About

Hi there, I'm Kate and I'm glad you found this. Since you're reading, you probably already know me and have maybe even cooked with me recently. As a kid, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. My mom firmly believed that each of her children must leave home knowing how to cook good food and bake cookies from scratch. I thus recall watching in excitement as my older brothers baked chocolate chip cookies, and before long I too was given permission to use the oven all by myself (I think I was 8--thrilling!). I had a lot of freedom as a young kid to experiment in the kitchen without much supervision. The result was that I grew to love mixing ingredients and finding new recipes, and witnessing the pleasure that my creations brought to my family and friends. However, my adventures in the kitchen also yielded many a batch of burnt cookies, undercooked cakes, forgotten ingredients, and other frustrating failures. These mistakes never seemed to phase my mother, who always continued to encourage me and supply my ingredients. After a year of living away from home and buying my own groceries I am amazed at the generosity of my parents, who fueled my independent kitchen explorations in spite of the messes and wasted ingredients that sometimes resulted.

I created this blog when I was 10 after making scones with my sweet cousin Sarah. She was following a recipe from a food blog, and, as I was an avid baker, she suggested that I start my own blog. I left Sarah's house extremely excited, and, after a long while of brainstorming, my mom suggested the title "Picky People" because of the long list of foods that I didn't like.

My commitment to Picky People ebbed and flowed over the years, and, as my interests changed, I also dabbled in writing about fashion and travel (both phases admittedly yielded rather cringe-worthy posts, but nonetheless, I suppose, represent a part of my creative evolution). After a while, however, I forgot about Picky. The world through my eyes became much more complex and I stopped eating animal products, applied to colleges, and perhaps took for granted the important role that cooking and sharing food played in my life.

Once I went away to school, I started working on the college farm and enjoyed sometimes finding farm produce in the dining hall. I didn't dislike the food there, but gradually I began to (almost subconsciously) miss my kitchen, the baking soda and flour, the pancakes in the morning, the sitting around the kitchen counter. I talk about the experience a little more here, but essentially one day I just decided to brave the dirty dorm kitchen and start making pancakes again. Slowly I found myself in the kitchen more and more often, usually making pancakes but sometimes venturing into granola or banana bread and later stir fry and roasted vegetables.

It's interesting how much I enjoy the time that I spend in that kitchen; I even kind of enjoy washing the dirty dishes that other people leave in the sink. Cooking, I think, uses a part of my brain that I neglected early on during my first year at school. Too much studying and concentration necessitates a creative release, which I found in the dorm kitchen. Also in the kitchen I found opportunities to talk to people I wouldn't otherwise, to learn about various foods from around the world, to invite acquaintances to eat pancakes with me and build sweet friendships as a result.

I'm reinvigorating Picky People because I think there is something powerful about bringing people together around food, and I want to document my efforts to do that. Recently I've noticed that I have a tendency to keep most of my thoughts in my head, so writing here is also going to be an exercise in turning my ideas into words and sentences. I'd love to hear what you think!