Where Culinary Magic Sizzles!

Hi, I’m Cara. And honestly? I never set out to be a “chef” anything.

I started cooking the way most people do. Standing on a step stool in my grandmother’s kitchen, watching her dump unmeasured spoonfuls of paprika into everything. She had this ancient cast iron skillet that weighed about twelve pounds, and I swear every good thing I’ve ever made has been an attempt to recreate the way her kitchen smelled on Sunday mornings.

I spent most of my twenties working in marketing, eating sad desk lunches, and discovering that cooking dinner was the only part of my day that actually felt like mine. So I started really paying attention. I bought a $6 wooden spoon from a farmers market (I now own maybe seventeen of them, which is ridiculous). I learned that you can’t rush caramelized onions, no matter what the recipe says. I burned so much garlic.

This site is basically the recipe notebook I wish I’d had back then. Real food, the kind that makes your kitchen smell like you know what you’re doing, even when you absolutely don’t.