About Katy

I am a stay-at-home mother of three, wife to an academic, living in Indianapolis, Indiana.

I’m not sure at what precise moment I became obsessed with food. For my 8th birthday, I requested a party at the local Japanese-style hibachi restaurant, because I wanted to watch those guys cook in a way similar to the Swedish Chef on the Muppet Show. In retrospect, this should’ve been a clue.

A little awkward, the placement of my right hand, don't you think?

My name is Katy Carter, and I am a Southern-Midwesterner. Meaning, I was born in Mississippi, where I ate processed food until the ripe old age of 25. From there I moseyed for 12 years through Knoxville (TN), Asheville (NC), and Athens (GA), where each town fed me with its unique foods of table and culture. Somewhere in there I picked up a husband and three kids, and in 2009 we made the trek north of the Mason-Dixon, landing in Indianapolis (IN). Outside of now calling duplexes “doubles,” potlucks “pitch-ins,” and winter “really cold,” life is pretty much the same.

What I don’t have is a story about standing at the stove with my grandmother, soaking up all the secrets and traditions of a chic Euro-Southern-food culture; nor have I traveled the world, trading grunt work for precious minutes at the feet of a French baker. What I do have is the experience of a girl who came of age in the late 80s deep-south, having learned nothing but how to boil a pot of water and microwave bacon in a special tray. I like to think this (lack of) culinary experience puts me on par with about 95% of America.

While my history lacks the picturesque culinary narrative, I still like to tell stories — about eating, cooking, failing, and succeeding. It was a pivotal moment in life when I realized good food didn’t have to be difficult or complicated (though it can be) — and this blog is basically about that realization, how it never ceases to amaze me, and how I want everyone I know to experience the same thing.

Some of my more popular posts:

• The one where I just about go postal on Sally Fallon (of the Weston-Price Foundation)
• My four-part series on sugar (start here)
• A step-by-step tutorial on taking food photographs
• The famous Tomato Pie recipe

But what about a list of random facts about you?

Ok, then, since you asked:

• I have an MFA in graphic design. That means that for a few years I taught a bunch of Urban-Outfitters-clad college students how to be better designers than me. It unfortunately worked.
• For a few years before grad school, I was an art director at an advertising agency. It took about two weeks for me to learn that I hated advertising, but four years for me to quit.
• My first major in college was architecture. But the whole sleep-on-your-drafting-table-because-you-can-never-finish-the-insane-amount-of-work thing really cramped my style.
• Ayn Rand. Whatever.
• My husband is an urban ecologist. He’s younger than me by over 4 years, which makes me a cougar.
• I have three kids that are cuter than anything I should’ve been able to genetically produce.
• Speaking of genetics, I dislike cilantro, which gives me something in common with Julia Child.
• My maiden name was Marquez. More than once, a person asked me if my parents were Mexican (the whole fair skin, freckled, red-haired, blue-eyed thing wasn’t enough of a clue).
• Mountains over beach.
• I never buy new furniture, unless it’s from Ikea.
• I won’t go to sleep without a glass of water by my bed. Once, in high school, my phone rang in the night, and I “answered” my glass of water. You can deduce how this ended up.
• My hair used to be curly, and now it’s not. This bothers me.
• I have a mild crush on Alton Brown.
• It’s ok, though, because my husband has a mild crush on Phil Mickelson.

The Fine Print

I am, first and foremost, a storyteller. I am second a person with shoddy long-term memory. I often change up the names of people, or mix up storylines — sometimes intentionally (to keep my friends around), sometimes not. I do not willingly mislead, but also won’t swear by anything I write in a court of law. Except the whole part about hating cilantro.

The Amazon links in my posts are affiliate links. This means that if you click on them, and then buy the product, I’ll get a percentage of the sale. To keep this in perspective: it took about 8 months to get my first Amazon payment: a gift card for $12. If you would prefer to not contribute to this inflow of cash, you can open a new window and do a fresh search for the product. I will be none the wiser!

Other content affiliate links will be disclosed. As will any compensation or product provision for review. Reviews will always be my honest opinion. I’m not here to sell you on anything other than cooking good food.

Also, newsflash: I am not a doctor, dietitian, nutritional counselor, or guru, in any way, shape, or form. I’m just a mom who reads a lot, likes to regurgitate what she reads, and has a penchant for her own opinion. You should take everything I write with an umber grain of mineral-rich unrefined sea salt.

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