welcome to the practical kitchen

Hello, hi, no, your eyes are not deceiving you. This is yet another food blog. What can I say? I saw a gap in the market and I jumped on it. What makes this food blog different from all the others? This is a little embarrassing, but you're catching me right at my first post so we're probably going to find out together.

Here's what I know you can expect:

• My favorite recipes with detailed walkthroughs, techniques, and suggestions for practical ways to adapt them to suit your own needs.
• Recommendations and reviews of kitchen tools and appliances that I love, and how to use them.
• Advice! Are you looking for the perfect appetizer to bring to your next wine club meeting? A beginner bread recipe? A prep-ahead dinner party entree that even vegetarians can eat? Write in and tell me your dilemma, and I'll do my best to connect you with a recipe you'll love.
• Absolutely no fat shaming or weight-loss talk. I'm here to celebrate food and the joy of making it, I'm not here to tell you what foods are good or bad for you, or tell you what healthy looks like.
• Affiliate links. Look, ya girl's gotta make some money. I may receive referral fees from products mentioned here, including as a participant in Amazon Associates. But I always stand by my opinions and recommendations and would never recommend something I didn't like or wouldn't buy myself.

Why "The Practical Kitchen"?

I consider it a bit of a personal mission of mine to make cooking and baking as accessible and un-intimidating as possible. Practical. Sometimes the best recipe for the moment starts with a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese. Other times it means starting by making your own goat cheese. I know! It seems wild. But if you love goat cheese as much as I do, making it from scratch might just be the more practical choice for your wallet.

After all, if it's not practical why would you bother? I'm not here to waste my time giving you advice that wastes your time. I'm here to show you just how easy baking and cooking can be — and give you practical recipes, advice, tools, and tips that I hope inspire you to give it a try.

Who am I and why should you listen to me?

I'm Rebecca. I'm a self-taught home baker and cook who loves weekly meal planning, hates wasting food, and watches way too much Food Network. I currently live in Downtown Los Angeles with my husband, Jimmy, and our cat, Bones.

I picked up baking — bread-making, in particular — as a hobby while working from home, after stumbling onto a recipe for bagels. Do you know how many ingredients go into making bagels? FIVE. FIVE INGREDIENTS. It was like the recipe was taunting me to give it a try. And you know what? I did. That first batch was ugly as shit but it tasted amazing, and reader, I was hooked.

I hope you will be too.