This blog: is the record I'm keeping as I cook and write my way through these wild times. Mostly, I write about recipes I’ve made that I love and cookbooks I use over and over, but sometimes also about other things like restaurants, and travel, and you know…feelings. Many feelings. All of them, in fact.

How come Umami for Days?: Umami is a loan word from Japanese used to describe the fifth basic taste. I think of it as something like “savory plus.” Umami for Days is a pretty solid description of what I crave most in food. One of my friends who craves the same refers to it as having a “grease tooth.” Big, savory, sometimes greasy, always salty, mouth-assaulting flavors are my jam.

About me: I'm originally from the Gulf Coast so my love for fried food, shellfish, BBQ, and the beach run deep and everlasting. My desert island foods are french fries and chocolate cake, but also shout out to chips and things covered in gravy. My favorite cocktail is a Ramos Gin Fizz, and I love red wine most of all, especially Gamay. 

I currently live in Los Angeles, but have previously lived in SF, NYC, Denver, multiple cities in Alabama, and New Orleans, which is my forever favorite place to be. I’m married to a bespectacled New Englander hunk named Andrew, but everyone calls him Cos, because he looks more like a Cos than anything else (for real though). After 8 years of living in tiny city apartments with even tinier kitchens, we finally moved to a slightly bigger townhouse with a slightly bigger kitchen (!!) where we live with our baby daughter Enid, our cats Harold, Mosby and Pandora, Cos’s basil plant who doesn’t have a name, and stacks upon stacks of cookbooks that all spark joy.

When I'm not cooking or doing dishes, I run, bike, and take barre classes, mainly as an excuse to eat more chips. I live for vacation, and do lawyering for a living. My hobbies include: reading books, passing out during movies, and knowing all the words to your parents' favorite songs, prob your grandparents' too. I genuinely think that people with capsule wardrobes have their shit together.