TASTEOFHOME.COM APRIL/MAY 2020 61
Of course, those people aren’t
huddled next to her—they’re
the dedicated followers of her
cooking blog, Smitten Kitchen.
Photos of homemade
Fig Newtons, sesame seed-
sprinkled breakfast buns,
cream of mushroom soup
and cheesy baked pasta are
a sampling of her Instagram
posts. These tempting dishes
aren’t just made to feed the
camera and her followers,
they’re the real meals Deb
serves herself and her family.
Cooking in a tiny NYC
kitchen means Deb doesn’t
feature elaborate recipes that
require an armful of equipment
on her blog. The small space
is a constant reminder that if
she can make dinner without
too much clutter, so can the
engaged readers who cook her
recipes in their own homes.
“Deb, there is no way I was
going to take out a second pan
there” is a typical comment
from an audience accustomed
to delicious recipes that are
still practical on a weeknight.
Comments like that have
been fueling Smitten Kitchen
since Deb started it in 2006 as
a project she thought would
last about six months. “But
that’s not what happened...
people showed up, and the
more questions they asked, the
more I wanted to learn things
to answer them,” she says.
She’s not a trained chef—
she’s completely self-taught,
and she’s learned alongside
her readers over the years.
During that time, her family
has grown, too.
First came her son, who
“eats most things,” then a
daughter, who, “practically
speaking, eats nothing.”
When she and her husband,
Alex, entered “two-kid land,”
she was worried. “I’ve found
from listening to other people
that this is where cooking stops
being fun.”
In order to preserve the joy
in creating recipes, taking
pictures and writing (yes, Deb
is a total one-woman show!)
she made an unexpected
choice: to keep cooking what
she likes instead of making
meals that will satisfy the
whole family.
The challenges don’t
phase her. “If three-quarters
of us are eating it, I consider
it a success.”
When possible, Deb leans
on seasonal ingredients—like
the snappy asparagus that stars
in her Asparagus & Egg Salad
with Walnuts & Mint, a recipe
she developed with spring
dreams in mind—even though
sometimes Mother Nature
has other plans. “It snowed
here in April, and I just gave
up,” she says. Because she
couldn’t wait until asparagus
popped up at the farmers
market, she improvised.
“The grocery store was the
greenest place I knew then,and I couldn’t imagine a more
perfect use of what was there.”
Try her recipe on toast or on
crackers—or by the spoonful—
and you’ll find the spring
magic Deb dreamed of, too.From her small
kitchen, Deb
preps, cooks,
serves and
photographs
every dish
you’ll find
on her blog.