About Me

Welcome to my website! My name is Heidi and I love to cook! I am excited to share my recipes with you! My hope is that you will enjoy preparing them for your family and friends as I have with mine. I want to make cooking easy and stress free so I hope you will find my step by step instructions helpful and thorough.

I am married to my wonderful husband Dan. He helps make my dreams come true! He is the smartest person I know. He designs stuff, builds stuff, fixes stuff, puts stuff together, takes stuff apart, tinkers with stuff, moves stuff, shoots stuff, grows stuff, works on stuff, burns stuff, rides stuff, draws stuff, gets super techy with stuff, and I bet if he could, he would stuff stuff too. But he hasn't gotten into taxidermy yet, lol! The only thing he doesn't do is cook. That's my job.

My baking business has grown so much that we are currently building a bakery! This is a full renovation from the ground up and requires exorbitant amounts of time, money, and patience. Boy, am I learning a lot of lessons! We are hoping to create a space where people in Knoxville and the surrounding counties can come for a custom cake, quick cup of coffee, or to satisfy their sweet tooth. We will do everything from custom wedding cakes to grab-and-go lunches. We are on the East side of Knoxville in the Fountain City area and will be sure to let you know when we're open.

God has blessed us with three beautiful children: Joshua, Nevaeh, and Caleb. They are the joys of our life! Joshua is my brainiac, Nevaeh is my creative artist, and Caleb is my adventurous athlete. All three go to Berean Christian School where we also attend church. They also play flag football, jiu-jitsu, and cheerleading. Life with three kids is BUSY! Between school activities, church activities, and family life, we always have something going on. This has made me an advocate for meal planning, budgets, one pot wonders, and bulk shopping trips.

But it wasn't always that way...

When I first got married, I couldn't cook. I could scramble an egg, heat frozen lasagna, and make a turkey sandwich, but I was seriously lacking in cooking skills and creativity. I truly desired to learn and improve, but I had no idea where to start. So one night I got ambitious and tried to make a spinach casserole. I burnt the ground turkey, the spice blend was disproportioned, and I used WAY too much spinach. It was absolutely awful. Dan was gracious to try it and even cleared his plate, but my palette was repulsed. It was a gooey, green mess. It had no flavor. It slopped on the plate just like it did in our stomachs. It was trash can material and nothing more. If I had had a dog, I'm sure even he would have turned his nose up at it. Bless his heart, Dan ate it for lunch the next 2 days. How did he stomach the smell as he heated it in the microwave? So I knew it was time for a change. I needed an intervention!

I was desperate for the basics so Dan bought me a few cooking classes geared toward home cooks. Thus began my culinary journey. The classes were fun, informative, and fairly easy. The teacher taught us simple basics ( like knife skills), I learned informative terminology (who knew poaching was legal?), and I left with several recipes I could replicate. I tried them at home and they were edible. Dan liked them! I liked them! I wasn't a complete failure in the kitchen! So I began trying simple dinners and slowly building my cookbook. It wasn't long and I had enough meals to make for an entire week.
So my goal in creating this blog is to encourage home cooks! Cooking can be easy and fun but it requires perseverance and a willingness to make mistakes. I want to share delicious recipes, make budget friendly meals, and build your confidence in the kitchen. If I can recover from spinach slop, there is hope! If I can do it, you can do it!
Happy Cooking y'all!