About the Cooks

Let's just begin with: we love to eat, we love to cook, we love to feed other people, we love to experiment with flavor. Our style is not that of the gourmet chef but that of a family. Many of our meals are "standards" in many American family kitchens, but at our home we try to avoid as many shortcuts as possible. Granted there are certain things that are much easier bought than made (tomatoes sauce, pasta, etc.) which we fully endorse; we prefer to brown our ground beef/turkey on the stove instead of microwave. We always try to keep budget in mind while attempting to make healthy, balanced, homemade meals and try to avoid over-produced, store-bought "meals-in-a-box" (make our own "Tuna Helper"). We don't claim to cook all natural or all organic, but we do try when we can. You can't always afford the "organic free-range chicken" and must succumb to buying the giant bag of frozen chicken breasts from CostCo. While we strive to cook healthier meals, sometimes it just all about flavor and the health factor goes right out the window.

A little more about us:

Stephanie: My passion is photography, but would only consider myself at amateur status. A Southern California native, Brandon and I moved to Portland, OR in the summer of 2007 and haven't looked back. We love spending as much time as possible outdoors (hiking, camping, fishing, etc), but in the Pacific Northwest it is a lot harder to get out in the colder months, during which time our hobbies bring us in doors and we spend a lot of that indoor time cooking... and eating.

Brandon: I love to cook! Whether it is chopping veggies in the kitchen or brewing up a batch of homebrewed beer, I love the creativity that cooking allows. Combining various ingredients to put unique spins on randomly acquired recipes or old family favorites is truly rewarding for me. The herbs from our garden are a staple in my cooking; I even have my own mix of herbs that goes into most of my meals, I call it "Whatever's in the Garden." I enjoyed spending time in the kitchen with my mom as a child, but I really didn't start cooking until I was in my early 20s. Most of my recent cooking prowess was inspired by my wife. I still rely on her for silly things ("does this chicken look done?"), but I feel, and my cooking reflects, that I have truly developed my own style in the kitchen.