About

Hi! I’m Amy and I’m glad you’re here! I’m Nebraska-born but have lived all over and now call the California Bay Area home. I started this blog as a way to share our mostly from-scratch, favorite recipes with friends and family and it has grown from there. I love ALL foods except carrots (I know, I know), but gourmet burgers always sound good and pie is pretty much my favorite dessert.

This is where I can share love for cooking and baking with millions of readers each month! If you love exploring the connection between food and family, then you are in the right place.

I have always been passionate about food and cooking, and my blog is a reflection of my love for sharing my culinary creations. I strive to post a wide variety of recipes on this website, ranging from comfort food classics to healthy and nutritious dishes. My goal is to share recipes that are easy to follow and I try to include step-by-step instructions and helpful tips whenever possible.

I love to inspire people to try new recipes and explore their own culinary creativity. Most of the recipes here are accessible, easy to follow, and designed to be enjoyed by people with varying levels of cooking experience.

When I was a kid, I loved to bake! I remember coming up with my own recipe creations and forcing them on my family, whether they were good or not. Then when my mom went back for her master’s degree while I was in high school, I took over making dinners as the oldest daughter in our large family of seven. At least two or three nights a week I was in charge of getting dinner on the table when my mom was gone.

During my undergrad education, I continued making dinners for roommates and I think my husband secretly married me for my banana cream pie and meatloaf hamburger patties. And in law school, I was the one who always brought food to our study groups to share with friends while we prepped for exams. That’s when I really got into making macarons as a way to escape the pressures of school for a few hours.

When my husband had the audacity to declare that he preferred boxed brownie and cake mixes over homemade versions, I made it my mission to convince him otherwise by coming up with the best brownies and cakes made completely from-scratch that not only rival but blow away any box version and we’ve never looked back!

My culinary skills and tastes have expanded since those early years and have been heavily influenced by travels to 20+ countries, where one of my favorite things to do is take a cooking class from professional chefs or locals when I can find them. Exploring the ingredients and food is one of the best ways I have found to really get to know a new culture as well as learning new skills. German, French, Mexican, Peruvian, Thai, and Costa Rican cuisines are some of my personal favorites!

Here you will find everything from comfort food favorites like Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo, Cheesy Baked Spaghetti Casserole, and Swedish Meatballs to delicious desserts like my Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting, Oatmeal Fudge Bars, and a French Fruit Tart inspired by my travels in France. Plus many other recipes that are great for holidays, entertaining, and every day occasions!

I always try to share my recipe tips and tricks in each post so you can have success in the kitchen every time! Every recipe you see here has been tested in my kitchen and enjoyed by my family multiple times so I can get them just right before sharing with you!

A little about me

• Before the girls came along, I graduated from BYU in Business Finance, then went on to law school, which I loved. I worked as a litigation attorney in Silicon Valley until our oldest daughter turned 1. Now this blog is my full-time gig, which I love because it lets me be home with my kids more!
• I had my jaw broken in 5 places and my mouth was wired shut for 6 weeks while it healed. Don’t worry – it was a planned surgical break as part of adult orthodontia to correct my overbite and crossbite. I spent those painful weeks of recovery living off protein shakes and dreaming of all the things I would make when I could finally eat real food again. Only 2 months later I started this blog!
• My husband is Paul and he’s also a lawyer. We had a “Legally Blonde” moment where he was going to law school and I decided to tag along “for fun”, which turned out to be perfect for me because I enjoyed it so much. Paul’s favorite things to make from the blog are my chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and smoked pulled pork.
• When our girls were 4 and 22 months, we took them on their first international trip to Cambodia and Thailand and they dined on curries and noodles and mango sticky rice and rode elephants through the jungle. We have since traveled as a family to many more places including the Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand, Denmark, Germany, and Costa Rica!
• We adopted our two girls at birth and feel like the luckiest parents on earth. They are my kitchen-helpers, principal mess-makers and chief taste-testers. Their feedback used to be limited to “yum-yum!” or “yuck!” with a thumbs-up or down thrown in the mix. But we recently started watching “The Great British Baking Show” on Netflex as a family and now they are super critical and love to declare everything as “stodgy” regardless of what it is.
• A college roommate once told me she only eats cookies in even numbers – one for each hip – and I’ve got to admit that there is logic in that statement that I can get behind.
• I have always wanted to write a book (not a cookbook, just a novel) and have a few ideas floating around in my head, but have never been able to follow through with it.

Want to connect with me?

Be sure to sign up for my email list! It’s a great way to stay up to date on the latest delicious recipes that I’m sharing on here. And I try to stay caught up on my DM’s over on Instagram if you want to shoot me a message that way.

I also have a YouTube channel where I share cooking show style videos of some of our favorite and most popular recipes.

You can also just email me directly at amy@houseofnasheats.com and I will try to get back to you as soon as I can!