The first dish I ever learned how to cook was scrambled eggs when I was around seven years old. I remember my Dad standing over my shoulder telling me to stir the eggs horizontally and then vertically in the pan using the euphemism of “mowing the lawn.” I remember feeling soothed as I was stirring the eggs, knowing that I was creating something delicious for my family.

When I was finished cooking and I plated the dish, the act of eating something that I had created for the first time was pretty magical. My mom would create utter magic in the kitchen, and I wanted to be able to do the things she did. When I made those eggs, I finally felt like I was on the way.

For some reason, though, I was a bit nervous to get into the kitchen with Mom and begin cooking more complex things as I got older. I think it was because I felt like I would never even come close to making anything nearly as perfect as the dishes she made. Or maybe it was the teenager in me not really being ready to jump in and do an activity that seemed so “adult.”

All that changed in college when I met Ryan. For some reason, we thought that making baklava would be a great idea in my dorm during one of our early dates. It actually turned out pretty tasty, so we felt accomplished. So, we started trying other things, and gradually we built up a nice little repertoire.

Our first apartment together was a studio apartment that was around three hundred square feet. The kitchen was about as small as you’d assume. But for some reason, we used that kitchen to cook some of the best meals we’ve created together. It was the place where my recipe for mushroom lasagna was born, and it solidified the fact that Ryan and I love to cook and eat.

After listening to us jabber on and on (and on) about food and cooking for so many years, my parents finally told us that we should try to find an outlet for all of our ideas. I am an unabashed consumer of food blogs and a collector of way too many cookbooks, so I had given thought to getting our recipes cataloged in some way and maybe even sharing them with the world. But, as life often happens, we got so busy with careers and grad school and other factors, that we barely had time to cook the food, let alone write about it!

When we moved to Boston after grad school, we ended up with a tiny patch of yard outside that had to be accessed using an extremely rickety wooden staircase. There was an alley beside it that people would use to cross over into the park across the street. And this yard was a mess. A literal mess. First there were the weeds (poor, allergic Ryan was sneezing up a storm during cleanup), then there were the rusty nails, shards of glass, old soda cans, and cigarette butts.

Ryan told me he wanted to build a garden out there. I said, “yeah, right.” But, in record time, he turned that scrappy patch of yard into an absolutely gorgeous raised bed garden that gave us tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, and so much more. The people who passed by in the alley even started giving Ryan very sincere compliments about how amazing the garden was.

After a quick detour to NYC for another career opportunity — during which we had a hydroponic tent in our living room — we finally moved back home to Maine, and finally found the time to get this blog started.

So much of Ryan’s and my time together has been about trying new things. If there is one thing that we hope to achieve from Savor + Harvest (with Karl), it’s that we inspire our readers to do the same and try something new. It can be big or small.

More About Savor + Harvest (with Karl)

As you’ve probably already noticed on our homepage, our recipes don’t follow any specific diet. However, Ryan and I have been both vegetarian and vegan in the past, and a large part of our diet still revolves around eating mostly plant-based, though we have incorporated high-quality, humanely-sourced animal products back in occasionally, due to health reasons.

My primary goal is to make these recipes as adaptable to as many different diets and allergy concerns as possible, so I will provide workarounds to make the recipes plant-based, vegetarian, gluten-free, and dairy free. If you have any more specific questions about substitutions, feel free to drop me a line and I’ll do my best to answer.

We eat a variety of different cuisines and ARE NOT picky eaters, so our recipes draw from a variety of sources of inspiration. I will also do my best to tag them based on the primary ingredients and cuisine type. That way you can filter out recipes that include mushrooms if you absolutely hate them!

One of the things I enjoy most is challenging myself in the kitchen. While I enjoy this, I realize that many of you don’t have the time or interest in tackling the complex stuff. Or maybe you do! I’ll sort the recipes by difficulty and cooking time so that you can pick something out based on how ambitious you’re feeling.

I hope you enjoy these kitchen explorations as much as I do, and that we’ll become your go-to place for food and garden inspiration! Let’s get started!