Here in The Practical Kitchen, cooking and baking should feel fun, approachable, and never like a chore. Whether you're here for one of my popular small-batch bread recipes, looking for tips on stocking your kitchen, or guidance on easy weeknight meal planning, you're in the right place.
I started this site in 2019 as a creative outlet while I (hi, I’m Rebecca!) was between freelance gigs. It was my way of combining my love of food, photography, and writing. Since then, it’s grown into a thriving online community with over 3 million annual readers and hundreds of recipes to explore.
You’ll find beginner-friendly recipes, helpful product reviews, and real-life kitchen strategies to help you get the most out of your ingredients, your tools, and your time. As a professionally trained pastry chef with a special love for bread making, I focus on approachable recipes that fit into your everyday routine — minimal fancy equipment or complicated steps required!
My goal is to help you feel excited, not overwhelmed, by what’s for dinner (or breakfast, or dessert). Whether you’re baking your first loaf of bread or experimenting with homemade bagels, you’re in good company here.
The Practical Kitchen is also proudly an anti-diet food space. Here, food isn’t moralized, and calories aren’t counted. Instead, we focus on the joy of cooking, baking, and eating with no guilt or shame, just good food. I believe in radical fat acceptance — fat people deserve good food too! — and body positivity — all bodies are good bodies! — and ask that my community (that’s you!) uphold and respect those values too.
Meal planning has played a huge role in how my husband Jimmy and I learned to cook more consistently and creatively. What started as a small effort to break out of a dinner rut turned into a way of life. It has helped us discover and create over 200 new go-to recipes, cut down on food waste, and make cooking feel fun again. Today, he does most of the cooking in our house, but baking is my specialty, and we love combining both our skills for weeknight dinners, small dinner parties, date nights, holiday gatherings, and more.
If you're ready to do the same, you're in good company. Welcome to The Practical Kitchen, let’s get cooking!
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Cooking and baking has expanded my palate and brought so many new ingredients into our kitchen. That said, there are still some ingredients and tools I’ve tried and just don’t love, or they simply don’t fit with my cooking and baking style.
So if you’re wondering why certain things don’t show up on the blog, here’s what you probably won’t find much of (if any!):
- Fish (other than canned tuna recipes, which I adore)
- Shellfish
- Mushrooms (though I love a marsala pizza moment)
- Eggplant
- Zucchini
- Jackfruit
- Desserts with jellies in the middle
- Cheesecake
- Instant Pot or Air Fryer recipes (I don’t have either appliance!)