When most children were watching Looney Tunes and Disney Channel, I had a daily date with “The Frugal Gourmet” on our local public television station. I sat mesmerized as Jeff Smith sautéed and braised and stir fried. When I asked for an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas, my mother taught me instead to use the real oven, helping my self, of course, with using the hot appliance. And in family-famous Victoria anecdotes, my mother once caught me hugging a bag of cake mix saying: “My best friend!”

I never stopped cooking.

From those childhood cake mixes that I baked and decorated and sold to my mother’s friends for their holiday parties, to creative but quick lunches in my homeschooled days in high school often inspired by the Food Network’s Rachel Ray, to on-a-very-tight-budget with the world’s worst stove, frying pan, and 1 square foot of allotted refrigerator space in that house I shared with 7 other women in college, to the apartments I shared unwillingly in Chicago with mice, ants, and silverfish, to my new tiny, newlywed apartment kitchen, I’ve learned to make the most of what I have and find increasingly unique ways to combine flavors. I love hosting family and friends and making them the subjects of my experiments. I love wandering farmer’s markets in the summer and making a weekly menu based on what looks the freshest and what I can get the best deal on (still on a budget, after all!). I love going out to eat with my husband, with my parents, with my sister, or just by myself.

I am an entirely self-taught cook in terms of technique, but I’ve “apprenticed” with all sorts of people in terms of flavor. I never got to cook alongside my Italian grandmother, but I grew up with a lot of hand-me-down ideas about flavor from her, through my mother. I make notes after I eat a meal that is particularly transcendent, and try to mimic flavors when I get home. I bake when I’m stressed, a habit my coworkers benefit from the most. Baking is my favorite, partly because of my incessant sweet tooth and partly because of the technical challenge that most recipes contain. It also make you the most popular at any party, when you walk in with a hoard of homemade treats. (And that is always fun.)

Some of my favorite places to eat are out of the way and family owned. I love to eat dishes that masquerade as something simple and straightforward but have incredible layers of flavor hiding underneath that innocent exterior. This inspires my own cooking at home. Fresh, unique, grounded in something simple, elevated with something new.

I’ve created Little Fierce Kitchen to be a place to share my kitchen with you. Journey with me as I cook week by week for my little family, my expanded family, my chosen family.

The name of my site is inspired by Shakespeare (I studied theater and English literature in college, so he’s just a part of my life forever): “And though she be but little, she is fierce.” [Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2). I myself am rather short, something my family never lets me forget. My kitchen is rather small. My kitchen skills somewhat smaller. But despite these limitations, I try to churn out fierce, inspirational food that keeps me and those I love well-fed and happy. And hopefully, you too.

My site is a patchwork project of things food related. I’ll share recipes as I develop them, Weekly Menus that are a conglomerate of my own recipes and favorites from cooks more brilliant than I. I’ll review cookbooks and restaurants and coffee and anything else I may be consuming that I feel is worthwhile to share with you! Last of all, and perhaps my favorite item the list, I’ll share a weekly “Top Ten” list of the things I am most excited about that week. These will weight towards kitchen-focused items, but will include other things that feel worth sharing. I’m a big music and podcast listener while I cook, so you’ll likely get some frequent references to my current listening library.

Questions? Comments? Want to connect? Reach out to me via email anytime at littlefiercekitchen at gmail.com or via my contact page.

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