, it’s really not hard. We’ve moved on from the old tropes, and I think anyone has it in them to be vegan. For me, it’s a simple choice to not want to be part of an inherently cruel structure, to divert profits from climate—ruining Big Agriculture and to choose a lifestyle that makes me feel happy and healthy.

Q: As a food writer, what essential things would you suggest other Vegans keep in their kitchen to make their life and cooking easier and enjoyable?

Will: Food wise, all the basics – onions, garlic, rice, fresh veg, soy sauce, chilli sauce, and more herbs and spices than you can fit in a wheelbarrow! But specifically vegan things, for me, means always having beans, lentils, good firm tofu, vital wheat gluten, cornstarch and nutritional yeast. None of these are expensive, and they’re widely available — certainly here in the UK.

A tofu press is a real help – I’ve had a few kitchen disasters (see below) trying to balance heavy things on a tea towel-wrapped lump of tofu to extract the water. A food processor/ really good blender is a must, and the decent ones last for ever.

I’ve written a few posts about kitchen essentials, and I expect to add more…

I love a kitchen gadget – or at least the idea of them – but over the years, given up on most of them for one reason or another. They don’t get relegated to a cupboard, either, as we don’t have space for unused gadgets!

Q: What are your most used kitchen gadgets that you cannot live without?

Will: For me, it’s the Air fryer, knife, chopping board, good baking trays and pans. I dream of a ‘katto’ knife and the ultimate stand mixer – purely to help with doughs and cake mixes, etc…

Air Fryers seem to be still trending, and I was gifted one by my awesome partner back in 2019, so it allowed me to muck about a lot with it during the dark days of lockdown. We use it almost every day, from making toast to dehydrating things like old mushrooms, to creating healthier fries and sorting out crispy tofu in a flash. Weirdly, recently, we received word from the manufacturer that there was a risk of fire from our existing air fryer — which was getting a bit quirky and awkward to use (The timer broke, and it randomly used to increase the cooking time of its own accord…I blame my mother’s mischievous ghost, but that’s a story for another time), so they very kindly replaced it with a super—duper, all—singing, all—dancing new model, which takes pride of place in our mousehole kitchen.

My advice to anyone would be to invest in the best knives you can afford — and a knife sharpener. I hate watching people struggle with blunt knives. And, of course, a cut from a sharp knife is cleaner and heals faster. And believe me, I know! The knives and cookware handmade by Katto are beautiful, durable and worth investing in, in my opinion.

I bought a really good wooden chopping board in 2019, and it’s still going strong. I invested in ‘Butcher’s Block’ linseed oil for it too. My partner thinks my love of this board is a little unusual, but I believe looking after stuff properly reaps dividends.

And with that in mind, I spent a lot (by my standards) on two anodised aluminium baking trays/ pans — on the basis that they never rust or degrade, and come with a lifetime guarantee. That seems like a good thing to me!

When we moved to our current flat, we also invested in three heavy duty ‘Meyer’ saucepans, which have been a joy to use.

Q: Is there anything about your kitchen that you would like to change or improve on?

Will: God yes, but we endure! I’d love a bigger space, a pantry, and more storage. I’m a bit of a food hoarder, and you’ll currently find a 6kg bag of rice, a 5kg bag of vital wheat gluten and a 1kg bag of wheat bran hidden in various spots in the kitchen. I’d love more space for experimentation — like fermentation, growing herbs, etc, but we are grateful for a big fridge, and a good hob and oven.

I’d love a Thermomix, but it might be something I’d play with for a week or two and get bored of.

A space big enough to house a lovely wooden table would be nice, too. We didn’t ask for, or want, a dishwasher when the kitchen was refurbished, and it bugs me that this device takes up valuable real estate in our tiny kitchen. We actually store laundry tablets, cleaning products and carrier bags in it!

Q: What tips can you give us that will help keep our kitchens neat and tidy and easy to manage?

Will: Given our tiny kitchen, organisation and tidiness are key.

In a small space, and certainly something I picked up while odd jobbing in kitchens as a student, is to clean up and wash dishes as you go.

Storage jars are fantastic, especially if you buy from bulk stores (or an ancient electric milk float that trundles past your house every now and then), as they allow you to keep an eye on your stock of everything, and look neat and tidy.

Storage boxes — we got six small ones from Amazon — help keep odd-shaped things like packets and bottles organised, again, very useful when you’re tight on space and time. I’ve spent way too long in the past hunting for a packet or box of something.

Categorising stuff into small boxes is so much better for the mind! So we’ve got one with sauces in it (Sriracha, soy, chipotle, etc), one with baking ingredients (baking powder, yeast, almond essence, vanilla essence, etc) and one with cooking ingredients like Thai pastes, noodles, seaweed, etc.

I think getting air in a kitchen is a hot tip — be it from a permanently open window, an extractor fan or even an air purifier. Kitchens can become hot and stinky places, so get some air in, and you’ll thank yourself.

While I like cooking under bright light, the rest of the time, the kitchen basks in ambient lighting, creating a warm and welcoming space. We don’t use the main light, but there’s under cupboard strip lighting, fairy lights, and built—in lights in the extractor fan.

In terms of cooking, I’d love to be one of those people that spend some hours every week chopping and prepping ingredients for the week — or even bulk cooking, but it’s something I’ve only ever managed half a dozen times. Prep is key to making ten minute evening meals, and so worth it, if you can get into the habit!

Q: How would you describe the regional cuisine where you live? Are there fresh food markets, or farmers’ markets available?

Will: We’re in central London, so there’s literally everything on our doorstep, for which I’m forever grateful. We’re close to Camden, which has a higher concentration of vegan outlets in a city renowned for its rich vegan dining scene.

We travel for markets, and I do love Borough Market, although the prices are getting ridiculous now. Primrose Hill Farmers Market on a Saturday morning is a lovely walk, but again, I’m resentful of paying £9 for a small tub of olives, for example.

Queen’s Crescent Market is a 15 minute walk away, has been around since the 1870s, and is far more real, but I find the produce is a bit ropey. Bonus Fact: It’s also famous for being the site of the very first Sainsbury’s supermarket!

They obliterated the famous, original Camden Market and replaced it with shipping crate stores full of tourist tat, which made me very sad, as the old market site was always fun to wander around.

We’re proud members of a local organic vertical community garden, Foodscape, where you can pretend to grow a variety of fresh veg, while actually leaving it to a professional gardener. I love it, as it cuts down on waste, packaging and delivers highly nutritious food! They also hold parties and training sessions about everything from planting onions to making nasturtium pesto.

Q: How many cookbooks do you have, and do you have any favourites? Have you written any cookbooks?

A: Over the years, I’ve gathered dozens, but narrowed it down to about 10. These days, I find recipes mostly online, print them and tweak them. A fave book is Maria Ella’s first book, “The Modern Vegetarian” (which can be easily adapted to vegan), and Gaz Oakley’s “Plants Only Kitchen”, which I’ve worked through. I gave my ancient copy of Larousse Gastronomy to my sister’s partner – a chef, who appreciates it far more than I ever did.

Camellia Panjabi’s “50 Great Curries of India” was something of a bible for me for many years, and my most recent purchase is an exciting, beautiful and interesting book, “Afro—Vegan” by Bryant Terry.

I’ve been trying to write a book with a chef, a leading light of London’s vegan scene for a few years now, but life and work get in the way. Wearing my PR hat, I once wrote a regional recipe book for the guests of a Scandinavian hotel chain in the Middle East. It was tough, as the recipes were all in different formats, imperial and metric, and many came from chefs working across the group portfolio with English as a second language…

Q: Do you have a favourite recipe that you would like to share with us?

Will: I’d like to respond with “I hope I haven’t discovered my favourite recipe yet”, but that seems like a cop out.

My sausage roll recipe is a definite favourite, it’s a tasty blend of walnuts, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and onion, that is so much better than any available to buy, in my humble opinion. I’ve fantasised about basing a business on these wondrous rolls. But I haven’t shared the recipe on my substack yet — watch this space!

Derek Sarno’s BBQ miso aubergine recipe is one I came across recently, and it’s divine…

I was recently very happy with this veganised Scotch Pie, a hearty, tasty dish, perfect for Autumn…

Sam Turnbull’s vegan salmon was a game—changer for me, and I’ve tried serving it to a few non—vegans who loved it too.

Q: Have you had any kitchen disasters you can share with us?

Will: Almost too many to describe, but in recent years, I managed to melt my prized dehydrator, which was on top of the hob, by accidentally turning the ring on with my belly.

During COVID, there were lots of nettles in the back garden of a previous flat, so I lovingly gathered them, prepared them and made a delicious nettle soup. Sadly, when it came to blending it, I absent mindedly left the blender lid off. The clear up took 2-3 months we kept finding lurid green stains in the back of cupboards, the ceiling and inside packets and pots!

I think there’s something wonderful about cooking, and a bit of chaos and disaster makes it all the more fun. I’m the sort of person who will pull a pizza out of the oven, only to drop it face down. I’ve boiled dried beans and forgot them — leaving the pan ruined and the kitchen full of acrid smoke — more times than I’ve had burnt dinners… the list goes on!

Embrace your disasters, and learn from them! (Just try not to burn your house down).

Thank you for sharing your kitchen with us,

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Please tell us a little about yourself and your publication.

I’m a recipe developer and food photographer, and I run the Substack Monday to Sunday. It’s a weekly newsletter where I share cozy, restaurant-worthy recipes that are approachable, delicious, and made from scratch. Think: your neighborhood wine bar meets an Italian trattoria. I also own and run Home Cooking Collective, a website I started in 2020.

What kind of fridge do you have? Fridge freezer/Upright/ Double doors?

I have a French-door (double-door) fridge with a bottom freezer.I also have a chest freezer that we converted to a chest “fridge” in our old apartment, because our fridge was so tiny! It’s a great way to make space for drinks or bulk items.

How often do you food shop? Do you buy in bulk - if so, what do you buy?

I live in a city, so my grocery store is within walking distance and close to the subway and the gym! As a result, I end up there at least 2 - 3 times a week.

When I’m in the thick of recipe testing, I often order from Instacart. And once a month, my husband shops at Costco for larger items. At Costco, we frequently pick up a big jug of extra-virgin olive oil, cans of tomato paste and whole-peeled tomatoes, Spindrift seltzers, and dried mango.

What is the most used ingredient that you always have a good supply of?

I always have a can of Greek yogurt in the fridge, along with a few individual packs (I love skyr; coconut and mango passionfruit are two of my favorite flavors!)

What is the oldest item/ingredient in your fridge, and what did you originally buy it for?

I have a jar of hoisin sauce that’s honestly a little bit old at this point, ha! But I often use it for pho and lettuce wraps!

Do you meal plan? If so, would you please share your secrets with us?

I do, and I don’t. I actually love to try other people’s recipes, so when I’m in the mood, I’ll plan 2 - 3 new recipes to try for the week ahead. But some weeks we’re really busy, and things get a bit chaotic. On those days, I might do a little fridge foraging and whip something together.

What I do recommend is prepping some simple grains or make-ahead salads for the week to make cooking easier. For example, I’ll make a batch of farro (I love this farro risotto too!), barley, or brown rice to eat throughout the week. For salads, this taverna salad or Charlie Bird’s farro salad are great make-ahead options.

What is the most expensive item in your fridge, and what do you use it for?

A block of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. It’s another go-to item in the fridge for me, and I use it on everything from pasta to salads, like a fettuccine alfredo (without cream) or basil pesto.

Which items would you advise people not to keep in their fridge and why?

I never store tomatoes in the fridge; I find they ripen properly and maintain their texture at room temperature! Fresh basil is also a no-go. I’ve made this mistake over and over, but basil leaves should be stored like cut flowers, at room temperature, in a vase filled with a bit of water.

How do you organise your fridge? Is it chaos, or a place for everything and everything in its place?

I love an organized fridge! I keep most jarred condiments on the top shelf and cheeses/yogurt on the middle shelf. For the bottom shelf, I have a section for leftovers, prepped items that need to be used up quickly (e.g., canned tomatoes or cooked grains), and larger fresh produce, such as a head of lettuce.

There are two vegetable drawers: one for soft, delicate items like greens and herbs and the other for firmer items like cucumbers, eggplant and ginger. That way nothing gets squished!

In the bottom drawer, I keep all my proteins, like fish, chicken, tofu, and seitan. This way, I can easily dream up a meal. I’ll pick something from the protein drawer, then pair it with vegetables and/or grains, and finally, choose a condiment or two to bulk up the flavors.

What are your top tips for storing items in your fridge and keeping it tidy? Do you use storage containers?

If I can, I try to clean out the fridge after every grocery shop. I get overwhelmed by a disorganized fridge, so it’s a bit of a necessity for me.

When it comes to containers, I absolutely love my condiment Lazy Susan! You can quickly spin the cylinder to see everything at once, rather than having to fish through the shelves. We’re a big cheese household, so I also have two rectangular plastic containers to organize my cheeses.

In the summer, when produce is overflowing, I highly recommend a produce keeper for storing lettuce or other greens.

Thank you for sharing your Fridge with us,

• Visit and subscribe to Karishma’s publication ‘Monday To Sunday’

• All images are copyright of Karishma Pradhan

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Mira: As a nutrition educator I’ve always been interested in food and helping people nourish themselves. When I began this career I discovered a fascination with what appears on the food label. Over time I became known as The Ingredient Guru. Now, years later I’ve published a book, The Pantry Principle: How to Read the Label and Understand What’s Really On Your Food - https://a.co/d/0i2fZtyi. My Substack publication shares holistic health and lifestyle information and the weekly newsletter, The Food News, is where I share blurbs about what’s happening on the food label, food politics, and more.

These days we live most of the year in Texas where I maintain a small herb garden. We’re fortunate enough to be able to escape the Texas heat and humidity by running away to the mountains of Colorado for the summer where my current vegetable garden is a small greenhouse at our off grid cabin. We put up the greenhouse last year so it’s a very new venture for us. We realized very quickly that having a greenhouse was a necessity due to the abundance of wildlife - rabbits, chipmunks, mice, ground squirrels, and deer who would be more than happy to sample the graden if given the chance.

How long have you been growing your own food and what does your garden look like today?

Mira: I’ve had at least an herb garden, and often a vegetable garden, at most of the homes we’ve owned. I started my first vegetable garden in Cleveland, Ohio over 30 years ago. It was a wonderful way to have fresh food on hand as well as a fun way to play in the dirt with our girls. Interestingly enough I tried to grow corn there and wound up growing a crop of corn smut. Not knowing what it was I ripped it all out. Now I know that it’s actually highly nutritious and has a number of functional health benefits. Sadly I’ve never been able to repeat the experience.

We’ve moved quite a few times since that first garden and have been fortunate enough to have space for a vegetable garden, of some size or another, wherever we lived.

What varieties of vegetables and/or fruit do you grow?

Mira: Because the greenhouse is such a small space I rely on a vertical stacking system. This year our garden includes lettuces, lal shak (a Bengali amaranth referred to as red spinach), arugula, beets, green beans, onions, garlic, herbs - parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, chives, and marjoram, and tomatoes. The onions are the cut ends off two bunches of storebought table onions that I simply pop into the soil and they grow tremendously well, providing all of our table onion needs for the rest of the summer. The lettuces, beans, and lal shak are started from seed. I also have nasturtium, calendula, and marigolds for color and enjoyment in the greenhouse. And this year I’m trying bell peppers from seed. They had a late start so I’m not sure if we’ll actually get any before the season is over. Although I know some things have the potential to be perennial, such as some of the herbs, I’ve decided that we would do best to keep them all in the greenhouse and start from scratch each year.

I do have some mint in a pot outside the greenhouse. So far the rodents have left it alone. And this year I planted rhubarb in an old horse trough. It’s outside the greenhouse because I’m hoping to keep it going from year to year. Supposedly the only critters that will eat rhubarb are rabbits and deer. I’m hoping the trough is too high for the rabbits to want to investigate, and we’ve place the trough near the workshop which is a high human traffic area, hoping this will keep the deer from wanting to investigate.

What food do you grow that you are unable to find in the shops?

Mira: Our nearest grocery store is 40 minutes away. The big grocery stores are 1 hour 45 minutes from the cabin. I’m growing the rhubarb because I cannot get in the shops here. I grow the lettuces because they’re tender and I feel it’s best to simply be able to walk into the greenhouse and snip what we need rather than buying a big bag at the grocery store that we might not finish. The lal shak seed was a gift from a friend years ago. I let my first crop go to seed and have been able to successfully repeat the process from year to year. This is the first year I’m growing it here in Colorado. Lastly, I grow the nasturtiums for their pretty and delicious flowers and leaves which offer a nice peppery bite to salad.

What has been your biggest growing success and/or disaster?

Mira: For this garden, I would say our biggest success is the onions. They are very happy growing in the vertical planter and produce quite well. Fingers crossed I haven’t had a disaster in the greenhouse yet. If the peppers don’t have enough time to grow, I may have to start them earlier in Texas and bring plants to Colorado rather than starting them direct from seed next year.

Which crop do you grow every year, and what is your favourite dish to make with it?

Mira: This is only our second year growing in this garden and I don’t have a single favorite crop. Really, I just love having greens and fresh herbs. I can walk outside at any time and grab something to add to a meal. It feels very wonderful to know that I’ve grown food that is contributing something to the plate.

One recipe that I recently made, and enjoyed so much that it’s becoming a regular breakfast, is this Dosa recipe

7. How do you plan your meals around the produce you grow?

Mira: Because I’m growing such a small variety of items in a limited space I don’t really plan meals around what’s in the greenhouse. I will confess I’m eager for those tomatoes to ripen and will probably need to come up with some sort of recipe because the plant is looking very productive. Mostly I simply think about ‘can I add herbs, onions, or greens to this recipe’. Having said that, we may suddenly find ourselves inundated with beans and have to do something with them. They’re due to start producing any day now.

As far as recipes go, I have a lovely Recipe Index that people can check out.

How do you manage a glut of produce? What do you make?

Mira: I deliberately tried not to plant too much because there’s just the two of us. If I wind up with too many greens, I might see if the neighbors want any. For the herbs, I have a small drying rack like these and will dry them at the end of the season to bring home and use in my Texas kitchen throughout the winter.

Do you have a compost? If so, what is the best way of getting the most out of composting and do you have any tips?

Mira: We started a compost bin and the neighbors warned us that it was an attractant for wildlife, especially packrats. So we wound up taking it down.

I do have a compost bin in Texas and use that during the winter months. Then in the spring, before we head out to Colorado, I use the compost to repot houseplants or top dress what’s in the garden. The biggest thing I’ve learned about compost is to make sure you’ve got a good ratio of browns to greens. I find I have the most success if I have slightly more than 50% browns. One way I do that is keep a pile of leaves and spent dirt (from repotting things or digging in the garden) in a pile next to the compost bin. Then everytime I add greens (kitchen waste) I simply cover it from the browns pile. Another important tip is that compost needs moisture, if we have a long dry no-rain spell in Texas I make sure to water the compost heap from time to time to make sure it’s staying active and supporting microbial activity.

What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to start growing their own food?

Mira: Start simple. A few herbs is a great place to begin. You can even do them in pots inside if you don’t have space outside for growing things. They’re very easy and add so much flavor to your food. Plus herbs are a booster food, they’re micronutrient powerhouses and a great way to give yourself a nutritional boost. If you’ve got a little more space then you might consider branching out into lettuces, they’re fast and easy to grow and so tasty. And the third piece of advice, learned from my Texas garden, is that you need to find the right spot for things. If something doesn’t grow well, don’t give up, move it to a different spot in the yard until you figure out where that plan will be the happiest.

• Many thanks for sharing your Vegetable Garden with us

• Visit and subscribe to Mira’s publication

• All images are copyright of Mira.

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Hello everyone, I’m Claire. I’m a Brit living in rural Bulgaria (in the beautiful Balkan Mountains) with my partner Rob and our seven cats. Yes, seven. What can I say? We can’t resist a cat in need.

I’ve been a freelance writer and ghostwriter since 2014, but began to seriously move into food writing in 2023, after winning the (UK) Guild of Food Writers Newcomer Award. My Substack, Auntie Bulgaria’s Kitchen, is all about growing, cooking and eating plants, with a dash of life in Bulgaria.

Can you please describe the layout of your kitchen, how much of a role does it play with your family?

When we bought the house, it had no kitchen or bathroom. There was only a sink in the corner of the room, behind a curtained-off area that functioned as a wash space. It took us a while to get around to building a kitchen – we had some major jobs to do first, including the bathroom, central heating, replacing all the windows, and getting the house rewired. For months, our ‘kitchen’ comprised a sink, a plank of wood balanced across two chairs, and a table left by the previous owners.

It took years to get the kitchen exactly how we wanted. My partner built most of it himself from scratch (plus we bought a couple of standalone IKEA trolleys), and we tried to reuse as much as we could. For example, some of the shelves are made from old beehive boxes. And we turned an old woodburning stove – which was beautiful, but too rusty on top – into a mini worktop.

The kitchen is the largest, warmest room in our house, and the place we – and the cats – gravitate to every day. With handmade wooden windows, lime plaster walls, wooden counters, oak beams, and a large woodburning stove (that powers the central heating system), it’s a rustic space. It’s also quite an awkward space – we have three low windows and four doors (including the front door) all coming off this one room, which left us a bit limited in terms of layout. It’s quirky, but I love it.

We’re also lucky to have a separate walk-in pantry (the dream!), and an outdoor ‘summer kitchen’ – a common feature in Bulgarian village houses.

What are your most used kitchen gadgets and kitchen gear, that you cannot live without?

I can’t do without a good knife and chopping board, a mandoline for making quick work of cabbage (I make a lot of sauerkraut), and a stick blender. I also have a little Nutribullet blender that’s enormously useful – I use it for smoothies, nut-based sauces, even blending up granulated sugar to make emergency icing sugar.

It’s not exactly a gadget but I’m also grateful to finally have a working electric oven after 10 years without one. (I’ve been baking and cooking in a woodburning stove.) Having invested in a range oven last year, I can finally say the kitchen is ‘finished’.

You moved to Bulgaria from the UK, can you tell us something about this? How different is life like compared to life in the UK?

We moved here because we couldn’t afford to buy a house of our own in the UK – certainly not with a big garden. We heard the house prices were low in Bulgaria, and that was all it took to get us on a flight! We fell in love with the Balkan Mountains, arranged a few house viewings, made an offer on a house, and were home owners within six weeks. (I’m cutting out a lot of the famous European bureaucracy, but you get the idea – it was quick.) That was in 2010. In 2011 we drove from the UK to Bulgaria with a car-full of belongings to start our new life.

We live in a mountain village around 80km from the capital, Sofia. The pace of life is so much slower than the UK. Our neighbour has a donkey called Marko. The local sheep herd passes by our house every day in summer. Everyone knows everyone (not always a good thing), and there’s always time for a coffee or rakia. Whenever I go back to the UK, I’m shocked how much of a rush everyone’s in.

How would you describe the regional cuisine where you live? Are there fresh food markets, or farmers markets available?

The food is similar to neighbouring Greece and Turkey – albeit with a lot more pork. Meat is a big part of the diet, but Bulgarians also love their vegetables, beans, salads and pickles. And dairy, especially a white cheese called cirene, which is similar to feta.

We grow a lot of our own fruit and veg, but the quality of produce at the markets is incredible. Picture enormous pink and red tomatoes that taste better than any tomato I’ve ever had in the UK. Leeks the length of my legs (seriously). Huge bunches of herbs. And glossy red peppers sold in 5kg net bags.

Is there anything about your kitchen that you would like to change or improve on?

It sounds boastful, but after so many years working on the kitchen, it’s exactly as we want it. I sometimes wish it overlooked the garden. We have a big veg garden right outside the back door, but unfortunately, the kitchen is at the front of the house. But then, in the middle of a Balkan winter, when the veg garden is bare and neglected, I’d rather not see it from the kitchen window!

I’m also very tempted to get a pressure cooker but struggling to think where we’d put it.

What tips can you give us that will help keep our kitchens neat and tidy and easy to manage?

I have to tidy as I go when cooking, otherwise I feel overwhelmed. This means packing away ingredients as they’re used and washing up while things are simmering. If I’m prepping lots of veg, I keep a bowl next to the chopping board for peelings and scraps (to go in the compost bin), whereas my partner will leave garlic and onion skins strewn all over the chopping board – it drives me insane. (I drive him equally insane with my backseat cooking.)

Also, I rarely peel butternut squash, sweet potatoes or potatoes. It’s fiddly, time consuming and unnecessary. The skins taste great. Just give them a scrub.

How many cookbooks do you have and do you have any favourites?

Probably between 50 and 60 – too many to have in one place. They live in the kitchen, the spare room, and there’s usually one or two on the floor next to the bed (I read them like novels).

I love cookbooks that transport me to another place, like Olia Hercules’ ‘Summer Kitchens’ (very reminiscent of the summer kitchens of Bulgaria). I also enjoy cookbooks with a narrow, obsessive focus, like Joe Yonan’s ‘Cool Beans’. These days, most of my cookbooks skew vegetarian or vegan. Two recent favourites include ‘Tenderheart’ by Hetty Lui McKinnon and ‘Big Vegan Flavor’ by Nisha Vora.

Do you have a favourite recipe that you would like to share with us?

It has to be my take on mekitsi (Bulgarian breakfast doughnuts) – delicious, tangy, flat doughnuts, typically eaten with jam and white cheese. Everyone should try them.

Have you had any kitchen disasters that you can share with us?

So many kitchen mishaps over the years, but nothing worth losing sleep over. There was the time we cooked a huge batch of onion soup, only for one of the cats to (somehow) push the entire pan over. The soup sprayed up the kitchen wall and across the floor – which, as we were still in the process of renovating, was a bare, unsealed concrete floor. We lived with a lovely brown stain until we finally tiled over it.

We’ve had weevils in pasta and bugs in spices. We’ve run out of gas in the middle of cooking (lots of times, actually – there’s no mains gas where we live, only bottles). We’ve had power cuts galore – including on Christmas Day 2024, when we had no electricity for most of the morning and afternoon. (Christmas lunch was a late, lazy one.)

Nothing much fazes us in the kitchen. (I mean, we bought a house that didn’t even have a kitchen.) If all else fails, there’s always toast and Marmite.

Thank you for sharing your kitchen with us,

• Visit and subscribe to Claire’s publication ‘Auntie Bulgaria’s Kitchen’

• All images are copyright of Claire Ruston

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I’m Betty, a food writer, recipe developer, home cook, and Southern California gal. I help people plan meals with California Cuisine recipes that will inspire them, no matter where they live in the world, and share that in my Friday newsletter. Other places people can find me include my food blog, podcast, YouTube, and Instagram. Lynn, I don’t know if you know this, but it was you who first encouraged me to start a podcast a few years ago with a question you asked in one of your posts. Thank you!

For folks who don’t know, California is the most diverse state in the U.S. with no ethnic majority. It is home to people from all over the world but especially from Asia, South America, and the Mediterranean. The cuisine here reflects that and is a beautiful mash-up of them all! My recipes, menu plans, and travel articles are centered around these flavors. A great example of California Cuisine is my Korean Bulgogi Street Tacos.

What kind of fridge do you have? Fridge freezer/Upright/ Double doors?

Mine is a French door refrigerator. On top are two side-by-side doors that swing outward. I love that I can fit an entire large pizza box in there if needed, ha ha! There is a filtered water dispenser on the outside of one of the doors. The freezer is on the bottom and has a pull-out drawer. It also has an ice maker.

How often do you food shop? Do you buy in bulk - if so, what do you buy?

Normally, I shop at my local grocery store once a week, usually on Sunday or Monday morning. While I ALWAYS go with a list, I am flexible if certain items are on sale and it’s a good opportunity to stock up.

About once a month, I hit up the local Costco to buy certain items in bulk like eggs, butter, Manchego cheese (they have the most reasonable price for it that I’ve found), and other items that are hard-to-find or too expensive at the grocery.

What is the most used ingredient that you always have a good supply of?

This is hard to pick one thing, because I do like to keep my freezer and pantry well-stocked. In the freezer, I always have a supply of frozen shrimp, chicken, and meats. Since I live in earthquake country in Southern California, I have a stocked pantry of dry items, canned goods, and other non-perishables. If I narrowed it down to “most used ingredient that I always have on hand,” it’s olive oil or butter.

What is the oldest item/ingredient in your fridge, and what did you originally buy it for?

I’d say it’s a bottle of Mae Ploy sweet chilli sauce. It’s probably been in there a year now because it only comes in huge glass bottles. I love it as a dipping sauce for my fresh Vietnamese-style Summer Rolls!

Do you meal plan? If so, would you please share your secrets with us?

Yes, planning is a must for me, and I’ve done it for 30 years now! I ran my own menu planning subscription business a few decades ago and loved it. There is such a sense of relief when you know what’s for dinner every night, have the ingredients sitting in your fridge/pantry, and have gathered the recipes all in one place. Preparedness is totally the key and takes all the stress out of dinnertime. Currently, I publish a brand new menu plan every month that includes photos and recipe links for paid subscribers to my newsletter.

What is the most expensive item in your fridge, and what do you use it for?

The priciest item in my fridge at any given point is fresh beef or fresh fish to be used in a recipe that week. But! I really do try to make it stretch over multiple dishes, like in my Cook Once, Eat 3x Series. One that readers really loved was the Braised Beef Short Ribs served three different ways: with sweet potato mash, over ramen, and atop a Southwest salad.

Which items would you advise people not to keep in their fridge and why?

Definitely do not put fresh tomatoes in the fridge! I think it absolutely ruins their taste and texture.

How do you organise your fridge? Is it chaos, or a place for everything and everything in its place?

For the most part, there is a designated spot for everything. But I’m not obsessive about it. The side doors house all the condiments and larger gallon jugs of things like almond milk (or the occasional bottle of prosecco!). Veggies in the vegetable drawer, meats and cheeses in the shallow deli drawer, and everything else on the middle shelves.

The fermented items (kimchi, Korean pickled radish, preserved lemons) live on the top left-hand shelf. When my daughter comes to visit, she calls it the “mystery jar shelf” and loves to joke, “What does Mom have growing this week?” I probably should be better at labeling things, but I figure they know what kimchi looks like. For those who want to learn, I’m teaching a live class on how to make homemade kimchi on August 21 through the CookStack Collective!

What are your top tips for storing items in your fridge and keeping it tidy? Do you use storage containers?

To keep my fridge clean and tidy, I take out items, one shelf at a time, wipe down the shelf, and put everything back (or discard items). I do this about every 10 days or so. If I’m in the mood, I will also wipe down any sticky jars and door jambs. The place I usually forget to clean is on top of the fridge itself. Every few months, I will remember to clean it and am horrified by the accumulation of dust up there.

Yes to storage containers! I bought a set of glass containers with airtight lids from Costco a few years ago and store leftovers in them. Despite everyone currently hating on plastic, I do have a few plastic containers for storage, too. I just don’t reheat food in them. Something that I also really like using is mason jars of all sizes. I use them to store my sugar-free simple syrup, strawberry vinegar, and homemade vanilla extract.

Thank you so much, Lynn, for allowing me to share my fridge (and all its contents!) with you and your readers. I truly love reading about my fellow food writers and am so thankful that you take the time to highlight them in your articles.

Subscribe to Newsletter ‘Betty Eatz’. All image credits are Betty Williams.

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Who am I | What is TASTE Pacific Northwest?

I’m an encore career chef living in Oregon among the most beautiful vistas in the United States ~ and the most dedicated, creative food people.

For twenty-five years I was at the helm of a Midwest professional services business. In 2014 I moved to Oregon to attend culinary school. Two years later I had a Baking & Pastry Management degree from the Oregon Culinary Institute. For five years I was pastry chef at a Portland Metro trattoria, responsible for the daily dessert menu, wine dinner desserts, catered events and retail confections. I supervised one very talented pastry cook.

I shed an entire clothing size!

When everyone was sent home in 2020, my partner and I founded a boutique confection company called Essential Confection. We sold luxurious desserts to restaurants, and developed an artisan product called Essential Douglas Fir Shortbread™ using essential oils which we wholesaled to Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

For the Past Two Years

My goal in writing TASTE | Pacific Northwest is to teach applied recipe development to help readers create the quality of living and cooking ~ the aesthetic ~ they want in their lives. I don’t just publish recipes; I teach readers how to become better cooks, better bakers.

I advocate for learning to love our land and local growers’ ingredients to enrich our lives, and to honor the farmers, growers and chefs whose work births quality and joy for us all ~ no matter your region!

What kind of fridge do you have? Fridge, freezer/upright/double doors?

Successful Living in Intimate Space | The Fridge

My partner, Paul Caloca, and I are both cooks, he a Bay Area transplant. As it was with every home my partner (in California) and I (in Ohio) have owned, our current kitchen is small and efficient, exactly my style of living.

Even with generous pantry storage, our kitchen fridge (with a top-opening freezer) isn’t remotely large enough to support the way we like to cook.

Several years ago we purchased a second fridge, a petite, efficient commercial refrigerator with big glass doors. I’m able to store things like a 10# box of dry roasted hazelnuts from our favorite grower, 7# of dark sweet cherries and 10# of just picked apricots.

We can also have back-up supplies of milk, heavy cream, two kinds of butter, refrigerated jellies, candied figs, sourdough starter, drink mixers and champagne. The fridge is sized to accommodate a half-sheet tray comfortably.

We date everything! I pay little or no attention to best-by dates as they’re for the manufacturer’s benefit only. I date the package when we open it, then taste-test as needed to evaluate the product’s quality. It truly reduces waste.

We also have a separate upright freezer for semi-annual fish and seafood purchases from a Bristol Bay, Alaska fisherman. We freeze pesto, flavored simple syrups, chicken meatballs, stocks, pastry dough, and in-season fruit.

How often do you food shop? Do you buy in bulk - if so what do you buy?

Food Shopping, Oy!

Since we are just two people (in intimate space!) ~ and we’re sensitive to minimizing waste ~ we’re careful about shopping. We use Costco for large supplies of paper products of all kinds and certain over-the-counter meds that are far better priced than even grocery stores. We use the local Fred Meyer grocery chain (now Kroger-owned) for mainstream national brand items like milk, sour cream and eggs, 60 at a time.

I took red meat out of my diet 16 years ago, so our chicken and local shrimp comes from a very high-quality local grocer called New Seasons Markets, where we buy certain varieties of cheese, as well.

Above all, we shop the Portland farmers markets for produce and fruit!

What is the most used ingredient that you always have a good supply of?

This is a tough one!

There are two answers! The first answer is very likely butter primarily because I baked professionally. It’s also because we’ve always taken Julia Child’s advice that everything’s better with butter. Admittedly, we use a lot of olive oil for the very same reason! Sounds a bit crazy, but I’m guessing that milk, (lactose-free) is our next most consistently used ingredient, which is why we always have a back-up.

What is the oldest ingredient in your fridge, and what did you originally buy it for?

This is a Fun Answer!

I have a 10.5# / 4.76 kg bucket of Mandelin almond paste in my commercial fridge. Its best-by date was 4/27/24! I’ve been careful about keeping it sealed and chilled, and it works beautifully. I posted my former trattoria’s Always Almond Cake in a post entitled The Musicality of Cooking and Baking. I removed the paywall just for you to access the almond cake recipe. A bonus is my lovely Citrus-Thyme Olive Oil Cake. Both are luxurious.

The Musicality of Cooking & Baking: Linda Naylor

Every TASTE | Pacific Northwest post is human-created for human enjoyment! I value our personal communication. It will always be so!

Read full story

Do you meal plan? If so, would you please share your secrets with us?

Honesty Being the Best Policy…

Just a bit of cooking humor. No, I don’t use meal plans. Our children are well-established adults so Paul and I cook solely for our own pleasure ~ and the pleasure of our friends and guests… which is the best!

My secrets, hmmm. Don’t over-buy. Don’t impulse-buy. Keep refrigerated and frozen items within your line of vision. Our fridges and freezer are very full; however, the food is easily recognizable. I never have to search for hidden ingredients which decreases the risk of waste.

Use professional food safety and efficiency standards by organizing your refrigerated food carefully. Raw meats and eggs are always on the bottom shelf to prevent cross-contamination of other foods.

Prepared foods, cooked meats and produce are always stored above raw foods. Use clear food storage containers, and date everything!!

What is the most expensive item in your fridge, and what do you use it for?

Oh My Goodness, the Most Expensive Food Item!

I admit that our most expensive food items are not in my fridge. They’re pantry items. I keep a close eye on mushroom prices at our farmer’s market. Porcini mushrooms, chanterelles and morels are the three I buy when prices are most reasonable. Then I dry them in a dehydrator.

They’re easily maintained in the pantry and easily reconstituted for use in dishes of all kinds, including risotto. I commonly take dried pieces and pulverize them in the spice grinder as needed for additions to a variety of dishes. There’s nothing like the depth of flavor they bring to a dish.

The other expensive ingredients are olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Like everyone, we have our preferences. Many of the priciest olive oils in our pantry are Italian or Spanish; however, we do support several California and even one Oregon olive oil mill.

Which items would you advise people not to keep in their fridge, and why?

First and Foremost…

Tomatoes, with one exception. Fresh tomatoes should be left on the counter until they fully ripen. Refrigerating tomatoes stops the ripening process and robs the tomato of the flavor it might otherwise possess. The exception is when a tomato has fully ripened and you have no immediate use for it. Chilling then becomes a bit of a protective device until you’re ready.

The second food item is onions. Chilling them creates mold very quickly. They then rot in short order. Better to have a single bowl or attractive serving piece on your counter for red and yellow onions, shallots and garlic. You’re much more likely to use them each day and totally eliminate loss.

Always store avocados on your counter. It becomes easy to check them daily for ripening. They’re too wonderful to lose!

There are quite a few others, including certain fruits and berries.

How do you organize your fridge? Is it chaos, or a place for ‘everything in its place’?

This is One of My Favorite Topics

In professional culinary training, the first tenet you learn is mise en place ~ everything in its place.

Literally, it means organizing ingredients and tools before any cooking begins. At home that means measuring or weighing and chopping your recipe ingredients, and placing them in an organized fashion, usually in the order the recipe ingredients are listed. We use sturdy, reusable plastic food service containers. They’re dishwasher safe and last a very long time. No need to spend big dollars on expensive containers.

Professionally, mise en place also meant station organization. On my 24”x36” pastry station, tools and scaled items are arranged in a logical flow (in the U.S., it’s left to right) to streamline work flow during service.

Make it new habit now, and enjoy it forever!

What are your top tips for storing items in your fridge and keeping it tidy? Do you use storage containers?

I love returning to this question.

It’s a way of restating that organization pays off in your accessibility to ingredients while minimizing waste. It’s a total money saver.

Use clear plastic bins for categories of food whenever possible. In our freezer, we store flash-frozen salmon, Pacific cod, halibut and crab in those bins. It makes reaching them super-easy and I always know what our remaining supply is.

Store the tallest refrigerated items in the back of the fridge so everything remains visible. We make our own limoncello because I can control the lemon flavor [more] and the sugar [less]. We don’t use it weekly, though we enjoy it chilled so I store it in the back of the fridge.

Store dairy like milk, half and half, and heavy cream in the coldest part of your fridge; that’s usually in the rear. It makes a measurable difference in ingredient life. Remember, though, that items like sour cream, creme fraiche and hard- or soft-boiled eggs suffer permanent textural damage if frozen. Just use the same storage shelf each time, and be careful of stacking which can cause freezing in some fridges.

I use a Google Keep note to list additional supplies of items we store on Metro racks in our laundry room where the commercial fridge and freezer are. It eliminates purchasing something you already have!

Always, always, label your containers and date them. Make it a new habit and you’ll love it going forward!

Many thanks to Lynn Hill for the invitation to chat about our refrigerator(s)!

Cooking and baking are so much more satisfying when we’re working with organized inventories of ingredients!

I hope you’ve enjoyed an inside peak into the wacky world of our food at home. One of the beauties of living in small space is learning how to work efficiently. The experience I had working in a restaurant kitchen has proven invaluable.

Hope you’ve taken some useful tips away.

Subscribe to Newsletter ‘Taste | Pacific Northwest’. All image credits are Linda.

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Julia: I’ve been a Foreign Correspondent in different countries and have travelled extensively which piqued my interest in unfamiliar cuisines. Tabled gives recipes about a specific ingredient I focus on each week but where relevant, it informs you about how Big Food influences our appetites for its own profit and often our worse health, with facts it would prefer you not to know.

Q: What kind of fridge do you have? Fridge freezer/Upright/ Double doors?

Julia: My fridge is a small under-counter fridge with an ice box.

Q: How often do you food shop? Do you buy in bulk? If so, what do you buy?

Julia: Two or three times a week at the local large supermarket or the Middle East stores on the same street and the market stalls outside them. I don’t bulk buy because I don’t have enough storage space.

Q: What is the most used ingredient that you always have a good supply of?

Julia: Lemons.

Q: What is the oldest item/ingredient in your fridge, and what did you originally buy it for?

Julia: Full fat natural Greek yogurt a week old, which I use for everything from a cumin-flavoured salty lassi to tzatziki, and add to tahini paste to make a quick Middle East sauce for roasted eggplant or eat with a juicy peach and drizzled with a good honey.

Q: Do you meal plan? If so, would you please share your secrets with us?

Julia: When my children were at school, I had to meal plan as I had a full-time job. I’d do a big cook at the weekend of sauces and soups, a batch of shortcrust pastry, and a huge stew or similar which could change into meat pasties or stuffing for roasted peppers or a sauce for pasta and other things for as long as it lasted. At that stage, I had a single door upright fridge with freezer drawer beneath. Once they left for college, the fridge went, too.

Q: What is the most expensive item in your fridge, and what do you use it for?

Julia: I have a pot of goose fat for roasting potatoes and usually a smoked cod’s roe which turns quickly into taramasalata for a summer dip with vegetables or warm pitta bread, or is wonderful just peeled and spread over hot malted-granary toast with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Q: Which items would you advise people not to keep in their fridge and why?

Julia: If you are British or European, don’t put eggs in the fridge as they won’t last as long. Eggs are covered in a cuticle, a natural waxy coating which seals the shell, locking out bacteria. It is illegal in the EU to wash eggs and they will keep on the counter 2-6 weeks. In the US, however, eggs are washed so must be kept in the fridge. I wouldn’t put tomatoes or berries in the fridge as the cold breaks down the membranes and harms the enzymes that produce their flavour. There is no need to put jars of anything made with vinegar in a fridge as vinegar is a preservative.

Q: How do you organise your fridge? Is it chaos, or a place for everything and everything in its place?

Julia: Since it’s so small, I have to keep it organised. But that’s no challenge as I buy so little. Veg and fruit go in the produce drawer (with a tea-towel wrapped box of Neuhaus truffles at the moment!), dairy products in the door shelves. Fish and meat on the shelf that currently is empty as I’ve cut eating both right back.

Q: What are your top tips for storing items in your fridge and keeping it tidy? Do you use storage containers?

Julia: Containers are handy if you stuff your fridge, especially those with coloured lids, as you can more easily spot stuff without emptying the whole shelf. Whenever I’m at a hotel that puts shower caps in the bathroom, I bring them home to cover bowls of food (making sure they’re taut and don’t touch the food).

IKEA is a great resource for well-designed containers. I keep all my dried goods, like flour, sugar, pasta, and pulses, in glass jars, and my spices in the magnetic containers stuck to the fridge door.

• Many thanks for sharing your fridge with us

• Visit and subscribe to Julia’s publication Tabled.

• All images are copyright of Julia Watson.

Read more interviews and Q&A series

If you are a food writer and would like to be part of this Q&A Fridge series, please email Lynn. Thefoodstak@gmail.com with the subject header Q&A Fridge series.

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Listed below, you will find a growing collection of every article, recipe and collective list published on FoodStak.

Each article is free to read; nothing is behind a paywall. FoodStak is my hobby, and I love helping and supporting the food writing community on Substack. I also hope this helps you connect and collaborate with others.

As a reader, you will get to see inside Other People’s … fridges, kitchens, and explore their vegetable gardens in the Q&A series

You will also be able to build your collection of cookbooks and discover more Food Writers to subscribe and follow.

As the number of articles grows, so will this index and the number of newsletters you will receive during the week. There is so much to share with you.

Happy Reading

Lynn

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Q&A Series

• Q&A introduction to the series

This is a collection of guest posts where food writers answer questions about their kitchens, what they keep in their fridges and the food they grow in their vegetable gardens. A must read for anyone looking to learn a little more about the people behind their favourite food writing.

Other People’s Kitchens

• Q&A with Rebecca Blackwell

• Q&A with Will Rankin

• Q&A with Claire Ruston

• Q&A with Julia Watson (29th August 2026)

Other People’s Fridges

• Q&A with Julia Watson

• Q&A with Linda Naylor

• Q&A with Betty Williams

• Q&A with Karishma Pradhan

• Q&A with Ellen Kornhmehl

Other People’s Vegetable Gardens

• Q&A with Mira Dessy

• Q&A with Cheryl Queen of Markets

• Q&A with Lisa of The Naturally Sweet Life

Lists

To make it easier for you to discover publications on Substack, I have put together a growing list of food writers. Along with a separate list of Cookbooks for you to browse and add to your book collection.

• List of Food Writers

• List of Cookbooks

FoodStak Monthly Digest

• July 2026

Recipes

• Apple and Mincemeat Pastry Squares

• Apple Crumble with a Streusel Topping

• Apple, Oat and Cinnamon Muffins

• Banana and Peanut Butter Muffins

• Beetroot and Chocolate Brownies

• Brunch Recipes for a Staycation

• Buttermilk Soda Bread

• Carrot Cake Traybake

• Carrot Cake Muffins

• Coffee and Walnut Traybake

• Crunchy Oat and Nut Streusel Topping

• Dorset Apple Cake

• Easy Chocolate Chip Muffins

• Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

• Easy Rock Cakes (Rock Buns)

• Easy Way to Make Buttermilk

• Homemade Custard

• Individual Mincemeat and Pear Cumbles

• Mincemeat and crumble traybake

• Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Blondies

• Rhubarb and Apple Lattice Tart

• Rhubarb and Ginger Flapjacks

• Strawberry Butterfly Buns

• Streusel Mince Pies

• Vegetable and Lentil Pasties

• Wholemeal Vanilla Shortbread

Miscellaneous Articles

• Who Taught You How To Cook?

• What Would You Serve at a Wedding?

• How Do You Store Your Recipes?

• How Do You Use Your Freezer?

• Never Stop Learning

• How To Make Your Sourdough Bread Rise

• Kitchen Tips from Food Writers and Community

• Pastry Crimping Technique

• The Best Way to Freeze the Last of the Summer Fruit

• Three Best Muffin Cases

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Please do not republish or reuse this list without permission.

Thank you so much. Lynn Hill

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Golden Schroeder, Lisa ( )

Untamed Mushrooms: From Field To Table (2018)

• Category: Single subject cookbook. Award winning for not only content but book design.

• The Story: A hybrid field guide/cookbook about foraging for and cooking with wild mushrooms--features a bakers dozen of the most delicious and easiest to identify wild mushrooms. Gorgeous photos to help with identification, expert field advice, and a complete kitchen handbook with over 100 seasonal recipes (including lots of vegetarian options), again with beautiful plated food photography. Suggestions for using cultivated wild mushroom species if foraging isn’t in the cards for the cook!

• Must Make Recipe: So hard to choose, but suggest Grilled Lamb Chops with Golden Chanterelles & Wild Blueberry Chutney. Or Marcela’s Marinated Mushrooms--a blend of wild species in a spiced oil confit (great entertaining recipe).

• Quick Links: Buy Book | Subscribe to Lisa > ‘Trifling w/Food’

Harbury, Evie ( )

My Bohemian Kitchen: (2025)

• Category: Recipes: A nostalgic guide to modern Czech cooking.

• The Story: My Bohemian Kitchen is a charming collection of Czech recipes with roots in nostalgia and a surprisingly modern take on seasonality and sustainability in the kitchen.

  The book brings to life my long summers spent at Granny’s mill in South Bohemia with personal stories about Czech food and culture. Childhood memories simmer alongside more recent days spent with friends and family in Bohemian kitchens. Alongside the snapshots of this food are her deliciously simple recipes that capture the influences of the Czech Republic’s neighbouring countries. Even if you know nothing of this region, there’s so much to discover and enjoy.

• Must make Recipe: Strawberry Dumplings

Quick Links Buy the Book | Website: My Bohemian Kitchen

HILL, Lynn ( )

1) The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook (2013):

• Category: Recipes - From simple tea loaves to stunning cakes.

• The Story: Cake club members reveal their favourite recipes from teatime treats to chocolate indulgences.

• Must Make Recipe: Pistachio and Lime Cake, page 140

• Quick Links: More details | Subscribe to Lynn > ‘FoodStak’

2) A Year of Cake (2015):

• Category: Recipes. Celebratory Cakes for every occasion.

• The Story: 100 Celebratory Recipes from members of the Clandestine Cake Club. From birthday cakes and anniversaries to festivals and more.

• Must make recipe: Caramel Pecan Brittle Swiss Roll, page 122

• Quick Links: Buy Book | Subscribe to Lynn > ‘FoodStak’

Nieman, Ruth ( )

1) The Galilean Kitchen ( 2017 )

• Category: Culinary & Cultural Storytelling

• The Story: The Galilean Kitchen celebrates the flavours of rural Galilee through the eyes and palates of local Arabic women, from the recipes handed down through the generations, and cooked every day from memory and with love.

• Quick Links: Buy Book | Subscribe to Ruth > 'Cultural Bites'

2) Freekeh Wild Wheat & Ancient Grains ( 2021 )

• Category: Culinary & Cultural Storytelling

• The Story: Freekeh, Wild Wheat & Ancient Grains explores one of the region’s oldest staples through history, biblical links, agriculture and culinary practice, still harvested and cooked throughout the Levant today.

• Must Make Recipe: Freekeh with Pinenuts & Almonds also known as ‘Nahida’s Freekeh... (recipe in both books)

• Quick Links: Buy Book | Subscribe to Ruth > ‘Cultural Bites’

  ---

Nims, Cynthia ( )

1) Crab: (2016)

• Category: 50 Recipes with a Fresh Taste of the Sea from the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts;

• The Story: Focused on those specific seafood species, with general information and recipes.

2) Oysters: (2016)

• Category: Recipes that bring home a taste of the sea.

• The Story: In this book I explore one of the most beloved foods of the Pacific coast waters, with 30+ recipes and information about why they grow so well in this region, how they’re grown and where, a look at oyster bars and what to drink with oysters.

• Must make recipe: Oyster Sliders with Togarashi Slaw from the Oysters cookbook is among my favorites.

3) Shellfish: (2022)

• Category: 50 Seafood Recipes.

• The Story: Features individual chapters about crab, lobster, shrimp, clams, mussels, oysters, and scallops.

• Quick Links: Buy all Books | Subscribe to Cynthia > Savvy Seafood

Read, James ( )

Of Cabbages and Kimchi (2023)

• Category: Food science & history + recipes. Fermentation.

• The Story: James’ first book Of Cabbages & Kimchi: A Practical Guide to the World of Fermented Foods, came out in 2023. With it, he wanted to show that the world of fermented foods & drinks is neither challenging nor intimidating, but instead a wondrous realm populated by delicious microbe-generated morsels, with incredible histories and folklore behind them. Featuring over fifty recipes - including Mushroom and Sauerkraut Pierogi, Chilled Radish Noodle Soup and Green Chilli Fermented Salsa - and packed to the brim with Marija Tiurina’s gastro-surrealist watercolor illustrations, Of Cabbages & Kimchi will help you create, understand and appreciate fermentation’s bubbling magic. It was shortlisted for the Fortnum & Mason, Guild of Food Writers and Andre Simon food book awards and received praise from the likes of Nigella Lawson, Fuchsia Dunlop and Mark Diacono.

• Must Make Recipe: Soy sauce milk chocolate tart

• Quick Links: Buy the Book | Website: James Read Writer

Watson, Julia ( )

Bruno’s Cookbook (2023)

• Category: Recipes and traditions from a French country kitchen.

• The Story: Recipes from the Périgord region of France as cooked by Bruno Courrèges, the protagonist of Martin Walker’s ‘Bruno, Chief of Police’ mystery series, arranged around local food providers, hunters, fishermen, cheesemakers, foragers, bakers, and winemakers.

• Must Make Recipe: Fillets of duck with honey and mustard

• Quick Links: Buy on Amazon | Subscribe to Julia > Tabled

Rebecca Blackwell, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. She and her husband are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

Q. Hello Rebecca. Can you please tell us a little about yourself and your substack publication?

Rebecca: Hi there! I am a recipe developer, writer, and food photographer. I own two recipe websites where I’ve been publishing since 2013, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

In early 2020, my husband and I sold our home in Colorado and moved into an RV. We have been traveling around the country, living and working from our home on wheels ever since. In 2025 we added a sailboat to our collection of homes-that-move. My Substack newsletter, Let’s Get Lost, is a way for me to share stories and recipes inspired by our life on the road.

Q. Can you please describe the layout of your kitchen, how much of a role does it play with you and your family?

Welcome to my cozy 7x4 foot kitchen!

Rebecca: When we first moved into our RV, I was nervous about how I would continue to develop and photograph recipes in such a small space. I was used to a large kitchen and a separate photography studio.

Much to my delight, working in a small space hasn’t hindered my work at all. Sure, it gets a little crowded in here when I’m doing a photoshoot for a recipe, but if having to step around camera equipment to get to the bathroom is the worst of our problems, it’s a pretty good day. 😂

I love to cook for other people and have continued to entertain since moving into our home on wheels. We even hosted Thanksgiving one year for over 30 people!

If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that nature abhors a vacuum. For me, the only way to “need” less of anything is to limit what’s available. That plethora of kitchen appliances, pans, and dishes that I had been collecting (and really, really needed!) over the years…. Turns out I don’t miss them at all.

I have also devised some creative storage solutions. For example, we added a sofa and ottoman with storage. Underneath our sofa cushions, you’ll find a stack of baking dishes, a pasta machine, and an assortment of beverages, and most of my baking supplies reside inside our ottoman.

Q. What are your most used kitchen gadgets that you cannot live without?

Rebecca: As you can imagine, we are focused on maximizing every inch of space, so while it’s not really a gadget, this wine rack and wine glass holder that my brother designed and built for us is one of my favorite things in my kitchen. The rack holds 8 bottles of wine and 6 glasses, all nestled in felt-lined compartments that keep them secure and protected during travel.

He also built a spice rack to fit perfectly on the half wall next to the oven. Before he built this for me I had all my spices piled into a basket! It was a mess!

As a baker, I could not live without my KitchenAid stand mixer and am happy to give up some counter space for it. I’ve also made space for a food processor, Vitamix blender, and an instant pot in one of our cupboards.

We installed an outdoor kitchen with a Blackstone griddle and a smoker and while I don’t use it super often, I do love cooking outside when we are parked in beautiful places!

Q. You describe yourself and your husband as full time travelers who live in a 5th wheel RV. How did this come about and what has been your biggest adventure so far?

Rebecca: We decided many years ago, when our youngest was still in elementary school, that by the time our kids were grown and on their own, we wanted to be in a position where we could work remotely. In 2019, as our youngest was preparing to leave for college the next year, we had made that dream a reality.

Our initial idea was to rent Airbnbs for a few months at a time in various locations. In late 2019 we got to test this idea when some friends of ours asked if we would house sit for them for 2 months while they were in Europe. They have a lovely home in southern California and while we LOVED living and working from a new location, we realized that we didn’t enjoy living in someone else’s home.

We weren’t sure what we were going to do until we met up with some old high school friends and learned that they lived in an RV. We knew instantly that this was our answer and within 6 months we’d sold our home and moved into a 43-foot 5th wheel! The first night that either of us had spent in any kind of camper, we’d already sold our home and bought our RV! We were all in! It’s a good thing we like it!

Since then, we’ve “lived” in 38 states and seen parts of the country we never knew existed. We’ve stayed in big cities and extremely remote areas, like this rocky bank on the edge of the Flaming Gorge.

We’ve parked ourselves on ocean beaches, next to rivers and lakes, in forests, and on open plains. One of our most memorable adventures was pulling our RV to within a few feet of the edge of a canyon in Utah where we stayed for a couple of weeks. From our windows, you could see straight down to the canyon floor!

Q. As a recipe developer, food writer and photographer, how much of a role does your kitchen play while traveling and writing for your ‘Let’s Get Lost’ Substack newsletter?

Rebecca: Since launching my Substack in February 2024, I’ve published 100’s of new recipes here, many of which are inspired by the places we’ve visited, all of which were created and photographed in my tiny kitchen.

My entire workday is spent either in the kitchen or sitting at my computer at our dinette. When we’re not outside exploring a new area, you’ll almost always find me in the kitchen!

Q. As you travel around in your RV, are you able to find fresh food markets, or farmers markets? What has been your favourite?

Rebecca: This is always an adventure! I never know what I’m going to find when we arrive in a new area. Sometimes we are close to cities with large chain supermarkets. But often we are in remote areas and I have to learn quickly how to shop like the locals.

A lot of what I make and publish is determined by what ingredients I had access to in whatever area we happened to be in that week.

I have also come across some of the most, shall we say, unique people in grocery stores… such as the grown man happily pushing his cart around the grocery store while wearing a Superman cape, and the man in a full Spiderman costume perched atop the grocery store sign as I turned into the parking lot. And no, it wasn’t even close to Halloween.

Or the checker who gave me an uninterrupted NPR-style monologue of current events while scanning my groceries, and the checker who held up the line for several minutes so he could marvel at a package of mushrooms in my cart and finally exclaiming, “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a new kind of mushroom around here.”

Or the somewhat embarrassing experience of the checker holding up the line and calling her coworkers over to gawk at “the biggest order they’ve every seen” after ringing up my $300 worth of groceries.

Also, the items on the shelves of a store is a window into the town. There’s a store in Crystal Beach, Texas called The Big Store that is not very big in size but has a tiny selection of literally everything. I shopped at a grocery store in Wisconsin with three full isles devoted to frozen pizza and a store in South Dakota with an impressively large meat selection and a produce section not much bigger than my refrigerator. I shopped at a store in Oregon with an ice cream counter and nearly every single person shopping there was pushing their cart with one hand and holding an ice cream cone with the other.

I have also shopped in stores where the end caps are filled with locally made jam and jelly rather than big brands who paid the highest stocking fee. And I’ve stuffed my refrigerator and freezer with meat and produce from local farm stands sold by people who know what real food is.

Over the years, Steve and I have had many conversations that go something like this, “We would have never discovered this place if we didn’t live in an RV.” And that, more than anything, describes why we do it.

Q. Is there anything about your kitchen that you would like to change or improve on?

Rebecca: Soon after moving into our RV we remodeled almost every inch of it to turn it into a space that’s perfect for our life. So, for the most part, everything in my kitchen is there by design. The one thing I would love to change is to swap out my gas oven for an electric oven.

I love having gas burners, but the temperature in my gas oven fluctuates more than I would like it to. When I’m testing a recipe I use a digital oven thermometer to constantly monitor the temperature, adjusting as necessary, to ensure I’m giving accurate temperatures and timing in my recipes.

An electric oven isn’t always practical – especially if we are parked somewhere remotely and relying on solar energy to power our electricity needs. So, my gas oven will have to suffice. But if I could figure out a way to switch it, I would!

Q. What tips can you give anyone traveling in an RV that will help keep their kitchens neat and tidy and easy to manage?

Rebecca: Clean as you go. We don’t have a dishwasher and I don’t miss it. When you’re working in a small space, you simply don’t have the room to allow dirty dishes to pile up. But honestly, no matter what the size of your kitchen or how many pots and pans and utensils you have, cleaning as you go is a more efficient way of cooking.

Q. How many cookbooks do you have and do you have any favourites? Have you written any cookbooks?

Rebecca : It is difficult for me to express how much I love cookbooks. Before we moved into an RV I had stacks and shelves of them in every single room of the house except the bathrooms and the kids’ rooms.

When we decided to move into an RV, we spent months getting rid of almost all of our stuff and making really hard decisions about what we would bring with us. Out of all the things we sorted through, deciding what cookbooks to bring with me was probably the most difficult.

Steve (my husband) would argue that we have too many cookbooks in our tiny home on wheels. I would counter that in comparison to how many I want to have with us, I should be awarded a medal for Herculean self restraint.

Every time we move to a new location I have to pack them all away and then unpack them again and this never feels like a burden. I actually kind of love it. I feel inspired just by holding them and setting them on the shelf. Like somehow all the delicious ideas inside might be absorbed just by having them near me.

I counted how many I actually have with us - 48. Plus a growing number on kindle, which is not my favorite format, but I’m learning to live with it.

I have not published a cookbook (yet!) but have created three comprehensive downloadable ebooks for paid subscribers to my newsletter.

Q. Do you have a favourite recipe that you could share with us?

Rebecca: This is a difficult question because I have many favorites! So, I know it’s cheating, but I’m going to give you a couple.

This Sesame Chicken Salad is something I make all the time because it’s one of our favorite travel-day and lake-day meals.

I could eat Chicken Schnitzel and Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes every single day for the rest of my life.

This Creamy Mushroom Soup tastes like something you might have eaten at one of Julia Child’s dinner parties (I wish!) but in reality, it’s a soup for real, actual life.

And this Chocolate Buttermilk Cake is the kind of cake you bake when you want something really good but super basic, decadent and deeply chocolate, but requiring minimal time and effort.

Q. Have you had any kitchen disasters in your RV, that you can share with us?

Rebecca: Whether this is a disaster is up for debate, but it speaks to the potential hazards of a small kitchen!

Last year we had a group of friends over and I made a pitcher of pomegranate margaritas. This is a signature cocktail of mine and I put a lot of effort (and expensive ingredients) into crafting a large pitcher meant to last us well into the night.

After our guests had arrived, I set about filling their glasses. As I was also preparing dinner, there was precious little counter space, so I balanced the pitcher on the edge of the sink while I moved things around. As I turned around to respond to something someone said, I knocked the pitcher into the sink and every last drop of our margaritas poured down the drain!

In case you are worried, we opened a few bottles of wine and had a delightful evening even if no margaritas were had.

Thank you for sharing your kitchen with us,

• Visit and subscribe to Rebecca’s publication ‘Let’s Get Lost’

• All images are copyright of Rebecca Blackwell

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Read more interviews and Q&A series.

If you are a food writer and would like to be part of this Q&A Kitchen series, please email Lynn. Thefoodstak@gmail.com with the subject header Q&A Kitchen series.

Overseas travel since then has been an adventure for me in many ways, but there has always been one regret.

These days, the East Coast of Yorkshire are where we have our summer staycations, often going two or three times a year. From Whitby to Saltburn and places in between.

Before we travelled, I tried to make something to take with us for when we arrived, usually something savoury and something sweet. Then shop for food or eat locally.

Here are a few brunch recipes, from Sweet to Savoury, kindly suggested by some Food Writers here on Substack, that will keep you going on your staycation journey and when you arrive. Discover more recipes in each of their publications.

Leave a comment

Tell us about your Summer staycation.

Happy Travels and Happy holidays.

Lynn

Table of Content

Sweet Brunch | Savoury Brunch

Sweet Brunch

These recipes are ideal for morning brunch, nibbling on while you travel or taking to the beach for a picnic.

Cherry Chocolate Chip Muffins ( )

deliciously moist, naturally sweetened muffins with fresh juicy cherries and chocolate chips

Strawberry Coconut Scones ( )

If you’re a coconut fan, these super-tender scones will be your jam. And even if you’re not, the coconut flavor is subtle enough to not overpower.

Double Chocolate Rye Muffins With Miso and Maple ( )

To be clear, no one will mistake these for anything other than chocolate muffins. The rye flour, miso, and maple are supporting actors in this show, and honestly deserve an award for the way they make chocolate shine.

Breakfast Nordic Breakfast Crepes ( )

These Nordic breakfast crepes are inspired by Finland’s rahkaletut: light, tangy quark crepes traditionally served with berries. My version blends Greek yogurt, oats and flour into a protein-rich batter that cooks up golden and tender

Mascarpone and Fig Stuffed French Toast with Thyme Syrup ( )

Rich, golden-brown brioche filled with creamy mascarpone and sweet figs. Topped with a fragrant thyme-infused maple syrup, this indulgent brunch dish is the perfect balance of sweet and savory.

Omelette aux Pommes - Apple Omelette ( )

I don’t know if I will ever eat a savory omelette again. Although a dessert, we ate it for lunch and what a damned fine lunch an apple omelette makes.

Bettelmann - Alsatian Bread Pudding with Apples and Raisins ( )

What makes the bettelmann unique is that it was most commonly made using leftover enriched sweet breads such as pains au lait or kougelhopf, both deeply rooted in Alsatian home baking and staples of the kitchen.

Savoury Brunch

When the journey is long, these recipes will give you a hearty start to the day.

Breakfast Tacos ( )

Easy and delicious, any time of day! Breakfast tacos are customizable and riffable. It’s easy to sub in bacon and cooked potatoes for the sausage and hash browns, add black beans for extra heft, or swap in corn tortillas for the flour ones. Make these your own!

Making More of Mücver ( )

Turkey’s grated courgette (zucchini) fritter, mücver (pronounced moojvair), is a staple in ev yemekleri (home-cooked food) eateries and in Turkish kitchens when something quick to prepare is needed. It’s a close relative of the potato latke or hash brown and is really easy to make.

Savory Gluten-Free Vegan Mung Bean Pancakes ( )

Classic American pancakes served with maple syrup were unknown to us in India. However my mother’s kitchen abounded with savory dosas - the equally talented overseas cousin of a pancake. We ate dosas made from grain flours, semolina, soaked lentils, with grated vegetables and spices in dazzling combinations.

Easy Sheet Pan Breakfast That Feeds a Crowd ( )

Three simple oven recipes that let you spend less time cooking and more time gathered around the the table.

Vegetable Torta( )

…….home we went, delighted with our haul, and in moments of simple illumination birthed a mélange of textures, colors and flavors any season would be proud of. Essential Potato Torta.

Chilli Butter Sweet Potato Hash ( )

A great inclusive breakfast as it is naturally free of gluten and you can add dairy on top if you want . Sweet potato, lime and chilli butter hash

Creamy Mushrooms on Toast ( )

df, low gluten/gluten free option. Designed to work with food intolerances.

Fresh Goat Cheese and Asparagus Tart ( )

I wanted to use the local plump, violet-tipped, white asparagus, but felt that the thin, tender, more flavorful green stalks would work better and look prettier.

Pissaladière (

La Pissaladière is a delicious tart that makes a fabulous cocktail finger food, is great for picnics or brunches, a starter, or a main course for a light meal with a salad. It’s best eaten hot, but is still excellent eaten warm or a room temperature.

Vegetable and Lentil Pasties ( )

This recipe was inspired by one of my trips to Whitby. They make a substantial brunch and can be made the day before you travel. They can also be frozen and taken with you.

Wherever your summer holidays take you, I hope you have a wonderful time.

Take Care.

Lynn

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