About

It started with one meal I was proud of.

I'm Amanda. I'm not sure how it happened. Perhaps it was just inevitable that I would use all my spices I had been gathering for years. Regardless of why, somewhere along the way I fell in love with cooking. And if you are reading this chances are you have too!

When I was still figuring out what my adult life was going to look like, my kitchen was a mismatched set of pans, one good knife a friend gave us as a wedding present, and more takeout than I'd like to admit. I cooked because I was supposed to, not because I wanted to. Dinner was something to get through before the part of the evening I actually cared about.

And then one night - I honestly don't remember what it was, some pasta with butter and a stupid amount of black pepper - my husband looked up from the table and said, this is so good. And he meant it. And something about the way the plate sat between us, and the candle we only lit because the overhead light had burned out, made me want to do it again. And then again.

That's the whole story, really. I started paying attention - to the way butter smells when it turns the color of hazelnut, to the sound the oven makes when the bread is almost done, to what happens when you give a sauce ten more minutes than the recipe says. The more I paid attention, the more I wanted to.

Most nights it's still just the two of us. Some weekends the counter fills up - friends drop by, my sister brings her kids, someone's always poking their finger into something. I cook for all of them, for different reasons. Quiet Tuesday dinners are about being present with my husband after a day louder than most would like. A Sunday roast is about the way a house feels when someone's been in the kitchen since morning. A labor of love crafting a retreat that sits on the tongue and makes the evening so much more enjoyable. Everyone loved knows that labor as simply home. I call it Sunday Dinner.

This is not a recipe site. I'm not going to tell you to use 3 ½ tablespoons of anything. I'm going to tell you what we ate, how it came together, and what made it worth making. If you cook, you already know how to cook - this is just what it's been like in my kitchen.

Bon appétit!

- Amanda