Why Don't You Post Recipes? Glad You Asked.
Let me get ahead of this one, because I get asked about it a lot. Why don't I post exact recipes of the food that I share?
The short answer: my mom and grandma never did. And honestly, neither did their moms before them. Cooking in my family was always a matter of eyeballing, tasting, adjusting, and occasionally applying what I can only describe as common sense. I recall asking my mom for measurements once, and she gave me a dismissive wave and said, “You’ll figure it out. Most of it is common sense.” So, I was pretty accustomed to letting the vibes guide the way.
But let me give you the longer answer, because I think it's worth having.
Shoutout to the legit recipe developers
Before anything else, let me be clear: recipe developers and cookbook writers are doing something genuinely hard, and they deserve every bit of credit they get.
The work that goes into a well-developed recipe is significant. Testing and retesting. Working with tasters. Calibrating for different kitchens, different stoves, different ovens, and so on. Making sure that when someone in an apartment in Chicago follows the same instructions as someone in a house in Texas, they both end up with something worth eating. That is a craft, and there are incredibly talented people doing it beautifully — in cookbooks, on blogs, all over the internet. They are great resources for folks who are new to cooking and don't know where to start, and need more structure.
I am inspired by them constantly. When I come across a recipe that stops me mid-scroll, I'm either running to the kitchen to try it exactly as written, or I'm using it as a jumping-off point and riffing on it based on what I have on hand and what my taste buds are asking for that day. Often, I share my creations inspired by these talented individuals, credit them for the original inspiration, and direct anyone interested in the full recipe to their respective platforms.
But that's me as a home cook engaging with their work. It's not what I do here.
How I like to cook
Most of what I cook, I make up on the spot. I'm going with the flow. Seeing what's in the fridge, thinking about what sounds good, and just... making it happen. No measuring cups. No written-out steps. No trial runs. Just me, the ingredients, and a general sense of where we're headed. Usually something garlicky, spicy, and if you haven’t noticed, with noodles.
And because taste is deeply, genuinely subjective, a precise measurement from me to you doesn't actually tell the full story anyway. What I consider the right amount of garlic is almost certainly not what you consider the right amount of garlic. The same goes for chili, salt, acid, and sweetness — all of it. Food is personal. It should be.
So instead of measurements, I share ingredients. The what, not the how much. Because that's where the real information lives.
If you see something I've made and want to try it yourself, you now know the building blocks. From there — make it yours. Love heat the way I do? Turn it up. Add more chili powder, reach for the chili crisp, or hit it with your go-to hot sauce. Sensitive to garlic or other alliums? Go light or leave them out entirely. That's not a workaround. That's cooking a meal that you will genuinely enjoy.
So, what am I doing?
Honestly? I'm here to have a good time and eat good food.
I am a single girl who cooks for herself, and I love it that way. Cooking for myself is fun. It's creative and low-stakes and entirely on my terms. On the contrary, cooking for others stresses me out, but when it’s just me, we’re having a grand time.
Enoki mushroom-stuffed “meatballs” inspired by @bakeyvakey
I want to inspire people to get into the kitchen and find joy in cooking for themselves. To stop waiting for a perfect recipe and start trusting their own palate. To make food that they will actually enjoy eating, not food that performed well in someone else's test kitchen.
I'll also be real with you: there might be a people-pleaser in me who is quietly terrified of someone following my "recipe" and being disappointed because it wasn't garlicky enough, or spicy enough, or whatever enough. If there are no measurements, there are no promises I failed to keep. The dish is yours the moment you start cooking it.
Dinner is my absolute favorite meal of the day. I look forward to unwinding with a good audiobook or podcast and making something delicious for myself. But the one thing you’ll never find me whipping up is a mainstream "girl dinner"... no shade to my snack plate girlies! I'm just more of a hearty-meal-with-a-glass-of-vino kinda gal. That's MY kind of Girl Dinner.
So that's why there are no measurements. Not because I'm withholding anything, but because the best thing I can give you isn't a number. It's permission (that you never needed to begin with) to cook the way that feels good to you.
Now go make something delicious. You've got this.
