And mysimpledishes is my little corner of the internet!
I was a third‑grade teacher in Portland, Maine, back in 2015 when I started cooking extra‑large lunches for my class. One rainy Tuesday I scribbled down a quick recipe for “One‑Pot Cheesy Taco Pasta” on a napkin, posted it to a tiny WordPress blog, and called it mysimpledishes. I never imagined that a handful of teachers and a few curious parents would become my first readers. By the end of 2016 I was publishing two new recipes a week, each one tested in my tiny kitchen while the kids did their homework.
The site has taken on a life of its own. In March 2020 we hit 50,000 unique visitors a month, and by October 2022 the newsletter had grown to 12,300 subscribers who get my “5‑Minute Meal” roundup every Thursday. In 2023 I released a downloadable e‑book, “30 Weeknight Dinners in 30 Minutes,” which has been downloaded more than 4,200 times. I’ve also added a “Seasonal Spotlight” video series on YouTube, now at 180,000 total views. All of this happened while I was still teaching—until I decided to quit in June 2024 and make cooking my full‑time job.
I now live in Asheville, North Carolina, with my husband, two golden retrievers named Milo and Luna, and a thriving balcony garden of herbs and chilies. My evenings are spent wandering the Blue Ridge trails, tending to my tomatoes, or thumbing through a food memoir (my current favorite is “Cooked” by Michael Pollan). One quirky habit I still have is using my grandma’s 12‑inch cast‑iron skillet for everything—from searing salmon to baking cornbread. It’s a little piece of home that reminds me why I started this journey in the first place.